How I got a $20,000 Honeymoon for free?

How I got a $20,000 Honeymoon for free?

My Honeymoon Travel Plans

[caption id="attachment_463" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Stephi and Jason"][/caption]

Normally, I don’t write too much about my personal life on here, but for this post we’ll go there.  On New Year’s Eve, 2004, I met the sweetest and most caring girl in the world.  I know everyone says that, but this girl is THE BEST!  The two of us got engaged last year.  The wedding is December 18th (yes, next week) and we leave for our three week honeymoon shortly thereafter.

 

I want to start by thanking Rick of FrugalTravelGuy.com for getting me started in this world and always being there to answer all the questions that would come up!  Thanks Rick!

 

The Honeymoon. 
Three weeks of Air France Business class flights to Rome, Barcelona, and Paris, 4 & 5 star hotels, a luxury vacation rental, and whatever activities we want.  I recently priced the flights on Delta’s site, and the flights were taking would have cost us a total of just over $18,000.  Add in a few thousand more for the hotel and apartment rentals and we’re well over $20,000 in travel expenses.
What did I pay to book all of this?  Nothing, I actually made around $70.  How?  Let’s look at it.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Rome"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="422" caption="Barcelona"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="357" caption="Paris"][/caption]

The Flights
The Air France Business Class flights were purchased through Delta’s website for 100,000 frequent flyer miles each.  So 200,000 miles total were spent.  These were obtained last year through a promotion where you could open a checking account to obtain 125,000 frequent flyer miles.  Two accounts were more than enough to obtain the miles needed.

The Hotels
I knew I wanted 4 and 5 star hotels the whole way, but I wanted some flexibility in choosing what brand hotels.  For this, I had opened the Capital One Venture Credit Card.  They had a promotion last year where they would match the number of miles you had in a competitor’s frequent flyer account.  From what I remember, I had them match either my Delta account or my American Airlines account.  Both accounts had over 100,000 miles on them, helping me earn 100,000 Venture points.  The card, which I love, earns me double miles on everything.  After putting a large amount of spending on the card, I earned a comparable size of miles bringing my balance even higher.  I booked the hotels on Priceline’s Name Your Own price for the 4-star hotel, found a good rate on a 5-star hotel via Kayak.com, and booked the garden apartment in Paris on AirBnb.com’s website.  All of these purchases went on my Venture card and I used my points to reimburse my travel purchases.  Your Venture points can be used to pay for purchases you charge to your card if they are deemed as “Travel” category purchases.

The Activities
This is where the Citi ThankYou Premier card came in.  After signing up from this card from Citi and getting the 50,000 point bonus, I put a few thousand more in spending on the card bringing my balance up somewhat higher.  These points really can be used for ANYTHING, as they say on the commercial.  I browsed through some of the travel packages they offer and booked a few tours and tickets for some things, but left about $500 of points free to book other activities that interest us while we actually are in Europe.  I booked them all on their sites after browsing to them through FatWallet.com (a site that offers cash back for online purchases), which is where I scored the roughly $70 cash back.
Only expense left is food, which I will have to cover!  I could have taken it a step further and bought some Groupons for restaurants over there, but that crosses into over planning.  I’ll be using my Chase Sapphire Preferred card (which had a sign up bonus of 100,000 points) and pays double points on dining.

-Jason of TWiBT

Earning More Frequent Flyer Miles for Holiday Shopping

Earning More Frequent Flyer Miles for Holiday Shopping

While most people will be doing their holiday shopping in regular malls, maybe earning 1 or 2 miles per dollar.  The true frequent flyer addict thinks of how he/she can earn the most amounts of miles before purchasing anything.  Instead of purchasing items in store, you should be purchasing gifts through your credit card’s reward shopping mall.  In the past, I have mentioned how you can be earning 8 American Airline miles per dollar spent on Groupon.  This holiday season, there are plenty of options for rewards network shopping.  Here a few of my favorite:

1.)     AAdvantage eShopping

The American Airlines shopping mall works like any other, it just happens to be one of my favorite because I truly love American Airlines AAdvantage miles.  You have to sign up (free) register your credit card with them (in “My Account”) and then start shopping with the links they provide.

2.)     Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall

Chase has been going after American Express Membership Rewards, hard, and due to some recent changes over at Membership Rewards and at Chase, I’m going to say that Chase Ultimate Rewards points are more valuable.  Chase UR points can be transferred into a variety of airline and hotel programs.

3.)     Evreward.com

This is a site that indexes various shopping programs.  So think of it as a search engine for other shopping portals.  Why take 8 AAdvantage miles per dollar for Groupons, when Ultimate Rewards is giving 12 per dollar on Groupons!?



There are also some bonuses that go out so it is important to check these sites often.  Here are a couple interesting bonuses that others have blogged about that you should take advantage of right now:
-30 United Miles per dollar on FTD

-Ultimate Rewards Mall Bonuses

Enjoy!

-Jason of TWiBT

Frequent Flyer Miles for Newbies - You didn't know you had them!

Do you have unclaimed frequent flyer miles?

I can recall when I got my brother into the world of frequent flyer miles.  Starting out he had zero miles in his accounts, or so he thought!  About 4 months prior to entering the wacky world of mileage addicts, he had gone on a vacation to China with his fiance.  I told him to sign up for a frequent flyer account on the airline's website and to then call the airline.  When he called he had requested that they award him retroactively for the miles he earned on his flight.  After giving the agent the details of the flight, him and his fiance had earned a nice chunk of miles to start their frequent flyer account off!

Most airlines will credit you frequent flyer miles to your account retroactively, usually up to 6 months in the past.  So even if you are getting started in this mileage world today, you've got about 6 months of mileage earning history that you need to think about.  Every mile counts, it is definitely worth the phone call!  Remember, you can't earn miles on flights that were paid for with miles, only flights that were paid for.

I take advantage of this often for my work.  I have a lot of opportunities to attend conferences at my job, which means they'll fly me out to the location.  The flights are usually booked for me by different travel agents. After I get the flight information, I have the airline credit my account once I get home.  I do the same thing with the hotels they book for me too!

Start thinking back, you could have unclaimed miles and hotel points!

-Jason of TWiBT

Liberated Traveler Series #2 - Fly for Free

TWiBT Presents
Liberated Traveler Series – Fly for Free
Chapter 2

Be sure to read Chapter 1 of the Liberated Traveler Series first!

Earlier this year, I had taken so many flights and I learned a lot from it.   The pre-flight safety demonstration had become a dance to me.  I started seeing fellow passengers repeatedly.  Airplane food started to taste pretty good.  Even the fish slop served on Aerosvit, that they served twice on the same flight with the bone conveniently left in.  TSA procedures become second nature.  You also learn the shortcuts of airports.  For example, in JFK you can sometimes get to your departure gate faster if you go through a different terminal and take the transfer shuttle!  You also get a weird excitement by putting together your own flight itineraries which maximize the destinations and value you get out of your ticket!

 

The best part of all of these flights, I did not pay for a single one.  Even more, the best ones are yet to come.  Upcoming flights over the next year include a variety of trips to Italy, Spain, France, United Kingdom, and Ireland.  Many of these in First/Business class, again for free.  This article is geared towards the TWiBT reader who has no idea on how to accomplish this.

 

Welcome to the world of Frequent Flyer Miles.  Frequent flyer programs offer miles, which can be thought of as points that you can save up and spend on to get free flights.  I advise you to start thinking of frequent flyer miles as currency.  Think of them as a type of money that is used to purchase travel, because that is exactly what they are.  Although they are called miles, they really don’t have any significant geographic relevance.  Ex:  If you have 25,000 frequent flyer miles that does not mean you can fly 25,000 miles on a plane.

 

Frequent flyer miles can be accumulated a variety of ways, some easier than others.  Here’s a short list of the most common methods used:

1.)    Flying – If you pay for a flight, you are able to earn frequent flyer miles on that airline’s program.  This type of mileage is more valuable as it generally allows you to earn elite status on different airlines.  Many people will take advantage of mistake fares or fare wares between airlines to purchase ultra low fares and fly on them with some crazy routings for no other reason than to earn miles.

2.)    Promos – Some companies/airlines offer promos if you complete some activity, you’ll earn some miles for doing so.

3.)    Credit Card Sign up Bonuses – These are the most lucrative.  Signing up for certain credit cards can offer you huge bonuses.  50k, 75k, and 100k bonuses are not uncommon at all.  As long as you are able to manage your spending and credit report responsibly, you will not hurt your credit irreparably.

4.)    Credit Card Spending – Using airline credit cards for every purchase is a great way to accumulate miles.  I don’t spend a dollar unless I am able to earn a frequent flyer mile for it and you shouldn’t either.  Many credit cards have online shopping malls that link out to other sites.  If you login to your credit card’s site, go to the online shopping mall and use those links to go to whatever site you were planning to buy from anyways.  You can also register any credit card with the American Airlines AAdvantage Shopping Mall at https://www.aadvantageeshopping.com/

 

Noooo, not this many!

 

I found out about all of this in 2004, but did not act on it for quite a while later.  The irrational fear of destroying my credit was too great.  Once I finally understood how credit worked better, I acted and have never looked back.  In fact, my credit score has actually gone up since I started doing this.  I have accumulated millions of frequent flyer miles and traveled more in the past few months than some people are able to in their life.

 

Managing all of this is a lot of work, but I’m driven by my passion to travel.  I believe that travel can provide the most enriching and engaging experiences.  Open your mind to the possibilities that you can afford yourself.

 

Here are some common questions you may have.

Q:  What was the first frequent flyer program?
A:  American Airlines launched the AAdvantage Program in 1981.

 

Q:  Which airline programs should I aim to collect miles in?
A:  This varies on your goals.  If your goal is ONLY to fly to Europe from New York, than you probably won’t have much use for Southwest Airlines.  Personally, I collect miles in any program that I can get them for.  I’m not picky.  I end up using them all anyways.  I believe every destination has some travel value to it.

 

Q:  Can I use or transfer my miles to another frequent flyer program?
A:  If the airline is a member of the same alliance, you can usually use your miles for their flights.  Generally, you can’t use your miles to cross into a different alliance.

 

Q:  Do miles expire?
A:  Some do, some don’t.  It depends on the airline’s program rules.  Generally speaking, if you earn or spend a mile at least once per year, the account will stay active, resetting the expiration deadline from the most recent activity date.

 

Q:  How do you keep all these accounts organized?
A:  I keep an Excel spreadsheet of all information from every card.  I monitor my credit scores every 2-3 months or so.  For my frequent flyer accounts, I manage them all at an awesome (and free) site called Award Wallet.  This site allows you to organize and keep track of all your award programs.

 

Q:  When should I use miles and when should I pay for a ticket?
A:  A good rule of thumb is to not use your miles for domestic tickets.  Unless you’re swimming in miles, it is best to save them for international trips where you get the most value.  Besides, First/Business class on domestic flights is usually pretty uninspiring.  For example, a flight from Miami to New York is usually around $160-$200 or 25,000 frequent flyer miles (depends on the airline).  A flight from Miami to Paris can easily be over $1000, but can be had for around 50,000 frequent flyer miles.  Twice the miles, but exponentially more valuable!

 

Q:  Should I use my miles to pay for hotels?
A:  On pretty much any given date, you will find over 2,000 hotels in Paris that have vacancy.  If you also add in hostels, pensions, guesthouses, campsites, Bed & Breakfasts, vacation rentals, or vacation sublets, your choices increase exponentially.  There are not thousands of flights everyday to Paris from your city.  It is much easier to get an awesome hotel deal than a free flight.  Save your miles for flights!

 

Q:  If an airline offers high, medium, and low-level awards, how can I get the low-level awards?
A:  Search their partner airlines sites, try different dates, route through different cities, search one segment at a time, use stopovers and layovers.  Be creative!

As always, read everything, listen, read it again, and ask questions!  I am by no means an expert, just a guy who loves to travel.  I'm here to help you out and collaborate with you on ideas of your own!

Stay tuned for another exciting edition of the Liberated Traveler Series!

-Jason of TWiBT

Liberated Traveler Series #1 - Travel for free?

TWiBT Presents
Liberated Traveler Series – How to Travel for Free
Chapter 1

 

Wanderlust [wan-der-luhst] –noun.  A strong desire to roam and travel the world.

Whether you are an unemployed college kid, an everyday 9-to-5 office worker, or a business owner tied to their responsibilities, we have all suffered from wanderlust.  There are many things that stop us from taking our dream journey.  The most common reasons I hear are time and money.  While I won’t be talking too much on time management in this article, I will speak on money since that is the focus of this site!  Travel does NOT need to be expensive.  In fact, I look forward to my trips because I actually spend less on the road than I do at home!

What if money was not an issue?  Where would you go?  What if your hotel was free?  Where would you stay?  Would you go in total luxury for a short period?  Would you sacrifice a bit of luxury to stay for an extended trip?  Many people can toss those questions around in their head all day, but end up nowhere.

“What in the world is this all about!?
There is really no word for what we do, but I see it as learning to become a liberated traveler.  Becoming a liberated traveler is about learning strategies to see the world for free or for less money than you might have thought possible.  In my experience, it changes the size of the world and brings everything in much closer reach.  You gain a sense of freedom that you cannot imagine!  Basically, the term refers to a series of strategies and tactics most commonly used by only the most savvy frequent flyers and business travelers.

The goal?  To fly, stay, and eat for either free or cheaper than you’ve probably thought possible.  I have seen myself as a liberated traveler for quite a while now, freed from the chains that my small budget has restrained me to!  The freedom to go anywhere at anytime is the most liberating feeling I have ever felt.

“This sounds too difficult.  I don’t have time to figure this out!”
I’m not going to lie though, this stuff can be confusing and there are people debating issues in this realm day and night.  You have a choice, spend some time to learn to travel for free OR just keep working at your job to save up the money for it.  However, I can assure you that it is indeed worth it, you just need to pay attention and KEEP AN OPEN MIND!!!  Skepticism is always the first thing newbies feel.

Here is the thought process that you may go through:
1^st Thought:  I know what frequent flyer miles are, they're useless!
2^nd Thought:  I’m not able to spend/get enough miles to go anywhere. 
3^rd Thought:  What?  That’s too much work, it sounds fishy, and that is stupid!
4^th Thought:  Well, whatever, we’ll see how this goes.  I’ll just try a little bit.
5^th Thought:  Wow, that wasn’t such a big deal.  I need to show my friend this!
6^th Thought:  Where do I want to go?  OMG, I’m gonna fly first class!
7^th Thought (on the plane):  Ok, I’m in Seat 3A in First Class because I RULE!  Ooooh, this is the life!
8^th Thought (on the plane, when everyone is finding their seats):  All these people are looking at me!  They’d die if they knew what I paid…err, didn’t pay!
9^th Thought (back home):  Hey guys, check out these photos from my trip.  You guys should really try this!
10^th Thought:  Why are my friends such skeptics!?!?  I’m a genius!

 

“Ok, what do I have to do?”
This short series will go over some of the various aspects of becoming a liberated traveler.  What you do with it is up to you.  While some people take this to the extreme, others just prefer to take one international trip per year.  The beauty of this you have the freedom to pick and choose what level you want to participate.  We all value our time different.

I have my balance of how much time I consider worthy to put into this endeavor.  I’m not rich and I work full-time.  Given that, I generated around 2 million frequent flyer miles and hotel points in about 8 months time.  Keep in mind, there are plenty of opportunities that I passed on for whatever reason.  To put this in perspective, a flight from Miami to Europe can start at as little as 40,000 frequent flyer miles, depending on itinerary and airline.

I am excited to share these skills with all of you.  Living in Miami, the cheapest way for me to play in the snow was to drive up to North Carolina to play in the slush and the snow that is man-made with those giant machines.  Although it was fun, it is now cheaper for me to go skiing in the Swiss Alps than to make that drive again.  Open your mind and learn the basics!  This won’t be easy, but you’ll thank me when it is over.

Stay tuned!  There’s more to come in later postings!

-Jason of TWiBT

 

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

End of the road for US Mint Frequent Flyers

End of the road for US Mint Frequent Flyers

If you are completely unaware of what was happening with the US Mint, I suggest you listen to this NPR podcast which explains what it was in detail.



Buying $1 coins at face value with free shipping from the US Mint using a mileage earning credit card had been around since 2008, but it has come to an end today.  As I mentioned in a previous post, this program could not really support the weight of everyone exploiting it.  It would have been best for people to simply order small amounts to meet minimum spending requirements on new credit card.

 

Here is the official notice from the US Mint's website:

The United States Mint has eliminated the credit and debit card purchase of $1 Coins through its Direct Ship Program effective July 22, 2011. Customers who wish to purchase $1 coins through the Direct Ship Program can still do so by wire transfer, check, or money order. Customers who wish to purchase the coins by wire transfer may fax their order to: (202)-756-6585. Customers interested in purchasing by check or money order may do so by writing to:

United States Mint
PO Box 71192
Philadelphia, PA 19176-6192

Please download the order form and follow the instructions provided on the form. (Order Form).

The Mint has determined that this policy change is prudent due to ongoing activity by individuals purchasing $1 coins with credit cards, accumulating frequent flyer miles, and then returning coins to local banks. Local banks, in turn, returned coins to the Federal Reserve. While not illegal, this activity was a clear abuse and misuse of the program.

The Mint has undertaken several aggressive internal and external actions to mitigate this issue, including restricting chronic and repeated use of credit cards, contacting customers who frequently placed large numbers of orders to ensure they were using the coins for legitimate business purchases, and other measures. While these measures eliminated a significant amount of misuse in the program, we believe some abuse still exists. Eliminating the credit and debit card purchase of the $1 coin is the next step in our efforts to root out abuse in this program and ensure it is better targeted toward fulfilling its intended purpose—which is to get the $1 Coin into greater circulation.

Thank you for your understanding and your continued support of the $1 coin program.

The United States Mint

The reason the Mint was selling these coins at face-value with free shipping was to encourage people to buy some and get them into circulation.  The ultimate goal was to get enough of these coins in circulation so that they would replace the $1 bill, because coins last longer than bills.  The problem here is that the only people who would actually go through the hassle of voluntarily acquiring thousands of $1 coins were the frequent flyers.  Now that the Mint has killed this program, it is my belief that the $1 coin will never replace the $1 bill.

If you used the mint to meet spending requirements, rest assured there will be something to replace this.

-Jason of TWiBT

Interesting Story on NPR - Ordering Coins for Frequent Flyer Miles

Check out this link to listen to NPR's story on buying coins at face value with mileage earning credit cards:
http://thisweekinbudgettravel.com/42l

Although the days of people ordering over $500,000 at a time are long over, there are mixed reports of success today for people ordering at different levels.  My opinion is that this program will be around for a bit longer, but not much longer. The mint's program is a good way to top off an account for some extra points or to get help meeting minimum spending requirements on a new credit card for a signup bonus, but some individuals are finding ways to abuse it by ordering excessive amounts.  Although this program may be able to provide some individuals taking advantage, it cannot support everyone jumping on it.  Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.