Cheap flights to Alaska require strategy
I’ve never been to Alaska, and a major reason for that is that flights there always seemed incredibly expensive. Living near Portland, Oregon, where Alaska Airlines has a major hub, I used to assume that a flight to Alaska would be only a bit more expensive than a flight to southern California, but whenever I checked I’d discover that airfares were always over $500 and usually over $600.
This seemed insane considering the distance isn’t all that great, and I was living near the hub of Alaska’s only major airline. Would flights from Seattle be any cheaper, since that’s also a busy Alaska Airlines hub? Just a bit, but not enough to make it worth the extra 3-hour ride. But now I’ve discovered the secret to finding cheap tickets to Alaska, or at least to Anchorage.
Using Los Angeles as a hub
For some reason I’ll probably never understand, flights from Los Angeles to Anchorage are WAY cheaper than flights from any other part of the continental US. Right now you can actually get a round-trip between Los Angeles and Anchorage for $280 if you are willing to fly on July 4, and it’s only about $40 more expensive just about any other day in July.
Keep in mind that not only is July peak season in Alaska, it’s one of only 3 or so months with decent weather at all. The “off season” to Alaska basically runs from September through May, so these low prices are during prime tourist season.
It appears that you can get fares for only a bit more than $400 if you fly Delta and change planes in Salt Lake City along the way. The odd thing there is that if you look for a flight from Salt Lake City to Anchorage you’ll discover that fares on that same exact nonstop flight are almost $600, so it’s actually cheaper if you start in Los Angeles and take the extra flight. This strange anomaly is called hidden city ticketing, but it would only be effective if you were starting in Alaska and looking for a cheap one-way flight to Salt Lake City.
So the advice here is to look for a cheap flight to Los Angeles and maybe even stay for a few days to take advantage of your surroundings, and then take the Alaska Air flight to Anchorage from LAX. You’ll end up spending the same or less including your flight to LAX, depending on where in the country you are starting from.
Other cheap cities to fly to Alaska from
It’s true that flight to Alaska are crazy expensive from most of the United States, but in addition to Los Angeles there are a few exceptions. From Boston you can fly to Anchorage for around $460, from New Orleans you can fly to Anchorage for about $380, and from Denver you can fly to Anchorage for $360.
These aren’t as cheap as the Los Angeles flights, but if you live in or near one of those cities you can save money by flying out of there. For example, if you are starting in New York City you might take the train or a bus to Boston and the flight from there, and save $200 or so in the process. It’s a strange airfare situation, so it needs some unusual strategies.