Do I have your attention? Looking for a good laugh today? Great, keep reading.

The Situation

There are lots of things I do for my job. Some I don’t enjoy, but others are really great. Among the latter is a student organization (Collegiate DECA, iykyk) I’m the faculty advisor for. What a great organization and group of students! One of the things they get to do is participate in a series of competitions, largely based on business cases. And as it turns out, their national competition this year is in Bourbon City (Louisville, Kentucky). Fantastic.

In years past, the competitions were far enough away that the students needed to fly to compete. That’s not really an issue, except, for reasons I’m not able to explain, they seem to always find themselves in the midst of flight delays and cancellations. That’s stressful, because if they’re delayed too long, it seriously impacts their ability to participate in their competition.

So, when they announced this year’s competition would be in Louisville, they immediately told me they were driving. Great. And the plan was for me to drive with them, until I realized I’d double-booked myself and needed to come home the day before they were. Okay, no problem, they take the cars, and I’ll take a flight.

Trouble is, our university just renegotiated our rental car agreement, so I wasn’t really sure the students would be able to pick up their cars without issue. So I was glued to my phone all morning, just waiting for someone to tell me they had a problem (fortunately, my student organization is fantastic at getting itself out of a bind, so I really had no reason to worry). Then, finally, it came: a text message from one of my co-Presidents telling me…everything was fine. They got their cars and were already headed back to campus to pick up their colleagues and head to the land of bourbon. Excellent.

A few hours later, I was off to the airport. It was a beautiful morning: cool, a few clouds, no bad weather, and the slightest hint of a breeze (read: Zara was living her best life). I even made it to the airport a little earlier than I’d expected because there was almost no traffic (the week before, when I was going to Chicago, there was some traffic as a semi pulling a load of clementines had fallen over into the shoulder…random, I know). And I got a parking space closer to the terminal. Amazing. As ours is a fairly small airport, we’re usually through security (with Pre-check, obviously) and to our gate in about 10 minutes. This was also true today. Everything is going so well.

Where it Went Wrong

And all was well, as I sat at the gate waiting for the plane to arrive. My itinerary took me to Chicago first, with a very quick 55-minute layover (I know, I know), and then from there to Louisville.

So there I was, drinking my coffee, looking out the massive window, and just waiting. And…waiting. And, waiting. Finally, we heard our plane had landed – about 10 minutes before we were supposed to take off. You’ll recall I had a 55-minute layover.

The gate agent was very calm and collected, reassuring us that they’d get the plane unloaded, cleaned, and ready to go in about 10-15 minutes, so we should take off approximately on time. We were further reassured that there was a strong tailwind that should help us get to Chicago on time, if not a little early. Cool.

Delays 1 & 2

Shortly thereafter, we assumed our positions as our boarding groups were called, dutifully lining up and heading down the jet bridge. Weirdly, everyone seemed to understand we were dancing on the precipice of being late, and so they just did what they were told, and we were on the plane in no time. Once fully boarded, the flight attendant closed the door and told the captain we were ready to go.

And then we sat there for what seemed like an eternity. Okay, fine, it was probably more like 10 minutes, but it felt like forever. Then, mercifully, the captain came on and said we were ready to go. So we did the usual taxiing thing and headed for the runway.

And then we sat. WTF, mate?

With as much as we travel, I’ve heard a lot of reasons for flight delays. But when the captain came over the intercom and told us they’d put too much fuel on the plane, I was…well, I’m not sure what the right word is. Surprised? Shocked? Confused? How does that happen? Isn’t this all measured? You know all of the variables involved in this equation: the type of plane, the distance to travel, current weather conditions, and how many people will be on the plane. I suppose they don’t know how much each person weighs, but we can use some population information to get a reasonably good guess, right? Wrong, evidently.

So, rather than take off, we had to sit close to the runway – just close enough to see it – and run the engines for 20 minutes to burn enough fuel to avoid being overweight at takeoff. We all looked around at each other, thinking the same thing: can’t they just…pump…it back out? Nope.

Delay 3

Finally, we heard the engines whine as the captain pushed the throttle and told us we were light enough for liftoff. So off we went, climbing into the sky and heading toward Chicago.

One of the unique things about Chicago’s O’Hare airport is that no matter where you land or which terminal your connecting flight departs from, you’ll inevitably taxi along the runway for what feels like the rest of your natural-born life. I keep saying I need to time this, but I always forget, likely out of frustration and pure rage every time I’m there. But honestly, am I wrong? I legitimately think we taxi for the better part of 20 minutes each time we’re there. It’s unreal.

And of course, when you’re already concerned about missing your connection, that taxi situation really does seem to take forever. Honestly, O’Hare, get it together.

Delays 4, 5, 6, and $%^&!

This part might be slightly exaggerated, but this is my story, so I’ll tell it how I like.

After touching down and finishing the taxi process, or so we thought, we came to a stop. Thinking we’d reached our gate, the plane full of people, most of whom had tight layovers, got up and started reaching for their things.

‘The captain hasn’t turned off the seatbelt sign, please stay in your seats, ‘ our friendly flight attendant said over the intercom. I was sitting in seat 1B, so literally the entire plane was behind me, but I can only imagine the looks sent toward the front. We were never told why we’d stopped (it was for about 5 minutes), but all of a sudden we started moving again. Yes! Nope. Stopped again about 20 feet later. Then moving. Yay! Nope, stopped again. This time there was another plane in our way, which is fair, because it’s not like they’re ABSOLUTELY HUGE vehicles, nor do our pilots have AN ENTIRE WINDSCREEN they’re looking out of.

It’s fine. Everything is fine. The other plane moves, then we do, too. Finally! We’ve arrived at our gate. Only, not. WHAT IN THE ACTUAL H*LL?! No ground crew at the gate. But, of course, there isn’t.

As we’re sitting there, I look at the flight attendant who seems to be anticipating my question. ‘What are my odds of making my 2.10 flight to Louisville?’ I ask. ‘What gate are you out of?’ she replies. ‘E6, just a 3-minute walk from our gate, so says the United app,’ I said. ‘Oh, you should be fine. Or well, I think you should be fine,’ she says with a slight smile. Sure. I look at my watch, and that’s about 25 minutes from now.

My Remedy

I put a lot of faith in my flight attendants knowing what they’re doing and saying, but at this point, let’s just say my faith was in serious question. As I stared at my watch, all I could think about was there being no plausible situation where I was getting on that plane.

Rather than get frustrated, I leveraged the magic that is the United app. I pulled up my itinerary, said I wanted to change my next flight, and was immediately presented with a list of flights from Chicago to Louisville the same day. The next flight was about 3 hours later, which was fine, because I’d just head to the lounge and have a beer (okay, maybe two).

A few clicks later, I was rebooked, had a new boarding pass, and instantly felt my stress disappear. All the while, my fellow passengers continued freaking out in the general direction of a flight attendant who was completely unable to move our plane to the gate, despite her best wishes.

One More Delay

We finally got to our gate roughly an hour after we were supposed to. The flight attendant asked everyone with longer connections to remain seated, as there were several folks with very tight connections. Amazingly, people actually listened, so our panicked friends could make their best attempt (some futile, of course) to make their connecting flights.

And as I got up to grab my backpack and leave the plane, I was immediately happy that I’d moved my flight. As I walked off the jetbridge, I was met by a crowd of people, the very same people with those very tight connections, who were now waiting for our valet-checked bags to get to us. Thoughts and prayers, friends.

Concluding Thoughts

Why am I writing this? What’s the point? Truthfully, I’m not sure. If you’re laughing, I assume you’ve been in a similar situation. You’re going to miss your flight despite doing everything you were supposed to do. It isn’t fair. But what is there to do? Two answers come to mind.

First, use technology to your advantage. We’ve mentioned this before, but it really does pay to use the tools the airlines make available for you. I was able to use their app to rebook my flight before I even left the plane. That meant I was less stressed because I had a good Plan B, which involved a trip to the lounge for refreshment.

Second, we’ve also mentioned this before, but be nice to your flight attendant. They’re probably stressed, too, both because they also have another flight to get to and because they’re legitimately ill-equipped to help resolve your tight connections and missed flights. Ask them for suggestions, but don’t expect them to fix the problem right then and there.

And remember, traveling is stressful for everyone, even the pros, so be nice.

P.S.

After a layover in the closest United lounge, I headed to my new gate. Once there, I glanced at my boarding pass to see which group I was in. Group 1. Weird, that’s reserved for…First Class. I hadn’t realized that when I changed my flight, it must have upgraded me to the First cabin.

Touche, Travel Gods. I see you.

The post Drat! The Travel Gods Strike. Again first appeared on The DeBode Way.

What we haven’t talked about very much is how to make your actual flight better. Mostly this is because we didn’t learn about it until recently, but now that we have, we wanted to share. If you’re like us, when you board the plane, you immediately head to the right, back in steerage while quietly wondering what it’s like to turn left. And, like many of you, we always assumed business-class seats were well beyond our financial reach, instead hoping – in vain – for the complimentary upgrades your friend of a friend of a friend got that one time. Or at least that’s the rumor.

Certainly, we’ve shared the products we use to help make our flight experience better, but wouldn’t it also be nice to fly in relatively more comfortable environs? Lay flat seat, anyone?

Booking for Business-Class

We can’t be the only ones who have been on an airline’s website looking for flights and, just for fun, told the engine to search for business (or higher!) class seats. And despite our most fervent wishes for one of those enigmatic ‘fluke’ fares (when the airline accidentally lists a really low price for an upper-class seat), our hopes are always dashed. You want how much for that seat?!

The thing is, when you book a flight in an upper-class cabin, like business-class, you’re booking your full itinerary in that class, or at least insofar as those cabins exist on the planes you’re flying on.

For example, when we leave from Springfield on United Airlines, we almost always head to Denver, Houston, or Chicago before jumping across the pond. That flight out of Springfield is almost always on a small, regional jet (commonly with a 1×2 seating configuration). Those planes don’t have a business-class cabin, so there’s little point in booking the full business-class ticket when some of our flights don’t have business-class seats. Especially at those prices!

We’ve also learned that we’re more interested in business-class seats on the way to Europe, but not as much on the way back. Why? Our flight to Europe is always overnight, meaning that we land first thing in the morning. That means if you don’t sleep on the plane, you’re awake for nearly 48 hours, and the older we get, the harder this is to pull off without any embarrassment. If you can sleep sitting up and your legs don’t throb after being under you for a few hours, kudos to you; it doesn’t work for either of us!

Upgrading to Business Class

If you’re following along, this means that what we’re really interested in is an upgrade to business class on our trans-Atlantic flight on the way to Europe, only. This next part is important: I *need* the airlines to understand that we’re fully prepared to accept complimentary upgrades to business- or first-class as often as they’re willing to give them to us. This conversation is only about the upgrades we must pay for.

To make this happen, we’ve found this process works best for us:

1. Book your flight at your regular ticket class. We’ve previously discussed how, especially on long-haul flights, we prefer the Premium Economy seats, so this is where we usually start when booking flights to Europe.
2. After your ticket is confirmed (usually, we wait a few days), log into your frequent flier account (if you don’t have one, you should; they’re free) and find your flight. Where these are located depends on the airline, but for United, they’re referred to as ‘Current trips’.
3. Then look for the ‘Upgrade Cabin’ option, which, again for United, is in the same area as seat changes, insurance, and ways to change or cancel your flight.
4. Click on the Upgrade Cabin button and in the new window it’ll give you the option to upgrade your flight using either money or miles. At first, we only ever looked at the Money option, which was frequently in the thousands of dollars. Nope. But then we started looking at the Miles option and things changed.

For example, on our upcoming flight to London, we can upgrade (to business-class) for $6,016 per person. This is just for the flight from Newark to London, not the flights from Springfield to Chicago or Chicago to Newark. Again, nope. OR we can upgrade using miles, in which case it’s 20,000 miles per person for our entire itinerary. There is also a fee of $425 per person, but that’s considerably more reasonable than $6,000, right?

Other Important Details

There are a few things we want to be clear about:

• First, this is our cost to upgrade from the Premium Economy to Business-class cabin. If you purchase a regular Economy ticket, the upgrade miles + fees might be different, and they won’t let you upgrade at all if you buy a Basic Economy seat.

• Keep in mind that in this scenario, it’s 20,000 miles + $425 for each side of our itinerary. In other words, we’d have to pay this on the way to Europe and the same on the way back, meaning that our total upgrade cost would be 40,000 miles and $850 per person. But again, we’re mostly focused on the upgrade to Europe and will then roll the dice and hope for some kind of complimentary upgrade on the way home. A person can dream.

• We recently learned that if you pay for the upgrade (either with Money or Miles) a while before you leave, you might get put on a Waitlist. You will still be charged, but they’ll wait to upgrade you until closer to your flight, often 24-48 hours before you leave. That’s frustrating but know that if the upgrade ends up not being available, you’ll be refunded for the upgrade charge.

We know $425 per person is still a hefty price to pay, especially when flights are getting more expensive. However, it’s much less than paying directly for the upper-level cabin, so we’re okay with it. Especially since we’ll arrive at our destination ready for a great time instead of with painful legs, desperate for some rest, and seriously jetlagged. Remember, all this time we’ve talked about ways to save money so you can either travel for less, or be more discerning about where/when you splurge; this is one place we see the value in splurging when we can.

Not sure you have enough miles? No problem. You can purchase miles, but we never go this route. Instead, if you have a credit card that accrues points and is a partner with United (check your credit card portal for details), you can transfer points from your credit card to your United account. Alternatively, if you know where to look (we always leverage help from our friends at 10X Travel), you can find great sign-up bonus deals for a new credit card. As always, if you decide to open a new card, we always advocate for knowing your spending limits and never going beyond that. In other words, when we open new cards, it’s for the bonus, and we already know how it fits into our current spending and how to offset any annual fees with the benefits the card brings. Always spend responsibly!

We hope this is as helpful for you as it has been for us. Again, we don’t do this every flight, but for the long-haul flights, those lay-flat seats and quieter cabin really do make a difference.

Whatever you do, get out there and live your best life! See you out there!

The post The Hidden Secret to United Business Class Upgrades first appeared on The DeBode Way.

As I was sitting at the rooftop bar at my hotel in the heart of Madrid back in August, I got a notification from Air France for my flight the following day. If you’ve been reading along about my adventure of getting to Madrid this summer, you might read this with a tinge of panic; I know that was my immediate reaction when I got their notice. Fortunately, all was fine, and they were letting me know there was an option to upgrade my regular economy seat to business class for $130. *whew*

I see these updates all the time, and always ignore them. That’s not to say I’m uninterested in flying in an upgraded cabin, but the upgrade fees can easily end up being more than the cost of my entire ticket, and so it never really seems worth it. But, $130? That’s a different story. I should clarify this was a one-way flight from Madrid to Paris that was scheduled to take about 2 hours. Still, they had my interest.

I figured the upgrade would get me a nicer seat, with more space, drinks, better food, and other ‘gourmet delights’ that were sure to make my experience worth the extra money. Sure. But I was curious and was willing to spend the $130 to find out whether Air France’s business class, at least on a short-haul flight, was worth the money. So, after thinking it over for a few minutes, I forked over the money for the upgrade and was rewarded with a new seat number. What I didn’t know was all the other stuff that came with my upgrade.

At the Airport

As it turns out, when I got to the airport the following morning to check in for my flight, I was able to go through the line specifically for business and first-class customers. Sounds obvious but it wasn’t something I’d really thought about. This was nice, as it turned out there were 30 or so folks in the line for economy passengers and…wait for it…no one in the business line. As the gate agent was finishing up the check-in process, she told me to go to the VIP security area, not the regular security area. Eh? I had no idea.

She was very nice and, seeing my confusion, pointed me in the right direction: go ALL the way down and you’ll find the VIP area. Okay, seems simple enough. So off I go, wondering what exactly a VIP security area is. A few minutes later, I found out. It’s basically the same thing as a regular security line (sadly, no TSA Pre-Check lanes in international airports) but with almost no passengers. So, while the regular security check point had the familiar lines winding back and forth, the VIP area had a single couple in line ahead of me. I still had to take my belt off, computer out of my backpack, and the usual routine, but because there was no one else in line, it went so much faster.

Pre-Departure Nibbles

What the gate agent also told me was that I could get into the VIP lounge while I was waiting for the gate assignment for my flight. If you’ve read our blog before, you know that one of the best perks of our travel credit cards – especially our Platinum Card from American Express – is that it gets us into lounges (you can read about them here). Some lounges are better than others, but all of them generally let you relax before your next flight and grab a bite to eat, which, in an era of ever-more frustrating travel experiences, has a ton of value for us.

So, after going through VIP security, off I went to the VIP lounge. Nice. After walking in and scanning my boarding pass, I was directed to the food and drink selection. As it was roughly 10am, the food was a typical European breakfast: deli meats and cheeses, fresh fruit, pastries, and coffee stations. But the self-service bar was also open (and not monitored…I see you, VIP lounge staffers), as was a huge cooler that had all manner of drinks: beer, sodas, juices, water, and so on, as well as sandwiches, yogurts, and the like. All self-service. So, I grabbed a coffee, a few pastries, and fresh fruit and snagged a seat along the wall of windows that had a pretty cool view: I got to watch the planes landing at the airport while munching on croissants. Pretty cool.

Shortly after my breakfast, I got a whiskey and Coke Zero, because…wait, do I need a reason? No, and stop judging me. I threw in a lime slice for good measure, and limes are fruit, so it was basically a smoothie.

After relaxing for a bit, I headed off to my gate to board my short flight to Paris. Fortunately, something, or rather someone else was waiting for me in Paris: Tasha. More on that here, but suffice it to say I was ready to be in Paris and see my partner for the first time in nearly three weeks.

In-Fight Experience

I wish I could say the business-class experience on my flight was as nice as the pre-flight accoutrements, but it’s more accurate to describe it as meh. Much to my surprise, the seat itself didn’t seem any different than the economy seats other than there were fewer seats in our section, and they were only two across. But the actual seat looked exactly the same as the economy seats. I will say we had our own flight attendant, which was nice. It’s also not nothing to have fewer people fighting over the overhead bin space. In fact, the seat next to me was empty, so I had the full overhead bin to myself and got to spread out a little more than usual. Talk about small luxuries…

Our cabin did get pre-departure cool towels to wipe down with (yes cool, because it was crazy hot in Madrid, so a hot towel would have been insulting), which was super refreshing. Once the flight took off, we got a light meal shortly after the familiar *ding* indicating we’d just broken through 10,000 feet. The menu: a roll with butter, small salad, and a cold salmon salad over pasta kind of situation. Not something I’d have ordered, but it was tasty. Or maybe it was the wine. Or the whisky and Coke Zero. Either way, I didn’t hate the experience.

Once we landed it was also nice being at the front of the plane and with fewer people swarming around. All that meant a more relaxed exit which, again, isn’t nothing.

The Verdict

In the end, the biggest question I asked myself was whether I’d shell out the money for a similar upgrade in the future. I’ll admit the overall experience wasn’t what I was expecting, but taking everything into account, I think I’d do it again, just with more accurate expectations. Thinking about everything that was included in the $130: shorter wait time to check my bag, VIP security area, access to the lounge, fewer people in the cabin, the meal and drinks, and better service all made for a more relaxing flight experience. More than anything, after the craziness of Madrid, that was worth the money, at least for me. The only thing I was really disappointed with was the physical seat I was in, but even then, for only a two-hour flight, it wasn’t really that bad.

Now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed to get a similar offer for our next long-haul flight to Scotland. Probably best to not hold my breath as well.

The post Unexpected Paid Airline Upgrade – Worth It or Not? first appeared on The DeBode Way.

As we’ve talked about in prior posts, one of the neat things about Jason’s job is it gives him the opportunity to travel. Sometimes he’s traveling with students, sometimes he’s traveling to students. When traveling with students, we’re always staying in hotels of various types because it’s just so much easier than trying to find some other kind of accommodation with enough space. But when he’s traveling to students, that’s a different scenario.

Most often, when Jason travels over the summer to teach his students, he’s in one location for a medium-length period, what we’ll call somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks. In our experience, there are two main choices when it comes to a temporary home for this length of time: apartments or hotels. Until this most recent adventure, he’s always stayed in an apartment, but that changed this time, as he opted to stay at a hotel the entire time instead. So, let’s talk about the pros and cons of each option, at least as we see them.

Apartment Living

There are lots of things to like about having an apartment in a new city, especially when it’s in a foreign country. Having a space that’s really all yours is really nice, especially if you’re coming back from a long day of work. Let’s talk about a few of those things:

• Space. More than anything, having your own apartment (or a flat, if you’re in Europe) gives you the luxury of space that’s all yours. Most often, Jason stays in a one-bedroom apartment, so there’s dedicated space to spread out and relax without feeling cramped. Of course, it’s helpful to keep in mind that ‘space’ is relative, and when you’re in Europe it’s good to know their apartments trend smaller than in the US. Still, having your own space is great.
• Kitchen. The kitchen area isn’t one that we use all the time, but having the option to do so is super important. When you travel, it often means you’re eating new things cooked in new ways. That’s all fine and well, and a big part of why we like traveling; however, it also disrupts your regular eating habits which can cause…let’s just call them ‘issues’. For instance, we tend to eat lots of veggies while at home, but that’s difficult to do when we’re abroad, particularly when we’re in Spain where the diet is heavy on meats, cheeses, and carbs. So, having a kitchen where we can cook our own food can be a game changer and help keep us close to our usual eating habits.

• Work Area. Because we travel most often for work, having a dedicated workspace is really helpful. Sometimes that’s an actual office, while other times it’s a desk or table in a side room or off in the corner of a living room, for example. Regardless, having a place where we can set up shop and get some work done is nice, especially when it’s not on a bed or couch (unless we want it to be!).

• Location. One of the neat things about apartments is they’re usually in more residential locations. That gives you a different perspective on the places you visit. Being in more populous locations has its benefits, no doubt. But there’s something nice about waking up, walking outside, and being in the middle of a neighborhood, or over a local coffee shop. More often than not, your apartment will be in a quiet part of town that has less traffic, and a very different feel than the more touristy parts of the area. And, if you pick the right apartment, it’ll give you all of this while still being close to local transportation options like train and metro lines.
• Privacy. Above all else, apartments are nice because it’s your space. Most of the apartments we’ve had do not come with cleaning help. Sure, that means we need to keep the place tidy, but it also means no one will ever bother us, come into our apartment, or anything of that nature. To be sure, some apartments will give you the option of visits by a cleaning company, but we’ve never used that option and so we’re relatively confident no one will be in the apartment other than us.
• Laundry. If you get really lucky, you can find an apartment with at least a washing machine available for use. This significantly cuts back on the amount of time you may have to spend washing clothes by hand if you packed carry-on only like we typically do. There is not always a dryer available, so you will be hanging your clothes to dry either way, but the spin cycle on a washing machine does allow them to dry faster than hand wringing before hanging. Toss you clothes in before you head out for the day and hang them up when you get back.

While there are lots of things to like about having your own apartment, there are a few potential drawbacks to keep in mind.

• Scams. More and more, you have to be really careful about travel scams. Our experience has been that the more popular services like Air BNB and VRBO are pretty secure, but we’ve heard about scams when booking on various platforms, or directly with apartment owners. What’s even more concerning is we’ve been hearing about scams associated with these platforms. For example, more than a few folks have said they originally started to book their stay on the platform but then received a message from the owner (or so they thought) outside the platform asking them to book directly, as it saves them (the owner) from paying the associated fees. Sounds great, until you learn it was a scam, so they get your money and you didn’t really book that apartment like you thought you did. All that’s to say, be careful and know what you’re getting into, and always only communicate through the platform you’re booking with.
• Fixes. Most of the time, our apartment stays are uneventful, which is to say, nothing goes wrong. But every now and again, something does. One time, our keys didn’t work. Another time the router died and so the Wi-Fi went down. We’ve had friends who had a water heater start leaking in the apartment, causing a minor flood in their kitchen. Regardless of what happens, when it happens you need to talk to the owner/landlord/management company, rather than calling down to a front desk as you would at a hotel. Even the more responsive owners usually take longer to get things fixed than your hotel, and depending on the fix that’s needed, that can get frustrating.
• Amenities. Most of the apartments we’ve stayed at have no amenities. No gym, restaurant, pool, coffee shop, etc. None of it. Think about it, do you have those things in your apartment building? If you do, you’re living your best life and we’re happy for you. Of course, there are apartments you can rent in buildings/places like that, but they tend to get pretty expensive.

The Hotel Experience

We generally prefer staying at hotels, especially when they earn us points we can use to stay at hotels again. What do we like about hotels? Lots of things, it turns out. Let’s talk about them:

• Location. Most of the hotels we book during our travels are in pretty neat locations. Sometimes they’re in the middle of a city, sometimes within walking distance of parks or neat monuments. Sometimes they’re in castles. Other times they’re in renovated historic buildings or landmarks. All that’s to say, it’s pretty hard to beat the variety of cool locations in which you can find hotels. Of course, that’s part of what you’re paying for, but if you really want that kind of experience and the ability to walk out your front door and onto the local metro, a hotel might just be your best option.

• Amenities. While your apartment might be pretty minimal, your hotel probably isn’t. Pool? Check. Room service? You bet. Concierge? Sometimes, yes. Daily turn-down service? If you like. Gym? Almost always. Different hotel brands will have unique amenities on their properties, but almost all hotels will have some kind of amenities included in your bill. So, if you’re looking for a bit of extra pampering, a hotel might be what you’re looking for.
• Certainty. Probably more than anything, when you book a stay at a hotel you usually have a really good idea of what you’re getting. We try to stay within the Hilton family of hotels as much as possible, both because we like their different hotels, but also because we always know what we’re getting if we stay at a Hilton, Hampton, Hilton Garden Inn, or something along those lines. Even when we stay at one of their unique properties in the Tapestry collection of hotels, we still know it’s affiliated with Hilton and know what to anticipate. That’s rarely the case with an apartment.

That said, there are also lots of reasons you might not want to stay at a hotel:

• Price. Obviously, a nice hotel can set you back a considerable amount of money for a medium-length stay, and this goes up dramatically as you increase the quality of the hotel you book. It’s really easy to find hotels in the $200 – $400 price range, per night. And if you’re staying for 2-3 weeks, that can get expensive quickly. That’s not to say it isn’t worth it, but when numbers get that high, it pays to be sure that’s your best option. However, we have noticed that house or apartment rentals have also increased drastically in price in the past few years, making them more equal to a hotel.
• Experience. If you want to live like a local, a hotel might not be your first choice. Then again, some hotels are nestled among apartments and houses, so it’s not impossible to have that experience with a hotel, but it might be more challenging to find.
• Space. Above all else, space in hotel rooms is a premium, especially when traveling to Europe. For example, during Jason’s most recent stay, he worked from a small loft area in his hotel room from a low-sitting couch and a coffee table. Had this been an apartment, there would have been a kitchen table or even a dedicated office space to get his work done. In an even more recent stay in Paris, we were both hoping to get work done for part of the day but our room was literally about a foot larger than the bed. Suddenly you find yourself turning you bed into a double office, which isn’t exactly comfortable either.

• Eating out. One of the biggest drawbacks of staying at a hotel is your inability to cook your own food. Again, during Jason’s most recent experience, he had no kitchen facility in his hotel room. In fact, he didn’t have a microwave or a refrigerator either. There was a minibar that had a small refrigerator, but it was really small and didn’t give him the option to store his own food. Even if he could have, there was no way to reheat things in his room. That means he had to eat out for every meal, every day. That might sound cool, but eating at restaurants every day can get old (and expensive) fast.
• Laundry Facilities. Rarely will you find an apartment style hotel accommodation with a washing machine available. Most hotels have some sort of laundry service you can use for a fee, but we often resort to washing a few things at a time in the sink and hanging to dry overnight. This typically means you wash and hang things almost every night as part of your daily routine. You could also try to locate a local laundromat but sitting and watching your laundry spin while you’re on vacation is not exactly my idea of fun.

In the end, you know your travel style and life habits better than anyone, so do what makes the most sense for what makes you comfortable. Sometimes we like the apartment option, while other times we prefer a hotel. It just depends on the kind of experience we’re after and how expensive it’ll be to make it happen. And yes, there are other options out there aside from apartments and hotels, but these are what have worked the best for us so far with the type of traveling we typically do.

Happy tavels!

The post Medium-Term Travel: Where do you stay in a new city? first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Find all the credit card referral links we mention in our posts, right here!

Friends! If you’ve been reading our posts, you know we’re big fans of travel credit cards. Yes, they charge annual fees. But as with most things, you get a fair amount in return for that fee. The return is more than enough to offset the fee multiple times if you use all the benefits that come with those cards.

We tend to stick to a few main cards, which we’ve listed below:

The Platinum Card from American Express

Chase Sapphire Preferred

United Club Infinite

Hilton Honors Aspire

Thanks for using our links! We can’t wait for you to rack up your own points so we can see you out there!

The post Exclusive Credit Card Referral Links first appeared on The DeBode Way.

We hope you all had/have a wonderful Spring Break. We had grand plans for an East Coast adventure to visit family and a new little niece, and catch some sleep on a plane after a busy few weeks, but we decided to stay home in the end to organize our life. It has been a very busy semester for Jason at the University, so laying low and getting work done while everyone else was away on trips was the best plan for us this time.

One of the unexpected things on our list involved finding a way for Jason to sleep wearing goggles following his LASIK surgery. I had an epiphany as he tossed and turned the first night – my travel pillow! I have trialed various versions of the trusty neck pillow over the years and had a few options for him to try – hard memory foam, soft memory foam, and a foam version with a buckle strap to hold it in place. All with a hole in the middle for his goggles when used as a regular pillow. Ultimately, he opted for his version of a throw pillow and the couch for 5 nights, but it left me shaking my head. He is an adamant hater of the travel pillow, which is unfortunate. It makes my life so much more manageable on those overnight flights! We all know getting sleep on a plane is nearly impossible unless you’re one of the blessed who can sleep through anything.

I should elaborate. Jason is a hater of the neck pillow in flight situations (but also apparently in this recent one as well) because he is a stomach sleeper. He has never been able to sleep even slightly upright. This poses quite an issue on all our overnight flights to Europe. He usually arrives with no sleep, and we typically try to keep the arrival day very busy so we are immediately operating in the right time zone. Oh, and lots of coffee.

Our trials after no sleep on airplanes

You may recall our trek from Edinburgh to the tip of the Isle of Skye as soon as we got off the plane last April (read about it here). Not the smartest thing we’ve ever done. We’ve also tried hop-on-hop-off bus tours in Edinburgh and Dublin to get the lay of the land…and fell asleep. Most recently, we found a slight winner by taking a walking tour of Hampton Court in London that kept us moving all day (read about that here), although the train ride there left us head bobbing. But the best option we’ve found is a flight that arrives later in the morning, an afternoon shopping trip to get organized for the rest of our trip, checking into the hotel as early as possible and getting an early dinner before calling it an early night. That leaves us ready to take on the first full day in the country come morning. The main thing here is to avoid going to bed or taking a nap until it’s the correct time in your new location.

If you are one of those people who can sleep anywhere, we’re totally jealous. I too do not sleep well unless I’m in my own bed and following my night routine, which is really annoying for someone who travels so much! But, I have adopted what I call high-maintenance hacks to help get a little shut-eye on flights and in hotels. Let’s talk about airplane sleep hacks first.

Location, Location, Location

Now, everyone sleeps differently, so you may prefer seat location other than what we suggest, but here’s what we do. We typically look for flights with seating that’s just two seats across, next to the window. I typically take the window seat so I can close the shade, and lean my head and sometimes my knees against the side of the plane and Jason typically takes the aisle seat so he can stretch out. This way, we’re only dealing with each other and our known sleep habits and not crawling over strangers or have them crawling over us in the middle of the flight. We also try to choose seats in sight of the lavatory, so we can see when it’s empty (so as not to crowd the aisle), but also far enough away that we’re not jostled by every person on the plane on their way to use it.

Many airlines let you see the seating charts available before you book your flight (I know this is true of United and American). Seat Guru is also another helpful tool for seeing what the seat options are on a particular style of plane before you book.

Stick to your Routine

You may find it a little odd to brush your teeth and put your favorite jammies on in the midst of hundreds of strangers, but your typical nighttime routine helps to mentally prepare your body for sleep. If you don’t opt to change clothes (we don’t), at least dress in comfortable layers so you can regulate your temperature and comfort level. Eating dinner at your regular time, brushing your teeth (with a bottle of water), and journaling or reading a book like I do can help your brain realize it’s time for some shut eye. This could mean opting out of the onboard meals and not turning on your screen in favor of trying to sleep. Even if you aren’t using a screen, wearing your noise cancelling headphones can help lower the volume on the plane so you can catch some zz’s.

I SWEAR by the neck pillow but also, the lumbar pillow.

As mentioned, I’ve tried many versions of neck pillows looking for the best option for me. Currently, I’m using a memory foam version with a buckle that straps the pillow around my neck (this one). As a side sleeper, this works best for me because it allows me to slightly tilt my head without it completely, embarrassingly, falling over and jerking me awake. Previously, I used a softer memory foam “C” shaped pillow that I wore backward (opening at the back of my neck) to keep my head from falling forward and my head/neck against the seat, but it wouldn’t stay put. I’ve also tried a hard memory foam version, but it was just downright uncomfortable and extremely bulky to pack. My current version rolls up and packs into its own little bag that I tie on the outside of my travel backpack. Space saver!

The real MVP for uncomfortable plane seats is the little pillow and sometimes the blanket they often give you on overnight flights. I typically stick these behind my lower back to help support it.

Let’s get a little high-maintenance

My pillow came with an eye mask and earplugs in a cute little case. At first, I thought that was excessive. I’d never used an eye mask in my life! I grew up in the country where the night is black and still bask in the darkness today, so there has never been a need to make it even darker. So until recently, I’ve always just closed my eyes and wore my noise-canceling headphones with sleepy music playing during the flight. Well. I was wrong. On our last overnight flight, I was desperate for sleep, so I put on the eye mask and plugged in the earplugs. Complete darkness, peace, AND some sleep ensued. I’m forever changed.

Get your feet up

I once had a chiropractor tell me I need to keep my body moving on long trips. Unfortunately, we know how impossible this can be on an airplane or a long car trip. It’s true that on long-haul flights, the flight attendants are more okay with you getting up to walk around and stretch your legs, but even this has its limits. I have scoliosis and it’s very painful for me to sit or stand for very long without moving. His tip was to put my backpack under my feet and then remove it in roughly 20-minute intervals to keep the curve in my low back moving while I’m forced to be in one seated position. This worked beautifully for me along with a little lumbar pillow until we started traveling with our computers. I didn’t want to crush it in my backpack, so I went on a search for another option.

Hello, foot sling! This little gem works perfectly when we have to take a long flight. The strap hooks over the tray table on the seat in front of me and adjusts to whatever height I need it. A note of caution though – don’t irritate your neighbor in the seat in front of you. Carefully put your feet in the sling and remove them without leaning into it so you don’t jerk their seat. Nobody likes someone jerking the back of their seat around. I love that this version of the foot sling has a hard metal insert to keep the base flat so your feet don’t smash into each other. As a bonus, it packs flat into its bag, and it’s highly padded, so it’s like you have your feet up in your favorite recliner at home…almost.

While the sling does a great job of getting my feet up and my back moving, it really only works well in economy seating for me. In premium economy, the seats are too far apart (I’ll never say that again) for it to be comfortable in my low back for me. In United’s premium plus, I don’t need it at all because there are built-in footrests, which are glorious. While we would all love to fly business or first class and have the space to actually lie down, that’s generally not feasible for anyone looking to stretch their dollar and miles over multiple trips. Our biggest splurge so far has been for the premium plus cabin on miles and now I’m forever ruined. But if you haven’t jumped on the points/miles train yet (um…why?), this sling helps so much with the cramped seating situation. And…the metal part comes out, so it’s completely washable!

Don’t forget about your circulation

And finally…compression socks. This is a new one for me that I’ve just recently started experimenting with. I’ve started to notice how tired, sore, and swollen my legs and feet get after a series of long flights. It takes all of my willpower to drag them through the border control line at the end of our flight and then I have to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate to get them working again. Liquid IV is a great help to rehydrate faster, but I’ve been looking for an option with far less sugar. Instagram knew and I stumbled upon these from Basis Hydration that we’ll be taking on the next trip.

I’ve been hunting for some extremely stylish compression socks to give a try at the recommendation of my sister, a surgical tech who spends her day on her feet sporting fabulous compression socks. You bet I ordered some of these for our next flight with an army of students. Maybe I can embarrass them with my stylish travel mom fashion. Or maybe, I need some of these to really up my game! I’m glad I found some made with Merino wool, it’s my favorite fiber for socks – especially travel socks because wool doesn’t stink at the end of a long day.

Hotel sleep is crucial too

As a bonus, I give you my hotel sleep hacks.

I’m an extremely light sleeper, every little noise has my eyes popping open. Our first defense against this is choosing hotels in quiet locations, away from busy highways, and busy tourist locations with nightlife. We also choose high floors away from elevators. If we can be tucked away in the corner room at the end of the hallway on the top floor, this is best. I love being a Hilton Diamond member so we can choose exactly where we want our room!

When all or some of that fails, sound machine. I have an app on my phone called White Noise Generator that allows me to create a symphony of sounds (rain, fan, rustling leaves, rolling thunder, white noise, etc.) to drown out any other noises and lull us to sleep. If you can still hear things happening around you, pull out your trusty earplugs and turn up the volume on your alarm if you need it the next morning. Getting enough sleep is crucial to the enjoyment of your trip. Trust me.

I hope this leaves you with some shut-eye

Flying is my least favorite part of our travels for various reasons, but these airplane sleep hacks have made it more bearable for me. And yes, all these things fit into our carry-on only packing routine! I’m hoping one or a combination of these hacks can help make your trip far more comfortable too. There’s so much world to see, we want you prepared to take it on!

The post How to Get Good Sleep on a Plane first appeared on The DeBode Way.

You’ve heard us drone on about some of our favorite travel hacks, time savers, favorite travel products, and money savers for about a year now, but have we talked about TSA PreCheck & Global Entry yet? Lets!

Picture this: it’s the day of your much-anticipated trip to wherever you’re excited about going. You’re packed and ready to go until life happens and delays you leaving for the airport on time (this usually means some sort of escaped animal, frozen water, or no electricity for us…sigh…we could write a whole post about ridiculous things that happen as we’re trying to leave). When you finally get to the airport, as a savvy traveler you’ve already checked in online and have your boarding pass on your phone, so you head straight for security because you’re not checking bags. Excellent. And then you get to the security line and things slow…way…down. You know the drill, file through the line where you’ll invariably end up behind the folks who have never traveled before, have no clue what to do, and have 5 kids with them. Yep, these are the folks who don’t take the liquids out of their bag, can’t understand why they should take their shoes off, and ask several times whether their iPad is the same as a laptop and so needs to come out of their bag. Hey, everyone has to start somewhere. If you’re like us, you only plan to get to the airport with just enough time to grab a coffee and stroll to your gate, with maybe a last-minute trip to the restroom before your plane is ready for you. So, when things happen to cause delays (because they always do), it can be a stressful start to your trip.

Similarly, have you ever traveled internationally and, after your long flight home (on which you may or may not have slept) you get the joyful experience of US Customs at your first airport in the US. Not familiar? Imagine a very long line (seriously, where did all these people come from?!) that never really seems to move. At the end you get to talk to a stoic Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent who asks about your trip, what you did, where you went, what you brought home with you, and the like. Finally, you’re welcomed home so you can collect your checked bag (we only check on the way home if we can help it) and re-check it to your final destination while heading to face security, again. Fun stuff.

Surely, you’re thinking, there must be a better way. Fortunately, there is. Welcome to the world of TSA PreCheck and Global Entry. Both are things we were a little reluctant to spend the money on at the beginning of our travel adventures and neither are things we’re willing to do without now that we’ve seen the light. Let’s explain.

TSA PreCheck

This is probably our favorite travel program we’re a part of. Yes, even more than Global Entry, but that’s mostly because we use PreCheck more. So, what’s the big deal? When you get to the airport and find your way to the security screening area, you’ll notice two lines. Commonly on your right is the line where most folks go. You know, the one that moves slower than the laws of physics and time might suggest it should. Then, usually on the left, there’s a line that almost never has anyone in it, at least at our local airport. That line, the empty one, is the TSA PreCheck line. If you’re part of the club and are PreCheck approved, you’ll take that left and head straight to the TSA officer. They’ll check your documents and then tell you to go left again, at which point you toss your bag on the conveyor belt for its screening and walk through a regular metal detector before heading on your way. Note: at no point do you take anything out of your bag, remove your shoes, or anything else. You will need to empty your pockets, but otherwise, that’s about it. Easy breezy, grab your bag and head to your gate, after a coffee stop, naturally.

You might not think the regular security screening line takes that much time, but after you’ve had the PreCheck experience once, going back to the regular line is about as appealing as your upcoming high school reunion (shudder). Plus, not having to remove any of your things from your carefully packed bag keeps your belongings cleaner and less exposed to the nasty stuff you can pick up in the public transit world.

So, how do you join the PreCheck club? Great question. According to the TSA PreCheck Website, you’ll need to submit an application that takes roughly 5 minutes to complete. Once that’s done there’s a brief appointment (about 10 minutes) where you’ll answer a few questions and get fingerprinted. Then TSA will conduct a background check, making sure you’re not on any of the no-fly (or other) lists the government keeps. Once that’s done, you’ll get your approval and you’re all set. There is a $78 application fee and, once approved, your PreCheck is good for 5 years, at which point you’ll need to renew. Believe us, it’s well worth the money.

One quick reminder: after you’ve been approved for TSA PreCheck, each time you check in for your flight, take a quick look at your boarding pass. See a green check mark on the pass? Great, you’re all set to head to the PreCheck screening lane when you get to the airport. But, if you don’t see that check, make sure you stop by your airline’s check in desk at the airport to see if they can look into it. When you purchase your ticket, you must put your Known Traveler number in your reservation so they know you’re part of PreCheck and you get your little check mark. Also keep in mind that PreCheck is usually only found at US airports; if you’re travelling abroad, you might need to visit the regular line with everyone else. Apologies.

Global Entry

So, PreCheck is great for your domestic flights in the US, but it doesn’t really do you any favors when you’re coming home from a trip abroad and have to go through US Customs and Boarder Control. Good news, friends: this is where Global Entry comes into play.

After you deplane at your first airport in the US, your first stop will be US Customs. If you don’t have Global Entry, you’ll experience a scene not dissimilar from the one we described above with the security line. If you do have Global Entry, you can walk past that very long, slow line. Friendly tip: don’t wave as you walk by; it’s not received well. So, keep walking past those lines to the Global Entry area (there will be signs directing you, or just ask one of the helpful CBP folks in the area). Once there, you’ll walk up to a kiosk, which are typically quite empty, it’ll take your picture and give you a receipt. Then walk to the CBP officer, hand them your receipt, and continue on your way. In all, this experience almost always takes us less than 5 minutes. Amazing, right?

Interested? Good. If so, head over to the CBP’s Global Entry website and fill out your application. As with PreCheck, once your application is processed you’ll receive an e-mail directing you to schedule an in-person appointment at a Global Entry office (they’re usually located in international airports). At your appointment they’ll scan your passport, ask you a few questions, and take your picture. Once all of that is processed, you’ll receive your Global Entry card and Known Traveler ID number, which you can add to your flight information when you purchase your ticket(s).

The Global Entry application fee is $100 per person, but as with TSA PreCheck, to say this is worth the money is an understatement.

Free is Always Best

If you’re wanting to enroll in both PreCheck and Global Entry, the fees will total $178 per person and, again, the programs are good for 5 years (which amounts to about $36/year). But, if you’re a savvy traveler who responsibly uses travel-focused credit cards, make sure you check out the benefits that come with your card(s). If you have a mid- or top-tier card, the odds are good the card will cover your PreCheck and/or Global Entry fees so long as you use that card to pay for the application fees. For us, both our Platinum Card from American Express and United Club Infinite cards come with this benefit.

To sum it up, these programs are well worth the money to make your life easier and less stressful during your travels. And if you can get them for free, why not?

Happy travels!

The post Approved: An Easier Way to Travel – TSA PreCheck & Global Entry first appeared on The DeBode Way.

As I write this blog post, it’s the start of both a new month (January) and year (2023). And perhaps one of the biggest pieces of travel-related news that came at the end of 2022 was Southwest Airlines’ cancellation of more than 15,000 flights during the height of the Christmas travel season. Fortunately for us, though we did travel for Christmas it was in our car, not a plane. And even if we had flown, it’s unlikely it would have been on Southwest as they don’t fly into our local airport. Still, all these cancellations got us thinking: what’s a person to do if your flight gets cancelled? Sure, we’ve been there (and have written posts about it) and, well, it sucks. But depending on how you paid for your flight, if this happens to you, things might not be quite as bad as they seem. Hopefully, you have some level of travel insurance.

We’ve talked before about the different kinds of benefits that come with our travel-focused credit cards, and perhaps one of the most ubiquitous are travel-related insurance policies including baggage insurance, trip delay insurance, and trip cancellation insurance. Not all cards offer all of these, and for those that do, the policies can vary, so make sure you read the fine print for your specific card(s). In general, if your card includes these benefits and you pay for your flight (and other related charges, like checked baggage fees) with the same card, you might not be entirely on your own if your flight gets cancelled or your bags get lost (yep, this has also happened to us, as we’re written about in a prior post).

As you might expect, policies like these are written with a lot of fine print, so it’s important to familiarize yourself with the details of your policy before you head out on your next adventure.  Let’s use our Platinum Card from American Express as an example for the following insurance policies, all of which are benefits that come with this card.

Baggage Insurance

This is probably the more common event, so let’s start with baggage insurance. We’ve flown a lot over the past few years and have only had issues with our checked bags once. So, while it does happen, we don’t want to suggest it’ll happen often, or at least it hasn’t to us. *knock on wood* Although I will say, after this incident, we adopted our “carry-on only, unless we’re headed home policy” and things have gone MUCH smoother. There’s no standing at the luggage claim wondering if you’ll see your bag again. But, if you must check your bags…

According to our AMEX policy, a few things need to happen for this policy to come into effect. First, we have to pay for the entire cost of our travel using this card. In other words, if we paid for one leg of the flight on our AMEX card and put another leg on a different card (say our Chase Sapphire Preferred card), this policy won’t work, as it explicitly says the entire trip is from your point of departure to the point of destination. Second, it needs to be a covered trip, which means your ticket was issued by the carrier and you traveled on one of their vehicles (e.g., one of their planes). Assuming those conditions have been satisfied, then covered persons (you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children under 23 years of age) are covered under the policy (again, assuming everyone’s tickets were paid for with this card).

For our policy with AMEX, if our bags are damaged or lost, we can be reimbursed for their value up to $2,000 for checked baggage and/or $3,000 for carry-on baggage, up to a total combined maximum of $3,000 per covered person. So, let’s say whatever you had in your carry-on bag was worth $3,000. In that case, if you also had a checked bag, you wouldn’t be reimbursed for its value because that would exceed your $3,000 maximum per person.

As you might expect, AMEX puts a limit on the value of certain items deemed ‘high risk items’ which includes things like jewelry, cameras, and computers, each of which have a maximum reimbursable value of $1,000. Other items aren’t covered at all, including things like travel documents, plants, pets, food, and prescription drugs. By comparison, our United Club Infinite card puts a limit of $500 on the total combined value of any lost jewelry, watches, and electronics; this is include in the $3,000 maximum reimbursement per person.

One thing to keep in mind is that you’ll have to explain the value of what was in your lost/damaged bag. That assumes you have a good idea of what was in the bag and its approximate value. If you’re anything like us, the last time our bags were lost we had no idea how to value their contents. We knew there were clothes in them, but not the exact items or their value. All that’s to say, there might be benefit in keeping a rough inventory (or just take a picture for future reference) of what you’re packing, just in case you need it later. Same goes for your carry-on bag just in case it needs to be gate-checked and something happens.

There are variations on this, too. For example, our Chase Sapphire Preferred card has a baggage delay insurance policy, which reimburses for up to $100 per day for a maximum of 5 days for essential items like toiletries and clothes. This assumes we’ve paid for our travel using this card and our bag is delayed (but not lost or damaged, necessarily) for more than 6 hours.

Trip Delay Insurance

Have you ever been on an adventure and had a delayed flight? If you’re anything like us, it might be easier to answer when you haven’t had a delayed flight! For the most part, the delays are only a few hours, which isn’t so bad if you have a credit card that gets you into a quiet lounge with food and a bar (thanks United and AMEX!). But, if your delay is longer, you might be eligible for reimbursement if your card offers trip delay insurance.

The policy for our AMEX card says that, like the baggage insurance policy, for this policy to work we have to pay for the entire trip on our AMEX card and have to experience a delay of more than 6 hours for a covered reason. If that happens, we’re able to be reimbursed for certain expenses, up to $500 per trip (note, not per person). There are two catches here, so let’s talk about each.

Covered Reasons

First, what kinds of delay-causing events are covered by our policy? AMEX lists four events that will do the job: inclement weather, terrorist action, equipment failures, or lost/stolen travel documents.

Reimbursable Expenses

So, assuming you paid for your trip with the right card and the right kind of event led to your 6+ hour delay, what kinds of things can you be reimbursed for? AMEX says ‘reasonable additional expenses’ can be reimbursed, including things like meals, lodging, toiletries, medications, and other personal items. But again, keep in mind this maxes out at $500 per trip, so don’t go crazy.

It’s worth noting that cards might vary with the maximum reimbursement amount. For example, our AMEX card says they’ll reimburse up to $500 per covered trip. By comparison, our Chase Sapphire Preferred and United Club Infinite cards have the same policy and will reimburse up to $500 per ticket.

Trip Cancellation Insurance

Technically this is called Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance and, according to our AMEX policy, it covers non-reimbursable expenses, up to $10,000, when our trip is either cancelled or interrupted due to a covered event. As with the other two policies, the assumption is that we’ve paid for our entire trip on this card. Let’s clarify a few things.

Cancellation v. Interruption

AMEX clarifies that a trip has been cancelled if our travel arrangements are cancelled on or before your originally scheduled departure. On the other hand, a trip has been interrupted if something happens after you’ve either left for the point of departure (e.g., you’re on the way to the airport) or you’ve already started your travel, and something happens (e.g., your second flight gets cancelled during a layover).

Covered Events

Lots of things are covered events, more than I expected if I’m being honest. These include things like bad weather, illness, jury duty, if our house is ‘made uninhabitable,’ imposed quarantines, and a few other things. Again, this might just be how AMEX defines the events, so check with your specific card for your policy’s details.

Reimbursable Expenses

If our travel is cancelled, AMEX will reimburse us for all non-refundable expenses we paid the carrier for our trip. If our trip is interrupted, AMEX will reimburse us for whatever portion of our original non-refundable travel expense that was missed due to the interruption and any additional expenses we incur to either complete our original travel or to head home.

A few things to keep in mind

As with all things, it pays to do your homework before you leave to know what is and isn’t covered by whatever insurance policies your cards have for you.

Beyond this, because you have to put the entire cost of your travel on the one card, we almost always use a single card to pay for everything for a given trip, or at least the travel. For example, we’ll put all of our travel expenses on our AMEX or Chase Sapphire Preferred card, both of which have these travel insurance policies. That way we’re sure all expenses that can be covered are on the same card. We tend not to put hotels on these cards, particularly if we’re staying at a Hilton family hotel, because we’ll use our Hilton Honors Surpass card instead, which gets us a much better benefit. We’re less concerned about getting reimbursed for hotel-related expenses, as none of our travel insurance policies cover hotel expenses anyway.

Sometimes there’s a limit to how many times in a 12-month period you can use a certain insurance policy. For example, for our AMEX card, there’s no stated limit to the baggage insurance policy, however, we’re only able to use the trip delay and trip cancellation/interruption policies twice in a 12-month period (note, this doesn’t refer to a calendar year, but a 12-month period instead; these aren’t always the same thing).

For all three of our current travel credit cards (Platinum Card by AMEX, Chase Sapphire Preferred, United Club Infinite), these are secondary insurance policies. That means we have to seek reimbursement from the airline first. After we hear from them, then we can submit a claim to our credit card under one of these policies asking to be reimbursed for whatever the airline wouldn’t cover.

In the end, having unexpected delays, interruptions, or cancelations during your travel is an unhappy experience. Unfortunately, if you travel enough, it seems likely you’ll experience at least one of these. When that happens, you can take some comfort in knowing that there is help to be found, if only to help with the expenses of making yourself comfortable during the interruption.

As a reminder, when travelling:

• Do your homework before leaving to know what insurance policies your cards offer.
• Try to put as many travel-related expenses on a single card as you can, as many cards’ policies will only cover an expense if it was made with that card.
• Know what you pack in your bags. If you don’t want to write it down, take a good picture so you can more quickly put together documentation for the value of what was in your bag if it’s lost or damaged.

Happy traveling!

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The post Travel Insurance for the Unexpected – We Read the Fine Print first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Lately, we’ve been talking about different travel-related credit cards we use and the reasons we use them. In these posts, we’ve explained how some cards have an Annual Fee (AF) while others don’t. And, as you might guess, in general, the cards with AFs come with more benefits than those that don’t. It’s also fair to assume that cards with higher AFs have more benefits than cards with lower AFs. Perhaps, Platinum-level benefits. Let’s see…

Card Classifications

Broadly speaking, cards that don’t charge you an AF and, as a result, have few, if any perks, are grouped together and called ‘lower-tier cards.’ Cards with AFs ranging from, let’s say $95 – $300 per year are commonly grouped together and are referred to as ‘mid-tier cards.’ Finally, cards with AFs of more than $300 per year are often called ‘top-tier cards’ both because of their steep AF and the multitude of benefits they offer.

To give a few examples, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card we’ve talked about so much is arguably among the most popular mid-tier cards available today. If you’re looking to get started with a travel-focused card, we’d strongly encourage you to check this one out. Our Hilton Honors American Express Surpass card is also a mid-tier card, but very brand specific and we don’t recommend it unless you’re attached to Hilton (we scored top-tier status, during the pandemic- yay work – so we’re attached). By contrast, our United Club Infinite Card and our Platinum Card from American Express are both top-tier cards. In a prior post we’ve given just one example of how the benefits that come with our United card nearly offset the entire AF in just one trip home, but we haven’t really delved into our most premium travel card: the Platinum Card from American Express, so let’s fix that.

Platinum Ain’t Free, Folks

Okay, let’s get this out of the way: in case you were wondering, the AF for our Platinum card is $695. If you’re anything like us, the first time we saw this amount we were taken aback. Goodness me! How can a card possibly be worth that much money each year?! Take a breath and count to 10 (unless that’ll cause you to pass out, then scale it back). It’ll be okay.

First yes, $695 is a lot of money. However, as with all things, we don’t just give AMEX our money and wish them well (that’s a special benefit reserved for insurance companies, but even then there are choice words involved). Instead, we expect something in return. And probably like you, for that kind of money, we expect a lot in return. Fortunately, AMEX is happy to oblige us. If you check out the AMEX portal, they list no fewer than 51 benefits that come with the Platinum card. And that’s just as of today; there are always new/different things coming available.

Some of these are standard benefits that come with almost all mid-tier and top-tier travel cards, things like trip delay, cancellation, and interruption insurance policies (if you don’t know, these are different; that’s a discussion for a different post), baggage insurance, and so on. Some of the benefits are, admittedly, a little extra (like the Premium Private Jet Program. Honestly…), but others are potentially more useful (like the buying services and extended warranty benefits). Still, there are a few key benefits that we value the most, so let’s talk about those briefly and then explain how they help offset the AF for this card.

Key Benefits

The main benefits we get from our Platinum card can be put into a few general categories; we’ll talk about each.

Entertainment

Each year we receive up to $240 in digital entertainment credits when we use our AMEX card to pay for those bills. This includes Audible, Sirius XM, Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+, Peacock, and the New York Times. We don’t use all of these, but we do use Audible (Tasha), Sirius XM (Jason), Hulu, and Disney+. Importantly, these are services we use as a part of our normal spending, and so by shifting some of those bills to our AMEX card, they’re essentially free.

Travel Planning

As this AMEX card is a premium travel card, it shouldn’t be surprising that most of the benefits we get from it are travel-focused. Let’s talk about the big ones.

Each year we can receive a $200 hotel credit when we book the hotel through the AMEX travel portal. This is reserved for a few of their hotel collections, but within those collections are many, many options at a variety of price points (some are familiar, others, not so much). Similarly, each year we get a $200 airline fee credit. This one is a little trickier because you can’t use it for purchasing the flight itself but instead needs to be used for incidental expenses like seat upgrades, baggage fees, or onboard purchases.

We also immediately earn status with both Hilton (Gold status) and Marriott Bonvoy (Gold Elite status) by having these cards. Those status upgrades can bring room upgrades (when available), among other perks. Along those lines, we are also eligible for privileges with different rental car companies around the world. Those benefits include premium status (which can snag us free upgrades, when available), rental car protection, and rental car loss and damage insurance, meaning that as long as we pay for the rental on our AMEX, we can decline the provider’s insurance policies which can easily run you an additional $100 per day of use.

In addition, we can also receive a $189 annual CLEAR Credit (only available at certain airports, though the list is growing) and a credit for the fees associated with Global Entry ($100) or TSA PreCheck ($78).

Lounge Access

While the above benefits are all great – and we use them frequently – what we really like about the card is the airport lounge access that comes with it. As of the writing of this post, we can use lounges in Priority Pass Select, the AMEX Global Lounge Collection, and the AMEX Centurion Lounge Collection. You can’t pay for any of these directly (there are other levels you can purchase for Priority Pass, just not Select), they’re reserved for AMEX members (does that sound extra? #sorrynotsorry). More specifically, because guests are complimentary, we can both get in as a result of having this card. However, the policy is changing for the Centurion Lounges in February 2023 so that, unless you meet certain spending criteria, guests will be charged $50 per visit. Or, another option we’re looking at is getting Tasha her own authorized user Platinum card after February for an additional $175 a year for her own lounge access. This only makes sense if we plan to continue with a heavy travel schedule through specific airports and will want lounge access for multiple layovers on each trip. We’re still debating.

We love the oasis that is the Centurion Lounge. Good food, free drinks (unless you want premium spirits), free Wi-Fi, clean bathrooms, comfortable seating, and it’s quiet…at least usually. Assuming we have a long enough layover, this is the first place we head after getting off the plane. Okay, maybe not the first place, there might be meetings with men about horses…

Shopping

There are others, but the main shopping benefits we use are the $200 Uber cash (this does work for Uber Eats, though we’re only able to use this benefit while traveling as no one delivers to our house ), and the $100 from Saks Fifth Avenue (yes, there are things for under $100 you can get here, trust us, we’ve found them). Many of the shopping benefits change from month to month so we make sure to check them before we order something online.

Tallying It All Up

That’s a lot of benefits, and it isn’t even all of them. But these are the ones that drew us to the card more than the others and so are the ones we tend to focus on the most. As a recap:

• Entertainment: $240
• Travel Planning: $689 (hotel, airline, CLEAR, and Global Entry)
• Lounge Access: $50 per visit (for Tasha, starting in February 2023)
• Shopping: $300

I’m not great at math, but my calculator says this adds up to nearly $1300 in benefits each year from just the benefits we’re currently interested in. Remember the AF for this card is $695, which means these benefits alone offset the AF nearly twice each year. Not so bad if you can fork over the $695 each year, amiright? How do you like them apples?!

Caveats

As with all things, a few reminders:

• You’ll note that most of the benefits we’ve highlighted above are travel-focused. As we noted at the start of this post, that’s what we’re most passionate about and so we pick cards that have travel-focused benefits. That means this card works for us, but if you aren’t interested in travel this card might not be the right choice for you.
• We’ve said this multiple times before, but it’s important enough to repeat again: we make this card fit into our regular spending habits. In other words, we already had subscriptions to Audible, Sirius XM, Hulu, and Disney+ before we got the card; the benefit of getting a statement credit to cover some of that expense was one of the reasons we got the card. Said differently, we didn’t get the card, discover the benefit, and then look for a way to use it, adding to our monthly expenses. Similarly, we use the airline and hotel credits when we’re planning a trip somewhere, as this makes the trip less costly for us. With an AF as high as this one, it’s easy to get lulled into the trap of spending in every benefit category to get the biggest return on your investment, and that’s all fine until you get the bill. No benefit is worth ruining your credit score and/or checking account. There are many benefits that come with this card that we don’t use (remember the Private Jet program?) because they don’t fit into our regular spending habits.
• When we spend with our AMEX card, in addition to the above benefits we’re also racking up Membership Points. However, these can’t be combined with the Ultimate Rewards points we earn with our Chase cards. So, if you’re already doing great things with your Chase cards and want to keep all of your points with the same bank, AMEX might not make sense for your next card.

What are your favorite cards and what benefits do you like about it/them? Let us know!

Happy travels!

The post Platinum Looks Good On You (and Us) first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Case in point: at the time the Pirates movies are to have taken place (the mid-18^th century, by some accounts), a piece of eight was an actual thing – it was another name for a Spanish dollar, a legal currency at the time. As you might guess, there were nine pirate lords, each of whom needed something to indicate their membership as a pirate lord. Initially the token was supposed to be actual money (i.e., a piece of eight), but as ATMs weren’t at every port, sometimes the pirate lords found themselves without any cash (me too, pirates, me too). Further complicating things, cell service wasn’t always great while on the open seas during the Golden Age of Piracy, and so apps like Venmo were unreliable. Instead, they ended up using a personally-selected item. Now you know.

Enough Trivia – What is this 5/24 Rule?

Alright fine, though helpful for small talk at parties, pirate history isn’t what we’re here to discuss. But we are here to discuss a different set of numbers that also might not make immediate sense: Chase’s 5/24 rule. And no, this isn’t a reference to May 24^th. If you’re an avid reader of The DeBode Way (you are, right? Of course you are!) you’ll know that in our last post we talked about ways to maximize your travel points by earning Sign Up Bonuses (SUBs) from different travel-focused credit cards, though doing so responsibly. That’s a great way to rack up a considerable number of points, but it pays to be careful when taking this approach, as having multiple cards can make things complicated and expensive, especially if they have annual fees tied to them. Beyond this, some banks pay close attention to how many cards you open and when; as you increase the number of cards you open, the harder it gets to be approved for new cards. Perhaps the most well known of these rules is the 5/24 rule from JP Morgan Chase (Chase).

Still…what is it?

Here’s the deal: Chase has lots of travel-focused credit cards that are held in a high regard, like our Chase Sapphire Preferred card that we use for most of our regular expenses. Many of those have valuable benefits tied to them, as we’ve discussed before (our United Club Infinite Card is also issued by Chase, for example). Because of this, folks consider having multiple Chase cards, especially if they all earn Ultimate Rewards points which you can combine into a single account to redeem for travel. We do this, and it works well for us. However, the Chase 5/24 rule means that Chase won’t approve you for a new card if you’ve opened 5 or more credit cards in the last 24 months.

There are a few things to keep in mind about the 5/24 rule. First, this rule applies to credit cards issued from any bank, not just Chase. For example, let’s say in the span of 24 months you open two Chase cards, two American Express cards, and one card from Citibank. This adds up to 5 cards in the last 24 months, so if you then find another card from Chase that looks attractive, you’re likely to be denied because you’ve violated the 5/24 rule even though most of those cards didn’t come from Chase. Make sense?

Second, this rule doesn’t apply to most business credit cards. Exceptions to this are business cards from Discover and small business cards from Capital One (thanks to our friends at 10xTravel for the head’s up about this), as those will count toward your 5/24 count. However, most other business cards, lines of credit, loans, and the like shouldn’t count against this rule.

But Chase is only one bank, what about all the others?

It’s also important to note that this rule is for Chase’s cards (though Chase itself hasn’t really confirmed this). Other banks probably have similar rules, but they might be a little different for each of the major banks. Also, as far as we’re aware, having an excellent credit score won’t get you around this rule, though that’ll certainly factor in when they (or any bank) evaluate your application.

In the end, having multiple cards – and using them responsibly – can be a great way to accelerate the number of points you can earn and convert into vacations (or whatever else you want to spend your points on). We do this and so do lots of other folks. At the same time, make sure you’re paying attention to how many cards you’ve opened in the last 2 years, especially if you tend to gravitate more to Chase’s cards. Because of this rule, it’s also a good idea to make sure the cards you’re opening first are the ones most valuable for your spending and travel habits. It would be a shame to miss out on a great offer because you have too many lower-tier cards with relatively fewer benefits.

A Friendly Reminder:

As always, we advocate for the responsible use of these cards in conjunction with your regular spending habits. Never open cards you don’t need, won’t use, or can’t afford as that tends not to end well. Also, as attractive as those SUBs can be, it’s critically important we make those fit into our regular and/or planned spending habits. For example, it’s relatively easy for us to shift our regular spending from one card to another to quickly earn a SUB. Or, if we know of a large expense coming up, we’ll start looking for a potential new card with an attractive SUB. But again, all of that is planned and accounted for in our budget ahead of time.

Whatever your approach, be smart with your money as even the best of SUBs isn’t worth overextending yourself.

What’s your favorite credit card? What do you like about it? Let us know!

Happy traveling!

The post The 5/24 Rule: Breaking Down Some Important Travel Numbers first appeared on The DeBode Way.