When I reached my gate, I noticed that the flight had a waitlist of 13 standby travelers.
Related: Skip the lounge and get free food at these airport restaurants with Priority PassĪt the Capers Cafe, I got a delightful - and filling - scramble with bell peppers, egg and potato in a takeout box. The Portland airport had hand sanitizer dispensers set up everywhere, but half of them were empty and hadn’t been refilled. The security checkpoint was equally empty, and I found myself in the center of the concourse in no time. There were no other guests in line at the counter, and I was able to grab a boarding pass from the agent without touching a single potentially germy surface. The Portland airport felt open, airy and easy to navigate as always, and I quickly breezed through check-in and security.
I would absolutely recommend it.) The hotel offers an airport shuttle, and the driver got me from door to door within seven minutes. (On a side note, the Sheraton Portland was one of the friendliest domestic airport hotels I’ve ever visited, even during the uneasy times of early March. I stayed at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel the night before my flight, so getting to the airport was very easy. (This Canadian-made turboprop plane is sometimes referred to as the Dash 8-400, too.) In This Post Here’s what it was like to fly on the Q400. But that morning, I was focused more on getting to the Capers Cafe in the Portland International Airport as quickly as possible to score free breakfast, courtesy of my Priority Pass membership. The World Health Organization would declare COVID-19 a pandemic three days later. Yet on Sunday morning, March 8, I had no idea what was ahead in the months to come. Indeed, experts foresee many ways that various forms of travel, from flights and cruises to hotels and theme parks, will never be the same following the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Like my last flight before lockdown, in United basic economy from Denver to Austin, this one happened not long ago but feels like a bygone era. The 76-seater plane - that’s relatively big for a passenger turboprop - and the airline did their job well, but I recall this flight mostly for the surreal feeling I get thinking about it. shut down to contain the spread of COVID-19.Īlaska Air Flight 2941 from Portland to Seattle was scheduled at 61 minutes from gate to gate, with just over half an hour spent off the ground. That was the plane I boarded in early March on one of my last trips before the U.S. majors operates turboprop planes: Alaska Airlines, whose regional affiliate Horizon Air flies the twin-engined Bombardier Q400 on many short hops in the Pacific Northwest. However, we are publishing new flight, hotel and lounge reviews, from trips taken before the lockdown, like this one, which happened on March 8.īear in mind that for the foreseeable future the onboard and ground experiences - with lounges closed or without food and amenities - will be very different from what was available before the pandemic. During the COVID-19 crisis, our team has temporarily ceased taking review trips.