This is one of the reasons that, if the price is the same, you should reserve directly with the hotel rather than an on-line booking service (Expedia, etc) because they often have no cancellation policy.

I’m not sure how well its going to work with aitline tickets unless its a refundable ticket.

I.e. say you book a hotel @ $500.. it falls to $400. If you ask for a refund (and get $100 back), then it drops to $350, you’re out the extra $50. Do you call back and ask for a second refund?

If you wait though, it might rise back up to $450, then you can’t exactly call in and say “well it was at $400, refund me to that price.”

It’s the exact same dilemma as when to book your flight. Doesn’t seem to be a great tip to me, unless you book your flight and get a refund based on the ending price (right before the flight takes off), which won’t work as it’s almost alway higher. Might work for a hotel, if you booked and they dropped their prices right before you’re staying there, but then it’s just a rate adjustment, it’s not like you pre-pay for most hotels..

Odd tip, in any case.

-arebelspy

One thing I always find noteworthy on the site is the rate of ING Direct…several sites refer to them (such as Ramit’s), but there are several banks that beat their rate…perhaps a topic for another article though

My secret to getting extra hot fudge was to go to the ice cream shop 10 minutes before closing; at that point the staff weren’t worried about running out of fudge and having to heat up a new batch. My late-night sundaes ended up being 50 percent hot fudge and 50 percent ice cream, which is just the way I like them.

There’s a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop near our house. I don’t go often (and haven’t been in a while), but often enough to know that they generally won’t give “extra hot fudge” on a sundae (it’s against policy). But I found that if I was friendly, if I smiled and made small talk, and then asked politely, they would give the extra hot fudge.

I also have a weakness for the chinese takeout at Safeway (another vice I’ve given up in the past few months). I always get steamed rice and an entree. But I want *two* entrees. I want half of one item and half of another. I don’t need a lot of either. Official policy is: no way. But I’ve learned that if I’m nice, most employees will do it anyhow. (Back when I was a regular at this, I developed a rapport with certain employees, and they’d always accommodate this request.)

These are small things, I know, but they’re examples of what you can get by asking. They’re things I never would have got before, because I never would have asked…

Norman ‘I was yelled at by Joan Baez’ Bone

I remember when I first realized this. A friend and I were flying from Portland to Minneapolis. Our plane was delayed. I would have simply sat around the airport and sucked it up. But my friend was assertive and he asked — politely — if they would upgrade us to first class to compensate for our trouble. They did. I was shocked!

That was almost a decade ago. I didn’t start emulating his assertiveness at first, but gradually I’ve become more accustomed to it. Most of us tell ourselves over and over, “I’m not assertive.” I’m simply learned to replace that “script” with one that says, “I am going to act assertive.” Not that I am assertive, but that I’m going to act like it. To the outside world, there’s no difference between the two, and so I’m able to enjoy the rewards of assertiveness without scaring myself.

Remember, too, that there’s a difference between assertive and aggressive. Aggressive is rude…