Getting Seating with Your Kids on Alaska Airlines

My husband, daughter, and I recently returned from a long weekend jaunt to Hawaii, choosing to fly on Alaska Airlines.  We booked the tickets fairly last minute (for Hawaii at least -- 3 weeks out).  When we booked, we were unable to secure three seats together on our return flight because it was already fairly full.  I didn't select seats at the time, but when my confirmation email arrived after booking, I noticed that Alaska's system had randomly assigned us three seats scattered throughout the plane, meaning my almost 4 year old daughter would be separated from us.  After my woes with American's kid-unfriendly seating policy (and my ultimately-successful but nevertheless stressful experience with Delta), I was not thrilled at the prospect of having to monitor these reservations continuously in the hopes of getting at least two of three seats together.

So, a few days later, I called up Alaska's customer service to see if they could do anything to help.  I was polite to the representative, explained the issue, and asked if she could do anything to assist us in getting at least two seats together so that my daughter would be next to at least one of us for the trip.  Without missing a beat, she sprung into action and offered us three seats together in Row 8 of the plane!  Alaska tends to hold seats in the front of cabin back for elites, so I suppose they were mostly open on an off-season flight.  I was impressed how she offered more than what I requested (I certainly wasn't expecting or asking for three front-of-the-cabin seats) and how she was empowered to make things easier on families with small children.  I remembered how some of my family members had an unexpected seating change due to some equipment changes on our last Alaska flight, and how the Alaska phone representative we dealt with then was similarly excellent in moving us all around so our large group could stay together.

Takeaway message?  Getting seats with your children on Alaska may be as easy as calling and asking!  If you are used to flying the majors like American, Delta, or United without any of the perks of elite status, Alaska Airlines is a dream for casual flyers.  Customer service agents are US-based and actually empowered to help you.  What a concept in modern air travel...