Who knew that Sacramento could be as rainy as Vancouver?
My last business trip took me to Sacramento.
The whole journey started somehow on the left foot: initially I was supposed to go to Oakland. I booked my trip with Alaska Air. Because I could not find a non-stop flight I chose the next option: one stop.
To make the long story short, my trip was canceled. I phoned Alaska to notify them and they were very nice and mentioned that I would be penalized $75 but I can use the credit within a year, to book any trip to any city served by Alaska.
Sweet! I was happy with the arrangement and kept wondering if our national carrier, Air Canada has anything like this?
About ten minutes after the cancellation, I was told that I had to leave for…. Sacramento this time.
OK, back on the net, I found the best option for leaving and returning Vancouver: Sunday at 1 PM, returning Tuesday at 3 PM.
A short conversation with another Alaska Air agent finished the booking; I used the credit and everybody was happy.
On a pretty decent Sunday- not too much rain in Vancouver- when everybody had a nice family lunch, I was getting ready for my first leg of the trip, the flight to Seattle. That proved to be bumpy, in a small Bombardier plane, served by Horizon.
Luckily the flight was short, about 30 minutes in the air. Arriving at Seattle, I had the surprise of finding that I had to take the train towards gate N. That was NOT in my itinerary. I was not supposed to change terminals and knowing that I would have avoided the route because I am a nervous Nelly. Everything proved to be much easier than I expected. I mean, compared to Pearson Airport in Toronto, where you have to take a bus to change terminals, the Seattle train even had information written and spoken in Japanese. But you still have to pay attention to the announcements.
Next step was to take the plane to Sacramento. I left enough time between flights to accommodate any possible delays, due to bad weather.
This time, the plane was a Boeing big enough to fly at 30,000 ft and avoid turbulences. As on any domestic flight, you are offered snacks and non alcoholic beverages, including coffee for free. No lunch.
The plus was getting the pillow and blanket free of charge. If I am not mistaken, not all air carriers offer these basic items for free anymore.
Arriving at Sacramento Airport my first impression was weather related.
It was cold, windy, overcast, very much like Vancouver. In my mind ‘California’ was supposed to be sunny, full of palm trees and happy people.
I guess I had it all wrong.
Returning back home everything was fine until I reached Seattle, where the flight was delayed almost three hours due to some mechanical problems to the plane. I was not happy at all. Instead of arriving at 2 PM I arrived at 5 PM, right in time to start fighting the rush hour, in Richmond on a rainy day.
Everybody who lives in Vancouver knows what ordeal that is.
Conclusions:
Alaska Air is a good carrier and I understand now why one of my colleagues has a membership with them.
The tickets are cheap and the service very good.
As an International Traveler you can enter your passport data on line and therefore you don’t have to be seen by an agent at the airport.
As well, you can do your check-in from home, if you have a carry-on baggage, print your boarding pass and voila, you are ready to go, hassle free.
