Tag Archives: Travel

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How to Downgrade to No Annual Fee Barclays Arrival Credit Card

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Good morning everyone, I have a short post today regarding my Barclays Arrival Credit Card.  A few weeks ago, I wrote Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card: Redeem 2,500 Points for $25 Travel Statement Credit (Only Toward $89 Annual Fee).  After redeeming 2,500 Barclays Arrival Miles for a $25 travel statement credit toward the $89 annual fee, I called Barclays to downgrade to the no annual fee Barclays Arrival Credit Card.  The new credit card arrived a few days ago, along with the following letter.  I can earn 1,000 bonus Barclays Arrival Miles after making my first purchase.  That sounded like a no brainer, so I made a $25 travel purchase.

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Review: American Airlines Economy (A321T) from San Francisco (SFO) to New York (JFK)

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Hi everyone, I am happy to introduce my friend, Vincent, the newest writer on TWG.  We met through the SF Travel Hackers Meetup Group (now dormant) and we have stayed in touch over the years.  Here is his first post.  I hope you enjoy! –Grant

What’s it like taking American’s transcontinental A321T service in economy? It’s pretty good for domestic economy, there’s a responsive IFE, and they serve a complimentary cold meal.

A few weeks ago, I had the need to get back to the East Coast. Instead of flying my usual Southwest, I decided to work in American’s “premium” transcontinental service from SFO to JFK. I purchased the flight using my Chase Ink Business Preferred Card to further progress on my minimum spend requirement for its useful travel benefits. (If you’re interested in this card, I very much appreciate you using my referral links!)

I’m generally not a fan of red eyes as I get terrible sleep on them, but I can’t deny their utility. To my friends which travel frequently for work – or even leisure travelers with a specific schedule in mind – I can imagine them to be a godsend as they “save” an entire day. That is, you’re flying at night and not “wasting” the day.

Note: Since American calls “economy” and “economy-with-more-legroom,” “Main Cabin” and “Main Cabin Extra” respectively, I’ll be utilizing their naming convention for this post. But you’ll know it’s coach/economy.

Flight: AA 18
Route: San Francisco (SFO) to New York City (JFK)
Time: 11:30pm (Pacific) to 8:20am (Eastern) + 1
Duration: 5hr 50m
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat: 17F (Main Cabin)
Capacity: 70% Full

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Best Meal at the Singapore Changi Airport? Visit the Staff Canteen

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A while back, I asked for advice about how to spend my time at Singapore Changi Airport. After all, it’s been the number one rated airport for many years and I wanted to find out for myself why. TWG readers are the best, and they offered me many great ideas. One reader, Donald, left a comment that I found intriguing.

He wrote, “You should visit the staff canteen. It’s where the airport workers get their meals–dirt cheap. It’s where you can really get the local experience and eat authentic local food prepared by and served to locals. It’s open to the public so you can sit shoulder to shoulder with baggage handlers and flight attendants while you enjoy your meal together. Skip all that silly stuff (butterfly garden, free movies, etc). This is the true insider experience for travelers.” Continue reading →

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New Kickstarter Campaign to Make Private Phone Calls Anywhere (Bloxvox)

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Good afternoon everyone.  My friend, Greg, just launched a new Kickstarter campaign to help people make private phone calls wherever they are (office, airport, loud public place, etc.).  Check out the video to see how the Bloxvox works.  If you are interested in funding the Kickstarter campaign, click here.

Would you buy, wear, or use Bloxvox?  Please let me know what you think below.  Have a great day everyone!

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Personal Capital & Betterment Keep Life Simple for Travelers

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When you travel a lot, like most of us do, you may have a hard time keeping track of all your different account balances, payments received and checks posting etc. Combine that with multiple accounts, each bank has a different app with unique passwords, you’re outside of the USA so some don’t work without VPN and the tasks can be time consuming and frustrating. I use a service that helps track all your financial accounts and presents them to you in one convenient dashboard. Once set up, the service updates your checking, savings, credit card, investment, retirement, and HSA accounts periodically so the totals and transactions are all displayed when you login to their app or website.

Personal Capital

I have used Personal Capital for years and think you may enjoy it as well. You can sign up for free, and there is no ongoing subscription costs to use the service. Of course, they also sell financial planning services and would like to talk to you about their products, but no purchase is necessary. Personal Capital has all the security features you would expect like second factor authentication by text, email, etc and they also identify login by browser so you can see which browsers have logged on and delete those you don’t want to allow access anymore. If you sign up using my link, we will both get $20 from Personal Capital.

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