IDaggie06 said:

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Wocka Wocka said:

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Flying IAH to CDG via EWR this morning through terminal E.

Uber driver decided to drop us off at C; however, time through security to first mimosa at the E United club was 12 minutes. No one in line at C's TSA security check point.

No checked bag.

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All the way to Paris with no checked bag, that's some light travel...

I'm in France now and flew from IAH to Heathrow last Thursday through terminal C. Took maybe 10 minutes to get through.

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My wife, 13yo son and I did two weeks in Europe this past summer without checking a bag. Rolling bag and back pack. Did a little laundry in Rome once. Was amazing. Highly recommend. We were so nimble.

IDaggie06 said:

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gougler08 said:

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MAROON said:

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I don't think it was quite that long - but it was loooong. Not sure if it's a BA issue or IAH issue. I recall when my daughter visited from London last year that she had the same issue of a long wait for bags

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IAH always takes forever on bags from arriving international flights so I'm pretty sure it's an IAH thing

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The last year or so IAH has been taking forever even for my domestic flight baggage claim. I travel too much for work and it amazes me how slow luggage at IAH has become. I'm not aware of any other airport that take longer these days. The past month or so alone I've been to 8 different airports and I think I could add up the entire wait time of those 8 to get what it takes me to get my bag at IAH, domestic or international. It didn't use to be this bad.

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For as small an airport as it is when I was flying in/out of SBA regularly it would take them forever with bags. Sometimes upwards of 30 minutes or more.

Just wear both on the plane. Problem solved

That's crazy talk.

Flying into IAH tomorrow night. T&P appreciated.

This is the way

Picked up kids last night. 7:30 pickup at terminal C No issues 9pm pickup at terminal A no issues other than delta taking forever for luggage. (30 min+)

RVAg02 said:

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IDaggie06 said:

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Wocka Wocka said:

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Flying IAH to CDG via EWR this morning through terminal E.

Uber driver decided to drop us off at C; however, time through security to first mimosa at the E United club was 12 minutes. No one in line at C's TSA security check point.

No checked bag.

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All the way to Paris with no checked bag, that's some light travel...

I'm in France now and flew from IAH to Heathrow last Thursday through terminal C. Took maybe 10 minutes to get through.

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My wife, 13yo son and I did two weeks in Europe this past summer without checking a bag. Rolling bag and back pack. Did a little laundry in Rome once. Was amazing. Highly recommend. We were so nimble.

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Only way to travel Europe.

IDaggie06 said:

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FHKChE07 said:

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Some people when they travel for business have to take steel toes and hard hats. It makes fitting in a carryon quite difficult.

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This and also just find it easier to check a bag than deal with taking it through security, hauling it throught the airport, dealing with overhead space on plane, etc. Never had any issues with lost/damaged luggage and most airports are fast at delivering. Only negative I find is wait times at IAH when coming back.

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agreed. once in the airport, I don't want to mess with any of my stuff.

Agreed on how bad baggage claim has been at IAH. I bought a bottle of rum at Sazerac house in New Orleans forgetting I wasn't checking a bag on the way back, resized I could but chose not to as I simply didn't want to deal with it at IAH so just left the bottle of rum.

I have premier silver so I don't worry so much about overhead space. When you're a plebe (which I am on other airlines or when I lose status), it's more of a worry.

I never check a bag. Too much hassle and would lose around half a day or more of my life annually just waiting I'm at the airport so much!

Soooo, you can't avoid it in that situation, which is something he specifically mentioned. But thanks for letting us all know you like to take underwater pictures.

TheMasterplan said:

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Agreed on how bad baggage claim has been at IAH. I bought a bottle of rum at Sazerac house in New Orleans forgetting I wasn't checking a bag on the way back, resized I could but chose not to as I simply didn't want to deal with it at IAH so just left the bottle of rum.

I have premier silver so I don't worry so much about overhead space. When you're a plebe (which I am on other airlines or when I lose status), it's more of a worry.

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United premier silver is still a plebe for someone in Houston that does business travel.

We flew out of EWR at Thanksgiving, and the number of people on our flight who pre-boarded as United Global Services was nuts. It must have been 40-50 people.

BF is silver/boarding group 2, which is fine on most flights.

IDaggie06 said:

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TheMasterplan said:

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Agreed on how bad baggage claim has been at IAH. I bought a bottle of rum at Sazerac house in New Orleans forgetting I wasn't checking a bag on the way back, resized I could but chose not to as I simply didn't want to deal with it at IAH so just left the bottle of rum.

I have premier silver so I don't worry so much about overhead space. When you're a plebe (which I am on other airlines or when I lose status), it's more of a worry.

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United premier silver is still a plebe for someone in Houston that does business travel.

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Being 1K I feel like a plebe sometimes, especially on ORD or EWR flights

IDaggie06 said:

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TheMasterplan said:

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Agreed on how bad baggage claim has been at IAH. I bought a bottle of rum at Sazerac house in New Orleans forgetting I wasn't checking a bag on the way back, resized I could but chose not to as I simply didn't want to deal with it at IAH so just left the bottle of rum.

I have premier silver so I don't worry so much about overhead space. When you're a plebe (which I am on other airlines or when I lose status), it's more of a worry.

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United premier silver is still a plebe for someone in Houston that does business travel.

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Yep - the new rules next year I assume are meant to thin down those with status. I'm only gold but to me there is no real difference between that and platinum other than miles accrued. Who has the need to check 3 bags per person.

Yeah hoping after next year the premier herd is thinned but hubs will still be packed with them like IAH ORD DEN EWR.

KaneIsAble said:

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IDaggie06 said:

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TheMasterplan said:

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Agreed on how bad baggage claim has been at IAH. I bought a bottle of rum at Sazerac house in New Orleans forgetting I wasn't checking a bag on the way back, resized I could but chose not to as I simply didn't want to deal with it at IAH so just left the bottle of rum.

I have premier silver so I don't worry so much about overhead space. When you're a plebe (which I am on other airlines or when I lose status), it's more of a worry.

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United premier silver is still a plebe for someone in Houston that does business travel.

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Yep - the new rules next year I assume are meant to thin down those with status. I'm only gold but to me there is no real difference between that and platinum other than miles accrued. Who has the need to check 3 bags per person.

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Main benefit for platinum for me is being able to get economy plus for my family of 5 when flying together.

Using PlusPoints to upgrade to Polaris for international travel is a good perk if you can get it to work. I have a coworker with a surplus of PlusPoints (travels international frequently for work and never for leisure) that has tried to upgrade me multiple times with no luck. I was number one on the upgrade list flying DBV to EWR earlier this year and didn't get it.

I know. I've only been here less than 1.5 years so give me some time bro.

I did get upgraded to first class on a 10pm flight to New Orleans so there's that.

I'm 40 points away from being platinum at the parking spot. I've really made it at that point.

PlusPoints are trash. I've been trying to use my 1k allotment all year and only cleared maybe twice.

If you fly any route that is even somewhat mainstream, it's damn near impossible to get the upgrade.

I've bought tickets with an empty first class, immediately redeemed PlusPoints, and still waitlisted. Of course the upgrade didn't clear in the end, and I was 1 or 2 on the final list.

The comp upgrade is very nearly a thing of the past. Those seats are now purchased at an extremely high clip (Delta said something like 75% are now paid vs 12% just 15 years ago), so there are so few to give away and we know how many people have status now.

I've been Platinum the last two years, flying roughly 50 segments each year. I think I've gotten maybe 5 total upgrades out of 100 flights. Those 5 are when I travel at weird times, really early or really late, so not really getting to enjoy the benefits of first class as much as during meal time.

And I've been unable to use my 40 PP despite requesting them for virtually every flight. I'm based out of IAH which doesn't help, but my flights are probably 70% non-hub-to-hub.

I will not be pressing to get platinum anymore. In fact I may do more American. The number of times my buddies are able to upgrade on decently long AA flights for <$200 is amazing. United never approaches anything that cheap.

American flights out of IAH suck ass. You're going to stop in DFW 90% of the time. The other 10% will be ORD and CLT

Gig-Em2003 said:

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The comp upgrade is very nearly a thing of the past. Those seats are now purchased at an extremely high clip (Delta said something like 75% are now paid vs 12% just 15 years ago), so there are so few to give away and we know how many people have status now.

I've been Platinum the last two years, flying roughly 50 segments each year. I think I've gotten maybe 5 total upgrades out of 100 flights. Those 5 are when I travel at weird times, really early or really late, so not really getting to enjoy the benefits of first class as much as during meal time.

And I've been unable to use my 40 PP despite requesting them for virtually every flight. I'm based out of IAH which doesn't help, but my flights are probably 70% non-hub-to-hub.

I will not be pressing to get platinum anymore. In fact I may do more American. The number of times my buddies are able to upgrade on decently long AA flights for <$200 is amazing. United never approaches anything that cheap.

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What has caused such a big increase in people paying for first class? I work for a major O&G and only our international flights are paid first class so I'd be surprised if businesses are just having people fly first class domestically all the time

They've significantly dropped the cost of First Class. Same article said a while ago a first class ticket on average cost 13x a coach fare. Now that multiple is closer to 3x and people are willing to pay. There is also the dynamic of the paid upgrade that gets sold ahead of the window for complimentary upgrades.

In essence the airlines have finally figured out to monetize first class. And for frequent flyers that means significantly less perks.

13x? I find that hard to believe

Yeah youre seeing "upgrade yourself for $200 or whatever now when you check in. And i think a lot of people are biting at it. Sometimes i see it as low as $89 to pay to bump up. Agree it is a thing of the past when I would be 1 or 2 on upgrade list with 1k and see 5 open seats. And by time flight came around didnt clear because people bought the upgrade during checkin. I did get upgraded today though. Was shocked to be number 1 and actually get it.

Gig-Em2003 said:

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They've significantly dropped the cost of First Class. Same article said a while ago a first class ticket on average cost 13x a coach fare. Now that multiple is closer to 3x and people are willing to pay.

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I've been doing the 100 flights per year thing for work since 1996. I was given a complimentary upgrade on nearly every single Continental flight from mid 1999 to late 2004. Been 1k for several years now and never get comp upgrades. Plus Point upgrades are a crap shoot.

I had a project in NYC in 2000/01 where I flew IAH-EWR round trip every week at peak hours. I could consistently purchase a round trip coach ticket for as low as $202 where as a First Class ticket on the same flight was just north of $2k, so roughly 10x.

I'm at a point of my life where on personal travel I am often choosing to buy first class seats given the relatively small premium to coach. For example, round trip this week for my Christmas trip, bought 3 months in advance, was $750 for coach and $975 for First on a 3 hour flight out west. No brainer for me at about a 33% premium.

I had knee surgery 2 weeks before the Christmas trip to Chicago. We sprinted for the round trip upgrade. Was 300 for each of us to upgrade.

It's all about the flight routes yoo take. I've been pretty lucky this year with upgrades, probably 30% of my flights this year I've been upgraded and I was only gold and platinum most the year (reached 1K a month ago).

For PlusPoints, you pretty much have to be flexible on your international flights and find open PZ seats. There is a website called aero that you have to pay $10/month for which will let you find them. But they are very limited.
A couple weeks ago my gf and I were able to fly from IAH to London and then Lisbon to EWR on Pluspoints which put us in Polaris. Pretty awesome to be able to buy economy seats and get instantly upgraded at booking.

Biggest hack I've been able to use for instant upgrades is UAL w/ GSA city pairs on a contracted Y fare. COS-SBA comes to mind. If there's PN availability on the Y fare you can get an instant upgrade w the y ticket with any level of status. Even got it as a silver years ago. Hasn't been much PN availability lately.

TX04Aggie said:

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Yeah youre seeing "upgrade yourself for $200 or whatever now when you check in. And i think a lot of people are biting at it. Sometimes i see it as low as $89 to pay to bump up. Agree it is a thing of the past when I would be 1 or 2 on upgrade list with 1k and see 5 open seats. And by time flight came around didnt clear because people bought the upgrade during checkin. I did get upgraded today though. Was shocked to be number 1 and actually get it.

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Yep. We did this on our flight from Costa Rica to EWR. Bought the last two first class seats for around $170 each a couple days before the flight. That was on top of the upgraded seats we had bought in economy.

The flight wound up costing about $650, which when I was tracking the price, was about as low as the one-way first class ticket ever got (it fluctuated between about $650-$850)

We happened to get the last two seats and were able to sit together, but obviously this is no guarantee when you pay to upgrade within a few days of the flight or at check in.

Couple of years ago, my son and I paid $299 each to upgrade to premium plus in the 787 cabin on a flight from Milan to Chicago. United wanted $250 each to "upgrade" to the bulkhead row in economy, so this was a no-brainer. It was relatively cheap because the seats in premium plus were not together.

I think the "first class" seats on a 737 (which is by far the plane we end up on the most) are a more reasonably priced because it's not the same first class experience as a 787 or 777.

We just booked tickets to New Zealand and that first class ticket was over $10k. Premium plus was over $5k. Economy was about $2k after we paid for better economy seats.

We are gonna take our chances and see if we can upgrade on just the long haul legs of the flight. I'm not very optimistic. But I'm not paying $10k, or even $5k, for a plane ticket.