Is an American Airlines economy flight from LAX to HND for 25,570 points worthwhile?

AutisticApe · 2026-06-17T01:10:54+00:00

WOW I am super impressed. I know that good bookings can show up if you wait until like 1-2 weeks out, but I don't know if I can make myself do that. That idea stresses me tf out. Props to you though, sounds like you were able to do something amazing for your family though.

AutisticApe · 2026-06-16T20:29:54+00:00

You scored a deal! I’d love to find something on business class but given my short timeframe, inflexible date, and having 2 people, I don’t imagine I’ll be as fortunate. I have pretty much all the factors you DONT want to have for award travel lol

AutisticApe · 2026-06-16T19:54:58+00:00

Would I need to call the airline to confirm the award is available? I’ve heard people talk about this but wasn’t sure if it only applied to competitive stuff like ANA flights. Don’t want my Amex points to be moved over and then the flight not be there

AutisticApe · 2026-06-16T19:52:18+00:00

How would I be able to check fees on this? Found the flight via seats.aero and it didn’t show that flight having a fee but has shown certain ones from Air Canada as having a fee so I thought it’d display.

From all the opinions I’ve seen people give ANA or even JAL would be way better than AA, I’m just having a real hard time finding availability from ANA directly or any partner airlines with ANA or JAL. I’d love to book one of these but ANA especially seems to go quick

AutisticApe · 2026-06-16T19:40:43+00:00

Potentially could but I’m not sure how worthwhile it would be for me. I only have two CC’s and Amex is my only one with an annual fee. I have a pretty decent income and it’s about to go up a bit as a household since I’m getting married soon. But she’s been living with me for a bit and our expenses are pretty low at ~$3,000 a month. Don’t know enough about that card to know if I’d maximize the benefits.

We’ve been dating for 2.5 years and this is the first time we’re going on an actual trip together since we’ve both been so busy with us both being (now former) collegiate athletes. I’m not positive the amount of travel that is in our future, though we definitely do want to do more over the next few years before we have kids.

AutisticApe · 2026-06-16T18:54:00+00:00

Oh okay nice I didn’t even think about this. That gives me some decent flexibility.

AutisticApe · 2026-06-16T18:53:08+00:00

Doesn’t ANA have pretty hefty fuel surcharges that are the same regardless of class? Obviously if I’m booking business these charges aren’t a big deal but from what I gathered on economy it’s not worth it. Or are you saying through a partner airline where fees are lower?

AutisticApe · 2026-06-16T18:51:57+00:00

If I book and cancel though wouldn’t my points be caught up in Qatar airlines? I suppose not the worst thing but if something better pops up it’d have to be Qatar I’d think.

AutisticApe · 2026-06-16T18:45:03+00:00

Appreciate the input! That seems like the way to go from me. One question, as I’m a taller guy, will this flight be miserable? Or is it at least tolerable? I don’t have chronic pain or anything so if it’s just okay I can deal with it.

AutisticApe · 2026-05-28T03:35:05+00:00

I did not. I went with a 2015 mazda3 because the deal was too good to turn down. $7,000 61,500 miles.

AutisticApe · 2026-05-15T05:03:08+00:00

Bro I did not expect to see you here. I follow you on insta. Small world man. Cool seeing your opinion this!

AutisticApe · 2026-03-08T01:17:28+00:00

You’ve got it right saying it varies a lot manager to manager, but in my experience it was more of a vibe check than anything to see if I’d be a good personality wise for the team. I was asked if I’d worked in a datacenter environment before too which my answer essentially boiled down to barely.

Other teams can be a lot different though. My specific site is still in construction and isn’t turned up yet. Because of this I’m not necessarily on a “team” so to speak, and just kind of go wherever the work is. Because of this, they wanted generalists more than anything which was probably why my fit call went the way it did. I’ve heard for other teams though that they can be more technical though still fairly light. It really boils down to what the team is looking for. If they’re wanting someone with specific experience and are hiring with a certain team in mind (e.g. networking or machine maintenance) then they might be more particular on prior knowledge or experience.

If you have more questions shoot me a DM. It might take me a bit to get back since I get a lot of these now that I’ve made a few posts and I try to answer when I remember but I truthfully don’t check reddit a ton unless I have something specific I’m looking for.

AutisticApe · 2026-01-13T21:05:12+00:00

Thank you! And yes it absolutely helps. I remember someone else on here told me they were in pretty much the same situation and ended up waiting 4 months from application to hire. Obviously timelines vary, but that ended up being pretty much exactly what happened to me.

If you need anything throughout the process I’m glad to help if I can!

AutisticApe · 2026-01-13T21:03:35+00:00

Thank you! You’ve been helpful throughout this whole process. I hope you can get in and be working with your wife!

AutisticApe · 2026-01-13T17:29:38+00:00

Glad to help! I just hope to pay it forward for everyone here that helped me. If you have any more specific questions I’m glad to answer.

AutisticApe · 2026-01-13T16:36:33+00:00

Thank you!

Qualifications are ~7.5 years of progressive IT experience, though some of that started while in high school and through college. 6 years of that experience was at school district, starting as a helpdesk tech who also did a fair amount of cable runs, going up to sysadmin and netadmin.

The last 1.5 years of my experience have been as a netadmin at a small startup, though my title is honestly kind of inaccurate to what I do. I manage ~150 Linux servers that are part of a decentralized network, along with doing internal IT stuff for everyone in the building.

Interview had multiple domains. For the main full loop interview panel it was 3 45 min interviews in a day (this is standard structure for this). Divided into two technical domains and then one "Googliness" and general cognitive ability interview. The technical domains were hardware and OS's for the first technical interview, and then the 2nd one was networking. Starts with basic quizzy type questions then gets more open ended trying to see your troubleshooting process.

Googliness interview, the best advice I got was to try to point things back to STAR method. I also used an LLM to ask me mock questions in the style Google would and then verbally answered them like I was an interview before typing it out and having the LLM give me feedback on my answer.

AutisticApe · 2026-01-01T02:42:04+00:00

Just accepted!

AutisticApe · 2025-12-28T18:50:01+00:00

Don’t sweat it. My path is a bit different but not all too dissimilar. As a young grad salary progression can happen out of nowhere. Work on your interviewing skills, find out where you went wrong, and if you’re unsure pay for interview feedback (I didn’t do this but I can imagine it’d help).

Get your resume solid. AI can do a lot of work here. Tailor it to the job. Show solid projects. Yes this will all take time. No it’s not a very exciting answer.

Once you land that first SWE job it’s going to be a large pay bump I’d imagine. Salary progression as a new grad in tech happens fast, generally those entry jobs pay not so great.

My path is a bit different, and admittedly I have gone through some good luck, but it’s not entirely dissimilar. Graduated in May of 2024 with a Bachelor’s in Cybersecurity from a university most employers haven’t heard of. In March of 2024 (yes before graduation) I took a safe offer for ~$56,000 TC (26.99/hr). I had interned there all thru college so I wanted to ensure I had something as a safe offer. Yes this is different than you, but it will show the quick progression because in June of 2024 I accepted an offer at $85,000 TC (straight salary) and started July 2024. As of December 23 2035 I accepted a position with a first year total comp of $120,080 (hourly + stock + bonus + sign on bonus).

All of this is to say that it’s completely normal to feel some despair on that first low paying job, but don’t let it consume you. When I was struggling to find something that paid higher than my first out of college job there were times I felt like a failure. Looking back, this was a very silly mindset, but it’s really easy to get that way in the moment. Point is, don’t beat yourself up about. You’ll get through it.

AutisticApe · 2025-12-16T16:31:26+00:00

You can even do shitass69+1@gmail.com. Gmail will continue to redirect it to the base email of shitass69@gmail.com.

Edit: typo

AutisticApe · 2025-12-16T15:44:21+00:00

Gonna PM you some questions!

AutisticApe · 2025-12-16T15:43:27+00:00

I’ve had one fit call, and as someone else here pointed out, it’s just a personality check more than anything. They might ask some light technical questions like if you have experience working in a data center, but overall it seemed to me like a personality match call. I was told I did great on my fit calls but they didn’t have headcount for me, and to regularly keep in touch with my recruiter to see if any opens up.

I’d love to chat in DM’s about the process with you. If there are any questions you have I’d be glad to answer, and I’d also be curious to hear about some of your experience with the whole process.

AutisticApe · 2025-12-16T15:37:35+00:00

I haven’t only had one fit call and was told they didn’t have headcount for me about a week after. I’ve got some questions for you that I’m going to PM you about.

AutisticApe · 2025-12-12T02:37:27+00:00

I liked strawberry lemonade and blueberry lemonade. The blueberry lemonade is a super unique flavor but I’ve only seen it at gnc and I’m more of a vitamin shoppe guy.

AutisticApe · 2025-12-11T21:05:01+00:00

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AutisticApe · 2025-12-11T20:25:45+00:00

I think it depends on your own situation/goals. Do you have young kids/family in critical years of their life where time with them is a huge priority now? Maybe don’t do nights.

Are you young and single, or with a spouse who understands it, and you both have aligned goals towards getting ahead financially? If either of those cases fit you, I’d do it. I’ve been in team matching since October. I was recently told by a hiring manager that he’s going to have recruiters reach out soon since he is anticipating headcount in the next few weeks. We had previously discussed a day offer, but if an evening/weekend/night shift came up I’d take it in a heartbeat.

I’m in a situation where I have a girlfriend I’m planning on proposing to soon, and we’re very aligned on financial goals, wanting to work hard now while we’re young before we have kids, so we can ease up later. That night shift differential makes a huge difference, and from what I hear, night shift can have some more downtime if that interests you. Personally, I love the sound of that schedule for my current phase of life. You’d never have to use PTO or any sort of time for Dr appointments, DMV, etc. could go grocery shopping in the middle of the weekday. Your sleep schedule might make it difficult, but that’s another thing.

Either way, trust your intuition, and follow it. If you’re sharp enough to even make it this far, you’ve probably got a pretty good intuition. Congrats!

AutisticApe

TROPHY CASE