Actually it isn’t a bad plan, you sell more tickets than you have seats and if someone doesn’t show up you either get ticket change fees (if it was planned) or you get to keep the full price of the ticket (in the case of a no show).  If everyone does show up its still not a problem because you can just “Bump” some of those passengers to another flight.

What is bumping?

Bumping occurs when a flight is oversold and everyone shows up ready to take to the air.  Since airplanes don’t have a standing room only seating plan, not everyone can board.  Those passengers who are denied the ability to board the flight are considered “bumped”.

The good news is the Department of Transportation requires airlines to first take volunteers before involuntarily changing passengers flights.  Now, before you start asking why anyone would volunteer to delay their vacation because of some stupid greed inspired airline policy; simply put, volunteers get hooked up.  Free flights, meal vouchers, first-class upgrades and more are often dangled as a carrot to entice passengers to volunteer.

This of course has prompted some travelers to use bumping practices to their advantage.  I have been bumped a few times but never as a matter of strategy, however that may be changing in the future.  If you are someone who wants to use “bumping” to your benefit here are a few tips.

Tips for getting bumped

Although most instances of bumping occur because you just happen to stumble into the right situation, there are things you can do to increase your chances:

Figure out which flights are most frequently overbooked – There is a certain flight I know about which goes to a cruise port that is always overbooked with business travelers.  Once you find one of those flights you are golden.   Over-booked flights tend to be those frequented by business travelers, pre and post flight holiday flights, and your most popular flights (especially non-stop flights).

Arrive Early - You will want to arrive early because if you arrive after boarding begins consider yourself bumped, sans perks; this is considered forfeiting your confirmation. Usually airlines want you to arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled departure any arrivals after that can be bumped without any sort of compensation heading your way.

Make friends with the gate attendants – A friendly smile and polite word will often get you very far.  When you arrive at the gate, approach the gate attendants and politely introduce yourself. Let it be known to the attendants that you would be willing to volunteer if the flight is overbooked and stay within earshot.

Evaluate the payoff – Any time I have been “bumped” I ended up getting (generous) free meal vouchers and a free flight to anywhere in the Continental United States (no blackout dates); my delays were between 2 and 4 hours.  Perks aren’t always the same so make sure you understand what you are getting before you give up your seat on the plane.

If the package they are offering isn’t sweet enough feel free to ask for more; you never know until you ask.  The bulk of your compensation will almost always be in the form of another ticket; you should always ask about the restrictions on this ticket.  How long is the ticket or voucher good for? Are there any blackout periods where you won’t be able to use this ticket? Can this ticket be used for international flights?

While I do understand this practice isn’t for everyone, I figured I would just float this out there for those who don’t mind being a bit more flexible in their travel plans.  The main thing you have to take into account is how important it is for you to get where you are supposed to be at the time you are supposed to be there.  If you are able to take advantage of “bumping” it could be quite a boon.

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About a month ago I was on messenger having a conversation with someone trying to explain how to book a cruise and they said that I should write some sort of guide, well that’s exactly what I did.  Now I’ve never sat down and attempted to write anything liek this  so this task was indeed a daunting task but I figured since I get asked that question so much I might as well sit down and put pen to paper to see what I could come up with.  So, without further ado here is my first attempt at designing and writing an guide.

Those of you who already signed up have been sent the download link.  Anyone who wants to receive this guide just needs to sign up for the newsletter mailing list.

After you hit the submit button you will receive an email containing a link that you have to click on to confirm that you want to sign up for the mailing list.  Once that link is clicked you will receive the welcome letter that has the download link at the bottom of the email.

Click that link to download the guidebook

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Pros

• Don’t have to pack snorkel gear – airlines are tacking on more and more fees so the less I pack the better off I will be.
• Don’t have to carry around snorkel gear – I don’t have to worry about lugging any gear around to any of the places I go before I snorkel. Also don’t have to worry about carrying anything around after I am done snorkeling.
• Allows my plans to be more spur of the moment – I can decide based on the flow of the day whether or not I want to go snorkeling.

Cons

• Who knows where those things have been – although they claim to disinfect all of the snorkel gear that is used, does their definition of disinfect match mine?
• The costs associated with renting snorkel gear – getting gear for 10 dollars a person is about average in the Caribbean but those costs can add up quickly.
• Condition of the gear – not all but some of the gear you encounter while renting at the beach was probably purchased about the same time I was being born. Its not always in the best condition.

Since I usually go snorkeling a couple of times per cruise and I usually cruise multiple times each year I decided it was in my best interest to just purchase equipment. At a cost of 10 dollars each rental I figured if I stuck within a budget I would break even after just two or three cruises. For a cost of about 40 dollars I would have my own set of brand new, cootie free equipment. Besides each time I travel I pack less and less so space wouldn’t be a concern.

When I decided to search for equipment I had no idea what I was looking for so I went to Amazon.com and did a bit of research.  Of course I went to the user reviews and picked out a set that had a good rating, it was that simple.  I decided to go with this set of snorkel gear since it had really good reviews and was by far the highest rated set of gear on the website. I also decided I would buy a bag to carry my gear in this is the snorkel bag I decided to purchase.  I basically chose it because of the affordability and the fact that it had a shoulder strap.  All together I spent less than 40 dollars for a mask, breathing tube, flippers and a bag.  So, if you are looking for some beginner gear it will do the trick for you.

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Over the last few months it has been reported that Carnival has been cracking down on the ability to sneak alcohol on-board its cruise ships. Luckily, one of the best things about cruising out of Puerto Rico is the security never seems to care about how much booze you brought on-board the ship. In fact, the duty free shop in the cruise terminal always advertised that you could bring whatever you bought there onto the ship.

The Carnival policy on alcohol was officially the same for all cruises but the rules just seemed to be different when cruising out of San Juan. Much to my dismay, this is no longer the case. Nowadays the duty free makes it a point to inform passengers of the two wine bottle per stateroom limit. Of course I wasn’t about to let some little disclaimer keep me from having my free in-cabin booze.

A Tale of Two Smugglers (My Story)

When I departed from the Philadelphia airport I was prepared and had already packed a Rum Runner full of vodka as well as a box of wine in my checked luggage. I had read that Carnival had taken to searching checked luggage and at one point had requested that passengers not lock their luggage (yeah right). So, of course I locked my luggage figuring that if they wanted to check my bags they could always saw of the locks at the risk of pissing off a valued customer (of course they didn’t). My checked luggage arrived at my room a couple of hours after boarding with both the rum runner and box o’ wine still intact.

At the duty free I had purchased two bottles of Sangria. The guy who bottles the stuff was in the store and since he was a pretty nice guy, I felt compelled to throw a little business his way. Well, it was that and the fact that I drank about a half bottles worth of samples. I also saw a bottle of absinthe in the duty free and since I had heard of the stuff but never seen it at my liquor store I figured I would buy a bottle to bring home. I knew I wouldn’t be able to bring it on the ship and since I already had enough stateroom booze I figured I would do the right thing check it in.

When we approach the security scanner I inform the guard that I have a bottle of liquor that I want to check in. Instead of marking the bag with a red tag (which I read was the procedure) she just said, “okay the table is that way” and sent me on my way. So, I approached the table and then kept on walking, no one said a word. Had she marked my bag I wouldn’t have cut off or hidden the tag but since she took the lazy way out I just kept on walking, you never know when a party may break out in your cabin in which case a bottle of absinthe may come in handy.

A Tale of Two Smugglers (Their Story)

Later on that evening we were sat at a table with another couple and they asked us if we brought any alcohol on-board the ship. We told them our story and then they told us theirs. It seems that security took a much different approach to them having alcohol. I was told that not only was a red tag placed on the bag containing their liquor, but security had also radioed ahead with a description of what they looked like and what they were wearing just in case the tag was removed. In other words Carnival was not playing around.

What I Think Happened

I don’t really have a concrete explanation for why our two smuggling experiences were so different but I do have a few ideas. We arrived at the terminal pretty early, in fact I would guess there were no more than 50 passengers who boarded prior to our arrival. The other couple didn’t arrive at the terminal until a few hours later in the day. It could be they just weren’t prepared when we got there. The other theory I have is since I was bright eyed and bushy tailed (I flew in the previous day) and greeted the security lady with a huge smile and an honest confession she didn’t feel the need to mark my bag. Since I had volunteered the information about the booze before they even scanned my bag she had no reason to think I would bypass the table. My last theory is that since we were at the beginning of a line about 500 cruisers deep they felt too rushed to mark all the bags and couldn’t keep things flowing if they had radioed ahead for every instance of smuggling.

What this means for future Puerto Rico booze smuggling

While I will probably never stop carrying booze on-board, I will probably stick to Rum Runner, box o’ wine combo which seems to be fairly foolproof. I did like the honesty angle so I will probably try that again occasionally but it will be for fun more than anything else. Truthfully, with two bottles of wine and a rum runner full of vodka was plenty. I ended up giving the box of wine to my cabin steward. Those of you traveling in large groups who still want to maximize your smuggling should probably stick to the checked luggage because slowly but surely carry-on smuggling will be eradicated.

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In a salute to those who have served in our armed forces, many businesses honor the brave men and women who have served, in the form of discounts. Cruise lines can be counted among those businesses. Most if not all of the major cruise lines as well as some premium lines provide military rates on some of their sailings. While the savings are not always substantial, at times they can as much as 50 percent.

When cruise lines advertise military discounts they most likely are referring to active-duty personnel of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. Usually Reservists and National Guardsmen are not included unless they are currently on active duty or the cruise line has specifically stated the discount applies to non-active military.

Some but not all cruise lines also extend the discounts to veterans who served at least two years and retired with an honorable discharge or were medically retired. The discount may also extend to the family or other guests staying in the same stateroom with the receiver of the discount. In fact, on Norwegian Cruise Lines the spouse can receive the discounted rate even if the husband or wife is not available due to an active-duty assignment abroad.

The range of savings usually fall somewhere between 10 and 50 percent. Even if the cruise line does offer the military discount, they usually aren’t advertised. The best ways to find out about these discounts are to check the ticketing offices located at a military installation or directly with the cruise line. Other places that may have advertisements for military discounted cruises are newspapers or tourism publications published and distributed on your local military base, or publications marketed specifically to military personnel such as the Air Force Times and The Army Times. There are also websites that cater specifically to military personal, you can find them by searching or you can email me and I will attempt to compile a list.

Certain times of year are best for military discounts. The best times to search for cruises offering discounts are Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day. It will depend on the cruise line whether you have to book a sailing for those holidays or if you can book any sailing during those promotion periods.

The final step in securing your military discount will not happen until you arrive at check-in. You will need to present to the cruise line your military ID and/or Certificate of Release or Discharge (if the offer is extended non-active duty military) before you board. This step is very important because if you do not have the proper documentation you will be charged the regular rate.

Lastly, there is a chance that your preferred cruise line does not offer a military discount. If that is the case, you should check the other lines. Since you honor this country with your service it is only fair that the cruise line you choose should honor you with a discount.

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