{"id":4499,"date":"2013-04-29T08:59:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T14:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=4499"},"modified":"2014-01-21T14:37:34","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T21:37:34","slug":"i-want-to-tell-you-a-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=4499","title":{"rendered":"11 flights, 10 Countries, 9,779 miles, $4850 in Flights – Pay no more than taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have 55,800 American Express Membership Rewards points that I got from The Business Gold Rewards Card from\u00a0American Express OPEN.\u00a0 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. \u00a0These Membership Rewards fall into that last category. \u00a0Right now there’s a promotion to get a 35% bonus <\/a>when you transfer from Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios. \u00a0With the bonus right now, I could rack up 75,330 Avios.\u00a0We’ve told you before how nice these points can be for short, direct flights like SLC-LAX<\/a> or BOI-SEA. But tonight I’m thinking bigger.<\/p>\n

\"BrazilYou see, I just got off the phone with my youngest brother who is two weeks into a two month tour of Latin America. \u00a0He started in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has thus far worked his way down to Buenos Aires, Argentina. \u00a0Of course he is raving about the experience and I’m a deep shade of green with envy.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0It invites them to say not “I can’t do that,” but “how can I do that?” \u00a0Well, I got a little carried away and I am in total shock and awe at what could be done with my Membership Rewards.<\/p>\n

I set out to get maximum exploration for my miles. \u00a0This is kind of a “diagnosed-with-terminal-disease” itinerary. \u00a0My only objective was to touch as many areas as possible, and minimize any non-air travel. \u00a0If I included some bus routes between these areas, it would be even more incredible what could be done.<\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

Even still, this is what we have: 11 flights, 10 countries, 9,779 miles, $4,850 in flights.<\/strong> 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 $5000 in flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Route<\/strong><\/td>\nBA Avios<\/strong><\/td>\nRetail Cost<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DFW-CUN<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 7,500<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 315<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CUN-MIA<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4,500<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 280<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MIA-SJU<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 7,500<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 120<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SJU-CCS<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4,500<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 710<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CCS-LIM<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0 10,000<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 890<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LIM-UIO<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 7,500<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 548<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UIO-MDE<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4,500<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 462<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MDE-LIM<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0 10,000<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 575<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LIM-TCQ<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4,500<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 173<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bus to La Paz<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LPB-SCL<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0 10,000<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 278<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SCL-COR<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4,500<\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 499<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0 75,000<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a0$\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4,850<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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?<\/p>\n

Well, here it is, and you can check it for yourself. \u00a0I searched out flight routes on British Airways’ Routemap tool<\/a>, double checked with the British Airways Avios Calculator<\/a>, measured distances with the Great Circle Mapper<\/a>, and checked prices with flights every 5 days on Expedia.com.<\/p>\n

In fact, I’m willing to offer a challenge. \u00a0If 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.<\/p>\n

What I’m trying to impart here is that there is no boundary for the wanderluster. Anything you want to do, you can do. \u00a0You must be flexible. \u00a0You must be creative. \u00a0You must be willing to put in the research. \u00a0I’ve been voraciously thirsting for global conquest for about 13 of my 34 years, and I’m nowhere near stopping.<\/p>\n

Get yourself some British Airways Avios and open the door to Latin America. \u00a0You can transfer the Membership Rewards you can get from the The Business Gold Rewards Card from\u00a0American Express OPEN, or go for the\u00a0British Airways Visa Signature\u00ae Card<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Please join us. \u00a0Subscribe to receive our posts by email<\/a> or RSS<\/a>. \u00a0Follow us on Facebook<\/a>. \u00a0Share us with your friends, neighbors, and even your enemies. Wanderlust with us.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have 55,800 American Express Membership Rewards points that I got from The Business Gold Rewards Card from\u00a0American Express OPEN.\u00a0 As we’ve talked about before, miles and points generally fall into one of three categories: Airline Miles, which you can … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,606],"tags":[1207,1201,400,1202,1203,1205,1204,1206],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1DhXV-1az","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}