So you’ve booked your flight, reserved your plane seat, and have a lovely hotel waiting for you at your destination. Now, the time has finally arrived – travel day is upon you.

Are you’re out of harm’s way? Not just yet. Between the time you arrive at the airport and the time you board on the plane, all hell could break loose and along with it goes your sanity.  We have all had that experience, so for the fourth installment of Bitterwallet’s Travel Guide, here are some tips and tricks to help you get from home to vacation destination smoother than saying ‘Bon Voyage!’:

1. Have all the essential information handy: Have the airline and travel agent’s phone numbers stored in your mobile, a printable copy of necessary travel documents and a photo/email of your ticket stored in your laptop. It’s better to expect the unexpected, and arm yourself with tangible proofs and useful information to help you get through with less trouble.

For example, for those traveling to the USA on the Visa Waiver Program, word is that you don’t have to print the approval letter. But if you have a printer, why not do it?  Also for those going transatlantic, get hold of a copy of Rule 240 which protects you in case your flight gets stranded.  The Stranded Passengers’ Hotline from the Coalition for Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights 1-877-FLYERS-6 (1-877-359-3776) may also come in handy.

2. Anticipate delay and know your alternatives: Plan A would obviously be taking off from the airport as scheduled.  Should that plan be compromised however, you better have a backup plan. Switching effortlessly to plan B is possible, if you prepare a copy of the airline’s timetable, or have a list of alternate flights to your destination. You can obtain both from the airline’s website, or at website AirTimeTable.

Also, signing up for alerts features from sites like FlightStat and FlightView enroll you to SMS or email alerts to track pertinent information and have a close to accurate updates on your flight schedule.

3. Check in online: Ideally, it is best to check in online 24 hrs before the flight schedule.  You would also be able to select your seating in advance, and skip the queues in the morning by proceeding right through security or the drop off section. The gist of it is that in case your flight is delayed, you’d be less likely to get bumped and lose your seat. (more…)

Perhaps the most crucial step in ensuring a blissful flight experience is figuring out where, when and how you will fly. This obviously involves getting the best deal with your airline tickets, securing the most comfortable and strategic seat on the plane, and breezing through airport delays without too much stress.

So for Bitterwallet’s travel guide part 2, I’ve put together some tips which I’ve used in booking my recent trip out to Las Vegas, Seattle and LA for under £450 with multiple stops, which I hope will prove useful to some of you on how to take care of your pre-flight essentials.

1. Take your time when booking flights: They say that patience is a virtue, but when it comes to booking flights, most of us would rather book sooner than later in fear that the prices will hike up. Especially after we missed a recent airlines sale, we think the sooner we book, the better.   But you may miss a bargain like we did because of that.

Over the last 3 months, Virgin Atlantic has had about 3-4 flight sales. We missed all of them. But had we waited, their latest announcement on 30/12/08 of a worldwide flight sale as posted by Travelzoo (a great site that has a weekly mailing list telling you of the latest deals) starting from £259 could have meant even cheaper flights. Of course prices can also go the other way, so may be better to leave for holidays that could be planned at the last minute for some bargain deals.

2. Evaluate your options: There’s a reason why we love SkyScanner. Sure it’s a nifty multi-budget flight search engine, but it also appeals to our preference of arranging everything with just a couch, a mouse, and a keyboard.  However, Virgin doesn’t fly directly to Seattle, and if we just connected with the best deal we found online, it would have still costed us more than the initial direct £500. Indirect flights that would save around £100 stopped in random destinations like Detroit and North Carolina.  As my outbound would be from LGW, I discovered that it’s possible to arrange routes via both LA and Las Vegas.

3. Direct airlines may not be the cheapest option: Having never been to Vegas, I decided it may be worth a trip. Virgin Atlantic would be a direct carrier from LGW-> LAS, but the total flight price would come to £399 including tax, without our connecting flights to Vegas. So I called up 20 different travel agencies throughout the UK that are IATA certified. In the process, we discovered an agency in London with whom we were able to get multi-stop tickets for a total of £434 including tax per person.

The flight was arranged to not only stop over in Vegas for 2 days before flying to Seattle, but on the way back would stopover at Los Angeles for 4 days.  Dates were a lot more flexible than if I had tried to manually do it through multiple airlines websites. (more…)

We all love travelling, and would do more of it, if only if it was for fun.

But we all have jobs, limited number of day’s leave in a year, and have a box set of Planet Earth HD-DVDs that seem to at least do justice on the 40″ Plasma.

But does watching 1000 Places Before You Die really do justice compared to physically being there?

As someone who enjoys looking for the best deal for everything and gathering travel hacks for myself, I’ve decided to start up this new Bitterwallet travel feature to share some of the best resources/knowledge/tips/advice that I come across.

The long term plan is to have a collective shoestring travel guide for every major city in the world by the end of 2009. Call it a new year resolution!

Let’s start with a few basic travel hacks that I’ve come across from various resources over the years:

1. Pre-flight reading: Do a quick study of your arrival destination and the local rules. For example, those traveling to the USA may want to check the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) website to avoid security delays. They now have an air travel assistant site with travel tips including a list of prohibited and permitted items that gets updated regularly. It’s worth a quick read to ensure you avoid getting delayed at airport security, or telling the Americans why the British are more polite.

2. Pack Well: The Universal Packing List is a terrific online application that allows you to build a customized packing list, complete with reminders and tips, for any traveling you’ll be doing. I used this in preparation for my current two month trek across the Americas. Simply fill out an online form with details about your trip, and some details about the kind of list you’re looking for. Then, based on your answers, it gives you a customized list of what to pack as well as some general advice and reminders. It’s very simple, yet very effective.

3. Pack Light: Vince Wong’s father once said, “Once you go light, you will enjoy your flight”. And Wong was certainly right. There are plenty of benefits to packing light, including breezing through certain airlines if you have no bags to check-in, getting your boarding pass upgraded (like via Easyjet) to group A which means you get a better choice of seats by boarding before most people. How to learn the art of travelling light? Try website OneBag.com, which has an “exhaustive detail on the art of living for an indefinite period of time out of a single bag.” I must also follow my own advice and implement this for my upcoming trip.

(more…)

Editor Vincent is most likely on a transatlantic flight as we speak. But the thought of being jammed in economy like a pack of sardines does no good for his morale.

Over the years, he’s learned that some tricks and tools of the trade from the world’s finest, including how to avoid the unfortunately more than common scenario of spending a 15 hour flight jammed in between two burly men, rather than two gorgeous females.

Here’s a few things Vincent does during his flights right now; he’d love to know of any other tips you have to make the flight more comfortable:

1. Carry a noise canceling headset, like the Bose Quiet Comfort 3s (or these alternative cheaper noise cancelling ones for £4.99 from HUKD).  Remember to charge up the battery ahead of time.  And bring an airplane audio converter, like this one from memorybits for £2.65.  Much better than the plastic earpieces in case something good pops up on the in-flight entertainment.

2. Load a laptop up with some tasks to do. Obviously this needs to be a long life battery like the Samsung NC10 with it 7 hour battery life.  The 10″ screen means when the passenger in front reclines, his laptop won’t die in his arms.  A USB powered external HDD is also a good idea, especially in economy, with the seat in front of you reclined. So get some work done. Save the movies and porno for landing. (more…)