Alaska Airlines
AS 964 – First Class (U)
YVR-SEA (Vancouver International Airport – Seattle Tacoma International Airport)
Jan 31, 2018
06:00 AM – 7:01 AM
Booked: Boeing 737-800
Flown: Boeing 737-900
I set the alarm for a 3:15 AM wake up and packed up the house. It was a quick 25 minute drive up Highway 99 to the airport. I had dropped MrsWT73 off at the airport like a good husband the day before for this exact flight (at 4 AM – the horrors!) so I happened to have her car. I parked it away on the Airport Service road and did the short walk in the quiet dark to the US Departures Terminal along with all the other CASTA screeners that were starting work on the early shift at 4:30 AM.
I reprinted my boarding cards at the kiosk and went straight through to security screening. The airport was really quiet this morning until after security where all the line ups were at Global Entry and the regular US Pre-Clearance facilities.
After passing through a friendly CBP check, it was off to Starbucks for a coffee to go. Strangely, this location is not participating in the Starbucks App ordering concept. I was trying to bypass some of the lines but it moved quickly anyway.
Today’s flight was departing from Gate E81 in the main US trans border terminal. Overall, this has been the easiest route for an MVP upgrade. Out of flying this route 6 times over the past few years, I have yet to miss out on a First Class upgrade. The only minus is that there is no actual cabin service since the flight is so short.
We had a 10 minute flight delay post, which was cleared up quickly. There were no children and I boarded along with the 4 other First Class passengers (out of 16 available seats). I settled into row #2 in Seat 2A where I had the whole row to myself.
On the seat was a blanket and a small bottle of Dasani water and the usual Biscotti cookies. As of the time of writing, the Biscotti cookies are reportedly being eliminated as a standard feature and are being offered as “on request”. Despite this, they turned up on all my flights this trip.
It was a friendly flight crew going down and a pre-departure beverage was offered of coffee or orange juice. This was unusual since we never usually get anything as the flight is only 26 minutes long.
We had a long taxi over to Runway 8R and departed over Surrey as the morning traffic was just getting going.
We arrived to Seattle at Gate C3. The flight let off into a busy over crowded terminal. I am always amazed at how busy Seattle is compared to Vancouver. They have roughly the same number of gates but Seattle has about double the passenger movement coming and going from it in the course of the day.
Since I had an 80 minute connection, instead of taking a jerky train ride over to the “D” gates where my connecting flight was departing from, I opted to walk it.
I went straight down the “C” Terminal, calling in at my new favorite Beecher’s Cheese. I picked up a Ham, Egg and Cheese Sandwich on Artisan Bread to go. Yummy.
I arrived over at the “D” gates which appears to be the poor cousin of gate assignments in Seattle. There wasn’t much out here aside from some tired food and beverage stands and construction project signs promising a brighter future in the form of new gates.
