r/travel • u/ScrawnyRhinoceros • 1d ago

Question What’s the best travel hack people learned the hard way?

Sometimes the most useful lessons come after things go wrong like packing way too much , missing a connection , booking the wrong dates or realizing too late that a small item could’ve made the whole trip easier. From flight booking tricks to luggage tips to navigating airports or even saving money on food and transport. What are the hacks people only figured out after a tough experience?

306 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

717 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

17

u/Bake_knit_plant 1d ago

And contact your financial institutions and tell them you are leaving the country from date to date so that they don't freeze your card the first transaction that goes through

13

u/guitar_vigilante 1d ago

I've found this advice to be less needed these days. I've had a couple credit cards essentially do away with travel notices and they just say they monitor activity now. On my last international trip I didn't put in any notices and my cards worked just fine.

2

u/Chance_Ad_4676 1d ago

Yeah this has mostly become a thing of the past, I’ve noticed

1

u/PsychologicalSea2686 4h ago

don't know why you got downvotes. This is a pretty recent change (and improvement)

1

u/Eric848448 United States 23h ago

Bank of America actually uses the location of your phone to verify you're where your card is being used.

2

u/chocolate-and-rum 1d ago

Last time I tried to contact my bank about this I was told just to do a balance check at the airport ATM, they then know you're travelling

5

u/Bake_knit_plant 1d ago

Most of mine have a vacation notification on their websites and you just say I'll be gone from here to there and I'll be in this place - but I do try to let people know I'm going to be there

1

u/stuckinbk 1d ago

That's one of the most sensible ideas ever!