Airline tickets - posted or can be picked up at airport?

ferf1223

busenbust wrote: »

^Thanks for that info too ferf, really kind of you. I am actually travelling alone, so if I don't have a specific hotel pre-booked will that be a problem?? Thanks.

I had no idea there would be such a large amount of paperwork!

It's not a lot of paperwork really, it's 2 short forms and you'll have plenty of time during your flight to fill them out.

Is there a reason you haven't booked (or won't be pre-booking) a hotel? I've not been to San Francisco, but personally wouldn't arrive without a hotel room sorted at least for the first night or two. But if you do, I'd suppose you should have an address of a hotel in San Fran to hand to write down, as if you don't fill anything out I suspect you'll have an issue - what sort of issue, I don't know. But I know that once we didn't have the address of our hotel to hand - so we wrote down 'Excalibur Hotel, Las Vegas, NV'. We were turned back and told that they couldn't accept it without the street address. Nevermind that there's only one Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas and it's a giant fake castle, so it's pretty obvious.

I suppose that people do arrive without a hotel booked, so maybe someone will have a better suggestion...not really wanting to advocate making something up on a US governmental form!

busenbust

Bella_Wilfer wrote: »

If you are buying dollars here and are in london/edinburgh, you can usually negotiate a (very!) good rate with the small foreign exchange kiosks (lots near victoria, oxford st, paddington, etc.). They will generally discount the rate to save themselves the cost of changing the dollars to pounds. Ask them what their best rate is and try to look as if you are prepared to go elsewhere. It works!

Thanks BW for that. Is it still possible to pay for stuff with my Nationwide debit card in San Fran??

Caz3121 wrote: »

If you are looking at Expedia for flights it may be worth looking at flight+hotel there are some great deals and when we did New York we saved loads compared to booking them seperately

Thanks Caz, will check out.

busenbust

ferf1223 wrote: »

It's not a lot of paperwork really, it's 2 short forms and you'll have plenty of time during your flight to fill them out.

Is there a reason you haven't booked (or won't be pre-booking) a hotel? I've not been to San Francisco, but personally wouldn't arrive without a hotel room sorted at least for the first night or two. But if you do, I'd suppose you should have an address of a hotel in San Fran to hand to write down, as if you don't fill anything out I suspect you'll have an issue - what sort of issue, I don't know. But I know that once we didn't have the address of our hotel to hand - so we wrote down 'Excalibur Hotel, Las Vegas, NV'. We were turned back and told that they couldn't accept it without the street address. Nevermind that there's only one Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas and it's a giant fake castle, so it's pretty obvious.

I suppose that people do arrive without a hotel booked, so maybe someone will have a better suggestion...not really wanting to advocate making something up on a US governmental form!

Thanks also ferf; will do my best then to pre-book.

Bella_Wilfer

busenbust wrote: »

Thanks BW for that. Is it still possible to pay for stuff with my Nationwide debit card in San Fran??

I would expect so but you may find that the exchange rate isn't great. Why not give them a call and ask?

simongregson

Bella_Wilfer wrote: »

I would expect so but you may find that the exchange rate isn't great. Why not give them a call and ask?

Exchange rate will be pretty good with your nationwide debit card, it is amongst the best cards on the market for foreign transactions (well, the best debit card, exchange rate loading is 1%, MUCH better than exchanging cash before you go).

Most places in the US accept VISA, and the nationwide card does not charge for withdrawals from cash machines either.

busenbust

^Thanks Simon also.

Mark_Hewitt

You can spend all your time going to and from different European countries for 10 years and still end up with a passport with no stamps in it!

Alt

Unless you plan to hire a car and stay in hotels outside the main SF area then I would strongly suggest pre-booking your hotel room as SF is one of the more expensive US cities and from my experience, last minute hotel bookings could be very expensive.

Also if you do hire a car and are still planning to stay within the centre of SF, make sure the hotel has parking! (free preferably)

The following site might also be useful for you
http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/sanfrancisco/a/savemoney.htm

busenbust

^^Thanks Alt. No, I don't plan to drive at all. I am traveling alone and just plan on seeing the sights, such as The Golden Gate Bridge (up close and personal hopefully!). Looks like I better pre-book a hotel then. Thanks for the link too; will have a good read.

Voyager2002

Please bring the credit/debit card that you use to pay for the air ticket: you might need to show this before you are allowed to board the aeroplane.

Note that your passport does NOT need six months's validity for the USA: it just has to be valid for the length of your holiday there.