an update on zidisha.org: how it didn't work out for me

last year, i heard about the website zidisha.org. i wrote about it last may. briefly, this is a microfinance and lending site, similar to kiva.org. the difference between zidisha and kiva is that you can charge interest. for the most part, the interest that i had charged (~3-4% per person) was collected simply to cover the currency risk.

my loans:

case #1: grace
grace is a 47 year old kenyan who sells second hand clothes. there were multiple lenders for this person, with interest rates ranging from 0% to 5.00%. i had given her $50 and had asked for 4%, which i thought was fair. if i were an american who dealt primarily with american currency, i would probably have asked for less.

and so, as i kind of do with many things with work life starts to ramp up, i left it on the backburner. i didn't check in on it for 5-6 months. i figured that at 17 months, there would be quite a significant repayment rate, similar to kiva.org.

but there were no payments. there was a vague mention about giving birth in august and needing a hospital stay, and having the loan re-scheduled. that comment was posted on august 17. and yes, she may have had a child, and yes, she may have had serious complications with the pregnancy. and yes, i could possibly have more empathy. but to hear nothing in the last 6 months is kind of bad form. i kinda feel ... scammed.

and she has repaid nothing.

okay, okay, so maybe she one off. so let's go to case #2.

case #2: cira
so cira is a woman from senegal who works as an office assistant by day, and sells clothing and jewelry by night. she took out a loan for $756 and had a repayment term of 63 months. i don't recall it being 63 months, because i wouldn't sign up for repayments over 5 years -- i wonder if it might have changed, and i have been known to overlook things so i'll assume it's my mistake. i gave her $50 and a 3.5% interest rate. i used a lower interest rate because she already had a successful loan on zidisha.

so things were initially going well, with her 63-month loan. i didn't check back for six months, and she was paying things on time, it looked like. until she posted something on her loan page:

which, roughly translated through google translate, meant that she had a bad client who didn't pay her but that it would be a temporary problem because she has all these other clients who are still paying her. so the problem, as of september 4, 2014, was going to be temporary. and then look at what's happened:

and almost 6 months later, not a word. again, not a very good feeling. i have gotten back $2.33 so far on this loan.

conclusion
i think i gave it a fair try by trying out two different loans. and it's not that they were late with their payments or that they tried really hard until they couldn't do it anymore. these loans appear to have failed abysmally. i'm not really expecting that things will turn out well.

so i think that these two loans will end my participation with zidisha at this time. i'll keep the account open to see if any more repayments happen, but i don't think their model thus far has worked as well as kiva.org.

as an aside, i have made 37 loans via kiva.org. 35 of these have been fully repaid. one is still repaying as per the original repayment time frame. only one has defaulted (although she paid back nearly 50% of the loan).

brunei extravaganza: part 2: ord-hkg, ua business class, medical emergencies

this is a continuation of my semi-trip report. the first part was located here.

ua895: chicago to singapore (15 hrs 55 mins)
i've flown business class on united only once before. this was on their old 747s back in 2008 which didn't have a full recline. i took the opportunity to quickly take a pic of the seats as we were boarding.

business class seats

video screen with foot rest

they also passed out their tin amenity kits. they had different ones for all their hubs. my neighbor got the cleveland kit, which i kind of wanted simply because united will be de-hubbing cleveland in the near future.

their seats are in a 2x4x2 configuration. half the seats face forward, the other half face backward. i was facing forward and sitting in an aisle seat. there was an 81 year old Chinese woman who was sitting facing me across the aisle. it was awkward because i was likely the only other person in the entire business class cabin who was also asian. she only spoke mandarin, and my mandarin was awful. i can only imagine how much she wanted to just be able to talk to someone else on the flight, especially when the majority of the announcements, flight crew, and passengers were english speaking. i will admit that i was kind of annoyed that every time my eyes were open, she would try to initiate conversation. i kind of just wanted to enjoy the business class product.

the business hard and soft product
i will have to admit that the hard product (i.e., the physical seat itself and its features) were excellent. it was a fully lay flat, non-angled seat that was wide enough to let me lay down and not feel constricted. the entertainment console was easy to use, the hand control unit was intuitive enough to use. possibly the only thing that would have been nice would have been to have a bit more of a barrier between myself and my neighbor, but even that was ok for me. i felt bad for my seat mate who was sitting at the window -- she had to climb over me in order to use the washrooms.

the soft product (i.e., the service aspect) was friendly and efficient. it was full in first class and business class, and half full in economy class. i wonder if things would have been different if it were a completely full flight. there was a bit less emphasis on presentation of the staff and the meals (compared with the very uniform appearance of the asian airlines, which i really appreciate). and of course, compared to economy, the soft product was much better.

meal times
once airborne, we were served a lunch option. there were four choices, and i chose the cod and vegetable ratatouille. it was very nice.

jumbo prawn and salad

 

cod ratatouille

at the midway point in the flight, they offered a light snack consisting of a chicken and wonton dumpling noodle soup. the pieces all kind of stuck together, but i don't know what else they could have done with it.

mid flight snack

a few hours before landing, we were offered a small breakfast. i chose the egg option. breakfast was served at around 4pm hong kong time -- i always wonder why they don't serve the meal that would best match the local time where they are at.

brekkie

medical emergencies in the air
midway through the flight, somewhere over the pacific ocean, there was an announcement that there was a medical emergency. i know that in the past, i said that i wouldn't help out because i felt that i wouldn't be a very good doctor. but there was an initial call out for someone with a medical background. i waited for a few minutes and overheard the flight attendants talking.

"there's a radiologist in first class," one of them said, "but he says that it's been a while for him." which is true because the last time he probably did any general medicine was likely in his first year of residency. "and no one's identified themselves in the back." and then i felt guilty, and then i volunteered myself.

luckily, it was a case of an elderly lady who likely had heart burn (her medication was in her checked bag, and she herself was delayed and separated from her baggage for over 24 hours) and anxiety. but there were a few things i noted:

• the stethoscope was not very useful at all. it worked in that you could hear your finger tapping on the diaphragm, but you couldn't hear breath sounds or heart sounds
• their blood pressure cuff required two hands to operate ... so you would need a third hand to either feel the pulse or hold the stethoscope
• the only medications they carry are heavy duty medications for people who have gone into cardiac arrest, as well as aspirin. but they don't carry anything else
• there is a helpful ground-link communication with a doctor to also help guide the staff if necessary. but i never got to talk to them
• they want to see your identification and proof that you are a doctor. it makes sense from a liability standpoint as united absorbs all the potential liability (or so they said -- i wish i had taken the actual copy of the agreement with me). i guess they want to make sure i'm actually a doctor. luckily, i had my badge with me.

she turned out fine. no body bag was necessary when we deplaned from hong kong 8 hours later. except for waking me up while i was asleep to let me know that the passenger may have had some wine with her dinner, i never heard from the crew or united airlines about that again.

my reward was not having to make an emergency landing, and thus delaying my arrival into hong kong (and thus singapore) by a few hours.

touching down in hong kong, after 16 hours in the air, was the sweetest feeling ever.

brunei extravaganza: part 1 -- exiting london, global entry strategies, and secondary searches

i had the chance to actually travel the itinerary that i booked and wrote about, heading from london, ontario to singapore, and then back again to vancouver. i see these trip reports all the time. i didn't have the foresight to actually take enough pictures to make it trip-report worthy, but i figured that i might as well post the pictures anyway.

this will be broken into parts.

part 1: yxu-ord, ord-hkg-sin

yxu-ord
i had to book a cab to head from the london hotel to the airport. in london, you can either go by the regular metered cabs or the chartered cabs. the chartered cabs run based on zones and are easier to get. they are also the only ones that are allowed to pick up passengers from the airport. the driver assured me that the rates are roughly the same except it's less stressful to be charged based on zones because you weren't constantly worried about the lights. i didn't really care -- i spent $50 to get to my hotel, and i spent another $50 to get to the airport.

london airport is a cute, small airport. it is reminiscent of the old brunei international airport where all the boarding gates share the same seating area. the check-in counter for united was manned by air canada. united runs the crj's between london and chicago twice daily, and these planes don't have business class. for that matter, air canada typically runs non-business class planes between the two cities. so when i walked into the premier check in lane, it felt a bit odd, especially since there was a long line for the economy lane.

the flight boarded quickly and left on time. it was uneventful. there was no need to take a picture of an economy class seat.

ord (5 hour layover)
typically traveling from either calgary or vancouver, i've become used to the pre-clearance facilities. in chicago, i ended up clearing US immigration there. i used my global entry access, but because i was carrying food (granola bars, lots of nuts), i checked yes to the question where they asked if i had any food with me. tip: their computer system cannot differentiate between you checking yes to food versus livestock, and i think firearms. and it was very clear that the border agent didn't know the system either. he kept asking why i checked "yes" to having livestock with me. i kept telling him that i answered yes only to food but he didn't believe me.

it was the very first time in my adult life that they sent me to secondary. which consisted of an x-ray. where they indeed found my granola bars that i kept for airplane snacks. and they let me keep it.

if i were to have done it all over again, i would have just stood in the regular line because at 7am, the lines aren't all that long. and i don't think i would have been sent to secondary.

i had to exit the secure zone, transfer terminals, and re-clear security. i went to the united lounge in concourse C (of terminal 1) while i waited for the flight. i honestly wished that i could have went to a different airline lounge, but the terminal was pretty much a united-only zone. so no luck.

flight ua895 began boarding on time, and left on time. next post: my 16 hour journey to hong kong.

an important rule of award travel: check back frequently for new availability

the most important rule, of course, is when you don't like the answer you're getting, you should hang up and try your call again. because more often than not, the agent isn't very clear on the rules themselves. or they are overly hopeful that the system will passively work out the kinks to your reservation without any further encouragement.

the scenario
i had booked an aeroplan award to asia. the itinerary at the time was:
london, ontario to chicago (yxu-ord) on united (ua), economy
chicago to singapore on united, business class (with same-plane stop in hong kong)

on the return, i had:
singapore to hong kong on singapore airlines, economy class
hong kong to beijing on air china, economy class
beijing to vancouver on on air canada, business class

i paid 125,000 miles and $323 in taxes for that ticket.

what made me think about changing my flights
my dad was playing around with some of his award tickets, and he said that he had lucked out and found business class space for his air canada award flight. because he had paid for a business class redemption, they were able to upgrade him on the same flight for free.

i was telling this to my friend over dinner one night, and he said that i should keep on checking back. he said that business class space opens up over time and that i should keep on looking for business class space on the return. "you already paid for it," he reminds me.

and so approximately two weeks before my departure date, i took another look. and then i found this for the return:
singapore to osaka on singapore airlines, business class
osaka to seoul on asiana, business class
seoul to vancouver on air canada, business class

the times were a bit different, and it let me eliminate the need for a hotel in singapore on my return. and i was okay with that.

on making changes, and on following the golden rules:
i immediately called aeroplan, and they were able to protect space and make the change for me. i paid an additional $102 in taxes and $94.50 in change fees. it didn't change over right away. they said "ticketing" needed to confirm it. they didn't call me back like they were supposed to. apparently, they were just sitting on it. for a whole week. and the award space was showing up as gone. so i called back to make confirm what had happened. the second rule happens even after you book your flight or make changes: keep checking to make sure they actually made the changes. just because you give them your credit card and just because you lose the points in your account, it isn't a guarantee that they book the tickets. you would think that it is, but it isn't.

and the agent, on wednesday (departure date for the award was sunday), kept telling me to wait a few more days. "ticketing" would work it out by then. she found award space on a different routing, all in business class, but less convenient timing, and she asked if i wanted to switch to that one instead. she couldn't guarantee me that the same problem that happened with my original change wouldn't happen again. so then i chose to employ the first golden rule in a different form: keep asking for a manager until you get one. i think i ended up saying, "thanks, can i please speak with your manager?" five times in tandem until she finally relented. the manager came. and then it was fixed.

the value per aeroplan point went up!
so what happens to the overall value of the award? initially, i had calculated an award value of 4.13 cents per aeroplan point redeemed. for an additional $196.50 in taxes, i got a fully business class itinerary. the asking price was $6530 on united's website using similar airlines. i paid out $519.50 in taxes and change fees for my "free ticket", so really, i saved $6,010.50. because i spent 125,000 points, each point was then calculated to be worth 4.81 cents per mile. a slightly better valuation.

if you think that business class tickets are overpriced, you may choose to value it at 75% of the revenue ticket cost. in this case, my overall rate of return drops to 3.60 cents per mile. still not too bad.

lessons learned:

1. check back frequently to see if more business class reward space opens up
2. check back frequently to make sure that your tickets are actually booked if changes need to be made
3. managers tend to have more power in getting things done than the first person you speak with on the phone