January 7, 2026 • 39 mins
Bradley Jay Filled in On NightSide
Do you use third party apps when planning a vacation? What tools or services make vacation planning a breeze? Kevin Brasler, an executive editor at Consumers’ Checkbook joined Bradley to give general tips for travel planning, dos, and don’ts, and more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Cooston's news
radio in Ireland.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Two hours every DZ. For this go round, Dan will
be in tomorrow night. Our guest is Kevin Bressler from
checkbook dot Org. Checkbook dot org is kind of like
the service version of Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports helps you
decide what stuff to buy, and checkbook dot org helps
you decide which services to use and whose version of
(00:30):
them to use. They help you actually choose the service providers.
Thanks for being with us, Kevin, Hey, good see again. Yes,
now we're going to cover travel when both of us.
You travel way more than I do, but you checkbook
dot org is actually john an extensive list of travel tips,
sixty strategies, in fact, sixty strategies for finding the best
(00:52):
deals and avoiding trouble. And avoiding trouble is big with me.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, that's I think that's the probably the most pivotal
part of this list is the avoiding trouble part. I mean,
we have a lot of advice on how to save money,
but yeah, we've all you and I both have talked
about before about you know, trouble we've run into and
the ways to avoid it.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Right, And folks if you perhaps you haven't traveled because
you're you're a little nervous about it, and this might
this might help you. And if you have any questions,
we'd love to hear from you. If you've had any
experiences with travel, travel nightmares, even travel sort of bad dreams, inconveniences,
things you've learned, love to hear from you. If you
(01:34):
have a trip you would like to take, we'd love
to hear about that. If you have a trip that
you have taken, you want to share it, we want
to hear it. I know it's difficult, trust me, I
know to tell people about your trip because they don't
want to hear it in person. They say, how is
your trip? And if you start to tell them, their
eyes glaze over. They're jealous, they don't care, they don't
really want to hear a story. But we do want
(01:57):
to hear your story. Where did you go? Where do
you want to go? And do you have any concerns,
concerns with real ID or concerns with global entry, questions
like that, anything at all. Kevin is your guy and
checkbook dot org is your go to source. So first, always,
(02:19):
I guess this is top top rule. Always pay using
a credit card. So what we should not, what should
we not used to pay and why?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, I mean this is probably out of all the
advice we give. We cover hundreds of different topics, not
just travel. But whenever someone asked me, you know, what's
the top consumer tip you can give people in terms
of especially avoiding trouble, I always say, if you can
and it won't you know, and you can control your
debt you're spending. You're not going to add debt that
you're going to pay off your credit card at the
(02:52):
end of the month. That's very important, so you don't
pay a lot of finance and interest. But if you can,
when you buy stuff or when you pay for services,
use a credit card. And that especially goes for travel,
especially if you're booking a hotel room, whether the place
you haven't stayed before, or renting a car, buying flights anything,
if you can pay the credit card, not a debit card,
(03:13):
especially not like a bank transfer, especially not one of
these payan for programs. And the reason is this, when
you pay for stuff using a credit card, a very
important consumer protection kicks in. It's called the Federal Fair
Credit Billing Act. And what that law says essentially is
if something goes wrong, if you order something online and
it doesn't arrive, or if what you ordered online wasn't
(03:36):
what was promised, it wasn't what you expected, or if
you go in to get your car repaired and they
don't repair it right, and the seller, the retailer, or
the airline or whatever it is, if they won't make
it right, then you can dispute that charge with your
credit card company. And these days it's pretty easy to do.
Usually just log into your account, click on the thing,
and say dispute it, and the credit card company, by law,
(03:57):
has to investigate and decide who's it. And in the
case of fraud, say, for example, you rendered a vacation
property and it turned out to be a fake listing
and you lost your money, or the hotel you showed
up and they you know, they wouldn't give you your
room or something happened there, or if you just were dissatisfied.
The credit card companies are going to side on the
behalf of consumers normally, so it won't alleviate the problem.
(04:21):
You know, you won't alleviate the fact that you know,
maybe the hotel what you thought you booked wasn't what
was promised, or the rental car company, you know, try
to rip you off somehow, but at least you can
get your money back. And that's true of really all services.
If you hire a plumber and they come out and
they're supposed to fix something, they leave and it's not fixed,
and you already pay them. If you charge your credit card,
(04:42):
you could dispute that transaction. The credit company will will
side on behalf. And for fraud, it really works because
by law, the credit card companies it fraud occurs on
your account, they have to fix it, and they have
to fix.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It right away. How do you define fraud.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Fraud would be something like, well, if somebody charges a
bunch of stuff to your credit card without your permission,
you get your money back. Fraud would be in the
case of say, vacation rental bookings. Sometimes people book fraudulent listings.
You can get your money back. Fraud occurred the money
was stolen from me. If you booked a hotel room
and you were supposed to be able to get your
money back if you canceled with it a certain period
(05:17):
of time, the hotel didn't give you your money back, they
just kept her deposit. You can just be that transaction
with your credit card, get your money back. It even
works with really kind of unique situations. One of my colleagues,
she and her husband went to Iceland and they were
on wow Air. I don't know if you remember that,
it was the carrier there, And while they were there,
Wowair went bankrupt and canceled her return flight. So it
(05:42):
didn't alleviate her problem. She still had to book a
different flight on Delta or something. It cost her more money,
but at least she was able to get her money
back from Wawair. She disputed the charge with her credit
card company, even though wawair was at that point insolvent
and said they weren't going to pay anybody. The credit
card company was able to yank those funds from the
other credit card while credit cards, merchant count whatever, and
(06:03):
she got her money back. I was actually surprised in
that case because usually when they are bankruptcies, consumers, you know,
just don't get their money back. But when you've charged
something the credit card, you you get these very strong protections.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
But if you talked about a direct transfer, that's that's
something people do, or they go into their banking app
and they put the recipient and the name and send it.
As soon as you put click send, Yeah, it's gone.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
The money's gone. And so with debit cards, if the
transaction flows through Visa or master cards system, you still
get these. You still have this ability to dispute transactions,
but the risk is greater because now the money's gone.
You know, with a credit card, if you dispute the transaction,
you don't have to pay. If it was four hundred dollars,
(06:47):
you don't have to pay that four hundred dollars portion
of your bill. And if you've already paid your bill
for that month, you can still dispute that amount and
they'll freeze that amount. With your debit card, the money's
just gone. And sometimes banks will make you whole, but
often they won't. They won't nearly as often as they
will when it's a credit card transaction. Again, because you
have this federal law that protects you.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Okay, let's take a break and then we'll talk about
hidden fees. This is the next thing on the list
of the checkbook dot org sixty strategies for finding the
best travel deals in avoiding trouble hidden fees. And I
didn't know about any hidden fees let's learn about it together.
After this on WBZ, it's.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Absolutely thanks for being with us. We are with Kevin
Braslor of checkbook dot org, sort of the consumer reports
for services rather than stuff, and we're talking about travel tips,
real travel tips to save you money and keep you
from certain disaster. And the disaster can be significant, like
getting trapped, getting trapped at your h your way connect
(07:53):
at your connection airport because your passport doesn't have six
months left on it. We'll get to them. We have
Ken from Topsfield Kevin to either share a story or
ask a question. Hello, Ken, you're on BZ.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Thank you and thanks for taking a call. Great subject.
I've been dreaming of doing a lifetime trip going around
the world and I got a book. It was a
Lonely Planet something, one of these books that has it
uh no mad something, who knows. But this is like
(08:31):
crazy trying to plan this and it's it's expensive and
it's a big thing.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So tell me this what it be?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
This?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
What where do you want to go around the world?
What what would you like your stops to be?
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Oh, I'd like to took get out some part of
South Africa, maybe Sae Victoria Falls. I like to go
to Saint Helen Is, Ireland. I'd like to. I'd like
to go to some part maybe end up in New Zealand,
and I'd like to. I'll stay away from the Middle
(09:07):
East in Europe because been there a few times.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Where did you go? Where'd you go in Eastern Europe?
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I'm curious, No, not I stay away from you. I've
been over Paul in India, but I'd like to go
on and see other continents and some things. My wife
and I and we go buy a variety of means.
What my call is, does your guest would he recommend?
(09:36):
And if so, is there any particular outfit? You have
to talk to somebody that knows something more than me.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
All right?
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And and could you Yeah? And you can go to
any travel agents, but they may not know more than
you or I with respect.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
All right, let's find out that. Thank you? Okay, fine? Thanks?
Do you have any advice for this person? First of all,
I would ask him, why do you need to do
it all in one go, because because if you haven't
gone anywhere far away before? Well, he did go to
(10:13):
Nepal though that's a lot. You know, you get burned out,
you kind of want to come home and sleep in
your own couch after a while. At least I do
what do you think what you suggests he do like
a first step.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I mean, he's clearly an experienced traveler though. Guess that's
the you know, the good news. The other good news
is at least he's considering hiring somebody to help him
with this. I mean, I think this is something he
probably could do on his own. But I will say,
you know that the travel agencies have changed quite a
bit over the last twenty years. I mean, it used
to be you kind of had to use them for
most travel bookings because you just didn't know how to
(10:47):
do it, and they had access to, you know, software
that nobody had. And now you know, as you and
I do, Bradley, we just shopped till we drop. Like
we're always looking at different airfares and trying to get
a deal, and we're doing our own research. That's a
lot for a complicated trip. That's better to have an expert.
And the good news is that the travel agencies that
are still standing, that that serve consumers, there's still a
(11:09):
lot of travel and she's out there that they specialize
in business travel. But the ones that are still standing
that specialize and help consumers, they tend to be pretty knowledgeable,
and they tend to be upfront with you about what
their you know, their experience in terms of what their
specialties are. And so, you know, i'd start with a
good travel agency, ask you know, do you have any
experience with around the world trip? And if not, and
(11:32):
if not, who do I go to? They'll usually refer
to somebody who can help you. The difference with travel
agencies now versus in the past is in the past
they made all their money off commissions. Well, the commissions
have dried up, except for cruising in some hotels days,
and so nowadays, if you're hiring a travel and she,
especially for a specialized trip like this, they're going to
charge you because now they're they're acting more as a
(11:53):
consultant than somebody just booking stuff for you're and scraping commissions.
Still it's for the best, I think, yes, because now
they're less interested in steering you toward their high commission
sources and more interested in just serving you as a customer.
So I think it's worth you know, ken getting some
advice from a knowledgeable agent. Again, they're going to charge
you for research, but.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
It's probably worth it.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
But his his itinerary, he's kind of mapped out from
here to South Africa to Saint Helena to New Zealand.
And that's kind of a unique around the world trip airlines.
Most airlines have around the world fairs basically going to
ask you, but it's gonna be more, you know, fly
here to Japan to Singapore. It's going to be a standard,
kind of not completely standard route. The one he's talking
(12:38):
about Saint Helena Island. I mean, that's kind of out there,
and so he's gonna have trouble find a travel agency
that specializes and that kind of trip. He may do
better off just you know, getting organized with an agency
and doing some planning on his own.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
How do you find a decent travel agent? How do
you know who's a good one?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Well, we have chuckbook dot org. We have ratings of
travel agents and so that's a good place to start book.
And the good news is, as I said, most of
the travel agencies that are still standing are good because
they have to provide great service because they've you know,
the industry is really gutted a lot of you know,
old travel agencies that really just kind of specialize in
(13:15):
scraping commissions and just booking people, not really caring about
whether they got the best deals or the best values
or seen in the best places. And so the ones
that are remaining for the most part, not all of them,
but for the most part they're pretty good. But the
key is to find somebody who who knows about the reach,
who's been there and has contacts on the ground to
places you're thinking about going, because they can't specialize in
the entire world.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's impossible. Now you mentioned the around the World ticket.
I've done some research on that. I had a fantasy
about it and then realized that was probably not for
me because I kind of like to go home, back
to my life and be productive and then go back again.
But there were restrictions involved with around the World at
the time, as I remember it. You had to go
always the same direction. Yes, you just go around one way,
(14:00):
you can't go back zigzagging like that, And there may
have been some others. I don't know if there was
a time frame, But of course then you're locked into
going to places that airline goes and someplace that's right.
Helena's Island might not. They might that airline might not
go there.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, you may want to start with the most isolated
or you know, lowest travel. I don't know if that's
the right term or not place that you're thinking about going. Okay,
what airlines do serve that? Or what network serve that?
Does one world serve that versus you know, all the
other because at least then you know, I don't know.
I mean, I I'm not even sure it makes sense
(14:37):
to plan all your travel with one network or where
one airline doing this. I think it does make sense
to if he doesn't want to do all the plane
on his own, to fire a good travel agency and how.
But yeah, I'm with you, like I don't think I
would want to be on the move for an entire month.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
It gets exhausting.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
My friend after five we were talking earlier, it's like
after five days. Five days is a sweet spot for
a lot of people to international travel.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
For me, like ten to five to ten days. Ten
I did nine in Spain and that was cool too.
After that, my first trip was two weeks by myself.
I was so burnt out and so lonesome and so
tired and so glad to get home. I was just
oh exhausted with you. No, if he there's a problem
with doing it yourself and not planning it all ahead
(15:21):
with a travel age. Say you get to destination A,
then you have to then book the next destination or
would you recommend you books them all at once because
if something happens at one of the previous destinations, you
could lose all those other destinations. Do you book them
all at once? Or would you book as you go
(15:41):
because that way you're going to probably pay more.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Right, Well, you know, you and I would probably book
as we go, right, yeah, because that's that's our personality,
I think. But a lot of people they just here,
we would just stay.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
We would just stay here.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
In no judgment, some people just not spontaneous. They have
to have it all planned out. I'm willing to be
a lot more spontaneous than that. I mean, I don't
know how much I'm gonna like a place. I might
not like this place at all, that's right, I might
move on. Yeah, Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's
just difficult to say, especially with like a complicated itinerary
like that. I still think he's gonna be better off
(16:13):
trying to talk to a travel agent at least about
what the parameters are and his budget, trying to figure
out the best way.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
To so find it. So, sir, find a good travel agent.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
They're gonna charge you, but they're.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Gonna charge you, but it's gonna be worth it, probably,
And to find ratings on good travel agents. One place
you can go is checkbook dot org. Whom Kevin here,
our guest, is representing. So that was a really interesting
super call. Now you promise to talk about use your
credit card, we address that. No, watch out for hidden fees? Yeah,
(16:46):
what are some of the big hidden fees to watch
out for?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
So the good news is that this problem has gotten
a lot better for consumers. It used to be than
most hotels, at least, you know, three star plus hotels
charge these facility fees, resort fees. When you booked a
vacation rental, you get with clean fees and extra guest
fees and all this. The rate you were shown up
front was never the rate you paid. They'd say it
(17:09):
was one hundred and nineteen dollars a Ninety'd say, oh
that's a great price. But then when everything was said,
the good news is at least bookings in the US
and the EU and the EU for hotels and vacation
rental properties, they now have to show you all in pricing. Finally,
in this country they have to do that. This is
pretty recent. This is a rule the FTC made way back.
(17:33):
It finally got enforced. So now when you're looking at
hotel prices, yeah, they have to show you the all
in price. They may have to show you taxes, but
at least they have to. They can't just like add
these junk fees at check out that you didn't know.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember seeing cleaning
fees more than the price.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Of these ridiculous And the other thing was like you'd
see these like you know, these big you know, beach rentals.
It's a seven ten bedroom house whatever, you these big
est states, and you say, okay, well, I'm gonna have
ten guests, you know, to bring my family and my
brother's family with us. And then you go in and oh,
that looks like a good price. And you go to
checkout and they're they're charging us like one hundred dollars
(18:12):
per person for extra guest fees. And it's like, what
are you talking about it's an eight bedroom house, you're
charging me for extra guests if there's more than one person.
Of course there's more than one person. It's eight bedrooms.
So they've at least they'll still charge these fees, but
at least when they show them to you on these
booking sites, they have to bake in those prices, and
they also have to give you an option of saying,
instead of the per night rate, I want to know
(18:33):
my total cost. And so then you can actually do
these you know, apples to apples comparisons. You can sort
on price. You don't have to like go all click
several times, go away to the checkout screen to figure
out what're actually gonna pay. They fix that, but they
haven't fixed it for airlines. Wait a minute before we
go on, Yeah, what's a resort fee? Oh, they were
charging all these hotels. They were charging resort fees or
facility fees. And the hotels said, oh, it's to cover
(18:54):
the cost of you know, towels or the pool or
the exercise room. The problem is, like you got in
New York and there isn't a pool, there isn't an
exercise room. There's like some little business center, with one
computer and a printer in there, and they were still
charging an extra thirty eight dollars a night. And the
reason they were doing was because they could get away
with it. They was just you know, it was just
bait and switch. And here's a fee that irritates me.
I suppose a small fee, a small pet fee. Yeah,
(19:18):
you know, I've seen pet fees like one hundred and fifty. Yeah,
come on, that's too much. I can I think it's reasonable.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I know sometimes pet damages in the room, pets.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
If you're worried about this, right, you will see I
will say that they haven't cleaned up airlines baiting and
swas okay that you know, when you're shopping for airfare,
you still see every airline what they're showing your basic
economy fares, oh, which don't include seat selection, which don't
include baggage, which don't include you know anything that nobody,
(19:54):
nobody really pays, nobody really buys those fares. Instead, it's
a bait and switch. Makes it seem like, oh, here's
a great deal, well now now you click through, and
actually the real price is far higher. And it's especially
a problem with these, you know, low cost carriers right,
So I'll go on there and I see, oh, here's
a great price for you know, a trip to Europe.
(20:14):
And I'm connecting through whatever it's Brussels Airline or whatever
it is. And then you know, you actually go through
and you see, well, in fact you want to pick
a seat, yeah, or in fact you want to check
a back, even bring a carry on with. This is
the price balloon.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
This is a recent strategy. Before it would just be
the price basically, this is now they show you some
little bitty, little bitty price three hundred and forty six
dollars to USLO and then oh, you mean you want
to choose your seat, Oh, you can't even buy this way.
You gotta get main cabin. And that's a whole that's
five forty five and that's just for the right to
(20:49):
choose your seat. And then when you choose your seat,
that's fifty bucks more if you want this seat, or
seventy five if you want that seat. And then there's
the whole baggage stand which I have never worry about
because they don't take any but they nickel and damie
on that. And then somebody's airlines that.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Though they charge you for carry ons though, so you're
gonna get I don't even know that then, yeah, I
mean it's just it's just on and on and so,
I mean, this is very frustrating me because I'm often
looking at airfare. I'm trying to find, you know, sweet spot,
the best rate, you know, many months in advance, and
I'll see a great rate and I'm like, oh, this
is not a really good price. I mean, it's it's
just a bait and switch because I'm gonna want to
(21:25):
pick a seat. I'm not gonna want to sit in
the middle seat in the middle aisle of a wide
body aircraft. I'm gonna bring a carry on with me.
My wife's always gonna check a bag, and so it
just makes this more complicated than it needs to be really,
And the problem is, it's not just you know, the
low cost carriers that are doing this anymore. The major
airlines are doing it too. They all have these basic
(21:46):
economy fairs that's not what you're probably going to book.
You're gonna either book that and at a bag or whatever.
And it just makes the process of comparing fares a
lot harder than needs to be.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Now here's something I think this is going to be
a good tip, little little bitty fame. Maybe when you
buy something n foreign land, you all have the choice
in many cases to choose whether they use their currency
or US currency, and you should choose their currency correct,
because if you choose US currency, they'll be a fee.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
You should use. You should use their currency. So just
make sure though that your credit card has fair conversion
right in most US credit cards, especially travel credit cards,
have better conversion rates than what that merchant's offer. And
the other trick is when you go abroad and you
go to an ATM, it's going to ask you. You're
going to see a screen and it's going to say,
(22:36):
here's the currency conversion. Do you accept this? And usually
you're far better off saying no, I don't accept it,
because now it's up to your bank to decide what
the conversion rate is. And if these ATMs, especially in
touristy areas, especially in the airport, the conversion factor is
way off. Like if you're taking out what's you know,
equivalent to two hundred and fifty dollars, they may be
taking fifty bucks from you right because of the way
(22:58):
they're converting the currency.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And something else. If you have most non travel credit cards,
you'll be charged a foreign purchase fee. So it kind
of pays off to get a travel credit cards sometimes
instead of giving you three percent cash back or whatever,
or maybe you still get some cash back, but it
will not the travel credit cards. Many are designed so
(23:21):
you don't have to pay that those foreign purchase Some.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Credit cards charge you like three percent anytime you charge
with a credit card overseas. Most don't. You need to check.
And it's not just travel cards that might not charge
you that foreign fee. Other regular credit cards will well
don't charge it either. I don't know if that makes
sense or not. It's not just travel credit cards. I'm
saying double negatives, so it's making it more complicated it
(23:46):
needs to be. Just check with your credit card to
see if it charges a foreign transaction fee. You want
a credit card if you're traveling abroad that doesn't charge
those fees.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Okay, And after this break, speaking of fees, we should
talk about if you're going to bring local case, should
you bring local cash like buy euros and where should
you get those euros? After this on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Checkbook dot org. And that is a a website and
I believe still hard copy you.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Can get for now. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Okay, that gives you recommendations for services, the types of
services and the and the service actually service providers, and
it is specifically to each locality, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So, I mean we're a consumer group or a nonprofit
and a lot of the information put out is not
you know, regionalized, it's you know, right now we're talking
about advice for travels that's good for anyone, and a
lot of our advice on how to avoid scams, avoid trouble,
how to you know, how to avoid wasting money on
things like home warranties and things like that.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
It doesn't need to be realized, but for recommendation.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
We do have ratings of local businesses here in the
Boston area and also in six other metro areas, so
in the San Francisco area, the Chicago area, Philadelphia, Washington,
d C, Minneapolis, Saint Paul for those regions. We have
ratings of local services where you know, our members are
rating companies, and then we ourselves, we have researchers who
do a lot of price shopping to help people kind
(25:24):
of understand not just you know, you want a high
quality business, but you also want one that charges reasonable prices.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Okay, a lot of what we do is on costs
a little bit more on money financial stuff for travel.
We're talking about travel in this case, and checkbook dot
org put out an article on sixty travel tips to
help save you money and avoids rubble, and we're only
on number two so where I was obviously not going
to get to them all. But this is really solid stuff.
(25:52):
One thing that I got burned on one time that
I want to share with everyone is I was in
I don't know where it was, but try to use
the ATM to get some cash out because you've got
to have a local cash. It's easier now with the Euro,
but back then I put my card in to get
(26:13):
some cash out of an ATM and it didn't take
a six digit pin, so I couldn't get it out.
So when I got home, I changed it to a
four digit pin. And I don't know if that's changed,
but it was my understanding that some ATMs in some
countries in Europe and probably other places weren't designed yet
for a six digit pin. So there's that. Now, what
(26:35):
about cash? Do you recommend getting cash from your bank
before you go say euros or do you recommend getting
a little here and a little there.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I've never bothered. I've always just waited until I got
over there and gone to an ATM. But I avoid
the ATMs in the airport. You definitely avoid those those
cast exchange places in the right port. Then they're just
gonna rip you off. The change rate they're going to
charge is nowhere near what it should be. The ATMs
in the airport going to hit you with a big fee.
I mentioned before. If they say do you want to
(27:05):
accept this currency conversion rate, just say no. Let your
bank set the rate, because your US bank's probably gonna
have a more fair rate to you. But you bring
up these credit cards. I mean, my other advice is
take all your credit cards with you. Don't just take
one if you have more than one, take all your
debit cards, take everything. Because the reason is.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
For some it a lot better parking garage story.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Well this has gotten a lot better it used to be.
So Europe has had taped to pay for a lot
longer than we have in the US. And so the
good news is that most US credit cards have tap
to pay. They have the little chip in there you
can pay for stuff. You can use your phone. If
you have Google, Apple Pay to pay for stuff, you
can do it in Europe. It's much more common to
use your phone to pay for stuff in Europe than
it is in the US so far. The other thing
(27:53):
is like in a lot of these self service machines
like automated parking garages, trying to buy tickets for trains, subways.
I'm always in tolls when you're trying to just pay
it a toll machine and they won't you know, you
have to wait till they accept your thing to the
gate lifts. I'm always in total panic mode because it
just some credit cards don't work well. Eighteen cards. Debit
(28:14):
cards tend to work better because they require the pin
right and in Europe, the normal way of paying for
something is they tap their credit card and then they
use a four digit pin to go ahead and push
through the transaction. And a lot of people in the
US with credit cards, they don't know their four digits
like me, because they don't use it. We just don't
use it that way. The good news this has gotten better.
(28:38):
Like my last trip of year, we just got back
from a trip to Spain. We did not run into
this problem. But I mean there's at one point we
were over there and I could not get our car
out of a parking garage. Like we tried every credit card,
we had, all our debit cards, and the only way
we got it out of there was my wife's Banana
Republic visa car like this random card in the bottom
of a wallet that she hardly ever used. And it
(28:59):
was I think because as the other credit cards for
whatever reason, like we tried charging the state I don't know,
it was like a fraud alert or something, and there
was no way for us to okay that transaction. Things
have gotten better, but my advice is still take all
your cards with you, and especially for your primary credit card.
If you don't know the pin number, contact your bank,
have them issue you a new pin number. You'll have
(29:19):
to wait for them to mail it to you, but
then make sure you hang on too, because then they'll
just work a lot better, especially with these self service machines.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I'm going to actually do that. I did not know that.
Next we're going to find out about why it's important
to check with the State Department's website concerning your destination
if you're calling abroad, that's important and that's coming up
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's
News Radio.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Continue with continuing with Kevin Bresler, checkbook dot org travel tips,
really action about solid stuff. It's good to know. Why
should you check with the State Department regarding your destination.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Well, the main reason it's just going to have you
know alerts and warnings that you'll need to know before
you go. You can also register with it. It just
makes it easier if something you know God forbid goes
really wrong while you're abroad, if you pass away or
some of your party doesn't.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Know.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
But I have a lot of friends back home. When
I knew you wanted to help me out, and I
have a really close family and they know where we are.
I think the other reason to check is it's the
world of travel. Documents continues to evolve. United Kingdom just
put a new rule in place where you basically have
to pay. I think it's about thirty bucks per person
(30:39):
to enter the UK, and some people aren't aware of
that sometimes until you get there. If you're actually if
you're transferring through Heathrow, I think it makes sense to
go ahead and go ahead and get that visa in
advance in case your flight gets canceled and you need
to go to a hotel near Heathrow, then we're not
going to go to the airport unless you you've done this.
The good news is it's like instant approval for that
type of visa. But for other countries, they may have
(31:01):
interi requirements you were not aware of. The State Department
will tell you what those requirements are. And a really
big deal that you need to understand is you need
to check with that country countries you are visiting as
to how long your passport needs to be good for
before you board in this country. Because in the EU,
(31:22):
for example, in most countries, so long as your passport's
expiration date is more than three months three I thought
it was six. Well, it depends on the country, So
some countries it's three months, others it's as many as
six months. So if you show up at the airport
here in the US and your passport report's going to
expire in four months or in two months, they won't
(31:43):
let you board that aircraft until you go and get
a different passport. And the reason is is that your
passport has to be good for as long as the
tourist visa is good for and a lot of these countries.
If you're American, you're on an American passport. The tourist
visa is like automatic. You don't have to do anything
to get to the e You on a US passport, right,
you can just get in with their passport on a
(32:05):
tourist visa. But behind the scenes, the tourist visa is
ninety days, and so if your passport expires within that
ninety day period, they won't let you in the country
because they're worried you're gonna your passports can expire for
you leave, and as you said, in some countries it's
as many as six months. And I've had I know
a lot of people who showed up the airport really
and they're going somewhere, and the people said, you're not.
(32:26):
We can't let you board this plane because the Netherlands
or Spain or the UK or whatever it is won't
let you in the country because your passport's going to
expire in three months. There's a lot of pitfalls out there,
and they had to go the next morning to the
state department some emergency center, right, wait four hours and
have a passport issued to them.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
And then oh, I didn't realize you could get it
that quickly, so they.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Missed that pay Yeah, you have to go the next day.
And then the airline charged them to switch their you know,
their tickets. I mean, it's just a whole hassle. So
check your passport experience and the State department will tell
you on the website. It will tell you, Okay, this
is how long your passport needs to be good for
before you departe.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
It happened, It was a very sad thing. Yeah, I was.
I had a connection in JFK and I'm walking to
the next gate and I see a poor man from Mexico.
I don't know if he was actually poor, but you know,
he was in a bad situation, pleading with them the
officials to let him go, and they go, sorry, sorry, sorry,
cannot go.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
You gotta go back, And there's nothing the airline can do.
There's there's They have no power in this If if
the country that you're traveling to is not going to
let you in because of you lack of proper documentation,
or your passport isn't good for long enough for that country,
they won't let you board in this country because they
don't want you to get all the way over there,
and then you're just trapped in the airport abroad.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I actually don't know how the man made it from
Mexico to hear I guess the Mexicans didn't didn't check
is didn't check that we got here, and he was
just so out of luck. What a what a terrible thing.
Is just all that planning you did for your trip,
You took the time off, you bought the tickets, just
both it's all. I mean, if you can really get
(34:02):
that emergency passport. And by the way, where do you
do that? If that should happen, where do you do that?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Well, it depends on where you live. In Boston, they're
going to have a place where you can go at
the airport. No, it's the state department. I mean you
actually have to go to the State department to get these.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Like in New York, you'd have to leave the airport,
stay in New York at night, go to the State Department,
which would not be open, and you'd have to go.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Right The friend of mine, see, I live in Washington,
d C. So maybe it's different. But he went to
the airport he was going to board a flight to
Amsterdam and Kalem or whatever CID. You can't get on
this plane. Your passport's going to expire in two months.
And so he said, well what do I do? And
they said, well, here's what you're going to do. We're
going to rebook you for tomorrow. But in the morning,
you're going to show up at this office, the State Department,
at six am, and you know, explain to them you
(34:47):
need a passport issued that day. And he was able
to get it done, but he had to delay at
trip a day and it cost him like two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And what about a fee for the emergency fast track passport.
That's going to be significant too. Oh well, I don't
know if you to get the new passport.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Oh yeah, they charge them extra for that too. I
mean it wasn't you know, as much as the airfare.
I will say this so the State Department website will
also warn you. You know, I have all these travel
advisories about you know, this is you know, warnings, and
you know they have different ratings of levels levels.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, you know, the state departments a little over cautious.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
It's just like you wouldn't leave your driveway if you correct.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Really, yeah, they give.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
There's no place to safe in the world. The State Department,
as far as I can tell, like, yeah, even Canada
is like, oh, watch out, people might be protesting something,
right back, right, that's right, You're always protesting something.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Exercise extreme caution. People might be protesting.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, watch out for pickpocketers. Well, I mean, you know
here in Boston, you gotta watch out.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
In the US would be like read really place because
it's kind of dangerous people protesting all the time. Yeah, goodness, gracious,
all right, what's next? Let me see anything else about
the State Department. Yes. During COVID there were all kinds
of right, every country had different rules about COVID, Yeah,
(36:06):
what kind of proof you needed for your proof of
vaccination and then that relaxed at different rates around the country.
So that was important too. That was a huge, huge hassle.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Yeah, and that's where the State of Part website really
came in hand. I mean, it told you exactly and
they would update it every day exactly what Italy would require.
But you know, you know, clear COVID test twenty four
hours after before taking off and stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
In some cases, the airline will actually tell.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
You the airlines have gotten a lot better what you need. Yeah. Fortunately,
the most airlines have gotten a lot better about, you know,
not only telling what you need to do, but before
you even check in. While you're checking in for your flight,
they'll tell you what the requirements are, and if you
haven't met them, then you can try to handle it
right away.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Don't assume displayed discounts are meaningful.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Yeah, I mean this is true of anything you buy
these days. Right, somebody tells you something's thirty percent off,
or a hotel rate is a special deal as not.
I mean, nobody charges the regular price anymore. Right. The
other thing to do is look out for is I
often see this on travel websites. You're booking a hotel,
room or vacation rental, and they're always pushing you. They say,
ninety three percent of the vacation spots and venice are booked,
(37:19):
or you know, three hundred and eighty three people are
at this hotel. Right, they always want to instill this
sense of urgency.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Only two left at this rate, two left, and.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
It's a it's a you know, a queen bed with
a garden view handicap accessible, and there's only two of
those left. But there's you know, the hotel is completely
empty otherwise, right, So don't. Here's my advice. Whenever anyone
is rushing you into making a decision, whether it's for
travel or getting a new roof or whatever, it's a
(37:50):
huge red flag that this is a marketing trick to
get you to act. Now, stop all this pesky shopping around.
You may think about it, you may, you know, book
with a different hotel, different trouble. Just ignore all these
discounts because they're not legitimate. They're rack rates for hotels
they rarely charge me. Okay, the Super Bowl, World Cup times,
maybe those hotels are going to charge you their highest,
(38:13):
you know, rack rates, but for the most part they don't.
The discounts they say they're offering you are not legitimate.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
By the way, in general, when it comes to anything
that comes to you online with urgency, be very skeptical
of that. It's just a general warning because a lot
of times those are fishing scams. Any any urgency scene
it makes you anything that makes you panic, stop and think.
Call the people before you. If they say your bank
(38:43):
needs to have you click on this right now. Don't
call your bank. Separate get the numbers from a separate place,
and call them up and say I got this. Is
it fishing? I did that and it was and you
know what, in thirty seconds? Do you like hot Wire?
Do you like the the hotels where you don't really
(39:06):
know what you're gonna get.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
In mystery hotels?
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Yeah, we get like twenty seconds to answer that one.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Yeah, I mean I like them in the sense that
it's really the only way to save significantly on hotel bookings.
Hotels basically they have agreements with all these booking websites
that they all have to charge the same rate for
the same room in the same stay, and the only
way to really save money is to you know, kind
of quote unquote unlock these special deals because they're not
showing you, they're not displaying the name of the hotel,
and so there's you know, I think there's some risk there.
(39:34):
You have to prepay and then once you've booked, you're stuck.
But it's the only way to save significant
Speaker 2 (39:39):
All right, more after this on wb Z
As Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Cooston's news
radio in Ireland.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Two hours every DZ. For this go round, Dan will
be in tomorrow night. Our guest is Kevin Bressler from
checkbook dot Org. Checkbook dot org is kind of like
the service version of Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports helps you
decide what stuff to buy, and checkbook dot org helps
you decide which services to use and whose version of
(00:30):
them to use. They help you actually choose the service providers.
Thanks for being with us, Kevin, Hey, good see again. Yes,
now we're going to cover travel when both of us.
You travel way more than I do, but you checkbook
dot org is actually john an extensive list of travel tips,
sixty strategies, in fact, sixty strategies for finding the best
(00:52):
deals and avoiding trouble. And avoiding trouble is big with me.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, that's I think that's the probably the most pivotal
part of this list is the avoiding trouble part. I mean,
we have a lot of advice on how to save money,
but yeah, we've all you and I both have talked
about before about you know, trouble we've run into and
the ways to avoid it.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Right, And folks if you perhaps you haven't traveled because
you're you're a little nervous about it, and this might
this might help you. And if you have any questions,
we'd love to hear from you. If you've had any
experiences with travel, travel nightmares, even travel sort of bad dreams, inconveniences,
things you've learned, love to hear from you. If you
(01:34):
have a trip you would like to take, we'd love
to hear about that. If you have a trip that
you have taken, you want to share it, we want
to hear it. I know it's difficult, trust me, I
know to tell people about your trip because they don't
want to hear it in person. They say, how is
your trip? And if you start to tell them, their
eyes glaze over. They're jealous, they don't care, they don't
really want to hear a story. But we do want
(01:57):
to hear your story. Where did you go? Where do
you want to go? And do you have any concerns,
concerns with real ID or concerns with global entry, questions
like that, anything at all. Kevin is your guy and
checkbook dot org is your go to source. So first, always,
(02:19):
I guess this is top top rule. Always pay using
a credit card. So what we should not, what should
we not used to pay and why?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, I mean this is probably out of all the
advice we give. We cover hundreds of different topics, not
just travel. But whenever someone asked me, you know, what's
the top consumer tip you can give people in terms
of especially avoiding trouble, I always say, if you can
and it won't you know, and you can control your
debt you're spending. You're not going to add debt that
you're going to pay off your credit card at the
(02:52):
end of the month. That's very important, so you don't
pay a lot of finance and interest. But if you can,
when you buy stuff or when you pay for services,
use a credit card. And that especially goes for travel,
especially if you're booking a hotel room, whether the place
you haven't stayed before, or renting a car, buying flights anything,
if you can pay the credit card, not a debit card,
(03:13):
especially not like a bank transfer, especially not one of
these payan for programs. And the reason is this, when
you pay for stuff using a credit card, a very
important consumer protection kicks in. It's called the Federal Fair
Credit Billing Act. And what that law says essentially is
if something goes wrong, if you order something online and
it doesn't arrive, or if what you ordered online wasn't
(03:36):
what was promised, it wasn't what you expected, or if
you go in to get your car repaired and they
don't repair it right, and the seller, the retailer, or
the airline or whatever it is, if they won't make
it right, then you can dispute that charge with your
credit card company. And these days it's pretty easy to do.
Usually just log into your account, click on the thing,
and say dispute it, and the credit card company, by law,
(03:57):
has to investigate and decide who's it. And in the
case of fraud, say, for example, you rendered a vacation
property and it turned out to be a fake listing
and you lost your money, or the hotel you showed
up and they you know, they wouldn't give you your
room or something happened there, or if you just were dissatisfied.
The credit card companies are going to side on the
behalf of consumers normally, so it won't alleviate the problem.
(04:21):
You know, you won't alleviate the fact that you know,
maybe the hotel what you thought you booked wasn't what
was promised, or the rental car company, you know, try
to rip you off somehow, but at least you can
get your money back. And that's true of really all services.
If you hire a plumber and they come out and
they're supposed to fix something, they leave and it's not fixed,
and you already pay them. If you charge your credit card,
(04:42):
you could dispute that transaction. The credit company will will
side on behalf. And for fraud, it really works because
by law, the credit card companies it fraud occurs on
your account, they have to fix it, and they have
to fix.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It right away. How do you define fraud.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Fraud would be something like, well, if somebody charges a
bunch of stuff to your credit card without your permission,
you get your money back. Fraud would be in the
case of say, vacation rental bookings. Sometimes people book fraudulent listings.
You can get your money back. Fraud occurred the money
was stolen from me. If you booked a hotel room
and you were supposed to be able to get your
money back if you canceled with it a certain period
(05:17):
of time, the hotel didn't give you your money back, they
just kept her deposit. You can just be that transaction
with your credit card, get your money back. It even
works with really kind of unique situations. One of my colleagues,
she and her husband went to Iceland and they were
on wow Air. I don't know if you remember that,
it was the carrier there, And while they were there,
Wowair went bankrupt and canceled her return flight. So it
(05:42):
didn't alleviate her problem. She still had to book a
different flight on Delta or something. It cost her more money,
but at least she was able to get her money
back from Wawair. She disputed the charge with her credit
card company, even though wawair was at that point insolvent
and said they weren't going to pay anybody. The credit
card company was able to yank those funds from the
other credit card while credit cards, merchant count whatever, and
(06:03):
she got her money back. I was actually surprised in
that case because usually when they are bankruptcies, consumers, you know,
just don't get their money back. But when you've charged
something the credit card, you you get these very strong protections.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
But if you talked about a direct transfer, that's that's
something people do, or they go into their banking app
and they put the recipient and the name and send it.
As soon as you put click send, Yeah, it's gone.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
The money's gone. And so with debit cards, if the
transaction flows through Visa or master cards system, you still
get these. You still have this ability to dispute transactions,
but the risk is greater because now the money's gone.
You know, with a credit card, if you dispute the transaction,
you don't have to pay. If it was four hundred dollars,
(06:47):
you don't have to pay that four hundred dollars portion
of your bill. And if you've already paid your bill
for that month, you can still dispute that amount and
they'll freeze that amount. With your debit card, the money's
just gone. And sometimes banks will make you whole, but
often they won't. They won't nearly as often as they
will when it's a credit card transaction. Again, because you
have this federal law that protects you.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Okay, let's take a break and then we'll talk about
hidden fees. This is the next thing on the list
of the checkbook dot org sixty strategies for finding the
best travel deals in avoiding trouble hidden fees. And I
didn't know about any hidden fees let's learn about it together.
After this on WBZ, it's.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Absolutely thanks for being with us. We are with Kevin
Braslor of checkbook dot org, sort of the consumer reports
for services rather than stuff, and we're talking about travel tips,
real travel tips to save you money and keep you
from certain disaster. And the disaster can be significant, like
getting trapped, getting trapped at your h your way connect
(07:53):
at your connection airport because your passport doesn't have six
months left on it. We'll get to them. We have
Ken from Topsfield Kevin to either share a story or
ask a question. Hello, Ken, you're on BZ.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Thank you and thanks for taking a call. Great subject.
I've been dreaming of doing a lifetime trip going around
the world and I got a book. It was a
Lonely Planet something, one of these books that has it
uh no mad something, who knows. But this is like
(08:31):
crazy trying to plan this and it's it's expensive and
it's a big thing.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So tell me this what it be?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
This?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
What where do you want to go around the world?
What what would you like your stops to be?
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Oh, I'd like to took get out some part of
South Africa, maybe Sae Victoria Falls. I like to go
to Saint Helen Is, Ireland. I'd like to. I'd like
to go to some part maybe end up in New Zealand,
and I'd like to. I'll stay away from the Middle
(09:07):
East in Europe because been there a few times.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Where did you go? Where'd you go in Eastern Europe?
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I'm curious, No, not I stay away from you. I've
been over Paul in India, but I'd like to go
on and see other continents and some things. My wife
and I and we go buy a variety of means.
What my call is, does your guest would he recommend?
(09:36):
And if so, is there any particular outfit? You have
to talk to somebody that knows something more than me.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
All right?
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And and could you Yeah? And you can go to
any travel agents, but they may not know more than
you or I with respect.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
All right, let's find out that. Thank you? Okay, fine? Thanks?
Do you have any advice for this person? First of all,
I would ask him, why do you need to do
it all in one go, because because if you haven't
gone anywhere far away before? Well, he did go to
(10:13):
Nepal though that's a lot. You know, you get burned out,
you kind of want to come home and sleep in
your own couch after a while. At least I do
what do you think what you suggests he do like
a first step.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I mean, he's clearly an experienced traveler though. Guess that's
the you know, the good news. The other good news
is at least he's considering hiring somebody to help him
with this. I mean, I think this is something he
probably could do on his own. But I will say,
you know that the travel agencies have changed quite a
bit over the last twenty years. I mean, it used
to be you kind of had to use them for
most travel bookings because you just didn't know how to
(10:47):
do it, and they had access to, you know, software
that nobody had. And now you know, as you and
I do, Bradley, we just shopped till we drop. Like
we're always looking at different airfares and trying to get
a deal, and we're doing our own research. That's a
lot for a complicated trip. That's better to have an expert.
And the good news is that the travel agencies that
are still standing, that that serve consumers, there's still a
(11:09):
lot of travel and she's out there that they specialize
in business travel. But the ones that are still standing
that specialize and help consumers, they tend to be pretty knowledgeable,
and they tend to be upfront with you about what
their you know, their experience in terms of what their
specialties are. And so, you know, i'd start with a
good travel agency, ask you know, do you have any
experience with around the world trip? And if not, and
(11:32):
if not, who do I go to? They'll usually refer
to somebody who can help you. The difference with travel
agencies now versus in the past is in the past
they made all their money off commissions. Well, the commissions
have dried up, except for cruising in some hotels days,
and so nowadays, if you're hiring a travel and she,
especially for a specialized trip like this, they're going to
charge you because now they're they're acting more as a
(11:53):
consultant than somebody just booking stuff for you're and scraping commissions.
Still it's for the best, I think, yes, because now
they're less interested in steering you toward their high commission
sources and more interested in just serving you as a customer.
So I think it's worth you know, ken getting some
advice from a knowledgeable agent. Again, they're going to charge
you for research, but.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
It's probably worth it.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
But his his itinerary, he's kind of mapped out from
here to South Africa to Saint Helena to New Zealand.
And that's kind of a unique around the world trip airlines.
Most airlines have around the world fairs basically going to
ask you, but it's gonna be more, you know, fly
here to Japan to Singapore. It's going to be a standard,
kind of not completely standard route. The one he's talking
(12:38):
about Saint Helena Island. I mean, that's kind of out there,
and so he's gonna have trouble find a travel agency
that specializes and that kind of trip. He may do
better off just you know, getting organized with an agency
and doing some planning on his own.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
How do you find a decent travel agent? How do
you know who's a good one?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Well, we have chuckbook dot org. We have ratings of
travel agents and so that's a good place to start book.
And the good news is, as I said, most of
the travel agencies that are still standing are good because
they have to provide great service because they've you know,
the industry is really gutted a lot of you know,
old travel agencies that really just kind of specialize in
(13:15):
scraping commissions and just booking people, not really caring about
whether they got the best deals or the best values
or seen in the best places. And so the ones
that are remaining for the most part, not all of them,
but for the most part they're pretty good. But the
key is to find somebody who who knows about the reach,
who's been there and has contacts on the ground to
places you're thinking about going, because they can't specialize in
the entire world.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's impossible. Now you mentioned the around the World ticket.
I've done some research on that. I had a fantasy
about it and then realized that was probably not for
me because I kind of like to go home, back
to my life and be productive and then go back again.
But there were restrictions involved with around the World at
the time, as I remember it. You had to go
always the same direction. Yes, you just go around one way,
(14:00):
you can't go back zigzagging like that, And there may
have been some others. I don't know if there was
a time frame, But of course then you're locked into
going to places that airline goes and someplace that's right.
Helena's Island might not. They might that airline might not
go there.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, you may want to start with the most isolated
or you know, lowest travel. I don't know if that's
the right term or not place that you're thinking about going. Okay,
what airlines do serve that? Or what network serve that?
Does one world serve that versus you know, all the
other because at least then you know, I don't know.
I mean, I I'm not even sure it makes sense
(14:37):
to plan all your travel with one network or where
one airline doing this. I think it does make sense
to if he doesn't want to do all the plane
on his own, to fire a good travel agency and how.
But yeah, I'm with you, like I don't think I
would want to be on the move for an entire month.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
It gets exhausting.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
My friend after five we were talking earlier, it's like
after five days. Five days is a sweet spot for
a lot of people to international travel.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
For me, like ten to five to ten days. Ten
I did nine in Spain and that was cool too.
After that, my first trip was two weeks by myself.
I was so burnt out and so lonesome and so
tired and so glad to get home. I was just
oh exhausted with you. No, if he there's a problem
with doing it yourself and not planning it all ahead
(15:21):
with a travel age. Say you get to destination A,
then you have to then book the next destination or
would you recommend you books them all at once because
if something happens at one of the previous destinations, you
could lose all those other destinations. Do you book them
all at once? Or would you book as you go
(15:41):
because that way you're going to probably pay more.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Right, Well, you know, you and I would probably book
as we go, right, yeah, because that's that's our personality,
I think. But a lot of people they just here,
we would just stay.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
We would just stay here.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
In no judgment, some people just not spontaneous. They have
to have it all planned out. I'm willing to be
a lot more spontaneous than that. I mean, I don't
know how much I'm gonna like a place. I might
not like this place at all, that's right, I might
move on. Yeah, Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's
just difficult to say, especially with like a complicated itinerary
like that. I still think he's gonna be better off
(16:13):
trying to talk to a travel agent at least about
what the parameters are and his budget, trying to figure
out the best way.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
To so find it. So, sir, find a good travel agent.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
They're gonna charge you, but they're.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Gonna charge you, but it's gonna be worth it, probably,
And to find ratings on good travel agents. One place
you can go is checkbook dot org. Whom Kevin here,
our guest, is representing. So that was a really interesting
super call. Now you promise to talk about use your
credit card, we address that. No, watch out for hidden fees? Yeah,
(16:46):
what are some of the big hidden fees to watch
out for?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
So the good news is that this problem has gotten
a lot better for consumers. It used to be than
most hotels, at least, you know, three star plus hotels
charge these facility fees, resort fees. When you booked a
vacation rental, you get with clean fees and extra guest
fees and all this. The rate you were shown up
front was never the rate you paid. They'd say it
(17:09):
was one hundred and nineteen dollars a Ninety'd say, oh
that's a great price. But then when everything was said,
the good news is at least bookings in the US
and the EU and the EU for hotels and vacation
rental properties, they now have to show you all in pricing. Finally,
in this country they have to do that. This is
pretty recent. This is a rule the FTC made way back.
(17:33):
It finally got enforced. So now when you're looking at
hotel prices, yeah, they have to show you the all
in price. They may have to show you taxes, but
at least they have to. They can't just like add
these junk fees at check out that you didn't know.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember seeing cleaning
fees more than the price.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Of these ridiculous And the other thing was like you'd
see these like you know, these big you know, beach rentals.
It's a seven ten bedroom house whatever, you these big
est states, and you say, okay, well, I'm gonna have
ten guests, you know, to bring my family and my
brother's family with us. And then you go in and oh,
that looks like a good price. And you go to
checkout and they're they're charging us like one hundred dollars
(18:12):
per person for extra guest fees. And it's like, what
are you talking about it's an eight bedroom house, you're
charging me for extra guests if there's more than one person.
Of course there's more than one person. It's eight bedrooms.
So they've at least they'll still charge these fees, but
at least when they show them to you on these
booking sites, they have to bake in those prices, and
they also have to give you an option of saying,
instead of the per night rate, I want to know
(18:33):
my total cost. And so then you can actually do
these you know, apples to apples comparisons. You can sort
on price. You don't have to like go all click
several times, go away to the checkout screen to figure
out what're actually gonna pay. They fix that, but they
haven't fixed it for airlines. Wait a minute before we
go on, Yeah, what's a resort fee? Oh, they were
charging all these hotels. They were charging resort fees or
facility fees. And the hotels said, oh, it's to cover
(18:54):
the cost of you know, towels or the pool or
the exercise room. The problem is, like you got in
New York and there isn't a pool, there isn't an
exercise room. There's like some little business center, with one
computer and a printer in there, and they were still
charging an extra thirty eight dollars a night. And the
reason they were doing was because they could get away
with it. They was just you know, it was just
bait and switch. And here's a fee that irritates me.
I suppose a small fee, a small pet fee. Yeah,
(19:18):
you know, I've seen pet fees like one hundred and fifty. Yeah,
come on, that's too much. I can I think it's reasonable.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I know sometimes pet damages in the room, pets.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
If you're worried about this, right, you will see I
will say that they haven't cleaned up airlines baiting and
swas okay that you know, when you're shopping for airfare,
you still see every airline what they're showing your basic
economy fares, oh, which don't include seat selection, which don't
include baggage, which don't include you know anything that nobody,
(19:54):
nobody really pays, nobody really buys those fares. Instead, it's
a bait and switch. Makes it seem like, oh, here's
a great deal, well now now you click through, and
actually the real price is far higher. And it's especially
a problem with these, you know, low cost carriers right,
So I'll go on there and I see, oh, here's
a great price for you know, a trip to Europe.
(20:14):
And I'm connecting through whatever it's Brussels Airline or whatever
it is. And then you know, you actually go through
and you see, well, in fact you want to pick
a seat, yeah, or in fact you want to check
a back, even bring a carry on with. This is
the price balloon.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
This is a recent strategy. Before it would just be
the price basically, this is now they show you some
little bitty, little bitty price three hundred and forty six
dollars to USLO and then oh, you mean you want
to choose your seat, Oh, you can't even buy this way.
You gotta get main cabin. And that's a whole that's
five forty five and that's just for the right to
(20:49):
choose your seat. And then when you choose your seat,
that's fifty bucks more if you want this seat, or
seventy five if you want that seat. And then there's
the whole baggage stand which I have never worry about
because they don't take any but they nickel and damie
on that. And then somebody's airlines that.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Though they charge you for carry ons though, so you're
gonna get I don't even know that then, yeah, I
mean it's just it's just on and on and so,
I mean, this is very frustrating me because I'm often
looking at airfare. I'm trying to find, you know, sweet spot,
the best rate, you know, many months in advance, and
I'll see a great rate and I'm like, oh, this
is not a really good price. I mean, it's it's
just a bait and switch because I'm gonna want to
(21:25):
pick a seat. I'm not gonna want to sit in
the middle seat in the middle aisle of a wide
body aircraft. I'm gonna bring a carry on with me.
My wife's always gonna check a bag, and so it
just makes this more complicated than it needs to be really,
And the problem is, it's not just you know, the
low cost carriers that are doing this anymore. The major
airlines are doing it too. They all have these basic
(21:46):
economy fairs that's not what you're probably going to book.
You're gonna either book that and at a bag or whatever.
And it just makes the process of comparing fares a
lot harder than needs to be.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Now here's something I think this is going to be
a good tip, little little bitty fame. Maybe when you
buy something n foreign land, you all have the choice
in many cases to choose whether they use their currency
or US currency, and you should choose their currency correct,
because if you choose US currency, they'll be a fee.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
You should use. You should use their currency. So just
make sure though that your credit card has fair conversion
right in most US credit cards, especially travel credit cards,
have better conversion rates than what that merchant's offer. And
the other trick is when you go abroad and you
go to an ATM, it's going to ask you. You're
going to see a screen and it's going to say,
(22:36):
here's the currency conversion. Do you accept this? And usually
you're far better off saying no, I don't accept it,
because now it's up to your bank to decide what
the conversion rate is. And if these ATMs, especially in
touristy areas, especially in the airport, the conversion factor is
way off. Like if you're taking out what's you know,
equivalent to two hundred and fifty dollars, they may be
taking fifty bucks from you right because of the way
(22:58):
they're converting the currency.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And something else. If you have most non travel credit cards,
you'll be charged a foreign purchase fee. So it kind
of pays off to get a travel credit cards sometimes
instead of giving you three percent cash back or whatever,
or maybe you still get some cash back, but it
will not the travel credit cards. Many are designed so
(23:21):
you don't have to pay that those foreign purchase Some.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Credit cards charge you like three percent anytime you charge
with a credit card overseas. Most don't. You need to check.
And it's not just travel cards that might not charge
you that foreign fee. Other regular credit cards will well
don't charge it either. I don't know if that makes
sense or not. It's not just travel credit cards. I'm
saying double negatives, so it's making it more complicated it
(23:46):
needs to be. Just check with your credit card to
see if it charges a foreign transaction fee. You want
a credit card if you're traveling abroad that doesn't charge
those fees.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Okay, And after this break, speaking of fees, we should
talk about if you're going to bring local case, should
you bring local cash like buy euros and where should
you get those euros? After this on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Checkbook dot org. And that is a a website and
I believe still hard copy you.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Can get for now. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Okay, that gives you recommendations for services, the types of
services and the and the service actually service providers, and
it is specifically to each locality, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So, I mean we're a consumer group or a nonprofit
and a lot of the information put out is not
you know, regionalized, it's you know, right now we're talking
about advice for travels that's good for anyone, and a
lot of our advice on how to avoid scams, avoid trouble,
how to you know, how to avoid wasting money on
things like home warranties and things like that.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
It doesn't need to be realized, but for recommendation.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
We do have ratings of local businesses here in the
Boston area and also in six other metro areas, so
in the San Francisco area, the Chicago area, Philadelphia, Washington,
d C, Minneapolis, Saint Paul for those regions. We have
ratings of local services where you know, our members are
rating companies, and then we ourselves, we have researchers who
do a lot of price shopping to help people kind
(25:24):
of understand not just you know, you want a high
quality business, but you also want one that charges reasonable prices.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Okay, a lot of what we do is on costs
a little bit more on money financial stuff for travel.
We're talking about travel in this case, and checkbook dot
org put out an article on sixty travel tips to
help save you money and avoids rubble, and we're only
on number two so where I was obviously not going
to get to them all. But this is really solid stuff.
(25:52):
One thing that I got burned on one time that
I want to share with everyone is I was in
I don't know where it was, but try to use
the ATM to get some cash out because you've got
to have a local cash. It's easier now with the Euro,
but back then I put my card in to get
(26:13):
some cash out of an ATM and it didn't take
a six digit pin, so I couldn't get it out.
So when I got home, I changed it to a
four digit pin. And I don't know if that's changed,
but it was my understanding that some ATMs in some
countries in Europe and probably other places weren't designed yet
for a six digit pin. So there's that. Now, what
(26:35):
about cash? Do you recommend getting cash from your bank
before you go say euros or do you recommend getting
a little here and a little there.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I've never bothered. I've always just waited until I got
over there and gone to an ATM. But I avoid
the ATMs in the airport. You definitely avoid those those
cast exchange places in the right port. Then they're just
gonna rip you off. The change rate they're going to
charge is nowhere near what it should be. The ATMs
in the airport going to hit you with a big fee.
I mentioned before. If they say do you want to
(27:05):
accept this currency conversion rate, just say no. Let your
bank set the rate, because your US bank's probably gonna
have a more fair rate to you. But you bring
up these credit cards. I mean, my other advice is
take all your credit cards with you. Don't just take
one if you have more than one, take all your
debit cards, take everything. Because the reason is.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
For some it a lot better parking garage story.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Well this has gotten a lot better it used to be.
So Europe has had taped to pay for a lot
longer than we have in the US. And so the
good news is that most US credit cards have tap
to pay. They have the little chip in there you
can pay for stuff. You can use your phone. If
you have Google, Apple Pay to pay for stuff, you
can do it in Europe. It's much more common to
use your phone to pay for stuff in Europe than
it is in the US so far. The other thing
(27:53):
is like in a lot of these self service machines
like automated parking garages, trying to buy tickets for trains, subways.
I'm always in tolls when you're trying to just pay
it a toll machine and they won't you know, you
have to wait till they accept your thing to the
gate lifts. I'm always in total panic mode because it
just some credit cards don't work well. Eighteen cards. Debit
(28:14):
cards tend to work better because they require the pin
right and in Europe, the normal way of paying for
something is they tap their credit card and then they
use a four digit pin to go ahead and push
through the transaction. And a lot of people in the
US with credit cards, they don't know their four digits
like me, because they don't use it. We just don't
use it that way. The good news this has gotten better.
(28:38):
Like my last trip of year, we just got back
from a trip to Spain. We did not run into
this problem. But I mean there's at one point we
were over there and I could not get our car
out of a parking garage. Like we tried every credit card,
we had, all our debit cards, and the only way
we got it out of there was my wife's Banana
Republic visa car like this random card in the bottom
of a wallet that she hardly ever used. And it
(28:59):
was I think because as the other credit cards for
whatever reason, like we tried charging the state I don't know,
it was like a fraud alert or something, and there
was no way for us to okay that transaction. Things
have gotten better, but my advice is still take all
your cards with you, and especially for your primary credit card.
If you don't know the pin number, contact your bank,
have them issue you a new pin number. You'll have
(29:19):
to wait for them to mail it to you, but
then make sure you hang on too, because then they'll
just work a lot better, especially with these self service machines.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I'm going to actually do that. I did not know that.
Next we're going to find out about why it's important
to check with the State Department's website concerning your destination
if you're calling abroad, that's important and that's coming up
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's
News Radio.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Continue with continuing with Kevin Bresler, checkbook dot org travel tips,
really action about solid stuff. It's good to know. Why
should you check with the State Department regarding your destination.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Well, the main reason it's just going to have you
know alerts and warnings that you'll need to know before
you go. You can also register with it. It just
makes it easier if something you know God forbid goes
really wrong while you're abroad, if you pass away or
some of your party doesn't.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Know.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
But I have a lot of friends back home. When
I knew you wanted to help me out, and I
have a really close family and they know where we are.
I think the other reason to check is it's the
world of travel. Documents continues to evolve. United Kingdom just
put a new rule in place where you basically have
to pay. I think it's about thirty bucks per person
(30:39):
to enter the UK, and some people aren't aware of
that sometimes until you get there. If you're actually if
you're transferring through Heathrow, I think it makes sense to
go ahead and go ahead and get that visa in
advance in case your flight gets canceled and you need
to go to a hotel near Heathrow, then we're not
going to go to the airport unless you you've done this.
The good news is it's like instant approval for that
type of visa. But for other countries, they may have
(31:01):
interi requirements you were not aware of. The State Department
will tell you what those requirements are. And a really
big deal that you need to understand is you need
to check with that country countries you are visiting as
to how long your passport needs to be good for
before you board in this country. Because in the EU,
(31:22):
for example, in most countries, so long as your passport's
expiration date is more than three months three I thought
it was six. Well, it depends on the country, So
some countries it's three months, others it's as many as
six months. So if you show up at the airport
here in the US and your passport report's going to
expire in four months or in two months, they won't
(31:43):
let you board that aircraft until you go and get
a different passport. And the reason is is that your
passport has to be good for as long as the
tourist visa is good for and a lot of these countries.
If you're American, you're on an American passport. The tourist
visa is like automatic. You don't have to do anything
to get to the e You on a US passport, right,
you can just get in with their passport on a
(32:05):
tourist visa. But behind the scenes, the tourist visa is
ninety days, and so if your passport expires within that
ninety day period, they won't let you in the country
because they're worried you're gonna your passports can expire for
you leave, and as you said, in some countries it's
as many as six months. And I've had I know
a lot of people who showed up the airport really
and they're going somewhere, and the people said, you're not.
(32:26):
We can't let you board this plane because the Netherlands
or Spain or the UK or whatever it is won't
let you in the country because your passport's going to
expire in three months. There's a lot of pitfalls out there,
and they had to go the next morning to the
state department some emergency center, right, wait four hours and
have a passport issued to them.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
And then oh, I didn't realize you could get it
that quickly, so they.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Missed that pay Yeah, you have to go the next day.
And then the airline charged them to switch their you know,
their tickets. I mean, it's just a whole hassle. So
check your passport experience and the State department will tell
you on the website. It will tell you, Okay, this
is how long your passport needs to be good for
before you departe.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
It happened, It was a very sad thing. Yeah, I was.
I had a connection in JFK and I'm walking to
the next gate and I see a poor man from Mexico.
I don't know if he was actually poor, but you know,
he was in a bad situation, pleading with them the
officials to let him go, and they go, sorry, sorry, sorry,
cannot go.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
You gotta go back, And there's nothing the airline can do.
There's there's They have no power in this If if
the country that you're traveling to is not going to
let you in because of you lack of proper documentation,
or your passport isn't good for long enough for that country,
they won't let you board in this country because they
don't want you to get all the way over there,
and then you're just trapped in the airport abroad.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I actually don't know how the man made it from
Mexico to hear I guess the Mexicans didn't didn't check
is didn't check that we got here, and he was
just so out of luck. What a what a terrible thing.
Is just all that planning you did for your trip,
You took the time off, you bought the tickets, just
both it's all. I mean, if you can really get
(34:02):
that emergency passport. And by the way, where do you
do that? If that should happen, where do you do that?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Well, it depends on where you live. In Boston, they're
going to have a place where you can go at
the airport. No, it's the state department. I mean you
actually have to go to the State department to get these.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Like in New York, you'd have to leave the airport,
stay in New York at night, go to the State Department,
which would not be open, and you'd have to go.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Right The friend of mine, see, I live in Washington,
d C. So maybe it's different. But he went to
the airport he was going to board a flight to
Amsterdam and Kalem or whatever CID. You can't get on
this plane. Your passport's going to expire in two months.
And so he said, well what do I do? And
they said, well, here's what you're going to do. We're
going to rebook you for tomorrow. But in the morning,
you're going to show up at this office, the State Department,
at six am, and you know, explain to them you
(34:47):
need a passport issued that day. And he was able
to get it done, but he had to delay at
trip a day and it cost him like two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And what about a fee for the emergency fast track passport.
That's going to be significant too. Oh well, I don't
know if you to get the new passport.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Oh yeah, they charge them extra for that too. I
mean it wasn't you know, as much as the airfare.
I will say this so the State Department website will
also warn you. You know, I have all these travel
advisories about you know, this is you know, warnings, and
you know they have different ratings of levels levels.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, you know, the state departments a little over cautious.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
It's just like you wouldn't leave your driveway if you correct.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Really, yeah, they give.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
There's no place to safe in the world. The State Department,
as far as I can tell, like, yeah, even Canada
is like, oh, watch out, people might be protesting something,
right back, right, that's right, You're always protesting something.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Exercise extreme caution. People might be protesting.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, watch out for pickpocketers. Well, I mean, you know
here in Boston, you gotta watch out.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
In the US would be like read really place because
it's kind of dangerous people protesting all the time. Yeah, goodness, gracious,
all right, what's next? Let me see anything else about
the State Department. Yes. During COVID there were all kinds
of right, every country had different rules about COVID, Yeah,
(36:06):
what kind of proof you needed for your proof of
vaccination and then that relaxed at different rates around the country.
So that was important too. That was a huge, huge hassle.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Yeah, and that's where the State of Part website really
came in hand. I mean, it told you exactly and
they would update it every day exactly what Italy would require.
But you know, you know, clear COVID test twenty four
hours after before taking off and stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
In some cases, the airline will actually tell.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
You the airlines have gotten a lot better what you need. Yeah. Fortunately,
the most airlines have gotten a lot better about, you know,
not only telling what you need to do, but before
you even check in. While you're checking in for your flight,
they'll tell you what the requirements are, and if you
haven't met them, then you can try to handle it
right away.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Don't assume displayed discounts are meaningful.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Yeah, I mean this is true of anything you buy
these days. Right, somebody tells you something's thirty percent off,
or a hotel rate is a special deal as not.
I mean, nobody charges the regular price anymore. Right. The
other thing to do is look out for is I
often see this on travel websites. You're booking a hotel,
room or vacation rental, and they're always pushing you. They say,
ninety three percent of the vacation spots and venice are booked,
(37:19):
or you know, three hundred and eighty three people are
at this hotel. Right, they always want to instill this
sense of urgency.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Only two left at this rate, two left, and.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
It's a it's a you know, a queen bed with
a garden view handicap accessible, and there's only two of
those left. But there's you know, the hotel is completely
empty otherwise, right, So don't. Here's my advice. Whenever anyone
is rushing you into making a decision, whether it's for
travel or getting a new roof or whatever, it's a
(37:50):
huge red flag that this is a marketing trick to
get you to act. Now, stop all this pesky shopping around.
You may think about it, you may, you know, book
with a different hotel, different trouble. Just ignore all these
discounts because they're not legitimate. They're rack rates for hotels
they rarely charge me. Okay, the Super Bowl, World Cup times,
maybe those hotels are going to charge you their highest,
(38:13):
you know, rack rates, but for the most part they don't.
The discounts they say they're offering you are not legitimate.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
By the way, in general, when it comes to anything
that comes to you online with urgency, be very skeptical
of that. It's just a general warning because a lot
of times those are fishing scams. Any any urgency scene
it makes you anything that makes you panic, stop and think.
Call the people before you. If they say your bank
(38:43):
needs to have you click on this right now. Don't
call your bank. Separate get the numbers from a separate place,
and call them up and say I got this. Is
it fishing? I did that and it was and you
know what, in thirty seconds? Do you like hot Wire?
Do you like the the hotels where you don't really
(39:06):
know what you're gonna get.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
In mystery hotels?
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Yeah, we get like twenty seconds to answer that one.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Yeah, I mean I like them in the sense that
it's really the only way to save significantly on hotel bookings.
Hotels basically they have agreements with all these booking websites
that they all have to charge the same rate for
the same room in the same stay, and the only
way to really save money is to you know, kind
of quote unquote unlock these special deals because they're not
showing you, they're not displaying the name of the hotel,
and so there's you know, I think there's some risk there.
(39:34):
You have to prepay and then once you've booked, you're stuck.
But it's the only way to save significant
Speaker 2 (39:39):
All right, more after this on wb Z
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!