Spur of the Moment Trip

Posted on May 18, 2011 by wpengine

Everyone knows that last minute travel can be very expensive.  I had a work trip come up unexpectedly this week.  I’m actually writing this from the Salt Lake airport.  I knew I would have to work hard to get a reasonable price for the airfare. Let me explain to you my methods of the madness.

  1. I first went to Kayak’s website and did a simple search.  This helped me to search Delta, Continental, United, US Air, and American.  It resulted, well, just as I expected…about $800
  2. Once I knew the prices were high there I went to my American Airlines AAdvantage account to see how many miles it would require.  When I saw that I wasn’t going to be eligible for the Super Saver deal and it was going to require 50,000 miles I decided that would be a tough price to pay.
  3. My next point of contact was Southwest and JetBlue.  Both of these companies aren’t searched on kayak’s website.  I did a search on JetBlue, but it didn’t result in much as there weren’t any flights for those days.  Southwest came through.  They offered a fare for a reasonable price.  It was $400 for the ticket.  I knew that it would be the best option.  I then did a simple Google search under “Southwest Rapid Rewards Promotion Code.”  It told me that I could get 1000 bonus points for each leg of a round trip ticket.  I entered the code and was surprised to find out that it also included 250 bonus points as well.  I was well pleased to see that a few minutes of research did me great.

I then had to research a hotel and a car rental.  My car rental research told me that the car would cost a minimum of $77 for the two days in the Geo Metro equivalent.  I tried  a few more sites, and found no results.  I turned to Priceline and gave them $20/day as a bid for a better car.  Instantly I was accepted, which would be a great success for most people, but I was frustrated that I might have gotten a better deal had I have bid lower.  Hahahah.  That is a cheap traveler mentality. Keep in mind you can….Save up to 40% on car rentals when you name your price at Priceline.com

The hotel was going to be a Marriott, and I hadn’t joined the Marriott Rewards program.  I found out that if you are referred to a friend you can earn extra points.  I sent a message to a friend and explained that I would like an invitation to join.  I’m still waiting for the response, but I’ll join before I get to the hotel tonight.  You can send me an email at sheldonchristensen@gmail.com and I will invite you join the program for the additional points.

So as you can see I’ve searched for a few extra moments, but it is going to save me lots of money in the end.  Ideally I would have had some Southwest points so I wouldn’t have had to pay for the trip, but I’m still getting into this as well.  When we have their card available I’ll pass it along.  But until then start building your accounts today by signing up for one of our cards for hotels or airfare to start padding your accounts.




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Rock Stars in Medellin

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Brad Christensen

For Nicole and me, the travel destination of choice over the past few years has been Central America.  The reasons are simple: 7-10 day itineraries are more suitable than longer ones while we have young children at home, and we can travel inexpensively in these areas that are rich with history, local culture, and adventure. For the most part, we’ve been to travel destinations where they are well-accustomed to seeing people from the United States.

But now we’re breaking the mold.  Opting to bring the children, and to reach a little further south has rewarded us with something we craved at least a little bit… the awe of locals who’ve seen very few tourists over the years.  Don’t get me wrong, Colombia and Medellin in particular, have a lively expatriate scene – Parque Lleras is lleno de gringos, but for the average Colombian, seeing a young family of blonde-haired, blue-eyed darlings is more than they can handle.

More than once we’ve been asked to pose for a picture.  Little girls snap cell phone pictures and put them as their screen-savers.  Older women and younger men just gush over my one-year-old, Claire.  “Que belleza… que hermosura… que monita…” and the superlatives continue.  We feel a little bit like rock stars… and the attention can be annoying, but we’ve decided to just appreciate it, because we really don’t have a choice.

The people are incredibly friendly.  For a country that’s been marred by some of the ugliest violence history has recorded, you’d expect people be more guarded and reserved.  Yet, it’s very much the opposite.  We’ve met people in supermarkets that instantly want to associate with us.  They beg to hold our children and invite themselves to come visit us in our apartment.  We’ve taken a liking to this opportunity to get a genuine sense for the people and their culture.  All Colombians use the phrase “a la orden” as an integral part of their vocabulary… essentially saying, “how may I help you?”

While it drastically conflicts the image of Medellin’s most infamous citizen, Pablo Escobar -the murderous godfather of South American drug-trafficking,  I believe it is a truer representation of who these people really are.

Posted in Living Abroad | 2 Comments

Frequent Flier Saving

Posted on May 16, 2011 by wpengine

Our goal is to help you to travel as much as possible, while still making it affordable.  I know we are all on budgets and the downturn in the economy has taken a toll on our incomes.  Mine has taken a hit from the PPACA healthcare bill.  I know that I don’t want the economy to change my traveling goals.

We are lucky enough to both be working at the current moment.  My wife has been working for a little over a year. We weren’t sure how long she was going to be working so from the beginning we wanted to make sure that we would not get used to her income and make that a part of our monthly budget.  As a result we had decided that we would save the money she earned.  Part would go toward fixing up our house, part toward a newer car, and part toward traveling.  It has been nice because the account just slowly fills up and when we have accumulated enough in the account we take a trip.

This has worked great to budget money for a trip each month and planning forward.  It is amazing how it adds up so quickly and you can plan a trip on a yearly basis as long as you are funding the account sufficiently.  The best part is that WorldWanderlusting is helping you to take a trip at least once a year.  We have the credit cards with sign up bonuses that will help you to afford traveling once a year or even more often than that.  Imagine taking a cruise and not paying for the expensive airfare to get to Puerto Rico (Which I did before I discovered this method of traveling $500/person OUCH!).  That means that a cruise for two might cost you $1000 between the two of you which would definitely include sight-seeing, tips, cruise, and souvenirs. That’s only $83.33 per month for one year.  Fix up the budget and fit it in.

So here is how you make it happen.  You both sign up fo the Delta Skymiles Platinum Card (See Below).  This will each give you a sign on bonus of 20,000 miles.  You only have to either add two more cardmembers (one child and one spouse) and then you are at 25,000.  This card also allows you no checked baggage fees, which would be a savings of $100 for both of you in fees.  Then look for a great deal on a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale or Miami in November, December or January.  I say these months because everyone wants to leave Idaho during that time of the year.

So, go open a new savings account.  Give it a nickname like “Get out of Idaho in November,” “Sacred Funds,” or “Trip Jar.”  Start saving today so you can get out of town tomorrow.


Posted in Credit Cards, Delta | 1 Comment

Make That $570, a travel day from hell and some beach time in Miami

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Brad Christensen

Saturday morning I woke the kids up bright and early at 4:00am.  We had a 6:00am plane to catch out of SLC.  We were pushing it on time when we arrived at the parking lot at 4:55am, and I figured we were still fine on time, but we weren’t accustomed to traveling with four children and seven bags.  By the time we made it to the shuttle stop it was 5:10 and we waited a good 20 minutes before the shuttle arrived.  When we rolled up to the American desk, we got the disgusted head shake… and I knew instantly what it meant… I’d seen it before, but never directed at me.  We were 30 minutes from departure and there was no way we were making the flight.  Did the guy who runs a travel blog just miss his flight? Absolutely. 

Ashamed, I dialed the American Airlines AAdvantage desk.  I begged and pleaded for forgiveness and finally sweet-talked my way onto a flight that would take us to Miami that night and we’d leave for Medellin the next day at 5:40 pm.  Not only that, but as it turned out, booking a lap child on that flight was $24 cheaper, but there was a $20 re-booking fee, which left me with $4 credit… $570 total now.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the end of our sorrows… while our kids monopolized the playground at the SLC airport, I tried to get some work done.  When our the time came to board our 12:45 flight, they notified us that it had been cancelled due to weather in Dallas.  I had to go back to the baggage claim and re-check our bags for the 2:30 flight.  That, too, was delayed, and at 4:30 – almost 12 hours in the SLC airport, we finally got on a plane. 

By the time we got to Dallas, our flight to Miami was cancelled, but when I got on the phone with the American Help Desk for the third time of the day, they told me there were 5 open seats on a flight departing from C2 in 10 minutes. Glancing up at the gate we’d just arrived at, C32, I took a deep breath, we loaded up the stroller started the 1/2 mile dash.  We arrived just in time to squeeze on the plane and rolled into Miami at 1:45am.  By some miracle our bags happened to make the plane as well, so by the time we had our bags and the rental mini-van, it was 2:30am.  We stumbled into the Hampton Inn at a rate that I’d never pay at any other time of day, and threw ourselves onto the bed.  Almost 24 hours of solid travel for our young family took its toll.

We took advantage of the day in Miami to take the kids to the beach.  We buried each other in the sand, built sandcastles, found seashells, and played in the ocean… a nice little bonus for our family adventure.  Having learned our lesson, we arrived at the airport with plenty of time before our flight, only to have it delayed for am hour and a half anyways. 

We arrived at the Medellin airport and, after a winding one hour drive, made our way to our temporary home.

View from the Balcony

View from the Balcony

http://www.firstamericanrealtymedellin.com/rental_pontevedra_302.html

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Another New Card

Posted on May 13, 2011 by wpengine

Update: May 17, 2011: This card has been removed.  Hopefully you were able to take advantage of it while it was available….

Incredible!!

Cards are coming out of the woodwork.  This card is an awesome deal.  It gives you 50,000 membership rewards points with American Express.  They can be transferred to certain airlines as points.  It will also give you 3x the points on airfare, 2x the points on gas and groceries, and 1x points on everything else.  It doesn’t have a membership fee for 2 years and only requires $500 in spending.

It would be wise to take a snapshot of your screen showing the offer.

Thanks Frugaltravelguy.

Posted in American Express, Credit Cards | Leave a comment

Miles for Investments

Posted on May 13, 2011 by wpengine

I’ve discovered that there are two options that I can find that will help you to accumulate frequent flier miles without using a credit card. This won’t work for everyone as the amounts that they require are rather high, but maybe someone out there is interested.

Fidelity

You can earn up to 50,000 Delta Skymiles for depositing new money into a Fidelity trading account.  I know that it requires that $100,000 be deposited, which is a ton of money, but they do have other tiers.  If you deposit up to $50,000 you can be eligible for a 25,000 Delta Skymiles bonus.  The last tier is if you depost $25,000 then you can be eligibile for 15,000 Delta Skymiles as a bonus.

The money must be a non-retirement funds and if you already have any money with Fidelity then they want new money deposited.

TD Ameritrade

You can earn up to 20,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points for dropping money into a new TD Ameritrade account.  They have three different tiers:

  • $25,000 in new funds=20,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Points
  • $10,000 in new funds=10,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Points
  • $2,000 in new funds =3000 Starwood Preferred Guest Points

They also have a slew of terms and conditions including the fact that the funds must be new funds, non-retirement, bla bla bla.  You can check it out but it is a great way to get some additional points if you are so lucky as to have a few dollars sitting in your bank account earning .00000001% interest.

I see both of these as great offers for someone who has the funds.  I hope it works for someone out there so we can help them to travel and do it in luxury.  Starwood hotels include Sheraton, Bliss, Weston, W Hotels, etc.  Some of those I’ve never even heard of.  I know that they are spendy though.

So when I go to Europe someday I’ll have to use all of my Starwood points so I don’t get robbed paying for hotels.  I’m just building points everyday like the rest of you.  I want to see the world, without paying the costs.  We want to help you to do the same.

Here is a link that can help you to accumulate up to 25,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points in addition to the 20,000 that you can get from the TD Ameritrade offer above.  That means that this blog has helped you to find about 10 nights in a category 1 hotel for nothing.  Can’t beat that:

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Posted in Delta, Hotels, Starwood Preferred Guest, TD Ameritrade | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AAdvantage Citi Card for 60K Miles

Posted on May 12, 2011 by wpengine

Update June 1st 2011, this offer has expired. Please see other cards under our Frequent Flyer Credit Cards to see the current offers.

Short Term Offer

As a part of American Airlines’ 30 year anniverary of their AAdvantage program they are offering a special deal a day.  The Special deal on May 10th was a Citi card that offered up to 60,000 AAdvantage miles.  They didn’t all come upfront is the bummer.  They offer you 30,000 AAdvantage miles after spending $1000, and the other 30,000 miles come after you’ve spent $10,000 on the card.  Don’t be intimidated by the $10,000, it sounds like a lot, but think of it this way, If you spend $1000 per month on the card with your everyday expenses then it will only take you 10 months.

American Airlines has one of the most rewarding loyalty programs amongst all of their competitors.  I’m just waiting for it to change someday as they offer award travel for much less than their competitors.  I recommend their program and invite you to take advantage of the 500 free miles that I talked to you about a few days ago.  Make this your first card.

Posted in American Airlines, Citi, Credit Cards | Leave a comment