Abby

We are flying to Miami early next month for a much-anticipated holiday. (Thank you again, horizonair, for your help!) We used miles to upgrade to First Class and hope for a fun flight.

I know AS has upgraded this flight to a 737-900, which we have not flown on before. I see on the web site that this plane has two possible configurations in terms of the coach lavs, one has a mid-cabin lav at the front of coach. Can someone tell me if this is the configuration for our flights? Else, are we likely to have 150+ coach passengers invited to troop through FC to the FC lav?

A small question is whether it is possible to determine the DVD titles in advance of flying? Or do they change all the time?

And is the Miami terminal slow to get through? We are wondering what time we need to allow for our return flight. We will probably only have carry-on for bags, but cannot use Web check-in because we connect to a flight to Canada and sometimes cannot use the ITM either.

I have been checking flight status online from time to time and it looks like these flights leave early more often than late, and are usually on time. Is it very common for weather to cause delays on these flights?

PS Horizonair, we can now see our itinerary online, so if you did something more to make this work, thank you again!

[This message has been edited by Abby (edited 03-26-2003).]

greybeardy

<<And is the Miami terminal slow to get through? We are wondering what time we need to allow for our return flight.>>

We flew SEA-MIA-SEA in January and the hardest part at MIA was finding the Alaska checkin counter. Here's a link to information on Alaska's website.
http://www.alaskaair.com/www2/Airpor...Guides_MIA.asp

fredmartens

Flew the SEA-MIA on a Sat. in Jan., the MIA-SEA on a Monday. MIA check-in was about 15 minutes if you're in FC...less than 5 if you use the checkin "kiosks" that are located at the check-in counters. Security was not bad at all, I think it took us about 15 minutes to get through. This assumes you're not checking bags.

AS is allegedly rethinking their policy on the first class lavs due to cust. comments received at Gold luncheons and written feedback...of which I admit to being a complainer. I had to wait about 15 minutes to use the FC lav on EWR-SEA #7 this past Monday. It's a nearly 6 hour return flight, so be prepared to play a little "combat potty acquisition" on the MIA-SEA leg.

smilee

Hello Abby, I am also flying YYJ-MIA. I am going April 18 - 21st, what days are you going?

My experience using the ITM has been perfect between Canada and the US, but not Mexico, so my suggestion would be using the ITM in MIA if they have one.

Miami (South Beach) is probably my favourite destination in the US, so I am sure you will have a good time. The weather is generally quite nice this time of year, the stormy hurricane season is in the summer/fall time of year.

Abby

Thank you all for your replies! We will definitely make a note of where the check-in area for Alaska is located at MIA so we don’t have to search for it. Sounds like check-in should not be too much grief.

smilee, we are flying in the first week of April. The ITM’s do not seem to work on some First Class upgrades or some international flights, I have had problems with using them more than once. But we do try them first. We are looking forward to Miami and other parts of Florida since we have never been there!

I am wondering if the two versions of the 737-900 are new? This is what I was referring to:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?R2A232AF3

One version of the coach cabin has three lavs all at the rear, while the other version has two at the rear and one at the front of coach. In both cases, there is also a separate FC lav. It seems to me that the second version might be less likely to encourage coach passengers to use the FC lav, since there is a lav right at the front of the coach cabin as well. Maybe it makes no difference, and personally I wish Alaska would just request Coach passengers to use Coach lavs (and fredmartens, I am a complainer also!), but I wonder which type of plane is used on the SEA-MIA flights?

deelmakur

I fly the trip regularly. Introduction of the 900 was a welcome event. Whether it's roomier or not, it feels like it is (compared to the 737-700). After takeoff, a list of DVD titles is handed out along with a request form. Not sure about the bathrooms. There is one in First, then the 900 I was on most recently also had one behind the divider curtain, and two in the very rear of the plane. Alaska is a latecomer to MIA, and had to take counter space two concourses over from the one they arrive and depart on. This probably has more to do with Swissport, the third party company who handle the AS flight. I actually think it's their counter. The Alaska concourse is also used by CO and NW, as well as KLM, who have an Amsterdam flight that leaves around the same time. Most of them don't have a lot going at that time, so access to the gate is relatively quick. Miami can seem like another country to the uninitiated. The Swissport kids handling Alaska are young, bright, and efficient. Their continuing talking amongst themesleves in Spanish, along with others at the airfield doing the same, seems to befuddle some of the passengers, who I think are worried that upgrade requests, etc. aren't being handled properly because of a communication problem. It is fine. They do leave early a lot. It's a long trip, and winds from the West in winter can really slow things down. To offset this, they appear to push back as soon as everyone is on the flight. It's one way to keep your on time stats up.
(spelling edit)

[This message has been edited by deelmakur (edited 03-26-2003).]

Abby

Thank you, deelmakur, for that detailed information!