Author ∣ Advocate ∣ Journalist
On Travel is a weekly column about being a smarter traveler. It covers practical travel advice for the readers of USA Today and the USA Today Network. If you’re interested in publishing this feature, please contact Elliott directly at chris@elliott.org or (202) 370-7934.
If you’ve ever had to pay a hotel cancellation penalty, then Liam Goodman’s story will sound familiar.
When Goodman, a freelance photographer from Beacon, New York, tried to check into a hotel in Manhattan recently, it didn’t have any rooms available. He found another place to stay, but the first hotel charged him one night’s stay for being a “no show,” which made no sense.
Read more “How to avoid a hotel cancellation penalty”
The hectic summer travel season is only weeks away, so what better time than now to improve your air travel literacy? You can start by listening to the business travelers who are on the road for weeks at a stretch. They have the best advice for surviving summer travel.
It’s easy to miss them sometimes. They’re the ones quietly sitting in the exit row seat, finishing a spreadsheet on their laptop computers. You might not even know you’re staying in a hotel with one, because they check in late and leave early.
Read more “This is the best advice for surviving the busy summer travel season”
Bill and Eleanor Seavey run a small inn near Hearst Castle in California, but when they go on vacation, they head south. In a few weeks, they’re planning to visit Los Algodones, Mexico, just across the border from Yuma, Arizona, for some sun – and dental work.
“Many of their dentists are trained in the U.S.,” says Bill Seavey. “We can get work done for about one-third of the U.S. prices. Our local dentist actually recommended we go there.”
Read more “Medical tourism: Are the savings worth the risks?”
Hackers are trying to steal your vacation. They’re coming after your personal data, your credit card information and your loyalty points.
Worst of all, they might already have them.
Consider what happened to Jill Frankfort, a teacher from Boston who recently lost 150,000 American Airlines frequent-flyer miles.
Read more “Hackers are trying to steal your vacation. Here’s how to stop them”
When Robert Herbst’s nonstop flight from New York to Raleigh, North Carolina, turned into a one-stop, he got worried. When American Airlines assured him he could make a connection at Washington’s Reagan National Airport in just 30 minutes, he got very worried.
Herbst, a wellness expert from Westchester, New York, is one of a growing number of minimum connection time skeptics.
Read more “What is a minimum connection time? Here’s what you need to know”
