Today was Craig's birthday and Alaska Airlines gave him the most wonderful present -- first class upgrades for both legs of the return flight to Anchorage. Since both flights were to be around five hours long, it was most welcome.
The morning's plan was to be at the airport at 8:00 to return our car when the company opened, thence across the street to the departures area to check in for our 10:00 flight. We had been advised by our Triggerfish host to be at the airport two full hours before the flight or the airlines might give away our seat. With a small airport and
only one Alaska flight that seemed a little overly aggressive, but when we arrived at 8:00 there was already a long line waiting to check in. Nonetheless, since we had to turn our rental car first and, being on Belize time the car company did not open until 45 minutes after the appointed hour, we missed the two-hour deadline anyway. The car return proceeded without issue and, since Alaska had a large bevy of people helping with the check-in and we jumped the long line anyway with our priority status, we quickly passed through check-in, immigration and security. There was only one item left on our departure check list . . . rum.
We scouted the rum possibilities all trip (thank you Bartender Hendry) and determined to bring back two bottles of the finest Belize rum and two bottles of an excellent rum from nearby Guatemala. The problem was severalfold. The first issue was price insofar as to whether to acquire the rum at a Belize store or in Duty Free at the airport. Our research had revealed that it was cheaper to buy the Belize rum in country (it was $20 cheaper per bottle
than at Duty Free) and the Guatemalan rum at the airport Duty Free ($50 cheaper than in country). We purchased the Belize rum at the Tiburon tasting room in Placencia and packed it securely in our checked luggage; so far so good. The Guatemalan rum, however, presented a problem. Duty Free is only accessible after your bags have been checked so you could not put it there. While we could carry it onto the plane as hand luggage, when we got to LAX we would have to pass through TSA after customs and the rum bottles were definitely larger than the 3.4 oz. liquid carry-on allowance. One solution was to open our bags at LAX after customs but before we passed them on to the connecting flight, and add the rum. The problem with that approach was that our bags were jammed with the two bottles already in there -- maybe we had room for one more but likely not two.
Our last minute research revealed a potential solution. Unbeknownst to us, apparently around 2014 TSA made a change to its liquids policy that allows you to purchase bottles at
Duty Free in another country and, if they are packed in a sealed tamper-proof bag, bring them through security and on to a connecting domestic flight. Great solution but were we missing some fine print and even if not, would TSA follow its rules? We split the baby putting one bottle in checked luggage after customs and carrying the second through TSA. The hand-carried bottle sailed through TSA and next time we will trust our reading of the rules and TSA's willingness to carry them out.
We had a six-and-a-half hour layover at LAX and on this trip did not have the option of the Alaska Lounge. Since the Alaska terminal (6) is small and not a great place to hang around, we walked over to the glitzy Tom Bradley International Terminal. It was a great place to spend a few hours and, on a day that we were mostly sitting on planes, allowed us to get in about
four miles of walking. The flight into Anchorage in first class was pleasant (thank you Alaska Airlines frequent flier program) but we were a little dismayed upon landing. We had kept track of the Anchorage weather while we were in Belize (perhaps out of a perverse sense of enjoying what we were missing) and knew this year's unusually large snowfall had continued in our absence. However, we were still not prepared for the large banks of snow that greeted us, with the frosting on the cake being the four or five inches that had fallen that day. Ah well, on to Christmas and shoveling snow.
N.B. We would add one postscript to the trip regarding our phones and connectivity. In the past when traveling in foreign countries we have always purchased a local SIM for one of our phones and used that for local calls and internet. This time, just a few weeks before leaving, we had switched our phone service to Verizon which has a plan that includes a perk allowing you to essentially use the phone like you were back in the U.S. in over 200 countries, including Belize. Though we were of course nervous that perhaps we were missing some fine print (we are after all recovering lawyers) the plan worked perfectly, saving us a little bit of money and a lot of hassle. We look forward to continuing this service on the main 2024 winter sabbatical.
Oh, and one more round of kudos, for immigration and customs in the U.S. Arriving at LAX we walked to the Global Entry area and were dismayed to see only three kiosks in evidence. Craig walked up to one and as he started to look at the directions, the immigration official called out "Come on Craig you are already finished." Literally less than five seconds from arriving at the kiosk and moving on. Also the customs person just asked us as we walked by, "any fruits, plants or meats" and then waved us on by. The U.S. entry process has really upped its game.
2025-02-07