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5 Ways to Maximize your Business Travel Rewards

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Brad Christensen

Long before 1981, when American Airlines launched AAdvantage, the first formal frequent flyer mile program, a burgeoning airline company fighting to survive would set the stage for all of the loyalty programs we know today.

Braniff

A tiny airline with four aircraft was operating flights in a triangular route between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. It was 1973 and Southwest Airlines faced its first big challenge – the much larger Braniff Airlines, seeing how Southwest was nearing profitability and could become a competitor, decided it would eliminate the fledgling company by lowering its fares on Southwest’s most profitable route (Houston to Dallas) to $13 each way. Braniff figured the move would strangle Southwest, but Southwest executives understood how peoples’ minds worked.

Southwest launched an ad campaign stating that “Nobody’s going to shoot Southwest Airlines out of the sky for a lousy $13.” The ads detailed the predicament and offered passengers a provocative opportunity; pay $13 or pay $26 and the passenger would have his choice of a fifth of Crown Royal whiskey, Chivas Regal scotch, or Smirnoff vodka. As you might expect, business travelers (who made up the bulk of the fare payers) were more than happy to charge the $26 to their companies and carry home their stash of complimentary liquor.

As the story goes, Southwest became the state of Texas’ biggest liquor distributor for a couple of months before businesses realized what was happening and put an end to it. Even so, Southwest had fended off the competition and two years later it was Braniff that put an end to their Dallas-Houston flights. (This story paraphrased from: NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg – a really good book, by the way).

Southwest airlines (Photo credit: Photographer Clayton)

The loyalty concept was born… and what a beautiful life it has taken on. Today and every day, hundreds of thousands of business travelers are rewarded, not in the form of fine liquor, but in another, similarly intoxicating substance: travel reward points and miles.

If you’re someone who travels for work and you’re already taking advantage of the countless opportunities to accrue miles for your personal use, may the deity of your choice bless you. If you’re someone who travels for work and you’re like “what, travel rewards?” then may the deity of your choice guide you to the path of light and truth.

But just in case you’re deaf to said deity’s guidance, let WorldWanderlusting do it for you. Here are 5 ways you can maximize your business travel rewards:

5 Ways to Maximize your Business Travel Rewards Accumulation

Sign up for every program – You do not want to find yourself unregistered for programs you later wind up using. Register for at least the major ones you can find on our Using Airline Miles and Using Hotel Points pages. Email yourself the numbers, logins, and passwords so you always have them on hand.
Focus mainly on one or two – When you obtain enough miles to begin to qualify for elite status, you’ll notice that you compound your collection when you have higher standing within the loyalty system. There are multipliers kick in at certain levels. You want to understand them and make your choices wisely.
Southwest has an amazing program – The grandfather of loyalty programs still does it up right. I know many business travelers don’t like the lack of First Class or the cattle-call loading, but between Business Select fares that pay 12x in points and a Companion Pass Program that will excite you like the old school liquor days, Rapid Rewards are a rockstar to be reckoned with. The other one you’ll really want to look at is their partnership with National Car Rental – they give 600 RR points for every car rental – that’s a far more aggressive reward than you’ll get when you send points to other programs.
Check out Rocketmiles.com – This is a recently-launched booking engine whose focus is turning hotel stays into massive airline mile rewards. In most cases you can find hotels at the same prices, but with generous doses of frequent flyer miles from the major airline carriers – note that you are trading possible hotel point accrual for more lucrative airline miles, something you’ll want to weigh carefully.
Double-dip by earning rewards booking for co-workers – Your first duty is to convert co-workers to the ways of the wanderluster – never letting loyalty points go unearned. But for those home-bound naysayers that you can’t convince, you can earn points for yourself when booking them on Delta with Skybonus. And Hotels.com allows you to earn welcome rewards for hotels you book for anyone, not just yourself.

If you’re bemoaning the fact that you don’t have someone paying for your flights because you own your own business, lament no longer. You have opportunities that others who’ve read this piece voraciously simply don’t have. You can start by using a business credit card like The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN to get an up-front 50k point bonus when you spend $5000 in the first 3 months. That is only one of many business travel reward credit cards, and as long as you use them responsibly and always pay the balance in full and on time, you’ll be planning your own trips the free way, too.

Regardless of how you get them, I hope you’re serious about piling up the miles and points so that you can seize the amazing travel bargains that can be had when you’re attuned to the offers that are out there.

Thank you for wanderlusting with us! Please comment below and let us know where your business travel rewards have taken you, or where you’d like for them to take you.

Stop Taking Prozac and Start Traveling: 5 Reasons Why Travelers aren’t Depressed

Posted on May 1, 2013 by wpengine

The daily grind of life is rough. Even with a great job that you really enjoy, it still sucks. I’m convinced that the monotony of life is a strong reason for some kinds of depression. It takes hold of every one of us. The best way to cure your depression isn’t to take a pill a day – try taking a trip instead.

One of our readers just mentioned that they retired at 47 and has been taking at least four big international trips a year since then. Not all of us are fortunate enough to be independently wealthy at any age. For that reason you’ve got us. We’ll show you how to travel the world for free. The bottom line is that you need to start traveling.

Here are 5 big reasons why travelers aren’t depressed:

1. Get Humbled. Traveling will humble you.

Tent City in Port-au-Prince

Even when you feel like your life is in the toilet because your dog died, you just got diagnosed with diabetes, or you just wrecked your car, you could always find someone who is deeper in the spiral than you. Spending more time outside of your small sphere of influence will quickly reveal this.

If you don’t believe me, then I could purchase you a one way ticket to Haiti and introduce you to some people who disagree. Heck. You don’t even have to go to Haiti to find these people. You might find them in New York, or even Salt Lake City. The moment you leave your regular life and start looking around at other people you’ll quickly realize just how good you have it.

Traveling provides you opportunities to look at your situation and remind you that life isn’t so bad after all. Put the Prozac down and back away from the counter.

2. Travel to Get Some Sunshine in the Winter

You know that I’m writing this as I see snowflakes falling to the ground and STICKING on April 30th. AARRRGGHH. When you live in a place like Idaho, where the winters last 9 months out of the blasted year, it is healthy to get out of town and see some sun.

Max enjoying the sunshine

There is nothing like breaking away from the long winters to soak up some rays. You know what kind of winter that I’m talking about. The one where you don’t leave the house except when absolutely necessary because there isn’t any more food in the pantry. Your skin looks like that of Edward Cullen and you don’t dare go outside. Lather up the sunscreen because your pale skin won’t be ready for the full blast of rays you’ll be getting, but your mind surely will love you for it.

In January we took a trip to Panama to enjoy the scenery, visit some historical sites, visit the Embera tribe, and soak up some rays. It was so refreshing to feel the warmth of the sun. Our winter was in full swing with blizzards in Idaho, but it felt good knowing that I was enjoying the warmth. It is good for your heart, soul, and mind. So start planning today and book a trip for next winter to get into the sun and away from the medication.

3. Travel Creates Happy Memories that Last

Shae and I in 2009 Enjoying the Cambodian Temples

I’ll never forget skateboarding across Barcelona with two of my best buddies in 2001. We spent hours riding the streets and exploring the city. How do you ever forget an experience like this? Try this one on for size: My wife and I spent three weeks touring across Southeast Asia before we had any children. We visited temples, had massages, ate some amazing food, and met delightful people. Just try to forget something like that. I dare you. Ain’t gonna happen.

When you reflect upon wonderful times in your life, it helps you to remember that life is a good thing. We need more of this. It’s easy to focus on the right now, and how bad things are hurting now, but reflecting back on wonderful memories will help to ease the pain. Obviously it doesn’t remove it completely, but at least starts the healing process.

{PAUSE right here and SUBSCRIBE to WorldWanderlusting – 3 emails a week to daydream of travel and then make it happen}

4. Travel Gives you Something to Look Forward to

Maybe some people are different, but I can’t imagine that those people would actually be reading a blog like this, so I’m going to assume that you’re all similar to me. I’m convinced that planning a trip can make you happier.

Us at Juliet’s Balcony in Verona, Italy

When I was looking into visiting castles on my European vacation last year I stumbled upon a video from Rick Steves that talked about the most well preserved medieval castle that he had ever visited. It sparked a thought in my mind, and I knew that I had to visit this location. I checked out videos at the library to learn about the places that I’d be seeing. My wife and I watched documentaries on Netflix about the building of Venice. All this stuff was fascinating to me. I was having a blast as I looked into the fun things that I’d be doing on the trip.

We found out that Verona had a balcony that “belonged to Juliet.” Of course we stopped there, and of course my wife slapped me when I rubbed the statue’s breast (which was supposed to be for good luck).

John, a member of our army of WorldWanderlusters, is spending two weeks exploring Italy with his wife RIGHT NOW. This kid was intense with his research. He became enthralled with the trip and did exactly as I had done on my trip. It is all paying off now because his trip is going to be more memorable knowing that he’s prepared himself for the events of his vacation.

5. Travel Puts the Daily Grind to a Halt

Are you kidding me? America gets the lowest amount of vacation than any other nation on Earth. We are basically slaves to our jobs. Heck. I’m even self-employed and I’m still a slave to myself.

People are more efficient when they get a break from time to time. Imagine the last time you attended a work meeting that lasted all day. Did they give you any breaks? What if they would have allowed no breaks, but slammed 10 hours of straight meetings in your face? Everyone would be asleep from boredom after 2 hours. People need breaks.

Life works the same way. If you work everyday and never get a break, you’ll be less productive. It’s time to put the daily grind to a halt and sharpen the saw. Tell your boss that you need more time off and less pay. After all, what good does more pay do for you if you don’t even enjoy your life now?

Pull out the sharpening stone by taking a break and traveling more. Leaving the daily routine, even if it is for short breaks, will be worth its weight in gold.

Please Note: This post was not meant to offend anyone who suffers from depression or other mental illness. I realize that medication is the only thing that helps some people to cope with their depression. While traveling might not completely cure anyone, I’m convinced that it will help everyone.

Posted in About us, Travel Tips, Travel Tricks | Tagged Barcelona, Edward Cullen, haiti, idaho, Memory, new york city, Port-au-Prince, Prozac, Rick Steves, Salt Lake City, Tent City, travel, United States | 6 Comments

11 flights, 10 Countries, 9,779 miles, $4850 in Flights – Pay no more than taxes

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Brad Christensen

I have 55,800 American Express Membership Rewards points that I got from The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN. As we’ve talked about before, miles and points generally fall into one of three categories: Airline Miles, which you can use to book flights, Hotel Points, which you can use to book rooms, or Bank Points, which you can use to do either or transfer to some specific programs. These Membership Rewards fall into that last category. Right now there’s a promotion to get a 35% bonus when you transfer from Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios. With the bonus right now, I could rack up 75,330 Avios. We’ve told you before how nice these points can be for short, direct flights like SLC-LAX or BOI-SEA. But tonight I’m thinking bigger.

Brazil tour You see, I just got off the phone with my youngest brother who is two weeks into a two month tour of Latin America. He started in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has thus far worked his way down to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Of course he is raving about the experience and I’m a deep shade of green with envy.

And you know what envy does to a wanderluster… it doesn’t throw them into bouts of woe and depression, it incites them to action. It invites them to say not “I can’t do that,” but “how can I do that?” Well, I got a little carried away and I am in total shock and awe at what could be done with my Membership Rewards.

I set out to get maximum exploration for my miles. This is kind of a “diagnosed-with-terminal-disease” itinerary. My only objective was to touch as many areas as possible, and minimize any non-air travel. If I included some bus routes between these areas, it would be even more incredible what could be done.

British Airways South America

Even still, this is what we have: 11 flights, 10 countries, 9,779 miles, $4,850 in flights. Now, given that there are some taxes and fees you’d have to pay on these flights, along with departure fees and various other add-ons, what I’m telling you is that my miles could buy me almost $5000 in flights.

Route	BA Avios	Retail Cost
DFW-CUN	7,500	$ 315
CUN-MIA	4,500	$ 280
MIA-SJU	7,500	$ 120
SJU-CCS	4,500	$ 710
CCS-LIM	10,000	$ 890
LIM-UIO	7,500	$ 548
UIO-MDE	4,500	$ 462
MDE-LIM	10,000	$ 575
LIM-TCQ	4,500	$ 173
Bus to La Paz
LPB-SCL	10,000	$ 278
SCL-COR	4,500	$ 499
Total	75,000	$ 4,850

I know this seems unfathomable. There’s no possible way that you could do something this amazing purely through wanderlust, a willingness to use the manner of your everyday purchases to accumulate miles, and some cunning planning, right?

Well, here it is, and you can check it for yourself. I searched out flight routes on British Airways’ Routemap tool, double checked with the British Airways Avios Calculator, measured distances with the Great Circle Mapper, and checked prices with flights every 5 days on Expedia.com.

In fact, I’m willing to offer a challenge. If you can come up with a route that touches more countries, starting in Dallas and ending wherever you’d like, I’ll very happily send you a $50 – and then I’ll book the trip for myself.

What I’m trying to impart here is that there is no boundary for the wanderluster. Anything you want to do, you can do. You must be flexible. You must be creative. You must be willing to put in the research. I’ve been voraciously thirsting for global conquest for about 13 of my 34 years, and I’m nowhere near stopping.

Get yourself some British Airways Avios and open the door to Latin America. You can transfer the Membership Rewards you can get from the The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN, or go for the British Airways Visa Signature® Card.

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Posted in British Airways, South America | Tagged American Express Membership Rewards, BA Avios, british airways, British Airways Partners, Latin America, maximize avios, Tour of South America, what to do with membership rewards | 10 Comments

Wanderlust in Aruba

Posted on April 26, 2013 by wpengine

This post was written by Bonnie, a newcomer to the WorldWanderlusting way of traveling. She recently took an unbelievable anniversary trip in February of this year with her husband, and wanted to share her experience with our readers (note that their camera date wasn’t set so the dates are incorrect).

Our 20 year anniversary was coming up, and I knew I wanted to do something special and big that included a white sandy beach. I also knew that with 5 kids, I didn’t have a lot of extra money lying around. So, I did what any other adventure seeker would do and sat down with my friend Sheldon. Now my disclaimer to this is that I have listened to Sheldon blab nonstop about all the wonderful adventures that he has taken since I met him 5 years ago. But I have a HUGE aversion to using credit cards, because I know far too many people that have not used them responsibly, and have later gotten into financial disaster. So I would politely listen to the blabbing, smile, and wonder to myself how I could take the same trip “legitimately.” I quickly realized that Sheldon’s blabbing WAS legitimate! It IS possible to be a responsible credit card user and to travel the world almost FREE!!

I started applying for my first credit cards in September 2012. I had no idea where I wanted to go, but knew I needed points to get there. I also felt a little bit of a time crunch, because we wanted to take our anniversary trip in February 2013. This gave me only 6 months to maximize my use of travel cards, which required some very close accounting. Then, I literally started Wanderlusting any location that I could redeem my points, with white sandy beaches being the only parameter. I wanted to go someplace a little remote; off the “normal” beaten path….which is why we chose Aruba.

My husband and I both applied for the Chase Marriott Rewards card. My husband had applied for the card when they were advertising an additional incentive, so he received 80,000 points after his required purchase, and I received “only” 50,000 points after my purchase. Regardless, this gave us 130,000 points to use at a Marriott resort. The hotels in Aruba all required a larger amount of points, as they were at least a category 5 or higher. We chose an ultimate beach front gorgeous Marriott resort that cost us 140,000 points, but you could stay 4 nights and get the 5^th night free. Luckily, to make up for the difference in points, we had a Chase Freedom card that allowed us to transfer points to various other travel partners. Like magic, our white sandy beach resort hotel was paid for!! My husband and I also both applied for the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, which gave us each 30,000 frequent flier points after our required purchase. Our airline tickets cost 35,000 points each, so I did have to dig into my wallet to buy the extra 5,000 points each, plus pay the taxes. The extra Delta points and taxes cost a mere $450. (I’m certain if I had more time I would not have had to pay for this either.) But, wait… there’s more! We decided that we wanted 6 nights in Aruba instead of only 5, so I found another resort, using my Starwood American Express card, to receive 1 additional free night. Then our flight back to Idaho took us through NYC, with an overnight layover in NYC. So, I did the only natural thing, and used my Chase Priority Club card for another FREE night. Curiosity got the best of me, so I tried to book the entire trip on my own to see my savings. This trip would have cost $6000+, but it cost me $450!!!

Bonnie and Wyatt enjoying Aruba

Aruba is a small island, only about 22 miles wide and 8 miles long, and located about 15 miles north of Venezuela. Their motto on all license plates is “One Happy Island” and we can attest that everyone was pleasant and so wonderful. We happened upon a “locals” beach one day, and the local kite surfers gave us our own show of spectacular jumps and flips over the waves. Because the island is so small, we drove on every street and checked out all corners of the island. The year-round temperature is in the mid-80’s with a constant ocean breeze.

Wyatt enjoying a fresh coconut

If you’ve ever wanted to try fresh coconut milk, drinking it from a guy on the side of the road as he chops it with his machete is the only way to drink it! Aruba is a very dry island, not what you would think of as a tropical island. There were many cactus jungles, and most of the fruit was imported. But the seafood was amazing, and we ate fresh fish almost every day.

Almost everyone on the island speaks English, although the native language is Papiamento. It is a beautiful Creole language that is a mix of Portuguese, Spanish, and some African languages.

Whether it was romantic poolside dinners or watching the ocean sunset on the white sandy beach, we had an awesome 20^th Anniversary! So, blab your heart out Sheldon, and you can guarantee that we’ll be Wanderlusting again soon!!!

Posted in Guest Post | Tagged american express, Aruba, Caribbean, credit card, Happy Island, Loyalty program, Papiamento, Venezuela | 11 Comments

Who are the Bloggers Behind Worldwanderlusting? Part II Sheldon & Family

Posted on April 24, 2013 by wpengine

Last week Brad gave you the low down on his entire family. Hopefully you enjoyed it and you’re ready to hear about his younger brother.

About Sheldon

I’m the third of four close brothers. It was a great spot to be in. I watched two older brothers learn the hard way, and heard them wail about wooden spoon spankings. There was even one occasion in which the paddle broke over Brad’s behind. You better believe that I never made that mistake! My three brothers are some of my best friends. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Just like Brad, I had a paper route that cost me more money than I made. It did teach me to work, which has been valuable throughout my life, but surely didn’t pay me anything. I was always a good student, and had lots of friends (I paid them good money to be my friends). During my senior year I was elected to be the class president of Idaho Falls High School.

Shortly after graduation I was called to serve a mission in the Paraguay, Asuncion Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is where I picked up my Spanish, a love for people, some great friends, and some tapeworms (just kidding).

Upon returning from Paraguay I attended BYU-Idaho and received a BS in Business Finance. I’m a nerd. I spent more time in the library than sleeping at home. The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack was the best for studying!

About Shae

She’s the oldest of five children, and the only girl in the crew. As a young girl she enjoyed drawing, princesses, and Barbies. She has always been creative and thoughtful.

Her family moved to Omaha, NE when she was a small child, and she still has memories of her time spent there. Fate would bring their family back to Idaho, which was something that helped me to find her! They settled in Rexburg, Idaho where Shae has lived most of her life.

Cheerleading was a passion for her in high school. We laugh about it sometimes because she’s not the typical “plastic” blonde cheerleader. She enjoyed the sport of cheerleading, and still tries to get me to watch Bring It On from time to time. Shae even spent time on the debate team one year, which shows that she has a well rounded skill set.

Her beauty isn’t the only thing that is stunning. She was also a nerd, phew, which meant that she spent many nights at the library too. It’s funny that we didn’t meet there for all the time that we both spent there. In 2010 she graduated from BYU-Idaho with a BA in Communications.

Shae is an absolute sweetheart. She’s constantly concerned about those around her, and how she can help them. Our son is treated like royalty, and he receives her full attention all day long. Her kind and compassionate personality easily creates friends. Basically she’s the bomb.

How We Met

It was my final semester at school, and I was starting to get nervous. You see, in the Mormon community most people are married at 21. I was about to turn 24 and hadn’t been married yet, which made me a menace to society. I had one more class to complete a cluster in politics. I elected a class that was taught by a close friend thinking that it would be an easy class.

Walking into every class you’re always checking out all the babes in your class, right? I sat in the front of the class so I could scope out the situation in this Legislative Branch course. I spotted a cute brunette who was also sitting close to the front of the class. Apparently it had been less like a “spotting” and more like a “stare” because she caught me looking at her and responded with a cute smile. Somehow she caught me later in the class, and gave the same smile back. I wanted it!

At the end of the class I wanted to visit with her, but she had already taken off. By the time I entered the hall, she was already far away from me. I used my missionary walk (10mph) to catch her on the way home. She would tell you that I chased her down, which is probably true, but don’t tell her I agree.

It wasn’t very long before we both knew that things were going to get serious. I’m a slow mover, so she had to basically propose to me or else we’d still be dating.

Max

This lucky character has already visited 7 countries. Most Americans haven’t visited 7 countries and he isn’t even 2 yet! If you count the places that he visited while he was a bun in the oven then you could say he has visited another 6 countries or 13 total!

He is one of the most active 2 year olds I’ve ever seen. We take him to story time at the library and all the other children are listening intently. He’s running up and down the halls and throwing rocks in the fish pond. He must constantly think about Cars like his daddy thinks about travel. All day long he is saying “Cars,” “Mater,” “McQueen,” “Luigi,” and “Guido.”

His little smile will melt you heart, and his hugs (if he ever stays longer than .5 seconds) are precious. Being a father is much more than I ever imagined it would be. I feel so fortunate to have this little one in my life.

Baby

We’re expecting another addition to our family mid summer. This time the colors will be pink instead of blue. My wife is excited because she’ll now be able to crack open the massive Barbie collection that she has to play with our daughter.

The room has already been painted, and the chandelier has been hung. Now we have to get some pink clothes and prepare emotionally.

Travel Willpower

Even with the additions to our family it still hasn’t stopped us from traveling. Many people say it is impossible. I’d tell them that it’s not if you’ve got the willpower. Surely it stops us from taking trips to Iran, but doesn’t keep us away from everywhere.

Worldwanderlusting has been a passion for me since I took a trip to Barcelona in 2001. Trevor, who did a guest post for us two weeks ago, lived in Barca at the time, and invited me to visit. Those three weeks changed my life forever. Since then I’ve thirsted to visit more new places all the time. I constantly think about my next trip, and the one after that.

When you’ve got a desire to travel, you’ll make it happen. Too many people would love to, but make excuses all their lives. Stop making excuses and start making plans.

Posted in About us | Tagged Brad, Brigham Young University–Idaho, BYU-Idaho, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, idaho, Idaho Falls High School, Rexburg Idaho, Sheldon | 4 Comments

LDS Church History Tour: Free Flights and Free Hotels

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Brad Christensen

Update: The 50k bonus on the Southwest Premier Plus card referenced in this post had been reduced to 25k, but has now again been raised to 50k. These offers are always subject to change – all the more reason to seize on them when they’re available. Please comment with any questions.

Catholics have the pilgrimage from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela – known as the Camino de Santiago. Muslims have their ritual journey to Mecca. And Mormons? We do an LDS church history tour. But we’re also notoriously cheap and travel is expensive, right?

No, it’s not… not if you’re enlisted in our army of worldwanderlusters – discontent with the premise that travel takes place in retirement, we live our lives in the present, and don’t put off for someday what could be done today. If you’re like me, though, springing for several thousand dollars for something that will leave me with only memories and cheesy souvenirs is hard to do. It’s far easier when I’m able to get things for free.

Paragliding in the mountains of Colombia

But nothing is free, right? If it sounds too good to be true, it is. And I don’t dispute that, except in this one instance, and I can say that with authority. Sheldon and I have been blogging for more than two years, and in those two years, I’ve applied for 23 credit cards, obtained more than 2,000,000 miles and points, and increased my credit score by 27 points from 767 to 794. I understand how credit works, and I know that if I use my purchasing decisions wisely, always pay on time and in full, I can accrue enough miles to take my family to do incredible things like paragliding in Colombia, visiting the Embera Indian Village in Panama, and now, taking them the LDS church history sites.

It requires some diligence to understand the programs, and some recordkeeping which mint.com makes very easy. It means changing what form of payment you use, but not your spending habits. But those are just the means by which you obtain the real life-changing opportunities -the travel experiences themselves.

So commit, right now. You’re enlisting in our army. Sign up for our RSS feed. Subscribe to our email list. Like us on Facebook. You’re going to live for today, not for tomorrow, but you’re not going to be reckless with your spending, you’re going to be tactical. You’ll allocate your spending to meet requirements that will give you enormous travel bonuses and then you’ll set out to see the world. Now, for why you came here.

LDS Church History Tour

I know that not everyone interested in seeing these sites lives in the Salt Lake valley, but for simplicity, I prepared the itinerary out of Salt Lake. It shouldn’t vary a whole lot out of any airport served by Southwest Airlines. The sites can be divided into two general areas – the NY/OH area, and the MO/IL area. Many people make two separate visits, but we’re going to do it all at once with the miracle of the open jaw flight, combined with a one-way car rental.

The Flights

wanna get away fares Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program allows you to book “wanna get away” fares for 60 points per dollar of the flight value. Chase has been cycling between 25k bonus point offers and 50k bonus point offers on their Southwest cards, but for the time being, you can still get the 50k from the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier card after spending $2000 in the first three months. The annual fee for this card is not waived, so you will nee As with any flight, the more flexible you are, the better rates you can get. I just looked for May and was able to get good, short flights at these rates:

8,880 +$5 Salt Lake to Rochester
5,340 +$5 Cleveland to Kansas City
6,180 +$5 Kansas City to Salt Lake

You may end up having to pay more than this, but at this rate, 50k Rapid Rewards points will get almost two and a half passengers. If you had 50k more from your spouse applying for the same card (we always advocate for the “one SSN, one bonus” rule), or the business card, you could get 5 passengers. If neither of those options work, I guess there’s always the old fashioned idea of “paying” for the flights… that’s something I used to do when I was a kid.

There’s also some mega added value here, because thanks to an aggressive advertising campaign, we all know that bags fly free on Southwest Airlines. If you figure 2 bags on 3 flights at $25 a bag… we’re talking about another $150 in savings.

The Rental Car

In Rochester, you’ll be renting for 4 days and returning in Cleveland. That usually makes it a little more expensive. In Kansas City, you’ll rent for 4 days and return at the same location. My favorite thing to do is to book fully ignorable reservations on Expedia.com, and then keep checking back to see if the rate ever goes down… if they do, cancel and rebook. You can also try these deals by fellow travel blogger, Dealswelike.com.

If you end up having to actually pay money for these rentals, I’m going to help you get that back. Barclaycard just came out with a nice new card, the Arrival World Mastercard that will give you $400 cash back on travel purchases, then enough points to redeem for $40 more. The annual fee is waived on this card for the first year, and you do have to spend $1000 in the first three months.

Regrettably, you will actually have to pay for fuel. :/

The Hotels

I used to pay for hotels, too… what a bummer that was. I remember thinking that I’d often spent well more than $20 per an hour of sleep… it’s a wonder I could even bring myself to sleep at rates like that.

You can get 6 of these 8 nights for free with the 50k points and free night you get from the Marriott Premier Rewards Card. You’ll need 20k more Marriott points for the last two, or some Club Carlson Gold Points. Or there’s that other hideous third option – the “P” word. Gag. I get sick just thinking about it.

Rochester

Residence Inn Marriott– This is a category 3, so it’s 15k points a night which is more than we usually like to pay, so use your free night and the 15k and then eat more than your share of free breakfast.

Rochester Airport Radisson– As a Club Carlson category 2, this is 15k points a night, but Club Carlson, generous as they are, will give you your second night free as a CC Premier Visa cardholder. AAA, eat your heart out.

Cleveland

Towneplace Suites Marriott – Marriott category 1 hotels cost a mere 7500 points, but it doesn’t make them bad hotels. This one is nice and would normally cost $160/night including tax. You’re going to stay there for free for two nights, and your family will feast on free breakfast. Overcome the guilt.

Cleveland Airport Radisson – Were you excited to do the math on the last Radisson and see that you were staying for 7500 a night? Well, what’s 9000 divided by 2? Yup. Feels good, doesn’t it?

Kansas City

Courtyard Marriott – 10k a night. Right in Independence, also close to the Harry Truman Library and Museum.

Nauvoo Area

Fairfield Inn Burlington, IA – 7500 a night. Free breakfast. You could get used to this.

Winter Quarters

Country Inn & Suites Council Bluffs, IA – If you want to add this to the itinerary, just 9000 Club Carlson points and you could stay here 2 nights.

The Sites

KirtlandTemple Ohio USA ArM (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I won’t even begin to try to offer a detailed analysis of all the sites there are to see on an LDS Church History Tour. For this, I turned to www.lds.org, which has the sites as they are detailed in the new scriptures, here.

I’d recommend you get a copy of “Our Heritage,” which will really be the ultimate tour guide to have along with you. In fact, you could download the audio files to your iPhone, and then play it while roadtripping between sites – talk about making history come to life.

I am so excited about sharing this with the thousands of people who’ve planned and saved for vacations like this for many many years. I illustrated it beautifully with Prezi so you can fully understand just how easy and practical this is.

I hope you love it. And I hope you share it. And I hope you love sharing it.

LDS Church History Tour Prezi

This little presentation tool will walk you through the whole tour with a visual depiction that is very helpful. Just click on “Start Prezi” and then be sure to make it full screen.

Let this be the first of many visits to www.WorldWanderlusting.com. Subscribe to our email and like us on Facebook. Bookmark our page and come see us often. Comment with what you want to see and do. Don’t hesitate to share this post on Pinterest, or on other sites where people might appreciate it.

If this is exciting to you but the idea of applying for several credit cards paralyzes you, just try taking it a bite at a time. Test the waters and hound us with questions. Wanderlust with us.

If you’re intrigued by this trip, you’ll also like these extremely popular posts:

Posted in Barclaycard, Chase, Club Carlson, loops, Marriott Rewards, Southwest | Tagged Church History, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Flights to LDS Church Sites, Hotels near Nauvoo, LDS, LDS Church History Tour, LDS Church History Tour Map, LDS Church sites, LDS History itinerary, Salt Lake | 3 Comments

Follow Our Other Brother on His South American Adventure

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Brad Christensen

Our youngest brother, setting out on a Latin America Journey

vi·car·i·ous

[vahy-kair-ee-uhs, vi-] adjective

1. performed, exercised, received, or suffered in place of another.

2. taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute.

3. felt or enjoyed through imagined participation in the experience of others.

One of my greatest regrets is not having embarked on some epic journey before launching into the life of kids and careers. We’ve still managed to do some incredible things, but I’ve always had a bit of heartache over not having backpacked a continent or two.

Luckily, I have younger brothers – the youngest of which is now on a 7-8 country tour of South America. My first temptation is to feel jealousy, but then I see the opportunity to live “vicariously” through his travels. After all, someday I will visit all these places and I may as well get a taste of them now.

His travels will take him from Rio de Janeiro to Porto Alegre, then on to Montevideo, Uruguay. He’ll visit Buenos Aires and then take a free flight courtesy of British Airways Avios down to Usuaia – at the southern tip of South America. From there, he plans to take a bus through Chile up to Santiago. Another free flight will take him to Peru, where he’ll see Machu Picchu. He’s contemplating Ecuador, but Colombia is for sure, where he’ll also take a free flight from Bogota to Cartagena. If I get my way, I’ll make damn sure that he takes a sailboat from Cartagena to the San Blas Islands in Panama – something I see as a fundamental life experience.

[By the way, the best way to get free flights throughout South America is with LAN airlines – you can transfer miles from the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express or use British Airways Avios, as they partner with LAN].

In any case, I’m convinced that you’ll want to keep track of his travels along with us. Just follow @worldwanderlust on Twitter, or like us on Facebook and you’ll be inundated with epic instagram photos from all over South America over the course of the next two months. We’re hoping that it will provoke your wanderlust… that’s what we’re all about.

Posted in South America | Tagged backpack South America, Buenos Aires, machu picchu, South American Adventure | 1 Comment