re: Credit Card Rewards and Points Discussion

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I've had the companion pass for about 5 years, and I'm 99% sure you have to get it every year

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Well I say every 2 years because it is good for that year and the following. So if you get it now, it's good through 2015 and 2016. So you get 18 months out of it.

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The Six Senses Ko Yao Noi is just ridiculous in every way including price

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Those properties are so nice. Banyon Tree and Anantara have some bad arse properties too.

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I think I read you can get a helicopter transfer for 60k Baht? Yeah, that's reasonable .

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I think I'll just take the speedboat ferry.

IF only I could find those damn award flights on Bangkok Air that are supposedly so easy to get. I might need to sign up for expertflyer for a few months

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You take the boat from Phuket?

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Ya, that's the plan.

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You transfer to JAL? Never knew about that. 5k points for <1k miles? Very nice.

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I did probably 3 months ago. I was on the phone with JAL and they said some flights were available (who knows if that was true). By the time they transferred from SPG I was SOL. Been frustrated ever since. The whole phone call to find availability thing is annoying as all hell and the wait times the first couple times were maybe 30 seconds but last few were over 15 minutes. Bad news, 10,000 SPG points are stuck in JAL. Good news, they're ready

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You know that Air Asia often has $20 flights DMK to HKT?

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Ya we chatted about this previously but at the time I looked I found their flight schedule to be inadequate to our schedule while Bangkok had more options and better times.

Expertflyer trial says 7 seats available but I have my doubts, I'll give it a shot right now. HOpefully I get a fluent english speaker, no offense to the nice Japanese ladies who do answer.

ETA: At least I got an English speaker. Looks like its up to the 18th so it appears I'm still just too early. That's good to know. FYI - expert flier shows Y class but JAL says they can only book X which I don't see on Experflyer at all. I'm hoping/guessing that available Y class seats will convert to X for partners 6 months from departure.

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I'm reading that they are even counting authorized users against your 4-5 credit card openings against you. I'd be close to being able to apply considering 3 of my last 5 apps last year were business cards. I very well might try and try to get a rep to exclude cards I'm an authorized user on.

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Ya, I read that too which seems to be going a tad too far. The 4-5 apps thing makes total sense though, but they can do whatever they want. I'm going to have to check out Citi now more than ever. If they will take care of me with Premier and Prestige, then I won't worry too much about Chase. In any event, I've applied to about every individual airline card known to man between my wife and I the past two years that mattered, so I'm not going to be able to get a Chase UR card for the foreseeable future anyways. Besides, I've been pleasantly surprised with how fast I earn UR as is. Since I booked my honeymoon, I'm back up to over 36k UR in 4 months even while using other cards heavily. If I can still get cobrand cards outside of the rule as rumored, that's cool by me.

And you're right, we do need a gas station...thinking caps on.

Alright guys, looking for a couple of vacation suggestions in Europe. I have enough miles to go basically anywhere. I was wanting to go to London to do Wimbledon but it looks like tickets are not easy to come by. Would it be best to go to multiple cities in a week or is there enough to do in say a Paris or Rome to last a week? Just looking for a few suggestions and any recommendations for people that have been to places in Europe.

I was thinking of just doing a week, but I could do 10 days if needed.

This is would be my first time to Europe, but I feel like Rome or Greece would really be to my liking. I was thinking I might try to get French open tickets since they will probably be easier to come by and stay in the Paris area for a week.

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I was thinking of just doing a week, but I could do 10 days if needed

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If you can do 10 do 10, I don't think you'll ever regret adding the days, but you could regret not adding them, just my opinion.

The weather along the Med. is going to be warm, awesome and height of beach season this summer, but busy, so you're going to want to check flight award ability as we're getting close in. Also close in booking fees may start popping up too.

I've been to Greece but not Italy. With 7 days I'd lean Italy in a big way and 10 probably still. Italy being one piece of land really helps getting around.

A Rome, Florence and Tuscany/Cinque Terre area trip could work. Buckeye is going later this year so he could details for that.

I'd also check out things like AirBnB for stays. Some real unique properties abound.

Haven't been to Paris, but my buddy has and I'm sure you could spend a solid amount of time there if you so choose.

Fro is right, the nature of the trip matters a lot.

Sorry for the brain dump, I've been studying for a bar exam.

I've done everything from whirlwinds through Eastern Europe to sitting in a city for a week, and I love it all. That said, if this is your first time in Europe, I would encourage a single country, multicity itinerary. A single country reduces the learning curve (different language, different train system, different cultural norms, etc.) while going to multiple cities keeps you from putting all of your eggs in one basket.

If it were me, I would either do France or Italy. Maybe Paris, Lyon, and a few days either in Provence or the riviera or Florence, Rome, and either Venice, Tuscany, or Cinque Terre.

I'm in the same boat, I'd rather stay in a region for a week than the whirlwind, but the whirlwinds were fun too.

Keeping travel time down is my main goal. Going to/from train/airport packing/unpacking etc can really kill time when time is limited, so finding a region where you can hop around efficiently helps.

It also really matters how you're travelling. If it's me and my buddies, we can do 2-3 days and move quickly to a new city. If it's with wife and kids, moving rooms is cumbersome and airports/train stations tend to stress her out, so I try to keep that to a minimum and really soak in an area.

Rome, Cinque Terre, Venice are definitely doable in 7-8 days.