Useful Travel Planning Resources

Planning a trip? Here's my roundup of useful travel planning resources:

(1) Making Reservations:

• Voyij.com (aggregates deals from other sites, e.g., Kayak, Priceline, Hotwire, etc.)
• 10 Ways to Cut Your Travel Costs This Year (NYTimes)

(2) Travel Planning:

• GetSetApp: Comparing the cost of travel by air, bus or car
  
• Frugal Traveler's Review of Travel Websites
  
• Frugal Traveling Strategies
• Buy Now or Later? Planning for Summer Travel

(3) Exchange Rates & ATM Fees

• Exchange Rate Surcharges and ATM Fees for the International Traveler

(4) Trains

• Germany's DB Bahn English Book Site

(5) Taxis & Cabs

• World Taximeter: International Taxi Fare Calculator
  
• Resources for Calculating Cab Fares & Booking Cabs

(6) Hotels:

• Hotel Rewards Cheat Sheet (NerdWallet.com)
  
• 7 Strategies for Hotel Upgrades (CNN.com)
• HotelChatter's Annual WiFi Report (find out which hotels offer the best/free wifi, which hotels offer the worst wifi before you book your hotel stay)
  
• Hostelling International New York (cheap lodging in New York City)
  

(7) Air Travel

• Resources for Planning Your Air Travel
• Tips On Finding A Comfortable Coach Seat Without Upgrading
• Saving Money On Your Summer Air Travel
• How to Get The Best Seat on the Plane

(8) Packing

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: Pack Like the Pros
  
• One-Page Checklist: Packing Everything into One Bag

(9) Useful Information:

• Live Train Map for the London Underground
• Traveling? Find the Best Spots in New Cities with these Tools (Lifehacker)

Resources for Planning Your Air Travel

My round up of useful air travel planning resources:

(1) Airfares:

• Whatever You Do, Don't Buy an Airline Ticket On... (Wall Street Journal)
  
• What is the best day to buy cheap airfare? (ABCNews) FareCompare's Rick Seaney shares his 10 things you should know to get the best flight deals -- Highly Recommended
  
• Airline Ticket Surcharges for Peak Domestic Travel – Avoid the Most Expensive Days(FareCompare) -- Highly Recommended
  
• The Frequent Flier's Guide to Finding Cheap Airfare (Lifehacker) -- Highly Recommended
  
• Booking a Flight the Frugal Way (NYTimes.com) -- Highly Recommended
  

• Hipmunk.com - a new flight search engine that provides search results in easy-to-read charts -- Highly Recommended
  
• ITA Matrix Lets You Find Cheap Airfare, Plus Advanced Routing Codes, Minus Ad Clatter(Consumerist.com)
  

• Cheap Airfare Links & Bookmarks (MyMoneyBlog.com) - useful list of links
  
• Fly for Less (Kiplinger.com) -- good advice on how to land a cheap air fare
  
• Voyij.com (aggregates deals from other sites, e.g., Kayak, Priceline, Hotwire, etc.)
• Frugal Traveling Strategies
• Delta Airlines Fare Chart
• United Airlines Fare Chart

(2) Airline Fees:

• A Staggering Look at Baggage Fees (Hipmunk Blog)
  
• Your Complete Big-Ass Guide To Annoying Airline Fees (Consumerist)
  
• Airline Baggage Fees (DansDeals.com)
  
• Useful Table of Airline Fees (Kayak.com)

(3) Searching for Best Seats:

• How to Get Exit Row Seats (includes chart of airline policies)
  
• How to Get The Best Seat on the Plane
• Tips On Finding A Comfortable Coach Seat Without Upgrading

(4) Packing

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: Pack Like the Pros
  
• One-Page Checklist: Packing Everything into One Bag

(5) Tracking Your Flights

• Live Flight Tracker: Flightlite

(6) At the Airport:

• Security Checkpoint Secrets: How to Dodge the Lines at Top US Airports(Frommers.com) -- Highly recommended!

(7) Flight Cancellations:

• 3 Reasons You're Doing It Wrong When Your Flight Is Cancelled (Hipmunk.com)
  
• Airlines Play The No-Fault Card (New York Times Practical Traveler) - excellent article on your options in the event your flight is cancelled.
• 10 tips for avoiding delayed/cancelled flights and what to do if all else fails(airfarewatchdog)
  

(8) Getting Bumped:

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: An Expert's Guide to Getting Bumped (Frommers.com)
• How I scored 4 free flights last year - all without using frequent flyer miles(MoneyCrashers.com)
  

(9) Airline Customer Service, Lost Luggage & Filing Complaints:

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: What To Do About Lost Luggage (Frommers.com)
  
• If an airline loses your luggage, get compensation (Consumerist)
  
• How to Deal With Lost Luggage (FoxNews)

(10) Airline Customer Service & Filing Complaints:

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: How to Complain to the Airlines (Frommers.com)
  
• On Your Side: Phone Numbers & Emails of Executives
• When all else fails: Filing a complaint wih the DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Office
  

(11) Miscellaneous

• Fly Safe, Fly Smart: How to Beat Jet Lag (Frommers.com)
  

See also my previous blog postings:

• Saving Money On Your Summer Air Travel
  
• Frugal Traveler's Review of Travel Websites
  
• Buy Now or Later? Planning for Summer Travel

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Live Flight Tracker: Flightlite

Flightlite is a live flight tracker that allows you to track in the air flights around the world. This is a very useful website to find out whether a flight you are waiting for, has taken off and en route as scheduled. All you need to do is enter the flight number or airline name into the search box and flightlite will either track the specific flight you entered or show you a list of the flights you can track if you enter the name of the airline.

Link: Flightlite