"Brad's Status" is a journey story: A man needs to take his son for an admissions interview at Harvard. This would seem easy enough, but the Harvard issue brings about a mid-life crisis. Why doesn't our man--Brad--have more money? When his in-laws die, what will they do with their cash? They wouldn't actually leave it to charity? Brad's "Silver Points" card should offer some form of retail therapy, at the airport, but in fact Silver Points won't get you out of the long "pleb" line. Maybe an upgrade to business class would help--but the upgrade, per seat, is around 800 dollars. After Brad tortures himself, he decides to go ahead with the absurd purchase, and it's at this point that he discloses that the original ticket was bought on sale via Orbitz. The Delta rep says, "We can't upgrade an Orbitz ticket. There is literally no sum of money you could offer that would lead to an upgraded ticket." Things get worse when Bra...