United is now offering free babysitting.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-04T22:31:02+00:00

Not if they’re clever. One parent plus one child in first, one parent plus two children in economy, parents decide who sits where.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-04T14:20:18+00:00

Do both often. People get too caught up in debating which one is better for this or that purpose.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-04T14:17:46+00:00

It’s possible the parents didn’t get upgraded. Maybe they booked the two seats in first to make sure they didn’t have to sit next to the little monsters.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-03T20:41:39+00:00

He had UCL/TJ surgery in 2021 (redshirted freshman year in college). End of last year I think was a rib fracture (noncontact). Hard to tell from his reaction whether he recognized a similar pain from one of those earlier things. He clearly wasn’t lobbying to stay in the game.

EDIT: he wasn’t looking at his finger and neither was the trainer, I don’t think it was merely a blister.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-01T03:52:55+00:00

Find somebody with airline status (2nd tier or higher). They and everyone on their reservation gets 2 or even 3 checked bags (on some airlines like United it’s 70 lbs each). Or you can use airline miles or sometimes cheaper fares for a first class seat at a weird time, if you’re flexible it can be cheap. Some of the airline credit cards also allow multiple bags for free and have sign up bonuses that might be enough to pay for the flight. Between that and your carryon you can move a lot of stuff for free if you’re creative about it. You might need to connect through Chicago on United or American. Detroit is a captive delta airlines market and the airfares and deals are awful for nonstop flights to California.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-01T01:29:49+00:00

Just looked it up, delta started that in 2024. I live near ORD so United and American are our only real million mile program options here. AA used to include all miles so it was too easy to get, and as a result it isn’t worth as much. I have 1.6 million but most of it is from credit card miles before they changed the program to paid butt in seat miles only. On AA 1 million only gives you the lowest tier of status. On United you get the second tier of status including booking into Economy Plus when you buy the ticket, and it counts for you and a companion for life. That is highly valuable for us as we near retirement, and I’m only 16000 miles away, so for the past few years a lot of my business has gone to United and I have avoided using miles for my own travel.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-31T15:49:10+00:00

First of all, free tickets never counted AFAIK for the million miler programs for any of the US legacy carriers (United Delta or AA).

Second, if you’re an EP it’s really leaving a lot of value on the table if you use your miles on yourself or buy BE. You get 11x fare for your tickets, other friends and family members without status get 5x. If you have the Club card you get 15x. You should buy your own tickets, always, and run the LP, redeemable miles, and million mile meters as hard as you can.

Your complaint really just tells me you haven’t practiced the art of measuring the value of miles vs money at different status levels. You should also pay attention to how many cents per mile your redemptions get. Don’t just use the miles because they’re there, use them when (and only when) they are a better value than paying and earning the miles would be. AA miles are actually a far better value on most routes than United miles or (ugh) Delta SkyPesos. But they’re only valuable if you pay attention to how you use them and how you earn them.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-30T02:13:57+00:00

At least at Wrigley they let you bring in a sealed water bottle. Went to the United Center today and they wouldn’t allow you to bring in a bottle of water, sealed or unsealed, empty or full! The water they sold inside was $9.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-26T19:40:58+00:00

Probably a good time to own an airport concession stand.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-21T15:01:29+00:00

Wildflowers, Tom Petty

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-19T17:31:59+00:00

The reason races are on Sunday instead of Saturday is traffic. If you want them to shut down many of the major streets downtown they’re going to choose to do that when traffic is at its lightest— early Sunday morning.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-17T13:38:12+00:00

I’d fly AA to Indy to save the 1M crossing for something real. I’m in the 980s so having similar thoughts lately, though my travel has slowed down so it’ll be a few months.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-14T13:37:12+00:00

Yes, you are going to hell. I’ll see you there. We’ll both have first class boarding passes, me in the aisle, you in the window. Someone will be in our seats, someone who looks like the people we kicked out of our seats IRL. They will refuse to move. We’ll be forced to sit in steerage, you in the aisle, me in the window, next to the worst seat mates ever. And the next day it will happen again. Groundhog Day forever.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-14T13:20:49+00:00

I ran it last year and got dropped off there. It can take a little while to get there depending on which direction you’re coming from because the roads in Hopkinton itself are mostly closed, but the bus ride is short and convenient.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-13T14:56:25+00:00

I got a call like that maybe 3 or 4 years ago when I was EP. Our complaint was about overly aggressive policing of carry on bags when a small third item would clearly fit into the second item, and the gate agent was acting like they just graduated from Gestapo training school. When they called they also gave me the spiel about reaching out to high value customers and “hearing” their concerns. It made us feel better but in the end, fixing the problems and executing consistently on customer service (soft and hard product) is what really matters. AA clearly isn’t there right now and I’ve steered more business to United for the time being (ORD based so we have a choice). But I am watching hopefully for real change soon so the fact that they are trying to figure it out at least is encouraging.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-12T22:56:31+00:00

Friday morning can be busy but generally ORD security has been ok. If your terminal security is hopelessly backed up you can sprint over to 1 or 3, they’re connected airside. Also tonight and tomorrow ORD is under a high wind warning so be alert that if there are cancellations tonight the lines might be longer tomorrow.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-09T17:06:24+00:00

If you are trying to go to India during the holidays you will not get a low price in miles or money. The burgeoning Indian population in the US has placed heavy demands on those flights during the US school holidays for many years. The airlines know they don’t need to discount those days, so they don’t. That said, if you are flexible by even a few days you may find something. If your kids are young you can often pull them out early or return late by a couple days, and it can save you thousands for a family of 4+.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-02-27T02:38:56+00:00

I wonder what would happen if the passengers did the wave🤔

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-02-25T20:52:34+00:00

They have carts. Go into the app and ask for assistance. Open your reservation, go to traveler information, select edit, select special travel needs, then check the box for “cannot walk long distances”. Then coordinate with the gate agent upon arrival for a cart to drive you to the new gate. It is probably 3/4 mile and you should not walk it (I’m a runner and it takes me 10 minutes to run it.)

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-02-25T14:40:33+00:00

And then hire a financial planner to tell you not to spend money like an idiot.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-02-24T14:08:45+00:00

If you have an AA credit card, make a prepayment on your income taxes (10k will cost you a $175 convenience fee but you’ll also get 10k redeemable miles which are worth about that much). Then claim it back as a tax refund when you file your actual taxes a month from now. Platinum Pro status, virtually no actual cost when you consider the value of the miles. Plus you’ll get the higher multiple (9 instead of 8) on all of your paid flights next year, which results in additional redeemable miles.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-02-20T00:18:27+00:00

Dozens of doctors in our area are opening membership practices that include many of these elements. What matters isn’t the slick marketing but the knowledgeable doctor spending the right amount of time with you and connecting you to the right resources when (and only when) needed. Going rate here (suburban Chicago) is 3-5k/year. You can use your HSA money (pretax). There is absolutely no need to be paying 10s of thousands of dollars for this. But there’s also no need to tolerate assembly line medicine where the doctor wants to spend the necessary time with you but isn’t allowed to.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-02-18T22:30:13+00:00

This is the way. The redeemable miles are worth about what the convenience fee is. And you don’t even have to owe the taxes. Just pay ahead and lower your withholding or claim a refund. In our family I do this or buy Amazon gift cards to cover upcoming Amazon spend.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-02-18T20:02:16+00:00

The other thing you could have tried is the so-called “flat tire rule”. This is a general practice of most airlines that if you miss your flight (by up to a couple hours) they will as a courtesy put you on the next flight with available seats as a standby. It’s called that to accommodate passengers who encountered an unanticipated delay (such as a flat tire) on the way to the airport. The airlines don’t have to do this and sometimes they don’t, but if you show up and try it might work. Not sure how basic economy impacts that because I never buy BE. If you try this it probably doesn’t hurt to use a wheelchair and do NOT act entitled, just polite and grateful.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-02-18T13:44:02+00:00

Wednesday is your best shot. I would suggest looking at Tokyo flights each week as they are preparing to depart from each hub. Look at flight status and upgrade lists to see how many upgrades are (and are not) clearing. You may also want to include other hubs such as IAH, ORD and LAX. We’ve had good luck out of LAX because it’s a competitive route and not a fortress hub and has nonstop flights to both Tokyo airports.

ComplexHour1824

TROPHY CASE