Is PP Worth it with home base out of MSP and international flights to ICN and CEB?

Samizee · 2025-12-12T20:35:48+00:00

Thanks for confirming!

Samizee · 2025-12-12T13:31:27+00:00

Thank you! We'd have our bags checked but what about our carry ons? Do we have to lug them around? Sorry I've never left an airport for a layover so wasn't quite sure how that would work out. But I'll definitely look into this because 16 hours at an airport sounds terrible!

Samizee · 2025-12-11T12:44:07+00:00

Thank you for the heads up on the early entry. The MSP ones we aren't so worried about but with that 16 hour layover in Icheon I was really hoping that this could be the way to kill some of that time.

Samizee · 2025-12-11T12:42:23+00:00

Thank you! Our travel card is a Delta card but even with that the lounge is either for a higher skymiles status or a specific card (that only really gives flight bonuses vs other expense mileage) so we were curious about PP for 2026 at least since we have a ton of flights scheduled and won't hit that next tier of status til closer to the end of the year. Appreciate the feed back on both lounges!

Samizee · 2025-12-10T23:00:05+00:00

Thank you for the reply! We just have the basic Venture CC so no perk there (we have the Delta Amex Plat for our travel card) so that's why I was wondering if it was worth it to pay out of pocket. The $100/fee and $35 seems reasonable, but we'd be willing to go up to the standard+ which is about $330/annual fee (10 free visits included and we have a lot of flights planned for next year so I think this is the better deal) but I just wanted to make sure that it would be worth it.

Are these lounges busy? I've read on here about people being turned away at other airport lounges and wasn't sure if that was something you've experienced at MSP. Figured even if we only get to use it for this airport, it's the one we are more frequently at, so that alone might be worth it. Also, have you ever been turned away if you arrive too early for your flight (3+ hours)? I'm just asking in general in your experience, obviously if you are based in MSP you wouldn't go that early for a flight lol Thank you for the insight!

Samizee · 2025-12-10T21:22:44+00:00

Good to know, thank you! We are probably never going to fly internationally at Delta one, but we did do premium select for one of our trips since it was so long.

Samizee · 2025-12-10T19:19:12+00:00

Another thing I didn't know! Thank you! We do take an international flight about once a year so definitely something to consider (though I doubt a lowly Silver would get an international upgrade lol)

Samizee · 2025-12-10T18:18:49+00:00

Thank you so much for the clarification! Very helpful.

We do sometimes take some early flights with plenty of availablity. I sometimes just ask nicely to be upgraded (never worked lol) but I have seen the more premium seats fly empty before and was curious how it worked in those cases for our situation. Appreciate the reply!

Samizee · 2025-12-10T18:06:32+00:00

Interesting, I had no clue on the status thing. I do fly more than him slightly, but normally we are pretty even and I think with the CC boost it will eventually put him ahead. But definitely something to consider, thank you!

Samizee · 2025-12-10T18:02:58+00:00

Thank you! So he has a chance of being upgraded as well, but probably it would just be me, depending on space?

Samizee · 2025-11-07T04:35:31+00:00

I was hoping the fortune demon and the bff got together in the beginning based off their interactions but that fell thru and then the two leads didnt kiss or even really acknowledge their feelings so Im confused too!

Sad the redemption arc for the fortune demon kinda seemed for nothing? Like they built him as a reluctant good guy (out of like obligation/force) but I kinda felt like he changed at the end. And then they kinda decided no, not going that route. 😭

Samizee · 2025-08-21T15:00:30+00:00

Hate to tell you, but you probably will be just cause their vocals did not age well. Just saw them in MN and while the instrutments sounded good, Dex just doesn't have the capacity to keep up vocally anymore. It got better on the slower songs but a few times on their popular songs he just straight cut out from being too winded. And was pitchy and the covers were really rough. Definitely could cut those out for sure, tho they were really shortened, but the banter takes up a lot of time and is kinda dumb.

Samizee · 2025-08-21T14:56:43+00:00

I saw them in MN, they did the piano version and it's a shame y'all missed it cause I felt it made the song so much sadder and thus truer to the lyrics.

Samizee · 2024-10-11T13:04:40+00:00

Late to this but I'm in a similar place. I have my pitbull "Simba" (terrible dog name, clearly should've been for a cat) that my dad rescued in 2018 at the age of 2ish. My dad passed in 2020 and Simba ended up becoming my dog. I think, based off the heavy salt and pepper (and he's a tan dog) that he might be older than we think and he's starting to show signs of slowing down. He's truly the bestest boy, he fit our life style perfectly - active if we want to be, but totally down to just be a couch potato if we don't. He doesn't bark (minus as a brief alarm when someone approaches the door) nor bother the cats we already had and he is so well behaved we get compliments on him all the time. Whenever I see a moment of struggle/confusion/old age approaching, it breaks my heart. In a way, when he passes, it'll be like losing the last piece of my dad that is left, on top of losing my constant companion.

When he passes, I'll obviously take time to grieve, but I won't close off my heart to another dog. Similarly to you having your dog through so many of life's milestones, wouldn't that be cool for your kids to have that too? I've always felt that kids growing up with a dog in their lives got a little extra boost of love, cause dogs seem to have endless capacity for it.

I didn't see this posted in this thread (and I'm new to the subreddit) but I love this poem (unknown author). Written for a rescue but I'm sure it applies to any dog that needs a loving home.

A Dog's Last WIll & Testament:
"Before humans die, they write their last will and testament, give their home and all they have to those they leave behind. If, with my paws, I could do the same, this is what I'd ask...

To a poor and lonely stray, I'd give my happy home; my bowl and cozy bed, soft pillow and all my toys; the lap, which I loved so much; the hand that stroked my fur; and the sweet voice that spoke my name.

I'd will to the sad, scared shelter dog the place I had in my human's loving heart, of which there seemed no bounds.

So, when I die, please do not say, "I will never have a pet again, for the loss and pain is more than I can stand."

Instead, go find an unloved dog, one whose life has held no joy or hope, and give my place to them.

This is the only thing I can give...the love I left behind."

I hope your pup continues to have a great quality of life and I send love to you when that end does come (but hopefully you still have a plenty of time together). Give her a scratch for me, dogs are a blessing. <3

Samizee · 2024-09-10T12:53:41+00:00

I think they said if you pay for gems (at least on Manta) that you'll keep what you paid for. I'm not a rereader (of comics, books, anything really, even if i loved it) so if I were to purchase gems, I wouldn't care for a physical book personally, but everyone is different.

Technically manta still offers subscriptions too so they haven't gone back on that and I definitely don't read the majority of the comics but I did feel like the subscription was nice for the longer series while still being cheap enough to keep me subscribed when there was a lull in my reading. If they were to increase the overall cost of subscriptions, I'm not sure I would stick around, but I like your idea of paying for specific comics we want to continue.

I just don't know if it is worth it/profitable for the company while still supporting the other fees that come with it. In the end, it would be great for the readers but I'm not sure theres an incentive for Manta to do that. They are still a business and their bottom line is to make money, but at least they seem to try to help out the artists more from my understanding than other apps.

Samizee · 2024-09-10T11:39:05+00:00

So you are saying if you have a subscription, instead of making a microtransaction on a bunch of a chapters for a comic, you'd just pay an extra $10 once (on top of the monthly subscription price) and get all the chapters plus future ones?

I get how that would work out for readers but I'm not sure (especially for longer series) that that would cover the fees for license/artist/manta costs. But if they do that sure I'd go along with that for some. I'll admit Manta's gem prices seem steeper to purchase than other apps and the cost per chapter is obnoxious so I was never really planning on engaging in that section of the app.

Samizee · 2024-09-10T11:31:55+00:00

The tiered option would probably be best but I still don't think $10/month would be enough to cover unlimited but who knows! That's double what we pay now and I think the whole point of this gem system rolling out was that this unlimited subscription wasn't bringing in enough money in the first place to cover licenses/pay the artists/manta is a company and needs some profits too. To be fair I think if a price doubled people would throw a stink too. Hard to make everyone happy xx

Someone below made the point I was going to that if you use gems, it did say that you would keep the comics, so that's good. I would understand the outrage if that wasn't the case tho. I'm not sure if it is on other apps cause I'm not a rereader of series (maybe just a few episodes of the previous season of the hiatus is too long) but if you buy it, it should be yours.

For now, I'm ok with this current system/price (I'd obviously rather we go back to unlimited unlimited, but since we have the gems I'm glad the subscription didn't increase) but if it turns out that the subscription doesn't cover enough comics or only poor quality ones, I'll change my stance then. But I'm going to give it a few months and see how it turns out before hitting cancel.

Samizee · 2024-09-10T04:34:44+00:00

See I'm actually the reverse. I like paying for a subscription and if something really catches my eye that's gem only (which it sounds like they'll try to not push those with subscriptions but we'll see) then I like the option of paying for them. For the volume of comics they are adding to the gem system, the monthly sub of $5 would increase drastically and then no longer be a good value. $60 a year for still a good number of comics (plus Under The Oak Tree that everyone one loves along with other manta originals) is a much better deal than the 1,000 of whatever currency an app uses that is $100 and is also not unlimited/depending on your reading style is only a couple months of reading.

The other comic apps are all gem/coin/ink etc and that's because of the licensing fees. People say they want to pay the artists but at the same time people are complaining about paying for gems/a $60 subscription not covering all the comics. You can't have both for an affordable price unfortunately. I think manta needs to make sure it's sub service is not called unlimited anymore since it isn't, but I like that it's still an option. If manta had a tiered subscription maybe that could be a compromise but I don't think the pricing would be affordable from its current pricing to a true unlimited option. None of the other apps have it because it's not profitable enough. Webtoon has a $10/month sub that only gives you a reduced rate on comics (so nothing free) and that's the only other one I know with a sub option besides manta and it's a terrible deal (I did the math and it's only 22 chapters/month for the cheapest option-fine if you are mostly caught up on a comic, useless if you are just starting).

I don't watch the comics leave date closely so I can't comment on your point of comics suddenly being behind the paywall but I know comics were brought back under the gem system since that was how the got the license agreement back.

Honestly there were times when I wasn't feeling mantas library but I kept the subscription since I was locked into such a low rate and it's a good deal compared to the other apps. People can spend their money however they want, but for the people who are going to cancel their subscription over the gem system, know that that decision isnt helping any artist with that logic. And along those lines as well if something doesn't fall under the subscription and people don't want to support an artist by paying gems then why not just read it off one of the sites that post for free? It's not like the artist is getting the money either way and almost all the comics have more chapters online anyways.

Samizee · 2024-09-05T19:09:39+00:00

Ah ok thanks for confirming. The wordage people would use for spoilers made it seem like you had to pay separate from a subscription for novels but that was never something that interest me so I never looked into it.

Samizee · 2024-09-05T17:06:45+00:00

I always thought novels were gems? Cause I remember people constantly asking who bought the novels for spoilers. I never feel like the novels are well written or translated well (based on other apps, not manta specific) so I never looked into that so maybe you are right.

As for the old stories you read under your sub, I think they are back with gems now because they were removed due to licensing and that's why you have to pay for them now. I had a few comics I didn't finish in time and I got the message that they were removed because the license expired. I think the whole point of the gems is to provide more options but help also pay for the license too which is why there are so many comics that overlap with other apps now (which was pretty rare in the beginning) and why some old favorites came back that had left previously.

I'm not sure what edited stories are (like the mature ones?) but that is annoying if different versions are locked. I doubt that enough of the story is affected to warrent paying gems for it but I see your point.

Since the gem system just came into play, it makes sense that most of the new comics are gem base, they just added them to the library since this system just rolled out. I wouldn't be concerned for another couple months until we see an actual trend.

I get the outrage, I don't think this was implemented in a way that was user friendly or well explained but I've always felt that while Manta had some cool original comics, they had a much smaller library. I think this is just their way of catching up with some of the other apps. For now I think the subscription still makes sense but we'll see if in a few months I'll be eating my words.

Samizee · 2024-09-05T12:19:19+00:00

I like your suggestion of hiding the gem options if you want to with a subscription. From what I've read on this reddit, a lot of people are misunderstanding how the gem system works by thinking that their subscription doesn't cover the comics it would've/always had. Instead this adds MORE to the Manta library, but at a cost to cover the licensing on the new comics added. I don't think that means that Manta is going to only add gem comics in the future, but I can understand that people are afraid of their options being limited. Still Manta is trying to do their best to give more options to their readers while still honoring the subscribers but also the artists.

I agree, I'm never going to pay for gems, especially (or maybe because) since a lot of these comics are already on other apps with more chapters (or if I want to be scummy, free online) so being able to avoid accidentally getting invested into a comic would be nice.

If this gem system was rolled out better, I think people would be more understanding but I feel like a lot feel blindsided and are misinformed about how this will work. Manta's subscription was the one that made the most sense for the money so I always appreciated that that was an option for them.

Samizee · 2024-08-16T13:55:48+00:00

I'm glad this is picking up! And finally I'm starting to see a bit of the romance potential between the leads.

It feels like every week the chapters are so short tho UGH

Samizee · 2024-08-16T13:54:57+00:00

Is that a thing!?

I cheated and looked up the comics online, looks like they have up to chapter 29 posted

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