I live there part time, and make the trip 10 to 12 times a year. November is a lot quieter with regard to pressure for airline seats. Be careful on booking flights based on equipment. 321's become 319's very easily, especially this far out, and the comment about PIT is valid. That flight could disappear from the sked if it uses the PIT hub (er, focus city). Distance to downtown isn't bad. Maybe 12 miles. Cabs are expensive. Figure $30 t $35, plus tip. Get a limo for $50, or they have a shared van called Shuttle Express (High 20's).

Don't be afraid of a rental car. That time of year, even with taxes and surcharges, they tend to be cheap. Drivers are polite beyond anything you can imagine, and as long as you stay out of the center of downtown, you can park. With a $60 to $80 roundtrip taxi expense, you do fine with a rental, which you can drive to and from the airport as well. US being an east coast airline, most of its customers go west the beginning of the week, and east at the end. From that perspective, you are smack in the middle of the heaviest demand for upgrades, and, of course, there is constant changing of equipment, with emphasis on the 319 that time of year.

View restaurants, either downtown, or on the way to the airport, are Salty's on Alki, Cutter's Bay House (downtown), the venerable Palisade, just below the Magnolia Bridge, and the dependable dowager (and most expensive) Canlis, on the east slope of my neighborhood, Queen Anne. One other great view is Daniel's Broiler. There are 3, but the one on Lake Washington in Leschi has the best view (second best is the one on Lake Union).

Less formal, but still with great views, are Maggie Bluff's, the burger joint downstairs in the Palisade (same guys own it), and the Dukes' chain's newest on Alki a good bar , burger , and fish place. A couple of off the wall ideas: the Dinner train, which is exactly what it says. Run by the guys who own Daniel's. it starts and ends in Renton, near the airport. There are also spectacular views (November being cloudy, don't count on it) at the Golf Club at Newcastle. Not far from Sea Tac, it has the Calcutta Grill, and is open to the public. Some guy lopped the top off a mountain in the foothills of the Cascades, and you are actually looking down on the entire area, which resembles a relief map from up there. There are many more, like Ray's Boathouse, the Market Street Grill in Ballard, and there's a restaurant in Paul Allen's Music Experience rock and roll museum. Also, a really terrific gourmet restaurant in Belltown called Lampreia, or, another favorite thing, take the Bainbridge Ferry acrosss the sound (30 minutes) to the island, and try Cafe Nola. You can just go on forever.

As for the NW club, I don't think you can go in the concourse without a ticket for an airline that uses that area. One possibility. NW codeshares with Alaska, who normally use gates in C and D, which are accessable to US and UA passengers on their way to the North Satellite. NW runs a shuttle from a gate in C, I believe, over to the South Satellite. If that's running, I think you can probably hop on. No access issues because you are already in a secure area, going to another. Candidate of the year for dumbest marketing is the inability for US club members to use the Red Carpet Room on a reciprocal basis. Why the hell have the alliance? Enjoy the Emerald City.