Comments

1. Tie for best lesson from here: The number of spousal credits one can earn by booking a Lufthansa trip that includes the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. That’s the gift that keeps on giving!

2. Sorry for the typos. I am in kerela India and there was a glare on the screen. And yes, I got here in business class from frequent miles from all your tips. But, when I don’t fly business it’s great to use my 2 free lounge passes from my ink bold card. Thanks gary!

3. Tie for best lesson from here: Your marginal value of points increases as your point total approaches premium cabin redemption thresholds. Spending money to gain those last 50,000 points might be quite sensible even though buying the first 50,000 points does not look nearly as smart.

4. Travel tip: When you need a last-minute US domestic ticket, check availability of capacity-controlled Standard Award space on Southwest. This requires logging in to your Rapir Rewards account but it no longer requires you to have any awards in the account. If you see award space on the flight you want, transfer 19200 RR points to AirTran and then transfer them right back to Southwest. Logout or RR and login again to see and book your award.

   I recently booked a Wednesday to Sunday Thanksgiving trip on one day’s notice this way. It would have been unaffordable any other way. $800+ in value from 19200 Southwest points!

5. When talking to an agent, be polite, get him on your side to help you, and if one is not of help, hang up and call back repeatedly till you get the one who can handle your request – best advice from your blog.

6. SkyPesos are for spending, not hoarding.

7. This blog has given me soooooo many great tips its hard to single out just one. But for me, living near a small regional airport, learning about the advantages of earning and then using British Airways Avios for short haul AA flights has been very valuable to me. This allows me to reposition to a larger hub airport for very little “cost” and from there I can explore the world.

   Thanks Gary for all you do.

8. Free points in obscure programs.

9. hang up (politely) and call back!

10. Persist. Just like in this comment.

11. I am Asia based without access to the US credit card games, therefore excluding the financial benefits this provides, as its out of reach for me, here is my best piece of advice taken from Garys blog: Hyatt club floor and suite upgrades have been probably the best advice I got from your blog when calculating the money saved AND the enhanced comfort over the 4 days these things worked so far (flight upgrades or cheap mileage tickets like LM and USDM also count, but a flight only lasts max 12 – 16 hours, staying in a top Hyatt property with the family in the most exciting cites of the world creates so much more emotional value). A pity Hyatt devalues them from next year.

12. Always try to consolidate points earning into a single program across each alliance or partnership. This will reduce orphaned miles and allow you to save up for a big reward!

13. Having a spouse or significant other in the game is a great way to magnify earning, whether it involves household accounts, double the amount of credit cards, or an Amazon Payments partner (with a shared bank account no less!)

14. If you work for a large or medium sized company, you can often find outstanding hotel and car rental rates through corporate codes. Just be sure your travel policy allows it.

15. Keeping an itinerary for a big trip in a single document is an excellent way to allow easy reference and identify any gaps in your planning. I put all flights, hotels, and pre-planned ground transit-with times and confirmation numbers for each-into a Word document for any multi city trip I take, particularly in Asia. This has allowed me to identify an unhooked flight or hotel on a number of occasions (or occasionally, a mis-booked flight or hotel).

16. There are times to fight against the current, and times to go with the flow.

    When I was detained by Mexican Immigration for not having my visa on me (didn’t read the fine print about needing to carry it at all times and left it at my friends place), I threw up my hands and enjoyed the roller coaster ride. The Canadian expat who was detained at the same checkpoint, cursed up the M-16 toting Immigration officials and flailed around like a drowning victim.

    I was released first.

17. It’s far more gratifying to use your free hotel nights or award nights booked on points on the trips you definitely want or need to take rather than holding out for that aspirational high-value redemption that you may never have an opportunity to use (think Polynesia or Maldives). These nights expire and points devalue; if you don’t use them when and where you have a good use for them, you can lose them altogether or end up doing something mediocre just prior to expiration. I woulda shoulda coulda used my 2 free Hilton weekend nights at the Waldorf Astoria in Berlin but didn’t because hotels prices there are so reasonable compared to other cities; now I’m scrounging around for the “best” place to use the award and coming up empty because I can’t make my travel plans work around a good redemption.

18. Earn and burn. Miles should not be treated like a savings account

19. For skymiles, always remember to look for overwater leg. For shorter legs, check both economy and business. Many times economy might be available. For example: for an upcoming SFO-CDG trip … no business class tickets existed. Although I found PDX-CDG but no business from SFO-PDX. It was either buy it separately or use Southwest points. But a quick check in economy found 2 seats SFO-PDX. Not bad for a 1.5hr flight.

20. Learn typical seasonal schedule changes for an airport, then use ITA to find cheap super-tight connections far in advance that will likely be broken by the airline later. When broken, use it to secure a free change to optimal flights that would have been much more expensive. Especially on DL, they’ll often let you switch to alternative airports (within reason). Do your homework and this can have a very high success rate.

21. Get loyalty accounts for your kids the day they are born, and when applicable promos (especially freebies) arise, include them. By the time they are old enough to appreciate the account, they’ve have some valuable gifts accumulated, thanks to thoughtful parents.

22. When a multi-night stay with other family members is on tap, it often makes sense to alternate nights between your accounts rather than stay straight through on one. This is especially true with promos such as Marriott Megabonus and similar ones where stays are more valuable than nights. You can usually stay in the same room if you notify the front desk in advance, and you’re doing no wrong. For some promos, if you’re willing, it might even make sense to hop across the street to a different brand on progressive nights, especially if you’re staying alone and can’t rotate family members.

23. print two boarding passes before you go, then when you are asking to bump hand your extra to the gate agent to make it easy for them. Help them out and you might be surprised at what they can do for you.

24. AAA rate is your friend at many hotel chains, and if you forget to bring your card, it’s rarely an issue because they don’t usually ask to see it. Not only will it often generate the lowest rate, it will often allow refundable bookings at the same price as advance non-refundable ones.

25. For car rentals, USAA, Costco, and Priceline are your friends. Book only rates that may be canceled free well in advance, then check periodically and try to improve (Autoslash can help). As D-day approaches, if you’re *sure* that you won’t need to cancel or change, you can try undercutting via Priceline “name your own price” as a last-ditch attempt once per day, of course clicking through a cash back site before doing so.

26. The two best travel related tip that I have been told and use ALL the time: (1) be nice and joke around with the flight attendants and flight customer service reps…kindness goes a long way and your chances of getting perks such as random upgrades are higher! Second best advice is mommy related…(2) pack 2 pairs of extra clothes for you and 3-4 extra clothes for the baby. You never know when they’ll decide to throw up or have crazy diaper movements that will require change in clothes for both mommy and baby! 🙂

27. Gary: I am indebted to you for having highlighted here (http://viewfromthewing.com/2013/10/26/paper-still-matters-electronic-age/) the necessity of printing out the eTicket receipt/itinerary.

    I was travelling a few years ago when the UA system went down and oh how I wish I had a printout then and there to expedite the entire process given the lack of computers.

    Just last month, I was flying out of Denpasar/Bali (DPS) when the security staff prompted me to present a physical copy of my flight booking – I’m glad I followed your advice this time. I was about to miss the check-in deadline so any more delays (having to wait at the security checkpoint while they contact the airline staff to confirm that I’m indeed passenger) would have been pretty annoying.

    The seemingly negligible tip you’ve highlighted is something most people tend to forget in our electronic/digital age but has and will definitely save me a great deal of hassle especially if I’m so unfortunate to experience another IT failure.

28. ‘Roll’ with it — the best packing advice for any length trip is roll the clothes. Folding leaves creases but a deftly rolled shirt, pants or any item fits perfectly in tight spots and emerges ready to wear!

29. Never check bags!!
    In 40 years of travel only one carry-on has been my baggage companion. Yup, it can be done with some planning both in geometry and geography (no your destination and all its services).

30. If you ever get laundry done outside of the hotel, be sure to a. remember where you leave your laundry and b. find out the hours/days the laundromat is open. In Bangkok I had a small amount of clothes that I needed to be washed before venturing on to the Gulf of Thailand, and I was determined to get a better price than what the hotel charged. As I went out into Bangkok one day I brought my small bag of dirty clothes with me and left them somewhere to be cleaned. They said they’d be ready the next day. The following morning I went out to get them…and realized I had no idea where I had dropped them off. I spent hours trying to retrace my steps around Sukhomvit and Th Silom. I finally found the place, but it would have been much easier to just write down the name of the place or leave them at the hotel instead of trying to save a few baht. A few years later I left my clothes at a laundromat in Lisbon on a Friday intending to pick them up on Sunday before I left for Sevilla. Come Sunday when I went to pick up my clothes, I found a dark storefront and locked doors. The laundromat was closed until Monday morning. The most frustrating thing was seeing my freshly laundered clothes through the barred glass windows. Even if I broke the glass I wouldn’t be able to retrieve them. So I had to miss my bus and reschedule for another time, but another night in Lisbon wasn’t such a bad thing. Had I actually needed to be in Sevilla Monday morning I would have been out of luck or out of clothes.

31. Never check bags!!
    In 40 years of travel only one carry-on has been my baggage companion. Yup, it can be done with some planning both in geometry and geography (know your destination and all its services).

    — spelling not required for boarding!!

32. The most useful thing I learned from the blog was “The Best Awards Each US Frequent Flyer Program Has to Offer”. It really helped me to figure out based on where I wanted to go, what programs I should focus on!

33. Tip : Best chance to get out of a middle seat.

    Before boarding, check at the gate to see if there is anyone in a row with the same last name sitting on a window and isle seat. The agent can’t tell you the name but you can have them look. If they say there is, ask for that middle seat.

    Odds are it is a couple and they will likely switch spots so they can sit next to each other. Now you have a window or isle!

34. Optimal plays for each alliance

35. This travel tip is something most people just don’t think about:
    Always bring a power strip with you when traveling! Don’t rely on the one stray airport or hotel plugin behind your bed to charge all your devices. This makes travel a lot smoother.
    Pick me gary! 🙂

36. Best things I learned from this blog:
    1. Chase Sapphire Visa
    2. Carlson Visa

    Best thing I learned through travel experience:
    Travelers Checks are useless! Don’t bother, almost no one accepts them anymore. Just have a variety of credit cards with you (stored in two different places).

37. I have learned to search for award routings by segment through various hubs.

38. When travelling on non-US carriers, I make sure to have a small luggage scale with me, especially when mixing carriers on separate tickets. (For example, using miles to get to Australia or New Zealand and then flying Virgin Australia or QANTAS or Air NZ for short domestic or trans-Tasman sectors on paid tickets. Hopping around Europe would be similar.) These carriers often have weight restrictions on carry-on that they do seriously enforce, so it’s helpful being able to reliably check weight of all bags.

39. It’s hard to pick one thing as most useful thing I’ve learned here, but I’d say the Turkish status match has proven really helpful for me personally. I flew several Air NZ sectors in New Zealand in May, and having Star Alliance Gold status made that much more reasonable in terms of checked bags, carry-on weight, and lounge access. I try to avoid United and US Airways domestically, but it is nice to have lounge access with them when I have to fly with them.

40. So hard to pick just one. Between the analyses that has given me an understanding of the industry, to dissection of credit card and points programs, it’s all been so helpful over the years. Best travel trip; diversification of loyalty programs – even Sky Pesos are good in some instances! :-O

41. Have a good charge on your phone or print out your reservation info. Wouldn’t want to try and check into the wrong hotel, would we? 😉

42. The most valuable thing I have learned is how to coordinate Chase Southwest sign up bonuses to leverage the Companion Pass. Southwest is great in my home market, and we normally take domestic, short-haul trips as a family.

43. I take a water botle with a cover and around the cover I wrap duct tape. On last trip I used it to tape “do not disturb” sign on door because it kept blowing off and taped my laptop cord into a very well used outlet at the airport.
    Very hard to choose one item I have learned reading this so I will stick with I’ve learned alot!!

44. Pest advice: check on your seats even if reserved well in advance from time to time. I found out that United did a plane swap and now my transcontinental flight from IAD to LAX was a 777 with a 3 class cabin and lie flat seats in business and first. I immediately applied a RPU.

45. The Marriott quintuple dip was a great tip while it was available. Also, your US Airways grand slam tips were helpful too.

46. I started following you recently after you were the first travel blog (that I know of) to post about a big UA sale, first by a day! I started following you after that because I knew I could trust you to be very timely about news like that. 🙂

47. Pick a hotel that includes breakfast in the price. If it has a good buffet you’ll be well fortified for starting the day’s activities.

48. Somewhere — ages ago — I read that U.S. service personnel deployed overseas were taught 50 essential words/phrases in the native tongue of the country where they would be stationed. I created a list of such words and phrases and, before I leave to visit a new country, translate each word/phrase into the primary language spoken there as well as a phonetic pronunciation. Then, on the flight, I learn those phrases. I’d be happy to share my list (in German, Spanish, Greek and French so far). Sure, today there are apps for this, but my experience is that I end up not having cell service just when I need to use this knowledge the most!

49. take advantage of what makes sense in your situation. Earning the companion pass with southwest enabled our family to travel across the country to visit family, vacation to Puerto Rico, and I still have all of 2014 to use it. Maybe in the future my wife will buy into a bigger trip with stop overs and layovers in business class visiting several countries on one award

50. My best advice is to always immediately document any inconveniences/ issues you had while traveling. Don’t go searching for little things to complain about, but if your seat on your airplane doesn’t stay reclined, remember the flight number, seat, etc and let the airline know.