Next to traveling itself, dreaming about where I’d like to travel is one of my favorite activities. I’ve skied throughout the US, but my hope is to hit some foreign slopes soon. Without further adieu, here is my bucket list [...]
This is a guest post written by Nisha Sharma, who has far more expertise than I do about planning a trip to France – if you’re interested in writing a guest post, check out my travel blog advertising page. Thanks [...]
Infographics are an increasingly popular way to display some cool information in a visual way. While sometimes the visual effect can be cluttered and confusing, when done right it’s a very effective way to communicate a message. They’re especially cool [...]
Recently I had to spend roughly two months on the road to work out of our Chicago office – knowing I was going to be there for a while, I decided that staying in a typical hotel was going to [...]
Recently an article on NPR.com titled “How Frequent Fliers Exploit A Government Program To Get Free Trips” explained how travel hackers were buying thousands of dollars worth of coins (with free shipping) on their credit cards, then immediately depositing those [...]
Keep a separate credit card & travel wallet for safer travel!
When traveling, I put all of my expenses on a seperate card (like my US Airways card) than I do for normal expenses when at home, and also travel with a dedicated travel wallet for extra security. Whether I book cheap holiday deals or extended stay business travel, keeping all of my travel expenses on the same card offers a number of advantages over using my “normal” credit card. Here’s why:
If you fly first class on American Airlines, they’ll loan you a Samsung Galaxy Tab to play with on the flight. This is a really & innovative and smart perk -I first read about this on Mashable, and the more I think about it, the cooler this idea becomes. The downside is you that you obviously have to return it when the flight is over, and you wont have all of your favorite apps & games installed on it, but in my opinion this is way better than a TV in the headrest like JetBlue and other airlines give you. These tablets will replace the current TV/entertainment system being used, which will probably cut down on their maintenance costs for the airline as well – while I have no idea if this move ends up saving more money than it costs, it’s definitely a big improvement for the passenger.
My Starbucks Gold Card
I am a Starbucks junkie – while I get free coffee in my office, or I could make it at home, I love going to Starbucks for the experience, the strong coffee, the great service, and the decent prices (I usually just get drip coffee, none of the fancy stuff). Starbucks thanks me for my loyalty in turn – I was recently awarded Gold status and got in the mail a shiny gold card from Starbucks.
After seeing all of the cool benefits Starbucks awards there loyal customers, I think the hotel chains could take note. While managing a hotel loyalty program is much more complicated, there are some basic concepts that can be applied to hotels, or any business really:
I found this on my nightstand while staying at the Westin Columbus last weekend for a wedding – I snapped a picture to remind myself to blog about it because its such a cool initiative. The initiative is called “make a green choice” which was originally announced on their Facebook page and elaborated on StarwoodHotels.com – but I’ll summarize it here:
There is nothing I hate more than having to pay for a rental car – the car I am accustomed to driving is always much nicer, and I’m already paying for it, so paying $50/day to drive a stripped down economy car hurts on several levels. I also don’t rent cars often, so when I do I have very few loyalty points built up and get stuck with the bottom of the barrel cars, usually something along the lines of a PT Cruiser or Dodge Neon…yuck!
Next stop...the Airport!
Back in the day, flying was a rare occasion usually only afforded by the rich, and was almost a status symbol of sorts – and in that era, people used to dress really very nicely whenever they flew, opting for three piece suits and freshly shined shoes for men, or elegant dresses and elaborate outfits for women. Much like going to church, flying in an airplane was an occasion to get dressed up and don your best clothing.
Featuring locations near the city's business hubs and cultural attractions, an ExecuStay Chicago extended stay offers many opportunities for work and play.
With many conveniently located Chicago corporate apartments, ExecuStay allows residents easy access to the public train, bus and rapid transit cars.
