Are you looking forward to a nice Spring Break vacation? Or maybe a summer trip to visit family? If so, and if you’re planning on flying, then read on…

According to a study by Airlines Reporting Corp., which is company involved in ticket transactions between airlines and travel agents, the best time to buy a plane ticket is six weeks before your intended travel date.

This study, which was based on millions of transactions over the past four years, found that passengers buying tickets six weeks in advance paid roughly 6% less than the overall average fare.

The study also showed that ticket prices can rise dramatically about a week before the departure date, and can be as much as 40% higher if you try to buy the same day you travel.

This isn’t to say that you’ll always get the best deal by booking six weeks in advance but, all else being equal, that’s when you’re most likely to score the lowest price.

As an aside, a colleague once raved to me about the Bing travel predictor, which tells you whether you should by now or wait (along with a percent confidence indicator) based on whether they expect fares to rise or drop.

While this sounds great in theory, my experience has been that the predictions aren’t particularly accurate, even when their confidence is high.

As I’ve noted in the past, another good trick for saving money when you travel is to consider alternative airports. This won’t work for everyone, but some airports are consistently more expensive than others.

Source: LA Times via The Consumerist

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If you’ve booked a vacation for your family lately, or sent your kid off on a school-sponsored field trip, you’ve probably considered trip-cancellation insurance. These offers generally promise to reimburse you for the vacation or field trip if you need to cancel. Are these plans worth the cost? It depends on your own personal risk calculation.

What does it cover?

Trip cancellation insurance comes in several flavors. Basic coverage reimburses you if you can’t make your trip because of certain reasons, such as if you get sick, a hurricane rakes the island you were going to visit, or terrorists attack your hotel. The insurance covers non-refundable expenses, so if the tour operator cancels your tour and they refund your fee, for example, the insurance does not pay.

The basic coverage also generally provides benefits if your trip is delayed or interrupted. It also pays for lost or delayed baggage, some medical benefits if you’re injured during your vacation, and emergency evacuation if something horrible happens during your vacay.

You can add to the basics. For example, for an extra fee you can add “cancel-for-any-reason” coverage, which reimburses you for at least part of the non-refundable portion of your trip if you cancel for any reason not covered by the usual terms. Other common upgrades are rental car insurance and accidental death insurance at higher amounts than the basic package offers.

Needless to say, read the terms carefully before you buy so you fully understand what is covered.

What does it cost?

How much does all of this cost? Prices vary, of course. In a comparison of four leading providers, basic coverage for a family of four on a $4,000, week-long, domestic vacation ranged from $82 for a policy from Travel Insured to $275 for a policy form HTH Worldwide.

Those two plans differed mostly in the amount of coverage. For example, the HTH plan included $500,000 in health coverage, while the Travel Insured plan offered $10,000; and the HTH plan offered $1 million emergency medical evacuation coverage, while the Travel Insured plan provided $100,000 coverage for that service.

In addition to the two firms mentioned above, popular trip cancellation insurance firms include American Express, Travelguard, and Access America. Insuremytrip.com is a site that allows users to compare rates from about 20 providers.

Furthermore, many trip providers, such as school field trip organizers, offer their own policies. As do some credit cards — be sure to see if your card provides this coverage before spending money on a separate policy.

But do you need it?

This all sounds good, but you should evaluate this kind of insurance the same way you would evaluate any kind of insurance. Rather than thinking, “Wow, I’d love to get reimbursed for our vacation if my kid gets the flu the night before,” think, “Hmmm, what are the odds my kid is going to get the flu the night before our vacation?”

Use the $4,000 family vacation above as an example. Let’s say you’re considering a plan that costs $200 and will reimburse you for the full $4,000 if someone in the family gets sick and you have to cancel. Forget about the rest of the coverage — emergency medical evacuation, health insurance, death benefits, etc. — for the moment and focus on the real reason you might get this insurance: to refund your purchase price.

If you buy this policy, you are essentially gambling $200 against a potential pay-out of $4,000. What are the odds that you will “win” this gamble? You’ll win if one of you gets sick or a big storm hits the vacation site or whatever. So what are the odds of that? One way to calculate those odds for your family is to look at history: How many vacations have you had to cancel in the past few years? If you have taken ten vacations over the past five years, and cancelled one of them because of a covered reason, you could assume that the odds of you having to cancel your current, $4,000 vacation are one in ten.

So think about it: If your neighborhood bookie put $4,000 on your kitchen table and said you could have it if you drew the right card out of a stack of ten, would you pay him $200 for that one draw? Probably not, unless you’re really into taking risks.

But here’s another way to think about it: If you bought the insurance every time, you would come out even if you were able to collect on the insurance once for every 20 trips. Now it doesn’t sound that risky, especially if you travel a lot.

Obviously, many factors play into your personal risk calculation — maybe you are not traveling with any accident-prone children or maybe you know the tourist destination you are headed to frequently has hurricanes (hmm, maybe you want to rethink this vacation!). The point is, whatever the circumstances, make a rough guess of your odds of using the insurance before you plunk down the money.

Insurance companies do this with highly trained actuaries using sophisticated algorithms and databases full of historical information, but you can make an educated guess without any of that.

That way, whether you get the insurance or not, you will rest easy knowing that you made an informed decision.

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If you’re a frequent (or even semi-frequent) Delta traveler, you might be interested in this offer that just showed up in our mailbox…

If you signup to receive SkyMiles promotions via e-mail by December 31st, you’ll get 1000 free SkyMiles credited to your account. It’s not a huge amount, but it takes very little effort to complete this offer.

Simply visit delta.com/signup and give them your SkyMiles numbers. Next, fill in your name and e-mail address and click submit. From there, you should receive a confirmation e-mail (it took about a day for mine to show up). Click the link in that e-mail, and you’re done. That’s it.

We’ve just sent you a confirmation email. Once you click to confirm, you’ll be set to receive our best deals, promotions, and more right to your inbox, and your bonus miles will be automatically credited to your SkyMiles account.

While I’m no fan of additional junk mail, there doesn’t seem to be any requirement that you stay signed up for the long term if you don’t want to keep receiving the messages after the free miles post.

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That’s right… I just got upgraded to first class for a cross-country flight. Woohoo! While I fly a reasonable amount over the course of a year, it was never quite enough for me to qualify for free upgrades like this.

This is a huge deal for me, as I’m tall, and I don’t fit very well in economy seats. Thus, I’ve always suffered through long flights. While my flyer status is now high enough to give me access to those exit row seats that they’ve long since blocked off for frequent flyers, nothing quite compares to sitting in first class.

Yes, I’m paying $150/year for this card, but the complimentary companion certificate (redeemed earlier this year for a $385 ticket), the MQM miles, and the resulting access to first class upgrades make this fee a worthwhile expenditure.

The regular miles that I earn are just icing on the cake, and I’m often able to redeem them for something close to $0.02/mile, which is roughly equivalent to earning 2% in the form of cash back rewards.

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Over the weekend, I went online to rent a car for an upcoming trip. As usual, I used a combination of Hotwire and Priceline to get the lowest possible rate, ultimately winding up with a reservation through Hotwire.

During the checkout process, I was offer rental car insurance. The policy that I was offered was through Hotwire, and it was significantly cheaper than what the car rental agencies offer, costing something like $35 for the whole rental term vs. $20-$30/day. Nonetheless, I declined.

Why decline rental car insurance? For starters, our regular car insurance policy extends to rentals as long as they’re being driven in place of our regular car. In addition, our Amex Delta Platinum card offers car rental insurance as long as: (1) you decline the rental agency’s insurance, and (2) you pay for the entire rental with that card.

Many other credit cards offer similar protections, though it’s always best to check the details yourself. Some credit card policies pick up where other coverages end, essentially covering your deductible, while others will cover the whole thing. And, of course, some cards don’t offer this sort of protection at all.

As I was about to click the “Rent Now” button, however, I got to wondering… Does credit card car rental insurance extend to rentals through third-parties like Priceline or Hotwire? Hmmmm. I wasn’t sure. I did a bit of Googling, but could find anything definitive. Thus, I decided to contact Amex directly to ask.

Here was their response:

“Good Morning! Yes, these would be covered as well, as long as the rental is charged on your card. You would need to waive their insurance.”

Excellent. Now I’m double covered, with our regular car insurance policy extending to the rental, and the Amex policy also covering the rental. No need to spend a bunch of extra money on that scammy loss and damage waiver (LDW) from the rental agency. And I got the rental itself for more than 30% below prevailing rates.

Obviously, you should double-check with your card issuer to be sure that they have a similar policy. But I would guess that most, if not all, card issuers treat rentals through third-part travel discounters in a similar fashion.

Now I just need to remember to return it with a full tank so I don’t get hit with that pesky fuel surcharge…

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If the American Dream is to own your own home, then owning a timeshare or a vacation home may not be far down the list. Many people dream of having enough money to spend a couple of weeks every summer at the beach or in the mountains.

Owning a timeshare allows you to dip your toes into the vacation home market even if it’s just for one or two weeks during the year, even if you can’t afford the luxury of a second home. Many people are looking for ways to save money on travel, but a timeshare may not be the best way use of your hard earned income to accomplish your vacation dreams.

The savings may not be as great as a hotel

Don’t be fooled into thinking that purchasing a timeshare is an easy way to purchase a piece of your dream vacation home at a fraction of the sticker price. Timeshares are still very pricey even if you’re buying the equivalent of just one or two weeks at a time. In fact, many timeshare programs are run by hotel chains with locations around the country, but owning a timeshare may cost you as much or more than renting a comparable hotel room.

Like chips in a casino, points often hide the true cost of what you’re spending, as it’s hard to equate them with actual dollar values. At one popular timeshare company in the US, you could use your yearly timeshare points to purchase a two week vacation in Hawaii in a one bedroom place for approximately 300,000 points during the peak season.

To put the above in perspective, I have a friend who receives 89k points/year, and he paid $10k to receive those points. If you financed your timeshare using a ten year loan like he did, you would have purchased those 89,000 points for about $1,000 per year plus a ton of interest. That two week hotel stay in Hawaii ultimately could cost you approximately $3,370 — again, ignoring the interest payments — once you convert your points into a dollar value. Could you have found a nice hotel for two weeks in Hawaii for less?

Timeshares add to your debt

Given how expensive they can be, it should come as no surprise that timeshares can put you into debt very fast. Remember my friend from above? That loan that he took out cost him a whopping $230/month! By the time he finishes paying off his loan for the timeshare, he will have paid $27,600 (!) for a $10,000 timeshare purchase. So, technically, a Hawaiian vacation like the one mentioned in the earlier example really costs over $6,000 if you take into account the interest that he’s paying.

The fees keep coming

Even after you pay off your loan and own your timeshare free and clear, you’ll still have to pay monthly maintenance fees. These fees are very similar to HOA fees, or dues that you have to pay for the upkeep of the property. The maintenance fees for many popular timeshares can be upwards of $45 per month. So that “free” vacation that you’ve finally paid off will continue to cost you hundreds of dollars per year. And like HOA fees, timeshare maintenance fees can increase over time.

Timeshares are hard to resell

Another major downside of timeshares is that there is practically no secondary market for reselling your purchase. Thus, if you have buyer’s remorse or you just need to recover your money, you’ll have a hard time recouping anywhere near what you spent. In many cases, timeshare owners wind up selling their timeshares back to the property management companies at a tiny fraction of the original price.

While saving money on vacations is an admirable, don’t get swept away by the dream of owning your own vacation home. When you purchase a timeshare, you may be buying a small piece of that dream, but purchasing a timeshare is not for everyone, and it’s not a particularly good investment.

If you’ve owned a timeshare, I’d love to hear about your experiences. What’s the best part of timeshare ownership? And the worst? Any lessons that you’d like to share with the rest of us?

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There was a time when I was solidly in the cash back credit card rewards camp, and you couldn’t have convinced me to apply for a frequent flyer credit card. But that was then, and this is now…

Last summer I applied for an Amex Delta Platinum SkyMiles credit card. I travel semi-frequently, and our family also takes periodic trips. Given that almost all of this travel (when it involves flying) is done on Delta, I thought a targeted card like this might make sense for us.

Upon approval, I was granted 20k bonus miles, 5k of which were MQMs (i.e., they count toward upgrading my flyer status), along with an extra 2250 bonus miles for my wife’s card. As far as ongoing rewards go, I earn one mile per dollar spend with double miles on purchases from Delta. I also get chunks of additional MQMs at specific spending levels (10k MQMs for each $25k spent) as well as free checked bags and one free “companion” travel certificate per year.

All in all, it’s been a good experience. Thanks to the bonus MQMs, I’ve been able to upgrade my status such that I earn mileage at a higher rate when I fly, I get occasionally get free upgrades, and I also get to reserve seats in the sought after exit row – this is no small thing when you’re 6′5″.

All of that is well and good, but how much are these rewards actually worth? I place a very high value on the status upgrade, as that pays dividends in multiple ways. But what about actual cash savings? Well…

My wife is taking two of our kids to visit family this fall. Last night, while making arrangements, I was able to use miles to snag one of the tickets (albeit at a slightly inflated price) and then use the companion ticket for a buy-one-get-one-free pair of tickets for the other two.

The reward ticket cost 32,500 miles – a bit higher than the base 25,000 due to availability – with a $5 booking fee. That ticket would have otherwise cost $385, so I saved $380. That works out to just shy of 1.2 cents per mile. Not the steal of the century – I’ve done better in the past – but a pretty solid deal.

As for the companion ticket, I was really pleased with this in that it was very easy to use. There were some taxes/fees that weren’t covered on the companion fare, which added $21 to the overall bill, but we got away with two tickets for $406. Not too shabby.

Adding it all up, we got three plane tickets worth $1155 for $427 out-of-pocket. Even after adding back in the $150 annual fee for the Platinum card, we ended up paying about half what these tickets would have otherwise cost us.

Sure, if we had a cash back reward card we could’ve put those rewards toward a flight, but we wouldn’t get the companion voucher, free baggage, enough bonus MQMs to upgrade my status, etc.

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The tenets of a sound investment philosophy are well established. Good investors seek quality equities that are undervalued, but offer strong upsides. In so doing, they often disregard conventional wisdom, boldly going where others fear to tread. At payoff time, they’re glad they followed the road less traveled.

I was thinking these thoughts on a recent Friday afternoon, as I reclined and sipped a cool beverage at a sidewalk café in the artsy town of Tlaquepaque, just outside Guadalajara, Mexico. Sheltered from a brilliant sun by towering orange, lemon, palm, and eucalyptus trees, I watched as children frolicked in a public fountain, their voices rising in joy.

Not far away, young couples cuddled in the grass of a public square, and older men kibitzed on park benches. Tourists and locals alike window-browsed along a street lined with colorful pottery stores.

In short, the scene couldn’t have been any less threatening or scary if it had been lifted from a fairy tale penned for the sensibilities of preschoolers.

This wasn’t my first trip to Mexico, not by a long shot. I frequently have traveled there on business, to places like Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, Mazatlán, Morelia, Taxco, Cuernavaca, Mexico City, and even less touristed spots like Patzcuaro, Saltillo, Poza Rica, and Tequesquitengo.

What’s struck me recently about Mexico, apart from the usual beauty of its beaches, mysticism of its colonial cities, delectability of its culinary arts, and friendliness of its people, is how different the reality is from the perception.

In the United States, we’ve grown inured to hearing that you just can’t travel to Mexico, that it’s really too dicey these days. That message is enough to bring guffaws from the Americans I journey with south of the border. We laugh heartily, as we toast our hosts with another round of icy Coronas, while gazing out on an azure ocean from beneath the fronds of a palapa on a picture-postcard beach.

But this isn’t a travel story. It’s a personal finance column. I hope to show why shrewd investors savvy enough to discard naysayers’ messages should put their vacation money into an undervalued investment in personal enjoyment.

The lure of a bargain

Smart investors seek stocks that have been “beaten down,” or punished by bad news, but whose potential is not accurately reflected in that news. The stock price has fallen, and now offers a “buy low” bargain, and an opportunity for gains. That’s precisely what Mexico presents to those seeking affordable vacations.

Whether it’s an exclusive, modern hotel on a beach, a boutique hostelry built into a 17^th Century hacienda, or a simple bed-and-breakfast in a beguiling resort town, you’re likely to find prices and packages more affordable these days. Mexico is always less costly for Americans, given its proximity to the U.S., but fits budgets even better today, given the recent publicity it has unfairly endured.

What’s true of hotels is also likely to be true of airfare, restaurant meals, tour plans and all-inclusive deals. For a holiday that’s truly easy on the wallet, there may never have been a better time to consider Mexico than right now.

Investing in quality

I recently had the chance to chat with Alfonso Sumano, New York City-based regional director for the Americas for the Mexico Tourism Board. He told me something I didn’t know. “We have 14 AAA-rated, Five-Diamond resorts in Mexico, more than many other country,” he reported.

“In fact, that’s more than Hawaii, Canada, and the Caribbean combined. That tells you a lot about the quality of service you can expect in Mexico.”

You don’t, however, have to stay at a top-dollar hotel to enjoy quality in Mexico. And when you blend this quality with the affordability cited above, you get value, which is exactly what wise investors seek when picking investments.

Seeing opportunity where others perceive risk

Many Americans, accepting the word of the media with the same child-like obedience they do all media messages, express fear about traveling to Mexico.

Aware of that, on a recent trip to Mazatlan, the Western port city justifiably dubbed the “Pearl of the Pacific,” I asked an official of the city’s convention and visitors bureau whether thought had been given to comparing rates of violent crime in top U.S. cities with those in comparably-sized Mexican cities. I was betting, I said, Mexico would be shown safer in such comparisons.

Turned out officials of Mexico’s travel industry were way ahead of me. Right about that time, such comparisons began being publicized, showing, for instance, crime rates in Mexico City are half those of Washington, D.C. While traveling to a well-populated resort in Mexico, it seems, you’re cocooned in greater safety and security than on jaunts to many major American cities.

Remember, too, that safety concerns are limited to a few border states representing a geographically tiny fraction of the huge country of Mexico. If you were a non-American, would you avoid the U.S. if skirmishes were confined to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and far northern Minnesota and North Dakota?

Most American media worshippers aren’t aware of these facts, but you can leverage this wisdom as you plan your investment in your next vacation.

The takeaway is this… Many people put their money into an investment, then begin to worry that the value of that investment will head south.

I’m urging you to simply head south.

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For those that can’t (or don’t want to) check out the video, it’s a humorous piece from The Onion that advises taking a vacation entirely in your mind. While this is intended as a joke, it does bring up the possibility of taking a “staycation,” where you stay home and relax, visit local attractions, etc.

Not only can you save a good bit of money by taking a staycation, but you’ll probably return to work more relaxed and re-energized than if you had actually headed out of town for vacation. The key is to actually not work.

In the few cases where we’ve done a staycation, I’ve made a point of telling people at work that I’ll be away for the week, I’ve set up an auto-reply for my e-mail, etc. And guess what? It’s worked great. Have you ever done a staycation?

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As a quick followup to Ed’s recent post about how to save money on vacation, I wanted to point out an article from Fiscal Fizzle that lists even more ways to save on vacation.

1. Research ahead of time for low-cost things to do
2. Consider the cost of travel when selecting destinations
3. Use cash for your spending money
4. Book a place with kitchen facilities
5. Drive whenever possible
6. Plan repeat visits
7. Build packing lists
8. Use the experience of locals

Of course, Wojo expands on each of these tips in his article. My personal favorites from his list are #1, #2, #4, and #5.

We always look online for things to do before we leave for our trip. Not only does this help to ensure a jam-packed, super-fun trip, it’s also a great way to save money. You can often get discounts by buying tickets online ahead of time, and if reservations are required, you can make sure you get the time of your choice, freeing up the rest of your day(s) for other activities.

As a family of six, air travel really adds up, so we preferentially vacation in places that we can get to by car within a day or two. This great cuts the cost of travel to the destination, and also saves us the expense of renting a car on the other end. This also allows us to haul certain groceries to our destination (and to bring leftovers home with us) – which feeds into…

Booking a place with a kitchen. This is a huge one for us. When we go to the beach, we often find condos on VRBO.com that rent for little more than the cost of a hotel room, yet offer far more space and have fully-outfitted kitchens such that we can cook for ourselves and avoid spending a ton at restaurants.

One other tip, which sort of falls in line with #7, is to create a dedicated medicine bag that contains everything you’re likely to need. We use a small-ish wheelie duffel bag (remember, there are six of us!), and we never take things out of it when we’re at home. This makes it super easy to pack our toiletries, and ensures that we won’t have to run out and pay a premium for toothpaste, acetaminophen, etc.

What about you? Do you have any tips for saving money while on the road? If so, please share them in the comments.

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This is a guest post from Ed Avis.

There are lots of well-known ways to save money on your vacation, such as booking flights and hotels online, cashing in credit card rewards, or eating the free breakfast in your motel. But here are some less-obvious ways to save money on your family vacay that you might not have considered.

Keep track

This is a surprisingly effective way to save money. Keep a notebook and write down how every dollar is spent, immediately after it is spent. This practice does two things. First, it helps you stay on your budget, because you will no longer be estimating how much money is left in your wallet. Second, you will quickly see how much money you’re frittering away on worthless claptrap. These two effects are purely psychological, but you’ll be amazed at how well they work.

Put the kids on a souvenir budget

You probably enjoy indulging your kids when you’re on vacation. But rather than whipping our your wallet every time they whine, give them a daily budget for souvenirs. It will force them to make better choices, and it will limit the nick on your budget. Let them “save up” the budget if they want something big on the last day of your trip, of if they’d rather carry the cash home.

Go for the free souvenirs

Completely eliminate the souvenir budget by collecting the countless free souvenirs you can find on nearly every vacation – restaurant menus, ticket stubs, brochures, hotel room key cards, hotel soap, foreign currency, drink coasters, labels from local foods, receipts, seashells, and other local flora and fauna, etc. These little things will carry much more meaning than that cheapy roadside t-shirt anyway. And imagine how fun it will be to stick these mementos next to your vacation photos in your scrapbook or on your dresser.

Pack a lunch

Yes, when you’re on vacation, you’re going to eat out. But not for every meal! If you pack sandwiches for just one meal a day, you can cut your food budget by a quarter. Even if you’re staying in a hotel room without a refrigerator, pack one daily meal of fruit, granola bars and other non-perishables. You’ll save money, and each restaurant meal will be more special.

Save at the restaurant

Most restaurant meals are big. When you eat a big restaurant meal in your home town, you take the leftovers home in a doggy bag. You can’t always do that on vacation! With that in mind, here are two money-saving restaurant tips. First, consider eating just two meals – a big breakfast and dinner. You’ll be plenty full, and on vacation you’re busy enough that you probably won’t even miss lunch. Second, consider splitting those giant entrees. Growing teens will clean their plates, but most younger kids and adults would be perfectly content with half a meal, especially when they eat the bread and other stuff that precedes the meal.

The best things are free

What do your kids remember most from your last vacation, the $250 visit to the run-down amusement park, or the day you spent on the beach for free? And how many times have you heard about the kid who remembers the hotel pool way more fondly than the endless museum? The bottom line: Sometimes the best things about a vacation cost you nothing. If you’re in a big city, check out free cultural events such as parades, art festivals and concerts in the park. Or just walk through the funky neighborhoods or ethnic areas. If you’re in a resort community, take advantage of public beaches, state park hiking trails and hotel ping-pong tables. You’ll have fun, and your wallet will be fatter on the return trip.

Think minor

Major League baseball games are expensive. Minor league games are not, and they can be loads more fun. Similarly, Broadway shows can break your budget, but storefront theaters produce some of the most fascinating, cutting-edge drama anywhere, for way less money. Wanna hear a concert? Skip the big-name reunion tour at $250 a ticket and hear the best local garage band in an intimate atmosphere for a $10 cover. Unlike the owners of major sports teams and theaters, the owners of minor league sports teams, small theaters, local music venues, and similar cultural institutions know that they need to treat the customers well in order to win their business.

Pay in advance

There’s no better feeling when you’re checking out of the hotel than to hear the clerk say the bill is already covered. And you will almost certainly get a better deal on anything you order if you pay in advance. Best of all, if you pay for your car and hotel room from the comfort of your home six weeks before your trip, you are much less likely to get hit with surprise budget-killing extra fees.

These are just a few ideas to get the conversation started. What’s the best low or no-cost deal you’ve found on a family vacation?

For the money you do spend on vacation, make sure you’re using a great travel rewards card to start earning points for your next holiday:

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Earlier this month, I pointed out a 100k mile bonus for signing up for the Chase British Airways Visa Card. This is a pretty generous offer, in that you can immediately trade those miles for a pair of Transatlantic flights. But what if you don’t want to leave the country?

As it turns out, you can use British Airways miles to book reward travel on their domestic partner, American Airlines. In other words, you can use those bonus miles for up to four domestic tickets.

Here’s how it works: Go to the British Airways website and start looking for flights. When trying to book a reward flight, they will search for BA flights first, but will give you the option of including partner airlines if you search for domestic flights. Do so, and you’ll be able to book available “MileSAAver” fares in lower 48 for 25k BA miles + a $5 booking fee (or fewer miles plus a higher fee).

That’s it. To take advantage of this deal, apply for the card, get approved (= 50k miles) and spend $2500 within the first three months (= another 50k miles, for a total of 100k). Yes, there’s an annual fee of $95, but you also get a free companion voucher if you spend over $30k with your card in a year.

Hat tip to MyMoneyBlog for figuring this out.

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As you may know, running this site isn’t all that I do. I also have a full time job, and that job sometimes requires travel. Unfortunately, I don’t have a corporate credit card for charging my travel expenses. I do, however, get reimbursed (within limits) by my employer – though I have to track and turn in the requisite documentation.

Unfortunately, I often end up scrambling to find and assemble the necessary paperwork, and then get it turned in on time. I’ve been working to improve things, though, and I thought I’d share some tips for making travel reimbursement easier.

Know what’s allowable

For starters, it’s very important to understand what can and cannot be reimbursed. While this may seem obvious, there are some subtleties to be aware of. For example, when it comes to meals, is alcohol allowable? In many cases it is, but for some employers, it’s a no-no. And what about dollar limits? When traveling for business, do you have an open checkbook, or do you need to keep your meals under a certain dollar amount?

Know what sort of documentation you need

Another important issue what sort of documentation is required. For example, do you need to turn in receipts for your meals, or can you simply claim a per diem amount? And if you are required to turn in receipts, will a charge slip suffice, or does it need to be an itemized receipt? It’s not uncommon for a restaurant to leave you with a charge slip instead of a detailed receipt, so you may need to ask.

What about copies vs. originals? Or using credit card statement in place of a lost receipt? Some employers are more flexible than others, so be careful not to lose anything essential – which bring us to…

Track and annotate your paperwork

Once you know what’s allowable, and how to document it, you’ll need to actually keep track of your receipts and other details while on the road. In the past, this has been my downfall. I’ll start accumulating receipts in one spot, but over time (especially on longer trips) things get spread around. I’ll end up with some things in my wallet, and others in my pocket, on the hotel dresser, in my computer bag, etc.

To combat this problem, I’ve started creating a dedicated envelope that I put in my computer bag and each night I go through my wallet, pockets, etc. and put everything in the envelope. This works pretty well, though you have to have the discipline to actually use it on a regular basis.

Another good idea is to annotate your receipts with any information that you might need later. For example, if you need to indicate who was at a particular meal when dining with clients, jot that info down while it’s still fresh in your mind. If you don’t, you’ll wind up spending way too much time trying to reconstruct that information later.

Oh, and you might also want to get into the habit of snapping a photo of each receipt with your smartphone. If your employer will accept copies, this picture might take the place of a lost receipt. And even if they won’t accept it, the picture will serve as a reminder of what you’re owed, and help you figure out which receipts may have gotten lost and need to replaced.

Submit your request promptly

And finally… You need to make a point of requesting reimbursement as quickly as possible after you return home. Obviously, you don’t want to make an interest-free loan to your employer – wouldn’t you rather have that money safely back in your own savings account? And more importantly, you need to do this because it will allow you to hunt down any missing details before they’re lost forever.

Maybe you’ve mis-placed a receipt. If you wait too long, you may forget about it entirely, or be unable to get a replacement. Likewise, if you’ve failed to properly annotate any of your receipts, as suggested above, you’ll be more able to fill in the gaps if you tackle this task while it’s still fresh in your mind.

Your tips for travel reimbursement

Okay, those are my four major tips for simplifying the process of travel reimbursement. What about you? I’m sure that a number of you are professional road warriors, so I’d love to hear any tips that you might have to offer.

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It looks like the airline credit card space is starting to heat up. Joining the recently-expired Capital One matching miles offer and the ongoing Chase Sapphire Preferred 25k point signup bonus, we now have a 100k mile signup bonus from the British Airways Chase Visa card.

Here’s the deal: Simply apply for the card (and get approved) and you’ll get a signup bonus of 50k miles. From there, spend $2500 in the first three months and you’ll get an additional 50k bonus miles, for a total of 100k miles. Taken together, that’s enough for two free trans-Atlantic flights.

You’ll also receive 1.25 miles per dollar spent (2.5 miles on British Airways purchases) on an ongoing basis with no limit on the number of miles that you can earn. While there is a $95 annual fee, you’ll earn a free companion travel voucher if you spend over $30k with your card in a year.

Another nice feature of this card is that it has no foreign transaction fee, making it an excellent choice for overseas travelers.

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I applied for the Capital One Venture Card back when you first talked about their “matching miles” promotion. I got the card, spent $1000, and have already received the 100k in matching miles. Thanks!

He also sent a screenshot as proof. In the interest of space and privacy, I’ve trimmed it down to just the relevant part and blacked out his partial account number.

As you can see, he now has a mileage balance of a little more than 112k miles. I didn’t ask, but I believe that the excess miles (over the 100k) include the 10k signup bonus for new customers as well as the miles he has earned for his spending thus far.

In case you missed it when I first talked about it, Capital One is offering to match the mileage balance from your existing frequent flyer credit card up to 100k miles. All you have to do is submit proof of your mileage balance and then spend $1k with your new Venture card in the first three months. This offer is good through May 13, 2011 but the mileage match is limited to a cumulative total of one billion miles.

Going forward, you earn 2 “miles” for every dollar spent, and you can redeem them on penny per point basis for airfare, hotels, or car rentals – or you can trade them in for gift cards or cash back.

At a value of $0.01/mile, this promo is worth up to $1100 in bonuses, and Jason was able to get the full amount. Not too shabby for a single credit card application. And yes, you get to keep your existing miles in your other account.

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If you didn’t have enough miles to make the Capital One Venture Card mileage-matching offer worthwhile, here’s another one that might be of interest to you…

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is offering a signup bonus of 50k points. You can redeem these points for $625 toward airfare or hotel accommodations. Use 20% fewer points when you redeem for travel just book your flight, cruise, or other travel through Ultimate Rewards(SM). If you want a more expensive ticket, no problem – just pay the difference.

To qualify, you need to apply for the card, get approved, and then spend at least $3k in the first three months. Note that this card has an $95 annual fee, but it’s waived for the first year. As far as ongoing rewards are concerned, you’ll earn two points per dollar spent on travel and dining and one point per dollar spent on all other purchases.

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This is just a quick followup to the Capital One Venture Card offer that I mentioned last week. In case you missed it, Capital One is matching your the mileage balance from your existing frequent flyer credit card up to 100k miles. All you have to do is submit proof of your mileage balance and then spend $1k with your new Venture card in the first three months. This offer is good through May 13, 2011 and the mileage match is limited to a cumulative total of one billion miles.

Earlier today, a reader e-mailed me with the following question:

I have more than 100,000 miles with the AmEx Delta SkyMiles card. Do I keep those and get an additional 100,000 miles in my Venture card account? Or do the AmEx miles somehow get transferred to Venture to become 200,000?

This is a great question, and Capital One actually addressed it in their FAQs:

What happens to my existing airline credit card miles? Nothing. They’re still yours, we’re only matching them. Your existing miles are not affected by this promotion. We’re confident that you’ll want to stick with Venture once you experience the great features and benefits, like double miles on every purchase, every day.

In other words, there’s no real risk to this offer… You keep your existing miles, plus you get a matching amount in your Venture card account. Not only that, but new Capital One customers also get an additional signup bonus of 10k miles.

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I just ran across a pretty cool signup bonus from the Capital One Venture Card. In case you’re not familiar with it, this is a travel credit card that gives you 2 “miles” for every dollar spent. You can then redeem them on a penny per point basis for airfare, hotels, or car rentals. Or, if you’d prefer, you can trade them in for gift cards or cash back.

Their current offer is that, if you currently have another mileage card, they’ll match the mileage balance on that card in Venture miles. All you have to do is submit proof of your mileage earnings (in the form of a statement) and then spend $1k within the next three months. They’ll match up to 100k miles, plus give you an additional 10k mile signup bonus.

Depending on how many matched miles you qualify for, this is a potentially huge signup bonus. At a penny per mile, that 110k miles (100k match + 10k bonus) is worth $1100, which is much more than the standard signup bonus.

If you have an existing Capital One card, you can qualify for the matched miles by “upgrading” to a Venture Card, but the 10k bonus is available only to new Capital One customers. It’s also worth noting that the Venture card has a $59 annual fee, though it’s waived for the first year.

When I first ran across this offer, I was kind of bummed out… I’ve earned a ton of miles with my Amex Delta Platinum card, and would love to have them matched. Unfortunately, I recently redeemed about 70k of these miles and thus don’t have many left. According to the fine print, however, you can submit a statement from anytime in the past six months, so I should be okay.

This offer is good through May 13, 2011 but the mileage match is limited to a cumulative total of one billion miles. That sounds like a lot, but those miles could go fast, with as few as 10k customers with 100k eligible miles apiece exhausting the available supply. To reserve your miles, be sure to submit your documentation as quickly as possible.

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Speaking of frequent flyer credit cards… While looking at the new Southwest Airlines frequent flyer program, I ran across the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card – FREE FLIGHT

I’ve been digging around for info on Southwest because they’re expanding into our market in the near future, and I’m looking forward to having access to their flights again. I used to fly Southwest fairly regularly, but haven’t been able to do so since we moved a few years ago.

Re-working the Rapid Rewards program

As for their new rewards program, Southwest is ditching their old frequent flyer system (take 16 flights, get one free) in favor of a new points based system. You can now get  25,000 bonus points toward free flights after your first purchase.

At first blush, the new program is a little convoluted, but it looks like a pretty solid deal. You earn points based on the price of your tickets and can then exchange them for flights, again based on the ticket price.

The real strength of their program, however, is the lack of blackout dates. According to Southwest, “every seat is a reward seat,” so you won’t have any trouble using your rewards. Anyone that has tried to use their frequent flyer miles knows that this is a huge benefit.

Earning rewards with the Southwest credit card

So what about

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After years of using a cash back rewards card as my primary credit card, I switched over to a mileage card – the Amex Delta Platinum SkyMiles card – last summer. I’m earning a mile per dollar spent, with double miles on Delta purchases, and bonus chunks of MQM miles for specified spending tiers.

So far, I’ve been able to bump myself up in terms of flyer status thanks to the MQM miles, and I’ve also piled up a ton of miles that can be used toward free flights. But how much are these miles really worth?

In the past, I’ve valued miles at about $0.01/each, which would mean that this is essentially a 1% cash back credit card. But with airfares on the rise, I’ve started to re-think this valuation even though airlines have been making reward tickets harder to find and/or devaluing the miles by increasing the number of miles required

Last fall, I booked my wife a $450 ticket for 25,000 miles. More recently, I was able to book a couple of $760 tickets for 32,500 miles apiece. In the first case, I got 1.8 cents/mile. In the second case, I got 2.3 cents per mile.

In other words, I’ve been getting in the neighborhood of $0.02/mile, which is the equivalent of 2% cash back – not too shabby. Of course, I’m paying a $150 annual fee for this card, but that’s well worth it to me when you consider the additional perks…

For starters, I get a free “companion” certificate each year as well as free checked bags when I fly (includes up to nine people on one reservation). On top of that, the improved flyer status thanks to the bonus MQM miles gets me the occasional free upgrade, access to exit row seats (I’m tall, so this matters), pre-boarding privileges, etc.

What about you? How much are your frequent flyer miles worth to you? Do you have any tips or tricks for maximizing their value? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

*Note: While the prices listed above sound a bit high, those were the going rates for the routes in question regardless of which airline we chose. In both cases, these were relatively expensive routes, and the purchases were somewhat last minute. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the flexibility to choose our dates.

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While tracking my wife’s flight today, I discovered that Google Chrome is sponsoring free wi-fi on AirTran, Delta, and Virgin America domestic flights from November 20th, 2010 through January 2nd, 2011.

To access the free connection, simply enable wi-fi on your device, select the “gogoinflight” network, and launch your web browser. You’ll be redirected to the GoGo web site where you just have to click the “Start Browsing the Web” button.

While this promo is sponsored by Google Chrome, it looks like you can participate with any browser. That being said, I coincidentally made the switch to Chrome about two weeks ago, and I love it.

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Last night, I finally sat down and placed an order for some Presidential dollar coins from the US Mint. As I noted in a previous post, I’m very close to breaking through a reward tier on my Amex Delta credit card.

In short, once I hit the prescribed spending level, I’ll receive a block of 10k bonus miles. But these aren’t regular bonus miles. They’re Medallion Qualifier Miles (MQMs), which means that they count toward bumping up my flyer status.

With higher status, I’ll accumulate miles more quickly, get periodic seat upgrades, etc. Like I said in the original post, this isn’t a huge deal, but it’s definitely worth pursuing. What I don’t want to do is spend mindlessly to get to the next level.

In my previous post, I outlined some possible strategies for reaching a reward tier without actually spending more money, and readers weighed also weighed in with some idea of their own.

Possibilities included buying coins from the Mint, “pre-paying” for purchases by buying gift cards for groceries, Sam’s Club, Amazon, etc., making our year-end charitable donation a bit early, paying extra toward our cell phone bill to generate a credit (thanks Jason!), and so on.

Buying our Presidential coins

Well… Like I said above, I finally took action on one of these strategies. I bought coins through the US Mint Direct Ship program. As a reader named Chris pointed out, the Mint now limits you to four boxes (4 x $250 = $1000) every ten days.

Believe it or not, I actually all four rolls, so we’ll soon have $1k in coins delivered to our front door. Did I mention that they offer free shipping?

The ordering process was very easy and no, these sorts of purchases are not treated as a cash advance. The Mint actually sells a variety of things in addition to coins, and your card issuer has no way of knowing exactly what you’re buying.

Plans for spending the coins

My intention is to honor the spirit of the program and to resist the urge to simply deposit the coins in the bank. Thus, I’ll gradually spend them down. Ideas for spending dollar coins include:

• Tipping (maybe even a bit of holiday tipping)
• Paying allowance (= let the kids spend it)
• Tooth Fairy money (with four kids, this actually happens reasonably often)
• Keep some in my car cup holder for random spending

We’ll probably also use a bit of it to replenish our “cash stash,” which fluctuates over time. No, we don’t want all of it in coin form, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some it as dollar coins.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, we bought two rolls of Washington and two rolls of Jefferson coins.

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I’m writing this on Tuesday night. By the time you read it on Wednesday morning, I’ll be a single dad. No, my wife didn’t leave me. Rather, she’s flying cross country to visit family and friends for five nights, leaving with with all four boys until early next week.

Upon arrival, she’ll need a car, so I offered to book one for her. As I’ve noted in the past, I’m a fan of both Priceline and Hotwire when it comes to car rentals. Both companies deal with mainstream rental agencies such as Budget, Hertz, National, Enterprise, and Alamo. These are pretty much all the same to me, so I shop solely based on price.

Note: I’m not quite so cavalier when it comes to finding flights or hotels. I’m sure I could get some screaming deals, but I’m not crazy about the lack of detail when it comes to travel itineraries or hotel locations.

So… Here’s how it went down.

Checking out Hotwire

As always, I started by checking prices on Hotwire. While they don’t have a “Name Your Own Price” option, they do offer “Hot Deals” where they list the price, but not the rental agency in advance. You also have to pre-pay at booking, and there are no refunds.

Another wrinkle with Hotwire is that they don’t always have a “Hot Deal” at your location of interest, or for the car type you’re looking for. That being said, even if they don’t you can still book a reservation through them, and it’s still (usually) below market rates. Moreover, when you make such “regular” reservations, you don’t have to pre-pay and you can cancel at any time.

I first check Hotwire about 10 days in advance of the trip. At the time, the price for a full-sized car direct from a mainstream website was around $60-70/day. Hotwire didn’t have any Hot Deals, but they were offering a regular reservation for $42.95. Not great, but certainly better than booking direct through a rental agency.

Comparing to Priceline

From Hotwire, I jumped over to Priceline. When you search for cars at Priceline, you’ll first be presented with a pricing grid that is about on par with market prices. But the beauty of Priceline is that there’s also a “secret” pricing grid that you can bid against.

Simply select the “Name Your Own Price” option and take your best shot. I’ve found that undercutting Hotwire by about 20% is a good strategy, though in this case Hotwire was already far below Priceline, and my bid was immediately rejected.

Once you’ve bid and been rejected, you’re not allowed to bid again for 24 hours unless you change the car type, location, or dates. I decided to wait. A day or so later, I upped my bid slightly and tried again. Rejected. Oh well, it only took a few seconds, so nothing was really lost.

Patience pays off

Here’s where it gets interesting… Last Wednesday, exactly one week before the desired rental date, the pricing landscape changed entirely. Suddenly Hotwire had a Hot Deal for every car type, and the full sized pricing had dropped to $32.95/day. I was tempted, but figured I’d take another shot with Priceline.

Over at Priceline, I skipped right past the initial pricing grid and took a shot. I had previously been bidding in the mid-$30s per day, but I could now get a better than that at Hotwire, so I went lower. I took a shot at $27/day, and they accepted.

Overall, I saved around 55% over market rates. For a five day rental, that works out to a savings of $165 plus about 15-20% in taxes and miscellaneous fees.

Perhaps the most intriguing thing that I learned here was that pricing landscape can change dramatically as the deadline draws near. It could have just been coincidence, but I suspect that the one week mark is when things really start to change, and prices drop substantially.

Of course, you also need to consider the context. This was a rental in early October at a non-vacation destination. I probably wouldn’t press my luck around the holidays in travel hotspots, as rental agencies sometimes run low on inventory and prices rise.

But whenever I’m traveling during off-peak periods, I’ll definitely keep a careful eye on the prices and wait until the one week mark to book unless I stumble onto a screaming deal before then.

What about you?

Have you ever booked rental cars through travel discounters? If so, do you have tips or tricks for getting a great deal? Please share your strategies in the comments.

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Not surprisingly, we do virtually all of our travel planning online. What follows is a rundown of our favorite travel sites, and a few words about how we use them and we like them.

Kayak/Sidestep

My first stop when planning a vacation is often Kayak. I’ve lumped it together here with Sidestep because they’ve historically offered very similar services, but Kayak ultimately bought Sidestep.

Kayak has by far the best interface of any travel site that I’ve used in recent years, and they also have a very hand iPhone app. You can easily search prices at all major airlines (except Southwest) using Kayak, and they’re live-updating results make it easy to quickly find the best deals.

To be honest, I usually end up booking through the airline website itself (habit, I guess), but Kayak allows me to quickly identify which airline(s) I should be searching.

Bing Travel

This is a relatively new entry on the list, but I’ve recently started checking Bing Travel before booking flights. Why? Because they have a great fare forecasting tool that tells you whether you should buy now or wait.

While no tool can make perfect predictions, my experience has been that Bing does a good job of tracking price trends and letting you know if now is a good time to buy. They also include a confidence rating to give you an idea of how much weight you should give their prediction.

As a quick example, we’re considering a trip to visit family for the holidays, but the prices are a bit too high for our tastes. As for Bing’s view, they’re saying that we should wait, as they’re 84% confident that fares will drop or hold steady over the next week.

SeatGuru

I’m tall, so choosing the right seat on an airplane can mean the difference between a reasonably enjoyable trip and hours of discomfort. Enter SeatGuru. They have seating charts for all major plane types on all major carriers, along with comments about the comfort level and amenities associated with each seat type.

If you’re concerned about comfort, I highly recommend checking with them before choosing the seats for your next flight.

TripAdvisor

If you’re traveling to a new area and want to get the lay of the land, you need to bookmark TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor is an online travel guide that is filled with tons of great user-generated reviews.

While they offer a number of services, TripAdvisor is particularly useful for identifying the best hotel for your needs as well as for finding good restaurants. Like Kayak, TripAdvisor has a handy iPhone app so you can easily check everything on the go (if you have an iPhone).

Hotwire & Priceline

I’ve lumped these two together because I usually use them in tandem. For those that are unaware, both Hotwire and Priceline fall into the category of “opaque” discount travel sites. If you’re willing to forego knowledge of certain details, you can get a great deal by using them.

In short, you retain control of the dates, times, and locations of your travel itinerary, you don’t find out the name of the hotel, airline, or car rental agency until after you accept a price and make the purchase. Purchases are pre-paid and non-refundable, but you can save 30-60%.

The key difference between the two sites is that Hotwire operates on a fixed price model, whereas Priceline allows you to “name your own price.” Of course, there’s no guarantee that they’ll accept it, but it’s worth a shot.

I’ve mostly used these sites for car rentals, though you can get great deals on airfares and hotels, as well. For cars, I start by checking Hotwire. I then take that price, subtract 15-20% and then submit a bid over on Priceline. If they accept, great. If not, I either wait 24 hours and re-bid, or I go back to Hotwire and purchase the rental.

VRBO.com

If you’re looking for a vacation rental, I’ve yet to find a better resource than VRBO.com. VRBO stands for Vacation Rentals By Owner, and it’s a great resource for finding independently owned vacation homes and condos.

If anything, VRBO can be a bit overwhelming because of the sheer number of options out there. Nonetheless, you can find some great deals if you’re willing to put in a bit of time. This past summer, we used it to book a vacation in St. Augustine Beach, Florida and we couldn’t have been happier with the place we found.

What are your favorites?

Now that I’ve shared my favorite travel sites, I’m interested in hearing about yours. Which sites do you rely on for making travel plans, and why do you like them?

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When we go on vacation, we book a hotel. We are sort of taught that’s where you stay. By instinct we book a hotel. We go online, shake our head at the high price, and book it anyways, wishing there was a better way.

Well, there are a lot of better ways. The problem is that most aren’t advertised because they don’t have the marketing budgets that hotels have. On your next trip, consider these four alternatives:

Bed and breakfasts

Bed and breakfasts are a good alternative to hotels. You’ll get treated just as nice (if not better), you get breakfast, a smaller and more intimate setting, and the hosts who will take care of you.

B&B’s are usually owned by a family or couple and not some big corporation. The quality of service is usually a lot better and the prices a lot cheaper. Moreover, unlike hotels, they usually provide free internet.

You can find B&Bs on this website.

Apartment rentals

If you are with a family or a large group of people, renting an apartment is a much better choice than staying at a hotel. In NYC, the average price of a hotel is $250 dollars/night, but yyou can find apartments that sleep up to 5 for $200 dollars.

If you are with a big group, a hotel is not worth it. The rooms will be far too expensive. Rent an apartment. Or a beach house. Or a condo. Just skip the hotel. I highly recommend Home Away. They have the biggest inventory and best prices.

Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is a website that connects travelers with locals who are willing to give them a place to stay for free. You can stay with families, couples, or single people. Many hosts allow families or couples to stay with them.

I stayed with a lovely family in Denmark, a student in Oxford, and a nice lady in Athens. Members are verified by other users, the company, or people who have stayed with them. It’s very safe. Alternatives to Couchsurfing are Hospitality Club and Global Freeloaders.

Hostels

When people think of hostels, they think of dirty dorm rooms, bacteria infested showers, dirty kitchens, and smelly young people. But hostels have grown up a lot since the 60s.

Now, you can imagine them as mini-hotels. While you can still find dorm rooms, you can also find private rooms and double rooms. Moreover, most have free breakfast, free Internet, computer terminals, offer free tours, and have a kitchen.

While in NYC, I stayed in my own room with private bathroom, wi-fi, TV, and turn down service for $90 USD per night. All of which was right near Central Park. That’s a lot cheaper than any hotel in the area.

For hostels, I like to use Hostelbookers since they have no booking fee.

Just say “no” to hotels

The bottom line is that accommodations don’t have to cost a lot of money. I never stay in hotels. They’re simply too expensive. Instead, I use one of the options above.

These alternatives cut my accommodation budget in half or (sometimes) to zero. That’s money that stays in my pocket and can be used to see the sights, buy dinner, buy beer, or pay for a plane ticket. I have much better things to do than give hotels my money, and I bet you do too.

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Prepare your gear, prepare yourself

If you want to maximize the impact of your business travel, you’ll need to prepare ahead of time. Besides packing the proper attire for the conferences and meetings that you’ll attend, you should also pay attention to any gear that you might need.

You’ll want to have just enough to wow clients without having to haul around unnecessary stuff. You should start your planning by asking yourself some questions about your trip.

If you work for a company, most of the trip’s goals and activities will most likely have been decided for you. If you’re self-employed, on the other hand, you have to define your goals yourself.

• How long is the trip? The longer the trip, the more preparation (and stuff) is generally required.
• What kind of work will you be doing? Will you be preparing or giving presentations? Will you be editing audio or video?
• Will you have to tote everything with you, or will you have access to a temporary office? If you have to meet multiple clients in the field, definitely try to pack light.

I have slightly different preferences depending on the trip, but here is my general gear list for business travel.

• Laptop or netbook: Right now I have an HP Pavilion dv6 laptop and a HP Mini 110 netbook that I use. I love both and I really appreciate the fact that they both have good battery life.
• Laptop/netbook bag: I need my laptop bag to double as my ‘purse’ when flying, so it has to have plenty of space for storage.
• Spare battery: Depending on how (and how far) you’re traveling, you should consider bringing a spare laptop battery so you can work for extended periods without an electrical outlet.
• Chargers: Having chargers for both your computer(s) and phone is a necessity.
• Camera/video camera: These items are small and easy to bring along, so I usually slip them into my bag.
• Thumb drive: You never know when you’ll need to copy or transfer a file, so bring a thumb drive. This can also be handy if you’re giving a presentation.
• Laser pointer: The last thing you want to do is to get stuck in front of the screen giving a presentation without a pointer. Bring your own just to be safe.
• Business clothes: This should go without saying, but be sure to pack appropriate clothes for the business aspects of your trip.
• Business cards: Don’t forget to bring business cards! If you don’t have any, you should have some made up. You’ll be amazed at the number of times you’ll be offered a business card and/or asked for one in return. Don’t get caught unprepared.

Keeping it light and efficient is my priority. In general, I’ve found that the less I have to drag around, the better the trip goes.

Tax treatment of business trips

I also want to remind you to keep all your receipts during business trips. If you’re working for a company, keeping receipts is important for getting your expenses reimbursed. Even if their not strictly required, having a receipt could quickly resolve any disputes or questions.

If you’re self-employed, then you’ll need your receipts to support any travel-related tax deductions that you might want to take. So… What types of expenses can you deduct?

Tax treatment of business travel expenses is covered in IRS Topic 511. What follows is a brief summary of some of the key points.

Travel expenses

If your trip is entirely business-related, and you’re traveling away from home, you can deduct all your travel-related expenses such as airfare, airport parking, your rental car, cab fare, etc. Just keep in mind that if you redeem reward points or frequent flyer miles, you can’t deduct the expense.

Lodging expenses

The same general rule applies: if your stay is for business, and you’ve traveled away from the general area of your “tax home,” you can deduct your expenses. If you stay a few extra days and make it a personal vacation, you can’t claim the deduction on the extra days.

Meals

Assuming that your meals are directly related to your business travel, they’re likewise deductible. However, the deduction for business meals is typically limited to 50% of the unreimbursed cost.

Tracking your receipts

Given the importance of your receipts, you need to be 100% sure to keep close track of them. I always take an envelope with me and dump all receipts into it as I receive them. Then, when I get back home, I sort and organize them, making notes where necessary.

It’s best to process your receipts within a day or two. If you wait longer, you could lose them or forget the details. If you’re looking for an electronic solution, I recommend using Evernote to capture and archive your data.

While this level of documentation might seem tedious, it can help you maximize your reimbursements and/or result in significant tax savings.

Your thoughts

Okay, I’ve shared a few of my thoughts on making the most of your business trips. Now, I’d love hear your tips. What steps do you take to prepare for a successful trip? How do you keep track of your expenses? Do you have any other tips for enhancing the value of your business travels?

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As we do nearly every summer, we’re traveling by car, and we’ll wind up covering close to 3,000 miles by the time we get back home. With that as a backdrop, I thought it would be fun to run another poll.

Will you be traveling this summer? If so, will you be driving? How far will you be going? Please weigh in below, and please leave a comment to add some context.

And now, for your reading pleasure, here are some articles that are stuffed with tips on how to save money on vacation travel:

• Extreme Travel: How to Go Light and Low Budget
• Traveling Cross Country Dirt Cheap
• Travel on a Budget
• Saving Money on a Roadtrip With Kids

And one more that suggests taking a “staycation” instead of going on vacation.

Happy travels!

Note: RSS readers may have to click through to view results or participate.

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Believe it or not, all major credit card issuers provide you with rental car insurance coverage if you pay for the rental with your card. While I always charge my car rentals, I’ve never had to invoke the rental car insurance.

In the one instance where I did damage to a rental car, it was a business trip, and my employer had negotiated a deal where all work-related rentals got full coverage from the rental agency. Thus, I just called in to report the damage and then handed over the keys and walked away at the end of the rental.

Anyway, if you’ve been wondering about the type of coverage offered by the various types of credit cards,

Visa rental car insurance

According to Visa’s policy, you will receive coverage for both collisions and theft as long as you pay for the entire rental with your card. This coverage extends to all authorized drivers on the rental.

This coverage includes “reimbursement for damage due to collision or theft up to the actual cash value of most rental vehicles” in excess of any other insurance coverage that you might have.

As with most insurance policies, there are a ton of exclusions, including theft of personal belongings, personal injury, personal liability, loss due to off-road operation of the vehicle, and loss due to illegal activities.

MasterCard rental car insurance

According to MasterCard’s policy, you will receive coverage for collisions, theft, vandalism, and weather-related damage as long as you pay for the entire rental with your card.

Once again, this coverage extends to all authorized drivers on the rental, and it applies to amounts in excess of those covered by any other insurance that you might have.

As far as exclusions go, things like theft of personal items, personal liability, loss due to illegal activities, etc. are likewise not covered by MasterCard. In addition, the MasterCard coverage extends only to damage that occurs on paved roads.

Discover rental car insurance

According to Discover’s policy, you will receive coverage for collisions only. The coverage is once again secondary to any other insurance that you might have, and it’s limited to $25,000.

Interestingly, this coverage extends only to the person named on the Discover card, and it’s valid only in the United States and Canada. Otherwise, the exclusions are quite similar to those of other card issuers.

American Express rental car insurance

Finally… American Express. Their coverage is similar to that of MasterCard in that it covers collisions, theft, vandalism, and weather-related damage. However, like Discover, the coverage extends only to the individual named on the card.

They also exclude “large SUVs” as well as any damage that occurs off of paved roads. Aside from that, the coverage is quite similar to that offered by other credit card companies.

What about debit cards?

It’s worth noting that debit cards do not typically offer this sort of protection. Thus, if you pay with a debit card, you’ll not only be faced with a relatively large hold placed on your bank balance, but you’ll also be foregoing free insurance coverage.

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In other words, it wasn’t exhaustive an exhaustive study, but it should still give a pretty accurate picture of the ease of redeeming frequent flyer miles on the different airlines.

Here’s a rundown of the results, ranked by domestic availability.

As someone who lives near a Delta hub, I find these results a bit depressing. At the same time, I’ve had pretty good luck redeeming miles in the past, though I’ve had to be a bit flexible in terms of departure times.

What I’d really like to see is a similar study broken down by departure city, as I really only care about how hard it is to get a ticket out of the airport that I use. I suspect that the results would vary dramatically by location.

Anyway, as I’ve previously noted, this is one of the big reasons that I dislike travel rewards. They’re just so much harder to redeem than cash-based rewards, which can be spent anywhere on anything.

See also: Houston Chronicle

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Our trip out west went smoothly, and we arrived in LA on time. Our friend’s wife wasn’t so fortunate, as she got caught in Atlanta with multiple delays. Ever since we (finally) met up, though, we’ve been having a blast.

Travel insurance this vacation season

While eating breakfast in the hotel, I ran across an article on travel insurance that caught my attention. With so many people about to head out on the road for their summer vacations, I thought this would be an especially timely topic.

Travel insurance is supposed to protect you against unexpected events. On the surface, this sounds very useful, but the value of travel insurance is a hotly debated topic. Some people are strongly in favor of it, while others hate it.

Flights, cruises, and travel insurance

The point of travel insurance is to reduce your financial obligations should something happen during your travels. It’s usually offered as a bundle with medical, cancellation, and interruption protection.

There is also flight insurance that will cover your surviving family in case of a plane crash, but that’s usually expensive and completely unnecessary.

The first place you should check is with your credit card company to see if you have any travel coverage or benefits. Some do, and others don’t. Just be careful because some issuers have dropped their travel coverage. When in doubt, look online or call the company.

Believe it or not, your health insurance might already cover you for overseas emergencies. Here again, your best bet is to call your insurance provider and ask exactly what they do and do not cover.

Weighing the risks

The decision to buy travel insurance (or not) depends on many factors, and you need to carefully consider your options to see if it makes sense for you. If you’re planning an expensive trip that you really can’t afford to have canceled, for example, you might want to check out your travel insurance options.

You should also look at what kind of vacation you’re taking when considering extra insurance. For example, cruise companies are reportedly very difficult to work with, so insuring your cruise vacation might be a worthwhile idea.

On the other hand, if you’re planning a short trip or staying within the country, you might decide that travel insurance doesn’t really offer enough benefits to justify the cost.

You may decide to be self insured and create a savings buffer for the trip in case anything goes wrong. This approach can work if you have enough time ahead to get your finances squared away.

Car rentals and insurance

When it comes to car rental insurance, be careful not to pay for coverage that you already have. Doing so can be a drain on your wallet. Start by checking with your car insurance company to see if you’re already covered. You should also check with your credit card issuer to see what sort of coverage they’ll provide if you charge your rental.

Ultimately, you need to be prepared for the rapid-fire rundown of your insurance options that you’ll receive when you arrive at the rental desk. You may be rushed through the process, so be prepared, and don’t be afraid to ask questions or turn them down if you’re already covered.

Some common options offered include:

• Collision Damage Waiver (CDW): With few exceptions, this waiver has the car rental company, not you, covering collision damage. This tends to be the most expensive coverage choice, and can add updward of $20/day to your car rental fees.
• Personal Effects Coverage (PEC): This coverage can protect you from theft and damage done to your vehicle. This sort of coverage will typically be provided by your own car insurance policy.
• Personal Accident Insurance (PAI): This sort of policy covers medical expenses for you and your passengers. Many people already have this sort of protection through their health insurance plans, at least for themselves.

If you travel a lot and your current auto insurance policy doesn’t cover rental cars, you might want to ask how much it would be to add it as a rider. You might also want to shop around to find a reasonably priced policy if it costs too much.

Again, it really pays to read the fine print and see if you’re getting something useful or if you’re paying for a service that you already have.

Your thoughts

If you’re a regular traveler, what are your thoughts on travel insurance? Have you ever skipped it and gotten burned? Or paid for it and regretted it? Do you have any tips for deciding whether or not to buy it?

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Redemption difficulties

First and foremost, it’s often difficult to redeem your rewards even if you’ve saved up a ton of points or miles. In fact, most programs have blackout dates during which you’re not allowed to book flights or rooms.

Beyond this, hotels and airlines both commonly have very restrictive capacity controls, meaning that you have to book very early (often six months or more in advance) in order to find availability.

Free isn’t free

Another problem is that your “free” rewards often aren’t free. While most hotel rewards can be redeemed without charge, it’s common for airlines to charge redemption fees. Moreover, complex itineraries often require a phone call or two, and calling an airline for booking help almost always costs money.

And don’t forget about checked bagged fees… Sure, the ticket might be free (after booking fees), but you’ll pay as much as $50 roundtrip for a single checked bag. Free checked bags is a big part of the reason we’re getting the AmEx Delta card.

Reward point (or mile) deflation

We’re big fans of Hampton Inn for short stays and Embassy Suites for longer stays. Unfortunately, Hilton recently re-worked their HHonors Rewards Program and dramatically reduced the value of their points.

More specifically, we used to be able to easily find rooms for 7,500-10,000 points, they’ve reclassified the vast majority of their properties such that it’s rare to find a room for less than 25k points.

While most airlines have held steady at 25k miles for a free flight, they’ve deflated their points by forcing you to buy your way around a number of restrictions in order to use your points. For example, you can often get around the aforementioned blackout dates and/or seat limitations for 50k miles.

Why bother with travel rewards?

Given all of these limitations, why bother with travel rewards? In our case, we don’t go out of our way to chase them, though we do sign up for the programs where appropriate. We have nothing to lose and might end up snagging some free rooms and/or flights along the way.

In practice, this means that we prefer cash back credit cards over travel credit cards (the AmEx Delta card notwithstanding), but we certainly won’t turn down points or miles in connection with our travels.

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• Baggage fees. As I noted about six weeks ago, Delta is now waiving their baggage fees for AmEx Delta cardholders. When we take long trips as a family, it’s not uncommon to check four bags (for the six of us). This works out to $200 in baggage fees that we’ll no longer have to pay.
• Pay with miles. AmEx Delta cardholders can “pay with miles” (10k miles = $100), and there are no blackout dates. While it’s often better to save up for free trips, there have been instances when I’ve wished we could pay with miles.
• Bonus miles. There’s a 20k mile bonus* after our first purchase plus an additional 2500 miles for adding my wife as a cardholder. 5000 of these miles count as MQM miles, and we’ll earn additional blocks of MQM miles depending on our spending level.
• Double miles on Delta purchases. This card offers a relatively unimpressive 1 mile per dollar spent for most purchases, but twice that for Delta travel purchases.
• Companion certificates. Each year, we’ll receive a certificate for a free “companion” flight. These can be difficult to use, but when it works out you can save a few hundred bucks.
• No fees on mileage redemptions. AmEx Delta cardholders pay no mileage redemption fees (which suck in the first place) on Delta or partner airlines.

Since we live near a Delta hub and use them for virtually all of our air travel, this card makes good sense for us. The only downside is the $150 annual fee, but we’ll easily earn that back (and more) on baggage fees alone.

Anyway, I applied yesterday, got approved with a reasonably high credit line, and am now waiting for the card to arrive.

*Note: The application page shows a 15k mile bonus, but that’s for the Gold card. If you click to apply for Platinum, it will update to a 20k mile bonus.

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“Why don’t you get more enjoyment from the things you buy? Because you get used to increases in your standard of living.”

Behavioral economists refer to this ongoing pursuit of happiness as the hedonic treadmill. Because you so rapidly adapt to your current circumstances and become habituated to the good (or bad) in your life, it’s difficult to get ahead.

So how can you get ahead? According to Ariely:

“The best way to maximize happiness is to spend money on things you won’t get used to… So if you’re deciding between a sofa and a vacation, go for the vacation. You’ll quickly get used to the sofa, but the vacation will bring long-lasting memories.”

In other words, focus on accumulating memories instead of stuff. All in all, I tend to agree with Ariely. My wife and I much prefer to splurge on travel vs. everyday purchases, as we get far more enjoyment out of family vacations than the latest gadget or doodad.

This isn’t to say that we go overboard on our destinations or accommodations, but we’d much prefer to spend extra time (and money) creating memories together as a family vs. accumulating more stuff in search of fulfillment.

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Details of the fee waiver

This fee waiver kicks in on June 1st, and is valid for up to nine people on the same reservation. The current fee for your first checked bag in each direction is $23 if you handle it online, or $25 in person.

This offer is good for Consumer and Small Business Delta SkyMiles card including the Gold, Platinum, and Reserve card levels. Though these cards all have an annual fee (ranging from $95-$150/year with no fee during the first year), you could save a lot of money if you’re a regular Delta flyer.

Of course, Delta’s not doing this because they’re nice. They’re doing it because they see the profit potential in having more credit card customers. Assuming that they receive roughly 1% from all transactions made with their card, a customer that spends $2k/month will generate $240 in revenue, not including the annual fee.

How much you could save

As an example of the type of savings you might expect, my wife and I took our four kids to California for ten days around the holidays this past year. We ended up checking a total of four bags in each direction. Given the current fee structure, that works out to an extra $184 or $200 roundtrip in baggage fees.

If I had a SkyMiles credit card, we could’ve covered the annual fee (and then some) on that one trip alone. On top of that, you can get up to 25k bonus miles by applying for an AmEx SkyMiles card, which amounts to a free ticket.

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Vacation spending

When on vacation, it’s common to approach spending in unfamiliar ways. Just as you’re on vacation from employment, you’re likely to leave exchange your structured approach to money for a more relaxed approach. There’s nothing wrong with this… As long as you limit your spending to what you set aside for the trip, and then hop back on the budget horse when you return from vacation. The former is where we slipped up.

Here are a few ways you can avoid doing the same thing.

Create a vacation budget plan

This simply means that you should plan your spending while on vacation. Doing so will allow you to do all the things you want to do while helping you maintain a structured approach to spending.

Since you might not always know what you’ll be doing each day of your vacation, you should at least set a simple daily spending limit. If you have $1,000 to spend in five days, then limit your daily spending to $200/day.

Keep your receipts

Saving the receipts form each purchase will help you remain cognizant of how much you spend. Carry an envelope, place all receipts inside, and tally them up at the end of the day to ensure you have stayed within your spending limits.

Take a vacation from your vacation

Arriving home and jumping back into your job responsibilities the very next day may be a shock to your system! Try coming back from vacation a day or two early to help you ease back into everyday life. This will give you time to unpack, relax, go over your spending, and it will also give you a day or two to ensure you’re back on track financially.

Review your spending plan

When you get home, simply take a few minutes to go back over your normal family budget to help acclimate you to your existing plan. I think this would have helped me a lot. In fact, I was a bit out of sorts financially until I took the time to open our budget spreadsheet, review the numbers, and renew my passion for our spending plan!

In closing…

If you’re able to jump right back into the family budget after a week or more of relaxed vacation spending, pat yourself on the back for exercising sound self-discipline. If you have trouble doing so, then following these points should help you more easily transition from a vacation spending mindset back into your every day spending habits.

If you have trouble switching between a more free-spending vacation mindset and your more disciplined “at home” mindset, then you should definitely consider adopting a more strict vacation budgeting approach. That way you won’t deviate from your normal patterns as much, and won’t have as big of an adjustment when you get back home.

What about you?

Do you have trouble stepping back into your spending plan after a long vacation? What are some of the ways you protect yourself against taking a vacation from your budget?

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» Eight Ways to Stretch Your Vacation Dollar

“Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.”

As we travel across the country in a motor home, I’m often moved with thankfulness for the simple privilege of vacation. Our fearless crew is comprised of myself, my beautiful wife, my father, my step-mother, and her step-father (which I suppose makes him my step-step grandpa).

Although we’re not the most likely group of travel companions, we’re all delighted for the opportunity to get away for awhile. My wife and I are especially excited to be funding our vacation with cold, hard cash!

Let’s take a look at how we did it.

Set savings goals

Back in early 2009, we set a series of savings goals for ourselves. One of our goals was to create a vacation fund and contribute $100 each month while we were still in debt.

Staunch followers of Dave Ramsey might turn their noses up at the idea of saving for vacation while still in the midst of aggressive debt reduction, but we knew it was a sound decision for us… So we set up the vacation fund and started saving.

Automate your savings

With your goals in place, I suggest you automate your savings each month. Consider using a high yield savings account that offers an automatic savings plan (I use ING Direct) to make saving as easy as possible.

Practicing purposeful saving will help convert wannabe-savers into successful savers. Be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking you’ll miss the extra money. Once we set up our automatic savings system, we never even noticed the difference in our cash flow, and the money faithfully continued to grow until we were ready to use it.

Plan your vacations carefully

As your money grows and your debt shrinks, you have plenty of time to plan your vacations. Where do you want to go? How much money will you need? We gave ourselves about a year to figure things out and set our plan in place.

Living in Michigan, we knew that March and April were the worst months for spring fever, and that my wife would have this week off for Spring Break. We also knew that we’d have about $1,200 saved.

Saving over the course of the year allowed us to maintain our strategy of aggressive debt reduction, gave us plenty of time to plan, and is allowing us a vacation free from the anxiety of spending money we don’t really have… And boy does it feel good!

Enjoy the spoils of your disciplined saving

So here we are… Just north of Jackson, MS. I’m actually typing this article in a moving motor home, with my laptop tethered to my cellphone for internet access! Our trip is planned out just enough to give me the spontaneity and adventure I need, while still making my organized wife feel comfortable. We have plenty of money saved to cover our expenses, and we have a whole week on our own. Life is good.

In closing…

Using money specifically allotted for vacation is affording us care-free spending. Vacation should be a time for each of us to relax and recharge our batteries, but for many people vacation can be accompanied by the anxiety of having to pay off the debt we incur far into the future. To that, I say: Thanks, but no thanks.

How did you fund your last vacation? Did you plan the trip in advance and save accordingly, or did you leverage a bit of your future for a small slice of immediate pleasure?

If guilt free vacation spending sounds good to you, perhaps it’s time you considered a debt free vacation.

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Apparently these codes are only good once per account, but you can sign up with any name/e-mail address and there is no credit card requirement. In other words, you should be able to use these codes as often as you want until they expire.

Without further ado, here they are…

Expiring 12/31/2009:
DELTATRYGOGO
AIRTRANTRYGOGO
AATRYGOGO

Expiring 1/7/2010:
2287548427snk
2472564126dvu
2285632980tlk

We’re actually flying cross-country for the Holidays, so I’ve clipped them into Evernote for easy access and will definitely be trying this out.

Source: FlyerTalk via MyMoneyBlog

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Planning ahead and looking at the total costs of going on vacation can help you control your spending. Some people spend frivolously on vacation and then wonder where their money went. Like everything, prioritize your spending.

My husband and I like to have memorable trips, and love taking pictures as our main mementos. Some people like grabbing gifts and other like to spend money on food. Pick one or two areas where you want to splurge and cut back on the rest. It is possible to have a good time on vacation and not spend a lot of money.

While I share some things that have worked well for us and our friends, see if you can add some more tips in the comments. I’d love for everyone’s next vacation to be both fun and frugal.

Getting a car rental for the trip

We usually have a rental car for the trip. We’d like to avoid wear and tear on our cars since we usually drive some distance. We also like the option of turning in the rental car if there is a problem and exchanging it for another. It’s less hassle than finding a shop while out of town and getting a repair made.

Last year we tried renting a car through Priceline, and it worked well for us. We started low with a bid of$11/day. We then slowly raised that number until we got an offer. We ended up getting a mid-size car for $14/day plus tax.

Before going to pick up the rental I checked with my car insurance company to see if they provide rental car coverage. Our policy, like many others, will transfer all our liability and collision coverage to a rental driven in place of our own car.

If you’ve ever priced insurance at the rental counter, you know free insurance coverage is a huge savings. If you’re planning on renting with a credit card, you should also check to see if the card issuer offers any sort of insurance coverage.

Eating on road trips

If you’re driving to destination, I suggest packing plenty of snacks and drinks for the trip. This will save you from impulsively buying expensive snacks at gas stations and also cut down on stopping for breaks on the road. We also estimate our trip time and plan for a longer lunch stop to eat and relax. Using Google Maps, we can usually find a nice local spot that’s affordable.

Saving money on airfare

Friends of mine recommend using Kayak to compare airfares. It saves them time aggregating the best fares from several top sites at once. One friend is currently out in Oregon visiting family and friends — she got two cross-country tickets for $149 total! Her tip is to plan ahead and check repeatedly as prices change constantly.

If you’re also considering smaller, budget airlines, Nora Dunn (a world traveler) suggests using Which Budget to see if you can find better rates.

Packing for a vacation

If you’re flying, pack light to avoid luggage fees from the airlines. Call your airline ahead of time to find out about their baggage policy and fees. Travel expert Anne McAlpin’s “Pack it Up” has some wonderful tips on packing your carry on bag and for airport security.

• Keep your clothes basic and choose outfits that work interchangeably with your shoes and accessories. If you’re traveling during the winter season, bring items to layer. If you’re traveling during warmer weather, McAlpin suggests getting some clothes made of natural fabrics.
• Take inexpensive jewelry with you when you travel. Leave your nice pieces at home. The exception, of course, is your wedding ring.
• Go easy on shoes. Make sure you have comfortable walking shoes, dress shoes for nice dinner, and possibly sandals.
• Bring dryer sheets to de-static your knit items and help keep your luggage smelling fresh.
• Take a photo of what you’ve packed in case the airline loses your luggage. It can be hard to remember who’s bag had what.
• If you like to pack lots of clothes, consider getting compression bags. They can save you space and reduce your luggage count (but not weight).
• Don’t stress out over getting luggage insurance. You may already be covered by the airline, your credit card (if you bought the tickets with it), or your homeowner’s insurance.

Making the most of your hotel

We again used Priceline to bid on a comfortable hotel near Disney World and ended up paying 1/3 of their regular prices. When we placed our bid, we requested a three star or higher property, and low-balled our price. We got accepted on our first bid (maybe we should’ve bid lower!) and wound up near both Universal Studios and a friend who lives just outside of Orlando — knowing a local person can be an invaluable resource.

When you get to the hotel, be pleasant with the staff and ask them for some local recommendations for places to eat. I use to work as a front desk clerk while in college, and I loved to help tourists discover local spots. Doing this can both save money and help you find a memorable place to eat. I would also ask the concierge (if they have one) for some smaller events that are happening around town.

Cutting your expenses home

If nobody will be in your house when you’re away, go ahead and unplug some appliances such as your microwave, toaster oven, computer, and stereo. Our electric company, Progress Energy, notes that “up to 75 percent of the energy used in home offices is consumed when the electronics are plugged in, but not in use.” You might also want to change your thermostat you’re out of town.

Your thoughts

Do you have any further suggestions for planning a fun and fugal vacation?

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According to Kayak (my overall favorite travel site) the best I could do was $149/day for a full-sized car. Yes, smaller cars were marginally cheaper, and they might upgrade me at the rental counter due to availability, but I’m tall and want the guaranteed legroom.

After a quick perusal of the rental agency web pages confirmed these rates, I decided to try something I’ve never used before… Priceline.

Checking rental car prices at Hotwire

Before heading over to Priceline, I decided to check Hotwire to get a feel for the types of discounts that might be available. For those that are unfamiliar with these services, Hotwire and Priceline are both travel discounters with a twist.

Neither Hotwire nor Priceline let you know who your service provider will be prior to the transaction. Hotwire does, however, list prices up front. In contrast, Priceline lets you “name your own price.” Of course, they won’t necessarily accept it, but it’s worth a shot.

According to Hotwire, I could get a full-sized car for $89/day — much cheaper than going straight to the source. Moreover, since Hotwire only uses “mainstream” rental companies (Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, and National), I wasn’t too concerned about which one it would end being.

Naming my own rental car price at Priceline

With the $89/day price point in hand, I headed over to Priceline. Like Hotwire, Priceline only uses major rental companies (Alamo, Avis, Budget, Hertz, and National) so I wasn’t too concerned about which one I’d end up with.

I’ve read that a good strategy for figuring out what to bid on Priceline is to undercut the Hotwire price by about 20%. I ended up bidding $70/day for a full-sized car and got shot down. However, they offered me a “one-time opportunity” to rent for $83/day. Not wanting to spend any more time on this, I accepted.

In the end, I was able to save roughly 45% over the going rate. I could’ve probably gotten the car even cheaper (and saved on some taxes/fees) if I’d been willing to look at off-airport car rental locations, but this is a very quick trip and I don’t want to deal with it.

The downside of travel discounters

The biggest downside to both Priceline and Hotwire is that your arrangements are non-refundable and cannot be modified. If your Priceline bid is accepted, you are charged immediately. Likewise, if you accept a Hotwire deal, you pay immediately. Here’s the scoop from Priceline:

Priceline rental cars are non-refundable, non-transferable and non-changeable even if the reservation is not used.

If your offer is accepted, we will immediately lock in your reservation and charge your credit card. If your offer is not accepted, your credit card will not be charged.

Additional changes may apply at the counter if you pick-up or drop-off the car at a different date or time than you requested for your reservation.

Only the driver will be able to pick up this rental car at the counter. You will be able to add an additional driver at the counter for an additional charge.

The driver will be required to present a valid driver’s license and a valid credit card or debit card in his/her name with a minimum of $200 available credit as a security deposit on the vehicle. If you plan to use a debit card, you may be required to provide round-trip flight information at the rental counter.

Your offer price does not include vehicle liability, collision or personal accident coverage for your rental car. You should determine if you have insurance coverage prior to pick-up. Additional insurance can be purchased at the rental counter.

Something else to keep in mind is that you can’t instantly re-bid on Priceline. In fact, you can only bid once every 24 hours for a particular date, type of car, and location. You can, however, bid more often if you’re willing to change one or more of those variables.

Finally, as I’ve already noted, you don’t find out who you’ll be dealing with until after you pay. For rental cars, I don’t really care. As long as it’s a reputable company, I’ll rent from pretty much anyone. But for hotels? In some instances, location is critical, and not being able to control exactly where I’ll be staying could be a problem.

Into the unknown…

And now I’m just hoping that there’s actually a car waiting for me at the rental counter when I arrive. While I expect everything to be fine, I’ve never used Priceline before (have you?), so I’m still in the “get to know you” phase.

I’m assuming that everything will go smoothly, but I’ll be sure to update when everything is said and done.

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The good news is that it doesn’t have expensive to go on a great vacation. I’ve listed below some tips that helped us save money on our last couple of vacations.

Compare prices on multiple travel sites

You can often find great travel deals online. Just be sure to compare prices across sites, as the results can be surprisingly different.

If you’re new to online travel planning, here are some sites that we use:

• Kayak
• Orbitz
• Expedia
• Priceline
• TravelZoo
• Hotels.com

If you have any questions about local hotels, TripAdvisor is a great resource.

Handling a car rental for the trip

For our family vacations, we usually rent a car. Our cars are older and have pretty high mileage, so we don’t like to go to far from home in them. Beyond that, rening a car is typically cheaper for us than flying, and we’re usually able to make the drive itself relatively entertaining.

Using Priceline’s bid option, we got a ‘name brand’ standard size car rental for one week at $14/day (plus fees). For the sake of comparison, the ‘base’ rate from the rental agency’s site was about $220.

Another tip here is that many credit cards provide car rental insurance and, in some cases, your car insurance will cover the rental as long as you’re driving it in place of your own car. If you’re not sure, call and check.

Finding a good deal on a hotel

On our last trip, we went down to Orlando to see Disney World and Universal Studios. Once again, we used Priceline to bid on a three star or higher hotel and ended up saving around $50/night after taxes and fees. Our hotel was so close to Disney World that we could see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from our window.

Dining out inexpensively

We usually try to find hotels that include breakfast. We then eat out for dinner and save the leftovers for lunch. This is especially easy if your hotel has a kitchenette.It worked pretty well last year. We checked and the hotel has a kitchenette.

A great way to find local spots with great food at a reasonable price is to read reviews online. One useful trick for this is to look up your hotel on TripAdvisor and read the reviews — many travelers talk about their dining experiences in the area. You can also check menus online with MenuPages, and even make reservations with OpenTable.

A few other money saving tips include skipping the appetizers — order a salad with your entree instead — and skipping (or splitting) dessert.

Souvenir shopping for friends and family

Picking up a few local gifts for friends and family is often a part of our family getaways. We are, however, careful not to buy too much, as we don’t want to create clutter.

The key is to avoid overpriced trinkets from souvenir shops. Instead, try to pick up a thoughtful gift that reflects the local culture.

Have fun!

Remember… The whole point of going on vacation is to relax and have fun. By planning ahead and saving up for your expenses, you can relieve a lot of the stress associated with going on vacation.

One last tip… Be sure to check out local activities/events in addition to the “big” attractions. Viator is an excellent resource when it comes to planning a memorable vacation.

What trips are you planning this year?

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With that as a backdrop, I thought I’d share this list of the country’s most expensive airports that I ran across in a recent issue of Forbes. Entries on this list are ranked based on the cost per mile travelled.

• Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (Covington, KY) — $0.48/mile
• Cherry Capital (Traverse City, MI) — $0.41/mile
• Tri-Cities Regional (Johnson City, TN) — $0.39/mile
• Columbia Metropolitan (Columbia, SC) — $0.39
• Duluth Intl. (Duluth, MN) — $0.38/mile
• Greenville-Spartanburg Intl. (Greenville-Spartanburg, SC) — $0.38/mile
• Shreveport Regional (Shreveport, LA) — $0.37/mile
• Yeager Airport (Charleson, WV) — $0.37/mile
• Douglas Intl. (Charlotte, NC) — $0.37/mile
• McGhee Tyson (Knoxville, TN) — $0.37/mile
• La Crosse Municipal (La Crosse, WI) — $0.36/mile
• Springfield-Branson National (Springfield, MO) — $0.36/mile
• Roanoke Regional (Roanoke, VA) — $0.36/mile
• MBS Intl. (Saginaw, MI) — $0.36/mile
• Fort Wayne Intl. (Fort Wayne, IN) — $0.36/mile
• Outagamie County Regional (Appleton, WI) — $0.36/mile
• Kahului Airport (Kahului, HI) — $0.36/mile
• Evansville Regional (Evansville, IN) — $0.35
• Panama City-Bay City Intl. (Panama City, FL) — $0.35
• Kona Intl. (Kona, HI;) — $0.35/mile
• Memphis Intl. (Memphis, TN) — $0.35/mile
• Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (Charlottesville, VA) — $0.35/mile
• Capital City Airport (Lansing, MI) — $0.35/mile
• Ronald Reagan Intl. (Washington, D.C.) — $0.35/mile
• Asheville Regional (Asheville, NC) — $0.34/mile
• Minneapolis-St. Paul Intl. (Minneapolis, MN) — $0.34/mile
• Chattanooga Metropolian (Chattanooga, TN) — $0.34/mile
• Hilo Intl. (Hilo, HI) — $0.34/mile
• O’Hare Intl. (Chicago, IL) — $0.34/mile
• Huntsville Intl. (Huntsville, AL) — $0.34/mile
• Bangor International (Bangor Maine) — $0.34/mile

For reference, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Intl. ($0.16/mile) Long Beach/Daugherty Field ($0.15/mile)m and Ted Stevens Anchorage Intl. ($0.14/mile) are amongst the country’s cheapest airports.

One of the things that you’ll notice is that the list is tilted toward smaller, regional airports — perhaps in part to the fact that these airports tend to specialize in shorter routes — there are a number of larger airports, as well. In most of these cases, you can see the effects of a lack of competition. For example, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, O’Hare International, and Minneapolis-St. Paul International are all major hubs whose gates are disproportionately controlled by a single airline.

So… What’s a savvy traveller to do?

As is the case with just about everything, you’ll get a better deal if you’re willing to shop around. If your nearest airport is a ripoff, perhaps you can drive slightly further to another airport in your area. Of course, that’s not always possible, so you might be stuck paying for the privilege of flying out of an overpriced airport. Beyond changing locations, your best bet is to be flexible with regard to times, dates, and airline of choice.

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While I still believe that this is often the case, I was recently reminded that sometimes cheaper truly is better…

Park, ride, and save

On a recent trip out of town, I shared a ride to the airport with a co-worker. At our airport, you have three options when it comes to parking: Daily, Economy, and Park-and-Ride. In the past, I’ve always opted for Economy because: (1) it costs about half as much as Daily, and (2) it doesn’t require a shuttle ride like Park-and-Ride, which is by far the cheapest option. As we approached the airport this time, however, my compatriot turned off into the Park-and-Ride lot.

While this wouldn’t have been my first choice, I wasn’t about to complain — after all, I wasn’t driving. Much to my surprise, we were out of the car and into the airport in record time. While I’ve had terrible experiences with Park-and-Ride at other airports in the past, these lots were managed in much the same way that Disney handles their parking. They had signs pointing you to the currently open lot, and there was a shuttle sitting right there in the row in which we parked.

Upon boarding, we were handed a color-coded ticket that would direct the driver back to our car, and we were dropped off curbside just outside our airline’s check-in counter. And when we returned, the driver dropped us off alongside the trunk of our car. All in all, this was far more convenient that the Economy lot — in fact, it was arguably better than the Daily lot. And yet, we paid just a fraction of the price.

Lesson learned

The lesson here, which runs far deeper than optimal parking strategies, is that you shouldn’t assume that a higher price necessarily signals a better or more convenient product or service. While it’s often worth paying extra for quality, it’s important to be sure that you’re actually getting more for your money. In this case, the airport was simply charging a premium for the perception of convenience.

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1. Las Vegas, NV
2. Cancun, Mexico
3. Paris, France
4. San Francisco, CA
5. New York, N.Y.
6. Punta Cana, D.R.
7. London, England
8. Maui, HI
9. Playa del Carmen, Mexico
10. Orlando, FL

Sounds like fun! I’ve only been to four five of the ten, how about you?

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Starting September 15th, NWA will also start charging for the redemption frequent flyer miles. It will cost $25 for domestic flight, $50 for a transatlantic flight, and $100 for a transpacific flight. Finally, they are also increasing their fees for making changes to non-refundable ticket by $50.

While Northwest refers to these fees as “temporary,” this doesn’t bode well for fans of Delta Airlines (DAL) — the two companies recently agreed to merge and will operate in the future under the Delta name.

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Refueling charges

It’s no secret that rental car agencies stick it to you if you return your car with less gas than a full tank of gas, but this is starting to get ridiculous. When picking up your car, you have two main choices: prepay for a full tank of gas or refill it yourself.

The upside of prepaying is that they you’ll pay market price for gas. The downside is that you don’t get any credit for unused gallons. Thus, you end up paying for any gas that’s left in the tank when you bring it back. Given the recent runup in gas prices, you’re paying a lot for convenience with this option.

Conversely, if you choose to refuel it yourself and then fail to do so, they’ll gouge you like there’s no tomorrow. in our case, the price per gallon for returning it less than full is $7.99/gallon. Fortunately, I’ve never had trouble finding a gas station when returning a rental car, and I certainly don’t intend to start now.

Taxes

Regardless of how low the “normal” sales tax in a given area, you can typically expect to pay 10-15% (or more) in taxes when you rent a car. There’s nothing quite like building a tax base on the backs of visitors.

Airport fees

If you rent at the airport, you can count on paying additional “concession” fees. These are fees that are charged to the rental agency for the right to do business at the airport, and they’re pass on to you. Here’s a tip: If at all possible, pick up your car away from the airport. In our case, we rented from an agency about 2 miles from the airport, but we’re returning it at the airport — the concession fees only apply for renting, not for dropping off.

Additional drivers

I totally forgot about this one. We found a great price, but neglected to factor in the fact that my wife would need to drive, as well. If we were AAA members, this would have been free. But since we weren’t, they charged us $11/day (capped at 5 days) for her to be allowed to drive. I asked them to drop it, but they wouldn’t budge.

Loss and damage waiver (LDW)

In my opinion, this is second only to refueling charges in terms of price gouging. Rental agencies always push their loss and damage waiver on you when you’re signing up. This option typically provides you with zero-deductible coverage for any sort of loss or damage to the rental vehicle. Unfortunately, it comes at a price — usually $20-$30/day or more.

But guess what? Individual car insurance almost always covers rentals (check with you agent if you’re not sure). Moreover, many credit cards provide car rental insurance if you pay for your rental with the card.

Drop-off charges

If you pick up at one location and return at another, you might be subject to a drop-off fee, even if the other location is just down the road. This isn’t always the case, though, so check at the rental counter.

Partial days

Almost without exception, car rental agencies charge for each day, or portion thereof. Thus, if you pick your car up at 10AM, be sure to return your car by 10AM on the day you’re dropping it off or you’ll be charged for another full day. This is actually the reason we’re dropping our car off at the airport — the location from which we rented closes on Satrudays at 1PM and doesn’t re-open until Monday morning.

Since we were planning on returning the car late in the day on Saturday (following a morning pickup the previous week) they were not only going to charge us for an additional day, they were going to charge us the daily rate until they re-opened on Monday. By returning it to the airport on Sunday morning, we’ll pay the same that we would have with a Saturday afternoon dropoff, but without the charges running through Monday morning since the airport location is open 24/7. Better yet, there’s no dropoff charge.

Mileage limits

In many cases, car rental agencies limit you to a certain number of miles per day (usually around 150). Exceed this limit and you can expect to pay $0.25-$0.50 for each additional mile.

Frequent flyer fees

Many rental agencies charge a fee (usually around $2/day) if you want to earn frequent flyer miles in return for your rental. This is fine for business travellers (if they don’t mind wasting their company’s money) but it’s not a very good deal for individuals.

Child safety seats

When traveling with kids, it’s important to find out how much you’ll have to pay to rent a child safety seats. In our case, we had every intention of bringing out own. Unfortunately, we forgot two booster seats in our car at the airport. We actually realized it before the plane departed, but security was a nightmare and we didn’t want to roll the dice with a trip back out to the parking deck.

Care to guess what Hertz charges for a child safety seat? $60/week. Plus tax. Our solution? Buy a couple of new Graco booster seats at our destination for $18/each. We’ll probably leave these with family for future trips, but even if we didn’t we’d still come out way ahead.

GPS rental

If you want/need a GPS in your car, be prepared to pay $15-$20/day for the privilege. A much better option would be to print out directions from MapQuest or Google Maps before you depart. Also keep in mind that many hotels have free internet connections for looking up directions. Alternatively, if you absolutely have to have one, you might want to just buy your own and take it with you. For example, you can get this one for $150. This would practically pay for itself with a week-long rental and then you’d have it for future use.

Upsizing and reduced fuel economy

Last but not least, it’s not uncommon for a rental agency to run out of cars in a certain size class. In such cases, the standard practice is to upgrade you to a larger vehicle. That’s all well and good, except that bigger cars get worse mileage, and you might find yourself spending far more on gas than you had anticipated. Fortunately, we weren’t stung by this one. We got exactly what we asked for and the mileage hasn’t been too bad, even considering we’re hauling around six people (ourselves plus four kids).

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Of course, in addition to the airfares (six of ‘em!), we also have to rent a car at our destination, so this definitely isn’t the cheapest way to go. That being said, it’s about 1100 miles each way, so flying instead of driving (which we’ve always done in the past) buys us a few extra days of actual vacation. Well worth it in my book.

The fact that we’re flying also creates an odd sort of silver lining inside the cloud of rising gas prices… The higher the price at the pump, the less of a premium we’re paying to fly. But I digress. Bringing it back to the topic at hand…

Have you modified your summer travel plans in response to high energy prices?

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Lovely. I wonder how long it will be before others airlines follow suit? I also wonder how they’ll handle people who bought their tickets prior to this announcement. Will they try to get them to pony up for the extra fees?

Source: AP News

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According to our local tour guide, the Cayman Islands are home to 550 banks, only 12-14 of which are required for local business. The balance are engaged in offshore banking.

In terms of the local economy, banking is (not surprisingly) the #1 industry, followed by tourism and insurance. And with an average per capita income of $42k, the Cayman Islands have the highest standard of living in the Caribbean.

Interestingly, the government’s primary source of income is indirect taxation, including an import duty of 5-20% on nearly all goods imported to the island, as well as work permit fees for expatriates working in the Caymans.

Finally, Hurricane Ivan passed alongside Grand Cayman as a Category 5 hurricane in 2004 and, according to our guide, 95% of all properties were either damaged or destroyed. While WikiPedia pegs the number slightly lower at 80%, the damage was still clearly evident during our visit nearly four years later.

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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?

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