Alaska Airlines
AS 964 – Economy Class (T)
YVR-SEA (Vancouver International Airport – Seattle Tacoma International Airport)
March 17, 2018
06:00 AM – 7:01 AM
Booked: Boeing 737-800
Flown: Boeing 737-900
I set the alarm for a 3:40 AM wake up and packed up the room. It was 5 minutes up the road to the airport and 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. Ultimately, staying in the hotel gained us a bout 45 minutes of extra sleep time as opposed to driving in from South Surrey.
Being the first day of spring break in Vancouver, there were lots of families travelling on this date so it was a bit slower than normal. We arrived at the check in desks at 4:50 AM, just at the cut off for bag acceptance.
I dropped the bags on the belt and we headed through security and Us Pre-Clearance. WT73jr's Nexus Global Entry worked without any issues (he's too young to have a retinal scan on file). There was more madness at the gate, with the flight showing as totally full on Expert Flyer.
We boarded and settled into our economy minus seats. No upgrades for us today since we Alaska MVP doesn't allow travelling companions to upgrade on the same ticket. There were some morning sunrise views as we got underway.
It was a really brief flight down without much to report. As always on this flight, there is no cabin service as the flight is less than 30 minutes gate to gate.