Place of the Day: Montenegro

There are quite a few European countries I still want to visit, and one of them is Montenegro.  In a prior posting I talked about visiting the Bay of Kotor, though I recently found a property that is certainly a place not to miss:

Aman Sveti Stefan

Yes, that "island" is the place to stay.  It is a former fortified village dating back to the 15th century.

My previous post details possible avenues to arrive, including via Dubrovnik. Since I wouldn't mind visiting the walled city one more time this wouldn't be too bad of an itinerary.

Travel Update: Qatar

It pains me to report on this, since Qatar is a special place for me and one where I spent time doing research for my dissertation working with students and Qataris at Education City.  In the last 24 hours relations between Qatar and many other nations in the Middle East have soured - so much so that diplomatic relations have been suspended.

In addition, many of the airlines in the region have also suspended flights.  From Doha News:

Dubai-based Emirates, Abu Dhabi’s Etihad, Air Arabia and the low-cost airline Fly Dubai all confirmed this morning that they will cease routes to Doha from tomorrow (June 6) until further notice.

Saudi’s Jeddah-based national flag carrier Saudia also joined, announcing in Arabic on Twitter this morning that it too is stopping flights to Qatar.

Stay tuned for more information. I'm holding out hope that this is a temporary halt based on recent hacking that took place on several Qatari websites and not related to anything else.

New TSA screening processes on the horizon?

Lines are already long at airports for security, and now a new report is out that the TSA may be looking to adjust screening for larger electronic devices.

From CNBC here.

It appears that testing is already underway.

I'm not opposed to changes that make flying safe for all - I just hope they take into account how the process is already affected for those without Pre Check or GlobalEntry.

100k Ultimate Rewards points for a new mortgage?

It appears Chase is getting pretty creative with how to get business - this time, offering up to 100k Ultimate Rewards points for a new mortgage.  From Marketwatch:

Chase offering UR for Mortgage

Not sure I would go this route, but I'd take a look to see if it made sense with interest rate, points, etc.  And only available through August 6 if you had a card as of May 7th.

Fare Alert: Newark to Ho Chi Minh City for $574 in fall

Fall travel alert!

Fares are at fantastic rates for fall travel to a number of locations, one of them being SGN (Ho Chi Minh City).  Here is one option for a potential PQM mileage run Oct 30-Nov 1 (just under 20k PQM):

https://goo.gl/flights/c2QM

$574 is a great deal!  Longer stays are possible.