Alaska Airlines
Operated by SkyWest
AS 3443 Economy Class (V)
SEA-SLC (Salt Lake City International – Seattle Tacoma International Airport)
March 21, 2019
5:40 PM – 6:40 PM
Booked: Embraer 175
Flown: Embraer 175
It was an easy drive back down to Salt Lake City airport. Most of the snow that started in the morning had dried up, leaving an easy drive. We gassed up and returned the rental car. Like most major centers, there wasn’t too much inspection done on the car as it was returned, and our contract was closed out within 60 seconds of arriving. There were lots of business travelers through here as the valets took off with the car to turn it around before we’d left the return area.
We walked with our gear over to the Alaska check in area. With one of us being MVP Gold, and me with lapsed MVP status, the friendly agent didn’t charge me for the extra bag.
There wasn’t too much of interest on the secure side as we wandered to the “G” gates area. Today’s flight back was departing from G6. There were no Priority Pass lounges in Salt Lake City airport that we had access to, and we opted not to fly Delta Airlines and get access to the Delta Sky Club (courtesy of American Express Platinum) in order to keep earning points with Alaska Mileage Plan.
We had somewhat of a late arrival of the inbound Embraer aircraft, but it eventually got here.
We missed the upgrade from Premium Class into First Class so we settled for our “paid for” Premium Class seats. We've missed many upgrades for most flights longer than 2 hours in length, where as it seems there is always upgrade space on the short 90 minute hops.
The views on take off had the terrific Salt Lake City mountains in the background.
I had a free premium class white wine (chardonnay) while I attempted the in flight enterainment on the Alaska Go Go InFlight entertainment player ( lame and not really worth the trouble unless you have a tablet ).
Followed by Pacific Northwest views on the descent…
Eventually parking at the C gates where we had rolled up stair disembarkation under a grey Seattle evening.
To kill our connection time, we wandered over to the American Express Centurion Lounge where I had a blue gin drink and a New York Times for the road.
All in the Alaska Embraer aircraft is pretty straight forward. It has the usual small bin space that you'd expect on an Embraer with that fresh new Alaska smell to it since the planes are fairly new to the fleet.