{"id":44038,"date":"2025-04-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=44038"},"modified":"2025-04-17T13:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T20:26:14","slug":"brazil-visa-charge-145-price-hikes-united-partner-point-denials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/brazil-visa-charge-145-price-hikes-united-partner-point-denials\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Visa Charge\/145% Price Hikes\/United Partner Point Denials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brazil Now Charging 3 Nationalities to Enter<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll now have to pay around $81 to visit Brazil if you\u2019re from the USA, Canada, or Australia. The country announced that it would implement a reciprocal visa a year and a half ago, but pushed it back several times. Now they apparently have the systems in place and you will be denied entry if you haven\u2019t applied for and received your e-visa in advance. (Get it here<\/a>). Brazil is a better deal than usual this year because of the exchange rate and originally this was going to be $160 for Americans\u2014what the USA charges their citizens\u2014but kids aren\u2019t excluded. It\u2019ll cost you if you\u2019re a family trying to visit both sides of Iguazu Falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Orgs Buying Burner Phones for US Entry<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A few subscribers wrote and chastised me for overreacting when I highlighted the recent police state actions of U.S. immigration at airports, but the rest of the world is not taking it lightly. Many countries have issued official warnings<\/a> about traveling to the USA in the past month and now \u201cThe European Commission is issuing burner phones and basic laptops to some US-bound staff to avoid the risk of espionage, a measure traditionally reserved for trips to China.\u201d See more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stock Up on \u201cMade in China\u201d Goods<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re outside of the USA you can ignore this, but Americans could see a hike of 145% on anything made in China now, thanks to the economy-wrecking tariff war going on. A few items that provoked panic buying got a reprieve, like phones and computers, but even items with a \u201cMade in the USA\u201d tag often get their raw materials from there. This will dramatically impact the travel and outdoor gear you buy, so stockpile what you\u2019ll need for the coming years for travel apparel, luggage, electronic gadgets, and camping gear. Get what you need on Amazon<\/a> now, especially all those direct-from-China brands you\u2019ve never heard of, or see my Insider Gear Deals newsletter<\/a> that went out yesterday with other retailers\u2019 sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United Airlines Denying Partner Points<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been seeing a lot of complaints on miles and points forums about flyers getting tripped up by United, flying a very long distance on a Star Alliance partner and earning zero points from it. I thought I was savvy, but it just happened to me too. I flew to Tbilisi and back on a regular Turkish Air flight that had a Y fare class on my boarding pass, but United says if you use their secret decoder fine print page buried many clicks deep on their website, the ticket number indicates it was really a U class fare. That\u2019s one of nine<\/em> letters that they exclude from earning any points. Lesson learned: don\u2019t assume you\u2019ll get United miles from a partner unless you\u2019re in business class. Even then you\u2019ll probably need to request what you\u2019re owed manually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of\u00a0A Better Life for Half the Price<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The World\u2019s Cheapest Destinations<\/em>. See\u00a0past editions here,<\/a>\u00a0where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nomadico issue #152<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2385],"tags":[2386],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44039,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44038\/revisions\/44039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}