Last Christmas, I promised my sister and her extended family that I would come at her place in Greeley, Colorado for this year’s Christmas. Procrastinator that I am, I didn’t get around to booking the reservations until early September. At the time, Alaska Airlines was offering a sale priced fare between Fairbanks and Denver for just $499.00 roundtrip. However, even three and a half months out most of the discounted seats were gone. The res agents were quoting outrageously high fares for the date range I was interested in, ranging from $700 to $900.00 round-trip. Had I not had a good understanding of Alaska’s schedules, routings and stopover policies, I might have paid a lot more for this ticket than I ultimately did. As things turned out, my willingness to overnight in Seattle going and coming, along with my willingness to make a connection in Anchorage (all of which I had to suggest and prod the agent to check) allowed me to get that $499.00 fare, which I then further discounted with an AS-50 award. Thankfully, I was also able to upgrade to First Class on all segments at time of ticketing, so I was livin’ large for the nice price of $274.00 r/t.

Originally I'd not intended to write a report on this journey. First Class travel notwithstanding, my holiday travels consist of only a few medium range flights on Alaska Airlines, the likes of which have been reported on many times before. Indeed, the ever prolific Carfield has practically written a book on Alaska’s inflight product!

However, this trip also includes three dinners and one lunch aboard Alaska. With its recent catering cutbacks and the resulting outcry about those reductions on the West Coast markets, I figured I might as well report upon how those changes have manifested themselves on Alaska’s longer services from Seattle to Alaska and Denver.

I feel I should preface this by noting that while many people complain about airline food, when the airlines cut back or take the meals away, everyone complains even louder. The airlines can’t win. It’s too bad that so many people seem incapable of appreciating the disadvantages the airlines face in presenting complimentary meals that must be prepared hours in advance, then reheated and served aboard the aircraft. Those who would whine insist on comparing airline meals to restaurant fare and of course airline food will always come up short. It’s like comparing the quality of play in Triple A baseball to that of the major leagues. Personally, I’ve enjoyed many a Triple A baseball game but there’s no denying the talent level is much better in the majors. Still, I don’t allow that to detract from my enjoyment of the Triple A game. It’s the same way for me with airline food vs. restaurant food.

Alright then, on with the report!


23 December
FA), USA - Alaska">FAI-SEA 502p-1146p ALASKA 737-4Q8 N776AS First Class * Dinner

The local news was reporting that heightened security, including searches of all cars approaching the airport terminal, would result in check in delays of up to an hour or more. So, after having lunch with friends in town, I rushed home, checked out the early winter sunset (2:51pm), threw some clothes, CDs and presents in my backpack, and arrived at Fairbanks International at 3:45pm, an hour and 15 minutes prior to departure. There were no vehicle inspections and the lines at the check in counters were minimal. At the MVP counter, there was no line. Only two people were ahead of me at the security check point. God, I love flying out of Fairbanks International!

A light snow had begun to fall as 737-400 N776AS landed and taxied to the gate. This would be my fifth flight aboard ship 776 this year, and ninth overall since we first got acquainted on a Seattle – Juneau flight back in 1997.

Surprisingly, the load was light out of Fairbanks – maybe 70% full. Even more surprising, I had an empty seat next to me. I assume this was due to my recently posted photograph in FlyerTalk’s Member’s Gallery. Regardless, I enjoyed the extra space to spread out. Fifty two minutes and an ice cold MacTarnahan’s later, we touched down in Anchorage amidst considerably heavier snowfall accompanied by a stiff wind off the Cook Inlet. Snow was swirling and blowing about in a big way and the de-icing trucks whisked about the tarmac with considerable vim and vigor.

Take off out of Anchorage was swift and sure. We quickly climbed to 35,000 feet as the Captain advised us that despite considerable headwinds, we could expect an on-time arrival in Seattle. I greeted this news with a glass of Morro Bay Vineyards 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon and awaited tonight’s dinner choices.

Although Alaska has instituted some fairly Draconian cuts to catering on its West Coast and Denver services, I am pleased to report that thus far at least, they still offer a three course dinner service on the Seattle to Anchorage flights. Following is a transcript of the dinner offerings:


DINNER

To Begin
Romaine lettuce complimented with tomato, cucumber and egg. Offered with Caesar Dressing

Entrees

Sweet & Spicy Mango Crusted Chicken
Served with sour cream and chive mashed potatoes and
a medley of steamed zucchini and red bell peppers

Seared Herb Shrimp
Presented atop black pepper fettuccine
with Chevre Cream Sauce and tomato garnish

** *** **

Dessert
Crème Caramel Tort

** ** **

Meanwhile, back in Coach the offering was a:

Chicken Sandwich with Parmesan Cheese
Presented on a multi-grain bun with Dijonnaise mustard
and a holiday cookie


Both seatmate and I requested the chicken – I because it’s generally a larger amount of food than the shrimp entrée, she because she liked the accompaniments that came with the chicken entrée. The shrimp was served with a sauce atop the fettuccine but without accompaniments.

Seatmate worked for the state of Alaska and did most of her travel in state. As you might imagine, she was positively thrilled to be heading down to Florida for a week of sunshine, 80 degree days and possibly even some skydiving. My little trip to Colorado sans skiing sounded positively pedestrian by comparison.

Dinner arrived and was eaten leisurely amidst an abundance of wine and conversation. Honestly, our FA was incredibly diligent and enthusiastic with the wine bottles. Dessert was accompanied by decaf and Baileys Irish Cream. If only Alaska would offer a nice port . . . Still, it was a nice dinner and a good flight.


24 December
SEA-DEN 1139a-312p ALASKA 737-4Q8 N794AS First Class * Luncheon

While I’m sure most of the stories one hears about the horrors of holiday travel are true, I must say that thus far my experiences on this trip have been remarkably good. The airports have been busy though not crowded and I’ve yet to wait in a line longer than a couple of minutes. As such, after quickly checking my pack through to Denver, I breezed through Concourse C’s MVP/Elite line at the security checkpoint and headed straight to Alaska’s Boardroom. On this drizzly December morning, the big fireplace in the center wall contributed to a warm and pleasant ambience in the lounge. I poured a cup of coffee, helped myself to a cranberry scone and settled into a comfy chair by one of the big picture windows. I don’t know what American, Delta and US Airways offer in their airport lounges, but based upon my personal experiences with all of the other airlines’ lounges, I hereby nominate Alaska’s SeaTac Boardroom for the Best Breakfast Pastry award. Their Blueberry and Cranberry scones are simply mahvellous and their bagels ain’t half bad either!

The Boardroom offers an excellent view of the tarmac between Concourses C and D, and I watched as N794AS, the 3000th 737 ever built, taxied in and parked at gate C9 – my gate. In the distance, a Northwest 757-200 in the new livery taxied towards the South Satellite. I briefly considered having another scone before thinking better of it and headed over to C9 where boarding was already underway as I arrived.

Though completely full in First, today’s midday flight into Denver had thirty five open seats in the back. Boarding was quickly accomplished and soon the clouds and drizzle of Seattle were but a distant memory as we climbed into bright sunshine and headed for our cruising altitude of 37000 feet. I accepted another cup of coffee from the FA and listened as she described today’s luncheon choices:


LUNCHEON

Chicken Breast on Foccacia Bread Sandwich
A seasoned chicken breast is topped with Provolone cheese
and served with pasta salad

Caesar Salad with Turkey
Garnished with tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs and olives
Served with a creamy Caesar dressing

Dessert
Holiday Cookie


Hmm. . . I’ll have the chicken sandwich please. Seatmate was watching a movie on his laptop and declined his meal. Meanwhile, I overheard the announcement from the Coach cabin describing their “luncheon” option:

A Hot Pretzel
Served with mustard

Oh boy! While I dined upon my rather dry sandwich (no mustard, lettuce, onions or tomato), the snow covered Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho passed by beneath us. These were followed by Wyoming’s Wind River Range and Medicine Bow Mountains as I ate my cookie and worked on this report. Finally, we turned south towards Denver and made our approach over the Never Summer Mountains and the Cache La Poudre River to the west of Fort Collins. We flew south along I-25, enjoyed a spectacular view of DIA as we passed by to the west, then made a big U-Turn ten miles to the south over Buckley Air National Guard Base and landed smoothly at 3:17pm after a flight of 2 hours and 11 minutes.


29 December
DEN-SEA 405p-603p ALASKA 737-4Q8 N785AS First Class * “Dinner”

If only all departures could go as smoothly as mine did out of Denver this afternoon. In retrospect, it was almost dreamlike as I dropped off my rental car, was quickly processed, then boarded a waiting bus which sped me over to the terminal. There was one couple with a lot of baggage at the MVP check in counter, so I proceeded to the E-Ticket check in kiosk where I was immediately checked in and sent on my way. Uh oh – there was a moderately long line at the security check point. No problem! I sauntered on over to the First Class/Elite entrance where no one was in line. Three minutes later I was deemed free of weapons, explosives or other instruments of destruction and was on my way to the inter-concourse train. If there is any negative aspect to this sequence, it is that Alaska has relocated it’s gate to the C Concourse, thus depriving me of a visit to Continental’s once nearby President’s Club on the A Concourse. At the C Concourse, I paused briefly at an adjacent gate to scavenge the sports sections from both the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, then proceeded forthwith to gate C32 where boarding began shortly after my arrival. Had sports broadcaster Marv Albert been here, he would have applauded this experience with a resounding “YYess!!!”

It was a beautiful evening to fly out of Denver, much less just taxi around the airport. The sun sat low but bright over the distant Rocky Mountains and a colorful collection of Frontier jets, including the new baby Airbus – the A318 – lent spice to the variety of aircraft roaming the tarmacs and taxiways of DIA. A big bank of clouds had gathered along the crest of the Rockies and a bumpy ride appeared imminent. Still, there was no announcement to this effect from the Captain and ultimately, we enjoyed a pretty smooth flight.

Our Flight Attendant took an interesting approach to taking requests for tonight’s “luncheon” as she called it. She stood in the middle of the cabin, at about row 2, and described the entrée choices. Then, she hollered out “OK, who wants the chicken? Who wants the salad?” Whoever spoke up first and/or loudest got their selections while the meek inherited whatever was left. This was not a very professional, much less classy way to handle the meal request process. It’s bad enough that Alaska no longer offers a proper hot dinner on this two hour thirty minute flight. Add to this the FA treating the meal as if it were feeding time in a robin’s nest and the whole event was irredeemably cheapened.

Oh I forgot – it’s just airline food so what the heck – it doesn’t matter. Yeah, right. That’s like saying my cold’s not contagious anymore so it doesn’t matter if I cover my mouth when I cough or sneeze. There are polite and dignified ways to do even the little things in life that take so little effort but make our overall existence so much nicer. Anyway, here are tonight’s “dinner” selections in menu form:


“DINNER”

To Begin
Two small bags of mixed nuts accompanied by your choice of beverage

Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Accented with Provolone cheese and artichoke tapenade on sourdough bread
Served with Gemelli pasta with fresh tomato

Chef Salad with Cheddar and Jack Cheese
Presented with turkey, ham, egg, tomato and olives
Served with Ranch dressing

And Finally…
A Ghirardelli chocolate mint


Both I and my seatmate managed to secure a chicken sandwich for our dinners. Seatmate wasn’t overly thrilled with tonight’s entree selections. As he reminisced about the fine hot chicken dinner he’d had on his last flight up from Denver, I recalled a fine crusted halibut I’d received last year.

Seatmate was an MVP Gold who flew all over the west auctioning off repossessed cars. He’d just sold one hundred and five of them this afternoon in Denver and was due in Sacramento tomorrow to auction off another seventy five. I enjoyed chatting with him and of course it was interesting to hear some of the antics people come up with in an effort to hoodwink the people sent to repossess their cars. I remember sitting next to a fellow on a flight between Anchorage and Seattle back in 1986. He worked for the leasing arm of American Express and had been sent up to Anchorage to repossess a 737 from Markair. Some of you may remember Markair – a carrier that started out serving local Alaskan markets in the early 1980s. As such, it was a nice little airline but when it expanded and started serving routes like Seattle to Chicago and Denver to Newark or Atlanta, it quickly devolved into a rather desperate and downtrodden operation. Anyway, Neil Bergt, the owner and president of Markair, blockaded the aircraft in a hangar and refused to let this guy have it. All he could do was go back to Albany and address the matter in the courts. As for Mr. Bergt, he got to fly the airplane for another couple of weeks.


30 December
SEA-ANC 530p-805p ALASKA 737-4Q8 N785AS First Class * Dinner
ANC-FA), USA - Alaska">FAI 1045p-1138p ALASKA 737-900 N306AS First Class

After a fine lunch and a mini shopping spree in Seattle’s University District (I scored a couple of great used CDs!), I arrived at SeaTac at 3:30pm and was relaxing over coffee and banana bread in the Boardroom just a few minutes later.

We had a full load up to Anchorage tonight and boarding was a long process. Interestingly, the aircraft for my Anchorage flight this evening was N785AS, the exact same plane that took me into Seattle last night. That flight continued on to Ketchikan and terminated in Juneau. Evidently the aircraft flew JNU-KTN-SEA-SMF this morning before departing Sacramento at 3:00pm and heading back up to Seattle and on to Anchorage. No doubt it will operate one of Alaska’s many late night ANC-SEA flights and so be back in Seattle by tomorrow morning.

Drinks and dinner orders were taken just prior to pushback. I opted for a Bloody Mary and the breaded halibut. Here are tonight’s dinner choices:


DINNER

To Begin
Fresh spinach salad with tomato and jicama.
Offered with Balsamic Olive Oil Vinaigrette

Entrees

Sun Dried Tomato Crusted Halibut
Accompanied by Lyonnaise yams and sautéed asparagus

Chili Beef
Presented atop vegetable rice pilaf and
Served with a medley of green, red and yellow bell peppers

** *** **

Dessert
Alaska Silk Key Lime Pie

** ** **


By the time we finally got airborne, it was 6:20pm, forty minutes after our scheduled departure time. No announcements were ever made from the cockpit regarding flight specifics – rare for Alaska Airlines.

Not long after take off, I vaguely recall hearing a distant announcement from back in Coach about some kind of chicken sandwich with a holiday cookie. Meanwhile, my Bloody Mary had arrived and seatmate and I engaged in some interesting discussion about his life working in the oil fields up on Alaska’s North Slope. Negative 100 degree or more wind chills on occasion during the winter months and plenty of insects to keep one company during the summer. Three weeks on and two weeks off. His home away from Alaska was outside Reno, Nevada.

Dinner arrived and was quite good. I only wish that the halibut were accompanied by a sauce of some kind, preferably a spicy sauce. Of course, I took a picture of the meal with my usual explanation that I intended to send it to a United stew who was curious about Alaska’s inflight catering. This pretext adds enough legitimacy to the activity that nobody finds it all that strange. Even if it is. . .

The rest of the flight was non-eventful. I had a coffee with Baileys and managed to bring this report up to date just as the announcement was being made to stow all electronic gear and prepare for landing.

After we’d landed and parked at the gate, I overheard a number of people comment upon how warm it was as they disembarked. The temperature was 24 degrees. It’s good to be almost home.

N306AS, a shiny long 737-900 did the honors up to Fairbanks this evening. Those First Class seats on Alaska’s –900s are much nicer than those on the older –400s. Not only are they more comfortable but they seem to have another inch or two of legroom as well. Forty-one minutes later, we landed amidst swirling snow with temperatures in the teens. Ah… there’s no place like home.

** *** **

Thankfully, Alaska has maintained its three-course dinner presentation on the Seattle to Alaska routes. The dinner services to/from Denver appear to be catered exactly the same as the West Coast services. In essence, what was once a hot dinner has been reduced to what has been the standard luncheon/snack offering on the West Coast for the past couple of years.

Surprising though it may seem, I honestly think most frequent flyers will simply accept these changes as yet another adjustment in an industry gradually evolving towards the Southwest model. Domestic First Class will always be available, but may someday be a lot closer to a Business Class such as Air Tran is offering.

** *** **