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Status is cool and good and at some level required for me to stay sane doing my job, but at some point there's a value equation on working harder at making enough money to just buy the premium travel anyways. Also status isn't the best way to have influence anyways, it's just the only way it's guaranteed.
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Oct 5, 2017 04:41
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Also there's something funny about advancing status and budget and getting more and more room in the sky only to the grow and reach the point where you're back to flying in a minivan in the sky with seats that barely recline and your poo poo everywhere, only the plane has 6 other people in it and it leaves when you want and goes to an airport closer to where you need to be.
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Oct 5, 2017 04:43
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Lol If you dress up for flights though Literally the only time I do that is when I'm taking a 4/5 am somewhere and walking off the plane to work cause I don't feel like coming in the day before.
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Oct 5, 2017 04:52
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Status is great but never paying for a vacation is so much better.
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Oct 5, 2017 04:55
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Waroduce posted:Lol If you dress up for flights though Who was it complaining about not upholding the social contract? Tab8715 posted:Status is great but never paying for a vacation is so much better. This is the greatest single thing that keeps me in a 60-80% travel job (that I actually love doing).
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Oct 5, 2017 05:43
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Tab8715 posted:Status is great but never paying for a vacation is so much better. Hail Satan. This is why you stick with a single brand if you can.
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Oct 5, 2017 05:48
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On the subject of hotels - I think it's a tossup between SPG, Hilton and IHG. I've been told AA gives out more points but I'm mostly stuck in a Delta hub.
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Oct 5, 2017 05:59
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Status can be nice but a lot of the really big stuff happens at lower tiers and the upper tiers are just more points. With airlines, just being a member of their FF program generally means you won't be booted from a flight because it's oversold. Access to more comfortable (not a ton but a little more) seats. The free wi-fi keeps you from being annoyed at paying for wi-fi. Being able to use the Emerald aisle at National. All of those things can reduce the stress level of dealing with small bullshit. But to keep it in perspective, Pre-Check will do more for your sanity than everything but maybe the Emerald Aisle. For the higher tier stuff, most of my airline upgrades happen flying RDU to CLT. Which spends more time taxiing and waiting for a gate than in the air. It's nice. The seats are wider, more comfortable in first. Having an actual glass makes me feel more human. But it's a 25 minute flight and it doesn't really make up for 3 or 4 hours flying cross country that makes up my other leg. I've never actually had a hotel room upgrade at Hilton. I have gotten late check out regularly which is nice for sleeping later but not a game changer. I have gotten some cool cars with National which is pretty great. The two times a year my team is all in the same place, we compare status. Not because we're flyer talk min-maxers but because it's way of kind of comparing road scars. The Flyertalk min-maxers have hit the point where they are trading sanity for a less than 1% chance of getting an upgrade. If your team is the later group, and doing mattress runs (the hotel hopping) then maybe not hang out with them. It might be contagious. Having said that, it's not bad to peek in on their once and a while to see what changes are coming. Making an account there is a warning side. Tab8715 posted:What's the best flyertalk thread? The AA forum has a thread for the most petty grievance you can come up with. 2/3rds of it are people who are self-aware about being a flyertalk poster and get the joke. 1/3 is hell bent on living up to the flyertalk stereotype and talking about how plastic cups in first really is the end of Western Civilization.
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Oct 5, 2017 06:16
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Tab8715 posted:Status is great but never paying for a vacation is so much better. Same.
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Oct 5, 2017 10:52
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Cacafuego posted:Who was it complaining about not upholding the social contract? Aristotle Animes, who went to Bangkok for New Year's a couple of years ago and never posted again.
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Oct 5, 2017 12:43
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Speaking of status and loyalty: Delta's New CEO: Giving Away Upgrades for Loyalty No Longer Makes Sense
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Oct 5, 2017 13:05
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Cacafuego posted:Speaking of status and loyalty: Delta's New CEO: Giving Away Upgrades for Loyalty No Longer Makes Sense He's probably going to regret that decision. Cutting FF programs is one of the last things a dying airline does. Bastian posted:“Ten years ago you’d have a business traveler paying $800 and sitting in a middle seat next to someone who bought their ticket six months earlier sitting in the aisle seat for $69,” Bastian told the audience Nice!
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Oct 5, 2017 13:17
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Another perk of status is getting the icy stare from the militant, luggage tagged, lesser status holders when asking them to let you by when they're blocking the boarding line.
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Oct 5, 2017 14:04
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Midjack posted:He's probably going to regret that decision. Cutting FF programs is one of the last things a dying airline does. On the other hand, every time in the last five years I've been flying coach and prompted at check-in with an upgrade for, let's say $30/hour of flight, I've taken it, and you can't upsell that seat and book that revenue if you've already promised it to a flyertalk superstar.
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Oct 5, 2017 14:05
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Waroduce posted:Lol If you dress up for flights though You don't have plane shirts? I have a specific set of dark red and black shirts for travel that don't show the food stains and red wine stains I inevitably end up with on lighter shirts. Partly because I'm clumsy, partly because I'm a drunk, and partly because THERE IS NO loving ROOM AND EVERYTHING SPLASHES AND GOD DAMNIT THERE IS loving SALAD DRESSING ON MY SHIRT AGAIN.
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Oct 5, 2017 15:05
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Lol if you don't fly nude
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Oct 5, 2017 15:10
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FunOne posted:You don't have plane shirts? I have a specific set of dark red and black shirts for travel that don't show the food stains and red wine stains I inevitably end up with on lighter shirts. I wear a star wars darth vader tshirt, an internet makes you stupid shirt, or a black tshirt with the LLC i established to protect my assets on it. Jeans and my dress shoes cause i don't wanna pack them in my carry on. I do a consultants Mon-Thurs typically so i almost never check lugggage. I carry or wear a Muscle beach pullover  i pack my nikes to play basketball or lift in and flippy flops to go to breakfast with in the morning and dress shoes. thats it for footwear. also am I the only person who gets the hotel breakfast before I get dressed? cause i wanna drink coffee and eat and poop before I leave for the day so i dont show up at my clients and ruin their toilette. i dont understand why people go to breakfast all dressed up
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Oct 5, 2017 17:03
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Rex-Goliath posted:You get pretty nice perks that make the lifestyle you're living more bearable but that's about it. The people who start doing poo poo like our thread title are crazy. Thank you for this. I was worrying that I was the crazy one on the project for a few days. It should be pretty easy to just stick with one hotel - half of the team just stays at the same place every week. One less thing to worry about  It's basically the end of my first week of travel. I think the only thing I wasn't really prepared for was just the sheer amount of hours I was at the client site to essentially make up for traveling time. That and finding out at security that I can't have a normal sized can of shaving cream in my carry on. 
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Oct 5, 2017 22:20
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I've had status because of some heavy personal travel over the past year and the best part has been ensuring that I get rebooked when planes get cancelled. I'd rather the plane not get cancelled in the first place. Those of you who actually have to travel for work get my sympathy. I don't understand the appeal of being away from home, eating like poo poo, and trying to work out in hotel gyms. Most of my friends who went in to consulting after college got sick of it pretty quickly. Tab8715 posted:Status is great but never paying for a vacation is so much better. I don't understand this at all. Quick edit: Are any of the AA cards worth getting?
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Oct 5, 2017 23:11
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Residency Evil posted:I've had status because of some heavy personal travel over the past year and the best part has been ensuring that I get rebooked when planes get cancelled. I'd rather the plane not get cancelled in the first place. If you fly AA a lot and want lounge access then one of them is, but it has a $500 fee so you better use the lounge more than ten times to make it worthwhile.
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Oct 5, 2017 23:37
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drgitlin posted:If you fly AA a lot and want lounge access then one of them is, but it has a $500 fee so you better use the lounge more than ten times to make it worthwhile.
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Oct 6, 2017 01:22
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Small White Dragon posted:The other AA cards give you a 10% rebate on redeemed miles (up to 10K/back year), which can make it worthwhile. So does the one with lounge access. If you're gonna fly one airline out if their hub then get the lounge access. Much nicer place to wait and the agents can fix poo poo. The AA exec also allows card holders entrance into the club and are free. Give/sell them to your family/SO whatever and they get lounge access when they travel and you get a discount. Obviously they have to be people you trust with a credit card.
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Oct 6, 2017 02:13
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Does that card require you to be on an AA flight to access the lounge? Some of them do, which is kinda balls if you paid an annual fee already.
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Oct 6, 2017 02:17
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Midjack posted:Does that card require you to be on an AA flight to access the lounge? Some of them do, which is kinda balls if you paid an annual fee already. The original card holder is a full boat member, so whatever those rules are. The additional cardholders I think are only allowed with AA flights.
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Oct 6, 2017 02:18
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FunOne posted:So does the one with lounge access. FunOne posted:The AA exec also allows card holders entrance into the club and are free. Give/sell them to your family/SO whatever and they get lounge access when they travel and you get a discount. Obviously they have to be people you trust with a credit card.
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Oct 6, 2017 10:25
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FunOne posted:So does the one with lounge access. If you're gonna fly one airline out if their hub then get the lounge access. Much nicer place to wait and the agents can fix poo poo. Interesting. I tend to try to wait as little as possible and live in Philly so I'm not sure how much I'd use lounge access. Sounds like otherwise there's not a huge benefit to the American credit cards if you have status?
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Oct 6, 2017 12:41
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Small White Dragon posted:This is actually incorrect. The Citi Executive card does not give the 10% rebate. The Citi Platinum, Barclay Red, and Barclay Silver cards do, however. My mistake,I forgot I swapped the Plat for the Exec. Residency Evil posted:Interesting. I tend to try to wait as little as possible and live in Philly so I'm not sure how much I'd use lounge access. Yes, you only need it for the lounge. If you're travelling every week you're going to spend a poo poo ton of time at your departure airport. Its nicer with lounge access. No matter how skilled you are at timing everything, there is still the mechanical issue, late plane, sudden weather, whatever that pushes you back another 30-45 minutes. Also, if you travel for work then lounge is free food and drinks and you can save your per diem. I know when I got started that motivated my poor rear end. Otherwise you are correct the cards don't do poo poo if you have some kind of status.
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Oct 6, 2017 14:31
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Residency Evil posted:Interesting. I tend to try to wait as little as possible and live in Philly so I'm not sure how much I'd use lounge access. Philly's AA lounges are old US lounges so they're not great. The card is probably not worth it, unless you're travelling a ton. You also wont have lounge access at the smaller American Eagle airports. The lounge staff has def. saved my rear end when flights have gotten cancelled, but I lost that benefit from the Prestige card. I don't think the AA lounge card is worth it, personally.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:09
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On Delta, can you use a RUC on a US-Mexico flight? It's domestic service and as far as I can tell they're using the domestic upgrade rules. So I assume it is doable but before I pick RUCs as my choice benefit I figured it was worth asking.
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Oct 7, 2017 14:12
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International flights are domestic flights now? 
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Oct 7, 2017 14:30
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Oh- another pro-tip for newbies I just thought of: Have your dry cleaning folded instead of hanged.
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Oct 7, 2017 14:50
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ohgodwhat posted:International flights are domestic flights now? Canada/Mexico/Caribbean flights are treated like quasi-international flights. Some domestic rules apply, some international rules apply.
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Oct 7, 2017 15:07
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Motronic posted:Seriously. I've gotten exactly one upgrade all year (had like 7 or 8 last year) and it was on some bullshit SFO-LAX run. I was routinely getting PHL-SFO upgrades previously. AA might be stalking this thread. I just got my hot nuts on a red eye from SFO-PHL. On a garbage A321 of course.
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Oct 7, 2017 19:50
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I had a new experience yesterday in Atlanta. Delta nominally attempted to load/unload 4 flights from the same gate. Inbound flight from Miami, outbound to Miami, outbound to Memphis, outbound to Providence. There were easily 400 people trying to squeeze in or out of gate B20. Gate agents were completely oblivious as to why so many people were trying to board a 135 passenger plane. All 3 outbounds were delayed by an hour.
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Oct 7, 2017 21:12
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Motronic posted:AA might be stalking this thread. I just got my hot nuts on a red eye from SFO-PHL. On a garbage A321 of course. Bink 10F/12F for the win. Almost as good as an angled lie flat
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Oct 7, 2017 23:30
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Thomamelas posted:1/3 is hell bent on living up to the flyertalk stereotype and talking about how plastic cups in first really is the end of Western Civilization. I would like to point out that my preflight drink was in a plastic cup and this is bullshit. These are sad times. They broke out the glasses afterwards.
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Oct 7, 2017 23:53
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Rex-Goliath posted:Oh- another pro-tip for newbies I just thought of: Have your dry cleaning folded instead of hanged. I don't agree with this. Get a carry-on sized garment bag.
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Oct 8, 2017 02:32
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I don't agree with this. Get a carry-on sized garment bag. Any that you recommend?
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Oct 8, 2017 02:48
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[quote="“Motronic”" post="“477157298”"] I would like to point out that my preflight drink was in a plastic cup and this is bullshit. These are sad times. They broke out the glasses afterwards. [/quote] If there's an incident on the ground I'd rather be hit by a plastic cup than a glass one.
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Oct 8, 2017 05:00
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porkface posted:Any that you recommend? I have a travelpro crew line one that is good and has lasted me about three years. I'll probably replace it next year with a B&R.
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Oct 8, 2017 12:48
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