{"id":4907,"date":"2020-08-22T22:59:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T14:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/?p=4907"},"modified":"2021-06-06T06:57:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T22:57:49","slug":"20200822as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/22\/20200822as\/","title":{"rendered":"Flight Log of Alaska Airlines Flight 1 and 121 from Washington DC to Anchorage via Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"

A late summer trip to America’s last frontier. The outbound flights spanned an entire day, with me spending the few hours of layover at Space Needle in Seattle. In addition, this post will focus on the summits and glaciers along the way that kicked off my trip.
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\"Mount<\/a>

<\/br>Mount Rainier<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ticketing<\/span><\/h3>\n

The wilderness of Alaska had long been on my travel bucket list. Even more so for some of my friends. This year, due to COVID, there had been plenty of award flight spaces to\/from Alaska. So in early May, we booked American Airlines’ 10k per one-way web special award in late August between Washington DC and Anchorage, looking to spend about a week exploring the touristy-Alaska, which consisted of Seward and Denali.
\nAfter that, things had changed and COVID had become more prevalent in Alaska, leading some of my friends to cancel the trip. And about 2 weeks before our trip (The timing couldn’t be any better as the promotion required 14-day advance purchase.)<\/span>, Alaska Airlines started a buy-one-get-one-free promotion to boost load factors. Best part of the promotion was that it didn’t raise “original” prices before discount, and it applied to almost all routes within its network. At the time, one-way fare between Washington DC and Anchorage was already at an unbelievable 145 dollars. So, without much hesitation, we snatched this set of ticket. (American Airlines waived award redeposition fee during COVID.)<\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, one would earn at least 3777 Alaska Airlines miles for such a one-way flight averaging 80 dollars per person. It would be a rather tempting mileage run route if not for COVID.<\/p>\n

Testing Requirement<\/span><\/h3>\n

As of August 2020, the State of Alaska required out-of-state visitors to get a PCR COVID-19 test “within 72 hours of their departure to Alaska” and showed negative result upon arrival to avoid any kind of quarantine.
\nOur flight to Seattle departed at 8am EST, and the flight to Anchorage at 1:50pm EST. Out of abundance of caution, we took the test at about 3pm on August 19, past the second departure time. Our test result only had “sample taken date” of August 19, without a specific time, but the health screener at Anchorage Airport seemed okay with this and waived us okay without asking any additional questions.<\/p>\n

AS1 to Seattle<\/span><\/h3>\n

So on the morning of August 19, we took an Uber to Washington Reagan National Airport. The check-in and security screening went smoothly. Without much sitting around, we were boarded.<\/p>\n

\"Alaska<\/a>

<\/br>Alaska Airlines A321neo in Special Livery<\/br><\/p>\n

Alaska Airlines liked to send 321neo to Reagan National Airport. This plane’s heading for Los Angeles. As much as I’d like to fly in one of these special liveries, it’s a standard one serving our flight to Seattle for the day.<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n

The flight to Seattle was about half-full with a few empty rows. Alaska Airlines had been blocking middle seats in times of low load.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Legroom<\/a>

<\/br>Legroom of Seat 27A<\/br><\/p>\n

The promotion applied to standard economy, which came with free seat selection. This was arguably the best “standard” economy seat of the entire plane. Due to a nearby emergency exit, there was no seat in front, resulting in such ample legroom.<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n

Soon after that we had a perfectly on-time takeoff.
\nHere’s GPS tracking:
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