Seat 2A

I was never a big fan of spam though I did have some served as an appetizer once - fried and then presented atop a Triscuit cracker with a spicy mustard sauce. It was actually pretty good.

On another note, I've got a long layover in Anchorage in late July. What's the consensus on the best steakhouse in town? Club Paris?

BOB W

Yes, still Club Paris, then Sullivan's.

amunter

Best escargot in town IMHO, too, although I suspect there's much less competition for that.

beckoa

Great burgers ^

Never have tried their steak. As I can grill a fine one, I haven't worried about that

Points Scrounger

Trace at the W Seattle serves saimen(?) made with "homemade spam" which is pretty good. I wasn't too fond of the stuff when I had it a couple of times before at Hawaiian cuisine restaurants. Spam was one of the three foods that were never served in our house when I was a kid, because one or both of my parents hated them (see also: liver and lima beans).

Kufat

Yesterday was my first "hold that plane!" moment. AS 7 out of JFK, and on the way there from Roosevelt Island:

• The F train was supposed to resume normal service at 5am, but it didn't show up until almost 5:30
• Once it showed up, it did an unscheduled switch from express to running on the local track
• When it was time for me to transfer, the E train took forever to show up
• And when I finally got to the AirTrain, they were doing track work on that, too!

If any one of those hadn't happened, I would've been at the gate without much trouble. As it was, I was passing through PreCheck as boarding was starting and I got a phone call from the gate as I was passing through the underground tunnel of Terminal 8. Boarding was wrapping up early and they wanted to know if I was close to the gate. Fortunately, I was less than 5 minutes from the gate, and they held the plane until I arrived, closing the door at 7:08 for a 7:15 scheduled departure.

Great service by AS, of course. I wonder if they would've left without me if I hadn't just made MVP Gold?

jackal

I have had all of that happen to me, including an early morning F train running late from Roosevelt Island and then running local through Queens, except I wasn't flying AS out of JFK (and I've never had the gate call me--that would be awesome if that became normal practice!), so all it did was eliminate my T4 lounge time before my Copa departure.

Trust me, I feel the pain you felt that day...

rustykettel

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2016/07/.../?spt=hs&or=on

If not, they should be!

PABE

It is unlikely... not enough polenta and cod

edgewood49

Well Cuba, that should be interesting !

makfan

I don't know if there is a better thread to vent about a bad trip. I didn't see one.

Outbound on 10 July AS 307 SFO-SEA connecting to AS 2242 to YVR. Over three hours to connect. Inbound for 307 is delayed. After we board they find a recurrence of a mechanical issue that had been partly to blame for the delay earlier. After many creeping delays the flight departs 6 hours and 10 minutes late. By this time the only option is AS 3417 at 11:10 p.m. For a contentious meeting the next day, this was less than ideal. Fortunately I was staying at the airport and not downtown.

Return on 12 July AS 2233 YVR-SEA connecting to AS 300 to SFO. 2.5 hours or so to connect. Inbound plane is slightly late, but just before boarding they find a major mechanical problem. After a few creeping delays, I get a helpful gate agent to put me on WS 1776 (WestJet) at 7:45 p.m. The WS agent felt sorry for me and put me in Plus for free, which is where I currently sit. AS 2233 ultimately cancels at about 8:30 p.m. The annoying thing is that I had a phone meeting and just missed standing by for the 2:45 p.m. (which actually departed after 4).

Not a good performance for AS and QX this week.

I was proactively given a voucher for the AS 307 delay and don't expect much for today given the rebooking. Not really looking for anything, just venting a bit. This was a tough trip to have so many things fouled up.

edgewood49

AS over the years runs into a wall when it comes to maintaining the QX's I remember one really bad stretch maybe 6 or 7 years ago about this time of the year and it was horrible, I sat at SMF looking down on the plane, flat tire and the spare laying up on the side for 3 hours !!!!!

apodo77

I have a very good source that works at the Port of Portland.
Cathay Pacific is starting cargo flights into PDX on 11/3 (see link) and they are in talks about passenger service.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...-portland.html

As with any rumor take it FWIW but it would be cool to see CX at PDX. Not holding my breath but this person works in a position that would know and they didn't say for sure it was happening.

AKCuisine

Very interesting. Any theories about why PDX was chosen rather than SEA? My hunch is that cost is probably a factor.

From the press release, the cargo routing will be HKG-ANC-LAX-PXD-ANC-HKG. It would be wonderful if a similar routing was chosen for passenger service ... (I'm just joking! I know it would never happen, but I can fantasize about flying ANC-HKG on CX, can't I? Let a girl dream.)

jinglish

If it happens, it'll probably be after my CX J award next February... but nonetheless I'm excited. I always like seeing new international routes out of PDX, but another direct flight to Asia on an AS partner is especially good given the current status of the DL relationship.