WorldWanderlusting.com

5 Travel Apps You MUST Have to Help Plan Your Vacation

Posted on January 31, 2014 by wpengine

Travel app for kids

1. Trekaroo (For those with Kids)

Taking kids anywhere usually is a nightmare. But you don’t want to stop traveling either. For that reason you’ll want to bust out your phone right now and download Trekaroo. If you’ve got kids, and you want to keep them happy, get this app. First of all…it’s free. That is always a big plus coming from a cheapskate like me.

It’s hard reading reviews from people who aren’t in the same phase of life as you. The single person’s feelings towards a place won’t be the same as someone who took kids to the Louvre. Most of the reviews are from parents who understand your situation and who’ll shoot straight with you.

Traveling apps

The reviews of restaurants can be useful, because they can tell you whether the staff and location were accommodating for children. Sometimes it is nice to eat somewhere besides McDonald’s and Carl’s Jr because that have play areas for the kids.

The other nice thing about this app is that it has some activities for smaller towns too. Sometimes these travel apps are geared toward monster cities like San Francisco and NYC, but don’t offer anything for mothers who are desperate to keep their munchkins happy in small towns.

Cons: Only for domestic travel

2. Rick Steves Audio Europe

Good Ole Rick Steves. The man who reminds you to “Keep on Traveling” at the end of every show.

This punk-A has the most incredible lifestyle on Earth. He eats in all the restaurants, and visits all the castles of Europe, he sleeps in all the hotels, and visits all the small towns. This guy knows his stuff when it comes to Europe.

Although you want to hate the man for his incredible lifestyle, his knowledge is extremely valuable, and he is willing to share it with you for free with this iPhone app. The app is free, and includes walking tours of specific locations. When I went to Venice, I listened to the walking tour that he gave regarding St. Mark’s Basilica.

Example Tracks from This App

The tour gave historical information, interesting facts, and explained a lot about the architecture. Many of the facts and things he notices would easily go unnoticed if he didn’t point them out to you.

Many of them are rather lengthy, so I recommend you download them and listen to them while you’re mowing the lawn at home in anticipation of your trip. That way you won’t need to hire a tour guide to show you around the Grand Canal, you’ll be the tour guide for everyone in your party.

Pick up this app if you’re headed to Europe in the next little bit and start cracking his wealth of knowledge.

Cons: This is only for Europe.

3. TripAdvisor City Guides

Don’t allow yourself to be confused between TripAdvisor and this. This travel app is a must get

If you’re like me, and you don’t have an International cell phone plan, you’re constantly searching for a McDonalds or Starbucks that offers free WiFi. Eliminate the need for WiFi by getting this app and downloading the guides for the cities that you’ll be visiting.

Because this app is owned by TripAdvisor you always get tons of reviews, and it shows the highest rated actives in your location. The map feature allows you to know where you’re at, and what actives surround you, which is great for quick ideas in your vicinity.

Cons: These guides are really limited. You will only find these guides about big cities like Paris, London, and Rome, but unfortunately doesn’t work in small towns like Innsbruck, Padova, or Fussen.

4. World Around Me (WAM)

This by far the most intuitive and direction oriented app I’ve seen yet. It will tell you how far away you are from each of the locations. As you turn on the app you’ll be able to see the distance of the banks as you walk in that direction. It is super handy because you can use the same app to find your bank as the restaurant that you’ll be choosing for dinner.

It does have service in smaller towns like Idaho Falls, but there aren’t as many reviews as something like San Francisco would have.

If you’re planning out your entire day in the morning, it might not be the best, because it focuses more on someone who makes their decision on-the-go. It has a very great advantage for someone who is on foot, and doesn’t want to walk around the whole town to find a restaurant.

When you choose a location it routes you to Google Maps (Thank goodness they don’t use Apple Maps) so you can be navigated directly to your destination.

Cons: App is $0.99.

5. Stay.com Travel App

This app has a lot of the same features as those previously mentioned:

Downloadable maps
Travel ideas
Full itineraries rather than single ideas (ex: Paris Walking Tour, or Healthy Eating in Phoenix)

But it also has its downsides:

Limited to Bigger Cities
Less reviews than others

Taking a trip can be stressful, and picking the activities can be tough. Take off a load of stress and download these apps today so you can be more prepared for your next vacation. What other travel apps do you use to plan your trips?

Posted in Travel Tips, Travel Tricks | Tagged Carl, iPhone, McDonald, Musée du Louvre, Paris, travel, travel app, TripAdvisor, Wi-Fi | 1 Comment

How to Manage All These Cards, Accounts, and Points

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Brad Christensen

Lately it feels like we’ve been connecting with readers on a level we’ve craved for the three years we’ve been running this blog. It seems that all of the sudden, people who have been reluctant to take the plunge finally realize the opportunity that lies in taking advantage of opportunities to accumulate miles and points for almost-free travel.

Once someone finally enlists in our army of wanderlusters, their next question is almost invariably, “How do I manage all these cards, accounts, and points?” That is a great question because the reality of all this is that if any of it comes at the cost of destroyed credit, debt balances, and expired points, it just won’t be worth it. But with technology what it is today, none of this is very hard at all. I’ll make it real simple for you and tell you exactly what I do.

Managing all the Credit Cards

I keep a Google Docs Spreadsheet of each card I have, when I applied for it, what the bonus is, how much I need to spend, etc. I can update this from any of my computers and it also serves as an ongoing record of what I’ve done. I am going to be making this spreadsheet available in the next couple of weeks to all fellow wanderlusters who have subscribed to the blog (which you can do by entering your email in the right sidebar).

Subscribe to our blog to get access to the Credit Card Tracking Spreadsheet

The other thing I do immediately upon being approved for a card is to set 2 reminders in my Google Calendar. I put one reminder 2 weeks before my minimum spending requirement and another reminder 11 months after applying to remind me to call and ask about having the annual fee waived and/or canceling the card.

I recently had a reminder pop up to cancel my Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® and they were kind enough to move the account to a no-annual fee card and allow me to keep my account open (extending my history and improving my credit score).

I also had a reminder about meeting the min spend for my Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Premier Card. The deadline got so tight I actually had to go buy a $175 Walmart gift card which we used to buy groceries with a week later when we had the time to go.

This way I always have a firm grasp on what cards I’ve had, which are open, what spending requirements I might have open and which cards could be coming up for annual renewal.

In terms of managing the physical cards, I keep only one on me at all times and only accumulate spending on one card at a time. I keep the rest of them in my desk drawer with any sticky notes and permanent marker notes on the ones I have closed. It’s actually quite the impressive stack and I can’t bring myself to throw any away.

Managing the Accounts

This is the part that is most freaky for people. And if I had to rely on paper bills, I, too, would be terrified. This is actually the easiest part, though, because of a miracle online software called Mint.com. I enter all my logins and passwords to Mint.com and it consolidates every account I have – from my 18 open credit card lines to my mortgage and 401(k) balance.

This way I can always see if any of my cards have a balance and ensure that they are all paid off well in advance of any due dates. I can look at my transactions on an individual account basis, or universally across all accounts. I can also weigh my spending against my budgets and track my net worth. The crazy thing is that it costs me absolutely nothing.

Managing your Credit

Another scary monster that often keeps people from joining the ranks of we, free travelers, is the fear of having to manage and mitigate the effects of this behavior on one’s credit. This is really something you ought to do whether you’re applying for 10 credit cards a year or not.

Creditkarma score

I have enrolled in two online programs which run algorithms on my credit history to estimate my credit score. These are www.CreditSesame.com and www.CreditKarma.com.
I just pulled this sample from my CreditKarma login, which theoretically gives me a score similar to what my Transunion score might be. As you can see, despite applying for 10 cards personally in 2013, I’m sitting at 775. We talk more about this in our “Doesn’t it Hurt My Credit?” post. The short version is that the real important parts are to never carry a balance and to always pay ahead of time or on time.

Managing all these Points

Now for the fun part. What’s the reason we’re doing all this? To create a warchest of anti-monotony weapons of mass destruction. Most of these points won’t expire as long as you have periodic activity on your accounts, but it’s important to know what you have so that planning your travels is fun and easy. Awardwallet.com makes this so simple and it really is a treat to get your points hoarded into a single “bank” where you can count them and make plans for them.

Awardwallet

This is precisely where you go the moment a cold snap hits your hometown in Idaho, or the moment your workplace becomes overly tedious. This is your escape hatch to free travel and you want to be sure that all of your various programs are feeding into this site. You can also download the app and use it to reference your account numbers whenever you need them as well.

I guess all that leaves is for you to manage your vacation days – manage them well! And let me take this moment, too, to say that it is all worth it, and to urge you to make travel a part of your life – especially free travel – it’s even more rewarding.

Thanks for wanderlusting with us!

Posted in Credit Advice, Credit Cards, How to Wanderlust | Tagged AwardWallet, credit sesame, CreditKarma, how to manage travel credit cards, managing credit, Managing credit cards, managing multiple credit cards | 2 Comments

Baseball, Blues, BBQ, & More in Missouri for $79

Posted on January 24, 2014 by wpengine

Missouri was added to America’s homeland when Thomas Jefferson brokered the deal to buy the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, which basically doubled the size of America. To always remember the importance of this purchase, and how it transformed America, St. Louis is also referred to as “The Gateway to the West.” The idyllic Gateway Arch is the symbol of St. Louis as a result.

How to Get to Missouri

Frontier Airlines

For a measly $69 annual fee you can pick up The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard®. Frontier is flexible on how you use the EarlyReturns miles, and allows for a multi-destination ticket. These must be booked by calling their customer service line, but they will waive the “over the phone” ticket booking fee. It would be ridiculous if they tried to charge it, because their website doesn’t even have the functionality of booking one of those.

If you want to learn more about multi-destination tickets, you can read about them in an old blog post. Basically it allows you to fly into one airport, and out of another. This would be great if you wanted to visit both Kansas City and St. Louis in one trip.

Booking a trip within the USA is 20,000 EarlyReturns miles for the primary cardholder. However they have a bizarre benefit for any companions who are flying on the same itinerary which discounts the award ticket to 15,000 for the companion. This means that your trip for two will only take 35,000 Early Returns miles for you to see both destinations. The The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® easily provides enough miles for both of the tickets.

You’re basically looking at the following for costs:

$69 Annual Fee (not waived)
$10 in Taxes and Fees
Total: $79 for two roundtrip flights

Where to Stay in St. Louis & Kansas City

The Starwood Preferred Guest program has incredible hotels across the nation. They’ve got a few sweet ones in both KC & STL, so you can plan on using your Starpoints. To get enough points for these hotels you’ll need to pick up the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express.

Sheraton St. Louis Westport Chalet Hotel (Photo courtesy of their website)

Ok, I recognize that neither of these hotels are on the waterfront directly below the Gateway Arch, but I don’t want to recommend that you use your entire bonus from the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card for one night either. Our objective is to always show you how to stretch the miles further than any other blog out there.

St. Louis

Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel St. Louis Category 2 (3000-4000 points per night)
Sheraton Westport Plaza Hotel St. Louis Category 2 (3000-4000 points per night)

Four Points by Sheraton Kansas City-Sports Complex (Photo Courtesy of Hotels.com)

This hotel in KC would be awesome for anyone who wants to hit up a Royals or Chiefs game. You can easily walk to the stadium, which is rather convenient if the game goes into extra innings. Judd will be stoked about his next trip to KC, so he can visit Arrowhead stadium and watch his Chiefs beat up on someone.

Kansas City

Four Points by Sheraton Kansas City – Sports Complex Category 2 (3000-4000 points per night)

You should be able to spend quite a few nights at these hotels with the bonus from the Starwood Preferred Guest

Total hotel cost:

St. Louis $0
Kansas City $0

Baseball in KC and St. Louis

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Royals fan or an Athletics fan, visiting Major League sports is fun wherever you go. The nice thing about baseball is that seats can be found cheap from a scalper outside the door. With 100+ games a year you should be able to take the whole family out to the ballgame (You just might have sneak in the snacks because you won’t be able to afford them).

Busch Stadium, as seen during the park’s opening year in 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bush stadium is impressive, and the location of the stadium is better. Situated in downtown St. Louis, you’ll be able to enjoy the game, and you might even catch a glimpse of the Gateway Arch from your seats (because you’re probably in the nosebleed seats anyway.)

Sing the Blues

Dun, Dun, Dun. I was born under a bad sign. Dun. Dun. Dun.

For some reason St. Louis reminds me of singing the blues. Stop in at a bar and sing one out.

Sweet BBQ

Loosen your belt and stretch your stomach for this trip. Although you’ll probably be on the move seeing all kinds of things, you need to ensure that you spend enough time at the BBQ restaurants that abound.

Bust out the variety of sauces and give them all a shot. Many restaurants have their own “secret recipe” and I encourage you to try them all. In all honesty it’s been a few years since I’ve been there, so I can’t give you personal recommendations, but I encourage you to eat your stomach out.

Other Fun Things to Do

In St. Louis:

In Kansas City:

For all the Mormon readers you can visit LDS History sites
Here are 33 FREE activities in the KC area
Coco Key Indoor Water Park Kansas City

Have you been to either Kansas City or St. Louis? What things did you love there? Share with us! Thanks for worldwanderlusting with us!

Posted in Frontier, loops, Starwood Preferred Guest, Travel Tips | Tagged Gateway Arch, Kansas City, Kansas City Missouri, Louis, Missouri, Queen's Counsel, St. Louis, United States | 2 Comments

The Best Travel Rewards Card to Start Wanderlusting

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Brad Christensen

For more than three years now, we’ve been blogging about how to take advantage of travel reward credit cards and take almost-free trips all around the world. We have hundreds of subscribers who read our posts the moment they come out. We have helped people plan amazing travels to the southernmost reaches of South America to the powdery beaches of the Caribbean. Seeing people embrace the idea is an incredibly satisfying experience.

We used the Arrival card to book this Tuscan Farmhouse for 2 free nights

But the one question we get – and we get it constantly – is “where do I start?” We always respond by educating people about their credit because we want to be sure that people understand we are in no way advocating debt of any sort. We say that credit cards should only ever be used as “purchasing instruments,” never buying anything you wouldn’t otherwise buy with cash, check, or a debit card.

But I think what people are usually asking is “What is a good card to start with?” As long as you have good credit (above 700), I think the card for most people to start with is the Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard.

The biggest reason is that using it doesn’t require knowledge of a complicated points-exchange system. Far too many people get confused by the idea of “miles” and how many it takes to get somewhere. Sometimes the booking systems are overwhelming. And while I do want you to make the time to educate yourself about these things… they can come later. Our first objective is to get you wanderlusting!

The Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard offers a generous 40,000 point bonus once you spend $3000 in the first 3 months. That simply translates to $400 in free travel which you redeem by reimbursing your account for approved travel expenses. Those expenses might be car rentals, cruise bookings, airline tickets, hotel rooms, or anything booked with an online travel agency – even a package that might include a show.

The way you use it is so easy. Once you have made a travel purchase, you log into your account which greets you like this: Redeem Barclaycard Points

You can see that I’ve already burned some points but I still have 38,840 which are worth $388 in free travel. I click on “Redeem now” and it shows me if I’ve made any purchases which I can reimburse with points.

Best Travel Rewards card

I happen to have a couple, so I click on “Redeem now” again and it puts them in my cart. travel reward card

I check out and my account trades points in my account for dollars against my balance! It’s a beautiful thing. Even if I’ve already paid my card down, I can reimburse myself any time within 90 days.

But wait, a little bit like an infomercial it gets even better. Every time you use your points, they give you a 10% points-kickback. That means in this case, I instantly have 3200 more points or another $32 in free travel.

Every dollar I spend on the card gives me 2 points, so effectively every dollar I spend on the card gives me 2.2 cents in cash back for travel.

The flexibility and simplicity in using this card and its points is what makes it really nice.

To read more about what we’ve shown you can use this card for, check out some of these other posts.

To see other travel rewards cards, visit this Best Travel Credit Cards page.

Posted in Barclaycard, How to Wanderlust, Uncategorized | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, arrival world mastercard, Barclays, best travel credit card, best travel rewards credit card, how to wanderlust | 13 Comments

Top 9 Reasons You Should Travel While You’re Young

Posted on January 15, 2014 by wpengine

1. You Might Not Ever Make it to Old

You have plans of retiring someday. You and your spouse will enjoy vacations from your vacations because you’re traveling so much, right? Well, let’s ask you a question. What happens if you never get old? What happens if you die in an accident like Paul Walker?

Traveling while you’re young ensures that you don’t wait too long before you can start experiencing life. Whether it be a sickness or an accident, ensure that you travel before the Grim Reaper visits you.

2. You might not be healthy later

It’s inevitable that health conditions will plague you at some point in your life. Hopefully they hold off until your final days, but odds are against that these days. People are living longer, but with more health problems. Taking 10 bottles of pills on a vacation or undergoing dialysis will definitely deter you from taking vacations later in life.

Make sure you get in some great trips before your health prohibits you from taking lifelong adventures.

3. Experiences will last a lifetime

Stanley and Pouchon

It was a muggy April day in Port-au-Prince. I was sent with Pouchon to buy some bottles of water for all of the people working on our project. We were rebuilding a home for a family who was homeless after the earthquake that had taken it down completely.

We caught a tap-tap to the nearest market, and that is when I turned to Pouchon, who was 28, and asked him if he had a girlfriend. “No” he responded. I prodded further, “Why, not?” With a serious look in his eye he responded, “I’m 28 and I’ve never had a job, how could I provide for anyone else? I can barely have enough food to feed myself.”

I was speechless. It felt like I had been punched in the stomach. My ignorance about his circumstances made me feel ashamed. As I pondered his situation, I realized how responsible and selfless were his actions. It is a moment like this that will stay with me forever. If you travel while you’re young, it will provide you with similar experiences that will enrich your life and those who surround you.

4. Having children makes it more difficult

My Family

Don’t get me wrong. Having two children has been an incredible experience. They brighten my day and make me proud. Being a parent is great.

Our first child didn’t hardly slow us down. We took him everywhere with us and it was a breeze. He snoozed in the car, and on the plane. Life was great and our travels continued. The arrival of the second has made things change a bit for us. It isn’t as much as having the second child, as much as it is the older child becoming a terror (and a sweetheart).

All these changes in life can really put a damper on your travels though. You can still leave them with family, or with a nanny, but the costs increase and the time you can spend traveling decreases.

Before you plan on having kids, plan a babymoon. Make your trip at LEAST two weeks, and enjoy those last moments spending time together before life changes. You’ll NEVER regret taking a trip like this.

5. The world is changing

Brad posted the other day about how the world is changing. You’ve got to read about his 7 Reasons Why the World is Changing, and Why You Need to See it Now!

Before you know it, ethnic foods will disappear and we’ll all be eating McDonald’s. Get out there and enjoy the world before it changes.

6. You won’t have money later

Forex Money for Exchange in Currency Bank (Photo credit: epSos.de)

Traveling while you’re young is impossible you say? You’ll have much more money later to spend on travel you insist? I beg to differ.

I’m not saying that your income won’t increase with time, but what you can’t deny either is that your expenses grow with your income. Soon you’ll want a bigger house, and newer car. Before you know it the money is gone every month and like 80% of America you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck. (I don’t recommend this lifestyle)

At Worldwanderlusting we think that your travel should be cheap, so you can travel while you’re young. For that reason we try hard to bring you some of the best offers and ideas on how to use your points and miles to lower the cost of your vacation.

7. You won’t have time later

Congratulations! You’ve worked hard to get 4.0 GPA and you land your first job in the real world. They start you out at 65,000, which is much more than the rest of your classmates. The company offers a great match on the 401k, with health insurance benefits that would make the Senators jealous. Then you get to the bottom page of the job offer, and they tell you that you’ve got 2 days off the entire year. If you’re a great employee they’ll give you another at the end of the first year.

Tyler on His 2 Month Excursion Across South America

Then, because you want to make partner in your firm, you decide that you’ll never take another day off in your lifetime. It’s all part of the rat race. Even being self-employed isn’t much easier because you’ve always got to be looking for your next sale.

If you travel while you’re young, you’ll have oodles of time.

8. It’s the best education money can buy

The sage Mark Twain penned, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Couldn’t the world use more people who aren’t so prejudice? Or could it use more people who are open-minded? You bet.

Panama Canal Gatun Locks

When I was in high school my American History teacher put on a video about the construction of the Panama Canal. He went back to his office and presumably looked up stuff on the Internet while half the class slept and the other half slipped into the hall. We remembered just enough to regurgitate the information on the test two weeks later, and forgot about Ferdinand de Lesseps forever.

Here it was 13 years later and I’m voluntarily reading a 400+ page book about the construction in anticipation of my trip to see the Gatun Locks. I’m sure that I could pass his test with flying colors, all because I went there and wanted to learn about it. Go see the world and learn!

9. You’re more adventurous now

There is something to be said for those young whippersnappers.

Dominican Tree House Village

As you age you become more mature, and boring. Things that seemed cool in high school like hitting curbs in the rental car (no personal experience here) become outlandish. The thought of throwing a live chicken off a bridge where it met its fate in the mouth of a 800 pound crocodile is appalling. (No personal experience here either)

If you travel while you’re young you’ll probably do more exciting things (and dangerous) that you wouldn’t do when you’re older. I often tell people that I’d travel dang near anywhere, if I wasn’t married with two kids. Before your aging takes away the adventurous bones in your body, get out there!

Posted in About us, How to Wanderlust, Travel Tips | Tagged Around the World, Brad, Family, Health, McDonald, Paul Walker, Recreation, travel, Travelogues, United States | 1 Comment

How I Got into the BCS National Championship Game for Free

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Brad Christensen

When I told people I planned on scalping a ticket to go to the BCS National Championship at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, they looked at me like I was crazy. When I told them I thought I could do it for less than $50, they were convinced I was completely off my rocker. When I actually got in for free, it was me who was incredulous.

I’ve scalped tickets to sporting events all over the country and even to a soccer game in Honduras. I’ve always paid a fraction of face value – usually a very small fraction. I have a few tricks which I put in one of our most popular blog posts, How to Scalp a Ticket on the Cheap, but in this instance maybe I was a little over confident that there would be an abundance of scalped tickets available.

Originally, I hadn’t even planned on going to the game. I’m not a huge fan of either Florida State or Auburn and frankly I’m anxious to see the end of the BCS era (error). But I did have to go to Los Angeles for some work meetings and I had booked a flight from BOI to LAX arriving at 10pm. But when I calculated that for only 7k more of my freely-obtained SW Rapid Rewards points I could arrive in time to see a great match-up, I couldn’t allow myself to forego it.

One of the many perks of flying Southwest Airlines is that they allow an infinite number of flight changes – something I often exploit to ensure that I spend no more points than I need to by checking in periodically and re-booking if I find cheaper flights. In this case it allowed me to easily make the change and getting in at 4:40pm would be just in time to grab a cheap rental car and head to Pasadena.

Things don’t always go as planned, though, and my flight was delayed about an hour and a half. I landed after the game had started and brought it up on my phone. By the time I got into my rental car, it was already the second quarter and as I tuned into the game on my radio, I consoled myself by thinking the scalpers would be even more desperate and I’d get in even cheaper. Waiting in the horrible SoCal traffic, I called my friends who told me how they’d managed to get in for $100 each through slightly illegitimate means which I’ll opt not to disclose.

Florida State vs. Auburn By the time I got near the stadium and parked, half-time was almost over. Heading into the stadium, I came upon a trio of Auburn fans who had decided that their 21-3 lead would be enough and had left early. I shamelessly asked a ticket stub and one of them happily obliged, but cautioned that they weren’t allowing re-entry. I figured I’d try anyway, but when they scanned my ticket at the gate, there was an obnoxious beeping noise and they told me I wouldn’t be allowed in. Undeterred, I tried to look for scalpers but I wasn’t alone in wanting to gain entry and there were none to be found.

My next tactic was to leave a $50 bill peeking out from behind my ticket (a la $20 Sandwich trick that I’ve used for hotel upgrades in Vegas) and begin making my way around the stadium in hopes of finding a vulnerable security guard… but they must pay those guys pretty well because I couldn’t get anyone to bite.

I had walked around the exterior of the stadium and in the meantime the Seminoles had were staying just close enough to keep me wanting in. By the time I got back to the original entrance, it was halfway through the third quarter and I was getting desperate. That’s when I hatched a wickedly-awesome, albeit slightly dishonest plan.

I went to the First Aid station which also functioned as an entrance/exit. I showed my ticket to the security guard and told her that I had just taken my wife out to the car because she wasn’t feeling well and that a nurse had told me I’d be allowed back in through this exit. The whole room was chaotic with people and the security guard gestured for me to follow her to the nurses station.

That was about as far as I had taken it in my mind so I was rapidly trying to formulate the next piece in the plan when she presented me to an older nurse who seemed to be short on patience and long on not putting up with crap. Before I could tell her that this wasn’t the nurse I had talked to, she started in;

“Sheila, this man says you told him he could come back in after taking his wife out to the car. Do you recognize him?”

A moment of sheer panic overcame as I knew I was in trouble. My fate rested solely on the very square shoulders of a nurse named Sheila. I started to stutter but before I managed to get anything out, Sheila’s hard face softened into a sly grin and she said,

“Yeah, I recognize him… I remember his wife.”

To this moment I still don’t know if the chaos of the situation granted me access, or if Sheila is a kindred spirit and appreciated my shrewd tactics. Whichever it was, my panic suddenly transformed into elation and I turned on my heels to walk into the stands with 94,207 other people – not long after Florida State had kicked a field goal to make it a one-possession game.

Fl State Auburn

Rose Bowl I located my friends who had happened upon some open seats and we were perfectly positioned between fans of each team near the end zone as the third quarter came to an end. What ensued in the fourth quarter was nothing less than heroic – three lead-changes, including an incredible 100 yard kickoff return, stunning drives, shocking catches, and a final touchdown in our end-zone with only 17 seconds left on the clock.

All the while we were high-fiving fans of either team, celebrating nothing more than the opportunity to be there and feel the electricity. It was a great game, probably one of the best quarters of college football to be seen.

Thank you, Nurse Sheila.

I guess I can’t make the moral of this story be that you should lie, cheat, and steal your way into sporting events, so instead maybe I’ll focus in on my overconfidence in my ability to scalp my way into the game. I’ve had tremendous luck when it comes to buying tickets at yard-sale prices, but events like these are always subject to rules of supply and demand. If you’re going to scalp tickets to a game, let it be to a game that you don’t mind watching from a nearby sports bar, if needs be.

If you are daring enough to give it a shot, be sure and check out the 3 strategies I map out in the How to Scalp a Ticket post.

Also, while I was in LA, I stayed with my friend who rents out vacation homes near Disneyland – check out their site if you’re ever interested in having a great place for families to stay within walking distance of the park.

Do you have recommendations on scalping tickets? Where have you scalped tickets and how much did they cost you? Any must-see sporting events that I need to put on my list?

Posted in Travel Tips, Travel Tricks | Tagged 2014 bcs championship, bcs national championship game, college football, Florida State vs. Auburn, scalp a ticket, Southwest Airlines, sporting events | 1 Comment

A $69 Fee for $900 in Frontier Airlines Flights

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Brad Christensen

The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® is back in action, and now it’s even better than before. After spending $500 in the first 90 days you’ll get 40k Early Returns miles (5k more than the previous offer). It does require you to pay for the $69 annual fee up front, but that’s a small price for the value you get from it – as much as $900 in flights you’ll pay nothing but the taxes on.

It’s being advertised as a 50k card, but 10k of those only come if you do a balance transfer – something we never advocate because carrying a balance requires paying interest. We use credit cards not as credit, but as purchasing instruments, and in so doing, accumulate travel rewards that open the door to a world of almost-free vacationing. We do this not casually, but deliberately and even compulsively because we’re cheap as can be, but love to travel.

This is one of the better airline rewards available because of the relative value in redeeming them. You can see the values here in the redemption schedule for Frontier Airlines Early Returns program.

(You can find redemption schedules for other airlines on our Using Airline Miles page).

To get a better sense of what kind of amazing travel you’d be able to do with these points you can so easily obtain by applying for The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® and spending $500 on it that you’d otherwise pay for with cash, check or debit card, here are a few ideas.

Ways to Use 40k Early Returns Miles

2 Roundtrip Flights to ______ (You fill in the blank)

: Frontier Airlines Route Map

Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but this is exactly the deal. 40k points will get you and a companion to anywhere Frontier flies in the United States. (In fact, if you’re a cardholder, they discount the companion fare by 5k points, requiring only 35k).

Frontier uses Denver as a hub and covers pretty much everywhere you can imagine. Some of my personal favorites include Jackson Hole (which is only an hour and a half from me, but for you it might be a great getaway in winter or summer. If you’re coming, let me know and I’ll map out a plan for you).

Because Alaska is normally in a totally separate category for airline redemptions, either Anchorage or Fairbanks would also make great uses of these points.

For some reason Indianapolis has been drawing me in, lately, too. Another nice plus is that Frontier flights have in-cabin DirecTV and wi-fi, so wherever you fly, the time will pass even faster.

4 One-way Flights for a Panama Canal Cruise

Most cruise ships that traverse the Panama Canal begin or end in either San Diego or Fort Lauderdale. Conveniently, Frontier flies into both of these locations and they do it for a measly 10k points each. Your 40k points will get you and a companion both to the departure city and from the arrival city from any airport they serve. You might also want to plan for some extra time on either side.

As for paying for the cruise itself, they are almost never cheap, but they’re also 14-15 days of delicious all-you-can-eat food, great entertainment, and comfortable transport to great port cities. I always use vacationstogo.com to find the best prices on cruises and pay for them with the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard so I can reimburse myself for at least part of the expense.

4 One-way Flights for an Alaskan Cruise

Obviously you could do the same thing for an Alaskan Cruise, using your miles to get into and out of Seattle and Anchorage. This is a special value because many airlines charge a points-premium for flights to Alaska.

Alaskan cruises are cheaper – you might even be able to get one for close to $400 – the amount you’d get in free travel from the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard.

1 Roundtrip Flight to Costa Rica/Dominican Republic/Jamaica

As you can see in the chart above, for only 30k points, you can book yourself travel to any one of these incredible destinations. We’ve written a lot about Costa Rica, but let’s hone in on the Dominican Republic this time.

You’re going to want to check out this incredible Dominican Tree House Village in Samana.

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(Note that this option also leaves you 10k toward your next flight redemption).

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As with all of these offers, we almost never know when they’ll come and go. Nicole and I both already have this card because we picked it up when it was offering 35k points. As it stands, I think this is my favorite airline card that’s available right now. Please comment if you have any questions or thoughts to share.

On this site we promote travel rewards cards of all kinds. Not always are we compensated when visitors use our links. We do, however, receive a commission on any applications for the cards mentioned in this post.

Posted in Alaska, Barclaycard, Caribbean, Central America, Frontier | 4 Comments