Author: michael

The case of the mysterious United 60k Asia award

June 7, 2016 / / 0 Comments

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. Continue reading →

And the Citi AA Platinum Select World Elite loophole with targeted mailers keeps chugging along

June 3, 2016 / / 11 Comments

Back in February, there were fears that the Citi AA Platinum Select World Elite loophole was dead. I did my 3rd round right about when the reports that public links would not trigger the bonus. Fortunately, I applied with a targeted mailer and I did receive the signup bonus. Data points collected in March suggested that public links were failing, targeted links had a mixed success rate, and targeted mailers had a 100% success rate. Continue reading →

Should you purchase money orders with the fees included or excluded?

May 24, 2016 / / 0 Comments

TL;DR: the marginal difference is so small that it doesn’t matter. Do whatever you feel is more convenient for yourself / the cashier. If you can lump together multiple MOs in one transaction, or have some small value debit gift cards to get rid of, get the maximum value of the MO.

Given the TL;DR, why am I writing this post? For the math of course!

Say you have 2 $500 Visa gift cards that you have acquired through mysterious means, and you are at your favorite place to get money orders. The fee for a money order of value between $500.01-1000 is $1.60. The question is, should you purchase a $998.40 money order with total value of $1000, or a $1000 money order for a total cost of $1001.60. Continue reading →

Getting a refund for Citi ThankYou Points flight reservations due to schedule change

May 20, 2016 / / 1 Comment

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: Continue reading →

Getting to Europe using your transferable point currencies

May 18, 2016 / / 2 Comments

As a follow up to the guide on how to get to Asia using your transferable points, Adam from The Jet Set Blog commented that he also had a  comprehensive guide for Europe. He’s also planning to add guides for each major region, so I’d give him a follow.

Introduction – Getting To Europe Using Your MRs, URs & TYPs

I’ve got some reading to do! And now that I will have 100k extra MR points, Alitalia is looking like an increasingly attractive option for business redemptions. Continue reading →

Comprehensive guide on how to get to Asia from the US using URs, MRs, and TYPs

May 17, 2016 / / 2 Comments

I stumbled upon a very nice and comprehensive guide on how to effectively use your Chase UR, Amex MR, and Citi TYP to redeem for flight awards to Asia the other day. Given that I love travelling to Asia, this was perfect.

What Adam at the Jet Set Blog has compiled is a guide on the cost of awards from North America to Asia as well as details on how to book for every single airline transfer partner for each program. I haven’t found a guide this comprehensive before, and certainly not for the 3 major programs (excluding SPG). I personally got a lot of value out of the Membership Rewards part, as I hadn’t yet figured out what to do with the 50k I received for my PRG as well as the upcoming 100k from the Platinum card I just applied for. Continue reading →

How to fix T-Mobile international data roaming on Android

May 15, 2016 / / 9 Comments

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. Continue reading →

What happens when the Global Entry machines error out on you?

May 8, 2016 / / 0 Comments

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” Continue reading →

Review: Aer Lingus business class SFO-DUB (and getting original mileage credit on AA!)

May 7, 2016 / / 0 Comments

“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. Continue reading →

Driving on the wrong side of the road again – Japan edition!

May 2, 2016 / / 2 Comments

After my first driving adventure on the other side of the road, I went on another trip to a country where you drive on the left side of the road, the land of the rising sun, Japan. Now with some experience, would my next time driving on the left side be as easy?

Before all of that, you might be asking, “Why drive in Japan? Isn’t there a great public transportation system over there?” And the answer is, normally you wouldn’t. The train system in Japan is very extensive, and with options like the JR Pass for tourists, you should be able to get to the majority of tourist areas for free or just with a charge for the last local connection. Plus, driving in Japan is expensive, with pricey car rentals and highway tolls. Continue reading →

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