This Alaska Airlines First Class Fare Is Tempting...

Hmmm, I just qualified for BA silver on a recent trip to Europe and 4 long haul biz segments would give me enough tier points to qualify for the reduced Gold qualification. As my tier pt year just started, that's almost two years of Oneworld Emerald. I have Emerald from another airline expiring soon, so assuming the Qantas lounge in LAX opens soon, I might have to do this flight.

As a long time AS FF I have seen and flown these fares from time to time OGG to PDX $299.00 First was my favorite. I have flown that route before and it's a long hard flight but then that was for business.

Having said that did you check the fare searching with your AA number or AS ? The fares are much different when searching with AA fares.

Happy New Year

If you are into beer, the Alaska Beer and Barleywine fest will take place the last weekend of January in Anchorage.

As for the Northern Lights, yes, Anchorage is not the place to go, but there are many AS nonstops daily to Fairbanks.

I'd just skip the Alaska part of the trip and just go to LA or Seattle. Nice fare for Tampa to LA/Seattle.

Go skiing at Alyeska, 45 minutes drive from the airport

I suggest you check out Girdwood and Whittier. Parts of kenai peninsula fairly close to Girdwood. Talkeetna is beautiful.

Why bother? Didn’t you just buy millions of AA miles?

So the 85K miles is determined from:
PlatPro Choice - 25K
EXP Choice - 2 x 30K - 60K

The award says "includes extra 5K bonus miles for cardholders".
Does the "includes" mean:
1. Included if you choose that reward? ie 30K +5K for cardholder
2. Included in the amount of 30K, so the reward is 25K +5K

Traveling from Florida to Alaska in the middle of the winter with short hours of daylight??

Lucky - Why not credit to Alaska instead so you can get OneWorld Emerald thru them and thus get access to AA Lounges while traveling domestically?

Sounds like the more valuable option considering you just "bought" millions of AA miles and Alaska miles are always valuable.

posted this in the AA exec plat group last week. TOTH to me!

@Lucky, did you do the Finnair 200k mileage buy?

I scored two of the ANC SEA TPA LAX ANC round trips in coach of 309 in mid-January. Midweek is a virtual certainty for a FC bump. It was a toss-up with EWR, but TPA won as they have a Starbucks 🙂

A good ol' fashioned Lucky MR which made me love this blog! Looking forward to hearing your reports!

737-MAX9
.... not 1 Million Miles could get me on that plane!
For NO reward i would get afterwards would i ever fly that plane.
787-8 same thing.
Looks like Lucky is a no risk, no fun Guy?
I'm too old for that i guess?

Go for BA Sapphire...
580 Tier Points from TPA-FAI (TPA-SEA-JUN-ANC-FAI-ANC-LAX-TPA) for $747
https://www.premiumcabindeals.com/2021/12/as-tpa-to-fai-for-747-and-earn-580-tier.html

But didn't you buy over 7 million AA miles? Not sure why you'd want to spend so much time in domestic first class for a "measly" 85k additional miles...

Please realize that Alaska First Class seats are not lie flat seats and only recline, if that makes a difference.

I would rather take the gamble and ask to upgrade to first class when checking in. It's usually less than booking it right out the gate.

I know head of Anchorage Tourism bureau well and recently attended a session with them. There are lots of cool things. I’m going there in March probably for the Iditarod races. Msg me and I’ll get you in contact with them! PS they tell me you CAN see northern lights then.

Answer myself - I looked up under Elite benefits it is is the lower amount (- 5K). I guess it only showed the total (30K) when I looked in my AA Wallet - since it knew I had an AA CC.

had a trip scheduled this fall. no rental cars at all available and once they did become available, they were a fortune. maybe better luck in the dead of winter?

Greetings from Anchorage. One can't predict when the Northern Lights will occur weeks to months in advance, generally just a few days in advance when there's increased solar flare activity. They can be seen in Anchorage although Fairbanks and the surrounding area may offer better viewing and a greater chance of clear weather. The World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks run 2/14/22 - 3/31/22. Chena Hot Springs Resort near Fairbanks offers year-round swimming and has the Aurora Ice Museum. There's also a newly opened Hyatt Place in Fairbanks.
There are also ice sculptures to see in Anchorage during Fur Rendezvous beginning the last week of February.
For the dates you listed Salmon Berry Travel & Tours offers a 9 hour day tour (including pick-up in Anchorage) to go dog sled riding on a 6-mile trail near Talkeetna, north of Anchorage, with views of Denali (Mt. McKinley). Winter and early spring are generally the best times of the year for clear weather around Denali. This has been a cold, snowy winter in Anchorage so the sled riding should be good. If staying in Anchorage, the Hyatt Place currently offers a better breakfast than the Hyatt House.
By the way, I haven't been able to log in to Questions and Answers since the new site went up. I keep getting an error message. Can you help me with this?

I live in Anchorage. Great fare. I checked and it is available both ways on limited flights. The Northern lights are best seen from Fairbanks.

First Class on Alaska is vastly overrated. Compared to Delta First Class, Alaska is stingy in its service. But for $372.00, it's certainly better than steerage.

Isn't just plane spotting at Anchorage worth the trip?

Thanks, Ben! It's a solid fare. There were some limited options to break the legs. I would much prefer an overnight in SEA between TPA and ANC for the recliner seats. 3x fare earnings essentially for EQDs or EQD-equivalent on AA

Long time lurker / occasional poster here. I’ll be staying with my parents in Tampa for Feb & March. Would be fun to plane spot at TPA or meet up for drinks at some point. Let me know!

It’s annoying at the bottom of your email and web posts it includes completely outdated and expired article links.

I'm searching Google flights but best I'm seeing until end of Feb is north of $740. We got in from TPA-SEA-FAI J flights last night (don't ask the fare - it was highish).

All 4 segments were 739s ... Quite comfortable and doable...I'm 53 and quickly get uncomfortable but it wasn't so bad. Add in AS J service and very survivable. Combine this with the 10% off Alaska airlines cards just bought, I'd jump on these dates in a second.

Yes Fairbanks was cooooold and yes we got a glimpse of the northern lights.

You could fly to Fairbanks to see the Northern lights and fly back to Anchorage the next day. Check into Chena Hot Springs or visiting North Pole, AK. Both are in the Fairbanks area.

Ben — with AS joining the OW alliance, I'm curious if you've considered going for Emerald status with them (ie. 75k or 100k)?

IMO (and as many of your articles state), the #1 benefit to EXP and PP with AAdvantage is OW emerald status.

With AS joining, would their program give AA a run for their money? I average around 80k butt in seat miles in a non-pandemic year. As a flyer based out of a non-AS hub, the math checks out for me as I'd effectively give up the PPro choice benefit for the qualification bonus on AS. Even as a non-AS hub flyer, I visit the west coast enough that I should be able to hit the 12 segment requirement next year.

I've matched over and am enjoying the AS service + product much more than the AA one.

Curious if you and other AA flyers have considered this. I imagine for people with 120k BIS miles each year, the AA choice benefits probably make it more worthwhile.

The Lake Hood float plane base next to ANC airport is well worth a visit in winter. The lake is frozen over with a snow topping and there are lots of ski-equipped light planes coming and going. I was impressed.

Go during last two weeks of February or start of March for FurRondy (winter carnival and world sled dog championship) or Iditarod (iconic sled dog race). As mentioned on here, an add on flight to Fairbanks for Northern lights and Chena Hot springs is only another $90

Fly to Alaska then ski for a day. The bragging rights are always fun. If you arrive the same day you can ski for free with your AK Air boarding pass. If your flight arrives at 12-2 am go to Girdwood later that day and ski for the afternoon. You can demo new equipment or just get a pass and take the tram to the top of the mountain. Enjoy the glaciers and view from up there while drinking a cocktail in the bar. If you have reservations to Seven Glaciers you can enjoy an amazing meal too. Midweek only and a few blackout dates. Available Jan 4-April. The tram is down for repairs now but should be back up soon.
My daughter and I are flying to RSW in January for a quick Alaska mileage run, Disney day, lunch with grandpa. The flights were so cheap and then 22% off as well last week.
There’s also Hawaii. Maybe not first class all the way but you could loop to Alaska and then take the nonstop to HNL, KOA or OGG from Anchorage on your way back home. Flights from there back to the mainland are really inexpensive.

I booked a first class ticket on my birthday from Missoula to Oakland and Oakland to Missoula paid for the ticket to Alaska air lines and the put me in coach and NEVER DID THEY RECTIFY THE DIFFERENCE SO UNTIL THEY DO I WILL NEVER FLY ALASKA AGAIN AND I WILL TELL THOUSANDS OF MY ASSOCO

Anchorage gal here - winter is an excellent time to visit! January 28 & 29 is the beer and barleywine festival - we make some wicked brews up here ( https://www.alaskacraftbrewandbarleywine.com/). You can see the lights from here if they are good and January through March are pretty good times for clear skies. You can always throw in a flight to Fairbanks from here to see the lights but then you also get the real negative temps. Or if you can wait until first weekend of March, the Iditarod does the ceremonial start the first Saturday of March in Anchorage and then takes off from Willow on Sunday. But we have a full week of fur rondy activities that are a hoot - running with the reindeer, the outhouse race, etc etc

I'd wait til summer for a milk run - they aren't as much fun as I think they were when they actually did have the supplies on them, but you do get some great scenery. I think the milk run Juneau to Ketchikan is more scenic.

Have an elegant meal that takes a while to enjoy. Next have a brandy (or two) with coffee. Sit back and relax with a good book or magazine. If you have lots of time to fill, take in a movie, maybe a double feature. Go to the cafe bar and socialize. If you have lots and lots of time, hire an Uber or Lyft driver and see the city . ♥️♥️♥️♥️

A gruelling twenty or so hours in domestic first on Alaska sounds horrific yet entertaining. I think you should bear the pain for our entertainment!

Don’t do it Ben. Alaska isn’t going anywhere.

Go to Hatcher Pass to view Northern Lights. Just about 55 miles outside Anchorage.