Winning is Free August 31, 2007

I like to enter contests to win free trips. So far I haven’t won any, but I expect my ship to come in any day now. Any time you find a contest for a free trip, you can bet that if I know about it, I’ve entered. Right now the Travel Channel website has a contest to win a trip to Jamaica. Next month’s contest (starting tomorrow) is to win a trip to Iceland. If you win one, you can’t win the other. I’m an excellent probability person, so I totally get the odds, and I understand I have a 1 in a million shot at winning either trip. But part of me (the part that would rather go to Iceland) thinks that maybe I shouldn’t have entered the Jamaica contest because if I win (like that would be so bad?) I wouldn’t be eligible for a free trip to Iceland. The logical part of me knows that either trip would be awesome, given it’s cost (free) and the odds of winning (bad).

Another contest that I’m entered in is the Conde Nast Traveler “Live the Cover” contest where they send the winner to the place featured on their cover. Most recently, the winning vacation was a trip to the Maldives, and the current contest is for Thailand. I haven’t entered the current contest, but I entered the one for the Maldives. I entered nine times. I fully expect to win. Except now I’d rather go to Thailand. But all this is moot because it’s a photo/essay contest. My essays about why my photos are excellent representations of my vacation, if I do say so, are pretty well written, meaningful, and descriptive. But how can someone like me, who has never been to anywhere so-called “exotic”, compete? My photos are miles away from the goregeous photo of St Basil’s Cathedral at Night.

How can I compete with photos of strange, Asian markets selling goats’ eyeballs and whatever experience may be tied to that? And Africa. I totally envy the people whose photos are in Africa because I just don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad photo taken in Africa. An how can one not be having an adventure if one is in Africa. The writeups are killer. That aside, I feel that my pictures of DC and West Virginia can compete. Why? Is it because the judges should feel bad that I haven’t had the opportunity to go anywhere? No. Not because they feel sorry for me, but rather, I feel they should have a vendetta out for all those people who can go everywhere! They shouldn’t want to send the guy who’s been to Africa six times in the last year on yet another trip. Simply put, the judges, themselves, are probably holed up in a windowless office making valuable life-changing trip-giving decisions all while not taking any trips of their own! Those well-traveled contest-enterers should be elimited immediately if not sooner! And that is why I should win, dear judges.

Finally, I enter monthly in the Conde Nast Traveler contests: “Word Trips” and “Where Are You?”. I should have won by now. It’s hard to believe how many people must enter these things, especially given that some of these contests are not easy. Someday (hopefully sooner rather than later) I will win a travel contest. And when I can show up in South Africa with my all-expenses-paid safari ticket in hand, then maybe I will become one of those people who shouldn’t be allowed to win any more travel contests. Until then, it’s like they say: enter early, enter often!

Ticketing for Dollars August 29, 2007

The best travel-fortune I have had was when we got our free tickets to the Caribbean, or really vouchers for $500 each. I have very bad karma in life, so having good travel karma makes me feel somewhat blessed, or at least I think the gods haven’t totally given up on me. In Italy, after ten twelve-hour days running around, I was getting sick, I was tired of eating out, I missed my bed, and I was mostly ready to go home. Either that or move to Italy permanently (a better alternative, I thought, though slightly implausible). Our 1pm flight out of Fiumicino was a dream come true (our alternatives had all been 7am flights), and getting there was supposed to be painless. It was. But Traveling Companion Numero Uno insisted we leave early. Like 8am early. We were staying in the center of the city, so the time calculations are as follows: 20 minutes to the metro, 30 minutes to the airport (50 if you had missed the previous train), 30 minutes for check-in, 20 minutes for gate-finding. And… done! That’s about 2 hours, and it all went according to plan (I guess that’s lucky?) getting us there at 10am.

I know they say get to the airport 3 hours early for international flights, but in Italy, because of the simplicity there, I say you need to arrive more like 30 minutes beforehand. Unless you’re looking to get bumped. We got to the ticket counter, and upon revealing our identities (two, mild-mannered travelers!), we were asked if we could switch flights because of overbooking. We had booked on Delta (for price reasons) and they were going to transfer us to Continental. The flight got in an hour earlier, they offered us first-class seats and $600 vouchers, but the flight stopped in Newark instead of JFK with a very, very short layover. Hello, Customs!

We took the deal, and after 30 minutes on the phone while we waited (she was verifying with multiple poeple that we could make the short connection in Newark), the Delta agent sent us to the Continental counter where we waited another hour. They finally got to us and gave us our vouchers for $500 (but, but?) and wouldn’t change it. Then they sent us over to ticketing/bag checking where they gave us our seats for coach (but?!). In the meantime, another girl, who was Italian but spoke perfect English, had taken the same deal, and they kept their word: $600 and first class. When we asked, Continental said that Delta had not agreed to pay them for first class for us. It was too late (almost noon), and we couldn’t afford to wait in two hours of more lines. I wasn’t ready to pick a fight, remember I wanted to go home to my bed, and we were getting in an hour earlier, right? And $500 is still $500!

We got on the plane, passing the girl in first class who had stood with us in line (boooo!) and sat down for our long, window-less flight. No problem. Except when food came around, Travel Companion Numero Uno had not requested his vegetarian food in advance. How could he have? We had only just gotten booked on the flight. They were out of vegetables, apparently, so I gave him my bread and cookie and took his chicken.

One, long flight later, we landed in Newark. Late. So we ran through Customs! And then our bags didn’t come out right away! And then when we got to the TSA (we had to re-enter the airport after customs) they had (of course) “randomly” selected us for a pat-down. Nice. What felt like days of not sleeping was catching up with me and I started crying right there in front of the TSA people. They must have seen it all before because they finished quickly and were extra nice and said, “you’ll make your flight! Run!!” So we ran. All the way to the end of the terminal. And the plane was still there when we got to the gate. But my ticket was back at the TSA (probably soaked in tears)! I started crying more, and they let me on. I’m not saying it’s good practice, but it made me dislike the Newark airport jus a little less than before. To top off the trip entirely, when we got back to our airport, Numero Uno’s luggage had been lost, and my car had a flat tire. Bonanza!

$500 vouchers, right?! Still in Numero Uno’s backpack! Everything was okay. And now we’re going to the Caribbean, and maybe we’ll get bumped on the way back and get another ticket. There are worse things that could happen to a person and more horrible places to be stuck than St Thomas!

On a Budget August 28, 2007

We were voluntarily bumped from our Italy return flight on Delta and given the reward of $500 vouchers each (our experience being bumped is one for another day). Given $1000 total in free plane ticket money, to be used within one year of the bumping, we were well on our way to our next trip. We kept thinking about which exotic locations we could visit for free (at this point in our imagination any trip we would take would be entirely free). As the most-enthusiastic traveler, I won the ability to make the decision and subsequently decided that we should see the bluest waters we could afford on our meager $500 plane tickets. This immediately ruled out Bali , the Maldives, and Bora Bora.

Previously in the year, I had received an email with pictures of various Caribbean islands. Prior to this I had never really thought of the Caribbean as somewhere I should visit. By far the prettiest picture in the bunch was on St. John in the US Virgin Islands. Besides the clearest water, the sands looked pure white and the palm tree was perfect. I had already made my decision. Unfortunately perfection comes with a hefty pricetag which we would find out only after booking our free tickets. After a few weeks shopping Delta’s website, we found plane tickets for just under $500 each and booked them easily online and entirely for free. Seven days in September on St. John by way of St. Thomas. Bliss!

It was weeks later that we realized how expensive hotels are, even in hurricane season. To lighten the load, we decided to stay 4 nights on St Thomas, a cheaper location, and 3 nights on St John, using the ferry to get between them. In the end, though, we were still looking at a minimum of $1700 in hotels alone. Added to the cost of taxis, meals, bathingsuits, entertainment… we were looking at a pricetag close to $3000! I imagined sitting on a beach and rather than letting my mind turn to jello, I would probably calculate and recalculate the costs in my mind. Besides that, I’m not even the beachiest of people. What had led me to this terrible, expensive choice of locations? Why wasn’t I using the vouchers for a trip to South America or Europe? Were they still refundable so I could use them at Christmas to see my parents? I had no idea, but I was pretty sure that the trip was OFF!

A week went by where I contemplated the cancellation of our tickets, and then a miracle occured: a coworker appeared to me, deskside, and reminded me of the Armed Forces Vacation Club (AFVC). I’m not military, but at my work, we do have army base affiliation. The AFVC offers timeshares for $329 per week to military affiliates. They don’t always have availability in the high-season, but luckily (oh, so lucky) we’re traveling in hurricane season. We got one! It’s on Magens Bay on St. Thomas, which isn’t our first choice, given that we really wanted to stay on St. John, but for $329 for the week (a near $1400 savings) I can’t complain one iota! Because of the savings, we’re able to rent a jeep ($400/week, after taxes), knocking off the high taxi-fares, take the ferry to St. John a few days, and see the islands the right way!

So if you’re doing the additions, that’s $0 for the airplane, $329 (plus tax) for the hotel, and $400 for the car. $729 total. So far, so good. I mean, a Caribbean vacation isn’t free. The timeshare comes with a kitchen, so we’ll be able to have cereal for breakfast (I hate breakfast, anyway), and if we budget $25/person/day for other food, that’s $50/day which is $350 for the week. That estimate may be on the low end, but I’m willing to swing another couple hundred on conch fritters, shrimpsies, and nominal alcohol as necessary! Total so far: $1079. We ordered snorkel gear for $30/each, so $60 more, and a $10 disposable underwater camera, bringing us to $70. Two bathingsuits for me at $10 each (thanks, Old Navy!), and the grand total is $1169. Budget in a couple hundred for tours (bring it up to a round $1400), and after we add in sunscreen and bugspray, gasoline, and other miscellany, the total trip cost is probably $1600-1700, about half the cost of what it would have been on a resort budget. Score one for the AFVC, no matter how stinky the room ends up being!

A Journey Begins August 27, 2007

This is my fun-filled travel journal. Since I spend most of my time not on the road, I have been asked what I will write about between trips, and as any of you OCD types know, that is, of course, planning (and over-planning) the trips, and future places I want to go, how I make decisions, what I’ve seen, where my karma currently stands, how I keep a budget, and why I want to go certain places. I also make interesting day-trips and sometimes encounter wild adventures that I like to talk about.

Our next grande (with an ‘e’) trip is to the US Virgin Islands: St Thomas and St John. We might hit a British Virgin Island, too, while we’re down there. This trip started out “free” but has grown in cost enormously. Then the cost pared itself down (thank you, off season!) and has since grown moderately day by day. Since I tend to travel on a tight budget, but I won’t be caught dead in a hostel-like environment, I can really speak to the challenge of cash conservation. It’s one of my favorite subjects!

The future of this journal is wide-open.