Uber and Starwood just last week announced a new partnership. Now you can earn one Starpoint for every dollar you spend on Uber rides. Sign up here: https://www.spgpromos.com/uber/ Greetings to everyone from Abu Dhabi! Hat tip to Kirsten for the heads up on this promotion.
Greetings and Happy New Year. The New Year has me flying to Calgary for work again. The current temperature there is a balmy five degrees Fahrenheit. Just a quick post today with a travel tip for the readers who travel internationally: Always have an extra customs declaration form in your bag. My flight today has…
This week I’ve been doing a bit of thinking about why I blog, inspired by some discussions I had with Point Princess during a trip to St. Maarten. (Some fun videos and pictures coming soon from that trip, by the way.) Just like everyone else, I have bad experiences with travel. If you read the blog,…
When you travel, baking becomes difficult. Visiting a branch bank to deposit checks is tedious. Finding an ATM that is “in-network” so you don’t have to pay a fee always seems impossible when you need cash. If you travel internationally, you’re slapped with currency conversion fees. In my experience, Charles Schwab Bank has the best…
What went on in the travel blogosphere this week… Lots of Drama and misinformation on SkyMiles cuts. At first, a few blogs announced that stopovers were gone from international award tickets. Fortunately, FrequentMiler did his homework before posting and discovered that the award stopovers are only partially broken. Substantial cuts to SkyMiles without notice seems to…
I still remember the long lines and paper forms from my first international trip in 1999. Today things look much different at the CBP. Here’s an overview of the ways CBP is making entry into the U.S. more efficient. Global Entry (and other trusted traveler programs) Global Entry is a CBP program that allows expedited clearance for…
This past year, if you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve probably seen me post something about an absolutely incredible airfare to some exotic place. Want to know how I find these incredible airfares? First, here are some of the deals I have scored just in the past year: $450 from Toronto to Hong…
This may win the award for coolest hostel ever… and I have a feeling that I might need to make a trip just to stay here. Jumbo Stay Hostel is a unique hostel built in a Boeing 747 jet. http://architizer.com/blog/spend-a-night-aboard-this-jumbo-jet-turned-hostel/ Thanks to Kirsten for the heads-up.
It’s been an interesting week in the travel blogosphere. We have Starwood hotels allegedly running brothels, and the found out that the option to add extra pages to U.S. passports will end in 2016. Delta continues to gut its frequent flyer benefits with abandon, axing round-the-world award tickets and reducing medallion upgrade benefits…. oh and apparently increasing…
For the average person looking for cheap airfares in the United States, Google Flights is probably the best tool to search for flights. Google Flights offers a combination of powerful search features and ease of use that make it my go-to site for searching for airfares. Here are the basics. Note: I searched for these flights on…
A while back, a colleague was asking me some questions about manufactured spending. In response, I wrote up a guide to manufactured spending. Here it is again, updated to reflect the unfortunate demise of Amazon Payments. Dollar Coins: The Original Manufactured Spending Several years ago the U.S. Mint started producing presidential dollar coins, but discovered that…
Earlier this week KLM released a video introducing the newest member of their Amsterdam lost and found team. Enjoy the cuteness! It turns out that this was simply a marketing stunt; there are no cute dogs running around Amsterdam, delivering lost items to people… but it’s a fun thought and shows the brilliance of the KLM…
I’m traveling to Houston for work now, which means longer flights and (hopefully) more time to update the blog! One of the best improvements to air travel in recent years has been the addition and expansion of subsections of economy containing seats with extra legroom. Generally frequent flyers can select these seats at no charge, so these…
Last weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with Point Princess, Frugal Travel Lawyer, and many others at the First2Board Seattle sessions. The reasons I love going to sessions like this are two-fold: I get to see many friends that I only see once every few years and I learn something new every time. Here…
This weekend I am off to Seattle to spend a few days at the First2Board Seattle Sessions. Unlike some of the other gatherings I’ve attended, this is a more intimate gathering; only 50 people are expected. One of the most rewarding things about coming to gatherings like this is seeing old friends and their stories about…
The Flying Consultant 