Travel Hacking Advice Guide

LJStraw84 on 03/11/2017 - 12:30

Hey guys,

I've been taking advantage of all the advice and deals on OzBargain for a long time now. I wanted to give something back to the community. Hardcore travel hunters will know everything I'm sharing, but for a lot of people, I think this will be super useful. It's a guide of all the ways I save on flights & hotels, as well as insurance & credit card recommendations.

My Discount Travel Guide: https://joshstraw.com/ultimate-guide-discount-travel/

Of course, there's nobody I defer to more than this community. If you see somethign inaccurate, incomplete or that could enhance the advice, please let me know. I want to make this guide for the community.

p.s There's no ads running on the blog. The goal here is simply to give back. Hope you like it.

Sincerely,

Josh

p.s Contrary to popular believe, your debit card will not work in Cuba. Take US dollars!

Travel

Comments

  • Oz8argain on 03/11/2017 - 13:10

    Awesome guide Josh, this is going into the bookmarks, thank you for giving back!

  • newjerseydamo on 03/11/2017 - 13:11

    Thank you!

    I will have a read of it outside of work as I'm curious what you've put together, especially considering I've travelled on the cheap at times to the USA.

  • JStraw84 on 03/11/2017 - 13:19
    +2

    Thanks guys. Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated. I'm going to keep growing this, updating it etc.

    Feel free to send feedback as it pops into your mind; positive, negative and constructive. All appreciated for the sake of making a better travel resource.

    Have a good weekend.

    Josh

  • Ryanek on 03/11/2017 - 13:20

    Nice one mate, that's a well written blog.

  • carlJack on 03/11/2017 - 14:53

    Thanks Josh. Bookmarked.

  • matthewperk on 03/11/2017 - 15:25
    +1

    fantastic resource mate!

  • railspider on 03/11/2017 - 16:32

    Nice resource, will keep this one bookmarked

  • hepc on 03/11/2017 - 16:36

    This is wicked. Although I went to Cuba and used my debit card..

    • JStraw84 on 03/11/2017 - 17:17
      +1

      I wish it had worked for us. We were travelling with: Westpac, ANZ & Citibank debit cards and none of them worked. Landed with only US$100 and were so stuck we have to beg for money from wealthy foreigners in various hotels. Finally worked out my VPN could get around the Skype internet fence. Then had to have a cousin in the USA send money to our cleaner, who withdrew the equivalent of her annual salary for us… crazy!

      Meanwhile, if people need tips on how to live cheap in Cuba… I am your man. lol

      • hepc on 03/11/2017 - 17:39
        +2

        It's a bit complicated. I think it's less to do with whether it was a debit card and more to do with two things:
        a) is it a Mastercard or Visa
        b) is your bank linked or related to a US bank.

        I was there May 2016. I took a combo of USD, Mexican Peso (because that's where I came from) and my cards as a way of hedging so I could avoid a situation like yours. This worked fine but I knew I would run out of CUC so had to withdraw at some point.

        When I was in Havana, most of the banks would only take Visa, so I thought using the Citibank Plus would be fine, but then I found out they wouldn't let me use it because it's obviously a US bank. I was able to find one (Banco Metropolitano) in Havana that took Mastercard and so was able to withdraw using my CBA debit card. I do remember it was huge like an airport terminal and it took about 2 hours waiting in line to get my coin, lucky I had some podcasts to listen to. More info is here: http://www.banco-metropolitano.com.cu/index.php/index_banmet…

        Basically your best bet is to have a non-US Visa debit card, then you can use any of the ATMs and not line up forever like I did to get money out of my CBA account.

        Hope that info helps.

        • JStraw84 on 04/11/2017 - 05:15
          +1

          Solid tip man. Thanks for all the detail.

          I'm planning a trip back there soon, will test out the new information. I'll also bring plenty of $$

          What is cool, is we now have local contacts there. It makes such a difference, would happily recommend a guide if any OBers need one.

          Cheers man. You rock!

        • BucketsJackson on 06/11/2017 - 17:39

          @JStraw84:

          Great blog mate.

          FYI, I used an ING Direct Card in Cuba in April 2017 and it worked fine in all ATM's. I found out it would work there thanks to a user on this very site. As mentioned, trusty Citibank card did not work. I recommend taking Euros to Cuba as well because you don't get stung as many fees when swapping cash.

          At various time I was travelling with a number of other people and they were shocked to see it working - the fees weren't to bad, I think it was $2.50AU per withdrawal.

        • BucketsJackson on 06/11/2017 - 17:40

          @JStraw84:

          Completely agree on the SCTI recommendation as well. Have had them pay out with very minimal fuss on my past 2 holidays to South America and Central.

        • JStraw84 on 07/11/2017 - 06:53

          @BucketsJackson: Thanks for the comments.

          I've been away from Australia for about 2 years now and SCTI will only insure you for the first 12 months. I have been pleasantly surprised by World Nomads. Their team answered my claim quickly, and paid out right away. I was also dealing with a Kiwi, which is so much better than a yank or call centre in go knows where.

          I've just updated the blog to include my AirBNB negotiation tactics. Keen to hear your thoughts.

  • meowmeowmeow on 03/11/2017 - 17:16
    +1

    I like it. I've bookmarked the page, it's a great idea. There's a few other credit cards and debit cards that are good for travel. For example, I recently got the Macquarie bank debit card as a backup for my citibank plus. Sometimes the citibank has issues at ATM's in the United states. The Macquarie card has a small atm withdrawal fee so would only use it if I was in a bind, no international conversion fees though.

    • JStraw84 on 03/11/2017 - 17:20

      Thanks, the backup is a good idea. I haven't had any problems with my citibank (except cuba), but I have worried about losing it. So perhaps you might have solved it :)

      Have a good cup weekend. 5 points for most useful feedback thus far.

      • hepc on 03/11/2017 - 17:44

        One other awesome thing about the citibank plus is that if you're in Mexico they have a partner bank called Banamex which had ATMs everywhere and they don't charge withdrawal fees!

        • JStraw84 on 04/11/2017 - 05:21

          We are now living on a Mexican Island called Isla Mujeres. Banamex is brilliant for the CitiBank card. We never have any issues, and there's always staff there to help if anything goes wrong.

          Coincidentally, there is also an HSBC, but their service & rates are not nearly as good.

  • crozza on 03/11/2017 - 17:37

    great, good advice. Tell us about Telv. The devil is in the detail.

    • JStraw84 on 04/11/2017 - 05:19

      Hey Crozza,

      Is Telv = TransferWise?

      Happy to go into detail and share my research in full. Let me know which bit you are asking about and i'll let you know :)

  • bluesky on 03/11/2017 - 18:11

    Great resource, thank you! Bookmarked and will be keeping an eye out for new posts.

    One comment: I was trying to watch your youtube clip. From a PC or a laptop, the audio level for it is rather low. Have to turn to max volume and it is still on the soft side. However, if listening on the mobile phone, it is OK if surrounding is not too noisy. Not a big deal, just thought you would like the feedback is all.

    • JStraw84 on 04/11/2017 - 05:17

      Thanks for the feedback. I was thinking I needed to redo the video clip. That was actually the very first thing I did, before inspiration took me at 1am and I stayed up all night writing it…. classic OzBargainer behaviour.

      I'll try to find some time to do a new video. Given the article has now doubled in size, there's a lot more I want to work into it.

      Really appreciate you taking time to write to me. Have a wonderful weekend.

      • bluesky on 04/11/2017 - 14:18

        You're welcome. And you have a great weekend too.

  • thatonethere on 03/11/2017 - 23:07
    +1

    You probably want to mention that skip leg flights can be risky. Ie airline cancels entire ticket if it is return, cancel loyalty card or black lists you.

    Also can be annoying for other passengers if they have to wait while ground staff look for you.

    • JStraw84 on 04/11/2017 - 05:18

      You are 100% correct. I'll add a little section on that tonight. Particularly that you should only book it as individual one way trips!

      Thanks for the comment, that helps a lot.

      • JStraw84 on 04/11/2017 - 11:03

        Updated the article & referenced you. Thanks very much.

  • keithality on 04/11/2017 - 17:32

    Good writeup mate. Hadn't heard of hacktheflight. Hopefully I can snag a price error flight in the future.

  • JStraw84 on 10/11/2017 - 06:05
    +2

    For those interested, the article has been updated with new sections and videos. Not huge changes, but worth skimming over again.

    • donga100 on 11/11/2017 - 11:00

      Looks good. I was pleasantly surprised about the accuracy of your airfare information. Lots of sites just publish rubbish information to generate hype but yours is actually realistic.

      • JStraw84 on 20/11/2017 - 15:20

        Thanks man. Just trying to share the love, and give back :)

        Feel free to suggest any additions you think would be good.

  • myusername on 14/11/2017 - 15:44
    +1

    great work Josh

  • flightfinderau on 21/11/2017 - 14:17

    Great work Josh. Some very useful content. Thanks for taking the trouble to share.

  • tendliya on 23/11/2017 - 15:39

    Great post Josh. Thanks for your time and contribution.

    I have a question for you if you have any tips please. Let's say I have decided to travel in the very last minute for a holiday or a family emergency etc., is there a way to know if the airlines have few seats left and haggle them for the cheapest price possible? They may as well sell the seats, right? Rather than taking off without filling that seat.

    Any advice/tips will be much appreciated.

    Cheers

    • JStraw84 on 28/11/2017 - 09:21
      +1

      Hey @tendliya,

      That's a great question. Unfortunately in my experience (meaning others may have found a way to do this, but I haven't), I always get stuck talking to the low level call centre staff that don't have the authority to do anything but read the tele-prompter. I've tried escalating to managers, and sometimes you get lucky, but often those people also don't have the authority required.

      My opinion is, there are so many layers of bureaucracy in airlines, that it's faster to find a deal then try to haggle. For the airline it's a slippery slope they don't want to encourage… but where there is a will, there is a way, so maybe you will find it.

      Stay in touch, let me know what you find!

      Josh

      • tendliya on 28/11/2017 - 11:29

        Hey Josh,

        That's what I found too over the weekend. I called Qantas around 10 am to get a last minute overseas ticket for the same day departure after 3 pm, the girl on the phone even said that there are still good number of seats left on the flight but did not wanted to offer me a cheaper fare that what was on their website. Seems a waste but it will definitely work for the airlines in the long run as they don't want people waiting until the end to book their fares.

        The one last thing I want to try is turning up at the airline's counter at the airport and give it a try. But I doubt if they will also care to offer a discounted ticket.

        I will keep you updated if I find anything like that.

        Cheers

        • JStraw84 on 05/12/2017 - 04:14

          Actually I tried that back about 10 years ago. I rocked out to Avalon airport and tried to purchase a ticket at the counter. The girl told me she could sell it, but there would be a Hefty service fee. She directed me to the computer cafe nearby and said to buy the ticket online… crazy!

        • tendliya on 05/12/2017 - 22:49

          @JStraw84: Rules are rules, hey?

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