Some thoughts on the trip for those of you maybe planning a future Alaska / Tech Hockey trip.
-- With the current train schedule, you'll only get to ride it going South (assuming you want to see all four games and they are played Fri/Sat). Currently during the winter the train only runs two days a week. North from Anchorage to Fairbanks on Saturday and then returns South-bound from Fairbanks to Anchorage on Sunday. For me, the train was one of the best parts of the trip. I fly a lot of places so taking the train, was a nice change of pace. Takes 12 hours vs 2 hours between the two cities the there was no comparison to the comfort of the train. Even with light snow and low visibility it was a great time.
-- The cost of a one-way flight from ANC to FAI and the train back (<$400) was LESS expensive than then drop fee for renting a car in ANC and leaving it in FAI ($400+ for the one way car rental drop fee). Car rental prices also go up and down as demand changes. I booked a car about a month in advance and then rebooked about a week before arrival and the price went down by ~$100. My car in Anchorage was just over $100 total for four days. Fairbanks was about 50% more for the same reservation length. When I am planning a trip well in advance I usually check car prices about every 7-10 days leading up to the trip. Since there is no cost to cancel the car reservation, you can just keep rebooking every time the price takes a substantial drop.
-- Air fares are all over the place and rise and fall like gas prices. However a multi-city ticket for ANC / FAI SHOULD price out similar to a round trip to either of those cities. For the booking rules it is called an "open jaw" ticket. If the distance between the two destination cities (the short leg of the triangle) is less than the distance from the original airport to either destination it SHOULD price like a round trip ticket. Where you may have a problem is that you may not find an airline that flies to both cities without a codeshare agreement and then you'll get hosed on the pricing.
-- There was plenty to do between the two cities. If I could do it over, I would have stayed longer in Anchorage - better weather, and just more to do in general. The locals said we got off easy with highs in the single digits this time of year in Fairbanks. It could have been much colder.
-- Overall I enjoyed the extended trip (other than the quadruple murder-suicide at my hotel before the Friday game in Fairbanks). That kind of put a damper on things at the end of the trip.
http://www.newsminer.com/news/local...cle_59de633e-b42f-11e6-9bc1-3f25019c4b6f.html
Ryan J
