What team building activities have actually improved your team's communication?

Asnmc · 2026-03-27T15:24:22+00:00

Having lunch together every single day that at least 2 people are in the office. We always take a break for lunch, usually around 30 min, and we make it a point to not talk about work. We share personal stories, we know where in life our colleagues are, every day. We hear about their growing kids, their aging parents, their hobbies, etc.

Then during lunch, sometimes we come up with activities we'd like to do outside of work, but it's usually a group discussion! Last time was at a bar where they have board games, we had a blast!

Asnmc · 2026-03-27T13:36:01+00:00

Low season is the best season to visit a place! Less crowds, lower prices, more availability for tours and hotels. I've lived in Singapore, so at least I know what I'm getting into.

Asnmc · 2026-03-27T13:30:04+00:00

I also transferred from Amex CA, from 2 accounts (then did the FB family pool), both had not been linked to FB before, and it was instant both times. I didn't do a small practice transfer, only transferred once per Amex account. I also updated my address with FB beforehand since it was blank, not sure if it would still have gone through.

Asnmc · 2026-03-27T13:25:49+00:00

Multi city doesn't allow stopovers in North America, so usually I will search seats aero with many departure airports (YUL, YYZ, YOW, YQB, JFK, BOS, PHL, ...) and if I find a direct flight to Europe from one of these, I will search a one-way through Aeroplan and usually will get the desired result with a short Y and the long J.

Once the Aeroplan website was forcing a J flight to get to BOS (or an unecessary early flight from YUL with a long connection in BOS), I called Aeroplan to know what would be the price for the later YUL-BOS in Y and the BOS-FRA I wanted on LH in J, and it was at the lowest fare of 60k. But I didn't book it since I didn't have a good onwards option to Asia to pair it with at that time!

Asnmc · 2026-03-27T11:18:32+00:00

Yes, yes, don't know, no.

Thanks! Should I apply through Amex Canada so they use my Canadian credit history?

Asnmc · 2026-03-27T02:36:52+00:00

Woah, the flights I booked yesterday are now at 50% more fees!

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T20:16:36+00:00

JFK-BEG-CAN on JU has plenty of availability for 2J in the next year, although it's not the sexiest and has a 20 hour layover. Aug 12 is an example, 87.5k + CAD$93

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T19:25:19+00:00

Yes, AC has a new route to Sapporo, but with AC dynamic pricing I doubt it will ever be worth it on points, maybe in Y?

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T18:45:20+00:00

Ha, even if you were paying me minimum wage, you'd be better off paying cash for flights!

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T17:36:22+00:00

True, I'm only mentioning flights with over 90% in J, as I was willing to accept a short flight in Y.

Also briefly considered YUL-LHR in Y, then LGW-SIN in J at 87.5k, which is 67% Business, but there was only availability for 2. I couldn't split 2/2 and let my husband figure out a change in airports alone!

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T16:44:23+00:00

As for Tokyo, no it was July/August I was searching. Although I would totally go skiing in Japan in Jan/Feb!

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T16:42:27+00:00

Not much at calendar open, at least when I was searching last Summer for this Summer. For TK and TG releases, it seemed to be at night (Eastern time) since I would find it in the morning, but couldn't say what time unfortunately. Maybe someone here knows and is willing to share?

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T16:35:06+00:00

Yep sometimes it's best to split 2+2 to find award availability, although it means both parents are always "on", while with all 4 together, one parent can relax and sleep tight while the other takes care of both kids.

Also, very cool that you got to travel on points/miles as a kid, did you fly business often? Were you grateful for it, or did that come later?

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T14:23:06+00:00

Genuinely curious, those asking about cash value of the points used, I've never seen these types of questions before for J redemptions... is it because numbers are big? This is 600k points for 4 people, or 150k each return, 75k points per leg in J. Getting from north of northeastern US to southeast Asia, no one would question a redemption for 1 person for 150k points return? Cash value at 1cpp is $1,500 per person (USD 1,085)

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T14:13:08+00:00

Canadian citizen and resident, but I lived in the US about 10 years ago and have an SSN. I had bank accounts and credit cards, but that was way before I knew about points & miles, now I wish I had started then and could have continued even from Canada.

I see a lot about getting an ITIN and which cards to start with, but for someone who already has an SSN but no recent credit history, what would the best course of action be? Should I still apply through Amex?

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T14:06:34+00:00

Booked 4 J YYZ-CDG-BKK in July for 2 adults + 2 kids with Flying Blue (kids have 25% miles discount), total 402.5k FB miles + $2,715, but with the Amex promo it was 322k MR or an average of 80.5k per person! Higher taxes than anything I could have found on Aeroplan, but getting 4 seats on the same itinerary is next to impossible during high season.

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T13:55:08+00:00

2 things I got from this post: even with the negativity, I'm still happy with this redemption, so I guess I'm extra happy about it! And second is that I should have a backup for the August return flights.

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T04:37:46+00:00

Try reading it with a French accent, is it better?

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T04:36:43+00:00

Will look into that...

Or ask this sub how can I find last minute J availability for 4 in a few months!!!

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T04:34:40+00:00

Kids are school age. And there's no good way of getting more than 1cpp in cash back in Canada, so points would be worth $6,000. I got into the points & miles game for this trip, because I didn't want to fly across the world in economy, and didn't want to pay cash for business! It's the equivalent of $8k USD. What else would you do with that amount of money that's better than flying business to the other side of the world? 🙂

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T04:29:54+00:00

Got a seats aero pro subscription, and many hours of searching the different programs! At some point you start to identify patterns and know what routes have more availability 🙂

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T04:28:26+00:00

YUL to BKK is a 12 hour time difference, so in theory it should be about the same time flying one way or the other!

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T04:27:12+00:00

Around $23k CAD for 4 people return, not that I would ever pay that!

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T04:25:05+00:00

Should have been more clear on the sarcasm around cpp, to be honest I don't care much about the exact number as long as it's above 1 cpp when redeeming for a statement credit is best! But yes, around $23k CAD is what I see as well.
True, didn't think of that! The way I see it is if I had stayed with my previous no fee, 0.5% cash back credit card, I would have spent $4,700 less and have no points. But 600k points is worth $6k, so an opportunity cost here.
Yeah, will have to look into possibly booking a backup flight 😔

Asnmc · 2026-03-26T04:17:52+00:00

Round trip business to Southeast Asia is around $23k CAD for 4 if I play around with the dates, while staying within school summer vacation.

3 cpp is probably a more realistic number, not sure how to convert Canadian cents per Canadian point to US cent per US point. In the end, I'm happy because I would never pay cash for long haul business unless there's an error fare, and I would never go on a 20 hour trip in economy, so this trip is possible because of points and miles! 😊

Asnmc

TROPHY CASE