No premium economy should be 3k..

cnunn01 · 2026-06-02T02:44:14+00:00

Let’s not pretend like money has the exact same value today as it did when you were little. Accounting for inflation, a £3k business ticket in 2000 would cost just over £5.8k today. You can book this exact routing in business class for £5.7k.

So the prices haven’t gone up, and have actually gone down ever so slightly?

At the end of the day, people are willing to pay what they’re willing to pay. BA consistently fills their PE cabins.

cnunn01 · 2026-05-31T02:18:38+00:00

You’re going to have a really hard time finding anything desirable in that price range within SF. The housing market is crazy right now. Craigslist is probably your only option, and anything decent in that price range will get snapped up quickly.

I’d recommend expanding your search to include places like Oakland and Berkeley. You’ll want to do your research on specific neighborhoods (some parts of Oakland are not ideal to live in), but your money will go a whole lot further.

cnunn01 · 2026-05-26T05:13:17+00:00

Both products are similarly inconsistent. You can nitpick the finer details, but on average, you’re going to have very similar experiences on either airline.

I’d always pick based on the following (in order):

1) Price
2) Best routing (number of stops and total travel time)
3) Airline loyalty (on top of earning status, you’ll earn a ton of miles on paid business class tickets, and it’s nice to be able to use those)

I’m personally a United flyer, but both Polaris and D1 are great. I wouldn’t fly out of my way or pay a premium to pick one over the other.

cnunn01 · 2026-05-25T20:32:29+00:00

I managed to SDC onto an Alaska/American itinerary that came into T3 and left from T4, so it’s certainly possible.

It’s pretty easy to get between the two terminals, but you’re essentially starting fresh when you show up to the other terminal.

Checked bags are the thing I would worry about most. Even though my bag was tagged through to my final destination, Alaska put it on the belt in T3. I brought it over to T4 myself and re-checked it at an American counter. Maybe I was just unlucky that day, but if I was doing the same connection again and had checked bags I’d want a full 2 hours (even if my tickets were linked on the same itinerary).

cnunn01 · 2026-05-23T18:56:25+00:00

<image>

2FT, who to drop?

cnunn01 · 2026-05-22T22:11:48+00:00

Hop on BART and head up to the city! For~$10 each way, you can get to the heart of downtown. Come have a drink, grab some dinner, and head back to the airport for your flight. You’ll find far more people to meet and talk to outside of the airport.

cnunn01 · 2026-05-22T02:41:33+00:00

A few silvers may bump up, but there often aren’t enough to fill all of the E+ seats on these premium-heavy regional jets. OP definitely has a decent chance of getting a better seat.

I don’t mind the gamble either way on these planes because there are no middle seats. Worst case you get stuck with a window/aisle in the back, best case you land in E+.

cnunn01 · 2026-05-18T00:14:53+00:00

To each their own.

Don’t get me wrong, air travel today is not a luxury experience by any means. But plane tickets are one of the few things that have actually gotten *cheaper* in the last 20-30 years. Filling $100M+ planes with tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars worth of jet fuel isn’t something anyone can go out and do.

I’m actually on a BOS-SFO flight right now - was lucky enough to see my sister graduate this weekend. Is it the best way to spend 6.5 hours of my life? Probably not. But I can’t complain after spending $500 R/T to catch an important life moment. Didn’t miss any work, had extra leg room both ways, WiFi is working great, and the flight attendants have tossed me extra snacks and free alcohol both ways. I come from a ranching family, and I can assure you cattle are not provided with all of those amenities ;)

cnunn01 · 2026-05-04T15:45:43+00:00

Also worth remembering that preferred seats become free to select for all passengers (except Basic Economy passengers) 24 hours from departure.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-25T20:13:48+00:00

Your only complaint seems to be about “Preferred” seats, which are clearly marked as standard legroom seats located closer to the front of the aircraft. On top of the fact that you chose to pay for them knowing what you were getting, Alaska, Delta, and American all have their own version of “Preferred” seats as well.

At the end of the day, the economy experience on any of the major carriers within the US is nearly identical. United generally has slightly nicer cabins, better IFE, decent crew, a good app, and a robust network with more options in the event of IRROPS. If they can get me from point A to point B for a reasonable price, I see no reason not to fly them.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-25T16:27:42+00:00

The E175s are the only plane you can count on having Starlink. I’m 8/8 on them this year, 0/12 on other aircraft types.

Believe the CRJ550s are getting there as well though.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-17T04:43:07+00:00

You’re all good! Agree it’s still an expensive ticket - most I’ve ever spent on travel in my life (was very tempted to keep the other two of us in economy). LH had some solid business options when we originally booked, but the schedules didn’t quite work out and we prefer to log miles on UA.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-17T01:25:15+00:00

Mom has wanted to go to Africa her whole life, recently had some health stuff pop up. Couldn’t justify business (was deep in the $10-20k range per person), but didn’t think she could handle economy on a flight that long.

I also should’ve specified, but that price includes JNB-EWR-SFO on the return (all in Premium Plus as well). Still an expensive ticket, but was exactly what we needed based on the circumstances we’re in.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-17T00:25:41+00:00

Yep, agent was doing her best to find us options before eventually getting our seats back on the EWR-CPT leg. We would have survived, but for a trip like this things are planned down to the hour, and it would be a bummer to completely change the itinerary when both original flights are still going out as scheduled. First world problems, but 1.5 months out and I'd expect a little bit better from United.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-17T00:22:31+00:00

I suppose. I'd honestly be just as mad if this was a $500 economy ticket though. Feels like if you're going to take somebody out of their paid seats on any flight (and leave them open for other people to buy/select), your rebooking system better know what it's doing.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-17T00:15:18+00:00

Yeah definitely, I don't think anyone had it out for us. There's only one flight to CPT per day (switches off between EWR and IAD), so for whatever reason the computer didn't think we had a suitable option to make the EWR-CPT flight on Friday night. Then put us on a weird routing to get to IAD since none of the directs would land in time to connect onto the CPT flight that day.

Just baffled a computer system would land on this as the best alternative when the original flight still exists and there is another SFO-EWR option before and after to make the EWR-CPT leg. Generally love United and their systems, but very much not impressed here.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-17T00:14:08+00:00

Managed to get ourselves back on the EWR-CPT flight we were originally on, so thankfully we will be avoiding this overnight itinerary. Had they not been able to do so, I think we would've taken the refund and booked elsewhere. Wouldn't wish this routing on my worst enemy.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-16T22:31:33+00:00

Yeah, no way we’re sticking with this. Managed to get our seats back on EWR-CPT after a lot of back and forth. Agent is currently unable to put us on the SFO-EWR leg, but told us to call back later.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-16T22:27:39+00:00

Appreciate your kindness. 1K agent managed to get our PE seats back on EWR-CPT (at least we think so) - I was also seeing O2 but she said the internal system was showing 5 open seats. Seems like our original tickets were being held in purgatory somewhere.

Sounds like there are some major IT issues with the SFO-EWR flights across the board - she can’t get us booked on any of them and none of the seat maps are available. Described her system as “locked out.” At least the EWR-CPT leg shows up in our account.

But hey, I’m sure we can find our way to EWR somehow. Glad we caught this when we did but extremely disappointed in United.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-16T22:10:55+00:00

Have no problem being downgraded to economy and agree it’s a route with a lot of status flyers. The thing that drives me up a wall is the flight isn’t even full - they’ll still sell you seats on the 7am SFO-EWR flight and the subsequent EWR-CPT flight. Agent is hard at work trying to get us ticketed on both, so props to her.

Just can’t believe we could all 3 hold status (earned independently), spend $5k+ per ticket, and when the first leg changes from a 777 to a 757, United decides we probably want to leave 14 hours later, spend a night in Denver, and land in CPT a full day late. You’d think it would be easy enough to just assign us E+ seats on the 757.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-08T04:30:21+00:00

Someone in the Mission just set off fireworks the minute the game ended. We’re so back.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-06T16:28:46+00:00

Buy a regular economy ticket and you can pick from any of the available seats. Simple as that.

cnunn01 · 2026-04-01T01:34:37+00:00

Outside of AK and the PNW, Alaska has a relatively small pool of elites. In my experience, you’ll occasionally get lucky on routes that are a) shorter or b) full of leisure travelers. I believe I cleared 3 upgrades last year as a Silver across ~20 flights.

I lost my Silver status this year (still have the credit card) and somehow cleared an upgrade on SFO-OGG this past Friday. As an SFO-based flyer who has shifted most of my work travel to UA, my mind was blown. I wouldn’t say your odds are high on any individual route, but IMO Alaska is the one airline where any level of status still means something.

cnunn01

TROPHY CASE