Travel tips...

[Viguera]

Just gonna put a few things that I've learned in here... :)

I'll update this as time goes on... if you have any cool links or tips, post them up as well.

Favorite ticket places:

http://www.mobissimo.com

http://www.farecast.com/

Mobissimo is great because you can search almost ALL the travel sites out there at once. Just put in what you're looking for and it will return a ton of links... you can then fine tune the search or just click the links and it will take you to the site where you can buy the tickets.

Farecast is fantastic to see if you should buy your tickets NOW or wait. It will show you historically where the ticket prices have been, where they're going, etc. and you can decide whether it's a good time to buy now or if you should hold out some more.

Free stuffs:

http://www.milemaven.com/

This site is good to rack up the free miles... it searches promotions based on what cities you're travelling to/from and displays a list. For example it will show that NY to Florida you can get 3k bonus miles with United if you're a new member, or 1k bonus miles if you get a package, etc.

Good linkage:

SeatGuru is a good site to find out about which seat to try to get: http://www.seatguru.com/

You basically select your flight and it will tell you if there's video, power, extra legroom, etc. All pretty important stuff if you're gonna be sitting there for a few hours... :)

The TSA security checkpoint wait time calculator: http://waittime.tsa.dhs.gov/index.html

While this is not 100% accurate, it should give you an idea what to expect on the day you're travelling. For example, you can see that at JFK on a Friday the line for terminal 2 is about 5-6 minutes at 1pm, while terminal 3 is about 20 minutes worth of wait just to get through security.

Flight status via FlightStats: http://www.flightstats.com/go/Home/home.do

I just started using this and OMG it's good... :) You can setup mobile alerts to your phone regardless of the carrier, it will show you delays, gate changes, the works.

Best of all, they have a mobile version as well that you can just use from your phone or PDA while on the way to the airport: http://mobile.flightstats.com/go/Mobile/

Here's a list of airports with free WiFi that you can gank and pass the time while you wait: http://www.smallbusiness.com/wiki/Free_wifi_airports

And if you NEED the juice, you can power most gadgets by using the Inflight Power doodah that will actually power most small devices from the headphone jack on the armrest of the plane: http://www.inflightpower.com/products.asp

It's expensive at $35 for the cheapest version, but if you need to charge your iPod while on the plane and you don't have one of those air-power things, it's your best bet.

The Universal Packing List: http://upl.codeq.info/index.jsp

Put in how long your trip is and what the temperature is and a few other things, and it will create a pretty neat travel list for you...

Cool little things like if you're taking a 3-day non-business trip, shave at home and leave the shaving stuff at home to avoid problems at the airport, or make a couple of sandwiches so you don't have to buy $50 Burger King at the airport or in the plane. Or even more specific stuff like getting a smaller bag for all your chargers and digital camera crap for when you travel if you select you're bringing one.

And if you're driving to the airport, AirportParkingReservations is your friend...

http://www.airportparkingreservations.com/ The best part are user reviews about the lots that tell you if the place is open 24/7, if they offer battery/tires/locked-out service, if it's well fenced/well lit, etc.

[Viguera]

BTW, it's real easy to get into some shit with the TSA guys at the security stations. Don't. If they break your shit or treat you like crap, get their info and walk away. If you act up you're gonna get your monkey ass arrested and you'll end up missing your flight and having an even worse day.

If by any chance you have a laptop, ipod, cell phone or some other equipment that you put through the scanner and they happen to drop it or break it, stay cool and know that you have 2 years to file a claim... :)

Head out to the TSA site ( http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/customer/claims/forms.shtm ) and read the instructions/mail or fax the appropriate forms.

Once TSA has received a sufficient claim, you will be sent a letter of acknowledgement and a control number. Please recognize that there is often a 3-week delay for mail sent to Federal facilities due to screening requirements. Claims that are faxed will receive a quicker response. Either way, TSA will attempt to resolve your claim as quickly as possible (often within 90 days), however we may require up to six (6) months to fully investigate your claim before we can make a recommendation to approve, deny, or offer a settlement. After six (6) months, you have the right to file suit in U.S. Federal District Court. Small Claims Courts have no jurisdiction over Federal Tort claims. Please refer to the Federal Torts Claim Act for more information.

So while it's fucked up that you might have to wait up to 6 months to sue their ass, it's better than getting arrested IMO. :)

If you get harrassed or they give you a hard time about providing you with some info, contact the TSA "Claims Management Office Customer Service Manager" at (866) 289-9673 or email the office at tsaclaimsoffice@dhs.gov.

Again, don't expect miracles but it's better than the alternative. :)

[Viguera]

Getting bumped for fun... and profit...

At the risk of giving up all the secrets, here's the best way to get bumped from a flight -- other than starting a fight. :)

First off, get it out of your head that this is a bad thing. Getting bumped means a) getting there later and b) getting something for your trouble. All airlines have the responsibility of getting you to your destination after you buy your ticket... if you choose to give up your seat, it doesn't mean that they don't have to anymore. If nothing else, you gave up your seat for their benefit, so they have to compensate you for your gesture. :)

Most airlines have a pretty good policy with regards to this... anywhere from a free round-trip ticket for each seat that you give up, to a travel voucher that could equal anywhere from $200 to $400. Think about this really hard... you give up your seat one way, and you get a guaranteed seat later and a free round-trip ticket. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? :)

And before you ask why they sell more seats than they have, forget it... they all do. In the bigger airports (NY, California, Chicago, Atlanta, Florida, etc), they all overbook because statistically they know that they will have 2-3% no-shows. So on a big jet that holds 200 people they sell 206+ seats, expecting 6 people not to show up. Now if people DO show up, they're fucked and they have to bump somebody... they usually ask for "volunteers" and move those people bumped to other flights later on or with competing carriers. They all do this. Now you have to take advantage. :)

Now that you know getting bumped is a good thing, you need to figure out a) if you can and b) if you want to.

If your schedule is flexible or you don't have people waiting for you or dinner reservations or some such, then why not? I find that taking the early flights are good, so that way you're not late for anything if you decide to give up your seat. Now whether you CAN get bumped or not, that's a combination of luck and conditions. What you need to do is research and find out how packed the flight is -- and later flights in the day -- and see if you should head to the airport ready to party... :)

First off, understand that there are several classes of tickets -- more than just First and Coach :). There are classes that earn you more miles than others based on what you paid, where you bought the ticket, etc. But that doesn't matter right now... just the fact that there are a ton of different classes. So what you do is you head out to one of these sites:

American Express' Flight Availability tool: http://flyaow.com/classamex.htm
SeatCounter: http://www.seatcounter.com

You put in your flight and bingo... it tells you how many seats there are per class on that flight. You should do this both ways, to see if you can get bumped both times for extra tickets... :)

So... checking my flights to Miami this weekend I see this: Cabin class: F2 A0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 K1 L0 U0 T0 . The letter is the class, the number is how many seats of that class are still open in the flight.

You add all of them up and see that -- as of today -- there are 48 empty seats in my flight out. Not good. I can see that it's an MD-88 and that it holds 142 from the diagram at Delta...

http://www.delta.com/planning_reservations/plan_flight/aircraft_types_layout/md-88/index.jsp

But I can always check later... and tomorrow... and before I go to the airport that day. When/If I see that it's 0 across the board, I know the flight is overbooked. Once you find out your flight is going to be full what you do is get to the airport early. Remember, you're not the only one doing this, and it's dog-eat-dog, first-come-first-serve at the counter. So you get out there and head straight for the ticket agent at the gate.

Most people just get to the gate and read that the flight is on time or some crap and go seat down, or go buy a magazine. But the season traveller doesn't... they go to the agent right away and ask how the flight looks, if it's overbooked or not, etc.

What you wanna do if you already know it's overbooked is go up to the counter and be real nice and helpful... then just straight up tell them you know the flight is overbooked and you're willing to volunteer your seat(s) if they're needed. Ask them -- if they need your seat -- if there's room on a later flight, etc. But you already know this from your research... :)

Don't talk about compensation or anything of the sort, and be ready to go because chances are that people might NOT show up anyway and they won't need your seats.

Once boarding starts, it's time to go back and ask them -- politely -- if they are still going to need your seats. Make sure you ask (as if you didn't know) that you're going to get a guaranteed seat later. Then just straight up tell them: "I know you're busy with boarding, so I'll wait over there until you're done and then I'll come back" -- they just LOVE when you're friendly and you know how the system works. Sit somewhere that you can check them out and they know you're around, but not that it looks like you're bugging them about your free stuff. If you piss them off they'll just put you on the flight and bump someone else. :)

Then all you do is sit there and wait... after the doors close you're home free and you can start celebrating... you're getting free shit.

They'll rebook you and give you your new boarding passes, and depending on WHEN the next flight is, you might get free meal vouchers. JFK Delta gives you $14 for food, which is about the price of a soda at the airport. If you get bumped from the last flight and need to stay overnight, you will also get a hotel voucher and transportation to and from the hotel, plus food. Take take take... :)

And that's pretty much it... you should be on your way to the next gate, tickets in hand and free flight vouchers. You can turn around right there and go to the ticketing agent (gotta go through security again) and book your next vacation, but I would wait until I get to a computer because they usually charge you $20 per ticket when you buy them from an agent at the airport compared to buying them from the airline's website.

And yes... you can turn around right there and try to get bumped from the next flight and get more free shit. They don't care, and you're helping them out, so feel free to try. :)

Have fun.

[Ig0r]

Good stuff Vig, perhaps we should create some type of "Life" section where we can put stuff like this in there, along w/ places to go/visit, stuff to eat/drink, how to make drinks/food, etc. What do you think?

[Viguera]

Good stuff Vig, perhaps we should create some type of "Life" section where we can put stuff like this in there, along w/ places to go/visit, stuff to eat/drink, how to make drinks/food, etc. What do you think?

Yeah maybe along with the chill spot... travel & leisure. Travel tips, places to see, places you've been to and what to do...

Try to give/get pointers when people are travelling. I know that shit comes in handy when you're doing a road trip, best routes to take and what areas to avoid or places to eat.

Good idea.

[JIST]

i'd be interested in something like that, and i'm sure some of the other members would as well

[Viguera]

A few new links to keep an eye on...

Kayak.com has replaced mobissimo as my primary search engine, and farecompare.com is my new favorite deal finder...

FareCompare is actually pretty cool, and they have a page dedicated to displaying the latest fares from a particular airport to anywhere...

http://www.farecompare.com/search/flyertalk.html?departure=NYC&fares=Domestic&carrierFilter=CheapestFarePerCarrierMarket&filter=ALL&ppm=0.05&savings=99999&distance=0&sortby=ppm&p=1

That's a list of all fares from NYC to all domestic airports, sorted by PPM (price per mile). This is cool because you can see off the bat if there are any good deals because they "float" to the top because of the low PPM...

So looking at that list a flight from NY to San Fran is "bad" because it's 2573 miles for $256 -- a PPM of 5 cents per mile, where a flight from NY to Oakland is better because it's only 3 cents a mile at $198.

Regardless, this is good to look at frequently too because when a "mistake" airfare shows up -- because somebody with fat fingers put in NY to Cali for $15 or something -- it will float up and you can snatch it if you're quick. This actually happens more frequently than you think, so you never know.

[AH MI]

Hell yeah this is a good idea I like to travel

[NASSIM]

This is somme good info thx .

[Viguera]

Frequent flyers, elite info and mileage runs...

Well right off the bat let me say that this is not for everyone... you *should* join some sort of frequent flyer program if you ever set foot on a plane, just because it's free and you never know what the future holds, but don't expect that you're gonna be treated differently by the airlines because you fly with them once every 2 years...

But for those that fly a lot, don't mind taking a few detours and know how to work the system, the frequent flyer programs and "mileage runs" are actually a pretty sweet way to earn some rewards.

For those that don't know... the frequent flyer programs basically let you accumulate miles over the duration of several flights, and you can use those miles as "currency" with the airlines to get stuff, including free tickets (domestic and international). It takes a lot of flying to accumulate serious miles (hence the "frequent" part), and it's usually a 1:1 affair -- for every mile you fly, you get a mile, but frequent flyers earn more miles on the same flight than "regular" people.

Most carriers have a system in place that you can get a free domestic roundtrip ticket for 25k miles, and a free international ticket for anywhere from 50-60k miles. With that in mind, you can do the math about how frequent a flyer you have to be to get some free airfare.

But there's also different "tiers" of flyers... if you accumulate 25k miles in a couple of years and I do the same in a few months, the airlines consider me to be more of an "Elite flyer" than you, and get me extra perks. The perks come in the form of preferred seating, quicker route through security and even upgrades to business or first class.

But if you wanna earn some serious perks (and miles) without having to take 15 trips, it helps to maximize the miles that you get out of every single trip. You do that with segments. Like I said, this is not for everyone, but it works...

Say for example that you were going from NY to Barcelona (Spain) for a family trip or on vacation or whatever. Average Joe would get somewhere around 4k miles out of the whole thing, if that. If you're already a top tier member with your airline, you would earn 100-125% bonues miles on the flight, so you'd end up with 8-9k miles instead.

And even better, if you're willing to take "the scenic route" and waste time flying around just for the miles, it could be well worth your time... The same flight from NY with a layover in Amsterdam before going to Barcelona will net you more than twice as many miles, which is almost enough for a free domestic flight... so you've basically got a free flight just for getting there the long way. Do that with every trip you take and you'll be an elite flyer in no time.

Sure it takes longer but that's the "price" you pay for free stuff... and chances are the flight with connections is actually cheaper than the direct flight anyway.

Food for thought...

[Viguera]

Saving money flying to Europe...

You can save an average of $350 on your airfare if you fly during the "shoulder" seasons... April to May or September to October. The low season is even cheaper, with flights between January and April being the cheapest, but that's because most of Europe is either frozen or rainy during the low season... :)

Low season roundtrip airfare is about $450 (plus taxes), and the summer peak (from mid-May to around early September) has prices as high as $1,200 to $1,400 roundtrip.

If you fly the shoulder you can find some decent weather and flights around $700 and even cheaper.

[LEON]

All this info is good, especially for first time travelers or for those that are used to having bad experiences, it sucks to lose something or not have answers to many questions during a vacation. What I did for the first time this year is join a cancun spring break forum, i can't believe i just found out about it after going there over 10 years...anyways that forum has a lot of interesting tips and info and updates as well, like performances in clubs, or just straight up parties at resorts or certain clubs, do your research before you travel, and always check the weather in advance, you'll be prepared for everything. Especially because I hate being uncomfortable while away, it defeats the purpose of a vacation.

[Viguera]

All this info is good, especially for first time travelers or for those that are used to having bad experiences, it sucks to lose something or not have answers to many questions during a vacation. What I did for the first time this year is join a cancun spring break forum, i can't believe i just found out about it after going there over 10 years...anyways that forum has a lot of interesting tips and info and updates as well, like performances in clubs, or just straight up parties at resorts or certain clubs, do your research before you travel, and always check the weather in advance, you'll be prepared for everything. Especially because I hate being uncomfortable while away, it defeats the purpose of a vacation.

I like the tripadvisor.com forums for that type of info too... You have a lot of people that travel frequently and they post their experiences as soon as they get back.

You also get a lot of pictures from regular people -- rather than staged photos -- and they include pictures of the restaurants, hotel rooms, etc. So you have a really good idea what to expect, instead of the generic shit that you get from expedia.

[LEON]

/\ Vig your right on point how can I forget to mention the reviews, they are useful most of the time because thats when people list the Do's & Don'ts which every spot has. Also gives a bit of an inside idea of what to expect, I love the reviews for the hotel I'm going to; loud and drunk 20 year olds by the pool all day then screamin and slamming doors till 6am, thats wtf im talking bout! So basically from a review like that ppl that actually need a good sleep or have a family obviously wouldn't go to a party hotel like that, which makes the review helpful.

[Viguera]

Also gives a bit of an inside idea of what to expect, I love the reviews for the hotel I'm going to; loud and drunk 20 year olds by the pool all day then screamin and slamming doors till 6am, thats wtf im talking bout! So basically from a review like that ppl that actually need a good sleep or have a family obviously wouldn't go to a party hotel like that, which makes the review helpful.

LOL

Reminds me of when we took my brother-in-law to Miami for the first time... He said he wanted to be in the middle of everything and wanted to party all night.

So we put him at The Clevelander -- the one where the pool turns into a club and they blast music right up your window all night. After one night he wanted to change hotels. :)

[Viguera]

A few more tips on frequent flyer programs, now that the summer travel season is here and I'm getting questions about it... :)

Obviously #1 is to try to fly with the same carrier as often as possible. You can accumulate 100k miles a year if you fly a lot, but if they're spread across 10 different carriers, it's not gonna help you.

But that leads into the next tip... a not-so-well-known one at that, and it has to do with "alliances"

There are three big alliances that the "legacy" (read: big) carriers are part of. This doesn't apply to discount airlines like Jetblue, but to the big ones. The alliences are:

Star -- which has United, US Airways and others
Skyteam -- which includes Delta, Continental and NorthWest
OneWorld -- which includes American and other European carriers.

The advantage of this is that you can cross-earn miles even if you're not flying with your preferred carrier. So let's say you're flying US Airways but you want the miles to go to your United account, all you do is put your United number in the US Airways reservation and the miles will be added there instead.

[Viguera]

Oh and a note on using an award ticket when you accumulate enough miles... don't be a dumbass. :)

A lot of people will go and grab enough frequent flyer miles, but waste them on tickets that they should have purchased cash anyway. Save the miles for when tickets are expensive (high season) or for when you have an emergency and need a last minute trip, since those are impossibly expensive.

Take for example a trip from NY to Paris. In the low season you can get a round-trip ticket for as little as $400. As much as some people would like to save that money and use their miles, that's a mistake. High season NY to Paris tickets in July are $1,500. That is a worthwhile use of an award ticket...

If you travel frequently, don't blow a perfectly good award ticket on a short haul flight to Florida or some shit that you can buy for $150-200... buy that shit cash if you can and accumulate more miles, then when you want to go anywhere else you can use your miles and save some real money.

[CARZ]

Nice write up!!

I dont recall reading this, but you can also maximize your miles with your credit card points. They work with airlines or flight ticket websites and offer rewards. For example: my Citibank card has a deal with Expedia where I get a third of the points for the miles flown + the points for the price of the ticket +++++++ points and miles for other peoples flights that you paid for

my girl and I are flying down to FL, which is a 1000 mile flight. so its (1000 / 3) = 300 points then x 2 for 2 way = 600...then again x 2 for both of our tickets = 1200 then plus 500 for the price of our tickets. total = 1700...which isnt that bad because I can redeem it for miles or points for other stuff

[Viguera]

Nice write up!!

I dont recall reading this, but you can also maximize your miles with your credit card points. They work with airlines or flight ticket websites and offer rewards. For example: my Citibank card has a deal with Expedia where I get a third of the points for the miles flown + the points for the price of the ticket +++++++ points and miles for other peoples flights that you paid for

my girl and I are flying down to FL, which is a 1000 mile flight. so its (1000 / 3) = 300 points then x 2 for 2 way = 600...then again x 2 for both of our tickets = 1200 then plus 500 for the price of our tickets. total = 1700...which isnt that bad because I can redeem it for miles or points for other stuff

Yeah an airline card is the shit, because then you can just buy gas and you get miles... that way you don't even have to fly to keep your account active. :)