Club Carlson is out with an update to its app that includes a new feature called “Extras.”
The “Extras” feature allows you to earn Club Carlson points if you initiate your online shopping in app.
At launch, only a few online businesses are participating.
Delivery.com: 8 points per $1 spent
Jet: 6 points per $1 spent
eBay: 6 points per $1 spent
iTunes: 6 points per $1 spent
Groupon: 10 points per $1 spent
SeatGeek: 10 points per $1 spent
Certain types of purchases are specifically excluded so be sure to read the terms and conditions extra carefully.
With the exception of Hilton, most hotel chains do not operate online shopping portals. Club Carlson’s in app “Extras” feature, while not the most lucrative offer, may be of interest to some.
You’ve got to love the retro/futuristic travel posters published by NASA.
NASA’S Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) has published ten new posters in their “Exoplanet” series.
These awesome graphic posters are “out of this world.”
The new posters can be downloaded for free on the JPL website.
NASA explains their poster series this way:
“As you look through these images of imaginative travel destinations, remember that you can be an architect of the future.”
For instance, the Mars poster:
“imagines a future day when we have achieved our vision of human exploration of Mars and takes a nostalgic look back at the great imagined milestones of Mars exploration that will someday be celebrated as “historic” sites.”
Pharmacies are everywhere in Paris. Photo via Google maps.
We were about 80 miles outside Paris, in the little medieval town of Provins, when I realized I was sick.
We cut our visit to Provins short, so I could get back to Paris to seek medical attention.
This was not a big deal except that it was the afternoon of July 13, and the next day was a national holiday — Bastille Day.
I telephoned a pharmacy near our hotel, and the pharmacist gave me the name of a local doctor that sees patients on a walk-in basis.
The doctor’s office was in a typical Haussmannian apartment building near Place Victor Hugo in the 16th arrondissement. The building had wooden doors large enough for a horse and carriage to enter. There was a small brass plate on the door. We rang the bell and the doctor buzzed us in. It was 6:59 p.m.
We entered the doctor’s suite and ventured down a curved hallway to the waiting room. Several other patents were waiting, holding their French national health insurance cards. There was no receptionist and no nurse. At 7:45 p.m., the doctor called me in, the last patient of the day. He gave me a prescription which I was able to fill in the neighborhood pharmacy before everything closed for the holiday.
The cost of the doctor visit: 35 Euro, payable with a credit card. The medicine cost 7.50 Euro.
This is a bit less than the copay for an urgent care visit at my HMO.
If You Need to See a Doctor in Paris
Asking a pharmacist to recommend a doctor is a good first step. Many doctors in Paris see patients without appointments. If the pharmacy is closed, they often post information about another nearby pharmacy with extended hours.
In researching this post, I came across couple of resources that may be of some help:
For 40 Euros each, we purchased Orange Holiday Sim cards, to give us mobile coverage on our vacation.
Orange Holiday Mobile Phone Plans: Two Weeks for 40 Euros
The Orange Holiday Sim cards give you access to a prepaid plan good for two weeks.
For 39.99 Euros, you get:
a French phone number
120 minutes to call from Europe to the U.S. (and any other country in the world)
1000 texts, from Europe to any country
1GB of mobile internet in Europe
Free access to Orange wifi hotspots
An option to purchase a top-off card
There are a lot of Orange stores all over Paris. The technician inserted the Orange sim in my iPhone and checked to make sure it was working properly. I was good to go!
The feature I was most interested in was mobile internet access. In most areas, 4G service was the norm on my iPhone. This was especially convenient for looking up information on the fly, such as transit routes, and museum locations and hours.
For a one-time charge of 40 Euros, we were able to feed our internet addiction while in Paris, yet retain our cheap monthly plan of $30 per month at home.
What’s your mobile solution when traveling abroad? Please share in the comments below!
How Secure are Your Purchases from Gift Card Mall?
Gift Card Mall is an online vendor of various gift cards. They sell directly, via Ebay, and they service other sellers such as office supply stores.
To enhance security, Gift Card Mall typically mails the card in one envelope, and an “activation code” in a separate envelope. The activation code is needed to register your card online, or to use the card to make purchases.
In theory, this practice makes sense. If someone steals a gift card from your mailbox, they will not be able to use it without the activation code.
How Secure are Mail Orders from Gift Card Mall?
Recently, I purchased a gift card from Staples. The card arrived promptly in a plain envelope from Gift Card Mall.
However, when I tried to register the card, I was informed that the card had not been activated.
After several days, I still had not received the activation code.
I called Gift Card Mall in inquire about what to do. The customer service rep asked me for some identifying information, such as my street address, and the order number. This information was sufficient to validate the gift card.
The hitch is that all this identifying information was contained in the enclosure that came with the gift card.
So if someone had stolen the envelope, they would have all the information needed to activate the card, sans an activation code. Here’s a link to report any suspected mail theft to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Is mail theft something that you worry about, or am I just being paranoid?
Update: Deal Extended. $16 for $40 of crabs with coupon code:Save 20% off sitewide with code SUMMERSTART. Valid 6/19/14 12:00 am ET through 6/21/14 11:59 pm PT. Restrictions apply.
This bayside restaurant serves up bushels of crabs and other seafood specials. It’s not fancy, just a genuine crab shack by the Chesapeake Bay.
Price’s Seafood restaurant is a great midway stop if your driving between New York and Washington.
LivingSocial Deal on Price’s Seafood
LivingSocial is running a fabulous deal where you can get a voucher for $40 worth of seafood for $20. (Please note that the terms of the offer exclude Fridays and Saturdays.)
But you can do better than that!
Price’s Seafood on the Chesapeake Bay
If you collect United Mileage Plus points, you can get 6x points by going to LivingSocial via the United Shopping Portal, and an additional 15 percent off with coupon code UNITED15.
You must act quickly because this offer expires today, June 16, 2014! You’ll get the voucher for $17, plus earn 102 Mileage Plus points in the bargain!
100 points isn’t worth much, but can be useful if you need a transaction on your account to keep your miles from expiring.
Alternately, if you go through the cash back shopping portal at FatWallet, you can get 10 percent cash back. I have had very good experience with FatWallet. They track all your purchases and the cash back posts fairly promptly. With this route, you’ll get $2.00 cash back on your purchase.
Inaugural Air China Flight to Dulles June 10, 2014
Dulles International Airport (IAD) in will welcome Air China’s inaugural arrival from Beijing to Washington, DC on Tuesday June 10, 2014 with a special ceremony.
Twenty-five lucky members of the public will be invited to view the aircraft landing and the ceremonial water arch of Air China’s first flight into IAD.
In addition to viewing the landing of Air China’s first flight, guests will attend a VIP Ceremony and ribbon cutting at the Main Terminal.
Would you like to be a part of this exciting event?
Click here to enter for a chance at an invitation.Entries must be received by 10:00 a.m. Friday, June 6, 2014.
Participants will be transported via mobile lounge to the airfield. Upon conclusion of the landing and aircraft parking, the mobile lounge will return to the Main Terminal where participants are invited to attend the Air China Inaugural Ceremony.
Air China will offer four nonstop flights per week to Beijing beginning June 10, 2014.
