It is time for a refresh of my travel related recommendations. I have decided to delete the date of the updates in my Blog Reviews page because I do not update them that often lol. I am always open to suggestions/comments/beatings/praise/ridicule/etc. Help me make this a better resource for you for freeeeee! Needless to say I was not bribed or influenced in any way on what appears here okay? You don’t have to wonder how objective my recommendations are because I despise that crap. But it would be nice if sometimes they did offer me a freebie here and there….I would probably turn it down but the gesture does count to add to my self esteem that I am important. Bwahahahaha!
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TRAVEL HACKING
GENERAL TRAVEL SITES:
MISCELLANEOUS:
Notes:
The blogs appearing here is what I like to read myself! It is MY OWN opinion only!
In order of importance…to me!
A short background behind each of the sites:
GoogleFlights: When the site first came out it was the ugly duckling. But it continues to improve and now is a fine choice to start your hunt for airline fares.
ITAMatrix: The granddaddy of the experienced travel hackers like me. I have been using this even before they got bought out, please sit down, by Google! Definitely takes some work to get used to working with it so beware. I still believe there is no airfare search engine that is more powerful!
TheFlightDeal: I follow them on Twitter and I have it set up so I get each of their deals texted to my phone. They are the best!
AwardMaximizer: This is the first site I use when I am looking to burn some miles to get a general overview how much each award costs in each airline and alliance. There are many others now and many sites that died too.
AwardMapper: When I have a stay coming up, I go to this site to get a general overview of all the hotel award options in the main hotel rewards programs and how much they will cost. It is NOT 100% accurate and I do not think it is being updated. But I still find it is a great way to start out my hotel award searching before heading to the hotel loyalty website.
Wikipedia: This is an indispensable site. You want to find out the airlines that fly direct to a specific city? You type the airport code, you click on the airport page and then on the left side you click on “Airlines and Destinations” and voila! You get all the airlines with direct flights in that airport, bingo! Watch out for the clearly marked seasonal flights.
FlyerTalk: The granddaddy of travel hacking. The place we call home. It all started here. Been a member from the beginning and it’s just a part of my life. A good part! Amazing what is generated here…if you dig deep enough all the gold can be found here. The design may hurt your eyes, give it time and you can learn every day, it’s all here!
Reddit/churning: The successor to FlyerTalk 🙂 Similar to FlyerTalk but better designed. Great tutorials on the right hand side.
SeatGuru: Whenever I have an upcoming flight I consult this site to make sure I get a better seat and, most importantly, avoid the bad ones!
GreatCircleMapper: Another site for travel hacking veterans. Easiest way to calculate the mileage between different airports.
FlightsFrom: To get quick information on all flights out of a specific airport I sometimes use this one as well.
StatusMatcher: See how you can leverage your elite status to match to other programs!
AirportCodes: Site with all the airport codes. Many of us know them by heart. FUK is Fukuoka Airport okay? 🙂
ExtremeHotelDeals: I follow them on Twitter @ExtremeHotDeal and I get their tweets as texts on my phone. Got to move fast after each tweet as the deals go fast!
WheretoCredit: You bought an airline ticket and you are flying a different airline(s) than the one you usually fly. With this site you can find out which frequent flyer program can get you more miles based on the booking class of your ticket, very handy!
GreeceTravel: The BEST site for all things tourism to Greece. Nothing is better. Stop asking me questions about your trip to Greece, just go to this site and you will find the answer! If not, email the site owner, he is a cool guy.
IATA: Probably the best resource for information on Passports, Visas and Health Regulations and more on each country.
ToandFromAirport: Not very well known but one of my favorites. When you need to find a quick way of all the different options on getting to your destination after you land in an airport.
MatadorNetwork: A good general travel site. Enough variety. A few gems here and there.
Autoslash: Still remains the best site to score a great deal on rental cars.
Kottke.org: This site is just, well, different. I had to place it under miscellaneous because it defies categorization. Just eclectic enough to appear in one of my good lists 🙂
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Thanks! Very useful to have in one place.
Silver from Prague!! Like DML said. Super handy list and PERFECT timing for me! Thanks!
Bronze!
Great list of resources George! Happy Wednesday
@George By the way, when planning trips that involve Train and Bus travel, I have found both Rome to Rio and Loco2 (soon to be RailEurope) to be very handy for me. I am sure you have checked them out but to me they are always useful.
Carl how did you get to and from SEA to Europe?
The same way that Japan bombed Oregon in WWII, high-altitude balloons using the jetstream.
I too would like to know, Carl.
@Heinrich Liebt …. I use to work with Ramsey. Ramsey was a friend of mine. AND YOU SIR ARE NO RAMSEY!
HT: Lloyd Bentsen / Dan Quayle
for you youngsters….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz9StNrkrIw
Appreciate your list. I recommend adding freefrequentflyermiles.com. Gary has been around the longest and always shows the best cc offers.
that blog is in DOS it is so old….author is an arrogant, know it all ass, who suffers from I am the smartest guy in the room syndrome IMHO
he is kinda like a pre-lobotomy Ramsey …. but without his Sense of Humor or Movie Star Looks.
Lol, that page is still around. I had to use my Mosaic browser to visit the site. Survived longer than my geocity page. What happens to fake political ads on MySpace?
I can not believe Gary is still around!
In his defense, I have exchanged emails with site corrections many times. He was always appreciative. Easy to navigate and no ads. If it ain’t broke…
Been to Craigslist lately?
I should visit Gary’s site again one of these days.
Never thought I would see an epidemic in vaping induced pulmonary disease.
I am guilty of having recommended that smokers should vape.
https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1189686869702803457?s=21
Wow, so sad!
Rome2Rio is a good one, as Carl said. I also like WikiTravel.
Oh, and what about Man in Seat 61? Great for trains and such to know what you’re getting into and which class of service makes sense.
Rome2Rio was just bought out today…for peanuts so I dont expect them to be around in its present form going forward.
I am aware of Rome2Rio and Man in Seat 61. Good but not good enough for me to recommend. I should give them another try, thanks
This is a Good List — I think my own list would look quite similar.
A few other suggestions: WhereToCredit for advice on where to credit paid flights. FlightRadar24 for flight tracking. FlightMemory for logging flights. Seat 61 for train stuff. LoungeBuddy for figuring out lounges you have access to, although post Amex acquisition it has lost some luster.
The most remarkable thing to me, as I think about it, is how my list largely looks the same today as it did several years ago — for a hobby that attracts a lot of tech and entrepreneurial people I would have expected more clever innovation. Maybe everyone is too focused on building credit card recommendation tools.
Your last point is so on target!.
I have your suggestions bookmarked but not added here for various reasons.
wheretocredit – Well we fly for free 🙂 it earely happens we need to do this. Burned some cnb points on Emirates and Qatar flights for son and it was very difficult to decipher the ticket classes…so I asked on Twitter 🙂
The two flight ones appeal more to aviation geeks…I wanted my list to appeal to more sane folks 🙂
Sea61, I gave it another click and the amount of info is too overwhelming imho. For Greece most info appeals to British traveling there…London to Athens wtf! It always turned me off, it’s just a different personal taste.
I expect Amex to phuck up Lounge Buddy and I am shocked they have not yet lol.
I sent Mile Nerd a note about the Aeroplan card not existing anymore and the link to the TravElite card not being right. Interested if he updates his card list tomorrow.
He should have a new post tomorrow…lets see.
GCMAP.com! How else would I know the IND-MIA-BAQ is the exact same amount of miles as IND-BAQ?
You have any “aggregate” sites you use? I like Travelbuzz.com, where the first is last (well if you’re TBB that is, ahem!).