Citi, Citi, Citi. Is there anything else to talk about? Airline Credit, 4th Night Free, HHonors issues have been topics filed under the category ‘complaining’.
A previous complaint and an ongoing joke with Citi is now being rectified. I know a few have already posted about this but I feel, given my struggles with the card, that I am entitled to say a few words about this latest development. Citi is updating the Citi Prestige and putting the magnetic strip on the back of the card where it rightfully belongs.
Someone in marketing probably thought they were clever by moving it to the front. This resulted in unnecessary awkwardness wherever I tried to use my card. At the grocery store, the cashier would swipe one way, swipe another way till I had to intervene and tell her the same line, “This card is stupid. The strip is on the front.” At restaurants, my card would be ‘declined’ because the server couldn’t get it to swipe. Even I had trouble at gas stations trying to orientate the card the right way before filling up.
Finally after reading my post Citi Prestige: Being Different Is Stupid, Citi has given up on its mission of revolutionizing the way that cards are swiped. It’s going back to the way things were: if you swipe it, it will charge.
I keep a running list of the banks, airlines, and points programs that have wronged me. There’s a permanent spot for Sprint on there because they are the worst company in the world. When I have the energy, I call in to get longstanding problems resolved. These include reversing incorrect fees, getting credit for nights stayed, and general complaining.
As I had written, Citi is on the list because I haven’t received my travel credit for the EgyptAir flight and because I hadn’t received my credit for the 4th night for using the Citi Prestige. Previously, I had chatted with an agent about the 4th night and they said I was ineligible. I was going to call in eventually until I saw this on my statement:
My 4th night had credited making the Hyatt Diamond Challenge a remarkable, discounted success. Did this show up because I eloquently wrote to the representative that she is incompetent and clueless? Or did my statement close and it was automatically triggered? The same situation happened with BOA and Alaska when they said I wasn’t eligible for the $100 statement credit but then it magically appeared.
I’m beginning to rethink my logic about people being smarter than computers. I’m 0/2 when I try chatting and 2/2 when I leave the crediting to the computer. Calling is still my favorite past time because I get to philosophize with the agent about how the situation should be resolved in my favor and why I deserve a courtesy credit for my time being wasted. My new pitch goes like this: “You get paid to deal with customer problems. I don’t get paid to call in, sit on hold, be transferred all over, for something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Who’s going to compensate me for my lost time?”
Having said that, your time is truly valuable. To that end, I recommend keeping a list of the sinners then waiting, waiting for a resolution, skip the chatting, and only calling in because it is absolutely necessary.
Should we just give up? A few days after promising no more MS talk, more great news, Giftcards.com max for Visa gift cards is now $250. So now another option is out the window. I can’t update my MS chronology fast enough to keep up with these changes.
My advice to all ye churners is to hit those mins now. There is no time to waste. I’m not saying this is the death of MS but what would you do if this was the end of the road?
And now a parting tribute to giftcards.com:
Although we’ve come to the end of the road Still I can’t let you go It’s unnatural, you belong to me, I belong to you Come to the end of the road Still I can’t let you go It’s unnatural, you belong to me, I belong to you
Fourteen weeks of training is done for the Athens marathon and in order to keep myself honest and motivated, here’s my weekly diary of all things marathon.
Here’s what happened this week:
Another week of being unable to walk landed me in the orthopedist’s office where x-rays were taken.
He says there is nothing wrong with me except for the fact that I can’t walk.
So for months I’ve been dealing with a problem that was brought to my attention by a nice comment on one of my posts: “Your pics are horizontal when they should be vertical. It looks awful.”
They appear the right way on desktop and on Android devices but not on stupid iPhones. I thought I had fixed the problem and even tested it with you the audience. That day it worked but a quick audit of many of my posts has revealed that the problem was not fixed. Not a carrier of an iPhone, I had no idea that the problem persisted.
Indeed, post after post has pictures sittin’ sideways like Paul Wall rather than the proper orientation. The culprit for this misery is the EXIF file that not only steals your personal privacy but also affects the way the image is displayed.
I have not found a plug-in to erase the EXIF file for the thousands of photos that I have uploaded so I will have to go in post by post and re-upload the images. Hopefully, someone reading this will provide a more efficient solution. Otherwise, I care too much about the blog to let the sloppiness stand.
Going forward, I’m using Image Tuner to scale the image and the Image Rotation Fixer plug-in to do the formatting when I upload.
Stupid Apple. Stupid iOS.
Life is crooked with iOS but it’s showing up correct on my desktop.
Find the nerdy planning here. Find the picture preview here.
Guns or butter? Fight or food? This post contemplates what you should do on a trip to one of my favorite cities in the world, Saigon, Vietnam.
As a quick recap, my Trip Reports use the Guns And Butter framework to delineate a clear choice of where you should spend your time while visiting a new destination.
A trip is composed of two factors: Labor And Lazy
Anything on the line (Production Possibilities Frontier for my fellow economists) is an efficient use of your time depending on your tastes and preferences.
Anything inside the line is inefficient as should be avoided.
Anything outside is aspirational but may be impossible to do given the constraints of time and resources.
The opportunity cost (what is given up) for relaxing and being Lazy is gained by being adventurous in the form of Labor and vice versa.
In the present case, the choice is literally between guns and butter. Do I spend my time going to the Cu Chi Tunnels and shooting old Soviet guns or do I wander the streets lost searching for the best phở? The answer to this question depends on your appetite.
Crossing the Street
But before we get into what you should do, I have to discuss safety. The most labor intensive part of your trip will be crossing the chaotic streets of Saigon. Like a game of Frogger, it takes skill and confidence to get from one side to the other. The strategy is simple: walk at a normal pace in a straight line without stopping. The motorbikes will not hit you. If you panic and freeze then you’re putting your life at risk.
Morning CommuteEvening CommuteThe Dare Devil
Cu Chi Tunnels
Museums aren’t my cup of tea but live history is. The Cu Chi Tunnels are located outside of central Saigon and should not be missed. They are an intricate web of underground tunnels that were instrumental in fighting the American in the Vietnam War which is called the American War by the Vietnamese.
Part of the tour includes a presentation where the tour guide describes why it wasn’t difficult to fight the American forces. They had the American combat strategy mastered: The Americans would send their fighter jets and drop bomb after bomb. This would be followed by ground troops. In response, the Vietnamese would hide out in the tunnels trying to withstand the air raids. When the forces came they would engage them in the battlefield and lead them to the tunnels where the husky Americans could not enter. Those that did met their demise by way of medieval booby traps. Despite the Vietnamese’s technological limitations compared to the US, this was an innovative, effective strategy.
The Cu Chi TunnelsNew FriendsOld US HelicopterSoldiersThe StrategyThe Tunnel Entrance12345
After the tour, visitors have the option of shooting old AK-47s and M16s. This is probably worth skipping unless you’ve never done it before.
GunsNot butter
There is also a War Remnants Museum in central Saigon which has a collection of American Might that was shot down during the war. Inside, there are photographs of the devastation from the war.
War Remnants MuseumAmerican HelicopterPossibly a M110 Self-Propelled HowitzerKid does not look to be in a safe spot
Bargaining Market
The bargaining market is where you can find sunglasses, souvenirs, I Love Pho tee shirts, as well as beer and liquor for some day drinking. Don’t pay more than $2 for a tee-shirt and $2 for sunglasses (reference the guide for Bargaining Abroad). The sunglasses salesman will try to convince you that his glasses are better than those on the street. Even if they are, don’t pay more. They will come down on the price!
Liquid Courage Before ShoppingThe MarketBeersSpiritsA must buy
The Pho Tour
The Pho Tour is right in the middle of the Labor/Leisure part of the graph because it is a combination of both. Nothing is more relaxing than a savory bowl of pho but nothing is more exhausting than the after effects of said bowl. Here is a list of the best pho in Saigon.
Pho Pasteur, best pho in SaigonCafe Su Dah necessary stimulantBetter than Starbucks
Party Time
Somehow in Saigon partying is less labor intensive than shopping and site seeing. Here were the best places to party. Note that in the end you will end up at the tourist trap of Apocalypse Now.
Fuse
In Saigon, bars can’t stay open past midnight. The police show up at this time and everyone ‘hides’. The club turns off the music while the police does its inspection. Then the party is back on, sort of.
The StapleMartinis before the police
Lush
This place was nuts. There were bottle after bottle of liquor being drank, crazy light shows, and happy party goers. The Americans who ordered one bottle were put in the back corner near the wait station while the locals who bought a dozen bottles had comfortable booths.
One lonely bottleThe Crazy SceneForeigners in the back
Tourist Row Intersection: De Tham and Bui Vien streets
Every tourist will find his or her way to this corner at some point during the trip. Across from the Wild Buffalo Bar is another with cheap beers and a shady nightclub upstairs. Down the street there are even more bars with even cheaper drinks. It’s Saigon’s baby version of a Khaosan Road.
The SquidNot AppetizingThe tourist streetTourist Trap + Tourist BeerAfter party at Pho Pasteur
The Park Hyatt
After doing all that, it’s worth the points splurge to relax by the pool at the Park Hyatt Saigon.
Care for some trivia? Where is the largest stadium in the world?
If you guessed the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan you would be wrong. The largest is the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea with a capacity of 150,000. Second to the Supreme Leader’s place is the home of the Wolverines which has a capacity of 107,601. Any guesses why there’s an extra one? It’s in honor of Fritz Crisler, the director of athletics at the time the stadium surpassed the 100k mark.
If you’re a fan of sport, you definitely must visit the Big House not because it’s home to the greatest team in the history of college football but for the sheer spectacle of seeing a venue pack in more people than the population of many cities.
The must see games are Michigan vs. our little brother, Michigan State and the bitter Buckeyes of Ohio. From the outside the stadium is majestic. It is not uncommon to witness the clouds opening and the sun to shine down on the stadium, a clear indication that God is a fan of the maize and blue. From the inside, it’s either pandemonium or the quietest 100,000 people you’ve never heard. If you’re a neutral visitor looking to fit in, avoid wearing scarlet and gray and say Go Blue! no matter what.
Hail!
The Main EntranceDivine InterventionThe Big House RemodeledThe TraditionThe Triple OT Greatest Game I’ve SeenBig House by NightThe Victors ValiantThe Old Press BoxPre OSUThe RivalryThe Shirt Says It All
This is the debrief for the Trip Report: That Champagne Lifestyle which evolved from a mileage run to London, to frustration at not getting in on the British sale quick enough, to despair from dealing with British customer service, to…champagne.
What started out as random trip planning turned into a focused mission for finding the best price, the best itinerary, and the best way to end the summer of 2016. Here’s what I’ve booked so far:
The a380 from Los Angeles to Nice via LHR
Includes lounge time at Terminal 5
The Grand Hyatt Nice
Photo courtesy of Hyatt.com
The Park Hyatt Milan
Great way to end the trip
The Pretty a380
a380 back home
In between now and basically a year from now I’ll figure out how long I’m staying in each and where I’ll go in between. A stop in St. Tropez is necessary and probably another in Monte Carlo because it’s St. Tropez and Monte Carlo.
My philosophy for booking trips has developed. The overarching theme is to Shut Up & Book! when it comes to points purchases but there are rules for not being wasteful (Buyer’s Remorse: A Case for Hoarding Points). A different strategy applies for mistake fares (Making Mistakes in Booking Mistake Fares) and now this one for mega sales. Overall, what is a great deal, good deal, or lousy deal is subjective. So long as you are satisfied with the derived value, you can call it whatever you want.
The lesson learned from planning this trip is to not settle for a great deal simply because it is a better deal than what is normally available. Since I was going to spend $800 on the flight, I had to make it count. That is why I swapped Lisbon for Nice. Though I still want to go to Portugal, nothing says summer like a cliché time in the South of France.
Maybe it’s the effects of bad food or the terrible weather of England but the feeling of gloom is when dealing with British Airways. And they seem to want to spread this despair during the booking process. If you’re one of the lucky ones to have booked a flight during the British sale I hope you are satisfied with the booking. Otherwise, you will be stuck like I currently am trying to find a way to cancel in order to rebook.
Why not cancel online you may ask? Here’s what it says when I try:
Why do I have to call!
The chronicles of dealing with British customer service have been documented. It starts with that depressing music that fills the room with melancholy. That is broken up by the sweet voice of the agent who tricks you into believing that someone will soon be on the line. If someone ever does answer, the bait and switch is completed by the agent who can’t be bothered to help you with your reservation. As a matter of fact, I feel guilty asking for their help because it sounds like I am interrupting something important that they are doing.
Why is British so mean to its customers? Surely it must be something we are doing wrong.
Perhaps they hate my unsophisticated American accent, the way I say Landon instead of Lundun. Perhaps they think I’m ‘taking the piss’ or getting ‘cheeky’ when I ask if they’re sure there are no flights available. Or perhaps they’re jealous that our national food isn’t fish and chips.
All this could be avoided if you let me cancel online but that would be too positive a solution from such an unhappy company.
Yesterday I dropped the ball on the British Sale by tending to my real job and not my points profession. By the time I got around to looking for flights, all the deals were gone. I managed to book what would on any other day be a tremendous deal but for others reporting that they had received similar flights for much cheaper.
Here is the itinerary:
Business is on the right but you could pay more for premium economy if you would like.Each leg I paid an extra $30 for British over AA, a worthwhile choice
The cost includes the AARP discount and the discount for using 30k Avios. Luck would have it that I transferred enough Avios at the old MR rate to have the 60k required.
This fare is still available as 11AM Pacific Time.
Here are the pros for keeping it:
$800 for RT in British Avios is a good deal.
It is on an a380.
I have to go to Europe next year to use my newly minted Hyatt Diamond for the Park Hyatt Milan. From there it’s off to Naples, and Portugal during peak summer travel.
This is an open jaw ticket.
Using points to fly to Europe is a waste if it’s from the east coast and not worth it if I were to book with British.
Here are the cons:
Others got similar routes for $450: This kills me because I booked two tickets meaning I’m paying $1600 while they are paying $900. That’s a substantial difference. By cancelling at least I don’t have to be on the plane wondering if I paid more than my fellow passenger.
Keeping apprised of air deals and booking quick is not a novel concept. Sometimes we arrive first and have our pick of the litter and sometimes we show up too late and are forced to take what’s left over. I’m wondering whether it is worth it.
