Seat 2A

January 17, 2007
Alaska Seattle – San Diego 6:45am – 9:30am 737-700 Seat 6C
American San Diego – St. Louis 12:10pm – 5:40pm DC-9-80 Seat 22F
American Connection St. Louis – Jacksonville 7:45pm – 10:50pm ERJ-140 Seat 1A

I got a bit excited when I saw N648AS parked at gate D-1. Of the four 737-700s in Alaska’s fleet that I’ve not flown (N626AS, N628AS, N647AS and N648AS), three of them I’ve never even seen before. Possibly these aircraft might be LAX based, operating Mexico and Washington DC flights. I never fly those markets. Yet here was hope in the form of ship 648 parked in Seattle. Someday it might be assigned to one of my flights departing Seattle. Today however, it sat unassigned at D-1.

As for me, I got reacquainted with my old friend N627AS. How ironic that after spotting one of Alaska’s 737-700s that I’d never even seen before, I should then be flying to San Diego aboard the one -700 that I’ve flown more than any other. So far I’ve logged 8 flights and 6,010 miles on ship 627. While I’ve flown it more often than any other 737-700 in Alaska’s fleet, the all time mileage leader for me is ship 615, on which I’ve logged six flights covering 12,700 miles.

But enough of that. These are all things that I have fun dealing with. The rest a youse just have to be sure you’re in the gate area and ready to board at least twenty minutes before scheduled departure time.

Although the conditions outside didn’t appear to warrant it, the Captain decided we needed an appointment with the de-icing truck before heading off to sunny San Diego. Half an hour later, I watched from my vantage point in 6C as First Class passengers received breakfast trays bearing a little round quiche served with a side of fresh fruit. The rest of us plebeians behind the curtain dined upon oatmeal raisin cookers, served with the beverage of our choice.

Since I’m no longer traveling on an award ticket, some of you may be wondering why, as an MVP Gold, I’ve been sitting back in coach on all of the Alaska flights described so far. I’m traveling on an American Airlines issued ticket, and the Alaska flights are code shares. That in itself doesn’t prohibit me from upgrading to First Class, but it does change the rules a little bit. Had I purchased a deeply discounted Alaska generated fare, I’d be able to upgrade three days out. Traveling on an AA issued fare however, I can only upgrade on day of travel. Fair enough. At least I can still upgrade and in the meantime, I’ve got an exit row or bulkhead seat available to me at the time of booking. So, I’ve no complaints with Alaska Airlines. Just thanks. I think they treat us Golds just fine.

Following a pretty flight down the coast, we made an on time arrival in San Diego, landing on a bright sunny day. Although pilots don’t care for it, I love landing at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field. It is one of the more visually entertaining airports to fly into. The approach takes you right past the big buildings downtown, after which there are great views to be had of Mission Bay and all the Navy ships anchored out there. In town today were a couple of huge aircraft carriers.

Normally when I’ve routed through San Diego, I’ve had to hustle on over to Terminal 2 to catch my connecting American flight to Chicago. It’s scheduled to leave just an hour and twenty-five minutes after the arrival of the early morning Alaska flight from Seattle. Today however, I was flying to Florida via St. Louis, and that flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until 12:10pm. Now, with almost two and a half-hours to spare, I had plenty of time to finally visit United’s Red Carpet Club, located in the Terminal 1 departures rotunda, just behind the escalators.

I’ve rarely met a Red Carpet Club I didn’t like. Yes, there are certainly much nicer airport lounges out there, especially in terms of amenities, but most all of the Red Carpet Clubs I’ve visited in the US have been attractive and comfortable. I especially like windows large enough to let in lots of natural light and, secondarily, allow a good view of the ramp. San Diego’s Red Carpet Club scores well on both counts. I fixed myself a cup of English Toffee coffee and commandeered a workstation with a nice view of my Alaska jet being prepared for its return to Seattle.

At 11:00am, I headed over to Terminal 2 for my 12:10pm departure to St. Louis. There is an inter-terminal shuttle bus, but it’s a lot faster to walk. After all, Terminal 2 is only a couple hundred yards away. After clearing security, I glanced at the TV monitor to check on my departure gate.

Uh oh – the St. Louis flight was showing delayed until 2:40pm. My two-hour layover at STL, which once looked so comfortable, was now insufficient. At the gate, a long line had formed, presumably people checking on their connection times. I hate lines. Instead, I went to a pay phone and called AA reservations.

Good news! The flight from St. Louis to Jacksonville was delayed by an hour, leaving me a 35-minute connection in St. Louis. Further good news! The agent verified that my connecting flight would be departing from the gate adjacent to my arrival gate.

The aircraft operating the San Diego – St. Louis flight was inbound from Dallas, so next I asked about the arrival time of that flight. Experience has taught me that when flights are running off schedule, the new departure times shown do not always correspond with the arrival times of the inbound aircraft. In today’s case, the monitors showed an arrival from DFW of 2:17pm, with departure to STL at 2:40pm. Wishful thinking. Somehow, I just couldn’t see AA doing a twenty-three minute turnaround on an MD-80. Maybe an Embraer.

So, what about that arrival time from DFW? Bad news! Although it left the gate at DFW over half an hour ago, it was still on the ground. The new arrival time in San Diego was now 3:00pm, subject to change depending upon when the aircraft ultimately took off from DFW. Either way, my St. Louis connection was shot.

Now what? A quick check of available seats showed that there were no seats via DFW or ORD to JAX tonight. To make a long story shorter, I talked the agent into booking me on the evening departure through LAX to Miami, arriving Miami at 7:10am. From there I’d connect to the 10:25am to JAX, arriving at 12:15pm. My return from JAX was originally scheduled for 6:55am tomorrow morning, but I rebooked it to the 12:45pm JAX-MIA flight, then nonstop to LAX and back to Seattle. The agent was understandably perplexed that I was only going to stay in Jacksonville for 30 minutes, but I explained that I was only going out to deliver some rare and expensive books to a colleague and 30 minutes would be quite sufficient to meet him at the security checkpoint and then return to MIA. Here’s the new routing:


American Eagle San Diego – Los Angeles 8:25pm – 9:15pm SAAB 340 Seat 5A
American Los Angeles – Miami 11:15pm – 7:10am 757-200 Seat 18F
American Eagle Miami – Jacksonville 10:25am – 12:15pm ATR-72 Seat 6A

“Are you sure you want to go back through LA?” she asked. “We have a nice connection from Jacksonville through Chicago that will put you into Seattle much earlier.”

I explained that I had a friend who works at LAX, so it would be nice to swing through and say hello, if only for a few minutes. Truth be known, I hate to let on too much to the airlines about mileage running. Unlike some, I’m not embarrassed about doing Mileage Runs. However, I do feel that as more and more people start doing mileage runs as well as publicizing them (already there’ve been numerous newspaper articles and even a documentary planned), the odds increase that some industry bean counter is going to take a dim view of the practice and take steps to minimize it via routing and transfer rules. Right now, Mileage Runners are mostly looked at as an eclectic aberration. I’d just as soon keep it that way. Only a fool screams to the masses that he’s found gold.

It was a gorgeous day in Southern California and, with almost eight hours until my flight up to LA was due to depart, I decided to rent a car and head up into the hills, specifically the beautiful little town of Borrego Springs. I had a nice dinner there before heading back across the San Gabriel Mountains to San Diego.

These days, the largest aircraft flying between San Diego and Los Angeles is a regional jet as opposed to a regional prop. The first time I flew between these cities was in November of 1973. The smallest aircraft serving the route was a PSA 737-200. I flew from LA down to San Diego aboard a National Airlines DC-10 and returned aboard a Delta DC-8-61. Subsequent trips have been made aboard an American DC-10, a Delta L-1011, an Eastern 757 and a Western 727-200. This evening’s flight aboard a small and cramped Saab 340 represented a big step down in terms of comfort, though not speed. Flight time was 29 minutes, just about the same as the big jets used to be.

Normally, I avoid domestic red-eyes like the plague because it’s impossible to get a proper rest on them, This is true for me even in First Class. The main problem is that domestic flights around America are too short. All of the overnight transcons operate from west to east, and usually have a tailwind pushing them along. Flight times rarely exceed five hours. Given the airlines’ predilection for turning on the cabin lights and insisting that all seats backs be returned to their full upright position as much as twenty to thirty minutes before landing, even on a transcon you’ve often less than a four and a half hour window to get to sleep. And of course when you consider the quality of sleep gotten while sitting upright, it’s very easy to arrive more than a bit worse for the wear. Still, given the situation at hand today, I’m happy to have a seat at all. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a couple more hours of sleep in Miami during the three hour layover for my JAX flight.

The aircraft operating the 11:15pm departure to Miami didn’t even arrive at the gate until 11:45pm. A 767 parked at our assigned gate couldn’t back out because an EVA 747-400 was in the alleyway between terminals waiting for another aircraft to clear out. That took about twenty minutes. Then, a couple more AA aircraft were allowed to scoot into their gates first. It was like figuring out a rubix cube. When they finally towed our winglet equipped 757 in from the hangar, it was discovered that it hadn’t been cleaned. That took a further 30 minutes. By the time we finally took to the skies, it was 1:30am. Our new arrival time in Miami was 9:15am, leaving me just over an hour to connect to my Jacksonville flight. So much for any extra sleep on the terminal floor.

Thanks to a reclining exit row window seat, I managed about four hours of fitful sleep throughout the flight. Unfortunately, my back was killing me. Sleeping slumped in an airline seat certainly can’t be good for it. Thanks goodness I’m getting treatment in Seattle on Friday. I’d also like to extend thanks to the passenger two rows back who strongly admonished a couple of talkative young guys to “Pipe down! It’s 2:00am and we’re all trying to sleep!”.