2025 MVS Travel Talk Forum Thread for Volvo People

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Preamble - some of you know I travel a lot for work, and I get a few emails and PMs on travel questions.

There are decent sources of information on travellng and flying (blogs like PointsGuy, ViewAbovethe Wing, Flyertalk) but like all good things, they slowly degrade over time. They are heavily ad infested (credit card hawking is at crazy levels and some are heavily over-moderated - they cater to those trying to scam airlines. wonder why they cant get tickets for free anymore, or thwarted junior manager misogyny types who still call Flight attendants "stewardesses"

Anyhow, this thread is the usual MVS friendly area for flight and travel tips open to all those who play by the usual MVS rules. Please don't post the hackneyed thread:

"I had a horrible experience flying from AAA to BBB and Ill never fly airline CCC again."

There are only three legacy carriers in the US, and another 3-4 Low cost carriers, so its very likely you will fly CCC again in your life.

If you are like me and enjoy train plane wrecks, Juan Brown's feed on incidents is as good as feed as you will get. Lots of details on how things really work in the cockpit. Thanks to foggy for putting me onto that one.


Just to give it some perspective - I have enormous business respect for airlines. They have a business model of being public facing in the era of social media, 200M capital assets per plane, three Unions in their workforce, Government regulation, being at the mercy of Airports, FAA, weather, volatile fuel costs,and foreign subsidized competition. Did I miss anything?

Fire away!

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Early topic - travelling on 'Miles' and other non-revenue paths.

We all see the ads for 'how to travel in first class using you airline/bank/Starbucks miles '

Reality. Ten years ago, airlines sold uber-expensive tickets for about 20% of first class, and gave the rest away on these gimmicks.

2025 - The airlines sell 90-95% of first class seats or cash - either tickets or cash-upgrades close-in to departure. When you use miles to try to upgrade, you invariably end up on a 'waiting list' which does not clear, because that upgrade seat is sold to someone with cash.

Booking first class travel on miles (award travel) is now about 4x more expensive in miles than it was 10 years ago. The number of miles in play has exploded as everyone now has a miles/points credit card, so the currency has severely inflated in value.

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Topic: how early do I need to get to a North American airport?

In pseudo- random order..

1 No checked luggage. Most airlines have a hard cut off at the gate of T-15/20 minutes, where T is scheduled departure time. You can be denied boarding as a no-show, even if the door is open and the plane is still there. Once the departure paperwork/data is sent to the. Cockpit , you are chances of getting on are ę ~ 0.

2 checked luggage. You have to present luggage for checkin at least 60 minutes prior to departure. This means getting to a kiosk or agent, not getting onto the line. It’s taken me 30 minutes to get to the kiosk at big airports like JFK LAX, so don’t arrive at T-60 with checked luggage. Best case is you will have to sign a waiver which releases the airline from having to deliver your luggage to you.

3 exception to 2, gate checking.

4.

[xHeart]

Depends on airline and airport.

Most airlines accept online check-in 24-hrs to departure.
Add boarding pass to wallet.
Hand off check-in luggage to curbside associate at the departure terminal -- tip if you like.
- else go to airline counter show your ID and boarding pass
Go to TSA, either general, or Pre-TSA.
Use washroom, then be at the gate at the boarding time.
Happy Flying!

[BlackBart]

I hitch up the oxen, check the cart wheels, load a couple of weeks of food and hay, bring my passport in case I cross into another prefecture or shire.

[volvolugnut]

Our vision of retirement was traveling the United States and other countries by plane, train and automobile.
The reality is occasional travel to nearby counties by old Volvo.
volvolugnut

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I think most everyone checks in online the day before,but the thread above is about when you have to be physically present at the departure gate. Funnily enough , I actually prefer paper boarding basses because I don’t walk around with my phone in my hand , especially when boarding.

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Interesting observation. Europe and Asia, air travel is much more relaxed than the US. I don’t really know why. Everyone is just sort of ok thst thry know they will get on the plane amd end up where they want to go.

Another big difference, on the US we congregate at the gate. In EU you gather in a more central area , and usually the gate is listed only 20-30 minutes before flight time. Then, you head to that gate. This should raise anxiety levels , but it doesn’t.

[BlackBart]

Avoid going through Chicago when there are midwest thunderstorms, causing you to sleep on airport floors.

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Summer storms are much more disruptive than winter in ORD , indeed

How NOT to travel

This week, shuffling around northeast. Booked a 845 B6 ( aka Jetblue) out of JFK

Hopped on the 0604 LIRR from home , arrive Jamaica 0714.

Realise my flight is at 0815. I made it by 88 seconds.

Anyone of the following would have made my miss

LIRR running 2 minutes late ( would have missed Airtrain by 10 minutes)
Airtrain wait of 5 minutes, actual 1 minute
Priorotysecurity of more than 10 minute passage
Bag check st security
Gate 530 instead of 515, extra 5 minute walk

I walked up to gate with the last 4 people in line at 0759 at which point the GAwould click on the weight balance button sending data to the cockpit, at which point, you aren’t getting on thst plane.

There are people who boast about how close they cut it, usually with diatribe about how they are teo valuable to lose 100 hours of their life waiting in airports , but I assure you those who travel a lot do not cut it close, because excrement happens.

You want to be through security an hour before your flight