Flyover Friday- Family Edition...

Mrs. CruisingAltitude and BabyFlyer take in the view of Puget Sound from Row 2.

Just stopping by to put up a bonus post to end the week.  This 'flyover' pic is from a recent trip to Seattle to visit my family and introduce the our newest traveling companion, BabyFlyer.  She's been a pro from the start, even if we're still working out the details of flying as a family of three.  It's a whole new world for sure, and I plan on doing a baby travel-centric post with my experiences and tips in the future. 

For this trip, we booked a mixed itinerary, a one way award ticket on Alaska using our AA miles in First, and the return in economy on American for an impressive $58 each on account of the new LAX-SEA route that AA has brought back recently.  As an added bonus, we cleared our upgrade at 100 hours out for the return, so we essentially had two round trip first class tickets for a $116 cash outlay.  Add in a stop at the new(ish) Centurion Studio at SEA, and you've got a fun and relaxing travel experience.  Or, as relaxing as traveling with a 4 month old can be :)

Happy weekend, everyone!

~CruisingAltitude

Still airborne, in good company...

First off, wishing you a late happy new year. I'll admit I started and didn't finish several entries over the last few
weeks but finally buckled down today and put this together. And yes, getting to "100,000" is everything I hoped and more :)
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So, here I am again on a flight from Seattle/Tacoma back to LAX after a short weekend at “home.” I haven’t been as good at updating here in the new year. Would you believe that its because I’ve been too busy flying?

No? Well, it was worth a shot.

I’ve been doing some rather long distance flying, necessitating some short nights and long Mondays. This weekend, however, is turning out to be a nice break from that. Thanks to Alaska’s multitude of flights between these cities, not only was I able to take an earlier flight without paying a change fee, but as a bonus I got a nice bit of exercise on my brisk run through terminal C. I ascribe both of these benefits to, as well as the above, my cunning use of FlyerTalk.com, along with its community of ultimate flight mavens.

Let me go back now and explain. Earlier today I realized that I had cut my airport timing a little close (or so I thought at the time) and spent some time trying to figure out how to shave precious time off of the check-in process. Now usually I wouldn’t even think twice about this, knowing how much time it takes and counting on the short(er) AA priority access lanes. However, as I have before ranted on about, American Airlines does not fly between LAX and SEA, choosing instead to codeshare with Alaska. Hence, all of the hard-earned benefits I generally expect (upgrades, club access, priority access and boarding, etc) are no longer available. Further, SEA can have some killer lines.

Enter FlyerTalk.com …

This website is home to the travelers who know it ALL….seriously. They also in large part are the rare breed who consider travel to be the goal in and of itself. These are the people who can put me to shame, the ones who think it completely reasonable to fly an itinerary from BOS-LAX-BOS-ORD-SAN-BOS without leaving the airport, or to fly for a week and sleep 5 of the nights on planes, especially for events such as DEQM. What’s that you say? This acronym doesn’t just jump right off the page at you as blatantly obvious? DEQM is the magical pot of gold at the end of the frequent flyer rainbow, the piece de resistance that tops off the airline calendar, the mysteriously announced “Double Elite Qualifying Mile” offer. A DEQM offer near the end of the elite qualifying year especially will lure these flyers into “milage run” itineraries that make the average person airsick just thinking about.

But I digress…DEQM will do that to a person… *breathe* Okay, as I was saying before, I was wondering how to get to my flight in SEA quickly. To that end I logged on to FlyerTalk.com and asked if anyone had a suggestion and was nearly immediately rewarded with several replies. One in particular read: “Keep you BP (boarding pass) in your pocket and go to the elite lane at the far right hand end, show the first officer your AA EXP (Executive Platinum) card and if they give you any trouble say the ticket counter told you it was fine.” Good advice. I followed it to the letter and successfully line-jumped, getting through security early enough to take the 2:15 instead of the 3:00 (with a little terminal jogging, but hey, I won’t need to go to the gym today.)

The moral? There isn’t one really. But if one were to exist it might be that perhaps even the most scattered of people, the ones who spend so much time seemingly isolated on planes racing around the world, and jumping from one rental car to another, still manage to be there for each other at the drop of a hat…or the click of a mouse.

Well, we’ve begun our decent so it’s time to sign off. Thanks for reading, and special thanks to my anonymous advisors today, hope sometime I’ll know enough to return the favor.

Time and again....

Well…. It’s been almost a full week since I was at LAX. It’s good to be back (sort of). This weekend I’m not traveling just for the miles at least. I’m going home, or at least, to my original home. I grew up on an island north of Seattle, the type with 5 acre zoning, big trees and very small towns. It’s one of those places that’s paradise if you’re under 12 or over 30. Since leaving such a peaceful setting I’ve been in major cities long enough to appreciate my hometown’s quiet and safely, but not long enough to feel ready to go back full time. Though still I don’t think there are many more beautiful things than a sunset reflecting on the water and mountains over Puget Sound.

In other news, today I had the good luck to plan my flight so I could arrive to LAX via helicopter (a small…or large… job perk). Further, my pilot was indulgent and took a bit of time to go the scenic route over the beach so I could take some photos of the coast, as well as over LAX. I’m always struck by how the airport looks like a child’s toy train set from 1,500ft, with all the taxiways you can’t see when you’re moving between them. Today it was pleasantly clear in the LA basin, as we had a rare windstorm this morning that cleared the usually hazy skies over the city. The mountains (yes with snow) were in view, as were the hills all the way out to Malibu.

But enough about the quite short flight to the airport. I’m currently waiting for my 6:30 flight to Seattle/Tacoma in terminal 3. I usually balk at being sent away from the American terminal where I have all the usual amenities. However, when flying to Seattle there’s no choice. American codeshares on Alaska, and there’s no two ways about it. However this didn’t stop me from putting up a valiant, and I thought perfectly logical, fight last time I was here with the check-in counter at the Alaska Air “board room.” Its Alaska’s version of the Admiral’s Club, and I thought that it seemed perfectly obvious that when I booked a ticket on American and got “stuck” over in terminal 3 they should gladly welcome me. They did not agree. The woman behind the desk smiled calmly asked if I had Delta’s “Crown Club.” I explained that I booked American and got put on Alaska, but they didn’t buy what I was selling. I ended up slinking away and eating a California Pizza Kitchen salad on the floor of the terminal. Well, not really “on the floor”….but they were short of seats.

Long story short- live and learn. Today I didn’t even try, and am happily seated at the Northwest themed seafood restaurant, where the waitress has nicely convinced me to try the Cosmo. It’s good, but a little sweeter than my usual vodka before flying. Speaking of drinking and flying, I have a little-known travel secret to share. I’d usually withhold this tidbit, but since I’m confident not too many people will read this I’ll go recklessly ahead. Here it is: Alaska has the easiest upgrade policy of any airline I know. For shorter flights, all you have to do is go to the desk upon your arrival and ask for it. Seriously. There is a small charge based on length of flight, but if there’s a seat and you want it it’s yours. This policy is quite unlike most of the major airlines who basically want your firstborn child for a seat in the front of the plane. So I’m just tossing that out there, please use the information wisely.

Well… the restaurant is filling up, and my flight’s about to start boarding so I’m off. I’ll hopefully be posting this, and pictures from my flight to LAX when I’m safely on my island enjoying the clean air, and some peace and quiet.