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Comments
  1. 

    

    		
    I renewed my Global Entry notice to renew last year.  I filled in the form online, and was notified shortly thereafter that my renewal had been approved.  There was no interview.
    

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    How about a Trip Report on the premium cabin of either WOW or Norwegian from SFO/OAK. I’d sure like to know if it’s comparable to Premium Economy on BA or VS. Or is it better than those?
    

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    Hey Matt: That’s a good strategy if you live in a Delta hub or it’s easy for you to fly Delta to the places you travel to most on business. Keeping it “all in the family” with Delta partners like Amex and Hilton is smart and helps maximize your earnings. Hope that helps!
    

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    Hello!  I have a general question.  I am starting a new career where I will be flying every week and staying at hotels on my own credit cards and rewards, compensated Bi-monthly for expenses.  I am curious how you think I could maximize these rewards.  I was thinking of using the Amex Platinum and booking with delta for the 5X flights, and booking my hotels though hilton with a hilton card.  Others in my position have used delta platinum.  Any thoughts would be great!  Thank you!
    

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    Might be time for an article on the state of carry on bags when traveling internationally.  Last two trips to india – the internal code share domestic flights have 10KG limitations on ALL carry on bags… which is a problem when you’re living out of a 21″ Intl roll-away ( I never check bags…) and a backpack briefcase – and this despite my biz class ticket and mm status… Worse – I was carrying a LOT of camera gear in my briefcase backpack – which likely weighed in at ~50lbs.
    

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    I’m not too far after you. Needless to say – the girls get to enjoy a Dec weekend in Albuquerque… We will see if the cards get here in time for Ireland. Oh – the wait times for the IAH Terminal E office – was next week availability.
    

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    You are right! And we have a post in the works about this. My Global Entry expires in May, but I rec’d a renewal notification last week. Seemed a bit early to me, but now I know why! Stay tuned.
    

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    Chris – didn’t know where else to post…
    Started the process to get wife & daughter enrolled in GOES – we’re traveling to/from Ireland together soon. Shocked – really shocked – to find that interview appointments are running six months out at SFO. Nearly everything within 2000 miles of SFO is somewhere between three and six months for the first appointment.  Two exceptions – one is the IAH CBP office BEHIND security (you have to have a boarding pass…). The other was the Albuquerque office. Tucson AZ is 6 weeks or so.
    That’s bad enough – but the one that’s worrisome – the GOES renewal is 90 days prior to expiration. Which given the six month wait time for appointments – means that most people’s GOES programs will expire before they can get the re-interview done. Maybe this has come up in other places – if not – it’s likely time to start warning people.
    

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    Hey there and thanks for your comment. I believe that there are many airports that have kiddie play areas… sometimes it might be tough to find them, tho. I can think of two or three at SFO alone, plus many business class lounges (like AMEX Centurion clubs) now have kiddie rooms or play areas.
    
Chris
    

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    Hi Chris, I’m a dad of two toddlers, and with family in California, Florida and New England we’ve logged plenty of hours in the air.
    We were recently at the mall letting the kids blow off steam in one of those kiddie play areas, and I couldn’t help but wonder why those don’t exist at airports. Any insights?
    

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    Hi Chris, Did you notice that Volaris will be starting nonstop flights between Austin and Guadalajara starting August 7th?  Also Condor currently has flights between Austin and Frankfurt.  I couldn’t find any mention of the two flights on your site, but I could have missed them ;-).
    

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    Hi Chris:  I booked two flights (Nov, 2016 and March, 2017) on Swiss (SFO to Zurich) expecting to fly the new 777. Looks like I will end up on the old A340. Any idea why the delay in putting the 777 on the route? It was one of the 777 routes originally introduced by Swiss.
    

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    My daughter is flying to Hawaii but she booked her ticket from Atlanta to Canada to Hawaii.  Do I drop her at international terminal?
    

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    I love your newsletter but feel a little betrayed that the links in your email that lead to sponsored stories are not denoted as sponsored. I know you want people to click through to sponsored content but we should have full disclosure to decide if we want to do so. Sponsors are important but without trust of your readers, there will be no sponsors.
    

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    Here’s an answer for you from Delta!
    
Hi, Chris – happy new year. If I understand the reader question correctly, he’ll need to proceed through U.S. Customs and Border Patrol as a connecting customer. He’ll then be clear to move out of Concourse E via the ATL Plane Train. This area is in the middle of Concourse E, between the Plane Train level and the gates level.  He’ll simply exit, check his departure on the departure board and take a left via the down half-escalator to the Plane Train. (There’s another half-escalator back up to Concourse E, FYI). Thanks.
    

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    I know how to get from concourse E thru immigration, collect luggage, clear customs, & onto ground transportation. If I arrive at concourse E via KAL with only carry on luggage, have an electronic boarding pass with my next Delta flight, can I use the plane train to get to the Delta gate if I don;t clear customs.
    

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    Hi again Chris,
    
Back again! Do you know if there are wide-bodied planes going from SFO to Mexico CIty?
    
Hoping to find something bigger than those 737 type planes.
    
Thanks!
    
Linda
    

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    Thanks for the reply, Chris. I understand the safety reasons behind airlines wanting the shades open during takeoff and landing. The issue being discussed over on TripAdvisor was why more and more flight attendants are asking everyone to close the shades 10-15 minutes after takeoff. That’s what happened when I flew China Eastern over to Shanghai  and back last year. I think the flight left around noon, so it wasn’t a night flight where people wanted to immediately go to sleep.
    

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    Hey Steve: We noticed it, too. Not sure if anything has officially changed, but here’s what a flight attendant friend told us: “Every airline is different.  My airline, a major US carrier, doesn’t require the shades to be open.  But the low cost carrier I worked for 20 years ago required the shades to be open for take off and landing.  It makes sense to keep them open, especially if you’re seated in an exit row.  You never know when you might have to evacuate and being able to see if there’s fire outside before you open the door is important.  In the summer months, we have the shades closed during boarding to keep the cabin cool. ”
    

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    Hi there… $674 is actually not that bad on that itinerary depending on the timing of your trip. Sounds like you might want to consider using the services of a good travel agent.
    

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    I’d appreciate some help booking a flight from Austin Bergstrom to KOA (Hawaii). I went to Booking Buddy and that took me to SmartFare, TripAdvisor, CheapTickets, Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, and ShareTrips. Not one of these sites had a Virgin Air or Hawaiian Air flight. The cheapest flight I could find was on American and that was $674 and I was appalled to discover that American now charges a baggage fee of $25 per bag for the first bag and $35 for the second bag when it used to be free. Can anyone suggest a way to get a less expensive (less than $674) round trip flight from Austin, Texas to Kona (Big Island of Hawaii) Hawaii?
    

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    Hey Chris, do you know what the deal is with more and more airlines telling passengers to close the shades after takeoff? There’s a discussion about this on TripAdvisor, and nobody really seems to know what the reasoning is. Personally, I hate it. I always reserve a window seat so I can look out the window.
    

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    HI! Did you once post that Delta (?) will be flying wide body planes from SFO to NY? I’d love
    
to find a nice big old plane from SFO to DC-but-NY would do….thanks!
    

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    Team: maybe you’ve addressed this before, but I think some treatment of the travel experience for people with disabilities would interest me. Not just for those people who are not ambulatory, but for the many, many more who are disabled and are ambulatory or partially ambulatory.  Seat selection, the frightening walk down jet way (broke a kneecap slipping in a frozen portland jetway), the gate change, being forced to stand in a line for 30 to 60 minutes just to get your carry-on aboard, the pain cost caused by the inability to move around for several hours.
    Some of these things are subtle, yet there are so many things we all take for granted. I have some experience being left with a horribly disfigured and temperamental left wheel in a fight with Cancer 25 years ago – few people know as I was very successful learning to walk again. I was bicoastal for many years early in that recovery. There are virtually no programs for dealing with these issues if you are “partially ambulatory”. Be on the lookout…
    

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    I was a Gate Agent/Ticket agent for a large Southeastern-Based Airline we all know. Working at the gate one day, I had a passenger who gave me this gem of a quote. “There are 3 people in this world you don’t want to piss off, Traffic Cops, Judges, and Airline Gate Agents”. How true, I had a lot of flexibility in my job, and I could play “Airline God” to a certain extent. Gate agents don’t have the flex they did as I did back in the dark ages, but they still have that power…….
    

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    That is simply NOT RIGHT. They certainly took advantage of you. As a former Gate Agent myself, You should make a VERY LOUD complaint to UA. They should NOT have treated you that way, especially on your special day. I would be livid with rage if that had happened to me….
    

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    Booked a UAL Business First award flight several months ago for a trip to Europe, showed up this morning for flight and was sitting in my seat ready to go when the gate agent came in and bumped me to economy, stating that other people had paid for the seat with cash and they were oversold. It turns out what he didnt mention is that the flight before ours was canceled b/c of mechanical issues and I was being displaced to accommodate people from that flight. Seemed like something with this wasnt right but they werent willing to even discuss it. I was traveling with wife in the original seat next to me, she paid cash b/c she was a few miles short on the award ticket. They didn’t care that we were traveling together or that it was our honeymoon. Is this common on UAL?
    

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    Is there a way to avoid paying for Qantas seat reservation on long distance flights?
    

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    Apologies, I just found the email option all the way at the bottom.  Please ignore my previous request.  Thanks for the great articles.
    

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    Thanks for your comment! If you look at the bottom of the individual post– lower right side — you will see icons for emailing the post. Is this what you need? Thanks– chris
    

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    Could you please add the option of being able to email articles as well as all the social media methods.  Being in an office, I can’t use all that stuff on a business computer + my FB etc. accounts are ‘personal’.  Thanks a lot.
    

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    Anything that can make Security Checkpoints calmer is to be commended and I commend Springhill Suites for contributing the comfortable furniture for people repacking and putting on their jackets, shoes, and belts after going through security.  However, when I hear the words Springhill Suites, I remember the terrible experience my wife and I had when staying in the Springhill Suites in Savannah, Georgia near the Convention Center.  The free breakfast was pretty terrible, including scrambled eggs made from powdered eggs, discourteous people at the front desk, being assigned to handicapped room (suite) when we are not handicapped, no sign for the hotel on the street so I had to circle the block three times to find the drive-in entrance, etc.  Perhaps this is the only Springhill Suites from Hell but I was amazed that Marriott would let this hotel function this way – I am a Marriott elite member for decades.  The Assistant Manager of this hotel told me that the operator would not allow enough of a budget for the breakfast to have real rather than powdered eggs.
    

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    You should first check to be sure that you are not assessed a fee for paying tuition with a credit card (as you are when paying taxes with one). If not, then I would use the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for a big spend like that. Why? Because of the broad array of airlines, hotels, etc that you can redeem points on via the Chase Ultimate Rewards program. You may also want to consider the Barclaycard because you will get 2x points per dollar spent, so 70,000 points in your case that you can use to pay for any travel related purchase. Hope that helps!
    

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    I pay 35,000 a year in tuition with a check…I can also pay with a credit card…what is the best card to use for travel ( plane, hotel )
    

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    What is up with United’s new planes?  No audio, no visual and no wi-fi.  Unbelievable.
    

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