Category: Tips and Tricks

How To Save On Flights By Driving To A Different Airport

Nothing about booking airfare is straightforward. The way airlines figure out how much to charge to get from city A to city B drives me crazy. Idiosyrancies in the pricing system is what led to passengers booking hidden-city tickets with the help of websites like Skiplagged. While that method to save money on airfare doesn’t match with our travel style, there’s another way to save I’ve looked into and current technology makes it easier than ever to find these fares.

You can possibly save hundreds of dollars on airfare if you’re willing to drive a bit further to a different airport.

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What are Delta Dollars and How Do You Spend Them?

On a flight from Atlanta to Chattanooga, our flight was oversold. The gate agents made an announcement asking if there were any passengers who would be willing to take a flight later that evening for $250 Delta Dollars. Sharon and I looked at each other as if to say, “Should we?” I said we shouldn’t because I wasn’t familiar with how Delta Dollars worked and I wasn’t sure if we could ever use them. I left to go to the restroom and in the 5 minutes that I was away the offer increased from $250 to $350, then $500,  $600 and eventually to $700. At this point, I was walking (quickly) to the gate to take the offer but before I got back they found the four people they needed to take the later flight.

Remember that the flight is only 45 minutes long and they were offering a seat on the flight 3 hours later. We could have taken the $700 each and waited or even rented a car and drove the 4 hours to Tennessee. 🙂

So why was Delta so generous and why didn’t I jump at the offer?  Continue reading “What are Delta Dollars and How Do You Spend Them?”

Global Entry & TSA Pre-Check: It’s Not Just For Americans Anymore

Joe and I have had Global Entry for several years now; it simply makes life easier when we’re traveling overseas because we don’t have to stand on as many queues. That’s a nice thing but since we only travel outside the U.S. one or two times a year at most (and sometimes not at all, depending), it admittedly has limited use to us. However getting Global Entry also gives us automatic TSA Pre-Check, which is WONDERFUL, especially since our home airport is MCO and their TSA checkpoint is so slow that they’re in the midst of some major construction to add more lanes (among other things).

I was always under the impression that TSA Precheck was only available to U.S. citizens, but apparently a few years ago the program was expanded to be available to citizens of several other countries around the world. And just like with American citizens, if you have Global Entry, it also gives you TSA Pre✓ eligibility.

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Ten Gestures That Are Innocent In The U.S. But Offensive In Other Countries

When travel to a different country, many people try to follow the rule of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” They may learn as many of the social norms of the country as they can, and familiarize themselves in what’s considered appropriate behavior and what’s not, with the hope that they’re not looked down upon and/or don’t perpetuate the more negative stereotype of Americans.

Unfortunately, there are several gestures often used in the U.S. that can be horrible to do in some other countries. And it’s one thing to make sure you, for example, don’t blow your nose in public in Japan, but quite another to stop using a hand gesture that you possibly have habitually used all your life. For example…

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Traveling Internationally & Need Cash? Don’t Get Ripped Off By These ATMs

When Joe and I travel internationally, we rarely use cash anymore. There are very few places that are “cash only,” so we use credit cards for virtually all of our expenses, making sure that we use cards that don’t charge a foreign transaction fee.

However lots of people, for whatever their reasons, still like to pay cash, and many get their cash from local ATMs.

Unfortunately, there are bunches of ATMs, especially in Europe, that are rigged to take advantage of international travelers. Watch this:

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