Odds & Ends and upcoming posts
Good morning everyone, sorry about the paucity of posts over the past 3 weeks. A lot was going on, most importantly, my co-blogger, and founder of this blog, Glenn, got promoted to Brigadier General – Bravo Zulu Sir! We finally got to meet at BACon (BoardingArea Convention) in Vegas, and we had a great time. I got to meet some of my blogging heroes, including legendary Randy Petersen, who, like me, loves tequila.
After that, my wife and I finally got to fly, just the two of us (thanks mom and dad for babysitting!), in business class (thanks US Airways pre-Oneworld conversion!) to Hong Kong, Phuket, and Singapore. The trip was paid for almost entirely with points – I’ll be going over in the next several posts about the flights, the hotels, and how I booked them. Unlike some bloggers, I don’t blog on vacation 🙂
A couple of random things:
-If you haven’t read Frequent Miler’s post on the new Target REDcard, check it out, it’s a game changer…unfortunately, it’s only available in a very limited number of stores.
-If you’re worried about catching Ebola on planes, don’t be. It can only be spread by contact with bodily fluids, it’s not aerosolized, so unless a person with Ebola coughs some phlegm into your mouth, you’re safe. Medpage says that medical providers have a small risk of contracting it while taking care of hemorrhaging patients, so you shouldn’t be worried. Besides, passengers from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone will be screened by airports anyways, so unless (or until, depending how pessimistic you are) Ebola mutates to become aerosolized, you’re far more likely to die from almost everything else.
-I just applied for and got the Citi Prestige and the 70k Chase Ink, and got confirmation that I’ll get the annual fees waived as per the SCRA (servicemembers civil relief act). If you have questions about how to do that, check out my prior posts on the subject.
I’ve always been high on Ultimate Rewards points, given their strong transfer partners (all 3 major alliances represented), and am now avidly collecting ThankYou points, given their new transfer partners, including EVA, Singapore, Thai, Qatar, Etihad (all of which I’ve flown), Garuda, Cathay Pacific, Air France, Malaysia, and Hilton for hotels.
In addition, I was bummed because I previously had but cancelled the old Citi Forward card which gave 5 Thank You points per dollar at restaurants, bookstores, and entertainment. However, my brother still has it but never uses it, so he made me an authorized user, and I’m now I’m get huge points. If you still have that card, check out Frequent Miler’s post on how to capitalize on bookstores.
-Seems like the General’s last post inspired some people – we might have some guest posts coming up this fall.
-Finally, GO EAGLES!!!
