Category Archives for Travel Tips.
These are all basic tips, great for getting started in miles and points, but also useful for how to think about the miles you’ve already got. I don’t do enough basic talk around here so I’m hoping this list will benefit.
If the person in front of you in the customer service line is getting upset and taking it out on the agent, the agent is all the more ready to expect you to do the same. They’re not going to want to listen to your story or spend time working every angle to find a solution. They’re going to want to move you out of their line as quickly as possible. Basic human nature.
So turn that on its head.
What’s your foreign currency routine? How do you buy it, and do you convert it back to your home currency when you leave a country?
One of the best tips in travel is to why yourself a second seat when you’re flying coach. Each of the major airlines has a procedure to let you do this, and it can be a great value when fares are cheap. Do it yourself first class, or at least it can be extra room at a value price (and you’re not getting a great meal if you were flying real first class anyway).
The process to do this is different with every airline, but oddly it’s not something U.S. airlines advertise. One airline, though, just made it much easier.
I travel with UK power adapters. The three-pronged grip will stay in the outlet, while U.S. plugs will fall out of an outlet that’s not properly maintained just enough to lose charging capability. But there’s another solution to the problem that doesn’t even require packing something extra.
Shortly before the pandemic the handle on my Rimowa carry on bag broke. Or, rather, the rubber piece that forms the bottom of the handle of the bag broke off on one side. I tried to figure out how to fix it but had no luck. I wound up putting the bag aside for the pandemic, and only just came back to it. And boy have I been down the rabbit hole.
Things are rough out there. There are fewer agents to help you and more changes to flight schedules. Everyone is stressed on the road. Here are 11 things you can do to make travel go a bit more smoothly. Some are very basic tips, but even if they aren’t new to you they’re good reminders I think.
With the pandemic increasingly under control in the United States, more people vaccinated, and some offices gradually re-opening there’s a brief window where you can really travel and work at the same time. While work from home is likely to be more common than in the Before Times, we may not have the same flexibility in the future that we do right now. Become location independent, if only briefly. Go take a trip and work from somewhere else. Combining work and vacation is actually the best way to vacation anyway.
Travel & Leisure is promoting dressing up so you look like someone airlines want to upgrade. That doesn’t work, but reminds me of an equally silly claim in Bloomberg that there’s two magic words that work every time that do not work at all.
These are great examples of the genre of travel writing that claim you can fly first class just by pretending it’s your honeymoon. I prefer equally silly — and equally effective — suggestions that might be a little more fun.
Two guys started the United States Mask Company in the fall, set up a factory and got NIOSH certification for their N95 masks. They’ve manufactured 200,000 masks but haven’t been able to sell them. How can you make money manufacturing masks when you can now buy Made in the U.S. N95s on Amazon for $1.16 each with free shipping?
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
