Trip report: SEA-MKE inaugural on the E175
Jul 1, 2015, 7:06 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Snohomish, WA
Programs: AS MVP Gold, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 2,793
Trip report: SEA-MKE inaugural on the E175
My wife and I took the SEA-MKE inaugural this morning, our first ever inaugural Alaska flight. We knew from past posts here to expect some festivities and Alaska didn't disappoint. Here's some pics and blahblahblah about the flight and the new plane.
We departed from C9. Seems like everyone who was someone from Alaska and Horizon was there (everyone doing ramp service on the plane was wearing Horizon polos). They had a band playing and cheese curds were served, along with a cheese-shaped cake and cupcakes:
The flight was, of course, on the brand new Boeing E175:
The gate crew dressed for the occasion (as did the ground and flight crews):
The ground crew brought out a classic for the fun as well, and there was a LOT of ground crew hanging around for photos with the plane:
Before boarding there was a ribbon cutting ceremony, cut by an Alaska MVPG 75K member:
Everyone who boarded got a little certificate to commemorate the event. If you had a paper boarding card they stamped it, otherwise (like us) you could have them stamp the certificate:
Onboard it was definitely a brand new plane. Everything in great shape and still smelling fresh. We were in row 6, which felt like it had more leg room than business class on most domestic flights!
Service was pretty good, although it's just a two person cabin crew which means service takes a loooong time in economy. For the first service pass it was just the back FA doing all the work, and there was no recognition of elite status that I could see (although I did not get charged for my drink).
We arrived in MKE 40 minutes early and they had some trouble getting the jetbridge working. After about 5 mins they figured it out and we were in the terminal, greeted by a ton of local media and random official looking people. They gave us all local coffee (Colectivo Blue Heeler, pre-ground) and "leather" luggage tags embossed with the Alaska and MKE airport logos.
They had a fancy cake for the MKE-SEA departure, as well as lots of signage throughout the airport announcing the new flight. There was a band pre-security as well. They didn't seem to be playing grunge though. Weird.
Anyway, it was fun being on an inaugural, and we are looking forward to doing it again in September to Nashville!
Neil
We departed from C9. Seems like everyone who was someone from Alaska and Horizon was there (everyone doing ramp service on the plane was wearing Horizon polos). They had a band playing and cheese curds were served, along with a cheese-shaped cake and cupcakes:
The flight was, of course, on the brand new Boeing E175:
The gate crew dressed for the occasion (as did the ground and flight crews):
The ground crew brought out a classic for the fun as well, and there was a LOT of ground crew hanging around for photos with the plane:
Before boarding there was a ribbon cutting ceremony, cut by an Alaska MVPG 75K member:
Everyone who boarded got a little certificate to commemorate the event. If you had a paper boarding card they stamped it, otherwise (like us) you could have them stamp the certificate:
Onboard it was definitely a brand new plane. Everything in great shape and still smelling fresh. We were in row 6, which felt like it had more leg room than business class on most domestic flights!
Service was pretty good, although it's just a two person cabin crew which means service takes a loooong time in economy. For the first service pass it was just the back FA doing all the work, and there was no recognition of elite status that I could see (although I did not get charged for my drink).
We arrived in MKE 40 minutes early and they had some trouble getting the jetbridge working. After about 5 mins they figured it out and we were in the terminal, greeted by a ton of local media and random official looking people. They gave us all local coffee (Colectivo Blue Heeler, pre-ground) and "leather" luggage tags embossed with the Alaska and MKE airport logos.
They had a fancy cake for the MKE-SEA departure, as well as lots of signage throughout the airport announcing the new flight. There was a band pre-security as well. They didn't seem to be playing grunge though. Weird.
Anyway, it was fun being on an inaugural, and we are looking forward to doing it again in September to Nashville!
Neil
Jul 1, 2015, 7:23 pm
#2
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953
Jul 1, 2015, 7:34 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
The arrival was fancier than any AS inaugural ive been on. I've been teh official ribbon cutter on two inaugurals so far (PDX-ORD & SAN-BOS). Sadly i'm not as big of an AS flyer as I was a few years ago. Although those are puny scissors compared to the ones in other inaugurals.
Jul 1, 2015, 8:19 pm
#4
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Pleasant Prairie, WI USA DL FO (until 2/04), NW silver '03, NW gold '04+'05 Plat '06+ (thanks, Leo!), DL SkyClub
Programs: DL Plat/ Million Miler, AS, Hilton, Marriott Bonvoy, Piggly Wiggly Pig Points
Posts: 2,233
I think AS is serious about MKE which is underserved and hopefully they will increase capacity to SEA. I'm sure someone has taken note that YX was profitable until the 9/11 dip and even then at times it was able to hold its own.
If DL and AS ever kiss and make up, positioning AS in the D concourse was smart.
If DL and AS ever kiss and make up, positioning AS in the D concourse was smart.
Jul 1, 2015, 8:22 pm
#5
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Pleasant Prairie, WI USA DL FO (until 2/04), NW silver '03, NW gold '04+'05 Plat '06+ (thanks, Leo!), DL SkyClub
Programs: DL Plat/ Million Miler, AS, Hilton, Marriott Bonvoy, Piggly Wiggly Pig Points
Posts: 2,233
Oh…we had chicken chipolte something on board.
Jul 1, 2015, 8:32 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Snohomish, WA
Programs: AS MVP Gold, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 2,793
Weird, that was listed as the west/south option on our menus in coach. I wonder if the FA in F accidentally served you the meals for the return flight? It looked like the flight was catered for both directions when I was in the back galley. Or did they give people in F the choice of which one they wanted?
Edit: Never mind, from your other post I see you were on the MKE-SEA flight. Makes sense that you got the chicken chipotle.
Neil
Edit: Never mind, from your other post I see you were on the MKE-SEA flight. Makes sense that you got the chicken chipotle.
Neil
Jul 2, 2015, 7:55 am
#9
Join Date: Jan 2008
Programs: AS MVPG, CO, NW(now DL), Flying Blue
Posts: 6,554
Jul 2, 2015, 12:50 pm
#11
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953
Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)
Did the same ground crew work OKC?
Did the same ground crew work OKC?
Jul 2, 2015, 3:22 pm
#12
Join Date: Jan 2008
Programs: AS MVPG, CO, NW(now DL), Flying Blue
Posts: 6,554
probably so. They departed from C10. The 175 showed up at C10 around 915am
Jul 2, 2015, 6:45 pm
#14
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: SEA
Programs: AS 75k
Posts: 922
Jul 2, 2015, 6:52 pm
#15
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953
Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)
Might be more of a OKC wardrobe...
Originally Posted by ANC
probably so. They departed from C10. The 175 showed up at C10 around 915am