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Old Sep 4, 2012, 8:45 am
  #1687  
jlemon
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LFT
Programs: AA Plat, lots of AA, AS, DL, UA miles, former top level CO Elite (sigh...)
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Originally Posted by Seat 2A
Back in the 1970s, milk runs were my best friend. All I wanted to do was maximize my time in the air, aboard as many different airlines as possible. With absolutely zero interest in flying aboard private planes, I was all about flying aboard airliners, taking "air tours" across this great broad continent of ours.

Back in 1977, I logged the following flight in First Class aboard Alaska 65, the milk run between Seattle and Anchorage. Today's flight 65 is but a shadow of its former glorious routing, which went SEA-KTN-WRG-PSG-JNU-YAK-CDV-ANC aboard a 727-100 when I flew it. The entire journey took a little over 8 hours and offered full breakfast and a sandwich plate enroute.

Another great flight was had aboard a Hughes Airwest DC-9-30 between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles stopping in PDX, RDM, LMF, SMF, SFO and MRY enroute.

Hughes Airwest also came through on a roundtrip flight between Denver and Seattle in 1980 routing DEN-GTF-FCA-GEG-SEA, returning SEA-GEG-LWS-BOI-TWF-SLC-DEN aboard a pair of DC-9-30s.

The only transcon milkrun I ever did was aboard Eastern in 1977 from Portland, OR to New York-JFK stopping in SEA, STL, CLT and RDU along the way.

One flight I never did get a chance to fly but always wish I had was NW 109, a 727-200 departing Newark at 7:15a headed for Seattle with intermediate stops at PHL, CLE, ORD,MSP, JMS, BIS,BIL, HLN, MSO, GEG and PDX. Arrival in Seattle was twelve hours later at 7:19pm. A breakfast and three snacks were served enroute. Back in those golden days of jet travel in America, a snack was often larger than the so-called "meals" offered on today's services.

I don't know if there's any interest on this thread for such things (in which case simply ignore them) but here are a couple of links to trip reports I wrote describing some of those flights from the 1970s...

Denver to Honolulu via Canada in 1976 (On a trip that was supposed to go to Mexico!)

DENVER TO ALASKA ROUNDTRIP via SO, TI, DL, AA, AS, WC, CP, PW and UA
One of my favorite "milk runs" was operated by Continental. I was attending the University of Texas at Austin at the time and my parents lived in southern California (my hometown is Pasadena in SoCal).

CO operated flights with the following routings: MIA-IAH-AUS-MAF-ELP-PHX-LAX as well as IAH-AUS-MAF-ELP-TUS-LAX and a late night flight IAH-AUS-MAF-ELP-TUS-PHX-LAX. Equipment was usually a B727-200 although CO also flew the route at one point with a B720B. I flew all of these routings a number of times between AUS (and once from IAH) and LAX during my time at U.T. Austin.....
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