How to get more luxury out of your vacation without spending a lot: Part 4 of 6 from Gary Leff

May 24th, 2013 2 Comments

Gary’s Tip #4: Sign up for the program.

By now, you’ve read several of my posts of MTM. so you must realize there are a few methods to my madness: loyalty programs being one of them.

Even if you sign up for a loyalty program RIGHT BEFORE you make a reservation at a hotel or fly an airline, do it. You have nothing to lose only points to gain. You might even realize you like the brand and want to frequent them more often. The tip applies from big chains to little boutique brands. Always make sure you’re a member of their loyalty program and give your frequent guest number with the reservation. Save those points! You can track them easily at free sites like AwardWallet.com.

Also, don’t worry about redeeming points as soon as you have enough for a free something. Having points can often get you the best values at some of the most expensive hotels. For the same points that the Grand Hyatt New York would have cost me, I spent New Years at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris and then in February at the Park Hyatt in the Maldives (think $900 per night for each). I never would be able to stay at such expensive hotels if I were paying cash, but by collecting my points I can and do all the time.

For other posts in this series and more tips from Gary, click here. If you travel often,follow his blog for regular tips and current deals. The man is an expert at discovering loopholes, online mistakes the airlines and hotels have to honor, and how to manipulate the fine print. You can feel free to tweet him questions @GaryLeff. He’s super sweet so don’t be shy.

(Photo: View from W Resort Koh Samui, where you can use Starwood points. Mary’s review here.)

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Meet my travel gurus

April 26th, 2013 No Comments

Finally we get to meet the man behind all of the travel wizardry! This is Gary Leff who has been writing a guest series here on how to get more luxury out of your vacation budget without spending a ton. I’ve been posting about him for years now, along with every other reputable publication that features travel. This man works magic when it comes to wheeling and dealing to get the most out of airline miles, hotel deals, loyalty programs, you name it. Before you fly or plan a trip, always check his blog.

I also learned Gary is one of the sweetest men on the planet. His wife is a very lucky lady!

Paul Brady used to be my travel editor at The Huffington Post and has recently moved up the ranks to Deputy Editor at Conde Nast Traveler. Yay for Paul! We met for the first time yesterday in Bryant Park since the weather decided to play nice. Check out his travel features that focus on travel tips and news as well. A couple of my favorites: 10 best travel destinations now, and biggest buzz-worth destinations with the best value.

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How To Get More Luxury from Your Vacation Without Spending a Lot – a series by Gary Leff

March 29th, 2013 No Comments

Gary Leff is my GO-TO (as well as most reputable travel publications) for travel. You might recall he helped me secure a business class ticket to Asia only using points!

Gary has so kindly accepted my request to offer his coveted travel tips on MTM! I asked him basically what we all want to know: how do we get the most luxury out of our travel budget. This is the main focus on his blog, ViewFromTheWing, which he has been writing since 2002. So it’s no surprise Conde Nast has awarded him the badge of “Top Travel Specialist.” His booking service, BookYourAward, has been awarded one of the best in the biz as well.

Over the next 6 weeks, he’ll offer insight I have not doubt you’ll find valuable!

If you travel often, follow his blog for regular tips and current deals. The man is an expert at discovering loopholes, online mistakes the airlines and hotels have to honor, and how to manipulate the fine print. You can feel free to tweet him questions @GaryLeff. He’s super sweet so don’t be shy.

Ok, without further ado….

Gary’s Tip #1: Consider a far-off destination for the best value.

Tickets to Thailand or Vietnam might be expensive, but once you’re there hotel, meals, and
activities can be so cheap that your total trip costs less.

Even a $75 per night hotel room in central Bangkok will make you feel like a king. I’m sure you’ve heard that before, and I want to assure you it’s true. As you would expect, food and services are more expensive when you stay in your hotel, so just take a walk down the street to find a great meal or spa massage. Your experience will be better and the price will be a fraction of the hotel’s.

Journeying to a new world, too, will create memories that often can’t be replicated close to
home. You’ll find it easier to combo the city and beach experience so you get culture and R&R. Using Mary’s trip to Asia as an example, she visited Ho Chi Minh City as well as the Vietnam coast; Bangkok as well as the island of Koh Samui. This way she experienced a great dose of the foreign culture unlike she would have on a trip to Mexico.

From my experience, seeing how another culture lives is half of the experience of traveling. If you’re looking just to unwind, sure you can do that close to home. But since we’re talking about traveling, the VALUE comes when you get out and explore.

(Photos are from Mary’s trip to Vietnam. The one of the tower with the flowers is actually in the Bangkok airport.)

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How will the merger of American Airlines and US Airways affect you?

February 15th, 2013 2 Comments

Today US Airways announced its merger with the bankrupt American Airlines to the tune of $11 billion dollars. However, the new fleet, which will now be the largest in the US above United, will go under the name American Airlines. If they can get through all of the red tape, it is speculated this deal should be closed by September. What do you want to bet that won’t happen??

I don’t know about you, but for the last 10 years I have tried to stay as far away from both airlines due to bad service, old planes, layovers, etc. On so many levels, neither were very appealing. But that doesn’t mean I’m curious to see how it will effect the market.

“The past eight years have been merger mania for airlines: Delta and Northwest, Continental and United, Southwest and Air Tran, and now U.S. Airways and American. If this latest deal is approved, we’ll have just four major domestic airlines. You might think all this is going to lead to much higher prices for flights, so you might be surprised to hear…there’s less competition in some places, but John Kletzel (from Price Waterhouse Cooper) says airline mergers are different” and will not have an impact on prices.” – Dan Bobkoff, NPR

Some say the merger is in the best interest of the airlines, employees, and travelers. It’s not front page news that discount sites, gas prices, and a host of other issues have caused airline profit margins to suffer. According to NPR, American employees have been unhappy for a while now so this should “re-energize them” and get your better service. Their existing routes don’t overlap much, so the new American will have a bi-coastal presence.

Of course as travelers we are sympathetic to the employees, but let’s be honest, we want to know about our miles and frills.

Travel expert Gary Leff (my go-to source for all travel fine print), says here it’s too soon to tell how the frequent flier programs and perks will play out. But, for example, if people were frequently getting upgraded due to lax rewards programs, this could mean those people are headed to the back of the bus.

John Kelley of ThePointsGuy.com said in an interview, “January, I used 110,000 U.S. Airways miles and flew to South Africa. That same exact trip using American miles would be 150,000.” So even though your “miles are safe.” you might need more to get from A to B. Whatever the case may be, you don’t have much choice in that matter.

Now, if you really want to win the rewards game, you can apply for this credit card BEFORE the merger (apparently multiple times) and cancel it. To be strategic about it, read Gary’s plan.

As I can attest from the United-Continental merger, this will take a VERY long time to sort out, so you’re safe for now. On the bright side, I really don’t think it can get much worse for you as an American or US Airways frequent flier. If anything they are going to have to up their game to stay competitive with United and Delta.

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AirBnB now offers “Experience” to filter housing options

January 11th, 2013 1 Comment

AirBnB, the site that allows you to rent private rooms, apartments, and homes when you travel, has added a new feature called “Neighborhoods” to help you decide where you want to stay based on what kind of experience you’re looking for.

I’ve used AirBnB once on a trip to Austin and was so pleasantly surprised. The casita was cute, clean, and stocked with fruit, juice, and coffee. Our hostess was a delight to chat with. Thankfully I knew the area I wanted to be in, but if I hadn’t, this feature would have been my key to the city.

Right now, AirBnB offers “Neighborhoods” in these seven cities: New York, San Francisco, London, Rio de Janero, Berlin, Washington DC, and Paris. More to come!

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Goodbye TripAdvisor random reviews, Hello Gogobot friend recommendations

October 26th, 2012 1 Comment

It took less than a minute for me to be wildly facinated with Gogobot, a travel website that will make our travel planning SOOO much easier. Apparently it’s been around for 2 years and has now matured into a fully-stocked resource.

Last night I got a hand-held tour through the app by founder and CEO Travis Katz. As he explained the features, I was mezmerized as the functionality seem to good to be true. I am going to try to fully explain the facets of Gogobot as Travis did for me, but you’ll need to play with the site or app to really appreciate it.

Gogobot is a travel website that provides trustworthy travel guides and reviews. How do we know they are legit? Because they are written by your friends! Gogobot aggregates all of your friends’ posts from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Four Square so when they take a photo and tag it/check in at destination, restaurant, or activity, it will feed into your Gogobot so you can easily access them. This way, you don’t have to rely on random accounts from people you don’t know and certainly have no reason to trust. They can also easily create city guides to share with anyone (this is going to make my life so much easier!) Travis recently partnered with Travel + Leisure for hotel reviews and I’m sure other publications will follow. To me, GoGobot seems like a great platform for NYTimes 36 hours guides and Luxe guide walking tours. (Fingers crossed.)

I hope Travis will chime in below and complete this overview with the details I unfortunately have forgotten.

In the meantime, sign up and start planning your next vacation, or even night out on the town. You don’t have to go anywhere to reap the benefits of Gogobot.

**Sorry the picture is blurry. Blogging on my ipad. Promise to change it ASAP.

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Would you/could you/do you already buy airline tickets on your phone?

September 28th, 2012 No Comments

When it comes to shopping, I’m a traditionalist. I like to browse clothes, products, and services in the actual store. This puts me in the minority, but that’s my preference. However, the actual PURCHASING of an item, I often do online because the price is better.

For airline tickets, it’s the opposite for me. I shop around bargain sites and then purchase the actual ticket on the airline’s website. I just feel like if there was a problem, I’d like to deal with the airline instead of a middle man.

Orbitz recently launched their iPhone app, so I thought I would do a little comparrison to see how they all stack up. I have to say I like the iphone experience better than the websites in general. There aren’t crazy windows popping up all over my screen and the interface transitions are smoother and faster.

Bargain Sites

ORBITZ – The newest addition to the market and it shows. The functions, the map shown here, are the most thoughtful and seamless. The car rental is really nice.

KAYAK – As I said, the experience is better than on your computer but in comparison to Orbitz, it seems a little old. Also, the price of a round-trip ticket came back $50 higher than when I searched on Orbitz. On a positive note, it provides SO MANY MORE features! I especially appreciate “Call your airline.”

PRICELINE – The app only offers hotels and rental cars. Now you can also book express deals instead of having to bid. It also seems that you can’t access your trips through the app, it pushes you to Safari.

YAPTA – Crashed every time I tried to enter a flight. However, I love the idea that it will alert me when the price drops for the flight I’m tracking drops.

Airlines

Airlines have their own apps as well. I use the United and Delta apps the most because their hubs are based in Houston and Atanta, respectively. United’s is great because you can buy a ticket on the app, which I have done before. It’s frustrating to no end that I can’t do that on Delta’s. Delta’s app also makes you check in every time you open it on the day of your flight which makes no sense. Of course on Jet Blue’s app you can. It’s character is as quirky as the website.

American and Southwest apps seem straight ahead. You can’t purchase tickets on them either.

Here’s what it really comes down to for me and these airline apps: Can I buy a ticket while I’m on the treadmill and get my mobile boarding pass on the app. As for shopping around prices, I think Orbitz will be my go-to. I’ve never been a Kayak die-hard, so it’s not a big deal to me. As I said, I’m a traditionalist, so if I SHOP on Orbitz, I’ll go to the airline’s app or website to buy the ticket.

One disclaimer: I tested all of these out on the iPhone 5, which is lightening fast. I’m not sure if that’s due to the new hardware or iOS. A lot of my adoration for the apps comes from how quickly the screens transition, which is much faster than my wifi at home. That being said, I used both United and Delta on my iPhone 4 and had no complaints about speed.

So, have your habits changed yet? Do you trust the apps to store your credit card info and successfully book a ticket for you?? Would you rather buy directly from the airline or are you ok purchasing from the bargain apps? Weigh in below!

UPDATE

I opened the NYTimes this morning to find this headline!

The writer confirms cutting out the middle man and booking directly from the airline/hotel/car company is more affordable. She also agrees that customer service to select seats and rooms or make changes is easier when you buy direct.

She suggests google searching discount codes and following your favorite airlines and hotels on twitter for the best deals.

Click here for my strategy on getting the best airline fare and my list of links to airlines, hotels, and travel sites on twitter (it’s old, but all of the majors are on there so you can click to follow easily).

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This dog will hunt down the best air fare for you.

June 15th, 2012 1 Comment

I’m not sure if AirfareWatchdog is new to the market, but I’m happy to know about it now! Their service allows you to get alerts on any route you might want to travel without having to specify dates, airlines, or specific flights, like Yapta. They will also let you set how often they email you: daily, 2-3 times a week, or weekly.

I love the “Anywhere That’s Cheap” feature for last-minute getaways. These days I’ve just been feeling like I want to get out of town and I don’t care where I’m going.

As you can see I’m attempting to make my way to NYC as soon as possible. I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I’ve been back!

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