Alaska Milk Run - Semi live

Hallo zusammen,

Ich werde versuchen, semi-live von meinem Trip nach ANC zu berichten. Da ich das auch auf meinem (privaten, nonkommzeriellen) Blog veröffentliche, der text in English.

Due to other commitments, I have cancelled a number of trips in the past months. One of the trips I always referred to as 'postponed' and not as 'cancelled' is the "Alaska Milk Run" up the coast from Seattle to Anchorage. I've never been to that part of the world and I believe it would certainly be worth while staying a bit.... my schedule however did only allow for a short weekend trip. Luckily, I managed to get premium cabin seating on the long hauls due to my airline miles so the whole would be a comfortable, albeit long run.

The "milk run" is a commercial flight from Seattle to Anchorage that connects the cities alongside the coastline; so it stops many times en route. Due to time constraints, I had to take a flight that stops en route between Seattle and Juneau and from there on goes directly to Anchorage. Other highlights of the trip are planned to be: Experiencing Lufthansa's new business class, flying on a seaplane, visiting a friend in Anchorage, steak lunch in Denver, Lufthansa's First Class to Munich and visiting the new first class lounge facilities in Munich. That's a lot of program for less than three days, but the fun prevails!

Before leaving for Alaska, I was in the German Rhineland area. From there, I took a train on the pittoresque "old" Rhine route to Frankfurt. Weather was good and autumn was in full swing - the best time of year to travel that most beautiful route.





In Frankfurt, I met a fellow doctoral candidate for dinner and then spent the night in one of the hotels at the airport. Anticipation was growing on Friday as my flight to Vancouver was getting ready for boarding. After a bit of shopping at the airport, I boarded LH's flight 492 bound for Vancouver. During online check-in, I was able to select seat 4D, the only single seat on the plane (no neighbour)!



the view from seat 4D



the best seat in the house

Having bought inflight internet access, I am not only able to write those lines in flight, but also managed to check-in for the milk run tomorrow. Well, not for the segment from Vancouver to Seattle, but for the flight from Seattle to Anchorage. Luckily, I could get my hands on a cheap upgrade into (domestic) first for tomorrow on a window seat.

Here's an overview of the total route. I intend to report as I move along.

Weiter gehts, mit YVR und einem seaplane - Ausflug nach Nanaimo

The flight got into Vancouver with a slight delay and I was through immigration in no time. My hotel for the night is in the terminal and I did not only get an upgrade, but also a room with a view on the tarmac.



Could even see the LH 747 that got me here from my window.



The room even featured a plane spotting guide, how cool!

Timing worked out well, since I had made plans for the afternoon. Fly in a seaplane! The hotel was even so kind as to offer me a complementary transfer to Vancouver's South Terminal in a BMW X5. South terminal is where the seaplanes take off. I had booked a return trip to Nanaimo, and on check-in enquired whether I could occupy the co-pilot's seat. The captain was ok with that and I had, once again on the same day, got the best seat in the house. Weird that it is still the same day (thanks to time difference), it feels more like yesterday that I left Frankfurt.

I spent some time walking around the seaplane 'terminal' and could also watch a seaplane being pulled out of the water.



Once my flight was ready for boarding, I introduced myself to the captain. The flight itself took about 20 minutes (one way), in Nanaimo there was just enough time to check in and get the boarding pass for the return. No security checks needed. For the flying part, I let pictures speak....













Right after landing, the hotel's BMW came to pick me up and take me back to the airport / hotel. Unfortunately, I couldn't check in online for tomorrow's 06h00 departure to Seattle, so it will be a short night / an early morning tomorrow. Tomorrow will feature the flight to Seattle and from there on the Milk Run to Anchorage. After meeting friends in Anchorage, I will take a red-eye flight to Denver where I should arrive very early Sunday morning.



Edith sagt: sorry, dass die Bilder 'falschrum' sind..... ich bin nicht so der Experte - auf meinem Blog werden die selben Bilder richtig rum angezeigt.....

Online check-in für YVR-SEA war zwecks dokumentenprüfung nicht möglich. Beim c/i nach einem upgrade bis SEA gefragt, Preis ca 50$. Auch wenn es nur ein kurzer Hüpfer ist, habe ich Geld schon dümmer ausgegeben; also zugesagt.

Systemseitig konnte meine cc nicht abgebucht werden, also versuchte man den imprinter (aka ritsch-ratsch); allerdings waren keine Formulare da..... Das Ende vom Lied - das upgrade nach SEA ging aufs Haus. Somit sitze ich heute bis ANC 'vorne'.

Vielleicht ist das der Wehmutstropfen für das Wetter. Aktell (04:00 local) schüttet es.... Hoffe, dass es nachher auf dem Weg nach Norden was zu sehen gibt

After an early evening and a short night, I got up at around 2h30 am local time. Thanks to jet lag, that was no problem at all. I got to Alaska Air’s check-in counter at 03h30, just before they opened. Since the airline had to check my documents, online check-in was not an option. At the counter I enquired about the price for an upgrade into first class on the short segment to Seattle. It seemed reasonable and I decided to go for it. Their system couldn’t process my credit card, so they got the good old imprinter as back-up. When they realized that the respective forms were missing, they let me go and the upgrade was on the house. This means that for the whole trip, from Frankfurt to Zurich I was sitting on the highest available class on all flights; not bad!

After check-in I got to security which only opened at 04h00. Thereafter I had to undergo the US immigration procedure using the kiosks and then wait until 04h30, when the immigration officers came on duty. I was at the front oft he queue, in the ca. 20 minutes that I waited, a remarkable amount of people were queueing behind me. The flight to Seattle was short and uneventful. After the luck I had yesterday, the weather unfortunately was not nice. It was raining both in Vancouver as well as in Seattle.



Alaska Air flight 65 left Seattle on time, the view was not nice at the beginning.



The first stop was Ketchigan, a bit more than 2 hours north of Seattle.



inbound traffic



After a short stop where most of the passengers got off and others boarded, the flight departed for Wrangell, where we landed after some 20 minutes.



Here, only few people left and joined. From Wrangell, it was a short flight to Petersburg.




Slowly, the weather improved as we made our way up north. In Juneau, the last stop en route, the clouds were broken and the sun even came through





From the tarmac, through the open aircraft door, and later once airborne, I could even see the impressive Mendenhall glacier.



The plane left Juneau for the last segment of the flight, up to Anchorage.; the northernmost point I have been to so far. Where the clouds broke along the way, beautiful mountain ranges and glaciers could be spotted.

What an interesting experience to be on the Alaska Milk Run. Overall, I had spent almost 9 hours on board Alaska flight 65 since it left Seattle, landing at four airports en route.

Alaska's 737 Combi in Anchorage



Whilst the initial plan was to head back to Seattle about 3 hours later, I changed that when re-scheduling the whole trip. After meeting friends in Anchorage I will take a red-eye flight to Denver and from there catch Lufthansa’s flight to Munich on Sunday after noon. That will be two consecutive nights on an airplane.

We had a nice evening in Anchorage with dinner in town. I got to the airport for my 23h50 flight to Denver and - thanks to the jet lag - fell asleep at a bar in the departures lounge. I felt sorry for the poor waiter who was quite worried when having to check on me.

I managed to sleep quite a bit on the flight to Denver where I arrived at 6 a.m. Once there, I had my very first AirBnB experience. Denver International doesn't offer lounges with showers. Since I had a 10 hour layover however, a solution was needed. I booked a room with an AirBnB host in the airport vicinity, and instead of staying for the night, I negotiated a transfer from the airport and to the local rail station. And, of course, the opportunity to shower at their place.

Denver had beautiful weather and I spent the morning walking around the city. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too well so the steak lunch had to be cancelled in favour of a chicken broth. This one did its job however and I soon felt better. Some impressions from Denver on a Sunday morning:







Before noon, I headed back to the airport with plenty of time to roam around there, look at Food and Beverage concessions and catch up with my reading. The plane to Munich soon arrived.



Again, I had the best seat in the house. Even though First Class was booked to capacity (8/8), service was friendly and professional; just as it should be.



After having the 'mandatory' caviar, I went for starters only and then had the bed made up. After all this flying and hopping through time zones, sleep was needed. I managed to sleep for about 6 hours, how refreshing. We arrived in Munich on time and I headed for the new First Class Lounge in the new satellite concourse. With a (planned) layover of about 4 hours, a relaxing bath was just what I needed.



After quick lunch and writing those lines, I decided to move around the terminal, before flying to Zurich, my final destination.

Mr. Hard meinte:

Sorry, wenn ich hier den Spaß verderbe, aber ich finde es schade, dass sich hier nicht die Mühe gemacht wird, den Bericht auf deutsch zu schreiben. Dazu kommt, dass die meisten Fotos verkehrt herum sind, was auf mich wirkt als sei dieser Beitrag einfach nur so eben dahin gerotzt.
Da hätte ich es als besser empfunden, wenn man diesen Beitrag hier eingestellt hätte: http://www.vielfliegertreff.de/reis...-zu-reiseberichten-ausserhalb-des-forums.html

Nur so meine zwei Pfennige

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

Genau das hatte ich beim letzten Mal gemacht, da hiess es, kopier den Bericht doch hier ein...... Bin ja selbst kein einfacher Zeitgenosse, aber Recht machen kann man es euch auch nicht.

Wer den/die Edith oben liest kann erkennen, dass ich mir des Problem mit den Bildern bewusst bin, aber keine Lösung dazu habe.

Wer's übrigens nicht lesen möchte wird ja auch nicht gezwungen. Meine zwei Rappen

suedbaden meinte:

Ich sag's mal auf deutsch: Danke für den Bericht. Aber kannst Du die Fotos richtig herum einstellen?

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

Alle Bilder 'gleich herum' mit dem Telefon aufgenommen, im Blog stehen sie auch richtig rum. Warum das hier nicht klappte, weiss ich leider nicht.

Mr. Hard meinte:

Das Thema ist ganz einfach, der von mir genannte Thread ist extra geschaffen worden für Leute mit Blogs, die nicht bereit sind sich ein wenig Mühe zu machen um dem Forum etwas zurück zu geben.

Sorry, aber es wirkt eher weniger, als wolltest du irgendwen hier mit dem Bericht bereichern, sondern wirkt eher mehr so, als versuchst du bewusst Traffic auf den Blog zu ziehen. Was nicht kommerziell ist kann es ja noch werden.
Kann mich natürlich irren.

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

Ja, da irrst du.