The secret to the companion pass is that most people get it through credit card bonuses, not spending loads of money on Southwest. We’re on year 4 of our companion pass - my husband and I each pass back and forth the credit card applications every other January to get it for another 2 year block. It takes planning,…

And Southwest does let parents and kids board first, for this reason. Southwest also gets people on the plane faster than most other airlines, so kids probably won’t be waiting for too long.

Where? I am trying to think of any time that I’ve used my Chase credit card (with a chip but no PIN) overseas, and the lack of PIN was a problem, and I can’t think of any. Sure, there’s times when they don’t take credit cards at all, but usually I either get a receipt and sign it, or don’t sign the receipt at all, but…

third greatest school in Los Angeles

I’m a USC alum.

TLDR on power adapters: You only really need the *converter* if you’re bringing a hair dryer, curling iron, or some other large, high-voltage electronic item. All your digital toys - phones, cameras, etc - will be fine plugging into the wall anywhere, if you have a plug adapter that fits.

Eh, I’ve never really seen the point. Chip, yes, American credit cards all have chips in them now anyway. But I don’t have a PIN on any credit card, and I’ve never needed one.

Agreed - I’ve never used a ridiculous money belt, in Europe, Asia, or South America. I usually do only keep one credit card and some cash in my pocket, and just call it good. I leave a backup card or two back at the hotel, zipped up deep in a suitcase. I also *never* carry around a backpack with me. It’s amazing how…

We have Global Entry (really got it just for the precheck with a credit card reimbursement) and still probably use Mobile Passport *more often* than GE, since the line is almost always shorter.

Well, it depends on the ATM itself in the airport. The ones right next to the currency exchange desk, run by the currency exchange company, are usually pretty bad. But if you’re in baggage claim and there are national bank ATMs sitting there, they are usually pretty safe to use. That’s pretty much all I’ve ever done…

Seconded. Just get cash from an ATM in an airport when you arrive. Virtually all international airports will have ATMs that take Visa and Mastercard debit or credit cards. Sure, you might pay an ATM fee, but you’d pay a foreign exchange fee at a bank too, and that is probably even higher.

That said, I have a hard time believing that they issued a public statement with out doing that math.

The whole “buy your car online in about 1 minute” is actually pretty insulting to most non-uber-rich people. Yes, nobody wants to spend 4 hours filling out paperwork at waiting at a dealership. But I also want to spend more than 1 minute doing it too. It’s not a bag of dog food from Amazon I’m buying here.

Agreed, but I do recommend people see Georgetown, because above the street level retail, it does look very authentically “old” like Washington would have looked - sort of - in the 19th century. Unlike most of the rest of tourist-path DC, which is dominated by huge unnatural monumental-scale buildings.

That said, before I had this corporate job, I worked for state government, and we all ran Windows 10 on much nicer, more capable and updated machines than I have here.

It’s not that unusual for large organizations to still be running Windows 7, although I think it’s decreasing pretty rapidly. I think most of the federal government does. A lot of the US military is still apparently on Windows XP.

Oh, many of us are well aware. IT is even well-aware. But we’re a massive organization where even the smallest changes cause huge protests from people who haven’t had to change the way they work on their computer in a decade or more (these are the kinds of people who work on a computer at work, and have no personal…

if you told me you’re caring for your child during a business calm with me I’d suggest we reschedule when you’re available to concentrate on your work.

Hmm, I spent my birth through early childhood on a farm in Washington State that was fed with well water, and we always drank it. But it was apparently so lacking in any flouride, the doctors at the time (30 years ago) told my parents to give us flouride pills, in addition to using regular toothpaste. I’ve since heard…

About 0.001% of our company (of tens of thousands of people) would be able to make use of a text-based web browser though, but I get your point.