Tuesday Travel Tips

Hotels:

• If you like to travel, sign up for a Marriott credit card. That's what I would tell people who do not already accumulate Marriott Points (like those of us in consulting). In full transparency, points are the only way I can afford to travel to luxurious places.

• Once you start earning points, do not not afraid of asking for points if anything is wrong with your stay. I think for the most part, people don't want to make waves and that's fine but that won't get you points LOL. Now I'm not saying that you have to be rude about it, but more

than likely something will be wrong at the hotel unless you're always staying at 5 start hotels. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want!

• Blinds are ripped? Shower not clean? Tell them it's unacceptable and you would like 1500 points as compensation (at least). For larger issues, use your discretion.

Airlines:

• Looking to change your seat on your flight, but you see that the seat you want cost $$? Wait until 24 hours or less when you check in and then check the price again. That same cost for the seat will either get reduced or go away completely. They just put price tags on seats in advance because they know people won't want to wait to confirm their actual seat and they will pay the money. But don't worry and just be patient -- the patient one pays the least:).

• Also - booking in advance does not always save you money. If you're looking for a last minute trip I highly recommend Sky Scanner. Even if you don't know where you want to go, they actually let you plug in dates and destination as "anywhere". If you do have airline points, I recommend just searching a few different destinations on their site and often times you can get flights a few days in advance, round trip for ~20,000 - 32,000 points which is pretty great.

• Have a few options and couple that with searching where you can use your hotel points on Marriott.com (not all properties are available on points) and then you can quickly find a last minute trip for CHEAP.

Rental Cars:

• If you are not part of a rental car rewards program, stop sleeping on this! All you have to do is sign up and it's free. This will automatically put you ahead of others for upgrades and it takes almost zero effort. Also, being part of a rewards program will allow you to skip the normal line and go to the preferred desk or allows you to skip talking to an agent all together and sometimes allows you to go straight to your assigned car and out the gate!

• Not to mention, although the points program at Avis isn't stellar, you can use the points you earn towards future rentals, which will save you $$ come vacation time!

• If your app isn't showing available upgrade options, don't be afraid to ask for what other cars they could upgrade you to for free. Again, I think in general people are afraid to ask but hey - if you don't ask then you will never know!

• Again, not to be negative but if there is something wrong with your car - CALL customer service. Often times a 10 minute phone call results in a "paperless coupon" that you can use on your next rental (usually $10 - 45 depending on issue severity).