A boring trip except how it was booked.

Went to have a look at AS's web specials and noticed that the airfares aren't necessarily just for the coming Friday/Saturday returning the floowing Monday/Tuesday but for select days a month out. So in late November, I book AS 351 SFO-PDX on Sunday 12 Dec and return AS 350 on Tuesday 14 Dec for $85 inc. tax.

AS 351 SFO-PDX 12 Dec 737-400

Originally assigned seat 26B (or E), I phone AS a few days prior to flight and am told all seats are booked and there is no where to reassign me 9shows the same on ITN.NET seat selector). At SFO on the 10th, I go to the AS desk and ask if I could change seats (showing my CP gold card) and sure enough am assigned 7F.

Check in 2 hrs prior to departure. Try the self-serve check in but it says it can't find my itinerary so I get a real boarding pass.

Go to the AS lounge by gate 24. Not to crowded. Not much in the way of drinks and snacks (compared to a CP lounge) but welcome.

Go to the gate just before 3:10 to catch tail end of boarding. Use the gold card to board before my row is called and get an overhead bin for my small carryon.

Some confusion as there are people who want to sit next to each other (this is only a 1:09 flight!) and people who bring on too much (a shopping trip for most Portlanders, it seems) on a almost-capacity flight. Everyone manages to get seated ontime and the plane pushes back slightly behind schedule at 1539 or so.

Short taxi to the runway (No. 1) for takeoff towards Oakland/Vallejo and into clouds shortly after. FAs do the usual drink and nuts. landing into PDX is slightly ahead of schedule at 1700 but goes to the end of the C concourse - long haul from the exit. Get off as quickly as I can and go get my rental car.

AS 350 PDX-SFO 737-400

Check into PDX 1 1/2 hrs prior to flight. Go to self-serve check-in and this time it works. Get my thermal paper boarding pass and go to the AS lounge. Find out the PDX airport MAPs are obsolete and there is only one at the beginning of the C concourse and none by B1 as the terminal map suggests.

Go to the lounge where the desk agent does the picture ID and stamps the boarding pass. See aircraft come into B2 1/2 hr before 1:15 departure time and go to gate at 1pm to board early. Flight is fairly empty, not more than 1/2 full. Even the emergency exit rows are empty (but who wants a non-reclining seat?). Flight pushes back pretty much on time at 1315 but some delays in taxiing. Usual AS service (for all their old ads about their food, i have never had even a snack on AS). No fog in SF mercifully as I have a connecting flight. Flight is scheduled for 1:10 and little is seen until over the wine country (same approach as the CP flight from YVR posted seperately). Arrives into and docks at SFO gate 20 at 1450 6 minutes ahead of schedule. pretty uneventful and good value for $85.

[This message has been edited by terenz (edited 12-18-1999).]

I did check the schedule, and to my amazement, the 1:15 flight doesn't have a snack service. Flights until 1:30 usually do. Actually, sitting in row 26 (second to last row on the 737-400)is not bad at all, if your in an aisle of a window (which of course you weren't). There is an inch more legroom in the last 7 rows of the plane, and you are right near the two rear closets, one of which is often used as a magazine rack on top. And, if you fly into SJC like me, you get to deplane and board through the rear stairway.

P.S...just so you know, the afternoon/evening coach snack service is typically a sandwhich with a peice of fruit (like an apple) and pre-packaged cookies. It doesn't sound like much, but the sandwhiches are better than the generic airline ones, and the cookies are usually good too. Sometimes they do a salad (ex: chinese chicken salad) instead of the sandwhich.

[This message has been edited by West Coast Flyer (edited 12-17-1999).]

WCF (makes it sound like some wrestling thing):

Only flown AS on SEA-RNO and PDX-RNO in '93, '94 and '99 previously and never had a snack on these (off topic but I do miss PS's tray snacks). Didn't want to sit in the rear as I wanted to get on the road quick at PDX and I know they don't use the rea stair there.

I agree that in your situation, you lucked out on the seats. Wish I could get more of those "web special" fares, but naturally they are never valid on the flight I want on a day I can travel on. 'Tis life, however...

I have never much liked being called "WCF"
Maybe WC Flyer...but no wait...the Brits would think I'm talking about a watercloset...

[This message has been edited by West Coast Flyer (edited 12-18-1999).]

The farther-back exit row seats do recline; in Alaska's seating configurations, that's row 15 (737) or row 22 (MD-80).

$85 incl. tax is a pretty good price.


[This message has been edited by pshuang (edited 12-18-1999).]

Uh, I plead guilty, yeroner.

I was actually trying to get on that flight (since I was already pretty shopped out) but it was overbooked. I got my ticket endorsed, schlepped it over to UA and was airborne in about 20 minutes. I also paid $85 RT, which is about 20-25% less than UA.

The six or eight self-serve terminals at the ticket windows are obsolete? Hmm. I just handed the gate agent my thermal boarding pass and passport as I got on the plane. Didn't hear boo about it.

[This message has been edited by essxjay (edited 12-18-1999).]