Chris L, Wwhen I flew to Alaska for my honeymoon (married an Alaska girl) in June 2001, there was no problem at all carrying my handgun and ammo along as long as it was in the hold baggage. I believe we flew on American Airlines. All I had to do was to tell the clerk at the baggage counter and have it in a locked container. They only allowed 11 pounds of ammo to go with it, no problem, thought it was curious though that they measured the ammo in pounds rather than rounds.
By the way, I took a Ruger.454 Casul. The president of Cold Steel knives had a color page not long ago in a Cold Steel knife catalog of a safari that he took in Africa and of the "dangerous seven"? that he had taken that included a HUGE rhino and bull elephant , as well as a leopard etc., all taken with a .454 Casul handgun and iron sights. Needless to say, I was impressed and figured if any handgun could drop a charging griz it'd be that one, so I bought one (about $600)
. The recoil was so bad that it was uncomfortable to fire it, and you could actually feel the shock wave on your skin when you touch it off (I kid you not) but with some squishy Packmeyer Decelerator grips and some good ear plugs it was good to go.
Spent about 10 days In alaska on the Kenai peninsula, caught a "small" king salmon (about 25 lbs) and some beautiful halibut up to 60 lbs and they were delicious!! Didn't have any run ins with bears, black or griz' but I was ready. Drove my wife's truck back to R.I. (over 6,000 mi) via the Alcan highway (the only highway back) and saw tons of black bears and Bison, wild and otherwise (very dangerous and very big) but once you leave Alaska and cross into Canada it's like commie land IMO, in that the only firearm you're allowed to carry through that vast wilderness (the Yukon) is a single shot shotgun and you have to pay a $50 fee to carry that. I had to ship my Casul to a gun shop in R.I. from Alaska before we could cross the border.
Alaska was breath takingly beautiful, only 5% of it can be reached by roads, the rest can only be reached by boat or plane, and don't get me wrong, you can drive for hours and hours in any direction to get where you want to go, it is just that huge!! and where we were at you could look in any direction, at any time and see snow capped mountains in late June!, even though temps at ground level were in the 70's. IMO Alaska is one of the closest places to Heaven on Earth.
In the area where we were at (around Anchorage) you can walk around with a handgun on your hip (or in my case in a shoulder holster) even in downtown Anchorage and nobody bats an eye. The only time you need a permit is if you carry it concealed.