Excellent reports; a hearty thanks and tip of tonight's cold one to both of you for providing the above info. I appreciate knowing some of your experiences before trying out this new Alaska route; I'm doing this run SEA-ORD-SEA 3x in May, lucky enough to have all 3 upgraded already. My first R/T is AS22 tomorrow, 5/4, returning on AS23 5/5.

As I normally (like SPIT) use AA for this route (who are also starting to mix in their 737-800's on this run, not just the usual dreaded MadDog 80's and even more vilified ex-TWA MadDog 83's), I'm interested to see how AS stacks up in comparison. Chicago's my most common travel destination; I average about two dozen R/T's a year between here and there, so it'll be a nice option to have an extra couple of flights and airlines to choose from along with UA and AA.