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WN is really not much cheaper anymore than big3, at least in my experience departing from the northeast
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Dec 27, 2022 19:52
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Two free checked bags is worthwhile to the average leisure traveler too.
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Dec 27, 2022 21:44
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smackfu posted:Two free checked bags is worthwhile to the average leisure traveler too. They'll happily sign up to save that $30 and take the chance. And, this week aside, the math often works in their favor.
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Dec 27, 2022 21:47
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I used to consult for a health tech startup whose travel policy was "Just book Southwest." This is back when they were 10 guys in a Wework, not raising at a billion dollars. I think their reasoning was that it wasn't always cheaper, but there weren't really awful last minute Y fares. For example, AA will sometimes price the last seat at like 2k for full Y. I'm AA EXP and don't hate the idea of WN but sometimes schedule is really good here in California...
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Dec 27, 2022 22:05
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interesting thread on WN's problems https://twitter.com/JustAnother_Ben/status/1607707495509929985
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Dec 27, 2022 23:59
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That tweet thread is great, I witnessed this firsthand yesterday. Flew southwest yesterday from Burbank to Vegas, to catch a connecting flight to Tulsa. The flight leaving Burbank was about an hour late, due to crew shortage. But I made it to Vegas and had a layover. Made it to the gate for the Tulsa flight with time to spare. The plane was there, we saw our bags getting loaded onboard, everything seemed cool. But we ended up sitting there for three hours as the SW representatives at the gate continually updated, saying they needed six crew members to fly. They had three, then five, and the last one was supposed to be on the way. Then I guess an hour later, suddenly we all got texts saying the flight was cancelled, and the SW reps were saying that they weren’t rebooking anything until at least Jan 1st. They said we could queue up to get added to the standby list for the same flight tomorrow, which I did, and ended up 14th on the standby list. And they were like “You’re on your own as far as hotel accommodations, although you can request reimbursement from southwest” Then went downstairs to look for my checked bag which was in the middle of a group of about 80 others, which thankfully they had sorted out by destination location. If they hadn’t done that, it would have been somewhere in the midst of hundreds of bags. As the evening went on I realized I had basically zero chance to get on that flight as #14 on the standby list, and that’s if the flight today didn’t also get cancelled, which seems near certain. They have no idea where any of their crew members even are… they are scattered all over the country, and the only option they have to let the company know their location is to call a number and sit on hold for 6-8 hours. Nice! 
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Dec 28, 2022 16:41
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I feel even having everyone submit where tf they are via a google form or something like that has got to be better than CALLING IN. Good lord.
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Dec 28, 2022 17:12
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I took a southwest flight and the computer wasn't able to scan boarding passes, so they resorted to checking names off of a roster. The numerical order boarding made this work pretty well actually.
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Dec 28, 2022 18:48
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I think I've had that happen to me before as well on Southwest but I didn't think anything of it.
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Dec 28, 2022 19:17
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I was in Denver when southwest's system went down in the mid 2010s They issued me a hand written boarding pass, scribbled on a badly xeroxed worksheet. This apparently was considered valid and they let us through security and on the plane.
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Dec 28, 2022 19:34
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Southwest was great when I lived near DAL and had to fly to Houston/Denver for work on the regular. Near hourly direct flights. I’d be at cruising altitude in the time it took me to get to security at DFW. Having moved away from that niche, Southwest’s value is dramatically down. Finding a direct flight for a good time and okay price point is nigh impossible.
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Dec 28, 2022 20:07
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They really are only still good for weird midsize city pairs. I have Southwest booked Austin-New Orleans for a wedding in March and it's nonstops both ways. Otherwise no thanks, please give me an actual carrier with backup plans and customer support and all.
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Dec 28, 2022 20:55
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Guy Axlerod posted:I took a southwest flight and the computer wasn't able to scan boarding passes, so they resorted to checking names off of a roster. The numerical order boarding made this work pretty well actually. to be fair this has happened to me on delta too
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Dec 28, 2022 21:15
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JohnCompany posted:They really are only still good for weird midsize city pairs. I have Southwest booked Austin-New Orleans for a wedding in March and it's nonstops both ways. Otherwise no thanks, please give me an actual carrier with backup plans and customer support and all. Yeah they do Hartford-Denver and Hartford-Nashville which are pretty good flights if you live in Hartford. But only once daily so in a situation like this it sucks. Like that Denver flight has been cancelled three days in a row now.
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Dec 28, 2022 21:18
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I think 2023 is the year I finally break free from the irrational treadmill of AA airline loyalty. This year I'll only requalify as Plat Pro unless I put like 40k of business spend on my card before end of February. I'm finding decent deals, at least in Q1 of next year, buying discounted paid domestic F on DL/UA. For example, LAX-IAD in UA F 772 lie-flat for $530 one-way? Yes please. MCO-ATL-SNA in a lie-flat 752 for $800? Alright. I've paid more for last-minute economy fares. I realize this comes from a place of privilege, because it's still substantially more expensive than economy with advance purchase, but I've been so tied to this dumb loyalty train and I feel like the benefits aren't as good as the way AAdvantage lives rent free in my head.
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Dec 28, 2022 22:13
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If you’re buying F most days you’re going to have a better day than an exp
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Dec 29, 2022 02:35
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https://twitter.com/JessMagdefrau/status/1608068074632278016?s=20&t=5y3-RqHvzCrocgj8DPkakA Personally, I don't see how in the hell Southwest recovers from this at all. And goddamn do I feel bad for every worker like flight attendants, gate staff, etc.
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Dec 29, 2022 04:00
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Old AA IT guy here. Southwest is the red headed step child of the aviation IT system, they dont share there travel data, they are obsessed with keeping travel data to themselves and hate giving access to their routes unless your a corporate travel partner (because many polices say you MUST use their agent) Understand when I worked on the AA system it was years of investment, you could easily spend 100 mil a year just maintaining and upgrading the scheduling system. Trying to make a new system would be a Deloitte / Accenture field day, $250 Million because they want their process turned into a modern system (and no way would they adopt an industry standard system) would be the minimum bid with a huge variability in that bid. All of this assumes enough leadership is willing to bite the bullet on this, your talking an investment southwest has not made in years, AA started this in the 70s and 80s. This could take down the company if they cant get the system reset in a day. O ya, there is footage of pilots doing bagger duty, loading / unloading planes. I cant tell if its due to the scheduling system being down or the baggers are on strike. Nothing public is being said about baggers but given we're running out of space for bags who knows.
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Dec 29, 2022 04:04
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Mandalay posted:I think 2023 is the year I finally break free from the irrational treadmill of AA airline loyalty. This year I'll only requalify as Plat Pro unless I put like 40k of business spend on my card before end of February.
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Dec 29, 2022 09:10
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:https://twitter.com/JessMagdefrau/status/1608068074632278016?s=20&t=5y3-RqHvzCrocgj8DPkakA Reading some of those replies makes we remember why I deleted Twitter.
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Dec 29, 2022 13:34
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I looked at the comments... How did wokeness cause this? It did make my flight home this week cost about 5x what it normally would, I think I got the second to last seat on the plane.
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Dec 29, 2022 19:12
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SpeedFreek posted:I looked at the comments.... There's your trouble.
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Dec 29, 2022 19:42
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Beef Of Ages posted:There's your trouble. I usually don't but sometimes you have to remind yourself why. Looks like I'm going to be around $200 short of diamond, I'm not sure I'll be able to find a cheap quick flight in the next two days.
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Dec 29, 2022 20:23
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i fly airplanes posted:United is absolutely #1 in terms of flying widebodies on domestic routes. If you're flying cheap confirmed business class also consider putting them towards a different program too, I know some Canadians who fly UA often in P class just so they can earn a lot of SQMs on Aeroplan. They would earn much less direct with MileagePlus because it's based on spend. Good point. I guess I have to weigh that against the idea of having yet another frequent flyer balance to take care of, not to mention the potential difference in redemption prices between AC and UA. It's been about a decade of playing this miles/points/travel game for me and now I'm trying to simplify instead of randomly earn miles. We also recently had our first kid and have taken him to 4 hotels in the first six months of his life. (3 weekend staycations on points and 1 work conference) Hauling baby stuff and dealing with dumb poo poo like washing bottles or unfamiliar cribs is so much of an extra hassle that it's seriously depressing our desire to use these miles/points since we'd rather stay at home. At least until one day we're rich enough to do bougie stuff like hire a nanny to travel with us.
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Dec 29, 2022 21:01
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Just encountered the absolute weirdest guy at AAdvantage. Brief backstory: On Tuesday, I was supposed to travel on Amtrak from Chicago to Champaign with my wife and toddler. Amtrak was cancelling a bunch of trains, and ours was still showing "on time" on the boards a good 20 minutes after scheduled departure. Meanwhile, Union Station was a zoo as Amtrak tried to line up buses to various destinations for the Michigan train they had cancelled earlier. Once they started making delay announcements for our train, it kinda felt like they were holding off on announcing a cancellation until they cleared the Michigan folks. I checked AA around 4:30 and was able to score three Web Specials to Champaign that evening at 7:25 PM. Right before we left the train station to get to the airport, our train announced boarding! We decided to stick with the train and hope for the best on refunding the plane tickets. Well, it's a good thing the train ended up going out with us onboard. I kept checking the app to see whether the booking had actually ticketed so I could cancel it. It ended up not ticketing until 6:40 PM, i.e. 45 minutes before scheduled departure. The boarding passes didn't show up in the app; I had a notice to check in at a desk. Of course, it would have been impossible to actually make the flight. I can't imagine how stressed I would have been waiting outside security as the minutes ticked away. I called AAdvantage today to ask for a redeposit. A rep named Lyle picked up the phone. After explaining things to him, he put me on hold for 7-8 minutes, and then said, "OK, the miles are back in your account." I couldn't believe how quick and easy it was. Before he hung up, I asked him if he could forward me to a supervisor so I could recognize him for his great customer service. Here is where Lyle revealed himself to be a huge weirdo. He replied, "Oh, that's OK, I came out of retirement to do this job so I could stay busy, I don't care about any of that stuff. Thanks though." Who comes out of retirement to work an airline call center during the holidays for funsies??  Love him though.
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Dec 30, 2022 19:24
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Feedback thread link - https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4020879 Appreciate any and all of your thoughts.
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Dec 31, 2022 23:50
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Always tough to see all those counters back at zero.
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Jan 1, 2023 19:59
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AA is til end of February
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Jan 1, 2023 23:52
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pig slut lisa posted:Who comes out of retirement to work an airline call center during the holidays for funsies?? American work culture is really weird. This is not unusual—companies like Walmart rely heavily on older workers. All those information kiosks at airports are staffed totally by unpaid volunteers. Many organizations love getting retirees to volunteer for free. Other places in the world there are many community centres and senior organizations/housing for retirees to stay active and social.
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Jan 4, 2023 01:08
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There's two main things in my opinion, Americans are notoriously bad about saving for retiremrent and even if you're financially secure, honestly, there's a lot of time to fill in a day if you don't have hobbies.
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Jan 4, 2023 06:23
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My dad is 75 now and has said that he’s finally going to fully retire this year. He “retired” from his normal day job 6 years ago as the county administrator and went back to work for the county part time as a security guard. He says it’s because he’d go crazy with nothing to do all day and just wants something to do. He’s got 4 pensions, pays nothing for healthcare due to his previous position in the judiciary and told me they have more money that they know what to do with, so we’ve all been begging him to just stop working and go travel, enjoy the time you have left. Covid put a damper on that, for sure, but I think he’s finally convinced that he needs to stop.
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Jan 4, 2023 13:29
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I understand that people have different mindsets, but that will always be weird to me. I will always be able to find something to keep myself busy, and I don't think I'd ever "not know what to do with" even a near-infinite amount of money. I cannot fathom having too much money or free time.
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Jan 4, 2023 16:32
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Is there a way to block Concur from pulling fares from the garbage airlines (Southwest, spirit, frontier)? My previous company didn’t pull any of those and the limit was like $200 to the “least cost logical airfare”. Now, it’s $75 and of course garbage tier airlines are going to be cheaper than ones that can get me there and handle IRROPS well.
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Jan 4, 2023 21:57
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Cacafuego posted:Is there a way to block Concur from pulling fares from the garbage airlines (Southwest, spirit, frontier)? My previous company didn’t pull any of those and the limit was like $200 to the “least cost logical airfare”. Now, it’s $75 and of course garbage tier airlines are going to be cheaper than ones that can get me there and handle IRROPS well. Yes there is. When you're the Concur admin. Your company chose to set it up this way.
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Jan 4, 2023 22:02
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Motronic posted:Yes there is. When you're the Concur admin. this. also play with times a bunch. you can beat concurs "lowest cost garbage" with good time management E: also be a morning person or a red eye person.
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Jan 4, 2023 22:09
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Yep, it is totally dependant upon the rules and, in my experience, the rules are most often defined by accounting departments that are staffed with people who don't travel. It is, in a word, lovely. To the points made, you can get creative with searching by schedule versus price and usually get the options that you're looking for. Every company I have worked for in the last decade allows Southwest but blocks Spirit, Allegiant, and the others of the ULCC persuasion. The fact that they show up suggests that your company doesn't place the right value on the travel experience for employees, especially if you're doing a lot of it.
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Jan 4, 2023 23:40
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Motronic posted:Yes there is. When you're the Concur admin.  TehRedWheelbarrow posted:E: also be a morning person or a red eye person. No  Beef Of Ages posted:Yep, it is totally dependant upon the rules and, in my experience, the rules are most often defined by accounting departments that are staffed with people who don't travel. It is, in a word, lovely. I can totally buy the bean counters thing, I guess. I work for a large, global pharma company and our primary role involves 80% travel. I can book the more expensive option, but I’m sure it flags me somewhere in the system that I’m doing that. I used to get around it by booking multi-city trips and going home-hub-destination, but every time I try to do that, it says “fare not available” when I go to book it.
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Jan 5, 2023 00:48
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Cacafuego posted:I can totally buy the bean counters thing, I guess. I work for a large, global pharma company and our primary role involves 80% travel. I can book the more expensive option, but I’m sure it flags me somewhere in the system that I’m doing that. Yep, I promise most of the people involved with those rules are looking at it from a financial standpoint first and foremost, and probably little else. Concur lets you know up front if your record is being flagged, so I wouldn't worry about it beyond that, especially when you have decent business justification. Unless your expense report approver is an rear end in a top hat, that is. And your trick is probably breaking some married segment logic that most US airlines use these days to maximize yields, so the travel agency won't let you book them because they're on the hook for the debit memo that airlines can issue.
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Jan 5, 2023 00:59
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I’ve also had luck with the price filters if I limit my schedule window (or distance radius with hotels) to a VERY narrow band, like 1 hour +/- Unrelated but the new update makes hotel itemization take forever. Why are there SO MANY clicks
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Jan 5, 2023 01:19
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I'm very pleased that we use Concur for expense reporting but not for travel booking. We just started and it all seems quite reasonable compared to our old poo poo. There's an app! dope
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Jan 5, 2023 03:02
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