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DJCobol posted:I usually just get allergies when I'm out, but i have a pretty well stocked pharmacy in my carry on. Saline spray, allergy nasal spray, Claritin D, melatonin, advil PM, tylenol, eye drops, carmex, neosporin, a small assortment of bandaids, and cold/flu daytime/nighttime pills. Worst that's happened to me is getting really bad strep throat (twice actually), but a quick trip to an urgent car/little clinic/minute clinic, a shot of antibiotics and some pills have usually gotten me up and around the next day. This. And just have lots of chicken soup and hot fluids. Go easy on food and rest more
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Apr 11, 2016 15:24
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Cacafuego posted:150/night in SPG is tough, unless you want to stay at four points. The westins, W's, sheratons, le meridiens I book for work are usually all >$200/night. Although I think I did book the Westin Richmond for like $159/ night 3 or 4 times. Yeah idk what "major cities" but 150/night ain't gonna work. I think I booked a Westin Palm Springs for 89/night once!
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Apr 11, 2016 16:18
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Amex Platinum also has the better version of their purchase protection which covers up to $10k and is pretty much no-questions asked.
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Apr 11, 2016 19:49
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KillHour posted:Is there a good reason not to pick Delta, since I already have a matching card? Would it be worth it to upgrade to a Platinum AmEx if I fly a lot? Sure. I'm a delta DM sort of by default. It really depends on where you fly. I fly a lot (greetings from Frankfurt!). I was originally in BOS and did a fair amount of JetBlue travel. I then relocated to DC and had to use Corp travel so by company policy made PM on delta. I then relocated again to a small airport in North Carolina, so my choices were to stick with delta or switch to usairways since the universe goes through atl or clt for most of the south. Stuck with delta. Moved back to BOS and stuck with delta though I did a status match with the new American two years ago. Why I status matched AA: 1. I was going to Chicago a lot for work. Direct flights on AA were nice in theory. 2. More nonstop destinations out of my home airport. AA plus AS plus Oneworld could get me to a wide range of domestics fairly easily plus Asia (Cathay and JAL) and Europe (BA and Iberia) without too much fuss so it was a decent fit in terms of destinations Why I went back to DL: 1. I had really lovely experiences with AA customer service and while American hubs are well located they are poo poo airports to transit through. 2. DL had a network that better suited my travel needs. AMS, CDG and FCO are available on direct flights and i can get to everywhere in Europe in one connection except certain parts of Turkey. SkyTeam bites in Asia but I rarely go there. I mostly hit south and west coast so DL is fairly strong. 3. Sticker process for upgrades on AA is horrible (though had I persisted through exp this is a non issue) 4. Mileage based awards does not have much of a negative effect on me. I probably lose 15% of total earnings but I already have more than I know what to do with. At some point, it just doesn't matter. I would be fine as a United 1K or an AA Executive platinum, but at this point why change? Also considered JetBlue because they do have the most direct flights out of BOS but mosaic is a complete joke for people who do like 3k in spend a year. My advice to you: try to figure out where you usually will go, and pick a carrier that allows easy access to those places with multiple unrelated connection options (eg: Barcelona via JFK, CDG, AMS, FCO) - this helps you hedge against localized delays.
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Apr 11, 2016 21:58
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Don't think I saw this discussed. But be aware if you usually book multi city flights, airlines have decided to gently caress you so now you have to buy each individual one way. http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2016/04/07/fliers-beware-airline-rule-change-could-cost-hundreds-extra/82739574/
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Apr 13, 2016 22:06
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Man that's the only reason why I like domestic air travel in China. Every leg is already considered as one way so you just pay as you go. With the enormous pool of people flying air travel is cheap. Or the us should have a high speed train network like Japan or Europe
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Apr 14, 2016 11:14
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caberham posted:Man that's the only reason why I like domestic air travel in China. Every leg is already considered as one way so you just pay as you go. With the enormous pool of people flying air travel is cheap. The us is big.
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Apr 14, 2016 15:58
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Auto and oil industry lobby groups are both strong plus there's the NIMBY opposition. Would be great though I don't see it happening in our lifetimes.
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Apr 14, 2016 16:09
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The US is big. Stop.
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Apr 14, 2016 16:37
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sellouts posted:The US is big. But the regions in which people are concentrated are manageable. Having Inland Empire / LA / Orange County / even San Diego is reasonable. But, the taxes *Sideshow Bob rubs fingers and thumb together*
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Apr 14, 2016 16:43
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Blinkman987 posted:But the regions in which people are concentrated are manageable. Having Inland Empire / LA / Orange County / even San Diego is reasonable. Those areas do have regional trains though. http://www.metrolinktrains.com/
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Apr 14, 2016 17:08
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Thoguh posted:Those areas do have regional trains though. Since you have a usc badge, I assume you lived in LA. So you know metro service is very limited and Amtrak is prohibitively expensive. To present current metro service as being adequate to current needs is absurd. You're a funny guy. New 40 year proposal may be able to get me from Orange County or LAX without transit system changes and $30. Hopefully I don't die before it's finished.
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Apr 14, 2016 20:45
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Ah yes the now "it exists but it's too expensive so I'm going to suggest building a faster, superior system and expect that it'll be cheaper" argument. The metro isn't efficient in LA because of size and sprawl. It's far bigger than Manhattan. Ever ridden the A train beginning to end? Me either, but it'd take almost 2 hours and it's only 31 miles. Santa Monica to Staples is half that in a straight line and takes 45 minutes to an hour via metro currently. Also, for $30 you can rent a car and drive.
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Apr 15, 2016 01:58
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sellouts posted:Ah yes the now "it exists but it's too expensive so I'm going to suggest building a faster, superior system and expect that it'll be cheaper" argument. I'm no city planner or engineer, but the vast majority of other cities I visit make it work. London, Paris, Chicago, all of Asia lol, etc... Even the ones with system changes from suburbs to the city make it manageable.
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Apr 15, 2016 18:54
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Blinkman987 posted:I'm no city planner or engineer, but the vast majority of other cities I visit make it work. London, Paris, Chicago, all of Asia lol, etc... Even the ones with system changes from suburbs to the city make it manageable. I was looking at maps comparing the sheer size and sprawl of LA vs cities like the one you've mentioned.  They have 18 lines to cover the entire area and the system length is something like 1000 miles. The Seoul metro covers the outskirts of Seoul and surrounding cities as well - this is probably something that the LA metro would have to cover in order to provide the same level of coverage. It still takes a while to traverse from one of the city to the other, but for any visitor, getting around downtown, Santa Monica, Universal City, and the beaches would be all that's necessary. poo poo goes deep though and I'm not sure whether making earthquake retrofits to anything as deep as some of the tunnels in KOrea could be feasible in LA. It'd cost way too much and probably bankrupt all of the surrounding cities. Its a nice dream though and not something that can't be done. Its just never going to happen. And I lived in LA with my girlfriend for a while. Renting a car for $30 and driving is fine if you're used to it but poo poo sucks sitting in traffic.
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Apr 15, 2016 22:22
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Ridership on the Gold Line expansion has exceeded expectations and Santa Monica goes online in May, LA is trying to improve mass transit. http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20160411/what-we-learned-about-new-gold-line-train-riders-might-surprise-you I live in San Diego and take Amtrak to LA semi-regularly for meetings downtown, but once I get to Union I'm in a cab. If I have to go anywhere. else in the region I'll drive because the train schedule is usually inconvenient.
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Apr 17, 2016 08:12
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Every now and then the stars align and awesome happens - I left Long Beach 3hrs before my flight at LAX and got stuck in traffic. Arrived at the baggage counter 30 mins before departure. The cute Delta guy walked me through security and onto the plane. Not to humble brag, but this is where status and good customer service create a win.
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Apr 17, 2016 18:01
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caberham posted:Man that's the only reason why I like domestic air travel in China. Every leg is already considered as one way so you just pay as you go. With the enormous pool of people flying air travel is cheap. That was a memorable part of my China trip, was being in a completely packed 777 with just economy seating, even though there were flights every half hour to Shanghai.
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Apr 17, 2016 22:46
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Blinkman987 posted:Since you have a usc badge, I assume you lived in LA. So you know metro service is very limited and Amtrak is prohibitively expensive. To present current metro service as being adequate to current needs is absurd. You're a funny guy. Even in places with crazy people density most of the lines run at a loss and are subsidized by a couple of bonkers routes. Routes also get subsidized by the rail company leasing out the land around hubs (which are high land value because there is a rail hub there) Also there are still lots of transits you have to do and sometimes two lines intersecting at a stop and 'transitable' are actually a kilometer walk between them. It isn't going to happen in the US.
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Apr 18, 2016 00:02
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I became a weekly commuter (Denver to Portland) at the beginning of this year. Easy trips minus that I'm 6'6" so it's challenging being on a plane and my employer doesn't reimburse for upgrades. I fly out on Sundays and return on Thursdays. This gig wraps up at the end of this month and I'm excited to be back in my bed for more than a day or two a week. Traveling for work this much I think definitely works for certain personality types, though not mine. I like to play sports too much and my other (more enjoyable) work doesn't travel well so I've had to put that on hold. My boss, for example, is a million-miler with United. Working with her really gave me an appreciation for getting this travel stuff down cold for the contract. One less thing to worry about and rack up some benefits along the way. When I started I wish I had known about this thread or what all this travel would feel like. I was scrambling for airline tickets, taking connections (ha!), staying in whichever hotel had the best rates, etc. About a month in I had started booking with one airline only, gotten a frequent flyer number, booking with a single hotel, etc. etc. I'm a little sickeningly obsessed now with securing status with United so I can feel that sweet, sweet legroom where available. Follow the advice of this thread and its established travelers. Setup multiple toiletries kits and learn how to pack. I'm a bullet proof traveler after a short few months of this madness. It's a weird thing to have gotten used to.
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Apr 18, 2016 00:09
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You people who are just suppressing symptoms with all those lovely over the counter drugs every time you get sick will find that if you just take a day or two off to stay warm and sleep (without suppressing symptoms) you'll be much more productive and pleasant to be around overall. Yes every meeting is super important do or die can't miss this pitch I flew in for blah blah blah just loving reschedule noone actually minds when you do.
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Apr 18, 2016 17:14
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I do a lot of domestic and international airlining now, but I am a total scrub when it comes to maximizing my points and whatnot. All travel is booked by my company, so I can't really do the cc points game but all the airlines miles and such I'm trying to figure out. All of the alliances and how they work are very confusing to me at this stage, where is the best primer to get up and going? I will be doing a lot of middle east carriers as well as the big 3 in US. Here is an example trip that I'm having a hard time grasping how to maximize. I was booked on a trip via Alaska Air from anchorage to kuwait. My company used my American Airlines reward number ( I didnt have an alaska number on file with them) to book the flight. It appears I will only get AA miles for the ANC-SEA leg on Alaska, then SEA to Dubai to KWI is on emirates and it seems I wont get AA miles for those segments? Or will I because it was booked through Alaska? Would it be better to change the entire flight to Alaska miles (or maybe even emirates miles? god please help me)
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Apr 18, 2016 20:05
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Pryor on Fire posted:You people who are just suppressing symptoms with all those lovely over the counter drugs every time you get sick will find that if you just take a day or two off to stay warm and sleep (without suppressing symptoms) you'll be much more productive and pleasant to be around overall. Yes every meeting is super important do or die can't miss this pitch I flew in for blah blah blah just loving reschedule noone actually minds when you do. Even if people don't mind its more of a 'there isn't too many open holes in the schedule to stick a reschedule in' for me. Also a lot of stuff can't be rescheduled - presentations at conference, gov't meetings, etc. You would just straight up miss them (which is bad). That said after I started exercising on the reg and eating well I don't get sick much anymore.
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Apr 19, 2016 00:16
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greasyhands posted:I do a lot of domestic and international airlining now, but I am a total scrub when it comes to maximizing my points and whatnot. All travel is booked by my company, so I can't really do the cc points game but all the airlines miles and such I'm trying to figure out. All of the alliances and how they work are very confusing to me at this stage, where is the best primer to get up and going? I will be doing a lot of middle east carriers as well as the big 3 in US. You might have success by checking in and adding your AA# at the airport. As long as your traveling on all one-world partners they should respect and apply points. I know Alaska does this.
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Apr 20, 2016 19:35
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Emirates is not a OneWorld partner. If you live in Alaska, you should be doing everything on MileagePlan anyway.
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Apr 20, 2016 21:08
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The Middle East members of OneWorld are Royal Jordanian and Qatar. But getting there on those is going to be a pain in the rear end from ANC. In terms of OneWorld, BA has a flight from SEA to LHR and LHR to KWI. But BA kinda blows.
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Apr 20, 2016 23:08
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One world blows. Wish I had sky team but I'm in Cathay city
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Apr 21, 2016 03:05
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New exciting travel opportunity for those of you who travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco: http://www.sleepbus.co/ I'm sure there's at least one skinflint company out there that's going to make an employee use this
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Apr 21, 2016 18:46
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caberham posted:One world blows. Wish I had sky team but I'm in Cathay city Completely agree, I wish I could reasonably pull off Star Alliance but I live in Dallas so it's just so much easier to go OneWorld
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Apr 21, 2016 18:50
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caberham posted:One world blows. Wish I had sky team but I'm in Cathay city
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Apr 21, 2016 20:47
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I can't endorse SkyTeam solely for Air Europa's existence. StarAlliance would be neat except United is dogshit and most of my travel is domestic.
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Apr 22, 2016 01:29
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Small White Dragon posted:Why? (Just curious) Cathay is a decent airline but they have a strangle hold on my city. It's actually cheaper to fly some where else and transit here on the same flight and all. My travel destinations also are more aligned to France/Netherlands in Europe, and if it's Eastern Asia China Eastern has better flight times and destinations for me. If I go to South East Asia on my own dime then I just pick any crappy LCC and be done with it. Trans continental Cathay flights are great, don't get me wrong but there's a huge cost premium and seats aren't exactly easy to get hold of. Their mileage system also kind of blows
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Apr 22, 2016 03:51
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pig slut lisa posted:New exciting travel opportunity for those of you who travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco: http://www.sleepbus.co/ Jesus Christ it's like sleeping in a goddamn tour bus. The snoring alone. Yuck.
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Apr 22, 2016 04:07
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Sounds like South East Asia! hopefully the drivers won't fall asleep
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Apr 22, 2016 04:48
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caberham posted:Cathay is a decent airline but they have a strangle hold on my city. It's actually cheaper to fly some where else and transit here on the same flight and all.
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Apr 22, 2016 09:25
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Just flew a Virgin Atlantic A330 'upper class' IAD-LHR. Not bad at all, despite a weird herringbone seating arrangement. They kept the passengers JUICED during dinner service, prowling the aisles with double fists of wine. Felt bad that I had to give a presentation here in London on arrival, so I couldn't avail myself at all. It's a weird red-eye - leaving just before 7pm, arriving just after 7am (7.5 hour flight), not really long enough to be fully rested.pig slut lisa posted:New exciting travel opportunity for those of you who travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco: http://www.sleepbus.co/ I took a sleeper bus like this from Hyderabad to Goa (16 hours) a couple of years ago. I brought a liter of half-soda half-gin in the soda bottle, and slept like a baby.
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Apr 22, 2016 10:55
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Now I remember why I don't like delta. These seats are atrocious. Yay, bare metal for my knees.
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Apr 25, 2016 14:10
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Is there any reason not to use the E terminal premium club in MIA? I'm in here on a Qatar business ticket, but the desk agent told me as an Admirals club member I can use it. There's a much better spread than the D terminal AC's.
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Apr 25, 2016 22:19
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If taking a connecting flight with an extra two hours travel time (layover + extra flight time) to fly on two A320's instead of a 2.5 hour direct flight on a CRJ200 is wrong I don't want to be right.
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Apr 26, 2016 00:34
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Good luck with that when you go irrops and work gets pissed because you missed something important
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Apr 26, 2016 03:01
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