The MOST Unusual Flight in the USA (Alaska's Milk Run)
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Date: 2024-06-09
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Comments and reviews: 20
polypolyman
Jen: if you want a real treat of a flight experience, look into the EAS flight between DEN and ALS (Alamosa, CO, operated by Denver Air Connections/Key Lime Air. Roughly 40 minutes in the air on either an ERJ145 or a 328JET (make sure to sit behind the engines for a better view on that plane, and although it’s all open economy seating, it actually almost meets some of the Jebscore criteria: there’s no lounge, but the bizarre lower-level gates at the end of C concourse at DEN are always quiet, have the cleanest facilities in the whole airport, and feel like your own little mini-lounge, despite being part of the rest of the airport - on the other side, ALS is such a small airport that you get weird perks like essentially private TSA screening with some of the newest technologies (since they use it as a training airport for the new equipment); the seats are about as bad as any other plane that small; there is no IFE per se, but you’re not going to want to take your eyes off the views out the windows anyway - I can’t think of a better way to see Colorado for sure, just absolutely stunning; It’s obviously not a meal flight, but the snacks are amazing - a full water bottle usually given out pre departure, and your choice of some of the best snacks in the industry: full size candy bars, beef jerky packets, and more; and I must say, they go out of there way to give good service, both in the air and on the ground. Let’s not forget the fun trick that, if you start a flight booked with United or American with a leg on DAC, they give you 2 checked bags free the whole way.
Definitely worth seeing Great Sand Dunes NP (highly underrated national park) and some of the other mountain sights, but I think the real gem for you would be taking a quick trip down to Antonito for the Cumbria and Toltec scenic railroad - one of the best scenic rail rides in the country. Sadly the train in Alamosa proper is not doing any passenger trains at the moment - we are the Rio Grande in the old Denver and Rio Grande Western, after all.
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Jen: if you want a real treat of a flight experience, look into the EAS flight between DEN and ALS (Alamosa, CO, operated by Denver Air Connections/Key Lime Air. Roughly 40 minutes in the air on either an ERJ145 or a 328JET (make sure to sit behind the engines for a better view on that plane, and although it’s all open economy seating, it actually almost meets some of the Jebscore criteria: there’s no lounge, but the bizarre lower-level gates at the end of C concourse at DEN are always quiet, have the cleanest facilities in the whole airport, and feel like your own little mini-lounge, despite being part of the rest of the airport - on the other side, ALS is such a small airport that you get weird perks like essentially private TSA screening with some of the newest technologies (since they use it as a training airport for the new equipment); the seats are about as bad as any other plane that small; there is no IFE per se, but you’re not going to want to take your eyes off the views out the windows anyway - I can’t think of a better way to see Colorado for sure, just absolutely stunning; It’s obviously not a meal flight, but the snacks are amazing - a full water bottle usually given out pre departure, and your choice of some of the best snacks in the industry: full size candy bars, beef jerky packets, and more; and I must say, they go out of there way to give good service, both in the air and on the ground. Let’s not forget the fun trick that, if you start a flight booked with United or American with a leg on DAC, they give you 2 checked bags free the whole way.
Definitely worth seeing Great Sand Dunes NP (highly underrated national park) and some of the other mountain sights, but I think the real gem for you would be taking a quick trip down to Antonito for the Cumbria and Toltec scenic railroad - one of the best scenic rail rides in the country. Sadly the train in Alamosa proper is not doing any passenger trains at the moment - we are the Rio Grande in the old Denver and Rio Grande Western, after all.
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joermnyc
I’ve only flown with them when I was visiting the west coast, but they were a wonderful airline. My flight from New York to LAX was delayed because of mechanical issues and then after we landed the airplane ran into bees (of all things) at the gate, requiring a slow taxi around the terminal to a different gate. Back then going to other terminal meant a bus to a remote terminal, and then a second bus to Alaska’s terminal my 60 minute layover was long gone by then, but the desk agent I found was able to get me back on track very quickly and I was out of there in a few hours (the next flight was full, but it was only an hour wait for the flight out after that. My story for checking in so late made the hotel desk clerk feel bad enough to quietly upgrade my room to a suite, which was a nice surprise.
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I’ve only flown with them when I was visiting the west coast, but they were a wonderful airline. My flight from New York to LAX was delayed because of mechanical issues and then after we landed the airplane ran into bees (of all things) at the gate, requiring a slow taxi around the terminal to a different gate. Back then going to other terminal meant a bus to a remote terminal, and then a second bus to Alaska’s terminal my 60 minute layover was long gone by then, but the desk agent I found was able to get me back on track very quickly and I was out of there in a few hours (the next flight was full, but it was only an hour wait for the flight out after that. My story for checking in so late made the hotel desk clerk feel bad enough to quietly upgrade my room to a suite, which was a nice surprise.
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magtje
You should try the Wideroe's milk run in Northern Norway (above the artic) btw Tromso and Kirkenes. It's a 4-6 leg flight on the same a/c operating with Dash 8 turboprop plane via the regions short runways. You should due it during the summer and midnight sun. I believe it arrives at Kirkenes around 1am.
You could also combine it with rest of the Norway as Wideroe has a summer pass with unlimited flights within Norway.
And when you are in the area a visit to Svalbard with the world northernmost city and commercial airport could be an idea. But you need a separated ticket as only Norwegian and SAS flies there (both from Oslo and Tromso.
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You should try the Wideroe's milk run in Northern Norway (above the artic) btw Tromso and Kirkenes. It's a 4-6 leg flight on the same a/c operating with Dash 8 turboprop plane via the regions short runways. You should due it during the summer and midnight sun. I believe it arrives at Kirkenes around 1am.
You could also combine it with rest of the Norway as Wideroe has a summer pass with unlimited flights within Norway.
And when you are in the area a visit to Svalbard with the world northernmost city and commercial airport could be an idea. But you need a separated ticket as only Norwegian and SAS flies there (both from Oslo and Tromso.
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jbaldwin1368
I had an Alaska-Horizon flight get diverted to Spokane from Helena once, due to weather.
Airlines have little control over breakdowns or weather, but they can control their customer service experience. Alaska took good care of me, with a hotel voucher at the airport hotel in Spokane, and two meal vouchers.
With as much traveling as you guys do, you were bound to run into something like this at some point. I am glad for your sakes that you had it happen with Alaska Airlines, in Juneau. It is a neat little town, and Alaska takes care of their customers.
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I had an Alaska-Horizon flight get diverted to Spokane from Helena once, due to weather.
Airlines have little control over breakdowns or weather, but they can control their customer service experience. Alaska took good care of me, with a hotel voucher at the airport hotel in Spokane, and two meal vouchers.
With as much traveling as you guys do, you were bound to run into something like this at some point. I am glad for your sakes that you had it happen with Alaska Airlines, in Juneau. It is a neat little town, and Alaska takes care of their customers.
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yawndave
Being a military aviation fan going back to my childhood, I thought a milk run was a supposedly easy mission. I didn't know the term actually had something to do with milk! Seeing the delay on the last leg of your trip brings to mind my flight from Auckland to LA that was recalled because of electrical issues and had to return to NZ. two days in a row! Each return flight required over an extra hour in the air to use up/dump fuel. My 13 hour flight ended up being over 48 hours long. Looking forward to seeing your Alaskan cruise adventure!
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Being a military aviation fan going back to my childhood, I thought a milk run was a supposedly easy mission. I didn't know the term actually had something to do with milk! Seeing the delay on the last leg of your trip brings to mind my flight from Auckland to LA that was recalled because of electrical issues and had to return to NZ. two days in a row! Each return flight required over an extra hour in the air to use up/dump fuel. My 13 hour flight ended up being over 48 hours long. Looking forward to seeing your Alaskan cruise adventure!
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jeb_brooks
I really enjoyed this video Jeb. It's really too bad the weather was so bad because the scenery is stunning. Next time try the milk run SEA-KTN-SIT-JNU-ANC or reverse order. Or the ANC-Cordova-Yakutat-JNU. I'm MVP Gold 100K on Alaska and I've had 4 not catered flights already this year. It's becoming a common problem. But it's absolutely unacceptable for the 1st flight of the day at the airlines home base. I agree with you I miss the carpet bulkhead too. Happy Landings
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I really enjoyed this video Jeb. It's really too bad the weather was so bad because the scenery is stunning. Next time try the milk run SEA-KTN-SIT-JNU-ANC or reverse order. Or the ANC-Cordova-Yakutat-JNU. I'm MVP Gold 100K on Alaska and I've had 4 not catered flights already this year. It's becoming a common problem. But it's absolutely unacceptable for the 1st flight of the day at the airlines home base. I agree with you I miss the carpet bulkhead too. Happy Landings
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BarnaliD
Flying First Class. No wonder you guys were downgraded, Suzanne's choice of clothing doesn't warrant a first class ticket. Please guys, and Jeb, you know better, have your wife set a good example for proper dresswear for the class type ticket you purchase.
Sorry for the slight rant there, I love your videos but proper attire is a huge pet peeve of mine.
Anyway, I would love to go on that flight, the views look so beautiful! I hope to see videos of Alaska!
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Flying First Class. No wonder you guys were downgraded, Suzanne's choice of clothing doesn't warrant a first class ticket. Please guys, and Jeb, you know better, have your wife set a good example for proper dresswear for the class type ticket you purchase.
Sorry for the slight rant there, I love your videos but proper attire is a huge pet peeve of mine.
Anyway, I would love to go on that flight, the views look so beautiful! I hope to see videos of Alaska!
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FaviMarti
I first heard about the milk run a few weeks ago in a nonrev group (I work in aviation)
I’ve been thinking about doing it, but if I nonrev and there’s a cancellation I’m stuck sleeping at the airport or paying for my own hotel rarely happens, but my last trip I got stuck sleeping at Denver international as my flight was delayed due to runway work at SFO.
My connection took off 30 minutes before I arrived and I had the next flight in 6 hours.
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I first heard about the milk run a few weeks ago in a nonrev group (I work in aviation)
I’ve been thinking about doing it, but if I nonrev and there’s a cancellation I’m stuck sleeping at the airport or paying for my own hotel rarely happens, but my last trip I got stuck sleeping at Denver international as my flight was delayed due to runway work at SFO.
My connection took off 30 minutes before I arrived and I had the next flight in 6 hours.
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johncrwarner
A mentor of mine once said:
The quality of an organisation is NOT on never having problems,
it is how they cope when they do have them.
I have always tried to judge organisations based on that principle
some are good in a crisis and others go to pieces
Alaska Airlines seemed to cope reasonably well with their problem.
At least it was Juneau and not Petersburg where there might not have been
enough beds for the passengers.
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A mentor of mine once said:
The quality of an organisation is NOT on never having problems,
it is how they cope when they do have them.
I have always tried to judge organisations based on that principle
some are good in a crisis and others go to pieces
Alaska Airlines seemed to cope reasonably well with their problem.
At least it was Juneau and not Petersburg where there might not have been
enough beds for the passengers.
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alooga555
Most people think Tokyo has two airports: Haneda and Narita. Wrong. The city also has a small airport called Chofu Airport west of downtown Tokyo. You can catch flights on New Central Airsevice's fleet of Dornier 228s to four Pacific islands south of mainland Japan (they are remote islands but they are still part of Tokyo. You might want to go check that out someday. There are also many remote islands in Okinawa that you can go to from Naha Airport.
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Most people think Tokyo has two airports: Haneda and Narita. Wrong. The city also has a small airport called Chofu Airport west of downtown Tokyo. You can catch flights on New Central Airsevice's fleet of Dornier 228s to four Pacific islands south of mainland Japan (they are remote islands but they are still part of Tokyo. You might want to go check that out someday. There are also many remote islands in Okinawa that you can go to from Naha Airport.
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ceepdublu
Such an amazing flight. We did it 20 years ago for an impromptu trip to Juneau. Missed the Ketchikan stop due to weather, but the Wrangell -> Petersburg -> Juneau route was amazingly beautiful. Due to skipping Ketchikan, we spent an extra hour or so in Wrangell, and they let us walk around outside for a bit. Don't remember if it was a Combi (possibly a -200, but it's on our to do list again.
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Such an amazing flight. We did it 20 years ago for an impromptu trip to Juneau. Missed the Ketchikan stop due to weather, but the Wrangell -> Petersburg -> Juneau route was amazingly beautiful. Due to skipping Ketchikan, we spent an extra hour or so in Wrangell, and they let us walk around outside for a bit. Don't remember if it was a Combi (possibly a -200, but it's on our to do list again.
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jeb_brooks
Imagine PAYING for a first class ticket and not even being automaitcally granted lounge access. Only to then get on the plane to find out they haven't even catered the damned thing! And then to add insult to injury, they cancel your flight, dont give priority to you as a first class passenger AND they rebook you into economy. I am not yet at the Jeb Score yet, but it better be pretty low.
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Imagine PAYING for a first class ticket and not even being automaitcally granted lounge access. Only to then get on the plane to find out they haven't even catered the damned thing! And then to add insult to injury, they cancel your flight, dont give priority to you as a first class passenger AND they rebook you into economy. I am not yet at the Jeb Score yet, but it better be pretty low.
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jeb_brooks
Great vlog as always! Statistics will ALWAYS hit you in the head, just like Murphys law. In Norway we had until regent 737-700 between AES-MOL-KSU. Look on FR24. 40 yrs ago it was flown with a F-28. They could fly up to 16 cycles a day! When LN-SUO was scrapped She had 45 TT and 90 cycles. Down under it was the reverse. They flew 4 cycle days and 16h. Keep up the good work. Be safe!
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Great vlog as always! Statistics will ALWAYS hit you in the head, just like Murphys law. In Norway we had until regent 737-700 between AES-MOL-KSU. Look on FR24. 40 yrs ago it was flown with a F-28. They could fly up to 16 cycles a day! When LN-SUO was scrapped She had 45 TT and 90 cycles. Down under it was the reverse. They flew 4 cycle days and 16h. Keep up the good work. Be safe!
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alooga555
I did a south-bound milk run back in the late 80s. I flew from Anchorage, Cordova, Yakutat, Juneau. I changed plane there and flew to Sitka, Ketchikan and then Seattle. The best part was that I got to spend all day flying up and down along the Alaska coast. The worst part was I had a severe hangover as I had partied hard the night before celebrating the end of a fishing season.
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I did a south-bound milk run back in the late 80s. I flew from Anchorage, Cordova, Yakutat, Juneau. I changed plane there and flew to Sitka, Ketchikan and then Seattle. The best part was that I got to spend all day flying up and down along the Alaska coast. The worst part was I had a severe hangover as I had partied hard the night before celebrating the end of a fishing season.
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bendybus5165
A classic milkrun service can be found down under in Australia - Airnorth (second oldest airline in Australia) operates a milkrun service from Darwin - Tennant Creek - Katherine - Alice Springs and have been for the last 20 years or so. The airline is a staple of the 'Top End' of Australia and operates this particular milkrun weekly on an Embraer Brasilia.
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A classic milkrun service can be found down under in Australia - Airnorth (second oldest airline in Australia) operates a milkrun service from Darwin - Tennant Creek - Katherine - Alice Springs and have been for the last 20 years or so. The airline is a staple of the 'Top End' of Australia and operates this particular milkrun weekly on an Embraer Brasilia.
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craigmeikle7634
This might be something if interest
As of December 2016, the world's shortest scheduled airline flight is the 1. 7 mile (2. 7 kilometer) trip between Westray and Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. Operated by Loganair, the flight can take less than a minute with favorable winds. Passengers receive a certificate to commemorate their flight
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This might be something if interest
As of December 2016, the world's shortest scheduled airline flight is the 1. 7 mile (2. 7 kilometer) trip between Westray and Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. Operated by Loganair, the flight can take less than a minute with favorable winds. Passengers receive a certificate to commemorate their flight
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Sam-yc6jt
Hey Jeb! I was on ASA65 going south to Ketchikan in November 2021 for a brief visit, such a beautiful experience on The Alaska Milk Run, although had a delay In Juneau due to Mechanical issue with De-icing Light not Illuminating for the aircraft to continue, went from Arriving in the afternoon to the evening to Ketchikan because of an Aircraft swap
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Hey Jeb! I was on ASA65 going south to Ketchikan in November 2021 for a brief visit, such a beautiful experience on The Alaska Milk Run, although had a delay In Juneau due to Mechanical issue with De-icing Light not Illuminating for the aircraft to continue, went from Arriving in the afternoon to the evening to Ketchikan because of an Aircraft swap
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MateoQuixote
I would love to see you fly as many 5th Freedom flights as possible. I'm deff an aviation enthusiast and 5th Freedom is on the top of my list of things I'm so interested in. My old fav that I think doesn't exist anymore was from Dublin Ireland to Los Angeles on Ethiopian Air, which yes was a bookable flight without ever going to Ethiopia.
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I would love to see you fly as many 5th Freedom flights as possible. I'm deff an aviation enthusiast and 5th Freedom is on the top of my list of things I'm so interested in. My old fav that I think doesn't exist anymore was from Dublin Ireland to Los Angeles on Ethiopian Air, which yes was a bookable flight without ever going to Ethiopia.
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MattPierceBlog
Ah that is great stuff! I know it seems a little bland and not much of a milk run type service but when my grandfather was an early Southwest adopter he used their Texas Triangle route a lot and it really saved him a lot of time and effort. I use it almost weekly. This OG Southwest route could make for an interesting day and story.
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Ah that is great stuff! I know it seems a little bland and not much of a milk run type service but when my grandfather was an early Southwest adopter he used their Texas Triangle route a lot and it really saved him a lot of time and effort. I use it almost weekly. This OG Southwest route could make for an interesting day and story.
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acfbrown1
Noel Philips did this four years ago. I don't know if I will go on it soon. My mother (who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with me) went to Seattle and Vancouver last autumn. My big trip is going to Japan in September, I'm flying premium economy Edinburgh-Heathrow-Haneda and flying back with BA. I have been learning Japanese since 2012.
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Noel Philips did this four years ago. I don't know if I will go on it soon. My mother (who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with me) went to Seattle and Vancouver last autumn. My big trip is going to Japan in September, I'm flying premium economy Edinburgh-Heathrow-Haneda and flying back with BA. I have been learning Japanese since 2012.
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