Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Airlines and fish

After another terrific week of fishing on POW I was wondering if others have found some airlines more or less accommodating with fish boxes or maybe an airline booking strategy that works best for getting fish home successfully. All has gone well the past three years but it seems I have an anxious moment every year. (flight delays with American in Dallas while 100 degrees outside, a connection in Phoenix in July)

Less connections.
Less airlines so less baggage charges

I'm going to put a pencil to it but it might be better to go Alaska Air now that it has flights out of my home airport even though their luggage fees are greater than Southwest. I just wish SW went to Ketchikan because my ticket is usually on points.

Airline websites are good places to start. Saving money on luggage fees is an elusive way to cut corners when traveling far. If you’re thinking of the “price-per-pound”, buy it in the supermarket.

There is one thought to consider... on AK the First Class folks get free bags... the cost of an upgrade suddenly gets reasonable when free bag discount comes into play.

....which brings backs “memorable moments with Alaska Airlines......”

Freeze them solid, or swallow them first. ASA is tougher on this requirement than even the TSA in my experience.

polarbearcoolers.com.....the size 48 will hold 45 pounds frozen fillets and meet 50 pound baggage requirements. I've used em for two day summer travel from Baja and my nephew just loaded at Seward and flew ANC to Maryland and arrived with frozen fish.

Baggage handlers haven't damaged em yet after many flights. Order a distinctive color with your monogram for easy ID.....they run a 2 for 1 sale every November.

No thanks.
I've seen supermarket salmon

I catch myself trying to be a tightwad at times too.

Then I think back and realize normal folks don't fly up and fish and enjoy, for the savings...

200 bucks to ship moose antlers back would be cheap to me...

But last year I got them back for 50 bucks. Alaska Air, especially is good with the 99 buck companion ticket for CArolyn and I. And then it was once you are over one way, IE size or weight, you get charged 50 bucks and can have boht over, in size and weight. Antlers were boht over size and weight, cose me an extra 50 to ship.

Beyond that we never fly to AK wihtout 2 coolers as luggage.. clothes can go in a plastic tote from wally world to bring home or mail home if we nail a moose or fish etc...freeze ahead of time, and I bring home in temps like you experience. Comes out of freezer 8am, drive to ANC, fly out around midnight, home that next day at 6pm, meat stays in house in cooler closed in AC, and I deal with it the next day at 5pm when I get home from work.

The polar bear coolers are on my list to buy too for backups. And very possibly as a sleeve for a smaller cooler in camp, to keep the sun and such from melting the ice for Carolyns drinks.

Nothing wrong with being a tight-wad, a defining trait I am guilty of. That trait, however, has taught me a few things about what makes sense....and turning quality actual fresh-frozen filets into supermarket fare ain’t one of them. Sometimes it pays to play and leave the math at home.

Great idea. I've used smaller polar bear coolers to take elk and deer meat to my kid's families.

I recently came home from a trip fishing in Pelican and flew my fish from Pelican to Juneau to Seattle to Memphis. The guide I fished with had an insulated box that had some plastic material that looked like the bubble sheets with Mylar on one side for insulation instead of the waxed cardboard boxes everyone else was using. I had a one day layover in Seattle and paid 16 bucks to store it at the airport in a freezer. My fish was frozen when I landed in Memphis and it cost 131 dollars to get it home. It was definitely worth it.King Salmon was 25 a pound in Seattle at the 2 stores I went in last week. And I thought our fish in the south was good but those coldwater fish from Alaska are hard to beat.

I always fly Alaska Air because I fly on points. I've shipped fish from AK three times. I don't try to carry fish boxes as luggage. I had the filets vacu-packed and frozen and put in fish boxes. Then I shipped them home via Fed Ex Overnight. My wife picked them up at the air cargo terminal the next morning and before I arrived. Works fine. This method is expensive but better than arriving at home with a bunch of stinky ruined fish. The cost to get the fish home is insignificant when you consider the overall cost of an Alaska fishing trip.

KC

We lined our boxes with the foil double reflective insulation and it works well.

I'm not sure there was a Fed Ex anywhere close to where we were fishing.
We had to drive over 5 miles in the boat to one particular spot to find momentary cell coverage.

I really regret not grabbing the Alaska Air credit card application the flight attendants were offering on the way up there. If you applied on the plane you got a free round trip ticket. I was hoping they would make the same offer on the return flight but no luck.

I have always used the fish boxes that have the styrofoam box inside it. I freeze the fish after vacuum seal it and then tape the seam on the styrofoam box, then I tape the outer box up real well. I have taken fish from AK to NY and it was still frozen when I got there.

I just returned from Anchorage on Continental with salmon in a ice chest. Ticket agent ask if it was fish, I answered yes, vacuum packed and frozen. He did not asked about dry ice, I did not tell, and he did not look. $25.00 to ship as the first bag for my granddaughter, solid as a rock upon arrival in Louisiana. Have done it in the past also.

I find it easier to buy a wax box and travel with it than to use a cooler. A good cooler (read "Yeti") weighs almost 50# empty! I have always had frozen fish in Phx.

you don't need a yeti at all....we carry 5 day igloo, and no issues.

But we carry moose meat at 100 pounds per cooler generally, not so sure a box would hold up.

That said, I see a LOT of box fish arrive in Austin, totally frozen as I have asked a few times, just to see.

We did fed ex once.... only once, due to excess cost and we had to figure out who to ship to, can't ship to wife since she is alwyas along....

LostArea:

You can still get that deal. It's SOP for them. Bonus 25,000 points (free R/T ticket) to new customers.

http://www.alaskaair.com/content/credit-card/visa-signature.aspx

Happy Flying.

KC

You can get a sheet of 1" blue foam and turn a waxed fish box into a cooler. We mailed vac packed frozen salmon to our daughter in large flat rate USPS box with 1" foam and the fish was just starting to thaw out when it got to Cleveland.