New Tool: Nonrev Commuting App

May 1st, 2011

  Nonrev Website Commuter App

With the difficulty of summer commuting fast approaching, I have been asked to find a web app to help make the struggle home easier. I could not find one with all airlines and all hotels, so I created one. Now when you are at the gate and they cancel your flight to work or to your vacation, all you have to do is pick up your smart phone and go to Nonrev Commuter App  . This web app has three tools to help you.

First is the “All The World Timetable” which has links to every airline in the world with phone numbers in case you need to try to list for a flight. It also has links to US Airports that allow you to view which airlines are on time or cancelled. Finally, it has some train timetables too if the airport is shut down.

Next is the rental car tool. Several Nonrevs I work with in New York are pitching in and renting a car to get home. This has happened so many times that it is becoming a viable alternative to a non-rev flight. Here I give directions on how to get a car without paying too much.

Finally, there is a Hotel Tool to get a room when all your other nonrev travel options have disappeared. This has a search function and instructions to not pay any more than you have to.

Now if there is bad weather or the flight fills up unexpectedly, you will have a tool to help you right on your phone. Remember, the sooner you go to the tool when trouble rears its ugly head, the less numbers in case you need to try to list for a flight. It also has links to US Airports that allow you to view which airlines are on time or cancelled. Finally, it has some train timetables too if the airport is shut down.

Next is the rental car tool. Several Nonrevs I work with in New York are pitching in and renting a car to get home. This has happened so many times that it is becoming a viable alternative to a non-rev flight. Here I give directions on how to get a car without paying too much.

Finally, there is a Hotel Tool to get a room when all your other nonrev travel options have disappeared. This has a search function and instructions to not pay any more than you have to.

Now if there is bad weather or the flight fills up unexpectedly, you will have a tool to help you right on your phone. Remember, the sooner you go to the tool when trouble rears its ugly head, the less of a chance you will have to use the last function of the Web App.

For those of you with phone Scanners, use the bar code below.

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Posted in Advice, Tools | 17 Comments »

Rotation Reroute, Nonrev Negator

March 14th, 2011

I was just flew to a city where another crew from my airline was laying over. It seems they got a reroute that turned there one day layover into a three day layover. What happened was their flight, which started in the middle of the United States, had low loads for the two days after they took off. The flight from the coast to the same city also had low loads for the next two days. Operations rerouted the passengers that would have departed from the middle of the US to the coast which didn’t affect the passengers much, but hurt the nonrev passengers many ways and here is how.

The most obvious way this effected the Nonrevs who looked at leaving on the cancelled flight for their vacation had there disrupted. They had to scramble for another way to get to their destination. But who else that was effected where the commuters to the coast. Over 200 seats we use to get to work disappeared overnight. Those seats that the nonrev expected to be open, and were verified open on the company site, were not available.

The solution is too be ready the night before by finding all the flights to work. This can be accomplished by going to the NonRev Timetable . And don’t forget to bookmark this site on your phone Then just before you go to work, check your company site. Once you get to work, go right to the gate and see if there are any problems. DON’T WAIT AROUND. If there is, go to the NonRev Timetable you put on your phone.

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Posted in Advice | 3 Comments »

Escape the Snow in St. Lucia

February 22nd, 2011

This winter I tried out an all inclusive hotel for our family vacation in St Lucia. Unfortunatly we were to leave one Snow-mageddon when the airlines cancelled all their flights. We got to St. Lucia, saw the sites, and enjoyed the sun This is how we did it in the worst snowstorm of the century.

Febuary 2nd was the day of the worst snowstorm Chicago had seen in years. It was so bad the airlines shut almost all operation for that day. Luckily for my family, we were able to leave a day early. We purchased tickets on an airline instead of nonreving which is something many of us in the airlines are doing. The increase in taxes on our passes, blackout days, and extremely high load factors make it much more economical to buy tickets. But as I say, don’t take our word for it, check it out for yourself at our Timetable. 

Our layover was in Miami so I called the Sheraton at the Miami Airport. I was able to get an airline discount on the room AND the staff was happy to drive us downtown to get a bite to eat. They were one of the best hotel staff I had the pleasure of meeting. The Hotel Staff suggested my family try Chilorio’s which is a great Mexican restaurant. It was very low key but the food and service was excellent. They also had free wifi so I was able to look up information for the next day of travel.

The Coconut Lodge has several crews that Layover and their crew rates are much lower than you could find on sites like Perx. The lodge has another great attribute, the is a family side and a couples side. The Family side has all you could want to entertain children from the standard zero depth pool to a “lazy river’, a water slide, and a kids club. The couples side had its own pool, spa and beach. Every night there was live entertainment from a steel drum band to a magician. There was also a talent night for guest and staff. There never was a night that there wasn’t anything to do. Even though the resort is on the southern tip of the island, removed from the towns, we didn’t feel the need to go into the town.

Volcano and Mud Bath for what ails you.

One of the places we did go to was the Volcano. Not only is it active, put there is a mineral bath that you can visit. The mineral bath is said to be able to relieve everything from arthritis to sunburn. It is also marketed as a mud bath that will make you look 10 years younger. The bath is heated by the volcano and the mud is actually volcanic ash. I met a man from Germany who said he spends his winters in St. Lucia and goes to the bath once a week. He swears by the bath and said his doctor can’t believe his improvement. Whether he was a plant or not I don’t know but I thought is was fun to visit.

Botanical Gardens

The other place we visited was the Botanical Gardens. Not only was there beautiful flowers, but a waterfall. There is also a mineral bath from another volcano. This bath boasts the Napoleon’s wife Josephine came her to bathe in the mineral water.

St. Lucia is a great place to go to avoid the cold and the snow. Now it is even more affordable with an all inclusive hotel that gives discounts to airline employees. The biggest problem now is how do you get there?  Use these tips to get the most out of your stay. To see more deals from around the world, go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/

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Posted in Caribbean | 3 Comments »

Like to Travel? Win $25

February 21st, 2011

It’s time for our annual Customer Appreciation Contest. As a thank you for your support of NonRev Website, we created a contest where the odds are in your favor. From now until March 31st, you can win a $25 Starbucks Card. All you have to do is tell all your friends about the NonRev Website Newsletter.

When your friends sign up, they will automatically be registered in our raffle to win a $25 Starbucks Card. The card can be used anywhere in the world Starbucks is selling Coffee. It can even be given to someone else as a gift!

But here is how you have a chance to win your own $25 Starbucks Card. If you tell another person about our newsletter contest and that person informs us that you were the one who told them, you could win your own $25 Starbucks card. The more people who say you told them about our contest, the more times you are registered, the greater the chances YOU could win! You can even tell your spouse and children, and your family could win both cards! Just forward this email to all you know and at the top of the email tell them to make sure they put your name in the box “Please Tell Us How You Found Out About Us.”

Use the following link to register http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/signup.html

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Posted in Advice | 2 Comments »

Free Attraction – The First Human in Space

February 15th, 2011

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first Human Being in Outer Space in the Vostok 1. He With this being the 50th anniversary of the first human to orbit the Earth, one of the best places to go to see what Russian Space Travel was like back then is at the Memorial Museum of Space Exploration under Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow. Although there are more artifacts at the Star City Cosmonaut Training Facility just outside Moscow, the Memorial Museum of Space Exploration is very convenient to get to, open to the public and very Cheap.

The Memorial Museum of Space Exploration is under the huge statue dedicated to flight in Cosmonaut Alley. Cosmonaut Alley was constructed in 1964. To celebrate the Soviet Union’s achievments in space. Here you will find Statues to several Causmonats as well as a statue of the “Chief Designer,” Sergey Korolyov who remained nameless until after his death. The centerpiece is a Vostok Roket on top of a 100 meter titanium exhaust plume. The gigantic base has a mural carved into it depicting all of the contributions made by the Soviet people comulating with Yuri Gagarin Stepping into his spacecraft. Enterence to the park is free and it is one of several Free Attractions in Moscow. To see more free attractions in Moscow, go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/cheapeurope/Moscow.html#Attractions  .

The Memorial Museum of Space Exploration is an awesome underground complex with the complete history of Russian Space exploration, The museum has a large collection of rockets, capsules, satalites, rovers, space stations, even Lika, the first dog in space. It goes back to the beginings in the 1900s when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky mathematically described how to escape gravity and use multi-stage rockets fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to travel to the stars before the Write Brothers Flew an Airplane. This museum is very new, reopened in 2009, and is very reasonable, around $3. You will not be disappointed by its 85,000 objects at this attraction. To see more information on the Russian Space Museum and other attractions in Mocscow, go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/cheapeurope/Moscow.html#Attractions  .

So celebrate the first human in space by going to the Memorial Museum of Space Exploration. With so much to see and do, you could make a whole day of it. And while you are in Moscow, you can see the other Free Attactions.

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Posted in Moscow | 2 Comments »

Saving Money on Rental Cars

November 28th, 2010

So now you have used tools like the one at NonRevWebsite.com to get the cheapest deals on a rental car. But there is even more you can do to save money with this type of transportation. Most of these things deal with your driving habits. Here are some to help save more money.

The first great tip is to reduce the weight of the vehicle. As stated in the blog on C5 Corvette Top 3 Free Performance Tips , reducing weight can increase performance by 3%. This also means that you increase your gas mileage 3% by reducing weight by 100 pounds. The simplest way is to not fill up the tank. Only buy what you need to get to your next destination. Every 6 gallons mean one pound. 5.6 extra gallons in the tank makes a 1% increase in mileage.

Next, is how you drive the rental car. Do not idle the car long after starting, over 30 seconds is a waste. Avoid jack-rabbit starts, pushing the accelerator more than one quarter travel waste fuel. Don’t start and stop needlessly, each minute at idle wastes as much gas as starting the engine. Finally, don’t rev the engine because it wastes fuel and does undo ware to the engine.

With these tips and the money you saved on rental car site, you should be able to save lots of money on your next trip.

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Posted in Rental Car | 2 Comments »

Cruise Discount Tool

November 8th, 2010

With the Economy still acting anemic, the Cruise Lines are trying to increase sales through discounts. They even have wireless so you can access this site from your cruise. The secret is the deals other nonrev sites are advertising are not the best deals. You can find them but you need to dig.

You know how Priceline lets you name your price but then tells you what hotel to stay in? The worst part is not only do you not have a choice of where to stay, but you must take the hotel. What if you could bid and see what you get BEFORE you submit to the program? Well, we figured out how to do that for cruises on the web. First, you need to got to our search engine where we have partnered with Google: http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/nonrev/travel/cruises.htm .Put in what you want, like Carnival Cruise, and then put in the price like this, Carnival Cruise Caribbean $899…$799. Make sure you put in the three dots, … , between the range of price you want to pay. But don’t stop there, try it again with $799…$699 and see what you get. Keep going and see how low you can go!

The great thing about this function on our search engine is it resets everything in the results to your price range, even the ads. That means that the sponsored links on the top and side of the results page are even better deals. They are motivated to sell to you since they bought ad space. They HAVE to pay Google so they really, really want your business which may mean you can bargain for more perks for the price. To quote the competition, “now that is negotiating!”

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Posted in Caribbean, Cruise, Cruises | 3 Comments »

Stuttgart Travel Deals

November 1st, 2010

Looking for Non Rev Travel Deals in the Holiday Season?  Why not go to place where the Christmas Market is defined. It is one of the cheap deals, free. Thats right, a free attraction in Europe. It’s to find a better travel deal than that.  

Here is the Granddaddy of all the Christmas Markets! The Stuttgart Christmas market is so good, people from all over Europe go here by car, plane, even bus tours. It is huge and takes all day to go through. People shop during the day, eating and drinking as they go, then relax at night watching the people go by, even ice skating. The shops are full of handmade wooden crafts like Christmas Ornaments, Nutcrackers, and Nativity Scenes. Germany considers this the jewel of all their Christmas Market.

Once the sun sets, the food booths have a variety of winter treats. Besides the spiced wine, Christmas beers, and bratwursts, you can get the traditional Kartoffelpuffer, or potato pancakes. This is the best way to have dinner with all the decorations, lights, and shoppers.

To find more information this Christmas Market and other free attractions, go to NonRevWebsite.com . They also have information on other Christmas Markets around Europe as well as the world.

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Posted in Stuttgart | 3 Comments »

Why You Can’t NonRev in September

August 23rd, 2010

I just rode in on Jet Blue and received some bad information for NonRevs. Jet Blue’s All You Can Jet Pass promotion is sold out. That means between September 6th and October 6th the planes will be more than full. I was lucky enough to meet the Senior Analyst for Network Planning and he gave me some great insight on how to NonRev in this difficult period.

With the kids going back to school,  September is known to be a great time to non-rev because the loads are low. This is why JetBlue does this promotion now. That means the demographics of people flying will be those without kids. Without those kids, there won’t be child weights on the numbers and more planes at JetBlue having weight and balance issues. So that empty seat may not be available. Make sure you ask when you sign if it will matter and plan you options accordingly.

According to last years numbers, the worst days to travel is Fridays and Sundays. The don’t have hard numbers for this year because the promotional passes can be booked up to 3 days prior to a flight. And don’t worry about the people booking a seat and not showing up because JetBlue has as ingenious solution, charge them $100 or more if they don’t show up!

The worst city pair was between Chicago and New York. The interesting thing is this is one of the shortest legs they have. It also shows how underserved this market really is. Hey Airlines! This is a hint! More seats between New York and Chicago! And guess what the busiest airport will be? JFK, their hub.

The best solutions to this problem in NonReving to New York I have written in a post “Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Non-Rev to New York.” I have the 5 top problems but more importantly the solution and the ways to avoid the problem. But the best solution to bring chocolate, lots of chocolate. Gate Agents love that stuff. I think it has something to do with their stress level.

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Posted in Advice, Chicago, New York | 6 Comments »

NonRev Dream; Free Tour in Budepest for Free Stuff

August 11th, 2010

I just took the FREE Budapest walking tour and it was great! Not only was it free, it told me where to go for free, where to eat for less, and most importantly, how to avoid admission fees. This is a dream if you non-rev or layover in Budapest. The tour lasts at least 2.5 hours and in there is a talk at the end of the tour on what the local people really eat, hint goulash isn’t one of them, where the nightlife is, and much more. A word of warning, the people are young and fit and the tour has a great deal of walking.

When we started the tour at Saint Stephens Square, her first tip was a great one. Our tour guide told us to ask local people under 25 questions because they speak English. She then told us the history and architecture of St. Stephens and how some say it has the best view of the city and for 3 Euros you can see for yourself. Later she showed us a better view for free. We went through a park to explain the new craze in Europe that started in Hungary and then the long walk to the palace. Along the way our guide told us about the history of this great country. We went past St Matyas Church and was told how to get in for free. Like my mother she said “go to Mass!’ If you want answers to the tip deals, you will just have to take the tour. And if that doesn’t entice you, how about finding out why the genitals on the statue of a warrior’s house are shiny.

I have been on several other free walking tours in Munich, Dublin, Paris and this one was even better because it described what to do to save money when touring the city. This is a great help to those on a budget. Even though the young people flock to this tour, there is something here for everyone. Would I do it again? I would and I will soon on the Free Communist Walk and the Free Jewish District and Best Pubs Tour. Stay tuned.

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Posted in Budapest, Tours | 2 Comments »

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