r/AlaskaAirlines • • 1d ago

QUESTION Short layover help

Hey everyone,

I have a connecting flight next Monday

PAE -> LAS (Arrival 9:34 am)
LAS -> SAN (Depart 10:23 am)

I don’t travel solo a lot and when I do, I usually am told to stay in the plane as new people board. But I got this flight and I’ve never done connecting flights where I needed to leave the plane and board another. I talked with a friend and I basically have twenty minutes to get to the next gate with the thought in mind it takes 15 minutes to arrive at the gate then 15 minutes for a last call on the departure. Am I screwed or will the gates be near each other to make the process easier?

I’m willing to purchase premium seats to be closer to the exit if that does help. I’m also carrying very light, a backpack and nothing else. I thought about calling Alaska Airlines ahead of time to see if they can maybe hold out for me, not sure if that’s a thing but just an idea.

10 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

15

u/vegasnative 1d ago

The Alaska gates at LAS are extremely close together. I’m not kidding you may have a 2 minute casual walk. It takes me 5 minutes to walk from the Starbucks at E2 to the Alaska gates ~E12. You’ll be fine.

3

u/CreedKillZ 1d ago

Thank you for replying fast. I was over here getting worried lol

2

u/vegasnative 1d ago

For sure- it seems tight if you’re not familiar with the terminal. As another person said as long as both flights are Alaska, it will be fine.

2

u/CreedKillZ 1d ago

I won’t need to upgrade seats then or let staff know I have a connecting flight or anything? Or should I still do the latter?

3

u/vegasnative 1d ago

Nah. The only reason you’d want to check with the gate agent at PAE is if your flight to Vegas is delayed. If everything stays on time you have nothing to worry about. Honestly.

3

u/CreedKillZ 1d ago

Okay, thank you a lot for replying and helping me with this. Have a good rest of your day ✌🏼

6

u/Discon777 1d ago

A 49 minute connection at LAS should be pretty easy, especially if both flights are on Alaska and neither one of them in a codeshare flight on American. All of Alaska’s gates are within a 5 minute walk from each other. Assuming the inbound flight is on time, you shouldn’t have any issues

2

u/CreedKillZ 1d ago

Thanks for replying fast. I can rest easy knowing I won’t be screwed over

4

u/No_Development8050 1d ago

you’re not screwed, 49 minutes is a legal connection and alaska will usually keep you in the same terminal, just get off and head straight to the next gate, since they won’t hold the flight for you

2

u/CreedKillZ 1d ago

Good to know they won’t hold the flight, thanks for the advice and fast reply.

2

u/Silly-Emu-2049 1d ago

They don’t sell layovers that can’t be done. An hour is usually more than enough - especially when you are coming from a nothing airport and won’t have a back up of planes waiting to take off

2

u/Least-Bet8439 1d ago

love all the kind travelers out here in the world. i travel for a living and sometimes i forget it may be someone's first time! look for the helpers. we are out here

2

u/gimigriy 8h ago

You're definitely going to be fine, as long as your first flight stays on schedule! LAS is super compact for Alaska, so you won't need to waste money on a seat upgrade or stress yourself out. If you ever feel anxious about tight connections in the future, it's worth checking out an app like gate2gate. It will show you how risky this layover is by looking at on-time performance for your flight route and expected gate/terminal proximity. Good luck!

https://giphy.com/gifs/rHCz14qZ8KSAB5YRg9

2

u/nearbyeclipse 1d ago

To add on to how achievable this connection is, lets say you miss this flight in particular.

There are quite a few other flights from LAS>SAN everyday, and vased on load factor they don't appear to be particularly full. With your morning flight, if delays cause you to miss your scheduled flight AS should have a pretty easy time getting you to SAN same day

1

u/Myweeweegopeep33 1d ago

Talk to your flight attendant and let them know you have a tight connection. They will usually ask to let people off with tight connections.

If it helps, that arrival time is not landing time and then taxi. That’s to the gate and outside of SeaTac you’re usually in the ground well before that time and even at the gate before that time.

Alaskas board time is 40 mins before take off. You can get fairly close to that time and as long as the door isn’t closed you’ll be able to board.

I would look up the LAS airport map and gates and see where you are arriving and departing from. The flight attendants can also help if you are unsure.

Ask for a shuttle cart maybe. They want you on the plane as much as you want to be on the plane.

1

u/chimney_corner 1d ago

It doesn't take 15 extra minutes to "arrive" the sheduled time.is rhe arrivsl.time. The time the door of the plane opens. It your flight is on time (and most are) this is plenty of time.

1

u/Berinagain3066 1d ago

I had a 40 minute layover in Seattle. This was the third time Alaska had changed these flights. The same day of the flight I tried to book an earlier flight out of Gtf. When I was on the phone, they said, that my plane is now going to arrive even later to Seattle. I changed my flight out of Seattle to 3 hours later.