BOB W

Most of the time we act like a bunch of kids anyway, so you should fit right in.

AKDan

Please put me down as tentative +1. jackal and Bob, please let me know if I can help you organize anything from down here in Kenai and I'll definately volunteer to help in anything you guys need during the DO. I haven't been able to go to an Alaska DO for many years so I'm going to do my best to make it to this one.

LuckyDenver

I spend 4-6 days a month in Nome and can confirm that there is decent cell coverage (although the airport is a dead spot, incidentally). There is EDGE data service available. I have AT&T.

Also, AS frequently swaps equip on the OTZ/OME flights based on cargo, so don't be surprised if your intin goes from a combi to a 734 and back to a combi, etc. You never really know until you show up. There are 3 flights a day and 2 of the 3 are a combi.

DeltaWings

I'm making my very first trip to Alaska in October, so forgive me if I am missing something, but why are we flying to ANC from Fairbanks the night of the 22nd, only to fly to Nome in the early morning on the 23rd? Would it make more sense to spend an extra night in Fairbanks and fly directly from there to Nome?

Also, since Bob W has indicated that a young fella is welcome, you can mark me down as confirmed. I'll have a Master's degree in hand by June and will definitely be looking to celebrate!

BOB W

There are no FAI-OME-FAI direct flights. They all go through ANC. I'll probably take one of the earlier flights back to ANC since we will be up very early the next morning.

jackal

Unless you're a child prodigy and graduated high school at age 16 or something, you're not that much younger than some of us.

As Bob indicated, there are no direct ANC-OME flights. Staying the night in FAI would delay our arrival into OME until past noon (the morning FAI-ANC flight doesn't get in in time to connect to the morning ANC-OME flight), cutting out much of the time we wanted to spend seeing the OME area.

The other option was to leave FAI much earlier (3:30pm) and overnight a second night in OME. However, that cuts into our FAI sightseeing time substantially. Also, there isn't exactly a plethora of choices for lodging in OME (certainly no chain properties!), and given that many people would like to use hotel points to cover as much of their overnighting expenses as possible, allowing people to stay overnight in a big city like ANC substantially increases the options available (and even moreso in ANC than in FAI, which until this year was limited to two chain options: Marriott and Choice Hotels).

It also has the side effect of allowing the local organizers to overnight in their own houses, substantially decreasing their costs. This is not insignificant to at least two of the three local organizers.

I realize the short overnight allows for limited sleep; if anyone wants to take the earlier flight with Bob, by all means, you're welcome to. (Actually, a one-way intrastate award should allow a stopover in ANC, so you should be able to legitimately book an earlier flight from FAI to ANC. I don't know about paid flights, though; it might break it into two fares.)

beckoa

Great to have another local on-board

Not sure if we'll be heading south this time around, although could be fun to take a 7H hop down there. But look foreword to meeting another local

beckoa

Schweet - glad to see another FTer committed...already! Seems we might have quite the crowd - perhaps we'll need to expand BOB W's deck again

beckoa

Perhaps we'll have enough FTers that AS will have to upgauge to a 73H

Good to hear re AT&T in OME. Perhaps they might get a tower near the airport by next June.

alphaeagle

Era's route map indicates that it has, or will, fly from Galena to Nome and they still do operate Fairbanks to Galena. So there may be a possibility next summer that there will be a more direct route from Fairbanks to Nome. Otherwise it also may be possible to go through, say, Kotzebue but that would require switching airlines and most likely be expensive with inconvenient scheduling.

In addition to jackal's reasons for choosing those AS flights, any other route may be more expensive anyways. Though I will say, it may be beneficial to book Era between Fairbanks and Anchorage if it makes sense to do so, as you won't have to deal with TSA.

As for the Alaska Railroad, my experience is limited to taking it from Fairbanks to Denali, then continuing on to Anchorage. This was in mid July in Adventure/Coach class a few years ago. We were seated in the dome car, with only a few other people. The actual dome never did completely fill up, though they did make announcements to rotate out to let others come up, but that wasn't ever an issue. It did provide a great view. I could see the GoldStar car, and it was packed with people. My "open viewing deck" had maybe two other people use it (the open windows at the doors) while I was there. Overall I didn't see any reason to upgrade to GoldStar, though maybe others have had different experiences and I was just lucky that I had a great time.

Picture from the Adventure Class dome shortly after leaving Denali.

ckpeter

Put me down as tentative and I will confirm closer to the DO.

I would be interested in all portions of the activities.

jackal

Upon consideration of the above (I had forgotten that a forced overnight isn't necessary, as a one-way intrastate award allows a stopover in ANC, so flight time doesn't matter for those booking this as an award), I've moved us to the 5:00pm flight out of Fairbanks. This'll cut out a little bit of usable sightseeing time in FAI, but then again, most of the touristy things worth seeing are done with after 5pm anyway.

AFAIK, beckoa, CDKing, and I are the only ones who have confirmed tickets for the intra-Alaska portion of the trip yet, and we're all Gold, so we can change our tickets at will. If anyone else has already booked that 8:55pm flight, let me know and I'll reconsider the change...

I don't foresee any other changes in the future to the flight itinerary unless we discover some major issue that is affecting most of you guys being able to book something...

baliktad

That seems like a much more reasonable schedule. I'm still tentative, but keeping a close eye on this one.

As an aside, if I use my (Gold) miles to book an award reservation for a non-status passenger, is that ticket changeable without a fee? I suspect not but may be booking a +1 and trying to figure out when I can commit.

jackal

Actually, I believe the miles are "Golden"--meaning the ticket is fully changeable, no matter who is traveling...

BOB W

But it will allow more time for the pre-BBQ prep before we head for OME.