How To Avoid Foreign ATM Fees

If you think banks have treated you badly in the United States, try traveling abroad. The fees imposed on foreign currency transactions — at ATMs and in credit card fees — are horrendous.

Joe Brancatelli dissects the problem neatly in his latest Portfolio column. And he mentions a tactic that I happen to have employed recently: I opened a Capital One money market account that does not charge the punishing currency exchange  fees imposed on most bank accounts for foreign ATM withdrawals.

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Kindle For Email

Necessity being the mother of invention, I have discovered that it’s possible to send and receive email on my Kindle.

The latest generation of Kindles has a rudimentary Web browser, as well as a thumb-style keyboard. The downloads over Kindle’s wireless signal can be excruciatingly slow, but with patience it can work in a pinch.

I used my Kindle for email during a camping trip this week. My cell phone battery refused to charge and I was a long way from any Wi-Fi, but I managed to stay in touch with the Kindle.

Oh, and you can read books with it.

Don’t Pay For Boarding Passes

It has become a pernicious habit of Las Vegas hotels to charge guests to print boarding passes for their return flights, but there’s no need to pay for that.

Sure, it’s a good idea to check in online well in advance of your flight, as a means to protect your seat. If you’re flying on a standard fare on Southwest, it’s critical to check in early if you want to get a good seat. The good news is that if you don’t have access to a printer, you can check in without printing the pass.

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Beware ATM Fees, Assorted Rip-Offs In Las Vegas

Traveling to Las Vegas? Be sure to pack wisely. The top priorities: 1) Cash. 2) More cash.

The slot machines are designed to beat visitors, but they’re not the most flagrantly rigged device in the casino. Instead, that title goes to the ATMs.

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How To Pack

The New York Times has a great photo slideshow with packing tips from a flight attendant. See it here.

When To Buy Travel Insurance

I gave a seminar last week about budget travel, and one question from the audience was about travel insurance – whether I always buy it when traveling.

I don’t. But there are some circumstances in which I do buy some form of travel insurance. These include:

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Don’t Be An On-Board Revenue Generator

Gene Sloan of USA Today’s Cruise Log blog points out an interesting remark by Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein in an earnings call Wednesday.

Questioned about passenger spending on the cruise line’s new mega-giganta-ship, Oasis of the Seas, Goldstein said the ship “has proven to be an even stronger onboard revenue generator than we had foreseen.” Passengers are not only paying premium rates to sail on this massive ship, they are spending quite merrily on extras when aboard.

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Flying To Nearby Cities To Save On Airfare

I was just looking at the Deal Finder page on FareCompare and I noticed that the lowest airfare from Bradley to Seattle was listed at $346 while the lowest fare to Vancouver was $690.

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Bag The Hotel, Save Money

The CheapOair blog recently had a nice roundup on the various ways to get free lodging when you travel, including couch surfing, home swapping and work holidays. My niece just spent some time in New Zealand on a sort of farm internship / holiday and some friends of friends were out couch surfing last I heard. Anybody else out there tried any of these options?

Strategies For Getting More Leg Room

The Seattle Times has a useful story about how to get an exit row seat in coach and the extra leg room that goes with it. The key points:

• Exit rows are rarely available when you book (unless you have elite status) so try to change your seat when you check in online.
• If that doesn’t work, ask at the gate if any exit row seats have opened up.
• When there are two exit rows, one in front of the other, choose the second row. The seats in the front exit row don’t recline.

This is pretty much my strategy, and it often works. I recently flew in an exit row on the aisle with an empty seat next to me. I thought I was in heaven.

There are times, however, when I won’t take an available exit row seat. I recently had a chance to switch into a middle exit row seat but opted instead to keep my standard aisle seat. It’s not worth the tradeoff to me.

The article also has advice on how to get a bulkhead seat, but I don’t much care for those. I like to put my carry-on under the seat in front of me, which is hard to do if there’s no seat in front of me.