Flying back east from Anchorage
 

I booked an Alaska cruise this weekend. We will disembark in Whittier on 9/13. I have purchased transfers to Anchorage, although I have no idea where they will take us. I started looking at flights back home (MCO) and it looks like almost everything is a red eye leaving late in the evening. I’m guessing we wouldn’t be at the airport before mid-morning, so would miss the one or two flights I saw leaving very early in the a.m. Does everyone fly F heading east? If so, is any of it worth the price (in $ or miles). I only have sufficient UA miles for F and the 737 Max F doesn’t look like the most wonderful product out there. What are my best options?

You are correct in that most of the options out of ANC, especially to the east coast, are red-eye flights. In general, the options are the UA flight to Denver year round or there are some seasonal flights during the summer to ORD and SFO on United I believe. Other options are one of the AS red eyes to SEA and then pick up flights from there.

I personally agree with you that the max product isn’t great, but doing anything that distance on 737’s just isn’t that pleasant either. I have been flying a lot of UA’s max’s lately, and after about 3 hours I’m pretty done.

is F worth it? If it were me, I would do it for that distance and it was affordable. I also have done the ANC-DEN max in coach (exit row) and it honestly wasn’t the worst thing, but by no means did I actually sleep. I’d you can sleep in a coach seat it’s ok, but if not that is a long slog to get to FL on no sleep.

I don’t know how helpful that was, but the upshot is there are not good options IMO out of ANC to the east coast.

Flying from JNU going to the East Coast, I just spend the night in SEA.

From ANC, AS has a redeye to ORD, from there multiple options to ORD. From SEA, AS has a 345p flight that arrives MCO about midnight; this of course depends upon your transfer arrival at ANC. AS also has an 1110p flight to MCO and a morning flight.

UA has an afternoon flight ANC-SFO that connects to a redeye SFO-MCO (or spend the night in SFO) if you want to stick with UA. Also ANC-ORD redeye with further connection to MCO on UA.

In 2021 and 2022, AA used the 787 for at least a daily ANC-DFW flight, which would've been worth it, but I don't see it on the schedule for 2023 sadly.

I’m booked to fly JNU-SEA-JFK in July. Same day, something like 10 hours travel time. Probably will be a zombie by the time I land.

Are you on the 8am flight dep JNU? That is probably the most sane same day connection atm.

Yeah, with a 40 min connection in SEA, all on DL metal. How common are delays during the summer out of JNU?

With a plane overnighting in JNU shouldn't be an issue.

good luck in that connection time Likely arriving in A and flying out of S. A checked bag might not make it.

Weather delays are unlikely. It can occur. Such as Fog/very low ceiling early am at JNU. You can get thunderstorms in July in Seattle but these are usually late afternoon/ evening things. Similarly a low marine layer slow to burn off coukd cause landing delays shortening connection time.

OP here. On the way back from ANC, I booked + on UA to MCO through ORD with 3 hours and club passes there. I couldn’t stand the thought of coach for a redeye, but the F product just didn’t seem worth it. Hopefully the compromise will work. Departure is after 9:00 PM. Hopefully we can find a place to store luggage after the cruise and before the flight so we can walk around Anchorage unencumbered.

During peak season, there is usually a morning (6am hour) DL departure to MSP that arrives MSP around 2:00-2:30 pm CDT. That is really the only daytime flight with viable east coast connections I can think of. That is in addition to the DL red-eye (overnight) to MSP that runs nearly year round.