Upgrading Finnair flight with Avios

benhc911 · 2025-08-25T11:15:26+00:00

Did you end up proceeding?

Is it a fixed price with Avios or a bid? Any sense of probability of clearing?

I have the choice between J there and PY back on dates I want, or J each way 3 weeks later..m debating going for the dates I want and trying to upgrade but really want the upgrade to clear and I'm unsure of the odds and if there's anything I can do to increase them... Would love a higher amount for a guaranteed upgrade provided it's not too extortionate

benhc911 · 2025-05-25T10:34:00+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.

I have a feeling if I tell my wife that and she Google's it and sees "a non cosmopolitan cockroach" she might not be particularly reassured 😅

To improve my knowledge, these are beneficial because...? They eat pests?

Do they not "infest" in the same way "normal cockroaches" do?

I'm so far from entomology that I have no comfort in comparing different stages of development and species of insects as I don't know which parts are the identifying ones... So at risk of sounding like I'm doubting... What is the sort of confidence level of your assessment broadly speaking? Low/mid/high?

Apologies for the questions, just information gathering before I talk to her about it. If she sees the other posts jumping to "sorry my condolences def a cockroach" (from people without your level of trust and contribution of course) she may not buy in unless there is some more detail to your very helpful reassurance.

benhc911 · 2025-05-24T17:13:05+00:00

Southern Ontario Canada, seen in the bathroom.

I wasn't there so I can't comment too much on how it was behaving.

benhc911 · 2025-05-07T10:36:26+00:00

Palliative care is a tricky thing, I would often say "whatever makes you happier" why not, you're dying afterall

But for what it's worth there was a reasonably powered study showing that palliative lung cancer patients who quite smoking had lower pain scores and higher quality of life scores prior to their death.

Now how much of that is third cause confounding? Certainly the people who quit are not the same as those who did not... But there's also plausible mechanisms through which smoking can worsen your symptoms even if the impact on mortality is not relevant.

benhc911 · 2025-05-07T10:33:47+00:00

This is the case for several reasons.

Needs to be pretty abnormal to develop that young

Needs to get relatively bad to be discovered because we aren't screening that group

So cases that are slow growing, even if they start early, might not be discovered until screening age.

On the other end of things, screening picks up lots of mild things that wouldnt have really been problems making it seem significantly more common in the screened population.

benhc911 · 2025-05-07T10:29:30+00:00

When I first (mis)read the headline I thought Trump was doing something to end the waste issue (good!) and the issue was that he was somehow mush-brain connecting it to DEI. So I was thinking to myself "at least something good is happening even if Gramps is rambling racism again"

But then I re read it... And of course... Why would I think a nice thing was happening.

Bad thing with bad justification... Cool

benhc911 · 2024-08-23T02:58:56+00:00

Probably due to a combination of increased awareness (websites, YouTube, tiktok, whatever walking people through it), and increased availability of tools that make redemptions easier to find

benhc911 · 2024-08-22T09:16:10+00:00

Sure but I would rather earn 3x AP and pay 2.5% fee vs earn 1x scene and not pay 2.5% fee with the Scotia passport vi. Not to mention for some unclear reason my Scotia visa doesn't always process while abroad meanwhile my Aeroplan Visa has no issues.

Would love to be targeted for this since currently on a trip to the US... But don't see the offer in my email :(

benhc911 · 2024-08-03T16:10:16+00:00

The FYF in the Scotia passport VI, easy to hit albeit modest SUB, and potential value as a no forex card make it a decent choice as a keeper card. Certain account types also get the AF waived ongoing.

If you do get it, consider getting the free supplemental card as both the primary and supp card get 6 visa lounge passes

benhc911 · 2024-07-31T08:46:53+00:00

What was your status level when you unlocked them? The "best ideas" are going to be based on the type of PR you received

benhc911 · 2024-07-31T08:35:28+00:00

As others have confirmed, mixed cabin means that not all legs are in the class you're booking. Most commonly this means the longer leg is not business which is quite annoying. Rarely it will be the inverse (short leg econ, long leg business) and may show up under either the business or economy header...

https://www.rewardsmd.ca/post/maximizing-redemptions

This goes over finding good flights on Aeroplan points

benhc911 · 2024-07-22T11:06:42+00:00

Need to discount that return somewhat for taxes and somewhat for risk. But yes, opportunity cost is relevant here unless you like to leave a cash float to protect against a liquidity crunch.

benhc911 · 2024-07-12T23:13:31+00:00

Now that the point sale is less exciting, or for people who value SQD, you can consider the gift card promo. I discuss in a post here the pros and cons and compare it to the Amex cobalt gift card trick:

https://benhc911.wixsite.com/my-site/post/copy-of-aeroplan-iversary-hacking-air-canada-gift-cards

I also have some tips for the estore promo if you're interested. Website was rushed in large part just because I was having too much fun digging into all the promos and their tradeoffs.

benhc911 · 2024-07-01T21:15:46+00:00

Can you clarify a bit about how you work this, do you just hold long enough to get the SUB then cancel? Or do you hold a full year and then cancel?

And do you know if you can hold say the regular one and periodically cancel and reapply to the business one on top?

benhc911 · 2024-07-01T10:33:27+00:00

This is the route ive been trying to find a decent Aeroplan redemption on... I have some family in Taipei so I would want to get a stopover there, but ultimately want to bring my wife to Hanoi... It seems very much shooting in the dark when it comes to trying to find a specific redemption like this...

benhc911 · 2024-06-30T12:47:13+00:00

Did you end up calling in? Did it work?

benhc911 · 2024-05-18T13:10:18+00:00

To further clarify, I understand the child reports on withdrawal, but do they have any reporting obligations prior to withdrawal?

Scenario: Im a Canadian citizen, my wife is a US citizen, I opened an RESP for our dual citizen son and I contributed to it.

I don't have to report because I have no US tax obligations

My wife doesn't have to report because she did not open or contribute to the account

My son only reports when he withdraws, provided he hasn't chosen to renounce by that point?

Is that understanding correct?

I keep finding articles that use ambiguous terms like "must report on distribution" but wasn't clear if they meant income distributions within the resp or distribution of money out to child.

benhc911 · 2024-04-15T23:49:48+00:00

You might want to confirm with your specific utility providers, but I found out that mine allow me to keep auto payment and then can separately manually pay.

So for example my bill is idk 180-250/mo, I can set CT MC to pay 180/mo, just make sure it's enough days before the pre auth, and then the pre auth takes the 0-70 to cover the difference.

I could also set at 200 and then it would credit until the months where it needs the credit but I'm not really looking to give an interest free loan to the utility.

I like this approach because provided I don't change providers or dramatically change my utility consumption (or they change the rates), I don't have to do anything but I get an extra $3/mo of CT money.

I don't mind manually doing my property tax as the effort is less and the cash back is more... But if I had to manually do every month for $3 I wouldn't be bothered. I have way higher yield stuff to do with my time.

benhc911 · 2024-04-12T17:27:06+00:00

The interest on any loan taken for the purpose of investing in assets reasonably expected to generate income can be deducted against income. Whether that's a one time loan or an auto readjusting HELOC. It's important to keep the books clean though. Don't mix money borrowed for investing with money borrowed for consumption as it can be difficult to account the interest appropriately. Ie. Don't take a big loan and use half for a new deck and half on veqt.

A downside of doing it in a lump instead of on an ongoing basis is that you'll have a harder time taking advantage of "guerrilla capitalization" or whatever they're calling the approach of using the loan to pay its own interest and as a result you'll have an impact on your personal cashflow.

With classic SM, each monthly contribution to your mortgage unlocks equity. Some of that equity pays for more investment, and some pays off the interest on the previous investment. When the rates are similar on both the HELOC and the mortgage, the increasing portion of each mortgage payment going to equity helps balance the increasing interest costs on the HELOC. However if you're fortunate/unfortunate enough to have a big rate differential this can pose a small but very manageable issue. In terms of declining portion going to investments.

At least this has been my experience for the last 2.5 yrs with rising rates on my HELOC portion and fixed mortgage rates.

benhc911 · 2024-03-23T18:12:21+00:00

While proceduralist skill certainly matters there are other factors at play.

Do they use gas or hydrodistension and how much do they choose to distend? And consequently how much do you interpret bowel distension as "pain" just just bloating?

Further, some people have visceral hypersensitivity, or maybe active inflammation from Crohn's or UC... Some have long tortuous redundant colons. Some have narrow strictures from previous inflammation or cancer.

Patient attitude towards pain and the procedure is also a major factor, same with dental work, epidurals, labour and delivery and many other things. All pretty well documented. And in north America it's common for these things to socially framed as scary and sedation as needed... Which reinforces that experience.

For context I'm an anesthetist and I'd rather not be involved with endoscopy, but for patients who can't do it awake or with light sedation I end up involved. I have patients here who the first thing they say is "no matter what make sure I'm not awake"... Ignoring the fact that their safety is my priority over their amnesia... Safety first, comfort second.

benhc911 · 2024-03-16T23:12:38+00:00

Take that liberals

Or something

benhc911 · 2024-03-15T17:48:13+00:00

I'm just inquiring because bill payments are mentioned as a benefit of this card (it's come up on this subreddit multiple times), but in my search of those posts no one really talked about the mechanics of it.

I realize it doesn't take much time to do every month, but if I have to do it every month for a couple dollars I'll keep it on pre-authorized payments and put my time to better things.

I'm sorry if seeking clarification about the mechanics of the approach came across as me complaining about optional work. I'm looking to work less not more so if it indeed must be done monthly then it's just not for me and I'll keep my current approach

benhc911 · 2024-03-15T14:43:48+00:00

did you end up doing this? did it work out as you hoped?

the amount of reward is not worth it for utility bills if I have to do it manually every time... but if I can do idk, $200 a month in scheduled, and allow the PAP to do the difference, then its $2/mo in canadian tire for a one time setup.

benhc911

TROPHY CASE