Weather or Not, Here We Come

​When we bought a bargain flight on AS (Alaska) to CHS (Charleston), we never considered that winter weather could be a factor.

It was only a couple of days ago that we noticed the incoming late night flight from Seattle to Bellingham (SEA-BLI) had been canceled three days in a row due presumably to foggy weather.

That effectively also canceled the early morning outbound BLI-SEA flight we needed to connect to our SEA-CHS flight.

It all worked out this morning, even though we sat on the tarmac for an hour at BLI waiting for the fog to recede to an elevation that would allow us clearance to land at SEA.

It was just around freezing on the ground, so our plane was de-iced before we took off. All that for a flight that’s in the air for about 25 minutes!

Our connection was leisurely enough that we still had ample time to visit the original Alaska Lounge near C Gates, where we’d landed, and the beautiful but crowded N Gates Lounge. As the fog lifted we enjoyed a little plane spotting, including this livery.

Before too long, we were aboard a 737-9MAX in F, using up the last of our upgrade certificates (sigh).

Charleston since 2011 has been the home of a large Boeing facility that assembles 787 Dreamliners, so it’s obvious why SEA-CHS is Alaska’s Flight 787.

The Moroccan beef wasn’t bad.

The Bloody Marys we ordered were more welcome after our 3:50 AM wake-up time. The service was up to the excellent Alaska standard.

Widespread winter storms have occurred throughout large swaths of the U.S. over the past few days. 

So far, CHS and Charleston appear to have been spared, but we’ve packed a couple of travel umbrellas because rain is in the forecast. 

We’ve been here before and visited most of the major sights, so if this turns out to be largely an indoor occasion, we can manage it.

The distance in air miles, about 2400 SEA-CHS, plus the minimum 500 (sadly going away) for the 94-mile BLI-SEA hop, makes it a cost effective and pleasant way to pick up nearly 6,000 status qualifying points comfortably, especially in First.

We landed around 6 PM EST, so we decided to spend the first night at an airport Doubletree by Hilton.

The hotel upgraded us to a corner junior suite twice as large as a regular room, a nice touch.

We looked at area restaurants and, in this land of barbecue joints and southern cooking, we dined at a Szechuan Chinese eatery that was pretty darned good.

We wolfed down the delicious steamed dumplings too quickly to allow a photo.

We’re staying at a Hilton Grand Vacations property in Charleston for the next three nights, and Hilton kindly sent out an email informing guests of weather threats to their hotels in various areas of the U.S. and Canada.

https://corporate.hgv.com/about-us/travel-updates/winter-storm-fern/

We learned the Governor of South Carolina has just declared a sort of anticipatory state of emergency.

https://www.wjcl.com/article/south-carolina-state-of-emergency-winter-weather-1/70089313

The actual weather forecasts don’t look all that bad. It’s a fairly safe bet we don’t have to worry about getting sunburned.

We’re all tucked in for the night, and we’ll watch with interest what the weather has in store for us during our stay.