There is nothing better than getting that VIP treatment. However, you don’t have to be filthy rich to experience the VIP treatment. More often than not, people don’t even know that there are alternatives that will get them a much better experience. Obviously, you will have to pay a little bit more to have these experiences, but it is a lot less than you would expect. In fact, when we have talked to people in the past and told them how much we paid for various services, they were shocked and wanted to know how they could do it as well. So here are a few things that you can do to upgrade your experience without downgrading your bank account too much.
Airport Lounges
If you travel through airports a lot, airport lounges are probably one of the best things you can do. Most frequent travelers know about the airport lounges, but even the frequent travelers might not realize that you don’t have to have a membership to some of them. Most of the top lounges cater to those people that travel a lot or spend a lot of money. For example if you travel United all the time, then you can get the United lounge membership and not have to spend the time waiting for flights and uncomfortable seats in the main airport. But if you don’t travel a lot, you can still enjoy this. There are many lounges where you can buy a day pass. For example, we had a layover in Japan and were stuck at the airport for eight hours. We paid about $30 for a lounge pass, which allowed us to have a hot shower, comfortable chairs, free Internet, free food and drinks, and even work out if we wanted to. In fact as we were sitting there enjoying our free food and drinks, we looked over the wall and saw people waiting in line for the fast food places and they were paying almost as much for their food as we were just for the lounge entrance, and we got to eat as much as we wanted all day long. The lounge staff also track your flight, and let you know when it’s ready to go, If that’s not VIP that I don’t know what is. If you do travel a lot however, then paying for a priority pass yearly membership is well worth it as well, as you get the same treatment but you don’t have to pay each time you come.
Be Nice
Although sometimes it’s a bit difficult to be nice while you’re traveling, due to stress and being uncomfortable, you will find that if you are just nice and ask people, that amazing things can happen. We have had many times when we were just being pleasant and cheerful to flight check-in, hotel check-in, flight attendants, etc. that we often got upgrades and VIP treatment. We have done especially well with hotels for this. We have been upgraded to suites numerous times with no added expense.
Ask
There are often many VIP services and special tracks that you can do that you don’t know about. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. If you are a bit nervous about asking, you can always call ahead and ask them as if it was for your boss. “Do you have any VIP services?”. A side benefit of calling ahead to a hotel and telling them that it’s a VIP client, such as your boss (i.e. you), will often get a room upgrade or perhaps a basket of fruit in the room. The hotels wish to keep VIP customers happy for future business and referrals, so you can benefit from that. You don’t have to be a VIP as long as they think you’re one. Almost every aspect of traveling or entertainment you can ask if there are any VIP things available. Sometimes it will be much more expensive, but sometimes you will be quite surprised at how inexpensive it is for some of them.
Private Cars
if you’re traveling in some countries, ordering a private car and driver can often be the way to go. It actually works out quite inexpensively sometimes as you can use them instead of tours to go anywhere you want to go and have it completely under your control. You will not be in a limousine generally, but you will be in a high end luxury car. You can compare taking a private driver to some of the tours that they rush her around in a bus, and you will see that the private driver definitely wins in the long run. And if you can have them pick you up at the airport, then you are definitely in the VIP window.
Promotions
Of course we all have our online discounts, and you just have to keep searching for them. Some websites such as travel zoo offer some fairly amazing deals in luxury locales. These deals are often running near the same price you would have if you just went to stay in a normal hotel. There are many sites that have all sorts of deals, including Groupon, and they are well worth having a look at before you travel. There are also many sites to give you tips and tricks of places where you going.
Upgrades
Always ask about upgrades, even if they are last-minute ones. You might not realize this, but you can actually upgrade your airline meal into something a lot better. Not all airlines offer the service, but many do. Sometimes if you try and get an early upgrade on your booking, it will cost you much too much, but at the last minute very often you can get it from much cheaper price. And as we said before, if you’re nice and friendly, very often you can get upgraded for free.
Act the Part
We don’t mean act like a rich entitled jerk, we mean act like a VIP. If you are courteous and polite to everyone, and dressed the part, you will be quite surprised at how people treat you. The difference between wearing a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts, and wearing a crisp white shirt and sports jacket (tailored), is the difference between night and day. People will often go out of their way to give you superior service and extras if they think you are worthy of it.
Knowledge is power, and knowing all these things are what will let you travel like a VIP. The more you look for these deals and tricks, the more that will appear. If you look the part and act the part you will find people offering you information and knowledge that you didn’t know, and eventually you will suddenly find your traveling around with all the other VIPs and being amazed at how much better it is than when you were traveling as a common tourist. Welcome to caviar dreams.
