mightytravels

Seoul to Seattle is usually 8-10 hours of flying.

Delta offers Premium Economy (called Premium Select) and gets good reviews. It is like US Domestic First Class.

It really depends on the difference in price and your personal preferences - if you booked Economy already and there are upgrades available for $200 at check-in or less I would always go for it on a flight of that distance.

If you haven't booked check what is the price difference currently (monitor other carriers too, no need to just check Delta).

Also keep in mind if planes are really empty (many intl routes still are from/to Asia) you can likely score a 'Poor Men's Business Class' - i.e. an empty row (usually in the middle and back of aircraft). I have done that many times and find four Economy seats very comfortable to spend 10 hours on (you can often move seat cushions for a more snug fit).

You can use the airline website usually to see how full a plane will be (via the seat map) before booking anything.

South America really is a great place!

I really liked El Calafate (Patagonia) and have been itching to go further south for a while (Ushuaia). Great adventure to be had there - you may even consider an Antarctica cruise which apparently can be had cheaper last minute from there (though I have not verified that).

Santiago de Chile is a great place for a few days and Valparaiso is a great day trip. Lot's of travelers also swear by the Atacama desert.

I personally enjoyed every single trip to Peru. Lima is a wonderful city, great beaches, awesome food, very quiet and pretty in the seaside neighborhoods just a short walk away from the center. Cusco and Machu Picchu is just a short flight away.

Colombia is a great as well with beaches (Cartagena) and high mountains (Bogota) in such close proximity and many smaller 'heritage cities' as well as Medellin in between. While still a bit dangerous (less so than Brazil!) it's so easy to travel and amazing value right now.

We screen almost all fares that are being updated by the major airlines every day (GDS). In addition we also check most discount airlines that do not file in GDS (i.e. Spirit, Ryanair etc).

We only include fares that are great deals (decided by our 'secret sauce' algorithm).

Now our travel concierges look through those and select which ones might be most appealing to subscribers. Is there overlap with FT or other sites? Quite possibly but it is really up to the individual 'travel concierge'.

In our experience it the majority of great fares are often 'found' by our algos and later published on blogs and other sites without reference. I know that has been a problem for FT Premium fares forum too and much of the debate went into private groups. Well we believe in sharing information - information really 'wants to be free' :)

Experts like you (and others on FT) have a great repository of knowledge about the best fares globally and they often have such deep knowledge that they can make these fares even better (more miles flown or free stops etc).

That is a fascinating process and indeed very laborious. In my experience this is a still a heavily expert driven and manual process. We replicate this to an extent with AI but it's more fair to say we are a pre-screen model for anyone with expert knowledge such as yours who can take the 'best candidates' further for their own research.

Thank you!

FT and their members have taught me so much over the years - I am incredibly thankful for that! However the current incarnation of FT is not Randy Petersen's Flyertalk anymore. We'd love to be back on FT but I am not sure it will happen.

We share deals via Mighty Travels Premium of course and on our Facebook Page/ Twitter account.

Over the years chasing status has become less and less valuable for me personally. I am in the same boat as you I do have Alaska status and I am happy with that. It pays off nicely not just flying Alaska but also American.

It is sad to see that Hong Kong is closed as major hub (more or less) so we all need to fly through London more :)

If your flights are primarily paid for by your employer (who does not mind somewhat higher fares) I think United Premier 1K is a great status to have.

Among my favorite countries are:

- Indonesia (Bali! but Indonesian are just the friendliest people on earth)

- Japan (almost equally friendly, so much to discover!)

- South Africa & Namibia (raw natural beauty, incredible value currently, easy to travel in)

- Uzbekistan (Samarkand has incredibly beautiful sights and history, shaky politics in Uzbekistan though)

- Kazakhstan (Almaty is an underrated city and the Alatau mountains are the perfect backdrop)

Tough countries:

- Somalia is just really dangerous (unless James takes you apparently :)

- Iran (political situation is just not favorable but many, many travelers have done it without issues, I am on the fence)

I still have lots of countries (and regions left) that I never had the chance to see for myself.

Have you been to a country that is tough to travel to?