AS again EWR-SEA-PDX-SJC-SEA-PDX-SEA-EWR in F and Y
Nov 13, 2003, 2:32 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: New York
Posts: 7,347
AS again EWR-SEA-PDX-SJC-SEA-PDX-SEA-EWR in F and Y
Dear folks,
Here is my third installment of my AS adventure. I am now onto the middle stage of the game. There will not be another long report like this particular one. I guess it is pretty bored, so this report will just be a quick recap of all the flights.
November 8, 2003
AS 11 EWR-SEA Lv0830 Arr1127 Boeing 737-700 N644AS
Check in using the e-kiosk is simple and my upgrade cleared at the spot and I managed to get seat 2C, but of course, some couples were separated so I ended up playing musical chairs and with 1A again. President Club is not opened till 7:30am on weekend mornings, so I stayed at the gate area. Our nearby Atlanta flight was seeking volunteers offering $200 voucher. It was quite a surprise.
Boarding began at 7:57am at the usual gate A27, and pre-takeoff water bottles were already placed on the seats. The flight was very light in Y (with Row 7 to 10 basically empty) and F was full of course. This particular Boeing 737-700 had the nice headrest installed, which was a nice feature. We took off from Runway 4L at 8:47am and flying time was five hours and thirty-four minutes. We flew all the way up to 39,000ft and then passed through Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Flint, MI, Minneapolis St. Paul, Great Falls, MT, and the North of the beautiful state of Idaho before starting our descent near Spokane.
Breakfast was different from last week – much appreciated. Here is my transcript menu:
Fruit plate (2 slices of pineapple, 2 kiwi slices, 3 orange segment & 3 strawberries) accompanied by a cranberry scone
Entrees of
Cheddar Cheese Omelet with Potatoes and Sausages
Or
Scrambled egg with smoked salmon and a tomato sauce on top of English muffin with a white gravy, accompanied by asparagus and home fried potatoes
Delicious…
For economy, you have a choice of Denver Omelet with pork sausages or pancakes with blueberry sauce, accompanied by scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and Canadian bacon, served with blueberry muffin and a fruit cup.
Then the Dig E players were handed out for us folks in first class. I did not take part of it, despite of its newness. I went straight to sleep, till the snack was served. It was a cheese and fruit plate with 2 figs, 1/2 sized apple, & pear marinated in pepper, 2 slices of Brie, almonds and two Hawaiian sesame crackers. Y class got a pack of potato chips. The snack plate was just okay. Descent soon began at 1:58EST with a round of hot towels. We landed on R/W 34R at 1120amPST, and parked at gate N8 at the North Satellite, in between an AS 73G (622) and the United’s Boeing 777 heading to NRT (N204UA – 2204).
QX 2309 SEA-PDX Lv1300 Arr1348 Dash 8-Q400 N411QX
Nothing much to discuss… the flights were pretty packed… Boarding at C2J right on time… We took off at 34R, got a pack of Rold Gold’s pretzel twist and the usual express beverage service. My only complaint is the size of juice cup – way too small compared to water and wines and beers. I will actually recommend a larger juice cup or served two juice cups to those folks requesting them. Landed on Runway 10R at 1:40pm and parked at gate A4.
Met a fellow FT talker – Seat 2A – we had a brief chat with another Boise-based gentleman adding to our conversation. It is certainly a pleasure to meet Seat 2A. Too bad, we only had a short time to talk. Hope that we can have another encounter at the Board Room in the near future. I guess he is always done with the 35 segments.
AS 316 PDX-SJC Lv1727 Arr1913 Boeing 737-400 N785AS
Load was light with 5F (including 2 non-rev [1 UA pilot]) and 34Y. Boarding began at 5:05pm at gate C9 and door was closed at 5:17pm and we pushed back two minutes later. Then I saw two Horizon Air’s CRJ-700 heading to Ruwany 10L and one of them must be Seat 2A’s flight to the beautiful city of Boise. We took off at 5:29pm and flying time was an hour and thirty-three minutes with a cruising attitude of 35,000ft. I sat at seat 3A and got a perfect view of the solar eclipse – fascinating.
Snack was served shortly after takeoff – a nice sandwich with grilled chicken breast, grilled onions and Swiss cheese, accompanied by a curried wild rice and corn salad, and the usual Milk Chocolate’s Ghiradelli Square. I love the sandwich but hate the side salad. The F/A offered me a second sandwich, but I declined. Later, the other flight attendant from the back passed out the Y snack, which is a pack of nice Stacy’s Simply Salted pita chips with Tribes’ hummus with sweet roasted red peppers. Interesting snack choice!
Descent began an hour later and we landed on a rainy evening at San Jose’s Runway 12R at 7:02pm. Sadly, there were no covered staircases at San Jose, and we had to deplane in a rainy situation. San Jose International airport is definitely very third world like in the older Terminal C. There was no covered walkway to various Islands waiting for shuttles. I ended up crowding the courtesy shuttle booth with the AS crews on our flight. I stayed overnight at the Radisson San Jose Airport – bed is comfortable and I went straight to sleep, since I had to fly off the 6:30am flight the next morning.
November 9, 2003
AS 405 SJC-SEA Lv0630 Arr0840 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 N979AS
Still raining at San Jose this morning, but rain stopped during our boarding process. Both SEA and PDX flights depart around the same time and both flights had a light load. There were 5 F passengers and around 40 folks in the back. I overhead that the PDX flight had no Y passengers…No wonder AS wants to switch to the CRJ for the PDX flights. I had both 2D and F to myself. Flying time was an hour and thirty minutes with a cruising attitude of 35,000ft. We took off from Runway 12L following the PDX flight at 6:51am. Traffic was not busy but push back was delayed due to brief power outage at the tower. Fruit plate was served – a slice of cantaloupe with grapes and a nice oatmeal raisin scone. AS’s breakfast snack was pretty nice, although a larger fruit plate will be appreciate. I guess you can always ask for extra scones from the back. Landed on Runway 34R at 8:23am. Both NRT flights – UA 777 and NW 742 had arrived at the South Satellite already. We parked at Gate D5 and headed over to the customer service desk to get the standby for an earlier flight to PDX.
QX 2208 SEA-PDX Lv0900 Arr0952 Dash 8-Q200 N357PH “Great City of Portland”
QX 2286 PDX-SEA Lv1130 Arr1225 Dash 8-Q400 N412QX
A quick RT between Seattle and Portland – they are both pretty on time and arrived early.
Got a full beverage service (a whole can of these delicious Ginger Ale) and a sour cherry-flavored biscotti on the way down. On the return, there is the express beverage service with Rold Gold’s pretzels but no free alcoholic drinks are offered – just juice & water bottles.
AS 14 SEA-EWR Lv1400 Arr2158 Boeing 737-700 N611AS
I got upgraded last minute and got 3C. The flight was about half full in Y and totally full up front. Gate was C11 and boarding began at 1:20pm, but soon boarding was halted as our aircraft went into mechanical. There was a problem with the lights in the nose wheel. The ground crew tried to fix the problems as quick as possible, but the process took longer than they thought. We were allowed to get out of the plane for an hour before re-boarding at 3:22pm. The F/A and pilots were very friendly during the break and kept us informed. The first class F/A got us some pre-takeoff beverages in first class… not always happened. Then the folks were chating up on the new Dig E players and this folk at 3D kept on telling fellow passengers and F/A about the Direct TV on his Frontier flights last week. He loves it much apparently, but AS will not install them. Finally we pushed back at 3:43pm and headed towards Runway 34R for takeoff. We lifted off at 3:52pm and flying time was a quick four hours and twenty minutes. Our flight path took us initially at 37,000ft over Great falls and Northern part of the Continental US, and then climbed further up to 41,000feet over Green Bay, Milwaukee, Pittsburg, and Buffalo. Dinner was served in a leisurly manner – we had the warmed mixed nuts to start with and then the dinner.
It was a basic green salad – iceberg lettuce, radish, yellow peppers, marinated asparagus with an Olive Oil and Balasmic Vinaigrette dressing. I don’t like the salad. Then there was the usual choice of breads – Foacaccia breads, Five Grain or Olive bread loaves.
Entrée was a choice of fillet mignon with a demi-glace and herbs or an okay Crusted Chilean Sea Bass fillet with a papaya relish, rice pilaf, a summer squash and red pepper medley.
Dessert was a nice white-layered cake with white chocolate icing and berry coulis. Best part of the dinner!
Y got a choice of chicken breast with mushroom sauce, wild rice and broccoli or a beef straganoff with noodles.
The Dig E players were handed out after dinner and I decided to take a quick look at it. There is no manual but very easy to operate. Just turn on the player and pick the things you want to watch or hear from the menu. User-friendly – there are ten movies, three short subjects – NYPD Blue, Dharma & Greg, and Simpson’s “Liza’s Rival” episode, ten music channels and 5 Alaska information channels, such as route map and airport maps. For the rest of the flight, Lena went up and down the aircraft refilling our glasses. She was definitely one of the best working F/A with Alaska. Service was nonstop. Just as you though the BOA announcement is cut, Lena made one as we began our descent around 7:38pm. Hot towels were passed out next, and we landed on Runway 4R at 11:12pm EST. The delay was un-welcomed but Alaska did a good job in keeping us informed and offering folks to stretch their legs. We parked at Gate A27. I hope you enjoy this report!
Carfield
Here is my third installment of my AS adventure. I am now onto the middle stage of the game. There will not be another long report like this particular one. I guess it is pretty bored, so this report will just be a quick recap of all the flights.
November 8, 2003
AS 11 EWR-SEA Lv0830 Arr1127 Boeing 737-700 N644AS
Check in using the e-kiosk is simple and my upgrade cleared at the spot and I managed to get seat 2C, but of course, some couples were separated so I ended up playing musical chairs and with 1A again. President Club is not opened till 7:30am on weekend mornings, so I stayed at the gate area. Our nearby Atlanta flight was seeking volunteers offering $200 voucher. It was quite a surprise.
Boarding began at 7:57am at the usual gate A27, and pre-takeoff water bottles were already placed on the seats. The flight was very light in Y (with Row 7 to 10 basically empty) and F was full of course. This particular Boeing 737-700 had the nice headrest installed, which was a nice feature. We took off from Runway 4L at 8:47am and flying time was five hours and thirty-four minutes. We flew all the way up to 39,000ft and then passed through Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Flint, MI, Minneapolis St. Paul, Great Falls, MT, and the North of the beautiful state of Idaho before starting our descent near Spokane.
Breakfast was different from last week – much appreciated. Here is my transcript menu:
Fruit plate (2 slices of pineapple, 2 kiwi slices, 3 orange segment & 3 strawberries) accompanied by a cranberry scone
Entrees of
Cheddar Cheese Omelet with Potatoes and Sausages
Or
Scrambled egg with smoked salmon and a tomato sauce on top of English muffin with a white gravy, accompanied by asparagus and home fried potatoes
Delicious…
For economy, you have a choice of Denver Omelet with pork sausages or pancakes with blueberry sauce, accompanied by scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and Canadian bacon, served with blueberry muffin and a fruit cup.
Then the Dig E players were handed out for us folks in first class. I did not take part of it, despite of its newness. I went straight to sleep, till the snack was served. It was a cheese and fruit plate with 2 figs, 1/2 sized apple, & pear marinated in pepper, 2 slices of Brie, almonds and two Hawaiian sesame crackers. Y class got a pack of potato chips. The snack plate was just okay. Descent soon began at 1:58EST with a round of hot towels. We landed on R/W 34R at 1120amPST, and parked at gate N8 at the North Satellite, in between an AS 73G (622) and the United’s Boeing 777 heading to NRT (N204UA – 2204).
QX 2309 SEA-PDX Lv1300 Arr1348 Dash 8-Q400 N411QX
Nothing much to discuss… the flights were pretty packed… Boarding at C2J right on time… We took off at 34R, got a pack of Rold Gold’s pretzel twist and the usual express beverage service. My only complaint is the size of juice cup – way too small compared to water and wines and beers. I will actually recommend a larger juice cup or served two juice cups to those folks requesting them. Landed on Runway 10R at 1:40pm and parked at gate A4.
Met a fellow FT talker – Seat 2A – we had a brief chat with another Boise-based gentleman adding to our conversation. It is certainly a pleasure to meet Seat 2A. Too bad, we only had a short time to talk. Hope that we can have another encounter at the Board Room in the near future. I guess he is always done with the 35 segments.
AS 316 PDX-SJC Lv1727 Arr1913 Boeing 737-400 N785AS
Load was light with 5F (including 2 non-rev [1 UA pilot]) and 34Y. Boarding began at 5:05pm at gate C9 and door was closed at 5:17pm and we pushed back two minutes later. Then I saw two Horizon Air’s CRJ-700 heading to Ruwany 10L and one of them must be Seat 2A’s flight to the beautiful city of Boise. We took off at 5:29pm and flying time was an hour and thirty-three minutes with a cruising attitude of 35,000ft. I sat at seat 3A and got a perfect view of the solar eclipse – fascinating.
Snack was served shortly after takeoff – a nice sandwich with grilled chicken breast, grilled onions and Swiss cheese, accompanied by a curried wild rice and corn salad, and the usual Milk Chocolate’s Ghiradelli Square. I love the sandwich but hate the side salad. The F/A offered me a second sandwich, but I declined. Later, the other flight attendant from the back passed out the Y snack, which is a pack of nice Stacy’s Simply Salted pita chips with Tribes’ hummus with sweet roasted red peppers. Interesting snack choice!
Descent began an hour later and we landed on a rainy evening at San Jose’s Runway 12R at 7:02pm. Sadly, there were no covered staircases at San Jose, and we had to deplane in a rainy situation. San Jose International airport is definitely very third world like in the older Terminal C. There was no covered walkway to various Islands waiting for shuttles. I ended up crowding the courtesy shuttle booth with the AS crews on our flight. I stayed overnight at the Radisson San Jose Airport – bed is comfortable and I went straight to sleep, since I had to fly off the 6:30am flight the next morning.
November 9, 2003
AS 405 SJC-SEA Lv0630 Arr0840 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 N979AS
Still raining at San Jose this morning, but rain stopped during our boarding process. Both SEA and PDX flights depart around the same time and both flights had a light load. There were 5 F passengers and around 40 folks in the back. I overhead that the PDX flight had no Y passengers…No wonder AS wants to switch to the CRJ for the PDX flights. I had both 2D and F to myself. Flying time was an hour and thirty minutes with a cruising attitude of 35,000ft. We took off from Runway 12L following the PDX flight at 6:51am. Traffic was not busy but push back was delayed due to brief power outage at the tower. Fruit plate was served – a slice of cantaloupe with grapes and a nice oatmeal raisin scone. AS’s breakfast snack was pretty nice, although a larger fruit plate will be appreciate. I guess you can always ask for extra scones from the back. Landed on Runway 34R at 8:23am. Both NRT flights – UA 777 and NW 742 had arrived at the South Satellite already. We parked at Gate D5 and headed over to the customer service desk to get the standby for an earlier flight to PDX.
QX 2208 SEA-PDX Lv0900 Arr0952 Dash 8-Q200 N357PH “Great City of Portland”
QX 2286 PDX-SEA Lv1130 Arr1225 Dash 8-Q400 N412QX
A quick RT between Seattle and Portland – they are both pretty on time and arrived early.
Got a full beverage service (a whole can of these delicious Ginger Ale) and a sour cherry-flavored biscotti on the way down. On the return, there is the express beverage service with Rold Gold’s pretzels but no free alcoholic drinks are offered – just juice & water bottles.
AS 14 SEA-EWR Lv1400 Arr2158 Boeing 737-700 N611AS
I got upgraded last minute and got 3C. The flight was about half full in Y and totally full up front. Gate was C11 and boarding began at 1:20pm, but soon boarding was halted as our aircraft went into mechanical. There was a problem with the lights in the nose wheel. The ground crew tried to fix the problems as quick as possible, but the process took longer than they thought. We were allowed to get out of the plane for an hour before re-boarding at 3:22pm. The F/A and pilots were very friendly during the break and kept us informed. The first class F/A got us some pre-takeoff beverages in first class… not always happened. Then the folks were chating up on the new Dig E players and this folk at 3D kept on telling fellow passengers and F/A about the Direct TV on his Frontier flights last week. He loves it much apparently, but AS will not install them. Finally we pushed back at 3:43pm and headed towards Runway 34R for takeoff. We lifted off at 3:52pm and flying time was a quick four hours and twenty minutes. Our flight path took us initially at 37,000ft over Great falls and Northern part of the Continental US, and then climbed further up to 41,000feet over Green Bay, Milwaukee, Pittsburg, and Buffalo. Dinner was served in a leisurly manner – we had the warmed mixed nuts to start with and then the dinner.
It was a basic green salad – iceberg lettuce, radish, yellow peppers, marinated asparagus with an Olive Oil and Balasmic Vinaigrette dressing. I don’t like the salad. Then there was the usual choice of breads – Foacaccia breads, Five Grain or Olive bread loaves.
Entrée was a choice of fillet mignon with a demi-glace and herbs or an okay Crusted Chilean Sea Bass fillet with a papaya relish, rice pilaf, a summer squash and red pepper medley.
Dessert was a nice white-layered cake with white chocolate icing and berry coulis. Best part of the dinner!
Y got a choice of chicken breast with mushroom sauce, wild rice and broccoli or a beef straganoff with noodles.
The Dig E players were handed out after dinner and I decided to take a quick look at it. There is no manual but very easy to operate. Just turn on the player and pick the things you want to watch or hear from the menu. User-friendly – there are ten movies, three short subjects – NYPD Blue, Dharma & Greg, and Simpson’s “Liza’s Rival” episode, ten music channels and 5 Alaska information channels, such as route map and airport maps. For the rest of the flight, Lena went up and down the aircraft refilling our glasses. She was definitely one of the best working F/A with Alaska. Service was nonstop. Just as you though the BOA announcement is cut, Lena made one as we began our descent around 7:38pm. Hot towels were passed out next, and we landed on Runway 4R at 11:12pm EST. The delay was un-welcomed but Alaska did a good job in keeping us informed and offering folks to stretch their legs. We parked at Gate A27. I hope you enjoy this report!
Carfield
Nov 13, 2003, 2:28 pm
#2
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Programs: AS MVP, Elevate, AAdvantage, Mileage Plus
Posts: 1,992
It certainly seems like you've been doing a lot of AS flying! At any rate, I don't fly AS as often as I'd like to, so I appreciate reading the reports. How close are you to reaching 35 segments?
Regarding the transcon flights, are printed menus still offered in F?
As far as the B of A annoucement is concerned, I don't think it shows good judgement on behalf of the cabin crew to make the announcement on a delayed flight...
[This message has been edited by EIPremier (edited Nov 13, 2003).]
Regarding the transcon flights, are printed menus still offered in F?
As far as the B of A annoucement is concerned, I don't think it shows good judgement on behalf of the cabin crew to make the announcement on a delayed flight...
[This message has been edited by EIPremier (edited Nov 13, 2003).]