Travel hacks and advice

[anotherVTskibum]

On my trip, yeah, lots of 5G…more than I get at home.

Same for my experience with Verizon on a Austria (Stubai) trip via Munich in 2022 and a Norway trip last fall.

On the Austria trip, I had the cheaper Verizon monthly international option with limited data, which may not exist now; on the Norway trip, I had the $10/day deal. Only part that I found particularly annoying was trying to avoid the $10 charge the last morning before a stupid-early flight. I can't recall if I managed or not, but what time of day (and time zone) the "day" rolls over was going to matter since we were airborne before midnight Eastern.

[jm2e]

And for cell phones international, eSIM is the way to go for cost savings compared to AT&T/Verizon international plans
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I’m on Visible. Which is basically Prepaid Verizon for $25/mo and their international plan is the same $10/day.
I need a new phone, and they have the only “deal” I’ve been able to find anywhere for a new (ie. not refurbished) 15 pro is with Visible because they include Apple Care with the deal ($200 bucks savings).
And (like Verizon) their phones are locked for 60 days. So no SIM for me.


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[riser4]

Google Maps on my mobile (Android) always shows at least 2 and sometime 3 routes- lowest miles, fastest time, and sometimes things like avoiding tolls or construction etc.

Right but if you want to get more specific than that, it sucks. Maps isn't designed to be my navigator bitch. I have very specific routes I want to take for the middle parts of certain trips to avoid certain things. It's hard to get that without navigating in segments because maps usually will let me avoid one but routes me through the other thing I want to avoid. The perfect example is that I want to cross into Canada on 89 at Highgate, but NOT go directly through Montreal to get to Toronto or Ottawa. There's a road that lets me do that. Maps won't suggest it. It is either cross in Alburgh or over in NY or go through Montreal. I don't want any; of those. Why don't I just leave maps off until I get to a certain point? Because I don't always remember the entire route to that point and I like the extras in the maps displays: speed limit, how fast I'm going (especially because in Canada it gives KPH and that's hard to read on all of my vehicles), my ETA, etc.

[The AD]

^^^yeah, we switched to T-Mobile recently and it was amazing in Amsterdam, the UK, Kenya, Belize, seamless really. Free WiFi on domestic flights too.

It didn't work great for me on my recent trip to the UK, even in London. Lots of times I had no LTE and it seems like without that, no internet access. My wife even upgraded before the trip to a 30 day international plan, but it didn't work a lot better for her. It was strange how often in London we had very weak cell signals.

[plugboots]

Dang. Weird.

[Yukonrider]

Anyone use Verizon international roaming in Europe recently?



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Allegedly, if you have on of their unlimited plans you can switch up to the fanciest one (which is like an extra 20/mo over basic) and get 10 GB of data, and calling and texting every month then throttle to 3g. But the bit is, you can switch for a month, then switch back down (according to the VZ tech support, and two guys at the store) with no penalties, and its even pro-rated.
I am heading over on the 25th and this is my plan. 10 GB cell, and using Wifi when available should get me plenty far.

[alpinevibes]

Southwest is ending open seating and will have premium seat options, all to boost revenue. What says the the SWA fans? Yay or nay?


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[m2711c]

t’ain’t never been on sowthwest so it don’t make me no nevermind…


fact.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Last time we flew southworst they still had face to face seats at the front bulkhead, and flying to Chicago was like taking the bus - they'd make three stops in between LA and Chicago for people to get off and on the plane. On the way back we were so delayed because of a mechanical, the pilot opened the bar and everyone drank for free. It was a flying party.

Ended on a good note.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Southwest is ending open seating and will have premium seat options, all to boost revenue. What says the the SWA fans? Yay or nay?


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It’s the only reason I normally choose SW over other airlines. Now I’ll just shop on price I guess.

[old goat]

We fly SW more than any other airline. I'm no fan of the open seating. It was great when I flew with my little kid and I could get on last and he would sit next to someone else instead of me. Now it's a hassle to have to check in 23hr 59 minutes 59 seconds before ETD to get a good boarding number. The big attraction is being able to cancel for free and use the credit within a year. And there's a lot of SW flights here in the Southwest.

[SkiCougar]

Southwest is ending open seating and will have premium seat options, all to boost revenue. What says the the SWA fans? Yay or nay?


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Terrible !

Until today, if you were near first on online check in, you could get a good enough number to basically select your seat except for a listers and those that generally are late to everything are late to online check in and got the last seats just as they got the last seats and if you wanted to pay the $15, you could jump that. Now, early or late; you all have the same chance; there is no reward for being on top of a check in; but SW just saw they were missing out on revenue; finally said enough of missing out.
imo, given enough time; every airline will become spirit. for 128 seats on 1,000 flights daily; airlines make over 3 mil daily on $25 luggage fee; too much money to grab to not do it.

[The AD]

It’s the only reason I normally choose SW over other airlines. Now I’ll just shop on price I guess.

I understand not minding open seating, but I'm struggling to understand why you'd actually prefer it?

[J. Barron DeJong]

I understand not minding open seating, but I'm struggling to understand why you'd actually prefer it?

Because boarding the actual plane is less of a shit show. Southwest turns their planes around faster because of it.

We did some work with them in the past and at the time they were simulating/testing different boarding plans, but they said open seating was always the fastest.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

FWIW, anyone thinking about enrolling in Global Entry, it's remarkably pain free right now. Online enrollment to preliminary OK was less than 2 weeks, and the in person interview appointment was another two weeks out. Easy peasy.

[carlh]

Any advice on actually getting nexus interviews in Blaine? We need 3 together and the website has zero available.

[cspringsposer]

Any advice on actually getting nexus interviews in Blaine? We need 3 together and the website has zero available.

I finally gave up on scheduling an interview and did the Enrollment On Arrival when I landed back at DIA from London. As long as you get there during their EOA hours (1000 - 1800 at DIA) it is really easy.

The CBP officer who helped us told me they release new appointments on a weekly basis but I have no idea when and for what time period.

[Yonder_River]

It's probably the hardest office to get a nexus interview at. It's been way worse after the pandemic. I applied to renew ours late last year and luckily they've just bumped us all through eventually with renewals (except for my oldest who is still conditionally approved) and didn't require us to be there in person.

There is a Twitter bot you can find by googling which will send you notifications of openings. Getting them concurrently seems impossible so I would bring everyone all at once and act sympathetic and maybe they'll do it all at once. The process up there is pretty quick overall.

[Yonder_River]

I finally gave up on scheduling an interview and did the Enrollment On Arrival when I landed back at DIA from London. As long as you get there during their EOA hours (1000 - 1800 at DIA) it is really easy.

The CBP officer who helped us told me they release new appointments on a weekly basis but I have no idea when and for what time period.

I think that's just global entry. Nexus requires a visit to a border office.

[The AD]

I think that's just global entry. Nexus requires a visit to a border office.

Not necessarily for renewals, though. I think it may be random because last time I had to appear in person, but my wife did not.

[dan_pdx]

This is probably old news for most here, but I've had a very good run of luck getting room upgrades for booking direct with a hotel rather than through hotels.com or another aggregator. We got moved from a cheap queen room to a junior suite in Prague last summer just for booking direct, and just got an upgrade in SF for the same thing, even with no status etc

[Yonder_River]

Not necessarily for renewals, though. I think it may be random because last time I had to appear in person, but my wife did not.

Yeah, most adults don't require another interview for renewal. Kids supposedly do though. Often because they can't do the iris scan until a certain age, at least that's what we were told. But then again, two of my kids ended up getting fully renewed without an interview which was weird.

[cspringsposer]

I think that's just global entry. Nexus requires a visit to a border office.

Sorry. My confusion. Never dealt with Nexus but Global Entry interviews seem just as elusive.

[The AD]

Yeah, most adults don't require another interview for renewal. Kids supposedly do though. Often because they can't do the iris scan until a certain age, at least that's what we were told. But then again, two of my kids ended up getting fully renewed without an interview which was weird.

I got lucky with mine. As soon as I got the notice that I needed to schedule an interview I got on the site and saw one appointment available in Blaine a day or two later. I booked it even though I had to take a vacation day to do so.

[jm2e]

Fuck American and their garbage website and piece of shit app.
Spent 90 min trying to check last night for our trip to Italy today.
First it says it needs a Redress Number. Then it says I’m entering the wrong birthdate. Then it just craps out. App just puts me in a death loop back to the start.
60 min on phone with customer service finally got us sorted. Can’t imagine that’s cost effective for American.
No boarding pass on the App? Bag tracking doesn’t work. What exactly is the point of their app then?

edit to add: and neither the app nor boarding pass say what time boarding starts. First world problems I guess.

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