Best Ways to Get the Most Out of Travel in 2016 – 1st Quarter 2016 Newsletter

Between busy schedules and crossing off items from life lists, Mavericks travel all over the world. Check out some top travel tips, tricks and hacks from Maverick #100, William Lee.

• United Airline’s Mileage Plus program: I’ve been a United Airlines 1k member for several years now and learned a lot out of it.  As a 1k flyer, I get 6 global upgrade passes and 6 regional upgrade passes on top of status upgrades.
• Booking airfare using miles allows you to cancel the fare without penalty.  If you need to change airline ticket itinerary, you often have to pay a change fee which is about $200-$400.
• United Airlines and Delta have a 12k minimum spend limit called ‘PQD’ that a flyer must earn in addition to the 100k miles flown to get the airline’s top tier status.  (United Airlines actually have another tiered service called Global Services which is invite only for their really top VIPs).
• To get around this rule, Paul Sinclair (Maverick #220)–who is a bit of a hacker when it comes to United Airlines–taught me to use a mailing address outside the USA.  Boom, PQD lifted.  That man is genius.
• ​As usual Silver and Gold members don’t really get much benefit but it helps to build history with an airline if future travels works out.  ​You can apply for a United Mileage Plus credit card which you get priority boarding and lounge access (Explorer vs. Club cards) for an annual fee.  The cards let you accrue miles faster but are not qualifying miles for status.
• Once on Platinum/1K status, it is wise to buy a minimum ‘W’ class airfare (which costs slightly more than basic fare classes).  The airlines (esp United) prioritizes business class upgrades by the amount of spend as one of there criteria for complimentary upgrade selection.  This increases your chance of beating out people like myself who pay the lowest fare on the airline.

• With regards to choosing an economy plus seating, know that standby passengers (I’ve been a standby companion for 2 years on United so I know the tricks here, too) often get to fill in the seats from head-of-plane to back-of-plane; so knowing that, check the flight for number of standby passengers and plan accordingly.
• If you fly economy plus or economy and must have your elbow room, you can book 2 seats.  First seat booked in your own name and second seat as an unnamed flyer.  For this to work without paying for the extra seat is to use your miles to book the second seat.  Once you board, you call United and cancel that ticket.  More often than not, the seat is unassigned but according to the airplane manifesto, there are no open seats available.
• Flying business class is one thing, flying First Class is where you meet the interesting people.  On United, is it almost always the same seat in both classes, first class having a larger TV screen and better meal options.

• If using mobile boarding passes, always snap a screenshot of the boarding pass bar/QR code.  There may be a time when you either lose internet or have app-technical difficulties.  You won’t usually have problems at the gate, but it’s when you are at security screening that would be a hassle to return back to the check-in counter.
• Global Entry and TSA Pre are great options to consider for convenience. The beauty of TSA Pre is that at major airports I am aware of, TSA Pre passengers often get very lenient screening process (shoes, light jackets and laptops remain on) and walk through the old metal detectors as opposed to the radiation bearing scatter ray machines.
• When I have no choice to walk through the body scanner machines, I ask for a ‘pat down’, which in TSA lingo is a ‘male opt out.’  I spend about 8 minutes to get a pat down, and I avoid the radiation from the machines.  I am aware, however, of the radiation one gets while flying at 30k but can’t dodge that.  I can dodge the scatter ray machines, however.

• If you plan to travel with lots of stuff, get a luggage scale.  This will save you on baggage fees big time.
• I adore Eagle Creek ‘no matter what’ duffle bags. They roll up a little more girth than an umbrella and has rollerblade wheels at one end.  I bring this empty with me when I think I will need to lug stuff back from my travels.
• Before United Airlines rolled out the ‘flappy ear​’ headrests, the Travelrest Ultimate Travel Pillow was my go-to pillow. ​LOVE it.  I barely use it anymore since the flappy ears work like a charm.
•  The Bose QC20 and QC20i headphones noise cancelling technology is hands down the industry best.  Problem with the big over the ear versions is that you can’t sleep on the plane with it when your head rolls from side to side and add the flappy ear headrests into the picture and it’s a failure waiting to happen.

• There are two global data plans in the USA worth getting if you travel abroad often.  TMobile is the cheapest and easiest.  They throttle you (from LTE to 3G or Edge depending on the country) if you use too much data so keep an eye on your data usage and turn off cell data and GPS (location services) for apps that run in the background or apps you don’t need abroad.
• The other one is a Verizon business plan that if you can get your hands on, rocks.  I know friends who are grandfathered into the old unlimited global data plan and it rocks.  $80/month just for data.
• If you are in a country for an extended time, it is best to get a local sim.  It’s way cheaper and the data may actually work faster.  Make sure you unlock your phones.  I buy my iPhone outright but if you are with a carrier long enough, they trust you enough to unlock your sim port.  It only takes a phone call.

• For foreign country travel, always have a return ticket even if you do not know when you are leaving the country abroad.  It’s a red flag at immigration/customs/passport control.  You can buy a fully refundable ticket for this reason; just don’t forget to cancel it once you settle into the country.
• Don’t just lock your zippers together.  TSA/airport employees have been known and caught stealing from checked baggage.  Practice smart packing to minimize dishonest five finger employees.  Know that a TSA lock can always be breached as with any lock but it is often safer to have a locked bag than an unlocked one.  The trick is to understand that even if you have a lock on your bag, it doesn’t make it safe.  The thief simply punctures the zipper with something as simple as a pen.  They swipe your swag and slide the zipper head to seal back the breached zipper.  Some luggage manufacturers are aware of this and thus include ‘puncture resistant’ zippers.  One way to dissuade this is to lock your zipper heads together AND onto a fixed part of your luggage (such as a handle).  This way a thief knows if he/she punctures your zipper, he/she can’t close it back.
• Anil Gupta (Maverick #214) posted about JetSmarter.  It’s a cool concept.  For 12k/year:
  • Fly private jets on empty leg flights.  Book a whole jet and bring your friends.
  • Reserve a seat on one of the weekly shuttles:  NYC>MIA, NYC>FLL, LA>SF, NYC>Hamptons, etc.
  • Membership gives you access to USA, Europe and parts of Middle East.
  • They signed on high-end luxury jets (CitationX’s, Challengers) where you can book up to 3 seats as part of your membership.
  • They are working on coast-to-coast flights.
  • Prices go up each year; I paid $8k as a recent member last year.
• Services worth mentioning:
  • Trippy.com (​I only used Trippy.com and hear good things about the other services.​)
  • http://flightfox.com/
  • skiplagged.com