ctporter

I booked a trip for Nov SEA FFL SEA, selecting the flights based on time of departure. I frankly, missed that the return has a stop in SFO mostly because there was only one flight for selecting seats. When I realized that the return had a stop in SFO I tried to see where I would be sitting but could not get that seat map to show up or even show me how long a layover I have in SFO. So I called and was told there was no need to select a seat, that passengers would just go over to the new plane keeping their same seats. This seemed odd so I thought it would be fun to try so I kept that flight. (plus I was thinking that it might end up more miles) Then AS had a time change, going from a 10am departure to a 9am departure so AS automatically rebooked me on an even earlier flight (7:30am) that is a direct flight home. I am not a morning person so I called in and was able to get switched back but I was no longer in seat 3C, I was now in 6D. I called about that change and found out that by Nov that fight will have the new seat configuration that matches the 737 fleet except that FC only has rows 1 and 2 (yikes! that will surely limit UG possibilities). Since the vast majority of my flights are booked less than 3 weeks out I was not used to the multiple changes but it sure has been interesting!
Has anyone done a flight that changed planes without a new BP? (I keep imagining about 1/3 of the plane losing the BPs while in. the air) Have any of the airbus planes already been reconfigured? (what does the separation between Y and FC look like after the change?)

UpgradeMe

I'm confused.

FFL = Fairfield, Iowa. FLL = Fort Launderdale.

Checking a random Wednesday in November, I do not see an FLL-SFO nonstop.

But assuming that there is such a flight and that it continues to SEA, what leads you to believe that there is a change of planes at SFO?

ctporter

You are right, I did mean FLL not FFL (slightly dyslexic here!) Look for flight 1345, click on the details it shows longer fight time, more miles, and a stop in SFO.

NoLaGent

1. You're on a pmVX airbus, by then the seats will be renumbered (not reconfigured, although this is around when the cabin mods should be starting) so bulkhead row 3 becomes bulkhead row 6.

2. VX 1345 is a direct flight from SEA-FLL, with a change of planes in SFO. Same flight # from SFO-SEA and you'll have the same seat # on the same type of aircraft for both segments.

3. No one has seen the new cabin on the Airbus yet, because they haven't started, but you can look at renderings online, just google "alaska airlines new first class seats". pmVX planes will go from 8 seats in F to 12 when those mods are done.

tom911

Looks like the nonstop only operates Nov 15-26.

ctporter

1. Ahh, only renumbered then, gotcha. Still it will be interesting to see how it is managed
2. Yes, that is what I found out.
3. Good to know they WILL go to 12 when done, that part I could not find the answer to.

Thanks

rustykettel

ctporter

Since miles are always the way I get 75k that is fine with me. In fact, I am more interested in the miles now than ever before being so close to 1MM. (I have 78,924 miles to go for 1MM today, that does not count the trips I will be taking the rest of this year)

rustykettel

EmailKid

OK, that raises an AS question:

Does AS give combined miles for same flight number, or is it like UA where they give the nonstop mileage? Back in the CO days, CO888 BOS-PEK actually gave FEWER miles than EWR-PEK even though there was a change of planes in EWR because it was based on what would be nonstop distance.

OK, slow typer - I see an answer directly above my question :blush:

ctporter

well that sucks

EmailKid

With UA you could plead your case on the phone with longhaul flights to have the segments split, because u/g would not clear unless both segments had space. No idea if this is something doable with AS, but someone probably knows.

beckoa

....so there is kind of a way to do this with AS- I was once on hold quite a while to do this and they tried to charge me a bunch of taxes. This was on the milk run SEA-JNU and I wanted to get F on some segments. But its not SOP, and a very much YMMV situation. I was on a bump, so already was helping AS out. Hence I didn't feel quite as bad with my request.

ctporter

Interesting, I just checked and saw that1345 is available to purchase as a flight from SFO to SEA. So hmm.. I guess it would be possible for one of the segments to not have U space. So now, it seems as if I really should be able to get the longer miles, sigh.

EmailKid

A little OT, but I've seen Southwest have four segments with the same flight number - and you could buy any of them individually. When UA was running out of flight numbers after the merger, they used the same flight number both ways, primarily on UAX IIRC.