Travel Links and Resources

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Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Bonk posted:

I've got a late December flight on United with one connection. I can choose my seat on the connecting flight but not the origin flight. All the seats in Economy are greyed out and my seat on my reservation just says "---". I'm assuming I'm on a wait list, but it doesn't actually tell me - it just won't tell me my seat.

Economy Plus is almost completely empty though, and First class only has 2 seats booked. Provided these seats remain empty, does anyone know whether or not United will bump people (either in Economy or on the wait list) into E+/1st if a flight is overbooked? I don't care if I get a better seat, I just want to know that I'll have *A* seat if the ones in higher classes aren't filled.

If all of the regular economy seats are booked, you'll be assigned a seat at OLCI (online check-in). It could be an Economy Plus seat or something else in regular economy depending on what's available at that time. Watch the seat map closely over the next couple of weeks; chances are high something will open up and you can select it prior to OLCI.

Operational upgrades to first class do happen for people without elite status, but they are exceedingly rare. It's much more likely that someone else with elite status or a higher fare bucket on the flight will get upgraded, opening their economy/economy plus seat for others like you.

Regardless of what happens, you have a confirmed seat on the flight. If the flight is overbooked, they'll ask for volunteers. If they don't get any (which is also rare), they'll involuntarily deny boarding and compensate someone, usually the last person on the plane. To avoid that, don't be the last person on the plane.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2015 13:16

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 17:00

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Bonk posted:

Heh, update on this... I got to the check-in desk and they told me I'd be assigned a seat at the gate. I had to go through security, and when I got to the gate they said the computer couldn't assign me a seat for some reason, and in the meantime the flight filled up so they couldn't seat me due to their overbooking. I had to leave the next day instead, but I got a $100 voucher out of it. United kinda blows.

Um, that's involuntary denied boarding, or IDB, and you're owed a shitload more than $100. You should get a full refund of your ticket price, a substantially larger voucher, and the rebooking. I'd write UA's customer service on that one as the GA screwed you. If they don't respond, file a DOT complaint.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2016 00:08

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

EL BROMANCE posted:

Hopefully this is the right thread to ask.. I'm UK based so most of the sites I use are British and don't always have US partners. My fianc� wants to go somewhere for her 30th, flying out of Miami for around the 11th March for probably 5-7 days. We usually use an Expedia VIP account to get bonuses, but I find most of these sites headache inducing if you don't already have a plan of some sort. She's mentioned a handful of places (Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peurto Rico, Panama, Jamaica etc) which all sound fine, but it's not based on anything other than her browsing sky scanner. Ideally I'm looking for a site that'll say "hey, here's a bunch of full holiday deals to places that go from Miami in this time period that you might like to look at", rather than demanding I put a specific location in as a destination, so I can see everything at once and make a more informed decision from there.

In the UK I'd use something like LastMinute.com as a starting point, where it just gives me a list of (allegedly) good deals to places, and I'd start my research there. They don't seem to have an American site though.

e: A lot of this is due to my lack of geographical knowledge as to what's easily accessible within a few hours max flight from SE USA, I'll admit that up front! I'm having to Google each place and find out if it's near, and if It's a warzone.

https://www.google.com/flights/explore/ is your friend. You can search MIA to Caribbean and provide the range of time and it will return lowest fares around the region.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2016 16:29

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Jeoh posted:

It's better to avoid dealing with Indian visas in general. Anyway, you might as well book a hotel somewhere for the full duration which offers a full refund. Then just cancel it when you get your visa.

This is the correct choice.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2016 02:45

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

I LIKE COOKIE posted:

Couldn't you just look up a hotel online and claim to be staying there, even though you haven't booked anything? Certainly they don't actually call the hotel and ask about you?

No?

You can take that chance and, depending on the country, have a decent shot of either never being asked or any other issue. But some countries are anal about those things (I'm looking at you, Canada) and you can have issues if you don't have verifiable documentation.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2016 02:12

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Johnny Truant posted:

How far in advance should I book plane tickets for an out-of-country flight? I'm looking at taking a trip to Australia at the end of November/beginning of December. A friend of mine waited to book tickets for his last flight until around two weeks before, is that normal?

There really is no, "normal." If you find a fare that is at a price you're willing to pay, book it.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2016 23:43

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Virtually any of the offerings on Amazon will take care of that.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2016 14:50

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

FISHMANPET posted:

So my wife and I got a birthday gift of a large check from my mother, and she told us to spend it on something fun. We'd been talking about a vacation anyway so that works out.

Problem is I have no idea what to do. Only looking to spend a few thousand dollars so international travel is probably out. I think (but I'm not sure, have to double check my wife's schedule) that we only really have until the first two weeks of January to travel. We've been toying with the idea of a vacation where we don't really do anything, just attempt to get away and not have to think about things. Problem with that is we're not really warm weather people so lounging on a beach somewhere doesn't interest us much. Last year we spent a few days in Chicago which was nice. We got a nice room with a nice big tub and we just kinda wandered around downtown shopping and whatnot.

Are there any resources for people like me that just have no idea, or does anyone have any suggestions?

Eastern Europe is your friend. You can get over there relatively cheap right now and it's cheap to eat, drink, and hang out once you're there. Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, etc. All nifty places.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 22:08

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

futurememory posted:

Oh, just completely in general. I'm researching where my husband and I should go next - we're definitely planning a 3-week trip to Japan later this year, but we have an additional week to play around with. Internationally we've only traveled to Western Europe so far (Italy, Spain, London, Paris, Bruges, Amsterdam) and have averaged around $90-150 USD/night on a room. I realize that this area of the world is much pricier than others and that that money would go a much longer way elsewhere, that this is all relative, etc.

We've done business-style hotels before, but we prefer smaller hotels run by families or smaller boutique hotel chains. Typically we just rely on TripAdvisor, but the reviews on there tend to be written by an older set of people (we're 29-30).

This led to us staying in a beautiful, but stupidly stuffy B&B in Portland, OR that was completely not our scene.

Most publications and blogs I see are either about hostel travel (I wouldn't be opposed to some of the "luxury" hostels with your own room, etc.), or super luxury like you see in CN Traveler and Nat Geo Travel.

We both hold down full-time American jobs, so we usually have limited time a year to go somewhere. There just doesn't seem to be a middle ground in most publications between staying in a dorm with 8 others and spending $300/night somewhere. It was just more of a general question than specifics.

Airbnb has revolutionized the issue of lodging in many places. I've used it successfully in North America, South America, and Europe. Asia is likely to be a bit different due to the culture and language barriers but I'd still give it a go.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2017 19:08

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Avian Pneumonia posted:

So after a few years of travel I have a drawer full of foreign currency. What's the best way for me to turn all of this silly monopoly money into USdollars? I know i'll take a hit one way or another but I'd like to minimize that.

E: I'm in NYC if that helps.

Personally I'd keep it in hopes of future travel. But if you really want to change it and are fully aware of the asstastic conversion rate you're going to get, there are a bunch of currency exchange places all over NYC. Yelp or Google are your friend.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2017 07:27

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Mr. Belpit posted:

Traveling from Korea to Washington at the end of July. I found an okay-priced ticket from ICN to IAD, but it's got a 2hr 45m layover in SFO. I've done that before flying alone and it wasn't a problem as a US citizen, but any idea if it's a doable timespan for a non-citizen to get through immigration, security, etc.?

As long as your flight is somewhere close to on-time, that should be more than enough time to get through immigration and customs.

# ¿ May 25, 2017 02:38

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Detective Thompson posted:

I am going to Canada from the US next week for a bit. If I want to text someone in the US from there, do I need to add +1 to their number, and vice versa? Or will everything still work as usual without having to modify numbers?

It should work as usual because Canada uses +1 for their phone system as well.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2019 19:10

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

lol internet. posted:

I'm flying international with a domestic leg (SEA > EWR > NAS)

When they say arrive 3 hours early, are they referring to the first connection or the connection that goes international? Also where will I exit customs??

In addition to the good info that saladman has provided, when you come back to the US from NAS, you'll clear immigration and customs in NAS as it is one of the handful of locations around the world (Canada, Ireland, and a couple other locations) that is part of the US Preclearance system. This means your flight will arrive in the US as essentially a domestic arrival.

And yes, travelers (both citizens and foreigners) are tracked via passport for ingress to and egress from the US.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2021 13:37

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Bioshuffle posted:

I have some family visiting Texas from Argentina, but their flight was canceled. I am trying to find an alternate route they can take, even if it involves flying to a different city.

I want a search engine that tells me which cities are available. Does such a thing exist?

A search engine? No. The Wikipedia page for the airport that lists airlines and destinations served? You betcha. Example: EZE.

That will enable you to identify gateway cities and carriers and then you can start to do normal flight searches on Google Flights, Kayak, or whatever.

Also keep in mind that the pandemic is continually loving up flight schedules, especially out of Central and South America, so you may have a fairly tall task ahead if this is happening right now.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2021 17:00

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

FreelanceSocialist posted:

I am trying to put together a trip for like a dozen people to Costa Rica. We're all going to VRBO/AirBNB one or two large houses on the east coast somewhere. Would it make sense to find a travel agent to help with the logistics of airfare and travel insurance and possibly an airport shuttle or something? And, if so, what's the best way to find an agent? Just call local shops?

I tend to think of travel agents as something for extremely boutique itineraries, and having 12 people going somewhere isn't really the same thing. You absolutely can use a travel agent, and use Yelp or whatever to help you find one, but finding airfare for 12 and arranging ground transport from SJO or LIR shouldn't be that difficult given the expat community down there. Your Airbnb host may have suggestions as well.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2022 22:47

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 17:00

Beef Of Ages: Jan 11, 2003; Your dumb is leaking.

Saladman posted:

I do. I actually like cooking, especially for breakfast where I�d rather have it chill in my apartment rather than have to go down to some breakfast area. I can�t remember the last > 3 day stay in a place where we didn�t cook. Probably many years. It�s also a large reason for why I rarely look for hotels.

Same. And when we travel with friends, many of them have dietary restrictions and allergies that make it a lot easier on them if I cook something they know they can eat rather than taking a risk and having a problem while we're out and about later in the day or whatever.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2023 18:09

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