The future of flying Alaska Airlines (PHOTOS) Airline reveals new interiors as Virgin America era fades away

New carpeting, seats and blue mood lighting and more on Alaska Airlines Airbus A321- a big change from the Virgin America configuration New carpeting, seats and blue mood lighting and more on Alaska Airlines Airbus A321- a big change from the Virgin America configuration Photo: Chris McGinnis Photo: Chris McGinnis Image 1 of / 53 Caption Close The future of flying Alaska Airlines (PHOTOS) 1 / 53 Back to Gallery

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Alaska Airlines rolled back the curtains Wednesday on the new aircraft seats and modern interiors the carrier is installing on all of its Airbus and Boeing jets over the next two years.

The carrier took a big entourage of guests, vendors, community partners and media onboard an Airbus A321neo outfitted with the new interiors for a special 1-hour charter "flight to nowhere "out of San Francisco International Airport. Alaska Air used the event to show off what it calls the final phase in its integration with Virgin America Airlines, purchased just over two years ago (Dec 2016).

There was also a big gateside event replete with samples of new onboard food items, coffee baristas, speeches and goodie bags for attendees. (See the slideshow above for a look at the festivities)

"Virgin America started something great here," said Andrew Harrison, chief commercial officer for Alaska Airlines at the event. "They started a great legacy, and really why we're here today is to try to showcase all the things we've been working on to take that legacy forward."

Alaska spent the better part of the last three years painstakingly coming up with the new aircraft interiors — a necessary step to harmonize the inside look of its Boeing 737s and Airbus jets.

Long-time Virgin America fliers won't be seeing many familiar elements when boarding a retrofitted Airbus at SFO in the coming year, however. And loyal Alaska fliers, accustomed to the carrier's fleet of Boeing 737s, might be surprised by the changes too.

The purple mood lighting that became synonymous with getting on board a Virgin flight? Gone — it's now a deep blue — a nod to Alaska's updated color palette.

Virgin's see-through, plastic and plexiglass purple bulkhead walls are gone, too. And there's no more of Alaska's iconic patterned bulkhead art that paid homage to indigenous Alaskan clothing — common on most of the carrier's Boeing jets. Also gone: Chester (the face on Alaska Airlines tails) wearing a lei on its jets flying to Hawaii. Now it's just Chester.

In the updated look, Alaska has installed a bluish, translucent hanging divider that separates first class from economy- it's no longer a wall, just a visual separator. Many airlines are doing this so they can squeeze in an extra row of seats and get rid of the weight of a bulkhead wall.

As you'll see on the slideshow above, Alaska Airlines A321s now have 190 seats, up from Virgin's configuration of 185. A320s have 150 seats, up from 146. And A319s will have 123 seats, up from 119.

What's remarkable is that seat pitch has not really changed that much. According to the chart below from Alaska Airlines, you'll notice the most dramatic pitch change on the A319s- from 33 inches to 31. But things remain mostly the same in economy class on the A320 and A321. Those seated in Premium seats near the front of economy will see a reduction, too, from 37 inches in Virgin to 35 inches on the reconfigured Alaska planes.

Photo: Alaska Airlines Chart showing how seat pitch changes with updated interiors.

Alaska has adopted Virgin's heavy use of chill-out melodic music to calm the nerves of frazzled travelers by curating a playlist that exudes a "west coast vibe." The tunes will play when the plane is at the gate and at boarding areas. (Also coming soon, Alaska's very own aromatherapy scent called "Ocean Citron.)

Alaska has also largely taken cues from Virgin's culinary menu by adopting its inventive, fresh and flavorful inflight food that draws heavily on seasonal produce and west coast suppliers. More on that here.

Seat back monitors for entertainment, which were also used for ordering food and drinks on Virgin, are gone. (Alaska's fleet of Boeing 737s never had them.) The airline is moving toward personal device streaming entertainment instead. On longer flights, Alaska distributes tablets loaded with movies (free in first; $10 in economy.) Despite the loss of Virgin's seatback screens, Alaska's streaming entertainment option is quite robust with 300 movies and 200 TV shows, but alas, no live television. See the full line up here.

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Those iconic marshmellow-y white recliners that were a hallmark of Virgin's first class product have been replaced with newly-designed bespoke charcoal grey and white ones from seating manufacturer Recaro. And the number of first class seats has doubled, from just eight on Virgin planes to 16 on Alaska's A321. (Its reconfigured A320 and 319s will have 12 first class seats.)

"A lot of detail went into the design, aesthetics and also the comfort of the seat" said Martin Rehmet, U.S. regional sales director for Recaro. "We did comfort studies and a lot of trials for seeing what was the best fit for aesthetics and functionality."

The new seat includes easily accessed USB and AC power outlets, cup holders, foot rests and a built-in tablet holder in the tray table. Rehmet explained there's memory foam built into the seat back and seat bottom to provide extra cushion, particularly on long transcontinental or Hawaii flights.

The new first class seats don't have a leg rest extension, as Virgin's seats did. Instead, there's a foot rest that extends down from the seat in front of you. The pitch decreased from the overly-generous 55-inches that Virgin once offered to 40-inches. That's still pretty good as some U.S. carriers have shrunk domestic first class legroom to just 36-38 inches.

While the new Alaska economy class cabin seats aren't a dramatic departure from what fliers are used to now on Alaska flights, these new seats — also manufactured by Recaro — offer some passenger improvements.

Most notably, the carrier has installed tablet holders on each seat back which will allow passengers to mount iPads and other devices at eye level. Airlines — with the exception of Delta — are moving away from offering seat back monitors on domestic U.S. flights. They're opting instead to pipe free in-flight entertainment to passengers' tablets and phones through onboard wifi. (A system that has come with mixed reviews from passengers.)

Don't miss the slideshow at the top of this post for a look inside the A321

Fliers can choose between USB and power outlets located at every seat from nose to tail. That's a real benefit since some carriers only offer two outlets per three seats. Fliers won't have to worry about draining battery life on devices while binging on the airline's collection of 500-plus TV shows and movies.

"The options that the passenger has in terms of AC and USB is really at a high end," Rehmet said. "We normally don't have as many options in an economy seat as we do here."

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In Alaska's extra-legroom Premium Class seats (located in the first six rows of economy on the A321), the carrier has installed a cup holder in the tray table, giving those passengers another added benefit.

Retrofitted jets will see the next generation of Gogo's satellite-fed inflight wifi. Alaska said connection speeds will be 20 times faster than the current version and will give passengers the opportunity to stream Netflix or HBO Go. As usual on Alaska, text messaging is free for those logged into the systems.

Alaska now operates a fleet of 71 Airbus jets, with two more that will be delivered in the next couple months, according to Chief Operating Officer Ben Minicucci. He said four Airbus jets a month will undergo renovation to the new interiors beginning in March. He expects Alaska's entire Airbus fleet to be reconfigured by this time next year.

On the Airbus A321neo we flew on, there were 16 first class seats, 24 extra-legroom Premium Class seats and 150 seats in standard economy.

Minicucci expects reconfiguration of the Airbus fleet to be done in 2020. Alaska is also retrofitting its Boeing 737-700s with the new interiors. Its fleet of new Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets will be delivered with the next generation seats beginning this year.

As for the red Virgin America livery that fliers sometimes still see Airbus jets sporting? Minicucci expects those to be completely repainted into the Alaska livery by summer. Currently, only 18 jets are in line for new paint.

"If you want to have your picture taken in front of one of them, you'll have until June I would say," Minicucci quipped.

What do you think of Alaska Airlines new interiors? Have you flown Alaska Air lately? Tell us what you think in the comments.

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.