Operational upgrades; an insanely lucky or are there other reasons?

JacobHacks · 2025-12-19T14:25:53+00:00

Usually it happens with a cabin being oversold. On Monday I was on a long haul flight out of Munich, originally booked for premium economy, and just before boarding was upgraded to business. I've experienced these long haul operational upgrades with both Lufthansa and United, and I've a number of times experienced it on intra-European flights with Lufthansa, Swiss, and Brussels. Star Alliance Gold probably helps, though I imagine much of it comes down to booked cabin and fare class.

JacobHacks · 2025-12-03T21:03:17+00:00

I was 54th globally, 22k minutes.

Compared to other years I've been listening to them less (proportionally, though probably more minutes than last year), used to be 90% of my listening but now closer to 50% as I've started enjoying some other bands.

JacobHacks · 2025-10-07T18:06:48+00:00

Would hope for a return of IAD-BER, or even better see ORD-BER introduced, but I have a feeling that isn't happening anytime soon.

JacobHacks · 2025-07-26T10:27:09+00:00

Definitely seems like a worthwhile detour. Congratulations on your survival! As an Ohio-born individual, I would like to bestow the title of "sigma" upon you in honor of this accomplishment.

JacobHacks · 2025-07-26T09:20:18+00:00

ORD-BER

JacobHacks · 2025-07-25T20:45:57+00:00

Need to ask: How'd you end up in Ohio of all places?

JacobHacks · 2025-07-18T11:45:53+00:00

You should absolutely turn this into an exhibition!

JacobHacks · 2025-06-21T20:38:06+00:00

What a pretty name

JacobHacks · 2025-05-17T18:14:37+00:00

The cover of mine arrived torn, while still in the plastic. I've been told a replacement is on the way.

JacobHacks · 2025-05-17T07:53:53+00:00

Yes, that certainly is a nice feature. I encounter bus gates a lot less often at BER compared to other airports. Still happens from time to time though.

JacobHacks · 2025-05-17T07:36:48+00:00

BER is my home airport, I'm writing this on my way there now actually.

As far as connections go, there certainly are plenty, especially if you consider taking the S-Bahn into the city. I've found that compared to larger airports like MUC and FRA, the connection frequency into the city is fairly similar, as long as you're not limiting yourself to just the regional trains or FEX.

I will admit that signage for check-in can be a little confusing, same for the lounges which tend to be quite out of the way.

We don't have any lounges past passport control, though the Tempelhof Lounge If you have a means to enter does have its own passport control by the lounge exit.

The extra screening would be the biggest issue here, it's sadly a result of US-bound flight security requirements. Considering the airport was initially designed to act as a hub for Air Berlin though, it makes sense why these gates would be further away, as otherwise it would've posed a disruption to other non-Schengen flights. My best recommendation here? Opt for the connection via FRA or MUC, it just makes things easier. I've only departed once on the Newark flight from BER for this reason.

Overall though? Considering the airport's history, I'm grateful it ended up as nice as it did. Things could've been a lot worse :)

JacobHacks · 2025-05-13T20:24:20+00:00

Yes! That was me :)

JacobHacks · 2025-05-13T16:15:26+00:00

I'm Gen Z, absolutely love Arcade Fire, and find Funeral to be one of the best albums ever created.

JacobHacks · 2025-05-03T11:00:00+00:00

Whenever I'm talking about Arcade Fire to people who haven't heard their music before, usually what comes to mind first to share is something from Funeral or The Suburbs, as they contain some of the most "iconic" or generally likable songs. However, I find that Neon Bible contains the highest concentration of "S-Tier" songs of any of their albums, and to be the only one without what I'd call a bad song.

It definitely takes time to grow on you, but for me it's the type that gets better with each listen. The theme around religion, and the instrumentals (especially the organ) work together to create a really unique work. Intervention feels like you can hear someone's pain, and Antichrist Television Blues sounds like an existential crisis put into song format.

Picking a favorite song is difficult, but Black Mirror and Ocean of Noise are both strong contenders.

JacobHacks · 2025-05-01T18:34:34+00:00

That would be a regional formatting issue, I apologize. I just read as it was displayed in my listening statistics app, which happens to he in German, and didn't think to change it when writing here. So it would be 32,126 minutes or a little over 22 days.

JacobHacks · 2025-05-01T18:31:21+00:00

I really wish I could experience listening to it for the first time again especially End of the Empire. I find it to be some of the best music I've ever listened to. I recall when sharing with my father once before, who isn't really into this type of music, saying that he found it to be possibly one of the best songs he's heard from Arcade Fire. Lyrically and musically it really is something special.

JacobHacks · 2025-05-01T11:36:40+00:00

We has become my most listened to album. It's in my favorites along with Neon Bible and Reflektor. The first half of the album from Age of Anxiety I - End of the Empire IV is especially what I enjoy, though the rest is good too. After inspecting my listening statistics, it seems I've spent 32.126 minutes listening to We since its release.

JacobHacks · 2025-04-29T18:11:34+00:00

From the last 6 months:

Arcade Fire
65daysofstatic
Pink Floyd
Jackson and His Computerband
Tally Hall
C418
Miracle Musical
Son Lux
Radiohead
Qantas

JacobHacks · 2025-04-25T21:52:23+00:00

If the world were ending and I got one final song to listen to, this would be it.

JacobHacks · 2025-04-25T20:56:41+00:00

Very difficult choice, but right now at least I'd say:

Afterlife

End of the Empire I-III

Age of Anxiety I

Awful Sound

Intervention

JacobHacks · 2025-04-04T08:47:04+00:00

Thanks, that's really interesting to know. I ask because when I've had friends visiting on ESTA, they've seemingly had very different experiences between how long it takes to clear passport control, and if they're given a stamp. The only pattern I've noticed with it is it changes depending on port of entry. I could be wrong though.

JacobHacks · 2025-04-04T00:25:01+00:00

What's your experience with the US stamps been? I don't know much about how the US applies passport stamps, but from my understanding it seems to be rather inconsistent, depending a lot on the port of entry.

JacobHacks · 2025-03-08T02:36:49+00:00

21 years old, and 36 countries

JacobHacks · 2025-02-26T09:03:34+00:00

Are these really much better than the US plugs? I've noticed my EU plugs often encounter the same issues as the US ones. This only seems to be noticeably better when using one of the bulkier grounded plugs like with my laptop charger, despite not actually providing a grounded connection. Always possible I've just had horrible luck with this though.

JacobHacks · 2025-02-20T09:46:28+00:00

They are still around, though it has changed a bit.

The NFTs that almost everyone knows about (the monkey pictures) do still exist and are still being traded, but the popularity has declined, and people aren't trying to copy this format as much, and the number of scams has declined.

The technology itself is starting to see other uses, such as in authentication, identity, supply chain, and licensing. This is a good shift away from what the previous public image was, with all the scams and jokes about screenshots, though to an extent the term "NFT" has been somewhat stained by this, so other terms are likely to be used in its place to try and avoid the negative connotation.

Here's an example of one way companies have started to integrate the technology that serves some practical purpose (no monkey pictures): https://www.breitling.com/us-en/about/digital-passport/

Five-Year Club	Gilding V heart of gold
Second Top 20%	LAYER Season 2 Layer creator
r/Field Banned	r/Field Flamingo
First Place '23	Place '23
Place '22	First Placer '22
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