I was thinking of what it would be like to live in Hawaii. Trips to Europe should be expensive while trips to Asia should be cheap… I thought that it would be cheaper to fly from Hawaii to Japan (or Australia) than it is to fly from Baltimore to Japan (or Australia). It turns out I am wrong; every time I’ve checked, it is about the same cost. We suspect this is because they have to truck jet fuel in on barges. We might be wrong. It could be just that everything in Hawaii is more expensive. Maybe that is wrong-thinking, too. Maybe nobody knows why it is this way, or maybe it is just us!
Charleston and Savannah September 24, 2008
I have booked my flight (moderate), car (cheap), and hotel (cheap) for visiting Charleston and Savannah. I’m staying at a Days Inn near the airport because it is cheap. Apparently I have picked a very popular weekend to visit Charleston — many hotels are sold out while others seem to have extremely high prices, even in comparison to their other weekends’ prices. I have read that, statistically, the weather should be perfect. I arrive Friday at 11am and depart Monday at 11am. Friday I will walk around downtown Charleston and its Civil War museum. Maybe I’ll take a ghost or a Gullah tour. Saturday I will visit two of the four plantations north of Charleston and then maybe go to the beach area or back to the city. I knew Charleston had been destroyed during the war, but I didn’t realize all of the plantations had been destroyed, too. Sunday I will drive down (and back) to Savannah where I will see the historic city center and perhaps the Mercer House and their war museum. Savannah is not very well planned yet. I also thought I might stop by Hilton Head on my way back from Savannah. I like seeing mansions!
This will probably be a fairly relaxed trip. I have never been down to South Carolina, but for some reason I’ve always wanted to go. I anticipate fun!
Budget Airlines to Where? March 10, 2008
RyanAir and EasyJet come to mind when I think of European budget airlines, and if I were recommending American budget airlines to people, I would suggest Southwest (although not as budgety as RyanAir). But I’ve decided that this week I am going to look into other budget airlines to get me to places that those three don’t go, for example St Petersburg.
One idea I had last week was to fly to Athens in order to get to Cairo (EgyptAir) and see both at once in a nice, long trip. I was thinking, aside from lodging and vacation-days-required, that it might be cheaper to make the stop than to fly direct to Cairo from home. Flights to Athens from home, though, are quite pricey, and EgyptAir, a national airline, isn’t as “budget” as I’d like, even on the short ATH-CAI flight. So that’s the kind of thing I’ll be looking into (for my own personal gain!) — what other cities could I visit on the way (assuming I wanted to visit them in the first place) in order to get the best bang-for-the-buck on a trip to, say, Cairo or St Pete?
Couch Surfing September 20, 2007
Maybe I’ve just had some bad experiences with strangers in the past, but it’s not clear that I would welcome a complete and total stranger to stay on my couch. A stranger is one thing. I don’t mind strangers in limited quantity. Sooner or later they’re not strangers anymore and are friends instead, but that’s often “later” rather than “sooner” and sometimes for good reason. A known-quantity houseguest is another matter. You can plan ahead that they’re coming, know their habits, and never invite them in the first place if you have the foresight that it just won’t work out. Combining the notions of strangers and houseguests just seems like a bad idea.
Staying on strangers’ couches, “couch surfing”, is the premise of a website (as well as an NYT article) that must be meant for a younger generation than I. Being a part of this couch-surfing community means accepting some rules: not staying out until all hours, being a gracious guest, enjoying rather than taking advantage of your host’s company. Even with these rules in place, I know that I would end up with at least one guest who pushed the boundaries of what I feel is acceptable behavior for a houseguest, especially a houseguest/stranger. But I think in this case one bad egg ruins the experience.
I also know that if I were to stay on a complete stranger’s couch and be expected to join them in their planned-fun-activities, something would go wrong. I don’t know what, but something. Again, it only takes one bad experience to spoil the whole thing, and it just seems too likely to me that I would get that. I guess my overly cautious persona means that I won’t get to see or do some set of things in life, but I’ll learn to accept that, and I’ll do other things in their place.
Two Gets One September 12, 2007
Just a piece of news of note: Southwest Airlines has a deal going on this month where buying two round-trip tickets gets you one free. It’s easy with only a few restrictions, for example the two purchased tickets must each be 1250 miles between origin and destination (boo, too far!). But to sweeten the pot, you can take the deal twice, purchasing four round-trip tickets, and combine the two earned flights to get yourself to Hawaii and back. This is a Great Deal. The only drawback is that you have to have flown your two purchased flights by November 15. That’s a lot of vacationing to do in just two months!
Earning to Fly September 9, 2007
Collecting frequent flyer miles became a hobby of mine two years ago when I started flying for business. My job requires only minimal travel, and because of my employer, I’m required to take different airlines depending on the city pair, making it nearly impossible to build up all of my miles on a single airline. So, I opened three frequent flyer accounts: Continental, American Airlines, and United. Because of their partnerships, registering with this trio covers registration with almost all of the major airlines. For example, if one were to fly Delta, she could funnel those miles into her Continental fund. Similarly, USAir pairs with United. Qantas, Hawaiian Air, and British Airways each partner with American. I have Southwest points, too, but I rarely fly Southwest, so I often forget about them.
Airlines also partner with hotels, car rental agencies, and other businesses to help you earn miles. It simply requires asking the car rental agent or hotel clerk if you can earn miles for your stay. They take your flyer number, and you’re on your way. You can find out in advance on the airline’s website who their partners are and current special deals. Earning 50 miles here and 200 there can become a full-time hobby if you’re OCD like me! Check the airline website often for new deals; you might find something you were going to do anyway. For example, the subscription to Netflix I was about to make in June earned me a huge 2000 miles with the click of a button.
By far the best racket, though, is airline credit cards. They’re all backed by financial instutions like CitiCards and Chase Bank, so these aren’t your crumby Target Card. The interest rates, however, tend to be high, so if you don’t pay it off regularly, it may be worth your while to find a card better suited to your needs. The standard reward-earning for each card, with the exception of infrequent promotions, is one mile per each dollar spent. On its own, a credit card is not the easiest way to earn a free ticket, but in rounding out the last few hundred miles for a ticket, it’s a good bet — assuming you were going to spend the money anyway! Another benefit is sometimes-discounts on a ticket or on miles-cost for ticket purchasing when the airline’s card is used at its website.
If you’re going to get one of these cards, the best time to get one is when the airline is having “specials”. The deals usually come with 15000-25000 free or close-to-free miles, as well as waiving the first annual fee. If you don’t like the current deal, wait a month and another will appear. I maintain, although opinions vary, that an airline credit card should be one’s secondary, and not primary, credit card. Because of their annual fees, it’s nice to not have to rely on the card and be able to cancel the card when the fee is levied (usually the second or third year). Then you can reinstate the card at a future date when another good deal comes around, perhaps winning another 20000 miles if lucky.
Spending miles is another tricky subject. Because each mile is worth approximately a penny in the airline’s mind, using, for example, 25000 miles to buy any ticket under $250 is arguably a waste. If you have 25000 miles, you will often have enough miles to get a state-state ticket in the US. The catch is that there are only a limited number of these tickets allocated per flight or per day, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. So in order to snag a deal like this, tickets often have to be booked long before their date or booked for an off peak time. When I consider booking my tickets with miles, I look at only at the mile-saver fare, although I can understand why one might need to use the regular-miles fare at times. If I’m going to use my miles, however, I want to get the most value out of them that I can, or else I should just keep collecting them until I can squeeze more value out of them. For 50000 miles, I could find my way to Europe, a ticket that I could probably afford (at $750 per ticket) by saving dedicated-money for a while. But for around 60000 miles I could go to Japan, a place I might have trouble affording on my own (at $1400 per ticket). Similarly, I do not underestimate the value of the estimated 14000 miles I would acquire going to Japan, compared to only 8000 going to Europe.
Finally, when acquiring miles as it was initially intended, through flying, if you have the time and patience to make a short connection rather than take a direct flight, you can often eke out another 200-400 miles from the trip. It doesn’t seem like much, but just like the hotels, rental cars, and other special features, it adds up. You simply have to take the time, have a goal… and maybe have a touch of OCD.
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!
