4 out of 4 stars
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Kiss My Baggage Fees by Rick Brown is a 230 page, nonfiction book giving information on how to save money on travel and how to get more out of your trips. Rick Brown travels for business and leisure and has been around the world numerous times. He considers himself to be a proud travel hacker, and he is willing to teach you to be one as well. His hacks are not the illegal or immoral type. He has just learned how to use the travel company's own rules and habits to get the best prices and upgrades. It is clear from his examples that he has saved thousands of dollars over the years using these techniques.
Rick has done a good job of breaking down the various ways of saving so you can skip the parts of the book that are not important to you and read the parts that are of most interest. I also like the fact that he has provided dozens and dozens of specific Web sites that you can go to search for the best deals. In addition, Rick shows how companies make you think you are doing a good job of shopping for the best deal and you are not really shopping at all. Like the fact that Expedia owns Orbitz, Travelocity, and about 20 other booking Web sites. This way you tend to look at several sites and get tricked into thinking all the prices are the same. With the information in this book you can see some real alternative sites to use for comparison.
One thing that I did not like about the book was the amount of time spent on international travel. I almost never travel internationally and few people I know travel internationally on a regular basis but, a large portion of the tricks and examples are for international travel. I understand that this is probably because Rick travels internationally on a regular basis and more money can be saved on these longer trips. If you are not planning international travel you can skip or just skim those chapters.
There were a few editorial errors in the book. Most were typos like saying weigh when the word should be weight or gargain instead of bargain. In another place 15% back on spending over $750 was repeated twice. These errors were minor and very few. They did not detract from the reading and understanding of this book.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning on doing a lot to traveling. Especially if you are planning international travel. Even if you travel infrequently you could easily save the price of the book on your first vacation or business trip. I give this book 4 out of 4 stars. It is easy to read and can be useful to save you both time and money. The author gives step by step instructions on how to find bargains and lists what websites he uses.
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Kiss my baggage fees
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