Thread on Airline & Travel experiences

[Ksyrup]

I ended up getting a bit of good fortune by flying standby on an earlier flight home, which landed about 4pm. Meanwhile, my original flight was delayed over an hour, so I got home about 2.5 hours earlier than if I had stayed on that flight.

I cancelled my Delta flight on the drive home and got a refund. Then, about an hour ago, I received someone else's refund request confirmation email. No clue how or why. The ticket number is different from mine, and they sent me his name and address (he's in NV). I tried to alert them (and to confirm there's no fraud going on), but the chat is too long and I'm not sitting on the phone tonight.

But sheesh, Delta's having a bad time right now- although I suppose this could be the guy's fault if he accidentally gave them my email for some reason (maybe they're similar?). Super weird..

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Amen. That's why there was no real consideration of me joining him on the trip, that long flying -- between the typical stress of it AND me being without a smoke for that long -- I see no chance my heart wouldn't say fuck it & quit.

FWIW most international airports I’ve been to have smoking lounges in the concourses. But you’re still talking about 10-12 hours for a trans Atlantic/Pacific flight.

I remember when plans just had a curtain separating smoking from non-smoking. Don’t miss that at all.

Had a co-worker that took Xanax for long flights. He said one time he (thought) fell asleep but was told by passengers that he was talking to other passengers. Weird

[Ksyrup]

So Delta's been getting rightfully hammered by pretty much everyone for this fiasco. This morning, I got two emails from them - one offering some form of reimbursement for expenses incurred for cancelled flights, including expanding eligibility for booking flights on other airlines, and the second saying they would be depositing 12,500 SM into my account in 5 days.

So, hopefully I'll get at least a portion of my American airlines flight reimbursed, which would be nice.

I did a bit of forensic review of flights on FlightAware to see what would have happened had I just stuck with Delta, skipped trying to get home on Monday and taken the 6am flight to ATL and 8am flight to LEX they rebooked me for on Tuesday. The ATL flight went off just fine. The 8am and next flights to LEX were both cancelled. If I had been able to get on one of the next 2 flights, maybe I would have been home by Tuesday afternoon. But that's assuming there were any seats left on those flights, which I have no way of knowing. Either way, I made the right move in booking with American, especially since one-way rental cars were unavailable because so many people had already rented and weren't returning them to the same airport.

[Edward64]

I am once again reminded that European hotel front desk staff are polite but not friendly. At the very least, smile when greeting guests checking in. They have a lot to learn from hotels in Asia IMO

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Edward64

But you’re still talking about 10-12 hours for a trans Atlantic/Pacific flight.

Yeah, and I really don't know that there's anything worth doing that voluntarily for.

[Edward64]

Oh, meant to say Ambien vs Xanax in prior post.

FWIW you’re missing a LOT of wonderful experiences for your cigs. Maybe try some Nicorette + ambien on a shorter flight (Caribbean?) and see how it goes?

Really not trying to be judgmental, just trying to help and give some options to consider.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Oh, meant to say Ambien vs Xanax in prior post.

FWIW you’re missing a LOT of wonderful experiences for your cigs. Maybe try some Nicorette + ambien on a shorter flight (Caribbean?) and see how it goes?

Really not trying to be judgmental, just trying to help and give some options to consider.

I think the issue is that I simply ain't THAT into a whole lot of stuff. I'm tired boss, if you will. Most stuff that random people fly for wouldn't be worth me walking to my back yard over to me. And the nearest access to my back yard isn't 20 feet away.

So the amount of stuff I really feel any sense of loss about is pretty minimal honestly. Only really an issue once in a rare while honestly.

[Ksyrup]

There was another flight diverted due to a passenger "biohazard" incident, this time on United. I hope there are no personal accounts of what happened to be reported here. There were no specifics mentioned in the article I read, but apparently it was bad enough that the crew was throwing up, passengers were asking for masks, and they diverted for a deep clean.

That can't just been the run of the mill throwing up incident, right? That has to be another explosive diarrhea situation.

Oh, yeah - good morning!

[GrantDawg]

Ozempic stomach strikes again.

[PilotMan]

Everyone ate the fish?

[Passacaglia]

Anyone have any advice for me? I'm booking a trip from Chicago to Delhi for 7 people for 2 weeks ish. It's during the kids winter break, so probably the most expensive time to go. My plan as of now is to look at google flights and see what's cheapest, then book it on Chase Rewards, where I have a Sapphire Reserve card with 90K points on it. But since this is going to end up being something like 10K, maybe more, I thought you experts here might have more ideas for me.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Everyone ate the fish?

I hope they had someone on board who spoke jive.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Anyone have any advice for me? I'm booking a trip from Chicago to Delhi for 7 people for 2 weeks ish. It's during the kids winter break, so probably the most expensive time to go. My plan as of now is to look at google flights and see what's cheapest, then book it on Chase Rewards, where I have a Sapphire Reserve card with 90K points on it. But since this is going to end up being something like 10K, maybe more, I thought you experts here might have more ideas for me.

You probably know this, but Google Flights has a feature, once you've put in your criteria, which lets you know if the current cost for the flight is high or low, and when, generally, it is cheapest to book a flight. This is what I do and it works OK.

Otherwise, there must be a reddit out there focused on US to India travel and those folks might have some tips (i.e. people who do that route often).

Having said that, I work with a bunch of folks who routinely go to India from Chicago and most of them seem to just have resolved themselves that it's expensive as fuck and just save up for it.

[Ksyrup]

Also, it's not a given that the portal price is going to be the same price you see on Google Flights or the airline site. Just keep that in mind. Same thing goes for hotels and car rentals. People often complain that the portal pricing is higher.

I don't use the portal often, but I've seen this happen in doing some spot checks.

[Ghost Econ]

Your best bet may be to look through Google to see what flights are available for your timeframe, then go on individual airlines sites to see if any can be booked for rewards. Chase points transfer decently to some partners (you can Google for a list) so you may get lucky.

Also, flew American to Dominican Republic Sunday. Fuck American sucks. Felt way more cramped than other airlines and their wifi sucks.

[GrantDawg]

Holy crap! Did you see this plane just fall out of the sky in Brazil? What the heck happened there?

NEWS

The Associated Press has confirmed that a passenger plane has crashed in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Footage of the crash is circulating widely. pic.twitter.com/0aVHaOx8XD

— Yashar Ali �� (@yashar) August 9, 2024

[flere-imsaho]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ar...azil-sao-paulo

[Ksyrup]

Next time, come up with better phrasing. Or, if it's true, just lie!

Alaska Airlines Flight Diverts After Pilot’s Shocking Confession: ‘Not Qualified To Land' AT Jackson Hole - View from the Wing

[Edward64]

Good to be home in the US. Did a 6 week trip to Europe. Missed Olympics live but good trade off.

Global (re)entry is ridiculously easy. Well worth it for me. I went by a long line going through the traditional customs line last night.

Priority pass lounges have been working out also (thanks Venture X). But the 3 I’ve been to Europe were just meh re: food. I think I have to assume just relatively quietness, clean toilets, drinks, and not expect too much from food. Also, CDG didn’t have any lounges in my international concourse that I transit, something is wrong with that.

[Ksyrup]

Good to know. I have yet to fly into or through CDG but everything I've read is that it's a nightmare and one of the worst big airports in the world. Which sucks because in the rewards game, Air France/Flying Blue is one of the cheapest and best ways to fly from the US to Europe but you almost always have to connect through CDG.

[Edward64]

I don't know why this guy suddenly popped up on my feed, I swear I wasn't googling anything even closely related to his topics, but glad that it did. Pretty entertaining channel.

Essentially, a first officer now pilot, commenting on flying videos from bad landings, to trainee landing a plane because instructor became incapacitated, to ATC and pilot pissing each other off, to mistakes made etc. He's doing this from hotel rooms.

Pretty entertaining and educational for those that fly. The 2 biggest take aways for me are (1) how some ATC and pilots have communication issues either because English is not first language or the speed of how ATC communicates (2) how seemingly complicated take-off and landing directions and going to a gate, crossing runways can be e.g. airborne seems simple in comparison

74 Gear - YouTube

[Ksyrup]

Just an FYI for those of you who use credit card portals for booking flights. Points Guy did a test to see how fares compared to other methods of booking for a variety of flights, results are here:

Is it more expensive to book flights through a credit card travel portal? - The Points Guy

Bottom line, Citi is useless and a couple of the biggies are actually decent deals for either international or US flights.

[Edward64]

Thanks for this.

Now they should do a comparison with Hotels. Pretty sure C1 will fail miserably

[Ksyrup]

Not sure if anyone is interested, but I thought I'd share a redemption I just made to show how you can use credit card transfers to get better deals than directly with airlines (and why transferrable credit card points are so much more valuable in a lot of situations than captive airline miles).

One of the most underrated airline rewards currencies is Air France/KLM's Flying Blue program. Not only is it a Sky Team member, but they run a bunch of good deals between the US and Europe, and because of limitations on credit card fees in Europe, they don't have as robust a rewards setup over there as we do in the US. And Flying Blue has made it one of its strategies to compete against US airlines for rewards business. They are open about it - I've read interviews where they say they are trying to attract US business by offering deals through the rewards program and transfers from US credit cards.

So, with that background, our travel and planning has been on hiatus since our trip to London/cruise/Dublin in May due to my wife's surgery. We're on to planning for 2025 and 2026. In August 2025, we decided to do a cruise around Iceland. I've already booked the cruise with Celebrity, so the next big step is to figure out how to get there and back. Iceland is not all that easy to fly to, at least compared to places in Europe. Icelandair is a decent airline with some cheap economy seating, and I considered that. But first and foremost, I thought about using points or miles. And Icelandair has no credit card transfer partners, so it's either earn flying with their airline or pay cash.

First stop - Delta. I'm Platinum, have a bunch of Delta miles and can fly to Reykjavik through Detroit on Delta. Prices right now are around 58K miles per person in Main or 80K per person round trip. I like to book rewards tickets one-way if the pricing isn't an issue, just for the added flexibility of being able to adjust one or the other leg without losing both.

The date we wanted to fly to Reykjavik for next July came available for booking on Saturday, so I started doing some searches for one-way flights. I found the prices above on Delta. But Delta is part of the Sky Team alliance with Virgin Atlantic and KLM/Air France, among others. So I jumped onto VA and found 2 tickets on Delta for about 30K points each - same flights as I found on Delta for 58K. Then I went on Air France and found the same flights priced at 23,500 points each, plus $76. Jumped all over that - went to Chase, transferred 47K points to Flying Blue miles, and booked the Delta flight through Air France.

Then, because I booked through AF but I want to be able to control the booking through Delta, I called AF and had them change from my AF number to my Delta SkyMiles number. That associated the booking with my Delta information. Logged into Delta, found the new flight under My Trips and, because I'm Delta Platinum, I get free Comfort+ upgrades. So I pulled up the seat selection and switched from Main/Economy that I had to book through AF to Comfort+ from LEX to DTW and Premium Select seats from DTW to KEF.

DONE!

47K points and $76 for mid-tier seats to Reykjavik and no repositioning flight needed - we fly out of an airport 10 minutes from the house. Not only did I save the cash, but I also saved the points/miles by booking the exact same flight that would have cost a lot more directly with Delta through a Delta alliance partner.

Now, I just have to wait another 8 or 9 days until the return date opens up for booking and hope that I can find 2 seats coming back. If not, I'll hold off and look for other deals, or just pay for cheap Icelandair economy seats for the return flight.

It pays to be a member of a bunch of different airline (and hotel) programs just for this purpose - so you're ready at a moment's notice to transfer points and book deals.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

The date we wanted to fly to Reykjavik for next July came available for booking on Saturday, so I started doing some searches for one-way flights. I found the prices above on Delta. But Delta is part of the Sky Team alliance with Virgin Atlantic and KLM/Air France, among others. So I jumped onto VA and found 2 tickets on Delta for about 30K points each - same flights as I found on Delta for 58K. Then I went on Air France and found the same flights priced at 23,500 points each, plus $76. Jumped all over that - went to Chase, transferred 47K points to Flying Blue miles, and booked the Delta flight through Air France.

Nice win.

Then, because I booked through AF but I want to be able to control the booking through Delta, I called AF and had them change from my AF number to my Delta SkyMiles number. That associated the booking with my Delta information. Logged into Delta, found the new flight under My Trips and, because I'm Delta Platinum, I get free Comfort+ upgrades. So I pulled up the seat selection and switched from Main/Economy that I had to book through AF to Comfort+ from LEX to DTW and Premium Select seats from DTW to KEF.

I didn't know you can call AF/KLM and get them to change to Delta SkyMiles. Do you know if they would do that for any level (e.g. I'm lifetime Delta Gold)?

[Ksyrup]

As far as I know, yes. It doesn't have anything to do with status, it's how you want to accumulate miles and - more importantly for me, in this instance - which airline you want to be able to control the booking through. On AF, I could not get my automatic upgrade to Comfort+ even though the flights are on Delta metal. But on Delta's site, as long as Delta had the booking associated with my SM number, it became visible in My Trips and I was able to treat it as if I booked it directly with Delta, so I was able to go in and pick my free upgrade seats.

Before the change, I could search the AF confirmation number on Delta's site and find the booking, but it was prompting me to pay for seat upgrades. It didn't recognize me as a Delta SM member until I had AF change it to my Delta SM number in their system.

[Edward64]

Thanks. I travelled to Europe using KLM. Delta's website knew I was travelling to Europe but it would redirect me to KLM's site. So, I could have used your tip then because I have some points with KLM that I don't know when I'll ever use again.

I wish all the Skymiles partners would agree that a customer just has a general bucket of points that can be used in any partner airline.

[Ksyrup]

That's how some do work, like the Avios program. British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub, Qatar Privilege Club and Finnair Plus all use the same Avios points and can be transferred between them all. This is tremendously helpful in two situations: (1) one of the partner airlines has a credit card transfer partner that others don't, meaning you can transfer from the CC to the one partner and then transfer to the non-CC partners to book, and (2) it greatly expands the usefulness of the points, especially if you can take advantage of certain airlines' redemption sweet spots compared to others.

I've not used Avios yet, but it's a good example of exactly what you're talking about. From Delta's perspective, though, they charge so much for typical redemptions that there's no feasible way to create an interchangeable system with them and their partners. At least not without killing the redemption value you get from those partners compared to Delta, because Delta ain't swinging back to affordable redemptions any time soon. The best use of SkyMiles are on their flash sales, which - when they have them - are usually pretty good (like the deal I grabbed to fly RT to NZ this past February).

[Edward64]

Yikes

I suspect someone is going to lose their job over this.

Two Delta Airlines planes collide on runway at Georgia airport | Daily Mail Online

Two Delta Airlines planes have collided on a runway at the country's busiest airport.

The incident took place at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia just after 10am on Tuesday.

The crash occurred after Tokyo-bound flight DL295 clipped the back of flight DL5526 to Louisiana as it was taxiing for takeoff.

So far, no injuries have been reported among the combined 277 passengers on board the jets.

[Ksyrup]

I don't know if any other airlines do this, but if you fly Delta, here's a neat little trick to pad your SkyMiles balance. Delta has a 20 minute baggage guarantee. If your bag isn't at the carousel within 20 minutes of the official "arrived" time (at the gate) of the final leg of a domestic Delta/Delta Connection flight, you are eligible to claim 2500 SM.

You have to be a SM member and have your number on the booking. I just flew to New Orleans and back for a conference. At 22 minutes, sitting at the NO baggage claim, I filed my claim in their online submission form. I had 2500 SM in my account before my bag arrived 3 minutes later. Did the same thing at 12:30am this morning when I got back to Lexington - an American Airlines flight got in 5 minutes before us and their bags hit the carousel first, so I claimed my 2500 SM while waiting a few extra minutes past 20.

It can add up - even SkyPesos.

[flere-imsaho]

I'm going to have to start timing that when I fly, because it feels like it's never less than 20 minutes on United (who I typically fly).

[Edward64]

Capital One's Venture X is on top of things. Got a text message (and email) asking to confirm a suspicious Apple $250 charge. I replied with a no, and they asked that I call them.

I went on line and saw the $250 charge. It said Apple, date, $250 but did not provide any other information like "iPad, iPhone, annual renewal, gift card etc.". I asked the representative why doesn't C1 provide more details. He said privacy concerns (? sounded BS to me). It would be infinitely more helpful if they insisted the merchants provide the next level of detail.

They'll launch a 90 day investigation automatically but I could call Apple myself to see if more details can be provided. I said heck to that, who wants to call a number and go through the menu to find a help person who will inevitably transfer me to someone else etc. Just send the new card

I know CC fraud is significant and Venture X tracks my spending patterns. I appreciate Venture X. No idea how they got my CC and security code. If Venture X did not text me, I'll probably have noticed when I did my month end review/payment, so happy with the real time validation.

Oh, Venture X sent me a list of vendors that I have reoccurring payments with. Out of the 10, they were able update 7 vendors with my new card but I have to manually change 3 myself. That was nice!


In a perfect world, those attempting petty CC fraud will get tased for like 15 seconds each time their fraud is detected.

[Ksyrup]

My daughter got hit with fraud on her personal bank account at the beginning of October, then back-to-back days about 10 days ago on 2 cards I have her as authorized user on. I started thinking it was someone she knows (roommate, friends, co-workers?) considering all 3 accounts are unrelated, but her BF came up with maybe the most plausible explanation - they're all part of her Apple wallet. Someone might have gotten into her phone, either physically or hacked their way in, and stole all 3 numbers. Who knows.

The weird thing is, on my 2 accounts, they tried using her card to purchase AARP memberships. I assume a tester charge? And maybe because it comes back to a 50-something dad, I wouldn't notice? That suggests someone who knows something about my daughter, because why AARP? In any event, AmEx noticed. Apparently they haven't seen my "silver fox" look, so they immediately thought it was fraud. For all they knew, my daughter was going to play a Christmas joke on me by gifting me an AARP membership!

Everything's cleared up, she got 3 new cards, and we'll wait for the next round of fraud.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

The weird thing is, on my 2 accounts, they tried using her card to purchase AARP memberships. I assume a tester charge?

Did the charge actually say "membership" because I can see the ass buying gift cards?

I literally got no hint on Venture X online on what the $250 charge was for other than Apple/date.

[Ksyrup]

Yes, they were $12 charges and my daughter got emails asking her to set up her email subscription. So they also had her email address which got linked to the account that was set up.

[Ksyrup]

Nothing worse than landing 40 minutes early only to have your gate occupied by a plane without a crew and they either can't or won't find another gate. We've been sitting waiting for this gate longer than the flight to get here.