Flight Log of Alaska Airlines Flight 3 from Washington Reagan to Seattle

Towards the end of July 2023, I had some personal errands to run in the western states. This post would be about my flight on Wednesday July 26 from Washington DC to Seattle that commenced the trip.

Ticketing

It’s likely a coincidence that I had two personal errands that took place one after the other: during the weekend of July 29-30 in Seattle and then July 31 – Aug 1 in San Antonio, so it’s only natural that I combined these two trips.
Transcontinental flights during summer were always expensive, in particular for Seattle as its peak outdoor season, with one-way fares from Washington DC to Seattle hovering around the 300USD range.
I had some Alaska Airlines miles in my account, with such peak demand it shouldn’t be surprising that the one-way mileage cost from Washington DC to Seattle was 30k on Friday July 28. Since I would be continuing onto San Antonio, and I knew Alaska Airlines allowed stopover for one-way award redemptions, I tried adding a July 30 redeye to San Antonio, and somehow the total cost for the entire trip dropped to 25k miles. I guessed I must have triggered some weird fare rules for Alaska Airlines (which almost seemed like a bug). Before this, I was under the impression that stopovers were only allowed on “standard” awards (at 12.5k).
Based on that, I found I could change my flight from Washington DC to Seattle to Wednesday July 26, for a total cost of 20k miles (instead of 25k). This meant I would have two days to explore some hiking opportunities among the Cascade Mountains.

The Flight

WMATA’s green line was having another maintenance in two years, as a result, I had to take an Uber to Fort Totten Station to begin my journey. In line with my tradition of always forgetting something while traveling, while riding Uber I realized this time I left my mouse behind. So I frantically searched for Best Buy’s pickup options (as I couldn’t find anything else to do while riding Uber). Luckily, at the end of the day, I was persuaded that a mouse wasn’t something I couldn’t live without for a few days.

I reached the airport only about an hour before the flight’s departure, where the line for general security screening seemed shorter than the priority one, probably because weekday late afternoons were peak business travel time. I cleared security in 22 minutes, with still some time to spare till boarding.
Similarly, to showcase the airport’s busyness, there’s a 12-minute queue for takeoff.

Alaska Airlines 3
Washington Reagan (DCA) – Seattle, WA (SEA)
Boeing 737-800 (N514AS)
Seat 27A
Scheduled Departure – 5:40pm
Actual Departure – 6:16pm
Scheduled Arrival – 8:35pm
Actual Arrival – 8:29pm
5 hours and 13 minutes

Here’s GPS tracking:

And here’s a video of the takeoff. Unfortunately, the windows weren’t particularly clean.

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Alaska Airlines B738 (N538AS)
In Star Wars livery.

South Fork of Shenandoah River
A tiny bit of the town of Front Royal in the lower-left.

Intersection of I79 and WV’s Corridor H

Typical mountainous terrain of West Virginia. I took this interchange earlier in May for my trip to West Virginia.

Ohio River

Dubuque, Iowa along Mississippi River

Fields around Mississippi River

Three states were featured in this photo. Wisconsin in the bottom, Illinois in the left, and Iowa for the majority.

Probably because I had a very intense packing session (since I didn’t want to pay for checked bags) before my Uber ride, I got a better-than-expected nap that lasted more than an hour (as a result of which I missed the snack service).
After that, it’s a pretty uneventful flight. The mountains in Montana felt very shadowy from the setting sun.

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Wildfire
Along the western slope of McLeod Peak, in Jocko Tribal Primitive Area.

Missoula, Montana

Lenore Lake and Soap Lake
This could easily be mistaken as a river.

Columbia River

On the other hand, it’s a mostly clear day over the Cascade Mountains. As we approached Seattle, I was given a tour of their magnificence. The approach largely followed US Route 2, overlooking Alpine Lake Wilderness to the south.

Click here to display photos of the Cascade Mountains.

Stevens Pass
A mountain pass / ski resort.

Mountains in Alpine Lake Wilderness
The highest peaks of the group still covered in snow.

Mountains in Wild Sky Wilderness
Gunn Peak and Gunnshy Peak.

Mountains
Skykomish River flowing in the center-left.

West Snoqualmie Mountains

Mountains in Wild Sky Wilderness
Looking splendid from this angle.

Then during the downwind segment we overflew Snoqualmie Valley. The soft twilight colors and light haze were probably the best that Cascade Mountains can offer. After that, the patches of snow on Mount Rainier, illuminated in amber color by the setting sun, was a befitting finishing touch to Cascade’s charm.

Click here to display photos of the Cascade Mountains.

Cascade Mountains

Mountains
In the center was “Mount Si”, which I would climb the next day.

Distant Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier

American Airlines B772 (N776AN)
For its London service. Such widebody could only fit in the corner of the north satellite terminal.

And here’s a video of the landing:

After that, I grabbed a rental car, made it to my overnight Airbnb, and called it a day.
END

Flight Log of Alaska Airlines Flight 3 from Washington Reagan to Seattle by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.