Here’s my current card lineup and how I use each. My main 2 cards I use are the Amex Gold (all food purchases) and the Freedom Unlimited (all other daily). I still have the Preferred card mainly for travel protection for out of the country big trips, etc. and dining where Amex isn’t accepted, but is that overkill when FU offers similar dining and these other cards offer some decent travel protection? I also have a couple airline cards, so determining what makes most sense. Appreciate any insight!
AMEX GOLD: $250/yr - restaurants, takeout, groceries, etc. - $10 month Uber & $10 GrubHub/Cheesecake Factory gets used monthly
CHASE PREFERRED: - $95/yr - anything travel related… flights, Lyft, parking, tolls, etc…. But also have airline cards for this.. - Keep for travel insurance perks and for dining where Amex not accepted?
CHASE FR UNLIMITED: - $0/yr - all other daily purchases outside of food and travel for 1.5x… transfer to travel partners for max benefits - could use for visa accepted dining if not Preferred?
AMEX HILTON ASPIRE: $450/yr - Hilton bookings… stay 10-12 times a year for work and leisure… preferred hotel - Priority pass access, Diamond status, airline credit and hotel, free night stay yearly
UNITED EXPLORER: $95/yr - airline of choice from Chase transfer, 2x United Club visits per year, some travel protection, free bag check… fly 2-5 times per year
DELTA GOLD AMEX: $99/yr - another preferred airline, opened for big sign on bonus at time, free checked bag… fly 1-3 times per year on average

Hi all,
Mods feel free to remove but I couldn’t find a better sub to post in.
I’ll be on an international flight JFK-AKL, and it lands at 5 am. I don’t have any QF status or OW status high enough to help my cause, but I am an AA gold member and have an admirals club membership.
I think I know the answer but am hoping you’ll tell me I’m wrong… what are the odds I get access to the international lounge on arrival in AKL?

I (31M) recently matched with a girl (31F) on a dating app who lives a 4-hour flight away from me. We had 3 video calls and I indicated to her that I would like to fly over to her city in a few weeks to see her. But on our last call she told me that she is not actually legally employed by her employer (she had come to our country as a teenager but is still waiting to become a citizen, and so does not have a work permit - the way she explained it, someone at her company just hired her and brushed things under the rug), and does not have a driver’s license/legitimate form of ID and so would not be able to come see me in my city just yet (she only drives if absolutely necessary/makes sure to drive carefully and short distances). And given her work status, she currently is not insured. So in my view, it seems to me that she still has things to sort out in her own life before she can seriously date someone, that too long distance. My question is, does it still make sense for me to fork over the flight money and fly over 4 hours to see her (without her being able to come see me), or should I wait until things stabilize on her end?
Thanks in advance!

This time i decide to use some more fast shipping options and triangular because the last time using SAL my package was here for about 25 days plus i had one week problem with the custums so decide to use DHL HK for
i do recive a DHL tracking number and the item have to arrive in Germany 1st then in Eastern Europe 12 days later the status is the same Shipping info recieved. and the item 12 days is still in China.
i ask several times whats going on and how many days have to stay in China befor flight ... the flight will be tonight.. later tomorow.. the flight will have delay... and so on.
my question is the HK DHL is marked as 10 do 21 days shipping.
well quess what 12 days its still in China even if the item right now imideately teleport in Germany will need at least minimum 8 days from Germany to my Location we talking if the item is right now already in Germany and is cleared by the custums.
im thinkg i will recive the item minimum after 25 30 days at least.
and this is not serious for DHL shipping. using SAL that is slow like worm was faster. than a DHL in my case.

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I am in a unique situation. I am flying cross country every week for work and am looking to maximize my miles/status, but can't find relevant information that would pertain to my situation.
I am flying out of SeaTac and into Philadelphia and back to SeaTac every week. The ideal flight leaving philadelphia is on American, and the ideal flight out of SeaTac is on Alaska. I am currently using a matching credit card and using RocketMiles when I can. I have been at this job for about 3 months now, and am 5,000 miles shy of Platinum Pro. I think based on my math, I expect to hit Executive Platinum within the next month or two.
Since I am flying a mix of both airlines, how do upgrades work since I am currently Platinum with American when I fly Alaska? Are upgrades made available based on status level and then miles within that status level, or does someone with Alaska status trump me when I am flying Alaska airlines?
I will have no problem getting Executive Platinum or MVP 100k, but I don't think I can complete both, and getting upgrades on reward tickets tilts the math for me somewhat towards American Airlines.
If someone could shed some light on how the different status tiers are prioritized between airlines, I would greatly appreciate it. I spoke to an agent at the lounge, and she said she thought anyone with Alaska status would get first priority, but she seemed pretty new.
Thank you in advance.

I really want to book my flights today but my nephew is coming along with my husband, son, and I and he does not have his passport yet. Does anyone know if I will be able to book on JetBlue with our three passports, but not his? I don't want to hold off on the airfare and he's not going to get a passport by tomorrow. Is there a way around this?

All my (28F) life, I've always had anxiety (and depression), especially when it comes to relationships. I was always jealous of females who would talk to my partners during my teenage and young adult years. I acknowledged the toxicity in that, and wanted to better myself, so I did.
In September of 2019, I moved across the country (NC -> WA) to live with my boyfriend (27M) at the time, and we were together for almost three years. During that time, we adopted two cats and took one in from outside. A year and a half into our relationship we decided to get a house. We weren't married, and he was in the military, so he bought the house, and my name wasn't on the mortgage. Two years into our relationship, he made friends with two people online (younger female and older male, if that matters) and they all played video games together a lot. I was super happy for my ex, because he didn't really have a lot of friends.
The anxious thoughts trickled into the back of my head, but I pushed them away, because I told myself I would be better. I wanted to do better for me and for our relationship. I would occasionally ask for reassurance, of course, because I still struggled from time to time. And he would always tell me basically what I wanted to hear; everything was fine and nothing was going on.
One day while my ex and I were playing an online game (that has an in-game party chat audio, and we were also on Discord)(we had separate gaming rooms), I was unaware at first, but he had gotten a phone call from the girl and muted himself on Discord but not on the in-game party chat, and the way he spoke with her was a little more than friendly. It was only after a few times of me "responding" to him and getting no response, that I knew he was talking to someone else. And it took me less than a second to realize that I was 99% sure it was her, after hearing the way he was talking. Apparently something was bothering her and he was consoling her. On the brink of angry tears, I stormed over and demanded an answer as to who it was, and what was going on. He told me it was her, but denied there being any feelings or that anything was going on, that she was just going through a really hard time and needed a friend, blah-blah-blah. And I chose to believe him.
Another time maybe a week or two after that, we had a pretty large discussion one time that i needed reassurance and went as far as to degrade the girl by saying that he wouldn't be with her because of "her size" and that he "could hear her breathing heavily on the mic." That kind of raised some flags, because I know when people go into denial, they'll say things like that. But again, I turned a blind eye, and chose to believe him.
I just wanted to show him that I trusted him for his word. Bad mistake on my part.
Deep down I still always had a gut feeling about them. I tried to push it away, but it never truly went away.
My ex, his two friends, and I all stream(ed) on Twitch. You can make money off streaming (they only pay out if you hit at least a $100 threshold by the end of the month, and you get paid on the 15th of every month I believe), and it automatically saves your previous broadcasts for up to 7 or 14 days (I can't remember). My ex and I were on a streaming hiatus, but his female friend streamed. Occasionally I would pull up a past stream of hers and listen to the conversation between the two of them.
One morning in early May '22, after my ex went to work, I pulled up one of her past streams and was listening, and I hear them talking about him getting out of the military in a year and other normal things like that. She asked him about what he was planning to do with the house once he got out and he said something about keeping it and collecting equity for a little while. She then replies, "but, you live with your ex."
Mind you, we NEVER said ANYTHING about breaking up. We told each other we loved each other on a regular basis, y'know, normal relationship things. So there was no established break up. We were still together, but apparently not according to him when talking to her about us.
I continued to listen to more of their conversations. About how he would send her "sexy messages," and she would obnoxiously say how hot he was for doing certain things on the game. And I think that was feeding his ego, made him feel better about himself.
Everything shattered inside me. I was an emotional wreck.
I texted him that we needed to talk. He tried calling, asking what was going on, things like that, but I refused to tell him anything. I knew if I told him anything, it would've given him time to come up with some lame lies to tell me to weasel his way out of the whole thing.
When he got back home (he came home from work early), we started talking. Not about the incident at first. But he told me he felt like things weren't the best between us, he "cried" (at this point, I'm not sure that it was even real), I cried.
And then we talked about the incident. His reasoning was that it felt like there was just about nothing left between us, that it felt like I didn't love him anymore. I never meant to make him feel like that. He may have been saying that truthfully, or that may have been a poor, made-up excuse for what he did. But throughout our relationship I constantly told him I loved him, and occasionally would try to do nice things for him, like buy him a small gift at the store if it made me think of him.
He also confessed to it being two other women as well, including an ex that I'd also had suspicions about.
There was also talk about whether she knew we were actually together or not. He once told me that the girl saw my profile and "thought [I was] pretty." He then (after we had talked about the incident) said that I guess she had noticed I had taken my relationship info off my bio on Twitch. Which puzzled me; if she had noticed that it was on there prior, did that mean that she knew we were actually together? I couldn't tell if it was him lying or her being a homewrecker, or both.
I will say that towards the end of our relationship, we were both burnt out. Tired of existing. We didn't keep up with cleaning the house and really only ate take-out/delivery, so that definitely didn't help. But I never wanted to give up on us. I still wanted to be with him. I knew we were just going through a rough patch, or so I thought.
For the following few weeks after the incident, I was consistently nauseous, I vomited a few times, and food seemed unappealing, which is very strange for me; I'm a foodie. I didn't feel like doing anything except laying in bed - the only bed in the house - the one we shared.
We went through a limbo stage, not knowing if we should stay together or split up. After speaking with his mother about it (for advice) she recommended that we split up but work on each other, and if we decided to get back together, then it would happen.
Part of my depression/anxiety stemmed from worrying if I was going to be able to bring the cats back to NC with me. I wasn't financially able to live on my own, and my parents have always welcomed me with open arms if I needed to come back, no questions asked. In the past, maybe a few years before moving to WA, they wouldn't let me have/keep a cat. So I was so worried that they wouldn't let me keep my boys. I had grown so close to them, I couldn't stand to part with them. They're like my children, as I don't have any.
My ex was willing to let me stay for a long as I needed, which I appreciated greatly. I wasn't ready to tell my parents about the incident, because I knew my mother would book the next flight out and scoop me up. And mentally I couldn't handle the thought of being told I couldn't bring my boys back with me. So I withheld it from them for about a month.
Once I told them, they had no issues with me bringing the boys home with me. They knew the bond I'd created with them. That was a huge weight off my chest and shoulders.
He helped me pack, and back home I went. I had to leave a few things behind (including a couple of packed boxes), as I was only taking my '16 Ford Fusion across the country. He agreed to sending me the boxes later on.
Fast forward to the end of last August. It would've almost been our three year anniversary. One of my boys, the first one my ex and I adopted, had to go to an emergency vet and at the end, we (both) decided euthanasia was the best course of action. I had him cremated the next day, and got his ashes back in a beautiful metal urn. I paid for the vet visit put of pocket, as well as the cremation. He helped cover a small portion of the cremation.
He had pet insurance on the boys, so I asked if the vet visit could be reimbursed by the insurance company. I sent him the paperwork that they needed, and played the waiting game on if it would be approved or not.
January of this year, I sent him money for the shipping of the second box.
Early February I reached out again, and he said the insurance company approved it for the entire amount and that he was waiting on them to send the check.
Towards the end of February, I reached out yet again to ask about the status, he said he would send me the money back as he could. He said he needed it to fix the transmission on a truck he'd been using. I'm a little peeved at this point. That was MY MONEY. He could've at least given me a heads up, or even asked. Is it that hard to be a decent, considerate human being?
After trying to talk to him multiple times, mid-March rolls around and I ask him to send at least SOME of the money. He said that he would send some to me when he got paid from Twitch. So I waited some more.
But that was the last time I'd get a message from him.
I went as far as to pop into a live stream of his and ask why he hasn't responded to me, and got blatantly ignored.
I have no idea what happened, why he all of a sudden stopped responding to me. To my knowledge, I did nothing wrong. He's the one who cheated on me. And then decides to steal money I sent him to ship my belongings, that we agreed on him sending, and the money that was spent at the vet office visit that I paid for.
I'm so frustrated, so infuriated. I would never have done such a thing to him, even after everything he had done to me prior. I do not deserve this.
And I can't seem to let any of it go.
I'm now in a relationship with someone else, and we currently live together.
I'm still so angry at my ex, and the infidelity in my past relationship has left me anxious in this relationship. I feel as though I'm not adequate enough. My self-esteem is shot. I'm on edge just about every day.
I don't want to be like that. It's not fair to me and it certainly isn't fair to my current partner.
And that also angers me. Not only has my ex screwed me over financially, but mentally/emotionally as well.
I wish that he would just pay me back and send me the rest of my belongings, and that I could somehow miraculously get over the infidelity. But sadly, that's not how reality is.
Can anyone offer any assistance with... how to fix my brain I guess?
I know this was an e x t r e m e l y long post, so if you stuck around to read it all, I appreciate you.

I travel a lot, but have been using my Delta Reserve for the last 6-7 years because I mostly flew delta (or Air France if to Europe). It allowed to get many upgrades, got to delta Platinum status every year with ease (as I spend close to 100k on the card), and received many miles that I end up using to purchase flights.
However recently I have been almost always purchasing first class or delta one on my own, so haven’t been needing upgrades (they anyway suspended upgrades to delta one for international flights). Also I have been using other airline often (emirates), to travel between Asia and Europe. I can’t get in to many airline lounges in the airport, because reserve is powerless outside the US.
I got recently offer to get the Amex Platinum, and have been debating whether it would be worth it if I already have the reserve card.
If I do get it, I was thinking to split it in a way where I spend all my delta related costs on the reserve, and use the platinum for anything else. I have no problems with the cost of the card, especially if I can make it up with the benefits.
What are your thoughts?

In just under two weeks, ARMYs will descend upon Singapore to see SUGA! Help an ARMY out and let them know about safety, how to get around, where to eat, tourist attractions, BTS-related things to do, or anything else that you think someone should know when they visit! (Special thanks to the mods for your input and feedback for this guide!)

BTS' Past Visits

Red Bullet Tour (2014 BTS Live Trilogy Episode II) at the The Star Performing Arts Centre (13 Dec 2014)

• Fancam
• Official photos by Hallyu Singapore
• Official photos of Hi-Five session by Hallyu Singapore. Session was for all Cat 1 VVIP ticket holders ($268), who got a Hi-Five Pass and Concert Poster. The first 100 VVIP ticket holders also got to go up on stage to get a "Dark & Wild" album autographed by BTS.

Music Bank performance (4 Aug 2017) at the Suntec Convention Centre

• Fancam
• Quiz game video
• Outing at the Merlion statue and Singapore flyer: Photos Set 1 Photos Set 2.

Love Yourself World Tour (19 Jan 2019) at the National Stadium
This made history as the first time a K-pop group held a concert at the venue (largest concert venue in the country) and tickets sold out in about 3.5 hours! (45,000 audience)

• Concert review
• Witty notice from the Singapore Police Force abt avoiding ticket scams (it uses the BTS song titles!)
• Bonus: Jimin picked Marina Bay Sands as his special spot in the BTS x Street Galleries collaboration with Google revealed on ARMY Day (July 9) 2022

Concert Venue

Do note that it’s currently the June school holidays too (26 May-26 Jun), so the Sports Hub and surrounding areas may be crowded with many other visitors besides the concert-goers. Please be mindful!

• Singapore Indoor Stadium, right next to the National Stadium (both are part of the Singapore Sports Hub) where BTS performed at their last concert here in 2019. In fact, the Indoor Stadium was then used as the waiting zone for the standing zone ticket-holders.
• Concert guidelines been posted yet (will update here when they are), but here are the general guidelines for events there (links opens a pdf)
• The nearest MRT station is the Stadium station, on the Circle line - here is a train map (with Stadium MRT circled out in light purple). You’ll know when you’ve arrived as the station design is quite unique! Go up the elevator and follow the signage - the path is sheltered.
• You can find Kallang Wave Mall right next to the venue, for a spot of shopping and dining before the concert (opening hrs:10am-10pm daily). There is another smaller mall Leisure Park Kallang located next to the carpark, which houses an ice skating rink, bowling alley and cinema alongside more food options. The open space in front of the MRT station and the two malls is where ARMYs are likely to gather to exchange fan support and stuff
• The nearest hawker centre (i.e the affordable street food) is Old Airport Road Food Centre, one of the oldest and largest hawker centres in the country. It is about 20 mins walk away from the stadium, or you can simply alight at the Mountbatten/Dakota MRT stations (one or two stops away from Stadium MRT station respectively); both are about a 5 mins’ walk away from the food centre. Here is a list of recommendations (unfortunately, not a lot of Halal food stalls here. Let me know if you need those).
• There is also a McDonalds’ & KFC near Mountbatten MRT if you want something more familiar, or potentially try whatever new promo is currently going on at these places.

Sightseeing/Activities

Non-exhaustive list (all prices are in SGD)

• National Gallery Singapore. There is a special Namjooning Tour as part of the Gallery Wellness Festival. Slots are fully booked for the guided tours on 25 & 30 June. You could try the self-guided tours instead, which start on 17 July. Gallery passes for general admission to the permanent galleries (needed to access the tour) cost $20 for non-Singaporeans aged 13-59. Closes early (by 3pm) on some weekends in June and July (see dates on website).
• National Museum Singapore. Has very interactive and engaging exhibits. Highly recommended (I used to be a volunteer docent there for abt a year). Tickets cost from $15 (for access to permanent galleries only)
• Singapore Zoo & adjacent parks (Bird Park, River Wonders, Night Safari). We have one of the best zoos in the world! Single park tickets cost $50. Multi-park options also available. .
• Gardens by the Bay. Pretty gardens with outdoor sections and 2 indoor air-conditioned conservatories - you may have heard of the supertrees that have been featured in the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" and K-drama "Little Women". Provides a welcome respite from the heat. It’s free to visit the outdoor areas, but it’s really worth it to pay for entry to the conservatories. There are various pricing packages, so best to check out the website yourself.
• Singapore Botanical Gardens is our first UNESCO World Heritage site, the first and only tropical botanic garden on the list. Admission is free.
• The Merlion and the Marina Bay area. I personally recommend going at night to see the famed cityscape of Singapore all lit up (the temperature’s cooler too!). Marina Bay Sands Mall has a light and water show every night. There is also the iLight Festival going on now until 25 June with artistic light installations (mix of free and paid attractions). Bonus: Yoongi wore a Merlion Singapore t-shirt in a travel-themed Lotte Xylitol ad!
• You can also ride the Singapore Flyer for an aerial view of our city like the boys did! Admission costs $40.
• Visit our ethnic enclaves, Chinatown, Little India, Kampung Glam and Geylang Serai to see old shophouses, shop for souvenirs and try ethnic food
• One of the fanbases here, BangtanSG, has teased an ARMY event from 11-13 June. Will update when more details are released.
• Sentosa & Universal Studios Singapore theme park - you can access the island via various modes of transport with varying admission fees. Transport within the island is free.
• If you don’t want to think too hard, the best airport in the world for 12 years running is also an attraction in itself! See its dedicated section below for more information.
• Singapore is also located in the centre of Southeast Asia - if you’ve never been in this oft-forgotten region of the world, take the chance to check out our neighbouring countries as well! Malaysia can easily be reached via bus, and Indonesia via ferry.

(Note: You may want to check out Klook for discount tickets/passes)

Dining

Singapore is a food paradise with various cuisines from the local ethnic groups, as well as international ones. For Muslims, there are a lot of Muslim-owned or Halal-certified options around (look for this certificate, or the label “Muslim-owned”), including most of the fast food chains like McDonald’s/KFC/Burger King/Subway.
Carrying some cash with you (~$10 per pax) is a good idea, especially if you’re venturing out to hawker centres; while many places now have an electronic payment system in place, cash is still king in terms of versatility, and anecdotally most stores prefer cash or will charge a credit-card payment surcharge.

Where to eat?

• Most of the malls have a good selection of dining options, ranging from the (relatively affordable) multi-stall foodcourts to fast-food restaurants, cafes, and more upmarket restaurants.
  • It can get crowded during lunchtime (12-2pm) as office workers come out for their break, so try to avoid those hours if possible, or make advance reservations.
  • If you are staying/shopping in Orchard Road, Far East Plaza (level 4 & 5) and Lucky Plaza (multiple levels) have relatively more affordable food options for the area..
  • There’s a myriad of other malls in the suburban areas outside of Orchard to be explored.
• Hawker centres: A “hawker” in Singapore refers to a street food vendor, and in Singapore they’ve been centralised into food centres to create an iconic Singapore dining institution. These places are generally not air-conditioned, but they are the most affordable dining option. If you see an item on a table even if it’s something innocuous like a tissue paper packet or name-card, it means the seat's been reserved (“chop-ed” in the local slang) by people who are off queuing for their food.
  • Look for stalls with the longest lines (the most popular stalls will have long queues all day long), but most stalls should have decent food.
  • Newton Hawker Centre (near Newton MRT station) and Lau Pa Sat (near Telok AyeDowntown/Raffles Place Stations) are probably the most well-known to tourists, but beware of touts and over-charging, especially at Newton.
  • Taking the MRT out to slightly less central areas like Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh, Kallang, etc. should bring you to other hawker centres that cater to locals.
• Order in: GrabFood and Foodpanda are the two most popular food delivery apps with extensive coverage all around Singapore. Deliveroo is also available. Just be prepared to pay upwards of $5 delivery fee during peak periods, and the listed online prices are usually higher than in-store. The apps also have pick-up available if you’d simply like to order in advance.
• The ethnic enclaves like Kampung Glam (Malay/Muslim), Chinatown and Little India have a higher concentration of the respective ethnic cuisines, but most places in Singapore have a good mix of different local and international cuisines

What to eat?

Breakfast (These are generally very affordable options that should cost you below $10 per person, particularly if you go to food courts/hawker centres)

• Tea/coffee with kaya toast and half-boiled eggs. Available at most hawker centres (usually at the drink stalls), and chains like Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Killiney Kopitiam in malls. Order tea/coffee like a local by referring to this guide.
• Among the fast-food chains, KFC offers the more local option of chicken porridge (congee)
• Roti prata, a south-Indian flatbread (also known as paratha in India, or roti canai in Malaysia), available at most hawker centres and Indian coffee-shops
• Nasi lemak, coconut milk-flavoured rice with a variety of side dishes (usual ones: omelette, fried chicken wing/fried fish, fried anchovies).
• Beehoon, rice vermicelli with a range of toppings like fish cake, luncheon meat (spam), chicken wings, veggies etc.
• Chai Tow Kway (“carrot cake” - it’s actually radish cake), Tau Huey (soya bean curd pudding) + Youtiao (chinese fried dough)
• Mee Rebus, a Malay noodle dish with thick & spicy potato-based gravy topped with hard-boiled egg, bean sprouts, fried shallots, tau kwa (fried beancurd) and spring onions

Lunch & dinner

• Chilli crab: I don’t have any personal recommendations, and it could be costly because the crabs are usually charged by weight, which may vary daily. The link gives a run-down of some popular places
• Hainanese chicken rice: Again, no personal recommendations, but you can find this in most foodcourts and hawker centres. You should be able to find one of these for $5 or less.
• Murtabak/Briyani: My favourite is ZamZam Restaurant (est, 1908) at North Bridge Road in the Muslim enclave of Kampung Glam, but there is a whole row of Singapore-Indian restaurants serving a similar menu there
• Everything under the sun :) Google maps & data coverage generally works well in most parts of Singapore, so search & explore! Some sites you can start at include Chope & Burpple.

Snacks

• A must try, it’s sold by any ice cream man you see roaming around with a popup like this
• We have a ton of bubble tea (boba) stores if you’re craving it, you’d probably find a bubble tea store or two within 20mins of walking anywhere. Koi/Gongcha/LiHo are quite standard options, and then there’s others like Playmade/Chichasansen with their own unique points. Here’s a list with 61 of them...
• There’re plenty of 7-11s and convenience stores around, as well as “mama shops” around public residential housing.

Getting Around

Singapore has a great public transport system. It’s really easy & cheap to get around on the MRT (mass rapid transit trains) and buses. Use Google Maps or the City Mapper app to navigate yourself and get route recommendations (the latter also has transport arrival timings and fare estimates. It also works in many cities globally, so is very useful for tourists). Various transport passes are available for tourists, but you can also use your contactless credit cards (Visa and Mastercard) to pay for the fares (no registration required).
In general, using the Circle Line (yellow) or Downtown Line (blue) should get you to most tourist attractions. Orchard Road (main shopping belt) can be accessed via the North South Line (red), between Orchard and Somerset MRT stations. Map for reference, with links to versions in Chinese/Malay/Tamil available for download.
Taxis and ride-hailing cars: We have Grab and Gojek in place of Uber.

• The largest local taxi fleet - the blue Comfort Cabs - also have their own ride-hailing app to compete, although they can also operate via the traditional meter & can be booked via phone call/flagged down as usual. Fares can be paid via cash post-ride or credit card for all these private car options.
• Ride-hailing tends to be very expensive. At peak periods, ride-hailing services could be even more expensive than taxis, but at least you know the price beforehand. All malls have a taxi stand where you can stand in queue and hop on the next available cab. Queues can be long at morning and evening peak periods, so avoid taking cabs then if you can.

General navigation
All signs are in English, and the locals - esp the younger generation - are able to speak English fluently. If you’re really lost, feel free to approach others to ask for help! People are generally friendly and helpful despite initial appearances :)
As a side note: in general, if Google Maps is asking you to circle around a building to get somewhere - don’t. You can cut through most places on the ground floor quite easily, even the residential buildings (unless they’re private properties like condominiums/landed housing). MRT stations are connected to a good number of places via sheltered corridors if they’re nearby enough. Enjoy the aircon & shade instead of walking outside in the heat if you can.

Shopping

• Orchard Road is our main shopping belt, running from Orchard to Somerset MRT stations. You can find many shopping malls there, with collections ranging from upmarket to fast fashion. Check out Design Orchard, a retail space for fashion and lifestyle items by Singapore designers.
• For an old-style emporium experience drop by Mustafa Centre. It used to be open 24 hours but this was disrupted by COVID19 and now it is only open until 2am (best place for late night shopping!). It's not a glitzy mall, but has crowded aisles chock full of all manners of things, including snacks and souvenirs (avoid going on Sundays when it gets super crowded with migrant workers on their day off).
• Already mentioned above are the ethnic enclaves Chinatown, Little India, Kampung Glam and Geylang Serai with smaller standalone shops. Special mention for Haji Lane in the Kampung Glam area, a small street with cute boutiques.
• The many, many other malls scattered across the country - a brief list. For example, Paya Lebar alone (just another station up from Dakota!) is connected to several malls like Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ), PLQ 2, PL Square, Singpost centre, and a couple more within a 5-mins’ walk (Tanjong Katong Complex, City Plaza, KINEX etc.).

Weathewhat to wear

The weather is especially hot these days (max temp of up to 35 degrees celsius, or 95 Fahrenheit), with possible spurts of heavy rain at certain times of day, so dress light and carry an umbrella (most places do have sheltered walkways between buildings and bus-stops/MRT stations though, so don’t worry too much about getting around in the rain). Mall air-conditioning can be cold, so hv another layer (e.g. cardigan/wrap/scarf) on hand. Remember to hydrate frequently & avoid staying outdoors for too long!

Airport

• Singapore Changi Airport is often voted by travellers as the best airport in the world, with lots of shopping, dining and leisure options in the various terminals. BTS (except Jin who took a different flight) stopped over at Changi Airport on the way to New Zealand for Bon Voyage 4 (airport lounge scenes shown in Episode 1)! While you may not have access to the business class lounge like them, there are various other options to rest and hangout, like the many gardens (some even accessible from the public areas) and even a free 24h cinema (Terminal 3 transit area).
• Jewel Changi Airport which is attached to Terminal 1 is an attraction in itself. It's worth arriving 2-3 hours earlier than your flight check-in time to grab a meal and have a look around Jewel. A particular highlight is to take the skytrain between Terminals 2 and 3, cutting across the centre of Jewel, to get a spectacular view of the indoor waterfall. There is also shopping aplenty (Tip: NTUC Fairprice supermarket in Jewel has a nice selection of food and non-food souvenirs which are pretty affordable).
• There are various transport options for getting to the city from the airport. Public transport like MRT is convenient if you are travelling light, else there is a shuttle service to selected downtown hotels. Taxis and ride-hire cars can be expensive, especially with the airport surcharge.
• Sort of related, Yoongi gave a shout out to our national airlines (Singapore Airlines) for its great seat and amenities in business class in BV4! (He said: let's always fly Singapore Airlines in the future!). The airlines must have taken notice, because they recently announced that they would be adding BTS content like songs, MVs, LY New York concert, and Break The Silence docu in their in-flight entertainment system to commemorate BTS' 10th anniversary. An ARMY also spotted a write-up abt BTS in their in-flight magazine.

We’ve tried to achieve a balance between being succinct and informative, but certainly the above info is not exhaustive. So do feel free to ask in the comments below if the info you need is not here! Fellow SG ARMY, or those familiar with Singapore, feel free to chime in!

Unpacking the Light Police. Light Pollution News.
Show Link: https://lightpollutionnews.com/podcast/unpacking-the-light-police/
Subscribe: Apple Podcast Spotify Google Podcast
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Guests:
John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, LLC.
Kaitlyn Evans, Conservationist.
Show:
I was busted by the light police. They had a point, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post.
Dana Milbank purchased a home in, soon to be not, rural Virginia. At night he kept the formerly vacant property lit to the degree that spurned one commentator to call it “spaceship lighting.”
Milbank recaps being visited by the “light police,” a group of concerned citizens who help educate neighbors and instill a sense of pride in the brilliance of their starry night skies.
At first, he was taken aback, but later, not only did he appreciate their efforts, but he also converted his blinding always on, white light flood lights to warm 2700 Kelvin motion sensing lights.
Per Ruskin Hartley, executive director of the International Dark Sky Association, “for 4.5 billion years there was no artificial light at night. It’s really only in the last five human generations that we transformed that. It’s one of the most profound transformations of our environment.”
Many of you may recall an earlier story, way back in our Hormone of Darkness episode, showcasing concerns by local residents prior to a 760 house (now 761) plus town center development moving into the Culpepper County, VA area. Per the Rappahannock News, this development features “a resort style swimming pool, clubhouse, tot lot, and multiple sports fields and sports courts, all connected by a network of biking and walking trails.”
The forgotten medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’ by Zaria Gorvett of the BBC.
Gorvett opened my eyes to something I never knew about, the medieval custom of two sleeps. For those of you unaware, two sleeps are exactly what it sounds like.
Folks would partake in a communal nap, complete with rigid sleeping arrangement conventions, between 9 – 11pm, then awaken for a few hours to do everything from hang out to brew beer! In fact, the idea of multiple sleeps crossed cultures and was found in places as far from Europe as indigenous South America.
How can one’s circadian rhythm make sense of all of this?!
Well, for starters, until the invention of the alarm clock, which humorously was invented by a clocks salesman so he could wake up and sell more clocks, people had no firm way to wake up at a consistent time. The industrial revolution enforced a new circadian standard.
And there’s some science behind this! In the 1992 study, In Short Photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic, researcher Thomas Wehr found that after four weeks of 10 hour days, his subjects began to engage in this two sleep cycle, involving a one to three hour period for which they became awake and engaged in between.
Want to Learn About Light Pollution? There’s a mini-course for that!, Jennifer Sensiba of Clean Technica.
Quoting Sensiba, “As I got older, I traveled a lot more and saw the problem more for what it is. Not only did I see that in many places there is no refuge from it, but I also saw that it was slowly growing worse. Places that had been dark 30 years ago had more and more light creeping upon the horizon.”
If you’re interested in learning more, or more importantly, know someone who might benefit from learning more, Sensiba links up to an International Dark Sky Mini-Course on light pollution, call it Light Pollution 101!
There’s a Play Date at the National Museum of Natural History: Lights Out exhibit!
But unfortunately, by the time you listen to this, and hell, by the time we talk about this, it has passed.
Ann Arbor named best place for sunrises, sunsets in Michigan. Sarah Parlette for Click on Detroit.
Evidently gambling websites have decided to honor April’s International Dark Sky week in a strange new content marketing campaign, which was to rank the best places in each state to see sunrises and sunsets. My favorite one, “Ann Arbor named best place for sunrises, sunsets in Michigan,” comes from Click on Detroit, whereby a quote “study” examined Michigan’s most populated cities.”
According to Click on Detroit, “to celebrate International Astrology Day on Saturday, staff at Great Lake Stakes, a Michigan online gambling news site, looked at light pollution in the five most populated cities around the Mitten state to determine which offers the best views every morning and evening.”
Star bathing is the new outdoor travel trend we should all be trying for Summer 2023, according to Amy Beecham at Stylist.
Evidently, as an attempt to destress and promote mindfulness, romanticism about sleeping under the stars has birthed a 70% increase in searches for the term ‘star bathing’ on Hipcamp. And to be sure, “Hipcamp recommends checking a stargazing calendar which outlines major astrological events – like supermoons, pink moons, and star showers.”
“Industry Must Face an Inconvenient Truth — Most LED Lights at Night are Unhealthy”
Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a circadian clock expert, recently published an article in LEDs Magazine chastising the lighting industry for not recognizing and reigning in the negative externalities of its products. Per the piece, such effects are, obesity, diabetes, depression, cancer, and more.
He cites three categories of industry responses, making the correlation that long term Denial or outright Ignorance of the Facts, may result in “asbestos-scale liabilities or draconian regulations.”
Per the piece, a recent survey by the Circadian Light Research Center of 2,697 peer reviewed scientific articles confirmed that human circadian clocks are highly sensitive to blue wavelengths, and that exposure to such wavelengths leads to major health disorders.
Moore-Ede calls for the industry to harvest the “commercial opportunity” to greatly limit future liability by creating and managing its own standards for circadian modulated lighting.
Unpacking the Wallpack, by Dan Weissman in LD+A Magazine.
Weissman, who recently purchased a telescope for his family in Cambridge, MA, discovered that the scope could only afford him views of some solar system objects and a few brightly burning stars.
The ire of Weissman’s pen takes the shape of a rectangular fixtures, be it box like or simply a panel these days, that typically hang off the side of an exterior wall or above an exterior door. “Devoid of aesthetic value” this light is often put up under the “pretense of security and safety” by “recommended practices and adopted municipal codes.”
Weissman recognizes labels that often accompany, what he calls, “Glare bombs,” including “contractor-select,” “energy efficient,” or “light pollution friendly.”
Further, per an earlier LD+A article, such lighting driven by its extreme contrasts is exceedingly common in minority communities where light is weaponized as a tool of power. It becomes a “device of alienation, creating a zone of control and separation.”
Weissman recognizes that the true reason such fixtures are selected often comes down to cost. He recognizes that it may take equally as much cost to persuade building and homeowners away from such lighting into the realm of more responsible, lower lumen, shielded lighting.
Weissman calls for producers of these glare bombs to be labeled as polluters, putting them in line with fossil fuel manufacturers and PFAS makers.
Songbirds, dusk and clear skies: Scientists explore migratory flights, by Erin Blakemore.
Bird migration season is ending here in the Mid-Atlantic. I was lucky enough to catch several Baltimore Orioles and Indigo Buntings last week. Researchers looked at 400 songbirds from 9 major species, “including the yellow-rump warbler, American redstart and Bicknell’s thrush.”
The question they hoped to answer was how are these birds so darn precise in identifying the best time to take off for their nightly migration? Scientists found that 90% of the migrating birds in the study took off within 69 minutes of dusk. A “much narrower takeoff window,” that even shocked the research team!
Per the study, taking off at night is all about maximum flight time. In addition to being able to precisely schedule their take offs, a feat that every airline I’ve flown with over the past few years has proven inept at, birds also are apparently good meteorologists! They often depart when the atmospheric pressure rises over a day’s span. Other factors also trigger migration, including sex, age, and celestial cues.
‘Lights Out’ initiative appears to be saving birds from crashing into Philly buildings by Sophia Schmidt.
Preliminary results indicate that bird death counts are down 70% at one Market Street tower, since it began its participation in Lights Out. As we spoke about on a previous show, birds utilize the stars to navigate, but city lights can disorient the birds. Combine the lights with reflective or transparent glass, and that spells fatal trouble for our migrating warblers!
Per Keith Russell, a program manager for urban conservation with Audubon Mid-Atlantic, “We’ve lost almost a third of our birds – and [collisions] contributing to that. If we’re going to want to preserve the bird populations here in North America, we have to look at these types of problems. And this is a preventable one.”
The Knoxville, TN Zoo is offering up what they call “Twilight Tours” per WVLT 8. Each event will feature a guide to showcase nocturnal critters.
I did something similar in Singapore years ago. The zoo had very dim lights in the exhibits – and they kept those lights dim as you walked so that you didn’t lose your night vision. It was a very different and, might I say, peaceful experience than the typically chaotic daytime zoo.
Flashlights posing major threat to nesting sea turtles. Fox35 Orlando
Apparently, a single flashlight can deter female sea turtles from coming onto a beach and nesting. Florida, as I did not know, is home to 90% of the sea turtle nests across the world, so losing sea turtles can affect the global ecosystem.
One visitor to Cocoa Beach stated, “Just leave them alone. Stand back and look. You don’t need a flashlight.”
Another, “It’s not super surprising because more buildings go up, more technology. As it increases, nature and stuff like that decreases,” said Zoe Jovaag, whose grandfather used to take her on walks to see sea turtles.
Capture the Dark 2023 officially is under way!
The International Dark Sky Association opens up its annual photo contest complete with prizes across eight categories and an additional People’s Choice category. Voting begins on July 3rd, entries must be received by June 30th.
City Tests Traffic Light That Only Turns Green for Drivers Who Obey the Speed Limit. Erin Marquis for Jalopnik.
And hey, you better not speed in Brossard, Quebec….otherwise you may be waiting around for a while. Brossard is testing out a new traffic light that will stay red until it senses oncoming traffic. However, it will only change to green if the car is going the speed limit. Per the Jalopnik article, “FRED [the French acronym for “educational traffic calming light] forces fast drivers to stop and gives them a chance to reconsider their life choices.” Such lights are already used in Europe, but this will be the first for the Great White North.
Why the Greatest Threat to Star-Gazing Isn’t Light Pollution, and this comes to us from Dorin Elin Urrutia at Inverse.
Elin Urrutia writes, in her compelling piece, that the greatest threat to star-gazing is actually the weather. Citing notable examples of the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia (which burnt down due to bushfires) and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (which sustained structural damage following the winds of Hurricane Maria).
While the threat of human-caused climate change has presented new challenges, Elin Urrutia references proactive burns that saved Los Angeles’ Mount Wilson Observatory from flames in 2020.
On a similar note, ABC News (the Australian Broadcasting Company, not to be confused with the American Broadcasting Company), brings us “A World Without Darkness Could Be a Reality within a Few Years.”
Per Carol Redford of Astrotourism Western Australia, “There are some people in the world now who don’t actually experience darkness anymore. They’re in a city like Beijing, Toyoko, or London. In all those big cities, it’s never dark, it’s always light. During the day of course with the sun, but then during the night with all of the artificial light. They’re not experiencing darkness, and definitely not seeing those beautiful stars…”
In the 66 years since the implementation of the UN Convention on the Peaceful Use of Outerspace, around 11,000 satellites orbit the Earth. But it’s about to get wayyy busier. Driven by innovations that have led to dramatic reductions in costs, over the next ten years, Per attorney Steven Freeland, it’s anticipated that somewhere between 100,000 to 500,000 objects will be sent up. Let me pause on that for a second.
On the travel front, we stay in the land down under, “Aussie region determined to keep its darkness is a stargazer’s dream” by Chantelle Francis of News.com.AU.
The town of Swam Reach, population 270, resides in a 3200sq km region of Southern Australia that received its International Dark Sky Reserve status over three years ago. On a scale of darkness between 0 – 22, the River Murray Dark Sky Reserve at Swam Reach, measures in at a whopping 21.9!
Tourism has become a growing business. The reserve hosts numerous telescope pads and offers tours of the night sky. There’s hope that an observatory and/or planetarium may also arrive in due course.
Best smart lights for outdoors in 2023, Brittney Vincent of CBS Essentials.
Oh there’s a lot not to love here, but it does fall in line with last month’s ‘Lumens are Coming’ article.
For those of you who feel the need to light your trees, because for some reason they need light at night I guess…I’ll try and pretend it’s not solely for ostentatious and narcissistic reasons. By the way, does anyone remember when those were negative characteristics?
The article features spotlights that can be programmed to over 16 MILLION colors including…lucky for us, ALL shades of white….which you can also do for a 500 lumen flood light set.
And hey, Ring now has solar path lighting. Don’t worry though, the fixtures themselves put out up to 80 lumens of sideways light.
You know, it’s astounding when you look at some of these pictures. The amount of redundant lighting. It honestly makes no sense to me. You have a porch light, which lights up the path. Path lighting, which lights up the path. And, in the one picture, god awful frontward facing flood lights, which also light up the path. How bright do you need these paths!? I digress. But the lumens are indeed coming.
LDS Church will get to light up its Heber Valley Temple after all, but the faith didn’t get everything it wanted, Blake Apgar of the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fought hard to rid itself of any nighttime lighting responsibility by pressuring Wasatch County, Utah officials to approve new lighting rules that would enable the church to light a proposed new temple the same way it does for every other temple.
The Church received permission to uplight the temple, enabling an exception to be made in Wasatch’s rather stringent nighttime lighting rulebook. However, the temple will be restricted by the level of lumens it can use, and it must have exterior lighting turned off an hour after sunset or an hour after normal business hours.
Smart Street Lights Market is Expected to Hit USD 14,751.1 million at a 23.4% CAGR by 2030, Market Research Future Press Release
The pandemic is officially over, smart street lighting is about to boom. Combine the rush to LED fixtures with the Internet of Things, and expect to see street lights moonlighting as traffic and parking monitors, air quality meters, and more. Not to mention, “it is anticipated that camera-connected smart street lighting will increase road safety by lowering the likelihood of accidents and criminality.”
Texas now has 7 dark sky communities for spectacular star gazing, Sana Ameer, MRT.
Let’s cheer on the city of Bee Cave, everyone! Bee Cave joins a growing list of dark sky places already in the Lone Star State, including 2 Dark Sky Sanctuaries, 5 Dark Sky Parks, and 1 Dark Sky Reserve. Nighttime is alive and well in some parts of Texas!
Our Afraid of the Dark article is a bit scary! Hilton Head’s dark roads and pedestrians are deadly combo. What the town is doing about it, Blake Douglas at The Island Packet.
Per the article, 9 pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occurred since 2018, with five occurring after dark. Prior to that period, there were 28 recorded deaths from 2000 – 2016, with 20 of them taking place after dark.
In 2018, an 11 year old resident was struck and killed while walking her dog across an intersection one night. Lighting advocates began taking shape in what otherwise is a very conservation focused island. Hilton Head, SC has a limited number of street lights, priding itself on “avoiding light pollution and blending nature with construction.”
Lighting advocates appear to be, at the very least, asking for flashing crosswalk lights on the island to indicate when an individual is crossing.
It should be noted that the article shows a chart of 9 after-dark-deaths since 2014, only two of them occurred at crosswalks. In fact, during the same time frame, 6 additional deaths occurred at crosswalks during the daytime.
As a whole, the National Safety Council reports that 74.5% of pedestrian deaths occurred at night, whereby 39.1% took place in lit areas and 35.38% took place in unlit areas.
Bryan Bloch, an auto safety expert, surmises that car companies bear some of the blame – producing cheap or ineffectual headlight fixtures, and drivers themselves, who don’t realize that they need to regularly clean their headlight lenses.
Despite opposition from residents, it appears that Hilton Head will be receiving lights at two new intersections and possibly more depending on engineering studies currently in progress.
Is lighting the key variable here? Is more light going to solve pedestrian deaths?
Our featured research article of the month comes to us from Animal Conservation, “Manipulating spectra of artificial light affects movement patterns of bats along ecological corridors.”
Bats are already known to have a wide range of responses to artificial light at night (also known as ALAN). Fast flying species tend to be more opportunistic in the presence of ALAN while slower ones tend to be more light averse. We know that “long wavelengths and reduced intensity” can minimize their environmental effects on bats. It’s not unheard of for bats to travel upwards of “tens of km per night.” Furthermore, bats are very dependent on the landscape and the structures within those landscapes.
Despite the nuances between species, the consensus is that ALAN, especially high intensity ALAN, negatively affects bats. This study attempted to answer what exactly bats do when they encounter ALAN – how do they react depending on different types of ALAN.
The study used three different light fixtures – one green, one red, and one white. The control was devoid of light fixtures. The researchers attempted to ascertain the behavior of bats as they encountered lights adjacent to woody areas. The researchers looked at three different bat groupings based on their foraging-echo location behavior, that being one of open field foraging, forest edge foraging, and narrow space – or more aptly forest foragers.
Researchers found that open and edge foraging bats increased their activity close to white and green lights, and to a lesser extent red lights. However, narrow space bats were more likely to veer away from all colors of lighting. Edge foragers were also less likely to cross a white light.
The positive effects of white and green light on open and edge foraging bats appear to be attributed to the accumulation of insects around light sources containing more blue light.
The nighttime sky over Oahu will be lit up with green lasers in the coming days. Here’s why. Hawaii News Now
Before we close up today, do you live in Hawaii? I know I wish I did!
If so, do you recall seeing green lasers streak across the night sky? Well, the Army Corps of Engineers was using lidar at night to complete a coastal mapping survey.
Why did they survey at night? Specifically, why did they do this between midnight to 5am? Simply b/c the airspace is so busy, that time was the only chance they had to complete the survey. The remaining survey was completed during daytime hours.

Is the connection time of 55 mins enough in Zurich after arriving from london? or should I contact United and see if they can rebook me?

I'm very lucky to be able to decide last minute to join my husband on his business trip to a Greek island. He's Platinum, and I'm just a plebian Skymiles Member. Always the bridesmaid...
Even though we didn't book at the same time, can I latch on like a parasite to his status as his +1? I notice I'm still main cabin and he's got a sweet seat at the front of Comfort+. I'd love to sit with him, but I would hate to ask him to pick me over legroom.
How does it work if you book later onto the same flight as an esteemed status holder? Do I at least get to board in a single-digit group?

A word of warning: If you previously had a KTN on your Frontier Profile and just purchased or made Elite the old fashioned way, please be aware that when Elite goes on your account, it may remove your KTN from your previously booked reservations. This will require it being added back manually, even though it still shows on your profile.
Per the gate agent who fixed my last trip, when the account upgrades to Elite it unlinks/overwrites the previous data and thus your KTN has to be re-added/linked to the newly Elite account.
It gets better. You can not add your KTN to a reservation yourself if you notice it's missing AFTER you have already checked in for the current flight nor for any flight(s) on that same itinerary (including your return flight). This means by the time you look at your boarding pass and notice your designation isn't there, it's already too late for you to fix it yourself. At that point it can only be added by a gate or ticketing agent at the airport. I would assume customer service chat could also fix it?
BEFORE you check in, you can re-add it yourself by going into each of your reservations (log in, Upcoming Reservations, View Booking) and selecting "Add Known Traveler Number" . When your profile pops up, make sure your KTN shows by clicking the KTN + (it likely will be there) . Click Continue. Then Confirm. You will notice it will say previous "--" . Confirm the change. Once it refreshes, you should be able to scroll down and see your KTN listed under your member #.
Unfortunately, I learned about all of this the hard way with this week's flight. I checked in and then noticed on my boarding pass, for the first time since April, that TSA Precheck was not on my boarding pass though it was in my account and was on my reservation prior to me purchasing Elite and having my account upgraded. Sadly, I did not notice until after I got to a far flung terminal - away from the Frontier ticket counter.
I also just checked and noticed that for my other 4 flights booked pre-Elite, though the gate agent linked my KTN to my Elite account, my KTN was still missing from those bookings. I added them myself using the above. The 1 flight I booked after my upgrade to Elite includes my KTN.