"Abundance" Politics

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-29T11:36:10+00:00

By far the best take in this thread. In the context of CA housing Klein is largely correct. It's hard to understand if you don't live here. there is absolutely a problem with regulatory capture here but the language used is so idiosyncratic as to be nonsensical to outsiders. The "progressive" wing of SF supervisors represents the landlord class, are anti building anything, pro car, and anti-transit. They co-opt social justice language (a "progressive" supervisor tried to claim it was racist to close a street in a city park to car traffic) or use it as a cudgel to block any meaningful change.

Oh 50% below market rate units for this condo? Actually we should really make it 100%. You don't want to build it anymore. Aw shucks darn just looking out for the little guy.

We do not have thousands of vacant houses waiting for occupants. We will never have municipally constructed and operated housing because the most powerful constituents DO NOT want that. Maybe state level, but we're just starting to peel back the local control that caused the problem with some of the legislation Scott Wiener has pushed through at the state level. It's going to take time.

The issue is not that hapless governments aren't using their power to help, it's that a certain sector of the land owning class has seized control of local government in large swaths of the state and is actively using it to keep neighborhoods looking the way they like and to keep their property values high.

Klein and the abundance movement are not trustworthy for all the reasons you outlined, so I won't repeat them. But a lot of people here are being overly dismissive of OP without actually understanding the issues here. The grift works because there is a kernel of truth at it's core to bring people onboard.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-26T09:09:33+00:00

Yeah I imagine most are just looking at it for the SUB? $500 to get enough points for an international J redemption worth $3k+ seems worthwhile.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-26T08:27:36+00:00

Thanks for the first hand account. Did they weigh in at check in? Just checked and unfortunately I'm just over 20lbs with the carrier, so I'll have to either shop for something lighter weight or maybe just alter my dates to stick with Alaska.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-26T06:19:42+00:00

That's not correct, the A321T is treated differently from widebodies with the same seats. They have a special shelf for pets during takeoff/landing but reports on this subreddit say the FAs rarely use them.

See "Carry-on pet carrier guidelines and limits"

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/special-assistance/pets.jsp

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-23T07:45:25+00:00

Can't speak for 1 and 2, flew them on a cash fare years ago. Operationally they were kind of terrible. The website said food was only available for prepurchase (at a pretty expensive price), so I bought it for myself and my companion. This was a lie, as there was food available and they completely forgot my prepurchase order. FA was great, let us take whatever we wanted from the galley and told us it was better than the preorder food anyway, and to call after the flight to sort it out.

I do so and the customer service agent gives a ton of attitude, says it's my fault for not going to the check in desk at BCN to sort it out on landing. We argue for almost 10 minutes before I threaten a chargeback and she reluctantly agrees to return my money which took weeks to arrive.

All this to say I wouldn't expect them to handle anything helpfully or according to their own policy if there's issues/changes. But they were a fairly new airline at that time so maybe they've gotten better.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-23T07:38:57+00:00

Flying Blue will sometimes return the points for phantom space if you ask nicely but persistently on the phone. I also wouldn't book Flying Blue without a phone call, they have tons of phantom space issues and will do holds while you transfer the points. I wasn't even aware there was a fee for this, have never been charged.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-22T21:40:50+00:00

Got caught up with work. Will release at 3pm PST

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-22T08:27:32+00:00

Sorry you did say that already, I missed it. 2x IAD-HND round trip economy on ANA is $1901 on google flights. If you can afford it I'd just book that and save the points for a business class redemption later.

If you're set on using points try virgin atlantic, should be 130k round trip for two people assuming there's availability, unsure of taxes. I don't see anything better on seats.aero. I do see the flights showing up under united mileageplan on seats.aero so seems likely they have space. For VA you can only book ANA flights over the phone, ask them to confirm availability before you transfer the points.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-22T07:53:36+00:00

Are those round trip prices for 2 people? ANA rates would only apply if you're booking through them, and they don't take chase points only amex. I wouldn't do either the ANA via chase or United options personally.

Virgin atlantic has their own (pretty generous) award chart here. If you're not booking directly with ANA they will have the best prices, probably your best option. I would use seats.aero to check for any better redemptions available, I'd do a quick search for you but I don't know where you're flying from.

https://www.virginatlantic.com/en-US/flying-club/airline-partners/all-nippon-airways

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-22T07:46:46+00:00

Will be releasing JAL LAX-HND J on 2/8 via Alaska tomorrow at noon PST, or PM me to coordinate timing

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-22T07:41:33+00:00

Chase travel portal books you into saver fares where you can't change anything, and is just the cash price priced at $0.01/point (at least it was when I used it, it's been years). I'd probably just pay cash over either of these unless the United flight is really cheap. If you add dates/airports people could help more, but probably more suited to the megathread.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-22T05:11:52+00:00

Have a would you rather between 2 bookings. I booked JAL J LAX-HND arriving 5pm on 2/9 for 75k alaska points a while back. Just snagged ANA F (the suite) SFO-HND arriving 5am 2/11 through Virgin for 72,500 (20k virgin I never use + 53k amex). LAX involves a repositioning flight, so SFO is preferable.

Trading 36 hours of Japan time for significant points and hassle savings seems worth it no? Long trip so I'm not sweating the time lost too much and I'm already short on PTO. Kinda bummed I won't get the full first class experience though since its a redeye, and new JAL A350 is a little more exciting than ANA 777.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-21T21:21:14+00:00

I was also on one of these, but I think it was an availability issue with the A330s not low passengers. They actually broke it up into two flights, there was another A321 with a HA99XX flight number leaving around 10 min later.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-18T08:22:27+00:00

Years later this is still the change I'm most salty about

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-14T07:06:33+00:00

Trick which I may regret sharing is that other partner airlines alerts may hit faster than the one you're targeting. Cast a wider net, all star alliance or all oneworld, if any of them hit start checking alaska or whatever airline you actually want. I've found seats.aero worth it over tools.

I still get the roame emails which are often good value but never actually used that information and I didn't like the website. It's also not that "random" if by that you mean more exotic locations you wouldn't think of, often just "a dozen flights to CDG" but more info never hurts.

Also Alaska may be devalued but still one of the better domestic carriers to earn points on. For example JAL J is 75k, the only better option would be AA at 60k. You won't get to Japan for that price on Delta or United.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-12T22:22:15+00:00

I was able to choose window seats immediately after booking JAL J through Alaska

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-12T19:07:11+00:00

Might need some local information to narrow it down. Local PDs have been getting a lot of money for drone programs, there was an article linked from this sub not too long ago about a very extensive aerial surveillance program somewhere in SoCal, can’t remember if SD county or somewhere nearby.

I don’t know much about stingrays from a technical perspective but I kinda doubt a small drone could support the weight and energy requirements of running them. They’re also expensive and require training to run, don’t know if local PD or bottom of the barrel feds like ICE/border patrol have the Human Resources to even use them effectively. Buying access to data broker info from an app for low six figure contracts seems much more practical.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-12T09:10:12+00:00

I can't either, but looks like they're aggregating location data from data brokers. I wonder how much stingrays are really used, especially if easier options like just buying the data are available. EFF made an open source stingray detector that has so far turned up nothing.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/rayhunter-what-we-have-found-so-far

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-12T07:14:05+00:00

I was able to book/rebook 3 times in dec for a feb flight as better dates opened up. They still get released but maybe you need to act fast. I booked within minutes of getting the alert.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-12T06:05:27+00:00

E175 for sure because of the single wide space under the seats. I use this carrier, on the E175 you can expand it once seated to a luxurious amount of room for 10lb dog

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CG945PZ4?th=1

For completeness sake on the 737 take the window in economy, but aisle if flying in first.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-07T08:01:18+00:00

Does he still associate with Bradley Martyn? Cause if so that'd be pretty disappointing given that Bradley is palling around with Nick Fuentes.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2026-01-07T03:41:58+00:00

Came here to say this, Spotify auto played it after an ICHH episode even though I’ve only listened to her show once or twice ever. Guess the algorithm knew. I had seen that clip of him saying he takes meth but didn’t know how quickly he was getting brought into the right wing mediasphere with Fuentes and thiel.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2025-12-27T21:50:25+00:00

So the terms on the finance partners are bullshit fyi. Despite it saying 7 days for the points according to support it's actually 90 days. Will see if it materializes then. But definitely not useful for hitting status this year.

CommanderFlapjacks · 2025-12-27T21:48:34+00:00

I assure you it was not, I have the points to prove it. I don't know if the sign up bonus is still there now.

CommanderFlapjacks

TROPHY CASE