14 min read

Alaska Airlines Milk Run

Alaska Airlines Milk Run
Alaska flight 62 at the gate in Juneau

There are many ways to spend a four-day weekend. You could hang out with friends. You could work on those projects that never seem to get done.

Or you could fly to Alaska and spend the entire weekend onboard Alaska Airlines, hoping from airport to airport on their historic milk run route. On space available standby, meaning every time the plane stops is an opportunity to lose your seat and be left in some random Alaskan town.

It's an easy choice!

I found some time for this crazy adventure in early September 2024, though I've been reading about this route for years now. Just for some context, Alaska operates this route from Anchorage heading South to Seattle, stopping in small communities along the way. It's referred to as one route but it's actually a couple different schedules and flight numbers, stopping in different places. Alaska has some more history on their blog, here. My plan is to string a couple schedules together, AS66 and then AS62 to create a longer route than is possible on any one flight and see a little more of the incredible 49th state.

Day One - September 5

YYJ-YVR-ANC (AC8150, AC1081)

Today is an easy day, and after a quick hop over from Victoria, I have four hours to kill in Vancouver prior to my Anchorage flight.  This is a perfect amount of time to take the SkyTrain one stop and then walk down to the Larry Berg Flight Path Park in YVR, for a little plane spotting.

The top 1%

Once through security and customs, the American vibes are already going hard. The passengers around me were trying to figure out if their car rental receipt, for a car rented in Canada, was in USD or CAD. "Well, this is Canada" "Yeah, but it's got a dollar sign!!"

At least they'll have a nice surprise when they see the charge on their credit card is only 2/3rds of what the receipt says.

Taking off from YVR, we got assigned a heading that brought us straight up Howe Sound towards Whistler, and then a turn to the Northeast, bringing just stunning scenery of the Coast Mountains. I'd hoped the trip would have some great views and so far, so good!

The arrival into Anchorage brought decidedly more mixed weather, but then the scale of the Anchorage airport operation came into sight and the weather was no longer a concern. If you want to see Boeing 747s all day long, this is the place to be. We got a short taxi to the terminal, unfortunately. I would be happy to drive around for an hour looking at all the different cargo airlines, though I'm sure everyone else was happy.

It's too late to fly anywhere out of Anchorage today, so I'm staying overnight and starting tomorrow morning. Anchorage is an interesting city, it's part touristy, part working Northern community, part military town, part ALL AMERICAN CITY, and part major transport hub. I'm a big fan of the cute coffee shops, REI, and 49th State Brewing. I'm not so much a fan of the combination payday loan and gun store. That seems a little problematic.

The bus exchange also seems to be a bit of an exciting area, with a high concentration of people experiencing homelessness. Whilst waiting for my bus to take me to REI, someone in a wheelchair tried to take a swing at someone else, had their lap-dog escape and run onto a bus, and then the wheelchair user ran onto the bus after their dog. The person they tried to hit, also with their own big dog, began yelling about how bad of a dog owner this person is, flipped the wheelchair over while little dog owner was finding their dog, and meandered across the street. Security stepped into flip the wheelchair the right way around, and left everyone to their own devices for everything else. Alright. I think this is a pretty normal occurrence because no one else was too phased by any of this.

The Alaska State Railway also has a terminus here, which I need to come back and do! It runs service between Anchorage and Fairbanks, through the mountains.

Day Two - September 6

ANC-VDZ-ANC-CDV-YAK-JNU (7H306, 7H307, AS66, AS66, AS66)

Today is the day! All the airplanes!

First up, a little unofficial addition to the milk run, is Ravn Alaska's Valdez flight on a Dash 8-100. It's only 40 minutes in the air, with a quick turn and then 40 minutes back. The agent checking me in for this in Anchorage seems entirely unfazed, so I have to assume this isn't the first time someone has done this.

It's only a short walk to the gate, and surprisingly, no TSA screening for these flights! There's also a technical issue with the aircraft, so that time saved not going through TSA doesn't really help much.

After about a half hour delay, we are invited to board Ravn Alaska flight 306, service to Valdez. It's me and seven other people heading over there, making it a very fast boarding process and we're quickly on our way.

Climbing out of Anchorage, there's more great plane spotting, including the Dreamlifter! En route, we're cruising at perhaps 15-20,000 feet, and with patchy clouds over the mountains there's glaciers popping through here and there. There's a very efficient beverage service and afterwards, a Ravn Alaska branded blueberry cookie.

Once on the ground in Valdez, it's absolutely pouring. The spotty sun hasn't made it this far, instead dumping Niagara Falls on everyone deplaning. The terminal is as big as you'd expect for an aircraft that holds 37 passengers, though there is a gift shop! It might be too small for security, but it's never too small for capitalism.

N891EA at the gate in Valdez

It's immediately time to get back onboard, which is good, because I've also immediately run out of things to do here. The flight attendant does not appreciate my hilarious joke upon reboarding, ("you're still here!") and I honestly don't blame her. There are two other passengers who are also turning around, though they've picked up a passenger here and appear to be escorting this passenger back to Anchorage. I'm not sure exactly what the situation is, but they evidently got the memo and didn't attempt any commentary with the flight attendant.

We're airborne again and the sun isn't too far away from Valdez! We quickly find it along with a rainbow, which is even more beautiful from the sky - if you'll excuse the propellers the pictures!

Back in Anchorage, I have a couple hours before Alaska flight 66 to Seattle via Cordova, Yakutat, and Juneau takes off. Obviously, it's time to wait in the terminal and read the news.

Just kidding. It's time to walk to the world's busiest seaplane base, which happens to be attached to the airport. There are 200 daily operations here and 1,000 aircraft are based on the lake or in the airplane parking lots they've built to store them all.  There's also an aviation museum, which I actually don't have time for and need to come back and do.

However tempting the museum, it's not worth missing my flight for, and so back to the terminal it is. There's only 41 people on this first leg to Cordova, and we're continually reminded not to change our seats once onboard to comply with weight and balance requirements. That doesn't stop someone from trying to steal my seat, but once he got his glasses on and could read his actual seat number, we were all good.

I'm thankful the gate agent was able to assign me a window seat all the way through, since this is not the flight you'd want to be anywhere else for!

It's a very similar route between this and what I've just flown to Valdez, however, you do see significantly more at 15,000 feet compared to what the 737 cruises at, which is more than double that.

Our first stop in Cordova takes about 50 minutes, and connecting passengers are required to remain onboard. There's not a lot to see out the window or do onboard, aside from passing the time standing in the aisle to stretch my legs. Once we start boarding again, a couple people join us and we're on the way to Yakutat.

On the ground in Yakutat is a different story. The size of these airports is such that you go through TSA screening while boarding, since there isn't room in the terminal building to have a sterile area. This makes the boarding process limited by how fast people clear TSA, and I don't think there's much in the way of CLEAR or TSA PRE✔ to go around. It also appears to be going home day from the fishing lodge, because this flight is now going out nearly entirely full.

These factors add together to create a very long boarding process, and my lack of sleep is catching up to me. Once I get service again, I'm making a note to change plans for tomorrow and do fewer stops!

Once we finally are ready to go, it's another quick hop and we're soon making our descent into the Juneau area. On all these flights, there's no service due to the short nature of the time in the air. On the layovers, however, they often offer water for through-passengers.

In Juneau, I have almost no time for anything after checking in to my hotel and then going down to the Devil's Club Brewing Company for supper. I have even less time after I destroy my taste buds with the Spruce Tip Sour beer, which for some reason I didn't think would taste like 100% pure citric acid. I had another spruce tip beer in Tofino and naively assumed that'd be similar, ignoring the sour aspect!

Day Three - September 7

JNU-SIT-KTN (AS62, AS62)

Departure from the Juneau area

Good morning from my historic hotel, the Alaskan Hotel and Bar. Apparently, it's a listed historic site. I can tell from the historic amenities like no bathroom in my room (shared, in the hall) and wallpaper that looks like it was in style during the gold rush. Kidding aside, it was the cheapest place and is very centrally located downtown, so no complaints. Aside from this paragraph, which could be neatly summarized as "a complaint."  

I have just enough time for a little walk around town today, which feels like a smaller version of my home, Victoria. The downtown core is built for cruise tourists and it also is the state capital - same as Victoria. What starts out as a light drizzle when I leave the hotel has turned back into a full deluge as I'm heading towards the bus stop, signalling its definitely time to go!

I have changed my flight today to route via Sitka on AS62, instead of my planned Wrangell and Petersburg on AS64. One fewer stop will waste less time on the ground, and this is still going to be a nice scenic flight. The friendly folks at Alaska confirmed there's plenty of open seats, and then they kindly assigned me another window seat for both my legs today, in Premium Class. Alaska is very proud of their Premium product, but I can't say too much since the mainstay of the product - the onboard service - is not offered on flights this short. The legroom is nice, at any rate.

Sitka is beautiful and sunny today, and the archipelago of islands unfolds as we descend towards the airport. The runway is constructed in the ocean, essentially, so on final approach you're looking down at water until the very last minute when the wheels pass the threshold of the runway and you hit the pavement. It's almost like US Airways 1549, except with less general panic and less crashing.

And no Tom Hanks to play the captain.

It's an efficient turn in Sitka, and we're quickly on our way back into the air and towards Ketchikan. Well, quickly enough as soon as the Alaska Air Cargo aircraft that departed before us gets through 20,000 feet and is visible on ATC radar. Until that, we're held at the threshold to ensure sufficient spacing.

It was visible on Flightradar24 way before that, so I'm not sure what the issue is with the FAA!

Ketchikan has a rather circular approach to get us in to land, but the more turns around this stunning landscape, the better. Once we touch down, I can see the top of an Alaska Airlines tail... and that's it. The rest is below the ground?

Nope, it's just hidden behind the embankment. Once we taxi off the runway, we've got to drive down a hill and descend, well, about the height of a 737 to get to the elevation of the terminal building. I can't remember ever seeing a taxiway that's a noticeable slope.

There's a ferry that connects the airport island to the island that Ketchikan is on, which costs 6 USD per person per way. The ferry ride is no longer than 90 seconds. Surely a bridge would work here... oh no there's a full Wikipedia page about this issue.

If there can't be a bridge, they could at least make the ferry a little cheaper!

Ketchikan is very similar to Juneau with the majority of the downtown being cruise ship oriented, and as a result, I didn't really love it. It's also very eerie once the ships take all their people back onboard, because it instantly turns into a ghost town. There's also not a ton of food options because most people eat on the ships, so I had a great supper today of cold pasta from Safeway (I was hoping for a microwave in my room, no luck), eaten with chopsticks because I couldn't find a fork and my bus was coming soon!

At least the oceanfront view from my hotel looked out directly at the threshold of the runway, making for some fun evening plane spotting.

My last (and only - it was otherwise raining!) Alaskan sunset

Day Four - September 8

KTN-SEA-YYJ (AS62, AS3393)

It's go home day! First though, an ALL-AMERICAN breakfast of Froot Loops, a granola bar, and orange juice with a questionable amount of juice content. Health does not exist here, at least, not at the continental breakfast. We survive on high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil here.

I spend a little more time wandering around Ketchikan, though I've mostly seen everything and eventually decide to just start walking towards the airport and catch the bus when it meets up with me. There are a couple neat places where the street is actually on stilts and the whole thing is more akin to a boardwalk, though it also of course shows some of the vulnerabilities of this community living on the steep slopes. Days before I arrived, a landslip took out a road and multiple houses, killing one.

A logical stop to get some real tea and catch the bus the remainder of the way is Pilothouse Coffee, right across from the shopping centre. I also love airplane related things, so I'm happy about the pilot coffee.

Anyone who has ever heard of a boat before and doesn't have a one-track mind for airplanes surely can see the issue here. A pilothouse, noun, is another term for wheelhouse or bridge of a ship. It is not a house for aircraft pilots and as such, the café has exactly zero airplane related things. It does have an entirely disinterested barista, co-op working space sponsored by the credit union, and a plant seed bank.

Once I'm at the airport, I'm quickly through security but not quick enough to catch the earlier flight down to Seattle. That's okay, this way I get another leg operated by AS62, making a nice three flights on 66 and three flights on 62. Waiting out the aircraft inbound from Sitka, I get a little taste of American liquor law in action. The bar is full, and someone has decided they're going to risk bringing their beer out of the designated "no liquor past this point" sign and sit about two metres into the general waiting area.

"SIR! YOU NEED TO GET YOU AND YOUR BUD LIGHT RIGHT BACK HERE!"

In a voice normally reserved for TSA demonstrating the appropriate ways to unpack your belongings, the server has scared this dude right into action, and he's running right back into the crowded alcohol area to avoid arrest, or whatever other punishments her wrath might bring.

Once we are okay to board, it's a speedy process to get off the gate and on our way for the very last segment of the milk run, Ketchikan to Seattle-Tacoma. The awe-inspiring mountain view lasts about thirty seconds and then the person in the window seat closes the blind to watch their show.

Who needs the stunning west coast, anyway.

The other person beside me does not appreciate the benefits of headphones, and is enjoying the free movies at full blast on their speakers, so I've really lucked out on this flight. Quite honestly, this is the best leg for these sorts of things, because no other leg would I want to miss the views! To my relief, my other seatmate does also eventually figure out where his headphones are.

It's only about an hour and a half until we're on the ground in Seattle, and a short wait for a gate later and I can officially say, I've done the milk run! It's not for everyone, but it sure is a lot of fun if you like flying and are lucky enough to get good views. If you're going to go, definitely consider going in shoulder season to try to lower the accommodation costs and keep crowds manageable. Anything you can do to get out of town and into the wilderness is also a good idea, since again, I'm not a huge fan of any of the towns particularly.