Johnny Jet's Travel Tales

Travel: Alaska Airlines San Diego to Seattle and Portland 2/19/2002-2/21/2002

This is the little airline that can. I was really impressed and wowed by the in-flight service of Alaska Airlines. I tried the Web Check in and printed up my boarding pass off the Alaska Airlines site and so zipped through security and got cleared for boarding almost right away. I had received some upgrade coupons from my friend Jerry (thanks Jerry!) and they were fully transferable. The only annoying thing about my company is that I still require a hard copy airline receipt, so I still had to breeze by the counter. No line and very friendly attendant… and when I go ton the plane - an MD 80 - I found it to be a little tired, but the flight crew was happy and ready to go. What really impressed me that despite the relatively short flight, there was a full dinner offering in first class and a snack in coach. (You won’t find that on any of the major carriers). Okay so what you say? We started with beverages and snacks, then was offered the salad course. (Hearts of palm, tomatoes and romaine lettuce). After I finished this, the salad plate was whisked away and my entrée of baked halibut with teriyaki sauce, glazed carrots and rice was then brought out separately with some warm wheat rolls. When I was finally done with this, the chocolate cheesecake and Seattle’s Best Coffee ended the meal. This whiled the time away and I can’t say enough about the quality and portions, let alone the friendliness of the crew.

Seattle was absolutely beautiful on arrival and actually had a lot of business to complete. I did get to stop at the Boeing Store at Renton to pick up some souvenirs and memorabilia. My outbound to Portland was on board a Horizon Air CRJ-700. Nice leather seats with headrests and a very comfortable short flight. Even though it was a 40 minute flight, we got tortilla chips, bottled water or apple juice or some pale ale! The meal service on the return flight from Portland to San Diego was just as good as the outbound - salad followed by a pasta with Italian sausage, and apple cobbler for dessert. Again, all separate service.

While I stopped in Portland, I had a quick meeting and so I had to grab a quick dinner at the Rose City restaurant at the airport. Not a bad restaurant for an airport, but the best thing is to stop in at the infamous Powell’s Books, or Brookstone right in the concourse. Powell Books is the largest independent bookseller and it’s said that if you can’t find what you want there, you can’t find it anywhere! What was a real bummer was the security line at PDX, with only 3 out of 5 screening checkpoints open. It’s probably the worst line I have encountered in recent weeks. Now if you are commuting between PDX and SEA, there are express lanes at both ends.

If you fly MD 80’s, then you know the cabin space is very very tight, and getting overhead luggage can be problematic. However, if you’re up front, and you need to check luggage, it actually shows up at the gate and not in baggage claim. I was skeptical, but when I turned my bag over, it was brought up to the top of the jet way by the baggage handlers. Great if you’re not wanting to wait for the luggage at the carousel. Alaska rates as # 1 in the food service category of late, even on short hops as well as friendliness of staff. Maybe it’s a Pacific Northwest thing, but even when I was pulled out for secondary screening, the two gentlemen were polite, friendly and very knowledgeable. They even knew about the CRJ and the fact that they were the newest additions to the Horizon fleet and they told me about the headrests!

Next log: SAN/SFO/SAN on United and SAN/ATL/TPA/ATL/SAN on Delta