December 2006

There is a funny article on CNN talking about how a guy from Germany booked a flight online, only to end up in Sidney Montana instead of Sydney, Australia. You can find the article here.

This reminded me of a similar experience that I had with a client of mine.

I was expecting a visitor from the United States who was coming to visit my company’s facilities. He told me that he was staying at the Fairmount hotel. So I went to the Fairmount hotel in Montreal to pick him up.

After looking around in the lobby I could not find the guy so I called him on his cell phone and asked where he was. He told me near the St-Laurent room. St-Laurent is a very common name here (there is a city St-Laurent and also a street with that name), so I went to the hotel reception and asked where the St-Laurent room was.

Reception: Sorry sir, no St-Laurent room at this hotel.

This is strange. So I ask them: is there another Fairmount hotel in Montreal?

Reception: No, this is the only one.

This had been going on for 45 minutes now so in desperation I call back my client and ask him to find the phone number of the hotel he is at so I can call his hotel directly and get the exact address.

He give me a phone number starting with 418. I almost dropped my phone. He was in Quebec city. It is 3 hours away from where I live- which is Montreal, province of Quebec.

Right province, wrong city.

I guess he was quite a bit luckier than the German tourist.

My client made arrangements for a flight the next morning to Montreal.

Thanks Roadgladiator for finding the CNN article.

I got a nice Chrismas present this morning.

When I opened up my credit card bill today I found that I got a refund from British Airways of over $1,000 for an overcharge on a trip I took earlier this year.

I described the whole sordid story in an earlier post- British Airways Customer Service problems- part 1.

As I did not get anywhere talking to British Airways directly, the guys at Flyertalk suggested that I dispute the charge with my credit card company.

So I did- and got refunded within a month.

What a great holiday gift!

For those of you traveling during the holidays please remember this one thing:

Take extra time to get anywhere you need to go- because more people are traveling during this time of year. And remember to have extra patience because the people working at customs, airlines, and airports don’t want to be there over the holidays any more than you do.

Many years ago when I was a University student I was on a bus going to Daytona beach for a week of Spring Break partying. When we stopped at the US border, one of the other guys on the bus, not the sharpest tool in the shed, decided to speak up loudly while the customs officer was asking passengers for ID. The guy was trying to be cool, saying “What’s taking so long? These guys are so slow”, and others on the bus were laughing.

Sure enough, when the customs officer got to him, he was asked to step off the bus and the next thing we saw were his bags being removed. He never made it for the vacation which he had already paid for.

I think about this when I feel myself getting impatient with customs or airport staff.

Have a great and safe holiday season.

As an update to my post a few days ago- Using Aeroplan at Uniprix.

I just checked my Aeroplan account and the miles were credited for my spending at Uniprix just a day or two after using my Aeroplan card there.

I am very happy that there is no need to chase after them, and I will be using Uniprix more often.

There was a good article in the New York Times this week explaining how the major hotel chains are increasing the points required for a free room stay by as much as 40%!!

Basically it is showing how several of the major hotel chains are increasing the number of points required to redeem for a hotel room across their locations. So for people saving their hotel points for a vacation- it may end up taking them a lot longer than they expected.

The article specifically mentions that Starwood, Hyatt, and Hiltons hotels are doing this. It does not mention Marriott. Way to go Marriott!

This has already happened in the airline industry- it cost me 80,000 Aeroplan miles to get from Canada to Scotland earlier this year when it used to be a lot less.

I don’t understand how large companies think that this is a good practice as the biggest collectors of hotel points are usually the hotel chains’ best and most frequent guests. Everybody understands an increase, but not a huge one as seems to be the case.

My tip for today is to count the points you have and use as soon as needed, because if you wait- your next chance to use them may cost you more.

read more | digg story

In order to make it easier to track what is going on with Aeroplan- I am starting a dedicated Aeroplan page which you can find here. The idea of this is to create a place where all of the up-to-date information about Aeroplan can be found.

Interesting story from Engaget.

First Boeing’s Connexion service announced that it was being shut down, and now the scheduled ASiQ/Panasonic service has been delayed until 2008.

This does not look good for the possibilities for WiFi on airplanes.
I am of the opinion that there is definitely a market for onboard wifi- just take a look around the number of people working away on their computer the next time you fly.

But the companies offering these services have to make sure that the service is offered for the right price. Just look at the failure of onboard phones. While phones have been available on planes for a long time, most people have never used them due to the high cost.

As reported here, some Hilton hotels (the Homewood Suites) are starting a new program where you will be able to see a floorplan of the hotel you will visit, and choose your own room prior to checking in.

This is a great idea if you have particular preferences such as not being near the elevators.

You can find more information about this project at the Hilton Homewoods Suite page here.

I guess it won’t be long to see a website like Seatguru for hotel rooms

Thanks to Upgrade: Travel Better for finding this

I posted the other day about how Aeroplan is now partnered with Uniprix to give you one Aeroplan mile for every dollar spent.

So I went by yesterday to try it out.

I did have to ask if they would take Aeroplan, the cashier did not offer. But when I did ask it was no problem, they simply scanned the back of the card. As I paid the bill with a MBNA SPG Mastercard, I also managed to collect Starwoods points for the same purchase.

If I had used an CIBC Aerogold visa I could have collected 1.5 points per dollar spent on the card and the extra one point per dollar from the Aeroplan card. So for 2.5 points for each dollar you spend- this can really help towards your next trip.

I think this is one of Aeroplan’s better partnerships because everybody needs to buy things at the pharmacy.

Now I just need to wait and see how long it takes the miles to be credited to my account.

From CNET News. Getting consistent, reliable access to the Internet at a hotel can be a challenge for business travelers; according to The New York Times.

I think this is something that most business travellers have come across- and the article hits the nail on the head- with more people using applications which use more bandwidth, you do get problems with access.

Just a few weeks ago I was using free internet access at a Faifield inn in Texas. I had major problems accessing my company VPN. But you know what they say about free… you get what you pay for.

One time a couple of years ago- when Wifi was not as widely available as it is today, I paid $50 USD for a day of wireless access at a hotel in Moscow. Unfortunately for me the hotel was so well built that the Wifi worked everywhere in the common areas- but not in my own room.

See the original article here

Today I got home and have received an Aeroplan newsletter in the mail. Snail mail. The Newsletter is dated November 8th so does that mean it took almost six weeks to get to my house— in downtown Montreal?

In any case I was surprised because I often get notices in my e-mail but it is rare to get a hard copy of information. But I guess not everybody reads the e-mails…

So what’ new for Aeroplan (not all of this is new, but it is in the newsletter)?

• If you get insurance at ING or at Belairdirect you can get 1 Aeroplan mile for every 2 dollars of insurance
• As I have previously mentioned you can now get 1 Aeroplan mile for every 1 dollar spent at Uniprix
• You can now get Aeroplan miles with XM radio plans
• For a limited time (until January 2nd 2007) you can get Aeroplan miles when you are buying or leasing a Chrysler or Jeep
• Though the Aeroplan partnership with Esso, but until December 31st,  you can get 400 extra miles if you link your aeroplan number to your speedpass.
• There was also a reminder that you can get Aeroplan miles through paying your Bell bill.

If you are use or are planning on buying or using any of these goods or services it could be an easy opportunity to add to your Aeroplan miles total.

Just a reminder, the United States will have new requirements for Canadians traveling into the US. Starting January 23rd, 2007, you will need to bring a passport with you (previously you only needed a piece of id such as driver’s license).

I think that this does make sense. If the United States government wants to implement this then we have to respect their rules. For me it does not make a big difference as I always have my passport when I travel. In any case the passport is a standard document and it will make customs officials’ jobs a little easier. But it will make a difference for some people who are used to driving to the United States.

Last year I was going to Mexico and the person behind me in line was actually travelling with only his drivers license. He was complaining that he had to get a letter signed by a commissioner of oaths to prove his identity. He didn’t have an answer, though, when I asked him why he didn’t get a passport.

The additional requirements are making me think again about joining the NEXUS program.

Just a quick comment on something I mentioned in a previous post.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a tip about how important it is to subscribe to the newsletters of the points programs you are member of. Today I got a chance to confirm this tip again. 

Just a couple of days ago I was thinking about how much I need a card scanner. Today I was checking the prices on several models on Tigerdirect, and later on in the evening I was looking through my e-mail. Well, I got a recent airmiles newsletter which showed me how I could get double airmiles until December 31st at Tigerdirect!

I didn’t even know that I could collect airmiles at that Tigerdirect but now that I know, and even better, that I can get double airmiles, it is much more likely that I will buy my card scanner from them.

Roadgladiator is asking for people to submit their business travel gadget christmas wish list. As I travel a lot and am definitely a “gadget” guy, this is somthing I wanted to talk about.

First, excluding my laptop, these are the gadgets that I already own and travel with now:

• Worldphone- mine is an Imate Jasjar. I get to use it for phone calls, but it is also a fully functional pocket PC. There is a lot to say about this phone, but what is nice about using it for travel is that it has standard 3.5″ plugs so you can use most standard headphones to use the phone as an MP3 player
• Sanyo Xacti C6 videocamera. This is a tiny videocamera which takes great video. The only issue with a videocamera of this size is that the video sometimes shakes. But the absolute best thing about this video camera is it’s size
• My digital camera, the Canon Powershot SD600. Just like the Sanyo videocamera this is a tiny unit which makes it perfect for travel. It is so small that I carry mine everywhere I go. I tried to use the Sanyo for pictures but the Canon pictures are much better.

One of the neat things about all three of these items is that they all use standard SD memory cards.

 So now for what I need…..I’m pretty sure that all of these technologies exist but I have not had the chance to look into them.

• I really need a GPS. I am terrible with directions and get lost all the time. However, I do not know whether I should get a bluetooth GPS so I can use the screen of my phone to view directions- or a handheld one with it’s own screen.
• Portable Card Scanner. I attend trade shows all the time and end up with hundreds of business cards. I would love a way to easily scan the cards into my computer when I go back to my hotel room instead of muddling through them when I get back to the office.
• I would like a watch which automatically changes time zones. I don’t know how many times I arrive somewhere and forget to change the time.
• An Ultraportable voice recorder which I could attach to my computer and transcribe my thoughts to a word document.

I hope that Santa will be nice to me this year… and if he isn’t…. well there are always the boxing day sales!

According to an article in Monday’s Globe and Mail, the previously rumoured Marriott credit card for canadians has now come out. Read the full article here

The credit card is being issued by JP Morgan Chase which is partnered with Marriott for their other credit card offerings.

Interestingly, they quote a Chase executive named Sherri Silver that “Initially, you will get 15 points for each dollar you spend”

15 points per dollar is a very good amount and would get lots of people interested in this card.

Unfortunately they did not give any other details of card benefits but I will find out more about this.

Futher to my Gas Points post, I have been taking a more detailed look at the savings comparing the Esso Extra and Canadian Tire programs which I use regularly. Unsurprisingly I found that the Canadian Tire program was better than Esso Extra, but I was surprised to the degree of how much better.

On every 60 Litre fillup at Canadian tire I get between 2 and 4 dollars in Canadian tire money, which means that I get between a 3.3% and 6.6% value for refuelling at Canadian Tire, which I use at a later date for oil changes.

Because there are fewer Canadian Tire Gas stations then there are Esso ones I also use Esso points.

However, On a 60 Litre fillup at Esso extra I get 60 Esso Extra points. I would need 1800 points to get a coupon for $10 worth of gas. This means that each point is worth .05%. I typically trade these points in for a car wash which costs 599 points. This means that I can spend 600 dollars at Esso to get a free car wash. Or spend the same 600 dollars at Canadian Tire to get an average of $30 back in Canadian Tire money- worth much more than a car wash.

While I was doing these calculations I also remembered that I had just joined the CAA- and that they have some kind of program to save money on gas also. I checked it out and sure enough they have a deal where you get a 2% back in CAA-Quebec Dollars on everything you buy. If I can use my CAA card at a Canadian Tire gas station I should be able to get an total of CAA-Quebec dollars and Canadian Tire Money worth up to 8.6% of what I spend.

Over a one year period this represents around $250. The $250 doesn’t come directly as cash but they can save money on useful things. I already get all of my oil changes for free at Canadian Tire- but if I can get these CAA dollars to get my next CAA membership discounted- why not do it?

As such, I think that I will be using Esso a lot less in the future.

By the way, if you want to find the cheapest gas prices in your area (in North America), check out Gas Buddy.

Here is my tip for the day. This one is about renting cars.

If you are renting a car in a city which you are unfamiliar with, consider renting a car with GPS.

I am notoriously bad with directions and by now being able to rent cars which have GPS units, I can now travel without needing a map. This is especially useful if I am travelling alone.

GPS units are not very expensive, typically you can rent these units for around ten dollars a day- and they are very easy to use. You input your address and the unit will calculate the most direct rouet to your destination.

If you have never used one, the best thing about this technology is that if you miss a turn, the system automatically calculates a new route to your destination. This is the big advantage of using GPS over traditional maps.

One other advantage is that the system will give you an approximate idea of the time it will take to reach your destination- which is good to know if you have an appointment at a certain time.

One downside is that it does not always take you exactly to where you need. You may be close, but the place you are going to may actually be across the street for example.

But when you compare the price of renting a GPS to the price of getting lost and being late for appointments- this is a must have technology.

I will not rent a car without it.

Last week I stayed at the Best Western on 48th street in New York City.

Overall, the hotel was average, rooms were small like every other hotel I have stayed at in New York, but the location was very good- just a short walk from all of the action at Times Square. My first impression of the hotel was not very good though…

After checking in, I was given a room right next to the elevators on the sixth floor. I knew this was going to be a bit loud but I was ready  for it. What I was not ready for was the foul odour in the room.

In the corridor I smelt a faint odour but thought nothing of it. When I initially entered my hotel room there was an overpowering smell of wet towels. It was so bad that I almost started to gag. I have stayed in hundreds of hotel rooms even in third world countries and have never smelled anything like this. I couldn’t take it for long and within a couple of minutes was down at the lobby asking for a new room. All that they had left was smoking rooms which I took willingly compared to the alternative of going back to my first room…

It is impossible for anyone to enter the room without noticing the smell- I can’t believe that they even try to rent the room out…

Gas can be a lucrative source of points- because people tend to use a lot of gas in their vehicles, in a lot of cases due to work they do not have a choice. I myself will average around 60 Liters of gas in my car every week- with gas prices at around a dollar per liter here in Montreal, it costs me $60 to fill up. So I spend around $3,000 per year just on fuel for my car.

For this reason I try to take a look at the best bonus I can get for my spending on gas My approach is to get what I can without modifying my existing purchasing habits. As such, there are 2 main programs which I use, due to where I would normally buy gas. In my own case this happens to be the Esso gas station near my house and the Canadian Tire gas station near to my work.

I am a big believer in using points programs, but I am not a believer in changing your buying habits just to get the benefits. The programs are most effective when you are using them for purchases you would be making anyway.

So here is some more detail on the ones I use:

1. Esso Extra. This is a program which gives you 1 Esso extra point per dollar spent. These points can be used for various items at the station such as car washes- or even gift certificates. Esso will also offer you Aeroplan points, but at the lower value of 1 point per 3 dollars spent. I have used this program and have not paid for a car was in several years- and when my points balance is high enough for a few car washes I switch to earning Aeroplan miles.
2. Canadian tire with gas multiplier. This is my personal favorite, although Canadian Tire gas stations are harder to find than Esso.. At Canadian tire gas bars you get back Canadian tire money which can be used for purchases at any Canadian tire store. Every week there is a multiplier, which gives you 5-10 times the basic money back when you buy gas. This gives me back between 2 and 4 dollars on a 60L fill up. There are 2 ways to get the multiplier- you can clip the coupon in the weekly flyer or you can use the Canadian tire options MasterCard. I use the options card then use the Canadian tire money earned on the card to pay for maintenance such as oil changes on my car- so far it has worked out that by the time I need an oil change I have the enough of a balance so that the oil change is free.

I am aware of other programs with PetroCanada, Ultramar, shell (airmiles) etc… My sister swears by the Ultramar CAA program which she rarely pays for her CAA membership anymore. For me it is no use however, as I rarely see Ultramar stations in my day to day travel around my neighborhood.

The key, as with all points programs is to use them consistently.

I had the unfortunate experience of not being able to start my car last week.

The car battery had died and I could not get it started so I called and joined CAA.

One thing I did not realize when I joined is that there are all sorts of discounts you can get with your membership. Some of these are travel related, but others are for everyday items.

For example, with this card I can get a 2% discount at any Couche Tard (a convenience store)- including those with gas stations. I don’t spend very much money at convenience stores- but I do buy around $60 in gas every week.

I am going to take a close look at what else I can save with the CAA card.

So you are thinking about visiting Canada? Where can you get the best information?

We have here many different regions which offer different activities, cultures, and sceneries. In fact, each canadian province has its own flavour.

The best way to get good information is though the various websites of the province you will visit. On each of these sites you can get lots of information. And you can even sign up or call them to send you a free package full of maps and attraction information.

To make it easy, here are the links to each of Canada’s province and territory tourism associations:

Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon

The best advice I can give when you are planning out a vacation is to contact the tourist information of the place you will be visiting.

The best place to find this information is the website that the local government puts together- here you can often sign up to get sent a package of information which can include maps, hotel and restaurant discounts, and a lot of information about the place you are going. Best of all, the information package is free.

I have done this prior to a vacation across several provinces in the maritimes last year, and found it to be incredibly useful. This year, we were planning on taking a trip across western Canada, so I did the same thing and I received several packages of free information mailed directly to my house.

Tomorrow I will provide a list of the major links for tourist information in Canada

One of the things I get asked about sometimes is and what can be taken back through customs.

The basic rule is: know what you must declare. If you live in Canada you can find answers to the most common questions here

A case in point. On once occasion during a period of time when I had been travelling a lot I was coming back from France with some foie gras in my suitcase. The foie gras was sealed in a jar. When I arrived into Canada I had checked the box on the form indicating I had no food. But when the customs officer asked me, I suddenly remembered that I did indeed have a small jar of foie gras and I mentioned it.

From that comment I did get flagged and had all of my luggage searched. I was told that I could be given a $400 fine and I had to plead with them not to give it. The only thing that saved me was the fact that I had told the customs officer the truth, but that I had just filled out the form incorrectly.

On another occasion I was returning from Russia with 5 bottles of vodka in my luggage. This was of course more than I could bring back and as such I declared it. As my luggage came out on the belt I could smell it from 20 feet away. One of the bottle had leaked, soaking my entire bag with vodka! I am pretty sure that I would have been searched if I had not claimed the fact that I had it with me.

I have been looking for a while to buy a digital camera and I figured that New York would probably be a good place, since I was going to be there last week.

As I previously had a Canon camera which I liked, after some research I settled on the Canon SD600.

I did want to make sure to buy from a reputable store because I have heard of rip offs in New York so from my hotel room one evening I checked bestbuy.com which had the camera at 249 dollars. I thought that if I could not find it cheaper I would go with that.

Luckily, the next day I went to Macy’s and in the basement they have an electronics store offering that same camera for 214 dollars. I bought a 2 Gig memory card at the same time for 29 dollar, so I effectively got the memory card for the same price as the camera only from Best Buy.

Now that I am back in Canada with my new toy I just checked the Futureshop website to see if they have it in the same pricerange. They actually have the camera at 289 dollars, and they have a package including the camera and a 512 Mb card at 499 dollars.

So from the lowest price I could find to the highest price there was a difference of 300 dollars.

This shows the importance of knowing your prices.

When leaving New York yesterday I had an interesting experience which I thought I would share. When I left the convention centre, needing to go directly to the airport there were guys standing around, asking if we needed a ride.

The first price we got was $120 Each (for 2 people)! We told them it was too much. So the guys came down to $80 each, then went to $55 per person, but only if we would go with a third person in the car.

As we felt like we were being ripped off, we walked further down the street and caught a taxi which cost $55. This was still more than the way in to town- but a lot cheaper than what the others were quoting. As I mentioned in another post, I had taken a limo coming into town which cost approximately $30.

So here a couple of tips about taxi negotiation.

1. Have an idea of what the ride should cost.
2. Don’t accept the first price you are given.
3. If you think someone is giving outragous prices- they probably are- just walk away.