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Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

blog.alaskaair.com

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Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#61

Post by KGIII »

mikeash wrote: post #50
ethbro wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you ping me tomorrow, I can try to get you those numbers. I know a bunch of pilots. They'll even let me fly the plane. I'm sure they will have some sources but it's too late to bug them tonight.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#62

Post by KGIII »

asteli wrote: post #5
brndnmtthws wrote: post #3

Is anyone else bothered by the term "American" eclipse? I don't think astronomical events have any notion of nationality.

There are lots of examples of Americentrism, but I don't think this is one. The eclipse was basically only visible from the United States. For reference, here's the chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SE2017Aug21T.png

I am seated beside the Ambien Wallrus and we both agreed that image moved. We watched it for a good five minutes. It's not just me, the Wallrus confirmed it.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#63

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

rbg246 wrote: post #55
crunksht wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Calling it the 'Great American Eclipse' is fair because it crossed over the entire country coast to coast making it accessible to just about every major population center by car. It was also only visible in America. That's pretty neat.

The title really rankles me -it was a brilliant eclipse and it was an eclipse only viewable in America, I understand this completely but it still rankles possibly irrationally. I am not opposed to calling things American when, like I am not opposed to calling the 20th Century the American Century but there is something deeply annoying in claiming an astronomical thing as one's country. It's like a form of possession…

You should ideally be more annoyed at a century being called the American century because it's insulting to all the other people and nations who also existed and were doing their shit. On the contrary, the eclipse literally did not exist for those outside America.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#64

Post by eesmith »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #16
colecut wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the first Total Solar Eclipse to be seen over North America since the 70's...

First total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous U.S. since 1979. Not first over North America if Mexico is in North America. Mexico in 1991.

The August 1, 2008 total eclipse started in northern Canada.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#65

Post by KGIII »

rdiddly wrote: post #49
brndnmtthws wrote: post #3

Is 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.

This is America. You can complain, if you want. You have that right. We also have the right to laugh at you. It was a pretty great eclipse.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#66

Post by bennyg »

WaxProlix wrote: post #56
bennyg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That's just not factually true, as well - I fly on Alaska all the time and pick a seat each flight. Usually you get your choice from a restricted list on purchase and then can pick from a more open list on check-in.

Except... it happened to me. Maybe because I bought through American Airlines, since it was AA operated by Alaska.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#68

Post by wdr1 »

kyleblarson wrote: post #22
limeblack wrote: post #18

This 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'm guessing you have status with them? Almost every airline is great once you have status.

Personally, I hate Alaska. I fly ~2/month & avoid Alaska if I can. My wife's family is from Seattle, so sadly, they're unavoidable around the holidays.

Some grievances:

* Ridiculous fees. Before we were married my wife booked two flights for after we were married. She changed her name & realized that would cause a problem with those tickets. Southwest made the name change without a fuss. Alaska charged us $100.

When we protested & explained she had gotten married, the agent responded: "Every airline does this." "We just did it with Southwest & they didn't charge anything." "We don't consider Southwest competition."

* Alaska’s 20 Minute Bag Guarantee felt like a sham. It's no longer running (I believe), but multiple times my bags took over 30 minutes. Each time it took nearly an hour to get someone to give a voucher. And the vouchers are very limited.

* They charge for simple modifications to tickets.

* They charge for bags.

* Consistent long lines at LAX & SEA.

* Older planes. Both coach & first are C+ compared to other airlines.

* In-flight personal aren't as bad as United, but they're certainly not nice. Southwest & Virgin set the bar here & Alaska is far from it.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#70

Post by rbg246 »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #63
rbg246 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The title really rankles me -it was a brilliant eclipse and it was an eclipse only viewable in America, I understand this completely but it still rankles possibly irrationally. I am not opposed to calling things American when, like I am not opposed to calling the 20th Century the American Century but there is something deeply annoying in claiming an astronomical thing as one's country. It's like a form of possession…

You should ideally be more annoyed at a century being called the American century because it's insulting to all the other people and nations who also existed and were doing their shit. On the contrary, the eclipse literally did not exist for those outside America.

But it is equally also not something you owned that is the only point I am making - noone is saying 'literally' it's the world's eclipse, it just rankles when someone takes possession of something they do not own - rational or irrational. Perhaps something more interesting to explore would be me and 10 others in the thread above think that way.
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