mike carey

I feel a certain degree of cognitive dissonance posting this after posting about spending cash to buy J class tickets rather than chance an award ticket or points upgrade, but here we are. My excuse (and I'm sticking to is) is that I'm looking for value in both cases. It's also a topic that comes up from time to time. The consensus always seems to be to pay with a card that offers points or no foreign transaction surcharges or preferably both, and for cash (sometimes cash is king) use a local ATM at your destination after researching what your bank charges. Not everyone agrees of course! I had generally followed that script but also bought currency at the Travelex at the airport which had reasonable rates, and no commission if you ordered online to collect at the airport. In planning ahead I'd again done local research online and then went into my bank (HSBC) to ask them. After a brief conversation, somewhat at cross purposes, with the concierge (or whatever he was) who seemed to be saying that they didn't do random exchanges of currency notes, turned out they do it for customers. Their rate (with $10 flat commission) was 1.5 cents better than what I'd found on line. My account is multi-currency and if I'd chosen I could have withdrawn US cash directly from the US funds in the account (which I'd bought at 10 cents higher than today's rate and which I can add to at the prevailing rate any time online). (Later, if I need to, I can deposit any US cash back into the account without converting it.) [Any purchases I make or cash I withdraw in the US with my HSBC debit card come from my US funds.] Not for everyone but another data point in the travel money conversation. I have to thank @Tarte Gogo for suggesting the Honkers and Shankers as a good bank if you travel, or are something of an itinerant resident.

QF has non-stops from DFW to SYD and MEL, and AA to AKL. SYD is daily and MEL 3 or 4 per week. I don't know about other airlines but QF has an upgrade auction. Seats offered to members who request an upgrade at the QF fixed points rate are allocated before auction bids are considered.

They are gone, and went quickly, and from my unreliable observation were easier to score on AA and AS sites than QF. But their news releases cite how many points were redeemed on a single day, so there must have been plenty of seats moved on the QF site. I'd rather they released more seats consistently rather than a heap at once, and improved the search page, but that's not how they do things, and as Ben says you need to work with how the airlines run things not hope they'll change. It seems QF likes the big seat dumps to prompt members to rush in and book. They don't have free changes and cancellations, but at a flat 5,000 and 6,000 points respectively, it's pretty much small change. @BenjaminNicholas's point that at 250-300k miles a year loyalty makes sense especially as flights on any airline in the relevant alliance count. How your chosen airline treats you in IROPS matters, and they do differentiate. Fewer miles than that and the case is less persuasive. A couple of weeks ago QF expanded its redemptions on China Airlines and said that it would mean onward seats would be available from Taipei. I couldn't find any but there was plenty of availability from here to Taipei.

AA's program to which I've paid the most attention in the US seems to be losing its point. Part of the issue for it is that they threw all the cards in the air and reassembled the deck differently and people either haven't worked out what it means to them or don't like it because it's different. With Australian airlines gold status (=AA platinum) you get lounge access and I value that (QF has a second domestic tier of lounge that you get with platinum). Free upgrades are not a thing here but points upgrades are and the higher your status the earlier they'll offer it and the higher your priority for getting one. For me gold is worth the effort and with only two domestic airlines there's less scope to fragment your flying. Obviously international is different. (And yes, my QF status gets me free checked baggage on AA and AS if it's not included in the fare. It's always included in QF fares.) Even so, like @Unicorn I'm reassessing. QF award availability and ease of access is rubbish so I'm piling up points with limited scope to use them. Upgrades on international (and even domestic) trips is an option but I have to buy a QF ticket to get them. Like others I'm looking at buying the fare class I want based on price and convenience. Most airlines I'm likely to choose will contribute to my QF or VA status.

You can't do it yourself. Report the post (use the three dots at the top right of your post) and ask the moderators to move it.

Adding to Rob's reply, if you were referring to the 'Ask a Provider' forum rather than the two forums about individual providers, it's been reconfigured as: https://www.companyofmen.org/forum/80-question-about-hiring/

No, @RadioRob has changed the lay-out of the front page list of forums.

My current regular will greet me in gym shorts em tasol*. Happy with that, and we've never discussed it. He's always been in a hotel room or similar, that I've been able to access from the street so it hasn't been 'public'. This makes me consider whether I need to 'reach out' to him when he opens the door! *PNG Pidgin for 'that's all'.

That would indeed be amazing!

Qantas released a bunch of extra award seats about a month back, and I saw some complaints here that they were hard to find, but more accounts on OMAAT and the like of people successfully booking them on AA and (I think AS) FF programs. Qantas' award booking process is, shall we say, not industry best practice (for passengers, at least).

@tassojunior, sorry, I was aware you knew the details, I was cross-referencing your post and adding to your explanation of what an ESTA was, and noting that disclosing your passport number is not optional.

And you have to apply for it at least 72 hours before departure. I haven't had to apply for them yet but the EU and Canada have similar pre-departure authorities you need to apply for, as do Australia and New Zealand although I don't need those. Passport details are mandatory requirements to apply for an ESTA so you cannot decide not to provide it (if you want to travel). I would expect all of those systems to have a similar passport requirement to the US. The US also has a mandatory international arrival form that I'm always prompted for when I book on the QF site, and it too requires your passport number.

Umm, you apparently misread. He didn't say 'people like you' he said 'people you like'. So you are furiously agreeing with @Jamie21.

In yet another PR move (Me, cynical? Heaven forfend!) Qantas has again extended the validity of its Covid travel credits, well, sort of (I've just used mine, thanks for asking). Due to expire on 31 Dec 23, they can now be used for travel through to 31 Dec 24. This is only a 'sort of' extension as people still have to use them to book before EOY23 but travel can be in the ensuing 12 months. I had missed the previous proviso that until now travel had to be complete by EOY23. I expect a flood of gratitude on social media in 3, 2, 1 ...

West Texas Intermediate doesn't work quite so well..

So she is not aging?

And as you would no doubt have discovered in answer to your musings, there is a district of Floral Park that is in the New York City borough of Queens and not part of the incorporated village of Floral Park, in Nassau County. That is not to guarantee that the caller was a resident of the village and so should not have called the NYPD. Of course, for those who are wondering, Nassau County should not be confused with the city of Nassau which is in an entirely separate country.

Moderator's Note Gentlemen, this thread is about whether deposits are becoming more common and why that might be so. This is not the place for comments on why or why not other members may choose, or choose not to pay them (fine for you to cite your own reasons). Stop the gratuitous character assessments and other judgmental comments on your fellow posters.

I just looked at my profile and the option to show both Covid and MP status is still there. The default display is 'do not show'.

Gentlemen, this is a most interesting conversation but it has quickly, and I suspect unsurprisingly, become one about a place and what culinary delights are available there, rather than one about members cooking up a storm, the intended focus of the 'What's Cooking' forum. While I acknowledge that for some participants in the thread, travel to the Castro may involve only a Muni or BART trip, for most of us it involves more, and in some cases far more substantial travel. For that reason it sits better in the Travel Desk.

You may rest assured that I won't be on the first flight back after the weekend!

As noted earlier, a drought is a moisture deficit compared with what is normally available. It's not just a matter of precipitation at a particular time, so a downpour often (or perhaps usually) won't end a drought. Similarly, the absence of the usual amount of rain, even for an extended period, won't necessarily constitute a drought. The 'normal level of moisture' includes the amount of water in rivers, lakes and reservoirs and the level of soil moisture, all of which take time to replenish once it starts raining (and take time to be depleted when it stops). 'Official' drought declarations for areas are a regular feature of weather reporting in this country (few of them lately) and no doubt in others. When there is a drought, weather reports of rainfall will comment on whether it is 'drought breaking' or how much it will contribute to breaking the drought. Sometimes a drought ends quickly, more often it's gradual.

I'm looking forward to renewing old friendships and starting some new ones next month. I've made twin Faustian bargains with Qantas and Inndulge for the weekend and can't wait to be on my way. Thankfully, after hearing horror stories about Qantas shunting travellers to a different, higher priced page when attempting to redeem travel credits, I had no such problems. My credit from my aborted 2020 PSP flights was accepted seamlessly, and at face value, towards my trip this time.

Oh, no! I bet that shut the Metro down!