Alaska Airlines
AS 38 – Economy Class (T)
SEA - FLL (Seattle Tacoma International Airport – Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood Airport)
Jan 31, 2018
08:50 AM – 5:24 PM
Booked: Boeing 737-900
Flown: Boeing 737-800
It was super convenient to fly trans-continental from Seattle without the usual stop half way through the journey in Dallas, Chicago or Minneapolis St Paul like most of our trans-border flights. This flight gets the silver medal for the second longest domestic flight in the lower 48 continental united states at 2,717 miles, just behind the American Airlines Seattle – Miami flight at 2,742 miles.
Based on a look around the holding area, the flight was full of seniors heading off for cruises departing from Fort Lauderdale. The boarding for this flight started on time at 8:10 AM with a call for children, those needing assistance, first class and military. There were a handful of walkers headed down the jet bridge at the first call. I boarded with Group 2 with the Alaska MVP members and had plenty of bin space available.
There was no premium or first class upgrades available today. I ended up way down as an MVP at number 15 on the upgrade list. I later learned that selecting an emergency exit row exempts you from any MVP upgrades at all.
On board, I settled into Seat 16 A. I was able to get and hold an emergency row seat with extra leg room. The leg room was great and a lot better than my last standard seats on Air Canada. The Alaska seats were slim line Recaro’s without seat back entertainment (bring your own device).
The captain announced a 5 hour and 7 minute flight to Fort Lauderdale with 130 knot tail winds with an early arrival. We had a beautiful take off through the clouds of the Pacific Northwest.
The buy on board menus and drink lists were as follows:
Despite having had a snack at Beechers, I had pre-ordered the Tom Douglas Breakfast sandwich from the Alaska Airlines App. It arrived during the regular meal service. I enjoyed this with a coffee and a white wine afterwards. The presentation could use a bit of an upgrade but it was otherwise tasty. At each opportunity, I was addressed by name which was impressive.
There wasn’t much to do for the flight so I read the newspaper and watched some Gogo Inflight Entertainment. Unfortunately, Alaska doesn’t seem to refresh their movies all too often. I enjoyed the same “Taken 2”, “CHiPS” and “Hot Pursuit” that were on our flights in September / October 2017.
In the last hour of our flight, the captain came on to announce that a Rocket Launch was about to take place as we passed over Cape Canaveral. Unfortunately, the launch was probably spectacular from the flight deck, but I wasn’t able to get any view from the back thanks to the angle. I did get to see some interesting circular cork screw clouds (pictured) over the launch site which gradually disappeared as we passed through the area. The launch was a rocket taking up a satellite for Luxembourg.
It was a quick and easy landing at Fort Lauderdale with no holds or other waits as we started the approach.
I landed in at Fort Lauderdale and arrived to Terminal 1. Similar to many other American airports, it’s a very utilitarian structure that looks like it was designed in the late ninetees. There were commercial, industrial looking spaces, flaired with primary color hues, in a somewhat soulless environment. Nevertheless, it was extremely easy to navigate with broad concourses. It made it easy to get over to the Car Rental Center, after a short walk through the arrivals concourse.
I have to love the United States for these wonderful facilities. Nowhere in the world can you have an entire concourse dedicated wholly to car rentals on various floors. Set yourself up properly in advance and you can get to your car rental and choose almost any car in the aisle.
I picked up an Avis Rental Car and drove the 15 minutes up to the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. I wasn’t looking through the camera when I took this…
The hotel was fairly easy to find and I arrived and got settled.
While MrsWT73 networked at her conference for the evening event, I walked up the street 7 minutes and had a Shula Burger for dinner. Courtesy of the website,
Don Shula… was an NFL Legend and Hall of Fame Coach who won back to back Superbowls with the Miami Dolphins in 1972 and 1973. His 1972 team went 17-0 recording the only perfect season in the NFL. Trading on this history, Don Shula opened up a series of tasty burger houses in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. It was a pretty tasty burger all in. A first for me, the name was seared into the top like a football. Yep – I went with the mayonnaise with the fries; shameless.
A pretty tasty American meal for my first night in Florida.