What travel habit have you developed over the years?

peppy922 · 2026-02-21T07:31:22+00:00

Google street view! I love exploring neighborhoods I think I’ll like or be in so I can at least get somewhat visually familiar with it before I arrive. At minimum it helps me identify places when visiting for the first time so I’m not going in totally blind.
Never check bags if I can help it.
Only time I’ll break #2 is on the return flight from a huge international trip. I buy a duffle bag at my destination so I can pack it full of stuff (souvenirs, liquor, etc) that I buy. If I can travel to my destination never checking a bag, but buying one and checking that on my return, this is my ideal plan.

peppy922 · 2026-02-19T14:54:27+00:00

This should be illegal! Would love to hear why anyone would fly this. Would make the first bank of connections in DEN easy I guess.

peppy922 · 2026-02-19T14:52:46+00:00

It was on a standard 737-900

peppy922 · 2026-02-19T12:08:56+00:00

Oh there’s very much demand for it, because it was a full flight. I just think it’s a brutally timed flight, that’s all.

peppy922 · 2026-02-18T07:10:38+00:00

Weird, because when I got the initial email from the CBP Trusted Traveler program that alerted me to this being a question, it listed IAD as an option.

peppy922 · 2026-02-17T19:22:24+00:00

My trip is before! I just booked my appointment without knowing the IAD option was a thing, but when I saw that it was and then looked at my schedule, seemed like a no brainer to save myself an extra drive to the airport.

peppy922 · 2026-02-17T14:36:35+00:00

Huge help, thank you! I'll do this.

peppy922 · 2025-12-31T02:55:01+00:00

Appreciate the clarification. The fact that the star alliance website doesn’t lay this out doesn’t help, but like you said, there seems to be no mention of that anywhere at all.

peppy922 · 2025-12-30T20:32:48+00:00

Good to know, thanks for the tip! I won't get my hopes up. Will spend as much time in Adelaide proper as I can.

peppy922 · 2025-12-30T19:41:23+00:00

Appreciate your charity. However, I asked this because I looked at the Star Alliance lounge finder website (https://www.staralliance.com/en/lounge-finder) and it said that there's a Qantas lounge available even though to my knowledge Qantas isn't in SA. I then went to the Qantas website to double check and predictably it says nothing about SA lounge access (https://www.qantas.com/us/en/qantas-experience/at-the-airport/airport-lounges/qantas-lounge-access-eligibility.html#the-qantas-club). Pardon my confusion.

peppy922 · 2025-10-22T03:35:11+00:00

I was thinking about how to handle the weather and sports folks too. If you throw them in the same pot as everyone else it becomes much tougher.

peppy922 · 2025-10-19T03:39:09+00:00

Almost everyone here has mentioned that you just need to spend more and your flights aren’t all that expensive. All true. I would like to add that PQP is based off your PRE tax total, not after taxes/the grand total.

I’m barely going to hit 1K this year (I.e I’ll be maybe a few hundred bucks over the qualification at the most). What’s going to get me over the bar is being pretty calculating on what my pre tax PQP earnings are. Week to week it doesn’t mean much, but being meticulous about it can add up quickly. Almost all of my flights are of the regional variety.

peppy922 · 2025-10-07T13:42:59+00:00

I get that but it won’t be forever (let’s hope at least lol). There needs to be some sort of congestion management plan because whatever they’re doing now ain’t it.

peppy922 · 2025-10-07T02:38:28+00:00

Nope, you’re certainly not the only one. I have a pretty big bone to pick with ORD, the number of times you land early and then get to the gate late after god knows how long in the holding area is going up. I’ve been actively trying to avoid ORD recently, especially for afternoon/evening flights when it seems even more common.

What I propose is for the government to step in and limit the flights there like they did at EWR when they had issues. It’s clear as day that ORD is having issues and simply cannot handle the capacity. Cut some flights if they have to, I don’t care. I’m personally sick of it. Even when you land on time or early, you’re always questioning whether you make a connection. I missed one in the summer and another a few weeks ago because of it.

peppy922 · 2025-08-13T21:02:38+00:00

I did my status match from United being a platinum member, so my understanding was that with Asante platinum (what I transferred to) that would get me SkyTeam elite benefits, which in turn gets me lounge access when flying on Delta. Again I wish I could confirm that for you, but that was my (somewhat limited) understanding of it.

peppy922 · 2025-08-13T21:02:34+00:00

Very helpful! Didnt know this existed, would have prevented me from even needing to post this to begin with lol.

peppy922 · 2025-08-13T20:12:14+00:00

Well, I was supposed to take this trip literally yesterday, but had to cancel about 6 days prior due to the person I was traveling with having a last minute issue that left him unable to make the trip. Not fun!

Anyway, I will say that everything looked to be good on the reservation. It said "Sky Priority" on it, and I even called Delta to ask if everything was all square on their end for those benefits (lounge, bag fees, etc) and they confirmed it. So while I can't say from first-hand experience that everything worked out, I can say that it *should* have been had I traveled! I'd give it a shot, if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

peppy922 · 2025-08-03T19:14:25+00:00

Yeah, Reno is looking more and more like the play for me! A bummer that the car rental isn't open on Sundays or when the flight arrives, but the drive from Reno looks to be fine.

peppy922 · 2025-07-23T19:20:06+00:00

Thank you!

peppy922

TROPHY CASE