Daft Trip Around the World! How this Punk did it!

One of my dreams was to fly first class on an international flight. I did it last year.

Now, I'm completing my next dream of going around the world in First/Business for less than the cost of an economy ticket to Asia or Europe.

Do we have your attention yet?

Legendary trip Part 2: AROUND THE WORLD IN 20 DAYS!

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.

Rocking my PJ's in my lie flat seat

MOGL - Maximizing your credit swipes with dining rewards!

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!

MOGL Sign up

Leveraging miles for last minute bookings

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!
 

Triple Card Update: Meeting the Minimum Spend

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.

"The Great Game" The search for Vanilla retailers

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!

Where can you go with 3 people for $778?

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.