Best Credit Cards for International Travel

We found this article at Yahoo Travel

What's the Best Credit Card for International Travel?

By Stephen Vanderpool, NerdWallet

The best credit cards for international travel typically share a few common qualities. They offer high rewards and substantial signup bonuses and waive their foreign transaction fees. High rewards and signup bonuses are characteristic of any quality rewards credit card, but the foreign transaction fee is specific to international travelers and a crucial item to consider when applying for a travel card. Usually, foreign transaction fees are an extra 3% charge on every out-of-country purchase (sometimes you'll see 2.7% as well). If you do a fair amount of traveling abroad, you'll save a lot of money by equipping yourself with a card that waives the "f/x fee," as it is sometimes abbreviated.

Here are NerdWallet's top picks for the best credit cards for international travel.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card
One of our perennial favorites, the Chase Sapphire Preferred has earned a reputation for offering a massive signup bonus. Currently, the bonus is 40,000 points when you spend $3,000 in the first three months. Typically, 40,000 points equates to $400 in rewards. However, by redeeming for travel booked through Chase, your points are worth 25% more. The full value of the bonus stands at a whopping $500.

Ongoing rewards accumulate at a 1-point-per-dollar base rate, with double miles on travel and dining at restaurants. Unlike most cards, 1 point per dollar is not equal to a 1% rewards rate in this instance. You have to take into consideration the redemption bonus for booking travel with Chase and the annual rewards dividend. The rewards dividend gives cardholders a bonus sum equivalent to 7% of the points earned over the course of the year. If, for example, you earn 100,000 points in a 12-month span, you'll receive an additional 7,000 points at the end of the year. Including those two factors in our calculation, the base rewards rate can be as high as 1.34%.

Miles earned with the Sapphire can be transferred to some of the leading travel loyalty programs at a 1:1 conversion rate. The programs include those run by Amtrak, British Airways, United Air Lines, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott, and Southwest Airlines. There is no foreign transaction fee, and the annual fee is $95 (waived the first year).

Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard
The Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard is the best travel card for long-term value. It has no foreign transaction fee and comes with a free subscription to travel-organizer service TripIt Pro, but the real draw is in its long-term rewards rate. It earns 2 miles on every $1 spent, much like the Capital One Venture Rewards, but it does one better: If you redeem your miles for a statement credit against travel expenses, you get 10% of your miles credited back to your account. So if you use your Barclays miles to wipe out gas, hotels, airfare, and so on, your rewards rate is essentially 2.2%. That's on top of the 40,000 Barclaycard Miles signup bonus, which is also worth 10% more when redeemed for travel. Its $89 annual fee is waived the first year.

If you're a rewards hacker and can get great value out of, say, a United mile or Marriott point, you're better off with the Sapphire Preferred, which lets you transfer to other programs. However, if you're like me and would rather not cobble together an itinerary to get the most value out of my points, you'll prefer the simplicity of the Arrival.

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Card
I know what you're thinking: Whoa, now, Southwest is a domestic carrier! They can't take me to Europe! And how am I supposed to go on my annual hike through the Himalayas?

Turns out Southwest has a few tricks up its sleeve. Yes, the airline flies only to destinations in North America. But the Southwest credit card uses partners to offer free flights to destinations around the globe. You can go anywhere your wandering heart desires!

Right now, Southwest is offering a killer signup bonus. When you spend $2,000 in the first three months, you get 50,000 points good for two round-trip domestic flights. That's hard to beat. Ongoing rewards accumulate at 1 point per dollar spent, with double miles on purchases with Southwest, AirTran, and Rapid Rewards hotel and car-rental partners.

Again, there is no foreign transaction fee, saving you 3% on every out-of-country purchase. The annual fee is $99, but that's offset by the annual 6,000 anniversary bonus points (worth $100 of "Wanna Get Away" fare). Essentially, then, the card has no annual fee.

United MileagePlus Explorer
This is a pretty cool airline-branded card. It has a lot of neat features that frequent travelers will adore. Let's start with the signup bonus. At 30,000 miles, you have enough to pay a free round-trip domestic flight. To get the bonus, you'll have to charge $1,000 within the first three months -- pretty doable for most consumers. Ongoing rewards accumulate at 1% on all charges, plus double miles for purchases made with United.

A big draw of the MileagePlus Explorer is the multitude of fringe perks. For starters, your first checked bag on every flight is free, saving up to $100 on every round trip. You also get priority boarding, two free passes to the United Club every year, and primary rental-car insurance. Not a bad collection of bonus benefits.

In addition, you can redeem miles for flights to a vast number of destinations. You aren't limited to earning flights with United. Points can be redeemed with any of the Star Alliance, which includes US Airways, Air China, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and many more. The annual fee is a little steep at $95, but it's waived the first year, and your rewards should easily make up for it.

No matter what credit card you’re traveling with, Excelsior Limousine is happy to be your ground transportation. Need a Town Car, Limousine or SUV? We’re there!  Bon Voyage!

Free Museum Day Sept. 28

From Budget Travel:

Museums all over the country will open their doors for free on Saturday, Sept. 28th, thanks to Smithsonian Magazine's ninth annual Museum Day Live.

While Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian museums are always open to the public, more than 1,400 other museums and cultural institutions are following their lead, at least for one day.

To get the free tickets visit www.smithsonianmag.com to see what museums are participating near you. Only two free tickets are allowed per household and do not include extra charges for special exhibits like IMAX showings.

Excelsior Limousine is happy to provide ground transportation to and from any museum you’d like to visit. We have town cars for 1-3 passengers and SUVs for up to 6 passengers. Field trip anyone?

Hope for Bob Hope Airport

On September 16, 2013, at 6:15 pm the Bob Hope Airport will host a public workshop focusing on the current terminal and the initial vision for a replacement terminal. It will be held in the Airport Skyroom (Terminal A, second floor); validated parking in the Parking Structure will be provided. The City of Burbank and the Burbank Bob Hop Airport have been working together with the community to create the vision for the Burbank Bob Hope Airport and its aging terminal. It is 83- years old! According to the Federal Aviation Administration the terminal is too close to the runways to meet current safety regulations and does not meet current earthquake standards. Yikes! It also lacks many of the amenities available in more modern terminals. We at Excelsior Limousine love driving our clients to and from Bob Hope Airport and support its remodel. If you cannot make it to the meeting but would like to express your questions, comments or concerns on the future of Burbank Bob Hope Airport visit the City-Airport Visioning Process page on the Airport's website.

Last Minute Trip Planning

At Excelsior Limousine we’re always on the lookout for anything that makes travel easier. We found this article at budgettravel.com

6 Great Apps For Last-Minute Trip Planning

Roadside America
Looking for the perfect oddball roadside attractions to visit during your next road trip? The Roadside America app offers maps, in-depth descriptions, and directions to help you find more than 9,000 silly spots around the U.S. and Canada including strange monuments, quirky museums, and other off-the-beaten-path local attractions and tourist traps you may have missed otherwise. Keep track of which ones you've visited, see what's coming down the road as you drive, and share the fun with your friends back home, all within the app. Available in the App Store; pay $2.99 for one of seven available regions—additional regions can be purchased a la carte for $1.99 each, or opt to pay $5.99 for all seven regions throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Triposo
Designed to be the go-to travel app for those who love to plan ahead and travelers who like to see where the road will take them, Triposo offers detailed maps, recommendations, and real-time travel advice (for instance, information about museum closings) for more that 15,000 places of interest in more than 200 countries. The best part: both the app and Triposo's downloadable Destination Guides also work offline, so you don't have to worry about tracking down WiFi on the road. Available for free in the App Store and Google Play.

CheapOair
Do you prefer to make last-minute travel plans or book flights as you go? CheapOair's app lets you view your past bookings, upcoming trips, and make new reservations for flights on more than 450 airlines worldwide. You can also get up to date information on currency conversion rates, choose your meal and seat preferences for flights, and have access to their 24/7 customer service department throughout the entire trip, just in case. Available for free in the App Store, Google Play, for WIndows 7 and 8, and on Amazon.

TripIt
Tired of having to dig through all your emails and text messages to find an airline, hotel, or car rental confirmation number? TripIt is here to help. Simply forward all your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and the app will automatically sort through and organize all your travel plans, presenting them all in a single itinerary so you can keep track of things and share your plans with friends and family back home. Available for free in the App Store, Google Play, for WIndows Phone 7, for Blackberry, and online.

GetPacked: Packing List
Never forget an important item again with GetPacked, the ultimate packing list. Designed to be like a checklist, the app aims to save you time and money on your next trip, helping you figure out exactly what you'll need on your vacation—and what you won't—by asking questions about where you're traveling and the type of trip you're taking so it can create a customized list for you to check off items as you pack. Available for $1.99 in the App Store.

Scout (formerly known as Goby)
Not only does Scout help you discover nearby restaurants, live music, movies, and other things to do over the weekend, the app also gives you tips on where to find the cheapest gas stations and uses GPS street-level technology in real-time to determine the best available routes and help you avoid traffic jams. Available for free in the App Store and Google Play.

 

Excelsior Limousine is here for you for any of your ground transportation needs. Town Cars, SUVs, Limousines, Etc.

 

Another Airline Fee?

We at Excelsior Limousine often marvel at the fees airlines are adding on to fares. Some fees seem worth it. For example: More leg room for a price. Others we’re not so sure about. Read below.

Airlines offer no-crying sections

Seating devoid of screaming babies — for a fee

By Catey Hill

Airplane seats are only slightly more pleasant than dentist’s chairs: There’s no elbow room, your knees end up pressed against your chest, and someone inevitably opens a tub of steaming, stinky food. And then the real kicker: An infant, expressing on the outside how everyone else feels on the inside, starts to scream. Back when smoking was still allowed on flights, fresh air could be found in the nonsmoking section. And on at least a couple of airlines, similar sanctuary can be found from babies in a non-crying section — for a fee.

Scoot Airlines — a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines — announced that it will let passengers pay about $14 to sit in a “child-free” zone. Children under the age of 12 are banned from sitting in this “ScootinSilence” area, which will span rows 21 to 25 on its flights. This area also offers a few inches of more legroom. Scoot offers flights to Singapore (its hub), Sydney, the Gold Coast, Seoul and Nanjing.

The airline joins Air Asia X, which also offers child-free zones. Air Asia X launched its “quiet zone” in February. Children under 12 aren't allowed to sit in this zone, which is composed of rows 7 - 14 in the premium cabin on some of its flights to Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Nepal and Korea.

Many travel experts and consumers say there is demand for “child-free” zones. “Most Americans are used to being able to buy certain kinds of seats,” says Michelle Weller, the vice president of sales and customer support for travel agency Travel Leaders in Houston. “Some would pay extra for child-free areas.” Kim Reicherter-Specht, a travel agent with New York-based Tzell Travel, says that business travelers in particular would pay for child-free zones, up to about $25. “I am constantly having discussions with my clients about kids on a plane and how they can be annoying,” she says. “Business travelers use Wi-Fi on the planes, they are working, they don’t want to be bothered.” Some consumers sing a similar tune: Atlanta resident Marissa Joyce says she’d pay $50 or more to sit in a child-free zone.

However, Anne Banas, the executive editor at consumer travel site SmarterTravel.com, says that while a lot of consumers like to talk about how annoying children are on planes, there probably isn’t going to be a ton of demand for this — and it could alienate many families and make it even harder for them to travel. Plus, “even if you have a child-free section, you can probably still hear kids crying from another part of the plane,” she says. “You could be spending extra money for not that much benefit.”

Experts are mixed on whether U.S. airlines will adopt something like this. Carriers will often consider new ideas that might make them money and enhance the customer experience, says Weller. “Some business travelers would opt for an airline that offers child-free zones over another airline.” Banas says she thinks that most larger U.S. airlines won’t adopt child-free zones, but that smaller ones like Spirit which she says often pioneers ancillary fees and puts out unusual promotions — might. (Spirit and Delta could not be reached by press time; American Airlines and Southwest say they have no plans to offer a child-free zone on their planes.) And if an airline does adopt this, they can expect some backlash, says Reicherter-Specht. In U.S. culture, “children are very highly revered by their parents,” she says. “It could be a big PR issue for airlines with people saying ‘I won’t fly this airline because of this.’”

 

We found this article on Aug. 24, 2013 at Yahoo News

 

PS: Excelsior Limousine chauffeurs, driving our town cars, SUVs and limousines have been known to cruise so smoothly that they lull the fussiest of babies to sleep.

Not Lost in Translation

We found this at article at budgettravel.com

If you've ever traveled abroad, you've done it. The improvised sign language and Hokey Pokey-esque gyrations in an attempt to buy a souvenir at a market or find a bathroom. Becoming fluent in a foreign language isn't really feasible for a one-week vacation, but what can you do to avoid embarrassing yourself? We spoke to language expert Benny Lewis, who runs the website Fluentin3Months.com, and asked him for his top advice for navigating a foreign language. Making mistakes is inevitable, but it's easier than you think to navigate a vacation without getting lost in translation. Even Lewis (who, by the way, is fluent in eight languages, including Portuguese, French, German, and Italian) has had some doozies, including accidentally announcing to a German friend that he was horny and telling a Mexican that he liked to shag the bus every day. (On that note, did you know that embarazada means "pregnant," not "embarrassed" en español?) Do something similar and you'll want to zip yourself into your own suitcase and never come out. Follow his easy tips and you'll never be embarrassed again.

Etiquette Goes a Long Way

Good manners are universal. If you're quick with basics like "hello," "thank you," and "you're welcome," people tend to be more gracious as you flub the rest of their native tongue. One of the best things you can do is to research etiquette expectations before you travel. In Paris, for example, call out "bonjour!" when you enter a shop; in the Middle East, don't admire an object in Arabic unless you want its owner to feel obligated to give it to you. For a primer on local politesse, look up the BBC's fabulous language-learning website with its quick guides to 40 different languages, including lists and audio clips of what not to say in French, Spanish, and Italian.

Learn These Five Phrases

The first thing Lewis does when he hits a foreign country is to learn these key phrases: "Where's the bathroom?"; "How much does that cost?"; "Excuse me"; "The food is delicious!"; and "Do you speak English?" "When you're starting off, grammar is not going to help you," Lewis says. "You need to set phrases so you can communicate the basics to people." Tuck a phrasebook into your bag so you can whip it out on the fly, or download a digital version with audio that tells you just how to pronounce "Where's the bullfight?"

Listen to Pronunciation Before You Go

Nothing gets you the "huh?" expression faster than mispronouncing a foreign word. To get a better sense of how things should sound, check in at Forvo.com, an online dictionary with audio pronunciation. Lewis also likes RhinoSpike.com, where you can upload text and a native speaker will read it out loud and submit a recording for you. How long it takes to get a response depends on how many requests there are for the language you are trying to hear (you can move your request up the queue by recording text for other users).  

Two Proven Tricks for Remembering Words

Visualize words. "I'm a very forgetful person," Lewis confesses, so he relies on old-school memory tricks like creating mental images to match words he's learning. For instance, the word playa, Spanish for "beach," reminded him of "player," so he envisioned a guy using cheesy pick-up lines on the beach. To remember prvni, the Czech word for "first," he broke it down into the sounds "pro van," then visualized winning first place at the Van Olympics. The mental images are bizarre, but you will never forget them! You can also try setting phrases to music. You know how you can still sing all the words to that Depeche Mode song from sixth grade? Music is a world-class memory aid, so put it to use while you nail a few foreign language phrases. To cram "Where is the bathroom?" in Italian, Lewis sang "Dov'è il bagno?" to the ding-dong ditty of the Big Ben chimes. "After a couple times it stuck," he says.

How Technology Can Help

Technology is a godsend for those trying to get by in a new language. Word Lens allows you to hover your phone over text to get an instant translation, even when it's offline. Google Goggles allow for point-and-shoot translation with your camera phone: Just snap a photo from a baffling menu and the app provides on-the-spot translation. Use the Jibbigo app to get a rough voice translation for whatever phrase a waiter or a shop owner says into your phone. The concept of old-school flashcards has also gone digital. "I'm a very big fan of Anki, a spaced-repetition flashcard system you can download onto your smartphone," says Lewis. Anki's algorithm figures out which words are hardest for you-and shows you those more often. You can download premade flashcards decks with the most common words in a language, or make your own with words you see around town. (No worries if you're a tech-phobe: paper index cards do the trick, too.)

The One Expert You Can Always Rely On

When the DIY approach to getting by in a foreign language fails, consult the concierge or desk clerk at your hotel for translations and phonetic pronunciations of stuff you'll need to say that day, such as, "Can I get a ticket to the 7 o'clock performance?" The staff at hotels usually speak multiple languages—and are happy to help.

 

Planning an international trip? Excelsior Limousine is happy to provide your ground transportation to LAX and nearby airports

Airplane Boarding--Ask An Astrophysicist

We found this article at Yahoo News. We relate. 

DALLAS (AP) — Getting people on and off an airplane quickly is so complicated that even an astrophysicist couldn't figure it out.

The astrophysicist, Jason Steffen of the University of Illinois, normally contemplates things such as axion-like particles. But after waiting in one boarding line too many, he turned to the mysteries of airline seating.

"I thought there had to be a better way," he says.

So, after a series of calculations, he deduced that the best system would be a combination of filling window seats first, then middle and aisle ones, while also spacing the boarding passengers two rows apart.

There was just one problem — passengers would have to board in precise order. Good luck with that. These are the same passengers who don't turn off their phones even after they're told it's a federal law.

"Well," Steffen observes, "I understand why airline people aren't calling me."

But the search for the perfect boarding process goes on.

Most airlines allow first-class and other elite customers to board first. After that, some fill the rear rows first and work toward the front.

Others fill window seats and work in toward the aisle. Some used to employ a hybrid called the reverse-pyramid. Southwest Airlines has random seating: There are no assigned seats — passengers sort things out themselves. They can pay extra to be near the front of the boarding line.

All of this matters more than you might think.

Passengers want to board early to find space in the overhead bins for their rolling carry-on bags. For airlines, every minute that a plane sits at the gate makes it more likely that the flight will be late, hurting the carrier's on-time rating and causing passengers to miss connecting flights.

There's an economic cost to running late too. Researchers from Northern Illinois University say that at one major airline, which they didn't identify, every extra minute at the gate added $30 in costs.

American Airlines, which uses a back-to-front system for boarding coach passengers after it takes care of elite customers, says that it takes about 25 minutes to board passengers on a smaller, narrow-body plane such as a Boeing 737 and about 35 minutes on a bigger plane such as a Boeing 777.

In recent weeks, United and American — the nation's biggest and third-biggest carriers — have rolled out new strategies for faster boarding.

— American is letting passengers board sooner if they don't put anything in the overhead bins. The idea is to get more people seated quickly before passengers with rolling bags clog the aisle.

— United reduced the number of boarding groups from seven to five while adding lanes in gate areas — from two to five at big airports. That's designed to eliminate "gate lice" — the name road warriors use for those anxious passengers with big carry-ons who cause a traffic jam by creeping forward long before their group is called.

American and United tested their new procedures in a handful of airports before rolling them out across the country in time for the peak summer travel season. United CEO Jeff Smisek says his airline's new method has helped cut boarding-related departure delays by more than 60 percent.

Boarding methods go back to the dawn of commercial flight, but they've gotten more complicated as the airlines have created different classes of passengers and sold the right to board early.

Since 2008, most large airlines have imposed fees for checking a bag, which encourages passengers to carry more on board. At the same time, airlines have reduced flights to control costs, making planes more crowded. The result: Space in the overhead bins has never been more valuable.

Recognizing the potential value in that coveted real estate, Spirit Airlines began charging for stowing a bag in the overhead three years ago — the fee now runs up to $100.

Spirit says the fee speeds up boarding by cutting down the number of carry-on bags. The big airlines haven't copied Spirit for fear of angering customers. They've looked for other ways to improve boarding.

In May, American began offering early boarding to passengers with just a personal item that fits under the seat. In a test at several airports, it cut boarding by two minutes per flight, according to Kevin Doeksen, the airline's director of customer planning. With about 1,900 flights per day on American, that adds up.

What's to stop a passenger from moving up in line by promising to put a personal item under the seat, then stuffing it in the overhead bin anyway?

"It would be a lie to say that never happens," says Tessa Letren, an American gate agent at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. "We can't always police that."

Still, Letren supports the new policy, which she says cuts the amount of time that planes spend on the ground between flights.

Before the 2010 merger of United and Continental airlines, United used the inside-out method of boarding — window seats first, then middle, then aisle — while Continental went back-to-front. After much testing, the combined airline kept the United approach. Earlier this year, United set up additional boarding lines in the terminals to attack congestion in the gate area.

The back-to-front system, still used by many airlines, seems logical. But some studies have shown that it's slower than windows-middle-aisle.

"If you're on the aisle and somebody sitting next to you in the middle seat shows up, you need to unbuckle and maybe get up," says Ken Bostock, United's managing director of customer experience. "That can take 20, 25 seconds, and that happens a lot during the boarding process."

Lou Agudo, a United gate agent who worked at Continental before the merger, says boarding by rows practically invited confusion. Just when he thought everyone in Group 2 had gone through, and he called Group 3 to start, "Twenty people would walk up and say they didn't hear the announcement." Some had missed the call for their group, while others decided to get in line no matter what, he says. The extra lanes have made his job easier.

Anything to tidy up the gate area will help, in the view of Yosief Ghirmai, an auditor for defense contractor Raytheon Co. in Frisco, Texas, who says foreign airlines make boarding much easier for elite-level frequent fliers like himself.

"The international airlines respect the priority boarding system," Ghirmai says, citing Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific as an example. "Here, you have to fight to get to the priority boarding line — all the bags, all the kids. The concept (in the U.S.) is the same, but the execution is much better over there."

Selita Garcia of Chicago wondered why anybody in the front of the plane would want to board first.

"We're always bumping into all those business-class people — if it's not my purse, then I'm hitting them with my bag," says Garcia, who manages a doctor's office and was taking her grandson to vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, recently. "Why let them on first? The plane is not taking off until everybody is on the plane."

Others like to get settled before takeoff.

Kausalya Palavesam, a marketing manager for Texas Instruments who was coming back from a conference in Atlanta, says about 15 passengers on her American flight took the airline's offer to check their carry-on bags at the gate and board sooner.

"Why not?" she says. "There won't be room for the bag (in the overhead bin) anyway."

 

By David Koenig

 

PS: At Excelsior Limousine you're always first in line and there is always plenty of room for your carry-on luggage. :) Check out our Yelp reviews. We have five stars!