Embarking on a Journey of a Lifetime

Tips & Tricks

Tip 1 – Manage your TSA PreCheck / Global Entry Account

The first tip is also a “lesson learned” – the hard way. It’s important to manage your TSA Trusted Traveler account and renew well in advance. In Pat’s case, his expiry was at the end of February, 2025. In early February (a couple of weeks before the flight), he renewed it for another 4 years. No problem, right?

He didn’t get TSA PreCheck because the return flight of this round-trip reservation was on May 7th. At the time of booking (back in November 2024), his PreCheck only went until February 26th. The round-trip in Hawai’i had TSA PreCheck because the trip was completed before February 26th.

You can renew your Trusted Traveler status starting one year prior to expiry. You also do it online, so there’s really no reason to wait. While you are evaluated for renewal, your existing status stays in effect. So lesson learned – don’t delay in renewing your Trusted Traveler status.

When it comes to deciding between TSA PreCheck and Global Entry, we recommend Global Entry, even if you don’t have plans to travel outside the US. It only costs $30 more for the five year period, but may save you significant time upon re-entry to the US if you do arrive on an international flight.

On a related topic, don’t forget to check your credit cards for a TSA travel benefit. Many travel-related credit cards include a reimbursement benefit for the program. To get reimbursed, just pay the application fee using a card with the benefit – nothing else is required.

Tip 2 – Maximize your Credit Card and Loyalty Programs

Why did we book a round-trip flight on Delta between Detroit and Honolulu, then add a separate round-trip on Hawaiian to take us to the Big Island? It’s about maximizing travel benefits and convenience and flight times.

Cheryl and Pat both have Delta Reserve Amex cards that grant access to the Delta Airport Clubs. The cards aren’t cheap ($650/year), but they include several benefits. The cards include a “Companion Certificate” each year that is essentially a BOGO ticket. Starting in 2025, the eligible destinations included Hawai’i (previously, it was just the contiguous 48). One of the key stipulations, however, is that it has to be a round-trip ticket. We planned to visit the Big Island at the beginning of our trip, but we’ll be staying in Maui at the end of the journey in May. There are many more flight options into / out-of HNL than the other islands, so it made sense to pick HNL as our Delta round-trip. On this trip, the BOGO benefit exceeded the cost of the card.

When it comes to intra-island travel, Hawaiian Air has the most flights (literally, every hour between most of the islands) at reasonable prices. But since you can’t check your luggage straight through, you have to allow sufficient time between scheduled arrival and departure. In our case, we had just under 3 hours. But when our flight from MSP was delayed, we ended up with just under 2 hours. Still plenty of time for us, but don’t book connecting flights on different airlines with too little time to allow for unplanned disruptions.

On our travels, we’ll be staying in a variety of accommodations – everything from name-brand hotels, to VRBOs, to resorts, and boutique hotels. If you have points on Hilton or Marriott, both offer a great benefit that maximizes your point value. If you stay 5 nights and use points, the fifth night is “free” – so a 25% boost.

If you use VRBO or Hotels.com, sign up for the Expedia One Key program for cash rebates that can be applied to future bookings.

Tip 3 – How to Plan a Trip

There are lots of strategies to plan a trip, including buying travel books. We certainly do that, but here our best trip planning strategies:

  1. Talk to people who have gone where you want to go – usually friends, but sometimes “friends of friends”. For our trip to Australia, we spent several hours on a video call with Cheryl’s niece Alexia’s Australia “ex-pat” neighbors to gather their input (thanks Allie and Joh), which was fantastic. We also had dinner with our friends Marie and Bob, who recently traveled to Australia and New Zealand, and they invited their friends Sheila and Rich, who also had just completed a trip to Oz and NZ. We’ve gotten tips from other friends, as well, including Manon and my former colleague, Tom L, who recommended Lizard Island.
  2. Watch YouTube videos – while this can be hit and miss depending on the content creator, we’ve gotten lots of ideas on things to do and see, as well as helpful travel hints.
  3. Buy travel books, especially e-books that you can use while in-country without overloading your luggage. It’s also a great advantage being able to quickly search for a place or a facility.
  4. Be creative and think outside the box – don’t simply assume you have to always fly or always drive between locations. Consider other options, like trains, buses, or ferries. On this tour, we’ll be doing all of those things. Each has its pluses and minuses – planes are fast, but generally expensive, and you don’t get to see much in between locations. Cars offer the most flexibility, but also the most effort / responsibility. Depending on location, they can be very expensive, or a great value. Trains are great because you get to see the countryside and someone else does the driving, but you’re limited to a specific route and time schedule and they can be either affordable or expensive depending on class of service and location. We rarely use bus travel – but will be doing so in NZ (will give our opinion after we complete that leg), but it’s similar to trains, with the advantage of typically being the most affordable option.

Tip 4 – Ultra Long Distance Travel Tips

While we generally referred to this trip as “going to Australia and New Zealand”, we’ll be visiting several other locations. Friends would ask us, “How did you decide to go to Fiji” or “How did you find a cruise from New Zealand to Hawai’i? I didn’t know such things existed.”

Let’s face it, very few people will look forward to a 20+ hour flight or flights to get from the US to Australia. Many years ago, as we had Australia on our wish list, we said we’d try to go “first class” and maybe include a stop in Hawai’i to break up the journey.

But even from Hawai’i, you’re looking at 10+ hours. Getting “lay-flat” seats will cost about $5,000 per person 1-way. That’s when we thought to investigate a Pacific repositioning cruise. After finding several options, we noticed the few ports of call that were available (French Polynesia, Samoa, and Fiji). That planted the seed to investigate traveling to one of those locations by plane. Since they would be shorter flights, it helped reduce the desire for lay-flat beds and ultimately proved to be rather affordable.

What about that repositioning cruise? Well it’s definitely a “slow boat” home (taking 16 days from NZ to Honolulu), but the cost is similar to those lay-flat plane seats. In exchange for the time, we get to visit a couple of places we never expected to see, and we should be able to avoid the massive jet lag that occurs from traversing 12 time zones in a 24 hour period.

Of course, all of this requires the luxury of time and isn’t a valid tip for someone still working a traditional job.

Tip 5 – More on Travel Books

So which travel books are best? Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, but for us, we like / recommend the following:

  1. For trips in Europe, the Rick Steves books are well written and organized. They include self-guided walks in many major and smaller cities, including the ability to download an audio-guided walk in several locations. They tend to be geared toward a “mid-price” or budget traveler, but still full of great ideas and tips. We find the books to be written in a bit more conversational style, vs linking a series of facts/details together for each subject area;
  2. Fodor’s and Frommer’s are both long running “mainstays” in the travel book world, and for good reason. They are well organized and definitely hit the highlights of the top locations within each country or region;
  3. Lonely Planet has become our “must-have” book in recent years. They tend to go the widest in covering locations or sites that most other books don’t mention. They are definitely written for a budget traveler, so their recommendations on lodging and dining can be a bit limited for more “experienced” (i.e. old) travelers like us;
  4. Finally, DK Eyewitness travel books are great for illustrated self-guided walks in many cities, towns, or sites. The book shows a map of the area, shows the route, and calls out the interesting locations to see or notice along the way