In which I convince you that you can travel the world for cheapApril 15th, 2008 @ 7:01 am
Back in January I told you how we planned to move into the new house the last weekend in April. This wasn’t because the house was going to be finished in April, but was because we could no longer financially afford to not move into the new house. You may have also heard mention of a three week trip to Europe this coming September. Discussing dire financial restraints and taking a three week trip to Europe do not go hand in hand.
I feel like an @ss blogging about how financially strapped we are while also blogging about an upcoming three week trip to Europe. And yet, I don’t want this to stop me from being able to blog about both of these exciting things here on my site (the new house, not the financially strapped part).
We travel a little different then most people do. We travel cheap. Very, very cheap! We’ve stayed in some sh!t holes all over the world. It’s one way we keep our costs down.
Yesterday, after church and after putting Babboo down for his nap, The King and I sat in the front room and tried to plan more of our trip out. With about 15 travel books from the library and a couple of maps, we discussed the pros and cons of different places to visit in Europe.
Oh, and I pulled out my swimming suit stash and took inventory of the suits I’d take with me on our trip (and tried them all on, you know, to see how my latest attempts at Weight Watchers is going). (It’s going, by the way.)
I own a lot of bikinis. And, can you see, that some of them still have their (super clearance) price tags on them? Oh yes, I have so many that I’ve got some ($1.97) bikini’s that I’ve never even worn. I plan on using all of them on our trip.
Oh right, back to this little trip.
The quick-ish history of this particular trip is:
The King lived in Berlin, Germany for a few years in his early twenties. We are very connected to Germany. We have many friends there and good memories of trips past. We’ve been fortunate enough to visit Germany three times since we’ve been married. The last time we went was in the second trimester of my pregnancy with Babboo. Before we decided to have kids together, The King and I discussed how wanted to raise our kids. One of the top five things we wanted for our future off-springs was the opportunity to travel. Something that I was never fortunate enough to have when I was a kid. When I got knocked up, we vowed that this kid was going to love to travel. We were adamant about this.
Two years later and we’ve got to stick to this promise we made. This means we’ve got to actually take Babboo on a trip. I mean, if he’s going to learn to love traveling, he might was well start young.
So now you know a little bit of the back story and why we feel we have to travel at this point in our lives, and why we make it a priority. You also know why we go to Europe all the time instead of trying some place new like Australia, South America, or Asia. (I mean, The King actually speaks the German language. So, of course, it’s a place we like to visit.)
The thing about traveling, that I never realized until I actually traveled, is that it’s not that hard to actually do it. All of us can travel. We don’t need to be rich or afraid. We just need to learn some of the secrets as to how to make it work. In the months prior to our September trip, I’m going to keep you guys in the loop of our travel plans and teach you some of the secrets that The King and have I learned over the years. I’m hoping that you guys will be able to share some of your secrets with me and with the rest of the readers.
Something that the new house has afforded us to do is accrue frequent flyer (FF) miles. Before we started the house project, we switched banks and signed up for the Bank of American Alaska Airlines Visa card (and their debit card too). While Alaska Airlines doesn’t necessarily fly to all the places we went to go, their affiliates do. Which means we can pretty much fly anywhere we want with our Alaska Airlines miles. How we’ve accrued so many FF miles is we’ve paid for everything for the new house on our Alaska Airlines credit card. I know this sounds scary, but don’t worry, we haven’t actually carried the debt on the card.
Here’s the deal; The King will call and order 20K in lumber for the house. We’re using the money we made when we sold the last house to pay for the lumber. But dude, we might as well get FF miles for it. So we use the FF credit card and then two seconds later (literally), The King will pay off the credit card from our construction savings. Which means, we just got 20K in FF miles for free! (You get 1 FF miles for each dollar spent with your card and it takes about 50K FF miles for one free ticket to Europe.)
The King also spent the last year traveling for his job. While having him gone every other week sucked, he was able to accrue tons of FF miles (and hotel points) this way. We’ve also made a couple of trips to Utah and one trip to Washington DC during this time, all of which gained us more FF miles. It took a while, but eventually we had enough miles to cash them in and get The King, Babboo and me all FREE tickets to Europe!
Completely free!
(Well, except for paying the fees/taxes. But dude, nothing like the 1K each they would have been.)
One negative thing about using FF miles is that there are only so many FF mile seats made available. The airlines suggest you reserve your tickets as soon as possible. The earliest you can get them is 365 days in advance. So that’s what we did. We got our tickets last September. Having to get your tickets that far in advance doesn’t give you much time to actually pre-plan your trip. Basically, you just take what you can get.
That’s how we ended up with the tickets we got; we fly into Berlin on September 3rd and fly out of London on the 20th. Where we go in between was still to be determined.
I’ve never been to Europe in the summer time. We’ve always gone in the winter. Going in the winter months allows us to stay in hotels for cheaper, eat for less, and avoid the crowds. The Europe I know and love is freezing cold and pretty much devoid of tourists. Summertime in Europe is going to be a whole new thing for me. (I’m sure I’m going to loathe the crowds.)
We decided to make this trip to Europe less about the snowy Alps, Bavaira, long underwear and coats and more about beaches and swimming suits. (Or better yet, beaches and no swimming suits!) More like the trip we took to Tulum, Mexico when I was first pregnant.
(I just got the film from our waterproof camera developed last week! It’s almost been three years since our trip to Mexico. And dude, I’m glad I waiting since I got a coupon for FREE film developing.)
Now you know a little bit more about how frequent flier miles can work for you. Even if you don’t plan on traveling a ton or paying for a house with your credit card, you really should sign up for a credit card that allows you get earn FF miles. You’re going to use your card anyway, you might as well get something for using it.
In my next vacation-themed post, I’m going to tell you how I make Priceline my bitch by using biddingfortravel to book our hotel rooms. We bought our hotel room for the last three days in London for $70 using biddingfortravel, instead of the $200 other people are paying.
So tell me, what are your secrets to making frequent flier miles work for you?
How To's · Vacations
Emily
said,
April 15, 2008 at 4:29 pm
This was very interesting…..please, do tell more about how to score a super cheap vacation!
heidikins
said,
April 15, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I am so excited for this quasi-feature! I’ve been collecting FF miles, but without the benefits of a house on a cc, I’ll be lucky if I can get a ticket to Boise before they expire. :o)
xoxox
Nic
said,
April 15, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Oooh, I’m looking forward to this. I’ve been accumulating miles since I travel for work, but… they don’t pile up quite as quickly as I would like. I also use USair’s skymall because for some online purchases you get extra miles per dollar.
Operation Pink Herring
said,
April 15, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Charging EVERYTHING is the way to go… as long as you can make sure to pay off the balance every month. My mom charges everything from groceries to her car payment to college tuition and has been able to get us all free tickets for every trip we’ve ever gone on as a result. I am really pissed that my mortgage co won’t accept credit card payments because dammit, I’m missing out on all those FFMiles!
I feel like an ass blogging about all my vacations, too.
super des
said,
April 15, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I have a United credit card that I used to pay for everything with that is until I moved to NYC and could no longer afford to pay it off…) but I got a few free airline tickets. It’s a good plan as long as you can always pay it off. (Mine has like 24% interest or something!)
super des
said,
April 15, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I have a United credit card that I used to pay for everything on (that is until I moved to NYC and could no longer afford to pay it off…) but I got a few free airline tickets. It’s a good plan as long as you can always pay it off. (Mine has like 24% interest or something!)
Carrie
said,
April 15, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I am SO GLAD you posted this! My husband is from Poland and we go over there every other year (we’re going this June for 2 weeks!). We need all the travelling advice we can get! At this point our only travel “secrets” are: (1) Find cheap tickets. (2) Buy them.
Abbie
said,
April 15, 2008 at 5:44 pm
You are one educational blogger. Glad I found you!!
Audrey
said,
April 15, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I’m so excited for these travel posts! I took your advice a couple months ago and got us signed up for a Capital One FF card. The other card we use is Discover, so we pretty much split our purchases between the two to rack up FF miles and Cash Back Bonus. We don’t carry credit card debt, either, so it works out really well for us.
One of my money-saving tips: When my bff and I traveled Europe a few years ago, by the time we got to Rome (our last stop), we were too broke to want to buy metro cards. So we just walked everywhere. All across the city, every single day. It was awesome because we got to see parts of the city we might have missed on the metro, we saved money, and we were able to indulge in more gelato because of all the exercise we got!
I hope Babboo loves his first big trip!
Rhi
said,
April 15, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I’m totally enamored with Alaska Airlines and have linked my FF number to every grocery store in town that allows me to do so. And, I’ve traveled a ton for work in my past jobs, so I’ve scored free tickets (First Class!) to several places.
Isabel: Oh yes, I forgot about that. We’re signed up to earn FF miles for buying our groceries at the local Safeway. I think we get 50 miles for every $250 we spend (or something like that). I figure I’m buying the groceries anyway, might as well get FF credit for it. Thanks for this tip, Rhi.
Laurel
said,
April 15, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I love the frequent flier mile card! AS will DEFINITELY be getting one for his business expenses when I move to Chi-town.
heels
said,
April 15, 2008 at 8:04 pm
My family has gone on a LOT of great trips with FF miles. When we’re at our destination, we totally rock the Youth Hostels. If you do a little research, you can find all kinds of great Hostels for cheap. It’s not glamorous, but it is seriously interesting!
Liza
said,
April 15, 2008 at 8:58 pm
My parents did the “charge everything to a FF CC” method and managed free tix to Australia.
The other great way to score free tix — which doesn’t work as well with toddlers in tow — is to travel at busy times, with only carry-on luggage, so that you can volunteer to be bumped for travel vouchers. I think I took an average of 4 or 5 trips/year in grad school, but paid for an average of 1 or 2.
And I knew that one of my major exes was not the person for me when we fought about accepting $800 vouchers EACH in exchange for getting in 5 hours late. Ok, it was Christmas Eve, but still! (We should have broken up then, but I dragged it out another 8 months. Sometimes I’m a slow learner.)
Liza
said,
April 15, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Oh, and after our recent trip to Florida, my new favorite web site for places to stay is Vacation Rentals By Owner. (http://www.vrbo.com/)
We stayed in a 2BR cottage a block from the beach for less than it would have cost to stay in a half-way decent hotel. And we had a kitchen & laundry included, which helped a lot with a puking toddler.
sizzle
said,
April 15, 2008 at 9:27 pm
That is SO impressive! I need to learn more tricks for saving.
janet
said,
April 15, 2008 at 10:06 pm
you are my hero! I can’t wait to read all the travel cheaply posts. I need more vacations in my life in a major way (like real vacation without family and with airplanes and drinks with umbrellas)
MK
said,
April 15, 2008 at 10:37 pm
You guys are smart about your traveling! We will get there eventually! I htink the fact that you are going to europe is great! Even in the middle of the house! You have to do what works for you guys!
Chas
said,
April 15, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I have no frequent flyer miles…I am not a frequent flyer. I hate to fly actually. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people that would rather ride a bicycle cross country or take a canoe to African than fly….but I don’t love to fly.
While I don’t see us being world travelers for a while, I would like for us to visit Europe as a family. My aunt and her children live in Germany, so I guess it’d be rude of me not to visit them sometime. I’d like to see Southern Europe though. My husband has always wanted to visit Spain. I’m thinking Lila might like that trip when she’s in elementary school.
amieable
said,
April 16, 2008 at 1:15 am
You so rock. I love hearing stories of Moms who don’t put their lives on hold, but instead include their children. I think Babboo is going to be way ahead of the curve by learning about new cultures and also learning to go with the flow.
I think you have convinced me to get a credit card with FF miles. I fly on Alaska a lot to visit my sister and their partners are good.
Keep us updated on your travel plans and KEEP THE TIPS COMING!
Jezer
said,
April 16, 2008 at 2:01 am
My travel is limited to “girl” trips with either my mom or my SIL because the Mr. doesn’t like to travel much. However, I plan to try out Al’s traveling legs as soon as possible.
Also, I *heart* WiseBread.com.
Diana
said,
April 16, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Finally delurking…
Hi! I live in The Netherlands and it is so nice to read that you like Europe so much! Normally people from the US believe that everything overthere is bigger and better. Well bigger it is! Especially your hamburgers and other fastfood! You’ll love Europe in the summer, everybody is happy and there are always a lot of festivals outside, wich you won’t have in winter. I can recommend Italy and Spain for your trip. In Italy you should go to Florence and to Venetie and if you have the time to Rome. In Spain you’ll love Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. And off course the beautiful beaches. We also have Disney World in Paris, but if you’re used to the US Disney parks, then you will probably think this is lame. I wish you a nice trip and I look forward to your tips for cheap travelling. BTW here in Europe we do not have this FF wich you can earn with your CC…..
Chris Cactus
said,
April 16, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Beaches and no swim suits? Saucy.
Dugi.
said,
April 16, 2008 at 3:25 pm
wow that’s really impressive. good on u guys.
summer in Europe in wonderful! i have some v.fond memories of summer time trips there…especially to swiss.
michael’s parents r there right now….they r touring with his mother’s sister + husband, brother + husband.
swim suits for $1.98??!! i’ll be v.v lucky to get a plain white t-shirt for under $10 here…things generally r much cheaper in the US….free trade deals n less tax n all…on my next trip there…i’m bringing empty suitcases to pile up with shopping!
Marriage-101
said,
April 16, 2008 at 3:28 pm
This was so interesting! I’m looking forward to future posts. My husband and I would like to travel to Europe this fall, but we’ve never been and don’t have the first clue as to what to do or how to do it. Help me!
anna
said,
April 16, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I’m way excited about your trip tips for global travel. If it’s within the continental US we try to drive. You get to see so much more that way. My brother flies for an international airline company so we get free miles (still paying taxes and fees). We haven’t taken advantage of them because figuring out everything else seems intimidating.
Christine
said,
April 17, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Great post. I have only been to Europe, specifically Italy, once and I really want to go back soon to visit more countries. I don’t have much cash so I’m interested in learning how I can travel for cheap. I was able to travel to Italy for cheap because I had to go there for work and I was able to take a vacation after I finished my work responsibilities. In order for my company to pay for my airfare, I had to limit my vacation time therefore I only had time to visit Italy.
One suggestion I have for saving money on vacation is to buy food at local markets instead of eating at restaurants for every meal. When I was traveling in Rome, there were many small markets in the city where you could buy produce or meats for lunch. Many of the restaurants near major attractions were overpriced and geared for tourist (not very authentic.) Going to the market in the morning to grab some food for breakfast or lunch will save your budget and you don’t have to worry about finding a place for lunch when you are site seeing.
Whitney
said,
April 18, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Thanks for running this! I am still dreaming of traveling to Europe.
I’m a big fan of cheap travel…it really is the only way to go! The hubby and I scored possibly the world’s cheapest honeymoon two years ago through vrbo.com - paying 65 bucks a night for a whole condo next to the beach! We’re also traveling to another beach this summer for free thanks to Discover points that we can apply to a hotel. Last year, we went to Ocean City for a weekend for next to nothing when we were willing to drive 30 miles away for a hotel. We would just pack our things and be gone for the day. We saved hundreds! (plus had better restaurant selections near our hotel)
It pays to think outside the box. T
SJ
said,
April 21, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Your suggestions/tips sound awesome but I don’t have a credit card! If I can’t buy whatever it is with cash, I don’t buy it.
Probably helps too that I’m not building my own house eh?
In which I share my secrets to finding cheap hotel rooms | hola, isabel
said,
May 14, 2008 at 4:01 pm
[...] Okay, so remember how The King, Babboo and I are going to Europe in September? Remember how I told you how we used frequent flier miles to get us all FREE plane tickets? In the weeks after I posted that, I assume you all switched over to a credit card that offers you FF miles, right? (I hope you did!) (If you haven’t yet, what are you waiting for?) [...]