nomad22

I would definitely recommend not to transit in Canada. All transit passengers on international flights arriving in Canada need to go through Canada immigration and customs. If the OP's family is Thai, they may even need a transit visa for Canada. Much better to choose one of the many airlines with easy transit airports.

According to the link you posted, if your only income is social security, the first 50,000 annually is tax free. That's more the twice the average Social Security.

You can obtain a non O retirement visa in Thailand directly from immigration, no need to use an agent. The main requirement is that you need to have 800,000 baht in a Thai Bank.

All ASEAN countries recognize each other's licenses. If you are ever stopped by police in Phils, just politely refuse to pay any requested fine/bribe. It's common for police to stop and try to get money from foreigners driving on any legal license, but if you refuse to play the game, they will just let you go.

Tail winds going east. It's actually shorter to go that way also. The long flights from Asia to New York go far north over Alaska and northern Canada which is shorter than if you go the other way and route through the middle east closer to the equator.

The fastest way is over the pacific. EVA, Cathay Pacific, ANA all have trips around 20 hours. Going the other ways is at least a couple of hours longer.

Will Trump leave office in 2029 and allow the newly elected president to take office? What do you think?

I wonder how long it will be until he declares himself king.

Visually, the Hoi An / Danang area has very similar pollution to Hua Hin. Definitely not as bad as Chiang mai, not as clear as Samui or Phuket. At street level, the pollution smells much worse in Vietnam. After walking around a city in Vietnam, my clothes smell strongly of exhaust.

Philippines airline business class is also terrible. Definitely avoid them. They have just the old style reclining chair seats, not the new lay flat variety, the food is just barely edible, and Manila is one of the worst transit airports.

Unless you completely ignore all news from the US, it is impossible to "boycott the subject". The whole country is just one big donald trump show these days.

Good advise. I find the arrival time is very important for beating jet lag. I prefer to arrive in the late afternoon, so I know I will be able to stay wake until a reasonable bed time. The worst is when the flight arrives in the US in the morning, so it is very difficult to stay awake all day. Then I fall asleep in the day and then can't sleep at night.

Annoyed Whether you like him or hate him, isn't everyone just sick and tired of hearing about this guy all the time?

Personally I always fly either EVA or Singapore to the US. They both have very nice business class and premium economy. I don't do economy that far anymore. Also, the transit airports for both those are nice and easy-- never any lines at security. For me jet lag is always worse when arriving in the US.

That's income tax you're talking about. None of that goes toward social security. Social Security tax is different--it's an additional 6% taken from your paycheck that most people don't even notice or know about. Social Security tax does indeed stop at 150k earned income.