Comments

1. When traveling to a foreign country, always learn at least a few words/phrases of the native tongue. People will be more willing to help you and not just think you are an arrogant westerner who expects everyone to know English

2. Thanks for your advice on the Chase Sapphire card. I now have one and I’m racking up the points. Much better than my old card where I was tied to one airline!

3. Bring ziplock bags in your suitcase. They always come in handy

4. Push through and stay awake the entire day after landing in Europe…you’ll get your sleep situation straightened out faster.

5. My rule of thumb for international travel is to travel with my charles schwab debit card. It’s been so helpful in asia and europe!

6. I am fairly new to the points world (started in October) and found your blog during a Google search. One of the first articles I read was on the usefulness of the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I got this card in October and am already up to 73k UR points! Enough for my wife and I to take a vacation to Mexico or the Caribbean (though I’m trying to convince her we would be better to save for a trip to Russia!) Thanks for getting me off to a great start!!

7. Sign up for all the cards you can and travel the world for free in style!! Thanks Gary and Happy Holidays!

8. When we travel to a North American city, we always check out Goldstar before departing — we have found great deals on plays, concerts and other public events, often off-the-beaten-track events that are not widely published on tourist sites. For instance, in New York City we snagged (at 1/2 price) tickets to an outdoor theater/murder mystery where the actors were in 19th Century period costume scattered across the East Village. It was a tremendous event and our NYC hosts knew nothing about it!

9. I have really learned a lot about the different credit cards out there;What’s best for what. I’m a newbie to the points system and your explanations of the good ones are spot on.

10. Research, do your homework. This stuff is really worthwhile!

11. Enjoy your life!

12. Great advice here is to book a premium cabin award on a Star carrier with United miles.

13. Help the employees to help you. Provide out of the box suggestions such as irrational routings. Be calm, but firm when the employee is not familiar with policies. Request escalation when necessary.

14. Use social media and all communication methods to your advantage. While standing in line in an IRROP, tweet, then call for rebook.

15. Your best travel tip was regarding Andaz poppy seed pancakes.

    My best travel tip for people trying to use United Paper GPUs on LH is LH437/436 ORD-DUS and vis versa.
    No FCT, no new biz seats but a pretty easy upgrade to C or F and I like old F just fine as I bring my iPad for entertainment. DUS is great for transfers.

    Also the HAM LH Worldshop looks like a storage locker but has huge inventory if you know what you want.

    Thanks for the blog

16. One of the most useful thing you have taught me is how to overide the thermostat in most hotel rooms to set your own temperature and keep it running, even when out of the room!

17. Scan a copy of your passport, travel documents, credit card numbers and phone numbers, etc. and send to yourself so in the unlikely event of theft you have quick access to the information you need.

18. Diversify your point balances. You never know which currency might come in handy down the road.

19. Be careful not to spread your eggs all over _ Keep them in a few baskets. Tom

20. Best travel tip ever may be to hang up and call back. Also to do your research before calling so you can “help” the agent to find a good solution (the one you want)for your problem.

21. There’s lot of good stuff but my favorite was the reminder that if you’re calling customer service and not getting satisfaction just hang up before they document anything and call back. The second or third time, you’ll get the answer you wanted. Also, if you’re on hold for a long time, they aren’t helping.

22. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa Signature Card has an extensive benefits package (pamphlet is 48 pages long) and includes such items as lost baggage insurance, trip delay coverage, trip interruption coverage, and price protection. Did I forget to mention no foreign transaction fees and an annual 7% points bonus?

    Thank you, Gary, for turning me onto this great card.

23. I would say the best lessons I have learned is if you get a chance to use your award, use them. I have wasted several free hotel awards because I want to wait until the best value to use them.

24. Best tip I got from this blog: hang up, call back.

25. Know which cards charge international service fees. You don’t want to get hit with a foreign transaction fee on top of some unfavorable currency conversions.

26. When traveling to foreign countries it’s always good to have some cash of that country’s currency. And if there’s a good chance you’ll be going back; don’t bother exchanging your money back at the end of the trip. You can always save the cash and use it for a future trip.

27. Your blog made me aware that my only hope of booking a suite award on Singapore Airlines was to have KrisFlyer miles, since partners never get access to those awards, and that only one suite per flight would be available for the route we wanted, which was LAX-SIN.

    So I transferred miles out of Amex Membership Rewards and got one suite for free. We paid for the other but it was SO worth it. We recently returned from an absolutely amazing trip to Singapore; Chiang Mai (for the lantern festival); Luang Prabang, Laos; Hanoi; Halong Bay; and Siem Reap (Angkor Wat).

    It was a true bucket list trip, and we couldn’t have done it without you! Thanks, Gary.

28. Best piece of advice I’ve learned: Always verify that an award ticket for travel on a partner has been issued. Call the operating airline to verify that the ticket is ready for travel. Particularly important on Star Alliance awards booked via United!

29. I always check OTAs for hotel rates to try to do a best rate guarantee. Can save a lot of money for not too much effort.

30. Keep applying for credit cards with good rewards on a regular basis as long as you have the financial responsibility to pay your bills on time.

31. Get star alliance Gold status by signing up and crediting your flight to Aegean airlines. 20k miles gets you domestic lounge access at United Clubs

32. In case of transportation delays be proactive in finding alternative arrangements that work for your schedule and needs instead of waiting for your turn to speak to an onsite agent.

33. The best advice I’ve come across is from the post entitled “Traveling with Business Attire in Your Carryon.” It’s a true classic. I thought I had some good tricks (like wrapping everything up in dry cleaners’ plastic, which helps), but I can’t tell you how much time–and, frankly, money, as a result of being able to avoid hotel dry cleaning and pressing charges–this has saved me on short business trips.

34. I learned many things from this blog since the beginning of the year. I learned how to increase my miles redemption and getting the big credit card bonus which helped me getting some nice award trips to Europe without spending too much cash, one of the most important things is to use a visa signature card when booking a fligh 😉

35. The most useful thing I have learned is using 4500 Avios for DCA-ORD, a notoriously expensive route. Thanks Gary!

36. Not being afraid to do yoga when you’re in first class by yourself!

37. Through this blog I learned that I am not limited to the itineraries that web-search shows or agent finds, but that there are in fact a limitless number of options to get from point A to point B if you learn the rules of a program and do your own research. This includes creative routing rules to include extra destinations, stopovers, oven-jaws, building 3 trips from two award redemption, etc.
    Another important lesson I learned, is that extremely good opportunities are very short-lived, and we need to follow slick-deals rule if we want to take advantage of them (buy now think later). This applies to 100k offers for Amex cards as well as mistake fares (4 miles trip to HKG) or even super-sales.

38. Don’t get frustrated – hang up. Call back.

39. Short but sweet, the advice on “farming your airline award tickets”

40. Besides all the usual stuff you can get away with on US Airways awards, they strictly enforce the “one stopover” rule…. but they don’t strictly enforce it when changing your ticket

    I’ve had several instances where I originally had a 24 hours making the ticket illegal (not that my ticket wasn’t already illegal :))

    So long as I don’t make it a really obvious change, I’ve never had an agent say something along the lines of “you can’t make that change because it would cause a 2nd stopover”

41. my middle paragraph above should say “I’ve had several instances where I originally had a sub-24 hours connection changed to more than 24 hours…”

42. I have learned a lot of useful stuff from this blog, but probably the most important is the most basic: ANYONE is capable of doing these things!

43. Even as a loyal AA flyer I had never investigated distance-based awards until your post. Was able to book an excellent trip sampling premium cabin offerings on a variety of OneWorld airlines at more or less the same mileage cost as a RT redemption to Asia. Distance Zone 6 really is a sweet spot!

44. One tip I came across elsewhere is the use of United (formerly Continental) Plan B for Business to waitlist for saver availability in I. I’ve used it as a non-elite with mixed success (more wins than losses actually), and given the paucity of other options for upgrading when I is full at the time of booking, it’s the best chance I’ve got. Of course there may be those who don’t want to risk sitting in Y for a 14-hour vacation flight, but for flights you have to take anyway, I find it worthwhile to throw my hat in the ring.

45. great blog, thanks!

46. Pay your credit card bills on time!!! Do not overextend yourself in pursuit of this miles and points game.

47. Always buy a local pre-paid Simcard for data or voice instead of using your roaming plan. It is much cheaper. also download apps before you leave the country to save data charge. use smartphone for everything(maps,food,points of interest)

48. I have learned to collect miles with a purpose. When I first started, I just applied for any and every card I could with no plans on how to use them. Now I know that if I would have planned more strategically I can do so much more with them (before they devalue!). Thanks for a fantastic blog.

49. I bring a small power strip, so only need one outlet, and one adapter to recharge everyone’s electronic gadgets.

50. oops fat fingers hit submit too early.

    if you are doing manufactured spend on credit cards, be careful to not let you card balances close with too much spend on the card as this will negatively affect your credit rating. Always keep your card balances below 5-10% max on statement closing. Also do not carry any balances on the majority of your cards or even $1 balances on too many cards will also negatively ding your credit rating.