Brent and Michael's Secret Travel Hacks, Part 19!
Store luggage, fly first class, exchange currency for free, cruise the Nile in Agatha Christie's cabin, don't refrigerate your eggs, and why bar soap is better. Plus, do you need travel insurance?
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Another edition of our unique travel hacks.
For other travel hack columns, go to Part Ten and Part Eleven and Part Twelve and Part Thirteen and Part Fourteen and Part Fifteen and Part Sixteen and Part Seventeen and Part Eighteen and Part Twenty and Part Twenty-One and Part Twenty-Two and Part Twenty-Three and Part Twenty-Four.
And now on with our latest hacks!
Need to store your luggage? Your hotel will, of course, always do it for free, even after you’ve checked out.
But if you have no hotel, the storage place in the train station will probably be outrageously priced, so consider one of the apps that partners with local businesses to store your luggage (usually in nearby hotels): Nannybag (with the most locations), Radical Storage (the cheapest price), and Airkeep (popular in Latin America).
It’s generally $5-7 USD per piece per day.
Speaking of luggage, Nannybag will also transport your stuff to your next destination (anywhere in Europe). Other luggage-shipping options include LuggageForward (which will transport to your cruise ship, so it’s in your stateroom upon arrival), LuggageToShip (which will also store your luggage for free for months at a time), and LuggageFree (which is an expensive but very full-service option).
Cruise ship loyalty programs can offer great perks: various discounts and freebies on wi-fi, laundry, and spa services, and sometimes even free cruises at top levels. But did you know that some cruise lines will honor your loyalty status from a different cruise line? Virgin and MSC currently match every other cruise line, and Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Azamara (all owned by Royal Caribbean) match with each other.
This also seems like a good time re-share an older cruise ship hack of mine: you can get onboard ship credit simply for owning a small amount of stock in the cruise ship company. Both Carnival (which also owns Holland America, Princess, Costa, Cunard, Seabourn, and other lines) and Royal Caribbean (which, again, owns Celebrity and also Silversea) offer onboard credits of $100 or more per cruise if you own at least 100 shares of their stock at the time of booking: you just have to email the company the necessary details beforehand.
(But if you’re getting an onboard credit for another reason, you may not get this second credit. This credit is also not available when using “interline” rates.)
Current stock prices are about $15/share, which you can quickly earn back if you take a lot of cruises. Plus, you’ll still own the stock!
What if a flight is overbooked and the airline is asking for volunteers to take the next flight in exchange for a future flight credit, but no one is taking them up on the offer? This, my friends, is a big opportunity.
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