Greetings, Travel Tip-Seekers!

Do you have a Transition Travel story? A personal essay about how a trip (or travel in general) helped you move through a transition in your life? We’d love to read it, and if we publish it we’ll pay you $100. Please submit your story here.

Examples of essays we’ve published are here and here.

And now…here are this week’s tips curated for you from our reliable sources in the travel industry and from general interest newsletters, websites, and publications.

It’s the day before you travel and you get an email from the airline saying your flight was cancelled, but they can rebook you for a fee. DON’T FALL FOR IT! Check the airline first. Ditto for any other travel arrangements you may have made, from hotels to car rentals to train tickets. Hate to say it, but using artificial intelligence to help with your travel plans makes you more vulnerable, especially if your email and calendars are connected to the ai tool you’re using. That info is searchable on the dark web.

Tripped doesn’t sell a lot of items, but everything I’ve bought from them is always great quality, reasonably priced. I just noticed they offer gift cards, so go crazy and buy those packing cubes. They’re the best I’ve ever bought, and I have a closet full of the others! Or gift them to your newest travel buddy!

Remember the good old days (before 9/11, TSA, etc) when you could stand at the gate waiting for that special someone to get off the plane? Well, they’re back. Sort of. If you have TSA Pre-Check you can apply here for a Visitor Pass. If you’re approved, you’ll be allowed to go through the Pre-Check line with an acceptable form of ID, even if you’re not flying that day. So now you can grab your Cinnabon and take a seat at the gate while passengers who are flying have to stand around you because there aren’t enough seats at the gate. Somebody didn’t think this through…

It’s the altimeter. That’s what tells the pilot how high she’s flying, and how close she’s getting to the ground as she’s landing. (See what I did there? Why is it always “he?”) Anyway, the FCC said 5G cell signals could interfere with altimeter readings, and that’s why in July the US mandated that all aircraft be made “5-G proof.” They haven’t retrofitted all US aircraft yet.

British Airways uses Starlink and lets passengers make phone calls. Thank goodness somebody over here introduced Quiet Skies legislation this year that bans phone calls on planes. It’s a bill, not a law yet, but once they get the 5G thing addressed, let’s hope the legislation passes, or else nobody’s safe from the jackass in 10A who wants everyone to know how well he’s doing with his investments.

Airplane mode does save the battery to a degree, and it’s supposed to make your phone charge faster, so maybe you should do it anyway.

You’re not the only one who’s confused about travel insurance, trip protection insurance, all the insurance things. We asked our friends at Wanderwell if they could simplify things for us. They created this infographic that explains it much better than we can.

Like most group travel companies with international trips, we require travel medical insurance. You can buy it alone, or get it included in a comprehensive package that also protects your investment in the trip. Highly recommended. In our experience, there’s been one traveler on every 3 or 4 trips that needs to cancel at the last minute after she’s already paid for the whole trip and so have we, so we could not refund her.

Nobody knows your risk tolerance except you, so we encourage you to plan accordingly.

Thanks for reading. Happy travels!

Jeannie Edmunds

Chief Operating Officer

EMAIL [email protected] WITHIN 7 DAYS OF BOOKING for a full refund.

This includes your deposit. You read that right. This is a new policy!