Amtrak: Woops, Missed My Train
Photo by jpmueller99
… and it was no big deal. What a refreshing experience.
I was supposed to take a morning train on Amtrak’s New England corridor (the one that runs up from DC through New York to Boston) for a quick trip last week. I’ll spare the sad details, but I was running very late last week, and ended up arriving at the train station just in time to see my train pull away.
If I were traveling on an airline, I would be in trouble. Changing an airline ticket these days can set you back upwards of $150 plus change in fare; missing a flight outright can lose the ticket’s entire value. Not exactly consumer friendly.
Amtrak, however, was an entirely different story. Since I had not yet picked up my ticket, I could refund the ticket entirely, despite the fact the train had already left; the only cost associated with getting on the next train was that I had to pay the difference in cost. Effectively, they refunded my ticket and bought me a new one on the next train. A $20 difference.
Comfortable Options
Traveling on Amtrak’s New England Corridor really is a comfortable experience. Consider:
- The trains on the New England corridor all have power outlets on the window, meaning you can simply plug your laptop in and remain charged.
- The seats also feel a bit more comfortable than your normal airplane seat
- The food in the cafe train isn’t that bad.
- No airport security, no hectic crowds, no assigned seating
Honestly, the only major advantage that air travel has is the speed. All-in-all, a pleasant trip.
Ryanair: A Bird Strike, Refund Update, and A Rant
Photo by Monika Szyma
Three quick follow-up points to my post a few days ago on Ryanair, Europe’s low-cost budget airline.
Bird Strike
My skittish friend who will be taking a Ryanair flight in December forwarded me this story about a Ryanair bird strike from the BBC News.
What happened? A Ryanair flight on approach to Rome’s Ciampino airport suffered substantial damage after birds were sucked into the engine. The picture of the plane in the article is scary to look at — those birds really caused quite a bit of damage. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt.
Some of the comments on news articles about the incident wasted no time in mocking Ryanair — jokes like, “did they charge to use the emergency slide?” But all things considered, Ryanair deserves credit for a safe handling of an emergency situation. If anything, I’d be worried about flying into that airport.
Refund Update
One of the first posts I made on this blog concerned my quest to get my (rightful) refund of the check-in fee from Ryanair. To summarize, to get the refund, Ryanair requests that you mail or fax the request in; they emailed me back asking for more information (copy of passport page), which I provided. The refund should then post to my credit card that I originally used.
Did I ever get the refund? No, it never came, and it is now too costly to continue to pursue. I mailed them the additional information in April, and have not heard from them since. Given that they don’t accept email messages, and given how much it costs to mail or fax to Dublin from the United States, if I tried contacting them again, it would end up costing me more in stamps than the refund would be worth (not to mention the fact that the refund is worth less given the changes in the Dollar/Pound since the spring).
It bothers me to no end, but I have given up.
A Rant
I’m going to be honest — this situation really bothers me. Most of the time, companies go out of their way to make things right (even if they are not truly at fault!); Ryanair, on the other hand, seems to go out of its way to avoid dealing with customers. With this check-in fee, Ryanair is specifically targeting non-European passport holders with a fee that is low enough to make it easily not worth it to pursue the refund. I played by their rules, but have no real recourse at this point. I’ll accept it and move on, but I will remember this experience with future Ryanair dealings.
Anyone else want to share their Ryanair experiences?
5 Great Websites For Scoring Cheap Airfare
Lifehacker recently discussed their five best travel sites for cheap tickets — highlighting Kayak, Yapta, Live Search Farecast, Priceline, and Sidestep. I was surprised when I saw the list — all are great search engines, but all do virtually the same thing, returning virtually the same results.
These search engines are useful tools, but they are only one of many types of resources on the internet to save money on airfare. Nine times out of ten, you’re likely to find the same itinerary return the same price at all of these sites. The key is to have the knowledge to know where and when to look, and these sites below are the ones that help me do just that:
Best For Specific Dates: ITA Software Search
ITA Software’s QPX Fare Shopping Engine (http://matrix.itasoftware.com/) is the ultimate airfare search tool for geeks (it even has its own manual!), offering unparalleled flexibility. This is a search engine, not a booking site – so once you find an itinerary, you cannot book it with them; you must go to another other travel site like Orbitz.
Why bother with ITA then? They’ll help your zero in on combinations you wouldn’t have otherwise found; once you know what you’re looking for, it is easy to find it on other sites. Consider the following features:
- Clean, simple interface — it is quick and light
- Several ways to view results, including matrix view, choosing whole trips, or choosing them flight-by-flight. There are even graphical options available for those so inclined.
- They even provide a bunch of money-saving tips for their search engine.
But, by far, the best reason is their powerful search options. They explain it all on their Route Language help page, but just to give you a taste:
- Not sure which airport you want to leave from? Enter multiple airports separated by semicolons — For example, “BOS;PVD;BDL” tells it to search Boston, Providence, and Hartford. Three searches in one!
- Not sure where you want to go? Try the same thing for your destination. For example, “LHR;DUB;BRU;CDG” will have it search London, Dublin, Brussels, and Paris — four searches in one!
- Not a big fan of US Airways for your trip from Philadelphia? — “Philadelphia:: ~US” tells it to exclude all US Airways flights
- Big fan of United or American? — “ORD::AA,UA” tells it to only search flights on American (AA) or United (UA) for your flight from Chicago.
ITA can be confusing at first — but once you get the hang of it, it can be great for finding the best and cheapest options.
Best For The Big Picture: FareCompare.com
Farecompare.com (http://www.farecompare.com/) – One of the keys to scoring great airfare is recognizing that airfare rules vary by airline and fares may only be valid on certain days of the week, for certain lengths of time, for certain airports, for certain flight numbers, with different advance purchase requirements, and more. Having this information can make it much easier to locate those cheap flights.
Farecompare.com has mastered the airfare analysis game — they make it easy to quickly get the “big picture” — information on what each airline is offering on any given route. Every day they analyze the raw fare updates from the airlines, often providing information hours before it is actually bookable (sign-up for email alerts to get automatic updates on chosen routes). Farecompare.com provides the knowledge necessary to find the cheapest flights out there, and is usually my first stop to try to get a feel for airfare options.
Their CEO Rick Seaney also runs a great blog on airfare and the airline industry that is worth checking out.
Best For Cheap Europe Flights: Skyscanner.net
Skyscanner.net (http://www.skyscanner.net/) – Love them or hate them, low cost carriers like Ryanair and Easyjet make it extremely affordable to hop around European cities. The challenge for me has always been (1) figuring out what low cost carriers fly a certain route and (2) which airline is cheapest. Skyscanner has both of these bases covered; simply give it a departure and arrival city, and travel dates, and it will return the prices of all the discount carriers on that route — as well as some nifty features like currency conversion. Skyscanner tops it all off with a clean and impressive website, making it a great tool for the budget-conscious Europe traveler.
Best For Last Minute Travel: LastMinute.com
LastMinute.com (http://www.lastminute.com/) – Looking for a weekend getaway? Buying airfare directly from the airline can get expensive close to departure — consider LastMinute.com for weekend getaways deals. The amazing thing is that LastMinute.com’s Flight+Hotel combination deals or Flight+Car combination deals often cost less than the flight otherwise would; there have been several times where I have bought a last minute package that included a hotel that I didn’t need simply because it was cheaper. With LastMinute.com, you also get to pick your departure and return days (Depart Wed-Sat, Return Sun-Wed) as well as your airline. Weekends become available for purchase on lastminute.com about two weeks in advance, but availability can be added or removed.
Also Try: The weekend deals of individual airlines — for most airlines these go up on Tuesdays. Note, however, that many airlines require a Fri/Sat departure and a Mon/Tue return.
Best for Students: StudentUniverse.com
StudentUniverse.com (http://www.studentuniverse.com/) – If you are a student, you are in luck, as you may have access to better deals through student-only ticket agencies; I recommend StudentUniverse.com, but there are certainly other agencies out there (like STA Travel). These can offer great deals — as I have talked about in the past. Buyer beware, however: the student airfare results are not always the cheapest option out there, so you should definitely check a traditional search engine first. A nice aspect about buying StudentUniverse tickets is that they have more lenient cancellation and change fees.
Travel Cheaply
Those are my top five websites for scoring cheap flights — what are yours?
Ryanair: flights across the atlantic for $13? Ehh…
Photo by u07ch
There has been a lot of buzz in the travel community over the last week concerning European discount carrier Ryanair announcing that they plan to offer dirt-cheap transatlantic flights from London Stansted and Dublin to American cities like New York and Boston for as little as $13 each way before taxes. Sounds good, right? Well…
Meet Ryanair
Ryanair, of course, is the Dublin-based airline that has become the golden standard for the ultra low-cost carrier industry. The company, which offers short-haul point-to-point flights between a significant number of European cities, often makes the news for advertising (legitimate) dirt-cheap fares for one-way travel. How do they offer such low fares? A combination of:
- Charging fees for *everything* – Want to check any bags? Want to check-in at the airport rather than online? Want to talk to someone on the phone? Want to have a drink onboard? Want to get on the plane before most people? All of it will cost you extra — and these fees are not cheap.
- Using remote airports — Landing at a big airport like London Heathrow costs serious money, so Ryanair makes use of nearby airports that often stretch the definition of a destination. This can prove problematic especially as many of these remote airports don’t enjoy the same public transportation that the more significant airports get.
- Acting Smart — You have to give them credit — they know how to save a penny. Ryanair clearly does not consider themselves in the business of public relations and customer service — they are an airline, and they will work to get you from point-to-point. It might not be fun, and you might feel like you’re treated like cattle, but it will often be at only an incredibly low price.
Frustrated? You’re Playing Their Game
A lot of people have expressed their frustrations online about problems with Ryanair. These seem to fall in to two categories.
The first concerns Ryanair’s handling of things like cancellations — when things go right, it can be a great experience, but when things go wrong, expect them to go very wrong. A lot of this has to do with the fact that Ryanair runs full planes on routes that they may only run every other day. When a cancellation occurs, it may take a while (days, even) for them to get you to the destination. The fact that Ryanair customer representatives have a reputation for disappearing when cancellations occur doesn’t help.
The second has to do with frustrations concerning the way that Ryanair quickly becomes more expensive than people first anticipate. Many people don’t take the time — and it does take time, unfortunately — to figure out the rules and restrictions when flying Ryanair. Over at Less Than A Shoestring — which is a great resource for budget travel in Europe — their response to this complaint pretty much sums it up:
In many respects, dealing with low-cost carriers such as Ryanair is like playing a game. In order to play well, you need to know the rules (how much luggage you can carry on, each additional checked bag costs extra, you can’t check-in online if you’re not an EU citizen or you’ll be denied boarding, etc.). Most complaints about the airline come from people who don’t know the rules. So yes, you can be angry that RyanAir’s rules are different from everyone else’s, but you’re not going to get a whole lot of sympathy from me if you don’t know or follow the rules of the game. RyanAir makes a ton of money off of the folks who don’t know the rules.
Coming To America — Potential Reality
So what does this all mean for Ryanair coming to America? If it is possible to play their game in Europe, can the same rules be applied transatlantic?
Remember that the $13 offer is one-way and before taxes and fees — and those taxes and fees are likely to add up. The WalletPop blog has a great post on how a transatlantic flight on Ryanair could really start to add up, highlighting also that many of the the things that make Ryanair bearable in Europe won’t hold transatlantic.
For example, it is much easier to travel with a (very light) carry-on bag when you are flying between European cities than when you’re making a trip across at the Atlantic. Not only might you need to check a bag, but it might need to be a heavy bag, which will cost you even more, of course. It is also much easier to tolerate an unfriendly environment for an hour or two than for a much longer transatlantic flight.
Also, when I heard the news, I immediately thought of the “American RyanAir experiment” — aka Skybus, the airline that tried and failed to import the Ryanair style to America. Skybus charged for everything and used (often very) remote airports to save on fees. It just didn’t click with American travelers.
Of course, things have changed quite a bit since Skybus went bankrupt — most of the airlines, for example, now charge to check bags. Does this make America more conducive to the Ryanair style? Perhaps. I’d like to think that customer service still means something, but I’m not kidding myself.
Safety Concerns?
Are you less safe on an airline that explicitly states its primary goal is to operate as cheaply as possible? Ryanair would certainly tell you they are as safe or safer than any other airline — and their record isn’t bad. But it is hard to shake the idea that cost cutting can’t be good for safety.
It also is not comforting to hear about (via the great Upgrade: Travel Better blog) undercover investigations exposing disquieting Ryanair training practices. Ryanair, it should be noted, vehemently contested the expose, and even posted extensive back-and-forth between the airline and the news channel. Net result? I’ll let you make your own opinion.
Sit and Wait
Now we get to wait and see. As the Airfarewatchdog blog points out, Ryanair is still in the planning processes of both acquiring the necessary aircraft and dealing with the regulatory requirements, neither of which are quicksteps nor are they guaranteed successes — they are saying at least a year at the earliest. Ryanair also hasn’t had the best financial news lately, so a lot could happen in the next year and a half.
But if Ryanair does come to America, it could dramatically change the game. For those willing to play Ryanair’s game, cheap and accessible travel across the Atlantic Ocean may become a reality. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Earn Frequent Flyer Miles For Grocery Shopping
Photo by ralphbijker
The Safeway family of grocery stores has a pretty neat program tied to their loyalty card — you can earn frequent flyer miles on your grocery purchases at absolutely no additional cost or effort. While the earnings aren’t huge — one mile for every two dollars spent — given how often I find myself at the grocery store, I have not been surprised to find the miles add up over time.
How To Earn Frequent Flyer Miles For Grocies
The Safeway family consists of the Safeway, Dominick’s, Vons, Genuardi’s, Pavilions, Tom Thumb, and Randalls.
The exact details of the promotion depend on what your neighborhood Safeway-family chain happens to be:
- For Safeway, Dominick’s, Vons, Genuardi’s, or Pavilions, you can earn 125 United MileagePlus Miles every time you spend $250. That comes out to 1 mile for every 2 dollars spent, posted in $250 increments directly to your account. To sign up, head to http://www.grocerymiles.com/.
- For Tom Thumb, you can earn 250 American Airlines AAdvantage MIles every time you spend $250. That comes out to 1 mile for every 1 dollar spent, posted in $250 increments. To sign up, head to http://www.frequentbuyermiles.com/tomthumb/.
- For Randalls, you can earn 125 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles every time you spend $250. That comes to 1 mile for every 2 dollars. To sign up, head to http://www.frequentbuyermiles.com/randalls/.
Once you sign-up, everything will be automatic. Simply use your grocery loyalty card to accumulate credit; every time you checkout, your receipt will update you on how close you are to your next award. Once you cross $250, they will be automatically posted to your account. Pretty cool!
Too Much Trouble? No.
Think that frequent flyer miles are too much trouble? Or is 1 mile per 2 dollars simply not worth it to you? Think again!
- This is free – it costs you absolutely nothing — its an additional benefit from Safeway to their existing offers for customers.
- This is automatic – it costs you no time once you sign-up. No follow-up — they’ll post automatically.
- This is a great way to keep miles alive. One of the chief complaints about frequent flyer miles (after availability and taxes) concerns expiration. Did you know that any activity will keep your United or American account open for another 18 months? If you’re like me, you’ll spend well more than $250 in 18 months at the grocery store, so you might as well use that as a way to keep those miles around.
- It adds up. It is not fun to think about how much we spend at grocery stores, but its true.
Great Safeway Customer Service
Finally, I just want to make a quick comment about the great customer service that Safeway provides — they have people answering emails from 7 AM to 10 PM MST Monday-Friday and they promise a quick turn around. When I emailed them this afternoon, I heard back within a few hours from a real person who had taken care of making an adjustment to my account. Really seems unheard of these days, so I think it is worth a quick recognition.
(Not a big grocery shopper? Don’t forget, you can also earn frequent flyer miles for dining out!)
The American Airlines Low Fare Guarantee
Photo by Cubbie n VegasSomething unexpected happened earlier today when I was booking a weekend trip to visit a friend — the American Airlines website was not offering the cheapest price for one of their own itineraries. I usually use a site like Orbitz to search for the cheapest airfare but then book with the airline directly; as a general rule, the airline should always offer the same basic fare.
American is so confidant that they will always offer the cheapest fare, in fact, that they guarantee the lowest fare — so I saw this as a golden opportunity to test the system for the first time personally.
American’s Lowest Fare Guarantee
The idea is simple: if you can find the exact same itinerary on a competing travel website, they will refund the difference and give you a $50 credit. As they say, however, the devil is in the details:
- You must first book the (more expensive) ticket on AA.com – that is right, in order to invoke the guarantee, you have to book the more expensive ticket first and hope that the request is approved. I think this is probably the most annoying aspect; if American declines your request, you are stuck having paid for the more expensive fare.
- You must then find the exact same flight, itinerary, cabin, and class on a competing website. Not only that, it needs the same fare rules and restrictions.
- The guarantee only applies to tickets originating from the domestic United States.
- You must then file the claim by midnight central time on the day you purchased the ticket.
- The Lowest Fare Guarantee does not apply to unpublished fares — so student airfare, consolidator tickets (Priceline “name your own price”, etc”) do not count. What this effectively means is that to have the best chance of success you should limit yourself to sites like Expedia, Orbitz, etc
- The Guarantee only applies to lower fares you find on the same day at other websites; American won’t honor price drops from their own AA.com
This makes the entire process fairly complicated, although I can understand why it needs to be this way. Unfortunately, the requirements concerning fare rules, restrictions, and unpublished fares, combined with the requirement that you buy the ticket on AA.com first, makes this risky in all but the most certain situations.
Submitting the Request
Nevertheless, I was fairly confidant that I had found a valid lower fare; Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity were all showing a lower price than AA.com, and it seemed to fit the same fare rules. So I decided to buy the ticket from AA.com and submit a Lowest Fare Guarantee.
Within minutes of submitting the claim online, I received an automated response from American that included more information on the process. The email said that if they could not verify it themselves, they would need to see:
- a screen shot of the competitors web site, showing the identical AA
flights, travel dates and the lower fare showing all taxes and fees
- a screen shot of the Fare Rules & Restrictions page (not to be
confused with the competitor web site s rules and restrictions for site
usage)
The first requirement makes sense, but the second one is likely to trip people up — they want to see a copy of the fare rules associated with the ticket. Here’s a hint to make sure you actually find the fare rules: the rules usually look overwhelming and are difficult to decipher in their all-caps block format. So remember — American needs both the itinerary from the competing website, but also a copy of the fare rules!
In addition, please note that our e-mail system is unable to accept attachments, and
faxing is the only way to relay your information to the processing team.
Setting the other requirements aside, this I think is the most annoying part. They don’t mention this on their website, but if they can’t verify the lower fare, they want you to fax them the screenshots. Do you have easy access to a fax machine? I certainly don’t. That seems like it is a poorly designed email system if they cannot accept attachments.
Success!
Thankfully, within an hour, I received an email advising me that the request had been approved. The email advised that I should expect a refund to my credit card in the amount of the difference, and the email contained a promotion code good for $50 off a future flight. Of course, American left a few more surprises:
- I am supposed to expect the refund to my original form of payment in “2-3 billing cycles” - I really hope that this is their way of covering their bases, and that it won’t actually take this long — I’m not going to be thrilled if I have to wait three months to get my $40 back.
- The $50 promotion code they give you has a bunch of embargo dates that are not advertised in advance: for domestic flights, that includes Jan 1-5; Mar 13-15 + 20-22 + 28-30; Apr 10-13; Jun 27-28; Jul 5-6; Nov 20-25 + 28-30; Dec 19-23 + 26-30. For international flights, there is a separate set of embargo dates that in some cases is less restrictive — I’m not sure if these dates are meant to be in addition to or instead of the domestic embargo dates (why would they embargo spring break domestically, but not internationally?).
Adjusting to Airline Checked Bag Fees
Photo by coteYesterday, a friend of mine was preparing to buy a plane ticket for an interview; he was all set to buy the ticket on American Airlines, which offered one of the lowest prices, until at the last minute he remembered that American charges for a first checked bag. At $15 each way, that quickly changes the cost comparison, and so he stepped back to reconsider his options.
Unfortunately, baggage fees seem like they are here to stay. What started as a small fee for a second checked bag a few months ago has turned into fees for checking anything on many airlines, and some airlines are making it almost prohibitively expensive to check a second bag. What is one to do?
The Actual Fees
First, some facts. The chart below lists the current checked bag policies that I found when I quickly checked the websites of various airlines.
| Airline | First Checked Bag (one way!) |
Second Checked Bag (one way!) |
| American Airlines | $15 | $25 |
| Continental Airlines | $15 | $25 |
| Delta Airlines | Free! | $50 |
| JetBlue Airways | Free! | $20 |
| Southwest Airlines | Free! | Free! |
| United Airlines | $15 | $50 |
| US Airways | $15 | $25 |
* Note: Check with your airline to confirm bag fees; these things change all the time.
Some Bags Are Still Free
First thing to note is that Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest still allow you to check your first bag for free. After that, Delta and JetBlue will make you pay for a second bag, while Southwest will give you a second one for free. In fact, Southwest’s web page right now makes a point of advertising that they have “No First Checked Bag Fee, No Second Checked Bag Free, No Change Fee, No Window or Aisle Seat Fee, No Curbside Checkin Fee, No Phone Reservation Fee, No Snack Fee, No Fuel Surcharge.” Pretty cool.
These Are One Way Fees
Don’t get confused — these fees are for each way. So that means a second checked bag on United will cost you an extra $100 round-trip!
International Trips — Usually Still Free
One thing that seems to often be overlooked is that these fees apply to Domestic US flights; on most airlines, international flights still allow two free checked bags. Note that many US airlines, for the purposes of airline operations, consider Canada a domestic destination – so on American Airlines, for example, that trip to Canada will cost you for a checked bag, while Mexico will get you two free bags.
Some People Escape The Fees
Although this will not apply to most of us, the major airlines tend to exempt their best customers from baggage fees. On American, for example, those traveling on First or Business Class tickets or those with AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum, or Gold Status may check two bags for free. I guess paying more has its perks…
Do You Need To Check A Bag?
Earlier this year, a friend of mine insisted on checking a bag and paying the checked-bag fee in order to bring along one or two specific toiletries — specifically toiletries that could have been purchased at the other end for far less than the checked bag fee!
Can you make do with just a carry-on? Most airlines have fairly generous carry on allowances, all things considered. On American, the restriction is one bag and one personal items, as long as neither weighs more than 40 lbs and that the bag is no more than 45 inches and the personal item is no more than 36 inches when you add length+width+height.
What about toiletries? You are of course still allowed your one liter baggie that can be filled with liquids of up to 3.4 ounces each. Do you need more? Can you purchase it at the other end?
Consider Shipping? I have never been in a position where this has made sense economically, but I’m sure there are cases where shipping items in order to avoid a checked bag fee makes sense. Keep in mind that with advance notice, most hotels will accept packages for you.
These days I have gotten very good at traveling with only a carry-on bag, and am thankful that I am still able to pull this off. But if you have to check a bag, it is definitely worth being aware of all of your options.
Travel Discounts for College Students
Photo by tylerdurden1Got an itch to travel? Several airlines offer special programs or discounts for college students, and while none of them will likely make your next trip free, they can result in a travel discount or make it easier to reach that frequent-flyer travel reward more quickly.
Discounts for College Students – Travel by Air
Bonus miles are nice, but the most important thing to a student is the bottom line — the cost of the trip. Luckily, students have access to exclusive travel deals; sites like StudentUniverse.com and STA Travel specialize in offering travel deals — both domestic and international — for college students. These sites require some sort of general verification that you are a student (my .edu email address sufficed). I recently purchased a round-trip ticket through StudentUniverse, and one of the nice features of the ticket was that it was refundable for something like $75 — much cheaper than refunding a ticket issued by the airline itself.
A word of caution, however: these sites do not always offer the best deal; in fact, many times I find that I end up booking with the airline directly. If you are looking to book a last minute trip, keep in mind that many airlines offer special weekend fares that are valid over the next one or two weekends; these can be great deals if you’re looking to travel Friday/Saturday and return Monday/Tuesday. Check a site like AirfareWatchdog for the latest offers. Bottom line: you should certainly take the time to consult other search engines like Kayak or Orbitz.
Discounts – Travel by Train
If you are looking to travel by train, Amtrak participates in the Student Advantage program; the Student Advantage program is a student discount card that costs $20 and provides discounts at various national chains. Once you have purchased your Student Advantage card, you are entitled to 15% off Amtrak rail fares. It is questionable as to how worthwhile the Student Advantage card is overall, but if you only use it for Amtrak, to fully recoup the initial cost, plan to spend more than $134 during the course of the year to make it worth it.
That being said, though, do not blindly trust that the Student Advantage card offers the best discount for students — there are other ways to save money traveling on Amtrak. Amtrak almost always has discount codes that can be found on the Internet which can sometimes beat 15% (and don’t require you to buy a card in advance), so do a quick search on google for discount codes before you book your trip. The FlyerTalk.com Amtrak Promotion thread can be particularly helpful.
Discounts – Travel by Bus
While not quite as glamorous as travel by plane or train, travel by bus can often be quite economical. Like Amtrak, national bus chain Greyhound participates in the Student Advantage program, offering a 15% discount off bus fares for card holders.
Discounts – Hotels
Finally, even though this is not a student-only discount, if you are trying to find a place to stay, I highly recommend using a well-informed Priceline bidding strategy. Priceline is the site that lets you “name your own price” for travel — if your bid is satisfactory to them, you can score some amazing deals. Whether you are looking for a one star or four star hotel, Priceline can be hard to beat when you use aggregate information on the successful bid prices of others. (When using sites like Bidding for Travel or Better Bidding, remember to return back with your own experiences to help the community!)
Students may also consider hostels when traveling, which, especially in Europe, can provide a comfortable and safe place to stay at a relatively cheap price.
Special Frequent Flyer Programs
Several airlines offer sign-up bonuses for college students or accelerated rewards. For example:
- Southwest Airlines has its College Rapid Rewards Program. Under the program, you’ll get 4 credits for enrolling, and then you’ll earn 4 credits for each round-trip. You have to sign up through the College Rapid Rewards page; existing Rapid Rewards accounts don’t count, and you may have trouble opening a college account if you already have a Rapid Rewards account. That being said, the college program makes obtaining a free flight feasible for students. Find out more information on Southwest’s program.
- American Airlines offers 500 bonus AAdvantage miles for signing up through its college page, which also contains information on student discounts. That’s definitely not much (500 miles is worth about $5, and you can only make use of that if you acquire sufficient miles) — still, free is good. Find out more information on American’s college offers.
Honor Roll: AirTran U Standby Program
Probably one of the best college student programs offered by an airline is the AirTran U Standby Program. Under the program, anyone between the ages of 18 and 22 can fly standby (i.e. space available) on AirTran flights for between $69 – $99 dollars.
To take advantage of this offer, simply head to the airport more than two hours in advance and ask to be added to the list. If there is space on your flight, your name will be called at the gate prior to departure; if there isn’t space, you can get added to the list for the next flight, and if you never clear the stand-by list, your money should be refunded. You can’t have any checked luggage, but you can earn a reduced amount of A+ Rewards credits.
This is a particularly nice program if you’re flexible with your travel plans. Find out more information on AirTran’s college program or check out where they fly.
Graduating? United has a gift for you
United Airlines has a special offer for graduating students — 10,000 Mileage Plus bonus miles, which is about 40% of the way to a free domestic flight. All you have to do is send them a copy of your transcript, your United Mileage Plus account number, and your email address, and they will deposit the bonus miles. The offer is not limited to undergraduates, and it appears that you can earn the bonus each time you graduate from an institution. United.com offers more details on how you can claim the bonus. If you’re graduating, why not grab some free miles?
None of these deals are that earth shattering, but can certainly help make travel somewhat more obtainable. Travel does not have to be that expensive! If you know of any other travel deals for students, please leave a comment!
Getting Around New York City
During my trip in New York City last weekend with friends, while it is certainly true that we used a few cabs to save time, by and large we did the frugal thing and tried to combine as much walking and subway usage as possible.
Easy Tip: Walk
I think this is perhaps one of the best pieces of advice I have when it comes to New York City — walk as much as you can! It is true that the subway can get you almost anywhere pretty quickly, and it is also true that there are going to be cases where walking is simply impossible. That being said, especially in Midtown and near Times Square, there is simply so much to see, you are going to miss out by taking the subway. Not only is it good exercise, but you get a much better feel for the city.
So before you take the subway or hail a cab, take a moment and consider whether you can walk it. If you think you might be able to, go for it! You’ll see more of the city, and you’ll likely be surprised at how quickly you can walk around.
The Subway: Pay-As-You Go or Unlimited 7-Day?
My riends were each in New York for somewhere between three to four full days, and one source of discussion was whether it was a better idea to buy an unlimited seven-day subway pass, or a pay-as-you-go card. The Subway costs a flat $2 each time you enter, while the unlimited seven-day pass is $25. I somewhat stubbornly insisted that it was a better idea for me to go with the pay-as-you-go option.
I think in hindsight, I was wrong. Even though I was only there for three days, I think I probably used the subway more than twelve times, in which case it would have been a better idea to buy the unlimited pass. If you consider that on a tourist trip to New York you are likely to use the subway at least four times a day, then a three day trip brings you awfully close to making the unlimited pass a better deal.
Finally, even outside of the money aspect, I hadn’t factored in the annoyance factor of the pay-as-you-go card with regards to keeping track of how much was on my card and having to take the time to reload it. Furthermore, the unlimited pass gives you the freedom to jump on any subway or local bus without worrying about spending $2. If you’re visiting New York as a tourist, there are certainly lots of things you will want to see, so I think its worth it to get the unlimited pass just to have plenty of flexibility.
Public Transit Directions Using HopStop
I’ll be honest, New York’s Subway system intimidated me the first time I used it — it is great once you get familiar with how it operates, but especially compared to other public transit systems around the United States and around the world, it definitely can be confusing for tourists. While all of the subway stations have maps that can help you figure out where you are going, I highly suggest that you find directions beforehand.
A website that I have found tremendously useful for public transit directions is HopStop.com, which can provide great public transportation directions in not only Manhattan, but also Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, and more. Simply enter a start point and a destination, and it will provide the best way to get there using public transportation, including helpful subway line and direction information. I printed up a bunch of directions before the weekend, but even more helpful is the fact that the website has a great mobile interface, too, so if you are lucky enough to have an Apple iPhone, BlackBerry, or similar web-enabled phone, you can pull up directions on the go.
Getting to and from the NYC airports
Frankly, none of the New York airports are really that convenient to get to from Manhattan, and so you should definitely allow plenty of time to get to or from any of the three airports — LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark.
I have some experience with the New York airports, but I am certainly no expert. Hands down, the best guide out there on transportation between Manhattan and the NYC airports is maintained over at the FlyerTalk Wiki. This incredibly helpful guide lists all of the ways you can get to or from LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark, and gives you the information you need to strike the right balance between time and speed in getting to the airport. If you are flying in or out of a NYC airport, and are at all unfamiliar with the area, I highly recommend you keep a copy on you — with the crazy air system in NYC, you never know when you might end up flying out of or in to a different airport.
Enjoy New York
One last comment — enjoy New York City! It really is a fun place to visit, and with some smart choices it can be done very frugally.
Lessons on New York City Taxis
I spent this past weekend with friends doing the “tourist experience” down in New York City, seeing many of the major landmarks in Manhattan. Since time was short, we tried to do as much as possible, which necessitated using a cab a few more times than I would have liked. It had been a while since I had used a NYC cab, and so I ended up learning a few things about NYC cabs along the way.
Hail Only Medallion Cabs
I was briefly down at a rail station and was surprised to be aggressively called after by waiting taxis that assumed I was a tourist looking for a cab. What made me uncomfortable, though, was that while I actually did want a taxi, several of these taxis calling me were not the yellow “medallion” taxicabs but rather cars in less “traditional” looking colors. I awkwardly avoided them and headed towards a yellow taxi, despite their yelling after me.
Turns out I made the right call - only the Medallion yellow cabs are licensed to pick up hails off the street. The yellow Medallion cabs are tightly regulated by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, while non-yellow cabs in Manhattan are operating illegally when they pick up hails off the street. This isn’t just a legal “technicality” — a quick search on Google turned up plenty of stories of people being taken advantage by these non-Medallion cabs.
Maximum Number of Passengers
There seem to be two dominant types of Medallion taxicabs in Manhattan, one of them being the SUV-like Ford Escape. One night, my group had about five people in it, and we were looking to take a cab in Midtown. We assumed that since we had five people, we were better off looking for one of the SUV cabs, figuring that we would be able to all fit in one cab.
When we hailed one of these cabs and told him that we had five people, he told us that the rules said he could only carry four, despite the size of the car. This was somewhat surprising in itself, but what was more surprising was what he did next — he offered to take the five of us if we offered him ten dollars cash to compensate him for breaking the rules. My friends really needed to go, so they negotiated with him, trying to get him down to two or three dollars, but ultimately settled on five dollars extra. I was a little uncomfortable with this whole situation, but went along with it.
Was he scamming us? Turns out he was not lying about the maximum capacity. According to the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s website, most cabs are only licensed to carry four passengers. So keep in mind that magic number, as well as the fact that some cabbies are apparently quite willing to break this rule.
Paying By Credit
Since last winter, New York City taxi cabs are supposed to be able to accept credit card payments using the computer system in the back of taxi cabs. I was very interested in trying this out, especially given a New York Times blog post from December about difficulties their reporters had found in trying to get cabbies to accept credit card payments. Apparently, the idea of credit card payments was not particularly popular with cab drivers.
Did we run into any problems? Not at all. Paying with credit went very smoothly each time — simply slide the card in the terminal in the back seat, and then enter the tip amount on the screen. No complaints or problems from the cab driver, and I got a nice record of how much we spent on taxis.
Suggestion – Always get a Receipt
The New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission runs a great website with a very helpful Frequently Asked Questions page. One suggestion that I didn’t know about but will keep in mind for the future is that it is important to always get the receipt after the trip, regardless of how you pay. Why? The receipt contains the medallion number of the cab, and so in addition to providing you a record of the amount you spent on the cab ride, you also get a way to trace back the cab you took should you need to file a complaint or seek a lost item.
That’s excellent advice, since even careful people can every now and then make a mistake with a suitcase or a cell phone. Turns out that just last night, Barack Obama’s campaign trip director left behind a suitcase in a cab — a suitcase which unfortunately contained their birthday present for Senator Obama! They spent all day trying to find it, with no luck.
Anyway, if you’re interested in more information about New York City taxi’s, I suggest you look at the TLC’s web page, including their passenger bill of rights.
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