Flights & Transport

Denied Boarding: Is Your Passport Still Valid After Brexit?

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Update: I got a refund from Easyjet via ADR – see my update below. On Thursday 21 October 2021 I stood at the gate at Manchester Airport waiting to board the 15:45 Easyjet flight to Malaga, Spain. I was with my friend. We were going on a three night trip, coming back on Sunday 24. And we were running through a checklist of requirements for flying: passport, boarding passes, NHS Covid Pass, QR code for entering Spain. I had all of these documents on phone apps and with printed copies in my hand. At home I had a PRC test … Read more

Is Uber Safe to Use: Meet the Faces of Uber

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I’m an Uber user. I’m also a 5ft tall woman who travels around the world solo. And I regularly get asked is Uber safe to use. Worse, I often get told that Uber isn’t safe. Usually by people who’ve never taken an Uber. So, what’s the deal? Is Uber safe to use or not? If Uber’s done one thing, it’s caused controversy. From licensed taxi companies who are spitting foam at the idea of cut price competition to the naysayers who are convinced that every other Uber passenger is going to be subject to rape, robbery or both, Uber seems to … Read more

The Best Travel Backpacks – Tried & Tested

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There are a lot of articles on the internet about the best backpack for travel, so why read this one? Because I travel. A lot. I spent over 6 years as a digital nomad living out of a bag, and for the most part, that bag was one of these backpacks. From epic round-the-world trips to summers in Europe to long-stays in cities and weeks trekking through jungles, I’ve packed and re-packed more times than I can count. And I’ve worked my way through a few backpacks in that time, too. What follows is a guide to choosing a bag together with a … Read more

101 Tips – How To Book Cheap Flights

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tips for cheap flights

I’ve flow from the UK to Paris for €5 (total price), I just booked my flight home for Christmas (New York’s JFK to London Heathrow) for £75 and I’ve recently flown half-way across Colombia for under $50. How? A combination of experience, sheer will and a fair number of flight booking tips and tricks that I’ve picked up over years of booking flights. In this article I’ll share with you my 101 tips for cheap flights. Deciding where to go 1. Be flexible on destination. Sure, you want to spend two weeks at the beach but does it need to be … Read more

Dynamic Pricing: Flight Pricing’s Biggest Scam?

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Sign Complaints Department 300 miles away

Want to know what dynamic pricing is? Want to find out how this discriminatory pricing practice used by airlines, is pushing up the cost of your flights? And, most importantly, want to understand how to beat the system to get cheaper prices? Read on… Once upon a time I was a consumer protection lawyer and although I traded my Blackberry for a backpack nearly four years ago, my interest in consumer protection issues holds strong. So, when I recently tried to book a flight from the USA to Colombia and saw my flight price had increased due to a little known … Read more

Travel hacking in the UK: How To Spend Air Miles

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This is the final article in a four-part series about travel hacking in the UK. Here you will find details about using your air miles but you may also be interested to read: Travel Hacking in the UK 1: Can You Really Fly for Free Travel hacking in the UK 2: Choosing a UK Air Miles Credit Card Travel Hacking in the UK 3: How to Earn Flyer Miles Travel Hacking in the UK: Using Air Miles I have to say right from the outset that, despite a year of travel hacking in the UK, I did not do a good … Read more

Travel Hacking in the UK: How to Earn Air Miles

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This is the third article in a four-part series about travel hacking in the UK. Here you will find details about how to earn flyer miles but you may also be interested to read: Travel Hacking in the UK 1: Can You Really Fly for Free Travel Hacking in the UK 2: Choosing a UK Air Miles Credit Card; Travel Hacking in the UK 4: Using Air Miles. How to Earn Flyer Miles One of the easiest ways to earn flyer miles is by signing up to a dedicated air miles credit card. As well as accumulating miles every time you spend on … Read more

How To Choose a UK Air Miles Credit Card

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This is the second article in a four-part series about travel hacking in the UK. Here you will find details about choosing a UK air miles credit card but you may also be interested to read: Travel Hacking in the UK 1: Can You Really Fly for Free Travel Hacking in the UK 3: How to Earn Flyer Miles Travel Hacking in the UK 4: Using Air Miles Last year, I conducted an experiment – I tried my hand at a bit of travel hacking to see if I could get cheap flights with air miles. You can read about the results in … Read more

Travel Hacking – Can You Really Fly for Free?

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Ever seen those articles that claim that with a bit of travel hacking you can fly for free around the world? I see them a lot, particular from US residents and the sceptic in me wonders whether it really is true that you can get free flights, and, more importantly for me as a UK passport holder, is travel hacking in the UK even remotely possible? Last year, I conducted an experiment – I signed up for a UK air miles credit card, started collecting points and tried to see if I really could travel for free. Read on for … Read more

The Art of Packing Light

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    I vividly remember sitting in the empty shell of my house after the removal men had taken away all but my last possessions. The only items that remained were my bed, which would be collected the next day, and a spare-room full of stuff I’d explicitly told the men not to touch on pain of death. It was September 2010 and that spare-room full of stuff represented the packing shortlist for my year trip around the world. The problem was, I didn’t have the slightest clue how to whittle down the items that filled the room. I looked … Read more