Traveling to California's wine country-and other wine regions along the west coast-is considerably less fun when travelers are unable to bring home a souvenir bottle or two.
Enter "Wine Flies Free," a pilot program developed by Alaska Airlines in 2007, that allows the airline's Mileage Plan members to check one case of wine (up to 12 bottles), free of charge, in specially designated cities.
"Wine and food are huge passion points for travelers when choosing their next travel destination," said Natalie Bowman, Alaska Airlines' managing director of marketing and advertising. "Our Wine Flies Free program makes it easier for our guests to experience some of the country's best wine regions and take their favorite wines home. We look forward to toasting our guests in-flight on National Drink Wine Day and continuing to work with our partners to welcome visitors to these premier wine destinations that we serve."
The program has proven to be so popular that Alaska recently announced it is expanding the service-formerly available at 11 west coast airports-to 29 airports.
Additionally, to celebrate the program's expansion-which happens to fall in tandem with National Drink Wine Day (February 18)-passengers on select flights who are 21 and older will also receive a complimentary glass of wine on Sunday.
The program has been hugely popular with Mileage Plan passengers, who chimed in about the expansion on Alaska Airlines' website:
"This is one of the great perks of my Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan membership for the past 30 years," wrote a user identified as anetteb, who also noted, "It would also be great to be able to check a free case of local craft beer out of Bellingham!"
Alaska Airlines also said it plans to work closely with regional winegrowers' associations, wineries and tourism boards to promote the service throughout the wine regions found along the west coast.
The Wine Flies Free program was originally intended to make it easier to ship home wine bottles from the Santa Rosa and Sonoma County wine regions, where regulations often prevent smaller wineries from shipping directly to consumers without charging prohibitive fees.
"The Santa Cruz Mountains American Viticultural Area is the backyard wine region of Silicon Valley," said Megan Metz, executive director of Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association. "By expanding their Wine Flies Free program, Alaska Airlines is enabling people to easily travel to our booming wine region and take home a piece of the Santa Cruz Mountains at no cost."
The bottles of wine must be packed and sealed for transport in a special shipping container, but Alaska Airlines customer service agents will work with guests to make sure the wine bottles are properly packed and labeled. Participating cities include:
California: Burbank*, Fresno*, Los Angeles*, Monterey*, Oakland*, Ontario*, Orange County*, Palm Springs*, Sacramento*, San Diego*, San Francisco*, San Jose*, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara*, Santa Rosa
Idaho: Boise, Lewiston
Oregon: Eugene, Medford, Portland, Redmond
Washington: Bellingham*, Pasco, Pullman*, Seattle*, Spokane*, Walla Walla, Wenatchee*, Yakima
* Indicates new cities being added to the program.
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