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This post is one chapter on our trip to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Melbourne with The Great Ocean Road, exploring The Yarra Valley and the beaches of The Gold Coast via Qantas First Class. This trip was booked using Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

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Review: Alaska Airlines, Q400, Seattle – Vancouver

We departed the lounge after a 30 minute visit. We needed to take the train over to the C terminal, but I forgot that the C Terminal Train station was temporarily closed for renovations. As a result, we had to get off the train at the D Terminal and walk back to the C gates.

We passed by duty free, which had already closed for the evening. It’s a good thing we had already purchased our duty free in Australia by taking wines back from the cellar door well buried in our checked bags. 

Alaska Airlines
AS 2508 – Economy Class
SEA – YVR (Seattle Tacoma International Airport – Vancouver International Airport) 
July 21, 2019
11:20 PM – 12:20 AM + 1
Booked: Bombardier Q400
Flown: Bombardier Q400

We arrived to the usual boarding show mess at the propeller gates.

We boarded the usual Q400 at Gate 1. We had some Horizon Air mechanics on board with us tonight that were headed up to fix another Q400 that was AOG (Aircraft on Ground). 

We were somehow asked to move from our assigned Seat 2A and 2C to Row 19 in order to weight balance the plane. We ended up in 19B and 19C with two empties beside us. We later were offered biscotti cookies and Alaska miles in compensation. Alaska was able to give us 1,000 Alaska Miles each. These turned up in our accounts within 4 days of returning home, unlike my recent Air Canada service delivery issues which were promised but some 30 days later still haven’t turned up. The offer was pretty reasonable for gaining an empty seat next to you and waiting and extra 120 seconds to get off the plane. 

We landed in Vancouver in a warm summer evening. I was sent into secondary by CBSA at Nexus for my T2 tea bags that I had declared. The Canada Border Services Agency customs agents looked disappointed when I rolled into the stainless steel counter top secondary screening area and told them I was here because of “(T2) tea bags”. I was stamped out and sent on my way really quickly.

All in all, a great trip to Australia. The Qantas First Class is a great way to get to Australia. I’d love to use them to connect from the Americans to parts of Asia the long way around but it doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to do that any time soon. At any rate, the trip was a terrific value for Alaska Mileage Plan and I’d easily do another trip with them soon.

Thanks for following along on another great trip.

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