BiggAW

You could sit on Amtrak and be relaxed as opposed to being crammed into a miniature flying aluminum sardine can.

Calculon

I can fly Horizon/Alaska from YKM to LAX for about $210. Vegas, Phoenix or San Diego for a few dollars more. Bay Area < $200. Mostly minimal connection times. That's the typical price, not a sale. It's usually cheaper than the fares out of Seattle.

East coast is often just $15-30 above the Seattle price to add the local connection.

Then add in the cost of driving and parking, and tell me it's better to drive 2 1/2 hrs to Sea-Tac, running the risks of traffic and/or weather disruptions.

Truck jackknifed blocking all lanes.

Car accident has blocked all but one lane.

Closed for avalanche control.

Whether you believe it or not, lots of people commute on this route. Nobody goes "just for the sake of going". Your statement is intellectually dishonest.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

The Q400 isn't too bad. At 6'2 I don't find any issues with headroom. Well aside from the door- this even is an issue on the 737- I somehow hit my scalp on the door deplaning last week .

CRJ-200? Ugh that's tight

UAPremierExec

You seem to be referencing flights that don't exist or are only available 3 months out of the year. That Atlanta flight is *nowhere* to be found, btw. Is that one that starts in November? Every JNU-ATL search I've done in the past 10 minutes requires an overnight. Try JNU-RDU, JNU-BNA, JNU-STL, JNU-MCI, JNU-TUL, JNU-MIA, JNU-FLL, JNU-MIA. Tried dates in October, all overnights. Delta, wow, same day. HOLY MOLY. what a concept.

In fact, Delta wins if you are pretty much connecting ANYWHERE east of the Mississippi.

nice try though. We local 75Ks know this schedule by heart.



hmm... *all* overnights. Lets check Delta.



oh wow, look at that.. same day! and 3 flights to chose from. wow. much amaze. such nice. very widget.

But surely that's just ONE market. There simply can't be others.



oops, what's that. overnights. red eyes. Cause we ALL love redeyes.



but oh wait, what's that. wow. more same day flights. Sheesh. Such competition. Evil Delta. Bad widget.

meh, what's 2 markets. Alaska simply is the most amazing wonderful airline that always does its best for their customers!



OH, now there's that flight you speak of.. NOVEMBER! But wait, I get in at almost 9pm in Atlanta.. sure beats an overnight. Too bad that doesn't connect to a lot of places on delta. Such a shame.



especially since Delta can get me to Atlanta in time for dinner with friends. But no, I can't fly the widget. I must keep loyal to Alaska because...

I need to keep the SeaTac Hilton in business??

Surely, this is JUST a fluke. I mean, those business people in Juneau should be used to overnighting. They all are millionaires since they can afford $700 roundtrip just to leave town...



who needs to get to New York LaGuardia anyway! You can fly us to Newark!



but oh wait, what's this... 3 same day options, and some that get me there in the same day, and wow, at $300 one way! Did you know some of us pay $300 one way just to get to Seattle in the winter on Alaska?



boo, who needs to get to St. Louis anyway? There's nothing there but riots nowadays.



Huh. You mean, I don't have to spend a night in the Hilton OR on a redeye? You mean I can arrive at my meeting with Maritz WELL RESTED for my meeting the next morning instead of wasting an extra day?!?! Wow, what a concept!

But hey, lets not give Juneau any EMB 175s or Q400s - lets keep them on 737s on a schedule that they are FORCED to use.

</sarcasm>

I do like Alaska. I do. They're a good airline, I love the perks as a Gold 75K, but time is money. And unless Alaska is going to price out at $100 less than Delta, they are going to have some challenges keeping me loyal once that 6AMish nonstop Alaska flight goes away.

alphaeagle

Q400 gives the same space as a 737 in coach. Sure the 737 is bigger but guess what, that extra room goes to fitting more people in not personal seating space. Both travel 350+mph faster than Amtrak or cars. I like Amtrak, but if you want to be somewhere quickly flying is the way to go. Sometimes I have time for a leisurely drive, other times I just want to get where I'm going.

alphaeagle

Eh, same "problem" with Anchorage and Hawaii. Either take a super early flight or have a red eye arriving in the morning at your destination. I always prefer the red eye, but of course that's just a personal preference. I'm not sure why JNU doesn't have a early morning flight but could just be due to lack of demand.

I do know if I had something I couldn't be delayed for I'd wait to see how well DL does arriving on time. I heard they didn't do great last summer. But of any other airline going to Juneau besides AS, DL has the best chance of improving their on-time performance.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Hmm that's interesting- a redeye ex-JNU leaving at say 3 AM :yawn:

AS Flyer

Somehow, you got the idea that I said AS has the best schedule and that DL couldn't compete. Not sure why, since I was clear in both my posts that I thought it would be nice if AS did offer an earlier departure from JNU. I stand by my post however. The options I listed exist. I checked in Jan. So they aren't "seasonal" flights. They're year round. It was difficult, at best, wading through your post filled with sarcasm and condescension, and trying to figure out what you were saying, exactly. No, Alaska doesn't fly to all of the destinations you listed, and Delta may be a better option. It doesn't mean an Alaska option isn't available and, no, you don't have to take it.

BiggAW

Doesn't sound worth it for getting crammed on a sh*tty little turboprop.

It's not dishonest at all. Going that short of a distance on an airplane makes zero sense whatsoever. A car or Amtrak makes a lot more sense. I've figured out that with one connection, the break-even point on flying vs. driving is about 450-500 miles, although if I were going for more than a day or two, I'd probably drive further. For a non-stop fight, the break-even is shorter, but it's still way above the 175 miles from SEA to PDX.

The one that I flip-flop on is my location to near DTW. PITA to drive, PITA to fly.

More room to stretch. Far less claustrophobic. I don't even have claustrophobia, and the mini-jets make my skin crawl.

350mph plus a couple of hours going far slower, waiting in the terminal, parking, getting a rental car or taking transit on either end.

LambChop1

All of the comments are very intriguing and throught-provoking. But we will see what happens in the fall when the customer can voice their opinions by being the one that can choose. The positive thing, once again, is that one-way airfare to Seattle is $95 instead of the usual $280 offered by AS as the sole monopolized provider before DL comes in. Competition is always good to stop price gouging.

Calculon

Ah, I see what this is. Quick check of your past FT activity confirms it. Bye.

dave1013

To you. And that's fine, it's your opinion. Just don't attempt to project (or force) your values onto the rest of us.

To you. This is America and we all have choices on our preferred method of getting from Point A to Point B. A lot of people choose to fly the SEA-PDX route. That doesn't make them wrong or misguided and you right or omniscient.

Is this, in your opinion, universally true? There are so many variables involved that I think it would be difficult to defend this argument.

Show me the data.

Herein lies the heart of the matter. Your extreme dislike of turboprops and mini-jets is the basis of your position, not economics or other logical rationale.

BiggAW

Until neither airline can make money. Luckily AS is big enough to weather the time until DL realizes how much money they are losing on JNU and decides to pull out, and AS can triple their rates and make money again. AS is the incumbent, so they will stick it out.

You can calculate it to make no sense. Even if you're going from somewhere right near SEA to somewhere right near PDX, you could drive in less time. And if you have to take the MAX into downtown Portland, the flight will actually take longer.

Well, of course our transportation system or, in many cases, lack thereof, is really screwed up in this country, but at least SEA-PDX is one of the few places we actually have a functional rail system with good transit connectivity at both ends.

For the most part. Flying from where I live to Pittsburgh is about a break-even time wise vs. driving. An area outside Detroit is faster to fly, but that whole process takes close to 8 hours vs. about 12 to drive, so it's not even that significant. I'm flying out there next month because WN tickets were cheap. Soon as the cheap tickets are gone, and my car's getting back out on I-80 next trip out there.

Of course Alaska doesn't have much of a highway system, so that's kind of moot. With the exception of the FAI-ANC route, there isn't competition from the highway or trains. That being said, if I lived in ANC or FAI, I'd go to the other by rail or by car, not by plane, since car is just about as fast.

In the Lower 48, unless the highway takes an absurdly circuitous route, that rule will pretty much hold up for any locations.

Well actually, part of my dislike of them (having nothing to do with JNU serving SE AK) is that they clog the runways up. DL has caused JFK to be a clogged mess because of mini-jets. If they only flew >=143 seat planes (i.e. 737-700 or larger), JFK wouldn't have the congestion issues that it has, and there would be more room for routes that actually matter served by big jets. That issue, however, doesn't apply to JNU, since JNU doesn't have a runway capacity issue, nor do any of the places they could fly from JNU.

I'm not sure if this applies to SEA, as I'm not sure how clogged they are. SEA is a big hub, but it doesn't seem to have too many congestion issues. Banning <143 seat planes could only help to make things that much smoother there though.

BiggAW

Scratch that thought about DL leaving JNU when it's not profitable. They are at war with AS. They will stay for a while and lose money just for the sake of pissing off AS.

dave1013

I used to commute ANC-FAI and I can tell you in truth that the fastest I ever drove it was 6 hours, 45 minutes. That was hauling a$$ in perfect weather and road conditions. The trip by plane takes approx. 1 hour. Timewise, not even close.