ralfkrippner

Alaska resumes service into Washington Reagan National today (04Dec).
The airline now operates one daily service to National and one to Dulles.
Schedules as follows :
AS002 SEA 1258-2035 DCA 0859-1140 SEA AS001
AS004 SEA 0815-1550 IAD 1730-2030 SEA AS003
All flights are operated with Boeing 737-700s.

Source: justplanes.com

BigKing

If they could do this to Boston I would be the happiest guy on this board. And they have a golden opportunity if they could get the gates because AA dropped their two daily SEA-BOS flights.

The Seattle Times ran an interesting article about the DCA and IAD flights and from what it said Alaska/Horizon has nearly recovered all its business. And Horizon is increasing some flights to take advantage of flights dropped by United (Bellingham, Yakima). I would love to Alaska do the same.

jspear

I'm flying SEA-DCA on Friday. What's the service like in 1st on the flight? Thx.

jwright

Does Alaska consider DCA and IAD coterminals to the point of letting you switch to the airport you're not ticketed to/from without nailing you for all the change-of-routing sort of charges?

The reason I ask is that for business, one flight a day doesn't cut it. UA has 2.5 daily nonstops to IAD. If I'm in the other Washington on business, I might wrap up a day early and want to take the morning flight instead of the afternoon (or vice versa). I can handle getting to the other airport, but will AS try to gouge me if I do switch airports?


------------------
Jon Wright
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

AS Flyer

Just thought I would fill you in on some of the questions here from an insiders perspective.

I work for AS and from what I have been told, one of the reasons that we are serving both airport is because we would like multiple frequencies into the D.C. area and could not do that to/from DCA. For this reason I would guess that they would consider DCA/IAD co-terminals. Most airlines do.

As for the service in F class. It's really nice. We offer a really nice meal service with menu's and hot towels. They also offer complimentary DVD use in F class, and a selection of 8-10 movies that changes each month.

As for BOS, word inside at AS is that BOS and DEN are next from SEA and coming soon. We'll see.

whlinder

Alaska also made the investment in IAD while DCA was suspended, and killing IAD service would waste that investment.

I would like to see service to BWI, or another flight to IAD. A red-eye with a quick turnaround, such as SEA-IAD departing SEA at 10, arrive at 5:30, and IAD-SEA departing at 7, arrive SEA at 10. AS would get good aircraft utilization as well as maximizing its investment in IAD.

But I also hope for BOS service soon too.

stef315

I think AS had decided to go to both airports BEFORE Sept 11. I don't think it had anything to do with DCA being suspended. The only reason I'm saying this is that I remember reading that they were going to 2 flights because of popularity of the one flight.

AS Flyer

AS hadn't made any decisions, or at least one that was publicly announced, to go to IAD prior to 9/11. We only began our DCA service on 9/4 so there was no way to tell, really, exactly how popular it really was. In the beginning the bookings were mild, that's it. We moved our service to IAD so that we could continue to serve the D.C. area after 9/11 and not lose our passengers to other airlines. We really didn't invest anything into IAD that would be lost by discontinuing that flight, that wasn't a factor in their decision. Quite frankly our IAD flights were pretty full and based on that they decided that the market could bear two flights and it would provide for better scheduling options for the traveling public. While IAD was being talked about, nothing was for sure until after 9/11.

horizonair

Yes, IAD and DCA are Co-terminals...There is absolutely no difference in fares between the 2 because when you pull up a fare quote for either market the Washington DC city will always come up with a generic WAS instead of one or the other city codes.

eastwest

I checked the fare rules using Travelocity and it appears as though IAD/DCA are co-terminals for AS purposes.

Cheers!
eastwest

jwright

It wouldn't have suprised me to hear the DCA service was doing well, but I am amazed that the loads to IAD have been "pretty full," considering they go head-to-head with an entrenched competitor (UA).

FOH

On the other hand, maybe the unhappy UA flyers are pleased that there is some competition and are walking with their feet.

I wonder how many WAS-bound passengers are connecting to Alaska. It seems like the new service would be the most convenient for someone in cities not served by any of the major airlines if going to DC.

eastwest

I have no way to substantiate this . . . but I would assume that many of the SEA-DCA/IAD pax on AS originate somewhere else.

For example, AS probably captures 100% of the traffice between JNU (Juneau, the capital city of Alaska) and Washington DC. They probably get the lions share of ANC based traffic as well.

WebTraveler

How about a Dulles flight for Portland if Alaska adds additional DC flights? In Portland we're always stuck with changing in Seattle. How about the other way around for once? I know traffic is less from Portland as we are a smaller city, but just maybe we'll see it soon?

And I've heard Boston is a possibility as well from a family member who works with Alaska.

dhacker

I am holding award seats for an Alaskan cruise for next July. The outbound is in F on AS flt #1 DCA-ANC with a stop in SEA. The return is YVR-DFW-DCA on American in J/F (for some reason YVR-DFW only offers J). I am considering changing the return to AS. Before I try, does anyone have a opinion on F on ASflight 1/2 versus J/F on AA?


[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 12-10-2001).]

[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 12-11-2001).]