My old friend Chris Guillebeau has just launched a site that’s a handy reference for travelers who want to leverage credit card programs and bonuses for free (or reduced cost) travel, Cards for Travel. One of the best features is a list of the best credit cards for airline mileage bonuses (note that some of [...]
Continue reading about New travel hackers’ resource: Cards for Travel website
Kayak has pulled together a handy reference chart which recaps the various and sundry fees charged by U.S. airlines. Click on the excerpt below for a close-up view: See the entire chart here: Airline Fees – Kayak
A few days ago a coworker and I went through Security Checkpoint 2 at O’Hare. Dave was immediately behind me as we approached the conveyer belt for the magnetometer, but after I exited the checkpoint, he took about 2-3 minutes to catch up with me as I waited on the concourse. I’ve written about this [...]
Continue reading about Skating through the TSA checkpoint – quickly
A morbid subject no doubt, but I stumbled across a couple of references to air disasters recently, and a remarkable symmetry existed between the two. First, a passage from Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent Outliers. In a typical crash, for example, the weather is poor—not terrible, necessarily, but bad enough that the pilot feels a little bit [...]
A wonderful Vanity Fair article by Charles C. Mann neatly summarizes the absurdity of airport security; a brief excerpt: From an airplane-hijacking point of view, Schneier said, al-Qaeda had used up its luck. Passengers on the first three 9/11 flights didn’t resist their captors, because in the past the typical consequence of a plane seizure [...]
Continue reading about Smoke screening: Does Airport Security Really Matter?
One worry you don’t need while traveling is whether newspapers piling up on your front porch or an overstuffed mailbox is signaling to all the neighborhood burglars that you’re out of town. A couple of things to keep in mind as your next trip approaches: You can now suspend delivery of your mail via the [...]
Continue reading about A couple of tips: suspending mail and newspaper delivery before traveling
A revealing post from a baggage handler, Confessions of an Airline Baggage “Thrower,” appeared on Huffington Post yesterday (12/16/11); an excerpt: I’m not going to lie, your checked luggage takes a beating. They call it “throwing bags” for a reason. There isn’t an easy way around this. Airplanes only make money while in the air, [...]
