Lots of potential schedule changes and rental cars are stupid expensive. In terms of first class, early boarding, as much booze as you want as long as you don’t get belligerent, and little to no waiting in line for the bathroom (assuming they pull the curtain).
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Thumbs way up on Delta terminal 3 at LAX. Extremely quick security and wonderful new sky club. It’s a major upgrade. Can’t wait for the gates to open in 2023.
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Grinding out a 3 hour delay at SFO thanks to @Tron ’s boys at United. Not good!
People getting heated as Billy Ho at the Centurion lounge over saved seats for black card holders.
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ATC delay or something traceable to United?
“We assigned your flight a new plane because our maintenance team needs to service your original airplane. Your new plane is expected to arrive from Palm Springs in time to depart at 3:30pm. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
Did not depart at 3:30
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“We knew about this 72 hours ago, but it would have been inconvenient and expensive to get another plane here. It is so great to be selling a product that you cannot return. Sucks to be you”
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Both Chicago airports, but more specifically, midway, continue to be the worst places to be in the entire country. I’d rather be a bag getting thrown around under the plane than be in this airport
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I’m in that specific Centurion lounge quite often and there are always many, many unused seats reserved for black card holders. I’ve never seen someone actually take one of those seats.
if you spend enough for the black card, you are probably flying private
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I know several people with black cards, and they certainly don’t fly private all the time or even most of the time. There’s plenty of room between spending a million dollars a year on an AMEX and dumping ~$60k on every round trip from LA to Teterboro.
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Interesting - LGA Centurion lounge yesterday around 5-7pm was pretty dead
I’ve had CLEAR for a bit but wondering about how effective it is at ATL?
My only experience was doing the standard line and dread when I have to go through that airport.
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i’ve heard good things from college friends who stayed living in Atlanta and work consulting/other travel gigs, but no personal experience with it. have always had a relatively easy time with PreCheck in ATL even around holidays
CLEAR is absolutely necessary in ATL. There’s a line at every type of security checkpoint in an airport with that kind of volume, but the CLEAR + Pre-Check line there is by far the fastest.
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I know the US airport system/air travel apparatus can be approved but after flying internationally for honeymoon last week i found a new found appreciation for US based airlines and travel.
Internationally, just no urgency or need to give updates on boarding/delays/etc. Also, trying to check-in for flights WHILE overseas is a complete joke. Book flights through Delta and trying to check in on your phone or online for an Air France or KLM flight is the worst. So then we have to check in at the airport and the kiosks don’t work and the lines are an hour+.
Word to the wise: make sure your layovers are long enough.
Air France and KLM short/medium haul planes/flights suuuuuck.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk
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My worst overseas flight experiences were in Southeast Asia. Batik Air and Lion Air, both operate in Indonesia. Dirty, beat up old planes and rough landings are the norm. I joked that the pilots must only get paid until they are 10’ off the ground, because every landing felt like it was just slammed into the runway.
Flight schedules are just a general guideline.
Also, the scrum at the baggage claim is not for the faint of heart.
Over there flying was certainly more of an adventure.
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Whoa! Have you been recently? Nice little face lift.
Midway is a perfectly fine airport! The baggage claim is horrendously slow, otherwise it’s fine.
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This was while flying thru midway. I can tell they had done work since 2019, but there were spots it looked unfinished. My biggest complaint is that the seats suck at the gates, and everything shuts down at 9:00.
My nightmare experience there in 2019 was getting stuck on the tarmac at Laguardia, landing 2 hours after my original landing time in Midway and missing my connection. Airline wouldn’t put me in a hotel because it wasn’t mechanical, whatever. I, being young and broke, decided I would just stay in the airport until the next morning to standby. I wandered that hellhole all night, everything was closed, and I couldn’t sleep because the seats sucked and you couldn’t lay on them with the metal armrest dividers.
I’ve tried my best to avoid it ever since.
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That sucks, MDW wasn’t designed for international/long layovers like others and long airport stays. I have spent entire days there delayed only to get on the train and go home (city living bonus.)
Greatly improved as noted, but would guess late hrs food still stinks. There also may be something around operating hrs in their licensing, Mayor RD granted some wonderful, long term agreements in his tenure to buddies and even tried to sell the place. Their TSA is vastly improved from the old days (pre Precheck) and 5 wide chaos, and a local architect firm brought in fresh design and some improved food experiences. But RIP McDs.
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Getting rid of the McDonalds and the potbelly at MDW was a real crime.
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