Alaska Fleet Repaint Thread

WkndWanderer · Fri Aug 31, 2018 9:35 pm

DocLightning wrote:
GE90man wrote:
AirbusA322 wrote:
Just remember VX had a pay to use premium cabin model like B6. AS has like the rest of the legacies, a upgrade to use premium cabin model. B6 has been highly critical of that model and it’s worth a read.

By the way, what uniform are the VX Cabin Crew wearing?

Has anyone flown the AS Airbus fleet recently? I have not flown for a few years since VX, is the Hip Virgin decent service with flair still there? Or is it downhill now?

https://youtu.be/qlldbCYPe2M
Just flew the VX NEO a couple of weeks ago and made a trip report. I have to say, it was much more VX than Alaska. Inside the cabin, you’d hardly be reminded of AS other than the lack of the safety video and an AS WiFi card in the pocket. Everything else is completely VX down to the uniforms worn by the FAs and pilots. However the airport experience is basically fully AS.

Back in May I flew SFO-OGG on an A320. The cabin cards, the uniforms, the entire interior, AND EVEN THE SAFETY VIDEO were still VX. After hearing that annoying Glee-style song, it *still* ended in "Thank you for flying Virgin America!"

VX is really dragging their feet on this merger. They should be aggressively applying their brand to the l-VX fleet and crews. I know that replacing the cabin interior is time-consuming and expensive, but at least lose the safety video.

As of mid-summer the VX safety video and the FA uniforms are now gone and the Alaska magazine, wifi/texting cards, and service products are now onboard. The only VX branded element on an A320 flight last week was the safety card.

AirbusA322 · Sat Sep 01, 2018 2:00 am

They could have held the names of the Virgin Jets. I mean it does not do much harm and maintains some sort of employee engagement.

Are they ripping out all the Panasonic IFE also? Such a shame seeing this awesome carrier ripped to shreds, not for the better I might add.

GE90man · Sat Sep 01, 2018 3:12 am

AirbusA322 wrote:
They could have held the names of the Virgin Jets. I mean it does not do much harm and maintains some sort of employee engagement.

Are they ripping out all the Panasonic IFE also? Such a shame seeing this awesome carrier ripped to shreds, not for the better I might add.

They indeed are ripping out the IFE

jeffh747 · Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:02 pm

LAXBUR wrote:
jeffh747 wrote:
EA CO AS wrote:

Power outlet failure rates are unbelievably rare compared to the failure rate of seatback IFE, which sometimes takes out the whole row when failing.

I must have been really unlucky then! I’ve had issues with outlets on AS, AA and UA, hence my hesitation for this trend. Are WiFi system malfunctions just as uncommon? I’ve had issues using that on Alaska as well.

To be fair Delta has a lot of old seatback IFEs that flicker or require the strength of Hulk to do anything by touch. I’ve only been on JetBlue’s old A320s and they were also quite bad. My experience with VXs systems have been positive on the A320 and of course on the new A321s.

I’ve found WiFi (as in using data outside of the airline IFE streaming service) to be universally bad on everyone thus far. So perhaps I’m unlucky there. But I’ve never had IFE streaming issues on Delta, Alaska, or Skywest but recently did on American.

So I suppose these things are luck of the draw.

I have to agree with you 100% regarding the old jetBlue monitors. Those things are absolutely dreadful, but I was still happy to have one on my recent flights to/from SJU, as going there, the moving map helped me identify the little islands along the way, and coming back at night, there were a few movies playing which kept me awake.

I have yet to use an old Delta IFE. However, it’s likely because most of my recent flights have been on refurbished 757s and newer A321s. I love that system because or just how responsive it is. I’m looking forward to seeing the new tablet like system on their A220, which would minimize failures of the whole row and are rather interchangeable and far less expensive. I would love it if Alaska went this route, but alas, that is just wishful dreaming.

CobaltScar · Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:32 pm

The new IFE system being installed on those old B6 320s are very nice, with a selection of new movies and a larger library of rotating older movies. If nothing else it differentiates B6 from Alaska. The choice is yours on a transcon. I know which i'd rather have (and don't say well Alaska is cheaper, because its not).

USAavdork · Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:41 pm

Just to clarify: Alaska is beginning interior mods on the Airbuses this Fall- 2018- not 2019- correct?

nine4nine · Sat Sep 01, 2018 1:55 pm

Power outlet failure rates are unbelievably rare compared to the failure rate of seatback IFE, which sometimes takes out the whole row when failing.[/quote]

I’ve had waaaay more issues with inop WiFi on a few carriers than I have ever had with IFE. I’ve had a higher reliability rate with B6’s ancient tv’s working than I have had with WiFi provided by WN,AS, and AA. I can’t twll you how many times the FA has come over the PA after boarding mentioning the aircraft is equipped with WiFi but that it is currently down on that particular aircraft.

jgcotter · Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:03 pm

Alaska A320 N844VA is en route from SFO to VCV for repainting into Alaska livery.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N844VA

jgcotter · Sun Sep 09, 2018 1:28 pm

Alaska A320 N854VA ferried from SFO to VCV for repainting into Alaska livery Sept 7th.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N854VA

TreyClarkPowell · Sun Sep 09, 2018 10:41 pm

N634VA (VX name "Mach Daddy") has been repainted and is now flying under AS colors.

gunsontheroof · Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:52 am

Still can't believe we've arrived in the age of the AS Airbus, but hot-damn...that livery suits it!

QXAS · Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:04 am

gunsontheroof wrote:
Still can't believe we've arrived in the age of the AS Airbus, but hot-damn...that livery suits it!

My question is what aircraft does the AS livery not suit? Maybe a CRJ or Super 80/717 would look weird but beyond an aircraft with a T-tail and tail mounted engines, it would look good on pretty much anything.

MesserJ · Mon Sep 10, 2018 12:36 pm

QXAS wrote:
My question is what aircraft does the AS livery not suit? Maybe a CRJ or Super 80/717 would look weird but beyond an aircraft with a T-tail and tail mounted engines, it would look good on pretty much anything.

It would be hard to apply this livery to a T-tail jet and have it come out looking good. The lack of tail space even made the old livery look weird the way the logo was crammed in there. Luckily the Q400 T-tail is a good exception.

452QX · Tue Sep 11, 2018 1:25 pm

QXAS wrote:
gunsontheroof wrote:
Still can't believe we've arrived in the age of the AS Airbus, but hot-damn...that livery suits it!

My question is what aircraft does the AS livery not suit? Maybe a CRJ or Super 80/717 would look weird but beyond an aircraft with a T-tail and tail mounted engines, it would look good on pretty much anything.

Considering how close we got to seeing a CRJ in the new livery... Instead the CR7 fleet still sits out in TUS collecting sand and dust

hiflyeras · Tue Sep 11, 2018 1:55 pm

Seeing that bump on top of the fuselage in the photo...is AS's new satellite wifi being installed at the same time as their putting the new paint job on all the Airbus?

TreyClarkPowell · Tue Sep 11, 2018 3:20 pm

N835VA (VX Name "Arnold") is now out of the paint shop and flying under AS colors.

MesserJ · Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:38 pm

hiflyeras wrote:
Seeing that bump on top of the fuselage in the photo...is AS's new satellite wifi being installed at the same time as their putting the new paint job on all the Airbus?

No, that bump isn't anything new. in this picture, you can see what the 2Ku wifi antenna will look like.

EA CO AS · Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:50 am

TreyClarkPowell wrote:
N835VA (VX Name "Arnold") is now out of the paint shop and flying under AS colors.

The Airbus fleet is being repainted at an average of 2 per week now; they'll all be done in short order.

zackary747 · Wed Sep 12, 2018 1:10 am

EA CO AS wrote:
TreyClarkPowell wrote:
N835VA (VX Name "Arnold") is now out of the paint shop and flying under AS colors.

The Airbus fleet is being repainted at an average of 2 per week now; they'll all be done in short order.

Is VCV the only place where they're repainting the fleet?

hiflyeras · Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:27 am

MesserJ wrote:
No, that bump isn't anything new. in this picture, you can see what the 2Ku wifi antenna will look like

Thanks! Much bigger bump! Looks like triplets!

BAeRJ100 · Wed Sep 12, 2018 5:21 am

TreyClarkPowell wrote:
N835VA (VX Name "Arnold") is now out of the paint shop and flying under AS colors.

Kind of bittersweet, this was the very first of many VX planes I flew on.

EA CO AS · Wed Sep 12, 2018 6:33 am

zackary747 wrote:
Is VCV the only place where they're repainting the fleet?

It appears so, but they'll be starting the interior refits soon as well and those may be done elsewhere.

jgcotter · Wed Sep 12, 2018 5:00 pm

Alaska A320 N636VA is en route from SFO to VCV for repainting into Alaska livery.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N636VA

QXAS · Wed Sep 12, 2018 5:54 pm

EA CO AS wrote:
TreyClarkPowell wrote:
N835VA (VX Name "Arnold") is now out of the paint shop and flying under AS colors.

The Airbus fleet is being repainted at an average of 2 per week now; they'll all be done in short order.

So they’ll all be repainted by the beginning of the summer season. That’s a pretty quick changeover. How quickly was the AirTran fleet repainted into WN colors?

Polot · Wed Sep 12, 2018 6:08 pm

QXAS wrote:
EA CO AS wrote:
TreyClarkPowell wrote:
N835VA (VX Name "Arnold") is now out of the paint shop and flying under AS colors.

The Airbus fleet is being repainted at an average of 2 per week now; they'll all be done in short order.

So they’ll all be repainted by the beginning of the summer season. That’s a pretty quick changeover. How quickly was the AirTran fleet repainted into WN colors?

For WN is was about 3 years after the merger closed iirc. But WN was doing things differently-they were repainting the planes as they were being outfitted with WN’s interior and slowing shrinking AirTran’s fleet and adding them to WN’s but keeping the airlines separate. AS/VX are already operationally merged AS just needs to repaint the VX planes to reflect their new owner. The interior refit will come later.

scoping2008 · Wed Sep 12, 2018 6:21 pm

Excerpts from an internal article:

Now, we’re picking up the pace on repainting the exterior of our Airbus aircraft. From now until June 2019, we’ll be painting seven to 10 aircraft each month.

“Most of our Airbus fleet features Virgin America branding, which makes us look a bit disjointed,” said Sangita Woerner, vice president of marketing. “We want to get to one brand faster, which is why we’ve come up with a creative solution to make this happen.”

Airbus aircraft will be painted in Victorville, California where we paint our Boeing aircraft.

By not repainting the wings, and utilizing some other innovative techniques, we’ve been able to reduce the paint time from our standard 10 days to 6.5 days.

As our paint vendor continues to paint the Airbus fleet, we will ultimately need to get our paint visits down to six days to get to an all Alaska-branded fleet by the end of June 2019. Some minor adjustments to the design may be required. This expedited timeline will help us look and feel like one airline sooner, helping us build a stronger West Coast presence.

448205 · Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:27 pm

Not painting the wings? Were they already white/grey?

zululima · Wed Sep 12, 2018 11:53 pm

Have they repainted any of the 737 fleet yet? You know, the part on the nose that says "Proudly all Boeing".

448205 · Thu Sep 13, 2018 12:19 am

zululima wrote:
Have they repainted any of the 737 fleet yet? You know, the part on the nose that says "Proudly all Boeing".

That paint job might outlive the airbus's. Alaska has expressed interest in Boeing's NMA.

LAXPAX · Thu Sep 13, 2018 12:26 am

Nobody is talking about the real issue, which is that AS has a frickin' old dude as their livery.

PlanesNTrains · Thu Sep 13, 2018 2:40 am

zululima wrote:
Have they repainted any of the 737 fleet yet? You know, the part on the nose that says "Proudly all Boeing".

Harumph.

NameOmitted · Thu Sep 13, 2018 2:56 am

How long does it generally take for SeatGuru to get ahold of new maps?

scoping2008 · Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:01 am

LAXPAX wrote:
Nobody is talking about the real issue, which is that AS has a frickin' old dude as their livery.

That "old dude" is an iconic Eskimo rendering that has become synonymous with the brand. It won't be going away anytime soon.

LAXPAX · Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:49 am

scoping2008 wrote:
LAXPAX wrote:
Nobody is talking about the real issue, which is that AS has a frickin' old dude as their livery.

That "old dude" is an iconic Eskimo rendering that has become synonymous with the brand. It won't be going away anytime soon.

Believe me, I know. That doesn't mean that it's ever been good.

SXDFC · Thu Sep 13, 2018 5:42 am

Are they still repainting 737s or have the airbuses taken priority over the 737s?

Anyone know when the first A319 goes in for paint?

hiflyeras · Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:52 am

LAXPAX wrote:
Believe me, I know. That doesn't mean that it's ever been good.

Yeah but it's unique and you're talking about it. Who gives a shit about most liveries?

LAXPAX · Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:28 pm

hiflyeras wrote:
LAXPAX wrote:
Believe me, I know. That doesn't mean that it's ever been good.

Who gives a shit about most liveries?

Welcome to your first day on A.net!

TreyClarkPowell · Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:30 pm

N844VA (VX name "Sol Plane") is out of the paint shop.

NickLAX · Thu Sep 13, 2018 4:02 pm

Just flew N637VA yesterday SEA-SNA - was amazed at how terrible the interior has been maintained by VA. Seats with issues, divider between First and Main/Premium was scratched terribly. Lavs looked like a 20 year old ex America West bird with half of the restroom panels loose or taped down in one of the lavs - sinks thoroughly discolored/stained. Hope AS re-do the lavs and not just the seats. In the 25+ years of seeing terrible maintained interiors this was right near the top. Was VA farming this out to someone only on higher checks as it looked like nothing was done between checks at all.

I know B6 has issues like this - but these looked much worse on VA.

JayWings · Thu Sep 13, 2018 4:07 pm

NickLAX wrote:
Just flew N637VA yesterday SEA-SNA - was amazed at how terrible the interior has been maintained by VA. Seats with issues, divider between First and Main/Premium was scratched terribly. Lavs looked like a 20 year old ex America West bird with half of the restroom panels loose or taped down in one of the lavs - sinks thoroughly discolored/stained. Hope AS re-do the lavs and not just the seats. In the 25+ years of seeing terrible maintained interiors this was right near the top. Was VA farming this out to someone only on higher checks as it looked like nothing was done between checks at all.

I know B6 has issues like this - but these looked much worse on VA.

From what I understand, VX was run as a very tight operation where if it wasn’t required to be fixed to fly, it wasn’t dealt with. Also the majority of their aircraft are leased and not exactly young. Some of their planes are just like a nightclub... with the cool mood lighting it’s a great party, but don’t turn the lights to bright!

EA CO AS · Thu Sep 13, 2018 4:50 pm

LAXPAX wrote:
scoping2008 wrote:
LAXPAX wrote:
Nobody is talking about the real issue, which is that AS has a frickin' old dude as their livery.

That "old dude" is an iconic Eskimo rendering that has become synonymous with the brand. It won't be going away anytime soon.

Believe me, I know. That doesn't mean that it's ever been good.

And yet the AS brand now has more brand recognition than VX did prior to the acquisition!

n7371f · Fri Sep 14, 2018 2:47 am

EA CO AS wrote:
zackary747 wrote:
Is VCV the only place where they're repainting the fleet?

It appears so, but they'll be starting the interior refits soon as well and those may be done elsewhere.

GSO

QXAS · Fri Sep 14, 2018 4:10 am

LAXPAX wrote:
Nobody is talking about the real issue, which is that AS has a frickin' old dude as their livery.

Nobody is talking about it because it’s not an issue. While a few people may not like it, it certainly does not contribute negatively to the branding as a whole. A while back Alaska considered replacing it to become less Alaskan, and the base freaked out. Chester is here to stay. Their livery is arguably superior to any US airline not named Hawaiian. Replace Chester with an abstract shape, that’s no longer the case.

seabosdca · Fri Sep 14, 2018 4:51 am

Chester is AS's brand identity both in Seattle and in the Alaskan markets. Replacing him would be self-immolation in AS's core markets. I'm sure he might get updated again at some point, but he'll stay there and he'll stay recognizable.

TreyClarkPowell · Fri Sep 14, 2018 2:08 pm

QXAS wrote:
LAXPAX wrote:
Nobody is talking about the real issue, which is that AS has a frickin' old dude as their livery.

Nobody is talking about it because it’s not an issue. While a few people may not like it, it certainly does not contribute negatively to the branding as a whole. A while back Alaska considered replacing it to become less Alaskan, and the base freaked out. Chester is here to stay. Their livery is arguably superior to any US airline not named Hawaiian. Replace Chester with an abstract shape, that’s no longer the case.

Completely agree. I mean, look at what the other US carriers are currently doing.

AA: Abstract of the American Flag that looks like a design committee compromise.

UA: Adopted what was already a 20 year old livery (now 27 years old) of an airline that they merged with.

DL: Yeah, the widget has been their thing for almost 60 years, but this iteration of it is just kind of "meh."

WN: Shapes and colors. A 1st grader could have designed this tail.

B6 and F9: these airlines do not use consistent designs on their tails, some of the B6 tails look cool, I'll give them that much, but the F9 tails just scream "stock photos."

NK: currently has three completely different liveries running around (none of which are good looking)

G4: Was probably designed using Microsoft Paint.

My boy Chester? He's got class.

MesserJ · Fri Sep 14, 2018 3:40 pm

TreyClarkPowell wrote:
the F9 tails just scream "stock photos."

Very true, but not only that, the tails tend to look really bad up close except for brand new deliveries. The decals are all crusty, peeling away, and some are patched or have sections missing. Also NK's previous livery wasn't terrible, but it looks like a tube of toothpaste.

LAXPAX · Fri Sep 14, 2018 4:14 pm

So, all of those airlines' liveries would be more interesting if they each just had a gigantic face on them? I guess B6 should have a close-up of a jaded beat-up New Yorker, and WN can have a sunburned impoverished rancher, and F9 can have a stoner with blonde dreadlocks!

I mean quite aside from the fact that "Chester" reduces an entire people to a commercialized iconograph (which just smacks of good ol' paternalism), it's also just plain weird, and not in a fun way. But I realize that bad liveries can happen to good airlines!

chrisair · Fri Sep 14, 2018 6:09 pm

TreyClarkPowell wrote:
[...], but the F9 tails just scream "stock photos."

That's because they are.

hiflyeras · Fri Sep 14, 2018 6:16 pm

LAXPAX wrote:
So, all of those airlines' liveries would be more interesting if they each just had a gigantic face on them? I guess B6 should have a close-up of a jaded beat-up New Yorker, and WN can have a sunburned impoverished rancher, and F9 can have a stoner with blonde dreadlocks!

I mean quite aside from the fact that "Chester" reduces an entire people to a commercialized iconograph (which just smacks of good ol' paternalism), it's also just plain weird, and not in a fun way. But I realize that bad liveries can happen to good airlines!

To each his own. Do you hate Pualani as much as you hate Chester? Oh...and seven years on a.net and very familiar with the various 'types' on here.

LAXPAX · Fri Sep 14, 2018 8:04 pm

hiflyeras wrote:
LAXPAX wrote:
So, all of those airlines' liveries would be more interesting if they each just had a gigantic face on them? I guess B6 should have a close-up of a jaded beat-up New Yorker, and WN can have a sunburned impoverished rancher, and F9 can have a stoner with blonde dreadlocks!

I mean quite aside from the fact that "Chester" reduces an entire people to a commercialized iconograph (which just smacks of good ol' paternalism), it's also just plain weird, and not in a fun way. But I realize that bad liveries can happen to good airlines!

To each his own. Do you hate Pualani as much as you hate Chester? Oh...and seven years on a.net and very familiar with the various 'types' on here.

I know I've been kind of "taking the piss out" of AS, as they say, but your question deserves a serious answer, which is...I don't know. I would like to think I'm not hypocritical (wouldn't we all!). The best I can say is that HA's logo is stylized and more abstract (especially in the latest version). I think if AS' logo were similarly more abstract and artistic, then it probably wouldn't bug me as much; mainly because art is subjective and more open to interpretation by every individual that views it.

But it's hard for me to know for sure...all I can confess is that AS' livery has always given me a funny vibe, going all the way back to when I first became aware of it decades ago. This is obviously no reflection on the operation, service, or passenger experience of that airline.

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