10 Tips For International Business Travel

by Chris Owen on

International business travel is a different animal when compared to a quick domestic trip. Flying for extended periods of time alone presents its own unique challenges for those who have not done it before. Still, international business travel does not have to be the grueling sort of ordeal that first-timers anticipate by following a few simple guidelines.

For our purposes here, we assume a) you do not have a huge corporate travel department taking care of the details for you, b) you care how much elements of the trip cost and c) can accept a seat in coach.

  • Booking airfare– Book air far in advance for the best seat selection. Keep on top of fares by registering flights with AirFareWatchdog (before buying) and Yapta (after). If the price goes down later, a refund or credit for future travel may be possible. Also, reduce travel stress by insisting on a minimum of 2 hours between connections, especially on the return flight to the U.S. If the arrival airport is not your final destination, you’ll need time to recheck luggage and go through security screening again.
  • Periodically check reservations– Once flights are booked and seats assigned, return to the airline website to get a feel for how flights are filling up. You may wish to pay more closer to travel day for an aisle seat. SeatGuru can help with this. Also, be sure reservations have frequent flyer numbers on them to get credit for long flights. Be extra safe by saving boarding passes as proof later that you were on the flight.
  • Know what documentation is required– In addition to a valid U.S passport that expires a minimum of 6 months after your international travel, you may need to satisfy other entry requirements. The U.S Department of State‘s Smart Traveler Program offers all the information needed to enter and experience any given country in the world. Registering travel plans with Smart Traveler brings travel alerts and background information in advance of travel too.
  • Explore communication options in advance– Molding options on a cellphone plan to fit where your destination can make using your cellphone abroad a viable option. On extended trips a new sim card to match your destination might work best, but simply customizing options can work well too. Adding an international data plan, for example, will let you use smartphone apps that can be invaluable navigating foreign soil. Another option is to “Cheat On Your Cellphone Service With Tep Wireless.”
  • Fly in a day in advance of important meetings- Have some plans in place but have the flexibility to spend the first day overseas adjusting to the time difference and getting used to new surroundings. If everything goes well, you may be able to hit the ground running. If a few parts of your travel plan don’t come off as anticipated, all is not lost, just a bit behind schedule.
  • Start focusing on getting plenty of rest and eating right several days before the flight- Unless you’re headed to Canada from New York, most international travel translates to some long flights. Sure, maybe we can’t “bank” sleep but starting a long flight with a full tank of rest is always a good idea. Also see: “How To Deal With Jetlag.”
  • Consider the allowed personal carry-on item your “flight bag”- and have everything that might be needed during the flight in it. Having at hand, under the seat in front of you, is huge and a must-do for all international flights. Also, finish packing (at least preliminarily) a week in advance. That offers the opportunity to be sure critical items are packed and allows time to source those items not packed first time around.
  • Enjoy the experience that international flights can offer in and of itself- Flight attendants or other passengers have wonderful stories to tell that can add a richness to our travels. Engage the world with smartphone apps like HipGeo and FourSquare to share your experience and record your journey step by step. Bringing along the new app TagWhat is almost like having a personal travel guide along for the ride.
  • Know a little of the language- While you’re apt to kick yourself for not knowing more once on the ground, basic words and phrasing is a must. Questions like “How much?” and “Can you help me?” go a long way, along with: “Please,” “Excuse me” and “Thank You.” A smartphone app for translating languages is a good idea.
  • Money matters- Like language, have a good idea of how the local currency converts to dollars, not that you can do anything about that but just so you will have an idea of value and maybe not pay the equivalent of $10 for a Coke. Onanda’s Currency app for iPhone is a good one to have handy. Use a credit card that will work internationally (not all will) and does not charge an extra fee for doing so. Be sure to notify card companies when you will out of the country too, otherwise they may shut you down, thinking your card has been stolen.

There are plenty of other tips for international business travel, including Gadling’s International Travel Tips In 100 Words Or Less, but these have helped me quite a bit and some were hard lessons to learn.

One more: do not forget a power converter. I spent the good part of a day in Venice on my first international business trip, looking for a device that would allow me to stick my U.S. plug into the odd-sized electrical outlets in our hotel. Since the only Italian words I knew were from working at the Olive Garden decades ago, I walked around the city with a hand written note from the hotel desk clerk to help. I assume that note said, “This man wants a power converter,” but it might have said, “Laugh at this silly American,” because most people I presented it to did.

[Flickr image via || UggBoy♥UggGirl || PHOTO || WORLD || TRAVEL ||]

Share your travel deals with friends with Yapta’s Frugal Travel Flaunts

by Katie Hammel on

Yapta, a website that tracks prices and helps you figure out when to book your airfare, has launched a new Facebook application called Frugal Travel Flaunts. When you find a deal on a flight and add it to “my trips”, you can choose to publish it on your Facebook page, alerting all your friends to your great find.

The idea behind the app is pretty solid. How many times have you found out about the amazing low-cost flight a friend found, but too late? Hearing that my friend spent just $300 on a round trip ticket from Chicago to London after she gets back from the trip doesn’t help me take advantage of the same deal. And likewise, I feel bad when friends ask why I didn’t share the news of my cheap fare purchase with them. The Frugal Travel Flaunts application allows you to use social media to alert your friends to good deals and helps you score your own with a few easy clicks.

Yapta will also help you get a credit if a flight you’ve already purchased drops in price. The site will alert you to the fare decrease with a link that sends you to the page on their site with credit info. You can also “flaunt” that on your Facebook page, though I see that as a less useful tool. Sharing news on killer deals is one thing, boasting about refunds is another – there’s a fine line between a flaunt and a taunt.

Yapta alerts travelers of fare drops — over Twitter

by Grant Martin on

Remember Yapta? They’re the scrappy airline website that keeps travelers informed in case their fare drops.

All that you used to have to do was log onto yapta.com, register your itinerary and watch the progress as the site automatically checked your ticket every day to let you know if changes occurred. If the price went down? You’d get an email, book your ticket and everyone would have a beer.

Now, Yapta has added the feature where they’ll Twitter you if your fare drops. Which means that if you have Twitter linked to your mobile phone, you’ll get the note immediately, dive into a cyber cafe, book your ticket on the spot and then get a beer.

But what if you have a web enabled phone and can check your emails on the road? Or what if you don’t use Twitter? Well, in that case it might not be as useful. But for the surprising number of us who do have Twitter SMS messages enabled, this service could save us a bundle. Give it a try at yapta.com.

Get a refund if your flight falls in price

by Jerry Guo on

I posted last week about a bad experience with Kayak. Their chief architect was nice enough to give a helpful response. Anyway, a reader, Sam, then pointed me to Yapta, what he calls “a sexier Kayak.”

We’ve posted about Yapta back in April when they first opened. Unlike Orbitz or Travelocity or Kayak for that matter, it’s not meant to help you find cheap tickets. What it’s good at, aside from centralizing airfare options into one convenient location, is helping you land a refund after you’ve booked your flight if it goes down in price. Apparently most airlines have this secret policy, but they don’t advertise it, and of course, almost no one bothers to look up ticket prices again for a flight they’ve already booked. Until now!

Now it seems after the news of Kayak buying up Sidestep, other travel sites are eyeing Yapta, which is still a fledgling startup. The site’s been fairly successful in the half year it’s been open; a couple weeks ago, they announced a Firefox add-on that makes tracking your purchases that much easier. What you do is input your flight itinerary into Yapta, and they’ll send you an email when it goes down in price. If you don’t think this is a big deal (or big business), just out these stats from a beta trial Yapta did earlier this year. “Yapta found that 34% of purchased tickets became eligible for a refund. The average refund was 16% of the ticket price, or $85. During the beta period that worked out to a total of $28,900 in aggregate potential refunds, or about $100 per beta user,” said the good people at Techcrunch.

The only thing is I’m not sure just how easy or costly it is to get the refund. Newsweek claims that you’ll be charged $100 on most airlines for the flight change.

Yapta: A Travel Site That Really Helps You Save Money

by Willy Volk on

Yapta is a new start-up that should make the lives of travelers easier. Still in beta, the site is scheduled to launch on May 15. Unlike other sites that are basically search engines, Yapta (Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant) is a browser add-on that lets you “bookmark” fares you find. If you see a flight you like, bookmark it: the flight and fare information is stored in your Yapta account. Bookmark several different flight options at different sites, and then compare them with Yapta. If the fare increases or decreases before you make a purchase, Yapta will let you know.

The *coolest* thing about Yapta, though, is that if you make a purchase by clicking through to the airline or travel site from Yapta, they’ll continue to monitor the price. If it falls, they’ll contact you and suggest you contact the airline for a refund or flight coupon, which you’re eligible for thanks to the “guaranteed airfare rule.” All airlines offer these on price drops. Yapta will help by reminding you.

According to TechCrunch, “over the last several months, Yapta found that 34% of purchased tickets became eligible for a refund. The average refund was 16% of the ticket price, or $85.” That’s money in your pocket.

[Via Downloadsquad]