Kerwin McKenzie Airline Expert | Cubicles to Passports

In this episode, guest Kerwin McKenzie discusses his travel background, his favorite international airline, the one thing he never travels without, and you will also learn some helpful tips from him on international travel.

Kerwin is an ex-airline employee who helps travelers maximize their travel dollars with a view to improving their travel experience. Kerwin has worked for four major U.S. airlines in his 16.5-year airline career. He's visited 146 territories and countries and 109 UN countries and flown 192 airlines. He typically flies about 200,000 miles a year and has elite status at a number of travel brands.

Resources Discussed During This Episode:

Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) Registration -YouTube Video

Visa Requirements US State Department 

IATA Travel Centre (Passport, Visa and Health Requirements)

Kerwin’s Links:

Website Passrider.com

Instagram

Frequent Flyer Course

YouTube

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Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links. What this means to you is at no additional cost to you, I may receive a commission from any purchase that you make using these links. I am only recommending products/services/companies that I use.

Calvin's Wardrobe and Favorite Travel Gear:

Unbound Merino

What's In My Travel Bag(s)

Music: Epidemic Sound
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Transcript

Cubicles to Passports Ep 1 Kerwin McKenzie - Test

[00:00:00] Welcome to Cubicles to Passports, a show dedicated to helping you break away from the office more often for your own international travel experiences. I'm your host, Calvin Hearns. Each week, you will meet experienced international travelers and learn affordable strategies to help you tip the scales of life-work balance in your favor.

I hope you noticed that I said life-work balance instead of the other way around. In 2019, I traded my work cubicle for an opportunity of a lifetime to travel Southeast Asia. During that time, I learned that you do not have to be rich to travel. Cubicles to Passports was created not only to share what I have learned, but will also share tips and experiences from a variety of other travelers from solo travelers, couples, families, and more.

I realize not everybody can or even wants to leave their job and travel full-time, and it's not my goal to have everyone follow my exact path. I do want to inspire you to discover your own travel path. And share ways to do this. Whether your goal is to take that one bucket list trip, an annual international [00:01:00] vacation, or to travel more frequently, there is a seat for you here.

So buckle up and let's take off.

Welcome to the Cubicles to Passports podcast. Each episode, you'll learn tips to help you on your international travels, and you'll also meet people that I've met along my travels and hear about their experiences and learn tips from them as well. As this is a new podcast, we'll certainly be evolving over time, but if there's something that you'd like to see, please let me know in the comments.

Your feedback will help us get better. I can be reached on Instagram at cubicles2passports. I can also be reached through the comments in YouTube. In addition to the podcast, we'll also be broadcasting on YouTube on my Calvin Chronicles channel. That will be under a separate playlist called Cubicles to Passports.

And again, any feedback that you may have, whether it's positive or critique, that's going to be helpful to me. So please don't hesitate to let me know what you'd like to see. Before meeting our guests for this episode I wanted to share some travel tips and as this is about [00:02:00] primarily international travel We're going to talk about first some international money tips.

One thing that'll help you save money is to have a credit card that does not charge international transaction fees. Now most travel rewards cards are going to address this for you. So There are benefits to having the travel cards beyond just the travel points. Most will also take care of things like TSA pre-check and global entry, both of which I highly recommend, and I'll talk about in more detail in a future episode, but the main point for now is that international fees are bad and a travel card will help.

If you don't happen to have a travel card right now, just check with your bank or your Terms of Service and just see whether you are or are not being charged for international fees. Many people have questions on where and how to get money when you're arriving in a new country. There's always cash exchanges in the airports, but I recommend not using those unless you absolutely have to.

The reason being is that you're at the mercy of their exchange rate. While it might be fair, it's usually not going to be. The other thing about using the currency exchange is that there's usually a transaction [00:03:00] fee. So even if the rate is fair, that's just additional fee to get your own money. So avoiding the exchange will help keep money in your pocket.

So you don't want to use those unless you absolutely have to. My recommendation is to use an ATM and make as large of a withdrawal as you can without going overboard, because there's still fees that are associated with. The ATM. So you don't want to make a whole lot of small transactions. When you use an ATM, you want to be sure to know which networks your bank works with.

ATMs will have network logos on them, like little small icons near the keypad. And your card will also, or your card may have on the back of them, a couple of the logos. Some examples are plus and Cirrus. C I R R U S I believe is the spelling. And not all of those networks are going to be overseas. So you want to be sure that you know, which networks your card works with.

Some countries are easier than others. For example, in Japan, there are seven 11s everywhere, and there's usually an ATM inside. Those are almost always going to work for you because seven 11 is based in the [00:04:00] U S. So they have to be on networks that. We'll work with American cards. There's other countries.

You'll kind of have to be trial and error. So the good thing about that is in those countries, there's usually going to be a bunch of ATM side by side. Each one's going to be from a different bank. So if you try one ATM and that one doesn't work. for you. Try one that's from a different bank, and most likely that one's going to work for you.

And then just moving forward, just remember which banks worked for you when you made an ATM withdrawal. And on that note, just like you probably do in the U. S., make sure that you're using an ATM that has a bank name on it, not just some generic brands. You're going to have less luck with those. It's not necessarily a safety thing, just you're going to have.

Better luck with something that has a bank name on another thing that you want to do is you want to make sure they get your ATM receipt. The receipt is going to be important to you, particularly as you're not using your bank. So you're not going to get an email confirmation of your transaction. So if there's an issue, that receipt is going to be a backup to the issue that you use the ATM.

And that's going to help you with the resolving the issue. Another important tip [00:05:00] when you're using the ATM machine, or even if you're at a merchant or a restaurant, you might be asked whether you want to convert your transaction in the U S dollars or your home country. And you never, never want to do this.

When you're asked to do this, you're at the mercy of the merchant or the bank and their exchange rates, usually not going to be in your favor. So if there's an option to use your home or local currency, do you don't want to do that? Always choose the currency of the country that you're in. Your bank's going to give you the best exchange rate.

And while we're talking about exchange rates, always be mindful of what you're spending in us dollars. Sometimes you're seducing the thinking that you're spending less because some of the exchange rates are super, super high and compared to the us dollars. Uh, for example, Vietnam, uh, 1 million of their local currencies called the dong is about 40 us dollars.

So you get used to spending those high amounts and thinking it's not that much, but it can kind of sneak up on you. So if you're not thinking about that in your. Home currency all the time. You might end up thinking that you had a cheap lunch and then look at your transaction later and see that you spent a lot more.

And [00:06:00] by the way, if you are looking for a really expensive hamburger that tastes great, I've got a great recommendation for you in Thailand. And the last thing on money is when you return, you can exchange money at your bank, but coins will usually not be accepted. So keep that in mind as you're spending your final dollars or making your last few transactions before you come home.

One of the things I usually do with my coins is I use those as souvenirs to give to family and friends when I get back. And those are some money tips to help you with your international travels. Let's get to our guests today. My guest for this episode is Kerwin McKenzie. Kerwin is a airline expert based in Texas and has flown over 192 airlines.

Here's our discussion. Kerwin McKenzie here and appreciate you. You're one of my first guests on the, uh, Cuba post to passports podcast. So I appreciate that. So. You know, we'll go into, uh, history there. So appreciate you being on board. So I know who you are before I guess, why don't you share who you are and what's your experiences in the travel space?

Sure, well, Calvin, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate [00:07:00] it. And to be like guest number one, I've never been guest number one before, so I'm super happy. My name is Kerwin, as Calvin said, and I'm a travel blogger is probably what they call them, but it's, it's changed over the time. So probably influencer might be what's, what's easy for you.

But I started in the airline business back in 1994. So I'm a little older, and this is back at a time when, you know, travel was big, but there was no, there was no, internet was kind of just starting out at the time. And I started working with Delta Airlines in Washington National Reagan Airport. Which does not look anything like it looked now, and then, went on to work in, with American Trans Air, which is an airline that's no longer in business, but they were based in Indianapolis, and they would fly to Hawaii, and Chicago, kind of a low [00:08:00] cost carrier at the time.

And then, went to Continental in Houston, and when they merged with United, I decided it was time to go do my own thing, which I did. And since then, I've been, it's about 2011, I've been of a website, passwriter. com. And that website primarily serves for the airline aviation professionals. It gives flight schedules as well as in the flight schedule, that's where the airline goes from A to B.

Like if you go from Houston to London, it'll tell you how many flights go from Houston to London. It doesn't give you flight availability, which is how much it costs and how many seats are available, but it tells you all the airlines that fly that route, which is really good if you're doing travel planning.

Right. And I learned a lot from you. Like I've seen you, so you've actually been fortunate enough to be on television a couple of times, which is pretty cool. But one of the things that I've heard you mention, and I kind of understand it, but I said, I think it's one of those things that people just really don't know is the [00:09:00] difference between.

A direct flight and a non stop flight, if I got that, did I get that correct? Yes, you did. So, so this is one of my pet peeves in the industry and it even more annoying when, you know, like the online travel agencies say, Hey, we have a direct flight from Houston to London when really they mean a non stop flight.

So the difference. Is a nonstop flight by definition does not make a stop. So Houston, London is nonstop Houston, New York is nonstop. However, though, there's something called a direct flight and a direct flight means you make at least one stop. But you don't change your flight number, not to be confused with a connecting flight where you make at least one stop, you change planes and you change your flight number.

So with an example for direct flight is if you go and say Houston to London and you're stopping in New York, you're, you may change aircraft [00:10:00] because aircraft that goes Houston to North is smaller than the aircraft that goes North to usually than in order to say London. And so we keep the same flight number.

So as long as you keep the same flight number, then it's a direct, but if you change your flight number, it's more than actually a connection. And one of these days, I may understand that, but I never knew that. So you mentioned it. I was like, Oh, that's something I guess I need to make sure I'm always asking for, you know, non stops because.

One of the things that I do, depending on why I'm traveling, I may have a lot of gear with me. So I want a few stops and plane changes as possible. So something I'll try to look out for. So obviously you've been around for a little bit, but why don't you tell me about your first international trip? Do you, where did you go first?

So this was in the nineties and I can't remember if it was 94 or 95, but my first, well, my first international trip was, I grew, I grew up [00:11:00] in Jamaica, so my first international trip was when I was 15 and I flew from Kingston, Jamaica to Haiti, and then from Haiti to Martinique. And, and that was a connecting flight.

That I was my first foreign to travel. And ever since I've done that, I've just been traveling. So my first. My first trip to Europe was in the 90s, 94, 95, I flew Virgin Atlantic. It was at a time when they were co chairing with, with Delta. So today they're a huge partner with Delta. But back then they did have a partnership when they first started out and then they stopped it and then they went to work with Continental and then they stopped that.

And now they're big in Skyteam and a part, well, part of Skyteam and work with Delta. And I was back when they used to be able to smoke on planes. So we, I know right, crazy. We took off and I just heard like, click, click, click, click, click. And it's people lighting up. They're, cause you could take lighters on the plane back in the nineties and people lighting up their [00:12:00] cigarettes and stuff like that.

So, flying has changed a lot. Flights. I took two flights like that, actually in the seventies. So I would say I'm, I've got a few years on me as well. Um, my first international trip was to Germany and there was a smoking and a non smoking section on the, on the, so actually it was Delta by the way. I still remember that because they gave you, they gave children pilot swings.

So isn't that cool? Yeah, man, the airlines still give, give our pilot wings to the kids, which is very cool, but, but now, you know, they don't have their, their stickers now, you know, cause I can have a pin, but, you know, the kids will prick themselves. And yeah, so things have changed over time. I found mine a couple of years ago.

So, oh, did you also, yeah. So I found myself, they're, I don't know where they are now, but I've actually put my eyes on 'em in the last, in the last two years. And from, uh, your career, you've actually been on a lot of beer lines, and I know, you know, a lot [00:13:00] of times people are kind of picky about airlines.

Okay. I don't know that airline or should I get on this, but I say I know you've been on as far as people I know, you know, multiple dozens of. Of airlines and actually you're kind of one of the ones that kind of made me more at ease with taking an airline that I've never heard of before, you know, cause you know, you're up.

With no easy way down if something goes wrong. So I wanted to know, you know, Hey, is this a reliable airline? But do you have like a, a favorite experience? And I'm going to qualify this and don't choose a U. S. carrier, but it might be a unique that you really enjoyed. Yes. I I've flown today. I think it's at 192, is the number of airlines I've flown.

The last one I think was Atlantic, Atlantic Airways. Atlantic Air is now flying from the Far Islands to Stewart Newburgh Airport, which is just upstate New York. And so [00:14:00] they're flying in there. And then you can take that little bus, $20 and it takes you right to port third bus terminal, which is right in the middle of Manhattan.

But my favorite airline that I flown is Singapore Airlines. They. They can be annoying at times, you know, in terms of their frequent flyer programs and they're very strict and things like that, but their service is really good. The employees, they're dedicated. They really want to serve you. You know, they, like when you, when you're, even when you're in economy class, they will, they will help you and show you to your seat, you know?

So that's something that you normally don't see, you know, normally they'll say, yeah, go there, go there. But they will actually take you down if they have someone able to do it. And so that's probably the airline that I've had the best service on. We can still talk domestic. As much as Delta is annoying these days with all their frequent flyer changes, they actually have pretty good [00:15:00] service.

Although I'm an American Airlines flyer these days. But Delta actually have really good service. Yeah, you're in Houston. So like Dallas, I mean, it almost always makes sense to take American, particularly for international flights, or at least the, the first leg. But Houston kind of has, it looks like a few more options because I think United is pretty substantial there.

So yeah, but you still find, like American? Yeah. Well, so kind of two reasons for that. One, I used to work for United. And so we get as a retired United employee, I get flight benefits on United, but I can only use them for personal travel. And so if I want to get, I prefer to get status on another airline rather than, rather than on United.

You got it. So I chose, I had Delta before and Delta was kind of a little annoying. So I decided to go try American. I don't mind doing the connecting flights. [00:16:00] Which used to be, they used to give you credits for connecting flights. Now you don't anymore. It's really just how much you spend or how many miles you're traveling.

And you know, when you connect, you may get a little more miles, but it's not too much these days. It used to be a lot more that you get, but it's not as much as you'd think. And in, in Houston, the main carrier is United, but you can bring, you can go basically anywhere in Mexico, almost anywhere in Mexico, nonstop.

You can go to, there's London, Munich, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam used to be Paris, but they don't do Paris anymore. But, but from here, you can go to Paris nonstop and your friends, or you can go to London also nonstop and British Airways and Lufthansa flies in and we have ANA. Japan Airlines doesn't service Houston, but ANA does.

So you can go to Tokyo and there's like Aeromexico that comes in here. So the, the Houston is pretty well connected and you can also go to South America, you can go to Brazil, Sao Paulo [00:17:00] and Rio, I think you can go from Houston. So Houston is very well connected when it comes to nonstop service. That's pretty good.

So, so one of the goals of this podcast is to educate, you know, people that don't fly as often as you and me do. And so what's a travel lesson that you've learned the hard way that you wish you had known, you know, before you ran into that situation that might help somebody that's taken maybe their first or second, uh, international trip.

I've been good, but one of the things that people normally run into Is visas. A lot of people don't think they need visas to go to many places. And you do that kind of two things about visas is. It's your citizenship. So people always ask, Hey, you just went to, uh, let's say Columbia and did you need a visa?

And someone will go, no. So then they'll go to, [00:18:00] they'll go to the airport and they'll buy a ticket. And then they go and they realize that they need a visa. And it's because everyone is different. The passport you hold is very, is, is one of the things. If you're connecting. To the country you're going to, then it's also different.

And sometimes it's, if you've been to different countries before you go to the one that you're going, you might be in quarantine when you arrive or something like that. So there's a whole bunch of factors. The best thing for people to do if you're a US citizen, just go to travel. state. gov or contact the embassy.

And there's another website, IATA Travel Center. And you can fill in a whole bunch of information. They ask you a lot of information, but then they really tell you what you need. Because in addition to visas, you may need health. Now, COVID was a big thing, and everyone thinks that. So everybody started thinking about health requirements.

But health requirements have been around long before COVID, and they're going to be around forever, pretty much. So always check the [00:19:00] health requirements. And when I say health requirements, I mean, you may need a vaccination. If you're going to say Ghana. You need, you need a yellow fever shot? And even if you don't have one, when you get there, which you should, there's a nurse with a needle waiting to punch your arm.

Oh, wow. Yeah. And you can't go in with that one. Now it takes two weeks to take effects. If when you go there, you get the shot, it doesn't really help, but they still put that shot in you when you go. So probably visas is the, is the thing. The other thing too is Australia. Australia requires a visa and most American citizens don't realize that.

Luckily, if you get to the airport and you don't have one, you can quickly go online and apply for it. And it's almost immediate that you get it, as long as there's no issues, you know, they don't find anything in your background. Yeah. So I knew, I knew about Australia. I met, I made that mistake once. So my Asia trip, I wasn't originally planning to go to Cambodia.

So I looked up every country that I planned to go to. And I, you know, I [00:20:00] was sweared away cause I went to Vietnam. I had to apply for that. I want to say 30 or 90 days in advance. So I took care of that one. And along my trip, I decided to go to Cambodia and I was literally on the plane. And then I was like, was that a visa country?

And it was, and fortunately they did have a visa on arrival process, but it just took you, you know, longer time at different lines. You were supposed to have cash and I freaked out about that. But fortunately they had an a t m. Interestingly enough, they, that's one of the countries that takes us dollars is currency.

That was, that was kind of interesting there. . Yeah, I was on the plane fearful that I was trying to get turned away, you know, and, and sent away. So that's definitely something I check out now. That's right. It's gonna be more important now because it wasn't required in Europe, so Europe. For Americans are going to have to do, I forget what it's called off the top of my head, but the [00:21:00] e visa.

It's called, uh, it's an authorization. So that's another misnomer, right? You don't, you're not going to need a visa, but you'll need an authorization. Right. And so what the authorization says is that you're quote unquote authorized to go to that country. Now, the whole thing about visas is that you can apply for a visa line, and you get the visa.

And when you go to the country, they deny you entry. Because you actually get, it's like a pre processing, and you actually get processed when you get there. So when you get there, they will ask you all the questions. Normally, if you have a U. S. passport, you're pretty okay. But they can still deny you, right?

I mean, but they ask you all the questions. So it's the same thing with the... I think it's that E I S A or something like that. But what you'd have to do when it comes out, if it comes out, because there's still things going on about it, you'd have to go online, apply for this permit in a sense, and then when you get that approval, you take that, it's online.

So they'll know, and then you go and then you can, you can get that in. But you don't [00:22:00] require a visa, you just require that authorization to go in. Right. And the other place that's going to change too, I'm sorry, is Brazil. Effective January 10th, you're a citizen. Australians and Canadians will be required to get a Brazilian visa again.

Yeah. They changed government and because they changed government, the new government says, yep, you need a visa. So if you're going between now and January 10th, you're cool. But if you go in after, on or after January 10th, you need a visa. That's interesting there. So be on the lookout, everybody. Okay. Do you have like a style of travel?

Like, I know there's some people, they kind of say, Hey, I only do luxury travel. Some people they're doing budget travel. Like, do you actually have a travel style or? Yeah, I'm a hotel. Stop. . We're gonna just say that right out there. I grew up, I grew up in a country, right? In Jamaica. I had a outhouse, . I didn't have electricity.

I don't wanna stay at any place. That's not [00:23:00] nice. . So people go, oh, you don't like camping? No. Uh, and I have done Capri. I've, I've done a I, I've done a camping safari, which is actually really nice and I spoke to today and she goes, can you try it? I go, okay, fine, I'll try it. It was really very good, but so I told him I wanted a cot cause I'm not sleeping on the ground cause my back just hurts.

And so the guy's like, we have a cot here, but we don't know it's from like me. It's my cot. Well, Sounds pretty good. The glamping setups out there though. Yeah. And this was not glamping. This was, you had to, uh, you had to put your tent up. But it was cool. What we'd do is that everybody would cooperate and put each person tent up and then you'd go around.

So you wouldn't have to be there, you know, trying to get, you know, the stick over here and the stick over here. People really helped and it finished much quicker, but now, which is why I'm loyal to hotel brands, because whenever I go to a hotel, I want a nice hotel, a nice [00:24:00] location, and I want my own bathroom.

And I'm not going to share any bathroom with people I don't know, because you know what, Calvin, people are nasty. They be nasty . They can be. They can be. And I, and I just can't deal with that. So, and no, not to say I have not done hostels, right. I have. Did I like them? No, except for there was one that was really nice.

I was in Dublin. Actually, I was in Dublin, couldn't find anywhere to stay in the city of Dublin. And I went up, I took a bus out to it. Cause they were like, Oh yeah, we have room. There's this hotel. And when I got there, they were actually not open the day I went. And when the guy saw me coming, he was like, do you have a reservation?

I go, no. He goes, well, we're closed, but since you're here. You can stay. We're going to go drink it anyway you want to come. And so... Well, cause it was a day off, right? And so I went to hang out with them all day and, and I came back to the hostel. I had, [00:25:00] this guy had an entire hostel to myself because I was the only guest that they had, cause they weren't supposed to have any guests.

That's a good deal. But you were talking about like the social aspect of it. That's what I love about hostels. And I say, I love a good hotel too, but the people. That I have met through travel that I stay in touch with after the trip. It's the people that I've met in the hostels, you know, I've actually gone to visit people that I've met in the hostel when I'll visit their home country, you know, say, Hey, I'm in your, your country.

And. Tour around and kind of reconnect and things like that. I know I'd say everybody has a style, so that's why, again, one of the reasons that I wanted to do this is to kind of introduce different styles to people. 'cause I know everybody doesn't travel like me, you know? And not everybody wants to travel like me, so I'm trying to introduce different styles out there, so, so yeah.

What's something that you will never travel without? Like your one thing that you have to, you have to, you travel, I always have tape with me. And it's, yeah, it [00:26:00] sounds strange, like duct tape or some kind of tape, because you know what, something breaks, you know, your bag has a hole. You have to fix it. Your pants may have a hole.

You have to fix it. And it's like all this, it's all this fun thing. So I always make sure I have something like that. And I've used it before. Cause you know, my bag is like busted. The handle is busted and I need to tape it up until I get it fixed. Uh, I've actually, I just, where was I recently? In Bahrain.

And the zipper on my bag broke. Luckily, I had time to go into the city and there's lots of, they have lots of clothing stuff there that you can get clothes made on the fly in Bahrain. Just so you, just so you know, made to order. And I went downtown or in the souk, I think is what they call them. And they were able to fix my bag or the tailor's was able to fix the bag.

But having tape is really good because, you know, if something breaks, you can quickly take it up until you get it fixed later. Oh, that's a, that's a good [00:27:00] one. So that was definitely wasn't expecting, uh, that everybody has their phone and all that kind of stuff. I mean, all the other stuff, everybody has that, but that I really, yeah.

Great answer. Appreciate that. So obviously when you travel to different countries, you know, things are, you know, not like they were at home, so. I always see kind of people, either, you know, it's might be weird, or they might be fearful of doing something, or... You know, doing the wrong thing, which, you know, I never, ever want to do.

And yeah, my, my number one rule when I travel abroad is to not become my own episode of Locked Up Abroad. That's exactly. Rule number one is I don't want to, don't want to have my own episode, but where I was going with that one is how do you navigate, uh, cultural differences? Do you, you know, do you jump in or what's your, what's your process?

I'm pretty respectful whenever I travel. That's kind of the number one thing to be. [00:28:00] There are many countries in the world and everyone has different beliefs. You have to remember that when you, when we talked about visa earlier, when you get a visa to go to a country, you're saying, I will abide by the rules of that country.

If you don't like the rules about that country, then you probably shouldn't go. You know, so you should really respect if it says, for ladies, if it says, if you have to go into a mosque or a church or something like that, you have to wear something on your head, you have to do that. When you're in Thailand, you know, you can't wear shorts into the temples, uh, and the palace.

And the palace. Exactly. I didn't do that. I found that out. Yeah. I had everything covered. I, I walked in the palace, I was like one of the first people there and I'm walking in and the guard stopped and he was like, he was yelling or stopping people and I just didn't even think he gonna talk to me. He is gotta be talking to somebody else.

It's like Yeah, the shorts. It's like for the fact. Yeah. So, but again, you know, it's, it's, oh, their country, their rules, so. Exactly. So you [00:29:00] have to apply for that. Yeah. And they had a store right across the street, so. When, when I went earlier, I had the same issue. Now, I normally don't travel in shorts, but it's really hot in Thailand.

Yeah. And what they do, what they did back then is you have to give them your passport and then you pay 10 for the shorts that you got that they're going to give you. And when you come back, they give you the 10 back and they give you your passport back. Or the, or the pads that they, that they give you.

It's like a sweatpants or something like that. Yeah. That they gave us. So this was way back then. So I'm glad to hear they've changed. Yeah. They haven't told them. Yeah. I've never had to give passports, but I've seen some places. So I was in Malaysia and I went to the National Mosque. And if you didn't have the appropriate clothing, they would rent to you.

Oh, actually, no, I don't even, I don't even think they charge, but they just had a, the rose for you. I think I remember they were purple. And I'll get that to go in so I always try to double, double check though, [00:30:00] cause I'm, I'm a little bigger. So I want to make sure that I could get something that fits. And usually if it's my own slout, I don't have to worry about it.

So have you ever run into like a challenging cultural situation or? No, I've been, I like, I mean, I, I grew up with my grandmother and she taught me to be really respectful of other people. And so, you know, if you don't understand something, don't make fun of someone cause you just don't understand it. You know, don't be loud.

Don't be obnoxious. And so as a result, I'm normally pretty good, uh, when I, when I travel, like I didn't do, I went to Nepal and I didn't go out for Holi and Holi is a festival where, but I guess what we see, uh, what we see from the outside is people just throwing color, colorful things at each other and you get like really doused in different colors.

I don't know what the meaning of Holi is, but that's usually what we see from the outside. I'm sure it means something else from the people who actually celebrate it. And [00:31:00] I just, I stayed away from it, one, because I only had one pair of jeans with me. And, uh, my flight was the next day and I was like, I don't know if I can get it dry in time.

Uh, uh, uh, on my flight the next day. So while we drove around, uh, it's kind of watch from a car, up inside a car. I laugh when you mention the jeans because that's me too. So I've got one pair of jeans usually, unless it's colder weather. I've got, you know, shorts usually if it's warm and actually a bunch of, bunch of merino wools.

Yeah. This is my, yeah. So that's been my best friend. So I usually have like three or four of those. In my, in my, in my luggage and that allowed me to be team carry on when I first started, but like now I've got too much camera equipment, but the four months in Asia with just a backpack and one pair of jeans and that, you know, and then you wear that when you travel to save the space with the shorts.

[00:32:00] Absolutely. And now they say it's funny because normally. Uh, I can just take one backpack with me, but what, but you're right. You know, when you have your computer and you know, I just have some, I don't have as much equipment as you do, but you, my computer and like all the hardware per se, I usually have in one bag pretty much, and everyone always thinks that my backpack is bigger and heavier, but it's not, it's the little bag that's heavier than the, that, that the backpack itself, and it tricks people all the time, but when I fly, like, you know, with Ryanair or someone like that.

They think my backpack is bigger. So I just, I just check it 35 bucks. I don't have to worry about it. I only paid like nine bucks for the ticket anyway, so it's okay for them to charge me the 35. I know that's how they make money. I'm not gonna be one of those who's have like 10 layers of clothing and I'm dying or fainting because I'm so hot.

Because I had too many layers on . I've seen those. Although I did, when I went to Iceland, I wore my snow [00:33:00] boots and it wasn't to say money on anything. It was just for space. Boom. Right. Exactly. On the flight and wore 'em back and it wasn't too uncomfortable, but. Um, yeah, it was a sacrifice. It's practical, right?

Because it's, yeah. And that's the thing too, that some of the places I go to, I don't do a lot of the events because I don't have the gear that I need to go to. Actually, I went to, when I went to the Faroe Islands, I had a jacket and I brought a bunch of layers, but the zipper on the jacket broke and I ended up catching a cold because I had to be walking around with my thing like that.

And since I wasn't in like Bahrain, I couldn't go find somebody to fix my zipper for me. Right. Do you ever take like safety? Measures either beforehand or while you're somewhere do you do things differently than when you're home? Uh, yeah, always. I mean, and some things the same, like, you know, in your home, you know, you know where the safe places are [00:34:00] and you, you know, that, you know, you don't do stupid stuff.

And when I travel, I take the same thing with me whenever I travel. I don't do stupid stuff. If I'm going out late at night, I know where I'm going. I don't walk down dark streets, you know, unless I know, quote unquote, the name, but it's one of the reasons why I like luxury hotels, because the luxury hotels are the hotels where they, the name brand hotels.

Uh, always in places that are pretty safe. The air, the hotels don't build the hotels in, you know, less desirable neighborhoods. Right. And so I can use that as a good barometer. And sometimes like people want to save money and they stay in this place, like way out in the middle of nowhere. And so you have all this massive transportation and anything can happen between, because if you're out and about late at night and now you're, okay, great.

I need to go home. You know, there's a safety factor between you. So even if your hotel is in the same place, you still have to go through a neighborhood or something like that to get there. So [00:35:00] oftentimes people will think, well, I'm trying to save money, but you're not thinking about your personal safety.

Right. I was in Norway and some guy was, he followed me and I stayed in a good hotel. He followed me down the street and I was like, why is this guy following me? And so I walked down and I crossed the street and he crossed the street. And then I crossed the street again and he crossed the street. So I turned around and I folded my arms.

I looked straight at him and he looked straight at me and then he walked off. You know, so sometimes you just have to be, just be vigilant. Listen to your body. Whenever your body is scared, it tells you it's scared. The problem is that we ignore it. So don't ignore, don't ignore your inner, your inner feeling.

The street is too dark. And you're like, okay, this is the shortest way. No, just go get a cab or get an Uber, whatever you need, whatever you need to do to be safe, you know, is really what you should do. And sometimes it's better [00:36:00] that if you call a taxi, have the hotel call one and have them come to the hotel rather than go outside and just pick up one that's hanging out.

You know, always do that. So I had a taxi debacle my first time in Amsterdam. I didn't even realize this was a thing, but like an unofficial taxi, but I didn't realize it, you know, let's say they caught me on the way out. And if I had thought about it, I probably would have, you know, say, Hey, I'll go to the taxi stand, but overnight flight, I'm on jet lag at six in the morning.

And I'm just saying it there. So I'm like, Oh, Hey, somebody right there. And then, you know, we get in and the meter didn't work. So of course, okay, well, do you have any cash? And I just fortunately had some cash. I don't always, when I first arrived, but I happened to have some then. And then I get to the hotel and I just kind of thought, what's the normal taxi rate?

And that was a scam. So the [00:37:00] meter doesn't work, but you know, they charge you more. So I think I paid like double what the fare should have been. And then I learned. Official taxis have a different color license plate than the other, other vehicles. So, I, uh, lesson there and, and where that is, I was like, you know, I was asking about safety because I've, you know, I've heard of people say, well, hey, I'm not going to go somewhere because it's not safe.

But I was like, well, you know. It's, you know, unsafe things happen here too, you know, just a matter of, you know, like you said, being vigilant and kind of understanding what's going on, you know, outside of a, you know, a war or something traumatic going on, you know, don't let safety worries stop you from, from traveling and seeing things that you want to see, you know, just.

You know, either check in and see, you know, what things you might do or what's different. Yeah. And like I said, here in New York, we have our own issues, right? And one of the things, you know, people go, I am never going back to this country because this happened, you know, that's, it depends on what it is. [00:38:00] And also sometimes some people do some stuff and you're like, well, why did you do that?

I mean, why did you decide it was okay to go to the worst part of town at two o'clock in the morning? What were you, what did you, what did you expect was going to happen? You know, or they go out and they get drunk or something and then something happened because they were drunk because you know, they're, they're, they're no longer thinking at that time.

And they're wondering around the country. Right. Exactly. It's that you would have done the same stupid thing when you were old. Right. So, so why are you, why, you know, why are you going yet another country? You don't know a lot of things that's going on. The other thing too, I think they have, is it S T E P it's called, which is a program that the, that the U S embassies have it.

I've actually never done it, but it is a good program. Because if something happens, like if you're in a, if you're in an area where, you know, you know, it's tense and you have to go for whatever reason, then it's good to register because if something happens and they need to evacuate people, then at least know where you are.[00:39:00]

I actually did a video. I've got a YouTube video on that. So I'll put that on the show. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a little thing. Safety is really important and we need to balance how much money are we going to spend. Based on, you know, versus, versus safety. Like I said, I, if I want to stay, like when I'm staying in a hotel or in a city, first I go, okay, where do I, what's my, what's my purpose for being here?

And then I go find a hotel that's close to my purpose of being there. Right. And sometimes the hotel. Might not even be in the city, but you know, my purpose of being here is outside of the city. So I want to stay near to the hotel because I don't want to be commuting back and forth, like Oktoberfest is coming up in Munich, you're probably not going to find a hotel in the city anyway, or if you do, it's going to cost a lot of money.

But Munich is in a relatively safe, safe city. Germany is pretty, it's pretty safe. So you can actually stay outside of the city and then take the train in, into wherever you, wherever you need to go. So kind [00:40:00] of think about things like that. And, uh, adjust your instinct. Good info. So what, Oh, I've been meaning to ask this.

So you mentioned hotels and your hotel snob. What is your, what's your hotel? So I'm, you know, we're endorsing anybody, but I just always, you know, It's all good. I have three brands that I go, that are my go to brands. It's usually Hilton, IHG, or Marriott. And I don't have a Hilton credit card, but I do have an IHG and a Myriad card.

And so whenever I go, I try to use those cards because they'll give you extra points. If you use those cards to pay, plus the cards will give you, they give you like a, instead of starting at the bottom, in terms of status, you may get silver or gold or sometimes a top level, like the IHG card used to give you the top level, but I don't know if that's going to happen because they just read the program.

So in January, next year, I'll find out if I'm still going to be diamonds or not. I'm going to get, get the gold or something like that. The reason why I'm [00:41:00] loyal to a brand is, you know, you get upgrades. And I'm not really big on the upgrades because I want a nice hotel, but I don't want a, a house because like sometimes you go, you get an upgrade and you're like, what am I going to do with this?

I could invite like, I could invite everybody I just met at a party here and have a party right here. But, cause sometimes, you know, some of the upgrades are ridiculous how big these places are. But what's important to me is breakfast. If they have free breakfast or they give you credits for breakfast.

Then that's really good. Or if they have a lounge, but most of the places you have to pay extra for the lounge, or you book a room that's on the floor with the lounge and normally you get, you get paid. So those are my top two brands, not that I haven't stayed at any other brands, but cause someplace you go, like someplace you go to Europe, you don't have those brands there at all.

Um, yeah, me, I'm, I'm mostly Marriott. Like I said, there's an exception. Like I said, they're not there or something like [00:42:00] that, but my thing, I said, you mentioned breakfast. I like the extra points and I like the, I like the late checkout. Oh man. I like those late checkouts. And it's so funny because I was like, would you like the late checkout?

Why? Yes, I would. Yeah. So I love, love, love that. And I can say it for no other reason. I can say that. So I love that. And it's, it's a shock whenever I'm going out of brand, you know, and have to, Oh, 11, 10 o'clock, you know, so it's scrambling the. Uh, to get out. So I really love those, uh, perks from, from membership on planes.

Are you team window seat, team aisle, or I'm not even going to say team, but just one more note on the hotels. The other piece of that is early check in on my last few trips. I've been able to check in, like one was eight 30 in the morning. Another one looked like eight 45. And most recently it was 10 30.

Okay. I [00:43:00] normally have to wait until three o'clock. So early check in is really good, but I'm a, I love window seats. Whenever I book, I always look for a window because I want to look out. I want to take videos. I want to take pictures. And you, what people don't realize that you're not the only airplane in the sky.

And so oftentimes you will see other airplanes going by and that's when you realize that you really go like 600 miles an hour, you're going super fast. So I'm team window. If I can't get a window, then, you know, I will have to do, but as an ex Airline employee, I've flown in many, many, many, many, many middle seats.

No, I'm team window, but I've evolved a little bit. So obviously I never complain if I get upgraded to business as a first class, say, Hey, I'll take wherever that one is. And if it's a overnight flight, mostly, then I'm not as particular. If for whatever reason, if that saves me a little bit on the fare, but outside of that, they [00:44:00] lie, like I'll default to a window.

When I can. Now, even talking about seats. So when you have benefits with the, with the airline, elite status, you can pick the seats earlier than normal. So like if you're a golden American, you can pick it 24 hours. If you're a platinum, I think it's like 48 hours or even, or even more than that. So it varies by airline and varies by elite status.

Otherwise you have to pay for your seats. So. If you want a particular seat, just pay for it. If you're traveling with your family, just pay for it. I mean, one of the things that's really annoying is when people get on a plane and they want to switch seats because they're not sitting together. And it's like, you realize that I paid for it.

I might not have just paid the 25 that they're asking. I paid for with my elite status. So don't be asking people to switch their seats. Just go pay for what you want. I approve that message. So what's one piece of advice I can say to somebody if they're considering, okay, Hey, you know what? I want to [00:45:00] start, you know, venturing out a little bit more.

Like what's one piece of advice that you would give to them so that they can have the best experience possible, whether that's destination that might be easier or just something to be mindful of. Yeah. It's, it's probably, probably the, the, the airline experience, you know, I'm an airline guy, right? And, uh, and I see people complain all the time about the airline experience is what they say is because, you know, they can always get a nice hotel at the other end, right?

Or they get a quote unquote, uh, Uber or some, or Lyft or something to get them to the airport, but it's the airport experience that's usually the piece that they hate the most. And so. That's the piece that, that, that, that's the piece you hate the most is because you've decided you're gonna buy the cheapest part of it.

Don't buy the cheapest ticket. Buy something. If you know you have a bag, buy a fair that gives you a bag, or be [00:46:00] loyal to the airline that will give you a bag. Like if you fly was Southwest, you're gonna get two bags, but it's open seating. And you're like, well, I don't want open seating. I wanna know where I'm sitting.

So maybe you don't fly with Southwest, maybe you have to pay for, you know, the extra seat or, or the bag or something like that. But just, you know, or if you're a bigger person, get a seat that you can fit in. You know, don't, don't, don't leave things like that to the airline because you're going to have a bad experience if you don't take care of you.

So that's probably the piece that I would say, if you're going to go travel, the, the airline experience is a piece that may make or break your trip. And I see, I see it all the time because if you notice whenever, whenever somebody goes into how was your trip, they don't go, Oh my God, the hotel was awesome.

They're like, Oh, the airline food sucked. And the seats were so small, I couldn't even fit in it. They didn't give me anything to drink. And so it's always about the airline, that's the bad piece. So as a result, [00:47:00] if you don't research, if you know, the airline does not serve you food, bring your food. I bring my snacks because, you know, it's like Biscoff and, you know, ginger ale on the planes.

So I bring my snacks with me because the snacks at the airport. As I say snacks, I was at an airport the other day. It was 13 for a burger and fries. Yeah. And I normally don't eat burgers and fries, but I was like 13. So bring your, I normally go to the lounge, but the lounge was closed. But, you know, bring it, if you need snacks, bring your snacks.

So research what you're doing in terms of the airline experience, because I guarantee you that if that part of it is really good. The rest of your experience is just going to be a little better because you've done the research on, on that part. That's great. I appreciate that. And last question I have for you is, who is somebody that inspired you from, from a [00:48:00] travel perspective, whether it's a TV show or just somebody else that you know out there that's real influential to you and that's not a plug for me.

So yeah, I'm, I'm not, I don't know what would be the answer, but I'm not eligible as a host. You know, it's my grandmother, you know, it sounds kind of lame, right. But she is the, she's a traveler. And when I'm thinking about some of the stuff that I do, because, uh, I'm the explorer, right, you know, I will go find out, you know, I, I go to a city and I'm like, okay, I'm just going to go walk and explore, and that's my grandmother.

Every time I think about something that I do. Cause like, you know, we lived in the country and she lived in, well, we lived in Kingston, the capital, and she lived in the country and she would like show up. And my dad, he'd be like, well, how'd you get here? She's like, well, I, I took a van. I took a train. This is what I did.

And it wasn't exactly close. Right. Because you [00:49:00] know, back then we didn't have phones. And so one of the cool thing that my grandma always did was I would stay in the city with my parents and then I'd go to, to the country where I'd go to school. And there was, so I would leave at like the beginning of school and they, the end of school, sorry, go to Kingston.

And then I was supposed to come back at a specific time. So I always wonder, my grandmother was almost always there. I never showed up and she wasn't there. And I'm like, well, how did she know? They didn't have phones. And so partly what happened was they arranged, they're like, you're going to come back on September 1st.

And that was the date set in stone when I left. If that changed, they would send a telegram. The telegram today to the younger ones is an app that's on, that's online, right? But a telegram is how you used to communicate back then. Because it will be immediate. And so, and then the [00:50:00] mailman would deliver the telegram.

So it would go, you know, have a machine that sends out a teletype and then it would print it on the next slide and the mailman would deliver it and it's immediate. Now, the bad thing about that is that whenever you get a telegram, it always meant that somebody's dead, almost always. Yeah. So no one would send a telegram unless somebody died.

So, you know, but, but, you know, it's, it's just life like that. I guess, you know, my grandmother was a lot, was a part of that. She was the traveler. And so, and I think I learned all the travel things, just watching her, watching how she operates. So she's kind of my, my, my travel influencer. She was, she was an early travel influencer, if you want to call it that.

That's awesome. That is awesome. So I'm kind of give my, I give my parents a little credit as well. Dad being military. So that's how that trip to Germany happened. And. Educator and you know, big into history. So, you know, that's what I'm kind of doing is seeking out, uh, the history. So [00:51:00] that's pretty awesome.

So how, how will people find you online? You mentioned your website at the beginning, but how do people find you on the, on the socials? The website is passwrather. com. That's the one kind of for all the. All the travel dates is there on social. If you search on my name, Kerwin McKenzie, you'll find me. It's Loyalty Travels.

I was trying to get something else, but somebody took it and they're not even using it. But that's a whole nother story. But just, yeah, but just search on my name and on Instagram and Twitter. Facebook is really a passwriter. Very few, very few people I accept and I don't know on my Facebook profile. It's not really a business profile as such.

But PassWriter. com and just search for Kerwin McKenzie on social and you'll find me. And we'll have those links in the show notes as well for you. So, uh, Kerwin, I appreciate your time. We had some technical difficulties trying to get everything right. It was my fault, not Kerwin. So don't pick on him, but I appreciate you helping to get [00:52:00] the podcast kicked off.

And so, you know, appreciate your time. And if there's anything else, I guess, before I let you go, there's anything else that you want to share with anybody, the floor is yours. No, that's probably about it. I really appreciate it Calvin. I mean, this is just, this has actually been good. Uh, and thank you for having me.

There is a, there is a, I have a frequent flyer course. I think if you go to passwriter. com slash FT 101 course, I think is the link. And it just kind of tells you how to be prepared and things like that. I know that people don't like to read, but the more like, you know, you're talking about your parents as a, as an educator.

The more you're educated in travel, it is the best thing, you know, rather than sit there and just blame everybody else. But if you don't know that your bag is supposed to be 50 pounds, you can't blame anybody else. It's you and you showed up with a 55 pound bag and now you're upset because they charge you five, a hundred dollars for the five pounds or something like [00:53:00] that.

It's nobody's fault, but your own. So be educated. That is the key to everything. That's great information. And I'll put the link to the course in the you

for your time. And I'm glad that you were with us. All right. I appreciate it, Calvin. Talk to you soon. And that was our discussion. I appreciate having him on board, and I hope that you learned something from him today. If you have a question that you'd like to hear answered on the podcast, feel free to send that to me.

I can be reached on Instagram at cubicles2passports. Also, if you enjoyed this episode, you can help by sharing with others. Reviews and ratings will also help others to find the podcast. Listeners can listen and review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere that you subscribe to podcasts online. I appreciate you taking time to learn from us, and we'll see you on the next flight.

Take care.[00:54:00]