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!
Tip for the ladies: carry a pashmina or very large scarf. It can double as a blanket on a flight, a pillow, fetching cover up on the beach, etc.
Advocating Starwood points, Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Amex Membership rewards for transfer is the best lesson I’ve learnt from View From the Wing.
Carry sample sizes when you travel.
Ask for free samples of perfumes, aftershave, etc. at makeup counters in large department stores, order free samples from the Internet and even ask your dentist for the hot new toothpaste.
One of the most useful things I learned was when I first started getting into the miles game I was planning a trip and trying to book a year in advance and then read your post about how many seats actually open it up much later. You saved me days constantly checking for when the award space was released and I ended booking my ticket a few months out.
One of the best tips I learned here is to make sure my award reservations are ticketed and then to “garden” my awards-make sure that airline or aircraft changes do not change the award.
Before you hit the duty free shops in your chosen airport, make sure you do a quick check of your local prices for the items you are thinking of buying. At many airports, the duty free prices are higher than you think and you won’t be getting a bargain.
my biggest travel tip would be to take advantage of the airline rules allowed for point redemption. for AA this means booking your intl trip as 2 one ways – and being able to use a pre or post city along with your gateway to get essentially free one-ways added into your itinerary with the same class of service. on united it would be to leverage something similar, even with an international extension – and/or leveraging an international stopover as well. both fantastic tricks to maximize your mileage redemptions!
You only really need three things when you travel – your flight locator number, your passport and your credit card. Everything else can be purchased or sorted out on the other end (assuming of course you have an unlimited budget 🙂 )
Travel tip-travel with someone you love!
carry photocopies of your license and passport on international trips
Another hotel room tip: place a few glasses of warm water around your room and leave overnight. Hotel air con can suck all of the moisture out of the room and this is a way of adding a little bit of humidity back the air.
Always be nice, polite and respectful when asking airline & hotel agents for assistance.
Cathay just started services to the Maldives
HKG-MLE comes in at 2,976 miles
cough ‘Avios’ cough
Is the pillow in your hotel room too soft? Then take another pillow and stuff it into the same pillowcase – this might require ordering a few extra pillows from housekeeping to create the perfect pillow kingdom.
Just learned that signing up for Alamo Car Rental Insider Program – no cost – give you second driver free on rentals.
find a new restaurant you want to try before you leave
When travelling to a new country, always research the tipping etiquette in your chosen country.
Really my US friends, you don’t have to tip in a UK pub (although some London West End pubs will leave a tip jar for unsuspecting Americans – be warned).
Earn and burn. Miles will depreciate quickly.
Many regional / local wines don’t travel well. So try to order the house wine – it may surprise you with the quality and value for money.
Take a screen shot of your mobile boarding pass so you don’t need to rely on having a data connection to pull it up.
If going to a conference, best room upgrade chances are yours if you can arrange to arrive a day before it starts. Plus, then you might have time for a quick look-around the conference city.
While researching the weather before you travel is an excellent tip, don’t just use one website. The forecasts can vary depending on which website you use – sometimes local newspaper sites are the most accurate.
Don’t be afraid to order tap water in a British restaurant. Really, it tastes the same as the bottled kind and will save you a bundle.
Pack a couple of bubble envelopes in your luggage before your trip. They are great for bringing back your complimentary hotel wine or a special liquid purchase safely.
Use your miles/points in ways that are best suited to your priorities. Traveling in first class and to aspirational properties can be great but so is visiting with friends and family in ordinary places.
Travel tip to book hotel early and then continue to check for lower prices or sales.
especially when traveling international/long trips,
1. Make sure a friend/relative (not traveling) has the complete trip itinerary. This will help to track down in the event of any emergencies.
2. Make sure you are prepared for baggage delays/loss
3. carry some of the important information on paper. (phone numbers, cash, itinerary etc..)
Even when travelling on business, don’t be afraid to do one tourist thing.
I have received so much valuable information from you over the past few years..it is really difficult to narrow it down to one. I will have to go with your advice to diversify my ‘portfolio’! I had always concentrated my miles on AA and my hotels with IHG and SPG. Now I have so many options with my UR and MR points.
Thank you!
Always try to bring something non-material back with you…a memento of the culture that you have learned from a local. For instance, learn about a historical event from the “other” side’s perspective, and keep that in mind. You will return often to it in your musings. (Like visiting the Museum of American Atrocities in Saigon, for example.)
If you are in a hot country, freeze a bottle or two of water overnight and carry it around with you the next day. By the time you drink it, it will still be cool and tasty.
I have a zip-top letter-sized, clear pouch in which I carry our travel documents, in chronological order, and printed on color-coded paper. (White for itineraries/airline stuff, green for hotels, pink for car rental, yellow for excursion or walking tour ideas, etc.) I then put the date(s)on the top right in large letters with a colored Sharpie. It’s so much easier for me to be able to find needed documents on a long trip.
Install and use a free texting app on your smart phone, and use it anywhere in the world (including in-air) where you have wifi access.
This site has helped me start making sense of the world of frequent flyer miles and other award accumulation and redemption. I’m now keeping track of miles regularly (instead of only sporadically) and I’m earning points/miles from use of credit cards I learned about here, too. I’m definitely a smarter traveler now and am already feeling the benefits. Thanks Gary!
Making best use of the BA-Avios for short haul flights and on Alaska air for flights to Hawaii from west coast.
As for best travel-related advice: ALWAYS have a photocopy of your passport’s ID page with you when you leave the country. Keep it separate from your passport at all times. And leave another copy of that ID page with a trusted someone at home. Should you lose your passport or have it lifted from you during your travels, having ready access to this info will make the whole process of replacing your passport WAY easier — and faster!
Your Maldives trips, CX awards, how to upgrade Hyatt award stays to the water villa and general interaction with the property ahead of the stay. Great stuff.
Keep a few $$ in a backup bank account, and take that backup ATM card with you when you travel, separately from the rest of your cards – in case your wallet gets lost or stolen, or your primary bank’s ATM doesn’t work for some reason.
Install on your smartphone more than one VOIP apps (Talkatone, magicJack, Pinger, etc.) – I learned the hard way that some wifi networks block VOIP traffic through some of the apps, but not all of them, and by trying different apps, you may find at least one that works.
If you are a wheelchair user or have other specific needs, don’t rely on third party booking information that a hotel or location is accessible to you. Go directly to the source: hotel itself, attraction, tour guide and talk to or email with a real question to answer your needs. You can then book directly or through a third party knowing all you need to know. After all hearing from Hotels.com that the room you’ve booked overseas has a wheelchair accessible bathroom (when I doesn’t — and this did happen to me), doesn’t help you go to the bathroom or hold it for a five day stay!
If you’re planning to use miles for international travel, it’s a great idea to have points in more than one alliance. If you can’t book a round trip ticket on, say, United (Star Alliance), it’s great to have miles from a OneWorld carrier for the outbound or inbound. It makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to successfully book award travel to your preferred destination.
Several people have suggested to carry a paper copy of your passport and visa documents – it’s a great idea, but I also recommend to keep a copy of those documents electronically, in a cloud, or on a server that you can access from anywhere.
Never use Chase Ultimate Reward points or AMEX Membership Reward points to purchase travel – there is a lot more value in transferring these points to airline partners like United.
Before leaving on any trip, it’s a great idea to send loved ones back home (namely mom and dad) a copy of your itinerary AND a photocopy of your passport!
Use a travel security belt.
Before making any online purchases, check EVRewards.com to see where you might get the best cashback! ShopDiscover and the Chase Ultimate Rewards site are usually your best bets.
Keep a no fee card with each of the major credit card issuers (e.g., Chase, Citi, American Express, Discover) – this will help your credit score and allow you to maintain a long-term relationship with the bank. Also, if you are going to cancel a credit card with one of the banks, ask them to transfer the credit from that card to one of your no fee cards. This will also help maintain your credit score (and you can use the high credit limit as bargaining power when you apply for a new card – ask them to transfer credit from your existing no fee card to the new card if you’re initially declined).
Make sure you travel internationally with credit cards that do not charge foreign transaction fees.
When traveling to a new location, ask where locals eat and try those hole-in-the-wall places – it doesn’t have to be fancy, but it will be authentic and you will remember the food and experience.
Providing advice on how to make the most of Skyteam loyalty points.