Singapore Airport is incredible. It’s like the ultimate hangout spot, if it only didn’t require a boarding pass to get in. I could imagine people wanting to get their friends together and hang out for a day here. I was on my way from SIN to TPE via Tigerair Taiwan, and since I had to check luggage and the counters weren’t open more than 2 hours prior, I wish I had more than 2 hours to explore. I will definitely allot more hours next time I’m there. It’s these Asian airports that make me realize how paltry our American lounges are in comparison!
Category: travel
Trip Report: Taipei Lounge Reviews
This will be a photo-heavy post because I assume that in cases of trip reports, people are generally more interested in seeing photos than reading text! The photos should mostly speak for themselves…
Terminal 1:
- Plaza Premium Lounge (Zone D) – Priority Pass
- Transasia Legend VIP Lounge – Priority Pass
Terminal 2:
Trip Suggestions: Singapore
I just got back from a work trip to Singapore, but I had enough time to do some sightseeing, given that the city is small and most of its attractions are all very close to each other. It was my first time in Singapore, but it has been on my travel bucket list for a long time. In my mind, I had Singapore on a pedestal and expected it to be extraordinarily clean, have beautiful architecture, have tons of amazing cheap food, and have strict rules. Well, I found Singapore to be everything I expected, plus more.
Enter to win a roundtrip flight from Alaska Airlines with Uber for Pride Week
I’m sure if you have an Uber account you’ve seen this promo already, but you can enter to win a free roundtrip flight anywhere Alaska Airlines flies with a sweepstakes from Uber. All you have to do is live in certain West Coast cities + Honolulu, enter the appropriate promo code, and take rides on Uber during the sweepstakes period, which aligns with Pride Week in the various cities.
The sweepstakes periods and promo codes are (Los Angeles and Portland are already over, but San Francisco is on right now!)
The case of the mysterious United 60k Asia award
My buddy sent me this award he recently booked on United, and commented that it was awfully cheap. Originally, he had booked an open jaw, SFO-SIN (on the new 787 nonstop!), TPE-SFO and it had priced out at 75,000 United miles, but he decided to see if he could complete the round trip and booked a new trip with the same itinerary, but added a leg on EVA from Singapore to Taipei.
And mysteriously, the award only priced at 60,000 United miles. This makes no sense at all, given that a one way Asia award should be *at least* 35,000 miles.
Trip Suggestions: Fiji
Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I’m using this time of rest to honor and thank those who serve our country and keep us safe.
Today I’d like to share things to do in Fiji on a budget. You could easily travel to Fiji and have a blast by spending loads of money (those interisland transfers aren’t cheap!), but on our recently DEM Flyers trip to Oceania, we just wanted to chill in Fiji after a whirlwind trip through Sydney and New Zealand.
Getting a refund for Citi ThankYou Points flight reservations due to schedule change
I’m doing a lot of mileage running this year with the target of hitting the Executive Platinum status on American, so I had one of those crazy Panama runs booked. But as the date was getting closer, I decided I wanted to go for a shorter period of time, and didn’t really want to go on the weekend I booked.
I knew about American’s schedule change policy, which states that schedule changes over 2 hours will allow you to cancel a flight for free. But as I had booked through Citi with my ThankYou points for 1.6 cpm because I have a Citi Prestige, I wasn’t sure what their schedule change policy was. According to the Citi ThankYou terms & conditions regarding travel:
How to fix T-Mobile international data roaming on Android
One of the reasons I switched to T-Mobile is because of the unlimited international data plan. Although the speed is limited to 2G, it’s really taken away the stress about how to get data while travelling. I mostly use it to look up directions, message people, and call taxis, and it has been super useful in situations where there isn’t any free Wi-Fi around.
Previously, my international roaming had been working flawlessly on my Nexus 6P, except for the fact that I had to manually select the T-Mobile compatible network when I arrived into a country. I play around a lot with custom ROMs for my phone though, and I had installed a new update a week or so before I left for Panama.
What happens when the Global Entry machines error out on you?
Well you certainly don’t get to try again, as I found out. I was in Miami on the way back from Panama, chatting with some new travel hacking friends I met on the flight back. We headed over to scan our documents at the Global Entry kiosks. I was going through the standard answer the questions, take a picture, scan your fingerprints, and got the last screen, where it said “Validating information. Times out in 31 seconds”
Review: Aer Lingus business class SFO-DUB (and getting original mileage credit on AA!)
“I wasn’t even originally supposed to be on this flight!” I exclaimed, as I was getting adjusted in my seat, in Aer Lingus business class going from San Francisco to Dublin.
So what had happened was I was originally booked SFO-JFK-DUB in American Airlines business class, leaving San Francisco Sunday at 8:50am and getting into Dublin at around 7:00am Monday. I got to the airport nice and early for my 8:50am departure, got to the gate… and the 8:50am departure slipped to 9:30am due to some mechanical issues. Nearing departure time again, I got called to the counter by the gate agent.