It was the day before Halloween, and I was sitting in an EWR lounge at the time the announcement popped up in my inbox. Earlier, Alaska had issued fire waivers for the San Francisco Bay Area, so I suggested to my wife that we return the two $131 EWR-SFO Alaska tickets and purchase two available $31 JFK-SFO jetBlue tickets. Already fully seated and comfortable at the airport, it was a hard sell, even with the bonus day. Of course later on well beyond the impact of the free beer, I realized that leaving it the way it was, we wouldn’t miss the festivities at home, not to mention the travel needed to qualify for Alaska premier status.