Travel Tip Tuesday: Make Up!

If you follow me on twitter you would have seen me post a picture of this, but this seriously is one of my favourite travel tips so I just had to share it again.

Years back I was reading a magazine and came across this 'model's secret' tip for make up on the go - storing all your make up essentials in contact lens cases.

This seriously works for anything - lipstick (just chop a bit off and bring your lip brush), concealers, foundations or even powders (though this turns out a little more messy). As you can see I used mine for my MUFE Face & Body Foundation and Garnier BB Cream, but I also already had a mini sample size of my MAC concealer otherwise that would have gone in another container.

It struck me as crazy when I was camping at Glastonbury that ladies were bringing their whole make up bags with full sized everything. No wonder their make up bags were so big! This I think works great for your handbag essentials for touch ups as well :)

Travel Tip Tuesday: Flights!

I'm currently booking my internal flights for my upcoming holiday - more about that in another post probably - and I remembered a tip that I use that a lot of people don't seem to know.

When booking one way or point to point flights, it can often be much cheaper to search for a return flight instead of a one way!!

Why? Well when I discovered this a while back, I asked my travel agent and he mentioned many of the airlines still haven't cottoned on that it makes more sense to charge based on single legs (regardless of whether you travel one way or return) and so think giving a discount for a return journey will entice customers. Clearly we are more savvy than that!

So if a return flight is cheaper, just make sure you book the flight you actually want to take as the first flight (i.e. outbound) then just cancel your inbound flight once you have arrived. Be aware you can't do it the other way round (i.e. cancel your outbound flight and take the inbound) as they will cancel your whole ticket if you do not turn up for your first flight.

I'm guessing a lot of people know this tip already, but for those that don't, hope it proves useful next time you're booking flights :)

Travel Tip Tuesday: One Cent Flights

It's been ages since I did a 'Travel Tip Tuesday' post so here's a good one if you're looking to travel soon - I came across this website One Cent Flights.

So how does it work? Basically its like an auction site where you bid for the price you're willing to pay for whatever flights they've advertised which include awesome destinations as Australia to the US and Europe. Basically you're bidding on the amount you will pay to then have their set travel agent book you the return flight on a set list of airlines (which are actually quite good, not cheaper budget airlines!) based on the travel dates you want.

Bids increase in increments of 1 cent, so you'll often see international flights go for less than $100! Bidding ends when no further bids are received and a set countdown timer runs out. The catch is that you have to pay for bids at a starting price of $1 per bid but if you're clever with your auction strategy, even if you bid say, 500 times, that's only $500 plus the auction price (which might be less than $100). At a total of < $1000, that's still cheaper than the average return flight internationally!

Now I'm not affiliated with them in anyway and I haven't actually tried it (as I've already booked my holiday for 2013!) but I thought it was something others might really get into. Even the domestic flights have pretty good deals.

When you sign up you get 5 free bids but if you want a bonus two, click here!

Happy Bidding!

Travel Tip Tuesday: Flightfox

When I was in the US, my friend based in San Fran took me to an Australian startup event. There, a whole heap of budding Aussie entrepreneurs were pitching about their new big idea and one of those was Flightfox.

Flightfox is a new crowdsourcing type website which helps individuals find the cheapest and best deals on Airfares. How does it work? You write in with the details of your preferred travel dates, any specifications in terms of airline preferences as well as any flexibility and of course your destinations. To do this, you pay a small fee. People then go searching for the best deals for you and if they suggest you the best deal, they get a small 'finders' fee.

Many of the people are travel experts, people who are expert flyers or just people who know the ins and outs and secrets. People have found amazing business class round the world fares for the same as a normal round the world fare and others have just managed to get amazing savings on simple return flights.

Examples are people getting round the world fares for $3k for business class!

Now, if you're anything like me and really picky about flight times, stopover locations, airlines and the like, then it may be a bit harder to get such cheap as chips deals but if you're not fussy and just want the cheapest fare then check it out!

Flightfox was by far the best idea I saw of all the 10 or so startups I learned about that day and I think it will really take off in the next few months!

Travel Tip Tuesdays: Emergency Exit Seats

Time for another Tuesday Travel Tip! This one perhaps is something a lot of people know about, but there are some tricks I've learnt along the way.

I know a lot of people like to request the Emergency Exit Rows on flights well in advance (for example, when they pay/book their flights). Well something I've found out along my travels is that in most cases, many airlines will in fact keep their Emergency Exit Rows completely unbooked. It's why you often find on a short haul flight they are indeed empty. It happens less on long haul flights because these seats are usually also kept for their frequent flyers needing upgrades or last minute flight changes.

For example when they get a frequent flyer/Gold membership customer who misses their flight or purchases a flexible ticket and invariably needs to be found a seat on your flight, the Emergency exits are allocated to them not because they are good seats, but because they may be the only free seats left! You'll also often get to the airport and see long 'waitlists' shown on the screens - these are both waitlists for those who are standby on a flight or who are waiting for an upgrade and yep, you guessed correctly, those emergency exit seats are good 'extra seat' buffers that they will fill on the day!

I came to this realisation when on several occasions travelling on two different continents and with several different airlines, I found myself being able to sweet talk the check in staff to find me a 'nice' seat. Each time they were able to give me an emergency exit seat and this was at airport check in several hours before boarding my flight.

My theory was proven correct recently when a kind counter staff offerred to find me some nice seats for my 3 flight homeward journey. On one of the flights - a short haul from London to Frankfurt - I found myself in the emergency exit alongside a couple who had indeed missed their earlier flight and this was their replacement.

It was actually the largest emergency exit row I've ever sat in...

So in essence - always ask to see if they can find you a nice seat while at airport check in, even if you have already checked in online! In a lot of cases they can't, but there's no harm trying! I understand this isn't the practice on all flights (some flights will now allow you to pay extra to book those seats so if enough people do this up front there will of course not be any of these seats available).

Travel Tip Tuesdays!

I am hardly a travel guru by any stretch of the imagination but I like to think I'm a smart traveller which has come from being observant, doing some research and accumulating tips and tricks from personal anecdotes and suggestions along the way.

I often get asked by friends about my random travel tips which they say are really useful, so I thought I might as well blog about some of them in case others want to hear them too. Once in a while will be Travel Tip Tuesday, especially when I think of a new tip or trick ;) A lot of them I used to assume was common knowledge but apparently not so even if one person reads this and finds it useful I'll be happy :) Apologies if it seems boringly obvious to you though!

So anyway, the first one is a bit random - water bottles at the airport.

<Random pic, I know, but aren't these water bottles awesomely cool and stylish?>

I hate being dehydrated and worst still is when you're on the plane and they offer you those tiny gulps of water in plastic cups. Not enough for me! So a must bring for me is a bottle of water.

I know this might be getting lifted soon, but with the ban on any liquids over 100ml most people think you can't bring water bottles through and foolishly buy new bottles after bag check which of course is always at superinflated prices.

All you need to do is ensure your water bottle is empty prior to going through bag check/scan (regardless of its size). You can even empty the liquid contents of your bottle into those plastic bag lined bins which are always at the entry point. I usually like to bring recyclable plastic bottles for this purpose (in case they really get picky and confiscate it from you) but I've seen others bring those metal flask like containers and specialty plastic bottles.

Once past the check point, there are usually water fountains readily available for you to fill up your bottle with fresh (often cold!) aqua for your drinking pleasure!

I can tell you that I've had 100% success rate with no confiscated bottles across the many continents, countries, airports and flights I've been on so I hope you have the same experience. I have to admit, airports are becoming a lot less picky, so this might not be such a big deal anymore but as with all things travel related its better to be safe than sorry right? Actually when I was travelling through Frankfurt airport I completely forgot to empty my bottle and the security personnel wouldn't let me throw out the contents since I was already on the other side of the conveyer belts. Instead he was nice enough to say he would let me take the bottle if I consumed the contents of the bottle so he just watched me do that and he was satisfied. Easy!


Did you already know this tip and if so, have you had problems with it previously?