During our vacation last week, we spent some time on Grand Cayman. Aside from the excellent snorkeling and diving, the Cayman Islands are quite interesting from a financial perspective. For example… [more]

When I was a kid, my parents went to the bank to get traveller’s checks before every major vacation. And yet… Now that we’re in the final stages of planning for our Disney cruise, it struck me that my wife and I never get traveller’s checks before we travel. And I suspect that we’re not alone. As a wise man once told me, travellers checks are so 1987…

I’m guessing that the big difference is the prevalence of credit and/or debit cards now vs. then. Since we put pretty much everything on our reward credit cards, there’s little need to carry much in the way of cash or traveller’s checks. And yet… While the situation will be much the same on our cruise in that we’ll be able to charge pretty much everything to our cabin and/or pay with a credit card, I still find myself thinking about picking up some traveller’s check before we depart.

What about you? Do you use traveller’s checks? Why or why not?

In case you haven’t heard… As of May 5th, United Airlines will start charging domestic passengers with non-refundable economy tickets $25 to check a second piece of luggage unless they have “Premier” status or better in United’s Mileage plus program or “Silver” status or better in their Star Alliance program. The change is expected to generate $100 million in annual savings and new revenue. Not surprisingly, other airlines are expected to follow suit.

Quick question… What’s the going rate for tipping cab drivers?

I ask this because I recently had an odd interaction with a cab driver. I took a relatively short, very simple cab ride that resulted in a fare of just under $22. Since I only had $20 bills, I gave him two of them and asked for $14 in change and a receipt. He handed me the change and then just stared at me without giving me a receipt. When I again asked for a receipt, he sort of furrowed his brow, then dug one out and handed it to me.

Perhaps he was just an odd, somewhat anti-social guy, but I got the feeling that he was somehow unhappy with the transaction. But why? I had tipped him 20%. And it’s not like he had done anything extraordinary — I only had a couple of small bags, and I tossed them in the back seat myself. He didn’t even bother getting out of the car at either end of the trip. I’ve noodled around on the web a bit looking for an answer, and it seems that the going rate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 15%.

So that brings me back to my question… How much should you tip a cab driver?

In case you’re not aware, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has developed a Registered Traveler (RT) program to help you speed through security. This isn’t exactly breaking news, but I recently saw a blurb about it in Money Magazine, so I thought I’d investigate. [more]

This past fall I was on a work-related trip and passing through New York’s LaGuardia airport when the following sign in the bookstore caught my eye…

Curious as to what the “Read & Return” program was all about, I stopped to investigate. [more]

Oh, how quickly things change… We had planned on spending a quiet Christmas and New Year’s at home, but today I checked airfares on a whim and discovered a (relatively) hot deal that will allow us to go visit family without breaking the bank. Don’t get me wrong… It’s far from free at a bit under $220 apiece. But since my wife and I don’t typically exchange gifts, this trip will be a well-deserved gift to each other.

Given that we have six people in our family, we mostly travel by car. And because we live quite far from family, we don’t travel to see them nearly enough. Thus, this should be a rather memorable trip, especially for the kids. And it will be made even more memorable by the fact that we’re departing Christmas night (around 6PM, arriving shortly before 8PM), and we’re not telling the boys about the trip until Christmas morning.

The beauty of our plan is that we’ll be home for Christmas morning, which we love, but we’ll also get to spend time with family around the holidays, which we also love. And hopefully we’ll get to enjoy a healthy dose of snow. Now for the critical question…

Does anyone think we’ll run into trouble carrying our Wii through airport security?

Update: We’re back. Click through for a review of our cruise on the Disney Magic.

How’s this for exciting? We’re going on a seven day cruise on the Disney Magic in late February! While this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, we’re thrilled… We’ve been looking for a relaxing, family-friendly vacation that will not only be a lot of fun for the entire family, but will also give my wife and I some time to ourselves. Since we have four young kids and no family within easy driving distance, our kids go with us pretty much anywhere we go. In other words, there’s no such thing as a weekend away in our household. [more]

I’m currently on the road at the tail end of a work-related trip. I arrived at the airport somewhat early this morning and, while checking in at the self-service kiosk, I was greeted by a message offering to bump me up to an earlier flight. Curious, I punched the button for more information. Sure enough, they could get me on a non-stop flight just like the one that I had booked, except I’d depart (and thus arrive) one hour earlier.

The price for this change? Fifty dollars. As tempting as it is to get out of here an hour earlier, I decided against the “upgrade.”

It’s funny… There was a time when you could go to the check-in desk and get moved up to earlier flights for free if seats were available. It makes perfect sense for airlines to do this, as it lets them push unsold seats onto later flights, thereby increasing (albeit only slightly) the likelihood that they’ll be able to sell the seats to other travellers. Apparently upselling passengers to earlier flights is a more profitable endeavor.

Are you looking to jump start your frequent flyer account, round out a ticket, or earn an upgrade? Then check out the following list of credit card bonus miles promotions. There are offers from a wide variety of card issuers and airlines, and in some cases you get a free ticket in one fell swoop. [more]