New to Traveling? Things to Keep in Mind for Airline Travel
I’m not going to lie, I get very envious of the different options that Americans (U.S. Citizens, not American Airlines) have to help make travel more affordable. Starting from higher credit card sign up bonuses, more competitive airlines fares, better perks and benefits associated with credit cards, etc. That being said, it doesn’t mean that Canadians don’t have a few options as well.
Today, I will list some of my top travel tips to consider when travelling:
Know the Baggage Policies
Know when you need to pay and when it’s included in the fare. Also know the dimension and weight requirements to avoid any unnecessary inconveniences at the airport. If you can, sign up for a credit card that gives you free checked bags. Or just focus on using a carry-on only if you can get by without a checked bag.
Checking in your bag at the gate is a great way to avoid check-in fees.
One thing that I do is bring a carry-on one way to avoid the fee. And if I come back with a lot of souvenirs, I would pay a one way fee on the return flight.
Connect through the United States
This is especially true when booking an international award travel with Aeroplan. You are better off flying on United Airlines and connecting through the United States to reach your outside-of-North-America destination rather than flying with Air Canada. United Airlines has much lower taxes and fuel surcharges. I would take it a step further if you fly with Star Alliance partners often enough, you are better off signing up for a United Airlines MileagePlus account and banking your points there instead of Aeroplan. You can redeem your MileagePlus points for the exact same United Airlines flight as you would using Aeroplan points, and it will cost you less taxes and fuel surcharges.
Collect British Airways Executive Club Avios
There isn’t much competition on which airlines we, as Canadians, can take advantage of to rack up points with large sign up bonuses. But one option, aside from Aeroplan is Avios. Mostly notably with RBC and American Expresss. Oneworld alliance have lots of great members to use your Avios with. What is great about the redemption schedule is that British Airways uses a distance-based chart to redeem a reward flight. As a result, you can get more value from Avios than from Aeroplan.
Know the Cancelling Fees
Ditching a flight could be cheaper than changing it. The cost of change fees can be really high, so knowing your options can help you avoid unnecessary fees. If you really want to change a flight, its often better to do it on the day of your flight for a heavily reduced change fee.
If you know that you need to cancel a flight, wait until closer to the last minute because sometimes they change the time of your flight and give you an opportunity to cancel or change your flight without any fees. This may happen even more often in the winter season.
Not to be a hater or troll, but seriously? How is “know the baggage policy” and “Know the cancellation fees” considered a hack.
That’s ok. You have the right to be tough. It depends on how well you know the rules. The more knowledge you have, the better you will be at avoiding fees because you will be in a better position to negociate with the airline when you run into an issue. When we say travel hacks it’s not in the illegal sense, but getting around the rules in the legal sense.
Knowing the baggage policy is not getting around the rules in the legal sense, it’s knowing the rules and following them.
This is like listing “wear your seatbelt” as a road trip hack
Another embarrassing article from you guys. Still have no idea how you are on BA… you got my hopes up with the title bbu then the content was about as helpful as water in hell.
I think it is best to change the title to be more content appropriate.
My bad on this article. I completely revamped it. Thanks for helping me point out all the inconsistencies.
I don’t want to be a hater but this article is absolutely worthless and even misleading to people. For one you mention American says hidden city ticketing is ok? Really now? It is specifically in their contract of carriage that is specifically prohibited. ( http://www.aa.com/i18n/customerService/customerCommitment/conditionsOfCarriage.jsp&locale=it_IT ) Just search for ‘hidden’ on the page. Additionally the article formatting is horrid and items are grouped under headings that are totally unrelated to the heading. One last thing – the recommendation to bank to United… this is another item that lacks any substance or useful information. This is very dependent on how you buy the ticket… if you are buying from united.com then 98% of the time you are much better off banking these miles elsewhere to get actual miles flown rather than the new revenue mileage earnings with united. Overall please format your articles more clearly and include some actual substance… this article is the biggest waste of time I’ve encountered in my time reading boardingarea for the past year or so. Best of luck on your future articles.
Fixed the American Airlines issue. I must apologize, all the mistakes on this article is on me. I published it too quickly before finishing editing. The information including the title should correspond more accordingly now.
Tough crowd LOL
My fault. I deserve the heat.