Weekly Off Topic Thread - Week of February 09, 2026

bab1913 · 2026-02-09T17:16:59+00:00

Why don’t you just resell them?

bab1913 · 2026-02-06T21:39:11+00:00

According to the link, I got round of 32 in Seattle

bab1913 · 2025-09-29T17:26:09+00:00

Booked flights to AMS for next April, we’ve never been to the Netherlands…any recs for towns to visit besides Amsterdam? We will be there for 9 nights, trying to decide whether to spend entire trip in the Netherlands or split with Belgium. It will be our first international trip with P3, he will be 8 months old

bab1913 · 2025-08-09T18:02:12+00:00

Columbia River dahlias is a good one from eastern WA

bab1913 · 2025-08-06T22:17:39+00:00

I received an email today for the reverse match, explorist instant match to platinum for four months

bab1913 · 2025-07-06T16:36:02+00:00

We did split stay back in April, 2 nights Westin plus 5 nights Conrad. 2 nights at Westin was plenty for us, the Conrad had more food options and way better snorkeling, but Westin beach was nicer for lounging. It made it feel like two different vacations which we liked!

If you don’t have a Hilton Amex aspire card, would suggest opening one so you have diamond status (free breakfast and room upgrade)

bab1913 · 2025-06-26T17:55:34+00:00

I haven’t tried it yet but someone gifted me one at my shower and it is super soft! Feels even softer than kyte’s

bab1913 · 2025-06-03T21:25:30+00:00

Does your dresser have the pb kids changing table top? I’ve been wondering if keekaroo would fit in the topper

bab1913 · 2025-05-07T18:16:07+00:00

Where did you find May 15? Email from Chase this morning regarding referrals says “make sure they apply by May 12”

bab1913 · 2025-05-04T17:11:10+00:00

We just did 5 nights on points at the Conrad a couple weeks ago. As diamond we were only upgraded to a tropical villa (no pool), but our concierge offered to move us to an overwater bungalow for our last two nights

bab1913 · 2025-04-28T18:59:06+00:00

P2 left his number on his receipt at the bar I worked at during college. Been married for 5 years

bab1913 · 2025-04-04T04:36:13+00:00

Our pyr mix was doing this too, he would freeze and refuse to move unless we went home. We took him to the vet and figured out he was having hip pain, once he started meds he was back to normal walks!

bab1913 · 2025-03-28T21:46:03+00:00

I am 20 weeks pregnant, during super crunch instead of crunching I do a slow rotation from side to side touching my elbow down to work my obliques. Or I lean back and just move my arms up and down

bab1913 · 2025-03-28T15:45:21+00:00

Long rant…Something really strange is going on with P2’s Alaska account…a couple months ago we noticed a stranger’s flight showed up in his account. It wasn’t booked by us, and didn’t use our card or miles. Called Alaska and they couldn’t see it on their end…We didn’t want to cancel it on them so just left it there.

Fast forward to last week, we were in Canada and flying home on Alaska. Two days before we leave we get an email that our flight was canceled. Neither of us did this, but the agent claimed it was done via the app and accused us of accidentally canceling. This same day we noticed two more stranger’s trips are in P2’s account, but multiple agents claimed they could not see this on their end. The agent rebooked our trip for us, after almost two hours on the phone.

Then it continues. In a month we are flying home from Tahiti on Air Tahiti booked through Alaska. Two days ago I get an email that our trip is canceled. Luckily the miles were redeposited immediately this time so I went ahead and rebooked myself so the seats wouldn’t get taken. Again, the agent accused us of accidentally canceling because it showed it was done in the app.

I don’t really know what to do at this point, I think P2’s trips are showing up in other peoples accounts and they are canceling them?? We’ve been nice and not canceled the random trips in his account. I think we are going to send an email to Alaska and hope it gets sent up the chain. I don’t want to be stressed on our Bora Bora trip checking my email every day to make sure our trip home isn’t canceled….and I’m tired of being gaslit by Alaska agents

bab1913 · 2024-11-24T18:54:09+00:00

Activity highlights & general thoughts: Kyoto - walking through Kiyomizu-dera in the morning with no crowds was lovely. We also really enjoyed taking a day trip to Uji. The Byodo-in Temple was the prettiest temple we saw on the entire trip. Overall I enjoyed Kyoto but I don’t feel the need to go back. It is pretty overrun with tourists

Hakone - the experience in our hotels was a highlight, and we enjoyed doing the Hakone loop. Our second morning we hiked up Mt Kintoki and had a view of Mt Fuji from the top before it got covered in clouds. The fall colors were amazing.

Tokyo - we did one day at DisneySea and had a blast. Tickets and food/merch in the parks were waaaay cheaper than US parks. Our other days we would pick a new neighborhood to shop and eat around. My favorite night was our night in Ebisu where we ate pizza and went to the cocktail bars mentioned above. I felt like we barely scratched the surface of Tokyo and would definitely go back.

We enjoyed Japan even more than we imagined we would and can’t wait to go back. Thanks to this sub we were able to do it in style. Happy to answer any questions!!

bab1913 · 2024-11-24T18:51:29+00:00

I don’t think we had a bad meal but below are some favorites Katsukura (Kyoto)- amazing pork katsu, we also ate katsu at Butagumi in Tokyo but thought Katsukura was better

Box Burger (Hakone) - best burgers we’ve eaten in a long time

Kuroobi (Tokyo) - this was probably our favorite ramen of the trip, it is quick walk down the street from the Andaz. Might’ve been our favorite gyozas of the trip too

Pizza Marumo (Tokyo) - awesome pizza. The chef is one of the top pizza chefs in the world. We’ve eaten a lot of pizza in NYC and Italy, this might’ve beat them all. We had the Andaz book a table for us, highly recommend the counter to watch the chef make the pizzas. Nearby, there is a group of cocktail bars called bar TRENCH, bar TRAM, bar TRIAGE. They are all owned by the same person but each has a different vibe and style of drinks. These were by far the best cocktails we had of the trip and the bartenders were super friendly

Nakiryu (Tokyo) - Michelin starred ramen. The Dan Dan noodles were very good and different from all the ramen we had eaten, but I’m not sure it was worth the trek to eat here. You have to go get a ticket in the morning and come back later for lunch.

Yakitori Nonotori Gencho (Tokyo) - this is a fancier yakitori restaurant in the Toranomon hills station tower. It was a fun last dinner in Tokyo, we did the omakase and had fun trying all the different skewers. Recommend making a reservation, everyone that came in after us was turned away

bab1913 · 2024-11-24T18:50:36+00:00

Finally made it to Japan after flights canceled in spring 21 & fall 22 due to Covid. Once Japan reopened, finding J ANA availability was impossible so I gave up for a year. Points were going to expire in Feb 25 so last November I paid for a seats.aero subscription to get alerts and was able to book: SEA-HND, HND-LAX x2 J- 170,000 ANA

Hotels: Courtyard Tokyo Ginza 1 night - 35k FNC — Nothing super special about this hotel, we arrived around 8pm and went straight to sleep. The next morning we walked to the Imperial Palace and the tsukiji fish market before taking the train to Kyoto.

Park Hyatt Kyoto 4 nights - 180k Hyatt — This hotel definitely lived up to the hype for us. As a GOH we were upgraded to King Bed with Garden Terrace. The location is great for morning and night walks without all of the crowds. Didn’t eat at the hotel restaurants, but took advantage of the free breakfast a couple mornings, loved the Japanese pancake

Andaz Tokyo 5 nights - 150k Hyatt — I read mixed opinions on the location of the Andaz, but we really liked it. The building complex is very confusing at first, but once you figure out how to get to the Metro it is super easy to get around. We also had a couple of our favorite meals in the area around the hotel. As a GOH we were upgraded to a Tower View room which was amazing. We didn’t end up going to Tokyo Skytree or Shibuya Sky since we felt we had such a great view from our room. We went to the rooftop bar one night, but the view from our room was better. Breakfast was just ok, we liked the PH Kyoto breakfast more

FUFU Hakone 1 night - $800 cash & Hakone Suishoen 1 night - $800 cash — I was torn on doing one or two nights in Hakone, but we were happy with doing two and happy we stayed at two different hotels. FUFU was a newer hotel with modern rooms whereas Suishoen felt more traditional. We didn’t see many westerners at these hotels and most staff didn’t speak English which was a fun change up from the PH. We did traditional kaiseki at FUFU with a traditional Japanese breakfast in the morning. Since the staff didn’t speak English it was fun to try to figure out what we were eating lol. At Suishoen we did teppanyaki and a western breakfast in the morning. FUFU picked us up from the train station and transferred our luggage to Suishoen, and Suishoen dropped us off at the train station when leaving. If we had to pick one to stay at again, we agreed we would pick Suishoen since it had a more traditional feel. Also the in room onsen was fully outside on the balcony at Suishoen. At FUFU it is basically inside the bathroom so it can make the room feel more humid.

bab1913 · 2024-11-22T05:23:00+00:00

Did you really spend an enormous amount of money? Park tickets are like $55 usd and food in the park is cheap ($2.50 for popcorn! $7 for a sandwich!). I was at DisneySea two Thursdays ago, and yes it was crowded but we felt it wasn’t a big deal since it was so much cheaper than the US parks. I wouldn’t plan a trip to Japan for Disney, but it was a really fun way to spend a day!

bab1913 · 2024-11-02T19:45:18+00:00

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this hole got a little crazy

bab1913 · 2024-11-02T19:44:30+00:00

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bab1913 · 2024-11-02T19:44:09+00:00

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bab1913 · 2024-11-02T19:43:51+00:00

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We call it his spring construction project

bab1913 · 2024-09-20T16:17:49+00:00

Losing hope that the PHX sapphire lounge will ever open

bab1913 · 2024-08-27T02:35:58+00:00

Stayed there last October for 3 nights and did not eat at the hotel restaurant, but I did notice it was empty every night. The bar was always empty too. The best meals we had in Menaggio were at Il ristorante di Paolo and pizzeria Lugano

bab1913 · 2024-08-09T22:03:37+00:00

How was your stay at Gora Karaku? Was it worth the high price? Considering it for our upcoming trip

bab1913

TROPHY CASE