Happy Wednesday to all of our travel friends, both near and far! Here are some articles we’ve read from other bloggers (and other sources) that we think you may like, as well, so we’re passing them along.
Tag: fees
The JetBlue Plus Card Saved Us $120 On A Single Trip
We’re returning from a trip to New York where we flew with JetBlue, one of our favorite domestic airlines. They have a number of non stop flights from Orlando, and all their flights have seat back entertainment as well as free WiFi that works reasonably well. That ticks off many of the boxes for what we want when we travel. One of the negatives about JetBlue is that they joined with the other airlines (except Southwest) in raising checked baggage fees in the fall of 2018. So now the fee for your first checked bag is $30. That is unless you have the JetBlue Plus credit card.
Continue reading “The JetBlue Plus Card Saved Us $120 On A Single Trip”
Want To Leave A Country? There’s A Tax For That
There are many things you’ll consider when choosing which foreign country to visit but I bet one thing you usually wouldn’t think about is how much you’ll need to pay to leave the country and return home. Yep, governments have realized that an easy way to collect money from tourists (and their own residents, as well), is to charge a fee when leaving the country. Sure in some countries it’s called a tax, in other’s it a duty and you’ll even see it referred to as a fee, but make no mistake, they’re all ways to have you pay money so you can leave the country.
The amount of these, let’s call them fees, varies greatly from country to country. Japan recently added a departure fee of ¥1000, (about $9 USD), for people leaving the country. Australia charges a fee of A$60 ($42 USD) and Fiji charges a F$200 ($93.68 USD) fee to all departing passengers.
One reason you need to know the departure fee is that airlines will often charge you this fee when redeeming miles for an award ticket. Since it’s not considered part of the airfare cost from the airline, they pass the charge onto you.
Continue reading “Want To Leave A Country? There’s A Tax For That”
The History of Avoiding Parking Fees At WDW Parks (And Our Suggestions Of What To Do Nowadays)
The charges to park at Walt Disney World’s theme parks have gone up every year (sometimes more than once a year) for just about as long as WDW has been around. For a long, long time there were ways to sometimes avoid having to pay those fees – some 100% legit, others a little more questionable – but over the years Walt Disney World has managed to squelch almost all of them.
Here’s the list of what used to be options to not have to pay for WDW theme park parking and what each situation is now, as well as what your options are nowadays.
How To Avoid The Higher Checked Bag Fees On JetBlue and United Airlines
U.S airlines have all charged $25 for your first checked bag up until August 27th, when JetBlue became the first US airline to break the $25 barrier. That’s when JetBlue raised the price of the first checked piece of luggage from $25 to $30. Four days later, on August 31st, United also raised their price for the first checked bag to $30. Because of course they did.
It’s disappointing to see JetBlue increase their baggage fees, considering that up until 2015 they didn’t charge anything for your first checked bag. I’m not surprised that United quickly matched the fee increase, as they’re really good at copying what other airlines do, even if it’s not a great idea to begin with.
I’ve read people say that instead of paying these increased fees, they’re not going to check a bag anymore. If you’re the type of traveler who can live out of a carry on bag for a week, good for you. But that’s just not something we’re going to do to save on baggage fees. Luckily, there are other ways to avoid these increased fees.
Continue reading “How To Avoid The Higher Checked Bag Fees On JetBlue and United Airlines”
