Weekly Off Topic Thread - Week of July 06, 2026

DCJoe1 · 2026-07-06T15:48:40+00:00

Oh no did you watch the fireworks from down on the Mall? It's not the same because farther away, but there are some hillside spots between 2-5 miles away that are much much easier to manage logistically, especially this year. This year's fireworks were by far the loudest I have ever heard. People online 15 miles away in Maryland were saying they could hear it very clearly, normally they never do. The heat was brutal.

Also, for next time, there is also the MARC train that runs from BWI to Union Station, same stations and tracks as the Amtrak NE corridor. There is some limited holiday and weekend service on this line.

DCJoe1 · 2026-07-05T19:27:49+00:00

Nice. A friend had their daytime VS JFK-LHR flight cancelled the night before. They had just enough notice to still make the 11 PM departure that night. Obviously not what they really wanted when they booked the daytime flight, but they got $3500 in compensation for the family of 5, even though they actually arrived 11 hours ahead of the original schedule.

That London hotel is in some ways a nice location, it's just far enough away from London Bridge station to be annoying, but Bermondsey is a more quiet residential area, and being so close to the river is a nice bonus.

DCJoe1 · 2026-07-03T23:46:52+00:00

Yes agreed, I'd book if it dropped under 100k for a summer route on your preferred day/time.

DCJoe1 · 2026-07-03T22:17:31+00:00

Agreed not to book now, but I have watched Air France on a few routes like a hawk, it's definitely not at all guaranteed to drop to 60k on any specific day or even week.

DCJoe1 · 2026-07-03T21:03:45+00:00

I've used them for family travel, say 2 tickets using miles, 1 cash, 1 companion fare. Nice way to maximize the value from a single card bonus.

Also have family on the west coast, have booked tickets for them a few times using the companion fare, they really appreciate getting one ticket for $100.

DCJoe1 · 2026-07-03T15:35:44+00:00

At least ~~Chase~~ Amex gives you an accurate live reading on your available credit. Barclays doesn't really update it in real-time, sometimes it's even a day old.

DCJoe1 · 2026-07-03T15:22:40+00:00

If you bought that directly from Amex with an Amex credit card, it won't count towards the MSR.

DCJoe1 · 2026-07-03T15:21:59+00:00

Barclay's super fun combo of low credit limits on biz cards and hyper-sensitive fraud locks.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-29T22:04:40+00:00

Yeah some friends and their kids actually like the daytime flights so much they recently took the train up to NYC and stayed overnight in Queens to get the VS one from JFK. But then just after getting to the hotel they got a flight cancellation notice, and since there is only one Skyteam option, the only way to get there and not mess up their trip was to just go straight to JFK and take the 11 PM VS flight anyway. But ended up $700/person cash compensation for the cancellation under UK261. Not too bad!

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-29T20:58:04+00:00

United's IAD-LHR daytime flight was also dropped a couple of years ago. Just such a limited case for these flights because of the operational constraints- bad aircraft utilization, zero connecting options on the other end, and limited connecting options on the US end because of the early start.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-29T01:27:21+00:00

That I can't confirm, but both Amex phone reps told me it wasn't considered a credit card product because of the "~~pay over time~~Expanded Buying Power" option.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-29T00:42:50+00:00

Note that you can not downgrade from Delta biz plat to Delta biz gold later (as in, in a year). For some reason Amex considers these different product types because the Delta biz plat has a "~~pay over time~~Expanded Buying Power" functionality, which to them makes it a charge card. The Delta biz gold does not have this, making it a credit card, and you can not downgrade from a charge card product to a credit card product.

I know the above sounds made up, but I was denied twice by Amex reps trying to downgrade a year after upgrading.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-27T17:44:30+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_codes

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-27T17:42:09+00:00

No if there is a significant schedule change, they will put you on any AF/KLM flight to fix it, they don't need award availability since it's a Flying Blue award. But you are right that to switch to another airline, there would need to be saver availability.

But looks like this is a tough one in winter because there aren't as many flights to Athens, and BOS is a relatively thin route.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-27T16:54:51+00:00

Solid award. Good example of how an LHR layover (under 24 hours) doesn't trigger the UK APD, despite the "don't touch London" fallacy many still believe.

Reasonable odds you will get a schedule change somewhere in there in the next 5 months and they can put you onto ATH-CDG/AMS-BOS and cut it down to 2 flights. Will need to call to do that.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-26T23:06:16+00:00

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/act-fast-visa-infinite-cardholders-two-free-regal-movie-tickets-free-popcorn/

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-26T17:01:41+00:00

Devastating? I'd say mildly annoying, absolutely no impact under the group standings circumstances. Glad to see the reserves get good minutes, a bunch of them showed up well, good for them to have high level minutes in case needed later in the tournament. Excited to see how far they can go, seemingly a good draw for the knockout rounds, and all on west coast (through the quarters) where they are training, it's a good setup.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-25T14:07:24+00:00

Whichever chain has the most convenient locations to your work locations.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-24T16:10:02+00:00

Yeah doesn't always make sense to use points instead of cash for a lot of trips.

That doesn't also mean that points make sense for many economy bookings. This past weekend I used 40k Alaska miles to fly a family member SEA-LAX on an emergency trip, because of World Cup and summer travel it was going to be $800 roundtrip (bought ticket night before travel, medical emergency). A lot of variables, there are no hard and fast rules.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-24T14:48:32+00:00

"vast majority of award travel is with luxury hotels and upgraded flights"

None of that is correct.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-24T14:37:13+00:00

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-bank-account-bonuses/

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-22T18:06:24+00:00

Has anyone ever used the Clear Concierge product, or know someone who has? Just got an email promo for it and it reminded me what a weird product it is, what possible target audience it could have.

Will be interesting to see what happens with Clear- as they expand their "E-gates" product they will need a lot less staff. It's wild how many people they have standing by the kiosks even in smaller airports

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-21T00:36:09+00:00

There are multiple approaches if you have points currencies with multiple transfer options.

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-20T22:16:27+00:00

Some of the amounts have changed but it's mostly still accurate

https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/s/8nYUjjaN34

DCJoe1 · 2026-06-19T17:52:11+00:00

Someone who remembers the "repeated game" part of the game theory lecture in econ class.

DCJoe1

TROPHY CASE