belkinDC

Ah I stand corrected about the booking of QR flights online with AA. Still, it may have been possible to book the flights by calling up a phone agent even if the online booking had temporarily disappeared. Regarding NYC-DOH-BKK, that would not be allowed as a single award ticket with AA miles because their routing rules require transpacific travel between the USA and Asia (with the exception of the Indian subcontinent, in which case it must be TATL unless via Hong Kong). It doesn't make a ton of sense in cases like this, where JFK-DOH-BKK is less than a 5% differential in terms of total miles compared to say JFK-NRT-BKK. But I could understand AA frowning on say LAX-DOH-BKK rather than via HKG or NRT. Apologies for the delay responding on this. ExpertFlyer isn't doing me any favors helping them market because their QR search capabilities are non-functional at the moment! According to their representative at FlyerTalk, it is being worked on. Still, it's possible to search their availability using other OneWorld airlines such as BA. Generally though, they don't allow single searches that would check all airlines in a given alliance. You have to search by individual airline and route. Still, there are some exceptions in terms of airlines that aren't covered - Cathay Pacific for one (although if one is merely using Asia Miles to book award on another OneWorld airline, the data is still useful because the relevant question is whether the operating airline has released an award seat on the flight you want). Regarding differentiation between various awards -- it depends on the airline in question but generally it allows basic searches for award seats that are open to all other airlines in an alliance. Some airlines allow you to search for additional award type inventory, such as seats that are only open to elite fliers or seats that are bookable with upgrade instruments. ExpertFlyer offers a free five day trial to their premium service is you want to try it out. I'd recommend waiting until you have another trip to book/plan. Happy to answer any additional questions you may have about their service. I will take your word for it - I have only booked a handful of Asia Miles awards in my life and generally didn't have issues, but I did make sure I knew that what I wanted was bookable before calling. There is one exception that comes to mind: I was returning from Brazil on AA, GRU-JFK-DCA, with the last leg being an American Eagle flight (AA's regional brand) that was "operated by Republic Airways for American Eagle". I had originally booked the itinerary with Asia Miles and was calling to make a date change. The first several agents claimed it couldn't be booked because Republic Airways wasn't part of OneWorld and they didn't have access to their award inventory (I knew this to be false; American Eagle flights are made bookable to all OneWorld partners by AA if/when they decide to release seats on them). I had to call and hang up several times before I found an agent who would do the date change - after I pointed out that it had to be possible, because they had booked that same flight for me on a different date originally. All that to say - my main point is just that it's always a good idea to know at least as much about what an airline representative can do for you as they do before getting on the phone with them. This goes doubly so for things like irregular operations where you need to be re-accommodated on another flight due to a weather cancelation or a known future misconnect due to delay at point of departure. As soon as you learn you'll need your flights changed, figure out what's available and call them up. Don't wait in line for the airport agent to finally get to you - by which point perhaps the seats on the most optimal re-routing have already been snatched by other passengers.

I'm not sure this is still the case, but at least in the past QR flights couldn't be booked online with AA. You have/had to call in (see https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airlines/best-ways-to-book-qatar-qsuites-with-points-and-miles/, scroll down to the section on using American miles to book). Now that Qatar is using Avios as its award inventory though, it's possible that BA would have access to flights that other, non-Avios OneWorld partners would not. Typically partner availability is an all-or-nothing thing, but sometimes when airlines in an alliance have an especially close relationship they do make inventory available to those partners that isn't available alliance-wide. Usually when you see that though, it's because they are making the "award" available on a dynamic price basis that is a lot higher than a standard saver award. Thus for example, you'll often see very high mileage Copa tickets available through United MileagePlus where the same Copa ticket wouldn't show up at all if searching on Air Canada. Or ditto with Alaska/American having higher priced tickets that an Asia Miles agent wouldn't be able to book.

Correct, most airlines make more seats available to their own frequent fliers. In some cases, such as Singapore Airlines and Air France, they only make their first class seats available to their own frequent fliers using their own mileage currency (in the case of AF, one must further be an elite member to have the privilege of paying ~200k miles or so for transatlantic F!) I am not sure how the phenomena you described above plays into your situation? Qatar decided to release inventory to partners that was previously unavailable. Usually this "saver level" award inventory is available equally to all airlines in an alliance. Thus for example, if you see a Qatar flight bookable on the Qantas website as an award, you will know that it is also bookable with Asia Miles and if a rep tells you otherwise, you know you are dealing with a dud and need to HUCA (hang up, call again) until you get an agent who knows how to properly search for and book partner awards. Not all carriers release award seats on flights a year in advance. I'm not sure what Qatar's policy is. But many/most airlines release the seats dynamically when their internal revenue control projections tell them the seat would otherwise go unsold (this is certainly how award seat inventory for more close-in flights are managed, regardless of whether they have a policy to release a couple of seats on each flight one year out). If they think they can get a cash paying passenger to buy a business class seat, no way do they want to sell it to Asia Miles/CX for pennies on the dollar (for some interesting insight as to how much airlines in alliances reimburse each other for award seats, see this recent post from OMAAT. The numbers are pretty shockingly low: https://onemileatatime.com/insights/airline-award-ticket-cost/). In your case, likely it's either another award seat passenger canceled/changed their ticket, or their revenue projections changed such that they decided to release a partner award seat. Or it could have been the case that the first agent from Asia Miles you spoke with in your initial attempt to book just didn't know what they are doing, and the seat had been available all along. Which is why it's good to know before you call what the actual award inventory is on the flights you are eyeing by using sources such as ExpertFlyer or other airlines in the same alliance (i.e. searching Qantas awards for travel on Qatar) I'm not sure that this is really a factor at all here. For one, Asia Miles is wholly owned by Cathay Pacific and so their interests are fully aligned. But even in cases where the loyalty program has been wholly severed in ownership (I'm not aware of any examples nowadays since Aeroplan is once again owned by Air Canada), it is still the operating airline that makes the decision to release award inventory to partners or not. The Asia Miles agents have no control over Qatar's award inventory. But you can at least make sure they aren't giving you the run around by independently verifying QR award seats before calling CX

In Panama, heading to Brazil?

It was also reported there that the Gay & Lesbian center in Hollywood was offering vaccine on the spot during routine STI checks.

Over at “the other board” it is being reported that clinics in Canadian cities (Montreal and Toronto) are offering the vaccine freely regardless of residency status. I would inquire for more current details before booking a flight but it might merit further investigation if you’re willing to travel that far. https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/134695-monkeypox-a-new-worry-for-gay-and-bi-men/page/16/

Not to be argumentative, but do you have a source for either claim? Just yesterday, HHS announced the shipment of an additional 786,000 doses, based on the FDA's inspection approval of the Bavarian Nordic plant where they were made which had kept them from being deployed thus far. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/27/us-to-release-786000-additional-monkeypox-vaccine-doses-as-outbreak-spreads.html

As @fedssocr points out award seat inventory is constantly changing and it would not be unusual at all for there to be no biz class award availability on a given route for weeks on end. But you should never call an airline looking to make a booking (particularly a partner booking like Asia Miles -> Qatar) without first knowing that the seats you want are in fact available. I find an ExpertFlyer subscription ($99 year) to be well worth the money; it allows searching (+/- 3 days in each direction) for award inventory on pretty much all airlines as well as setting up alerts for when inventory on a given flight becomes available (this has helped me nab seats on a more preferred flight mid-trip when they become available on many occasions). Once you know the inventory is available, keep calling back until you find an agent who knows what they are doing and can make the booking. This can often be a frustrating experience depending on the airline as many staff are quite poorly trained. For a free solution though, search BA.com or Qantas “classic” rewards for OneWorld carriers like Qatar. Air Canada is good for searching Star Alliance and Air France is good for SkyTeam.

Absolutely. I also added a PSA to my Grindr profile since that’s how I found out about it myself. Glad to see this - as @Slvkguymentioned in the other thread, one shot gives good protection for two years - by which point presumably any supply issues will be long gone. I had read elsewhere that CDC was recommending (mandating?) that local health departments follow the 2 dose regimen as that’s what the FDA label indicates. But good to see some common sense prevailing, and hopefully the US will soon be in a position - and willing - to share doses with other countries who don’t have the benefit of our stockpile, such as it is.

I was in Warsaw this spring for 4 nights following a longer European vacation with some straight friends. In retrospect I wish I had gone to Barcelona. I can’t speak to hotels as I stayed in an Airbnb downtown that I was quite pleased with; relatively modern and up to date with a balcony for ~$50/night. No issue with visitors as there was no doorman and I just needed my key fob. Struck out on Hungz; the guys I reached out to mostly didn’t reply either there or if I sent a WhatsApp. Only paid hookup was a Grindr muscle hottie (upon meeting he said he was from Belarus but had been living in Warsaw for many years and spoke excellent English) who took my offer of 200 PLN (about $42). Had a couple of fun visits to Sauna the Fire and Heaven Sauna - the first had better facilities, the 2nd had more guys and seemed to be consensus for best sauna in town in terms of customer volume. Word of warning, be sure to arrive at WAW with plenty of spare time if you are checking bags. I had an early morning flight out on LOT, connecting in Geneva WAW-GVA-IAD. Business class check-in line took 30 minutes to get to the counter (something I have never experienced before) and by that point it was cutting it close for the luggage cut-off time time (I think it was passed it but they called someone and kept it open). There was some issue with my ticket (an award ticket issued by Turkish Airlines for travel on LOT and United) and the LOT agents weren’t able to check my bag all the way through, so I had to collect it in Geneva and re-check it.

Got my first dose today from county Health Dept. in Northern VA. Was advised they would reach out in 3 weeks to schedule 2nd dose, which they aren’t scheduling on-site in case there are any supply issues. I asked about the possibility of supply issues and the nurse told me they were well under utilization for the doses they had been allocated and she didn’t foresee that being an issue. I was the only client there during the 30 minutes that it took, despite there being ~10 staffed nurse stations setup for vaccine administration. I do think they could be doing a better job advertising the availability of the shot; as mentioned previously I only found out it was available to the broader MSM population in my jurisdiction (not just close contacts) from a guy on Scruff.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/nyregion/nyc-monkeypox-vaccine-doses-denmark.html As Monkeypox Spread in New York, 300,000 Vaccine Doses Sat in Denmark The federal government adopted a wait-and-see response to the monkeypox outbreak, calling for more vaccines to be delivered only after cases were growing exponentially. By Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Otterman July 25, 2022Updated 6:52 p.m. ET On the Thursday before Pride Weekend last month, hundreds of men dropped what they were doing and raced to a city-run health clinic in Manhattan. Finally, more than a month after monkeypox appeared in New York City, a vaccine was being made available to sexually active gay and bisexual men, among whom the virus was rapidly spreading. But there was a catch: There were only 1,000 doses available. Within two hours, the only clinic offering the shots began turning people away. At that same moment, some 300,000 doses of a ready-to-use vaccine owned by the United States sat in a facility in Denmark. American officials had waited weeks as the virus spread in New York and beyond before deciding to ship those doses to the United States. Even then, there was little apparent urgency: The doses were flown piecemeal, arriving in shipments spread out over more than a week. Many didn’t arrive until July, more than six weeks after the first case was identified in New York City. By holding back the doses, an early opportunity to contain or slow the largest monkeypox outbreak in the country appears to have slipped by. On Saturday, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency. At least 16,000 cases have been reported around the world, with about 3,000 in the United States. Infections in New York City make up nearly a third of the national case count. Limited testing means those numbers are likely a significant undercount. The federal response to monkeypox, including the limited testing capacity, has echoes of how public health authorities initially mismanaged Covid-19. With monkeypox, however, the federal government had a powerful tool to slow the spread from the start: an effective vaccine. Yet the government was slow to deploy the vaccine, which was originally developed and stockpiled for use against smallpox, activists say. “The U.S. government intentionally de-prioritized gay men’s health in the midst of an out-of-control outbreak because of a potential bioterrorist threat that does not currently exist,” said James Krellenstein, a Brooklyn-based gay health activist, who has been urging health officials to make the vaccine more widely available since June. The federal official in charge of the agency that manages the United States’ supply, Gary Disbrow, said the government was “moving very quickly because we take this very seriously.” “We thought it prudent to get as many doses as we had available over here, fully understanding that if the doses are not used there would be a potential impact on smallpox,” he added. “We moved very quickly based on the number of cases we saw.” Called Jynneos, the vaccine is effective against both smallpox, which generally has a 30 percent fatality rate, and monkeypox, which can be severe but has a far lower fatality rate. When monkeypox was first detected in the United States in mid-May, there were some 2,400 doses on U.S. soil, in the federal government’s strategic national stockpile, used mainly to protect lab workers and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel engaged in research, officials said. The United States also owned well over a million Jynneos doses in vials — and enough vaccine for millions of more doses that had yet to be filled into vials — in Denmark, where the producer of the vaccine, Bavarian Nordic, is headquartered. Much of that supply was tied up in bureaucratic red tape because the Food and Drug Administration had yet to inspect and certify a new facility outside Copenhagen where the company now fills the vaccine into vials — an issue that has yet to be fully resolved. But there were 372,000 doses owned by the United States that were ready to go. These doses, stored at the company’s headquarters, had been filled into vials earlier, at a different facility with the necessary F.D.A. approval. Rather than quickly transfer those doses back to the United States and begin administering them, however, the federal government adopted a wait-and-see attitude. In the first few weeks after monkeypox was detected in the United States, the government requested only 72,000 of the 372,000 doses. The job of managing the country’s supply of Jynneos falls largely to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, a federal agency that develops and procures drugs and vaccines to protect against pandemics, bioterrorism and other hazards. The authority supported development of the vaccine following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as the federal government worried about the use of weaponized smallpox. One reason that federal officials were reluctant to order all available doses early on involved cold storage and shelf life. The storage facilities in America where the doses would be kept weren’t as cold as the Denmark facility, said Dr. Disbrow, a senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services who runs BARDA. “So if all the doses were not necessary for the outbreak,” he said, “their shelf life would be dramatically shortened.” Joseph Osmundson, a microbiologist and queer activist, said that the monkeypox outbreak may not have been the emergency that the federal government had prepared for — weaponized smallpox — “but this is an emergency nevertheless.” “There is no excuse for this level of bureaucratic inaction,” he said. The first monkeypox case to be detected in the United States this year was identified in Massachusetts on May 18. New York City identified a case the next day. On May 20, BARDA requested that Bavarian Nordic send over 36,000 doses, a spokeswoman for the agency said. They arrived five days later. On May 27, BARDA requested another 36,000 doses, which arrived two weeks later, Dr. Disbrow said. By then, 16 cases of monkeypox had been detected in New York City, along with cases in 14 other states and the District of Columbia. Dr. Disbrow said that only so many doses could be transported per flight. In an email, a spokesman for Bavarian Nordic explained that each large order required some lead time. The company has to first receive containers, known as cocoons, from the shippers and then “freeze them to temperature for five days” before packing them with vaccine. As of June 10, the federal government had distributed just a few thousand doses of monkeypox vaccines to states, officials said in a call that day with reporters. A senior Health and Human Services official, Dawn O’Connell, said the United States would receive 300,000 doses of Jynneos “over the next several weeks.” Except, the U.S. government hadn’t yet requested them. “That order came in late June,” a Bavarian Nordic spokesman said. Dr. Disbrow, the BARDA director, gave a similar timeline in an interview, although a spokeswoman for the agency subsequently said the government asked for those doses earlier, on June 14. By all accounts, the first shipments of the remaining 300,000 doses did not begin arriving until June 29 or 30, several days after the New York City Pride March and related festivities, and they arrived in several shipments, Dr. Disbrow said. But many of the doses did not arrive until July. Bavarian Nordic said some were delayed in part because they had to be driven from Copenhagen to Germany, because airline pilots were on strike at SAS, the Scandinavian airline. Asked about the delays, the BARDA spokeswoman, Elleen Kane, said that if one counted only “business days” the time lag was shorter. Mr. Krellenstein, the activist who leads a group, PrEP4ALL, which works to increase access to daily medication that prevents H.I.V. infection, was one of the first to be vaccinated during New York City’s first window, on June 23. But he received a deluge of text messages from friends who said they’d missed out. That evening, Mr. Krellenstein called a health activist he knew in Boston: “We said, ‘Oh, my God, the doses aren’t coming. What’s going on?’” He said he was stunned to learn that most of the doses were stuck in limbo in Denmark awaiting the F.D.A. facility inspection. Along with several H.I.V./AIDS activists, including some from the group ACT UP, Mr. Krellenstein began demanding meetings with White House and federal health officials to learn more about the hold up. “Those doses likely would have been sufficient to stem the initial outbreak, if they had been mobilized and administered in the U.S.,” Mr. Krellenstein wrote in an email to several Biden administration officials in mid-July. A spokeswoman for Health and Human Services, which oversees BARDA, responded by suggesting that more doses hadn’t been needed earlier, noting that initially the C.D.C. had only endorsed the vaccine for a limited group: known contacts of monkeypox patients. Though New York City had by June 23 decided to offer the vaccine more broadly — to all men who had recently had sex with multiple or anonymous male sexual partners — the federal government did not endorse that move until June 28. By early July, it was clear that the spread of monkeypox was accelerating among men who have sex with men in New York City. Sergio Rodriguez, 39, a transgender queer man who lives in the East Village, said he tried to get vaccinated before Pride Weekend, but was turned away. He hooked up with a few people, and about a week later, began to feel abdominal pain, swollen lymph nodes and body aches. Lesions then spread across his body, and some made it excruciating to urinate. “I’ve actively been trying to do things to support myself because I knew that I would be at high risk,” he said. “It’s really frustrating,” he added, that the government “was not set up to adequately meet the demand.” The situation in New York City had been especially frustrating. By the end of the first week of July, there were already more than 200 known cases in New York, but the city had received only 7,000 doses. When the city received an additional 14,500 doses the following week, the available vaccination slots were taken within seven minutes of being posted online. Lawrence Gostin, a former C.D.C. adviser who directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said it was clear based on recent conversations he had with White House officials that they were searching for a czar-like figure to run the monkeypox response, in what would be an acknowledgment of the need for more sweeping action by the federal government. Several administration officials confirmed that such a search was underway. Raj Panjabi, the White House director of pandemic preparedness, has so far overseen monkeypox response efforts. One White House official familiar with the administration’s response said that while it was also considering declaring a public health emergency, there was still an active discussion about what powers such a declaration might provide. Mr. Gostin said officials were working to determine how such a move could potentially free up funds for research, vaccines and treatments. The flow of vaccine doses to New York has begun to increase; the city has now received 46,000 of them. But online appointments are still snapped up within minutes. And by now, monkeypox has spread widely enough in New York City that epidemiologists doubt it can be contained anytime soon.

I think @TotallyOzis being a bit cheeky and not seriously suggesting these are going rates 😅

You shouldn’t have a problem finding such guys for 150,000 COP or thereabouts. More detailed pricing discussions and info on safety, joiners etc. can be found in the many Colombia-focused threads.

Thanks for the detailed report! That is frustrating that no mpox vaccines are being made available… I read that the EU Commission had shipped 5300 doses to Spain, I would think that the patrons of Termas would be a priority for receiving those but perhaps they are still holding them for cases of confirmed exposure until more become available.

I don’t know if it’s a legal requirement that they ask this - but I would bet a fair amount of money that if he wasn’t asked by an agent, he probably used a self-check computer terminal and had to declare “no” to a written prompt asking about having batteries in luggage. I wouldn’t fault the airline too much here - and sounds like Numazu doesn’t either.

At least if the same rules apply there as in the USA - yes it could have been in carry-on. When checking luggage the agent will almost always ask whether you have any laptops, power banks etc. in the luggage being checked and if you answer yes, they will require you to shift it to carry-on bags before accepting it. This is due to some kind of fire risk of having batteries in the plane hold from what I understand.

Curious for those who have gotten the shot, were there any notable side effects? I didn’t experience anything from my 2 Pfizer COVID doses, but did have about a day of flu-like symptoms after Moderna booster, as well as a sore shoulder that persisted for ~6 weeks (I think perhaps the pharmacy tech may have been off-target with the injection site).

Is that 25% figure based just on more favorable USD/BRL rate? Have fun in Bogota and please report back 😃 Re: airfare, as someone who almost always pays with miles/transferred credit card points, Brazil is cheaper. It also has the advantage of being a shorter journey (at least for me being East Coast US based) and no massive jet lag. I love reading about all the fun in Asia but those advantages of Brazil - plus my like for more muscular guys -- has always prevented me from taking that leap vs South America when I have the precious trip time available. EDIT - cheaper than Asia that is to say! Colombia is of course cheaper/closer still than Brazil and I’ve also had a lot of fun there in my two trips to MDE. But for me nothing can beat the experience of the saunas in Brazil… I’d agree with @Latbear4blk that Colombia is probably the best bet for overall cheapest destination.

https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/37799-odd-habits-of-travelers/ For the TL:DR version see also Riobard’s summing up here: https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/37999-receipts/ and note also that the OP’s account, richard265, has been deleted and now shows as Guest.

I would not hold your breathe for a reply as this topic was started by a since-outed troll/troublemaker who was probably never in Medellin to begin with.

Was indeed able to schedule an appointment for Jynneos after answering the screening behavioral survey despite not having symptoms or contact with a confirmed positive case (which the online info would lead one to believe is who they are limiting shots to at this point). Had to be a Virginia resident too it seemed.

I have been trying to keep up with availability of Jynneos from my local health dept in DC - VA suburbs (it has been available from the DC dept of health for a few weeks, but only for District residents and apparently they run out of appointment slots quite quickly when posted). Online information from VDH to date has indicated that vaccine availability is limited to contacts of known cases. But saw a guy with a PSA on Scruff tonight who advised that if you call the county health dept and let them know you are a MSM with multiple sexual contacts in the last 14 days, they will schedule an appointment for you. Planning to call tomorrow and will report back…

Thanks for the perspective - I’m far from a photographer myself so this isn’t something I’ve ever considered before or have any ambitions to. My thought was assuming the OP would indeed be providing a true value to the GP but I can see how that often wouldn’t be the case.

You could try reaching out to online garotos and offering them a free shoot to add to their profiles. Just a thought