Yes, we were disappointed by Alaska’s version of flying between Hawaii and the west coast, in our case to Seattle.

Yesterday’s Hawaiian flight back was a wholly different experience, service at a far higher level.

Unlike Alaska’s crew, which mostly disappeared after the meal service in first class, the Hawaiian crew yesterday stopped by repeatedly to check if I needed anything, to offer more drinks (I stopped after two), and generally to make sure I was doing okay. Meda had the same treatment from the flight attendant working the other aisle.

The meal was very good, and it came with salt and pepper folded inside a tiny paper aloha shirt! Dessert and a glass of Courvoisier followed.

Although Hawaiian doesn’t provide for pre-ordering a preferred meal from a list of options, we had not problem getting what we wanted. Interestingly, we were able to select our meal in advance on the Alaska Air flight to Seattle the week before.

We had a moment of panic after figuring out that the originally scheduled aircraft, a 737, had been replaced by new and quite luxurious 787-9. But in the change, our seats moved from 4A & 4B to 4C and 4G. We worried that the new seat assignments meant that we wouldn’t be sitting together. But as soon as we boarded, I saw that the configuration up front was 1-2-1, with each seat in its own enclosure. So Meda and I were seated next to each other, and could lower the divider between our seats. The only “problem,” an a minor one, was that the seats were offset by 90 degrees (the one on the left 45 degrees to the left, and the one on the right about 45 degrees to the right. But that was a very minor problem, given the comfort of the seating and the attentiveness of the flight attendants.

The question is whether the merge airline will emulate Hawaiian’s high level of in-flight service, or drop down to the kind of service we had on the Alaska flight to Seattle.

Our little adventured with Hawaiian/Alaska Airlines continues.

Late Wednesday afternoon, I checked in online for our Thursday afternoon flight back to Honolulu. Check in was easy. When the check-in process was done, I clicked on the link for boarding passes.

I was on alert, since on our flight from Honolulu to Seattle, Alaska’s boarding passes failed to contain our TSA PreCheck eligibility, and we were rejected at the PreCheck screening point.

So…the link displayed both of our boarding passes, properly displaying the PreCheck logo. And it then displayed a link to add the boarding passes to my Apple “Wallet,” which collects various things, from boarding passes to credit cards, in one easy-to-access place. So I did just that.

The problem is that the version of the boarding passes that appeared in my Apple Wallet was different than the one displayed on the airline app. The PreCheck logo was missing on the wallet version. It isn’t clear to me whether this is another glitch in the airline’s merger process or an independent issue.

The workaround is to access the boarding passes from the Hawaiian app rather than use the version it added to my wallet. Not a big deal, I guess, but less convenient and a glitch nonetheless.

But then I got more disappointing and somewhat aggravating news. Although Alaska Airlines has three—yes, THREE—lounges in the Seattle airport, none of them are located near the gates used by its Hawaiian Flights.

So although lounge access is a perk advertised as a benefit of our decision to splurge on First Class tickets, it’s a “make believe” perk because lounge access isn’t actually available in practice.

And then a hint to the new Alaska/Hawaiian airline. It really doesn’t help to direct passengers to the “southern end of the main terminal.” I’m sure that we’re not the only ones who don’t know which way is south. Wouldn’t it be simple to just display a small map of the terminal with a pointer to the Alaska/Hawaiian area? It would make these two flyers more comfortable to know in advance where we are headed.

Yes, I know. With the world crumbling all around us, this is all manini stuff and, besides, all these little indignities may be in the past once the merger of the two former rivals is completed, but that won’t be for a while yet.

In the meantime, I’m afraid we’ll be jumping back over to United. Yes, it has its own problems, but the overall experience is much better than what we’ve had with Alaska/Hawaiian on this journey.

Just a little therapeutic venting.

We splurged for first class seats to Seattle and back on the airline slowly coming together as a result of the merger of Alaska and Hawaiian.

A red flag came up early when I was booking the reservations. I called Hawaiian, booked the flights, then asked about seats. Well, the flight back on Hawaiian wasn’t a problem. But the flight over to Seattle on Alaska was a problem. I could book a reservation but could not get seats assigned through Hawaiian. Suddenly they were two separate airlines. No workaround. Luckily, when I made the call to Alaska reservations, we were happy with the seats available. But I can easily imagine things going sideways at this point.

Early on the morning of our departure for the Great Northwest, our cab driver asked what airline.

I said Hawaiian, since that was where I booked the flights.

Luckily, she pushed back. Alaska and Hawaiian are currently in different terminals. I hurriedly checked my emails, and both the Hawaiian and Alaska apps.

Turns out we were leaving from the Alaska gates in Terminal 2 at HNL, not the familiar Hawaiian lobby over in Terminal 1.

First problem dodged, except that the Hawaiian lounge is over in Terminal 1, meaning that it wasn’t really available to us.

Check-in and bag drop wasn’t a problem, and we proceeded on the long walk to the only open TSA PreCheck screening area. Here we got another surprise.

Although we’ve made lots of Hawaiian flights over the years and have always been properly put in the PreCheck category, apparently that info wasn’t shared with Alaska, and no one along the way suggested that we check. So we were turned away by a friendly but firm TSA agent who said the airline had us in the system as regular passengers, no PreCheck, and there was nothing he could do about it. “You have to go back to the airline,” he said.

This problem grated, since it involved lots of extra early morning walking between gates and the loss of PreCheck benefits, and a lack of disclosure by the two airlines that we assumed were now one.

When we finally cleared the regular security check, my first task was to dig through the Alaska and Hawaiian websites and make sure our “Known Traveler” numbers, which are key to getting cleared for the appropriate security screening process, were entered. Hawaiian had them. Alaska didn’t, and there was no sharing between the two sides of the merged airline.

The Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle was, well, okay. But it came nowhere near the friendly and attentive service we had become used to on Hawaiian, whether in economy or first class. A meal was served, and it was as good as can be expected. But that was just about the end of the service offered during the 5-1/2 hour flight.

Before our flight to Seattle, we were asked to pre-select a meal option, which we did.

We’re now 48-hours from our flight back to Honolulu, and I checked the Hawaiian website for info on a similar meal selection for the flight.

Finding nothing, I initiated a chat with what turned out to be an AI assistant rather than a person. It repeated directions applicable to economy passengers, which meant no preselection of meals.

“… you are welcome to bring your own meals or snacks on board, but please note that there is no option to choose your meal in advance.”

I replied by noting that our flight over in first class had indeed offered a choice, forgetting once again that these are still primarily two separate airlines, although that separation will supposedly end soon.

Honestly, I have my doubts.

We chose to fly Hawaiian/Alaska based on our previous experience with Hawaiian, and the availability of a direct flight to Seattle, in contract to United which requires a stopover and plane change in San Francisco.

But this experience certainly takes the rose off of the Alaska/Hawaiian option, and may send us back into United land.