Offer Your Best Travel Tips in the Comments by 10am Eastern Saturday morning to Win.
Some of y’all will remember that I hosted an online forum about technology and travel that was sponsored by National Car Rental coinciding with the launch of their new mobile app.
I rent regularly from National and had been looking forward to the introduction of a mobile app (finally!) and the folks participating in the chat were friends and travel heroes.
I like the products I like, I share the reasons why here, and I don’t want there to be confusion over my motives — if I benefit personally from a referral link I always say so in the post, I frequently try to arrange to give any miles I may earn from referrals back to you in the form of bigger bonuses (some companies are receptive to this, others are not) and I prefer to do giveaways rather than take freebies myself.
There was modest compensation for participating in the National forum, and I already gave away half the amount here on the blog. I split it up into more than one giveaway largely because I didn’t want to have to do tax reporting!
I want your best travel tips in the comments.
- You may enter as many times as you like, but each entry should be a bona fide travel tip. I will compile the best tips in a subsequent post.
- I will select two winners, largely at random but to be eligible to win the entry must be (in my sole judgment) a genuine tip.
- Two prizes of (2) $100 Visa Gift cards each will be awarded.
You have a great chance of winning because internet traffic drops like a rock on Friday evenings, second slowest only behind Saturday evenings.
So.. what are your best travel tips? They can be anything from ways to improve the odds of getting an airline upgrade, a hotel suite upgrade, clearing airport security quickly, the best place to eat at a given airport, anything at all.
I love to learn from this community of readers, and love to be able to share your knowledge back with everyone else. I look forward to reading your submissions, and of course to selecting two winners!
- 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. Don’t miss out!
make sure to book your trip with the credit card that has travel protection, and bring that brochure with you, should something goes wrong, you will know how to utilize it.
Whenever I have a trip that is 1 week or longer, I use the Sleep and Fly option out of several hotels near O’Hare. The total cost is usually lower than just parking at LOT E. The ‘sleep’ option can be used at the start or end of the trip. I think this applies all major US airports. Cheers.
If you have a smart phone and have a map app like Google Maps – what I do is I cache the location of where I’m headed to next.
Simply by keying in the location in Google Maps, and then scrolling around the airport and hotel that I’m staying at and the city (you can also bookmark certain locations for easier reference).
Once you reach the destination airport, you don’t need 3G or WiFi for the maps to work – the GPS will work without 3G / Wifi and you can see where you are as the Maps images are already stored in your phone.
This helps you navigate around the city when you are offline, minimise getting lost, and also track your journey in case cab drivers try to cheat you by taking a longer route.
And the cost is free!
Always ask for a room upgrade, especially when you arrive late at night, because if a better room is available, the front desk folks will usually give it to you if they see that nobody will be checking into the upgraded room the next day. Ask politely 🙂
Do get one of the Platinum Amex cards for the extraordinary benefits like the $200 annual airline fee credit and the lounge access for Delta, American and US Airways. The large annual card fee is definitely worth the perks.
If you definitely fly American domestically (non stop), make sure you open a British Airways executive account and start accumulating Avios miles through either flying and/or getting and using the British Airways Chase VISA. The non stop domestic redemptions of Avios miles for American flights is a bargain.
Bring an empty water bottle through security and fill it up at a water fountain. I hate paying tip dollar at airports for bottled water.
Consider bringing moisturizing eye drops on long flights – that dry air really does a number on the eyes and using eye drops brings a lot of relief.
Always have a backup plan (plan B) if plan A doesn’t work. Just got back from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Armenia. Several of my no-foreign transaction fees credit cards simply would not work there, even though I had alerted my banks about my foreign travel plans. Shifted fro plan A to plan B………and Plan B worked like a charm……. Chase Hyattt card with special chip worked in all 3 of those countries!
Get to the airport early.
If the airline changes your scheduled flight, it’s an opportunity to get a better routing or departure time. I recently found out UA changed my scheduled 5:30 am flight and was able to change to a much more desirable 10:00 am departure. They don’t pay attention to the cost of the substitute flight, so even a minor change that gives you a short connection or a mis-connection may allow you to improve your schedule.
If you have a capital one credit card go to the redeem points section of the website if you need to rent a car. They offer great rates on redeeming cars for points. Even if you want to pay cash I have found very low prices in that portal, especially on tough cities like NY where a one day rental might be 80.00. This is a great value to spend the points but you can also pay cash in that portal as well.
All those chargers, and wires you bring on your travels are a pain as they get all over the place. Use clear zip loc bags to better manage these things.
Travel light and travel small. Especially going overseas, rooms are on the smaller side and cabs often have small trunks. It may even be better to have two smaller roller bags than one larger bag to manage. Large bags seem to get in the way once you get to your room
Buy one of those fold away small duffle like or similar travel bags and throw in your suitcase. When you are coming hoe that might be handy for c=souvenirs to take as carry on as you come back. Also useful for dirty laundry or if you want to take clothing to the laundry
Don’t eat raisins before a flight or any clotted cream when heading to the UK.
Ok sorry those tips are for me only
Get Global Entry. You will really learn to appreciate it. TSA pre check is continuing to roll out and on occasion the lanes or closed etc..but it is so hassle free. When you come back from overseas breeze by everyone as they watch in amazement.
Get an unlocked phone for your international travels. Once you get there buy a low cost sim with primarily data/messaging. In the UK get the 3 card from 3.co.uk. They also cover some other countries like Austria. For a reasonable amount you can get pretty good service. pop the sim in and you are good. Older ATT Iphones can be unlocked easily from various website. You want a factory unlock so you can download all IOS updates
The Merrill Lynch plus credit card from BOA has some nice perks for the big spenders here. No annual fee. If you spend 50K or more in a year you get free club access in Delta or American. This is on top of the points you get. You choose 1 of them and get the membership for one year form the point you call it in to them. There are some other perks but the lounge access is the best at 50K level. The service on this card is pretty good as well for a no annual fee card. No signup bonus though
If you travel a lot you really will save a lot of weight and hassles with an ultrabook like the MacBook air or a similar pc ultrabook. MacBook air has an insane battery life and slips into a case easily. The power brick is not massive either. Used MacBook airs are quite reasonable on ebay or amazon. Gazelle is a good source for used MacBook airs and other laptops. Mac owners tend to keep those things in great shape as well
Overseas sometimes using your regular credit cards out and about might have some risk and hassles. I have my fair share. Consider some prepaid visa and or amex cards for certain types of transactions. Many here use those cards for min spend etc
Unless you are traveling to japan carry a few rolls of decent tp (toilet paper) They have stuff overseas that we use as paper towels for our car windows.
Be careful about booking a car at the concierge desk. these days they have “house cars” which charge a nice premium over normal costs via car or cab. Use some of the online resources like flyertalk or milepoint to see what car services or good or can be booked online. If you want a cab get a regular cab. No house cars. I used Le Cab in Paris last week and another service called Vienna airport cab. Both saved me money and were prompt and reasonably priced.
@Gay -Underpack. You got that one right. I am still trying to stick to that one. So many times you realize that you had more than you need. Especially overseas.
Check your rental car carefully. If there is any sort of damage have it noted clearly on the contract before you leave the lot. Also take a picture of it.
I might be stating the obvious, but treat people in customer service like they are people. Most people yell at them for things not their fault. Ask how their day is. Where they are from. It’s amazing what they can do for you sometimes.
I use expert flyer to search for award seats 11 months out. If none are available, I use the ‘save query’ feature which will search it daily and will notify me if the number of seats I need are available. Than I book them ASAP.
I have found that I sleep better now using an eye mask. When you factor in light from the clock, blinking smoke detector, light under the door and from the window outside, it can disturb your sleep more than you think!
Visiting NYC is a must for people at some point in their lives, however NYC appears at first glance very unfriendly. One big issue is the lack of clean public toilets! Unlike Europe there aren’t street toilets that you pay for. TIP: go into the lobby of any nice good-sized (not boutique) hotel and you’ll find a free, impeccably clean facility, and no one will ask you a single question! The nicer the hotel, the fewer the questions!
Always get 2 hotel keys in case one doesn’t work!
If using mobile boarding pass app, take a screenshot of the barcode and save to your photos so you don’t have to wait for it to load when you get to security/gate.
If you want a less crowded restroom at the airport, and there is a separate car rental facility there, use that instead. That’s the place to change your clothes undisturbed!
Use Yapta.com to monitor flights already purchased for flights of interest to notify when there are price drops. This has saved me sooo much money on airfare!!!
If you are trying to get Global Entry for your family including children consider Nexus instead, which costs $50 per adult and children for free. Nexus allows expedited border crossing with Canada and includes Global Entry as a side benefit.
Bring Tea Tree oil on your travels – a few drops under the nose on the flight to prevent colds, you can gargle with it diluted in water for a sore throat, and rub on a minor cuts to prevent infections…
Take a photo of your luggage on your smartphone, in case of lost luggage problems…
Always talk nice to the gate agent; it can help get you that upgrade you are waiting for. They have the keys to the castle (the plane), as they say.
To combat seasickness on a cruise, try taking 1,000 milligrams of dried ginger root before the cruise
Take old clothes (nice, but old), which you can throw away as you travel. Helps with the whole packing piece.
Tuesday afternoon is the best time to look for airfare sales. Often, an airline will put up a sale on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon, most other airlines will bring their prices down to match that sale.
Print 2 copies of your boarding pass. When you approach the gate agent to ask for a bump just hand your extra to them so they can easily process your $400 prize.
When catching a flight wear an easy-fitting sweater and pants, plus slip-on shoes, which save time at security checkpoints.
When going on a business trip and checking lugagge have a extra set of clothes in your carry on so that I your checked is misplaced you can still function.
Be polite, say please & thank you — it does wonders when your travel!
Buy cheap new books/toys that your kids will stay occupied discovering for the first time to keep them busy on the plane. Consider wrapping them too for their added excitement.
Take a cellphone photo of your passport and email it to yourself. Save the email. It’ll always be there and easily retrievable should you need it.
When you order your travel money, make sure you also order a bunch in low denominations for tipping.
If you have kids, give them food right at takeoff (not taxi, but actual takeoff). You’ll keep them distracted during the hardest part of the flight.
If you are in Chicago and want to visit the John Hancock building don’t pay to go into the observatory level. Instead go to the Signature Lounge which is one floor below and order a drink. Whether it is an adult beverage or not, you will get the same views for generally the same price (or lower) but you will have a tasty beverage in your hand!
Read lots of travel blogs – they are always full of great tips!