Privium ClubLounge in Amsterdam
For most people being stuck at the airport is a real drag. Even though I can easily be entertained for a few hours, if I am in one more than 4-5, I will start getting grumpy. Uncomfortable seats, expensive food and no one who seems to give a darn. Unless of course, you have access to an airline’s board room.
I have flown a lot in my life, yet I have had very little experience with airline board rooms. Either not racking up enough miles with one airline or constantly flying airlines that don’t even have a board room. I have always felt they were elite and out of reach for a middle class traveler. I wanted to check out the board room experience inside and out and luckily Alaska Airlines was more than happy to have me.
I learned that although being in the board room feels like an elite experience, you don’t need to be wealthy to experience it. I visited Alaska Airline’s Board Room at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport twice in one week: The first to see what it is like as a passenger and the second, to roll up my sleeves and go behind the scenes to see what it is like to work as a concierge.
reLAX, enjoy some snacks and the view
This experience will be in a three part series with this first introduction looking at boardrooms in general, the second part showing what it is like as a passenger, and concluding with the experience as an employee.
Airport lounges allow passengers to have a first class experience at the airport. Most are airline-owned or shared through an alliance. Many larger and legacy airlines will have lounges all over the world, but most low cost carriers will not provide any.
For the most part the lounges provide a quieter environment for passengers to relax or work, free food and drinks and direct access to top notch customer service. Most airport lounges are restricted to people with yearly or lifetime memberships, elite frequent flyer members or those flying in first class. Some airlines will allow passengers to purchase one-day passes to enjoy all the amenities, but not with a long-term contract.
Alaska Airlines Board Room in Seattle, WA
Now, you don’t need to go through an airline necessarily to access first-class airport service. A while back I took a look at reLAX at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), which gives you board-room-like service, but it is not attached to any airline. You don’t need VIP mileage status or big bucks to be treated like a rockstar. You just need a few bucks and some extra time at LAX. I checked back in with them and things have been going well. They have seen 50,000 visitors since they opened in December 2008 and are planning to expand to other cities in the near future.
So what is it like to be a VIP and go to the exclusive airport lounge? You are going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out, when I blog about the passenger experience at Alaska Airline’s Board Room!
A Day In The Life Of’¦A Board Room Concierge
PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | ALL | PHOTOS
Images:
Privium by WytzeNL
ReLax by ReLax
Alaska by AirlineReporter.com
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 and Allegiant Air MD-83 in Las Vegas
Who doesn’t want more flights to Hawaii? Alaska Airlines recently announced they will be starting service from Bellingham (located about 1.5hrs north of Seattle right by the Canadian border) to Honolulu starting January 7th.
The fact that Alaska is continuing to expand their flights to Hawaii is not surprising, but opening a route that most people assume Allegiant will be soon using their new Boeing 757’s on is interesting.
As Dan Webb points out on his blog, Alaska’s press release points out they have amenities included in their basic fares, which seems to be comparing them to another airline that does not, presumably Allegiant.
I wrote to Allegiant to see if they have a comment about Alaska announcement and not surprisingly they did not since Allegiant has been pretty tight-lipped about their future plans. I also spoke with Bobbie Eagen, with Alaska Communications, to see if this move is directed towards the possibility of Allegiant flying the same route and she told me, “The new Bellingham-Honolulu service is a natural progression of Alaska’s Hawaiian expansion,” she continued, “There’s great demand from customers living in Bellingham and the Lower Mainland and adding nonstop service to Honolulu, one of our most popular vacation destinations, made sense.”
Either way, competition is always good for the customer and watching a little airline route battle is good for us airline nerds…Game on!
Image: gtarded
Alaska Airlines flying over Seattle
What are you up to this Monday from 2pm to 6pm? Well if you are in the area of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, come check out Alaska Airline’s Board Room…there will be a special culinary event going on.
This week, I am actually visiting their Board Room twice. The first on Monday to see how one of these special events goes and then on Thursday to get my hands dirty and actually work for a bit in a Boardroom and share what that experience is like. I am embarrassed to admit this, but I haven’t had a lot of experience in airline board rooms and want to learn a little bit more what they are all about.
The event on Monday is free for Board Room members or you can purchase a day pass for only $40. There will be good food and wine for you to sample. If you can make it, be sure to let me know so we can chat!
To learn more, check out their website.
Alaska Airlines 737-800 with special Boeing livery (N512AS)
Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Portland International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Spokane International Airport and Washington State University are working together to promote aviation biofuel development in the Pacific Northwest. The regional assessment is called the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest (SAFN).
The group hopes to examine all phases of developing an aviation biofuel industry and the funding is being split between the involved parties. SAFN will be looking at local biomass sources that can be found in the Pacific Northwest.
“By transitioning to a more fuel-efficient fleet and adopting technology to follow more direct flight paths, Alaska Airlines has made significant strides in minimizing the environmental impact of our flying in the communities we serve,” said Alaska Air Group Chairman and CEO Bill Ayer. “Through this initiative, we are joining other key stakeholders in our region to explore the development of alternatives to jet fuel that could further reduce our carbon footprint.”
The project is starting this month and is expected to take about six months. Air travel currently generates approximately 2 percent of man-made carbon emissions, and the industry has set aggressive goals to lower its carbon footprint, which includes the use of aviation biofuel when it becomes available.
This is only one of several regional biofuel projects that Boeing is currently working with. Curious to find out what Boeing hopes to achieve in this project, I spoke with Terrance Scott, who is with Boeing Environmental Communications. He explained there are four ways to help airlines curb their carbon emissions. The first is product development, where Boeing creates new, more fuel efficient aircraft, like the Boeing 787 and the Boeing 747-8. The second is to retrofit currently flying aircraft with performance packages, winglets and other items. Third is to change the way airlines fly and operate aircraft in order to be more efficient. The last way is the type of fuel used to power the aircraft.
Boeing has helped or will be helping to set up similar regional groups in the Middle East, China, Australia and Mexico. The hope is to create a regional portfolio of fuel sources to create aviation biofuel. Scott told me that Boeing wants to motivate people to find answers, but is not looking to get into the biofuels business themselves. “Boeing doesn’t want to get into the fuel business, but we want to serve as a catalyst.” Their plan is to bring people together, to start talking and working on creating sources for biofuel.
The use of biofuels have already been successfully tested. Boeing has worked with Air New Zealand and Continental to show airlines can successfully use biofuels. Now that biofuel has been proven to be a good alternative to legacy jet fuel, the shift is being made to find a sustainable, economically feasible fuel source. They want to make sure that a fuel source won’t compete with any food source (ie corn and E85).
Most likely any biofuel will cost more than jetfuel today. Would passengers be willing to pay a little bit more to fly green? I think there are some that would, but I am not sure if there would be enough.
http://safug.org/
Image: Axel J
Can you see Mount Adams, Mount Rainier and Mount St Helens in this photo taken from an Alaska Airlines flight? Photo by Rita Harvey.
Rita, a friend of mine, recently flew from Seattle to Chicago on Alaska Airlines. Every time one of my friends fly I tell them to get pictures of the flight (I don’t care about the destination). Most roll their eyes and say, “sure David,” and get me nothing (I’m talking to you Colton — who just came back from Hawaii).
One of the first photos she sent was an amazing photo of Mount Rainier from the plane. I thought it was great, but there was no plane. A true aviation nerd photo will have a plane part in it. Oh, she delivered.
I have spoken with a few different people,including my mother, to determine what mountains we are looking at and I am pretty sure it is Mount Adams, Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens (arrows showing where the mountains are). After talking to a few people and looking at maps, I am 98.5% sure those are the right mountains. If they aren’t let me know, but does it matter? It is amazing.
The the other great photos Rita took (be sure to look at the one with the moon)