How many planes crossed the total solar eclipse's path? probably a bunch...
Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
41–50 of 124 posts
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#42This is nothing new from Alaska Air. I congratulate them for this! In fact this happened near Hawaii https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/news/eclipse-flig... in 2015.
Alaska is a great airline. I fly about 70k miles per year on them and am very rarely disappointed.
I've been disappointed once with them.
Bought 2 tickets (one for me, one for GF). She was assigned a seat, I was told they don't allot all seats for any given flight and that I would get that seat at the gate. Couldn't change through Alaska Airlines phone/web portal. At the gate they gave me a seat in the very back of the plane since all the other seats had been assigned. It's crazy to me that I couldn't choose seats on purchase - especially when buying 2 together.
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#43How much did the guest have to pay?
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no way that a 737 costs $151/hr to maintain. Small, simple, 4 or 6 seat single-engined airplanes (albeit on the high end) cost that much. Commercial airliners are going to be in the thousands of dollars per hour.
You're right. On closer examination, that's specifically airframe maintenance. So that would exclude engines and probably other important and expensive things.
Good point. I was interested in how much Alaskan had to foot for pure curiousity reasons. I have no idea how much the actual cost of a flight is.
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alaska is a great airline. I fly about 70k miles per year on them and am very rarely disappointed.
What do you like about them?
I love Alaska as well. They have amazing customer support. I was stranded in SF some time ago because someone broke into my car and stole my stuff. I had an onward flight to NYC the next day. So I called Alaska and told them that I needed a flight back home since I can't make it to NYC. The person on the phone without hesitation re-booked me on the next flight back and even refunded the difference. No change fees and no extras. I was flying coach.
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you like about them?
I also really like them as an Airline, and use them often to go to and from Hawai'i. Their staff is usually very kind and the planes are clean. I don't remember the seat sizes.. I am not a 'big' person so not an issue for me (at least yet)
They get the basics right. The seat sizes aren't anything special but that's okay for most people.
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#47Does anyone have pointers on where I could get an estimate on average maintenence costs / flight hour & fuel costs for a Boeing 737-900ER? Interested in working up a rough number for how much this cost to make happen. Can't imagine it was profitable. And very cool! Edit: Per Boeing [1], they quote $151 / flight hour in actual service on a 737-800. Random site [2] gives fuel on a 737-900ER as 0.17 km per litre / 0.40…
> Can't imagine it was profitable.
The comments clarify that "This was an invite-only charter, special for the eclipse!", and the images show members of the press, so that was probably never the goal.
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#48Fabulous! I live in Portland and watched the eclipse from my backyard.
I remember seeing a passenger plane way up and thinking "I wonder what it looks like from there."
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#49Is anyone else bothered by the term "American" eclipse? I don't think astronomical events have any notion of nationality.
I object to the phrase "great American" because it's hackneyed & trite.
Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right. On closer examination, that's specifically airframe maintenance. So that would exclude engines and probably other important and expensive things.
Good point. I was interested in how much Alaskan had to foot for pure curiousity reasons. I have no idea how much the actual cost of a flight is.
I'm curious too. I wish I had something more concrete than "it's much higher than that." The best bet may be to look at charter prices, then divide by some small factor (2-4?) to account for profit margins and the better economies of scale an airline will have and such.