If planning an affordable vacation is your goal, after youcarefully review all of your cheaptravel options prior to purchasing cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, cheap auto rentals, discount travel packages or cheap vacation packages,dont forget that your time is also worth a lot of money.
Tourists tend to spend way too much time waiting in lines.
The following are tricks for skipping lines, according toSmarter Travel at airports, attractions, cruise terminals, car rental counters,and hotels:
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Makereservations for rides. At theme parkssuch as Walt Disney World and Disneyland visitors can save time to picking up freeFastpasses which provide passes to future rides. Fastpass machines dispense tickets tellguests when to return to access the ride of their choice. Guests return to waitin much shorter lines. Six Flags parkshave a similar program (Flash Pass), but it is not free.
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Considerbeing a theme park VIP and book a special (usually expensive) tour to save evenmore time. A VIP Tour at Disney parkscomes with preferred boarding as well as automatic Fastpass access to selectrides. Six Flags parks offers what itcalls a VIP tour that comes with front of the line ride privileges. Universal Studios Hollywood offers a VIPExperience pass with line cutting perks.
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Lookinto purchasing tickets to museums and attractions ahead of time online. Guests often are given the option of printingtickets or storing passes on smartphones. Another option is to purchase a CityPASS which includes tickets toseveral attractions in a city. Anadditional advantage of such booklets is that they often include admission toattractions that do not normally allow visitors to purchase tickets in advance.
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Useexpress checkout out at hotels whenever possible. Usually hotel guests simply drop their roomkeys in a box or use an electronic kiosk to complete the checkout process. Beaware that you can save yourself even more time by taking advantage of selfservice check in which is starting to become more popular.
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Signup for a free car rental loyalty program. Many such programs allow members to skip the counters and go straight totheir cars.
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Becomea Trusted Traveler by signing up for a program such as TSA PreCheck ($100 forGlobal Entry members), Global Entry ($100), and Clear ($179). Members to such programs are directed toexpedited airport security and customs lines at select U.S. airports. Some privacy must be sacrificed for thisprivilege. PreCheck requires a backgroundcheck, while Clear requires submission of fingerprints.
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Elitemembers of airline loyalty programs often get to cut in line. Special VIP queues are usually offered whenboarding, checking in, and at select airports when going through security.
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Upgrade(i.e., pay a little more) your coach ticket to receive priority boarding, aslightly roomier seat, and sometimes even expedited security.
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Signup for an airline credit card to take advantage of perks such as free checkedbags, bonus miles, free access (only in limited cases) to airport lounges, aswell as priority boarding and check in. By being among the first to enter a plane, finding overhead bin space isa breeze.
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Avoidlong lines when waiting to board a cruise in a terminal by purchasing skip tothe front of the line passes. Sometimesyou can get priority cruise boarding with a cabin upgrade or by joining alines loyalty program.
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