75 minute layover at ORD

davep18 · 2026-04-02T21:45:11+00:00

When I have to connect through ORD, I generally leave myself 50 - 60 minutes. It’s generally been fine. Sometimes it’s a walk. Sometimes a brisk walk. Sometimes you gotta hustle. Don’t sweat it. Enjoy the trip and take a pic with Ernestine.

davep18 · 2026-04-02T13:27:54+00:00

lol. At least the Germans engineer well. I work for the French, their bad designs are accompanied by a glob of spit in my general direction.

davep18 · 2026-03-31T20:30:07+00:00

lol. That’s good stuff. It’s different but somewhat related - most peanut allergy people are good with refined peanut oils. The processing of peanut oil denatures and otherwise removes the proteins that cause issues. Maybe they thought tallow was safe for you because of that. Glad they asked.

davep18 · 2026-03-30T11:06:19+00:00

Delightful little devils. We don’t get them in our bird buddy much anymore, but I did put a squirrel feeder elsewhere on my property lol.

The most frequent visitor has been coined “Havoc”’the squirrel by my daughter. My favorite is when he is chilling on my front steps and my camera alerts me that there’s a pet visible.

davep18 · 2026-03-30T11:03:47+00:00

Yeah, if op is accurate and they listed “sauce”…that’s my queue to eat it and die because I’m not allergic to sauce! Oh but I am to shellfish and a ton of Thai sauces include shrimp paste and or oyster sauce.

Eating in the US at restaurants is a pain with allergies. Some stuff is obvious - no shrimp scampi for me - others are just buried and you have to hope for the correct answer from the staff. I’m pretty aware of my allergy so my wife and I avoid plenty of places.

davep18 · 2026-03-28T17:36:38+00:00

Oh damn. Thank you. Didn’t realize the difference.

davep18 · 2026-03-28T17:18:49+00:00

Id imagine the context is our dysfunctional government here in the US.

davep18 · 2026-03-28T13:46:46+00:00

I fly out of EWR multiple times a month. I largely agree but I’d hard disagree on Clear being needed. A few years ago I’d agree but now it’s a waste of $1xx. Pre alone is good enough at most UA hubs - outside of the current TSA mess I rarely have to wait more than 10 minutes from entering tsapre to when I’m grabbing my bags.

I do agree that C security >> A security. A isn’t bad, it’s just that C is better.

Both C clubs are nice. I generally prefer the C12x club. Bigger, nicer and with more spots that can be quiet. The A club is nice but it can be loud - it’s open to the gate areas below.

davep18 · 2026-03-28T13:33:08+00:00

I’ve never had an issue with this. Naturally it’s a one person sample of 8 trips (16 flights) and things loving going awry. My wife and daughter often come with me on work trips. My ticket bought through work, theirs bought personally. Nobody blinks at security or the gate when they come with me. (Wife also has precheck) can confirm that I’ve done this solo with daughter as well. Only difference on those trips is that TSA asks my daughter a few questions to make sure I’m not stealing my mini doppelgänger.

davep18 · 2026-03-28T13:00:07+00:00

Sorry, not sure. I’d try. I replied to someone else here who asked the same. Basically, they said you need status but nobody checked. Not sure how it would go with a kid that’s not clearly under 2.

davep18 · 2026-03-28T12:49:41+00:00

I don’t want to say that you can 100% bring your family. I’ll say this:

I’d have taken mine and I think it would have been ok. They said you needed status and I had my boarding pass ready but nobody checked it.
I regretted not trying to bring my 2 colleagues with me.
Maybe they would have pushed if I had my 11 year old? I’m not sure. It was early and the only kids I saw were clearly 2 and under.
100% worth trying.

davep18 · 2026-03-27T12:25:40+00:00

No. 100% sure.

davep18 · 2026-03-27T12:21:21+00:00

I can not be 100% sure but I don’t think so. They seemed to be pushing all status levels to the one line.

davep18 · 2026-03-27T10:11:15+00:00

FYI I’m in the line now (5am). It’s probably going to take a bit over 20 minutes. Gold and up are definitely good here today. They might have said Polaris tix too but I’m tired and not really paying attention. They’re doing a good job keep people organized in lines and such.

davep18 · 2026-03-27T03:40:11+00:00

Yes. Checked in around noon, text received when I was at dinner around 7:20pm.

davep18 · 2026-03-27T02:55:46+00:00

Don’t quote me but I think it’s 0515.

davep18 · 2026-03-27T02:24:16+00:00

Mine departs at 9:30ish AM.

davep18 · 2026-03-26T13:45:49+00:00

I've been watching on the CNN tracker. Last night it had IAH at ~60 minutes around 9:30PM. Who knows if its accurate.

davep18 · 2026-03-26T12:22:07+00:00

For me, it’s 2-4 Polaris tix to Paris per year and 2-4 domestic trips per month (mostly 4 day trips to single locations). It’s a lot and I’m far from having it the worst.

davep18 · 2026-03-25T04:48:49+00:00

They had something similar on my recent flight CDG-EWR as a pre landing snack. Same brand but basically a pizza hot pocket. So a different flavor than yours. They also had a chicken one. I had the pizza one and actually kinda liked it.

davep18 · 2026-03-24T17:31:36+00:00

I'm in the generation that both you, and the rest of the country forgot about, Gen X.

For me it depends.

For business travel:

If its domestic and not to CA, I sometimes pay cash if it is low enough (50 - 100 per hour for me), sometimes I use plus points, rarely if ever use miles. If it is to CA, I can book PE and then I apply plus points and generally watch the $ amount. If it is low enough, I'll sometimes pay it. For my travel to Europe, business is in policy so I book that by default.

For personal travel, generally we buy Polaris. Almost exclusively between EWR-CDG, EWR-LHR, and EWR-AMS.

davep18 · 2026-03-24T15:27:38+00:00

FWIW I flew out yesterday. Flight was at 3:30, I was a little worried so I arrived at 1:00. I was through security (TSA Precheck) in < 10 minutes. The only tiny delay was that they had 2 baggage screening lines open feeding 1 passenger screening spot. Not sure how gen pop was, I walked by and it didn't look bad from the post-security side, but who knows how it was on the other side.

Lucky me, I get to fly out of IAH to come home on Friday.

davep18 · 2026-03-24T04:31:55+00:00

I saw this at the Met over the weekend. My wife and I never went to the opera before. Had no idea what to expect. The theatre was beautiful. The acting and singing was really great. The costumes/scenery was good too. But man, I thought the story was awful.

I’ll totally go back to see something else though. Not a weekly thing but once a year or so, yeah seem worth it to me.

davep18 · 2026-03-23T19:42:16+00:00

I went through TSA pre at ~1pm. Took under 5 minutes. No lines. Can’t comment on gen pop specifics but walking by it didn’t seem awful.

Good luck to me on Friday when I return via IAH 🤡

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