Travel Tips

Category Archives for Travel Tips.

How to Get Free and Discounted Drinks on Southwest Airlines

by Gary Leff

southwest drinks
Jun 12 2019

Just prior to airline deregulation, when Southwest Airlines had to start competing with Texas International Airlines and Braniff offering cheap fares between Houston and Dellas, they started giving out “to go” bottles of alcohol to full fare customers. They became the largest liquor distributor in the state.

For many years Southwest Airlines offered free drinks inflight to all customers. They cut that back to offering free drinks only during key business travel times. And then in 1988 they eliminated free alcohol from their flights, but started giving coupons to frequent flyers.

Here’s how you can get free and discounted drinks on Southwest Airlines today.

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How to Access American’s Old Calendar Search Tool for Better Award Results

by Gary Leff

american flight prices
Jun 05 2019

Knowing how to find the old system makes award search much more convenient, even as American pushes customers into the process for the new and incomplete award search tool.

It’s unclear how long American will run two systems in parallel. However for now it’s a good idea to make sure you’re seeing results from both systems because otherwise you may pay more miles than necessary for your awards.

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What’s the Best Business Class for Sleeping?

by Gary Leff

airplane bed
May 31 2019

Ultimately Qatar’s QSuite isn’t going to be beat by anyone, and it comes with top notch catering and service. An admittedly unpopular opinion but after that I’d probably take EVA Air (Air Canada and Virgin Australia fall into this same grouping). The Japan Airlines Apex Suite window seat is a great seat, and you don’t have a foot well boxing in your sleep style, but as a side sleeper I prefer EVA.

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Keeping Miles from Expiring With Newspaper and Magazine Subscriptions

by Gary Leff

walls street journal newspaper front
Apr 21 2019

When your miles are expiring there are plenty of ways to extend them, depending on the program. In general programs let you extend your miles by earning miles in an account or by redeeming miles.

I frequently use Magazines for Miles to keep family member accounts alive without spending any money. I had forgotten there’s a newspaper redemption option, too. And there are some options I’m finding useful on their own merits, not just to deal with expiring miles.

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What’s the Real Policy for Tipping Airline Customer Service Employees?

by Gary Leff

hand holding hundreds of dollars in cash
Apr 06 2019

In January there was much buzz about the Frontier Airlines policy of supplementing flight attendant wages with customer tips.

Most airlines don’t permit flight attendants to accept tips, and they have mixed feelings on the subject — some simply want more money (although tipping may ultimately mean lower salaries), while others worry the emphasis would then shift from safety to service. But what about other agents you encounter at the airport?

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How to Score Free Bottled Water at Hotels

by Gary Leff

3 cases of water
Mar 31 2019

The gym is always a go-to source for me. And when a hotel does provide free bottled water in the room I’ll usually hide any bottles I haven’t consumed in my luggage in case the hotel brings more. I wouldn’t want them to think I was already stocked.

In much of the world you can drink the tap water though whenever I’m uncertain I avoid it. I’d rather drink filtered water (hopefully they change the filters) and I want to use my own or a hotel-gifted bottle, not the hotel’s glasses in the bathroom which may or may not be clean.

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