Alaska Airlines’ astounding new flagship Seattle lounge

Perched atop Sea-Tac Airport’s North Satellite Terminal, the newly-opened Alaska Airlines lounge is all about the views – and, if you’re a craft beer fan, the brews.

Floor-to-ceiling windows open a vista across the airfield, the Olympic Mountains and downtown Seattle, while also flooding the supremely spacious lounge with natural light.

An oversized circular fireplace ringed by sofa seating adds ambience as well as comforting physical warmth, but the entire lounge – all 15,800 ft3 (1500m2) of it – radiates a welcoming Northwest vibe intended to channel a contemporary living room design (assuming your living room includes a oversized circular fireplace).

Visitors can grab a bite from the Market, and accompany that with one of a dozen Seattle microbrews from the bar.

Of course, this being Seattle, there’s also barista-pulled coffee for a preflight kickstart.

Your travel tech can also get a jump-start from one of literally hundreds of AC and USB outlets peppered throughout the lounge.

Travellers will find the new Alaska Lounge on the North Satellite's mezzanine level, also known as Concourse N, above gates N13-18; once open, the terminal's current and rather tired old Alaska Lounge (located between gates N1-N2) will be closing.

Alaska Airlines will retain its other two lounges at Concourse C (near gate C16) and Concourse D (past the security checkpoint).

Alaska Airlines lounge access for Qantas

Qantas’ top-tier Gold, Platinum and Platinum One frequent flyers plus Qantas Club members can use Alaska Airlines lounges in Seattle provided they are travelling on an Alaska flight which connects to or from a Qantas international flight – a not-uncommon pattern for Australian business travellers headed to the home of Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing and other giants.

Alaska Airlines has been building itself into a boutique challenger against The Big Three – American Airlines, Delta and United – following the 2016 buyout of Virgin America, and earlier this year revealed its new domestic first class.

Supplied by Recaro but redesigned for Alaska Airlines, with a 40” pitch and padded with memory foam, the seats will be used to standardise the Alaska and Virgin fleets as they are rolled out over the coming years.

Inflight Internet has also been upgraded to a high-speed WiFi connection suitable for streaming video above the clouds, with BYO devices taking the place of in-seat TV screens.

Pleasingly, even the economy seats have their own AC and USB sockets, both of which have been conveniently located on the seat-back rather than being tucked away between or under the seats.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.