YAKUTAT, Alaska — Forget the open-air sleigh overloaded with gifts and powered by flying reindeer.

Santa and Mrs. Claus this week took supersized rides to southeast Alaska in a C-17 military cargo plane and a camouflaged Humvee, as they delivered toys to the Tlingit village of Yakutat, northwest of Juneau.

The visit was part of this year’s Operation Santa Claus, an outreach program of the Alaska National Guard to largely Indigenous communities in the nation’s largest state. Each year, the Guard picks a village that has suffered recent hardship — in Yakutat’s case, a massive snowfall that threatened to buckle buildings in 2022.

“This is one of the funnest things we get to do, and this is a proud moment for the National Guard,” Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, said Wednesday.

Saxe wore a Guard uniform and a Santa hat that stretched his unit’s dress regulations.

The Humvee caused a stir when it entered the school parking lot, and a buzz of “It’s Santa! It’s Santa!” pierced the cold air as dozens of elementary school children gathered outside.

In the school, Mrs. Claus read a Christmas story about the reindeer Dasher. The couple in red then sat for photos with nearly all of the 75 or so students and handed out new backpacks filled with gifts, books, snacks and school supplies donated by the Salvation Army. The school provided lunch, and a local restaurant provided the ice cream and toppings for a sundae bar.

Student Thomas Henry, 10, said while the contents of the backpack were “pretty good,” his favorite item was a plastic dinosaur.

Another, 9-year-old Mackenzie Ross, held her new plush seal toy as she walked around the school gym.

“I think it’s special that I have this opportunity to be here today because I’ve never experienced this before,” she said.

Yakutat, a Tlingit village of about 600 residents, is in the lowlands of the Gulf of Alaska, at the top of Alaska’s panhandle. Nearby is the Hubbard Glacier, a frequent stop for cruise ships.

Some of the National Guard members who visited Yakutat on Wednesday were also there in January 2022, when storms dumped about 6 feet of snow in a matter of days, damaging buildings.

Operation Santa started in 1956 when flooding severely curtailed subsistence hunting for residents of St. Mary’s, in western Alaska. Having to spend their money on food, they had little left for Christmas presents, so the military stepped in.

This year, visits were planned to two other communities hit by flooding. Santa’s visit to Circle, in northeastern Alaska, went off without a hitch. Severe weather prevented a visit to Crooked Creek, in the southwestern part of the state, but Christmas was saved when the gifts were delivered there Nov. 16.

“We tend to visit rural communities where it is very isolated,” said Jenni Ragland, service extension director with the Salvation Army Alaska Division. “A lot of kids haven’t traveled to big cities where we typically have Santa and big stores with Christmas gifts and Christmas trees, so we kind of bring the Christmas program on the road.”

After the C-17 Globemaster III landed in Yakutat, it quickly returned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, an hour away, because there was nowhere to park it at the village’s tiny airport. Later, it returned to pick up the Christmas crew.

Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with their tuckered elves, were seen nodding off on the flight back.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Coming soon to Juneau-area roads; a trio of festively-named snowplows!

After hundreds of suggested names were entered in its annual naming contest, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced Monday that it had narrowed its search down to three winning names for three of its snowplows.

The winning names were Berminator, Salt-O-Saurus Rex, and Ka-PLOW.

The names were chosen by DOT staff who felt they were most appropriate and represented Alaska the best, according to Eli Kesten-Brackett, a project assistant with the department.

“Since they move in formation, [DOT] thought it’d be cool to have them all named as a unit,” Kesten-Brackett said.

The Name-A-Snowplow contest that ended on Nov. 28 saw over 400 individual entries from residents around the state.

Kesten-Brackett said after noticing the popularity of similar contests in other snow-laden states in the Lower 48, the state thought a way to get people’s creative juices flowing was what Alaska needed.

“We thought this would be an awesome way to foster community engagement,” Kesten-Brackett said.

The winning name in the inaugural contest last year was Darth Blader, according to Kesten-Brackett.

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Alaska Air announced its acquisition of Hawaiian Air almost exactly one year ago. Since the deal closed in September, the airlines have kept up an admirably brisk integration schedule – it’s now possible to freely transfer miles between both programs, book Hawaiian awards with Alaska miles and earn elite-qualifying miles in both programs.

Alaska has told us that it expects both airlines’ elite programs to merge sometime in Summer of 2025. However, it’s now possible to match elite statuses between both programs online, allowing both Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles elite members to receive benefits regardless of which airline they’re flying.

How to match your Alaska / Hawaiian elite status

1. Visit this link. You’ll have to log-in using your Alaska Mileage Plan number

2. Using the form provided, sign-in with your HawaiianMiles info. If you don’t already have a HawaiianMiles account, create one using the link provided.

3. You should instantly reach a “match successful” screen that shows your new Hawaiian (or Alaska) status.

Which status will I receive?

You will receive matched status based on either your 2023 activity/current status OR your combined EQMs from both programs in 2024, whichever is higher.

If you’re matched by 2023 activity, or current status, it will be according to the chart below:

If you’re matched according to combined EQMs between both programs in 2024, it will be according to this chart:

Terms and Conditions

• Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles members who link their accounts will be eligible for a status match.
• We will either match your existing elite status in either program or award status in both programs based on your combined elite-qualifying miles (EQMs), whichever is higher.
• Please allow up to 72 hours for status to be reflected in your account after linking.
• Guests currently participating in a status match or fast track challenge are not eligible until they’ve completed the requirements for their challenge.

Members will receive status in both programs as follows:

• For status matched based on 2023 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2024 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2025.
• For status matched based on 2024 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2025 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2026. If Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs are combined into a single program prior to the end of 2025, equivalent status will be granted in the successor program through December 31, 2025.
• For status matched based on 2025 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2026 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2027. If Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs are combined into a single program prior to the end of 2026, equivalent status will be granted in the successor program through December 31, 2026.

Quick Thoughts

Once again, I’m extremely impressed with how efficiently Alaska is managing this merger with Hawaiian. We’re barely three months past the close date and we already have reciprocal transfers, mileage earning and redeeming and now status matching. Both programs should be fully-integrated less than 12 months after the merger close.

You can see a full breakdown of Hawaiian elite benefits here and Alaska elite benefits here. As you might expect, Alaska’s benefits are more robust, but Hawaiian status can be good for discounted awards, club access, free checked bags, complimentary upgrades and more. It’s definitely worth doing if you’ll be flying Hawaiian within the next few months.

Note that Hawaiian status reset at the end of February, NOT on January 1 like Alaska. So, even if you have matched status to Alaska that terminates at the end of 2024, you can still squeeze an extra two months of Hawaiian status by matching now.

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