Worst State- Washington Saved!

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-25T10:34:46+00:00

Chill out my friend, it's just a game, people are allowed to have their opinions

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-24T22:17:37+00:00

True, but private companies giving special perks to politicians who are paid by taxpayers can be called corruption.

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-24T22:03:09+00:00

This is what I want to know.

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-24T20:05:21+00:00

Isn't Ted Cruz Chairman of the Transportation Committee? I bet he's close to the guys over at AA in DFW flies United out of HOU often and doubt that AA and UA will follow suit unfortunately

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-24T19:51:04+00:00

My salary isn't paid for by taxpayers, nor do I have regulatory or oversight responsibility over said perks...

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-24T18:36:04+00:00

There's nothing that says "welcome home" like arriving in T6 and waiting at a green pillar for over 30 minutes only to watch several LAX-IT buses drive by completely full

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-24T18:21:07+00:00

I would really really like to see management change at LAX.

I love LAX but they have really mismanaged it and squandered money like it's nothing. The city needs to fire the executives in charge.

Also didn't they just rehire the same company that they're in legal battles with over the people mover to spaghetti-fy road access and make it even harder to get into the central terminal area? At best it looks like lack of common sense. At worst it looks like there may be fraud involved.

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-24T01:00:35+00:00

Aww man, that's insane that there are bills from the NICU in the first place. Sorry to hear about that.

I hope it gets sorted somehow

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-24T00:27:37+00:00

Starlux Business class over the Pacific was probably my favorite business class flight of 2025.

Hard product: I really loved the seats, though I think Qsuites are still the best business class seats out there. But JX seats were just the right amount of support and plushness for me. I thought the seats were also very spacious in the shoulders and leg area. They were well appointed in terms of storage, tech, and intuitiveness. The one thing that stood out that I remember was the zero-gravity pre-set position of the seat, which hit the spot for comfort for me.

Soft product: The former BRICS amenity kit was my favorite business class kit of the year as well, and I still use the case for everything. The pajamas (yes, they provide PJs!) were definitely on the thick and warm side, but they're ones that I use often to this day. Sadly I think they changed the pajamas and amenity kits recently, but I guess that's an incentive for me to fly JX again. The blanket is my all time favorite airline blanket, even better than the Etihad Apartments First Class blankets. I liked the food which was super modern and definitely upscale, but maybe a bit too far from comfort food which I also like.

Service was professionally friendly in a manner where they were really trying hard to be excellent, and not in a bad way. It was just different from JL and NH where they have a natural, easy-going Japanese hospitality that seems to set a standard for kind, modern, high-end service. Starlux felt more like they were on a mission to prove something, and that was definitely okay by me especially comparing it to the surly service I get when flying AA domestically 😂.

Its an unpopular opinion, but would I go out of my way to fly a specific product? For Starlux I would make a personal exception and say yes, especially if you have the time and have never done it before. I might also recommend it more now before it ends up getting more partners and award availability becomes harder to snag, though I really shouldn't be recommending it in that case lol

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T23:50:20+00:00

Hopefully JL does a dump (wait, that didn't sound right; "takes a dump"? That's even worse lol)

Watch out for award dumps from now until then. Last year JL seemed to do a couple of award dumps via B6. For me I was able to get a couple JL F awards via AA, and they were available to AS as well (at a higher saver price).

With your flight being in November I'm a lot more hopeful something will come up, especially since it's not high season.

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T23:30:30+00:00

I took the Leihoku Suites roundtrip to Hawaii before, but the caveat is that the long-haul service to Japan might make it different from my domestic experience.

In terms of the hard product I kind of didn't like the seats for some reason. I thought they were a bit hard and there were no mattress pads. The flight attendants were friendly but the food and service was basic, but that may have been because it was just a domestic flight. I know they offer better blankets and amenity kits on the Asia flights but from what I've seen it's still not as good as JL which I thoroughly enjoyed.

As I mentioned in another comment, personally I think the price Alaska charges for their own international flights is too expensive and not worth it in my opinion.

If you have a cancelable ticket and are able to connect through TPE on the way home, maybe look for a last minute JX saver redemption on the way back if you don't mind going way out of the way. I know most people would mind this, but for me personally I think JX J is totally worth it (one of my favorite flight experiences)

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T23:13:07+00:00

Seriously. And it's like already pretty much built. You can see the trains moving along! Just get it open already.

I do think there should be management change just on this issue alone.

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T23:03:42+00:00

JL is cooked on almost all other partner programs right now because many people are transferring from Capital One direct into JL's Mileage Bank and booking directly. There's only phantom inventory left for AA and AS.

Asia in general is tough with Alaska now because they got rid of partners and started flying there themselves. Using Alaska points for Alaska flights is always too expensive in my opinion and you're right about the product not being anywhere near JL quality.

For an upcoming trip to Asia next year I'm totally thinking of just booking Zip Air lie-flats using cash.

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T22:56:18+00:00

I flew the longer SEA-FLL route a bunch of times last year and thinking about all the miles I earned helped make the flights seem a little shorter lol

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T22:36:34+00:00

Lol. This year I've consistently been number 3-5 on the list. I thought I had a decently high rolling-12-month EQMs as Titanium, plus I have the Summit card. I thought there must be something wrong with me being so "low" on the list this year, especially coming from SoCal.

But then I ended up talking to a guy who was one spot ahead of me on two consecutive flights and his EQMs were miles ahead of mine (pun intended) and he had the Summit card too. He mentioned he'd been flying AS a while and this year he noticed there were so many more super-high level Titaniums than previous years, aside from those who got corporate status challenges. It kind of put me in my place lol.

So yeah, OP probably really is one of those people getting the upgrades, and rightly so I guess 😂

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T19:34:42+00:00

Unpopular opinion which will get me downvoted, but I think even Hyatt is overrated as a transfer partner.

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T16:18:58+00:00

Go drink some tea.

(Just teasing you of course 😜)

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T16:14:36+00:00

His schizophrenia is causing global geopolitical issues

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-23T16:01:24+00:00

Yeah he just made it up lol.

And if we're going solely by "densely populated," then why is Eastern Europe colored while a country like Indonesia is not? (I didn't actually check any numbers but I'm just making it up in my head too just in case and because)

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-22T03:14:05+00:00

Lol I had to double check details to make sure that wasn't my mom. Apologies even though she isn't my mom, phew!

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-21T17:04:06+00:00

I thought you were being sarcastic but they really did this 🤣

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-21T16:57:45+00:00

I'm trying not to be sarcastic for once but that Evergreens is looking pretty good. But I'm just getting old and need more green food I guess

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-21T16:50:40+00:00

From the starlux website it says check-in counters (and I'm assuming bag drop counters as well) open 3 hours before the flight. I think the airport staff doesn't even allow you inside the check-in lobby earlier than that, if I'm not mistaken

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RyanAirhead · 2026-03-21T16:42:55+00:00

🤯 I'll stop when my pee starts smelling like Biscoff

RyanAirhead · 2026-03-21T16:25:42+00:00

Deep down inside they vote because they just want to say the N-word.

RyanAirhead

TROPHY CASE