canyonwalker | Entries tagged with elite status

About a year ago I opted to do something unusual for me, in the credit card churning game. I opened a miles-and-points credit card without a hefty signup bonus. It was doubly unusual because not only did I open it without a hefty signup bonus but I accepted a hefty annual fee of $650. I crunched the numbers in my head and decided I could make the card pay off, even starting out $650 in the hole. Now that I've owned it for a year, let's check the math on whether I was right.

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire credit card

The credit card I'm talking about is the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire. It's one of the new generation of premium cards— offering premium benefits in exchange for a premium price, that whopping $650 annual fee.

The trick with the benefits is that you've got to spend money on certain things, regularly, to use them. For example, there's an annual $400 credit on Hilton resort stays. But it's broken up as $200 each six-month period, and it's only good at the small percentage of Hilton's properties they classify as resorts. Similarly there's an annual credit of up to $200 on airline purchases. It's couponed as four quarterly credits of up to $50. You've got to spend on these things every period to maximize the benefit.

Maxing Out a Few Key Benefits

There are a lot more potential benefits than just the few I name here. These are just the few that work for me. And over the past year I did a solid job of making them work.

Due to a trick of timing I hit the semiannual $200 resort credit three times. That's $600.

It took a bit of finagling but I hit the $50 airline credit every quarter. And due to the same trick of timing I hit it five times in 12 months. That's another $250.

Amex offers small cash-back incentives at dozens of specific vendors every month. 99% of these are places I have no desire to shop, but the other 1% I did charge purchases at and earned $51 cash back.

So, just on cash back I outearned the $650 annual fee, grossing $901, net $251.

Then there are the points from spending. Even with no signup bonus I earned 132,500 Hilton Honors points over the past 12 months. Yeah, that sure looks like a big number, but HH points are barely worth $0.004 anymore, so that's just $530. And again, that's a gross value. For the net value I subtract the opportunity cost of not using one of my 2%-cash-back, no-fee cards. I cycled $15,500 of charges to earn those points. At 2% that's $310 I could have earned elsewhere, fee-free. So the points net from this card is just $220. Still, a win's a win, and this increases my net win for the year to $471.

Diamond Status

Owning the card gives me Diamond elite status in the Hilton Honors program. For the limited-service hotels we stay at a lot of the time that means very little; a couple bottles of water and maybe an upgrade to a slightly larger room. At fancier hotels it can mean a nicer room upgrade and a comped spendy breakfast buffet. We enjoyed a bit of each on our trip to Italy last year. I figure the comps were worth $200 to us. That brings the net win on the card to $671.

But Wait, There's More!

Potentially a lot more. There's a big benefit I haven't yet gotten the value of.

Every year with this card Hilton provides a free-night certificate. In the distant past I used these certs on nice-ish hotels that cost, say, $250/night. Then, as prices rose and I widened my aperture, I found a $400/night hotel. Then I really thought about it and found an absolutely amazing $1,000+/night hotel. And you know what? I'm going to book it again.

Booking that hotel for one night pushes the value of this card to over $1,800 for the past year. But you know what? Due to that "trick of timing" I mentioned above, I got two of those free-night certs. That two nights at that amazing hotel that costs almost $1,200/night now. That puts the net value of this card to about $3,000.

Will I Renew? It's a Toss-up!

But will I renew this card? That's always the question I ask in these reviews. As over-the-top as the $3,000 net value I stand to realize from owning this card for one year is, you might think holding it for the next 12 months is a slam-dunk. Actually, it's a toss-up.

It's a toss-up because that "trick of timing" I mentioned several times won't be there for me again. The resort credit will be worth only $400, not $600, and even $400 is only if I max it out— which I'm not sure I will. The airline credit will be maxed at $200. And there will only be one of those free-night certs... and it's not worth making a trip somewhere just for 1 night. (I debated how worth it it was even traveling for 2 nights.)

Put all these together and it's a lot smaller win I can forecast next year than this past year. A smaller win, and yet I start out $650 in the hole (paying the annual fee) if I want to play. I might or might not renew this card when the annual fee posts in a few weeks.

Monday night this week was the end of an airline industry era. Southwest Airlines launched its last flight operating with its Open Seating policy. For 54 years prior to 26 January 2026, Southwest was the only major US carrier to allow passengers to choose any open seat on the aircraft (within a few minor restrictions for safety) as they boarded.

The change was announced well in advance, in 2024. I wrote about it at the time. I was unimpressed. While some infrequent travelers believed the PR spin about how this would "be better for customers" and repeated word-of-mouth stories about how it would eliminate "the scrum at the gate" or "the problem with fake wheelchair users", I viewed it in the terms Southwest's investors, board of directors, and executives discussed it with each other: a ploy to extract more profit from customers.

As for those two semi-myths I mentioned....

"The scrum at the gates", sometimes also called "The Southwest cattle call" refers to passengers crowding in at the gate to board earlier to get better choice of seats. These criticisms miss two important things: One, this vision of the problem is from twenty years ago, before Southwest changed to individually assigned numbers for boarding. Two, all other airlines in the US have the problem of people crowding the gate area to be at the front of their group 1-2-3-4-etc. designations. Southwest was no worse than, and was actually generally better than, all other US airlines in this regard.

"Fake wheelchair users" was arguably a legit problem, though how much of a problem is subject to individual interpretation. The situation was that Southwest, in compliance with federal law, had to allow passengers who claimed a physical handicap to board first so they could get seats that met their needs. Many people who used this privilege genuinely needed it. But some number of pre-boarders arguably were people gaming the system, claiming handicap— which Southwest was, by law, not allowed to question— to get better seats. The common "proof" cynics pointed to was how many people required wheelchairs to board a flight but walked off. These were sneeringly called "Jesus flights"— as if Jesus had healed the crippled in the air. The problem with this interpretation is that cynics are assuming anyone who needs a wheelchair some of the time but not all of the time is faking it. This is a deeply unfactual, and deeply insulting, misunderstanding of physical handicap.

So, with those two misconceptions out of the way, what's left for the rest of us? Aside from higher effective prices as Southwest becomes yet-another airline charging ancillary fees for everything beyond a basic ticket? (Remember: this change is about more profits, not better customer experience.)

For me, as a frequent flyer, it's a loss of a seating system that worked.

Southwest's no-assigned-seats policy worked great for me as a passenger who 1) routinely has to book travel with one week notice or less— because that's the typical reality of my business travel— and 2) has elite status.

Having elite status on other airlines doesn't work so well when booking one week out or less. Why? Because all the good seats are sold by then! For example, that happened when I had to fly to New York on a Monday (busy day for business travelers) last March. I booked Southwest instead, taking a connection in Denver instead of the time-savings of a nonstop flight, because their no-assigned-seats policy meant I could get a great seat as long as I had a low boarding number— which I always have, thanks to elite status.

Booking more than 1 week ahead doesn't necessarily solve the problem. When we flew to Rome in May we booked 6 weeks in advance and still found nothing but middle seats left. If Southwest flew to Europe I would've given serious consideration to flying them instead so we could get better seats.

But now that era is over. Soon, I am afraid, good seats will be just as elusive on Southwest as on United. Even for a traveler with elite status.

Airlines and hotels have been sending me "The Year in Review" messages this past week. My gut reaction each time has been, "WTF? 2025 ended months ago!" But nope, it's only January 19. They're not that late. It only feels like 2026 began months ago because we've already had, like, three or four manufactured political crises in the US this year. (And that's just in two weeks. Sigh. It's going to be a long year.)

The 2025 travel summary that hit today made me laugh. This one's from a hotel brand family, Choice, that I seldom stay at.

I've achieved... NOTHING. Way to go! (Jan 2026)

I've achieved... NOTHING. Way to go! (Jan 2026)

Woohoo, in 19 years with them I've achieved Non-elite status. That means I've achieved nothing. I'm so glad they're trying to make me feel special about that. Way to go, me! 🤣

Every year around the start of the year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how we'll I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. Yesterday I posted a wrap-up of my airline miles and status for 2025. Now it's time for the same with hotel points and status.

This check of points and status comes at an odd moment. I feel I am at a tipping point where it may be time to say "Game over" for the hotel points-and-status chase. Hotels have been watering down the value of elite status. "Room upgrades as available" often are not available. And when they are, the "upgrade" is something close to trivial like the same room on a higher floor or facing the garden instead of the parking lot.

At the same time hotels have been watering down the value of their points. They do this by increasing the amount needed for redemption. Yes, that's been a story most of the 20 years I've been in the points-and-status game, but over the past few years points inflation has gotten out of hand. Hotel rooms routinely now cost 2x the points they could be purchased for just a few years ago.

This runaway inflation puts emphasis on the strategy of earn and burn: earn points (from stays and credit card bonuses) and spend (burn) them quickly, before they lose value. The old strategy, from years ago, of saving up points for years to redeem them for a week-long stay at a top property is broken. Thus as I inventory my points and status I indicate accumulating too many points as a bad thing and managing to spend down my balances as a good thing.

⬇️ Hilton: More Burn than Earn... And I Got Burned!

Hilton edged out Marriott to be my #1 hotel chain again in 2025 (ditto last year, in 2024). I stayed 16 nights with Hilton. The majority, 13 nights, were paid. That's because either (a) they were for work, and the company was paying; or (b) the cash price was reasonable while the points price was through the roof. Unfortunately "through the roof" has become the new normal with Hilton as they have broadly increased their hotel points costs three times in just over a year. 😧

The one stay where I redeemed points was when both the cash price and points price were through the roof. When we visited Rome in May we stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri for 3 nights for a whopping 85,000 points per night. (After the latest devaluation it's 120,000 points per night.) I try to make Hilton points worth at least a half cent apiece, so that's $425 at par. But hotels were eye-wateringly expensive across the city at that time. Many were $600+, including the Cavalieri. So while it was a lot of points it was at least a good value.

Status-wise I regained Diamond (top tier) elite after dropping to Silver (bottom tier) at the start of the year. Diamond is a benefit of the Hilton Aspire American Express card I signed up for again in April. I say again because I canceled it in 2024 thinking I'd find some kind of sign-up bonus for it again. Alas I did not. Is the card with its newly raised $550(!) annual fee worth it without a big signup bonus? My plan is for the answer to be Yes; I'll check back on that after the card's anniversary in April.

Thanks to spending 255k points on that Rome Cavalieri stay I spent more Hilton points than I earned in 2025. My balance dropped from 477k a year ago to 385k today. My goal with the remaining balance is to find an enjoyable luxurious stay for 4-5 days. I need to do it ASAP before Hilton hits us with yet another deval It'll have to be cheaper than the Rome Cavalieri, though!

⬇️ Marriott: Bonvoy-age, Marriott!

Marriott was my #2 hotel chain again 2025, falling just behind Hilton with 15 nights (16 if I include one Hawk did on her account). Back in the 2010s Marriott was my #1 choice. I routinely hit 50+ BIB (butt-in-bed) nights a year with them. My overall amount of travel, especially business travel, has decreased since then. And Marriott has gotten... unfriendly. Their prices in many markets are 15-20% higher than their competition, and getting elite benefits from them is like pulling teeth. Benefits shouldn't be hard; I'm a Lifetime Titanium elite! But here we are.

You may have seen a news stories recently about a Marriott that shooed customers off a bench and a Fairfield Inn that posted that bottles of water are no longer an elite benefit! When they nickel-and-dime loyal travelers that hard getting a real benefit like a suite upgrade seems to have a snowball's chance in hell.

In 2025 I succeeded in spending down my Marriott points balance. It's a goal I'd been working on for years. Why was it so hard? It was hard because I insisted on getting good value for my points. The thing about airline/hotel points nowadays is that while you pretty much always can use them for any trip, you're frequently charged a terrible redemption rate. I spent my balance down from 160k last year to almost zero this year. With earnings from a few paid stays I made, I finished the year just 32k left.

For 2026 my plan for Marriott is, basically, "Bonvoy-age!" I'm done. I'm out. I'll be content to stay at Marriott and use my elite benefits if work sends me to a Marriott, or if I happen to find a Marriott at a competitive price (unlikely!) when traveling for leisure, but I am absolutely not going to go out of my way to choose them. Those 32k points? Meh. Once upon a time they would've bought a night at a resort high rise in Hawaii. Today they might— might!— be enough for a one-night stay at a Fairfield Inn along a highway. And I'll have to pack my own damn water bottles.

⬆️ IHG: Burn and Earn

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, remained my #3 hotel chain in 2025. I stayed 8 nights with them... though that increases to 12 if I count in the nights Hawk and I stayed with IHG on her account. (She's burning off points, too!) Every year recently it's looked like IHG will leap ahead of the others, as its footprint of plenty of decent limited-service properties in smaller towns than Hilton and Marriott fits our travel patterns well. But this year even their prices were just too high much of the time.

My goal with IHG for 2025 was to burn down my points balance of 212k. Hawk had a similar goal, too, as she had about as many points as I did! Plus we both have free-night certificates from the IHG credit cards we own. How did we do? We both spent our balances down somewhat. We used the certs first because they expire after 12 months, and we both redeemed some points, too. But then I signed up for another IHG credit card midyear, and earned 140k from the juicy signup bonus. I finished the year more than 100k above where I started, with 316k points.

Status-wise I remain Platinum with IHG, a benefit of owning their affiliated credit cards. Platinum is their second highest tier. In the past I've groused it's not worth much because there really aren't elite benefits to be had at the limited-service properties I make most of my stays at. Usually it's an "upgrade" to a "suite" at a Holiday Inn Express, where it's just a slightly larger than basic room. I mean, I appreciate it, but to me it's not worth more than maybe $10 a night.

For 2026 my goal with IHG swings back to Burn, baby, burn! 316k points is not the huge balance it may seem at today's devalued rates, but I'm going to see if I can redeem it for a 4-5 night stay someplace nice this year.

↔️ Best Western: What do I do with these points?

For several years Best Western was been down in my "Whatever" category (see below), the group of hotel chains I stay at so infrequently I just don't care. For example, I didn't touch BW at all for years. But the chain came back on my radar in 2024 as they do what IHG does at the lower end, but even moreso. And as IHG was too pricey much of the time, I traded down to BW several times in 2024. That left me about 24k points at the end of 2024... which I still have at the end of 2025. Thus my plans for 2026 remain the same: find some reasonable redemption, presumably a one-night stay somewhere not too swank, for my BW points.

↔️ Hyatt, Choice, Wyndham: Whatever

I have memberships in several other hotel rewards programs. Some still have scraps of points left in them from years past. Others are zeroed out due to expiry. I've barely paid attention to these chains for the past few years because the ones above largely meet my needs— and they control a huge portion of the mid-scale and upper mid-scale hotel market. That said, I did stay for 2 nights at a Hyatt (my employer's choice) and 1 night at a Choice (my choice). Plus we stayed 5 nights with Wyndham on Hawk's account. Between those two I was disappointed with Choice and slightly impressed with Wyndham. That reversed my expectations as previous I'd ranked Choice ahead of Wyndham. We should figure out if Hawk has enough Wyndham points yet to be worth anything, like my BW points (above) are worth potentially a few night somewhere.

I think my future will involve a lot more stays at these other brands as I see declining value in elite status and accumulating points, and instead pick whatever property offers the best quality/price tradeoff in the moment.

It's the end of the year, which means it's time for my taking stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs. This blog will be for airlines. A blog later this week will cover hotel programs.

Once upon a time I celebrated growing big balances of airline miles/points. I remember, for example, when a colleague and I were talking about having amassed 250,000 miles each on United after lots of job travel. "It's wild to think I could buy 10 people round-trip tickets anywhere in the continental US," he quipped.

The difference between then & now is that 250k no longer buys 10 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco. Many days you'd be lucky if it buys three. Inflation is as much a thing in the points economy as it is in the real economy. Actually, it's worse. It's worse because there's no place to invest points to protect their value. Holding points is like keeping cash in a mattress. Keep a small balance that way? Meh. Keep a big balance that way? Holy smokes, no! Thus I consider having a big balance of points a risk. You'll see that how I characterize my balances in the following summaries.

⬆️ Southwest Airlines: Amassing another Mountain (of Risk!)

I've called my American Airlines points (see below) a mountain for many years as I've hovered over 750k with them. I've now built my Southwest balance up to that level. I finish 2025 with 770,000 Rapid Rewards points. That's a new high... and that's not a good thing, for the reasons I outlined above.

My Rapids Rewards balance with Southwest zoomed forward because I spent a lot of the year chasing status with them. My business travel is down from even a few years ago, so to keep renewing elite status I did most of my leisure flying on cash vs. on points. I would've preferred to spend points and save cash, but here I decided chasing status was more important. I cinched Companion Pass in September and made A-List Preferred again with the help of a mileage run in late December.

All that status-chasing helped me earn 229,000 redeemable points with Southwest. I spent less than 28k points. Thus my balance lands at about 770k. Three-quarters of a million.

For 2026 my goal is to spend down that balance. 770k is way too much to have stuffed in a mattress. But I'll see if I'm content to give up the status chase into 2027. 😨

↗️ United Airlines: Earn and Burn (but Mostly Earn)

I seem to alternate between up and down years with my United MileagePlus miles. After having a down year with UA last year and also in 2023— remember, down is good, because I'm redeeming points to secure value from them— 2025 was an up year. My points boosted from 62,000 to 177,000.

It's not that I flew UA a lot, though. I earned only 18k from butt-in-seat time. The lion's share of my points are from credit card sign-up bonuses. I opened two of them in the past 14 months that paid in 2025. Together they paid 200,000 points. So why didn't my balance zoom up to almost 300k? That's because while I earned a lot of points this year I also burned more than half of them, redeeming them for flights and other awards— and making sure to do so at decent rates.

Status-wise I maintain Premier Gold with United, a benefit of reaching Million Miler lifetime status years ago. What's the value of that status? Plenty, actually. First, I can reserve a seat in Economy Plus at booking. Those seats with extra legroom are a valuable perk that make flying actually bearable. It's worth at least a few tens of dollars per flight. That's what UA and other airlines charge to reserve comparable seats without sufficient elite status. Then there's free checked bags. I used that a few times. Then there's lounge access when traveling internationally. We had a good time relaxing at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge in Toronto in August. Oh, and my designated partner gets all these Premier Gold benefits, too, since I'm a Million Miler. Upgrades? Yes, those are a benefit, though as a lowly Gold it's rare I get one. I did score one coming home from Toronto. All in all these aren't gonzo benefits, but as little as I fly United anymore— not enough to earn even Silver status on a per-year basis— I certainly appreciate the lifetime status from my blood, sweat, and tears of the past.

For 2026 my plan with United is to continue spending down my balance. I don't think that'll be too hard as 177k points isn't a lot anymore. I spent about 107k this year, and that was just for a few, unexciting flights. The only question is, will 2026 be another year of spending on a bunch of small award flights like I did this pat year, or will I find an opportunity to spend a lot of points on something big, like a fun overseas trip? I hope for the latter.

⏸️ American Airlines: Paused atop the Mountain

I've had a crazy big balance with AA for years now. What's "crazy big"? If you thought my three-quarters of a million with Southwest was wild, try this on for size: I have nearly 900,000 AA points.

What's even crazier is that this is exactly what I had last year, too. In 2025 I didn't earn a mile with AA, I didn't spend a mile with AA. I have almost a million miles in their program, and I didn't do a damn thing with them.

My plan with AA in 2026 is the same as it has been for years now: find good ways to spend all those points!

↔️ Delta: 15k and Not Even Trying

Rounding out the list here is Delta Airlines. While it's been over two years since I flew on AA it's been at least three since I set foot on Delta or one of their partners. I retain a pile of points with them— though it's a waaaay smaller pile than with AA. It's not a mountain but a molehill. My balance of Delta Skymiles is a mere 15k.

My plan with Delta in 2026 is also the same as it has been for several years new. I will keep ignoring Delta 🤣 until their flights and offerings seem relevant to me again. Meanwhile, my paltry 15k miles never expire. Though by the time I grow them into something useful that 15k might only be enough to buy a sandwich in-flight.

The mileage run I flew on Southwest Airlines this past weekend cinched my renewal of A-List Preferred ("A+") status. I saw that reflected in my account within 90 minutes of completing the flight—Southwest's long maligned IT seems to be improving, quietly— and today I got a "Welcome back" email.

I renewed A+ status with the help of a mileage run (Dec 2025)

I renewed A+ status with the help of a mileage run (Dec 2025)

Of course, it's not really welcome back... I never left! I've been A+ for all but a few months out of the past dozen-plus years. Maybe Southwest's long-maligned IT isn't so spiff now, after all. 😅

And in the summary of benefits they sent me they left off the absolute most-important (to me) A+ benefit: the ability to select extra-legroom seats at time of booking, for free.

So, was it worth it? Are the value of these A+ benefits worth the time and cost of the mileage run?

The MR had a hard cost of about $110 (cash out of pocket) plus soft costs of 9,000 mileage points (which have a substitution value ranging from $100-200) and several hours of my time. The value of these is not trivial. As for the value of A+ status next year... Frankly, I'm not sure.

What the A+ status is worth over the coming year depends on how much I end up traveling— with job and life changes expected that's hard to predict— and how Southwest's policies shake out. They're changing their whole customer-facing business model right now, doing away with open seating and free bags. Their austere new rules are sure to fuel a lot of customer outrage. If that translates into plummeting demand they may have to revert some of the policies. It remains to been seen how it all lands.

One thing I can tell you 💯 is that flying a mileage run was NOT my first choice! There are so many ways I would've preferred to renew A+. The MR was, like, my fifth choice.

First choice, my original plan, was to re-up A+ with a bonus from credit card spending. But then I realized 3 weeks ago that I had miscalculated the spending for the credit card bonus. The pisser is I was short just a few hundred bucks. I could've put that extra spend on the card easily, and at no cost to me; but by the time I caught the mistake it was too late.

Second choice was to have even one more business trip late in the year. I tried. Customers just dont' want to meet face-to-face anymore.

Third choice was to manufacture a leisure trip— to go somewhere and enjoy being there. My partner's health problems put the kibosh on that.

Fourth choice was to just buy status, without having to fly. Indeed, Southwest came through with a status-buying offer a week ago... but it was hideously bad. 😡

Next year I'll almost certainly be working on a plan like #1 again, earning A+ —if I choose to keep chasing status—with a the help of a credit card boost. While I'm already keeping careful track of spending for that bonus I'm not going to try to over-optimize it again like I did this year. I'll spend at least a few hundred over the threshold just to cover myself in case there's a discrepancy between my calculations and Southwest's. Because while this MR ended up being not too difficult and gave me a funny story to tell— being in Los Angeles just long enough to piss— I would've preferred notching the status without the expense and uncertainty.

Flying for Fun & Profit #3
Back home. Sun, 28 Dec 2026, 9pm.

Well that was easy. The mileage run I thought would chew up part of the day and all evening got done in just a few hours— thanks to finding a quick turnaround flight back from Los Angeles. I could've been home over an hour ago but I decided, since it was before 7:30 when I landed in San Jose, that I'd like to enjoy dinner out with Hawk. Now it's 9pm and we're back home, unpacked (for very small values of unpacking; basically I just took my computer out of my shoulder bag!) and relaxing.

For dinner we went to California Pizza Kitchen a few miles away. That was my pick because I was planning to eat at the CPK in Terminal 1 at LAX. The CPK there is actually more attractive now than it was a few years ago thanks to renovations, but oh! the prices. I took a peek at their menu while I was dancing the hokey pokey. They want $26 for a pizza! I figured with that and two airport-priced beers I'd be out $60 just for a basic dinner for one. Instead Hawk and I enjoyed a dinner for two near home, including two beers and an appetizer in addition to two meals, and the total was only $80.

Oh, and I just checked— the miles are already posted to my account! I now have A-List Preferred status through 2026. 😎

Flying for Fun & Profit #1
SJC Airport. Sun, 28 Dec 2026, 3:30pm.

This afternoon I am embarking on a mileage run. It's a flight taken strictly for earning points snd status. A few weeks ago I saw I was coming up a tiny bit short on my Southwest status chase, so I booked this mileage run.

For this mileage run I booked a quick round-trip to LAX. But I'm not going to Los Angeles, other than spending a few hours on the ground at the airport. I get back on a flight home this evening.

Right now I'm at SJC airport. I arrived here well early for the first flight. I'm taking as few chances as possible with the schedule.

I've been checking the flights for on-time-ness all afternoon. The aircraft for my first flight has been tracking on time and just landed from its previous leg. The homebound flight has been drifting a bit late, probably picking up delays from coming from somewhere in the East, where snow has caused lots of cancellations. That flight being late is okay... I'd only get worried if my outbound were late, because then I might miss the homebound! I planned over 3 hours on the ground between flights, so the chances of that are small... though never zero.

Stay tuned, this should only take a few hours!

Update: the flight to LA was smooth, then I took a piss and I turned myself around... that's what it's al about!

I've got a mileage run planned for next weekend. As I explained two weeks ago, I'm flying to Los Angeles and back, all in one afternoon/evening, just to earn airline points to renew elite status. Even if you don't click through the link to see the longer explanation you might wonder, "Is that worth it?" Heck, I'm the one who's doing it and I wonder if it's worth it! So imagine my intense curiosity yesterday morning when Southwest showed me there's Another Way....

Instead of flying a mileage run I could just BUY the difference to retain elite status... (Dec 2025)

Instead of flying a mileage run I could just BUY the difference to retain elite status... (Dec 2025)

That's right, instead of flying on a gratuitous trip to earn points, I could just buy the points I need to requalify for elite status!

Ah, but how much for how much? That's always the question when loyalty programs offer to sell you points. Almost by definition, it's going to be a shitty deal. But this one....

At these prices I'd rather just FLY to earn points! (Dec 2025)

At these prices I'd rather just FLY to earn points! (Dec 2025)

...This one is shittier than most.

It's not the fact I only need 140 points while the fewest I can buy is 5,000 that's shitty. I mean, yes, that is shitty. But the price is even shittier.

OMG, $1,450 to buy 5,000 qualifying points? I could buy a flight for $450 that earns that many points. Thus Southwest is effectively billing an extra $1,000 for the privilege of staying home instead of actually having to fly.

No thanks, I'll just stick with flying and wasting half a day.

One of the benefits to Costco Executive Member status Costco rolled out earlier this year is letting Executive members start shopping an hour early. When I wrote about whether Executive membership has been worth it (spoiler: arguably it isn't) a few days ago I mentioned that I've thought several times about hitting up Costco early in the morning for Executive Hour but never actually did it. I always figured, "Nah, I'll just take it easy at home this morning and brave the madding crowds of the hoi polloi later in the day." 🤣 Well, today I finally shopped Executive Hour.

We finally upgraded to executive membership at Costco! (Jan 2022)

We finally upgraded to executive membership at Costco! (Jan 2022)

I was up early anyway today because I had an early work meeting on my day off. That's right— not only did I work on my first true day of vacation but it was an early morning meeting! After that I went out to the clinic for a blood draw, then when I came home I had a quick breakfast while Hawk jumped in the car with me to go shopping. At Costco.

We arrived at the Mountain View Costco around 9:15am. Normal opening hour on weekdays is 10am. For Executive members like us, the store's open at 9. And as we pulled into the parking lot, hoping to find a nice, close parking space instead of the usual automotive mob scene, we found... the parking lot mobbed just as much as 1pm on a Saturday.

"Wow, everyone in Mountain View must be an Executive member," I quipped. "And when everyone is Executive—"

"—Nobody is Executive," Hawk finished the line for me. 🤣

So, yeah, that Executive member perk is close to worthless, at least here in the Bay Area.

Our Costco dividend check arrived this week. It's for $55.50. That's less than last year's $68 rebate and way less than the nearly $114 we earned in 2023. But still, $55 is nice, right? Welllll....

This $55.50 isn't free money. We paid to get this money. We paid $60 for Costco Executive Membership. So we actually lost $4.50!

Costco Executive Member rebate check - doesn't quite measure up (Dec 2025)

Costco Executive Member rebate check - doesn't quite measure up (Dec 2025)

This rebate is the big selling point of executive membership. Costco charges an extra $65 (now; up from $60 last year) for this elite tier of membership and, in return, gives you 2% back on all Costco purchases, except gasoline.

I'm sure for many families it's a win. I know because I see them in the checkout lines with their carts full to the rim. Meanwhile we virtually never have more than 1 layer of items resting in our cart. The previous two years we came out ahead on the deal. This year we paid our money and came out a bit short.

Coincidentally our Costco membership is up for renewal right now. I'm of two minds about whether to re-up at the executive level.

On the one hand, it wasn't worth it this year. We lost a few dollars. Even last year, it didn't pay off hugely. We only netted $8 on the deal.

On the other hand, coming up $4.50 short at the end of the year isn't anything to get upset about. It's not even milkshake money nowadays. And maybe next year we'll earn more. Though the ante has been raised. Membership is now $65 for basic tier plus an extra $65 for executive.

Right now I think I'm leaning toward renewing. There is one perk to executive membership I'm eager to try out.... Executive members get earlier shopping hours at Costco! 🤣 I haven't availed myself of that elites-only benefits yet— mostly because every time I've planned on doing it I decided I'd rather sleep in instead and deal with the crowds at the store later in the day. 🤣 But maybe this coming year I'll drag myself out of bed early to play Let's Go Shopping!

I've remarked a number of times that airline elite status is important enough to me, given how much I travel, that I track my earnings on a spreadsheet. I've got lifetime gold status on United so I don't track that anymore, but I do track my Southwest earnings rigorously. All this year I've been watching my elite qualifying points and forecasting my future flight and credit card activity to map how I can get the 70,000 points to renew A-List Preferred (A+) status.

Back in October it seemed like it would be a long shot to get A+. A long shot but still doable. Then a better plan came together in November with a business trip to Austin. I saw a clear path to cinch A+ by now. When the final points I needed failed to post recently I went back and checked my records. It turns out one of my estimations was off. I am currently 140 points shy of the 70k needed. A lousy 140 points out of 70,000!

So, how can I earn points to make up the difference? This late in the year there's only one way: fly. Fly on a paid ticket. Thus for the first time in 14 years I am going on a Mileage Run.

Mile·age Run, noun: a flight or series of flights taken solely to earn frequent flyer miles or airline elite status.

I scoured Southwest's booking engine yesterday and came up with cheapest trip I could find. December 28th I'll fly a completely gratuitous round-trip to Los Angeles (LAX). I'll fly down in the afternoon, spend a few hours on the ground without even leaving the terminal, then fly back late evening.

What's it going to cost? The one-way flight that gets me the points I need is $109. The other flight I bought with points, 9k.

Is it worth it? Hard to say. A lot of depends on what A+ status is really worth next year. It's kind of a big question mark because Southwest is completely revamping its customer operations with assigned seating. Nobody really knows what it's going to look like in terms of getting good seats with the new policy. But A+ elite status gives me the best crack at it— and like I said above, I fly enough that it matters. So I'm spending some money now to buy a better experience across all of next year.

Texas Trip log #3
Residence Inn · Wed, 12 Nov 2025. 12:05am.

My Southwest Airlines flight to Austin not only left on time this evening, it arrived early. "Well, we got you to Texas 15 minutes early," the purser quipped over the speakers. "When we're late next time we'll call it even." See, even Southwest employees know their airline has a reputation for arriving late. 🤣

It's not as simple as, "We arrived early, woohoo!" though. The system is not set up to handle flights arriving early. As is frequently the case with an early arrival, our flight had to sit on the tarmac waiting for our gate to open up. You see, in the name of efficiency the airline figures out how to use the fewest gates possible, which generally means a gate doesn't open up until 2 minutes before your flight is supposed to land. So all of our 15 minutes of earliness was consumed just sitting there, 300 feet short of the gate.

Since I'd canceled my car reservation when my travel plans changed at 41,000' I thought I'd save a bit of time getting to the hotel by hopping in an Uber instead of walking all the way to the car rental depot. Oops, no, the designated spot for ride-share pickups is in the same far parking structure as the rental cars.

Well, one advantage of taking an Uber remained not having to drive. It was going on midnight local time as we whisked across uncrowded highways around Austin. Though it was only 10:45pm for me, on California time, it was still late by my usual schedule. I thought I might nap a bit on the flight. Strangely, I didn't. I was wide awake the whole dang time. And now I was struggling not to nod off.

The Residence Inn was quiet when I arrived. Despite rates being high when I booked the hotel seem to have low occupancy. I checked in, got my keys, and went upstairs to my room. To my chagrin I found that I was in an "armpit" room— wedged on an inside corner of the building, where there was no window near the bed and only a small window near the desk that looked straight into a hallway window 5' away. It's like they assigned me the worst room in the hotel. So much for Lifetime Titanium status. Not only don't I get an upgrade, even a trivial one, I pretty much get a downgrade. And I'm paying $200++ a night for this!

I called down to the front desk to complain about the room with its missing window. "Do you have anything better you can put me in?" The desk agent tap-tapped on his computer and asked me to meet him at the elevator for new keys. "It's a one-bedroom suite," he informed me. Well, it's the same size as the other room, just there's a wall in the middle. 🙄 But at least it has 2 windows... which it turns out will be really important tomorrow when I'm trying to get work done, because the lighting in here sucks!

Yesterday my boss suggested a plan to help me reach elite status. At first I thought he might be joking because he brought it up in a laughing manner, but as he explained it there's a real there there.

His idea was that our AE (account executive) counterparts often seek to "protect" us from having to travel as we head into the end of the year. Except those of us who do travel as part of our jobs are concerned about reaching elite status. And as we head toward the end of the year we're keeping an eye on how many more miles/points/trips we need to qualify. He talked about getting his team together to discuss how much more each person needed for the year then telling the AEs, "Hey, you need someone to help you cover a meeting? Reach out to Chris, he needs 4 more trips this year for elite status!"

"I need just 1 more trip, possibly 2 if it's a short/cheap one," I said right away. I needed no delay to think about it because I've already been tracking it. I explained to my boss how I created a spreadsheet years ago, modeling it kind of like a sales forecast, to track progress toward elite status.

I also told him about how hardcore frequent flyers do Mileage Runs (MRs)— trips they take purely to earn status. I did an MR, just once, years ago.

I gently pushed back, though, on the idea of telling AEs to help book work trips for us. I did that because I don't want to create or perpetuate a notion that we're arranging business trips for personal benefit. I do push for meeting customers and prospects face-to-face, by traveling to visit them, instead of meeting via videoconference. I do that because it makes business sense, because it's more valuable for the company, not because it's a boondoggle or for status bragging rights.

I've been tracking my progress toward elite status with Southwest Airlines this year. I've actually been tracking it every year for the past several years. And when I say track I mean I keep a spreadsheet of my progress, both to see how close I am and to plan ahead for changes I need to make to my bookings and credit card spend to ensure I reach my goals.

Southwest Airlines Companion Pass

I re-qualified for Southwest's Companion Pass a month ago. It's one of two different types of elite status they offer. CP is different from anything offered by any other airline I've seen (and here I'm talking literally dozens of airlines) in that it permit my designated companion to fly with me on any flight I fly, virtually for free, for the remainder of the year and all of the next. Hawk has been my bird-panion for several years, and we've taken advantage of it dozens of times.

You might wonder, "Which flight were you on when you crossed the CP threshold?" Actually it wasn't a flight but a fringe benefit of my Southwest credit card that put me over the threshold of 135,000 CPQPs (Companion Pass Qualifying Points). Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier Card

Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier Card

A big boost in getting to those 135k CPQPs also came earlier in the year from the credit card. In all more than 100k of my CPQPs have come from the credit card, driven by spending on the card plus the lucrative signup bonus.

I mentioned above there are two types of elite status with Southwest. The other elite track is their A-List/A-List Preferred status. That's a more typical elite program, where the benefits are things like early boarding, free inflight wifi, and a multiplier on redeemable points earned.

I've been A-List Preferred (or A+ as we call it for short) the past several years and it's been a big deal for me. The 2x points multiplier is nice, though right now I have way over 600,000 redeemable points and no plan for how to burn them down. More important than those points is an automatic boarding number early in the boarding order. Folks who fly Southwest more than once every 5 years will know what I mean when I say I get a number like A17 on pretty much every flight... for free.

The meaning of A+ will change early next year when Southwest replaces its no-assigned-seats seating policy with assigned seats for everyone. Then boarding order won't be critical for getting a primo seat. Instead, being able to pick a primo seat at booking time will be where it's at. And that will be a benefit of A+ status! While I'm not happy with the assigned-seating changes— the current system works well for me— I figure having A+ for next year will be crucial to making the new system work for me as well.

So far I'm still short of renewing A+. I've got a bit shy of 53,000 TQPs out of the 70,000 TQPs required. Yes, these TQPs (Tier Qualifying Points) are different from the CPQPs that qualify for Companion Pass! I've got a plan for how to hit the 70k mark this year.... Actually I've got two plans. But both of them take some work. The thing is my forecast— remember I said above that's one of the main reasons I track all this on a spreadsheet?—has me coming in at 67,500 TQPs for the year based on my remaining anticipated flying and credit card spend in 2025. I need to figure out an additional 2,500 TQPs of activity to hit the mark. I hope a quick business trip or two will fill the gap, but business travel has turned sluggish with customers preferring to meet remotely, rather than face-to-face in the office, most of the time.

Phoenix Getaway travelog #12
Now at PHX airport · Tue, 23 Sep 2025. 1:30pm

We're at the airport now, chilling before our flight home in 2 hours, but before coming here we did enjoy a last hurrah at the resort this morning.

We got up early this morning, around my usual weekday 6:45am alarm. Aren't we supposed to sleep in on vacation? Well, yes and no. When the sun's up early and sets early it makes sense to make good use of daylight. And it's not like we were up late last night anyway. We tried using the resort's hot tubs after dinner but both were broken. One had no heat, the other had no jets. So after a short soak we returned to our room for the evening.

Breakfast at the Cafe

Since we were up early today we opted to sit for breakfast in the hotel's small restaurant. The past few days we've contented ourselves with eating protein bars in the room so today we decided to splurge a bit. Plus, one of my elite benefits here at the Hilton hotel is a $30/day food credit. Yesterday we used the credit toward our lunch at the pool cafe. Today we figured we wouldn't stay late enough for lunch so we used it toward breakfast. Not that it covers breakfast. $15 each doesn't even get the job halfway done when breakfast plates are around $20 apiece, plus $5 for a juice or soda, plus tax and tip. But it changes the cost calculus enough that we enjoyed dining out instead of eating protein bars in the room.

Quiet Morning in the Water Park

After breakfast we returned to the room, relaxed a bit, and changed into our swimsuits to hit the lazy river just after its 9am opening time.

The water park at the hotel isn't very busy on a Tuesday morning (Sep 2025)

The water park at the hotel isn't very busy on a Tuesday morning (Sep 2025)

Yesterday was pretty quiet at the water park. Today seemed even quieter. Even though this is a great time of year for #PoolLife in Phoenix— the weather is hot but not too hot— the resort hasn't been too busy. I figure that's because school's back in session, so families aren't taking trips outside of the weekend. And even on the weekends they're buying fewer day-passes as kids are busy with sports and other activities on the weekends. And that was all part of my plan for why to make this trip now. We balance great summer-y weather— even though today's high of 100° is crisp Fall weather by Phoenix standards 🤣— with less crowding.

We spent a few hours at the river ranch this morning, alternating between floating around the lazy river and relaxing on lounge chairs in the shade. Come 11:30 or so we decided to call it a day... er, morning... and headed back to our room. I'd arranged a late checkout of 1pm so we could shower, change, and pack our bags after using the pool.

Making Time to Shower and Change

The late checkout wasn't strictly necessary. The hotel is fine with guests staying in the water park all day after the normal 11am checkout. We've taken advantage of that policy several times in the past... packing our bags in the morning, stowing them in the car, staying in the pool area until sometime mid-afternoon, and changing in one of the bathrooms when it's time to leave for the airport. But having a room to go back to is more civilized, and today the timing made sense for that. Plus, taking a shower in our private room instead of changing quickly in a public bathroom has made me feel a lot more refreshed.

Little Charge for Charging

Like I said at the top, we're chilling at the airport now. Oh, returning out rental car involved a bit of... weirdness. Remember I maligned renting an EV because figuring out charging without an annual subscription is a pain in the ass. And expensive. Well, I decided to simplify the conundrum of "a pain in the ass and expensive" down to just expensive and return the car with 60% charge to the rental depot and pay whatever ridiculous marked-up rate they charge for electrons. Y'know, like how they charge you $6/gallon for gas if you return the car less than full.

I noted the less-than-full battery to the attendant processing car returns and asked about the cost.

"It's only 12 cents," he said with a chuckle. "We'll email you a receipt."

"12 cents per kilowatt hour," I responded, "That's great. Without a membership the commercial recharging stations are charging 48 cents on up."

Except I'd misunderstood him. The rate wasn't 12 cents per kilowatt hour— which I estimate would've come out to $4 or $5 total to top off the battery. I checked the emailed receipt just now on my computer, and it shows 12 cents, total, for the electro-fillup. Bonus!

Phoenix Getaway travelog #4
Scottsdale · Sat, 20 Sep 2025. 2pm

We're spending a total of three nights in Phoenix on this trip. We chose to split our stay, though, and spend two nights— tomorrow night and Monday night— at one of the splashy-pools and lazy-river resorts we've enjoyed in the past, while spending tonight somewhere else. Why? Cost. We love the resorts with the splashy pools and lazy rivers, but they're spendy. So while we planned this trip around spending two nights at one of those resorts, when we decided to stretch it to an extra day I went looking for a place that would not cost us $300+/night.

Long story short, we landed for tonight at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. And while I had some second thoughts about the hotel after booking it several weeks ago I held onto the reservation because I could see, online, that they'd upgraded my room already. In fact it's not just a room but a two-storey casita. Here's a video walkthrough:

Watch on YouTube

And now for the rest of the story.

Like I said above, I was looking for places that did not cost $300+/night. I also figured, Hey, why not try to use points? I have points with Hilton, Marriott, and IHG. As I scrolled past lists of uninteresting Hampton Inns, Courtyard hotels, and Holiday Inns— I scrolled past them because although I wanted inexpensive I didn't want dull— I spotted the Scottsdale Plaza Resort on IHG. Using IHG points would be a plus as those have been burning a hole in my digital pocket— i.e., it's gotten tough finding decent redemption values for them— so I clicked through to read more about it.

"Hmm, this seems familiar," I said as I started reading. And as I checked the pictures and the map I realized the hotel is familiar. I've stayed there before! The Scottsdale Plaza Resort was where my company held a two-day sales training summit in May. At the time I scoffed it's less a "resort" than a Holiday Inn painted in shades of desert brown. And there it was, on the list of IHG hotels, nestled in between Holiday Inns. 🤣 Sometime in the past few months the hotel joined the IHG brand family.

As part of the hotel hoisting the IHG flag it's going through some renovations. The main building, including the restaurant and bar, and the main pool area are closed. That's why I had second thoughts after making the reservation. But when I saw this upgrade come through I decided to stick with it. With the pool and hot tub right outside our backyard patio I don't think we're missing anything here. And this is really more space than we know what to do with. I'm looking forward to the next 22-ish hours here.

L.A. Trade Show journal #3
Downtown · Tue, 16 Sep 2025. 9:30pm

I'm at my hotel in downtown Los Angeles. It's the Moxy hotel, in one of the newer high-rises downtown. Actually a lot of the high-rises downtown are new to me. The last time I stayed in downtown LA was in the early 00s, and there's been a building boom since then with new hotels and residential towers.

I knew when I booked the Moxy that the rooms here are small. Like, tiny by US standards; and more like what I saw at salaryman hotels in Tokyo. But still I didn't expect it to be quite this small....

Watch on YouTube

I have to squeeze past the foot of the bed to get to the other side. The only furniture in here is two tiny nightstands and a kid-sized chair. One of the nightstands is meant to double as a desk— and that's what the tiny chair is for.

Also, the gal at the front desk who checked me in gushed about my elite status (Marriott Titanium) and the upgrade they had for me. It's an upgrade to a City View room. Except the city view is a view of the convention center, two major freeways, and a freeway interchange.

One big plus, though— and this is the primary reason I booked at the Moxy— is that the convention center is right across the street. I won't have a long trek tomorrow to/from the show, which will especially be good if I need to make the trip twice.

Update: The longer I spend in this room the worse its design gets. It's like the designers didn't even spend 2 hours trying to stay in this room, even as a solo traveler, for even a few hours, let alone a full night. In addition to the problems I identified above, there's pretty much no horizontal surface onto which to place things. Need to lay out clothes to change into? Lay them on the bed. Need to open a briefcase to find something? Have to lay it on the bed. I do not like using my bed as a workbench, but here I have to! Hanging clothes is silly. The only places for hangers either (a) leave my clothes dragging on the ground because they're so low, or (b) have my clothes hanging over the front of the TV because, yes, that's where the hanger hooks are. And the lighting in this room is terrible. It's like living in a dive bar.

Next up: A Day at the Show.

Canada travelog #30
Seat 1E aboard UA 2462 · Fri, 29 Aug 2025. 7pm.

Once we decamped from the Maple Leaf lounge, where we'd spent 4 hours at YYZ airport in relative comfort, it was a surprisingly long walk to our gate. We left the terminal main area a walked through a long series of corridors that looked like they were built out of shipping containers. Then we went down an escalator— where I loudly asked no one in particular, "WTF? Are we going to the subway?" Yes, it was definitely the Blacksmith, the Manhattan, a 3 G+Ts talking. And we landed in a bargain basement concourse, on ground level, with exposed wiring and ventilation in the ceiling and limited, obviously slapped-together services.

The bargain basement or "F Trump" concourse at YYZ (Aug 2025)

The bargain basement or "F Trump" concourse at YYZ (Aug 2025)

I'd never seen this concourse before at YYZ, yet apparently it's where all US bound flights depart now. I promptly dubbed it the "F Trump" concourse.

While Hawk and I waited at in the makeshift boarding area— because, of course, our flight was delayed— I checked my boarding pass. I was lined up in the Group 2 boarding, and Hawk told me we're now in Group 1. (Group 2 has been the standard for my elite status level for years.) I looked at my boarding pass, and sure enough it showed Group 1. But it also showed my seat in first class. I figured it was my boarding pass from the flight out here a week earlier so I deleted it and loaded a new one from the United app. But the new one showed a first class seat, too. That could only mean... I'd been upgraded!

Upgraded to First Class on the way home from Toronto... and yes, I sat there with a toy bald eagle on my lap 🤣 (Aug 2025)

Upgraded to First Class on the way home from Toronto... and yes, I sat there with a toy bald eagle on my lap 🤣 (Aug 2025)

My new seat is 1E. That's a bit of good news/bad news. Good news, because when is a seat upgrade ever really a bad thing? But also bad news because it's not much of an upgrade. A) I already had a primo seat in economy plus, an exit row aisle seat. B) First class on this flight is domestic first class, which means it's basically just a slightly wider seat with free booze. And C) seat 1E means leg room is cramped because I'm up against the bulkhead— as you can see in the photo above. But hey, a slightly wider seat and free booze— I'll take it! 🥂

And yes, as the photo shows, I'm sitting here with a toy bald eagle on my lap. "Baldy" has drawn a lot of interest. Several passengers and all of the cabin crew have made comments and/or asked questions.

...What kind of questions? Oh, things like, "Where's that eagle from?" To which I've explained just a small part of Baldy's elaborate backstory. (All of our birds have backstories.) OMG, people have been thrilled to hear this toy's origin story! 😂 Among other tidbits, "he" used to live at the base of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, got lost migrating south one year, got stuck in Las Vegas and survived on an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, has been with us for over 20 years, and only recently we learned "he" is really a she!

Canada travelog #29
Maple Leaf Lounge, YYZ Terminal 1 · Fri, 29 Aug 2025. 2:30pm.

Getting through the airport shuffle at YYZ today was... well, I won't say swift, because par for the course at YYZ it felt like we had to walk to Mississauga and back, but it was at least uneventful. There weren't really any lines....

Nearly empty passport queue for Canada to US (Aug 2025)

Nearly empty passport queue for Canada to US (Aug 2025)

Passport control had more agents than travelers. I've read that trips from Canada to the US are way down thanks to our bellicose president. I wonder if the lack of crowding here at the passport queue is due to Canadians choosing not to travel to the US, or just due to the time of day. I'm certain it'll be more crowded late Friday afternoon, but how crowded?

It was also quiet here at the lounge when we arrived just after 2pm. Access to partner lounges is one of the benefits I get from my United Airlines Gold status, and Air Canada is a Star Alliance partner. If there were a United Club lounge here I would not get in for free, because United does not consider Canada "international" for purposes of its international travel benefits. (United was waaaay out ahead of President Trump, years ahead, in verbally treating Canada as "the 51st state".)

Enjoying a meal and a drink at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge (Aug 2025)

Enjoying a meal and a drink at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge (Aug 2025)

Hawk and I are sitting down now, enjoying a meal in the lounge. They've got a little buffet going that today has bulgogi, pesto pasta, and sauteed broccoli. It's an odd combination, but it works. And it's free and it's tasty.

Speaking of combinations, my beer in the photo is a combination. The lounge has a few beers on tap, including Smithwick's Red and Guinness Stout. I poured myself a Blacksmith.

Update: By the time I left the lounge around 6pm I'd eaten another plate of food and knocked down a Manhattan and 3 Gin + Tonics. 🥃🍸😋