Bulkhead lounger or toilet attendant? Don't leave your seat assignment to chance.

It came to my attention recently that a well-traveled friend of mine had never heard of SeatGuru. Quel horreur!

While I, of course, remain your primary guru, the SeatGuru is definitely one you need to add to your repertoire.

Because when it comes to traveling, we all know that beyond the airline, the seat itself can make or break your experience. Legroom lounger or toilet attendant? You make the call.

Even in business or first class, there are huge differences in seat quality. Even within one airline, in the same class, on different plane types.

Simply put: SeatGuru helps you pick the best seat on every flight you take. And if really use it like a pro, it will actually influence which flight you buy.

The SeatGuru website has come a long way since its underground-nerd-forum days of yore. (Yore!) Now you simply search your airline and then select your flight number or aircraft (which is found in the details of any flight you’ve bought or are considering). You’ll get great maps of seat layout (how many coach, biz, first class seats) and details on seat quality. Seat quality is the biggie here.

Let’s say you’re ready to cash in your hard-earned and well-hoarded miles for a swank seat in business to the other side of the planet. You want to make sure you’re getting the best quality seat possible.

What do I mean by seat quality? THIS:

American Airlines' deceptively named "flatbed" Biz Class seat. 

American Airlines' Biz Class "lie-flat" seat. 

Same airline, both business class. Hard to know the difference at first. Well, one is the “fully-lie-flat” seat. The other is the deceptively named “flatbed” seat, which yes, is a flatbed, but TILTED at a 10 degree angle, which means you get to slide down your bed all night. Blood clot, anyone?

Let’s take it to coach, where seat quality may not differ much from plane to plane on the same airline (except for TV availability, which still does vary greatly in the U.S.), but hell yes differs from spot to spot. SeatGuru will have the seats color-coded, so that at a quick glance you can get a sense of good or bad. Roll over with your cursor to read specific comments and pros/cons on a seat.

A map of the back in SWISS.

For every aircraft, you’ll also find info about TV availability, charger ports, wifi, and more for all classes of service. Many will have user-contributed photos to help you out, including pics of seats, meals, overnight kits, and more.

As a last note, I want to return for a moment to the mileage cash-in moment. Let’s say you’re planning a really long vacation flight, like a 10+ hour journey. Remember that your miles don’t necessarily have to be used on the airline you earned them on. Your airline has partner airlines, some of whom may have waaaaay nicer seats than your regular carrier. Make a little visit to SeatGuru's comparison section before you make the call, to check which partner airline has the best-quality seat for your miles. Then, of course, it’ll be a game of award availability, and you may or may not win. But at least you’ll make your final choice like a pro.

You're welcome.

#travelhack: When patience is a (profitable) virtue

I know I’ve been haranguing you to get with the Yapta, but it bears repeating with a sweet little money-saving moment I just had.

I saved $40 on a one-way. Is it a fortune? No, but it feels like a win when you know that so often it’s the airlines taking the wins. And if you do it roundtrip, we're talking real $$.

Nearly 3 weeks ago, I priced a one-way from San Francisco back to NYC in October. I didn’t like the pricing and I knew what I thought it should be. I figured it was a good bet that prices wouldn’t shoot up even in August, two months out. I had the time to practice patience.

So I used my beloved Yapta to start tracking and whaddya know, my fare finally dropped.  Since I’d set my Yapta for alerts of any drop over $10, I got an email immediately.

The ticket was bought on my phone, sitting at bar in the East Village, with a drink in my other hand.

For those of you with families, these savings could really add up. For the rest of you, just, why not?

The caveat still stands: Yapta’s site is the absolute worst user experience: get ready to be confused about where to click when you land on the homepage. But it’s worth it. (In its current hideous design, click: Personal Travel>Flights>Sign In (or Join). Someday they’ll call me to direct a redesign.

Happy savings, friends.

Oh, and a reminder to you U.S. people: Monday October 12 is the Columbus Day holiday. See Rule #1 if you don't know what I'm getting at.

If you love standing in line, don't read this.

If you’re like me and hate standing in line, you need to know about Global Entry. Non-USA readers: several countries have similar programs, which are listed at the end of this post.

What’s Global Entry? It’s the glorious answer to a lifetime of line-loathing. It’s a pre-screened-identity program that, once you’re registered, allows you to re-enter the country with a swipe of your passport and a press of your fingerprints — all at a kiosk. You bypass entirely the lines at passport control. I just came back into the country Sunday night and do you know how long it took me to go through immigration? 30 seconds. I’m not kidding.

Goodbye, this.

But wait there’s more.

Global Entry vs. TSA Pre

You may have heard of TSA Pre, which is also a pre-screened-identity program that allows you to use the express TSA Pre security lines (at most US airports now), sparing you the time and indignity of taking off your shoes and pulling out your electronics.

But here’s the deal: with Global Entry, you get BOTH international privileges aaaand TSA Pre privileges.

With TSA Pre, you get TSA Pre privileges only.

No contest.

Furthermore, the registration process for both is equally tedious and the cost difference is negligible ($85 for TSA Pre, $100 for Global Entry). Both are valid 5 years.

Even if you only rarely travel internationally (ahem, do we need to talk?), with Global Entry, you’ll be zipping through domestic security like a pro AND returning from abroad like I did last Sunday, breezing through while pitying all the poor, un-savvy souls snaking their way up to passport control, praying their deep-vein thrombosis doesn’t fell them before their turn.

[Multiple Choice]

I love taking off my shoes for security:

a.     A lot. I love a floor perfumed with the feet of a thousand strangers.

b.     Meh, it’s not my favorite.

c.     In no way, at any time, ever. Make it stop.

From Sucker to Winner – Next Steps

So you’re going to go here to register. Brace yourself for the worst website u/x but know that it will all be worth it. Once you’ve answered the questions, you’ll get an email within about a week prompting you to set up your “interview” at a Global Entry office. This is the ugly part: the interview offices are almost exclusively at airports (there’s one location in downtown Manhattan, but the interview calendar was booked for months so I booked at JFK). For now, there’s no way around it: you’re going to have to haul out to the airport. Just remember, the hour or three that you spend getting to and from the airport will be repaid in spades over the next five years.

A note: if the people working at JFK’s Global Entry are any sign, the officers are pretty cool about what time you show up on the day of your interview appointment. I landed early and they took me two hours ahead of schedule, no problem. The interview itself lasted less than 10 minutes and I received my membership number right then and there. This may vary by person, who knows. But it’s all worth it.

Now do it.

Essential Instruction

You’ll need to enter your Global Entry “Known Traveler Number” when you buy your airline ticket online in order to have access to the Global Entry and TSA Pre express lanes on your dates of travel. You MUST do this online, in advance of travel. You can (and should) also update your Frequent Flyer profile with all your airlines to include your Known Traveler Number, so then it will populate automatically when you're buying a ticket. When you check in, you’ll see your ticket specially marked, ready for the express life.

Thanks goes to my friend Kristin, who was appalled last fall that I hadn’t yet registered for Global Entry and inspired me (shamed me) to get on it. And apologies go to my friend West, who begged me not to post about this, but I just couldn’t not share it.

Express Programs Around the World

For my international friends, I pulled the following from various sources, including Wikipedia. If you know of, or participate in, similar programs I don’t list here, please let me know so I can add them to the list. Less line time for everyone! Joy to the world!

Global Entry is open to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, Dutch citizens, South Korean citizens, German citizens, Panamanian citizens and Mexican nationals. Canadian citizens and residents may enjoy Global Entry benefits through membership in the NEXUS program.

Mexico also has its own program for Mexican citizens called Viajero Confiable. In theory, a US-Mexico partnership allows Global Entry members the ability to use the Viajero Confiable kiosks at Mexico’s international aiports. I say “in theory” because last week in Mexico City, the kiosks did not recognize my Global Entry number. Luckily a passport officer waved me over and I got to skip the horrendous line. Hopefully things will soon start working smoothly.

NEXUS (formerly frequent traveler program and currently part of Trusted Traveler Program) is a joint Canada – United States program designed to let pre-approved, low-risk travelers cross the Canada – U.S. border quickly.

On 29 December 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced a reciprocal arrangement with Germany for each nation's trusted traveler program—the U.S. Global Entry program and the German EasyPASS.

Members of Global Entry (along with members of NEXUS and SENTRI), may use TSA PreCheck.

In May 2009, Global Entry membership was expanded to include Netherlands citizens who are also members of The Netherlands Privium trusted traveler program under the FLUX (Fast Low-Risk Universal Crossing) alliance. Present members of Global Entry are now permitted to apply to join the Privium program at Amsterdam – Schipol airport allowing entry into the Schengen area.

 Similar to the NEXUS agreement between the US and Canada which coordinates their Global Entry and CANPASS Air programs, FLUX coordinates between the US Global Entry and Netherlands Privium programs. 

The -ex is for extortion

If any of you have trips around Europe coming up soon (and why wouldn't you?), you should beware of the new ATM situation.

Looks like many airports have cut a bad deal for travelers by replacing regular bank ATMs with ATMs by "Travelex" or the like, who post "no fees" but offer extortionately bad exchange rates. 

Used to be, you could fly into any country in Europe and plan to pull cash at the airport ATMs, run by local banks. You'd get hit with about 3% in charges. With these Travelex-type ATMs, you'll get hit with about 10%. Bad deal. 

For travel arriving at the following airports, you would be wise to scrounge up any old currency you have from previous trips, so you can get out of the airport and wait to exchange money at a regular bank ATM:

London/Gatwick

Amsterdam/Schipol

Copenhagen/Kastrup

London/Heathrow

Madrid/Barajas

Milan/Malpensa

Paris/Charles De Gaulle

Rome/Fiumincino

Zurich

The taxis and airport trains of many cities let you use your credit card to pay, which makes it even easier to wait until you get into town to withdraw money.

This story is via smartertravel.com and you can read the full story here. 

The secret I learned from sailors

Five days into Beijing traffic seems like the right time to let you in on one of my most vital travel secrets: what I fondly call my “barf bands.”

To be fair, I should call them my “anti-barf bands.”

You sailors out there have seen these.

www.sea-band.com

They’re very simple elastic bracelets that work to counteract motion sickness. The plastic “button” is just a thing that presses into the anti-barf acupressure point on each wrist (three fingers below the wrinkle at your wrist, in between the two tendons).

Sound weird?

Who cares? They work.

www.sea-band.com

Ask my friends. I have loaned many a green face one of my precious barf bands and everyone, and I mean everyone, feels the relief. 

But don’t wait to feel nauseous. Do what I do: put them on before the green hits. Planes, trains, automobiles, boats: you’ll be invincible. I even know some scuba divers who wear them for those wavy pre- and post-dive moments.

Trust me, they’re the only reason Beijing didn’t see some fine gweilo puke coming out its taxi windows, in what I have to say is some of the barfiest traffic I’ve ever experienced (no disrespect to LA and Bangkok).

Not even rush hour. Not kidding.

You can find them in many airport convenience stores, some drug stores, and most any marina shop. www.sea-band.com 

Travel well, friends.

What's a yapta?

Are you planning your next adventure, like I told you to?

Then you need to know about yapta.com

Ignore how hideous the homepage is. You're going to love this thing.

Let me show you.

When you're planning a flight, start on the homepage and click on "flights" (with the gray airplane icon) toward the bottom left of your screen.

Click on "Flights," in blue, toward the bottom.

Then enter whatever flight you want to search. It's powered by kayak.com, so you get all kinds of easy levers and controls to adjust your search. But THEN comes the good stuff. You can choose "Track price drops." Look for it below each flight option.

Click on the orange "Track price drops."

Why are you going to love this? Three reasons.

One, if you go ahead and buy your flight, you will be alerted if the price drops. Granted, most airlines charge an extortionate $200 change fee now (except our beloved jetblue, who only charge $75) BUT, if your flight drops more than the cost of a change fee, VOILA, you call up that airline and get yourself a nice little refund or credit. 

Two, if you're not ready to buy your flight for whatever reason, yapta will be back there tracking it and alerting you when it drops. Let's say you're looking to fly somewhere and you have an idea of what you want to pay or what it should cost. Yapta is fantastic for that. You can wait to pull the trigger until it hits the price you want (no guarantees, but see point Three, next).

A yapta email alert.

Three, you end up learning something about how volatile flight prices really are. Go to the site anytime and click on the "my trips" button to see prices on all your tracked flights. 

Go to "My Trips" to see a snapshot of all your tracking.

Over the years, for example, I've learned that NY - Miami prices fluctuate a lot. By hundreds of dollars in the course of a week sometimes. Often (though not always), those prices come back to a certain baseline about a week before. If you've got a city-pair that you travel often, this is good intel. 

And intel is KEY to maxing out your adventure potential.

See? I told you you'd love this thing.