Fairbanks – Seattle
Seattle – San Francisco
Alaska Airlines Coach Class
Boeing 737-400 N795AS
Boeing 737-400 N756AS
845am – 805pm
Even though I am traveling on a First Class award, there was no First Class award space available on any of Alaska’s flights out of Fairbanks today. Nor were there any revenue seats available in either class. There were none yesterday and there’ll be none tomorrow either. It’s spring break and all of these seats have been booked for some time now. How the agent at Alaska’s Partner Desk miraculously found me a seat ten days ago is a mystery to me but for what it’s worth I am extremely grateful, even though I’m sitting in Coach.
I wish I could say it was a nice flight but it wasn’t. For some odd reason no hot breakfasts were catered and by the time the cart made it back to me at row 17, there weren’t even any snack boxes available. Breakfast was a bag of snack mix and a cup of coffee.
In Seattle I feasted on stir-fried chicken, veggies and brown rice at Waji’s, then repaired to the Boardroom for a couple pints of Manny’s Pale Ale and an electrical outlet so I could get started on this report. One thing I won’t ever do is start writing a report before I’ve actually started traveling. For whatever reason I just seem to write better when I’m in the moment.
The flight down to San Francisco was also completely sold out. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time chatting with the couple sat next to me though. They’d noticed that I was booking a trip on a South African bus line and it just so happened that the lady was originally from Durban. The two of them were headed down to Palm Springs to watch the professional tennis tournament being played at Indian Wells. The weather was forecast to be excellent over the weekend and I envied them their good fortune to be able to visit Palm Springs in such marvelous circumstances. They of course envied me my journey to South Africa in such marvelous circumstances. We parted in San Francisco with good byes and good wishes while I trundled off to my hotel for the night.
The hotel’s name is the CitiGarden Hotel. I booked it through Hotwire and after this night I won’t be staying here again. My guess is this property was an old Holiday Inn at one time, and it’s probably hosted two or three other hotels as well before finally being passed down to become the CitiGarden Hotel. What kind of a name is that, anyway? Red flags were raised when the front desk clerk put a $30.00 hold on my credit card for potential damages to the room.
“You get a lot of that here, do you?” I asked.
There was an onsite restaurant as advertised but it was this huge, brightly lit Chinese Buffet that charged $14.95 a plate. It was close to 9:00pm by the time I checked in and I just wasn’t hungry enough for a full on buffet experience. Besides that, we’ve got a perfectly good Chinese buffet in Fairbanks for just $8.95. The hotel website indicates that Denny’s and IHOP restaurants are nearby, and indeed they are - if you’ve got a car. I ended up walking across the highway to a gas station where I bought a couple of tamales and a bottle of water.
Back at the hotel, a loud argument had ensued amongst the youthful occupants in the room behind mine. They didn’t sound like they were close to resolving their differences anytime soon, so I asked for and received a new room. It was quieter but the television didn’t work. This was no big deal as I was primarily interested in peace and quiet but still…
The next morning I showered, grabbed a cup of coffee from the rather limited continental breakfast buffet, and then caught the shuttle van back to SFO. Breakfast could wait until after I’d checked in.
San Francisco – Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class
Boeing 747-400 B-HKT Seat 2K
11:50am – 6:35pm Flight time: 13:58
I love flying out of San Francisco International Airport. On one side are the low hills of the Coastal Range, on the other the broad blue expanse of San Francisco Bay. Terminal 1 where Alaska flies out of still retains the funky charm and architecture of the 1970s while the more modern International Terminal is beautifully designed and a joy to travel through. The concourses are wide and airy while the large windows let in lots of natural light. The only downside to the airport are the restaurants which offer good but extremely overpriced food. Regardless, SFO is definitely one of my all-time favorite airports.
Check-in was a breeze, and so was security. I would guess that it was only about twenty minutes from the time I entered the terminal to the time I strolled through the doors and into Cathay Pacific’s new First and Business Class lounge. The receptionist accepted my lounge invitation card and graciously welcomed me into the lounge. She explained that both First and Business Class passengers shared the same lounge and then pointed out the food area and the restrooms.
One of three seating areas in the Cathay Pacific Lounge
This is the second time I’ve flown Cathay out of San Francisco and I’m pleased to see that they now have their own lounge. In years past they used the British Airways’ Terraces Lounge, itself a nice facility that is located down on the concourse only a short walk from any gate. In terms of overall ambience, I’ve actually got to give the nod to BA’s Terraces lounge which just seemed a bit brighter and cheerful to me. Otherwise, Cathay’s lounge is a perfectly comfortable and functional facility. I also like that it has showers available.
Not having eaten breakfast yet, I headed over to the buffet area to inspect the offerings. Hot items included scrambled eggs, sausage, potato cakes, wontons and noodles while a selection of wrapped sandwiches and yogurt were available for lighter appetites. I believe there was also a pot of congee. The liquor offerings were limited to gin, scotch, rum, vodka and two bottles of wine. Still, it was 9:30am and perhaps a greater selection of sprits would be available later in the day. A refrigerator was stocked with a decent variety of beer and soft drinks. I was looking for coffee to wash down my plate of sausage and eggs and found some fairly potable stuff being dispensed by the coffee machine nearby.
Hot breakfast items
Sandwiches and yogurt
Morning Liquor Supply
A small bank of work stations was available at one end of the lounge, so I tried to print up some documents related the travel insurance I purchased for this trip. Not only were the computers extremely slow but a problem with the browser inhibited their use on many web pages including the one I needed. The gentleman next to me complained that he just absolutely had to have something printed before he got on the airplane. I took him downstairs with me to Delta’s Sky Club where as my guest he could copy to his heart’s desire. By the way, Delta’s International Terminal Sky Club is the old Northwest World Club. As a World Club this facility benefitted from a complete facelift that transformed it into the new style of World Club as seen at MSP, DTW and MEM. It is truly a beautiful lounge.
Boarding for Cathay Pacific flight 879 to Hong Kong was called at 11:15am. It was perhaps a five minute walk from the lounge down to the gate and I stopped for a quick photo of the aircraft before proceeding into the gate lounge. A large crowd had lined up behind the Economy Class side of the podium, but the Business and First Class side was wide open. I love it!
My chariot awaits