Darn you snow! Why you gotta ruin my Starship flight?
I was hoping this blog would be talking about my Beechcraft Starship flight, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Yesterday I got up at 3:45am to get packed and ready to head from Seattle to Denver to Aspen to meet Robert Scherer and his Beechcraft Starship NC-51. I knew there was a storm going through the Denver/Aspen area and had been watching it closely. When I was leaving all flights were still running on-time, so I flew down to Denver. When I landed I had an email from Robert saying it was snowing hard there, but we would try out best — I was starting to get worried.
After a short conversation, we decided to try our luck and I started waiting for my Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Aspen on a Bombardier Q400. I was hoping that if the Q400 could make it in, the Starship most likely could make it out. So far my flight and the few others flights heading to Aspen were running on-time. So far, so good.
Then my flight was posted 30min late. Okay, I can understand that, it could be running late due to weather, that seems normal. I was feeling okay about the delay, until I caught a glimpse of my Q400 sitting on the tarmac, covered in snow. This means that the plane was not running late, but they were waiting on weather either at Denver or Aspen — not a good sign.
I decided to hang out in the main terminal since the regional aircraft wing seemed a bit warn down and not as nice to be in. Because of this, I was checking my phone every five minutes looking for additional delays. About 45minutes before its origional scheduled time, the flight got cancelled. Went to the reader board and saw that every flight throughout the day was cancelled to ASE as well.
When talking to Robert the weather had gotten worse there and since I have work on Monday, I decided I had to call it quits and try to make my way home.
Bummer. Super bummer. It has been since April 2009 trying to set up this flight and got pretty darn close. Luckily I was able to make it to a Frontier customer service counter quite quickly and was put on a flight back to Seattle for free, scheduled to leave in just 30 min. I got the last seat on the plane – a window seat none-the-less – so I am grateful for that. Not that I wouldn’t have minded being stuck in Aspen with a bunch of fresh snow.
Robert was disapointed as well and is willing to try this out again. For most people, it would be a waste of a day and money to just fly from Denver to Seattle and back, but it makes a nice day for an airline nerd. Yea it totally bites I had to pay for my ticket to Denver and then lost my ticket from California back home, but it was totally worth it for a chance at the Starship. You can expect a review of flying Frontier quite soon and hopefully a blog talking about my Beechcraft Starship flight.
My Quest to Ride on a Beechcraft Starship:
IDEA | CONNECT | TOUR | FLIGHT-PLAN | FAIL | FLIGHT | PHOTOS | VIDEO
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800 about to leave Bellingham for warm Honolulu.
Bellingham is located about an hour and a half north of Seattle and about fourteen miles south of the Canadian border. Over the past few years Belingham International Airport (BLI) has been growing tremendously. Friday was an exciting day for the airport and Alaska Airlines. Even though Alaska and their sister carrier Horizon Air have been flying out of Bellingham to Las Vegas and Seattle for quite sometime now, Alaska has now started non-stop service to Honolulu (HNL). They will fly to Honolulu and back once per day using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Alaska started their first flight to Hawaii in 2007 and now has eighth west coast cities connecting to the islands of Hawaii.
“Alaska Airlines is proud to call the Pacific Northwest home. So we’re delighted to offer Bellingham its first-ever nonstop scheduled service to Hawaii,” said Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing. “Our new Honolulu flights will allow travelers from north of Seattle and the Lower Mainland to take advantage of our low fares, award-winning service and Mileage Plan earning opportunities via an easy-to-access, nearby airport.”
Flying to the state of Alaska has become huge for the airline. I was able to talk to Bob Derse, Regional Manager of Sales and Community Marketing in the Northwest and he explained when he started with Alaska about 30 years ago, 80% of seat miles were flown to and from the state of Alaska. Today there are only about 16% of the seat miles flown to Alaska and 15% being flown to Hawaii. Derse, the other local Alaska personnel and the airport’s personal were all very excited for this flight. Of course all of their excitement was nothing for the full plane load of passengers who were waiting to head to Hawaii. Well, actually it wasn’t a full plane. Due to weight and range issues, the flight will be flown with 10 empty seats. That is a win for passengers, since this means there will be quite a few empty middle seats, making the flight more comfortable.
This guy is loving the idea he is heading to Hawaii!
I asked Christina Aldanese of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau if Hawaiians thought it odd to fly on planes to the west coast of the United States on an airplane that has “Alaska” on the side. She explained that Hawaii and Alaska states have a sort of sisterhood with both not being a part of the continental United States and the last two to join the union. Many folks going to and coming from the islands truly appreciate the additional flights that Alaska has provided.
Since this was such a big (and fun) deal, Alaska wasn’t going to let this happen with out some special treats. Passengers were greeted by employees in Hawaiian garb and were given a special party bag, food and drink. After going through security, there were Hawaiian decorations and more food and drink at the gate. Before boarding, there was an Hawaiian blessing done with a gentlemen in Hawaiian garb chanting and splashing water from a bowl with what looked like braided seaweed. He started from the gate and went through the plane and back inside. It was quite entertaining to see. While he was doing this there was an Allegiant flight that was de-boarding and I don’t think I have seen so many looks of curiosity from passengers.
There were plenty of smiles coming from people as their boarded the aircraft, knowing in a few hours they would be in Hawaii. Although Alaska is the first airline to fly from Bellingham to Hawaii, they most likely will not be the last. Allegiant has announced they plan to commence flights out of Bellingham, but their ETOPS certification of their new Boeing 757’s have been delayed, causing the flights to be pushed to at least 2012. This will give Alaska time to market their new route and start to build a loyalty for passengers flying from northern Washington and southern British Columbia to Honolulu.
To help you celebrate, Alaska is offering special discounted tickets for quite sometime. You can fly to HNL from BLI for just $149 each way — hmm, maybe I can take advantage of that.
MORE GOODIES:
* My photos of the Alaska Airlines event
* Video from KOMO4 News
Being in the middle means you can miss out on some sweet views.
It is hard for me to remember the last time I flew in the middle seat alone. Sure, I have sat in a middle seat when flying with someone else and being the nice guy, I let my travel partner have the prime seat. It has to be five, maybe even ten years since I actually sat in the middle seat between two total strangers. Well, that is until two days ago when I got stuck in the middle seat on my four hour Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle, WA to Austin, TX.
Normally I am quite vigilant on getting my window seat. If I don’t get one when I buy the ticket, I keep on trying. First, I will keep checking my reservation every few days to see if an aisle or window opens up. If that doesn’t work, I will arrive to the airport early and check for a better seat. In this case neither of those things worked.
I was even willing to pony up another $100 bucks for a gate upgrade to First Class, but that wasn’t an option either. What kind of Airline Reporter am I stuck in the middle seat? I know a third of passengers on a full flight will be in the middle and thousands of people fly in the middle seat everyday, but man it just sucks. Oh well, I figured it would give me a unique perspective and if I had a bad enough experience, maybe even a blog.
First off, Alaska Airlines had nothing to do with non-fun experience. Actually everyone with the airline were very nice and the service was great — it actually made the flight endurable. It is nice that Alaska seats having an adjustable headrest which allowed me to get a little shut eye without head bobbing into the person next to me.
Okay, maybe being in the middle seat is a bit worse for some than others. I am 6’1″ and about 250lbs, not a small guy. I can manage to stay in my seat comfortably with others sitting next to me the same size or smaller. Of course in this instance, the person sitting to my left wasn’t smaller than I was — quite the opposite. To my right was a younger woman who felt she owned half of my room. Argh, here we go.
The flight had Wi-Fi, but no way was I getting my laptop out (even though it is a small one) to try to do any work. I had a hard enough time just sitting up against two other people. I felt a lot like T-Rex, having to make little arm movements to do anything like read my book or eat my snacks.
The worse part was the woman at the window closed the shades before we left the gate and didn’t open them until just before landing. That is so annoying. I can spend a whole flight just staring out the window, but oh no all that natural light and beauty just gets in the way of watching some lame movie on your laptop (breath David, not everyone cares about the view).
Just because I love airlines, flying and traveling doesn’t mean I love every flight. Although a bad experience, things could be much worse. When I was getting ready to get off the plane a gentleman behind me started talking to his seatmates about Afghanistan. I turned around and he was in Army uniform and saying how happy he was to be home. He was sitting in the middle seat and didn’t seem to care at the least. So, although the middle seat does suck, things could always be worse.
Southwest Airlines tail at Oshkosh 2010
Southwest Airlines is at it again, doing some innovative things. This time they are announcing a new and improved rewards program for frequent fliers. Their Rapid Rewards plan was already a bit different. Most airlines you collect miles. The longer the route you fly, the more miles you get. The old Southwest Rapid Rewards program was based on flights. You fly eight round trip flights, no matter the amount of miles and you get a free trip. Now, the new Rapid Rewards program will be dependent on the amount of money you spend on your ticket. Hmm, interesting.
If you decide to buy a Business Select ticket, you get more rewards. If the cheapest tickets are all sold out and you have to pay more, at least you can feel a bit better knowing you will get more rewards. This is not a bad idea at all.
’œThis year we enter our fifth decade of giving Americans the Freedom to fly, and what better way to kick off the year than to introduce a new frequent flyer program that our Customers are going to LUV,’ said Southwest’s Chairman, President, and CEO Gary Kelly.
If you already have an account and awards, do not worry, you will not lose them when the new program goes live on March 1, 2011. There are no black out dates and every seat can be a rewards seat. So if you have earned a free ticket and there is a seat left on the flight — it is yours.
To learn more, check out Southwest’s site that is dedicated to the changes: NewRapidRewards.com.
Airplane Geeks just posted their 129th podcast and the first for the 2011. I felt honored to be invited on to the show to talk about some pretty interesting topics:
* Continental says no to add 70-passenger regional jets by United
* Is China’s fifth generation fighter, the J-20, real or a fake?
* Looking at the recent death of deregulation king Alfred E. Kahn
* We talk about our favorite stories of 2010 and what to look forward to in 2011
These are a great group of guys who talk aviation every week. Be sure to add them to your favorites!
