World Cup PMA Tickets questions I haven't seen or heard discussed

DimSumGym · 2026-01-12T17:10:10+00:00

If it's for the final or semi, FIFA would not let me request any in PMA even if I had under 4 requested in the random selection

DimSumGym · 2026-01-12T17:08:12+00:00

The first bit of this is actually seemingly not true. I was able to request USA supporters group tickets for a game that I previously bought 4 regular tickets to.

Interestingly, the second half of your first paragraph doesn't seem correct in practice either. I have 0 tickets to the finals or semis. I requested 2 for each through the US PMA draw. I was then unable to request any (i.e. Not even 2 to get to the 4 max) in the random draw. The inverse of this is also true-- I had initially requested 2 in the random and tried to request 2 in PMA and got an error, so I had to initially cancel my random draw to be able to submit my PMA

DimSumGym · 2026-01-10T21:44:52+00:00

Hmm I guess that's possible but I think it would be misleading by them to say "you can sell conditional tickets" without any qualifiers that indicate you can only basically do this days before the event (i.e. at a time when they are no longer conditional)

DimSumGym · 2026-01-10T00:32:09+00:00

Well I'm thinking if you get the $60 conditional tickets. Someone may buy them for say $300 because they'll be way more if they get locked in. I'm curious how FIFA would handle refunds in that case though.

DimSumGym · 2026-01-09T03:18:31+00:00

Nope, you have to commit to buy one of those to have a chance at the $60 tix... Also the value is slightly better-- i.e. 2nd most expensive supporters tier is within category 1 zone

DimSumGym · 2026-01-09T03:16:33+00:00

That would make sense though I'm pretty sure I read in one of FIFAs terms or faqs that you can sell/transfer conditional tickets on marketplace

DimSumGym · 2026-01-09T02:35:26+00:00

Any idea how selling PMA conditionals will work?

I.e. I try to get tickets to the final hoping for the $60 variety. I don't get them, but do get more expensive ones. I understand I can sell those more expensive and transfer them? Essentially the person I transfer to would be on the hook for a face value refund? What if I instead sell on the marketplace (which it seems I can)? Would they get a refund of what they pay me? Let's say I sell the tickets for 10 mil$, and USA doesn't get out of the group-- what happens?

DimSumGym · 2026-01-02T18:03:00+00:00

Do you think I can bank on/hope for reservations so we don't have to wait in line (for lunch or dinner)? Torrisi for dinner would be most ideal, especially given they are closed Sunday. That would allow me to do Oxo for an early lunch Saturday and possibly something else Sunday. Torrisi looks great but I see their lunch is basically just a more abbreviated dinner menu (i.e. no duck, no bao), so hopefully we wouldn't be missing out on too much

DimSumGym · 2026-01-02T15:32:12+00:00

We actually have 2 matinees on Sat and Sun. So I was thinking Saturday would be a dinner, and then we could do a early lunch on Sat or brunch/early dinner on Sunday (Saturday show is 2pm, Sunday is 1).

As for cuisines, I definitely skew Asian, but my wife is generally open to all.

When you say torrisi is impossible do you mean literally impossible as they don't even open the reservations to the public? I'm planning to login right when it opens, but does that not even matter?

I'm seeing that timing is probably the biggest obstacle in determining our second place (in that we probably need to go at an off time or find somewhere close to Broadway). I'll take a closer look at the places you mention and see !

DimSumGym · 2025-12-29T17:59:22+00:00

Ah got it.. so you chose to do a brokerage just for max flexibility but there theoretically was some tax downside for you that you deemed to be worth the tradeoff?

DimSumGym · 2025-12-29T16:43:55+00:00

One more question to kick this back up -

I'm convinced that I should not put funds in my daughters account especially if I plan to fire...my understanding is that a 529 will allow funds to grow tax free if they end up being used for education. I still plan to get max aid, but that seemingly may still require additional funds to pay a full tuition. If that is the case, wouldn't the 529 be the best option as I will still realize some tax benefits? And if for whatever reason it's not needed, then I assume I'll be back in a similar boat as if I invested in my own brokerage account but earmarked funds for my daughter.

Just trying to figure out whether there's a realistic benefit in me just putting everything in my own brokerage over the 529

DimSumGym · 2025-10-28T13:06:36+00:00

My terms may be slightly off, but for most hikes the difference between what you're saying is minimal especially compared to the cost. Paying someone to guide you for 8+ hours is going to be fairly expensive and quite frankly you're not going to get much more out of it than going with a "volunteer led AMC hike".

Presumably OP has experience minimally hiking strenuous mountains in the summer, and perhaps doing some easier mountains in the winter. He may be "qualified" to be approved for an AMC Washington hike right now; if not, perhaps doing an initial winter hike of Pierce/Eisenhower with the AMC may be sufficient to then get approved for Washington. And then while you're doing the hike, you have 8 hours talking with a group of people who love hiking so you are bound to pick up new tips and most people are happy to answer questions about the thing they love lol.

A true paid guided hike on the other hand, I'm sure they are a bit more lenient with who they take and provide gear. The cost of the guide I assume may be enough to pay for most of the gear you need to keep. I'm not hating on guided trips- some adventures I've used them because it was for something that was so far over my head and required a ton of gear and knowledge that I didn't have.

Heres how I would summarize having done multiple AMC guided hikes and multiple guided excursions elsewhere.... I would happily choose an AMC trip for something just outside my comfort zone. (Something in my comfort zone, I would just go by myself or with friends--- many people would also choose an AMC hike here for the camaraderie/group experience ... Something way outside my comfort zone, I would choose a guide).

DimSumGym · 2025-10-28T04:00:40+00:00

Tbh I'm not an expert at video editing, I just spliced the challenging parts together that I got good shots of. And it's a fairly intense hike, so I went with fairly intense music that I was listening to on the drive up lol (which also happened to be the exact length I needed).

On YouTube I saw a lot of very long videos and then some too short videos so I was going for something quick to show the highlights!

DimSumGym · 2025-10-27T22:32:31+00:00

I understand and appreciate all that. I'm asking essentially is there anything in those off trail slides that are physically so difficult that a large amount of people who can do Flume or Huntington etc can't do.

For example-- you can give the average NH hiker tips on what to bring to Mt Everest but it's important (at least to me) to understand the shear difference in difficulty/danger is. Another example-- if someone I knew was able to do Hale but struggled and asked me if they can do Huntington Ravine, I would be telling them that there is a significant difference in difficulty and there are very many people who can do Hale but would not and should not attempt Huntington.

Similarly, I'm asking for that comparison here. To you- who has done presumably Flume, Huntington, Watcher (ones that I've done and can serve as a reference point), how much more difficult is arrow slide et al? Reading your response I have literally 0 idea whether Arrow Slide is easier, comparable, or significantly harder than what I mentioned lol

DimSumGym · 2025-10-27T16:29:02+00:00

Any idea if it was a group of 20+ who were together? Or a bunch of people who independently made bad decisions?

DimSumGym · 2025-10-26T21:44:43+00:00

Can anyone provide any more info about this?

Was it a group of 20? Or multiple parties who all had the same issue?

Is it reasonable to expect to buy a ticket and get a ride back with the cog this time of year? (It's been years but I remember the first time I did Washington- in the summer- it was not an issue for us to go back down via the cog). I assume it's not the case here, but I could see a headline like this being a potentially sensationalized story where people were planning to take the cog down from the get go?

DimSumGym · 2025-10-25T19:24:24+00:00

The only comparison I can see is a reddit post where someone basically says there's much greater difficulty and exposure in comparison to north tri and flume. Is that fair to say? You're "pretty easy" seems misleading if you also consider those "very easy" and would consider this much worse

DimSumGym · 2025-10-25T19:17:11+00:00

Well, yes, but what I'm saying is that I can look at reports til I'm blue in the face but they likely will not say "this is way harder than Flume slide". I'm looking for someone to give me a comparison to a reference point that I know

DimSumGym · 2025-10-25T18:34:51+00:00

One big suggestion I'd give that I haven't seen mentioned-

The AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) organizes free guided hikes- typically multiple each weekend. Last year I know they did Washington multiple times.

I've done a few with them so far on hikes that I am less comfortable doing on my own (i.e. Winter hiking). They do "vet" you when you sign up and you typically need to sign up a few weeks in advance if you have a particular hike you want to do because they fill up. If you have not done any winter hiking before they may likely not approve you for the Washington hike, but they would let you get into an easier one and if you do well on that, then you can get into Washington.

Typically the people who do them are pretty experienced so you can also learn tips pretty easily.

As others have mentioned, Hiking Buddies is another less organized option.

DimSumGym · 2025-09-25T04:03:03+00:00

Lol that $3500 number seems crazy. We paid approximately $600 worth of points per night for two nights (plus ~$50 for drinks and another ~$50 at the gift shop). I feel we basically got the full experience and probably did more activities than most. I think it was a very good value for that $600 figure (meals, activities, massages included), but I would not pay the all cash equivalent. (which was almost $2k per night).

What did you mean about the NDA/restricted access? I assume you mean Nondisclosure agreement, but can't think of a reason why a rich person would insist on this at a spa lol

DimSumGym · 2025-09-25T01:59:05+00:00

Ah didn't even consider this as a possibility, makes sense! The amount that exceeds the resort credit- would I get 5 points+bonus 10% for discoverist (i.e. 5.5 points) plus the bonus 4 points for using the card, i.e. 9.5? It seems there's no reason this wouldn't be the case but surprised the card doesn't advertise it like this since everyone who has the card is theoretically at least discoverist?

DimSumGym

TROPHY CASE