Reader J writes in, with the excellent subject line “Sidestepping government buffoonery”:

So I was wondering if you know if it’s possible to get a temporary PO box or a similar thing in order to mail your shampoo, cologne and other liquids to yourself at your destination city ahead of time to make sure you know it’s there before you even step on the plane. Are there such services?

Why yes!

You’ve got a few options, actually, and as long as you’re packing well and not mailing things that violate postal service regulations, then this could be a great way to avoid checked luggage, avoid the theatrics of the TSA war on moisture, and avoid having to buy stuff at your destination, all in one swoop!

There are essentially three options:

1. Your hotel
   Where you stayin’? Call the hotel, ask if they hold mail for guests, and what the restrictions are. In all likelihood, this will be the most convenient and most reliable way for you to receive packages. Tip: Be sure you include “hotel guest” after your name when you address the package.
2. Post office
   The magic words: “Poste restante,” or “general delivery.” Poste restante is an old fashioned mail-pickup service that most countries’ postal services still provide. Mail is addressed to a person, but in lieu of an address for delivery, the mail is sent to a post office branch, where you pick it up. You’ll usually address mail to Name, Poste Restante, the specific name of the post office (usually the main, central office), that branch’s street location, city, postal code, and country. Of course, you need to KNOW the location you’ll be picking it up from beforehand. Check the website of your destination’s postal service before you ship things off. FYI: The USPS’s sparse info page for general delivery is here.
3. American Express
   American Express cardmembers and travelers’ check holders can have mail sent to an American Express Travel Services office anywhere in the world. I took advantage of this once, and it worked great, but it’s been a while (1994). See here to find an office. Call them before sending them mail, and ask if they receive and hold Amex client mail. Not every office will do it.

In all of these cases, underline the addressee’s last name for good measure, or write it in all caps. It can’t hurt to put a statement like “Hold until (date)” on the front of the envelope or package, too.

There may be some restrictions, such as weight. Take New Zealand’s poste restante rules, for example: Packages under 2kg are stored at no charge. Over that weight, and you’ll pay a fee to pick up the goods. Be sure to check with your destination’s post office rules before you ship stuff off poste restante.

Locations holding your mail won’t hold it forever, either. 30 days in the norm, but it’s not universal. (In Mexico, for example, it might only be 10 days.) When in doubt, call ahead.

And even if you mail things to yourself at your destination, be sure you’re not mailing something you’d be upset to lose. Mail can be slow, or can disappear. If you care about the contents, insure.

So the bottom line: Yes, you CAN mail things ahead of time. But at the end of the day, which is the bigger hassle? Dealing with the TSA, or dealing with the post office?

Related:
- Update: TSA compresses 100ml to 3.0 fluid ounces
- Airport Security: TSA Re-Allows Lighters on Board; Non-Flammable Water Still a Threat to Safety
- Rescuing your prohibited carry-on items from the trash
- Japan and China introduce liquid-explosive detectors: Why can’t the US?
- American Express (aff)

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Most travelers head to the airport, check in, and let the airline take care of the rest. That’s not good enough. Especially if anything goes wrong — and things DO go wrong. You need be your own advocate, and you need a game plan, backed up with information and technology.

Here are five ways to get an edge over the more complacent travelers around you:

1) Get serious status reports sent to you in real-time.
While airlines offer e-mail, text message, and automated phone call alerts, which update you on the status of your flight, these updates are often too little and too late. For real status updates, sign up for the alerts feature at FlightStats.com. Their updates are very, very detailed, and you’ll know exactly where you stand.

2) Know your alternatives.
Carry the airline’s timetable, or a list of alternate flights to your destination, which can be downloaded or printed from any airline’s website. This is useful when you try for a rebooking or want to go standby. Let’s say flights are delayed two hours across the board. The previous flight might still be waiting to push back from the gate. Check the timetable you brought with you and make a beeline for that earlier flight. Try to stand by and get out early, instead of waiting for hours for your scheduled itinerary.

BONUS: Don’t forget alternate routings if trying to rebook. Just because you’re scheduled to fly from Raleigh to Los Angeles via Chicago doesn’t mean that’s the only route you can take. (E.g., maybe you can fly via Dallas instead.) Having an electronic timetable is great for this. Ask airline agents about specific route alternatives — they may not look them up if you don’t ask for them by name.

3) Playing contract lawyer can be fun.
Though the rules that govern your ticket aren’t pre-printed on your boarding pass, you’re still bound by them. So bring a copy! Since I usually travel with a laptop, I keep a downloaded copy of the airline’s contract of carriage on the hard drive. The contract includes rules such as compensation for being bumped and the infamous “Rule 240″ that lives on in some contracts, governing the transferability of your itinerary to another airline in case of delay. (Knowing the real reason for delays is useful, too.) I also keep screenshots (or PDFs) of terms & conditions pages related to upgrades, frequent flyer mile redemption, etc., in case anyone gives me a hard time. Know your rights, and exert them. I’ve had to break out that legal mumbo jumbo with airline representatives (and their supervisors) on a few occasions, and with paperwork at the ready, I’ve always won.

4) Pre-program airline phone numbers into your cell phone.
While airlines’ 1-800 numbers are increasingly staffed by unempowered outsourced overseas call center personnel, you may need to call and make a change. Best to have the number at the ready, especially if you’re stuck on the plane.

BONUS: If there are big delays, and long lines of people waiting for a customer service desk, try the self-service kiosks. Often, the machine can help, faster than a call to the 800 number can. If the machine can’t help, there’s sometimes a phone attached, and picking it up connects you to an agent — an agent who, in my experience, has been far more empowered than the average call center employee. I’ve used those phones to get on standby lists and make last-minute itinerary changes, while others stood in a long line at the gate, hoping to make the same change. These kiosk phones work, but most people don’t use them.

BONUS 2: Program this number in, too: 1-877-FLYERS-6 (1-877-359-3776). It’s the Stranded Passengers’ Hotline from the Coalition for Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights. If your plane pulls away from the gate and just sits there ad nauseam, call them and let them know.

5) Check in online, and early
This one should really go without saying, but so many people put it off that it bears repeating. Check in online, and do it as early as you can. The earlier you check in, the less likely you’ll be bumped, and the more likely you’ll be in line for upgrades and clearing standby, if either of those options are in the cards.

BONUS: Check in early even if your flight is delayed. Let’s say your flight is delayed two hours, and you know it’s delayed even before you even head to the airport. Check in before your scheduled departure time, not the rescheduled/delayed time. If you don’t check in by the original time, you’ll still be considered a no-show and could lose your seat. And I recommend against showing up late for a delayed flight. You never know when that 2 hour delay might miraculously turn into a 30-minute delay, leaving you grounded. Don’t laugh, it happens. Better to show up on time and try to stand by for the earlier (delayed) flight.

BONUS 2: Some people mistakenly think you can’t check in online if you have bags to check. That’s not true. Some airports have a bag-drop for those who checked in online, while others make you stand in line. (Just be sure to leave yourself enough time to check the bags.) But checking in early online still has its benefits, no matter if you check bags or carry on.

These tips won’t guarantee that you’ll get where you need to be on time, but you’ll improve your odds.

Related:
- Finding the real reason for delays
- Thanksgiving travel tips
- Breakin’ all the rules
- How to lounge in airports
- Shortcuts through the checkpoints at American airports

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Questions are on the skeptical side — “Is this legitimate?” “Is this a ripoff?” “Is GPX legal?” — so let’s look under the hood.

For starters, yes, this is a legal service, despite the airlines’ rules against selling or bartering frequent flyer miles. Points.com has struck deals with each of the participating airlines, so this is an authorized setting for point exchange, not a back-alley deal or an eBay auction.

The principle is a good one: You’ve got miles in one airline’s account, and you want miles in another. So why not trade with someone who has what you want, and who wants what you’ve got to trade?

I’ll tell you why not: Fees!

GPX is plagued with outrageously high transaction costs, costing you as much to exchange your miles as you’d pay to buy those miles outright from the airline.

Is this any surprise? After all, it’s coming from Points.com, which has long converted miles between programs — with hefty devaluations along the way. And according to their latest financial guidance, people are falling for it. The company “transacted more than 10 billion miles and points” in 2007 alone.

The GPX program is currently in beta, and there aren’t a lot of offers on the bid or the ask. Only five airlines currently participate: Air Canada, Alaska, American, Frontier, and… (wait for it) Icelandair!

Fees vary tremendously depending on the airline, but none of them are small. The outgoing account determines the fee you pay. So exchanging 15,000 American AAdvantage miles into another airline currency will cost you $180.00, while exchanging 15,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles will cost $300.00. PLUS the $6.95 processing fee (currently waived.) Extortionary.

No thanks, Points.com. Your GPX is DOA.

Related:
- The value of frequent flyer miles
- Reader mail: Can I transfer points from one airline to another?
- Travelocity soon to let you book travel using points and miles

George Hobica reports on a nasty practice: Delta, apparently unhappy that some of their passengers had booked cheap tickets on nonstop flights, rebooked those customers onto far less convenient connecting flights. Like cell division, one flight had turned into two.

A friend of Hobica’s bought a New York-Denver nonstop around the holidays for a piddly $138, but…

…a couple of weeks ago, Delta called him and told him he was now on a flight leaving JFK around 6 AM, and he’d have to make a connection both coming and going. Worse, Davis is now flying on regional jets, instead of a big jet.

Naturally, he’s not pleased. There are still seats left on the Delta nonstop, but they’re selling for over $600 RT for Davis’ itinerary. It’s pretty clear what happened here: Delta kicked Davis off of the nonstop, and will now sell seats at a much higher fare than he paid to last minute purchasers.

Before anyone says it: Yes, the Delta contract of carriage (pdf) mentions that schedules are subject to change without notice, but that’s not what happened here. The schedule didn’t change, and the flight wasn’t canceled. Only this one ticket changed. The airline simply rebooked him onto a different itinerary at the same price.

Hobica hypothesizes that the airline is pre-bumping the cheap-seat customers to less convenient flights so they can continue to sell higher-priced tickets on the most desirable nonstop routes. And unfortunately, this is highly plausible.

Note that this isn’t the ranting of some crackpot who can’t tell Delta apart from Skybus. The author is a credible travel writer and the founder of the airfarewatchdog.com fare alert site.

And based on the comments of other readers on his site, the case wasn’t isolated. Several readers report the exact same phenomenon. (Several readers miss the point, too, and rant about schedule changes. Frustrating, too, but not the complaint at hand.)

If this ever happens to you, complain. If that doesn’t work, then escalate.

Related:
- Reader mail: The airline changed its schedule, what are my rights?
- Customer service: the nuclear option

UPDATE, December 4, 2007: None of this is valid anymore. Amtrak, in its infinite wisdom, has reneged on this redemption rates. See update below.

Great news for those with Continental OnePass balances too small to redeem for meaningful awards, but large enough to care about: Amtrak has recently partnered with the Choice Hotels Choice Privileges program, which lets you convert your points — with no loss in value — to a host of other programs. Gary Leff has the scoop.

The way it works: You transfer your points from Continental to Amtrak, which is possible at a 1:1 ratio. (You’ll need to call Continental to initiate the transfer, which must be in increments of 5,000, with a 25,000 mile cap.) You then transfer those Amtrak points to Choice Rewards. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for transferring miles again, since Choice Rewards can be converted to miles — again, with no net loss of value — on Air Canada, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Mexicana, Northwest, United, or USAirways. The options for transferring to Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program are perhaps even more attractive. See Gary’s post. UPDATE: Amtrak now devalues your points by 40% when you transfer to Choice. The transfer is no longer worth doing, in my view. Too much lost value.

Moving miles from one airline to another is a frequent flyer holy grail of sorts, so this is a welcome policy. There are other options for moving miles (see here for the lowdown) but it’s extremely rare to see a 1:1 transfer.

Amtrak’s policies have the habit of going “poof!” and disappearing overnight. Use this transfer option while you can.

Related:
- Reader mail: Can I transfer points from one airline to another?

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Golden Age, Golden Books: Travel back in time through the power of kids’ books
Children’s book protagonist Gordon experiences the magic of 1961 air travel: “Gordon ate steak and baked potatoes and lots of dessert — the things he liked best. ‘Food tastes good when you’re high in the sky,’ he said.” Cut to 2007, and little Gordon is a bitter man who can’t get an upgrade, but insists on calling the flight attendant “stewardess.” (Thanks, Brownlee!)

Sweet spot: Buy tickets in advance, but just not TOO far in advance
FareCompare.com CEO Rick Seaney busts a myth: That buying WAY far in advance is a great way to save money. Rarely true. Instead, the best time to really start shopping is about four months before your flight. One big reason: While most airlines sell tickets up to 11 months in advance, Southwest Airlines only sells tickets 4 to 5 months ahead. And since Southwest has enormous pricing power, their competitors don’t even bother trying to compete.

Your 15 minutes were over 20 minutes ago
Richard Branson never met a camera he didn’t love. Apparently neither did Kyla Ebbert, Southwest’s miniskirt bandit. Branson used Ebbert as a PR prop for Virgin America’s new service to Vegas. Classy. But hey, goofy photos result. Why is Branson dressed like a priest? Oh, screw it. It’s only egging him on.

Ryanair-style airline coming to transatlantic travel
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary plans to start a discount airline that connects Europe and the U.S. It won’t be Ryanair, just a lot like it. Always the opportunist, O’Leary plans to wait until other airlines are in trouble, and then buy their aircraft on the cheap.

Skybus dropping West Coast?
Skybus looks like it might drop its flights to California and Washington, focusing instead on its shorter flights. Maybe that’s a good thing. Do you really want to deal with 29″ of seat pitch for a cross-country flight?

How to cut to the front of the security line
This isn’t advice I want to try out, knowing that the TSA has the habit of compiling dossiers on travelers. But Christopher Soghoian, of fake-boarding-pass generator fame, posts his tip on how to get to the front of the TSA line: Refuse to show ID. Instant supplemental screening (SSSS)! And to those wondering, yes, you can refuse to show ID and still legally fly. Print-and-save (pdf).

Your hard drive is a weapon
Since when are external hard drives a threat to security? Sigh.

If a flight is delayed and it’s not due to weather, you may be due for some compensation, according to the airline’s contract of carriage. But if the delay can be attributed to weather, you’re out of luck. Guess what they’ll try to blame… So how do you find the truth?

Following on Scott McCartney’s review of various flight status services, Gary Leff offers a great, if counterintuitive, tip for finding the real cause of delays: Use the airline’s cargo website.

For some reason, some airlines offer the real reason for flight delays to their cargo customers, but not their passengers. But not all airlines do this. In my experience, United and American cargo sites offer reasons for delays — reasons which may differ from the regular airline site. If you’re delayed, log in and check both the regular and cargo sites to see why. If it’s not weather, print-screen, then start negotiating with the gate agent.

Unfortunately, Northwest, Continental, and Southwest cargo sites don’t seem to give any different info than their passenger sites. Delta and US Airways cargo sites don’t even give flight tracking.

If the cargo route fails you, or if you’re looking for some all-purpose flight tracking, I generally recommend flightstats.com and flightaware.com. Flightstats offers great, detailed information on everything from gate information to runway statistics. Flightaware offers snappy live-updating maps and route information for the actual flight en route, but less practical info for the person actually traveling.

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Reader Sylvia asks:

I have an American Express blue card, but I want to get a different American Express Card that earns hotel points. Do I have to apply for a new card or can I just convert the card I have to the card that earns points?

Sylvia, I assume you’re thinking about the American Express Starwood or Hilton card. (aff) Unfortunately, in the case of American Express, you’ll need to apply for a new card, and then cancel the old one if you want the bonuses. This was confirmed to me over the phone.

The downside: Your credit score gets knocked a couple points for the new application, and depending on the creditor, the age of the account might get reset. (Older credit accounts are better than newly-established ones, for credit score purposes.) With Amex, they will likely keep your original “Member since…” date printed on the card, and not reset that to the new account’s start date, but you’ll likely get a new account number, which is what matters on your credit report.

If you’re deciding between the two Amex hotel programs, take a close look at the card terms to see which suits you better. Obviously, if you stay at one company’s brands more than the other, that creates an incentive. But if you’re brand-agnostic, the Starwood card may be the pick. The Hilton card is free, but the points aren’t very convertible. The Starwood card costs $45 a year (waived the first year), but the points can transfer to a laundry list of airline programs. So you have the airline backup, in case you decide not to use your Starwood points on hotel stays.

But either way you go, you’re going to have to re-apply.

Related:
- Reader mail: What kind of point-earning credit card is best?
- Use a credit card internationally? The banks owe you a refund.
- Reader mail: How can I upgrade flights using American Express?
- American Express Starwood Card (aff)
- American Express Hilton HHonors Card (aff)

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Is it worth paying an extra $20 to get an extra 1000 miles? United has a deal where you pay the fee and get bonus miles. My husband and I are hoping to fly to France next year, and we could use the extra miles. What do you think?

$20 for 1000 miles means two cents per mile… that’s about what miles should be worth. That’s my minimum-value target for cashing in miles, though I try for higher. Most folks get a lot less per mile than that, if they cash in their miles at all.

(See here for a breakdown of how miles are valued.)

United’s offer is a discount to their normal “miles-for-sale” offer, so it’s an upgrade from that. But it’s not really a steal.

A year ago, Northwest Airlines started an identical offer. (They called it “supersizing.”)

My advice: Only pay up for this offer if you KNOW you are about to cash in miles for something, and you’re just shy of the “free” ticket. And use it only — only! — as a last ditch effort to bump up the account. Don’t use it to hoard. It’s not always easy to cash in your points, so you don’t want to just pay money willy-nilly to an airline. And if you’re effectively pre-paying for that “free” ticket. For most people, the offer isn’t worth it.

(gratuitous image of Three Mile Island lamp… Three MILE… get it… har har har…)

Reader Mara writes:

My husband and I are planning on flying to Milan from Houston later this fall using US Airways miles, and I’m wondering what the best option for connections would be. The agent tells me we can connect in Philadelphia, or there are Star Alliance flights we can take with Lufthansa, United, or Austrian. We know from reading your site that London Heathrow is bad for connections, and we would love some advice on where to change planes most conveniently. What should we avoid? Unfortunately there’s no Houston to Milan flight we can take! Thanks!

I applaud your strategizing, Mara, and I think you’re well on your way, simply knowing that Heathrow is a place to avoid. (Don’t believe me? Watch the video.)

There’s no nonstop Houston to Milan, so you’re going to be changing planes for this itinerary. So the question is, as you suggest, where to do it.

My general advice for travel to/from the United States: Try to avoid changing planes upon arriving in the US from overseas. You go through passport control and customs at your port of entry, not your final destination, so you have to claim your bags, possibly submit them to search, re-check those bags for your connection, probably change terminals, and hope you’ve left enough time to make the next flight. Not so in most of Europe: Connections are much, much easier in Europe, with customs inspections at your final destination rather than your entry point.

At the same time, the last thing I want to do after an overnight flight is to get onto another plane. Sure, I’ve done it, and sometimes it’s unavoidable, but my preference is always to have the overnight long-haul end at my destination. On overnight flights, try to arrive at your final destination, instead of at a hub requiring a connection.

So, practically, what does this mean for you? On your flight TO Italy, I would make connections in the U.S. and fly over the Atlantic direct to Milan. On the return, I’d make my connection somewhere in Europe and fly the long haul straight to Houston.

A caveat: These itineraries will usually involve different airlines on either end. That could get pricey for cash-money fares, even with codesharing. Try ITA’s search tool to find the best connections, and to get a sense of prices. Kayak.com may be of help, too, for mixed-airline itineraries.

But you said you’re using frequent flyer miles. Good! This is one of the less-celebrated benefits of the “free” ticket: You can mix your itinerary, with one airline going over and a different alliance member coming back. Use that flexibility to your advantage. And note: You won’t be able to view all the options online. You have to call the airline that you have the miles with — in your case, US Airways.

A quick search on arbitrary dates yields a flight from Houston to Philadelphia, and Philadelphia to Milan (all on US Airways). Coming back, consider Lufthansa from Milan to Frankfurt, and continuing from Frankfurt to Houston. Those flights follow the rules I set out, letting you avoid connections in Europe in the morning after your arrival, and skipping the tense fear that you might not make your connecting flight in the US, once you’ve dealt with Homeland Security’s passport control and customs inspections.

Either way you go, good luck, safe travels, and enjoy Milan!

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1) Flying at the end of the day.
The flights are the last ones of the day heading to our desired destinations (we have a connection). If either of these flights is canceled, we’ll be out of luck.

2) Connecting, instead of flying nonstop.
My wife and I will have the enormous pleasure (groan) of milling about Washington Dulles International Airport this evening, watching the moon buggies cross the airport grounds. Two flights means twice as many opportunities for getting stuck. (Non-stops were available, but at an extortionary premium, or from a distant alternate airport.)

3) Flying at the end of the month.
In this instance, this was impossible to avoid, since the wedding is happening this weekend, and there’s not much we can do about rescheduling other people’s nuptials. But late-in-the-month flights risk cancellation because of pilot shortages. Pilots are only permitted to fly a certain number of hours per month, so if they meet their quotas early on, they’re grounded at the end of the month. The last week of every month gets riskier.

4) Flying in regional jets.
To fly to Dulles, we’ll be sitting in a 50-seat Embraer 145. Not as miserable as the 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet, if you ask me, but no picnic. But putting comfort aside: A 50-seat flight is still more likely to get delayed or cancelled during irregular operations (such as bad weather) because they don’t move as many people around as the Boeings and Airbuses.

Looking for a silver lining? At least 1) we’re not checking bags (though our roll-aboard will be gate-checked on the regional-jet flight, since those RJ’s don’t have overhead bins that amount to anything), 2) we’re earning miles (…which we’ve got in spades), 3) we’re upgraded on the second leg of the trip tonight (a whopping 1-hour flight, but hey, it’s an upgrade), and, most importantly, 4) we’re going to the wedding and celebrating.

Wish us luck.

This is the kind of experiment I wish I had thought of first: The guys at FareCompare decided to put various airline websites’ low-fare guarantees to the test. The results are mixed.

They did it by actually buying a ticket on every airline in their test. (They only included airlines that HAD a guarantee, naturally, so that meant American, Continental, Delta (sort of), Northwest, and United. US Airways, Southwest, AirTran, jetBlue, etc., weren’t included, since they don’t have a guarantee.)

Because FareCompare’s fare alerts — which I have strongly recommended in the past — give you several hours’ advance warning when a fare is about to drop, they knew exactly which tickets to buy. They bought the tickets before the fare drop went live. When the fare went down, they took a screenshot of a lower fare and filed for a refund and/or voucher with the airline.

What they found: Lots of variation. Each airline eventually came through, but the amount of effort required varied greatly. It wasn’t always easy: Some denied refund requests at first, or didn’t respond within 24 hours.

The airlines’ policies vary, too. Most required a $5 difference before considering a refund, but Continental required $10. Most give a cash refund, but United only gives vouchers. Most accept a lower fare published on any site, including their own, while American and Northwest bizarrely exclude lower fares that appear on their own sites. Delta doesn’t have a guarantee, per se, but they’ll refund your ticket within 24 hours.

It’s a great experiment. Go read the whole thing.

Note that FareCompare was testing the airlines’ sites only. Some online travel agencies have guarantees as well. For example, the folks at Peter Greenberg’s site recently had to step in to help a reader enforce Expedia’s guarantee.

In all these cases, it’s up to the customer to proactively search for a lower price within 24 hours. No one is going to volunteer the news that the price has dropped. But if you’re willing to spend the time and effort to check the prices again and wrestle with customer service, you could collect a few bucks.