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Mackieman posted:Are you trying to get currency once you arrive at a place or change it back to US dollars upon return? Travelling to the Dominican at the start of February and not sure if it's cheaper to get Peso's before we go or once we get there.
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Jan 10, 2013 18:00
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Shlank posted:Travelling to the Dominican at the start of February and not sure if it's cheaper to get Peso's before we go or once we get there. In almost all cases, it's cheaper to do it via ATM from your bank account once you get there. There are fees, but they're usually less (and sometimes a lot less) than changing at the airport or whatever. Make sure you notify your bank that you're traveling and all should be well.
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Jan 10, 2013 18:07
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FISHMANPET posted:I just took a 2 night overnight Amtrak trip, as well as a couple trips between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver BC. I notice there's no Amtrak thread, would there be any interested in an Amtrak megathread? I dunno about an entire thread dedicated to it, but I'm definitely interested in hearing about experiences with Amtrak and other rail transportation. The farthest I've gone is between Baltimore and D.C. on the Metro. What's an overnight like? What kind of sleeping arrangements are there? Is the pricing similar to that of a plane ticket?
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Jan 25, 2013 00:32
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Mackieman posted:In almost all cases, it's cheaper to do it via ATM from your bank account once you get there. There are fees, but they're usually less (and sometimes a lot less) than changing at the airport or whatever. Make sure you notify your bank that you're traveling and all should be well. And if this is not possible, a legit private exchange office in a major city will suffice. Just avoid banks and avoid the airport exchanges. For example in Tehran I had to cab it in to Ferdosi Square where there are a few exchanges that do great rates. In Turkey I just used my Travel Card from my bank back home and it just used the official exchange rate with a small flat rate fee.
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Jan 26, 2013 11:11
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Me and my friends are thinking of renting a van or something like that for a road trip, any recommendations or tips for this? Looking around I see the biggest I can get is a 7 person mini-van or 7 person SUV. Does it matter who I rent from, or are they all the same?
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May 27, 2013 22:34
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I am traveling internationally this fall, and now that I am an old person with a family and responsibilities, it seems to make sense to get some travel insurance. Is there a particular company that people would recommend for this? I've never bothered before.
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Jun 22, 2013 18:27
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Ashcans posted:I am traveling internationally this fall, and now that I am an old person with a family and responsibilities, it seems to make sense to get some travel insurance. Is there a particular company that people would recommend for this? I've never bothered before. What sort of event or issue are your attempting to insure against? Medical, travel interruption, etc?
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Jun 24, 2013 01:27
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I think the biggest thing would be medical - if my kid gets sick and I have to rush him to a hospital in Istanbul or something I want to make sure we're covered for that (our health insurance technically covers that sort of emergency care, but I'd prefer not to count on it). It would also be nice if we could get some sort of coverage for stuff like missed connections or if we have to cut the trip short for some reason, too, but I think medical is the thing most likely to really screw us up - especially if we end up talking evacuations and the like.
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Jun 24, 2013 01:40
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Ashcans posted:I think the biggest thing would be medical - if my kid gets sick and I have to rush him to a hospital in Istanbul or something I want to make sure we're covered for that (our health insurance technically covers that sort of emergency care, but I'd prefer not to count on it). It would also be nice if we could get some sort of coverage for stuff like missed connections or if we have to cut the trip short for some reason, too, but I think medical is the thing most likely to really screw us up - especially if we end up talking evacuations and the like. For medical, if you have a plan already, check with them on the levels of coverage. It likely falls into the Out of Network category so costs can be much, much higher. If you want a supplement plan, I know people who have used AMEX Travel Services and Seven Corners, both with good results. USAA also offers good stuff if you have access to it. The most important part to check into is on the specific coverage levels for the policy you buy and what restrictions are in place before the policy goes into effect. For example, some policies require you to pay all your out of network costs on your personal medical policy before the travel medical policy kicks in. Others do not; do your due diligence and then buy based on price.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:57
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Answered in another thread, thanks.
Mons Hubris fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jul 1, 2013 |
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Jul 1, 2013 14:05
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FISHMANPET posted:I just took a 2 night overnight Amtrak trip, as well as a couple trips between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver BC. I notice there's no Amtrak thread, would there be any interested in an Amtrak megathread? I would also be interested in hearing a little bit of useful information about travelling by train.
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Jul 25, 2013 21:16
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foxatee posted:I dunno about an entire thread dedicated to it, but I'm definitely interested in hearing about experiences with Amtrak and other rail transportation. The farthest I've gone is between Baltimore and D.C. on the Metro. What's an overnight like? What kind of sleeping arrangements are there? Is the pricing similar to that of a plane ticket? Wall of txt in coming, posting this on my phone so it may be a bit disjointed I am no Amtrak expert, but here are my feelings. As much as I love driving, I really enjoy traveling by train as well. It’s very relaxing to not have to pay attention to the road. You can sleep, read, watch a movie, or walk around. My experience with Amtrak is entirely Midwest based. Chicago is always one end of my trip and is the only large station I’ve been in. -Compared to an airplane, the seats and isles are huge. The hidden advantage of relatively wide isles that are also several cars long is that if you are tired of sitting you can get up and walk. -The refund policy is pretty generous, I’ve canceled just hours prior to departure and was refunded fully. -As far as I know every train has two electrical outlets for each pair of seats, both by the window, but I’ve never had any one refuse me access. As you can imagine, over the last several years the number of people watch movies has skyrocketed. I have yet to see anything widely inappropriate, though. -I don’t know if you are technically allowed to bring your own food and booze but I have never heard of anyone having any trouble, which is nice because the food and drink is expensive and the food is pretty terrible. Some of the bar cars have tables and I have spent more than a few trips playing cards with random people I’ve met while in line to get something. Longer routes sometimes have a dining car. Afriend of mine took the train from Chicago to Austin and had a sleeper room which also included meals in the dining car. He said the room was clean and comfortable and the food was pretty good. For longer trips the cost may be better than flying, but you need to have a lot of extra time. Some friends of mine just took the train from Chicago to NYC and it was half the price of flying, but its 13 plus hours (and overnight if that matters to you). Compared to driving, some routes just don’t have convenient times. If you want to stop in northern Ohio your only options are the crack of dawn. There is one train in each direction between Chicago and Grand Rapids, MI. GR to Chicago leaves at 7am, Chicago to GR at 6pm. That’s great if you want to spend the day shopping in Chicago, but if you want to spend the weekend in GR you get into town Friday night at 10 or 11 and have to be at the train station Sunday morning before seven am. It’s a pretty short trip. I think Amtrak’s biggest issue is that they don’t own any (or much?) of the tracks they run on so they don’t have the right of way and must yield to freight trains. If your train leaves even a few minutes late that could mean your trip is about to hit delay after delay, but it just depends on who else is scheduled on your track and the intersecting lines. It has gotten much better over the last few years, but I have had numerous trips get stretched out by an extra hour or two and once my 3.5 hour ride became 7.5 by the end. I would say the other problem that plagues Amtrak is speed limits. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that individual municipalities can control the train’s top speed as it passes through and as a result they must often crawl for a few miles as while with some town boarders. This of course plays havoc with the average EDIT: My experience in coach is that over nights aren't that bad and certainly better than trying to sleep on a plane. Dark and quite, the train makes enough static noise to drown out any quite conversations, but not enough to be bothersome. Your choices are coach, business class and a sleeper car. As far as I know of the Amtraks sleepers are private - none of the communal sleeping rooms I've seen in Europe. In Spain I was in a compartment with six beds. Prices rise pretty dratically as the trian fills. From Chicago to Ann Arbor (4 hoursish) it can be as low as $30 each way and I've seen it as high as $90 each way. My friend who had the sleeper paid around $250 for the Austin to Chicago leg and that included food. My friends who did Chicago to NYC paid $300 roundtrip for both of them in coach. Dukket fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 18:47
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I don't think there's any business class on long distance trains. Just coach and sleeper, which itself counts as first class. I think most trains are going to just have two classes, either coach and first class (sleepers), coach and business (regional trains), or business and first class (Acela). I've looked at both the single and dual level cars, and I don't think there's any shared arrangements like you might find in Europe or Asia. I rode a dual level (Superliner) and there were no shared rooms. There are roomettes with two chairs facing each other, and they fold out into a single bed, and another bed folds down from the ceiling. There's the bedroom which has a "couch" and an armchair. The "couch" folds down to a single bed, and another bed folds down from above that. But the bottom bed is big enough for two if you don't mind snuggling  . It also has its own toilet and shower, whereas the roomette has to use shared facilities on the car.The sleeper service isn't cheap, we paid a couple grand for our ~48 hour trip. But that included all of our meals as well, and we got a free wine tasting. It's a lot cheaper if you're going to get a roomette. You're still first class with a roomette, so you still get the free meals etc. Dining is an experience, unless your party is in multiples of four. The booths in the dining car seat four, and by god they're going to seat 4 to a booth when it's busy. So you're going to set across from some strangers, and you'll probably have to talk to them. From Minneapolis to Portland my wife and I only had 1 meal at a busy time, and we sat across from two guys living in North Dakota, who themselves didn't know each other. They weren't oilmen, but they both worked in support of those industries. The meals are what people talk about the most as the defining experience on a long distance train, and I think that forced closeness is part of it. You're going to have to interact with strangers, and you might even make some friends. As for food, we were allowed to bring whatever we wanted onto the long distance train. I think there might be rules about consuming alcohol in coach that you brought yourself, but I'm not sure about that. However on the Cascades between Portland and Vancouver you could bring your own food or beverage on board, but the only alcohol you could consume was that which you bought on the train. I'd say that everybody should take a sleeper car journey at least once in their lives, it should be on everybody's bucket list. Get yourself to Chicago, book a Superliner to anywhere, and enjoy the experience. Just don't be in a hurry to get anywhere. E: Here's the food policy: http://www.amtrak.com/personal-food-beverages-medication You can eat and drink non alcoholic beverages that you bring in your coach seat or in the upper level of the observation car. You can only eat or drink purchased food in the dining or lounge car in those areas. If you've got your own sleeper you can do whatever you want, including bring your own booze. In fact, at every station stop the car attendant (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that each sleeper car has its own attendant) will stock up on ice and various juices and other sodas, so it's pretty much you bring the spirit they bring the mixer. FISHMANPET fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Aug 19, 2013 |
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Aug 19, 2013 20:29
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I'm not sure if I should start a new thread for this, so I'll start with this and go from there: I'm currently planning a destination wedding for next year, and I had a question about travel agents. I've never used a travel agent before - would using one save me (and my guests) money? Or is it assumed that by using a travel agent the costs will be a little higher, with the benefit being I don't have to deal with any planning? My priority is getting the lowest hotel rates for me and my guests. With the first agent we talked to, the rates she gave us were much higher than the rates we were able to find by talking to the hotels directly. She is asking for us to send her the rates that the hotel gave us, but I'm hesitant to do that since A) It feels like I'm doing her job for her, and B) I don't want to sour my potential deal with a hotel by giving the rates to a travel agent. Also, it's funny to read in this thread (I think it was in this thread) how travel agents get basically zero commission from airline bookings. It explains why when we talked to this agent about airline booking, her response was basically "Rates change so fast you should just keep checking and book it yourself when you see a rate you like."
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Oct 2, 2013 17:14
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Would anyone care to have an AirBnB thread? I wouldn't mind making it, and I think it could potentially be incredibly useful to the group within this subforum if anyone else thinks it might be worthwhile. For those unfamiliar, AirBnB is a website in which people can place their futon, couch, spare bedroom, apartment, condo, house, compound up for rent for a determinant, or indeterminate, amount of time. Users can be verified (facebook/linked in, etc) to reduce the total sketch of the situation. Prices are typically very competitive as compared to hotels and what not, while you get personal interaction with someone who "should" care about the quality of your experience of your stay, and know the area a bit better than a travel guide. I've spent the last week or so traveling Europe (Belgium, Holland, Germany) saying exclusively in AirBnBs. I've also used them in New Orleans, LA, and host my own, via my wife, in Knoxville, TN. I've become a large proponent as of late. Essentially, I think it'd be a neat way to share recommendations for cheap, safe harbor-especially if there are members of our own who host as well. I know I'd rather give $50 a night to McGoonerson than 150 to the Hilton's.
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Oct 2, 2013 18:47
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Not sure if this is the right thread but there's nothing else in this forum so here we go. Has anyone had any experience with round the world tickets or know anyone that's bought one? In July I'm taking a year off and am planning on going around the world. I've looked into the options from OneWorld and StarAlliance and they seem pretty decent. Most are mileage based, meaning you don't necessarily pay for each leg of the trip, but instead pay based on mileage tiers - like 26,000, 29,000, 34,000 and so on. Restrictions are that you need to travel in one direction (i.e. east to west) and only get a certain number of stops. I'm looking at the 29,000 ticket which costs about $6,700 on StarAlliance, which is great because you can get to places like Fiji, the Cook Islands and a bunch of remote places that usually cost a fortune to buy. Anyway, it seems like a good deal for that much travel but if anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it.
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Oct 6, 2013 17:15
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Yes I currently have booked two RTW awards in the <35000 mile category in business. Mine was booked via miles on OneWorld but I am pretty familiar. What questions do you have? OneWorld offers a bunch of different types of explorer tickets. What is your proposed routing? Time of year? With Qatar joining on oct 30 and Malaysia joining this past Feb there are some really interesting options. My advice: spring for business if you're traveling for any length of time both in flight time or consecutive days. Also with OneWorld what country you start the ticket in matters. Previously you'd save thousands by starting in an odd place, much more that the positioning flights would cost to get you there.
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Oct 8, 2013 07:49
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I've made some stupid mistakes on accruing miles this year. It's my first year traveling for work and just didn't think it through. I have the following qualifying balances: AA: 11.7k Delta: 9.4k UA: 9.6k US: 20k I need to book IAD -> LAX -> MEL and back for early November, along with some other domestic travel, and I'm trying to figure out where I should put those miles. The travel to Australia could either go on UA/US or AA and another 4 or 5k in domestic travel could also be UA/US or AA. The trip to Australia will put me in Silver on US and the additional domestic travel would put me in Gold, so I'm leaning toward booking on UA and using my US number. But, I'm concerned about what's going to happen with this merger and the potential transition from *A to OW. I'm going to be doing probably 50-75k miles next year as well, including one or two SE asia or Europe trips, but mostly domestic RIC/IAD to AUS, DEN, and SFO. Any ideas?
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Oct 9, 2013 15:26
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Jealous Cow posted:I've made some stupid mistakes on accruing miles this year. It's my first year traveling for work and just didn't think it through. I have the following qualifying balances: Are you WAS-based? The choice of program depends very much on what you want to get out of it. What is most important to you about a loyalty program? Upgrades? Award redemption? Better seats (irrespective of upgrades)? Lower fees? Lack of regional jets? I think there is some healthy skepticism to be had concerning the US/AA merger. Mergers are nearly wholly customer unfriendly moves and there is almost no chance of the loyalty program being better on the other side of it. We saw this with DL, and we see it today with UA. I still bank with UA because I like access to E+ seats because I'm 6'8", but the value proposition may be different for you. Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 16:36
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mintskoal posted:Not sure if this is the right thread but there's nothing else in this forum so here we go. Join us in the Cheap Airfare thread where we can discuss this ad nauseum.  Star Alliance RTWs don't have mileage caps that I remember; it's more a function of a limit to total segments and the number of stopovers/open jaws you do. Some of the premium cabin selections will put you in full fare buckets (C/D/J) which can make the overall cost rather high. It depends greatly on what you want. Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 16:37
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Mackieman posted:Are you WAS-based? The choice of program depends very much on what you want to get out of it. What is most important to you about a loyalty program? Upgrades? Award redemption? Better seats (irrespective of upgrades)? Lower fees? Lack of regional jets? I'm currently based out of RIC but frequently drive to IAD for departure, and I will probably be moving to CLE next year. My main concern is upgrades. I'm also tall (not as tall as you) and I cannot get any work done in economy. I frequently pay for first class upgrades just so I can bill another 3 or 4 hours of work. Awards would be nice. I also have about 90k AMEX points which seem pretty useless so I'm considering switching to an airline-partner card such as Chase MilePlus Club.
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Oct 9, 2013 18:09
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Jealous Cow posted:I'm currently based out of RIC but frequently drive to IAD for departure, and I will probably be moving to CLE next year. My main concern is upgrades. I'm also tall (not as tall as you) and I cannot get any work done in economy. I frequently pay for first class upgrades just so I can bill another 3 or 4 hours of work. Based on the totals you provided above, if we consider IAD-MEL round trip to net you about 15,000 EQM, your total for the year is sitting between 65,000 and 70,000 EQM. This will only provide mid-tier status at most airlines (UA is Gold at 50K, AA is Platinum at 50K, DL is 50K for Gold, and US is 50K for Gold) and is simply not going to net you the upgrade benefits you're looking for unless you exclusively fly leisure routes at off-peak times. I have Gold status with UA and have a roughly 50% upgrade rate because I normally try to do exactly that: off-peak times on leisure routes. When I have to fly for work or at a peak time, my upgrade chances are very slim. Moreover, AA doesn't offer complementary upgrades unless you're Executive Platinum (100K EQM) and those that do prioritize based on status and then fare bucket. So if you're buying cheap fares, your chances are even more remote. To that end, chasing upgrades may not be the best plan for you. AA offers buy ups at the kiosk only, but there's no guarantee they'll be offered or that you'll want to pay what they're charging. Same deal for UA: they offer buy ups but it's not really buying an upgrade so much as it is buying up to the fare at which you would get upgraded automatically based on market. The exception to that is elite status wherein when you buy a Y or B fare (full fare unrestricted coach) you get upgraded automatically (and on M fares if you're a 1K (100K EQM)). US also has day of departure upgrades but I'm not as familiar with how they do them. Given that you said you wanted more legroom because you're tall and want to work on the plane, I might suggest throwing your loyaty to UA wherein Gold elites get access to Economy Plus at booking. The extra couple of inches of legroom make it a whole lot easier to work on your laptop if you need to during a flight. They're horribly behind the market in terms of WiFi but it is coming over the next six to nine months. Delta also has a version of this but it's more limited and not as much room. I think AA is doing it as well so that's something to look at. The other reason to choose UA is because of the Star Alliance and UA's incredibly flexible award routing rules. You can do some really cool stuff with UA miles that you can't do with other alliances or carriers. If you want to get a card, I would suggest the Chase Sapphire card wherein you earn points for purchases, 2x points for restaurants and travel purchases, and they can transfer on a 1:1 basis to UA or a couple other places. Amex points are great for some things but not if you want to do business with UA; they're all Chase all the time.
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Oct 9, 2013 21:40
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Mackieman posted:Based on the totals you provided above, if we consider IAD-MEL round trip to net you about 15,000 EQM, your total for the year is sitting between 65,000 and 70,000 EQM. This will only provide mid-tier status at most airlines (UA is Gold at 50K, AA is Platinum at 50K, DL is 50K for Gold, and US is 50K for Gold) and is simply not going to net you the upgrade benefits you're looking for unless you exclusively fly leisure routes at off-peak times. I have Gold status with UA and have a roughly 50% upgrade rate because I normally try to do exactly that: off-peak times on leisure routes. When I have to fly for work or at a peak time, my upgrade chances are very slim. Moreover, AA doesn't offer complementary upgrades unless you're Executive Platinum (100K EQM) and those that do prioritize based on status and then fare bucket. So if you're buying cheap fares, your chances are even more remote. Thanks for all the info. I do have a Sapphire Preferred card but I never use it. I'm considering switching to it as my primary and shelving the Amex, or asking for a product change to MileagePlus Club for the Preferred Access, free checked bag, and club access. I unfortunately don't pay for most of my airfare. It is almost all booked through my company's travel agency on the corporate credit card, so I need to look at bonus rewards for non-airline purchases, which is why the 1.5 miles per $1 on all purchases on the MileagePlus Club looks attractive. Maybe I'm just putting too much thought into this and am stuck in that zone between "flys enough to care" and "flys enough to earn status". Edit: Actually if I pay attention to the Chase Ultimate Rewards and that offer 5-6 points per $1 I can rack up points really fast. Jealous Cow fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 22:25
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Mackieman posted:To that end, chasing upgrades may not be the best plan for you. AA offers buy ups at the kiosk only, but there's no guarantee they'll be offered or that you'll want to pay what they're charging. A point of clarification here, LFBU (load factor based upgrades) are based on space available inclusive of the upgrade list. So if you're on the upgrade list it will clear before you can purchase a LFBU. For Platinum this begins at 72 hours in advance but can run all the way until the door closes. So elite status will always yield an upgrade before a LFBU. Also, 500 mile upgrades can be purchased if you don't have enough in your account. A LFBU upgrade costs you $45 per 500 miles, a 500 mile upgrade costs $30 per upgrade, so elite status + 500 mile upgrade will always be cheaper than an LFBU. LFBUs are OCCASIONALLY offered at international stations for anywhere from $500-1000+, but definitely not guaranteed and those flights will leave with open seats in J and F without offering the upgrades. Jealous Cow posted:Thanks for all the info. I do have a Sapphire Preferred card but I never use it. I'm considering switching to it as my primary and shelving the Amex, or asking for a product change to MileagePlus Club for the Preferred Access, free checked bag, and club access. If your company is willing to foot a 395 fee I'd shoot for Amex Platinum, you get access to 3 airlines clubs and your global entry application is free, amongst other perks. Doesn't help if you fly UA but if you've got a choice it's an option if you decide to stick with AA. With 25k being the lowest tier available you definitely fly enough to earn status. Flying with it, even at the lowest level, is much better than without. sellouts fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 22:51
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sellouts posted:A point of clarification here, LFBU (load factor based upgrades) are based on space available inclusive of the upgrade list. So if you're on the upgrade list it will clear before you can purchase a LFBU. For Platinum this begins at 72 hours in advance but can run all the way until the door closes. So elite status will always yield an upgrade before a LFBU. Indeed, that is a better overview of the AA upgrade options. Also worthy of note is that DL and UA have both implemented revenue requirements for the 2015 elite year, so that should factor in as well. Expect AA to go that route at some point after the merger as well.
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Oct 9, 2013 22:54
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Absolutely. And no soft landing either. But lots of promotions going on that will get you some level of status. I will say that for anyone with paid business travel the revenue levels are pretty easy to meet, at least in my experience. But I fly mostly transcons. Just no more 199 specials to JFK through Miami round trip with double EQMs to get you gold for like 400 dollars (like those fares exist regularly anymore!) I'm a huge OW / AA homer, so if anyone has any specific questions about the airline or alliance I can try to help.
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Oct 9, 2013 22:58
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Thanks guys. I'm probably going to be flying UA almost exclusively. They, along with Delta and AA, are our "preferred" airline partners and Delta/AA have horrible availability out of RIC. My domestic flights are usually ~$700-1000. Edit: and I really should travel for pleasure more often anyway. Maybe having milage thresholds to hit will get me out and about. Edit2: United is offering $399 RT IAD to SAL. I guess I could rack up some miles that way  Taking the route through IAH is 2400 miles each way. Not sure I want to go to El Salvador though. Jealous Cow fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 23:01
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Eh. Aside from being an international destination fly a few JFK-LAX transcons. I was getting mine for ~440. and it's 2500 each way. But yeah, use your miles. It took me 10 years but I finally did this year and it felt so good to at least use 400k of them while they had a little value.
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Oct 9, 2013 23:13
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sellouts posted:Eh. Aside from being an international destination fly a few JFK-LAX transcons. I was getting mine for ~440. and it's 2500 each way. Wow $378 RT EWR to LAX the week after next. I have to travel on business that week, maybe I'll book my return flight to JFK and spend a few days in LA (Where I grew up, actually).
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Oct 9, 2013 23:17
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May I suggest moving the airfare discussion to the airfare thread?
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Oct 10, 2013 01:55
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Dead Pressed posted:Would anyone care to have an AirBnB thread? I wouldn't mind making it, and I think it could potentially be incredibly useful to the group within this subforum if anyone else thinks it might be worthwhile. This is a great idea, and I'd rather do that too than stay in hotels.
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Oct 11, 2013 16:10
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I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I'm not seeing anywhere else. I'm flying out of MSP next month and I have to change planes in Chicago MDW. My concern is that I only have 45 between fights. Is that enough time to get to my next plane or am risking missing my flight?
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Nov 9, 2013 18:01
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If you're transiting MDW that means flying Southwest. 45 minutes is likely plenty of time to make that connection. If you get delayed and miss it for some reason, MDW is a hub for Southwest so there are likely many other options to get you where you're going.
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Nov 9, 2013 23:42
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Anyone remember when SWA had 25 min connections? Yeah, there's a reason it is 45 min to be a legal connection now. That should be fine
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Nov 10, 2013 03:16
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I highly recommend BoltBus if it's available in your area (US northeast, northwest, and southwest). It's cheap, there's free wi-fi and power outlets, and the buses have a good amount of legroom. I live in Vancouver and it usually costs me $30-$45 to take Amtrak or Greyhound one-way to Seattle. I booked a BoltBus ticket last-minute to Seattle for $18 one-way, and it's costing my girlfriend and I $15 each for the way back because we booked the two tickets together and there's apparently a bulk discount. It also drops off in Seattle right in front of a Link Light Rail station, which goes directly to the airport. With Greyhound I usually have to walk several blocks for that, and Amtrak is next to the north end of the line so it takes longer to get to the airport. I do this trip pretty often because SeaTac is usually cheaper than YVR, so I'm using Bolt from now on. Apparently we've had it here for two years and I had no idea, and for the Pacific Northwest branch it goes as far south as Portland (for $30 from Vancouver on some days). Not sure if it's comparable in other areas, but that's a crazy good deal for what I need.
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May 14, 2014 07:39
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Is it just me, or did Kayak and the other big sites used to list things like "all-inclusive" and "couples only" in their hotel filters? I'm looking for an all inclusive deal for a hotel for my honeymoon, and having to figure out if a hotel has an all inclusive package is really eating up a lot of time when looking through them all.
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Jun 18, 2014 20:52
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Consult a travel agent within thre country in which you're traveling for hotels and resort pricing. Flights? Not so much. For both Peru and the Maldives a travel agent saved me 20%+ and helped me find properties at varying qualities or in the case of the Maldives that checked the boxes of what I wanted in a resort and room. The rest of my trips recently? Not so much so it can be really hit or miss. But it's free to check with them.
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Jun 19, 2014 08:20
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So, this may be a stupid question, but with sites like Kayak and Travelaxe, if I search for a hotel room for 2 people and list the results to show the trip total, and a hotel listing comes up at, say, $1000, does that mean $1000 for the room for two people, or $1000 per person? I ask because when we checked with a travel agent a few months ago, they quoted us a trip totaling around $3400 which included airfare, hotel, fees and taxes. I realize that prices have changed between then and now, but I'm seeing prices for flights at a similar timeframe, and hotels with similar qualities, for $1-2k total. That's a huge price difference for two trips where the only real difference is whether I went to a travel agent or booked it myself.
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Jun 19, 2014 22:00
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neogeo0823 posted:So, this may be a stupid question, but with sites like Kayak and Travelaxe, if I search for a hotel room for 2 people and list the results to show the trip total, and a hotel listing comes up at, say, $1000, does that mean $1000 for the room for two people, or $1000 per person? I ask because when we checked with a travel agent a few months ago, they quoted us a trip totaling around $3400 which included airfare, hotel, fees and taxes. I realize that prices have changed between then and now, but I'm seeing prices for flights at a similar timeframe, and hotels with similar qualities, for $1-2k total. That's a huge price difference for two trips where the only real difference is whether I went to a travel agent or booked it myself. You're looking at total on Kayak, so $1,000 for the room for 1-2 people. Sometimes hotels add a charge if you specify 3 people. I believe on Kayak, they show the price without any taxes or fees so you might want to click through and see how much you're paying after tax (shouldn't be too much higher). If you can book something cheaper yourself airfare + hotel than what your travel agent quoted you then do it. When you find a price you like on hotels and airfare, try to book directly rather than through Orbitz or some OTA (online travel agent) if they are the same price; otherwise book at a reputable OTA.
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Jun 19, 2014 22:24
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Quick question: I just renewed my passport and the woman at the post office swore up and down I'd get my old one back with all my cool stamps and visas. The new passport came in the mail just now and the old one isn't there. What's up?
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Jun 21, 2014 17:14
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