r/TravelHacks

I just got really sick and congested today and I have a flight tomorrow to go home. I’m not really able to miss my flight since I have nowhere to stay while I’m abroad. Problem is I can’t pop my ears (I took a Tylenol Sudafed combo and still can’t pop them). I’ve traveled before in the past when I had a cold and not being able to pop my ears is genuinely one of the most painful things ever and apparently you can rupture an eardrum so I’m really worried. Please let me know if you have any tips to pop ears when congested or what I should do

UPDATE: I was able to get ronal nasal spray which has oxymetazoline hydrochloride as the main ingredient which I believe is the same as afrin

Fully aware that most people here advise to book direct with hotels, as that avoids a lot of potential trouble, and may (or may not be) cheaper. At my own risk, I'll still occasionally book with an aggregator when the discount is steep enough and the risk seems low. For actually finding and quickly comparing properties though, they're hard to beat.

I've used Booking.com for a while, but because their search is nonsensical (when asking for 2 travelers, 2 rooms, they aggressively populate the search results with 1-room options, especially if there are not many options matching the 2-room filter). I then tried Hotels.com. Never used them before, but at least their search is quite reasonable compared to the other one.

The heads-up: Just to see if I could get a small discount if I do reserve through them, I made an account. Curiously enough, the hotel I'm stuck with gives a worse deal for a higher price, so the aggregator may make sense here. Unfortunately, the price actually went UP when I logged in, by over 5%. If I searched from their app/website from an active account in the first place, I may have never noticed, hence I think this is worth pointing out.

The sheer stupidity of the situation is fairly new. I'm well aware that aggregators often use dubious practices like inflating their prices when you visit them from a cashback service, such that you gain nothing (and actually pay them more at the time) when trying to save. However, charging those who are logged in more, without informing them in any way, seems like a new low even for these pathetic companies.

I'll still see if I can get the price from before when I logged in. If not, I'll probably take the worse deal just to avoid supporting this business model.

Hello!!

I am currently planning a trip from Texas to New England in early August. Our travel itinerary is currently a 6am flight from Austin, 1.5hr layover in Nashville, and then a flight to Boston (Logan). We will then be driving about 4-5hrs to our final destination. This puts us at about a 14hr travel day. We will be meeting family at our final destination, so I am currently trying to plan the best way to stay feeling and smelling fresh all day. I feel like airport air just makes me feel yucky! What are your go-to products for your travel days, and what do you prefer to wear to the airport? I usually wear shorts/tshirt/hoodie but I end up a sweaty mess halfway through my flight lol.

I know tickets tend to spike during early summer, but does that also apply to tickets much farther in advance too?

Hi there! Looking for a travel sized foaming bottle to decant some of my Kevin Murphy Heated Defense into for a trip coming up. I've tried other products and this one doesn't cause an allergic reaction. Would love a recommendation! Thanks so much!

i have a bunch of medicines i've accumulated over 9 years of living in spain. like 25 boxes. can i bring them back to the US?

diosmectita, clorhexidina digluconato, cetirizina, mebendazol, acyclovir.... can i bring a bunch of this stuff in? they're all normal sized boxes

Hello,

Traveling long distance with 3 people with 3 connections each way and wondering if there's any tips to get free/low cost lounge access along the way? Have already got Amex gold for 4 free passes, just wondering if there's any other easy to get options. Free trials, low introductory offers etc.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share a quick travel lesson I learned the hard way. I was recently on a trip and got caught in a total offline scenario with zero cell service. I needed to do a quick currency conversion, but Google completely failed me without internet, and honestly, trying to math it out on the native iPhone calculator is just not a clean tool when you're in a rush.

Long story short, I guessed the rate, got it wrong, and ended up losing a chunk of money on a purchase because the rates were way off.

When I got back, I went working on a better solution. I just wanted to spread the word because it solves this exact problem perfectly.

I have a thin jacket with a thin lining in it which is very special to me, and I was wondering if it’s something they would confiscate for some reason, thinking I could hide something in there maybe.

I have had bad luck at airports in the past.

Hi!

I booked a trip from Venice to Sao Paulo - Iberia. I found out that it was a error fare. I got confirmation of booking on my email and the payment went throught. How possible it is for it to get cancelled? How long should I wait to be sure?

Recently planned a trip to Italy with my gf and finding a good hotel was pretty hectic. She almost broke down and I spent a good few hours price comparing and going from website to website.

Made me think if there was a better way?

Do u guys also struggle with this? Whats ur process??

Booked thru Expedia.. dumb mistake. Both are Turkish airlines. Return flight from Tbilisi to Istanbul to Boston, but I now want to spend a week in turkey but they said they couldn’t modify the second leg!

Can I just fly in, and not get on my flight to Boston? I’m okay with coughing up the money for a new flight back to the US but will I get in trouble with Turkey doing this?

Gonna be driving Norway > Portugal and flying back in a couple weeks time and I really need to be able to rest my head while upright. Would prefer to be able to comfortably wear my headset at the same time (soundcore space 1). Been looking at the cabeau options but they look like they go all the way up to the ear and would push the headset out of place which would negate the sound cancellation and render them useless. But I'm not sure if it's even realistic to be able to use both since they're quite bulky.

am going on a flight tomorrow morning, and woke up yesterday with a sore throat when swallowing. i think that it is post nasal drip because there are no white spots at the back of my throat (it's just mildly red and a bit swollen) and my allergies had been really bad during the day.

no other symptoms, no fever, no coughing or sneezing.

other than bringing strepsils and wearing a mask (bc i will wear a mask), any tips on how to make the flight a little bit more comfortable?

Looking for some advice to make sure I understand this correctly.

I rented a car through Enterprise for a two week trip in Croatia and Slovenia. The car rental comes with Supplementary Liability Insurance, and as is stated in Enterprises contract:

> Supplementary Liability Insurance - Third Party Insurance is required by law and free of charge. Coverage limits for third party bodily injury or death cover up to 2,000,000 EUR and for third party property damage, 150,000 EUR.

I also have CDW coverage through my credit card I booked the rental with.

So between the CDW and included Supplementary Liability Insurance (SLI) I should be pretty covered, correct? I may not have flat tire or windshield repair coverage, but for the major stuff: damage to my car from an accident, damage to a third party car, or injury to a third party, I’m covered…right?

The lady at the Enterprise counter was really pushing hard to the ”extra” insurance add-ons and was really giving me all sorts of horror stories of what will happen if I don’t get it. She would not take no for an answer when I told her about the CDW and included (SLI)…altho she finally relented.

Am I missing out on something? Or was the sales person just trying to make a commission?

Last summer I went on a trip with my parents and had to use my email and number for a bunch of hotel and booking sites. My parents used a separate email for most of it, but I used my main one because I did not think it would matter. After the trip, they barely got anything. Meanwhile I started getting spam emails and random calls for months. I put my number on the Do Not Call registry and it slowed down for a while, but now it is starting up again.

Could be a coincidence but the timing was close enough that I’m not using my main email or real number for travel bookings anymore. Still get spam though so looking to reduce that if I am to travel this year.

We recently rented a car to travel to through Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut and just got a bill for $24 PLUS $14 "service charges" for tolls. These systems used license plate readers and there wasn't an obvious way to pay immediately. Any ideas?

Hi, I have a one way rental reservation thats coming up with Avis for 4 days. Its for a pick up from Location A on Mon 5pm and returning it to a different Location B on Fri 5pm

I just checked and if I book two separate reservations for the same dates & times and for the exact same car type, its significantly lower than my reservation for the entire duration.

• roundtrip reservation for 3 days from/to Location A (Mon 5pm thru Thu 5pm)
• one way reservation for 1 day from A to B (Thu 5pm thru Fri 5pm)

the only drawback is I'll need to "return" the car at the end of 3 days on Thu and pick-up the same car again for one way rental for 4th day. Is there a way I can request Avis for price adjustment for one reservation of 4 days to match combined lower price of 2 separate reservations? That will save me hassle of going back & forth to the rental location and essentially keep the same car for 4 days as one reservation. thanks in advance!

in a bit of a predicament and could really use some advice.

i’ve had ear pain for two days. i went to the doctors today, turns out it’s an infection. she prescribed amoxicillin (i can’t get it until tomorrow since there was an issue with the prescriber.) my flight is early monday, so i’ll have about 2 days of antibiotics working by the time i fly. she told me that she has to advise me against flying but it’s my call.

important information:
i thought i had swimmers ear because ive just began swimming, but she thinks it’s a middle ear infection? my ear is sore when i push on it, and the pain in my ear is mild. i have no pressure/hearing/sinus problems, it’s literally just sore, so im not sure how she came to the conclusion that it’s a middle ear infection - but im no doctor.

realistically will i be ok? it’s a family holiday that i so desperately want to go on, ive been so excited for months. this is such terrible timing. any advice is much much appreciated

update: i’m not going !!!! i’m so so devastated and can’t stop crying, but my symptoms have gotten so much worse, there’s so much pressure in my ear, and i don’t want my ear to blow up. thanks for all ur advice tho everyone (:

Hey all! I have a 12 hour flight today. Last time I had a long haul flight, I ended up awake for 52 hours straight coz I couldn’t get to sleep on the planes/in airports (obviously travel was longer that time). I’ve tried everything to get to sleep so I already know it won’t work - any tips for not feeling like shit when staying awake? Stupidly I haven’t had coffee on a flight before so might try it this time coz it’s a red eye. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Edit:: sorry I meant tips for staying awake and alert lol rather than awake and groggy /asleep