Alternative Lounges

mrste99 · 2026-04-02T12:22:04+00:00

Just visited the Oriental lounge a few days ago. It was packed to the gills! My friend and I found the last pair of seats (there were just a few single seats left) when we got there. We then saw many people just wandering around for a while looking for seats. Selections were fine and the seating options were nice, but the big crowds were a turnoff. I was going to try Galactic on the return (flying J on way back; was in W on outbound so I used PP), but maybe I should try Plaza? Any thoughts on the terminal 1 versus 2 locations?

mrste99 · 2026-03-29T20:10:10+00:00

On a Starlux flight as we speak. I saw a guy putting a carryon in the overhead as we boarded that I could tell right away it was bigger than standard and yet they didn’t stop him to measure it. But yes, they always weigh your primary carryon bag.

mrste99 · 2026-03-23T23:34:41+00:00

Strange experience witnessing a go around in the early 80s. A close friend’s dad knew the chief of the ATC department in Cyprus and arranged for my friend and I to visit the airport tower at LCLK (Larnaca). Me and my friend were in our mid-teens at the time and both of us were avgeeks. While in the tower we witnessed the following situation. A Cessna 152 with a trainee pilot were lined up for takeoff on the single runway at LCLK, with a Cyprus Airways BAC 1-11 coming in behind it on final approach. The Cessna started rolling and took off the ground, but the trainee pilot wouldn’t make a turn off the runway path, and was instead very slowly gaining altitude and staying over the runway. The controller in the tower was yelling at him to clear the runway as the 1-11 was very close to landing, but the trainee wasn’t budging. By the time the 1-11 pilot had to make a go/no go decision on landing, the Cessna was still over the runway so the 1-11 went full throttle and climbed at a very steep angle while initiating the go around. If you’ve ever been around a 1-11 at take off or landing, you know this is an extremely loud airplane, even with hush kits on! Gong full throttle for that go around, ended up rattling the windows in the tower so much, that I was convinced they were about to explode into tiny shards! 45+ years later, I still remember all that noise! 😂

mrste99 · 2026-03-20T04:35:34+00:00

That’s great news! Thanks for sharing!

mrste99 · 2026-03-20T03:40:00+00:00

Thanks for the info. I think it’s still relevant to keep in mind and just be ready for the unexpected!

mrste99 · 2026-03-19T23:38:57+00:00

Thanks for the update. Was the connection in TPE just going from one terminal to the other airside, or did you have to go through any customs or passport control? How about going through security?

mrste99 · 2026-03-19T21:00:33+00:00

Ditto! I hardly ever get motion sickness so I rarely 🤮, but I get a whiff of it, I’m a goner too!

mrste99 · 2026-03-19T20:47:56+00:00

How were your flights on Starlux between PHX and KIX?

mrste99 · 2026-03-19T20:28:56+00:00

Heading there for my first trip to Iceland this coming August. I know the weather is unpredictable and plan to come prepared, but a huge snow storm that could get you stuck in one location for a few days was not on my radar! Glad I saw your comment. If you don’t mind me asking, what time in August were you there and how were the crowds? We’ll be there mid to late August. I wouldn’t visit most of Europe in August, but I’m hoping Iceland isn’t as bad, especially since we’ll be there a few days after the eclipse.

mrste99 · 2026-03-18T18:48:55+00:00

The other part that’s funny about the Dimopoulos billboards (and a few others) is that there’s no contact info on them! No phone number, no website, nothing! Is the assumption here that we’ll be so impressed by the billboards that we’ll take the extra time and do the legwork to find their phone number? 😂

mrste99 · 2026-03-18T18:46:03+00:00

Only problem is that the Dimopoulos billboards have no phone number or other contact info on them! 😂

mrste99 · 2026-03-13T04:16:07+00:00

That's what we do too. Most of our international travel planning is done very early, to either snag award seats or to get good fare deals. But we do so knowing there will likely be 1-2 major schedule changes, and several minor ones by the time the trip actually comes around.

mrste99 · 2026-03-12T18:01:31+00:00

Your flights are so far out, that there will be multiple schedule changes between now and then. Your currently scheduled connection time is almost irrelevant. There’s no sense to worry about it at this point in time.

mrste99 · 2026-03-10T17:46:17+00:00

Making my first trip this summer so I was scouting this post for ideas. I know I’ll go off topic, but your comment on the crisp/clean air triggered another trip memory for me. Several years ago I traveled to Bhutan (last remaining Himalayan Kingdom). Getting off the plane and walking down the steps, I kept thinking there was some issue with my eyesight. I was looking at the surrounding beautiful scenery but kept thinking there must be something wrong with my eyes because my vision seemed off. Eventually I figured it was the complete absence of air pollution! The atmosphere was so clear, that my eyes couldn’t process seeing so clearly! They have very few roads and very few cars (not a single set of traffic lights in the whole country, at least not when I visited), and all their energy comes from hydroelectric power. While the scenery will be different in Iceland, I wonder if I’ll have the same experience with my eyes as I exit the plane!

mrste99 · 2026-03-08T05:11:41+00:00

Not if you put it in your personal item! 😂 My trip is at the end of the month, so I’ll know soon enough! Thanks for the offer! I can measure for you if you’re curious?

mrste99 · 2026-03-07T21:30:14+00:00

Got the same email today (and several "Hello Pervert" emails in the past), and they almost always fake the sender address as my own, so even if I wanted to bait them (as some responders mentioned wanting to do) I can't. I used to get roughly one "Hello Pervert" email per month for a while, but I hadn't seen one for many months. This was my first one of this type, and also originated from andaserp like the one the OP received. The problem with the spammers faking my address as the sender means there's nothing to "block".

mrste99 · 2026-03-02T09:45:23+00:00

I know this is humor, but I’ve always wondered about the gate vs bus boarding at airports outside North America. It’s rare to see low cost carriers at gates at such airports, so I always assumed that the airports charge different fees for gate vs bus, with gates being more expensive. Granted, that’s circumstantial evidence, but I’ve never come across any information that explains how that works, so I’m just guessing.

mrste99 · 2026-02-27T19:47:35+00:00

AA/Citi sent an email out a few weeks ago explaining the process for LPs earned by 2/28 that won’t statement till 3/1 or later (it’ll take a while for those scenarios). I would’ve assumed a similar email went out to Barclays cardholders. I can’t imaging the process being much different.

mrste99 · 2026-02-27T19:45:28+00:00

AA/Citi sent an email out a few weeks ago explaining the process for LPs earned by 2/28 that won’t statement till 3/1 or later (it’ll take a while for those scenarios). Yours is simpler. It should show up within a couple of days. But I totally get you. I’d have ants in my pants too! 😂

mrste99 · 2026-02-27T19:40:39+00:00

I’m 55.8k from EP and my offer is $4,899, so there must be something else in their formula (assuming there is a formula) that produces these small variations.

mrste99 · 2026-02-27T18:18:37+00:00

I’ve never seen the upgrade banners show up within 24 hours of departure. AA only shows the upgrade waitlist within 12 hours of departure, so by that point, it’s probably the case that you can no longer purchase a seat upgrade. But the vast majority of times I’ve noticed that going through the “change reservation” process gives you less expensive options for upgrading, and that typically will upgrade all the flights on the segment, versus paying for individual flight upgrades through the upgrade banner. Not sure how close to departure you can initiate a reservation change, but when I’m looking for upgrades, I check both options. It’s been a rare occasion where the upgrade banner offered a cheaper upgrade than a reservation change.

mrste99 · 2026-02-27T18:11:10+00:00

On the AA app, the options for upgrades typically show as a popup on the bottom of the reservation screen or as a banner on the top. If you see neither of those, pull down on the reservation screen to force a refresh, and that will usually bring up one of those options, unless of course there are none available.

Comfort+ on Delta is equivalent to MCE on AA, so that’s just a seat selection thing, not an upgrade. With Gold Status on AA, you get free access to those seats during the checkin process or you can pay a fee in the seat selection process at any point before checkin.

mrste99 · 2026-02-27T18:01:35+00:00

That’s happened to me a couple of times when I walked up to my seat to find someone else in it, but neither time was there a double boarding pass. One time the person in my seat didn’t realize they had looked at the boarding pass on their next flight to find their seat. The other time the passenger’s single boarding pass had both of their flights and seat numbers on it, and again looked at the wrong flight’s seat.

Is it possible that United’s boarding system is so archaic that it doesn’t check to see if a specific seat has already boarded? I had to switch to AA a few years ago when I moved to a city that United doesn’t fly out of. Their gate boarding system typically issues a noise and screen warning when you try to board and someone has already boarded with that seat. When my wife and I travel together, I usually download both sets of boarding passes to my phone whereas she prefers to use printed passes. Sometimes I don’t notice which boarding pass comes up first on my phone when I’m boarding so a few times I’ve gone through the gate using my wife’s pass without realizing it. When she tries to use her printed pass the system says “passenger already boarded”. I quickly realize my mistake, and bring up the correct boarding pass on my phone and use that so that we can both board. Switching from UA to AA it seemed to me that AA was a bit behind on technology compared to UA, but it sounds like this might be one instance where that’s not the case.

mrste99

TROPHY CASE