Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Sea-Pdx $$$$

Anyone buying tickets either way in this market? The fares are crazy. Advance purchase w/sat night stay over $ 230. For that kind of $$$$ I will just drive both ways. Whoever came up with this must be nuts. With security at the airport entrances now, it might be quicker to drive0especially at these prices!!

Could not agree more - historically advanced purchase fares were $100 - $120RT in this market with $300 RT for last-minute purchases. Do not see how these high fares will last - unless the strategy is to cut service substantially in response to a big drop in demand. It has not helped that Horizon has a near monopoly in this market since Skywest pulled back to only 6X daily.

I have seen pricing on several Horizon markets jump up the past couple weeks. I don't know if it is a cut in capacity or just a general price increase.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by seauaflyer:
It has not helped that Horizon has a near monopoly in this market since Skywest pulled back to only 6X daily.</font>

In addition, the triangle-leg flights on DL and TW (and CO and US) jets are long gone.

Viva Amtrak Cascades!

Fares on AS have been CRAZY over the past month. Super DUPER inflated. I think it is because of the kids fly free or something. News keep saying that fares are coming down and a laugh all the time when I try to book SEA-SNA for over $500 RT. This is what happens when airlines file for bankruptcy.

I strongly believe that airlines need to embrace a pricing strategy where leisure travelers pay what it cost to provide the service (as opposed to being significantly subsized by business travel and at the same time creating an expectation among leisure travelers that bargain-basement prices are the norm).

However, what I have been seeing lately on Alaska (and other carriers) are advance-purchase prices that are the highest in a long time (SEA-SNA, SEA-PDX among many others). There is certainly a danger here that demand will suffer - exactly what the carriers don't need. A better balance is needed for sure. One of the only places I see some of what were "nornal" advance purchase fares are in the (very few) web-specials that are offered.

Certainly if Alaska/Horizon can find lots of travelers willing to pay $260 RT for an advance purchase SEA-PDX ticket than more power to them - but I doubt many are out there

Granted, I don't fly AS very often, but I find this conversation somewhat amusing.

I wanted to fly WAS-ANC this summer and was looking at fares. All of the majors, including AS, wanted in the neighborhood of $800+ so I just put a reward reservation on hold va NW.

Then, the next day it seemed that AS dropped their fares down to around $420. Go figure.

Just for kicks I used http://beta.itasoftware.com and checked fares for my dates from any airport w/in 300 miles of WAS and the cheapest was $679 out of EWR. I am guessing that the AS flights are running a bit thin and they need pax, otherwise it seems crazy to undercut everyone w/in a 300 mile radius by at least $250.

the fares are crazy but flying this routw in the horizon fleet is worse. There used to be two or three flights a day both ways in real AK plans not AK wannabees. When they stopped flying the AK planes to and from I started driving

My taller half was trying to book a easy pak (walk up) ticket to pdx today and the only flight they could get her on was at 7:30 am. Every single flight after 7:30 had been zeroed out.

The Horizon agents couldn't explain it. I don't think its related to spring break, unless people couldn't get availability on the seattle non-stops and were given the option of flying to pdx with Horizon and onwards with AS.

I need to start monitoring these fares, we were super lucky with web specials all fall.

lala

Why complain about the high fares when AS is kind enough to discount Mileage Plan redemption rates to PDX? I live in SEA and just received an email w/ a link to http://www.alaskaair.com/shopping/OnlineAwards/AwardPromo.asp?promo=ASPDXS

They went as far as to tell me that I had hundreds of thousands of miles available to use toward this promotion, and that I should book NOW!

Alright alright; I'm on vacation in PVR w/ Corona in-hand....a little delirious right now. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

-Steve

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by smantl01:
Why complain about the high fares when AS is kind enough to discount Mileage Plan redemption rates to PDX? I live in SEA and just received an email w/ a link to http://www.alaskaair.com/shopping/OnlineAwards/AwardPromo.asp?promo=ASPDXS
They went as far as to tell me that I had hundreds of thousands of miles available to use toward this promotion, and that I should book NOW!

Alright alright; I'm on vacation in PVR w/ Corona in-hand....a little delirious right now. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

-Steve</font>

I can assure you, fares aren't going up. We haven't had a fare increase in quite some time. Especially in CA markets. Sale fare levels have come up over the past three months, but not the regular non-sale type fares. Spring Breaks throughout the AS system started a couple weeks back and inventory is tight with the increased demand. Heck, you can fly first class to EWR, RT for the price of the CO YA3 one-way!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RASMguy:
Heck, you can fly first class to EWR, RT for the price of the CO YA3 one-way!</font>

Not too surprising considering the AS F fare is good for only one flight a day while the CO Y fare offers two/three daily non-stops plus a number of combinations with connections.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by keithguy:
Not too surprising considering the AS F fare is good for only one flight a day while the CO Y fare offers two/three daily non-stops plus a number of combinations with connections.</font>

With that kind of a difference in cost, I would think that many folks would work the AS times into their schedules.

edited to remove pointless question....

[This message has been edited by AS Flyer (edited 03-31-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by AS Flyer:
With that kind of a difference in cost, I would think that many folks would work the AS times into their schedules.</font>

I would figure that folks buying unrestricted tickets would want flexibility more than anything.

If they are focused on cost, they can always hunt for the cheapest restricted fare...

Anybody else done the PDX-SEA run on Amtrak? I hear it's quite nice, and affordable taboot. Coming from the East Coast where the reverse may be true (flights cheaper than trains between BWI-NYC), I'd like to hear about the Amtrak Cascades. Plus you can get up and walk around instead of being crammed into those tiny Horizon turboprops!

My dearest does half her commute by the PDX shuttle and half by the Cascades service. She loves it. They love her. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif They even make sure she makes it to her car when she gets into Salem at 10:30 PM.

Most of the time it runs efficiently, she has had some pretty long delays in the fall.

lala

FWIW - United Express is offering an e-fare between SEA-PDX this weekend (out Sat - return Mon or Tues) for $89 RT (incl. taxes) - good deal for a change.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by seauaflyer:
FWIW - United Express is offering an e-fare between SEA-PDX this weekend (out Sat - return Mon or Tues) for $89 RT (incl. taxes) - good deal for a change.</font>

Not the best of times for a day trip to seattle. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by lalala:
My dearest does half her commute by the PDX shuttle and half by the Cascades service. She loves it. They love her. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif They even make sure she makes it to her car when she gets into Salem at 10:30 PM.

Most of the time it runs efficiently, she has had some pretty long delays in the fall.

lala

</font>

And Don't forget that you can earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles riding Amtrak

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hsum:
Not the best of times for a day trip to seattle. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif</font>

Why?

out Sat - return Mon or Tues,

not good for a one day trip to seattle, ie out in the morning, back that night.

the fares on this route have always been high on short notice, ie in the $300 range for walk up fare for at least the last 3 years that i've done it.

The Talgo train on the SEA-PDX route is comfortable and spacious. They have a bistro car and a business class section, and power outlets at every row. The fares are very affordable too. If only they had more than 3 round-trips a day, I would imagine business travelers would be flocking to them. Right now, its roughly equivalent to driving (time wise). Hopefully at some point they will be able to upgrade the rail-line so that the trains can actually run at their intended speed!

The Talgo train IS nice, but:

** It's an hour slower than driving, downtown to downtown;

** If you miss it by ten minutes, the next one isn't for four hours, or maybe tomorrow morning;

** And the dinnertime Portland-Seattle run at the end of the workday isn't the Talgo at all, it's the last stretch of the Coast Starlight, which originates in Los Angeles and runs chronically late.

So the train is rarely a useful option for me. With QX fares as they are neither is flying, most of the time. If I have to take three teammates to PDX for the day, I can either spend $1200 + car rental and save MAYBE 90 minutes, or $30 on gas. No contest; I've flown SEA-PDX once in the last year, and that was only because I was continuing on to SNA later that same day.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by EIPremier:
The Talgo train on the SEA-PDX route is comfortable and spacious. They have a bistro car and a business class section, and power outlets at every row.</font>

This sounds great. Does it stop at Sea-Tac?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by flyerkat:
This sounds great. Does it stop at Sea-Tac?

</font>

It stops in Tukwila and there are cabs that will take you to the airport.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by lalala:
It stops in Tukwila and there are cabs that will take you to the airport.</font>

Thanks. I'm a train newbie, so please forgive the naive question, but how do you find the Talgo train on Amtrak.com? I'm having trouble. All I see are Cascades Daily and a couple others.

I'm just trying to find a cheap and relatively painless way to get to Sea-Tac from Portland and don't want to pay $20/day for airport parking there.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by flyerkat:
Thanks. I'm a train newbie, so please forgive the naive question, but how do you find the Talgo train on Amtrak.com? I'm having trouble. All I see are Cascades Daily and a couple others.

I'm just trying to find a cheap and relatively painless way to get to Sea-Tac from Portland and don't want to pay $20/day for airport parking there.</font>

The Cascades only operates Talgo equipment