This is a famous battleship that served the US during World War II. Where is it located and what is the name of this ship?
Right now they have lowered the spending requirement on the Starwood Preferred Guest card. Get it now and earn up to 25,000 as a bonus!
I know a lot of people who always tell me, “I can’t afford to go on trips. It is too expensive.” After having been involved in this adventure of acquiring as many frequent flier miles as possible I find that the previous statement to be inaccurate.
YOU CAN DO IT
Most people have good enough credit, but don’t have enough time to dedicated to finding the best deals. It just so happens that we work hard to scour the very best deals so you don’t have to worry about finding them.
Take a little while reading through some of our past posts that talk about making it happen. Let me explain how my next trip came to me for $20.
AAdvantage 75,000 Deal
I bumped into the American Airlines deal with Citi Card that offered 75,000 AAdvantage miles in 2010 for an initial sign on bonus. I got the card, met the spending requirement, and scored the miles. It seemed too easy, so I decided to get the card for my wife. She got the card in late 2010 and scored the 75,000 miles. I then got the Citi Business 75,000 Visa card and got another 75,000 miles. I couldn’t believe how they were stacking up. Amongst other flights and whatnot we had about 300,000 miles.
I then was getting excited about spending the miles. We took an amazing trip to Costa Rica and we still had tons of miles left over. My wife has an aunt and uncle in Tennessee that always invite us out, so we decided to head out there. We waited for a good deal, and used our Citi card to get the Citi Reduced Mileage Awards amount of only 17,500 for each ticket instead of the normal 25,000. This saved us 15,000 miles between the both of us.
This means that we will have an additional 15,000 miles for our next trip, and thereby extending the use of the miles. It hasn’t cost us any money to get these cards, yet we have definitely reaped the benefits.
We will be staying at my wife’s aunt and uncle’s house in Tennessee. I’m looking at my costs as this:
I’m thinking that this trip might cost us $140 to go and visit family. I think that anyone can cough up $140 if it allows them to go and see their family.
For this reason I always tell people that they can fly for free using frequent flier miles. You just need to put a little bit of time into the deals, pay you bills of each month, and then score the great deals and travel.
After this trip my little boy will have gone to 8 different states within his first six months of being born. We are definitely taking advantage of having him for free as a lap child. The best part is that our seats are free and our child flies for free too. I feel like if someone really wants to travel, then it is possible. It is especially possible if you stay with a friend, or if you use couchsurfing.org.
Rumors of new United Explorer Plus Credit Card
Rumors are out that United is going to be pumping up their current offer on their Explorer Plus credit card that is offered by Chase to a 50,000 bonus on the first purchase and an additional 10,000 bonus if you spend $25,000 on the card. This is still a rumor and hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Hotel Points: Starwood Preferred Guest points that will give you free nights at Sheraton Hotels
I am always amazed when I begin to discuss the concept of exploiting credit card offers to build huge piles frequent flier miles and travel for free. Unfortunately, far too many people haven’t even looked into the programs. This was painfully obvious in a recent conversation with someone who had traveled to China and neglected to enroll in the FF program, thereby abandoning some 17,000 miles to the netherworlds of lost frequent flier miles that we wanderlusters like to pretend doesn’t exist. That’s like walking past a Benjamin and not even stooping to pick it up!
To begin with, “miles” is probably a misnomer. People start to think that you can travel a mile per frequent flier mile. That’s not how it works… as good as they are, they’re not that good. You generally accrue miles at that rate, though having status and applying for bonus programs can often get you higher rates of accrual.
With most frequent flier mile programs, you’ll need at least 25,000 miles to take a domestic flight – regardless of how many miles the flight is. Thus, if you see a credit card offer that generously kicks off 75,000, miles – like the AA Citi AAdvantage deal that people are still grabbing -essentially that could be 3 domestic flights. If you figure that each of those is worth about $400… you’ll get the equivalent of $1200 in FF benefits for signing up for a single card. If that sounds too good to be true, think about it in these terms – on AA, you can fly to Central America or even northern South America for 30,000 miles. Those flights are generally around $600, so figure that you get 2.5 out of your 75k, and the FF mile benefit is closer to $1500.
A simple way to think of it, though it doesn’t always remain true, is that it takes roughly 25k+ for a domestic flight, roughly 35k+ for a Central America flight, 50k+ for a flight to Europe or South America, and closer to 100k for Africa, Asia, and Australia.
The number of miles required for specific flights varies widely by availability, time of year, origin and destination, but I always try to maximize my usage be using the “saver” mile options and using the least amount possible for a given route.
For instance, when I go to Honduras here soon, I’ll be flying Delta. I opted for Delta because I was able to fly into Tegucigalpa, and out of San Pedro Sula and still use the minimum (35,000) number of miles. It means an overnight layover in Atlanta, but it actually works out for me, though, because it enables me to catch the Boise State vs. Fresno State game before departing ESPN’s broadcast area for the world of SCUBA diving and Mayan Ruins.
Normally the “mile-pricing” is as dynamic as the pricing on various flights. FF miles are a bonus program that allow airlines to reward faithful customers and fill flights that might otherwise run a little low, so, as with everything, there’s a premium when demand is high. Also, they were not all created equal, so it’s nice to have a few different options when looking to book FF mile flights. Sometimes AA might want 40k miles for a flight that you could get on United for 25k.
There are also special promotions which allow you to travel specific routes for reduced mileage. Check out these recent posts:
No matter how you slice it, FF miles offer an amazing opportunity. Don’t let them go to waste.
If you’re spending at least $2k a month for your business, check out this card.
American Express Business Gold Rewards Card. Bonus up to 50,000 Membership Rewards points
Where was this picture taken and what currency do they use there?
If you would like to send in a picture that we can use for the currency and travel quiz, please email it to Sheldonchristensen at gmail dot com.
You, my fellow wanderlusters, know me well. You know that I don’t make any decisions without carefully weighing the cost. When Nicole and I decided to get SCUBA certified a few years ago, we looked into doing it locally. It was going to cost $250 per person for a 10 week course. We’d go once per week for a couple hours. To finalize our certification, we’d need to go down to Park City, UT and do a few dives – a trip that would cost us another $300 by the time we drove down and stayed overnight. Combine that with the cost and the hassle of getting a babysitter every week, and the decision was clear.
Incidentally, about this time we found flights to Belize for somewhere in the neighborhood of $230 RT. We planned a Belize trip that would take us to the Mayan ruins of Tikal, to the Jungle of Belize, and then leave us 4 days to get SCUBA certified on Caye Caulker with Frenchies Dive Shop. At that point, we could take the full PADI course for $300 a person. They’ve raised the price to $350 since then, but I’d tell you that it’s worth every bit of it.
Instead of learning in a pool, we learned in the crystal blue waters of Belize. We did our practice dives in the shallow water, and our first full dives in Frenchies holes, where we saw lobster, eels, shrimp, and an abundance of fish. In the evenings, we studied our dive instruction books, laid out on the beach and worry-free. Caye Caulker has exactly that kind of feel.
It was a much better experience than 10 weeks of frantic scurrying at home – we learned in a beautiful and serene setting, with the realities of salt water and currents already present. Our instructor was pheonmenal and patient with Nicole when she refused to take her mask off underwater… she went through with it eventually, but not without a lot of coaxing.
If you’re considering learning to SCUBA dive, and I urge it with all of the compelling force I can muster, do it in a setting where you’ll appreciate it and enjoy the learning process. If you’re going to Belize, check out the friendly folks at Frenchies.
Thanks for wanderlusting with us.
Very comfy bed!!
When I started doing research for my trip to North Carolina I noticed that there weren’t any Starwood hotels in the Eastern part of the state. I was a little discouraged when I found this out, but then I just decided that I would either use Priceline, Hotwire, or Expedia.
I hadn’t really planned the trip out completely besides my arrival date, departure date, and the first two days doing work. The rest of the days were wide open. When I started looking around I realized that other states weren’t too far apart. I’m used to the Western United States where the states are much larger. I realized that I hadn’t even considered looking for Starwood hotels in other states.
Charleston Aloft Airport
I hopped on their website and I found that they had a couple of great hotels in the Charleston, South Carolina area that were category 2 hotels. A category 2 hotel according to Starwood uses 4000 Starpoints on a weekday, but only 3000 Starpoints for a weekend. It just so happened that I had a couple of weekend nights that were open on my trip. I decided to make the trip from Jacksonville, NC to Charleston in one day and that way I could enjoy some of South Carolina as well.
Booking Process
The booking process was very simple. I didn’t have to call anyone, or go through a million hoops to reserve the room. I just signed into their website and voila! I did it a day before my check in, which was really nice. It was great to make a last minute booking without paying some lame “late booking fee.”
The hotels that were available were the Sheraton Airport Hotel and the Aloft Airport Hotel. I’ve never even seen an Aloft hotel, and it appeared nice from the pictures, so I made the jump and reserved the room. After all, I need to use up some of my Starpoints that I’ve accumulated. After all is said and done I will have accumulated 100,000 Starpoints within a nine month timeframe!! Burning a measly 6000 is nothing.
Huge Savings!!
Sweet Bathroom
I figure that the Starpoints saved me over $200 for both nights. I was excited to learn that you don’t even have to pay sales tax for the room! This was a big bonus. South Carolina has a gnarly 8.something % sales tax. Ouch!! (It is 11% if you are going out to eat). I’ve found that the Starwood Preferred Guest card can be even more valuable than the airliner credit cards. I’m beginning to understand why the Frugal Travel Guy likes this card so much. I really think might be worth keeping and paying the annual fee year after year.
I can’t wait to use a few more points on my next adventure or next weekend getaway to the Salt Lake Sheraton.
Get one too
Right now they have lowered the spending requirement on the Starwood Preferred Guest card. Get it now and earn up to 25,000 as a bonus!
