Flights

Alaska Airlines shares details of flights from Paine Field

Flights, routes

Courtesy Propeller Airports -rendering of new airport at Paine Field

Commercial air service is set to begin at Paine Field-Snohomish County Airport in Everett, about 30 miles north of Seattle, in the fall of 2018.

A small, state-of-the-terminal is being built and both Alaska Airlines and United Airlines have said they would offer service from the airport.

In August, United said it plans to fly to both Denver and San Francisco daily from Paine Field, but Alaska has just announced the cities it plans to serve from Everett.

Starting fall 2018, Alaska announced, it will offer 13 daily nonstops from Paine Field to eight West Coast cities:  Los Angeles; Orange County, Phoenix; Portland; San Diego; San Francisco; and San Jose, California.

The number of flights for each destination is still being determined.

Flying from Paine Field is appealing to many people who live in the Puget Sound region north of Seattle in what is called the “North Sound” because it means not having to battle the Seattle traffic going south to get to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Even more ways to get to Iceland – and beyond

Flights,

How can you not go to Iceland?

The number of cities that have flights going to Iceland just keeps getting longer.

This weeks Icelandair announced new seasonal nonstop flights between Kansas City and Iceland, and between Baltimore and Iceland.

The thrice-weekly flight from Kansas City International Airport (MCI) to Keflavík International Airport (KEF)  begins May 26 and is MCI’s first nonstop transatlantic service.

The flight to Iceland from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport will operate four days a week, with flights starting on May 28. This isn’t, technically, new service: Icelandair last offered service from BWI over a decade ago and a company representative said year-round service could be possible.

Flights to both cities wilil be serviced by Icelandair’s Boeing 757-200 aircraft. Seasonal service is scheduled to end October 15.

This also means Icelandair’s glacier and aurora borealis-themed planes will be making stops in these cities. So even if you’re not flying to Iceland, keep an eye out for some cool-looking planes at these airports.

Two ways to fly free on JetBlue

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If you’re lucky – or fast – you might score a free flight – or a year’s worth of flights – on JetBlue this week.

As part of the carrier’s newest version of its All You Can Jet promotion, anyone who purchases a non-refundable ticket on jetblue.com by December 15, 2017 is entered into a contest that will award 3 lucky winners an All You Can Jet pass good for flights for the winner and a companion anywhere the airline flies – for one year. Winners will be announced December 27, 2017.

(More details – including a way to enter without purchasing a ticket – can be found here.)

Another way to get a free flight is to purchase a JetBlue Get Packing board game, which goes on sale at Amazon for $19.99 today (December 12, 2017) at 12 p.m.

Each game comes with a roundtrip JetBlue flight certificate for JetBlue flights to/from JetBlue cities on JetBlue-operated flights. (All travel must be booked and flown within January 2018 – December 2018.)

Good luck!

JetBlue’s new board game includes a flight

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JetBlue is doing its bit to help make holiday get-togethers a bit more fun and rewarding by rolling out a limited edition travel-themed board game called Get Packing!

The Get Packing game goes on sale at Amazon.com on December 12 for $19.99 and the list of what’s in the box reads: 6 Packing Boards, 60 Packing Cards, 48 Wild Cards, 1 die, 1 rule book and 1 certificate for a JetBlue flight, making this a potentially great travel deal even if you don’t actually sit down and play the game.

Blame Trump: Alaska Airlines to drop its LA – Havana flights

Flights,

Blame it on Donald Trump’s Cuba policy:

Today Alaska Airlines announced that  – effective January 22, 2018 – it will be canceling its daily flight between Los Angeles and Havana, Cuba.

The Seattle-based airline began offering the flight on January 5 of this year.

According to the airline, about 80 percent of the passengers who flew to Havana on Alaska Airlines visited under a U.S. allowance for individual “people-to-people” educational travel.

Last week, changes to U.S. policy eliminated that category of Cuba travel and, as a result, the airline said it will redeploy the aircraft and other resources it had been devoting to the Havana route to other markets instead.

“Travel is about making connections, and we were honored to have played a role in helping people make personal connections by traveling between the U.S. and Cuba,” said Andrew Harrison, chief commercial officer for Alaska Airlines, in a statement, “We continually evaluate every route we fly to ensure we have the right number of seats to match the number of people who want to go there.”

Other airlines may announce service cancellations in response to the most recent restrictions placed on Cuba, but even before this JetBlue, American, Southwest had trimmed their Cuba service, while Frontier, Spirit and Silver Airways had dropped Cuba service completely.