WorldWanderlusting.com

How to Wanderlust

Posted on May 11, 2011 by wpengine

I know that sometimes reading a blog and watching other people score big and actually putting it all into practice are two different items. Don’t let life pass you by as others score and you wait on the sidelines. Make sure you jump into the game as well. This post will hopefully outline in a basic format what it will require and how to wanderlust.

Ensure that your credit is at a great spot. You can go to annualcreditreport.com to that nothing on your report looks wrong. You can either order all three of the reports, or you can just get one of them. One of our readers told me yesterday that he went to apply for one of the cards on our blog and was denied to bad credit history. Turns out there was a collection on his Social Security number that wasn’t his. He is now getting it fixed and working toward getting a few cards.
We will make more posts about credit later, but one large important thing about your credit is that you have long standing accounts on which you never have been late or missed any payments. For this reason I always suggest that you have 1-2 “Staple” cards that you will keep always. These are your cards that you will have forever to show that your credit history is good with them. I think that they should be cards that don’t have an annual fee. For this card I recommend the Blue Sky from American Express℠. I have had this card for almost six years and redeemed hundreds in benefits. I know that it isn’t the best card I’ve ever had, but there is no annual fee and I only use it between hot cards at this point.
Open an excel spreadsheet and start keeping track of all of your accounts that you have open. You might not be able to memorize all of the loyalty programs’ numbers, so keep them in a spreadsheet. You also want to keep track of all of the credit hits that you are getting from each card for which you are applying. I hear people talking about people who have applied for 10 cards in one year. With all of those inquiries on your credit you will want to make sure that you don’t get too many with any one of the three credit reporting agencies; Transunion, Equifax, and Experian.
Use www.worldwanderlusting.com to see all of the offers that are coming around. We will talk about the hot ones and try to post them on our site when we find them. Our goal is to help you to travel as a cost conscientious traveler, in return we ask that you use our site for any applications that you submit. It’s a fair trade. We also ask that you share it with your friends.
If you already have a credit card, and have great history it is time to get started. We have talked about a few cards that can help you to get started. Some have links on the side of the page and we have posted about others. The Continental Card expires on May 15th. We have other cards on the site to earn points and miles. We have the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express, Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express,The Platinum Card® from American Express as other cards that can help you get started today.
Lower your blood pressure by thinking about the trip that you will be enjoying. I get a little anxious before applying for any of the cards, but my recent trip to Costa Rica has helped out a ton. I’m confident going into them now because I’ve seen the benefits.

So Ashley, this post was for you. I’m try to help everyone to outline their future. Let’s all plan on taking a trip in 2011. You have to start planning now and start working on it today. Let us know how our site has helped you to plan your trips. Leave a comment for us.

Posted in Credit Cards, Staple Card | 1 Comment

Questions from our readers

Posted on May 10, 2011 by wpengine

Here is a question from one of our readers.

“Now show me where to sign up to get free hotel nights… If I don’t need the flyer miles.”

This friend is obviously a pilot as he can fly for free everywhere. Lucky for him he doesn’t have to search for ways to accumulate miles. The rest of us are out looking for both hotel points and miles so we can fly and stay for virtually free. Hotel points usually don’t come in huge bonuses, but they can accumulate much faster as they usually will give you 6-9 miles per dollar spent instead of getting 1 mile per dollar spent. Marriott, Hilton, and Starwood are three of the best hotel chains.

Hotel points can be spent in varying increments. More affordable hotels will offer you hotels for less points than a more expensive hotel might require. For example: You might only spend 7500 HHonors points for a Hampton Inn, where you might spend up to 50,000+ HHonors points for a Chateau. Everyone uses them differently, I personally don’t mind a more efficient use of my points by using the smaller hotels rather than the thrones.

Currently we have a couple of offers for credit cards that can offer you points for your hotel stays.

Hilton HHonors

Citi Hilton HHonors. This card will give you 40,000 HHonors points. Each hotel with Hilton requires a different number of points. If you stay at a Hampton Inn your points will last longer than if you stay at the Times Square Hilton (If there is one). This card has a spending requirement of $1000 in four months. No big deal. It has no annual fee.
American Express HHilton. American Express has two different cards. One has an annual fee, but it will allow airport lounge access. This is a great perk. It also comes with status that can help you to receive free upgrades.

Starwood Preferred Guest(R) Credit Card from American Express

Earn up to 25,000 Starpoints(R) — enough for up to 6 free nights at a category 1 or 2 hotel.Redeem Starpoints (R) for free nights at over 1,000 hotels and resorts in nearly 100 countries and for free flights on over 350 airlines – all with no blackout dates.
No annual fee for the first year – then $65.
Stay 2 nights and get the 3rd night free at participating Sheraton (R) Hotels and Resorts worldwide.
Earn 4 to 5 Starpoints for every dollar you spend at Starwood Preferred Guest Hotels and Resorts.
Smarter Travel Editor’s Choice Award for Best Travel Awards Card for Domestic Use.

Keep the questions coming. We are here to help. Your questions help all of our readers.

Posted in Hotels, Starwood Preferred Guest | 1 Comment

New AAdvantage Members get 500 miles

Posted on May 9, 2011 by wpengine

Make today the day you start your wanderlust. Enroll in the AAdvantage program and you will receive 500 miles just for signing up today. Make sure that you use ADV30 as the promo code to receive the 500 miles.

You can also enter the sweepstakes to win an across the world trip in first class. You can enter for this AA deal here. No purchase is required.

Get started with a card that offers no annual fee:

Posted in American Airlines, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

How I’m taking my family of six to Colombia for $574

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Brad Christensen

It’s impossible to write this without a wide grin. I feel a little like an infomercial host… and while I’ve always abided by the principle that “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” this is one case that defies its veracity.

In November of last year, my fellow wanderluster brother directed me to frugaltravelguy.com. There was a post for a credit card that Citibank was offering with a 75,000 American Airlines frequent flyer mile bonus once you spend $1500 0n the card. The first year fee was waived, and there weren’t any more catches, so I did what any other wintersick wanderluster would do – I applied for it… and had my wife apply for it… and hell, I also applied for one in the name of my business.

I proceeded to pay for all of my regular expenses over the next couple of months with my shiny new AAdvantage cards and before long I was flush with flyer miles.

A friend of mine spent some time in Colombia and had everything good to say about the once drug-torn country. Medellin, they say, is the city of eternal spring, which sounds about perfect to someone who comes from a place that could easily be referred to as the city of eternal cold-ass blustery wind.

Initially, I was tempted to turn a peaceful, relaxing, family getaway into an extreme adventure, complete with a 3 day sailing trip from the walled city of Cartagena to the serene white sand and tall palm tree beaches of the San Blas Islands off the eastern coast of Panama (yet another previous hit that I’ll touch on in a future post). Yet, when I carefully considered the needs of my young children, I reconsidered. Alas, we’ll have to spend a few weeks in Antioquia, Colombia, the former home of notorious drug king, Pablo Escobar, and present home of what may be the world’s largest flower festival.

Once I had my itinerary confined to Medellin and the surrounding area, I booked my tickets, opting to use my AA miles rather than the 180,000 I had accumulated at Delta in the meantime. Because my youngest is only 15 months, we didn’t even have to spend frequent flyer miles on a seat for her, and the collective balance for fees and taxes was a measly $574… almost cheap enough to soften the pain of the $440 cost of passports for my four children… if anyone knows of a way around that, please let me know.

I’ll keep our avid readers apprised of our adventures and hopefully some of you will feel inspired to through your own caution to the cold-ass blustery wind and join us in a family travel adventure.

Wanderlust with us.

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Where is this?

Posted on May 8, 2011 by wpengine

Where is this and what is the name of the location?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Moskva

Posted on May 7, 2011 by wpengine

In 2006 I took a trip across the world to Moscow Russia. I was there for a few days before I continued on to Thailand. I had an amazing time and I was looking through some old pictures from my trip and remembered this one. I call him the modern day Andre the Giant, but I’m not sure what his name is.

I had just barely arrived to Red Square. This is the heart of Moscow where the Presidential Palace is, Lenin is buried in the same complex, as is St. Basil’s Cathedral. It was a Sunday afternoon when I saw the mass of people in the center of the square. I began to feel nervious, as I potentially might not be able to go into the Cathedral. As I got closer I realized that the people weren’t crowded in front of the building, they were crowded around this giant. He is head, shoulders, and arms above everyone else. I couldn’t get close enough to take a picture with him, but it was incredible. I have never seen anyone so tall.

When you travel you’re never quite sure what you might see. I feel like this guy was almost as big of an attraction as the cathedral itself. Make sure you bring along your camera with extra batteries and lots of space on your memory card because you never know what you will see.

The Starwoods Preferred Guest card will help you to obtain hotels. This is an American Express card that can offer up to 25,000 bonus points in the first year without an annual fee!!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Points and Miles

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Sheldon

Yesterday was a great success!

I made a post a little over a week ago talking about the American Airlines 75,000 Citi cards that I have. I finally met the $4000 in spending earlier this month and yesterday was the day that the miles finally showed up. I’ve included a picture of my account so you can see that my miles increased significantly.

The reason that I show this picture isn’t to brag. I simply want to show you that this is something that you really can do. Before discovering this method of flying I was always spending lots of time looking for mistake fares or amazing deals. All you have to do it take a step and apply for one of the cards on our blog. You might feel a little anxious at first but that will fade with your second and third application. When you see the points rolling in your anxiety will fade and you will be wondering when the next big deal will come along.

I also met the spending requirements for the Capital One Venture card for which my wife and I both applied. The short-term offer that the gave us was 110,000 points as long as we had over 100,000 frequent flier miles with one airline in particular. Luckily we both had applied for the AAdvantage card and we both had over 100,000. This means that we will both have $1,100 in spending from the Capital One card, each! That means we could take our AAdvantage miles and fly to Europe and then take a European cruise with the Capital One points and we would have a vacation for very little to nothing out of our pocket.

All of this reminds me of a quote from Mark Twain. He said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Don’t live your life wishing you could travel. Just get started. It is easy. Feel free to ask us questions and we’ll be more than happy to get you on the right path. Here is a link for a Delta Card that can give up to 25,000 SkyMiles, free checked bags, and no first year annual fee.

Remember that we always want you to remember the importance of your credit. You want to make sure that you always pay your bills on time. Make sure that you keep your longest open accounts to keep your credit score as high as possible so you never miss any of the good deals. Then apply for the cards that are going to offer you points that can be saved and used for your next trip.

This is a great “Staple Card” that you can get started with. You need to build your credit and make sure that you keep your longest open cards to prove that you do have a great length of credit history. This card has no annual fee and will give you $100 in spending for every $7500 spent.