International Travel Tips: Boarding Time and Departure Time

What You Need to Know About Departure Time vs. Boarding Time

If you mix up Departure Time and Boarding Time on your international flight, you may have to pay hefty costs. Today, I will clarify Departure Time and Boarding Time to make your next flight a breeze.

Boarding Time: Boarding Time is actually more important than Departure Time and you should plan your trip accordingly. Boarding Time is when flights start the process to let passengers in. Usually, Boarding Time is 45 minutes before Departure Time. For some flights, Boarding Time can be 1 hour before Departure Time.

You should aim to arrive at the airport at least 2 hours before Boarding Time so you can have a smooth process at the airport and don’t miss your flight.

Departure Time: Departure Time is when the plane leaves the gate. At Departure Time, the boarding process has completed, passengers are seated, and the plane starts to move. If you want to plan your trip by the Departure Time, aim to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours before.

Here are some Pro Tips:

-          You’re required to be at the gate to board at least 15 minutes before your scheduled departure. Some airlines may ask for you to arrive even earlier than 15 minutes.

-          If you miss boarding time, you will miss the flight. Gate agents won’t let you in if you are at the gate past the 15-minutes-earlier timeframe.

-          Personally, I always aim to arrive at the airport 4 hours earlier than my Departure Time. I would rather arrive a little early and hang out in the airport lounge than arrive late and miss the flight.

Video version of this article can be viewed here:
International Boarding Time Departure Time Tips

How to Track a Flight | Best Free App to Track Flights

How to Track Flights on Your Mobile Phone for Free

There are many apps to track flights. Most of them are complicated and free versions are full of advertisements. By far, my best experience tracking a flight has been with an all-in-one travel app called Kayak.

Kayak is a free travel trip app that lets you organize flights, hotels, tour itineraries and more.  This free travel-planning app can also track prices with Price Alerts & many other things. However, one of the best features Kayak offers is to track a flight in real time for free.

If you email your flights, hotels, or any travel confirmations, Kayak organizes and puts them together day by day. It can then follow these itineraries and notify you about hotel or flight check ins, flight changes, gate assignments, gate changes, flight delays, even baggage carousel numbers, and lot more. 

If you only want to follow a flight without sending your trip confirmations, you have the ability to add it on the app to follow that flight. You can even see real-time flight progress on a map and all other flight information as mentioned above.

You can add one or several flights to track – all for free. Adding a flight is very simple. You can search and add by detecting location, by adding flight information, or by searching for any specific airports.

It surprised me that Kayak is full of so many features that other apps would charge a premium fee for and still doesn’t ask for money or show ads.

I have a video showing how to add a flight to track step-by-step. Visit the link below:

How to Track a Flight

Pixel 8 Pro First Impressions and Some Features I Like

My Best Pixel 8 Pro Features & Insights

I am in my 1st week using a Pixel 8 Pro and I want to share some of the best features and my impressions. This is not a review or anything of that nature, but just some insights I wanted to share.

The Pixel 8 Pro is 6.7 inches with rounded corners – just the right size to fit comfortably in my hand. The back is matte glass but feels like non-slippery plastic. I like it a lot.

To unlock my Pixel 8 Pro, I turned on both facial recognition and fingerprint unlock features. They both work seamlessly and save time, as I don’t need to keep trying to unlock it.

The Pixel 8 Pro camera system was redesigned and updated. I am a content creator and the main reason to buy a Pixel 8 Pro was its camera system. 5X optical zoom, GoPro-like image stabilization for video, 10-bit-HDR video, and the Audio Magic Eraser are some features worth mentioning.

Another video feature designed for content creators is coming in December: Video Boost. This feature automatically adjusts color, lighting, stabilization, and graininess, and Night Sight Video to make professional-quality videos from a smartphone.

The Pixel 8 Pro also offers enhanced macro capabilities in macro mode, which is a plus point for photography lovers who love macro photos. I have been testing lots of macro shots and the quality is mind-blowing for a smartphone.

Another unnecessary but fun feature l like is the to check the temperature of anything. I have been using this a lot just to show this feature to my friends.

There are many other features, but the ones I mentioned above are some of the most unique ones I can think of right now. I will link my Pixel Playlist below if you are interested in watching the videos:

Pixel Smartphone 101: Tips, Tricks, & The Basics

Do This First When Get Your Boarding Pass

Boarding Pass Hacks You Didn’t Know

When you receive your boarding pass for your next trip, whether it’s an electronic boarding pass on your phone or a paper boarding pass you printed out to present at the airline counter, do this before you do anything else to make your travel smoother and hassle free.

If you happen to use an electronic boarding pass, the first thing to do after you receive it is to take a screenshot of your boarding pass. Then when you go to the airport, head over to a kiosk or airline counter and ask them to print you a paper copy.

If you use a paper boarding pass, after receiving one at the airport or at your home out of your printer, take a picture first on your phone camera so you have a digital copy of the same boarding pass.

The reason you want to have any or all of the above is to protect yourself. Your electronic boarding pass may not work when you lose your signal or WiFi on your phone, especially when you are transferring in foreign countries.

You don’t want to get stuck at security or at the boarding gate because your phone network is not working. A picture of the boarding pass or a paper copy will save you if the worst happens.

When you are using a paper boarding pass, it may get lost or damaged. Having a digital copy of it on your phone could save your entire trip.

I have a travel playlist where I share small travel tips like this, you can view it here:

Tiny Travel Hacks 101

HSBC World Elite Mastercard Canada – Get Canada’s Best Travel Credit Card Before It’s Too late

Best Travel Credit Card in Canada - HSBC World Elite Mastercard Canada

All the so-called “best travel credit cards in Canada” promoted by travel sites on the Internet have some things in common. Most of these cards do not provide zero foreign currency transaction fees and offer very low rewards on travel spending.

The HSBC World Elite Mastercard is one of the few travel credit cards in Canada that offers no FX fee on foreign currency transactions and a whopping 6 points per dollar spent on travel purchases. These points also are hybrid points that can be converted to airline points.

However, this not-so-well-known travel credit card is coming to an end due to the RBC buying HSBC’s Canadian portfolio. RBC does not offer any no foreign currency transaction fee and other benefits like the HSBC World Elite Mastercard offers. One of them is very extended travel medical insurance and even travel medical insurance for seniors beyond 65.

As of the writing this article, HSBC is still accepting applications for this card and I think you should get one right now as the window of opportunity is closing any time now.

No one knows at this point what RBC will do after acquiring the HSBC World Elite Mastercard. They may let existing account holders keep all the perks and features and stop issuing this card. They could also convert the HSBC World Elite Mastercard into an RBC World Elite MasterCard, cutting all the benefits. Another option, which is very unlikely, is that RBC may rebrand this card and keep issuing the same benefits and features under the RBC name.

Whatever the outcome is, it’s wise to get a HSBC World Elite Mastercard now and wait and see what happens. I just got mine last week and couldn’t be happier receiving it.