Alaska Airlines has just commenced its daily flights between Seattle (SEA) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ) as of May 16, 2024.
This route is the sixth destination in Canada for Alaska Airlines, and it also comes on the heels of the announcement of a new partnership with Porter Airlines.
Alaska Airlines’s New Seattle–Toronto Route
As of May 16, 2024, Alaska Airlines is operating daily flights between Seattle (SEA) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ).
Toronto is the Seattle-based airline’s sixth destination, which comes in addition to flights to Victoria (YYJ), Vancouver (YVR), Kelowna (YLW), Calgary (YYC), and Edmonton (YEG).
In the 1990s, Alaska Airlines operated flights between Los Angeles (LAX) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ); however, this new route is the airline’s first destination in Eastern Canada from Seattle.
Eastbound from Seattle, flights are blocked at 4 hours 35 minutes, while the westbound flights from Toronto are scheduled to run 5 hours 15 minutes.
The new route will operate year-round, and the flight times are as follows:
- AS972 Seattle (SEA) to Toronto Pearson (YYZ), departing 7am and arriving 2:40pm
- AS973 Toronto Pearson (YYZ) to Seattle (SEA), departing 3:40pm and arriving 5:55pm
Alaska Airlines is operating the Boeing 737-900 aircraft on this route. It’s worth noting that this is a different aircraft than the Boeing 737 MAX 9 that was involved in a safety incident in January 2024.
Passengers have the choice between two classes of service on this route, with multiple options for the economy cabin.
The flights are available for reservation on the Alaska Airlines website, and flights can be booked throughout the schedule.
Booking Alaska Airlines’s New Seattle–Toronto Route
If you have your eye on this new route, it’s available for booking with cash and Alaska miles.
For cash bookings, one-way flights in economy start at around $261 (CAD), and average out at around $388 (CAD) eastbound or $466 (CAD) westbound. In First Class, you can expect to pay around $900–1,000 (CAD) per direction.
You can also book these flights through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, and using the calendar function, it’s easy to see the lowest prices for flights in either class of service.
Flights in economy begin at 10,000 miles; however, the price can rise to 20,000 miles during periods of higher demand.
Flights in First Class, which is for all intents and purposes a North American business class product, start at 25,000 miles, and rise to 50,000 miles for a good portion of the calendar.
We value Alaska miles at 2.1 cents per mile (CAD). When you take the taxes and fees into consideration, you can get a value of over 3 cents per mile for booking on this route in either class of service, assuming you can find prices at the lowest level.
If you’re sitting on a stash of Alaska miles, a booking on this route can result in decent value; however, keep in mind that you might be able to squeeze more value out of your points for long-haul premium bookings instead.
In March 2024, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan went through a major transformation, including changes to its award charts. A few months back, we projected that the “starting at” prices will be set at 12,500 miles in economy and 40,000 miles in First Class.
However, as things stand, Toronto–Seattle tickets can still be booked for 10,000 miles in economy and 25,000 in First Class.
Therefore, if you plan on booking this route, you may wish to do so before the changes truly take effect, as it could result in lower award pricing.
Conclusion
Alaska Airlines has begun year-round daily service between Seattle (SEA) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ) as of May 16, 2024.
Passengers can choose between two classes of service on this route, which will be operated by the Boeing 737-900 aircraft.
The flights are available to be booked throughout the schedule, either using cash or through Alaska Mileage Plan.
I’d still love to see an article on PoT on how Ontario residents can use this flight and their Alaska Miles to access trans-Pacific flights on partner airlines. How does the 5.55 p.m. arrival time of AS973 work for connections across the Pacific? What destination options are available from Seattle? I hope you can produce info like this to help those of us who would like to use Alaska Miles for travel to Asia.
Thanks for the post idea. As of now, looks like Starlux to Taipei is the shortest connection for trans-pacific flights (departing at 2 am). Everything else would require an overnight layover. You can now search from YYZ and if anything fits, it will produce those results. For example, I tried YYZ-TYO and it included AS 973 along with a hop to SFO followed by JAL to Tokyo.
Update on MBNA RWE transfer to Alaska miles?
It would be nice to have a follow up on what trans-Pacific routes with Alaska and its partners this opens up for Alaska mileage collectors in Ontario.
Agreed!