7 airport lounge access secret you need to know

1 - Buy day-passes online

Most airlines will allow passengers to buy a lounge access day-pass online.

Toronto Air Canada Airport Lounge

As an example, you can buy a day-pass from Air Canada for access to their own lounge for $25 if you are travelling on a Latitude fare. 

United Airlines offers airport lounge access day-pass for $50 here.

2 - Buy day-passes at the airport

Check directly with your airline. If if your airline doesn't own its own named lounge at the airport, they often have deals with private lounges offering them at competitive prices. As an example, Canadian airline Westjet has partnered with private lounge operators in the various regions it travels (Canada, Europe, Caribbean) to. Westjet offers airport lounge access at very competitive prices.

3 hour access to the Plaza Premium lounge costs $40 - 20% (Westjet discount) = $32. 

Some vacation package wholesalers also offer (add-on) lounge access to their customers. As an example, Signature vacations (in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton & Winnipeg) sells lounge access to all vacation pass holders. 

3 - Buy access to an independent airport lounge

Some airlines do not offer any type of (direct or indirect) lounge access. Other times companies buy the cheapest ticket they can find which means you may fly 10 different airlines and therefore not gain priority privilege access on any one particular airline. These are the times you may need to buy access to one of the independent lounges. 

If you travel to different airports, you may want to join one of the independent airport lounge access networks like:

• Priority Pass
• Lounge Pass
• Lounge Club

As an example, Priority Pass offers access to 1000 airport lounges worldwide. Priority Pass (sold in Canada) offers 3 levels of membership:

1. Standard($99 a year). Every access will cost $27 for the member or guests.
2. Standard Plus ($249 a year). Member receives 10 annual visits. Additional visits or guests cost $27 each.
3. Prestige ($399 a year). Member receives unlimited lounge access and guests can buy access for $27. 

Some credit cards have standing agreements with these lounge access  wholesalers and allow you to buy access without having to pay an annual membership fee. As an example, Diners Club Canada offers members access to worldwide lounges at affordable prices.

Here is an example of their Canadian airport lounges you can buy access to. Access to a lounge in Toronto is about $US30.

4 - Get a credit card with lounge access

If you travel a lot, it may make sense to use a travel credit card that includes access to airport lounge (either free or a pay per use without requiring an annual membership to a lounge network).

Credit Walk (Canada) has published an interesting article comparing various credit card lounge access programs.

Sleeping in Airports (USA) also has an article about credit cards offering lounge access.

5 - Buy a refundable business class ticket

Some travel forums (e.g. maphappy, boarding area, view from the wing ) recommend that you buy a full price refundable business class ticket for travel the same day as your regular discounted ticket, use the lounge and then refund the ticket. 

I have never used this technique and you should make sure the ticket is still refundable if you use the lounge. I know airlines like United have started implementing lounge access software that will help curb this type of abuse but I know this still works on some airlines. 

6 - Buy lounge access from other passengers

You can sometimes buy lounge access from other travelers on classified type sites at discounted rates (eBay, Craigslist, etc). Make sure you check any restrictions that may apply.

Someone selling 4 Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge access on eBay.

7 - Use a Smartphone App for lounge access

There are travel smartphone apps like Loungebuddy (IOS & Android) . 

Loungebuddy offers on the spot lounge access purchased on your smartphone without requiring an annual subscription.

Microsoft Outlook Premium Super Deal (Promo)

UPDATED: Microsoft has extended the promo until June 30 2017.

Outlook.com Premium is now out of beta and is being offered at the super affordable price of $US19.95 until March 2017. If you need a custom domain, you can buy one directly from Microsoft for $US10 per year. After the promo, the price will rise to $US49.99

So what do you get?

• Custom domain for five users - You can create personalized email addresses (Outlook premium) for up to 5 people.
• Information sharing - Outlook Premium automatically configures information sharing between all of your user accounts (up to 5) for calendar, contacts and documents. Unlike other services, Microsoft Outlook Premium automatically configures the sharing so it is super simple. We don't know the shared space allocation yet (via OneDrive) but regardless, its a good deal.
• Ad-free inbox - You get a clean ad-free outlook.com experience. This means no graphical ads in outlook.com or onedrive.com.

This offer will expire March 31 2017 so jump on it now. Did I mention you will be renewed at lower rate in the future also? Get the offer here.

The same services on Google's GMAIL would cost $5 per user per month ($60 per year). If you activate all 5 users, it would cost you $300 on GMAIL ($19.99 on Outlook Premium).

Secret to a 3 minute better you

Why continuous improvement is important

Companies have competitors, but so do employees. There are others that can do your job, the questions is who can do it better. Continuous development through education (formal and informal) is the only way to keep and and hopefully move ahead. Moving ahead means you gain unique differentiating qualities that hopefully will lead to promotions, better compensation and maybe lead to the job you've been dreaming of.

By improving who you are, you gain the ability to deliver better services to clients, your company, colleagues and friends. A true professional is always striving to become better so that they may serve their entourage better. It increases the value you deliver to others and it increases your value.

“ipsa scientia potestas est - aka Knowledge is power”

— Sir Francis Bacon

Continuous improvement is important both in your professional space and your personal one. You need to become better at what you do (your chosen profession) and who you are (your ability to handle different situations and make the best possible decisions). Sure in good times, better knowledge could lead to promotions but in bad times, it could be the difference that helps you keep you job. 

So continuous personal development improves knowledge, skills and ability. At the same time it strengthens confidence and many times this new calm, cool confident you results in you being more relaxed (even in though situations) which means it improves your well-being.

The bank can take your house or car but they cannot take away your knowledge. What you learn is yours to keep and will benefit you your entire life. An investment in yourself is the best investment you can make.

The 3 minute secret

The biggest complaint I hear from people is that they want to learn and improve but they just don't have the time. 

Time is one commodity we can't buy or make more of. So in the spirit of helping you improve without consuming large amounts of your personal time, I present to you the GetNugget.co app. It is a small and simple iPhone & Android app that distills the wisdom of thousands of well reviewed books into small easy to consume information snippets.

They have thousands of books grouped in these categories:

• Biographies
• Business
• Business Strategy
• Creativity
• Health & Happiness
• Leadership
• Management
• Marketing
• Money
• Our Journey
• Personal Development
• Sales
• Science
• Startups & Entrepreneurship

When you open the app the first time, you are asked to chose categories that interest you.

Then you are presented with books of interest.

When you chose a book, you get the nuggest for that book.

When you click on a nugget, you get the full screen view.

And all of this for free. So go download it now and become smarter.

Most relaxing song in the world (science)

Everyone knows that music has a magical ability to enhance your emotions. It can push you to your exercise faster, smile more or fall into deep meditative contemplation. A British band called Marconi Union has used scientific research to produce what it calls "the most relaxing song" ever created. The bank worked with professionals (like sound therapists) during the process. 

The song was specifically engineered to lower blood pressure, reduce stress levels, and even lower your heart rate. The combination of sounds and music creates such a state of relaxation that users have been warned not to listen to it while driving.

Mindlab Insight performed research and determined this was the most relaxing song they have ever tested. Weightless "induces a 65% reduction in anxiety and a 35% reduction in physiological  resting rates.

The best lightning cable for your IOS products

Like it or hate it, one thing we can all agree on is that Apple's in-package lightning cables are horrible. They are weak and usually become frayed and unusable within months. 

First stay away from the cheap Chinese knockoff cables. Every MFI (Made For Iphone) certified cable comes with a special (in cable) authentication chip. Chipworks has a good write up about this secret chip. This is why many of the cheaper lightning accessories and cables you buy on Amazon, eBay and AliExpress, turn out to be useless junk.

Over the years, I have found that certain higher quality cables (micro USB style) are able to transfer data more reliably or support faster charging. Not so with lightning. It turns out that all MFI certified cables I have tested have been about the same as it relates to data transfer speed and charging speed.

So the real deciding factor is the durability of the cable. So over the last several months, I have been real world testing dozens of lightning cables from name brand companies. I wanted to see how they would hold up to the rigours of rough use:

• threw them in my work bag
• used them to charge via battery while in the pocket of my winter jacket
• user them to charge while in the car
• swung them with the phone attached
• crunched them and tightly packed them in jeans pockets
• etc

You get the idea.

The one cable that came out on top was the Anker PowerLine lightning cable. It is competitively prices, MFI certified, it can charge all IOS devices at full speed (except the ipad pro) and it super durable. 

The tips are encased in a solid plastic housing and a nice rubbering joint between the cable and the connectors. 

Anker claims the cable is reinforces with kevlar fibers which is impossible to prove but the cables do feel solid and very sturdy (compared particularly to the Apple, Monoprice and Amazon basics ones). Now before anyone emails me, there are other more durable cables but these typically cost so much, they are not even being considered by the average consumer. Remember that this is a review for a consumer and not one for a product used in an industrial setting where $50-75 is considered acceptable.

The Anker Powerline lightning cables fit comfortable through the opening of various cases including the original Apple ones, LifeProof, Rhinoshield and any other one I threw at it. This is an important consideration and a major win for Anker.

As a sanity check, I read reviews on major online retail sites and comments were overwhelmingly positive. 

You can find these lightning cables almost everywhere so grab a couple. You'll be glad you did.