CruisingAltitude47

Recently did this & if it's helpful to anyone. I was going to/from Whidbey, so for that it's ideal. The views from the flight path are very nice.

Toshbaf

I had of pleasure of using PAE recently.

Positives:
+No congestion on the roads to the airport when I went.
+No congestion around the airport
+No congestion in the airport
+Short walking distances
+Quick taxi times
+Quick baggage unloading times

Negatives:
-Not many flights so IRROPS might be a problem
-No TSA PreCheck. There is a light version of PreCheck (shoes on, computers out) but the line is short. However, the line moved very slowly. Overall wait might have been 6 minutes for about 7 passengers. In any case, the pace of the line moving was slower than SEA but the overall time waiting was shorter.
-Food choices are limited
-No baggage carts

Possible negatives:
>If the airport starts having 737 flights, there isn't enough seating in the gates. There also aren't enough bathrooms since each one is a single person room.
>There are few garbage cans and are hard to spot.
>Car rentals are not as convenient as they could be in a small terminal.
>Parking could be tight if there are more passengers.
>Already there's 3 gates in use. The 3rd gate is 2B and doesn't have a jetway. This is probably a NIMBY issue.

sullim4

tusphotog

Apparently Beechers just opened so there's "more" food choices in the terminal. Still limited, but at least it's good. Supposedly there'll be a coffee place too.

PAE is one of those take every electronic item out of your bag airport, which probably adds to the time for people to get screened. That being said, in the few times I've been through lately, it's been myself and 10 TSA agents milling about. Very strange.

nearlysober

This is my biggest concern with using PAE frequently. I am flying out of there for the UW vs. Stanford game this fall, but if that flight is delayed or cancelled I'll have to haul it to SEA and hope I can still make the game.

I'll probably use it periodically, especially when I can grab a FC seat on an E75 for about the same price as a coach ticket on a B739 out of SEA

ctporter

Flew to LAX out of PAE last month, a passenger in front of us kept alarming as she went through the metal detector. She removed her bracelets, alarmed again, removed her shoes and alarmed again, kept repeating she had no other metal on her as she removed her belt and alarmed again. THEN she said - oh, I have a titanium plate in my head, is that what is alarming?
sigh.

Klrduks

I was going to bet underwire bra but titanium plate will do it. :-)

Nurse Traveler

Odd. That hasn't been my experience at all. I haven't taken a thing out of my bag at PAE yet.

ctporter

Last time through the TSA the ID checker told me that due to the crush at SEA (cruise season) they were not staffing PAE enough to provide TSA Pre at PAE and to write in and comment on the need for it. Even so, lately so many people have Pre check at just about any airport that I am always behind a clueless type that is in absolutely no hurry to get through the line. I just expect it to take much longer in the line at the belt now and if it goes well I am pleasantly surprised

dmodemd

No. We need them at SEA... you can take your laptops out :P

ctporter

LOL! At least the lines are short enough that it isn't too bad there, unless you get behind the titanium plate in the head lady!

Nurse Traveler

I'm shocked if there are 2 other people in line besides me. I've been to many smaller airports than PAE and PAE is the easiest to navigate.

Nurse Traveler

Deleted

A318neo

Before PAE fares were the same as SEA but I think they are getting higher. Specifically, I see no more saver fares. I think it may be because the airport has a limit of flights (sort of like slot controls) and that limit is reached. Some day we may see higher base fares, too, not just no saver fares.

Paine for All. Not just for the Rich.

jrl767

like pretty much everything else in FT-land, this is another piece of interesting anecdata ... I’ve been able to find Saver fares to/from LAX, and occasionally F on those flights has been lower than the SEA flights

Revenue Management has obviously figured out how to allocate the fare buckets among the 128 daily coach seats that AS is offering on PAE<—>LAX ... the same task is a bit more challenging when they’re dealing with the 10 or 12 LAX flights, each of which has more coach seats than the total to/from PAE (ok, I know there are occasionally one or two E75s in there, but the point is that balancing revenue against capacity is a continuous and non-trivial process)