Alaska Airlines made this announcement:

Alaska Airline’s ‘Get the Row with BOGO’ is back! Beginning today through Sept. 16, guests traveling by Oct. 31 could get a whole row to themselves when they book a flight and get a second ticket on the same flight for just the taxes and fees.

“Our hope is that with this offer, as well as our Next-Level Care and middle seat blocking through Oct. 31, our guests are given further peace of mind while traveling to our more than 115 destinations this fall,” said Sangita Woerner, Alaska Airlines’ senior vice president of marketing and guest experience. “We have added layers of safety to keep our guests and employees safe when they are ready to fly, and hope to see many of them in the skies in the coming months.”

When guests make the decision to fly again, they will be met with the same Alaska hospitality they have come to know and love, as well as new layers of safety to keep everyone healthy. As part of nearly 100 Next-Level Care safety measures, Alaska is:

• Extending physical distancing on board for fall travel with blocked middle seats on all mainline flights and reduced capacity on regional flights through Oct. 31*.
• Strengthening face mask policies, including:
  • Requiring all guests over the age of two to wear a mask or face covering, with no exceptions. If a traveler does not wear a mask, they will not be allowed to fly. This policy applies to anywhere Alaska conducts business – at ticket counters, gate areas and inflight.
  • In late June, Alaska empowered its flight attendants to issue a final notice to any guest – in the form of a yellow card handed to them – who repeatedly disregards or disobeys the requirement to wear a mask or face covering. If a guest still does not comply after that warning, their travel with Alaska will be suspended immediately instead of undergoing a review process.
• Over the coming weeks, new touch-free options for Alaska guests and employees will include the ability:
  • To pre-order meals and purchase food and beverages on board using a stored credit card (pending return of food and beverage for purchase in main cabin).
  • To print bag tags without having to touch check-in kiosks.
  • For agents to scan boarding passes up to six feet away while boarding.
  • To receive a text message instead of a printed boarding pass if guests don’t already have the Alaska Airlines mobile app.
  • To get an emailed receipt for baggage instead of printed receipt.
• Continuing enhanced cabin cleaning procedures that exceed CDC guidelines, including cleaning between flights, using electrostatic disinfectant sprayers for a next-level clean.
• Extending flexible travel policies, with Peace of Mind waivers that allow for no change or cancellation fees for flights booked through Dec. 31, if travelers’ plans should change**.

Terms and conditions

For the BOGO sale, tickets must be purchased by 11:59 p.m. (PT) on Sept. 16, 2020, for travel between Sept. 15, 2020 and Oct. 31, 2020. To get the row, select seats when purchasing. Day of week and other restrictions apply. View complete terms and conditions at Alaskaair.com/GETYOURROW.

* Blocked middle seats are only available on Alaska Airlines flights 1-1999. Our regional aircraft do not have middle seats. An open middle seat is not guaranteed. Certain occasions, such as aircraft changes or re-accommodating guests from a previously canceled flight, may require guests to be seated next to someone not in their party.  If you’re uncomfortable with the distance between you and others on your date of travel, please speak with a customer service agent about your options.

** Change and cancellation fees are waived for all tickets purchased through December 31, 2020, and on January 1, 2021, we will be eliminating change fees permanently. Learn more about our flexible travel policy.

Alaska Airlines  made this announcement:

Alaska Airlines began the temporary suspension of all flights to and from airports in Portland and Spokane starting at 3 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14, as the Pacific Northwest continues to battle intense wildfires and hazardous air quality. The flight suspensions are expected to last until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, September 15.

Across the West, fires are creating thick smoke and haze, causing very poor air quality conditions in the Portland and Spokane areas. We made the difficult decision to stop our operation so that our employees and guests can remain safe.

Alaska Airlines, along with its regional carrier Horizon Air, has canceled dozens of flights in Portland and Spokane for that 24-hour period.

Alaska and Horizon have also canceled flights at smaller airports due to fire and smoke including Eugene, Medford and Redmond/Bend in Oregon, and Pasco and Walla Walla in Washington.

Improving weather conditions in the coming days could begin to dissipate smoke in Portland and Spokane. However, other airports in the West could be impacted by drifting smoke.

From NASA:

Winds of Change Move Western Smoke Into the Pacific

NOAA/NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured these series of images (made into an animated GIF) showing the winds changing direction on Sep. 06, 2020 when choking clouds of brown smoke began to billow and cascade into the Pacific Ocean. (Dates displayed in lower left hand corner.) By Sep. 10, the smoke cloud had traveled over 1,300 miles. The square miles of smoke in the image below totals 963,269. That estimate has been computed using the measurement tool within the NASA Worldview application.

A stunning 3.1 million acres have burned this year in California alone (per CAL fire), which is up from a total of 2.5 million acres as of Wednesday, Sep. 09, 2020. In addition, 805,314 acres have been lost in Oregon (State of Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard, as of 9:30am EDT Sep. 11) and 500,000 acres (Northwest Interagency Coordination Center) in Washington state. Winds blowing through the west have been stoking fires and helping spread them quickly as evidenced in the growth of over a half million acres in less than two days. There have been 12 wildfire-related fatalities this year. Records have been shattered during this fire season and experts continue to blame drought, excessive heat and strong winds for this tragedy. Because the climate continues to change, scientists also believe that these types of fire events will not only continue but will worsen. Predictive meterologist for the National Interagency Fire Center, Nick Nausler, tweeted: “Multiple fires made 20-plus mile runs in 24 hours over the last few days in California, Oregon and Washington. Such distances traveled so quickly may not be all that rare in grassland fires. However, most of these fires are making massive runs in timber and burning tens of thousands of acres and in some cases 100,000-plus acres in one day. The sheer amount of fire on the landscape is surreal.”

The square miles of smoke in the image below totals 963,269. That estimate has been computed using the measurement tool within the NASA Worldview application.

Credits: NASA Worldview

NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks “right now.” Actively burning fires, detected by thermal bands, are shown as red points. Image Courtesy: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Caption: Lynn Jenner