Well you never know what weather might happen... you could be stuck in ANC all day :p

rental in advance
 

I just booked a car for next summer July 1-14 from ANC city center for 290 all-in. Amazing! Thanks for the advice.

BTW I am planning a trip (obviously) for next summer also...would love to go to Dutch Harbor but for some reason Delta stopped showing DUT on the award reservation screen. You can book to ADQ though.

Any ideas?

I also was able to price out EWR-SEA (2 full day stopover) SEA-ANC ANC-EWR for 25K award!!!!

Probably with Enterprise but Avis had decent prices last fall for summer 2010. As mentioned above, booking early is the biggest factor with rental car prices in Anchorage, whether it is a "mistake" or not.

Why don't you try calling Delta? My guess is that since all flights are now operated by PenAir that you can't use DL miles for that anymore.

I am flying to ADQ later this month using DL miles and a stop in ANC on the way there, but there are only a limited number of flights you can take (operated by Alaska Air). Another great place to fly is AKN, gateway to Katmai National Park and Brooks Camp.

I do that all the time actually. DL allows one free stop en route. Even better than your award is what I did:

MSP-NYC for $125, then:
EWR-ANC (stop)-MSP(stop)-EWR for 25K miles in Y
ANC-MSP(stop)-MUC(stop)-MSP(stop 1 night)-ANC for 100K miles in F/J

So for 125K miles I have two trips to EWR, two trips to ANC (one in F) and one trip to MUC (in J).

amazing routings
 

My god! Your routings should be a sticky! How amazing is ANC-MUC with a stop for 100K?

I will try a few creative routings now ;) and will be reading more about Alaska and possible itins.

Have you been to Brooks Camp by flying in? How to you get from the airport to the camp? I was seriously considering doing the bear viewing at Brooks since that seems to be the least expensive way to do it. A little scared though to sleep in a tent with so many bears around....any thoughts?

Trip Report
 

We're back! I've posted a travelogue here.

The main reason that keeps me using DL miles is the stopover that they allow even on domestic award tickets. That basically is giving me two free trips to Alaska that I piggyback on other award trips.

I fly using DL miles and Alaska Air plane to King Salmon, then book the floatplane through Katmailand Air. +-1/2 hour floatplane trip for +-$200 round trip. The NPS put up an electric fence around the campground a few years ago and the bears are detracted by that. Main issue is to keep a clean camp. All food and other items with scents (toothpaste, deodorant, everything) goes into the food and storage lockers. People camp in Denali NP in the backcountry with no electric fence and have a great time. I am considering that for September if it doesn't turn too cold.

BillScan...How much was your hotel and air per person? Any deals ever to fly there? Also, the pics are amazing...How long did you stay and did you venture on your own or with a guide?

Thanks for the details...how many days would you recommend to stay in the camp? I am thinking one night/two days...

I checked the routing and I can do EWR-SEA(stop)-ANK-ANC(stop)-EWR for 37.5K...is that good? I could not find a better one ...any suggestions are appreciated...

Also, has anyone been to Kodiak? What is your preference...Kodiak or Kenai for the bears...and which one would be cheaper?

I assume you mean AKN and not ANK, which is Ankara Turkey!

I would spend at least 2 nights in Katmai if you can. When I went, I scheduled 3 nights but we got there a day late (actually only about 15 hours late, so it was not terrible). But the longer you are there, the more chances for good weather and being able to avoid bear jams. But one night/two days is FAR better than just a day trip. I am looking now for award tickets to AKN for next July. I would like to spend 3-4 nights there, but have a hard time finding award seats MSP-ANC with DL/AS. But most of July is not yet bookable so I need to be patient.

Yes, 37.5K is the lowest number of miles you can use for that trip you mentioned. If you avoided one of the two stops, you could get it down to 25K miles.

I am going to Kodiak two weeks from today, but not to see bears. To see the Kodiak bears requires a fly-in, which is not cheap. Not sure where on the Kenai (Peninsula?) you are talking about for seeing bears. Or did you mean Katmai? Kenai Peninsula has hit or miss for seeing bears. Katmai is 100% if going at the right time. Kodiak is 100% if going at the right time. Denali NP has very high percentages of seeing bears if you spend time on the shuttle buses, especially over multiple days. Denali is by far the cheapest.

the cheapest accomodation for a single traveler is 200 USD per night?
i am honest, i dont have that much money to spend on 3 nights. The only other option is for me to do a 1-hour turn around?
have anybody done it? is it worth it?
(i have 400K delta skymiles, and the purpose of me to collect miles is to create memory.)

I don't have that much, either. That's why I went with four other friends. Split five ways, it was manageable. :)

It really was an absolutely incredible trip. One in our group wrote up a report here: http://alphaeagle.com/2012/08/adak-trip-report/

Excellent, I wish I can find some like-mind to do it. but as I am from East coast, getting award ticket is much more challenging comparing to you.

i asked my dad and he thinks it is a bit pointless to fly all the way from Hong Kong to an island to do nothing for 3 days. haha.

Excellent, I wish I can find some like-mind to do it. but as I am from East coast, getting award ticket is much more challenging comparing to you.

i asked my dad and he thinks it is a bit pointless to fly all the way from Hong Kong to an island to do nothing for 3 days. haha.

jackal is from the East Coast too ;)

Is there anywhere where one can check on rat eradication efforts going on by the FWS in the NWRs? i.e. How is the birding nowadays compared to when invasive species were allowed to overrun the birds?