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!
Always take a change of clothes in your carry on. More and more often, your suitcase may not arrive with you !
Only need to read following blogs will be get you all necessary info daily.
view form the wing,
mommy point
travel sort
point guy
Always make sure to have some extra clothes in your carry-on bags
If we are so repetitive here, how annoying would it be for reservation agents to talk to us if we do the same with them!
@1295 – nothing!
Never, ever, ever hand your passport over as a security for car hire – you can be held to ransom by unscrupulous operators!
Leave nothing behind – just your footprints!
Pack Immodium- always
Comment #1299 reminds you to be nice to everyone, including FAs
Make copies of your passport and documents in case you lose them while on travel
I have learned how to best redeem my points to get the most vaule. Almost tips about getting through airport abnd delaying with delays and getting upgrades.
Use signup bonuses to secure free nights and free trips.
i think i was already mentioned before but for me it would have to be the override thermostat trick. worth millions!
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
I’ve found the best jet-lag cure to be denial. Force yourself to stay awake until the local bedtime your first day (telling yourself you’re NOT tired, no matter how tired you really feel) and you’ll have a much quicker recovery.
The best thing I’ve learned? Earn and burn!
I am personally going to “blow” all my US Air miles on Star trips before the merger of the FFPs between USAir & American. I don’t want to have *that many* miles in one program — I really think a devaluation is right around the corner.
I was earning miles on my own but not maximizing how I earned them and how I spent them. Thanks to being a regular reader on here I am much more efficient and people think I earn much more money than I actually do so thank you!
Get a local SIM card for your phone (if your phones allows for a SIM card change). It will be much cheaper than adding the ‘International Plan’ to your phone
When staying at a Marriott, always pay with your personal credit card. If your company pats, you don’t get credit for the stay for your reward points. Ouch!
I found out that my free hotel night with hotels.com was about to expire and was not ready to redeem it or make a new reservation. I searched for the cheapest hotel available anywhere in the world, found one in Chennai India and booked it. Since you don’t have to physically stay, you’re set. For $5.00, I managed to extend my hotels.com redemption by 12 months.
Every dollar you spend in life that does not earn you miles is a lost opportunity. Yes, there are some things you purchase that cannot add to your miles collection, but those are fewer than you think.
I think the best thing I learned from Gary’s blog is to focus on the people who can help. Find the call center rep who knows the system, the experienced concierge, or get to know the hotel manager, if I visit that hotel often. Be friendly, honest, but perseverant.
One fun travel tip I would pass on is to stop by a Starbucks on your way to the airport when flying home. You can load all your remaining local currency onto your Starbucks card, and it will transfer, fee-free, back to US dollars for use at home. They’ll even take coins.
Note that this only works for countries where there are company stores (I know it works in Hong Kong, Australia, and the UK), and remember to save some local money for the airport tax, if any.
get the chase ink! didn’t even know you might have a business.
Never miss a chance to accumulate free status, miles or points. It’s amazing how it can add up or give you an opportunity to transfer points when you need them most. Join them all!
Travel tips: “17 Countries. 6 Weeks. And one pair of underwear. Okay, maybe two” Pack less and do more with high-performance, low-maintenance Give-N-Go® underwear. Got it from Amazon at a good price and they work like charm! 😉
When booking trains in Europe, you’ll rarely find a cost savings through buying an EUrail/raileurope pass. In order to save a significant amount of money, put a little time and effort into reviewing your travel dates and hotel check out times and book the train tickets yourself! The most comprehensive site for reviewing train times and connections is the DB site http://www.bahn.com. However, if you are traveling outside of Germany, you will not be able to book using the DB website and you will need to purchase your ticket from the departure country’s train site. As is typically the case with airlines, the sooner you book, the better price you will receive.
I appreciated the series about which cards are great for each strategic use: signup bonus, spending, benefits.
Be nice to the people at the airports. They get yelled at all the time and respond well to someone handling a difficult situation with a positive attitude. They will go a lot further helping you when you are nice; being mean is a sure way to get dismissed as quickly as possible.
Am I a winner winnet chicken dinner???;)
Best thing I’ve learned is that it doesn’t hurt to ask, you’ll be surprised what people are willing to accommodate or do for you just by simply asking. The worst that happens is they turn you down / cannot grant what you’d like but there is nothing to lose!
best travel tips include: bring a pair of hotel give aways slippers and wear it on the plane for long flights; use trip advisor to find a good place to eat wherever you are; bring an empty water bottle thru security check and refill on the plane for convenience; request for club soda with a splash of cranberry juice for a low calorie and refreshing drink on the plane; when ordering DVDs or pictures from an adventure excusion, speak to your fellow travellers and arrange to share the cost of the original, designate one individual to copy and mail to the group
if you want to rent a car at a destination but did not book in advance, call the rental company and make a reservation. It will be cheaper than walking up to a counter – even if your reservation was only made 5 minutes before.
For all of your office supply, use Chase Ink cards to obtain the max. UR points.
Take a snapshot or save a screen shot of key information that you may need like your passport, eticket, hotel reservation etc. Nowadays very easy with a smartphone or tablet.
Therefore you have one place to access all your key pieces of information.
Best thing I have learned on this blog is that there is a whole world of travel optimisers out there….therefore research or reach out to the community and you will likely the answer to any miles/points/travel related question you have.
Also great to know that there are so many people sharing your passion 🙂
Thanks alot for the blog!
It’s too complicated to keep track 0f all this, so i’ll hire gary for my next redemption!
Tip: Take with you enough local currency to pay for transportation to your hotel and for a quick meal — in case there is no accessible ATM at the airport or it’s “sketchy” — in order to avoid the often-unreasonable exchange rate booths.
Tip: Use a no-foreign transaction fee (FTF) credit card — preferably one that earns points or miles you can use, and especially one that multiplies points or miles for travel-related purchases (like Sapphire) — for all trip expenses for goods/services where the card is accepted. This minimizes the amount of local currency you’ll need. If the card is lost or stolen, you can cancel it and you generally are protected from loss exceeding $50 and sometimes from any loss; if cash is stolen or lost, you’re usually out of luck. Using local currency also requires in almost all cases paying a conversion fee to obtain it, which using the credit card avoids. To obtain the local currency you need, use an ATM card from a bank that doesn’t charge a fee. In most cases you’ll get the lowest available FTF rate, generally lower and often much lower than hotels, airports, or exchange offices. This also saves the necessity to take large amounts of your home currency with you on your trip to exchange. However, in case you have difficulty finding an ATM machine when you need it, do take some home currency for emergency exchange.
Tip: Never purchase an airline ticket (unless it’s fully refundable) to a foreign country unless you’ve checked and are confident you will be able to obtain a visa to enter the country if it requires one.
Dropbox: If like me you take hundreds (if not thousands) of picture while traveling to exotic locations and are afraid to lose any of them on the way back home (losing flash card, corruption,..etc) then sign up for a free Dropbox account, load all of your photos on your laptop and place them in your Dropbox folder. All your photos will backed up to the cloud via the hotel wi-fi and available to you when you get home!
Keep learning and reading; there’s always something new to learn in the miles and points world.
Best advice: travel slow and enjoy the moment where you are.
Read this blog
Tip: Before you are ready to get FF miles or book award tickets, search Boardingarea.com website 1st. You will find lots of timely & useful info.
I want to purchase the Milepoint Premium membership. How can I get it now –> Through your 2013 million reader giveaway 🙂
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