I love cruising. Mostly for efficiency. When you cruise, you’re on a floating hotel where you unpack once, visit several destinations, and travel between destinations while you sleep. That’s (almost) magic. However, as with most Good Things there are trade-offs.
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Collecting miles and points for free travel can seem utterly overwhelming. But it need not. In this post we’ll explore a basic two card strategy to jump start your mile and points endeavors.
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Minimum Required Spend (MRS), or just plain “Spend”, is the amount you’ll purchase to earn initial credit card signup bonuses. It doesn’t include annual fees or cash back. Spend can vary from “1st purchase” (perhaps a dollar’s worth of gas) to 10K or more. Typical Spend for many credit cards runs between $1,000 and $3,000. By rethinking your auto insurance, you can save money while also meeting Spend on a new credit card. How does it all work?
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Recently my wife and I moved to Florida. Being lifelong Disney fans, we obtained (almost) free Disney annual passes with points. I call it the Disney Tax–the cost of fun while living in Central Florida. While not 100% free, we greatly reduced our costs using Bank of America Travel Rewards credit cards. You could do the same to obtain (almost) free Walt Disney World annual passes (in or out of State), free Disney theme park tickets, or free tickets to nearly any theme park; or obtain a large variety of travel items free. Among them: free cruises, free on-board credit (OBC), car rentals, and hotel nights. But we’ll focus on getting (almost) free Disney annual passes using points.
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Most know you can pay for flights and hotels on points. Few realize you can use miles and points to pay for cruises. Not quite in the same way. Yet paid in part or totally using credit card point programs.
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Some credit cards you choose because they’re the right fit at the right time. Others may appear to be the wrong fit, but the right time. One Right Time is as follows: grabbing as many credit cards offered by a loyalty program about to either disappear (The Merged) or ceasing to offer a credit card (The Deceased).
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Cruising: Elderly shuffleboard players on one hand. Puking, partying Spring Breakers on the other. And package tourism at its absolute worst. These stereotypes kept me from considering cruising until my mid-30’s; something I regret, absolutely. Take it from a former Independent Travel Elitist who thought cruising was only for the proverbial half-dead or newly wed: cruising has much to recommend to the independent traveler. As such, it’s well worth your thoughtful reconsideration. If you ever doubted…
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Everyone knows the story of Victor Frankenstein–a demented doctor who creates new life out of spare parts. Few know the art of travel Frankensteining–assembling the trip of a lifetime out of spare points. In our hobby, thinking differently (not ghoulishly) leads to travel success where others fail.
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Flying the unfriendly skies these days–with baggage fees, overbooking, etc–most of the clouds you see are dark. But this One Weird Airline (sorry, I can’t stop) offers a silver lining. Delays, bumps, restrictions, fees. Take your pick: it’s trite to say flying isn’t fun these days; but the banality of saying so makes it no less true. However, one airline Mandy and I fly strives to make flying, if not fun, tolerable.
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When you see a good thing, it’s worth sharing. I routinely and vigorously recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred card to friends, family, and co-workers. Why? It’s the best single card for getting started in the miles and points game. Sharing is sweeter when it comes with rewards. Read on to learn how to help yourself and others by referring Chase cards you currently possess–or expect to apply for in the future.
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(Roscoe the dog asking, “can I come too?”)
“That’s all you have?” The crew member was clearly puzzled when I checked-in for my Boston to Bali adventure. Yes indeed. All I had was a small day pack and a larger convertible backpack: one item for under the seat and another for the overhead compartment. This was in the dawn of prehistory when hardly any airlines charged for checked bags. “And you’ll be gone how long?” Two and a half weeks. But it could have been two and a half months. Her expression grew more perplexed. “How?”
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In another post, we explored hotel search tools for travel hacking. In the present, we’ll briefly survey tools and techniques that increase and enhance your free travel skill-set; including five travel hacking tools of note. Note well and enjoy.
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