Review of Alaska Airlines flight Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse, AK Fairbanks in Economy

Airline Alaska Airlines
Flight AS 50
Class Economy
Seat 20A
Aircraft Boeing 737-400
Flight time 00:45
Take-off 11 Dec 15, 17:25
Arrival at 11 Dec 15, 18:10
AS   #60 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 84 reviews
Esteban
By GOLD 1435
Published on 5th January 2016

    In between:
  • XXX - XXX
  • XXX - XXX
  • XXX - XXX
  • XXX - XXX

    Return:
  • XXX - XXX
  • XXX - CDG
  • CDG - EuroAirport / Y AF E170


I have a two hours layover in Prudhoe Bay, we were 7 passengers inbound and only 1 with SCC as final destination, all others are going to Barrow. We are offered to head to the hotel that was in front of the terminal but I elect to stay in the building as there is Wi-Fi and it is heated. As I wanted to present SCC in this report it was a great opportunity as almost anyone did go to the hotel.

That's the terminal building from outside:



The luggage belt:

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This picture caught my attention:

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Departure hall:

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My inbound Dash is heading back to Anchorage:

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I read a bit and surf on the internet as I was warned that WIFI and phone connection can be very poor in Barrow. There is 4G and Wi-Fi in SCC, should not be worse up there :)

TSA inspects all check luggage as Prudhoe Bay an ultra-sensible area is. SCC produces between 8 and 10% of USA's oil. More information here

More information about Prudhoe Bay's life here.

Should you once decide to visit Prudhoe Bay, it is not as Barrow, you can't. Prudhoe Bay is not open to visitors. Should you drive the 666 miles up via the Dalton Highway, you will have driven for nothing.

A funny thing about SCC, TSA only opens at boarding time. You can't enter the boarding area before. When it's time to board, TSA screening opens. As all flights are turnaround flights and there is always lots of freight to load / unload, slow boarding is not a problem. For instance, that day, it took 20 minutes to board the 20 pax.

Here's my 737-400 Combi arriving:

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I had a very nice chat with one of the AS agent who let me board as very first in order to take some pictures. He even did a funny announcement: the only French guy onboard would like to take some pictures, let's pre-board him - Anyone else interested in pictures taking? Another tourist asked to join ;)

Rear boarding while freight loading allows for some nice pictures:



We are 20 to board and 15 already on board, that's a light load of 35 pax for 70 seats. Meaning lots of room to spread out:



After an hour turnaround, we leave for Barrow:



Pitch, safety card and menu card (not available on this short flight)



25 minutes of flight time tonight, quick snack service with water or OK and pretzel and a short visit to the toilets:

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Very soon we start our descent and land on time in Barrow:

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The crew bet a very warm farewell, I did not interact a lot with them due to the short duration of the flight.

See you soon for more north :)
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Verdict

Alaska Airlines

6.1/10
Cabin6.5
Cabin crew6.5
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering6.5

Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse, AK - SCC

10.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

Fairbanks - FAI

10.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

The plane shows its age but flying on a 734 Combi is only possible with AS. There is no newspapers nor IFE but the WIFI was free of charge and courtesy of AS at SCC.

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