I love saving money on my airfares. I have scored some great deals such as Business Class seats that have saved me thousands for a few tweaks of date or destination airport. These are the seven biggest mistakes I find people make in saving money on travel: Unreliable Airlines: When things go wrong, how likely is the airline going to be to help you? Is the airline selling cheap fares because they are in financial trouble? Expensive Extras: Many customers though get “nickled and dimed”, saving money on a cheap fare, only to find they…
Travel Tips (Monday)
Category Archives for Travel Tips (Monday).
COVID19 Virus -alerts, symptoms, safety & information
I am glued to the WHO site reading the latest updates on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) from the World Health Organisation. This new coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in November, 2019. It has resulted in more than a thousand confirmed cases in China, including cases outside Wuhan City. Additional cases have been identified in a growing number of other international locations. China has locked down some 50 million people who are in areas affected by the virus, cancelling gatherings at temples during the New Year holiday, while the historic Forbidden City in…
Get your Bucket List Checked off
Wherever I go I meet people who say “Australia {or Thailand or Fiji]. I wish I could go there” or “I want to go there” or “It is my dream“. Yet they never come. I have friends all over the world and they have never been to Australia! 🙁 One of my goals is to visit or live in 99 countries in my life. I am up to 78 with the addition of Russia and Estonia in 2019. If I add two more countries per year, then it will take me 10 more years to…
Almost everything on the Thomas Cook collapse–including Passenger & Staff Rights
Thomas Cook who lived from 1808 to 1892 began his career by running a successful one-day railway excursion for 500 temperance campaigners at a shilling a head from Leicester to Loughborough, a 19km (11 mile journey) on 5 July, 1841. He invented new payment systems for hotels and travel bookings, sold travel goods, organised excursions and ran a small alcohol free hotel in Fleet Street, London before he retired in 1878. There is a statue dedicated to him, outside Leicester Railway Station in the UK which was unveiled on 14 January 1994. His son took…
First Time Traveller? 12 tips for you, your child or your friend
My nephew recently set off in his first overseas trip as an adult (just). There was some concern from his parents but he managed the thing with aplomb. His well traveled uncle weighed in with some advice. 1. Apply for a passport early The process in some countries can take a long time and there may be shut downs and strikes or other problems along the way. Have at least three months before your trip when you apply for a passport. 2. Organise visas Many people are amazed they cannot just waltz into a country…
Priceline ditches Name Your Own Price Hire Cars
I was an early adopter of the Priceline Name Your Own Price (NYOP) for hotels. The deals that i got made me a huge fan for many years. For example, a Five star e suite in downtown San Francisco for $US99, a Saturday night Chicago stay for $79 on a baseball game night and a beautiful Conrad Singapore four star stay during the Marathon, 500 metres from the start line for at least 66% off any rate I could find! Sure I did not get loyalty points for those stays but the price difference was…
The 20 Golden P and O Tickets don’t exist- Travel Scam Alert
People are sharing a competition on Facebook which supposedly means you can win A CRUISE for THREE people. Who would not want that? This is what it looks like… The deal is of course fake. The Golden envelopes are from the 2016 Oscars and contained the winner’s information for that year. The picture is a Los Angeles Times describing how the Oscars envelopes are made. When you follow the link and you add your name etc, you are giving your name details to a scammer. If you or your friends have shared it then you…
A matter of life and death. Travel Hygiene
On the Bangkok Airport Skytrain, entry through the fare gates is via a round plastic token. The same token is swallowed by the fare gates at the other end. They are then emptied out of the fare gates and either stacked back into automatic machines sold by the human operators who collect coins and notes by hand and distribute the tokens with their hands. Over a year, that same token may be handled by up to a thousand people (i used three times a day). The amount of bacteria and germs that probably float along on…
How not to get scammed.
The world out there is full of decent, fun human beings. I have met heaps of them over the last few decades. Some are my good friends today. Some people out there see you as walking dollar sign. And the more naive and careless you are, the bigger the dollar signs. Our job as travellers is to not be careless or stupid without being paranoid and fearful. There is a balance there. The most common seven scams I have experienced have been: The place is closed Your taxi driver or “guide”, or ” new…
23 Tips to enjoy China Travel
Over one billion people call China home. Four of the top ten cities in the world are in China: Chongqing (30m), Shanghai (24m), Beijing and Guangzhou. Possessing some of the world’s oldest continuous history, tasty foods, interesting sites and diverse cities, China has emerged as a very popular destination. Last year, almost 150 million people travelled to China including myself. Here is what I have learnt about China: You have to get a visa. Make sure you allow time and money to do it. Ensure you have all of your paperwork in order before applying for the…
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