lots-of-km2

This is a great help, thanks! And it's a good fallback to have in case the app continues to glitch. And yeah, the app is very intrusive, needlessly so -- asks for income and other personal data that's none of its business. Makes me wonder if they're equally in the business of data collection and mining. Seems that the important step of redacting all extraneous info from a PDF of a brokerage statement and locking the redacted PDF down is only a first self-protective step in dealing with that company.

Thanks, @hawkeyetlse. Glad you got positive results! Maybe they've fixed the glitch. My request got turned down three times in the past week, but the OBC showed up in my account yesterday anyway, quite possibly as a manual override by staff at Stockperks.

I've never gone for "BF" category before but am considering it for a specific cruise because of price. Does choosing BF mean that I'd end up for sure with one of the BF designated cabins (coloured in green on the Princess deck plans), or does it give Princess the ability to place me wherever they want to, in any balcony category on any deck? (Fact is, I actually like the locations and decks of the BF cabins shown on the deck plans and wouldn't really want to be located elsewhere.) Thanks for your insight!

No luck at all with Stockperks. It's glitching. Though my brokerage statement has been validated, I've gotten two onboard credit claim refusals, each with the cryptic message "BOOKING EARMARK IS FULL", followed by emails from Stockperks saying that they're investigating this -- then nothing. Zip. Anyone else experiencing this too?

Yes -- which favours a purchase in CDN in this instance, if price is cited as $2200 CDN.

Rogers Bank Mastercard, for USD purchases. Technically, not fee free as it charges a 2.5% currency exchange fee on USD transactions, but then it gives the cardholder a 3% rebate. For all other foreign currencies, this card charges a 2.5% forex fee but doesn't give a 3% rebate. No annual fee for the card.

If you were trying to order Uber in Canada, you can't dial a telephone number on your cellphone to reach them -- you have to use their app, which requires data. As for trying to order an Uber in the US by dialing a telephone number on your Canadian cell phone, yes, you can do that -- as long as your Canadian cellular account has roaming permission in the US. Uber's US number is 1-833-873-8237. I don't know if you have to be already signed up with Uber to do that; I've personally never used the dial-up method. From Uber's website: 1-833-USE-UBER We often hear from riders about family members who want to use Uber but aren’t as familiar with navigating a smartphone. Now, everyone in the family can enjoy the same effortless Uber experience, even without the app. For US customers it’s as easy as dialing 1-833-USE-UBER (1-833-873-8237), toll-free, to speak with an agent in English or Spanish, and request a ride on-demand or reserve one for a future trip.

Me too, very foggy. That's why I started this thread, because I didn't have enough facts or understanding to make a decision about how to approach risk mitigation when renting a car in Australia. And I wanted to have input of other Canadian travellers for this.

This actually answers the precise question I originally asked in post 1. Thanks! I was trying to decide between renting a car and buying insurance from the rental agency, or renting the same car from the same rental agency but through Expedia, and buying the insurance thru Expedia. The thread got diverted to "Why aren't you using your credit card for CDW?". As the question was a fair one, I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out whether relying on credit card CDW would be a good option for a rental overseas --- only to conclude that the coverage gaps and remedies are so murky and so overly complicated that my best option is to suck it up and rent the car and buy the insurance from the rental company.... for exactly the reasons you stated in post 15 and later. Sometimes the certainty and simplicity are worth paying a couple of hundred dollars for.

Unverified assumptions can have unintended and not-so-good consequences. I've just confirmed that car rental CDW on my highly rated credit card does cover rentals in Australia but nowhere in the world will it cover third party liability, or accident-related property damage. My next step is to check my current car insurance policy coverage, to see if/how it fills the coverage gaps on the credit card -- not just for rentals specific to Australia, but also in Canada and the US. Thanks! I'll inquire out of curiosity, to see if there's a compelling benefit.

Yes. And that also caused me to look at separate insurance. From what little digging around I've done, the rental company issued CDW offered in Australia seems to includes third-party liability (not sure about personal injury and damage to property though). If I were to rely on my credit card, I'd have to refuse the Australian coverage, which would leave me exposed when it comes to third-party liability. Guess I'll have to know and understand the nitty-gritty coverage (and cost) details of all the insurance options so that I can make an informed choice.

I have exactly the same credit card that you do, the TD Visa Infinite Privilege. Typically, I rely on its CDW in Canada and the US, and I do know that I have to refuse the rental car company's insurance in order for the credit card CDW coverage to apply. I also have CDW coverage on my personal car insurance in Ontario, with a deductible. However, I won't be in the US or Canada with this rental. It's Australia, where I'll be driving on the opposite side of the road, in cities and in the outback, using roundabouts, and it feels a bit riskier than the usual driving experience. I'd like to have zero deductible in case something unexpected happens. That's what drove my thought to buy separate insurance that specifically has zero deductible. I'll call TD Visa to ask the specifics about coverage in Australia on their card -- specifically, if there's any issue with using the card's CDW insurance there, what the coverage specifics are, and what the deductible is. That will inform the decision I end up making.

I’m thinking of renting a car in Australia after a cruise, and trying to decide whether to rent the car and obtain full, no deductible CDW insurance directly from the Australia-based rental car company or to rent the same car and buy insurance through an established Canadian online travel agency website whose name starts with ‘ex’. The overall price including insurance is somewhat cheaper on the Canadian travel agency website, even though the car still comes from the same rental company. Does it make any difference where a Canadian person buys the insurance, whether from a Canadian source or from an Australian one? (assuming that the items covered are comparable). Also, is there any advantage to buying the insurance directly from the car rental company versus an online travel agency? I’m not knowledgeable about car rental insurance abroad because I usually rely on my credit card for CDW. A bunch of you on the Canadian boards are knowledgeable about insurance matters, so your insight would be helpful to me.

Have you tried posting your question on the Cunard board? Worth a try. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/32-cunard-line/

If it's the jacket style that stuffs into a travel pillow stuffsack, yes. Thanks for the pic, Ken!