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Amazon.com / Amazon Japan
Pleasantly surprised by Cathay Pacific's service for oneworld emerald customers even in economy. Middle seat was automatically blocked off, multiple FAs came by to greet me, was given a bottle of water and a blanket / pillow
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Apparently in Germany, if your DB train arrives at your destination between 1 hour and up to 2 hours late, you get 25% compensation, and if 2 hours or more, 50% compensation.
Had a crazy delay going from Berlin to Munich where our train arrived 2.5 hours late 🥲
Most of us know that shopping internationally can mean a significant savings especially with tax refunds via Global Blue, Planet Payment, Travelex, etc. I recently returned from Paris, where I shopped at a few stores who did tax refunds via Global Blue. However, I also discovered and tried out a newer service called Wevat (referral REQRESZQ for additional 5 euros refund; I receive no commission) for smaller purchases, and I’m here to report the experience!
I have a wallet that I keep my “everyday” cards in. It’s a zippered clutch (link goes to my exact wallet; but this is a private label item, there are a lot of similar ones you may be able to find for cheaper) that is large enough to fit my iPhone X or Pixel 2 XL (but not both simultaneously), has an inner zippered compartment for coins (I also store SIM cards and an ejector tool in it), pockets for cards, and long open compartments for cash. To be honest, I don’t really like the card slots, because they slow down my ability to grab cards easily by a few milliseconds (#firstworldproblem). For the cards I really use a lot, I just throw them in the larger compartment with the cash so they’re easy to grab. I’m thinking about changing my wallet to this one, since it’s about the same size as my current wallet but has a much more convenient way of dividing/accessing cards. The WestCreek store on Aliexpress has a lot of other interesting wallet designs.
This wallet goes in my purse of choice, which is almost always the Longchamp Medium Le Pliage Tote Bag (beware of fakes on Amazon; the straps will fall off within months). I love this purse because it is one large compartment, into which I can throw my down jacket, battery pack and cables, things I buy, or anything else I want to bring, which I organize into smaller zippered bags. The soft flat cloth amenity kits really come in handy here. I’m not a big fan of purses with a billion compartments because I feel like it’s harder to find what I’m looking for. At least with my amenity kits, I can be like, “Ok, I know my VGCs are in the Jack Spade bag.” This purse is also awesome for travel because it folds flat and small. Since you can only carry on 2 items on most flights, I prefer to use my quota on larger items such as a carry-on spinner and a backpack. The Longchamp then gets packed flat inside either the carry-on or the backpack.
There are generally two more types of cards I have:
Most of my “occasional outing” cards are organized into little card books (I just plucked the first link I found, shop around for the cheapest price or styles you like). I got these from Aliexpress, and I love them because they are easy to open, flip through the pages just like a book, and insert/remove cards. Mine have 28 pockets but I’ve put up to 2 cards per pocket without much issue. The current ones on Aliexpress seem to have 32+ pockets now. The pages are top-loading and are partially cut so that it’s very fast to grab the card, use it, and slip it back in. Another nice feature is the card divider tab. You can use the tabs to label sections of the card book, or use them as a marker for when you’re running through multiple Amexes at the cash register and want to mark where you left off. I got a set of these books, and designated each color:
The rest of my cards, including the “permanently sock-drawered” cards, are stored in a Honolulu Cookie Company box.
Many of my friends use binders like Trapper Keepers (like what you used in elementary school) or Case-It zippered binders (like the ones you used to use in middle school) with pages of business card or trading card plastic sheets. The zippered binder has the benefit of containing cards in case the binder mechanism fails and the pages want to explode all over your car, plus you can throw in a Sharpie and a Scotty peeler (as an aside, if you don’t already own a Scotty peeler, you need one in your life STAT!).
