Tips

Up until now, business travel programs have done a great job of covering you for the big three of business travel: airfare, hotels, and car rentals. Lots of great programs to find, book, and bill. But those are usually only about three-fourths of a business trip, what about dining, ground transportation, parking, meals, etc.

The new program, AXIOM, is designed to help you with ALL aspects of a business trip. It hooks up with other programs such as TicketMaster, StubHub, Razor Gator, Open Table, FedEx, and UPS, to cover all needs and costs of your next trip. Its linked to American Express and can charge everything directly to your card. I suggest checking it out the next time you are on the road.

Want to fly first class at a coach fare? “Yup.”

That’s the fare code designation, also sometimes called “Q-up”, for flights that have cheap first class bump up. You can find these special fares at FareCompare.com, which has an online search tool designed specifically for these fares.

Apparently, large airports with several security checkpoints will receive bottlenecks regularly at some checkpoints, but not others. For example, wait time at Sunday morning at Newark Airport’s Terminal C, Checkpoint 2 is an average of 11 minutes at , compared to a mere two minutes at checkpoint 1.

To speed yourself through, you can check average checkpoint wait times by the hour at every major US airport at the TSA’s checkpoint website http://waittime.tsa.dhs.gov.

Skybus, a new budget airline, is planning on launching new low fares of only $10 a flight. There will only be a select number of reserved $10 tickets, but Skybus says it plans on keeping all fares at very low prices.

Skybus says it can afford to offer such low prices by fully automated their ticketting, and charging for things such as luggage and carry-on. It also is planning on selling ad-space on the inside and outside of its planes. Nationwide ads have been painted on the outside of some planes and on the backs of seats.

I’ll skip the obvious things; cash, travelers checks, bottled water, and always making sure your luggage has wheels. I’ve done a lot traveling in the past two years, and at some point, you have to start getting seriously prepared for the toll it takes on your body, or you will crash.

So for those of you who are “extreme travelers” (meaning you fly an average of over 5,000 miles per month), follow this advice or you will burn out. I know I did.

First of all, follow the Argonne Anti-Jet-Lag-Diet. It instructs you on what to eat to minimize jet-lag, and coupled with five minutes of exercise every hour, can help you avoid deep developing deep vein thrombosis.

Get a SAD Alarm Clock. Period.

Purchase No-Jet Lag tablets, head and foot cushions and rests, support hose, and micro fiber clothing. Magellans is a great place to do. And while you are there, purchase anything and everything else that even looks like it might help your extreme commute.

Just discovered this one about 3/4 down the page at the Internet Travel Tips page. Before you leave for your trip, use an online travel service like Kayak or Expedia to show flights on all airlines for the same travel day and destination(s) you have booked. Sort the results in ‘departure order’ and print it out. Now you can tell the airlines the flight you want to take when your ticketed flights are delayed/canceled.

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Last August I had my luggage lost. I was grateful. Because I was flying back from a 3-day vacation and only packed a few changes of clothing. Had this happened when I flew in June, I would have lost all my worldly possesions including my birth certificate, passport, college photos, a few Cashiers Checks, and every article clothing I owned.

So, if you’re about to travel with some very important things, it may not be a bad idea to know what your airline’s track record is when it comes to luggage. The US average for bags lost or stolen was 6.5 out of 1000. However, there were some airlines who were well below this, and some way above it.

The worst happens to be British Airways, with an average of 23 bags out of 1000. Other airlines that score poorly are Lufthansa and Air France. The average for European airlines is estimated to be around 15.7 bags out of 1000, and that’s not including budget airlines such as RyanAir, whose statistics were not released to the Association of European Airlines.

The best in terms of baggage handling is Hawaiin. Southwest was also near the top. Southwest also holds the honor of receiving the fewest complaints, with only 0.18 per 100,000 passengers, compared to 1.36 for United and US Airways (the worst domestically).

The next time you fly, I recommend only bringing valuable luggage if you’re flying on Southwest or Hawaiian. Unless you’re a risktaker.

British Airways has announced cheap summer fares from the United States to India. Fares may go as low as 800 dollars. British Airways encourages all interested in flying to India to check out their site, where you can choose seats, check-in, or take a look at their state-of-the-art inflight-entertainment.

The United States has history’s most complicated system of tariffs, taxes, duties, and restrictions on what you can bring into the country when returning from a business trip of vacation. Can you bring that bottle of tequila back from Mexico, those fine chocolates from Germany, or those great snowshoes you bought in Vancouver? Can you mail them? And do you have to pay extra for it?

For those in the dark, here’s a list of the most common border concerns and issues.

I’m officially done with the snooze alarm. This past winter I used it an average of three times per morning. When I’m jetlagged, it’s been five. That’s twenty-five minutes. Needless to say, I’ve been late a few times this winter.

I wrote the other day about how I just purchased a SAD alarm clock. Its an UV light small enough to fit in a brief case, ideal for travel. I’ve been using it for two days now; the first two days this winter I haven’t hit the snooze button and wished I had some magical power to stop time. If you’re an early riser by circumstance but not by choice, then you really only have two choices: Snooze or SAD.

For those of you who travel regularly, jetlag is a part of life. For those who travel South to North, the lack of sun in the mornings can lead to fatigue, insomnia, and even depression. I personally found myself unable to rise before 10AM whenever I visited my fiancee is Seattle last year, having come from Florida. Had I needed to be up at 8AM for a presentation, well, let’s just say I would have needed a pitcher of coffee.

I recently purchased a SAD alarm. It is an alarm clock that turns on a UV light gradually over the course of an hour or so, slowly filling your room. It simulates a sunrise quite nicely, and makes your body think you are still in beautiful Southern Florida, instead of the rainy, depressing North. If you have any trouble waking up when you are on the road, the 80 dollars is worth a good night sleep.

Both Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air have announced that they will allow one-way bookings using your Mileage Plan Award Points. You can either book just a one-way ticket or use different levels of awards (like their Saver and Peak) for the same round trip reservation–saving some miles in the process. As of this writing, a one-way Saver Award requires 10,000 miles and a Peak Award goes for 20,000.

As far as I know, this is a fairly unusual policy for any major airline….why don’t they all do it?

Air Canada has recently announced plans to offer a flat rate for unlimited flights for a given length of time. To promote this, Air Canada is offering reduced rates of $1,657 per month for three to six months.

While the idea of unlimited flights on an airline might anger some environmentalists, I would have loved this option on Southwest or Delta last year, when I flew back and forth across the country so much that this might have actually saved me some money.

At least you generally can’t on the major carriers.

Scott McCartney, in his The Middle Seat column What Frequent-Flier Miles Really Get You writes that he recently checked available award seats on two dozen routes for several 2007 travel dates. Bottom line is that Delta and US Air redemptions tended to require more miles than other carriers–if seats were available at all.

This spot check on availability, while far from a comprehensive inventory, does show what consumers are up against when trying to score seats. In recent years, more miles have been chasing fewer seats. A resurgence of fare-paying customers has left fewer seats empty, yet there are more miles in circulation because airlines have found selling miles to credit-card companies can be lucrative.

Craig Bruya of Seattle tried unsuccessfully last week to find two business-class seats on United to Paris for a late April trip at United’s 80,000-mile “saver” price level. Curious, he looked for such seats all the way to the end of November and found none.

If “there isn’t a single open seat, then they really don’t have a ’saver’ program,” says Mr. Bruya, who ended up paying United 360,000 miles for two business-class tickets.

Five of the big six international carriers now have seat-availability calendars posted online that can help users spot cheap seats. Delta, the lone holdout, promises a calendar within a “few weeks.”…Calendars also can make it painfully apparent how little availability there is. For a Seattle-London trip checked on Feb. 22, US Airways had no seats at its lowest mileage level between April 30 and Nov. 23 — almost a seven-month drought.

One handy tip McCarney mentions is to “check for discounted business-class and first-class tickets, which sometimes can be better values and even lower-priced than unrestricted coach tickets.”

As a counter-point, I was able just an hour ago to redeem 2 “saver” seats on Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air to Sun Valley Idaho with less than 3 months notice for a meager 20,000 miles a ticket. Savings: $700.00. Maybe that will explain to UAL why I stopped using their United Visa and switched to an Alaska Charge card 5 years ago. I defected when first-class upgrades became almost impossible on UAL…

Next time you hit the skies, here are a few tips to make your next flight a little more enjoyable.

If you are going to be receiving a lot of faxes while travelling, you can have all your faxes forwarded to you by Send2Fax for only $2 per month plus 15 per page.

SeatGuru has charts which reveal which seats have the most legroom, armspace, and in-seat power ports. Also, Exit Row seats almost always have significantly more legroom, if you feel willing to take on a small amount of extra responsibility.

Priority Pass, will get you hooked up with admission to over 500 lounges in 300 airports. Membership is $99 with a charge of $24 per visit.

JiWire.com will help you find Wi-Fi hotspots while traveling. And if the hotel you are staying at has Wi-Fi nearby, but not in your hotel room, a portable router such as Apple’s Airport Express can boost your signal the lobby signal enough that you don’t need to leave your bed to check your email.

For any readers out there who travel frequent to Canada, the NEXUS program is currently in the process of expanding to all major Canadian Airports.

NEXUS is a program where members sign-up before travelling and are pre-approved as low-risk travelers. They are then scanned by NEXUS iris scanners at partipicating airports instead of a passport and are shown a quicker and less hassled entry back into the United States.

The massive number of passport requests coming into the Department of Homeland Security have caused them to change the new passport requirements for minors. Starting January 2008, US and Canadian citizens 15 and younger, as well as those 16-18 under direct adult supervision, will be allowed to travel across the border with only a birth certificate.

This is perhaps the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

There is a new social networking site called AirTroductions. You sign up, fill out a profile, and describe the type of person you would like to sit next to on a flight or to have dinner/drinks with post-flight. Then list your upcoming flights whenever you travel. If the site finds you a match can get your seats switched so you sit next to that person. It also tries to match you with potential dinner or drinking companions for post-flight fun.

I know when I was traveling all over the country last year, I got a little tired of being squished between two overweight snorers. I also got tired of eating alone in Airport restaurants. I got even more tired of drinking alone in Airport bars.

Only 4 days left to sign up for the current reduced price of $14.95 per year to use Skype for unlimited U.S. and Canada calling. Effective February 1st, the price goes up to $29.95…..still a great value, considering it includes an hour of international calls and $50 in coupons for accessories such as Motorola headsets or Netgear and Belkin WiFi phones.

Air Canada was recently recognized by Global Traveler magazine as the Best Airline in North America after a six-month survey of business travelers. This should not be too surprising given the amount of cuts US airlines have made over the last few years in order to turn profitable. For those of you flying up north soon, Air Canada offers “a superior product.”