Travel Tips – Page 4

Lessons in Cheap Travel from an Expert: Me! (Rerun)

We just returned from an amazing trip to Northern Europe and, surprise, surprise – it didn’t break our bank account. How did we do it?

Transferable frequent flier miles

When we fly, we usually use one airline so our frequent flier miles are easy to use. But, our first destination was Copenhagen and our favorite airline doesn’t fly to Denmark. Lucky for us, the airline was in the One World Alliance so we were able to transfer our miles to another airline to receive free flights – we only paid the taxes.

We earned extra miles just by eating out and shopping

Our airline has a dinning program so you can eat out at participating restaurants to earn miles. The program is free. You just need to register your credit or debit cards. The shopping program works great for us. When we shop online, we start at their shopping website. Then use their links to access popular retailers. Between flying, eating out, and ordering online our frequent flier miles really add up.

We used our hotel points

Our flight got us in to Copenhagen a day early, so we had time to explore and meet up with a good friend. We stayed at a hotel and our lodging points covered the cost of both nights. Even better, we used extra points to upgrade to a room with access to a hospitality suite that served breakfast and late afternoon snacks.

We used timeshare points for the cruise

As some of you know, we like to take cruises. So, when we found a cruise that visited the Baltic regions of Northern Europe, we were really excited. Neither of us had been, so it was a first. We were so happy to find that we could trade our timeshare points for the cruise. All we paid were the taxes and port fees. We sailed to Tallinn, Estonia; St Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.

Yes, it took a lot of coordination and advanced planning…

But, our travel, lodging and cruise were covered – we only paid taxes (which were minimal). Of course we spent money for some of our food, entrance fees to museums, the tours themselves and souvenirs. But we saved money by walking, taking public transport, or tour transports where the only cost was the tip for the guide.

So, that’s my experience and my expert advice. You can travel without killing your budget!

That’s several more countries checked off our bucket list. Where would you like to go?

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Cards Declined in Copenhagen: Lessons in Travel

In the last edition of my newsletter, you heard about our amazing trip and how we were able to pay for almost everything with points and some smart pre-planning. (You’ll see photos today).

Now, you will hear what didn’t work. This was big lesson for me.

To stay on budget, we used mainly cash. We even bought foreign currency before leaving home. We were able to purchase Crown, Kroner, Euro and Rubles at our local exchange in Connecticut.

But we knew we would want to use credit occasionally, so we called our credit and debit card companies to let them know where we’d be travelling and on what dates (as I’ve told you to do many times).

Imagine our surprise when our cards were declined in Copenhagen. We had dinner with friends and asked the restaurant split the bill between us – half on their card and half on ours. Ours was declined. We knew it wasn’t the machine because they processed our friends’ card first. We could see that theirs worked because the staff at the restaurant actually processes the credit card at your table using a portable machine.

We wondered if it was because we were using our US debit card with a pin. So we ask them to do it again as a credit card. It still didn’t work. The staff said that a lot of US credit cards are declined for some reason.

And, it wasn’t just the restaurant. We tried using the credit card when we checked out of the hotel. Again, declined! It was very embarrassing.

When we returned, I called the credit card company to ask why they wouldn’t accept our transactions. After a lengthy conversation, and several people, they realized that they couldn’t see any of the attempted transactions in their system. Fortunately, I kept the receipt as proof, but even with the evidence right in front of them, they still couldn’t give me an answer.

The mystery continues. Thank goodness for our American Express card. It saved the day.

Remember, no matter how prepared you are. Things can go wrong. Make sure you have a back-up plan when you travel.

Update: A big thanks to Heidi for giving us an explanation! Apparently, their credit card machines are programmed to accept cards originating from countries in the European Union – and nowhere else. I guess that makes things easier for Denmark, but not for tourists! Read her full comment below.

Lessons in Cheap Travel from an Expert: Me!