Posts Tagged ‘cheap’

Escape the Snow in St. Lucia

Tuesday, 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/

Like to Travel? Win $25

Monday, 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

Free Attraction – The First Human in Space

Tuesday, 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.

Saving Money on Rental Cars

Sunday, 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.

Cruise Discount Tool

Monday, 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!”

Stuttgart Travel Deals

Monday, 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.

Why You Can’t NonRev in September

Monday, 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.

Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Non-Rev to New York

Monday, July 19th, 2010

The double edge sword of your airline being successful this summer is the loads will be maxed out for the next several months. Everyone wants to travel this summer but the airlines cannot get the capacity on line fast enough. What that means for you is tougher commutes. So don’t fall into these 5 traps. And if you do, I have given you several ways to get out.

1) You didn’t check the loads – This summer things are very dynamic. Weather, cancellations, cargo, even volcanic ash will effect right up to the last minute. Even if your flight looks wide open, be ready for it to be cancelled or the flight before it being cancelled and being bumped off the flight you are non-reving on.

2) You didn’t check flight to see if it canceled. Cancellations are big issues these days and sometimes the Airline is late getting the information to the passengers through their websites. Going right to the Airport website to check flights are much more accurate. Go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/nonrev/travel/timetable.htm .

3) You didn’t have a backup airline – Other airlines might give you an opportunity to get to the city your trip starts from. Always have an idea of other airlines you could use. If you need a timetable with all the airlines on them try http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/nonrev/travel/timetable.htm 

4) You didn’t have a backup airport – Just like a backup flight, you need a backup airport. New York has three to choose from. If a runway closes at JFK, go to LaGuardia. If the seats are filling up in LaGuardia, go to Newark. To see what the loads are for a city, go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/nonrev/travel/timetable.htm and use quicktrip for every city around the area. It even displays low fare carriors.

5) You didn’t know how to go from the Backup Airport to your flight. You made it to the city, now how do you get to your airport. There are lots of ways. To see your options, go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/CheapUS/nyc.html#airportHotels

6) Bonus Go early to a hotel room. Goto http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/CheapUS/nyc.html#airportHotels to see all the hotels at JFK, LGA and EWR.

This Summer will be very difficult to non-rev. Those interline discounts for travel are going to be almost impossible to use. So much for our free travel benefits we were promised when we were hired. Those deals are long gone. But there are ways to go to those attractions positive space to almost any area in the world. Go to our article at http://nonrevwebsite.com/blog/2010/07/01/advice/when-not-to-non-rev/ to see how.

And if you are commuting to New York this summer, watch this blog. Several of us are commuting there and we will be writing what we find. Remember, if you have run out of options, go to our New York page to get ideas. If you need help anywhere else in the world go to http://www.nonrevwebsite.com/. Just one more thing, try to watch for non-revs and help them when you can. Trust me, they WILL remember you, and it will be when you need there help the most.

Non-Rev Tip Guide

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

There is always confusion on my trips what we should tip. Those I fly with are perplexed that tipping more may mean worse service. They get angry whe they get the “ugly American” lable for trying to show there appreciation. My thought is, if I spend less money and everyone is happy, what’s the problem. So for those who want to save money on tipping overseas, here is the standard which is verified by Travel and Liesure Magazine.

United States and Canada – 15 to 20%, but more for great service especially if you are a regular and want to be treated like a king.
Restaurants – at least 15%, 17%-20% is the norm.
Bars – 10-15% or $1 for a beer, $2 for a cocktail

Central and South America – Service is different. In the US speed is wanted, in Latin America not being disturbed is cherished. If you keep snapping your fingers yelling garcon, well lets just say the service will go down from there.
Restaurants – Check for a service charge. If none, give 10-15%.
Bars – 10% at bars that serve food, none and bars that only servedrinks.

Mexico and the Caribbean – Tip like in the US but expect service like South America.
Restaurants – 15-20% but watch for the service fee.
Bars – 10-15% or $1 for a beer, $2 for a cocktail.

Europe – Wait staff are paid full salaries so rounding up to 5% is accepted. But watch out for the 10% service fee. In eastern Europe, tip in cash if possible.
Restaurants – 5-10% AT YOUR DESCRETION. Check for service fee.
Bars – round up to the next Euro if service is good.

Asia – It’s something new to them. Japan does not expect it and they like for you to pay at the register.
Restaurants -10% charge is already added, round up for great service.
Bars – Not really done.

Africa and the Middle East – Not realy accepted and privacy is considered better service than hanging on the customer.
Restaurants – Check for that service fee, 10% is good enough.
Bars – 10%

To see individual countries, check out the country pages at www.nonrevwebsite.com . And please don’t make us look bad by tipping to much 😉

When not to Non-Rev

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

I was just in Italy talking to the crew that brought my flight in. The Captain of the inbound flight tried to have his wife Non-Rev with him because the flight was wide open. They even check the flight the day before. The day of the flight, the flight was oversold. The captain asked the gate agent what happen to the loads. She said the airlines have a new airline policy on selling tickets which basically negates all our pass privileges.

When a flight has open seats a day or two before a flight to Europe, the DEEPLY discount them to fill up the seat. The prices are so low, they can’t afford to pay the commission on other web pages so you have to go directly to the airline’s website. How low are the prices? He was told $600 round trip to Italy. But it gets worse.

The person who paid $600 for his ticketed volunteered to give up his seat because the flight was oversold. He received a $200 voucher, accommodations for the night, and positive space, wait for it…, in First Class. Let me beat this dead horse. This person paid $400 round trip to Italy…in First Class. Just throw out those buddy passes now.

So if you are planning to non-rev this summer to Europe, think again. But there is a solution. Go to … to find out.

The Solution to this summer’s Non-Rev Crisis

The  beauty of this is we can use it to our advantage. If you would like to non-rev somewhere and see the flight you want is wide open, watch it like a hawk. If it stays open, the day or two before go to the airline’s public website and check out the prices. If they are rock bottom, buy them.

This next part depends on your flexibility. When you go to airport to catch your flight, talk to the gate agent, show them your badge and see if they are buying people off. And be very nice about it. If they are, tell them you would like to be on the list. If not, you may get the upgrade if there is room and you are nice. My secret is chocolate, works every time.