Have A Goal, Earn and Burn: New Year's Trip In the Books!

A few months ago we were lucky enough to get a guest post over at Hack My Trip to talk about our travel philosophy and how we approach the points and miles game. For us, we don't like to hold onto points for very long and we always try to have a goal in mind when we are earning points so that as soon as we have them, we can burn them. The motto of "Find A Trip, Do Your Research, Earn and Burn" really stands true. With the constant devaluation of points and miles and award space that shrinks as it gets closer to your trip I feel there is real value in locking in a trip if you know where you want to go.

Last year Kelsey and I spent New Year's Eve in London and had one of the best experiences I have ever had on a trip. We enjoyed every second of it and just felt like there was no where else we would rather be. So,  when we were talking about doing a trip this year we thought...why not go back to London.

We plan to be in Ohio visiting Kelsey's parents for the Christmas holiday so we thought we would take advantage of the sweet spot in the British Airways Award Chart that allows you to fly from Boston to Dublin on Aer Lingus for 25,000 Avios points round-trip in economy and 50,000 in business class. We have enough Avios from signing up for the British Airways visa card (public offer)  that we used it for a flight on our Australia trip and now we are going to use it for the 25,000 each in economy. So on Christmas Day we will get a flight from Ohio to Boston and then catch the 10:15 p.m. flight over to Dublin!

From there we plan to spend a few days in Dublin, Rome/Berlin/Prague,Vienna/Insert Other City and London for  New Year's again before returning back to Dublin.

This is a great sweet spot in the award chart and availability was pretty much wide open for the December/January time frame. So...if you want a quick hop over to Europe for 25,000 Avios (remember it' just a 5-6 hour flight) this is a great way to do it!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints! Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Grounded Like the 787 Dreamliner!

Grounded! That word is one of my least favorite. As a child, I use to despise hearing it. Normally, it was in the phrase, “You are grounded,” I was a naughty child. Always pushing the acceptable boundaries to see how far I could push it. I am still that way today especially in the planning of my trips.

 I have been planning a major trip for March. First, it was a bro trip to Niger, to visit our friends. Well, the French decided to bomb Mali and the entire region is a hotbed now. Our friend told us to put the trip on ice and stuff it into the freezer for the time being. With that trip cancelled, I went about planning a trip to hit two counties: one in Europe and one in Asia. I was calling it…the trip to countries you have never heard of.

 That was until last week. In our 90 day outlook meeting, my boss grounded me. I have been grounded like the 787; indefinitely. I can’t take vacation time, other than the half days already on the books, until the Spring market is over.

I should have seen this. Similar to the 787, the warning signs were clear as glass. When the real estate market heats up, the mortgage market will as well. Record low interest rates, improving stock market & economy, plus lower than average housing prices is creating the perfect storm. In Washington, DC, there are more people wanting to buy than there is housing inventory. The houses that are for sale are attracting multiple bids with escalation clauses and quick financing turn around.

 So, the FAA (my boss) has grounded me until further notice. No junkets to far off lands. No crazy mileage runs to Turkey. The best I can do is weekend trips to the West coast, like Portland in March. I am a travel junkie and my boss is forcing me to go on a detox.

 You know what this means. While I am grounded, its time to stock pile points to spend when I can take off again. You can put the travel junkie in detox, but the point addict will always look for his fix.