Airline Travel Tips

Our number one airline travel tip is: Check in early!

Airlines require domestic travelers to check-in 1 hour prior to departure. International flights require a 2 hour check-in. If you do not arrive on time and if the flights are overbooked, the possibility exists that your seat will be given away. In addition, there will be a greater opportunity when you arrive early to have your name on the "top of the list" for an upgrade.

Be aware that some airlines have restricted carry on luggage policies. For example:

Northwest - Maximum check-in is two and carryon luggage is limited to one piece plus a purse/briefcase/laptop computer for all flights. First class international is allowed two carry on items.
American/TWA - Check one and carryon two or check two and carryon one.
Delta - Check one and carry-on two or check two and carry-on one.
Southwest - Check up to three and carryon two.
United - One carryon in economy and two in business/first class.
USAir - Carryon two
Continental - Carryon two
Store your carryon luggage in the compartment across from you so you can keep an eye on it.

Be sure to carry photo identification.

Be aware of Safe Harbors emergency service telephone number (International / domestic) This will help you with questions concerning your ticket or itinerary changes. The number is printed on all itineraries. Calling the airline directly can cause confusion and be costly.

Never make enemies or be abrasive with airline ticket agents or gate agents. Regardless of the situation, most people are more than accommodating when approached with respect.

Travel Reservations
Do not make a reservation with an airline directly. They will not have all of your company data accessible including your discounted rates, frequent flier numbers, travel preferences, travel policy information and payment procedures. They will only give you their information not competing information where the agency will.

When a travel reservation is made with Safe Harbors, your confirmation number for your flight, hotel room and car is your guarantee! If you arrive at any of these counters and they claim that you do not have a reservation, chance has it that they are trying to sell you a higher priced car, hotel room and airline reservation. This is a common practice for these vendors to recreate a reservation so that a commission will not have to be paid and that last minute availability is achieved, resulting in a higher fare/rate. If this should happen, be assertive and demand the guaranteed rate/fare is utilized on the confirmed itinerary from Safe Harbors.

Safe Harbors Travel Group is shaping a new age of business travel management. Safe Harbors’ expertise in business travel, global travel infrastructure, vendor management, expense and accountability reporting and travel information systems is helping clients achieve their business goals with a higher return-on-travel-investment. Headquartered in Baltimore, Safe Harbors provides global travel management to more than 100 corporate clients.

Travel Tips for Your Exciting Trips

The world is full of wonderful places and you want to visit all. Choosing a destination is a challenging job, especially if you are going with friends or kids having different interests. Here are some travel tips and destination tips to choose a destination keeping in mind about your companion/s budget and likings.

International travel tips for choosing destination

With extensive search, you can find a destination or a trip that caters to multiple interests. Take assistance of your travel agent to provide you a list of destinations that offer multiple activities. Apart from offering you a wide range of destination choices travel agents can help you with important travel tips and destination tips to enjoy your vacation.

Most destinations can be categorized into three categories: Romantic, Adventurous and Historical. A romantic destination can be described as one with a sea beach, natural beauty and or one with fun parks. These are suitable for people of all age groups. A historic destination is one that is related to history and contains historical buildings and monuments. Africa and Asia offer many historical places with great monuments.

Mountains, rivers and jungles are most preferred adventurous destinations. African safari attracts the daredevils from all over the world. Hiking, rock climbing, jungle walks; rallying in natural parks with tiger and lion safaris are popular adventure destinations. You can select the destination of your choice depending on your budget and preference of your companions.

Toddlers travel tips for choosing destinations

Historical trips are very useful for kids as they get a chance to learn and understand their heritage. A historical trip can become memorable with a good guide and one who has thorough knowledge of the monuments. Alternatively, you can take them to jungle safaris and fun resorts for some action based learning.

Travel Tips for Infants

Parents are suggested not to plan adventurous trips with their infants. These trips are not good for infants because of the risk involved. Moreover, not enough medical utilities are available at adventurous destinations. At these destinations, you may find problems in locating medicines, medical help and even small items such as nappy pads. Parents with infants are suggested to restrict themselves to romantic or historical destinations. When you are planning a trip with infants, you have to be careful regarding the weather and the possibilities of any contagious diseases.

Pet travel tips

Some times you may want to take your favorite pet with you. However, there are restrictions set by some countries against carrying pets. Moreover, pets are not adaptable to changing climates. Therefore, it is advisable to hand over your pet to some friends or to a vet nary service provider, who can look after them. If at all, you plan to take your pet with you, you have ensure that her travel is as per the laws and you carry necessary document s and permissions to avoid last minute hassles.

Cruise tips for travel

Cruise trips are becoming popular day by day. Cruise agents can give many cruise tips for honeymoon goers or other people seeking fun-filled vacations far from the maddening crowd. You can check with your travel agent for a suitable cruise package according your budget, preference and schedule.

Cheap Deal Travel Tips

It's that time of year again. You work hard, put in long hours and now it's time for you to treat yourself to a little R and R. Time for vacation! And if you're looking for a cheap deal on travel, you definitely want to read this before booking transportation. Whether by flight, cruiseline, car, train or even bus, you can always find ways save money on your travel. After all, wouldn't you rather spend your hard earned dough on the vacation?

 

This article will give you tons of tips on how to save money on your traveling expenses, but most importantly, at the bottom of the article I have link to my site where you can find tons of resources for saving money on your Vacation or Business Travel. The sections below should give you some good insight on how to save some bucks when escaping to your vacation paradise.

 

1. First things first. Never ever pay "list price" for airfare. Always shop around before buying your airline tickets. Why? Because tickets vary in price depending on the time they are purchased, the status of their seating class, the layovers on the flight and a host of other factors. As a general rule of thumb, buy your tickets as early as possible. But, if you have to wait until the last minute, don't get bummed out. There are tons of websites, (including the one I have listed in my link at the end of this article) that will do the homework for your. These website services will scour the net for your cheap deal travel tickets and put the best deals on a silver platter for you to cherry pick. These web services will contact multiple airlines with various degrees of seating and various layover options for you to choose from. So you don't have to choose a cheap and uncomfortable flight. You can have the cozy flight you dream of without paying through the nose.

 

2. If you decide to work with a travel agent, use them to find out the best times to buy airline tickets. Also, it can't hurt to do your own research. You may want to double check your travel agent by researching ticket prices on the websites I mention below. The reason you would want to put in the extra work is simple. Your travel agent is (hopefully) incredibly qualified but the bottom line is a website that can crunch figures automatically for 24 hours 7 days a week straight, will be more useful. Your travel agent is using the exact same method. They are using these cheap deal travel booking websites to determine the best price you can possibly get at any particular time. So why do the work twice when your travel agent is already pumping away at the keyboard? Simple, there are such an array of these websites and so many airlines changing their prices at any given second, that the chance of you saving hundreds of dollars over your travel agent's quote is very probable.

 

3. Don't freak out if you haven't booked your ticket and the flight is only a week away. The truth is, some flights will actually lower their ticket prices as the trip date gets closer. They do this if there are still a ton of empty seats on the plane. Another way to use this to your advantage is to ask for a seat promotion if you know the flight is empty. I've seen cases where people have gotten business class or first class seating on flights where cancellations were heavy. The chances of you getting a free upgrade to a first class seating area depends heavily on the flight attendant processing your tickets. For this reason, always be polite to flight attendants booking your flight.

 

4. Overbooked flights also play a huge hand when looking for cheap deal travel. If you're unlucky (or lucky in this case) enough to get stuck with an overbooked flight, by all means do not just sit there and take it quietly. Politely approach a flight attendant at the counter and negotiate a discounted flight, upgraded seating, or "sky points" depending on what airline. Airlines must pride themselves on good customer service and most will oblige.

 

5. Buy pre-owned tickets using craigslist, or follow the link at the bottom to access sites with pre-owned tickets on sale. Ebay is a good alternative, but a little more competitive. Pre-owned tickets will save you a fortune for obvious reasons. The sellers are just trying to recoup some of their losses. You're doing them a favor by buying your tickets at seriously discounted rates. This step alone can save you more than half your costs in travel.

33 Travel Safety Tips

Traveling to unfamiliar destinations can bring to you the sort of troubles you do not want to experience while on the road namely: robbery, rape, or murder. Tourists often fall prey to perpetrators because they do not prepare properly before embarking on a trip. Let's examine some things you should do to prevent your travels from becoming a tragedy:

1. Never list your home address on the luggage tag. If on business, put the company's address on the tag; if visiting friends you can list their address. Use covered luggage tags as well.

2. Stay with your luggage until the luggage is checked. If you must put your bag down, keep one foot on the handle.

3. Carry important papers with you; NEVER check anything that you simply cannot afford to lose. Photocopy your passport, driver's license and credit cards.

4. Bring a small flashlight. You never know when you'll suddenly be "in the dark" and find yourself in unfamiliar surroundings. At night, keep your flashlight by your bed.

5. Make sure that your prescription medicines are filled properly and labeled accurately. In some countries certain prescription medicines are forbidden.

6. Never wear anything that projects affluence. No gold chains, expensive watches and rings, luggage, or other paraphernalia should be in easy view. Better yet: leave your jewelry at home.

7. If possible travel with only one or two credit cards.

8. Women particularly should never accept a drink from a stranger. Keep an eye on your drink at all times.

9. Vary your schedule; try not to come and go at the same time everyday.

10. Only stay in a hotel that uses cards to open room doors and make sure your room has a peephole and a deadbolt lock. Secure the chain and secure the door by pushing a rubber stop under it.

11. Stay in a room near a stairwell. Never take the elevator if a fire or smoke is detected. Always stay in a hotel where the doors enter the hallway and not directly from the outside.

12. Do not wear name tags in public.

13. Do not use unmarked taxi cabs.

14. Sit behind the driver so you can see him, but he cannot see you.

15. Pay the driver upon arriving at your destination and while you are still sitting in the vehicle.

16. If you must rent a car, rent only from a reputable company. Any operating problems that occur could signal sabotage.

17. Be aware of 'staged' car accidents meant to catch you off card.

18. Back into your parking spaces to facilitate a quick exit.

19. Park only in well lit and well traveled areas.

20. If your cell phone does not work outside of the country, consider renting one that does for the duration of your trip.

21. If detained for whatever reason by an official, ask for identification. If in doubt, tell them that you want to see his superior. Keep your emotions in check.

22. If traveling with children, bring along an updated photograph of each child in the event that you become separated from them.

23. Write your child's name and your hotel number on each card; include a close friend's or relative's contact information on the card. Give a card to each child which they will carry with them as long as you are away. Destroy once home.

24. Discuss with your family what they would do in event of an emergency while away from home, e.g. whom to call, how to contact emergency personnel, etc.

25. Do not discuss travel plans, your room number or any other personal information in public within earshot of strangers.

26. Bring along a basic first aid kit with bandages, iodine, mosquito repellant, sunscreen, alcohol packets, dramamine, pepto bismol, diarrhea medicine, etc.

27. Familiarize yourself with train and bus schedules before traveling. Have an alternate plan in place in the event your transportation plans change.

28. Do not flash your passport in public. Discreetly show important documents to officials only.

29. Consider purchasing portable alarms that emit a loud sound.

30. Watch for scams on the street. Children working with adults are notorious as pickpockets.

31. Never flash your money in public. Exchange funds with reputable and recognized exchangers only.

32. Have tips ready in advance for service personnel.

33. Consider renting an escort [security] service if traveling in areas where crime is high.

The key to safe traveling in any area is situational awareness. Distractions because of luggage, children, hotel personnel, strangers, etc. can put you at risk. Know your surroundings and stay in control of every situation.

Cheap Air Travel Tips

The era of airline travel has allowed us to travel the world and connect in ways that have never existed before. We can visit family overseas and travel anywhere in the world within 24 hours.

With all this ability to travel, we are also faced with the expense of such travel. For the many who would like to find cheap air travel, here are some tips. The first thing you need to know is that you never need to pay ‘list price’. Airlines have many tiers of pricing, and the same seat can sell for prices differing in the hundreds of dollars, depending on where, when and how it is purchased.

- Ask the Professionals: Your first step would be to ask your travel agent for advice on when to purchase airline tickets. He or she will be able to give you some guidance as to which airlines offer discounts and when. For example, some airlines offer ‘earlybird’ pricing, and some also drop their prices as the trip date gets closer if no one has purchased the seat.

- Get a Promotion: If a scheduled flight is not full to capacity, whether due to cancellations or lack of bookings, some airlines will offer complimentary upgrades in seat class to selected passengers. Although this is less common than it used to be, it still happens occasionally. Your best shot at being selected for such an upgrade is to arrive for your flight dressed in a clean-cut, professional manner, and to be polite. You can even try asking at the check-in counter if there is any chance you can get an upgrade - they may offer it to you if such a perk is available, or may offer it at a lesser price than you would have paid when booking. Success will depend on many factors, such as the mood and authority level of the ticket attendant and the way you ask for it. They may also need to move passengers around for weight-and-balance purposes and can offer a better seat to assist in this process – you never get anything if you don’t at least ask! Also, you can sometimes get a free or discounted flight by being on an ‘overbooked’ flight and being willing to wait until the next one can be arranged for you, but this is not something you have any control over.
 

- Flexibility: Are you flexible in your travel times or dates? By going ‘standby’ on an airline, you can hang out and wait until a seat becomes free or someone cancels, and can often get cheaper last-minute tickets.
 

- 'Pre-owned’ Tickets: For an array of reasons, people buy tickets and their plans change. When those tickets are non-refundable, they may try and sell them to receive at least some of their money back. This is good news for you, as you can take advantage of some discounted prices (remember, if they don’t sell their tickets they get nothing, so anything they can recover is of help to them). On-sale tickets can be found many places, such as your local classifieds, craigslist online and auctions such as ebay; try google as well to search.

Top 10 Travel Tips To Help You Book A Dirt Cheap Flight

Smart travelers don’t sit in a travel agents office to plan their vacations anymore, they go to travel websites to find discount airfare deals and book their own cheap flights. Airline carriers are at war and smart consumers who know the secrets to finding great online travel deals, can take advantage of this instability and save hundreds on their plane tickets.

Despite what you may have heard, tickets on flights are not sold at a fixed rate. Most airlines have a complex grading system in place for ticket prices. They have a set number of seats they must fill for a certain price and a second block of seats they will let go for a slightly cheaper ticket price and third set of seats for a another discounted ticket price. So, at any given time when you try to buy online airline tickets, you could come up with a number of different prices.

The secret to dirt cheap airfare, is knowing exactly when, where and how to buy the tickets. Timing is everything when it comes to finding cheap airfare. Should you buy your tickets one, two or six months before your desired departure date? Will you save more by purchasing round trip tickets or one way flights? Should you travel on or off season, and exactly when are the popular flight travel seasons? And finally, should you buy your plane tickets through a discount travel site, or through a popular travel search directory like Expedia or Travelocity?

Your first tip to find cheap airfare is to check out several travel directories that offer price results for all the major airlines so that you can compare ticket prices at a glance. My favorites are Expedia.com for their consistently low flight price quotes and easy two click price checks, Cheaptickets,com for their large inventory of cheap airfare selections and sidestep.com for their huge selection of customized flight results. As a traveler you need to log on to these websites and get a feel for how often the prices change and bookmark them for future use.

Airlines and travel websites offer bigger discounts and cheaper airfare prices to people who book online because it saves them the overhead costs of printing and handling a paper ticket. So be sure to use the e-ticket option when purchasing your plane tickets online. Don’t wait till the last minute though, the best cheap airfare prices are found about 21 days before your departure date.

The highest plane ticket prices are found 14 days or less before departure, so don’t wait till the last minute to buy your ticket if you’re hoping to find discount airfare. But keep in mind that many airlines give away dirt cheap plane tickets about half an hour before liftoff.

Be sure to purchase round trip tickets rather than one way, the best cheap airfare deals are usually offered to round trip travelers.

Cheap flights during the holidays can be hard to find, the secret is to fly the day of the holiday not the day before or after when flights are jam packed.

You can save even more money on airfare if your plan your vacation during the off season. Travel professionals say that the best time to book a cheap flight online is mid-January to end February, April through May, and in the fall from mid-September to mid-December.

The time of day that you book online plane tickets is important too. If you checked plane ticket prices at 6 am and then again at 6 pm on the same travel website, you’d be shocked to find that you just lost 20 or 30 bucks by waiting too long or not long enough. Another variable that is imperative to finding dirt cheap flights is, the day of the week you make your online ticket purchase. Most traveler’s purchase their tickets on a Saturday or Sunday, but is that the smartest day to get dirt cheap airfare?