At the beginning of the week I shared some web stats and plans for a Million Reader Giveaway.
I only wish I had realized the traffic milestones earlier for this blog, I could have reached out to my favorite travel providers and asked them to help me celebrate… with promises of riches beyond readers’ wildest dreams elite status and points.
Instead, I’ve had to get creative with the sorts of things I’m able to offer on my own.
So here’s part one of the Million Reader Giveaway!
Prizes will include:
- (5) Milepoint premium packages (1000 United miles, Hilton Gold status, National Car Rental Executive status, and more)
- $200 Gift Cards
- Amazon Gift Cards
- Miles in your choice of several programs
- Amazon Gift Cards
I might even throw in elite status and a club membership with an airline. There will be at least 15 prizes in this round, and probably more in round 2!
It’s a bit of a grab back of most high value prizes, half of which will be given away randomly and half will be give away based on quality or usefulness of entry.
Here’s all you need to do:
- leave a comment in this thread sharing either your best travel-related tip or advice, or the most useful thing you’ve learned from this blog.
- Since quality is key (as half the prizes will be given out based on quality), you may enter as many times as you like.
- All entries for this round must be submitted as a comment to this post by Sunday 5pm Eastern.
Thank you very much — in advance for your tips and for reading and sharing along with me, all these years!
Now enter away…!
Best,
Gary
- You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
I always take a six-foot extension cord. You never know where the closest outlet will be in any hotel and it helps with computers, cpap machine, and other electronics. It also takes up very little room if you string it around the base of a suitcase.
Scan your passport and email it to yourself for international travel. That way you are only a computer away from being able to pick up a copy of your most important travel ID.
Travel Tip: Never be deterred from one bad review (either restaurant or hotel). Make sure you read that person’s other reviews. They make just be a super harsh critic to begin with.
Being friendly is a far better way to (potentially) get what you want/desire than being mean/rude.
I advise that you always include a note with your online hotel reservation if you are celebrating a special occasion such as an anniversary, birthday, etc. From past experience this greatly increases the chance of getting some form of upgrade for those without status. Please don’t lie about it though.
The most useful thing that I have learned is how to wisely apply for credit cards. I started here in 2011 when times were way good. I remember learning on your site that Capital One was doing their 100k mileage matching for their business card as well as for their personal card. Good times.
While planning your trip, collect all important travel info in a Word doc. Air and hotel conf #s, addresses, a list of stuff you’d like to see and do, screenshots of google maps to hotel/attractions, note any other tips or websites you come across as you research, and of course, map or directions to your favorite airport lounges! Keep it all in one doc that you can easily print out or save on your phone/tablet prior to travel, so you don’t fumble for this info on the road.
Keep a copy of your iternary and ID in your suitcase
Best travel tip: Head into a lounge if your flight gets cancelled. Shorter line and quicker booking on another flight.
I have different color eagle creek packing pouches/cubes so I can keep my belongings organized in my suitcase. Underwear and socks go in the smaller blue bag, shirts/pants go in the larger black bag, workout clothes go in the larger white bag, etc. This way nothing is “floating” around my bag or misplaced. I have also done this for outfits: entire outfit in blue eagle creek bag, another entire outfit in red eagle creek bag, etc.
I recommend being very friendly with hotel front desk managers and flight attendents. With a little small talk and the occasional sly joking/serious comment you would be amazed as to what can happen. My personal favorite was when i saw a flight attendent with a Green Bay Packers wrist band and i said Go Packers. That comment alone got me and my wife switched from coach to business/first on a long haul.
The checking account at Schwab has no ATM fees anywhere in the world…plus you can deposit checks via their mobile app.
As socks, underwear and clothes get a bit worn we set them aside for travel, wear once and leave behind in hotel rooms, saving space for souvenirs on the way home.
Some of the best advice I can give is to just relax and enjoy the great life we have. Everyone reading this blog has experienced travel that they may otherwise not have been able to do and that is an awesome thing. If you don’t get upgraded to a better room, or you dont get upgraded to business class, just be grateful for what you have, which is probably a free coach flight or free hotel room anyways.
I’m not as frequent a traveler as many, but I’ve learned that I can get a lot of the same perks of elite status just by having a cobranded credit card. I might not get an upgrade when I fly, but not paying for bags is always nice.
When it comes to mistake fares, act now, think later.
It is really hard to pick only one thing that I learned from this blog…I learned about the elite status with airlines and hotel loyalty program.
Since after I joined this blog, I could experience couple of first/business class and also stayed at very nice suite room during my vacation.
I do not live in US, so it was really tough to gather flight/hotel points, however, I tried to utilize tips from this blog as many as I can, so I had quite good experience!!
Don’t be scared to pay for a friends or family memebers flights or hotel on occasion, with points of course, because those accounts with 1,000,000 miles/points need to be used. The feeling you will get from seeing them so excited is amazing.
Most useful thing I’ve learned is about booking awards. How to search for the awards you want (and the quirks of searching on different airline websites). How to work with a phone agent when you’ve already done a lot of research. When to hang up and call back.
On google maps on your phone to cache the cities your traveling to internationally so that you can use your GPS overseas and see where you are located! Even with an old fashioned paper map it can still be hard to locate were you are (think the streets of Venice).
Keep your AwardWallet account up-to-date so that you can easily check on your miles and points on the run!
Travel with spare ziplock bags, of varying size.
If you don’t like what an agent is saying on the phone – hang up and call again.
Get a fee free ATM/Debit card so that you can bypass the money exchangers and withdraw at good rates from local ATMs. Charles Schwab is who I use.
Whenever I travel, I always have all my travel-related confirmation emails (hotels, flights, rentals, etc.) for this trip sorted into a specific folder for easy access. This saves me the time to look/search for them in my inbox.
Switch to mobile phone service with T-Mobile as you get free text msgs and data in many international countries as part of their plan. In addition, you get free wifi calls back to the US. Instead of being cheap my last trip to Asia and turning off the phone, I got to enjoy all the benefits I receive from my smart phone in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand… all gratis.
I use Bluebird when traveling abroad for cash withdrawals. Rate is pretty close to interbank, no worries about cash advance fees, low flat rate fee per withdrawal, and the risk is limited to whatever I’ve loaded into my Bluebird account.
The most useful thing I learned from this blog is free hilton old with the HHonors Amex now.
Be sure to notify your credit card companies and the bank card you will be using at ATM’s when traveling internationally of the countries you will be visiting and the dates of your travel. It will save you from your cards being declined.
It’s also a good idea to let the US embassy know you will be in the country (and your dates of travel)in case of incidents occurring in the country.
I loved your how to override the thermostat in your hotel room post. I hate being trapped in a stuffy hot room!
plan ahead and review the plan more than once
Gary, easily, how to churn card in early days (2011).
I haven’t done much traveling(although I wish I could) but my only advice is when traveling with little kids research hotels with sitters,carry any device you have for them to watch movies,lots of kids books and always remember to carry allergy meds because every place I have been I develop an allergy as soon as I get there. Thanks so much! Fingers crossed. Wonderful Million reader giveaway. Have a wonderful month everyone
Always carry a pack of clothes in your carryon. Our bags didn’t come for 2 days in Brazil and strangely none of the ATM cards worked at Salvador airport & we had $10 in cash.
ATM cards worked fine with a CITI or HSBC ATM outside of the airport though it was difficult with Portuguese.
Anything that can go wrong, will at some point go wrong, but its a whole new animal in another country.
Hello,
I learned to accumulate points using, first the United Explorer card, then the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, to travel four times (one-way) for (almost) free between Paris (where I am studying) and the U.S. This has allowed me to finish my studies in a French university.
Tom
Bring a strong pocket flashlight! Not all countries or hotels are as well lit as ours.
I’ve learned that a little lemon and some poppyseeds can go a long way in the pancake business
All the recent credit card best offer!
I discovered hidden city/throwaway through your blog, I only have successfully used it once but is definitely useful and can save some money.
Gary,
I’m a long time reader, and I’ve gained more from this blog than I can express.
When looking at every tip together, all of the flight deals, the credit card signups, hidden city ticketing and aspirational redemptions, at the end of the day, the best tip is not to forget why we do this. All too often, we get caught up in making or missing the latest mistake fare, frustrated with the latest devaluation, or obsessed about using the most valuable shopping portal each time.
We are all incredibly lucky to be able to experience the world in ways we could not have otherwise. It’s very easy to focus on the minutia, but we should never stop remembering why we’re here.
I learned about the Schwab account with no international fees.
Thanks for the giveaway, Gary! And congratulations!
T-Mobile offers free unlimited international data and text. They also do not require you to sign a contract, so you can sign up for a $30 right before leaving for a trip then cancel when you get home. The speeds are not the best but Maps/GPS Facebook Twitter all work, just a bit slow.
Sharing miles and points with family and friends is the best way to spend my treasure gain from this community, thank you!!!
HUCA!
Make sure airlines properly issue your ticket by calling each partner to ensure they have a proper record of eticket #
Look into alternate accommodation options such as hostels, air bnb, Couchsurfing etc
Accumulate points in flexible currencies such as AMEX MR and Chase UR
Network network network with other miles junkies
When calling about awards, if your agent is not helpful or as informed as you need, hang up and call again. Repeat until you get an agent that can help you.
If its not working hang up, and call back (wash, rinse, repeat).