hacks Archives - Your Mileage May Vary

Alternate Ways To Cool or Heat Your Room When Regular Hotel Thermostat Hacks Don’t Work

One of the most popular posts I’ve ever written for Your Mileage May Vary has been How To Override Hotel Thermostat Settings. Briefly, hotels with digital thermostats are sometimes able to set them so they don’t go above or below a certain temperature. So you may want your room to be 68 degrees at night, and you may set it to that, but the temperature of the room won’t actually go below 73 (or whatever the hotel has set it to). This saves the hotel money via a lower electric bill, but makes for a whole lot of sweaty (or freezing, in the cold months) guests. The post I mentioned above tells you how to override the settings for a dozen or so popular brands of thermostats.

Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of thermostat makes/models that are missing from the post above. It’s not my fault – the hacks just aren’t out there (or at least weren’t attainable when I was originally researching for that post). Or some hotels may purposely set their thermostats up so they can’t be accessed so easily.

Here are some ways, albeit some unconventional ones, to get around all that.

Continue reading “Alternate Ways To Cool or Heat Your Room When Regular Hotel Thermostat Hacks Don’t Work”

How To Get Free Upgrades From Hotels

I’ve been able to score countless upgrades in hotels using this trick. It’s totally legal, amazingly easy to do and doesn’t throw off my moral compass. Even those who are timid about asking for upgrades can make this trick work for them. I’m not saying it’ll work 100% of the time but when it does, it’s nice to feel like you’re getting more than you paid for.

Of course, the easiest way to get a hassle-free upgrade is to have a high level of status with a company’s loyalty program. Now, I don’t travel enough to earn status and have no intention of chasing status and locking myself into one specific brand. I get some perks by strategically choosing certain credit cards, such as the American Express Platinum Card, which gives me certain perks and mid-level status in some programs. Hotels will often proactively upgrade members with status to a higher level or “executive” room before checking in. Continue reading “How To Get Free Upgrades From Hotels”

Darth Vader On A Plane, When Your Points Are Stolen, More Bad News On The Marriott Hack & More…

Happy Sunday (and happy New Year!) 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.

Continue reading “Darth Vader On A Plane, When Your Points Are Stolen, More Bad News On The Marriott Hack & More…”

How To Prepare Yourself Against Credit Card Hacks

Nowadays, having your credit card number stolen is one of the most annoying things that can happen (well, except for someone stealing an Amazon.com package from your front porch). Credit card fraud used to be something you heard about on the news or maybe you had a friend who had their debit card number stolen and couldn’t get money out of the bank until everything was straightened out. Those days are long gone. Credit fraud is happening to everyone and the more cards you have, the greater the chance you’re eventually going have to deal with it.

Let’s look at the evolution of credit card theft and what you can do today to protect yourself from the bad guys:

Continue reading “How To Prepare Yourself Against Credit Card Hacks”

A Choice Of WDW Tickets, Shrinking Carry-On Bag Size, The Newest IHG Offers & More

Welcome to the weekend, y’all! Here are the articles we wrote this week, in one convenient place.

Joe wrote about:

AAA membership provides more than roadside assistance – they save you money on travel!
His wondering if Chase is giving better rewards to less expensive cards.
The arrival of the latest IHG Accelerate offers.
His wondering if Americans are less hospitable or if it’s just us?

And Sharon wrote about:

The airline that’s shrinking the size of carry-on bags they allow on board.
How to override hotel thermostat settings.
Walt Disney World tickets vs. an annual pass – which should you get?
That time when a celebrity live tweeted about the plane passenger from hell.
Our national parks: a week of celebration and a super rare hotel offer.
A great little gadget so you’ll never be stuck with a low phone battery again.

Don’t forget to join our Facebook Group, where we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel-related articles you may not see otherwise, etc. We’d love to see you there!

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