With my daughter at camp for two weeks and my son on an adventure with my parents, my wife and I had about 10 days all alone for the first time in ages. So, we decided to go visit some friends who lives on Orcas Island in the San Juans, so far north that it sits north of Victoria thanks to a sharp turn at the border. After looking at all the options, we settled on flying Alaska up to Seattle and then taking a Kenmore seaplane from Lake Union (which I’ll cover in a future post). We would then come back to Seattle for a couple days, and finally we headed to Medford in Southern Oregon just to see it, because why not?

I had reached 10,000 elite qualifying miles on Alaska, and that meant I got a little bonus. I could have chosen several useless things like 750 non-elite miles or I could get MVP elite status for two weeks so I could get a taste of what was to come. I chose the latter. With my newfound elite status, I was excited to see just how better the drinks tasted, how much sweeter the recycled cabin air would be, and how superior I would feel to everyone else onboard.

We were originally booked on a flight at 9:50am up to Seattle but that was a very short connection on to our seaplane. So, I did a same-day change to the next earlier flight at 8am. MVP doesn’t get that for free, only higher levels do. It turns out that was the best $50 per person I’ve ever spent because our original flight was more than 2.5 hours late and we would have not only missed our seaplane flight but the only later one that had seats available.

I was able to select the exit row on the new flight thanks to my status. I did see a bunch of Premium Class extra legroom seats, and I thought I got those for free too within the check-in window. It kept trying to charge me $49 so I skipped it. I tried to call Alaska to ask, but it was an hour phone wait. I just gave up.

The next morning, we took a Lyft to LAX, and after getting through the surprisingly long security line, we made it to the gate about 45 minutes before departure. It turns out that 64B is a terrible, terrible gate.

There isn’t much seating, so people have no choice but to hover. This is part of the original rotunda, so there is just a very narrow walkway through to the more distant gates. So people are constantly bumping into each other and trying to get through. For once, I don’t blame the gate lice.

They called First Class and priority boarding, and I was confused. My boarding pass said group B, my wife’s said group C, but we were also oneworld priority. So once all the priority people boarded, we walked up to ask, and they told us to get on. I suppose I’ll get the hang of this eventually?

Alaska 1179
July 2, 2025

Finally, I had the pleasure of getting an airplane with Alaska’s new seats. This was the airline’s first 737-8 MAX in a small fleet. Our airplane had come in from Guatemala City on the redeye.

The seats were nice and there was plenty of legroom in the exit row, of course. I didn’t love the device holder at first, since it looks like it’s made for an iPad. I couldn’t figure out how to make it work for a smaller device, my phone. Then I saw the guy on the aisle do it so it was very clearly just user error on my part.

We pushed back a couple minutes late but we were in the air quickly, passing through the dying days of “June Gloom” and into the bright morning sun.

I used a T-Mobile free pass for wifi on my phone, and then I turned on my phone’s hotspot. It worked just fine for my laptop. The flight attendants came through with drinks and Biscoff, but I only took the latter since I brought a water bottle with me.

There was a consistent light chop for much of the flight but the seatbelt sign never came on. Kudos to the pilots for not overreacting to a couple of minor bumps.

As we got closer, Mt Hood, Mt St Helens, and Mt Rainier came into view. We passed to the West of the airport, went north and then circled around to land.

I hadn’t been to Seattle’s N gates since they redid them, and it was very nice in there. But it was also jam-packed, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

After lunch at a brewery on Lake Union, we took a quick Uber to the Kenmore terminal, but again, you’ll have to wait for that report. Instead, let’s skip ahead to after we got back and had a couple days in Seattle. Next stop was Medford.

We’d never spent any time in Southern Oregon, and it seemed like a good place to explore. This time, we were on a Horizon-operated flight.

The day before travel, I checked in on the app and saw that we were impossibly low on the upgrade list. We had preferred seats, meaning no difference in the product but they hold them back for regular people to have to pay to reserve. Premium was not going to happen on this ride. Again, I showed up as group B while my wife was in group C. I don’t get this. Am I supposed to just board without her?

We took the light rail from downtown to SeaTac and walked our way into the airport. It was pure chaos.

Alaska’s lobby area is under construction, so there are only counters alongside the window. The narrow corridor was overwhelmed by people. Since we didn’t need a counter, we just kept walking until we found the TSA Precheck line. Seattle’s reputation for long lines was upheld.

The Precheck line had snaked out into the corridor in front of the counters, as you can see above. Nobody knew where to stand, but someone eventually showed up with a sign that said “end of line” that they paraded around. For the first few minutes, there were people trying to cut into the line since it didn’t look like much of a line at all. But eventually we entered a long queue in a sea of stanchions that would have made Disneyland proud.

It took a remarkable 25 minutes before we got to the other side. Once on the other side, the terminal was packed.

We didn’t have far to go since we were going from gate C2G, one of the many regional gates clumped together that require walking down to the ramp to board. Somehow we found a seat behind a giant post in the boarding area, and that’s when I got the text that our plane would not have wifi or entertainment so we better download.

I didn’t care for such a short flight, but I was sad to see that this was because of a last minute airplane swap. We were supposed to be on the purple-clad University of Washington aircraft, but now we were on a regular liveried aircraft. It turns out the UW plane was late coming out of Portland so they swapped us to another one to keep us on-time.

Boarding began about half an hour before departure. They called for “priority” again, and I walked up as I had in LA, but this time they said no, that was something else. Why would you have two things named “priority”? Anyway, once they called the B group, we both walked on.

This required going from C2G all the way down toward the beginning of the regional gate area, then we went outside and walked down the ramp.

At the bottom was a six-doored ground-level boarding corridor, and we were at the end at door four.

Once there, we had to again show our boarding passes to be scanned, and then we could finally get on the airplane.

Alaska 2052 (operated by Horizon)
July 7, 2025

Onboard it looked like any other Alaska-branded Embraer. We took our seats in row 12 which once again had misaligned windows as expected. We pushed back right on time, and it wasn’t a long taxi before we were in the air.

We took off to the north on a spectacular summer day, and then we turned toward the west before heading south to Medford. The flight attendants did a beverage service, and I had ginger ale and some pretzels. Since this was a shorter flight, they said it was a limited service with no food and no alcohol.

I just read my book as we chugged south, looking out the window every couple of minutes to spot the still snow-dappled mountains dotting the horizon.

We weren’t at altitude for all that long before we started descending. It was a nice ride into the Rogue Valley area along the west side. We then went south of the airport and circled around to the east, landing to the north.

We parked at gate 3 and then walked off into the scorching heat. After a few steps up at the terminal, we were inside the compact box. We just had to get our rental car and then we were off to explore for a few days.

The night before we were set to come home, I realized I hadn’t checked in. So, I went on to the app, and then… wait… what?

In the shock of all shocks, my wife and I had been upgraded to First for the flight home. Look at that MVP status paying off. It did say we had no seats, so I clicked through and found the two seats in row 4 available. I grabbed them and… it errored out. But apparently that wasn’t a real error, because when I actually checked in, the seats were there and we were ready to go. What a nice surprise.

We got to the airport about 1.5 hours in advance and dumped the rental car. We had picked up a lot of stuff along the way on this trip, and we were out of room. So we had stopped at Walmart and bought a $40 suitcase which we easily filled. The plan was to check that bag, but once we got upgraded to First, we figured we’d check our carry-ons as well since there was no cost. So we used the new iPad bag-checking solution which worked perfectly.

We then handed our bags off at the counter. After that, we had no trouble getting through security.

The Medford airport terminal is a rectangular box, and it seems to be getting up toward capacity. If we had more time, we would have gone upstairs to the airport restaurant, but instead we found a couple empty seats in the waiting room and hunkered down.

I have to say that I did not like the repeated announcements that Margaritaville was pouring free margaritas in the baggage claim area. I mean, I would have loved it except there’s no way I was going outside security to get one. The announcement was meant for arriving passengers, but, well, we all heard it.

The plane came in from San Diego on time and then had to fight with American’s Phoenix flight to get people off and into the terminal through the same door. (There’s a gate 1A, 1B, and 1C that all go through the same spot.) The American plane was operating 10 minutes earlier, so it boarded first. But when it was finishing, Alaska started. It was a little confusing for a couple minutes as people got in the wrong line on either side of the door. Here we are all grouped together.

They called priority, and this time we were included. The boarding pass showed “PRI” on it… but it also says oneworld Priority. It’s so confusing, but I get it now.

We walked out to the door for 1A and then got on the airplane up the ramp.

Alaska 2091 (operated by Horizon)
July 10, 2025

It was comfortably cool onboard as we were cheerily greeted by Sasha, the flight attendant who would be serving us up front.

The flight boarded up quickly, and we pushed back a couple minutes early. Sasha brought boxes of water for those who wanted them as we taxied out.

The planespotting in Medford had been, unfortunately, very good while we were there. Monday night brought a line of very strong storms full of lightning that set off a number of fires. So the next couple of days, I saw DC-10s, BAe-146s, MD-87s, and C-130s constantly flying in and out. As we taxied, I had a great view of the two DC-10s taking a break.

We got up into the hot afternoon quickly, and made our way through the thermals until we got up above them and turned around. The view of Medford was breathtaking, but as we kept going south, it got depressing. The smoke thickened down below, and we could see multiple fires burning as we climbed away.

Sasha came through and took drink orders, and I had a scotch.

She then came back with a snack basket with salt & vinegar chips, lemon-covered almonds, and something else which I didn’t take and can’t remember. Sasha was very attentive, working the cabin with an effortless smile. She did a fantastic job.

It was a very nice day to fly, and as we made our way south I really wanted some of those pretzels they only serve in coach. The next time Sasha came by, I asked if I could get a bag, and she said that was no problem at all. She soon showed up with the pretzels and another scotch.

During her downtime, Sasha chatted with us. She’s from Hawaiʻi so we talked about that for a bit. Soon enough, it was time to prep the cabin for landing on a surprisingly clear summer day. Here’s LAX:

It was an uneventful descent and taxi after landing at LAX. We parked right at the same gate where our trip had begun eight days earlier. Sasha gave my wife and I a hug as we got off the airplane, and we both left with a smile after that flight. By the time we got to the carousel, the bags were already out.

The next day, my temporary elite status expired. I loved the upgrade on the way home, of course, but I have no expectation that this would be a regular thing for someone with lowly MVP status. It is nice to be able to pick those preferred seats for free, but I could also just pay a little for them. And free checked bags? I get that with the credit card. But it was nice to have a complete and total air of superiority over the peasants surrounding me. Just kidding. Sort of.