My Travel Tips

I've done a bit of travel in recent years, and there are a number of things I do or have discovered to make my life easier.  Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV).

Loyalty Programs

I can't say enough good things about loyalty programs; they are directly responsible for my first trip out of North America after all.

RBC Avion
I had an RBC Platinum Visa.  I got it because it had rental car insurance and I liked its colour.  I used it to recover my credit rating by switching all my recurring bills to go directly to the card, and then I only had one bill I needed to remember to pay every month.

8 years later, I discovered it was a points card.  When I called RBC to ask what I could do with those points, they recommended I upgrade the card to their Infinite Avion Visa, and I had enough points for 3 European flights (minus the fees and taxes of course).  I think it was two weeks later when I made my first flight off this rock; visited a couple friends in London, then spent 4 spectacularly enlightening solo days wandering Paris.

Since then, I think I've managed about another 8 or 10 flights out of points, 4 of which I even paid for the taxes and fees out of points.

RBC Avion points do not expire.  You earn 1 point for every dollar spent, and they seem to have some nice accelerators to get even more points.  I now have an Avion Visa Infinite Privilege card, that accrues at 1.25 points per dollar.

Air Canada Altitude / Aeroplan
Back when I started flying, I flew on whatever seemed swell; American Airlines, Delta, United, Air Canada, Westjet, British Airways, KLM, etc.  Some were swell, some were less swell.

A friend of mine in London UK, Misha, mentioned he was inclined to use BA for all his flights.  I looked into BA, but I found they weren't the most useful for a Canadian on Canadian soil.  So I was quickly down to choosing Air Canada and Westjet.  Having flown both, I strongly preferred Air Canada.

One year, I managed to do enough flying to earn their Elite 35k status with Air Canada.  With that, I got things like priority check-in, extra checked bags, and eUpgrade points.  eUpgrade points are fantastic (or they were, rather).  With these points, I managed to get about 5 first class upgrades for free.  After that first upgrade, I was definitely hooked on first class lie-flat long haul berths!

The Altitude program has changed a bit, making first class upgrades pretty harsh; they often require a big cash payment in addition to consuming almost all your eUpgrade points.  However, Air Canada has also created a new seating tier called "Premium Economy"; nicer seats, long legroom, etc.  Not a lie-flat berth, but still very nice.  And with my e35k status, I had one of those upgraded for free from LHR to YYZ due to an overbooked flight, to demonstrate who is likely to get those prized free upgrades first.

Air Canada is a part of the Star Alliance.  The two partners I've also used are Lufthansa in Germany and United in the US.  It is swell knowing I'll get my status miles from them as well.

Wyndham Rewards
Wyndham is a hotel chain that includes Super 8 and Days Inn, two brands of motels that I really like on my motorcycle trips.  Cheap, okay breakfast (usually only cold offerings though they sometimes have waffles), they're nearly everywhere in Canada and the US.  Until this year, I've used them extensively and gotten countless free days out of accrued points.

One thing that drives me bonkers with Wyndham is their booking system; their web site isn't the greatest on a phone, and their iPhone app sucks to the point of uselessness.  When I'm on a road trip, I don't usually book the night's stay until early afternoon after I've been on the road for a while and gotten a feel for how far I'm going that day, so having a crap phone-based booking experience is a daily curse in the middle of my Zen time.

Hilton Honors
I was never a Hilton person.  Hilton seemed to be the last hotel chain to offer wifi, they are expensive, and I never felt like I needed that level of room fixtures.

When I joined Cisco, I was sent to San Jose for a week for on-board training, and a couple coworkers recommended a Hilton Garden Inn near the Cisco campus.  I cheerily booked it, literally not realizing it was a Hilton.  Couple weeks later, I was back in San Jose for product update training, so I booked the same hotel because it was now a "known quantity".  Before I knew it, I was Hilton Honors (HHonors) Silver, with enough points for a couple free nights.

Hilton has partnered with AT&T for their hotel wifi.  It works fairly well, and they generally offer two levels of service; low bandwidth, and premium bandwidth for a cost.  Some Hilton-brand hotels offer the low bandwidth service for free while others require you to be an HHonors member to get it for free.  For 90% of my stays, the free level is more than enough.

I typically stay at three of their brands; Hilton Garden Inn, Embassy Suites, and Hampton Inn and Suites.  HGI makes a fresh hot breakfast for you for a cost (until you're Gold, I think).  (Some?) Embassy Suites have a free breakfast buffet and some also seem to have free happy hour drinks.  Hampton Inns have a decent free hot/cold breakfast and are close enough to being affordable that I've started using them a lot on my motorcycle trips.

Their iPhone app is pretty good.  I'm still in my Zen space about 3 out of every 4 times I use it.

I'm a handful of stays away from getting my HHonors Gold status.  Looking forward to seeing what that will do for me.

Accor Hotels
For many European countries, I've been using Accor Hotels.

I usually stay at their Ibis or Ibis Styles brand.  They're an inexpensive chain, with probably the most cookie-cutter experience I could imagine; even their washrooms are cut from only a couple moulds and screwed into place.  Cheap and cheerful.  Usually an okay free breakfast, though often only cold food options.

Historically a complete crap loyalty program though.  Looks like they just changed ownership or something, and there may be a point now; once you get Silver (10 stays or 2500 points), you get free Internet, usually a 3 Euro/day/device additional cost.

Knowing they seem to have a functional loyalty program now actually makes me quite happy.  With all the uncertainty with foreign travel, I love the "known quantity" feeling of staying at my Ibis at night.

Huh, with their recent corporate change, they now seem to have some options in the UK.  Excellent!

Rental Car Programs
For obvious reasons, I really haven't "picked" a rental car loyalty program yet.  While Cisco's primary option is Hertz, I've been the happiest with National; nicer cars than Hertz in San Francisco anyway.

Work Travel and Loyalty Programs
Cisco's travel policy is pretty good in that they allow you to enter your loyalty program memberships into their internal travel site, so you can always get your rewards with Cisco-paid travel.  Quite remarkable, really.

Surviving the Airport

We've all had bad experiences at airports.  Long lineups, checked baggage costs, long waits at the gate.

Check In
Air Canada recommends you check in 2 hours before any US or European flight.

Checking in online is handy, especially if you don't have any bags to check.  I've done this a lot, and there's a chance that when they're looking for whom to give free upgrades to (when overbooked), the earliest check-ins may have an edge.  But I'm wavering on that a bit.

When you check-in, you're sometimes offered a discounted first class upgrade.  I chose that once, but the Air Canada system crashed before it could let me finish the check-in process and forced me to check-in with a human.  The check-in concierge commented that my upgrade had gone through (for like $150 or something), but if I had not done that and simply asked her, she would have given it to me for free.  Huh.

Anyway, if I'm not looking to upgrade and I don't have any checked bags, checking in early is fantastic.  Enter the airport and proceed directly to security.

Note, when you're checking in early, update your passport information to add your Nexus ID (if you have it).

If you have checked bags, you'll need to stand in the lineup for bag dropoff.  That can be a pain.  However, if you're, say, Elite 35k, you might be able to use the Priority Check-in counter for Air Canada flights to solve that.  Elite 50k adds priority check-in for all Star Alliance carriers as well.

Security
If you're in Canada or the US, Nexus is your saviour here.  Yeah, you have to give up a lot of your privacy to get it, so I understand why many don't like it.  But with it, yeah, it can be heaven.

And additionally, if you entered your Nexus ID during check-in, you may get "TSA Pre", which is a godsend.  In participating airports, about all you need to do is take your phone out of your pocket.  It is wonderful.

Lounges
I love having lounge access.  I shell out for the Maple Leaf Worldwide Lounge card.  One year I got a big discount due to my E35k status, this year I paid for it using Aeroplan points.

Many of the airports I use have Maple Leaf Lounges.  If you go near a mealtime, there are usually some good buffet options (their turkey and wild rice soup is addictive) and there are free drinks (though not during the morning).

Comfy chairs, roomy washrooms, snacks, magazines, smiling people, great atmosphere.  I love my lounge access.  Really takes the edge off getting to the airport early.  In fact, I usually show up even earlier than I need to so I can have some quality lounge relaxing time.

Delays / Cancellations 
I've only had one flight in recent memory cancelled on me.  It was at SFO, and it was hell.

The rule of thumb I've heard is, the moment your plane is delayed due to a malfunction, rebook.  Either call someone or make a bee-line for the reservations counter (which seems risky to me).  I think I have access to a priority reservation help line with my Elite 35k status, and I think my Infinite Privilege Visa also has one (if I booked using the Visa).

I didn't know any of this, and it was about a 3 hour experience to get rebooked on a flight the next day.  Nicely, Air Canada threw in a night at a nearby Embassy Suite hotel though.

Anyway, make sure you know what your help options are, just in case.

The Gate
If you are willing to pay extra to get Premium Economy seats, or in some cases just the long legroom premium seats (for an extra fee), you can get into "zone 2" and be one of the first to board.

Elite 35k also gets you priority boarding on Air Canada, while E50k gets adds Star Alliance partners too.

Now, I've met a few people who don't bother to board until the last minute; let everyone jostle and get settled before you take your seat.  Nice idea, but that means you're sitting at the gate longer.  It is ill-advised to hang out in the lounge past the first boarding call because if boarding is quick, you may be holding up the flight even though you're still "on time".

Internet and Phone

I'm a big fan of having an unlocked phone, which allows me to use any carrier I want.  When you're traveling, this can be a huge savings.  My back-of-the-napkin calculations suggested the extra cost of an unsubsidized phone was equal or less than the expected costs of roaming using a Canadian carrier's idea of "roaming charges".

I think it is law that the Canadian carriers must offer an unlock service, typically usable 3 months into your contract.  Bell, Telus, and Rogers charge $50 + tax.

An interesting roaming option for newer Apple devices is the Apple SIM; I've used it in Spain and it worked well enough.  However, note that the Apple SIM roaming contracts are per-country.  If you expect to visit a few countries, you'll need to decide if their rates make sense for your shorter per-country periods.

My go-to roaming option is KnowRoaming.  Their SIM is so thin it gets taped onto your existing SIM, and you use a "SIM Application" to switch between your "Home SIM" and the KnowRoaming SIM.  Their Unlimited Roaming packages aren't cheap, around US$8/day, but they're multi-country.

A Rare Update

This has been a good year so far. And this has been a sad year as well.

My father died in January. As I understand it, by complications due to pneumonia and possibly a return of his cancer. Noone was with him when he passed; he didn't let anyone know he was in the hospital besides his neighbours.

I went to Mission Texas with my uncle in March to clean up my father's place (which is actually my grandparent's old winter home).

Since then, I've had a few trips.

Flew the VFR800 to Vancouver in May and rode it down to San Jose for 2 weeks of training. Stored it just south of SFO for my future California trips. During this trip, I ordered a new Sargent seat for the K1300S to bring back with me with my duty exemption.

 

Rode down to North Carolina (RTP) on the K1300S in June for training. What an awesome trip! Skyline Drive and part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

 

 

 

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