Wouldn't a few nights in a nice hotel, even with the pets (or send them to one of the good doggie hotels with pampering and play time if they're too big or too many for a hotel) have cost a lot less than $6000 - $783? You could even throw in a romantic weekend trip with wife as an apology and still have a lot of money left over.

you’re an economist, I’m an engineering and technical management pragmatist — a $1000+ repair (including the $249 weekend service call) on a 24-year-old gas furnace is a strong indication that more stuff is going to start failing as it reaches the end of its life; our son and my sister are staying with us over the holidays (plus we’re hosting Xmas Eve dinner for my SIL and her husband and kids) and we certainly did not want the next of those failures to hose things up for more than just us and the pets

at least it’s 6k RDM on my AS card (company doesn’t take AmEx)

Premium Select is 2-4-2; regular economy is 3-3-3 except for the first row, which has two seats on each window side. I flew MSP-HND-MSP last week in PS, so this is first-hand confirmation.

SeatGuru’s seat maps do not reflect the reconfigured 777s that have D1 suites, PS, and main cabin/regular economy. Delta.com’s aircraft page also is not updated and shows the old 777 configuration of D1, C+, and E. The seat maps that show if you are making a reservation are the correct ones. Be sure to scroll all the way down the map since there is a difference between PS and E.

It’s also worth noting that for many dates the price difference between PS and E is <$200. PS is quite a bit more comfortable and earns 150% MQM.

1) There are no particular seats that seem better or worse for a solo traveler. I like the bulkhead seats because there’s maybe a bit of extra legroom (not as much as in some of the Comfort+ bulkhead seating) and no one reclines into you. The drawback, of course, is that the AVOD screens are the kind that pop up from the side of the seat. I don’t know if those screens may be a little smaller than, and not positioned as well as, the ones on the seat backs, which are very nice and large. As you probably know, you have to store all your stuff in the overhead bin for take off and landing with the bulkhead seats. I had a bulkhead window seat going over and a mid-cabin aisle seat in PE on the return. I was happy with both. The non-bulkhead seats have quite a bit of space, with little nooks and crannies, for storing things. All the PE seats are separated by a fixed arm that’s about 6 inches wide.

2) I paid $1594 and am seeing that price in a random search of flexible dates in January. Several days show PE as quite a bit cheaper than Main Cabin.

3) I have no idea what determines the D1 suites pricing. I booked in mid November for December 2-6 travel. I wait listed for mileage upgrades at 45K, with little expectation of getting them. That was a realistic explanation; I didn’t get an upgrade in either direction. The D1 cabin seat maps never showed more than 1-3 available seats. I’m guessing those seats were mostly purchased but don’t know whether there were some early GUC upgrades.