Of course, frantic and I are interested but it is definitely too far out to make any sort of commitment.

Also, unfortunately, there is no code share with DL but there is one with AA so either miles from AA (of which we right now have very few) or US (of which we have some) can get us there. We have plenty of time to stoke up on either.

ETA: There better be mileage award tickets of some kind since a quick look showed a weekday revenue RT ANC-DUT north of $1K. :eek:

Hopefully will get on in time. Worst care 30k full flex award home

:eek:

That's been on my bucket list for awhile. Talk about high[-seas] adventure. Hard to cram it in with this, though, as the trip from Homer to Dutch takes three and a half days and only runs twice a month. Also, even at the inflated prices of rural Alaskan flights, flying is usually cheaper.

We do recommend a good travel insurance policy for this trip. That said, we've learned our lesson from last year and have deliberately included some buffer time both on the outbound as well as on the return so folks shouldn't need to have to resort to anything drastic if there are any delays. :)

PenAir is very good about IRROPS recovery, flying a bunch of extra flight segments at the first sign of clear weather to catch up on any backlog of stuck, displaced passengers. It's not unheard of, though, to get stuck there an extra day, although a review of the flight completion history on FlightAware dating back to the beginning of June this year reveals that there are only a small handful of days where no flights went out and no periods where flights were canceled for more than a single day in a row.

That said, if flights do get canceled, an extra night (hopefully that will remain singular) in a hotel won't be covered by Alaska/PenAir, so trip insurance is probably a good thing in this instance.

I just checked, and DL is seeing the ANC-DUT flight that's available on (for example) 10/10 no problem (25,000 miles round-trip). Confirm it's available in saver space (7.5K one-way) on either AlaskaAir.com or ExpertFlyer (W space) and then plug it into Delta.com and it seems to work.

Saver award space for 9/1 is already gone. If you want to grab anything on 9/2, it should open up in the next 12-15 hours or so. Under normal circumstances, it would probably disappear within 24-48 hours of being loaded. Given the crowd that's going after it, it will likely disappear within hours or minutes. ;)

Judging by the current award calendar, the few seats made available far in advance are snatched up very, very quickly and then saver award pickings are extremely dry until about three months before departure, at which point some flights do begin to open back up.

So while I would definitely encourage everyone to book as soon as practicable, if you miss out, all might not be lost if you can wait and start looking perhaps sometime next June or July.

:cool: Glad you made it and always good to see you!

This sounds amazing and I'd love to go, but work will likely be hectic for much of the summer next year...though I'm not 100% certain. I saw the saver space earlier on a couple of the flights, but didn't want to take a seat from someone who was much more sure they'd be able to attend. But if that changes for some reason then I'll be keeping an eye out on award space next summer!

Would love to go, but will depend on teaching schedule that likely won't be set until Feb/March. Will keep it in mind. :)

Posting so I can get updates. Put me down as "interested" for parts I and III. I most likely will not know until literally a day or two beforehand (so leaning towards part III only because the fair sounds cool!) but I might try and head over to ANC :)

-J.

Glad to see so much interest already. And I'm amazed we got this out 330 days in advance. However with the uniqueness of this destination, and the difficulty both in award space, and the weather component we wanted to get it out there with the best shot of FTers getting seats.

Crazy to think this is the third DO we've had on an island in Alaska too ;)

ExpertFlyer shows that AS/KS has loaded flights for 9/2/15:

3 flights a day and 2 saver seats (W class) per flight. Last one may not get in early enough for the seafood extravaganza, especially with a 51% on-time performance.

Note, this is not bookable on AS' site yet. But it should be soon.

It appears DUT is not available for QF awards (invalid operating airline) :(

Nonetheless I'm interested but far from definite.

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Its not possible via the phone to book?

Thought we tested out most partners- however QF may be one none of us had an easy way to test (no QF points).

And an update: the afternoon departure to DUT on the 2nd has two saver seats open. As does the evening, but that may be too late.

Oooh, this looks like a very fun itinerary! Does anyone know anything about bringing back seafood from DUT? Is it straightforward to get packing boxes (dry ice?), etc... I know Horizon and Alaska are quite used to this kind of stuff for salmon out of Canada, but not sure if there might be special concerns for this route...

Woo-hoo; sounds like a great itinerary! Thanks for posting early jackal and beckoa, I'm on this now.....

NOTE: and by the way, rates at the Grand Aleutian in Dutch Harbor (the only game in town it appears) are $180 per night, or $225 for the junior suite. Main difference I am told, is that the microwave and fridge are already installed in the junior suite...

Are you going to try for any kind of group rate jackal/beckoa ?? Their rez system may not book that far ahead, however, the woman at the desk noted.

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Considering this is *the source* for tons of Fresh Alaska Seafood, I think they'll make it work ;)

I plan on bringing some home for sure ^

Anyone know what the rates are at the Grand Aleutian? Their website say "Call for pricing". Are the organizers going to try to get a group rate?

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Good question.

Haven't given them a call yet- but with award space on the AS/KS wetlease disappearing so quickly, we wanted to secure flights first.