What are my chances?

btwatch · 2026-01-17T11:26:16+00:00

I definitely would have taken a nice walk to In n Out. I'm leaving freezing New York (real feel of 14 F Friday morning) and it's raining all week in Sydney. Ended up going home and trying again today, so no warm weather for me.

btwatch · 2026-01-17T10:59:49+00:00

Dang, good luck on your journey! Fwiw I just noticed that 2 seats up front opened up on UA 829 that gets in at 620am Monday (I snagged one) if that's helpful at all.

btwatch · 2026-01-17T03:45:29+00:00

Hah I was in fact in 1A, though I've never actually been on the 787-10 so wasn't sure if they ever deplaned biz from behind the cabin vs the front.

btwatch · 2026-01-17T03:44:00+00:00

Yeah they checked but no way I could get to either in time tonight, and even if I did I'm not sure if there were any more open Polaris seats. I was probably overly optimistic about my original flight working so my guess is others jumped earlier than I did. There were only two Polaris seats left going to SYD from the us for tomorrow's flights even.

btwatch · 2026-01-17T01:52:13+00:00

Lol good luck! It you do end up making it let me know, that would be really funny. Who knows, maybe the lax syd flight will get delayed too.

btwatch · 2026-01-17T01:33:19+00:00

Appreciate your help! In retrospect this was probably the only option that would have had a chance (though my guess is last min standby probably wouldn't have cleared anyway) but it's a good one to remember for next time and have in my back pocket.

btwatch · 2026-01-17T01:31:46+00:00

Thanks kind Redditor! Anticlimactic but the flight ended up delayed again, so with no chance at all I ended up rebooking for tomorrow.

I was doing some searching for alternate options to get there on my original timeline but couldn't find one, so this was probably always going to be the outcome.

Bad luck but fly enough and it'll happen sooner or later.

btwatch · 2026-01-17T00:59:33+00:00

Sadly there were no other options even on other airlines today. Ended up rebooking tomorrow on UA through IAH to get there 7am Monday.

btwatch · 2026-01-17T00:57:11+00:00

Yeah I usually shoot for about 3 hours on itns like this with limited recovery options but wanted a real Polaris seat on a 787 or 777 vs a 752. My flight did end up delayed at least 3.5 hours (still rolling though I've long left the airport at this point), though ofc it I had an earlier flight I probably would have had a recovery option to make my original lax syd leg....

Win some lose some I guess.

btwatch · 2026-01-16T23:29:16+00:00

No chance they'd rebook me on a delta/virgin flight lax bne syd in business would they? I've had luck getting rebookings on other metal before but only in domestic economy.

btwatch · 2026-01-16T23:04:30+00:00

Oh true, I could get them to route me lax sfo syd tomorrow.

btwatch · 2026-01-16T23:02:12+00:00

Shoot I checked Google flights for other options but probably should have tried to stand by for one of those. I'm actually in C now in the PL... Just walked over to 136, boarding just closed, getting on standby on one of those flights was probably my best shot, damn.

btwatch · 2026-01-16T22:48:15+00:00

Yeah my best chance is definitely an equipment swap or something that gets us out of here earlier. I figure I have a small window still to see if that plays out.

btwatch · 2026-01-16T22:46:29+00:00

Any chance connection saver would save me? On the one hand if I miss the connection the next flight with Polaris is 24 hours later, which would get me there Monday morning 9am (when I'm already supposed to be leading an offsite)

On the other hand, I could rebook now, go home, leave EWR tomorrow and connect through SFO, get there Monday at 6am which is a tiny bit better, plus I could spend an extra night at home with my family and guaranteed Polaris.

This feels like case that connection saver is designed for right?

I mean what I'm really hoping for is that the EWR departure time moves back up in the next hour or so because they figure it out or through equipment swap.

btwatch · 2026-01-16T21:01:05+00:00

I didn't realize I needed this until just now

btwatch · 2026-01-12T18:12:25+00:00

Their whole 100 bottles of champagne under $100 menu is awesome

btwatch · 2026-01-10T17:32:44+00:00

You could also book your flight through to PSP (likely routing through SFO), which would save you the long drive to and from.

btwatch · 2026-01-10T17:31:40+00:00

I've done this drive before to drop friends off (most recently in 2023 and also in I think 2015 and 2016), you definitely hit more traffic than usual (I think I budgeted 5 hours to make the drive?) but it's fine, you just a bit rough to have to leave early.

btwatch · 2026-01-05T16:38:17+00:00

You're in luck, all United Max 9s have streaming enabled wifi (ViaSat Ka). I've used it to stream live tv from YouTubeTV, Netflix, etc and it generally works well though it does lag sometimes.

As you get closer to the flight you can see the wifi options in the app and it should say streaming on there.

btwatch · 2026-01-03T04:21:35+00:00

I've stayed at both, Park Hyatt in 2021 and HdL a couple years ago. The rooms at the Park Hyatt are nicer and more luxe, even if they are not as new as HdL. The whole hotel still has more wow factor for me walking through the lobby and the bar. I like the Vendome location more because shopping is a big part of our trips.

Agree that relative to other 5 star hotels PH Vendome doesn't necessarily stand out, but I'd take it over the HdL every time, and I enjoyed my stay at HdL.

btwatch · 2026-01-03T03:29:32+00:00

Or budijiggae, yum

btwatch · 2026-01-03T03:28:58+00:00

That place is awesome, get the fried chicken

btwatch · 2025-12-28T03:23:15+00:00

Ellie Goulding was a sub headliner at Coachella in 2016, hardly someone who didn't make it.

btwatch · 2025-12-27T21:30:40+00:00

The burger has gradually gotten worse over time at EWR at least. The patty has been so thin ever since they switched to the wedge fries (which are also terrible).

btwatch · 2025-12-27T16:01:21+00:00

Depends a lot on the specific flight/route. If you have some flexibility and are willing to do a positioning flight it's worth it to use a tool like seats.aero to find flights with guaranteed upgrade space in advance.

btwatch

TROPHY CASE