1. Make optimal use of clothing sets

It is best to do this a few days in advance. Prepare everything you want to take with you. Make sure you always bring a few basic items that you can combine with other items of clothing such as a pair of jeans which you can wear with several t-shirts or tops. Trying on everything in advance and taking photos of the items will help to prevent packing unnecessary clothing.

In addition, wear your ‘heaviest’ clothes when you fly. If you have a short flight, you can also put on layers. Perhaps for a long flight this will not be ideal. Alternatively, wear your most comfortable outfit but with your heaviest shoes or shoes that would take up a lot of space in your suitcase.

Check out our YouTube video for the best packing tips when traveling with a carry-on. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our channel to keep updated with the latest travel video content like flight and hotels reviews and our InsideLooks!

2. Roll and do not fold

What will save you a lot of space is rolling up your clothes. Roll them up tightly and you can actually store more in your suitcase than you think. The advantage of rolling is that it will wrinkle less compared to folding everything. If you still have wrinkles but no iron, you can hang the clothes in the bathroom when you take a hot shower. The steam ensures that the wrinkles are reduced.

3. Use all the space in the suitcase

More tips when traveling with a carry-on only: Use every inch in your suitcase. If you bring a small handbag, fill it with underwear for example. If you have a pair of sneakers in your suitcase, fill them with socks. Put everything in small bags to keep everything ‘fresh’.

Also take anything out of packaging. It may not make a lot of difference, but every little bit helps.

4.Vacuum bags

I would only use this method for clothing that is allowed to wrinkle since a vacuum bag does give you folds and creases, however, it saves a lot of space. I apply this process for tops, underwear, and pajamas. On the return flight, I place all clothing in the vacuum bags since obviously the wrinkles will not matter at that point as everything will be washed anyway.

Use vacuum bags whenever you will not need a vacuum cleaner. You can purchase these anywhere for just a few dollars. Simply by rolling and applying some force, all of the air releases out of the bag. This makes it one solid package.

5. Washing at your vacation address

Another option is to wash your clothes at your vacation address. There are travel size detergents that you can take with you and therefore you can take less clothing. This is handy for clothes that are not too dirty and only need a refresh.

Another option would be hotels that offer a laundry service. You can then have some clothes washed on-site using this service. Keep in mind that this process would incur extra costs. In large cities you also have the option of using a nearby laundromat.

6. Minis

Another one of those tips: If you only travel with a carry-on luggage, you will have the max of 1 liter of liquids that you can take with you in a container of up to 3.4 oz (100ml.). Pay attention to this since they are very strict about this rule. You can also buy travel size products for vacation. They are however quite pricey in comparison to the regular sized packages. Otherwise, you can also purchase empty travel minis and fill them yourself with the products you always use.

What I often do is take the minis from the hotel I’ve stayed in and simply reuse them. I rinse these well and fill them with my shampoo or shower gel. The empty minis for purchase are sometimes too big for the number of days of your trip and that’s a waste of space.

7. iPad/ E-reader

Don’t take books with you when you’re running out of space. Instead upload them on an e-reader or on your iPad. Also, I would advise not to take a laptop with you unless you really need it. You can upload so much content on an iPad instead. Alternately, you can simply upload everything on your phone. It is a smaller screen but you have everything on one device.

8. Pillowcase

I recently came across some “tips” on social media although I don’t think I would use them any time soon. Currently, it is going viral that you can take extra items with you in a pillowcase however, I don’t know if this really works.
This process surely won’t cause any problems with security however, I don’t know it will a be a problem upon boarding. It’s possible that it may be charged as an extra carry-on and in this case you would be stuck with it not fitting in your suitcase or it may be too heavy. Surely now that this method is going viral, TSA is going to pay more attention to it.

Extra tip

If the airline still wants you to check in your suitcase and you are afraid of losing your suitcase, you can also put a tracker in your suitcase. In this way at least you will know whether your suitcase is on the plane, and the location of it.
Don’t forget to pack at least one set of clothing and underwear in your personal purse/ bag. In this way, if your suitcase is lost or left behind, you always have an extra set of clothing and underwear. Also note, never put all the important items you can’t live without in your suitcase if it has to be checked in.

In my personal experience, these tips have always helped. I recently travelled to New York for 9 days with just a carry-on luggage. If it worked for me where I am a woman who wears different clothing every day and always brings too many shoes, it can definitely work for you!

Source pictures Carry-on tips: Tamara – InsideFlyer Netherlands, This article appeared earlier on InsideFlyer.nl.

Do you have any more tips? Please let us know in the comments.

The post 8 Tips For Traveling with Carry-on only appeared first on InsideFlyer.

Don’t know what Loyalty Points are? – click here for details

Pros of BookAAHotels

20-30% Loyalty Point Bonus

AAdvantage recently added “Loyalty Point Rewards” to the program – click here for details.

One of those rewards kicks in at 60,000 Loyalty Points – a 20% LP bonus on BookAAHotels earning. (and a few other partners) Another reward kicks in at 100,000 Loyalty Points – a 30% LP bonus on BookAAHotels earning.

For 6 months after crossing those thresholds, you receive 20/30% more Loyalty Points. The bonus should also apply to the transaction that pushes you over the threshold. (i.e. a hotel stay that takes you from 40,000 LPs to 65,000 LPs would earn the 20% bonus on the entire 25,000 LPs earned) It is worth highlighting that you do NOT receive any additional redeemable miles.

In any event, you receive the bonus Loyalty Points when you book with BookAAHotels but NOT when you book with Rocketmiles.

“Double Boost”

When booking hotels with Rocketmiles or BookAAHotels, you are allowed to pay more to earn more. This is often called “boosting”. The price of these boosted miles can change from time to time – at the moment they are costing $65 for 3,000 miles –> 2.16 cents per mile. Most importantly, these additional miles also count as Loyalty Points.

With Rocketmiles, you are typically allowed one boost of 3,000 miles per night. With BookAAHotels you are allowed two – one at the initial room selection stage and another at the confirmation stage. Because boosted miles are relatively cheap, the more you can “boost” per hotel stay, the better…

Pros of Rocketmiles

More Hotels Available

With BookAAHotels, only a relatively small number of hotels allow you to earn AA miles. Frustratingly, this can change from search to search, even in the same location for the same dates.

With Rocketmiles, EVERY hotel shown will earn you some miles. Some more. Some less. But you will definitely have more hotels to choose from. This is especially relevant internationally, where you might want to stay at a small boutique hotel instead of a major chain hotel.

Book for Someone Else

Sometimes a family member or friend asks for your help to find a hotel room. They don’t really care about miles or points – anything they earn might end up orphaned and expire unused.

With Rocketmiles, you can make hotel bookings on behalf of others, and receive the AA miles in your own account.

Better Booking Experience

Rocketmiles is generally considered to have a better website experience. You can sort your search based on miles earned, total cost, etc.

Of course, that doesn´’t stop you from searching on Rocketmiles and then cross-checking against BookAAHotels before confirming your booking.

Nuances

Rocketmiles stays post to your AAdvantage account based on the check-out date. BookAAHotels post to your AAdvantage account based on the check-in date.

This quirk will be most relevant in late February / early March, if you are attempting to squeeze in a few more Loyalty Points before a new qualification period begins. (or want to get a head start on the next year)

Bottom Line

With both BookAAHotels and Rocketmiles, you will NOT receive points or elite stay credit, as you are making a third party booking. You might occasionally convince the hotel to provide certain elite benefits. Ultimately, however, you are choosing to earn AA miles and elite status credit instead of hotel points / elite status credit.

There are pros and cons to using BookAAHotels and Rocketmiles. Make your choice based on the differences outlined above…

What do you think about BookAAHotels and Rocketmiles? Let us know in the comments section…

The post Rocketmiles vs. BookAAHotels for Loyalty Point Collectors appeared first on InsideFlyer.

I don’t have all of the details, since I can’t find anything published on the Iberia website, but you should receive a 50% discount when redeeming Avios this weekend on Iberia reward flights. (the cash amount will remain unchanged)

• Booking Period – May 6-7, 2023
• Travel Period – May 8 – June 30, 2023 and September 1 – December 15, 2023

I believe that you will only see the discount on Iberia flights (including Iberia Express, Air Nostrum and Iberia Regional). You will NOT receive a discount on any partner reward flights – no Oneworld partners, British Airways or even Vueling or LEVEL.

All cabins, including Business Class and Premium Economy, are included in this promotion, so you can potentially fly Business Class to Madrid for 17,000 Avios each way!

Bottom Line

Time to get booking!

Since Iberia Plus has a reasonable 25 euro (or $40 if you book in US dollars) award cancellation fee, there’s no excuse for not making a speculative booking or two this weekend.  There is no disadvantage to booking one-way flights (apart from the extra cancellation fees) if you want to maintain maximum flexibility.

Let us know in the comments section if you manage to book something fantastic…

The post Two Days Only! 50% Discount on Iberia Award Flights appeared first on InsideFlyer.

Norwegian has won a Freddie Award in the categories Programme of the Year, Best Promotion and Best Customer Service. Norwegian was nominated in no less than six categories. The Freddie Awards are the largest annual global awards for loyalty programs within the travel industry. The ceremony was held in Washington D.C.

Winning a Freddie Award truly is a great honour. This is a true recognition of our loyalty programme as the award is based entirely on members’ votes. We’ve been working hard to keep giving our loyal members better flights for less and we are particularly excited that this award coincides with the launch of our renewed Reward programme in May.

May Haukedahl Wilson, VP Loyalty and Partnerships at Norwegian.

New benefits and more flexibility for Norwegian Reward members

Norwegian Reward is now being renewed with the same aim as before – to give Norwegian’s customers cheaper flights and an even smoother journey. Earning CashPoints and benefits are still at the core of the programme. The more Reward members choose to fly with Norwegian, the more benefits they receive. Norwegian is also adding a range of new benefits for the most frequent flyers.

Our members have told us that the benefits they can choose from are among the loyalty programme’s most important perks. In addition to greater flexibility when choosing benefits, our members now also can choose free overhead cabin bag as a benefit.

May Haukedahl Wilson, VP Loyalty and Partnerships at Norwegian.

Norwegian Reward has won ‘Programme of the Year’ at the Freddies, the top prize in the Europe & Africa category, four times before. In 2020 alongside ‘Programme of the Year’, Reward won the Freddie for ‘Best Promotion’ for the advent calendar, as well as ‘Best Customer Service’ and ‘Best Affinity Credit Card’. Over the years, Reward has also won several other awards, including the Freddie for ‘Best Up-and-Coming Loyalty Programme.’

Read more about all Norwegian’s awards here.

The post Norwegian Reward wins international award for best loyalty programme appeared first on InsideFlyer.

At the moment, many of these Mr & Mrs Smith properties participate in IHG One Rewards. (click here for details)  Presumably the IHG One Rewards link will be severed once the properties are ready to transition over to World of Hyatt.

According to the press release…

The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions. At a later date following the closing, Hyatt plans to unveil direct booking access to properties within the Mr & Mrs Smith platform through Hyatt’s distribution channels, including Hyatt.com and the World of Hyatt app. The anticipated move will have the potential to unlock access to more than twice the number of global boutique and luxury properties within Hyatt direct booking channels, and Hyatt is exploring ways to enable World of Hyatt members to earn and redeem points across eligible hotels in the Mr & Mrs Smith collection.

Bottom Line

Even though it is usually exciting when Hyatt adds to its global footprint, many of these hotels were already accessible to points collectors via IHG One Rewards. (often at quite reasonable award pricing)

Because these are small, boutique hotels, normal World of Hyatt benefits are unlikely to apply, much in the same way that World of Hyatt members receive few benefits at Small Luxury Hotels…

The post Hyatt is Buying Mr & Mrs Smith appeared first on InsideFlyer.

It has been nearly a year since Book with Confidence was ended. Nonetheless, there are undoubtedly many eVouchers that haven’t been redeemed yet.

(even though the BA website still refers to Future Travel Vouchers, I believe that most, if not all, of these have already been converted into eVouchers…)

Lost Track of Your Vouchers?

Luckily, British Airways has implemented a functionality that will help. You simply must visit this British Airways webpage.

You then enter your email address and, within seconds, you should receive an email from British Airways detailing your outstanding eVouchers.

Bottom Line

This extension was always likely; British Airways wouldn’t want to risk the wrath of the British press by making vouchers expire worthless. However, I’m a bit surprised that this announcement has come so soon, rather than hope that some voucher holders will feel pressured to spend them ASAP.

Do you have any outstanding British Airways vouchers? Or have you spent them already? Let us know in the comments section…

The post British Airways Extends the Life of “Book with Confidence” Pandemic Vouchers appeared first on InsideFlyer.

I have little doubt that the majority of InsideFlyer readers will HATE this promotion. Hilton Honors members can earn:

• 4,000 bonus points per STAY at selected resorts
• 2,000 bonus points per STAY at other hotels

Registration is required. Click here to be taken to the landing page for this promotion.

Why is this Promotion so Bad?

It doesn’t matter whether you stay one night or ten – you will only earn 2,000 bonus points for your “stay”. Don’t bother trying to book each night individually – unless you move to a different hotel, your separate reservations will be merged into one…

Since Hilton Honors members earn 10 points per US dollar spent, 2,000 bonus points is equivalent to earning “double points” on a mere $200 of spend.  (i.e. Hilton’s standard “double points” promotion would have resulted in more bonus points for almost everybody)

From a different perspective, 2,000 points are worth $10 at best. This is a terrible rebate on any long, expensive stay.  You do earn these bonus points on award stays, though, so there’s a tiny bit of upside for those who are planning to redeem their Hilton points this summer.

Which Hotels are “Resorts”?

You can find the list of “resort hotels” by clicking here. And no… you cannot sort, search or otherwise make this list user-friendly.

Bottom Line

Even though this promotion is barely worth the effort, you will want to register nonetheless. But if you have any flexibility in your summer travel plans, you will want to avoid Hilton hotels for everything other than cheap one-night stays.

The post Hilton Honors Announces a Summer Promotion that Almost Everybody Will Hate appeared first on InsideFlyer.

British Airways Airbus A380

At the moment you can find BA A380s flying from London to 7 destinations in the United States. These are: Boston (BOS), Washington Dulles (IAD), Miami (MIA), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO). Elsewhere, Johannesburg (JNB) and Dubai (DXB) are also on the timetable. Keep in mind that the BA A380 only operates from and to Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the UK.

The BA A380 offers four cabins: First Class, Club World (Business Class), World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) and World Traveller (Economy). The aircraft can carry a maximum of 469 passengers.

BA A380 to Los Angeles

A schedule change published on the Aeroroutes website shows that the A380 will continue to fly on a number of routes after the summer. Initially, from October 29, 2023, three daily flights to Los Angeles were scheduled with the Boeing 777-300ER. An Airbus A380-800 is now slated to be used for the afternoon flight instead of the B777. This change will be in effect until at least March 9, 2024.

Flight BA269 departs from London Heathrow at 3:15 PM (local time) and arrives in Los Angeles at 6:35 PM (local time). The return flight BA268 is at 8:50 PM (local time) and arrives at 3:10 PM (local time).

Source images: British Airways

The post British Airways Will Continue To Operate Airbus A380s From Heathrow To The US appeared first on InsideFlyer.

“TURKISH AIRLINES IS LOOKING FOR A BRAND NEW PROJECT TO LAUNCH ON ITS 90TH ANNIVERSARY!

Turkish Airlines, connecting the most countries in the world, is organizing a special idea contest for the 90th anniversary of its
establishment.

By participating in the 90th Anniversary Idea Contest, you can submit your innovative ideas that enhance flight experience and earn 300,000 Miles!”

What are the details?

This sounds like a fun idea (and potentially a very useful one for the airline!), but you’re probably wondering what your chances of actually winning something are. I’ve taken a look at the terms and conditions, and I think there’s a reasonable chance InsideFlyer readers might be in the mix for a prize – if you play smartly…

There are 90 prizes in total and the competition is split into 5 different categories:

1. Flight Experience (Catering, Inflight products, Inflight entertainment system, Comfort, Additional services)
2. Airport Experience (Transportation, Ticketing, Check-in, Baggage, Lounges, Boarding, Information)
3. Sales, Communications & Winning Experiences (Website, Sales offices, Mobile application, Call center, Agencies, Social media, Advertisements, Miles&Smiles, Corporate Club, JetGenç, Shop&Miles)
4. Organizational Development & Innovation (Business processes, Organization, Efficiency and profitability, Education and employment, Innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, New business model opportunities, Cooperation opportunities, Digitalization)
5. Sustainability & Social Responsibility (Waste management, Environmentally friendly products, Carbon emissions, Social responsibility)

There will be 18 winning submissions for each category, with the prize distribution as follows – for each category:

• 1st prize: 300,000 Miles
• 2nd prize: 250,000 Miles
• 3rd prize: 200,000 Miles
• 4th prize: 150,000 Miles
•  5th prize: 120,000 Miles
• 6th-18th prize: 60,000 Miles

All ideas will be evaluated by a jury consisting of Turkish Airlines’ teams of experts in the competition categories. So, to be clear, winners are not selected by random chance – they are chosen and ranked by a panel which decides which ideas are the best.

I’m sure InsideFlyer readers would have plenty of excellent suggestions about improving the flight and airport experience, but I also imagine Turkish will receive a lot of submissions for those categories.

I’m confident they will receive far fewer submissions for the other categories (particularly 3 and 4), and would be surprised if at least some readers can’t suggest something that ends up being judged in the top 18 ideas for those categories…

Note that the competition ends on 31st March 2023. The terms indicate that you can submit multiple ideas across different categories.

Bottom line

If Turkish takes the suggestions they receive seriously, this could be a clever and low cost way of generating some great ideas for improvement. There are an awful lot of smart travellers out there who will be able to highlight weaknesses and offer solutions.

Even if Turkish doesn’t do much with the feedback, you might still find it fun to play ‘Airline CEO’ for a bit and potentially win a chunk of miles!

The post Give Turkish Airlines Some Advice And Earn Up To 300,000 Free Miles… appeared first on InsideFlyer.

Thanks to the 50% bonus, you would pay 0.69 US cents per point.

You can usually buy up to 180,000 points every calendar year, although the annual limit is often raised later in the year.  Click here to be taken to the Choice website.

Does it Make Sense?

If you are currently planning a trip to Scandinavia, you can find some amazing value from buying Choice points today to spend on award stays.

However, if you can wait around until the next Daily Getaways, you will probably be able to buy Choice points for 0.5-0.6 cents each.

I have also found that it can make sense to buy Choice points in order to convert them to United miles – but only when a bonus is applied to hotel point conversions.  However, those promotions typically arrive during the summer – click here for details of last year’s Choice –> United promo – so you have time to wait before buying Choice points…

The post Should You Buy Choice Points with a 50% Bonus? appeared first on InsideFlyer.