Travel Tips

*** Travel Tip Posts***

How to Pack Light For a Long Trip
More Essential Travel Items
Top 10 Essentials For Your Pack
10 Things You Will Be Glad You Lugged Around
10 Things You Want to Do Before Kicking The Bucket
10 Weird Things We Saw Abroad
10 Reasons Nepal Is Better Than India: A Guest Post

Disclaimer: this is a work in progress. Please be patient.  Feel free to comment or email me to let me know if you too have any advice or think that mine needs help!

*** More Travel Tips ***

(1) FLIGHTS:

- A good place to start is http://www.orbitz.com/  or Google Travel. You can look for everything - hotel, car and flight. I use them for finding flights mostly. Both will compare all airlines for you. (and car companies etc). I also like to track a flight and watch it for a while sometimes to see if the price comes down. You can set this up to send you email notifications and it has come in handy at times. 

- Always pick seats in the front row or exit row if you can. They have more leg room. Be careful though; sometimes the exit row seats do not lean back. You can use Seat Guru to find out the details about your seat on the plane. 

- If you have to have a layover, try to stick with the same company for both flights. Otherwise you may have a very long walk at the airport, and sometimes even a bus transfer in airports like Houston. Also I have missed my connecting flight and it is sometimes a headache trying to figure out who is going to fix it for you if you have two different companies involved. 

- If a flight gets canceled, it helps to have the 1-800 number of the airline handy. Sometimes you can reach a person on the phone faster than in real life and it may get you a new flight before everyone who is waiting in line. I will even call the hotline while standing in line so I am working two angles at once. 

- For domestic travel, you should also try Southwest Airlines or Jet Blue for cheap flights, but you may want to check their website specifically. Most of these are a better deal if you book 14 days or more in advance. They often have $39, $59 and $99 dollar one way fares (sometimes across the country!) They also have frequent flyer programs, so if you use them a lot (or even a little) you should sign up.

(2) HOTELS:

- www.hotels.com is another one for cheap hotels, but Booking.com and  Orbitz should give you everything you need. If you travel the way I usually do, Hostelz (backpacker accommodation) is a great site for hostels.

- You can also look on specific hotel websites. Here are a few:
Holiday Inn,
Motel 6,
Best Western,
Marriott (Residence Inn, Courtyard),
Starwood (Sheraton, Westin),
Hilton (Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites)

(3) CARS:

- For cars also you can use priceline.com. I usually go on orbitz first to see what the cheapest price per day is. Then you go to priceline and bid half of whatever the cheapest daily rate was. They may counter offer. The only thing with that is you don't get to pick the company but if you don't care it is great. You can usually get about half price for a compact car. Note: You can still enter your rewards number later.

- The only tip I have for Priceline is to put your arrival time (flight) a little early or else you will have to wait until the time you entered online to get the car. Better early than late.

- You can also book through the actual company website after finding out on orbitz which one is the cheapest. Here are a few of the bigger companies.
National
Hertz
Avis

(4) FREQUENT FLYER INFO:

- As a general rule, I suggest signing up for the frequent flyer/points programs for everything, even if you barely use them. They can add up in the end and sometimes the companies also give discounts/deals for members. It never hurts to be one! 

- The three main air companies are Delta, United and American Airlines. If you sign up for these three frequent flyer programs, you can get points that can be used on most airlines. Many the other airlines (even international ones) are partners with one of these top three (Lufthansa for example is partnered with United,  LAN is partners with American and Air France is partner with Delta).

United Partners (Star Alliance): Air Canada, Lufthansa, Swiss Air, Air New Zealand, Air China, TAP Portugal, Egypt Air, Thai Air, Asiana, SAS, Austrian Air, Singapore Air, US Air, BMI, South African Air, Turkish Airlines, Spanair, Continental (this is not a complete list: go to the website for more info)

Delta Partners (Skyteam): KLM, Avianca, Air France, Korean Air, Aeromexico, Air Europa, Alitalia, Czech Air, Aeroflot, China Southern (this is not a complete list: go to the website for more info)

American Airlines Partners (Oneworld): Aer Lingus, British Air, Quantas, Alaskan Air, LAN, Japan Airlines, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Mexicana (this is not a complete list: go to the website for more info)

- Hotel Websites:
Best Western
Choice Hotels (Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Radisson) 
Hilton (Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites)
IHG (Holiday Inn, Intercontinental)
Marriott (Residence Inn, Courtyard, Sheraton, Westin)
Motel 6
Wyndham Rewards (Wyndham, Super 8, Days Inn)

- Car Company Websites:
National
Hertz
Avis

(5) MISC

Many of these companies (along with others) will give you bonus points if you sign up for their credit card, and it may be worth looking into if you are going to use the same carrier or chain often. I will let this guy give you the rundown on what he thinks gives you the best bang for your buck in this department. 

You can also see some of the places I've been on my Around The World page. 

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