Arriving in a developing country at 11pm at night and trying to find transportation for my estimated 2.5 hour drive to my hotel, I can say that being mugged/kidnapped and/or having my body parts sold on the black market definitely crossed my mind. I eventually took my chances with a private driver hired from the airport for a mere $65. (I might as well have lost a kidney)
If you follow our blog or listen to us preach, you'll know that a lot of our strategies have a step where we actually lose some money (most often in the form of negligible activation fees).
That won't happen this time around. Instead, it's net gain all the way. Here's what I earned today:
1,770 points
$20 Staples gift card
$11 credit for my American Express credit card
Unfortunately, this is a targeted promotion, but read on to find out how you can check to see if you're one of the lucky few!
During my travels around the world, I learned that all the spending I did didn't earn me any points. Most merchants either preferred cash and some didn't even accept credit cards at all. (If you've been reading this blog, you know not earning points while spending really breaks my heart.)
XE app for phones
So what are my strategies for access to cash while traveling? Read on to find how I prepare for my travels.
The Citi American Airlines World Mastercard is now offering 50k AA miles after $3,000 in spend in 3 months with the first year fee waived ($95). Gone are the days of 75k bonus', so a 50k bonus for a card is definitely worth considering.
First checked bag free for you and up to 4 companions on the same ticket
I was staying with a friend who lived in a district in Seoul called Itaewon. Itaewon was once known as a shady district but has recently been revamped and now known more as the foreigners district. When I first heard that Itaewon was the foreigners district, I was not too excited. I imagined foreigner districts like Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong; where there was dirty bar after dirty bar and streets full of westerners being ridiculously drunk (yes, I might have been one of them).
Instead I was greeted by tasteful bars such as "Mixtures" which had a lounge atmosphere and a DJ spinning hip hop beats, and Magpie brewery which usually has a few taps of their own brews plus some imports like Rogue from my hometown. The crowd definitely seemed like more foreigners, but there was a good mix of locals as well. Overall I would almost equate what I saw of Itaewon similar to a Pearl District in Portland or Culver City in Los Angeles. Not super ritzy, but nice and up and coming. Read on for the meals/spots I felt were worth mentioning.
Arriving into Kuala Lumpur, I made my way down to the KLIA express, a train that takes you from the airport to KL Sentral for about 15 usd and takes 50 minutes. KL sentral serves a similar purpose as Taipei main station, connecting metro, high speed rail, buses and taxi, except it does a horrible job at it.
There are about 4-5 different lines owned by different companies, and transferring between them is difficult. For instance, the monorail line is shown to be at KL sentral. But in reality, it is about a 20 min walk away. The signage is not helpful either; they stopped appearing once I left the station, and I still had probably 10 min walk left. Thank God for Google maps!
(Pro tip: While you have internet access before your trip, bring up Google maps and look at the area where you will be visiting at full zoom. This will save to your phone, and when you arrive.with no internet connection you can still use the map with GPS. This saved my ass multiple times.)
Arriving into Taipei, I was able to easily follow signs to the bus that takes me from TPE to Taipei main station (1 hour ride and about $5 USD). Taipei main station is just like what it sounds like, you can access the metro, the high-speed rail, or buses. I met up with my friend who I was staying with, and we started our four day adventure of eating, drinking, and site seeing.
My other friend, who I met there, wrote a blog on 100 things to do in 14 days in Taipei. My activities were mostly with her, so it seems repetitive if I write about it twice (ok I might just be lazy).
Arriving late in the evening in Korea, I decided against trying to learn a new rail system only to get lost, and booked an inexpensive airport hotel instead. After claiming my bag I headed to an information booth to request the hotel shuttle. My shuttle driver came to pick me and another young guy up, and as we loaded our bags, I sized him up and I randomly concluded that he spoke English, so I said hi. Victory! Turns out he was from Boston and also traveling solo after graduating. "New friend #1 acquired!" (insert Zelda item acquired sound here). I learned that making new friends could be as easy as just saying "hi".
If you've been following the blog, you would know that Goober is putting his points/miles to work. That's one of the differences between us: he spends while I save.
If you were to sign up for 2 Citi American Airlines cards you could net yourself 125k American Airlines (AA) miles easily in a year. How would you spend them?
1. 2 round-trip flights from US to Japan in Economy, plus another transcontinental round-trip in Economy
2. 3 round-trip flights from US to Europe in Economy
3. 1 round-trip flight from US to Japan in First class
What good is a lounge invitation when I can have my salted peanuts and the snoring/drooling stranger resting their head on my shoulder? 2 round-trips to Japan in Economy it is!
Let me tell you why I wouldn't choose first class:
Sleep? Who needs it?
If your like me(broke) then you've experienced Economy plenty of times before, and its not half bad on international flights. I like to think of Economy as the
"going camping" of the airlines world, and that I would have a far better
experience "toughing" it out in seats that recline 20 degrees with my
knees hitting the back of the seat in front of me. Economy would make me
cherish my destination that much more!
Who needs a good nights sleep in with First class lie flat seats complete with down pillow and comforter shown below. Allowing you to be completely energized for the day ahead when you land.
Save my stomach for foreign food!
Lounge open bar
One of my favorite things about traveling internationally is to eat good food that I can't normally get. Flying First Class really conflicts with this joy of mine because they feed you NON-STOP to the point where you won't want to eat anything when you land! From the departing airport lounge to the actual flight AND the arriving airport, they provide you with food and drink.
Lounge Buffet
Lobster Dinner onboard
I Prefer the Ambiance at Gates Anyways
For those of you that don't know(I was one of them once), lounges are separate seating areas for either paid members, premium cabin flyers, or frequent flyers with status, so as you can imagine they are probably full of stuck up snobs. I'd much rather sit at the gate with my wallet friendly priced KFC.
Speaking of lounges they also offer amenities such as multiple electrical outlets, computers, semi-private work areas, and showers like the one below.
What use is water coming out of the ceiling anyways?
I'm on vacation for crying out loud! Why would I want to be connected to technology or bring work with me? And why shower if i'm going to be drooled on by the stranger next to me right?
JK!
In all honesty, that flight that you dread to get to your vacation destination, and the flight you can't wait to get off of to get home, transforms into part your entire vacation experience when you fly a premium class. I actually might have shed a tear when I landed in Hong Kong knowing I would soon depart a mini-world where attractive flight attendants fed me food and beer non stop with a smile.
Yes I can get 2 round trips in economy, but at this point of my life I don't have time to take two big trips in a year, so I might as well do one in comfort and luxury right? I also could never justify paying for a First class ticket, the trip that the pictures are from would have run me over $12,000 one way. Using points allows me to obtain something I normally could not, whereas I could pay for those economy tickets.
In the end, points are valued differently by each person. For those of you lucky enough to have time to travel abroad twice in a year then by all means do it. This is just how I justify my use of them.
Some other perks
Priority boarding (so you can get your pre-flight drink :D)
Some airports have premium lane customs/immigrations
Dedicated Security checkpoints
SLEEP
Treated like a rock star. LAX AA Flagship check-in shown below:
OfficeMax is offering a promotion that can seriously help you boost your points/miles. The deal: Spend over $200 on Visa or MasterCard gift cards, and you get $10 off.
The great thing about these gift cards is that you can load them into your Bluebird account. This promo works best if you have the Chase Ink Bold. The 5x bonus points at office supply stores will beef up your Ultimate Rewards point to the point where you can effectively be paid to travel.
The Process
Go to OfficeMax and snap up as many of these gift cards as possible.
Don't spend over $2,000 at a time. If you do, OfficeMax is required to take down your information.
Try to purchase the $200 cards. Unfortunately for me, they've always been out so I've been buying the $100 cards.
Activation fee of each card costs $5.95 for $100 gift.
Activation fee of each card costs $6.95 for $200 gift.
Assign a PIN to each of your cards.
Visa gift card PINs can be created at https://mygift.giftcardmall.com/
MasterCard gift card PINs can be calling 1-866-952-5653 and going through the automated system.
Go to Walmart's Money Center to load these gift cards (as debit cards, and using your newly created PIN) into your Bluebird account.
PROFIT! (... at a small loss. Or a small gain. We'll get into that.)
NOTE:
Make sure you separate out your transactions to $200 due to the offer terms: $10 coupon per transaction for anything over $200.
If you're buying ten $100 gift cards, do five transactions.
If you're buying three $200 gift cards, do three transactions.
This assures you receive $10 dollars at every $200 increment.
David's Experience
I spent $1,400 on fourteen $100 card. Each of those fourteen cards had an activation fee of $5.95. The OfficeMax cashier was stellar and patiently worked through seven separate transactions to maximize the deal of $10 off $200.
I immediately brought the cards home and went to https://mygift.giftcardmall.com/ to create an account, add my cards and create PINs for them.
The next day, I went to Walmart and loaded my Bluebird. At first, I did it on my own on the Money Center ATM. That sucked, especially since I can only load one card at a time. What sucked more was that the damn ATM announced every action I did. "What do you want to do?" "How much do you want to reload?" "You are reloading for $100. Is this correct?"
After loading one card, I decided it would be less embarrassing to go to a customer service rep. Wrong. They tried to load multiple cards, but the entire transaction got voided by the system. So I actually still loaded one card a time.
10 minutes, 13 card swipes, and countless curious stares later, I was out the door with money in my Bluebird.
The Numbers
I charged $201.90 seven times on my Chase Ink Bold:
($100 + $100 + 2($5.95)) - $10) = $201.90
What this boils down to is that I paid $13.30 (or $0.95 activation fee per card) for 7,067 Chase Ultimate Reward points because of Ink's 5x points bonus:
($201.90 x 7) x 5 bonus points = 7066.5
In other words, that's 0.2cents per point.
But if you're lucky enough to snag the $200 gift cards, you would be paying $196.95 for $200:
$200 + $6.95 - $10 = $196.95
In other words, you're being paid 0.3 cents for each point you earn.
A transfer of 25k British Avios points from Chase Ultimate reward points at the $100 gift card rate could fly you from LAX to Hawaii round-trip for $47.50. If you are lucky to find the $200 gift cards, you can get that same trip, but get paid $75 for it!
Paying 75 bucks a night for a hotel stay in your home town sound stupid? Continue reading to find out why I did it for 4 nights and see how I turned them into a stay-cation!
A few years ago I had a dream lingering in the back of my head, something I did not think I would be able to achieve until much later on in my life. That dream was to fly international first class. As many of you know, not only did I fly first class internationally, but I did it on one of the premiere first class products: Cathay Pacific. Accomplishing that goal at a much earlier time then I had anticipated just whet my appetite for flying in luxury. A new goal came to mind; circumnavigate the globe in first class.
Enough room to invite the cute girl next door for dinner.
If you are one of the few people who reads our experiment of a blog, you are:
1: Poor like me and David.
2: One of our friends.
3: Both of the above, which means you probably like eating for cheap like us.
One of the most simplest ways to earn extra miles or cash is to sign up for a "Dining rewards program" in which you earn miles at participating restaurants on top of the normal miles you earn for the credit card charge.
For example, Rewards Network is partnered with multiple airlines. So that if you register your Chase Sapphire Preferred card and use it at a participating restaurant, you earn the normal 2 points per dollar spent, plus whatever bonus points per dollar the Rewards Network gives. This allows you to earn extra miles that you would spend anyways. A card can only be registered once on Rewards Network.
A newer type of dining rewards program I have ran across is called MOGL. Instead of points they offer a straight 10% back onto your card at participating restaurants.
I have already linked all of my cards to various Rewards Network partners such as American Airlines and Southwest, but since this is not part of that network you can double dip!
Three main features of MOGL are:
1. 10% paid back to your card monthly when dining at participating restaurants.
2. Spend over $20 at participating restaurants and they will donate a meal to someone in need. (I have no idea how this work, but you get a good feeling out of it?)
3. You can win a jackpot if you spend the most at one restaurant. (These can possibly negate your spend that month.)
With 650+ locations in the San Diego area and 300+ in Los Angeles, I'm sure many of you can benefit from this!
Sign up through this link and earn $10 dollars for yourself (and me!) after your first dine at a participating restaurant!
Contrary to my typical nature of procrastinating, I tend to purchase my plane tickets 2 months in advance due to it usually(this used very loosely) being the cheapest time to do so. Airline tickets tend to become more expensive the closer it is to departure date. So what do I do when the unforeseen happens; when I have an emergency
to attend to, or maybe a last minute vacation I was approved for? Spend
those hard earned miles to go to Hawaii!
A little over a month ago, I signed up for three cards and I had to meet a minimum spend of $2,000 in two months and $4,000 in three months.
I managed to "spend" $6,000 in less than two months, and I was able to secure the sign up bonuses of 50k Southwest Rapid Rewards points and 80k American Airlines AAdvantage points.
Everyone should know by now that I don't work hard enough to earn an income that lets me spend that sort of money. And if I did, I wouldn't be involved with a blog that centers on affordable travel.
Luckily for me, Vanilla Prepaid Reload cards exist to help meet the minimum spend requirements.
In the Prior post As good as Sherlock I had outlined my cousin and I's detective work which would potentially lead to almost as cheap Ultimate Rewards points as Vanilla Ink Bold strategy. The next step after solving the puzzle was to try and implement it. Below is the journey I mapped out. Read on to find out how I planned this!
Try Australia, with a 3 day stop over in Hawaii, airfare AND hotel included. The flights are in economy, but the hotels are not in your cheap hostels or economy hotel (nothing wrong with these) but Hyatts and Marriotts. Sometimes we get so caught up in collecting miles, we forget the big picture: spending them!
I got my cousin seriously into the miles game back in July when he applied for the Ink card and Sapphire card in November, and it paid off—big time.
Deals We Like has posted that the Southwest 50k Rapid Reweards points after $2,000 spend in 3 months credit card is back. Remember if you applied to one already, you can still apply to the other 3 cards since they are considered different products. I will be applying to another one myself.
One of first tips my dad has ever given me about credit cards was to watch out for annual fees. Stay away from them. That's how they get you. Why are their services so damn special? There are plenty of cards out there who won't charge you. Annual fees? Nice try, card company. Forget them. Move on.
Yeah... about that piece of advice...
I've applied to cards with annual fees of $69, $79 and $100 without batting an eye, and I have a three good reasons why I don't let annual fees scare or stop me.
3500 delta points for 15 minutes of work? Use loyalty programs to your advantage!
As David mentions in his triple card churning post, I had an error on my planned ski trip back to Oregon. To make a long story short, I had to change dates on my trip, so I got credit on Delta (along with a $150 change fee—ouch) to reissue my next flight. When I tried to reissue my ticket the agent tried to charge me a $25 phone booking fee. She did not believe that the policy for reissuing tickets waives that fee, and told me to book it online.
So I proceeded to buy my ticket on Delta.com, and for some reason, my credit did not go through but my card got charged for the whole flight. I wrote an email complaint to Delta, and received their response just a week later.
I recently watched this BBC series and I strongly suggest that you check it out. What does this series have to do with miles and points earning? If you have been keeping up with the blog, you would know from my Jump off it? post that the Vanilla Ink Bold strategy is dead. After some detective work of my own, I have found a possible way to collect Chase Ultimate Rewards points at almost the same cost as the Vanilla Ink bold strategy, with only a little more convenience. I'm not going to lie. I totally thought myself to be Sherlock when I was doing the research; albeit Asian, less smart, and less witty. But hey, who's judging?
At the time of this writing, I am sitting at Gate 12 of LAX waiting for my (delayed) Southwest flight back to Portland for the weekend. This trip was purchased last minute partly because of Goober's terrible planning, but mostly because I didn't mind spending ten bucks for the roundtrip ticket.
And since this blog is about cheap travel and not fail travel, I guess I won't go into the details of why Goober won't be meeting up with me in Portland or on Mt. Hood for snowboarding. (To be fair, his schedule wasn't entirely within his control. Also, he has admin privileges on this blog, and I don't want him to delete this post.)
I've made a few of these $10 flights this winter, and I'm pretty sure I acquired the taste for inexpensive trips. Unfortunately, my miles are running low, and it's time to get more. I usually work on one card at a time, so I'm stepping out of my spending comfort zone for a triple helping of cards: two American Airline cards (Visa and American Express) and one Southwest card.
Since this blog started, you guys have been reading how we've done this or completed that. Now I'm inviting you to start at beginning of a churn period and see how I'm going to attempt it.
One of the major sources for information is http://www.flyertalk.com/, and in a forum post, someone has mentioned that Office Depot has started to remove all gift cards and prepaid cards with variable loads (i.e. the $500) ones. The max you can buy now is $200 with a $7 fee, effectively bringing the cost of Chase Ultimate Rewards points to $0.008 instead of $0.004 (an increase of double!) Taking the math out of it for you, if you were to redeem on United for trips, here are the following costs for a round trip fare in economy.
Destination
Mileage Plus Points
Cost in US Dollars
Continental US
25,000
$213
Caribbean
35,000
$298
Hawaii
40,000
$341
Europe
60,000
$511
Asia
65,000
$554
India
80,000
$682
As you can see, you still get a good deal out of it, but it's far from the deal we got earlier. With the prior deal, we were able to get a round trip to Asia in BUSINESS class for $360. Remember there would be taxes and surcharges so add maybe around $100-$200.
Just as my last post mentioned, these deals are dying out quickly. We continue our quest to find new means to get more points!
That feeling on your last day of vacation, realizing you won't be served breakfast in the beach-side cabana tomorrow (pictured above). Worse yet, dreading opening that inbox that you have neglected to the point that it almost disappeared. Just like your vacations, miles deals begin and end quickly, especially the lucrative ones. Recently, there was one deal that lasted less then 24 hours for a AMEX Platinum card that I failed to jump on. Read more about lessons learned on this deal!
For those brave few in a long distance relationship, or those who just want to get the hell away from a certain someone, Southwest is having a valentines day sale! Valid only on non-stop flights and only on Feb. 14th(Valentines day for those unromantic ones). Maybe you can surprise that special someone! Deal ends Saturday Januaray 12th 11:59.
In Part 1 of my Redeeming Your Points post, I talked about putting your points to use and how straightforward it can be to redeem them (some more so than others, of course). But here's an important thing to know when you want to redeem your miles: you're not limited strictly to that airline.
Let's say you have racked up an envious amount of Avios points (the
reward points for British Airways) and you want to fly from Los Angeles
to Hong Kong. It doesn't mean you HAVE to fly British Airways (BA). If you were to fly strictly BA, you would first have to fly east to London before continuing onto Hong Kong. Two precious days of your vacation time will be devoted completely to traveling—one way.
But luckily for all of us, most airlines aren't this guy:
Learn more about Partner and Alliance networks and how it's getting easier to use them after the jump.
