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!
Never trust hotel room alarms if you need to attend something in the morning, and be especially careful with time zones. Most cell phones automatically update these days, but I have an old alarm that travels with me that I set on the right time zone before going to bed.
If you want best chances of an upgrade, book non-business traveler times. Look at current seat map availability to get a pulse.
Think like a business traveler. Probably travels early Monday and mid-afternoon to late Friday. I’ve had most success on red eyes.
For United:
I always look at seat map first. How many total first class seats are there? That is the starting point. Then, how many Economy Plus seats are taken. Gold & up can book Economy Plus seats at time of booking, so the more that are taken, probably the more likely there’s status travelers on that flight.
buy trip insurance and email a copy of the policy to yourself or put it in an app like Dropbox. That way, if something goes wrong, you have a full copy of the policy to see if your event was covered without having to carry a print out which is often many, many pages.
Learn which airport terminals have less airline traffic and therefore shorter security lines. You can often quickly clear security and then walk back to your terminal post-security in a much shorter amount of time than if you had stood around forever in a long line just because your flight is going out of a popular terminal.
Earplugs always at a hotel. Too easy to be optimistic about quietness, only to be unexpectedly awakened by too many things out of your control.
Keep cash, 1/2 credit cards and copies of your document with you at all times, but leave your passport and most valuable items in the vault of your hotel room
Always ask the travel attendant, hotel clerk etc whatever you want. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Call your bank before traveling out of the country to make sure that your debit card will work (even if they say it will). And, make sure to use a no foreign transaction fee credit card.
Always wear shoes when visiting an airplane lavatory. That wet floor isn’t necessarily just water…
Ask hotel employees where they like to eat in a city. It’s guaranteed to be better than a tourist trap that you’ll likely stumble into in the center of any city or old town.
When you get a certificate (or promotion) from a loyalty club that you are a member, ALWAYS read the terms and conditions. Case in point.
In 1996 (yes 17 years ago) I received a 10,000 point discount certificate from Hilton Honors applied to a redemption of 100,000 or more Hotel Award. Only stipulation was a requirement for VIP status which comes automatic with the no fee Hilton Honors AMEX card. No expiration date. Placed it in a safe place.
Redeemed an AXON award before the increase for a 4 night stay in New York City earlier this year. And yes, Hilton Honors applied the discount certificate!
Keep a copy of your passport with you in a separate place from your real passport.
I always put together a list of places, things, and contact numbers I want to use on Dropbox. Then I ‘favorite’/’star’ the item in Dropbox so it’s available offline.
This includes pictures of things, such as when I was in Dominican Republic and needed to get to the bus stations. I had pictures so I knew what they looked like. Another good one is subway maps saved locally on your phone.
When traveling abroad, bring a foreign transaction fee free CC, and pay attention to DCC, ALWAYS choose local currency rather than USD.
Always personally double-check that all of your items have been removed from a taxi or shuttle by the hotel porters before allowing the vehicle to drive away, especially for smaller items like cell phones, walking sticks and umbrellas. You might never see the item(s) again, or be out of pocket for the taxi costs to come back to the hotel a second time to return your belongings.
For international travel I always carry a photocopy of my passport and I email that to myself just in case.
Terminal F food court in ATL has some of the best food options in any airport.
Carry a photo copy of your passport. It can be a life saver if you lose your Passover.
If the flight is looking overbooked and you are interested in getting bumped, speak to the gate agent to indicate your interest.
E-mail yourself a scan of your passport so you can retrieve it if you need it from anywhere. GMail is free.
It’s always good to have an ‘extra’ e-mail account you don’t normally use so you can access it anywhere and not worry about security concerns. If there’s ever a security breach, you can just delete the account and not have to change all your regular accounts that you access securely from your own computers.
When traveling with children, do a run-through/role play practice of the security line procedures. They will know what to expect, and what to do, in what order. Makes the process very smooth.
When traveling in Italy, always check the menu for the “coperto” price before sitting down at a table. Otherwise you might have sticker-shock when you get your bill after the meal.
If flight is cancelled or severely delayed, call the airline, instead of waiting in the queue, to find an alternative.
Use the Chase Ultimate Rewards for rental cars, much cheaper!
Women often rely on a purse which is often out of reach so on any long flight I wear a light jacket that has 4 button pockets and my cell phone and iTouch that holds my tunes are always there as well as a CC and a few bucks just in case of an emergency.
If you are considering getting a rail pass, you often need buy one before leaving for your trip.
I always use cheapairportparking.org when I am leaving my car at the airport. They have great prices and often include valet.
Use contact lens container to store various face cream and serum. They are more secured than travel containers. And rarely leaks.
Pack you sleep ware on the very top of your luggage, so you can change immediately and go to sleep after long haul flights.
When traveling internationally, always carry some spare passport photos of yourself in case they need one for a visa upon arrival.
Get an unlocked GSM mobile phone so that you can accept SIM cards in almost any country at much lower rates to make local phone calls while you are traveling. Very helpful when calling the hotel for directions, making restaurant reservations on the go or just finding basic info through data.
Always look up what type of major events/festivals/concerts are going on in the place you are visiting to prevent any major/unexpected headaches
Read this blog.
Get a credit card that does not charge foreign transaction fees like many of the cards from Chase.
Get a checking account with ATM/Debit card that does not charge transaction fees for foreign withdrawals like a Charles Schwab checking account.
always carry or have some US dollars when traveling abroad for ease of use or in case you run out of local currencies
Get a money belt to carry valuable documents and cash under your clothing so that you do not have to worry about being the victim of pick-pockets. You’d be surprised how often I’ve heard this happen… especially to women (e.g. Argentina, Italy, France, China etc.)
Carry Starbucks gift cards at the holidays and give them as gifts to military personnel. Creates good karma that will pay you back tenfold.
Keep a complete second Dopp kit in ur suitcase so u don’t have to pack all ur toiletries every trip.
Buy a small first aid kit that includes pain meds, anti-diahhrial, laxatives, Benedryl, cold meds, Tums, sore throat treatment, bandages, disinfectant, and other things you’d want if you we’re sick and didn’t have easy access to them. Always keep this in your bag.
Always double check the dates of travel on airline tickets to avoid showing up at the airport on the wrong day.
I have been National emerald and Hertz gold for decades but at times the cost is so much lower I have opted for the cheapest. I have been given some awfully beat up cars so I photograph every angle in addition to noting every defect on the form which saved me a bundle on my Kauai rentsal.
Using Google Flights and Kayak Explore is a great way to pick where to go on a trip when you just want to get away and don’t really care about where you’re going.
Whenever there are 3 seats across and you are only 2 passengers, leave the middle seat empty and pick the outer seats. Less chance of people picking middle and if ever, you can decide which one to give up
If you are travelling internationally in a country with widespread wifi you can leave your phone in airplane mode and use a VoIP app like Skype to make cheap international phone calls. It cost me $2 to keep in touch with my wife for a week from Argentina.
If you are having problems with clearing your ears during airplane descent (not popping on their own with the change in pressure), pinch your nose and blow. This will force air through your ears to clear them. Much less painful than the alternative.
Check out wikitravel on tips on getting ground transportation on arrival like official taxi stand at airport so that you won’t look lost and be surrounded by illegal touts.
Get the Club Carlson Visa. You get a lot of points just for signing up. Points are easy to accumulate because you get 5 points for every $1 that you spend. Additionally, when you use points for a free room, and stay two days or more, the last night is free. Also, as a card member, you are automatically elevated to ‘Gold’ status. That means you get upgrades when available. I just stayed at the Radisson in Santiago, Chile. I used one night of points, got the second night free, and I got upgraded to a huge Suite. I also got a free breakfast buffet both days. Hard to beat that deal
Here’s a good one that worked for me once, accidentally. In two parts. First, always check one way flights to destinations that could have stopovers in the actual city you want to fly to. Then, if you plan to skip your connecting flight and buy your flights as two one way tickets, choose a short connection time. If the flight is delayed and you miss your connection, tell them there’s no point in taking another connecting flight anymore and ask for compensation. This worked for me when my first flight was delayed due to engine trouble and I got a $200 voucher with Frontier!
After booking a trip do not relax. Keep checking for either better prices or more convienient reservations. This includes ar, hotel and car.