Car rental tip: avoid late-day pickups

Rental agencies typically have more cars available in the morning. By late in the day, inventory often runs low, leading to two key issues:

  • Higher Prices: Fewer cars mean limited selection and significantly higher rates—sometimes more than double the morning price.
  • No Guarantee: Even with a reservation, you might not get a car. Agencies aren’t obligated to honor bookings if they’re out of vehicles. Given their tendency to overbook, the possibility of running out of cars is real, especially for local branches.

What if your flight is scheduled to arrive late in the day? Consider staying at a hotel near the airport and scheduling a morning pickup to avoid these risks and potentially save money.

Use audiobooks to cope with insomnia

In my experience, listening to audiobooks is surprisingly effective at helping me fall asleep. Even if I wake up in the middle of the night and other methods fail, audiobooks consistently work for me.

Ways to obtain free audios of books

  • Download audiobooks onto a smartphone
  • Download from LibriVox that offers recorded audios of books that are already in the public domain
    • Apps such as ‘Free Classic Audiobooks’ serve as frontends for LibriVox audiobooks.
  • Use the Assistive Reader in Amazon Kindle App for books with Enhanced Typesetting
  • Some books are available on YouTube. Use Youtube2MP3 or similar tools to generate the audio files.

Notes

  1. The effect diminishes with repeated listening of the same book.
  2. LibriVox recordings can be annoying because of the disclaimers (see pt #1).
  3. Kindle uses text-to-speech, so the voice is a bit robotic.

Trip insurance coverage

AMEX requires roundtrip bookings.

List of Chase cards that offer trip cancellation coverage (Credit: pointsguy.com)

Chase Sapphire ReserveVisaBoth, >6 hours delay
Chase Sapphire Preferred CardVisaBoth, >12 hours
Chase HyattVisaBoth, >12 hours
Ink Business Preferred Credit CardVisaTrip cancellation/interruption insurance
United Club Infinite CardVisaBoth
United Explorer CardVisaBoth
United TravelBank Card (card no longer available for new applicants)VisaTrip cancellation/interruption insurance
United Business CardVisaBoth
World of Hyatt Credit CardVisaTrip cancellation/interruption insurance
IHG Rewards Premier Credit CardMasterCardTrip cancellation/interruption insurance
IHG Rewards Traveler Credit CardMasterCardTrip cancellation/interruption insurance
Chase FreedomVisaTrip cancellation/interruption insurance, FOREX fees
Marriott BonvoyVisaTrip delay insurance
Barclay AviatorMasterCardTrip cancellation/interruption insurance
Bank of America Premium RewardsVisaBoth

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is the best bet, but IHG cards can be used with Curve.

CapitalOne Venture card

Venture X, yes

Venture and venture rewards, no

Barclays

Yes for Aviator personal cards, but no for business

Discover cards

Citi

No.