There are constantly stories about TSA luggage screeners, airline baggage handlers, and random people stealing items or whole bags.  If you have jewelry, electronics, or other items of value keep them with you in your carry-on luggage.

Also, if you are flying on a regional jet and need to gate-check your bag please make sure you remove your laptop or other items that can be damaged.

If you have expensive perfume or other liquids over 3.4 ounces those items will need to be checked, but laptops, iPads, Wiis, PS3s, and the like can all be taken through security and onto a plane.  TSA will make you run laptops, PS3s, blu-ray players, and other items like that in a separate bin so if you are taking that in the box be prepared to unpack it.  For the most part TSA does not require Kindles and iPads to go separately, but LAX apparently does.

Try to claim your checked bag as soon as safely possible so someone else doesn’t have a chance to grab it and take it before you even know it came onto the belt.

So remember: valuables in carry-on.  Keep you eye on your stuff at all times.  Most people handling luggage are honest, but that doesn’t mean you should throw valuables in their face.

This one is thanks to the ladies from http://www.wickedgoodtraveltips.com/

As a woman traveling weekly I have to balance safety and convenience.  The safety people say “Never leave your key in the folder/envelop with the room number” because if someone finds your packet they know the room number AND have the key.

The convenience part of me says “I can barely remember what city I’m in.  How can I remember the room number if I separate them?”

The Wicked Good Travel ladies said to compromise: keep the key in the key jacket, but tear off the number and put that in your wallet so they are separate, but still accessible.

I’ve started leaving a blanket in my car so if I have a red eye I’m prepared, but I left it at home since my upgrade had cleared.  That meant the plane was super freezing.

If you aren’t in first class now-a-days your odds of having access to a blanket on the plane is getting lower and lower.  US Airways will charge you $7 for one, but many airlines have just cut them completely.  Better buy in the airport if you didn’t BYO.

I just spent the week on vacation at Holden Beach, NC.  I love the beach and I had an audio book I was really interested in so I spent a lot of time  laying out listening to it.  I had to be very careful with sunscreen since I have to fly this week.  Flying while burned is not very comfortable.

I was lucky to evade the burn this time (several rainy days didn’t hurt either), but I’m sure many of you have gone away to Cancun or Jamaica only to fly home with a bra strap right on your shoulder burn.  Dry airplane air + limited or expensive water + not being able to carry a gallon of aloe in your carry on = OUCH!

This is your friendly PSA to avoid sunburn to prevent the trip home from ruining the vacation.

I’m not talking about Otis Spunkmeyer, I’m talking about internet tracking cookies…or should I say Chris Elliot is.

Good food for thought if you notice your itinerary always goes up but others don’t.

I haven’t noticed any issues with price fluctuations recently.  I noticed it quite a bit 10 years ago, but side step yields the same results consistently and I can book the same fare on my corporate site.

This was actually an entry for the Gold Coast contest on one of the other blogs (and I need to search to remember which one). This has also been discussed on Flyertalk when a jetsetting family member dies.

The way the airlines have it set up frequent flyer miles belong to the person on the account and in the case of death those miles technically go bye-bye. The thing is that airlines don’t know that someone died so the real limiting factor is that no living person knows the password to that account. For someone with a serious mileage balance part of the will should include user logins and passwords for frequent flyer accounts so surviving members can use remaining miles. Airlines like United require the redeemer to go to an airport in person to present ID for a reward flight booked over the phone in certain situations, but other airlines have different rules. Usually if the last name on the ticket is the same as the account holder there is less of an issue.

I’d suggest reading all 398 comments to the Gold Coast post if you have time, but if you are like me I filtered out the duplicates to leave you with the best of the best with my commentary.  Since many posts were the same I am not attaching names to these comments.

Life is short, use those miles!

Remember that miles are only valuable if you use them.  Every year that goes by is 1 year closer to another devaluation so if you have a destination in mind, begin making plans.

Fly within one global airline alliance and credit all of your miles to one FF account. That way, your miles aren’t spread around to different accounts, making it hard to ever accumulate enough to redeem them for anything.

This is the best idea for frequent buyers (people who get most of their points from credit cards instead of travel).  For people who really stay up with the game you may be better off flirting with multiple programs per alliance.  The people on the UPGRD.com podcast can manage to participate in United’s frequent flyer program and bmi.  For others it may not be worth the effort.

Define the experience you are looking for – and work specifically to get the points for that!

If your goal is to fly to Australia it makes no sense to focus credit card and other non-flight related points on Southwest since they don’t fly internationally and their points can’t be used on other carriers.  Also determine if you are a hotel or mile person.  Some of you fly internationally in premium cabins to stay with family.  Others like to stay downtown in a big city for a couple weeks.  I use hotel points more than miles because I drive to a few places I like to visit.

If you think you might lose elite status the following year due to changes in travel patterns, focus more on paid (point/mile-earning) flights and stays while you still have status. Two reasons this helps: (A) you take advantage of the elite benefit of bonus earning (10%, 25%, 50%, 100%, etc) that should more than compensation for the risk of devaluation in the coming year, and (B) you will continue to take advantage of upgrades associated with your status in the paid flights/stays. This means avoiding redemption of miles, points, and “free” vouchers (e.g. VDB) that do not earn miles — use these for your family and friends instead, or maybe offer a tit-for-tat exchange (you’ll pay for someone else’s trip using points, and they’ll pay for your similar or less expensive trip using money).

…or just mileage run the next year and keep status…

Don’t overestimate the value of your miles/points or be overzealous of spending money just to collect rewards, since this is counterproductive to your more important personal finance goals (that will fund more travel!). For example, if you would never pay $20,000 for an international first class flight, don’t benchmark your miles based on that cost! If you do the math, you might find that cashback cards will be more beneficial to your pocketbook than mile or point-earning cards. For example, the Schwab InvestFirst Visa gives 2% cash back on all purchases; would you rather have 2 cents in your pocket for every $1 you spend, or one mile/point? If you always redeem for domestic flights for 25k miles, are those limited-availability flights worth $500 to you?

I know some think this is blasphemy, but it is very true.  I think the psychology is that miles MUST be used for travel while cash can be used for day-to-day stuff.  I probably wouldn’t travel as much if I used real currency for vacations.  Depending on your situation that may be better though since more than a couple tickets is much harder to redeem for than just 1 ticket so families may be better off on paid tickets than rewards.

When redeeming your miles it is always better to avoid school holidays and to travel off season to get the best value for your miles with airlines and hotels.

it’s not that exciting, but my top tip is to be sure you’re in the mileage dining program– it makes it easy to quickly top off points and keep accounts “alive” while you’re building the balance.

Redeem awards for places that are expensive to fly to, buy tickets and earn miles on places that are cheap to fly to.

If you’re a business traveler, ask if your company would allow you to charge your air fare to your own card, and reimburse you. That way, you get the frequent flier miles without having paid for the initial air travel in the first place.

This won’t work on many US Airways flights since they are always full.  I knew I was taking a risk with a long haul United flight as well, but decided there is nothing to lose and an empty middle to gain.

The trick is that since most people only want a window or an aisle they will tend to not choose a middle seat if they don’t have to.

My husband and I were flying in Economy Plus on a Boeing 747 from LAX to SYD.  The 747 has a 3-4-3 configuration which means if I take the window and he takes the aisle the odds are that unless the flight is full no one will choose the middle.  That worked out and we had an open middle for the whole 14 hour flight.

What happens if someone actually takes the middle seat?  Depends on how much you love your seat versus who you are traveling with.  Many suggest you should offer the person the window or the aisle.  Since your are being nice anyway you could just give them the one you prefer less.  If you don’t really care about your travel companion you could also just keep your seats and have a stranger between you.

Most airports have a gate naming convention of LetterNumber and most seats have a naming convention of NumberLetter.  Concourses start at the beginning of the alphabet and so do seats so often there will be a gate B9 for a flight with a seat 9B.  You’d be amazed how many times I’ve seen people claim someone is in their seat to find out one juxtaposed the gate for their seat.  Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but in these days of tight overhead bin space it can save some hassle.

Now many frequent flyers who qualify on segments will tell you to add a connection and increase your segments, especially short flights which can add 500 mile minimums on certain airlines. That works for many, but this post is actually advising something different…avoiding “direct” flights.

To be competitive in certain markets airlines will use a direct flight (1 flight number) to advertise a route that a competitor doesn’t fly non-stop. Charlotte is a big US Airways hub so airports without non-stop flights from US Airways will often get a “direct” flight on another carrier. Charlotte doesn’t have a non-stop flight to Omaha or Chicago-Midway so Delta will sell a flight with one flight number which looks like it goes from CLT-OMA.

What’s wrong with this? Well the reason I keep putting direct in quotes are because they aren’t direct. There isn’t a plane that goes from CLT-OMA without stopping. This week, against my own advice, I booked a flight from CLT-MDW on Delta. I knew Delta/Northwest doesn’t have a plane going from CLT-MDW, but it was a better price than some alternates so I booked it anyway. It turns out the flight really connected in MSP. CLT-MSP is 929 miles, MSP-MDW is a 500-mile minimum on Delta so 929+500 and 2 segments is what I’d get on a connecting flight. “Direct” flights accrue mileage like non-stop flights so CLT-MDW really got me 584 miles and 1 segment. over 900 fewer miles.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that a “direct” flight means nothing as to whether you’ll have to change planes or not. This week I actually had the same plane and the same flight crew, but sometimes you’ll have to change planes. My upcoming MEL-ORD trip is all 1 flight number, but is a 747 from MEL-SYD-LAX and then a different plane from LAX-ORD.

How to detect a mysterious direct flight: if it takes more than 1:30 per 500 miles, if you see a flight from a non-hub to another non-hub (but not always), if you see a flight to a city you didn’t think your city serviced, if you look at your seat map and it seems like certain seats are unavailable when they should be.

So, if you really want convenience you need a non-stop flight. If you have a “direct” flight, print 2 copies of your boarding pass just in case you lose it on the first leg since often it is just 1 boarding pass for the whole direction.

To go with my new blog name I figured I should offer tips to help you fly gracefully. Travel Tip of the Week #1: know where you’re going.
Of course you’ve bought a ticket from XXX to YYY possibly connecting in AAA on your way there. If you’re connecting in AAA do you know how to get from one gate to the next? I have many hubs fairly memorized and I try to stick to the hubs I know unless I need to fly another airline. If that situation arises I begin research. You could start this during the ticketing process, but I usually look the day before.

Most airline websites have something that should say Flight Status or something similar to this. It should usually be prominently displayed on the home page, but may also be under something like Traveling & Check in or Travel Tools if you have navigated away from the home page. Look up your first flight for yesterday and today and see what gates that flight usually uses for departure and arrival. Next look up you second flight and do the same. Then try to search for a map of the airport and plot your course. If you have enough time to eat, look for food options en route. Nothing is worse than waiting in line at the first food you see only to find your favorite restaurant farther down.

This shows me that Columbus, OH usually takes off from C53 or C54 and usually arrives in the higher end of B. The flight from Cincinnati to Cleveland usually takes off in the higher B gates so it looks like unless the gate situation drastically changes I will have just over an hour (subtract 30 minutes for boarding) to get from one flight to another.

I then google the airport code (in this case CVG) and map or sometimes “terminal map” if the airport code is synonymous with the city. I find this page and can see there is a Husdon’s News, a bar called Ida’s Seat and a burrito restaurant close by. If those don’t strike my fancy, I can see all the restaurants at the food court aren’t too far either.

Tips:

• Gates are subject to change and DO change! Don’t wait by B28 unless a board confirms that gate.
• Try to find the phone number or mobile address to check gates while taxiing in if you have a tight connection. In this example, the bottom of the delta page says 800-325-1999 is th delta number. http://mobile.delta.com will take a smart phone to the mobile site. If those aren’t options, call someone who has internet access and make them look it up.
• In many cases the flight attendant only gets a list of connecting gates on takeoff. If you are connecting in ORD just don’t even pay attention because the gate has probably changed 3 times since that list was printed.