Hi everyone,

I am traveling to Sri Lanka next week. I will be staying at a pretty good hotel, which relatives recommended. My concern is what to do with my laptop when I am out . I am not comfortable leaving it in my room. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you in advance.

I have a Yeti Ranchero 27L backpack. It's not particularly soft so it won't smoosh into the shape of a bag cage if I leave some space and it technically exceeds the size limits of the airline im flying on. For those who play fast and loose in this space, how often are you caught and made to stow it?

Hello all,

Please bear with me, as I am a travel amateur.

I am headed to Europe in September (from Canada), and am wondering how to obtain medical insurance for this trip. Do I randomly buy insurance? Or do I have coverage from places unbeknownst to me (credit card or union membership)?

Any tips at all welcome :)

I live in Taiwan, but I will be travelling to Hong Kong.

Back in the day I had learned that the best way to obtain and use local currency when travelling was to bring cash, and exchange at a place with the most favourable rates. Things have changed a lot and nowadays I hear people just like using their debit cards.

Which is best:

1. Exchange cash currency before going, (I already know where to get the best rates)

2. Bring cash and exchange there (I don't know, but could find the best rates)

3. Just use my debit card everywhere (I imagine there might be fees, but I don't have time to go to the bank to find out for sure, are there always fees? I heard 1.5% flat rate is common)

4. Take out cash from an ATM while there (I also expect to pay fees there too)

I do have another option which I've never explored before:

I can actually exchange currency in my banking app (there are 14 or so available currencies I can hold in my account). So I can exchange money in the app instantly.

5a. Exchange in the app, then use the card (not sure if having the local currency will save me from the international fees that might occur)

5b. Exchange in the app, then use the ATM (same thing)

What do you do? I really don't how it works with the multiple currency bank account as this is the first time I've had this. I will probably do a combo of all of these. Exchange first, bring some of my local currency, and use my card and monitor the fees and such.

What's the best way?

I flew into Chicago on 7/2 and rented a car with Budget. We barely drove the car, just from the airport to the hotel, back to the airport and back to the hotel (ask me why this trip was the trip from absolute HELL), and then to a friends and back to the hotel, and then back to the airport. I experienced no issues, other than the fact that I'd paid for them to drive me to the gate and didn't receive instructions on how that worked). So when we got the airport, we unloaded, they had us reload into the same car, dropped us to the gate, and that was the end of that.

Today, a month and a half later, I'm receiving a bill for over 2k in damages. The odometer reading from the service people in just 3 miles after what I returned it at but they also apparently took this to the shop this on 7/14, 9 days after I dropped off the car. In the pictures there's a giant scratch and a ding on the car that they're charging me for. I know nothing happened to the car under my watch, but I didn't take pictures, given the whole driving-us-to-the-gate thing. There are no timestamped photographs on either end, just pictures taken on the 14th blaming me for it.

I recognize that, because of the lack of pictures, that I'm SOL, so I'm trying to pay. Their online system isn't working, and they're telling me now to give them my credit card information over the phone. I don't trust these people farther than I can throw them, so I'm unwilling to do that. This whole thing just feels like a complete and utter scam.

I’m flying from Italy to France and I’d like to bring a jar of ’nduja (around 180 g) in my backpack/carry-on.

Has anyone recently done this?

Was it allowed through security, or was it considered a liquid/gel and confiscated because the container is over 100 ml?

Thanks!

I am currently looking to book flights from ORD to Cancun for Wed-Mon and roundtrip flights 680 minimum. However, if I book 2 one way flights prices are significantly lower (All of this through Expedia) any advice?

Hi all,

I needed to change a co-traveler's name on a booking (Expedia + Aer Lingus). I reached out via the official Expedia chat/app, then got a callback from an agent who asked for my full credit card details (number, expiry, CVV) over the phone. I was suspicious, so I called back myself via the official hotline – they confirmed a change had indeed already been started in the system, and that the fee (€100) also has to be paid by giving card details over the phone.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is it normal for Expedia/Aer Lingus to ask for full card details including CVV over the phone, or would you still be cautious here?

Thanks!

Hi first time owner of a credit card and first time paying in miles and first time renting a car…. I’m trying to figure out if I’m supposed to pay any more money after I booked my rental with miles from capital one I booked it through Thrifty car rental with the capital one venture card
I work for a moving truck rental place I’m just not sure how Thrifty works because it’s different I don’t want to show up thinking it’s paid for and then have to give them a $500 deposit that frankly I don’t have but every time I call they tell me something different.

Does anyone here have experience with this?

Hello!So for over a week i ve had a nasty cold and my ears kept feeling like they were underwater.I went to the doctor telling him about my ears and also that I have a flight on Wednesday.He told me i have otitis in both ears and advised me to not go on that flight because i will get my ear drum ruptured.I am not here to ask for medical advise and i am strongly thinking of cancelling the flight.

I just want to know if there is anyone who had otitis and still flew and what they felt.Also if there is anything i can do to stop this risk.

Dublin > Charlotte (4h40m layover) > Miami (10h33m overnight layover) > Nassau, Bahamas

However, MY final destination is Miami and I'd like to retrieve my checked bag there.

I called American to ask if this is possible, they didn't give me clear answer. They did say that I will clear customs in Charlotte and advised me that if I want my bag in Miami to inform my gate agent in Dublin, but it is up to their discretion.

They said their policy is any layover under 15 hours they don't give bags back to passengers.

I'm feeling kinda dumb - I know you're not meant to take checked bags when skiplagging. I made a grave error!

Any advice appreciated!

I’m (48F) am 5’0 tall. A few years back I bought a cabeau s3 at airport I noticed I slept a lot better than usual- I usually don’t sleep so this was a plus- I left it home the next time because I was in premium and thought I wouldn’t need it. Mistake However, the one that I have feels just a little bit tall

And I was curious, what peoples experience with a slim version of this with my height

I keep reading the reviews and they say it isn’t good for somebody with a short neck, but I wasn’t sure if they were speaking about the regular or the slim-

I’m thinking of ordering the slim one to see if it makes a difference

I felt like my cheeks were chipmunking/muffin topping out of the pillow and I’d love the option to still wear headphones

So I have a situation that I have a flight at 10:00 AM from miami and I live in orlando and earliest brightline train at 5:45 I wont have enough time to get to my terminal when I get there it will be like 9:30 so I was thinking about getting a car from MCO drop off at Miami airport next morning but i see people say there is one way drop off fee on car rentals so which car rentals don’t have that cause I don’t see a charge on the websites when i get a quote its like 70 -80 dollars total not sure at this point

Hello just got off a 11 hour flight and never felt this way, kinda dizzy, swaying type feeling. Lack of sleep probably isn’t helping either. Still have another 2 hour flight. Can I take some Dramamine to try and minimize effects? I landed two hours ago and my symptoms started about a hour after I landed

As a third-country national, if I travel to U.S. sanctioned countries such as Cuba, Russia, Iran, or Laos, could that affect my chances of getting a U.S. visa in the future, including a tourist visa?

Hi,

People say Eurnonet is a scam, but can you deny the conversion fee to avoid the insane conversion rate?

Etihad Airways is charging me 625 usd for 25kg extra baggage

I’m flying with Etihad and I booked a ticket with justa cabin bag. Now I have extra luggage and I called the airline to add an extra baggage and they quoted me 625 usd for a 25kg bag which is almost the same price as my ticket. What can I do?

I know this has been discussed before, but I want to emphasize the scam that foreign travelers face when paying by credit card in Europe. Always choose to pay in euros and REJECT the offered currency conversion. If you accept the conversion, you are effectively choosing to pay in USD and accepting the exchange rate set by the merchant’s payment processor, which will be significantly worse than the rate your credit card network would otherwise use (more than 20 percent), often with an additional “convenience” markup of 5–10%.
And somehow this is allowed to continue. You have to remember that Europe/EU is run by an army of bureaucrats who seem incapable of addressing things like this, while one of their most visible achievements of the last 15 years is making sure you can no longer remove the cap from a plastic bottle.

Before our trip to Portugal, I read up on what ATMs to use (multibanco) and what to avoid (euronet). Despite knowing to avoid them, I ran out of time super early in the morning and just used a euronet atm anyway to get cash instead of wasting time finding a better one and maybe missing a tour.

I declined all conversion offers and accepted the fee and it was… fine? There was no hidden scam or I’m missing it still? My bank reimburses all ATM fees anyway and looking at my bank statements everything looks normal. I did it again later in the trip with the same result:

Aug 6, €150 cash: -$178.75 (atm total charge) +$5.71 (refund)
Aug 13, €150 cash: -$179.00 (atm total charge) +$5.72 (refund)

Is the scam here just not knowing to reject currency conversion? If so, every credit card transaction here runs the same game by asking multiple times if I want to do things in euros and if I’m sure I don’t want conversion.

Off to Sri Lanka shortly and as our flight arrives late at night I thought I didn’t want to be mucking around finding an ATM at the airport while our driver waits for us, so thought I’d get a bit of local currency before we go to tide us over.

I’ve got a Wise card and have been moving money across to my LKR wallet, but this was just a stopgap measure for the first few days (accommodation, food, safari etc).

Apparently LKR is not a currency Australia Post offers, so I went into my local Travelex and ordered A$600 worth of LKR.

Once I got home though and had time to do some sums, I realised what they were selling me in LKR for nearly $620 was actually only worth around $480 at the Wise conversion rate (which I know is an online rate, so obviously going to be slightly better than a high street rate) - I was expecting a commission of about $20-$50, but $140 on a $600 transaction just seems like daylight robbery!

Went in and cancelled the deal this morning and will take our chances at the airport ATMs.

Am I being unreasonable, or are Travelex just incredibly shonky? (To be fair, they let me cancel and refunded my money, no issue). I also do understand buying/selling spreads but 180 instead of 235 seems excessive!