Maybe airlines shouldnât have hidden/secret pricingâŠ
Pricing models of most airlines are such mysteriesâŠpassengers on a given flight could all be paying different fares. Airfares can sometimes change as you (and others) search for themâŠ
In this case the pricing isnât hidden/secret, but the practice/opportunity to game the airlines is hidden/secret to most regular consumers. Every time I mention that (quite old) trick to anyone, I typically get blank stares.
When there were still old âbooksâ with tear out paper tickets for each leg, there was a whole discount broker industry selling individual ticket pages for the transatlantic portions of flights by far-eastern airlines stopping over in Europe on the way to the U.S.
I think this is the thread we were discussing backpacks on.
If anyone is interested, I ordered/picked up somewhere close to 10 different backpacks with plans to use for carryon on domestic and international flights. Brands included Osprey, Cotopaxi, REI, Patagonia, and I canât remember what else. We quickly figured out 40ish L was the right size for us.
I picked a bunch of stuff that I would need to take, packed it (using cubes), and tried several on.
Husband and I both decided the Osprey Fairview/Farpoint (Womens/mens versions) had the best combo of features and comfort.
We did just order a Thule Landmark for comparison, but we are close to âfinal finalâ decision.
H and I both have older Briggs & Riley 2 wheeled rolling suitcases as Costco clearance. I mostly roll mine onto the plane. H mostly checks his suitcase. We also have varying backpacks we have used as our personal item. We always make sure any backpack has a trolley sleeve or strap so it can be slid onto suitcase handle.
My sis uses a bungee cord to attach her handcarry to her suitcase but itâs been fairly easy to find backpacks we like that have trolley sleeves/straps.
This is the backpack I bought most recently in larger and smaller size. I kept larger one and gave smaller one to my niece as grad/teacher/travel bag. I love the light color interior and large roomy main compartment for storage, as well as trolley strap. Havenât yet traveled without but have carried it to meeting, loaded with refreshments and materials. Someone on CC had recommended it as a bag they use daily AND travel with.
My local Costco has a Baggallini backpack similar to the one described above. Itâs slightly more expensive but considering Costcoâs return policy, itâs worth it.
Our local store also has it. It is a clone (or the other one is). 
Or twins, separated at production?
Does anyone have any recent real-world experience applying for Global Entry?
We recently did an international trip, and it was TRULY heartbreaking to wait more than an hour in the US citizensâ line at SFO to go through immigration. We watched the Global Entry folks just go straight to the machines for Global Entry, and they were out in a flash.
I am particularly interested in two aspects of timing: a) generally speaking, how long does it take to get conditional approval pending the interview; and b) what was the overall time from the moment you applied to when you got approval?
DHS states the wait-time is 4-6 months, but I have seen widely varying stats on approval time to as long as 18 months. By contrast, TSA Pre-check is very fast, with one family member getting finger-printed on a Friday afternoon and getting her KTN (known traveler number) that Sunday.
Iâm in the process of getting ours. The application was easy. Just donât double click the counties or youâll wind up with Afghanistan! I did that by mistake, but they still approved me. Approval came within 1 day. The hard part is finding an open slot to interview. I donât live near an airport and appointments seem to book up fast. I think they might release huge blocks of appointments every couple of months. But Iâm not in a big hurry in any case.
But when we came back from Europe we were faced with some MASSIVE line. Easily 3 hours. Maybe more. Younger S found we could download and app, answer a few questions and we weee able to go through the diplomat line and weâre done in 10 min
Excellent and thank you!
Apparently, DHS releases new interview slots on the first Monday of each month. There is also an app that, for a monthly fee, monitors the interview sign-up pages and alerts you to openings in your designated areas.
How accurate this is? I donât know, but FYI:
Interesting about the app. I remember seeing it before Covid and wondering how well it worked. So I guess it is still available and works well.
I agree with previous poster that conditional approval is no problem at all, but appointments were an absolute mess. My airport had zero availability for as far out as the calendar would go. I tried the first Monday and was able to get an appointment 5 months out. My current plan is to do the interview when we return from an international trip in August. Apparently thereâs a separate line for that at several arrival airports.
We had no problems getting approval nor appts in HNL. The hard part was finding the office in the airportâdirections werenât as clear as hoped.
For people living in neighbor islands, HNL was the nearest place they could go, so at least one other couple flew from neighbor island to Oahu for their appt.
To renew, we just applied online and it was mailed to us.
Conditional approval seems to be fairly quick. Appointments on the other hand not so much depending on your local airport. If your local airport is full and youâre traveling check your destination airports. My S had to renew his and Philly was booked out for months. We were going to Disney the next month and orlando had openings so he did his appointment there.
We used phone app MPC (mobile Passport Control)( which we had filled out a few weeks earlier )when returning from Europe to Atlanta in April. Negligible line for both regular entry and global entry but we used MPC because we wanted to see how it worked. We were directed to a passport inspector and had a quicker check in front of officer than usual and there were indications that if there were lines we would have gotten some kind of expediting.
I believe thatâs the app that we used. It saved us many hours that day. I was so grateful. This picture doesnât do it justice It kept going far beyond what you could see
Thanks for this. When older S was looking at getting it last year, i was looking at appointments and found nothing so I forgot about it. I happened to look some point this summer and there seemed to be tons, so I assumed it had all been fixed. Nope. I bet I just looked at the right time.
Older S wound up getting his in Atlanta.
Oh but if you live near, only need 1 appointment, and can go anytime, if you keep checking some pop up as others cancel. I found a few this past week in DC, but we canât get there on a Tuesday. Has to be Monday/Friday, and we need 2
Meaning in the city or in the airport?