Connecting Flights at SEATAC: Enough Time?

[namaste1223]

Hello all-

I'm getting ready to book flights for an Alaskan cruise/land trip. We'll be flying (after 6pm) from Newark to Seattle on July 8 and returning from Fairbanks to Newark on July 27, likely connecting through Seattle. We're leaning towards using United for EWR to SEA and SEA to EWR (times work for us and we're close to having enough frequent flyer miles to use after this trip if we use United). However, we don't want to use United from Fairbanks, likely requiring a plane change in Chicago.

If we take Alaska Air from Fairbanks to Seattle, is it risky to allow only a two hour layover (4:05am - 6:05am) between the Alaska and United flights? Since Alaska and United aren't partners, am I correct that the tickets would have to be separately booked and ticketed? We will probably have a checked bag.

Many thanks for any advice or other suggestions!

[em-sk]

Hello all-

I'm getting ready to book flights for an Alaskan cruise/land trip. We'll be flying (after 6pm) from Newark to Seattle on July 8 and returning from Fairbanks to Newark on July 27, likely connecting through Seattle. We're leaning towards using United for EWR to SEA and SEA to EWR (times work for us and we're close to having enough frequent flyer miles to use after this trip if we use United). However, we don't want to use United from Fairbanks, likely requiring a plane change in Chicago.

If we take Alaska Air from Fairbanks to Seattle, is it risky to allow only a two hour layover (4:05am - 6:05am) between the Alaska and United flights? Since Alaska and United aren't partners, am I correct that the tickets would have to be separately booked and ticketed? We will probably have a checked bag.

Many thanks for any advice or other suggestions!

 

Two hours is reasonable for a domestic connection. you don't go through security again and there are little underground trams that connect all the terminal buildings.

 

You want the trip on one ticket. Alaska and United will interline with each other, that means the flights can be issued on the same ticket and checked baggage will be transferred between the two airlines.

 

If you have the trip on one ticket that means if the first flight is late and you miss the connection Alaska is responsible to protect you to your final destination and they absorb all costs associated with rebooking you.

 

If you are on two separately issued tickets you have to deal with transferring the bags yourself and you are not automatically protected if there is a problem with your connection.

 

Many airline online booking systems can't handle interline tickets. Calling the airline they are able to issue an interline ticket, all travel agencies and travel agency sites (e.g. Expedia) can issue interline tickets.

 

You may also want to look at Delta. They have building up their Seattle hub over the past few years.

Edited April 21, 2016 by em-sk

[Gardyloo]

No idea if you want/need another credit card, but be aware that the Alaska Airlines co-branded Visa card (Bank of America) will get you 25K Alaska miles at signup (Alaska is partners with numerous airlines including American, Delta, BA, KLM, Air France, Emirates...) but also will give you an annual $99 companion certificate - buy any ticket using Alaska Airlines for the going rate (including discounted fares) and a companion rides along for $99 ($120 after taxes.) Only works with all-Alaska itineraries, but bookable on any flights.

 

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/credit-card/visa-signature.aspx

[namaste1223]

Thank you, em-sk and Gardyloo for your advice.

I will call United and inquire about interline flights. I'm also reconsidering whether it would be easier to just use Alaska Airlines for the trip home. United's flight times work better for us going, but returning home, using Alaska Air would give us an extra 35 or so minutes between flights. I'm more comfortable with 2 1/2 hours versus 2 hours. There's very little price difference doing it this way; We'd just lose out on the FF miles returning home. But, if we get the AA Visa card, we can begin building FF miles on a new network and save annually on a second ticket to boot!

 

Gardyloo, what did you mean, that the Alaska Airlines Visa card would work only with all-Alaska itineraries, but are usable on any flight? If we fly on Alaska Airlines to a non-Alaska destination next year, will the companion ticket be valid?

 

Never mind - I think! I reread your reply yet again after I posted this and suddenly a light bulb went on! You didn't mean all-Alaska itineraries as in travel to the state of Alaska, but rather all-Alaska Airline flights, correct? Duh! Good thing there's an edit option!

 

Again, many thanks to you both.

Edited April 23, 2016 by namaste1223
The light just dawned...

[Gardyloo]

Gardyloo, what did you mean, that the Alaska Airlines Visa card would work only with all-Alaska itineraries, but are usable on any flight? If we fly on Alaska Airlines to a non-Alaska destination next year, will the companion ticket be valid?

 

Never mind - I think! I reread your reply yet again after I posted this and suddenly a light bulb went on! You didn't mean all-Alaska itineraries as in travel to the state of Alaska, but rather all-Alaska Airline flights, correct? Duh! Good thing there's an edit option!

Yes, I realized that my answer was possibly confusing.

 

You can use the credit card for anything, of course. The companion fare is only good for itineraries in which Alaska (or its regional subsidiary Horizon) is the only airline used. In other words you can't use it for a trip that has Alaska Airlines for one flight and, say, American Airlines for the next.

 

But Alaska (Airlines) flies to a lot of places, including Hawaii and Mexico, so for people flying from the east, it can make for a pretty decent savings. The user of the companion fare gets full mileage credit, by the way.

[em-sk]

Yes, I realized that my answer was possibly confusing.

 

You can use the credit card for anything, of course. The companion fare is only good for itineraries in which Alaska (or its regional subsidiary Horizon) is the only airline used. In other words you can't use it for a trip that has Alaska Airlines for one flight and, say, American Airlines for the next.

 

But Alaska (Airlines) flies to a lot of places, including Hawaii and Mexico, so for people flying from the east, it can make for a pretty decent savings. The user of the companion fare gets full mileage credit, by the way.

 

Alaska covers a lot of places, however most connections are through Seattle. Not best airline to have a frequent flyer program with if you live in the New York area. That said, they are taking over Virgin American airlines ( a far more useful airline for someone living in New York).

 

You can also apply American and Delta miles to an Alaska Airlines frequent flyer program.

[frugaltravel]

If you end up using United miles for the flight from SEA to EWR and book a separate ticket from Fairbanks to Seattle, there is no way you can have both flights on one ticket. End of story.

 

Having said that, if you are using miles from SEA to EWR with United, it only costs about 5K more miles to add Anchorage-Seattle on United to the same ticket. Then in that case you would only need to buy a less expensive Fairbanks-Anchorage flight on Alaska Air.

 

If you took up Gardyloo's suggestion (unlikely it would work well if you are talking about a 2016 trip since it takes time to apply, get approved, get your card and have the companion certificate added to your account), Alaska Air does have Fairbanks to Newark connections. Yes they would go via Seattle but for the price you would pay with one person only paying about $125 including taxes, I would definitely do the connection in Seattle. With any airline/connection from Fairbanks to Newark you are going to have to change planes at least once and very likely twice anyway.

Edited April 24, 2016 by frugaltravel

[cruisequeen4ever]

United is notoriously late to/from Alaska, so I definitely don't recommend that route. I personally would not feel comfortable switching airlines at SeaTac with 2 hours in case of delays. Alaska Airlines flies here (Alaska) almost on the half hour, so they know Alaska and do Alaska really well. Do Alaska Airlines the whole way; it'll eliminate loads of stress, and there are so many back-up flights if anything goes awry.

 

 

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[namaste1223]

Alaska covers a lot of places, however most connections are through Seattle. Not best airline to have a frequent flyer program with if you live in the New York area. That said, they are taking over Virgin American airlines ( a far more useful airline for someone living in New York).

 

You can also apply American and Delta miles to an Alaska Airlines frequent flyer program.

 

Does that also mean that Alaska Airlines FF miles can be used on tickets purchased from American or Delta since they're in the same program?

[namaste1223]

United is notoriously late to/from Alaska, so I definitely don't recommend that route. I personally would not feel comfortable switching airlines at SeaTac with 2 hours in case of delays. Alaska Airlines flies here (Alaska) almost on the half hour, so they know Alaska and do Alaska really well. Do Alaska Airlines the whole way; it'll eliminate loads of stress, and there are so many back-up flights if anything goes awry.

 

Good point. As you can tell from my questions, we don't fly very often. Now that my husband has retired and I'm anticipating retirement next June, hopefully we'll remedy that situation. I was very proud of myself for booking flights to and from Lucknow, India two weeks ago. We connected both ways in Delhi and everything went off without a hitch. Of course, remembering our harrowing India flight experience 9 years ago when half the plane almost missed the flight back to the US from Delhi due to incompetent security personnel, I allowed a 7 hour layover between flights this time (the other choice being 3 hours).

I'm thinking now that I'll check out Alaska Airlines for the whole trip. The last thing we need is airline hassles if they can be easily avoided. We'll use United miles another time.

If we are able to swing the Visa card and get the companion ticket in time for this trip, that will be icing on the cake!

Again, many thanks to everyone for your advice!

[Gardyloo]

Does that also mean that Alaska Airlines FF miles can be used on tickets purchased from American or Delta since they're in the same program?

Yes, you can earn and redeem Alaska miles on American, Delta, British Airways, KLM, Air France, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Lan, Aeromexico, Emirates, Hainan, Icelandair, Korean and Air Fiji. Alaska's frequent flyer program is consistently rated as one of the best in the annual "Freddie" awards competition.