Second Trip to Alaska on Alaska Airlines Award Ticket
Jan 20, 2008, 11:27 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 109
Second Trip to Alaska on Alaska Airlines Award Ticket
Last summer we did Anchorage, Seward, Homer, and an Emerald Air day trip to see the bears (amazing!). This year we're going back and using an award ticket on Alaska airlines.
(1) we have a two-year-old along with us
(2) These are the places we can go on that award ticket (BTW we could also fly into one city and out of another)
Adak
Anchorage
Barrow
Bethel
Cordova
Dillingham
Dutch Harbor
Fairbanks
Glacier Bay / Gustavus
Juneau
Ketchikan
King Salmon
Kodiak
Kotzebue
Nome
Petersburg
Prudhoe Bay
Sitka
Wrangell
Yakutat
Any help you could provide would be FANTASTIC! Thank you!
(1) we have a two-year-old along with us
(2) These are the places we can go on that award ticket (BTW we could also fly into one city and out of another)
Adak
Anchorage
Barrow
Bethel
Cordova
Dillingham
Dutch Harbor
Fairbanks
Glacier Bay / Gustavus
Juneau
Ketchikan
King Salmon
Kodiak
Kotzebue
Nome
Petersburg
Prudhoe Bay
Sitka
Wrangell
Yakutat
Any help you could provide would be FANTASTIC! Thank you!
Jan 21, 2008, 4:22 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S (former 75K, GLD, 1K, and S+, now an elite peon)
Posts: 23,194
Well, before you book an open jaw ticket, be very careful. You don't want to book a ticket into Nome but out of Kotzebue, even though they look just a few miles apart on the mini map of Alaska included in the lower left corner of any map of the USA. They're 183 miles apart by air (actually, I'm surprised it's that short!) and completely inaccessible from each other (or the outside world) by any other means of transportation (short of dogsled). Flights between them (or other rural Alaskan cities) aren't cheap but may be worth it if you've always wanted to visit them.
More later if I can. Gotta run for now. Cheers!
More later if I can. Gotta run for now. Cheers!
Jan 22, 2008, 12:39 pm
#3
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: BTR
Programs: DL Silver, CO Silver, AA, Wyndham ByRequest
Posts: 309
How long are you looking to spend in Alaska?
I think you can cross Prudhoe Bay off your list. They've got a couple trailers and that's about it.
Barrow would be a fun day trip, but I don't think you could stay busy there for much longer. It also gets bonus points for being at the top of the world.
Fairbanks has good options in the summer, and would be a great jumping off point for Denali National Park and the rest of central Alaska.
I think you can cross Prudhoe Bay off your list. They've got a couple trailers and that's about it.
Barrow would be a fun day trip, but I don't think you could stay busy there for much longer. It also gets bonus points for being at the top of the world.
Fairbanks has good options in the summer, and would be a great jumping off point for Denali National Park and the rest of central Alaska.
Jan 22, 2008, 9:31 pm
#4
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
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One cool possibility that I just came up with (depending on time in AK) is to first fly into FAI, check out the Interior for several days, including Denali, and take the train to Seward, (yes, some overlap but it'd still be cool), and connect with the ferry system (if this works... never been on it yet) to Southeast Alaska, check out cities down there for a week, and fly home from down there- JNU, KTN, etc... This would be a fairly rigorous trip but should be lots of fun, and if you never picked up one of those toursaver booklets for $99, they give you a 2 for 1 on the train, plus many other specials.
But I would say, either check out the Interior, (FAI) or the Panhandle, (JNU) for your second trip up. Both are remarkable in their own ways, and if able to do both, its cool to contrast the two to each other.
Have fun in the Land of the Midnight Sun!
But I would say, either check out the Interior, (FAI) or the Panhandle, (JNU) for your second trip up. Both are remarkable in their own ways, and if able to do both, its cool to contrast the two to each other.
Have fun in the Land of the Midnight Sun!
Jan 24, 2008, 9:58 pm
#5
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 131
One cool possibility that I just came up with (depending on time in AK) is to first fly into FAI, check out the Interior for several days, including Denali, and take the train to Seward, (yes, some overlap but it'd still be cool), and connect with the ferry system (if this works... never been on it yet) to Southeast Alaska, check out cities down there for a week, and fly home from down there- JNU, KTN, etc... This would be a fairly rigorous trip but should be lots of fun, and if you never picked up one of those toursaver booklets for $99, they give you a 2 for 1 on the train, plus many other specials.
But I would say, either check out the Interior, (FAI) or the Panhandle, (JNU) for your second trip up. Both are remarkable in their own ways, and if able to do both, its cool to contrast the two to each other.
Have fun in the Land of the Midnight Sun!
But I would say, either check out the Interior, (FAI) or the Panhandle, (JNU) for your second trip up. Both are remarkable in their own ways, and if able to do both, its cool to contrast the two to each other.
Have fun in the Land of the Midnight Sun!
Jan 24, 2008, 10:04 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 109
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I also thought of another idea:
Looks like I can do a stopover in ANC on the way to Barrow for 20,000 miles, so I could do Barrow for a night or two (any thoughts on length?) and then rent an RV for 10 days along the following route: Anchorage, Denali, Fairbanks, Glen Allen, Valdez (ferry to) Whittier, Anchorage. One other option would be to do Juneau instead of Barrow for that night or two. What do you think of this idea? (BTW, I like the ferry idea, but I'm thinking that lugging around all of our stuff on the boat sounds a bit exhausting--without the 2 year old in tow, that would be very cool indeed!)
Looks like I can do a stopover in ANC on the way to Barrow for 20,000 miles, so I could do Barrow for a night or two (any thoughts on length?) and then rent an RV for 10 days along the following route: Anchorage, Denali, Fairbanks, Glen Allen, Valdez (ferry to) Whittier, Anchorage. One other option would be to do Juneau instead of Barrow for that night or two. What do you think of this idea? (BTW, I like the ferry idea, but I'm thinking that lugging around all of our stuff on the boat sounds a bit exhausting--without the 2 year old in tow, that would be very cool indeed!)