Our trip began bright and early, with a 4:00 am shuttle from Fairfax, VA to DCA. It was an uneventful trip and it was fun to see the reactions of our fellow travelers when we told them about our destination. After the short ride to the airport, we checked in, dropped off our checked bags, and proceeded down to security. The priority lane moved pretty quickly, and we were out to our gate in a jiffy. Since the flight was about to board, we didn't bother trying to visit the Admiral's Club, which (as we found out later) was a good thing. The first leg of our trip was in Y, so we waited until the Priority Access boarding began and took our seat in the exit row.

DCA-ORD, AA Y
After a relatively quick boarding, we pushed back, taxied out, and took off over the sun rising over the Capitol building. It's always a beautiful sight, and one of the reasons I love flying out of DCA (that, and it's easily Metro-accessible). Since this was a pretty short flight in Y, the flight was mostly uneventful. While we were about over West Virginia, some hungover college kid passed out in the aisle of the plane. They called a doctor over and pumped him full of fluids. He was fine, just severely dehydrated. I remember those days. In college, it was always a tough decision whether to try to sleep for a few hours, or just stay up partying all night and sleep on the plane. Whichever choice this guy made, it was the wrong one, but I'm glad he was okay.

Upon landing in ORD, we decided to try the Admiral's Club, thinking that we'd kill an hour or so there, then make our way down for our flights on AS. There was no line, so we went right up to the receptionist at the counter and presented our AS F boarding passes. Well, it turns out that having an AS F award ticket, even if it's a "partner award" on American doesn't get you in. Oops. That was embarrassing. Oh well. We made our way down to the gate and found a couple of seats to wait for our flight.


ORD-ANC, AS139, 2D and 2F
When boarding began, we waited for a few sets of parents with little kids to pre-board. That gave me time to reflect on the fact that we would soon be those parents. I have a whole new appreciation for those parents traveling with two kids, a stroller, and a car seat while their spouse is at home or off on a work trip or deployed overseas. It's something I can't say that I'm looking forward to experiencing. However, once those families boarded, the gate agent called for first class passengers, and we headed down the jetway. As we boarded, I noticed that we were on one of Alaska's many special livery planes. This one was the "Spirit of Seattle" and was painted kind of like Boeing paints their test planes. As a former Seattle-area resident, I'm a big fan of Boeing and Alaska Air, and am always pleased to see Alaska's "Proudly all Boeing" claim on their planes. I will readily admit that I'm biased toward Seattle companies, so I'm sad to see Boeing moving away from their Washington roots. But, I think they still make the finest planes in the world, and I always prefer to fly on their products.

After a PDB of water and a quick boarding process, we pushed back and began our taxi. We were soon underway, leaving behind an overcast Chicago morning. This was my wife's first flight in F, so we were excited to experience it on one of AS's longest flights. Shortly after we reached cruising altitude, the FAs handed out Dig-E-Players, which had a couple of movies that we hadn't seen, so we settled on Life of Pi to get us on our way. During the course of the movie, our FA presented our breakfast: a choice of a mushroom quiche or some kind of hash. We each chose one, ordered our (non-alcoholic) drinks, and delved into the movie.

Fresh fruit starter:


Mushroom Quiche:


Hash:


Cheese Danish (which apparently is supposed to be served before landing, but in our case was served right after the rest of the breakfast):



After our meal and movie ended, I opened up the window to peek out, and could see nothing but clouds. After a few episodes of Big Bang Theory, I tried again, and got some fabulous views of the mountains on our way into ANC.





Upon landing in ANC, we headed to the Alaska Board Room, which we were allowed into (for a nice change of pace). My wife napped, while I enjoyed the chicken noodle soup, relatively fresh veggies, and complimentary soft drinks. The pancake machine was off, unfortunately, but the food really wasn't too bad, and the staff were very friendly. After a short while, we headed down for the short hop to FAI.

ANC-FAI, AS189, 2A and 2C
There were quite a few families with kids and servicemembers on this flight, so the pre-boarding process was a bit longer than usual, but we made our way down the jetway fairly quickly and without incident. We were offered a PDB of water, and the FA took our drink orders before the flight. We were happy to be in F since the Y cabin only gets water and OJ on this flight. There was no food service, just Alaska's snack mix (which is my favorite of all domestic carriers FWIW). I had an Alaskan Amber, which was perfect for the short flight. And although Denali was clouded over, we did get a nice shot of some mountains as we headed into FAI.



Once on the ground, we got our bags well within AS's 20 minute window. There was quite a line at one of the car rental desks, because a bunch of teenaged cross-country skiers were flying in for a competition, and their coaches must have gotten a group rate or something. We had no line at Dollar, so I got our car in just a few minutes and we were on our way! The cars in FAI have to be plugged in during the winter to keep the batteries from dying, which I'd never seen before. I've spent plenty of time driving on ice, though, which was good because there was still a fair amount on the roadways even in March.