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6 Sites To Make Flying A Whole Lot Easier

David Pierce — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:01:34 +0000

Flying’s no one’s favorite thing. Unless you’re a pilot. But for most of us, flying’s little more than a hassle. Most of the annoyance of flying is due to the airport – checking in, security, terrible food, no outlets, and the like.

Time spent getting a ticket and waiting for your flight (which is often many, many hours) can be miserable, but it doesn’t have to be. Using these five tools, you’ll be able to make your time in the airport a little more bearable, and maybe even a little shorter.

A disclaimer: as I’m in the US, I can’t vouch for all of these tips working anywhere else. Most of them should, but some sites and policies are different outside the US.

1. Book It

Instead of using the airline sites, try using Tripeedo. Tripeedo’s an easy way to search most of the major airlines for tickets, as well as some of the best bargain sites like Kayak, Travelocity, and Orbitz.

Finding a flight’s as easy as typing where you’re coming from and going to, and Tripeedo does all the searching for you. You won’t buy your ticket from Tripeedo, but it’ll put you on the page you want to see – unlike most airline sites.

For more, check out Tripeedo’s directory listing.

2. Check Your Flight

If your flight’s going to be delayed, it’s often going to happen well before you even get to the airport. Luckily, there are several ways to check your flight status before you even leave.

You can check your airline’s website, but the status page is usually hard to find. Instead, try Googling your airline and flight number, like “Delta flight 365″ for a quick status check at the top of your search results.

If you want to know much more about your flight, try FlightAware. You’ll get a map of the flight’s path, with how far away it is, how fast it’s going, and a whole bunch of other useless but fun information.

3. Check In Faster

Most airlines these days allow for online check-in. That means you avoid the long lines, the obnoxious people, and the terror of almost missing your flight when the attendant is inhumanly slow.

Go online, check in and print your boarding pass, and head straight to the gate. In just a few minutes of research, I found that American Airlines, United, Continental, Delta, Alaska Air, Frontier Air, Southwest and Spirit Airlines all offer online check in – and that’s just the first page of Google! To find your airline’s site, Google “online check in” plus your airline, and you’ll be good to go.

4. Fly Through Security

Airport security’s a pain, but there’s just no way around it. You can, however, make the process go a whole lot faster by following some critical steps. Wired Magazine created a how-to Wiki called “Fly Through Airport Security.”

Among the useful tips are things like checking the TSA website to find out the average wait times, and only using two bins for your stuff. Got a great tip? You can add it to the Wiki right on the Wired site.

5. Find An Outlet

Outlets are a precious commodity in the airport. Though I recommend to always bring a power strip, or at least a power splitter, to the airport when you travel, I nearly always forget to do so.

Thanks to my failure of a memory, I rely on the Air Power Wiki. The Wiki is a guide to airports all over the world, letting you know where to look for a free outlet. It’s often updated, and you can even update it yourself- either way, it’s a killer way to find a power source anywhere. Best of all, the outlets are often in places I wouldn’t think to look otherwise, like this one in Dublin: “At the Gate Clock bar: turn left in the main bar door, look for tables on the left: the table just past the elevator has a pair of sockets near it on the bar side.”

6. Find Wi-Fi

You’re through security, ready to get on your flight – and your flight gets delayed for 8 hours. Problem? Not if you know where to look! Free or cheap Wi-Fi is out there, just waiting to be found.

Before you leave for the airport, check a couple of these sites to find out your Internet situation. First, try the list of “Free wifi airports” compiled by SmallBusiness that tells you which airports, and where in those airports, you’ll find free Wi-Fi. If you can’t find free, find cheap. TravelPost has a guide to 219 US airports with Wireless locations, types and prices for each one. For the most complete list, though without prices, try weather.com’s “Airports with Wi-Fi” list. You’ll be able to see just about every location in every American airport that will offer you Wi-Fi, free or otherwise.

Armed with a boarding pass, the right amount of time, the right security tips, Wi-Fi and a power source, the airport won’t seem like such a hassle anymore. Flight’s delayed for 3 days? Who cares, you’ve got Wi-Fi! Just don’t steal my outlet.

Photos: Travelin’ Librarian, alist, catcubed, futureshape

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6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites For Your Next Trip

David Pierce — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:01:17 +0000

My family recently took a vacation – that was all that was originally decided, that they were going somewhere. The timing and price were set, and they decided to wait and see where they would go. It’s a unique way to travel, certainly, but it turned out incredibly well for them.

With a bit of know-how, and the willingness to put in the leg work (or mouse work, if you will), you can find incredible deals on travel of all kinds – from airlines to hotels to rental cars. Companies realize they’re better off selling at a smaller profit than not filling the empty spaces. It’s better for an airline to fill every seat on a plane that’s going to fly anyway, even if some of the tickets sell at a smaller return.

There are several last minute booking sites out there that know that, and use the companies’ desperation to your advantage. If you’re looking to book a flight, hotel, cruise, or any other type of travel in the near future, try starting with these last minute travel sites.

First, though, a disclaimer: these are all last-minute deals. If you’re set on a particular place on a particular date, these sites are risky. If you can afford to be a bit more flexible though, and run with the great deals that come up (a really fun way to travel), these sites are for you.

LastMinute

LastMinute promises you up to 70% discount on your travel. You can book flights, hotels, cars, or whole packages anywhere from three weeks to three hours in advance. If you want to, book the ticket, pack, and go.

LastMinute also offers sections for “this weekend,” “next weekend,” and “under $250″ for those looking for cheap vacations. There’s a ton of stuff on there, most of it within the United States and Caribbean. If you’re looking to get out of town as fast as possible, and don’t care much where you go, LastMinute.com’s a great place to start.

TravelZoo

TravelZoo definitely wins my award for the ugliest site to look at that’s actually useful. It has many of the same features as LastMinute, and also offers an incredibly useful email subscription list. Sign on to the list, and TravelZoo will send you their Top 20 of the Week, pulling together the Top 20 last minute travel bargains of the week from around the Internet. It’s a popular list, with editions for the US and around the world, and offers great deals of all shapes and sizes.

Airfare Watchdog

I like Airfare Watchdog because it does things a bit differently: all you’ve got to do is plug in the airport you want to fly in to or out of, and you’ll see the cheapest other halves – either the airport you’ll fly out of or into.

For instance, I plugged in leaving from New York’s Kennedy Airport, and got a list of the cheapest last minute flights leaving from that airport, as well as how far in advance you can book them. There are sections for domestic and international flights, and a huge list is compiled.

Fun fact: I can fly from JFK to Akron, OH, round trip for $144. Not a bad deal. There’s also a list of “Fares of the Day” that will help you find the cheapest flights you can possibly find, anywhere in the world.

SideStep Deals

SideStep is primarily a booking site like Orbitz or Priceline, but it has a large and useful “Deals” section. It works something like a Google for cheap travel, in that SideStep doesn’t have the deals itself, but instead points you to the best deals around the Web.

There are flight deals, cruise deals, hotel deals, themed vacations (skiing, golf, etc.) and a number of other ways to save money. As always, most of the deals are for last-minute vacations, but it’s a huge repository of links to deals around the Web, sorted well and presented easily for you.

It’ll require some more browsing, because you usually can’t buy directly from SideStep, but it’s certainly a good place to start, as it includes a huge number of other sites trying to find you deals.

Vacations to Go

If you want to go on a cruise, check out Vacations to Go. They get the deals from cruise lines that no one else gets, based on the notion that cruise companies want to sell every last spot, even at huge bargains. It requires a sign-up, but it opens the doors to huge deals that no one else can see.

Since Vacations to go is a bit more exclusive, there’s likely to be less competition for great deals, but it’s also not the limitless resource some of the others are. Also, check the site often: cruises are rarely available more than a week in the 90-Day Ticker, but you can book further in advance with the “Find a Bargain” feature.

Luxury Link

Luxury Link is a high-risk, high-reward way to travel. It’s essentially an eBay for vacations, in that you can bid on the vacation you’d like to attend, and the highest bidder gets the vacation. In addition, there are vacations you can “Buy Now,” and skip the auction process.

The real deals are going to be found through the auctions, which feature everything from cruises to flights to hotels, in destinations all over the world. This is great if you know generally what you want to do, and can play the auctioning game for a while before you go. Their prices are higher, but so is the quality of the destinations.

If you want to go to a particular place, do a particular thing, and at a particular time, don’t use these sites. If you’re a “travel by the seat of your pants” kind of person, looking for a fun, economic way to travel, try one or many of these different websites, and see where they take you.

When you’re looking to travel, where do you go? How do you book vacations?

Photo: terriseesthings

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5 Comparison Websites that WILL Save you Money

Aibek — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:38:02 +0000

Probably you’re already familiar with the idea of comparison shopping. These are quite useful websites where you can compare product prices from pretty much every online retailer. During the last 3-4 months I discovered a number of cool websites that successfully implemented the same concept to other areas. Check them out.

1- Compare Product Prices with PriceGrabber

I’ve tried many comparison shopping sites and can confirm that PriceGrabber is one of the best ones. Simply search for the product you want to buy and PriceGrabber will list all available retailers starting from the cheapest. If you’re not clear about what exactly you want to purchase, then you can browse products by categories and filter them further by specs, features and brand. Products can also be sorted by user ratings and reviews.

2- Compare Banks with FindaBetterBank

Looking for a new bank account? Wondering how your current bank account stands against account offerings from other banks in the area? Find A Better Bank is the one and only tool you need. It’s very thorough and can help you locate the best bank account for your needs in a matter of minutes.

So how it works?

Enter your zip code, indicate the features that are important to you and provide additional details to help them estimate yearly banking fees. Done. Now you have a detailed comparison of nearby banks, sorted from best to worst.

3- Compare Cell Phone Contracts with BillShrink

There are so many cell phone contracts out there that it’s almost impossible to find out whether you’re getting a good deal. BillShrink is a new service that can help you with this. This handy website first asks you about your usage preferences and requirements (i.e. average daily talk time, whether you need data plan, SMS usage etc.). Then it compares over 100 mobile plans and finds the best plan for your needs. I am quite surprised that we haven’t seen something like this earlier.

The whole procedure takes about 3-4 minutes. Read more …

4 -Compare your Rent with RentoMeter

RentoMeter is a web based rent comparison service. Here you can find out whether the amount you’re currently paying for your rent is a rip-off or a bargain deal. Rentomoeter compares the amount you pay to an average rate for the similar apartments in the neighborhood area. It will also give you a mapview of nearby apartments including their rates. Check out the RentoMeter in action here.

5- Compare Budget Airlines with SkyScanner

One of the few budget flight search engines that can actually find you the best ticket. I tested it both in Europe and Asia and can confrim that it actually WORKS! It’s also the only budget airline search tool I am aware of that works for inter-continental flights. SkyScanner only searches among budget airlines so you won’t see any pricey tickets here.

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10 Travel Websites that should be Bookmarked

Aibek — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:40:05 +0000

Need a public-transport map for international cities that is downloadable to your cell- phone ? Or even perhaps an ATM machine locator anywhere around the world? Or even just a toilet finder for the emergency situation ….

Here are a bunch of websites that are diverse, interesting and even just quirky for anyone that is planning a trip or is simply a travel-addict.

MetrO – Public Transport Guide for your mobile phone

Métro is a free worldwide public transport guide can be used on the web and on most existing smart phones. Download the program for over 250 cities wordlwide and have an easy subway, bus and tram station guide rite on your phone. It lets you calculate travel time, major landmarks (in major cities), shortest distances and of-course travel direction between any stations.

Highlights include:

- directions and information to major tourist attractions (in selected cities)
- download maps to your phone for selected cities.
- easy public transport search function between stops.
- and lots more

In case you need a printable Metro map for a city you’re about to visit, also check out SubwayMap in MUO directory.

TripIt – Travel Itinerary planner

TripIt is a handy itinerary planner for those going on an independent trip. Simply forward your individual booking confirmations, reservation emails etc. TripIt recognizes these emails and creates a master itinerary that puts together all the individual pieces, provides extra information where appropriate (maps, weather information etc), enables the user to add notes and ultimately share and collaborate on this master itinerary with others.

For more details and a review see ‘TripIt: Travel Itinerary Planner and Organizer‘

ATMLocator – Global ATM locator

A free service from VISA that lets you instantly locate ATM cash machines in your vicinity. Simply select country and city name, enter pincode (optional) and get address details and map for each ATM. Also access it while on the move from any web-enabled device. Over 170 countries covered.

CyroFinders – Real-time worldwide flight arrival and departure information

Get real-time information on flight arrival and departures for all major airports in the world. View airport location on a map, check weather information, and more.

Yapta – Flight-ticket price tracker

Yapta is neat service that allows users to track the price of the flight-ticket that they want to purchase or have already purchased . For people yet to buy a ticket, Yapta allows you to purchase the ticket when prices drop. If you have already bought a ticket, Yapta still allows you to track and see if prices drop. Many airlines have policies that allow for travelers to get refunds/vouchers (of the price difference) if the price of the ticket that they have purchased drops.

See full features list @ Yapta: Get Refund on Flight Tickets

AirlineMeals – Huge directory of airline meals from around the world

Fascinating user-contributed database of airline meals (over 5000 images of airline meals). Users submit photographs, rate, provide meal details (airline, class of travel, flight details etc) for each meal. Browse meals by airline, peak into crew meals, special meals, meals from the past (1970’s, 80’s), behind the scene images, airport lounge meals etc.

SleepingInAirports – Guide for camping overnight or a few hours in an airport

Ever needed to camp overnight in an airport either out of low funds or simply bad flight connections? This is the perfect website for such a situation. Browse and read through brief overview of the airport along with user-submitted review on safety, facility, photos (where available), etc. A must for solo or women travelers who may have to experience such a situation. I personally have used it a couple of times when I had to camp overnight at airports ranging from Paris- Charles de Gaulle to Hamburg International airport and wanted to make sure that the airport even allows people to camp over.

SeatGuru – Extensive guide on airplane seating, in-flight amenities etc.

Provides detailed information or a seat map (best to worst seats on the plane), amenities (power chords, bathrooms, tv’s) for different aircraft models of over 40 different major commercial airlines. Simply select the airline followed by the aircraft model, and you are provided with general information on the airline (website, frequent flier partners etc) along with a seat map (you get a map of the seating structure of the plane- the best seats, what amenities are available on which seats etc).

TheBathroomDiaries- “Search the globe for a clean bathroom”

Submit, rate and search through over 12000 bathrooms across the globe, read about the world’s best-rated bathrooms etc. It gets even better, you can access the website rite from your cell phone. For readers based in the US, see MizPee.

Did we miss something? Let us know in comments. Enjoy!

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