Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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Alaska Travel Etiquette
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The
great affair is to move.
—Robert Louis Stevenson
YEAH, WELL, OKAY, BOB
but it's actually getting around Alaska that is the most fun. Here
follow some tips for first-time visitors.
For instance. You'll arrive in Anchorage on a Boeing 737 or some other big generic jet
crammed to the bulkheads with fellow passengers, flight attendants cranky because of all
the carry-ons (does it never occur to airlines that if it took less than an hour to get our bag-
gage at the other end that more of us might check?) and pilots made manifest only by a dis-
embodied voice emanating from the ceiling.
If you decide to fly out of Anchorage into the Bush, however, you'll be traveling on any-
thing from a Twin Otter (fourteen passengers) to a Piper Super Cub (just you and one pilot
and your knees will be crammed into the small of his or her back).
Another big difference is that before you board you will be asked how much you weigh.
Tell the truth! This is necessary to calculate the payload of the aircraft and is essential for a
safe flight. If the flight service crew think you have, um, underestimated, they will march
you over to a scale, one of which every air taxi I've ever flown with has on prominent dis-
play in the office. Although my friend Rhonda Sleighter says she knows someone who
claims to weigh three hundred pounds on every flight, just to make up for all the liars.
