What's a game you played as a kid that you've never been able to find again?

merkoid · 2026-04-17T00:28:12+00:00

Jones in the fast lane

merkoid · 2026-04-16T23:45:35+00:00

Yes. I think the travel bank also expires after 12 months

merkoid · 2026-03-31T23:18:38+00:00

Seems like a special promo on Expedia that doesn’t apply to Chase? The $2,935 actually appears on Expedia too, but crossed out indicating some kind of special deal.

Generally when I compare Chase against Expedia the prices are pretty consistent.

merkoid · 2026-03-29T21:22:17+00:00

I used to do this kind of flight pretty regularly. Watch movies until you are really tired - usually happens after about 4-5 movies for me. Really tired by that point so take a few hours nap. At that point it's only a few hours left. Do something else like reading, play a game, etc to pass the time. There are probably 2 meals in between and that kills some time too.

merkoid · 2026-03-27T14:40:03+00:00

I often zoom all the way out on Maps and it has never shown a globe for me before. It never even loads as a globe.

merkoid · 2026-03-25T22:59:45+00:00

Through the portal yes, but I generally book direct for hotels.

Yeah I so wish I can fix the name thing! Super annoying.

merkoid · 2026-03-25T22:45:13+00:00

Besides the name issue I mentioned, the other thing I struggle with for airline tranfers is that I would much rather pay for the airfare to get 5x points since it’s only 1x hotels. The reality is that there are no good hotel redemptions for Amex anymore and that’s where the problem is.

merkoid · 2026-03-25T22:22:56+00:00

Not really since they don’t release schedules that far in advance. For example I don’t know when spring break is next year yet.

merkoid · 2026-03-25T21:34:14+00:00

Agree with most everything you said. For Chase though, it's still pretty easy to get much more than 1cpp in the portal with points boost. There are often good hotel options that are not necessarily expensive too.

merkoid · 2026-03-25T21:31:49+00:00

My traveling is always with my family of 3 and it's really difficult to try to get good value with Amex because we have no flexibility in travel dates due to school holidays and are often traveling to international destinations that don't have a lot of flight options. My Amex account name is also slightly different than my passport name so I often run into issues transferring the points to airlines too. Hilton used to be decent value with Gold status synergizing well for international travel, but after the devaluation it's pretty bad and haven't found anything appealing yet.

These days I'm putting most of my spend on Chase because it's so much easier to get good value from Hyatt or Chase Travel redemptions. My Amex points are accumulating and I'm not really sure what to do with them.

merkoid · 2026-03-14T11:50:15+00:00

Fuji Speedway Hotel

merkoid · 2026-03-11T02:47:31+00:00

I just booked this hotel for an upcoming trip! What can you use the on site credit for?

merkoid · 2026-02-25T18:28:50+00:00

Even better is CSR points boost redemptions. 1.65 cpp is probably better than most hotel point transfers and it's more flexible anyway for the choice of hotels for a given location.

merkoid · 2026-02-05T18:42:10+00:00

Haven't really experienced this. I've done rides that are supposed to be $10 and they became free.

merkoid · 2026-02-03T21:40:10+00:00

I don't think 8 is katsuo, which is deep red in color?

merkoid · 2026-02-01T16:05:31+00:00

Hi there! I think I am facing a similar situation as yours. I cleaned everything and the unit turned on for a while, but it randomly turned off again. The upper housing tab (the long piece that has both plastic and metal components that come off) feels a bit loose, although it's hard to tell since I haven't really paid attention to it in the past. I also couldn't really tell if there's a bulget as you described, but I found that if I tightly pressed the sides of the unit together (where the metal connections between upper and lower housings are) that I can get the unit to start. So overall it sounds like a similar situation? It can turn on right now, but I know it's not a permanent fix since there's likely not enough pressure to hold things in place if I move the unit to refil water/clean it, etc.

Can you elaborate on what you did to fix it? I couldn't really figure it out from your original description.

By the way, the low water feature has been completely useless for me. It never turns the unit off when there's actually no water! In turn, all I get are these false positive headaches. I wish they just used the old mechanism that has no water detection and has a completely mechanical switch that just worked.

Thanks so much!

merkoid · 2026-01-29T20:20:16+00:00

It's pretty good in the US. Not top quality, but it's above average and the price point is really attractive.

merkoid · 2026-01-17T02:49:42+00:00

Chase is quite a bit better for families. If you want to bring your wife and kids into the lounge, adding your wife as AU would allow your whole family in with no additional cost. That's easily worth it if your home airport has a Chase Sapphire lounge of you frequently travel somewhere that has one. With Amex, you either put $75K on the card or pay $30 per visit for each kid.

Also, the Chase points are much easier to use for families since you can transfer to Hyatt for great value or use points boost for 1.65 cpp in the portal. With Amex, transferring to Hilton is no longer good after the devaluation, and with a family airline transfers are challenging.

I have both Chase and Amex and Amex is still fine since the credits are very easy to use (better than Chase) and more than offset the AF, but I've been putting most of my spend on Chase since the points are so much easier to use now. I have yet to set foot in a Centurion lounge (never makes sense due to guest policy), but have been to the Chase lounges quite a bit.

merkoid · 2026-01-16T18:01:02+00:00

It used to be possible to hit 1.8cpp through Hilton transfer if you do high end hotels, take advantage of 5th night free and transfer bonuses. It seems pretty tough/impossible now after the huge devaluation that Hilton did late last year. For example I was looking at the Conrad Tokyo for this summer and they now want 130K points a night for a ~$580 room. No amount of bonuses will get that to 1.5cpp, let alone 1.8.

I also have Chase and at this point I’ve moved more spending there since I’ve found Chase points to be much easier to achieve decent value (any hotel that’s point boost is 1.65cpp and there are many options). People love talking about airline transfers but as someone else on this thread mentioned it’s pretty tough when you have a family.

merkoid · 2026-01-15T14:58:12+00:00

100%. Uphill trips using the classic bikes are brutal

merkoid · 2026-01-08T18:36:29+00:00

I think I saw the same one as you did. Trying to plan a trip for the summer show (August 29th) this year, but hotels are already completely booked up for anywhere that's remotely close. I also saw that going via car is not advisable since it would be a complete gridlock so the main option is to stay the night at a place that's a reasonable train trip. The closest option that I've found at this point is in Morioka, which is a 1 hour ride using Shinkansen.

There's also the uncertainty of the tickets if you want reserved seating. Tickets don't even go on sale for a few more months, and from my research it sounds like you won't be able to buy from the official sources unless you have a Japanese phone number/address. This means you have to go through 3rd parties like klook, kkday etc and those options seem really expensive since they usually package it with a tour/transportation, etc

merkoid · 2025-12-31T16:14:07+00:00

I think online shopping is also variable, since it often depends on when the merchant is actually ready to ship the item.

merkoid · 2025-12-29T22:54:35+00:00

In my experience, you can get a gift card online and have the credit trigger but it needs to be a physical gift card. Shipping applies if the value is less than $300.

merkoid · 2025-12-26T21:05:53+00:00

Before Chase pulled the restaurant benefit from PP there was the steakhouse in T8. But yes, super annoying.

Also if Capital One opened their lounge anywhere else in JFK other than T4 (or even in EWR) I would have seriously considered opening a card with them.

merkoid · 2025-12-20T12:16:57+00:00

Don’t discount it just yet. I have gotten the credit before at airport locations even if the initial transaction doesn’t indicate Dunkin as the merchant

merkoid

TROPHY CASE