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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

#101

Post by njarboe »

dingaling wrote: post #100
njarboe wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earlier in the day, before the eclipse, there were a dozen or more private jets flying over my sister's place into the local airport when the previous days there were none. Some even had to circle (to wait for others to land?). This probably primed my mind about private jets. Then this jet was not just flying straight through but came from the south, turned to the east, and then headed south. Could have been NASA? Th…

Did you do a replay on one of the ADS-B sites? Try fr24.com, you can go back one month without an account I think. Convert your local date and time to UTC. Here you go, jiggle the time slider around a bit. This is for 17:00 UTC, 09:00 PDT, on 21 August 2017: https://www.flightradar24.com/2017-08-21/17:00/12x/44.61,-12... You can pause and click on an aircraft icon for more information. Some will have their registrati…

That is a cool website. I would guess the plane is the one labeled FA7X on this site. Looks like it came from Boeing Field, flew out near Newport on the coast, followed the eclipse path just north of Corvallis out to eastern Oregon, and then back to Boeing Field landing around 10:54am Pacific. It was going fast and at high altitude (about 41,000ft and 430 knots), unlike most of the other planes in the area. Its altitude probably explains why it was the only jet creating a visible contrail. If this was the jet, it shows how bad eye witness testimony can be as it flew almost due east over where I was. The site says its a Dassault Falcon 7X; so a bizjet type plane. No tail number like many other planes shown. A quick google did not get me a list of the planes in and out of Boeing Field that day, but I would imagine it's available somewhere.

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

#102

Post by dingaling »

njarboe wrote: post #101
dingaling wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you do a replay on one of the ADS-B sites? Try fr24.com, you can go back one month without an account I think. Convert your local date and time to UTC. Here you go, jiggle the time slider around a bit. This is for 17:00 UTC, 09:00 PDT, on 21 August 2017: https://www.flightradar24.com/2017-08-21/17:00/12x/44.61,-12... You can pause and click on an aircraft icon for more information. Some will have their registrati…

That is a cool website. I would guess the plane is the one labeled FA7X on this site. Looks like it came from Boeing Field, flew out near Newport on the coast, followed the eclipse path just north of Corvallis out to eastern Oregon, and then back to Boeing Field landing around 10:54am Pacific. It was going fast and at high altitude (about 41,000ft and 430 knots), unlike most of the other planes in the area. Its altit…

Glad you found it. The 7X is popular for eclipse hunters, they can cruise high and stable and have good-sized windows and can take about 18 people with all their kit; they also form their contrail aft of the tail due to the engine location, so less interference for photography.

I have a couple of friends who flew on one over the Faroes during the 2015 eclipse, there were more than a dozen chartered aircraft circling for that one.

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

#105

Post by oh_sigh »

NoPiece wrote: post #53
kyleblarson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alaska is a great airline. I fly about 70k miles per year on them and am very rarely disappointed.

Sat in the back on an Alaska flight to Hawaii and they ran out of food a couple rows before me. Felt like a bad MBA optimization - save $20 on food by under buying at the cost of periodically making a few passenger unhappy for a 5 hour flight.

Any compensation offered?

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

#106

Post by rando444 »

wdr1 wrote: post #68
kyleblarson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You say "simple modifications to tickets", but give no examples. Are you just repeating your earlier accusation of charging for name changes?

At any rate, you just spoke to to someone who didn't know the company policies well enough, Alaska doesn't charge for name changes due to marriage. It's actually the only exception AFAIK. You have to present some paperwork as proof, but it can be done. You just happened to talk to someone who was not aware this exception existed. You could have asked to talk to someone else.

Also, consistent long lines at LAX & SEA? Do you have any suggestion on how the airline has any control over how quickly they can check people in?

Most airlines these days charge for bags, especially for domestic flights.

I don't come to the US often, but in my limited experience I've had a better flight on Alaska than the majority of US based airline providers.

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

#107

Post by Avery3R »

wdr1 wrote: post #68
kyleblarson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For what it's worth I flew with them two days ago and they were still announcing the 20 min bag guarantee. My bags didn't take long either

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

#108

Post by KGIII »

rdiddly wrote: post #78
KGIII wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah. I get it. It was great, like every eclipse is great. And it was visible in America. So strictly speaking it was indeed a "great American eclipse." But not everything that's technically true deserves to be turned into a Cheesy Marketing Buzzword Made Of Wishful Thinking. America is on the down-slide of greatness. You can tell this by taking an honest look around, but also just by listening to the widespread shri…

Yeah, I think you're reading that into it.

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

#110

Post by KGIII »

ethbro wrote: post #80
KGIII wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Based on sokoloff's source, it looks to be a bit under $50k in total cost (to the airline). If you want to run that number by your friends for a 4.75 hr flight in a 737-900ER, it'd be nice to get confirmation. PS: You lucky dog. I've been debating going for my pilot's license.

About $3750/hr. There is also ownership costs which are about $3500/day.

By the way, flying small planes is more fun. With the larger planes, I've been expected to mostly keep it going the right direction. In the smaller prop jobs, my friends don't much care so long as I don't bump into anything.

You don't need a license to pilot the plane. A licensed pilot can let you take the controls. Just hit up your nearest regional and pay the fuel costs and a few extra bucks. Someone will take you up. It does help to have friends with planes and live where that is pretty common.

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