December 09, 2022
Alaska Airlines * Chicago to Seattle * 1135a–223p * 737-800 * First Class
Alaska Airlines * Seattle to Anchorage * 435p–703p * 737-MAX9 * First Class
Horizon Airlines * Anchorage to Fairbanks * 800p–903p * ERJ-175 * First Class

Again, I don’t require wheelchair assistance everywhere – just in the mile long transits around large international airports. Normal domestic flights around America, I can make my way most anywhere. Today of course, my Alaska flight was just a short walk away. These flights back to Alaska were booked some time ago and – as a Super Duper Diamond Encrusted Kryptonite level member (MVP Gold 100K), I was thankful to see that all three of them had been upgraded.

Given a bunch of seasoned road warriors like yourselves, I can’t see much benefit in providing you much detail about a trio of domestic U.S. flights, so how about a couple of pictures highlighting the lunch and dinner I enjoyed between Chicago, Seattle and Anchorage.



AS ORD-SEA Brick Chicken


AS SEA-ANC Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!


My flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks was operated by Alaska Horizon utilizing an Embraer ERJ-175. It’s worth noting that Alaska Horizon recently flew its final DHC-8-400 flight on January 26th. Over the years, I logged 182 flights totaling 38310 miles aboard Horizon’s DHC-8-400s. As props go, they certainly beat a Bandeirante or a Metro but I’m thankful that Alaska Horizon has committed to the 175 because in terms of space and comfort, it’s a big upgrade over the “Q400”.

I settled into seat 3D and savored a Woodford Reserve on the rocks as we flew the final leg up to Fairbanks in just 48 minutes. We landed on a beautiful winter evening – cold, partly cloudy and a temperature of 9°F. As always, it’s good to be home after such a long trip. Even so, my stay here will be brief because in just four days I am bound for Colorado where a couple of medical appointments and a visit with friends and family await.


ON A FINAL NOTE: I have been asked more than once that given the amount of time invested in putting a trip report of this size and intricacy together - what’s in it for me? How is it worthwhile? On a report of this size we’re talking about one hundred hours or more of time and effort from start to finish, so I guess it’s a fair question.

First off – consider what’s involved in creating a report like this –

1. First, you’ve got to actually write the report. 72000 words is a lot of writing and a lot of time invested. Over the course of doing so, I find I’m always rereading and rewriting certain sections. One hundred hours is a pretty conservative guestimate.
2. Menus need to be transcribed. This also takes time. My pocket camera does not have a wide field of vision, occasionally necessitating two photos to cover a single menu page. Photographically, that doesn't translate well per my standards. I actually try to take quality pictures of everything - including menus. If I'm gonna use them, my photos need to be lined up correctly, decent composition, color, lighting, etc. No weird angles, no partial shots, no half eaten meals, etc. Of subjects I know I'm going to use in a report, I typically take 3 or 4 pictures and use the best one of the lot.
3. The bold and italic lettering in menus and/or titles require installation of all the necessary vB code language for this to show up correctly.
4. There are hundreds of pictures in this report and they each need to be dragged and dropped one at a time onto a photo hosting site
5. The language/code necessary to allow the photos to be seen in the report has to be installed for each and every photo
6. All photos, bold lettering, italics and links for the entire report must be tested to ensure they’ve all been properly installed
7. A final edit involving rereading the entire text needs to be done. This last part took me about 8 hours over the past four days

As nice as it might be – there’s no financial benefit to posting this report, that’s for sure! Truth be told, the best benefit is that this report will actually be enjoyed by the relatively small number of people who like reading about stuff like this as much as I enjoy writing about it. I kid you not however when I say that outside of FlyerTalk, the subject matter found in this report would be considered so banal as to be unworthy of publication elsewhere. Even when friends and family outside of FlyerTalk have occasionally asked me to send them a link to one of my trip reports, and I later ask how they liked it, the usual response is something along the lines of “It was, uh… interesting” Yeah, right....

Just this afternoon I was looking at the latest issue of Airways magazine. In it there’s an article about Air New Zealand’s DC-10s. That article has about a dozen pictures included – every single one of them featuring Air New Zealand’s DC-10 either on the ground or inflight. There’s not even a single picture of the beautiful work Air New Zealand did in designing the inside of its first widebodied jet. The First Class section with its beautiful lambs’ wool covered seats, the attractive Polynesian hues of the seats and carpets throughout the airplane… Nothing – just endless pictures of the airplane taken from the outside. I mean, enough already! I know what a DC-10 looks like!

Railroad magazines and videos covering the spectacular streamliners of the 1950s are also guilty of this. In railroading circles, there’s even a term for the practice – Train Porn. In real life you want to get to know someone. In porn, people are just objects. With planes and trains, in mainstream publications at least it’s very rare to get an article or video specifically about what it’s like to have actually ridden aboard this or that plane or train from a service or experience perspective. I know what these planes look like, and while I appreciate an article about their history, for me the best way to appreciate an Air New Zealand DC-10 is to find out what it’s like to fly aboard them – preferably at their best. In First Class. In this regard, FlyerTalk’s Trip Reports Forum delivers big time. Outside of FlyerTalk, I know of no other travel or aviation site that offers the best potential for multiple mostly reasonably intelligent reports focused on what it’s like to enjoy the inflight service aboard one’s flight.

But getting back to what’s in it for me - Outside of FlyerTalk I’m a writer with no place to publish. Even amidst the 700000+ members on the membership rolls here, very few have any real interest in a trip report such as this. And, mind you, I’m not complaining about this. That’s just the way it is and I accept that from the get go. I never know how many people actually read my reports in their entirety anyway. The total count meter might show 7K hits, but how many of those readers took a look, went “meh!” and moved on to the next report? I suppose I could judge by the number of comments, but even on some of my longest and best written trip reports, some responses are no more than “Great report! Thanks for writing!” akin to a quick and simple “Like” on Facebook.

Indeed, with the addition of the "Like" button to FT posts, many people will no longer even take the time to comment on reports at all. The gift of 70000 words and a few hours of reading and entertainment is reduced to one convenient little click. Not much of a trade off but that's life these days and again, I’m not complaining one bit because my point is that even if only twenty of you really enjoy this report – and I’m confident that there are at least twenty of you who will – that’s twenty more than I know of who would be genuinely excited and appreciative of this story outside of FlyerTalk. Thank you for your support!

The other benefit is equally huge, and that is that thanks to FlyerTalk hosting it, this trip report now has a permanent home on the internet. That’s huge. I am so appreciative that years from now, I - and anyone else who so desires - will be able to pull up this Trip Report and many others from their favorite trip reporters any time they like. Me - I'd like to re-read an eightblack classic or two in the next couple of weeks! It's pretty cool to be able to easily do so.

On another point, I know, I know – people say I should just create a blog. I wouldn’t have a clue where to start. Additionally, I don’t have the ego to create a blog anyway. I mean, to do so would be to assume that people would actually want to read it. If I limited my writing to stuff like what I did, where I stayed or what I ate while in Bali, there'd be an audience for sure. The thing is though, I'm doing the same stuff anybody else would be doing while at a beach side resort in Bali - stuff that countless others have written about in countless travelogues before me. Thirty years ago, I used to write about stuff like that. I got bored. But that's what people want to read about and I accept that. In my world outside of FlyerTalk, with the type of subject matter in this and my past trip reports, there’s just no real interest.

So again, a sincere THANK YOU! to FlyerTalk and to all of you who’ve taken the time to actually read this report, especially when it’s so much quicker and easier to just flip through any of the hundreds of more popular photo reports found here. And if, after doing so, you feel it worthy of comment - well that’s always appreciated but above all I’m just happy to have an audience here. Over the course of eighty reports published, it’s clear there are at least a few of you who truly enjoy reading about a quality travel experience – told from the standpoint of getting there – and that - more than anything else - makes writing these reports well worth my time and effort.

Wishing You All Blue Skies and Happy Contrails ========================================= >