Comments

1. one of the things I learned from you is to hang up and call again if the phone rep is clueless.

2. Signing up for global entry is the best. No wait at immigration and precheck!

3. I’ve found that DVD-based workouts, such as yoga, are great to bring along on trips – gives you a chance to work off those tasty restaurant meals in the privacy of your room.

4. The best part about reading your blog was the ability to teach other how to fly home for cheap. It’s surprising but many of my classmates have no idea what frequent flier programs are or the fact their credit cards can enable yearly flights home back to family. The satisfaction of enabling my peers to go home to family is priceless and is why I value reading your blog so much.

5. Don’t hesitate to ask for help when you get stuck with complicated award booking or frequent flyer mile questions.

6. When traveling abroad and the hotel asks if you’d rather pay in the native currency or US Dollars, always pick the native currency. If you pay in US Dollars the hotel will give you a bad exchange rate and you will pay more.

7. Still best blog post was best use of major airline miles. I always go back to it when deciding where to travel. kudos!

8. Due to issues when booking award tickets on partner flights, make sure to check with the operating carrier that the ticket is issued, lest you lose the seat you ‘thought’ you had booked.

9. for me, by far the most useful tool during travels has been a data capable GSM phone. i have been lost in foreign countries more than a few times, but when i have my galaxy nexus phone with me, and buy a local (and most of the time very cheap) SIM card with data credits i have much less to worry about. of course, paying a US-based cellular carrier for service in a foreign country is not as practical since they usually charge way too much. if your phone of choice doesn’t use a regular sized SIM card, it helps to carry a cheap SIM card cutter so you can still buy a regular sized SIM and “make” one of the smaller varieties. before the trip, i always make sure to do the research on where to buy a SIM card with service. figuring it out on the spot can take entirely too much time if you don’t know anyone who can guide you, or have internet access.

10. My best advice is keeping points in an account that has many transfer partners until the time you are ready to redeem. Devaluations can happen at any time so you may want to change your airline or hotel from what you thought your original plan was going to be.

11. I learned the value of Chase points from your blog, especially the 6000 points upgrade with Hyatt. Sadly, that is going away by Jan. 7 next year.

12. Even if your credit card has a large annual fee and you’re thinking of canceling it, make sure you at least talk to the retention line to see if there’s anything they can offer before cancelling. You might be surprised by an annual fee waiver or bonus pts/miles.

13. Personally, I am and have been a huge fan of your ongoing analysis of the US/AA merger. Based upon your articles I’ve actually invested in both airlines and have done quite nicely. That’s taking travel advice to the next level! Thank you and congrats!

14. best advice i’ve ever gotten on this website is HUCA – rather than spend 45 minutes dealing with someone who doesnt understand what you’re talking about, just call back!!

15. Great travel tip – talk to and get to know some locals (the hotel concierge doesn’t count). It’ll make you feel like you’ve actually BEEN to a location, not just visited that location.

16. My best advice? Step out from the airport and hotel while traveling, breathe in the air, walk the streets, shop the markets, converse with the people, and live their lives, even if for only one day. It will remind you of a life and time when we explored for the sake of exploring and our minds were free from burden.

17. my best advice when traveling in Asia is always check to see if the meter is on. Most 3rd world countries I’ve been to will play “dumb” and forget to turn it on : Vietnam, Thailand, etc. If there’s no meter and you still want to get in, pre negotiate the rate so there’s no argument later. Put it on your phone so there’s no language misunderstanding. Just pull it up on your calculator app to get agreement on price before you get in!

18. When you find out you need to make a trip make the car rental reservation ASAP…. then check back several times before you travel to see if the rates have gone down or the rental car agencies have last minute specials.. If so cancel and rebook…

19. Make use of the ita matrix!

20. The most useful thing I have learned from this blog is to keep active. Always keep checking this blog for new information, because things in this game change dramatically within days/weeks!

21. The best stuff on your blog is how to find award availability, particularly your advice about TATL availability. Obtaining points is the easy part of this game, using them is harder, particularly if you are trying to move four people at a time.

22. Thank you for letting me know how lucrative credit card signup bonuses can be!

23. I am new the world of miles and blogs like yours have opened my eyes to the ability to realize the dream of traveling the world! My travel tip is to always pack lightly or bring clothes that you don’t mind leaving behind (i.e. old shirts to sleep in that you are about to throw away). At worst, you can have laundry done midway in the trip, but from what I’ve learned, I end up buying more than I have room for in my luggage home and end up not wearing half of the items I packed because I wear the new items I purchase on the trip.

24. Very useful fact was that if two separate tickets are both on oneworld airlines, and the onward flights are also on a ticket issued by a oneworld carrier, then American will treat the journey as though it were on a single ticket. In the event of misconnect, the carrier responsible for the disruption will be required to reroute the customer to their final destination. No more anxiety when using short hop positioning ticket to connect to a free oneworld flight out of ORD.

25. Get a 20″ carry on, learn how to pack what you need in it and never have to check bags again. Saves time, money and lost luggage.

26. For me, I mainly follow those places you went and reported. Not to mentioned the hotel brands as well. My husband has a number of elite statuses and it has been really a big plus for us knowing that we are going to be in the nice place and stay in the best hotels. For that, thank you.

27. never hurts to let the hotel know in advance that you’re celebrating a birthday, special event, anniversary, etc. I’ve been surprised with fruit/chocolate baskets, wine, cakes, etc. Haven’t gotten a room upgrade yet.

    if they don’t recognize it. it’s not a huge loss anyway.
    we are going on our honeymoon in Dec *crossing fingers*

28. Advice #1: Read all the comments sections of this blog (especially this post!) and others. They are truly a goldmine.
    Advice #2: I know Gary doesn’t like Southwest, but if you do fly them and use points to book, then it pays to book early and then go back and check the points price at least once a week (I do 3-4 times/week). It only takes <5 minutes and can save thousands of points. I've successfully turned my gf's 50k bonus into 4 RT tickets for her by being on top of this…and b/c of my Companion Pass I get to go along for free!

29. NRT-PPT in Business class for 20k United miles one way and 40k round-trip.

30. before planning any trip, i always always always google “boardingarea ” or
    we were curious about flying Korean Air business class. I wanna know all about the lounge, meals, etc before I commit to booking. I want that cool amenity kit. I will google boardingarea best amenity kit, etc. One day I will covet the Rimowa kit. 🙂

31. I’m going to do my own Top 10 of Best travel/points advice, some of which I know I picked up from you!

    #1 Have goals for which type of travel or reward you value most, and leverage your existing travel or good credit to hit those goals.

    e.g. want cash? Ultimate Rewards sign up bonuses and cash bash back cards combined with manufactured spending

    want to just fly and stay and go to places that are the blingiest? (e.g. Fly Emirates First to the Maldives and stay at the Park Hyatt) If you are a frequent traveler, Alaska Air cards and program credit from Delta and American and Alaska flying and staying and getting the Hyatt cards. If you are ground and home bound, get Starwood sign up bonuses and reasonable manufacture spend to transfer to Japan Airlines miles, along with the Hyatt cards as well.

    Other profiles are the domestic cheapo traveler (Priceline plus Spirit cards and travel, believe it or not! and sure, take advantage of great sign up bonuses when they pop up)

    and the people with overseas family visits (just regular best sign up bonuses will likely get you flights almost everywhere).

32. The best thing I’ve learned from this blog is that there are tools to make travel the experience YOU want, and sharing one’s passion with others ALWAYS produces better outcomes for EVERYONE.

    My travel tip is to carry a plastic folder with all of your reservations printed out from the airline/hotel/ticket/tour providers confirmation emails. Yes, have everything in electronic form too (e.g., Gmail and TripIt), but being able to hand a printed copy to desk/gate/government staff greatly eases fixing problems on site.

33. If you look hard enough – there’s always a great chance of finding a better price for the IHG property than the one published on their website, which = to a free night ! Kayak is a great tool for that because you can lock your search to the specific hotel chain !

34. The best thing I’ve learned from this blog is that when mistake fares arise, book now and think later!

35. i found out about the sweetspot on this blog for British Airways. You can get to Europe for cheap via Aer Lingus and pay very little in taxes/fees.

36. Thanks to your blog, I now realize I am qualified to work for the TSA

    Also thanks to your blog, I now realize my 8 year old niece is too

37. The most useful thing I’ve learned from this blog was which overwater villa to select at the Hilton Bora Bora. We ended up with the same overwater bungalow that you had on your honeymoon, which had an awesome view of Mt. Otemanu. Keep up the good work!

38. Booking the mistake rate of $211 for the Ambassador suite at the Park Hyatt D.C.! What a nice room!

39. One word FLYERTALK for any questions Or help or inspiration

40. maximize packing space by using packing cubes. USE the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal you get #x the dollar. I just bought 2 sets for my husband and I for 4x the points last month

41. Best tip is hands down: extra segment on an award using stopovers. I use it often!

    http://viewfromthewing.com/2012/01/04/dont-forget-to-add-a-segment-to-the-end-of-american-aadvantage-award-bookings/

42. Learned from the best. buy prepaid cards (VR, Visas) at a office supply store to get 5x the points using chase Ink then deposit into bluebird woohoo!! I banked so many points till it crapped out

43. Your trip reports inspired my upcoming award trips to both the Park Hyatt Maldives and the Park Hyatt Vendome Paris.

44. The most useful thing I’ve learned from this blog is the benefits of points that can be converted to multiple airlines/hotels. I.e., ultimate rewards over United miles. It provides great flexibility and hedges the risk of an individual devaluation.

45. learned about the CVS 50.00 extra care bucks for buying paypal cards a few weeks ago. banked 150 in free money. that’s free gifts for coworkers and household goods. who doesn’t love free toilet paper?? I bought 50 bucks of doggie treats and supplies for donations at a shelter.

46. Use Avios for short-haul travel.

47. Book now, ask questions later (within 24 hours).

48. The most important thing I have learned form your blog is that to look it up every day to learn about the special offers for the best sign up bonuses that come up for various cards. Thank you for mentioning the links for super offers that have expired but still work, even though their landing pages do not give a hint of the old expired mega offers. More than once I have been able to get more miles than the best current offer because an old offer was still active, as mentioned in your blog, but did not promise the higher benefits on the landing page. Thanks.

49. Reading a few great blogs and garnering advice from Flyer Talkers has given me the best insight into getting the best rewards for miles and hotel point. It has elevated our travel status to another level and we couldn’t be more grateful.

    Cheers!

50. My most useful comment is to read BoardingArea.com. The knowledge imparted along with tips and tricks will more than pay for your time and effort.