My top travel tips for the recession.
I have been wanting to write this for ages as I have been on the road reguarly for almost 18 months now but top blogger and buddy Andy Abramson beat me to the punch.
I do however want to add some bits and pieces to Andy’s excellent post and will start off by reiterating Andy’s mantra
1. Don’t be cheap
2. Don’t try to cut corners
3. Be savvy, but spend wisely
Obviously Andy is CEO of a hugely successful company and I am the founder of a start-up so my list has mostly money saving tips.
Yesterday I stayed in The Westin in Dallas for $218 for two nights, rack rate here is $254 a night so I made a huge saving by using Hotwire
Today I am in Denver staying at The Renaissance , I made at least the same savings using Priceline
Use only hotels that have airport shuttles you will save at least $50-$60 on airport to hotel transport costs.
Join an airline club, I am a platinum member of Aer Lingus (Its free to join) and if nothing else it insures I board first.
Never eat or do room service laundry at your hotel, its a rip off, I had a wonderful meal a block from my hotel tonight for $13 including tax.
Socks and jocks, dump em, Andy has this one spot on, cheap underwear and socks are great and dump them as you use them.
If two of you are travelling, definitely get an apartment, VRBO have never left me down including family vacations.
Buy a MAXroam 
had to put that in, practically eliminate your roaming bill.
Bring your Router, I carry a little Apple airport everywhere it means I can work anywhere in the room and I can also make voip calls using Fring or Truphone both of which I love for calls when in wifi.
Finally and most importantly get a Boingo account, Boingo were good enough to give me a test account on this trip and I have used wifi which I would normally have to pay for in Dublin, Chicago, Dallas airports and The Westin, this is a huge saving.
Thats it for this list, I would love to grow it with your help, let me know in comments if you have anymore and I will adjust the post and credit you
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Get a credit card with air miles. Buy your airline tickets with it. Consider it a rebate.
So another not directly related to recession but a great travel trip if you bouncing back and forth over the atlantic…
If you know you’re going to be doing lots of flights to the USA in a short period (< 3 months), try and use American Airlines (or AA Codeshare flights), join their frequent flyer club (AAdvantage), ring them and ask to do a ‘Platinum Challenge’.
Basically, it’s a real quick way to fast track your way to their top level programmes. It’s not that well known outside of the US, but has some pretty great benefits as they’re also a member of One World (so you also become a One World elite member).
Achieve 10,000 points in 3 months and reach Platinum member status (double miles, purchase upgrades for miles and all the normal benefits you’d expect etc). Achieve 20,000 (I think) and you’re Executive Platinum which really is the upper echelons of service and free upgrades.
Haven’t you found it’s less expensive to use a Cirrus-enabled ATM card to buy your currency, instead of using an airport currency cashier?
Try a staycation. Catching on in the US apparently.
Brilliant stuff Pat. I particularly love the underwear one. Dunnes Stores should start selling a throwaway travel-flat-pack of jocks/socks/deo/toothpaste/toothbrush/razor/shavingcream/aftershave for a few Euro. Regular overnight travellers would buy them in droves.
My hacked FON does the job of the Apple router and is nice and small too.
Can’t really add anything without stating the obvious:
- Be regimental about your tech ‘accessories’. It’s surprising how much money you waste having to buy the forgotten adapters and what not.
I wonder about the environmental responsibility aspect of dumping jocks and socks or any clothes for that matter.
Re: Connor’s idea - instead of grabbing these throwaway travel flat-packs in Dunnes I think they should be available in dispensing machines at all airports worldwide.
Sorry but Aer Lingus got a pretty messy website…would you mind to add more about their Platinum member status ?
Thanks in advance.
Some random thoughts and experiences:-
- Never check a bag - always only use carry-on. If you plan well, you don’t actually need all those extra clothes, unless you’re away for 2 weeks. The underwear trick is good. Bring your oldest items with you, and throw some or all of them away. Buy new ones to wear from Filenes or TK Maxx etc.
- If you’re in the US, pick up a few travel-sized solid deo sticks, shaving foam, etc. - they will last you well and are much cheaper than equivalents in Europe.
- Also useful is to buy some small clear 75ml bottles and fill them with your own hair gel, lotion etc for travel. Then just use the hotels own brands for shampoo etc.
-Try to consolidate your stays in one chain if possible. For example, Hilton have great coverage worldwide, and there are a number of price level options within Hiltons portfolio. When you achieve status (usually after 10 or 12 nights), then breakfast is free in these hotels. Also of note is that WiFi is often free in many of their cheaper properties …
- Use websites like tripadvisor to ensure that you get a decent accommodation. Fellow traveller experiences will give you a good idea what to expect. “No surprises” is my mantra!
- Many credit cards nowadays come with free Priority Pass accounts. These airline lounges are in practically all airports worldwide, and can save quite a lot of $ you would otherwise spend on coffee / water / nibbles in airports
- Websites like http://www.moneysavingexpert.com can help with discounts for trains like the Heathrow or Gatwick Expresses in London
Good tips Pat.
For internal US flights you can use FareCast http://farecast.live.com/ , it can track US flights and give you a prediction on when you should buy and when you should wait a little longer as it’s possible the prices will fall.
I’m a bit bias here, but why travel everywhere when there are worldwide networks of public videoconferencing facilities with all of the high end amenities one would expect at about the same price of a hotel room night??