Wedding Challenge

In your 20s and 30s, weddings seem to pop-up on a non-stop pace. Your friends from high school & college, your cousins and co-works are all starting to walk down the aisle for the first or second time.

Photo Credit: http://www.onscreenweddings.com

Attending weddings is not cheap; especially, if you have to travel to the wedding. The costs of attending a wedding away from your where you live add up: airfare, hotel, rental car, food, booze, gifts etc. The cost only increases if you are a member of the wedding party. Last year, I wrote about Christopher Sledzik, "who racked up $10,000 in debt by attending 12 different weddings and being of 3 different wedding parties over an 18 month period."

10,000 Gs of debt from weddings. That's ridiculous. However, I can see how you can rack up debt by attending weddings. Its difficult to say no to a friend's wedding invitations. Your friends are getting married, your other friends will be there, and it you know its going to be an awesome time.  But I wonder is there a better way to reduce travel costs to weddings?

For this reason, I am coming up with The Wedding Challenge.

The goal of the challenge is to earn enough miles/points to pay for the airfare, hotel nights and a $100 gift for an upcoming wedding. Let's assume the following things:

• Wedding is located on the West Coast i.e. requires air travel

• 3 hotel nights 

• $100 gift - which I feel like is average wedding gift

Like all of my challenges, there are rules:

• No new credit cards ie no points earned from new credit cards can be used

• Can't buy points

• Have to earn the points by end of 2014

• Can use Swagbucks and MyPoints

• Can't just transfer miles from Ultimate Rewards; have to earn them from today on to transfer

Success on this challenge will be achieve by hitting the following milestones:

      1)  25,000 United MileagePlus 

      2)  45,000 Hyatt (Gold Points) - 15,000 a night or $200 worth of Hyatt GCs

      3)  Enough points (most likely from Swagbucks or MyPoints) for a $100 gift card to 

           some department store

My goal of this challenge is to show people that attending a wedding for cheap is possible not that I am cheap. For my friends and family, I would travel the world to celebrate their nuptials. However, the cost of attending weddings is one of the main reasons why people can't attend. 

Do you have a wedding you need to travel to in 2015? Join my Wedding Challeneg to see if you can reduce the cost of attending by earning miles & points.

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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!

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NYT: Europe, in 9 Walks - How Walks Can Show You The Real Side of A City

As I head out with Kelsey's family to enjoy a nice walk through southern Virginia, where we are staying this weekend I stumbled upon a great article in today's travel section of The New York Times that focuses on "Europe, in 9 Walks."

It features great walks from London to Turkey, Scotland to Berlin, and even a few that I have been on myself. But I have always felt that you can get the true character of a country, of a region and of a town if you just take a walk through its streets. Not just the streets next to the tourist areas and not just the three block area around your hotel, but the real streets. The streets that the locals take every day to and form their homes to work. The streets that feature their favorite restaurants and their favorite shops. You will then learn the true feeling of what it's like to live in the city.

When I studied abroad in London in College I would often use Saturday and Sunday to simply wander. I would use track work on the Tube to my advantage by hopping on at my local stop and then whenever I would hit some track work or a closed station I would just get off and explore that area! I found so many amazing things that way. From delicious restaurants to great views of famous sites that no one would think about...I kind of felt like I wasn't a tourist anymore, that I was just a citizen of that city ready to go about my weekend and enjoy my neighborhood.

So...where's your next walk? What's your favorite walk in a city you love?


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It's Never the Destination, It's the Memories Along the Way

JD and I are both away this weekend with our friends at the beach, thanks to the kindness of JD who has arranged this trip for the past three or four years and it's something that we always look forward to.

Most of the time on trips like this we would be reporting back on the hotels that we stayed at and the best points earning strategy for the area...but not this time. This time is simply to just sit back, enjoy time with friends that you don't get to see enough and have lots of laughs. As JD calls it, it's "do whatever you want weekend."

The moral of this story is something that we often forget in the miles and points game, and something that I have been personally thinking about recently...the points and miles to get to a destination are not the goal...they are the means to the goal. In the end you want that trip or that experience with friends that you remember and talk about for years to come. In this case it's no points and miles used or needed to get to an amazing time...but we already have some great stories and have continued traditions that are now three or four years old.

Trips to exotic destinations are great and make for great memories...but I often find thatit's never the size or location of the trip, it's the people are you are with and the memories that you make. For now...I'll take this condo by the beach, I'll take the friends I love so dearly and another laugh with them daily.
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Different Travel Deals Based On Your Browsing History?

I've heard in the past that when searching for airfare or hotels that sometimes if you clear the "cookies" out of your web browser that you can often get a different price because the website will not know that you are not a new "visitor" searching for that specific flight or property.

Well an article in yesterday's USA Today  shows that many airlines and hotels use this practice on a regular basis. They take the data from your web history and use it to see if you are a frequent traveler and then price accordingly. The difference is not startling in most cases, but it's still noticeable and adds up over time, I would imagine. The bigger problem is that it could be considered by some as a form of discrimination because it offers a similar product for a different price based on a set of circumstances that are unknown to the buyer.

But the most shocking part is that there is a move to allow airlines to collect more information to give passengers, "easy access to all of the options to add value to their travel plans." Through collection of demographic information and flight information they say they could fit a travel experience and extra options to a traveler's preferences. But privacy advocates warn that this could amount to a different pricing scheme based on previous purchases, travel profile and other data such as age, nationality, marital status, etc.

I'm not usually someone who minds when a website takes my data and gives me more specific info...I know that makes me strange, but I find it fascinating when I am looking at a pair of glasses or a hotel in a certain city and then suddenly I start seeing ads for that...it just shows how good marketers are becoming. But when it worries me is when you could potentially pay a different price just because of that search history. Will be interesting to watch this issue develop.  

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Coalition of Flight Attendants: No Knives on Planes

The recent policy change announced by the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) that would allow small knives and many items of sports equipment starting April 25 is stirring up quite the controversy. The Coalition on Flight Attendant Unions which represents over 90,000 flight attendants across the country have come out publicly against the ban and are actively campaigning for it's end.

On March 21 flight attendants across the country handed out leaflets to passengers at the airport urging their support to contact TSA and say they do not support the rule changes. Today the head of the Coalition, a flight attendant for United, went on MSNBC's Morning Joe program and indicated that the Coalition doesn't see where the TSA is coming from on this rule change and their members and the passengers they serve and protect don't either. She indicated that it seems like the TSA believes that "security stops at the cockpit door" and now flight attendants are not only expected to do their duty and keep the cabin safe, but also be prepared to take care of anyone who is acting out on the plane...now possibly with a knife. I'll post the video of the whole interview once it is available. EDIT: Here is the video from MSNBC.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Coalition has started a petition on the White House's website to ask the Obama administration to rescind the policy. The petition currently has almost 40,000 signatures and if it can cross the 100,000 signature mark it will require an administration response. It will be interesting to see if all of the resistance from the flying professionals will cause any change from the TSA, or if this will just make them dig in their heels even more.

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The Joy and Fear of Travel

This post is coming to you from a random cafe in North Carolina and it's been something that I've been ruminating over in my head as I've been walking all morning. I'm in North Carolina so Kelsey can visit a grad school that she might be attending next year and she's spending all day doing an admitted students program so I am on my own to check out the area until 5:00. So far I've had only one biscut, which my twitter followers know already, I am disappointed in. I must find more biscuts and eat them as fast as possible.

But the real thing that I noticed as I walked around the area, and area that I have never been to before, I noticed just how much joy and fear one can get while traveling. Even when you are only a few hours from home, there is still that feeling in as you see a place for the first time.

For the most part it's a feeling of joy. It's that feeling when you are wandreing aimlessly around a new place and you go around the corner to discover something out of nothing. When it seems like the Main Street of shops that so many towns have ends...but you keep going only to find the next stretch around the corner. To people who live in the area, it's a given to them that this happens. Instead of a new discovery around the corner, they know this as the normal occurance, their everyday. In face you see it in their faces, they are here for that cup of coffee or to lunch with a friend at their favorite lunch spot. The blip on thier radar represents just something out of their routine. For you...it represents something different...it represents a new shop, a new coffee, a new food dish, a new culture to discover.

You think of how you go through your regular day at home without much thought to what's around you...it's old...not in a bad way, but in a way that makes it not shocking and exciting as the first time you saw it. Think of the first time you found your favoite coffeeshop, your favorite restaurant, clothing store...anything in your town that you had previously not discovered. That feeling at first was like you were a tourist in your own town. That's the part of travel I can't get enough of.

But there are times where travel make you a bit fearful as well. Even when you are just a few hours from home there are differences. There is a natural flow of life for everyone in the area that is used to how things work. They know where the roads go, they know when to cross the street against the signal, they know which restaurants to avoid at certain hours. This makes you feel like you stick out and look silly. For me it's always standing in the exact wrong place in a shop or on public transit and feeling like I should know better, when I would have no possible way to know where to stand. It's that weird circumstance of feeling like you are an alien in your own world...but one that still blends in. It's this feeling that I both love and hate at the same time. I don't like to stand out, but I also recognize that in a new place it's unavoidable...part of the process.

But then there's that moment where you just have the pure joy of knowing that you are in someplace new...that joy of discovering that new site around the corner and stepping into a cool coffee shop to write a blog post and catch up on e-mail. That moment where that fear in your stomach is crunched down and the joy takes back over. It's those moments I love, and those moments that keep me traveling near and far from home.

I know this doesn't do much to "add" to the miles and points conversation...but I think it's something that we travelers all have knowledge of, we all have that unique joy of being in a new place and the fear of it at the same time. We are all united and packaged around the love of travel and the more we share our experiences and read the experiences of others, the more we want to travel to somewhere new. So for now...I'll just enjoy this cup of coffee, set off into the new city and try to find the joy in every moment of something new.









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"I think you're crazy..."

"I think you're crazy to go all that way for such a short amount of time." That's what a co-worker told me today as I left the office when she found out that Kelsey and I were heading out to Portland for the weekend...well...more like from 1:00 pm on Saturday until 2:30 pm on Sunday. Not only was that a short trip, but it's also my second trip in as many weeks.

Last weekend I went to Portland for a little longer, from 1:00 am Friday night until 3:00 pm Sunday, with JD and our friend Joe. This weekend I'm heading out with Kelsey and will be joined by my parents who live up in Seattle. I know that on the face of things it seems absolutely crazy to do such a thing...but the more and more I thought about it on the way home the less crazy it seems.

Take last weekend for an example. The three of us guys have not been able to hang out for that long anytime in the past few years. Jobs and life get in the way and happy hours are not long enough to fully catch up. It was great to spend time with two guys that were my closest friends through college and grad school and it was great to see how much we all still care about each other, even if we don't see each other as much as we used to.

This weekend is even better. Living in Washington, D.C. and having parents in Seattle has been hard over the past seven years. I'm an only child and so my parents are all I had growing up, and our relationship is very special. I get to see them at least four or five times a year, but that usually means a wait of a few months in between each visit. Though the weekend will be quick and will fly by before I know it, the chance to hug my parents and talk to them face-to-face while spending time with the love of my life along the way is priceless and I would travel around the globe for that (Points would be nice too **grin**).

But all joking aside...my co-worker was right...I am crazy. This hobby is a crazy thing and it makes us do weird things that others don't understand. But the experiences that come from that travel and that craziness....they are worth everything!



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Six Months and Counting

On our Memorial Day weekend trip last year, an idea was tossed around to start a points’ blog. It was the type of idea friends throw out over beers: let’s start a band, let’s open a bar, let’s start a blog. Normally, those ideas don’t go anywhere.

Our idea to start this blog was headed in the same direction until a dinner in July. JD brought up the idea of starting a blog again. We agreed that the blog would be about best practices of earning and spending points, but also a place to document our travels and exploits. We would write about the trips we take, but more importantly how we earned the miles to pay for the trip.

Now 6 months into this experiment, looking back we have had some success, some failures, but through it all fun has been had. Writing Do It For The Points has been one of the best experience. Not only have we been able to contribute to the community that has given us so much, but it has made us even closer friends.

When we started our little blog we wanted it to be a place that we could talk about our travels, pass along some tips and tricks and throw out crazy ideas we have. We've done most of that so far and we can't wait to do more of it in the future. 

At first we figured that just our moms and a few of our friends would read us, but we have been overwhelmed with all of the support and new readers. You guys and gals are the best and you make this little project so much more fun. We would like to thank our readers for your support.

In the meantime....if you are on Twitter and you don't follow us...come on over, we want to chat with you! We are also launching our new Facebook page today, so if you aren't on Twitter but still want to keep up with us and chat, give us a "like." We also have new e-mail addresses, so if you have any questions, want to meet up in DC or just want to say hi give us a shout! (chris@doitforthepoints.com and jd@doitforthepoints.com). Thank you again and we look for to more friends, more posts and more travel.

PS - Stay tuned for a big 6 month giveaway later this morning!


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Some People Have Hobbies They Spend Money On...Mine Is Travel

I've been thinking about money quite a bit over the past few weeks. As I mentioned previously, my travel budget has become my friend, my enemy and my escape all at once now that I have a nice monthly student loan bill due from college. I often have friends come up to me asking how I afford to travel so much and how we take all of our great trips and I explain the general idea behind miles and points. For some the light bulb kind of flicks on and for others they just brush it off.

But what these conversations made me realize is that travel is my "hobby." It's my round of golf every weekend (though I still need to do that more often). It's my weekend out at the bar with friends. It's my stamp collection (do people still have stamp collections?). My point is...I realized that my priorities of where my money go and where my budget is directed is all about travel. What's fun for me is to take a weekend and spend it on a plane with an exciting destination at the other end. The journey can be taxing and long...but when I'm on that plane and I hear the engines roar up, I know that every penny I spent was worth it. Just like other that get a high when they hit the slopes for the first run of the day on new powder...that's me when I'm traveling.

Everyone has their interests and the things that they like to do and you always hear people talking about how they would love to travel more but there are all of these obstacles in the way. I don't doubt that everyone has things that hold them back from traveling as much as they would really like to...but you can do it. I always look back at myself...I'm a 24 year old with a full time job in a field that I love. I have that 9-5, but I can still travel on the weekends. I stick to a $200 a month travel budget and chase a great fare to places that I want to go instead of locking in where I want to go and paying top dollar. I save up my miles and points by using strategic and smart spending on credit cards that get me to my travel goal, and I don't pay more than I would be with my debit card directly out of my bank account. In the year and a half that I've been playing the travel game my credit score is as high as it ever has been and I don't have credit card debt (unlike when I was in college). In that same time I've flown over 150,000 miles (tame for you junkies I know) with some of it in Business and First class...something I never would have expected. If you love travel and want to see the world don't put it off...take what you want, make a goal and figure out how to do it. Now to go spend the rest of the day dreaming of the next adventure, Happy Friday!

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Your Travel Budget Is Your Friend

As a recent graduate from a master's program these past two months have been especially painful on my wallet as both my graduate and undergraduate student loans have come due after their six month grace period. Most would think that this has nothing to do with travel, mile and points, but for me it has EVERYTHING to do with it.

The combination of student loans and living in a high rent city means that I had had to develop a strict budget that I have to stick to, and that includes a travel budget. Formulating that budget for the first time was very painful for me. Before the start of the year I was all over the place on travel and miles. I had this aspiration in my mind that I had to be the highest status level in every hotel, airline and car program. But I quickly realized that as someone who doesn't really travel for work that often, reserves my vacation for long stretches of vacation so I can maximize my time off and doesn't have the ability to spend more than $200-300 per month on travel that I would need to reevaluate and change my points earning strategy.

As I entered the new year I realized it would need to be a new start for me. I developed my travel budget and promised myself that I would do the best to stick to my $200-300 per month budget while trying to obtain my goal of requalifying for United Silver status. This means not jumping on absolutely every flight deal that comes out and picking my battles to really get the most value out of my travels as possible.

So far I have done a decent job of sticking to my budget, going over a little, but not too bad. It's a challenge to not jump on everything as people build the buzz. But here in a few weeks I will have about 19,000 PQMs on United under my belt with an average cost per mile of around .3 per mile.

The reason I wrote this piece was a little bit of a pat on my back for sticking to my budget and not going out on flights of whimsy (haha unintentional travel pun for the win), but as a way to show that travel on a budget IS possible for anyone. It may not be the highest level of travel and you may not qualify for the top levels of status like others. But if you don't have the time to be searching all day for mileage run possibilities or if you don't have the time for mileage runs ever other weekend you can still make it happen if you pick your battles and have a goal in mind. If I would have had a goal in mind last year and stuck to a budget I would have had a much more strategized approach that would have saved me money. Instead I spent extra money on flights that got me no closer to status and just put a dent in my budget. But everyone can do this if they put their mind to it. Don't view the budget as something that is keeping you down, instead it's something that is keeping you in line so you can be smart about your travels and reach your travel goals!



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Using Google Maps While Traveling Abroad - Even Without Wi Fi!

Just before our holiday trip to Europe (trip report will be resuming soon, just been a little busy at work the past week or so...silly real life :/) the new Google Maps app for the iPhone came out. One of the best things about the Google Maps website on the computer is that there are options for travel by mass transit which in DC really comes in handy. For that reason I was very excited to see that the new Google Maps for the iPhone featured integration with mass transit.

I didn't realize how nice that would be until we were in Europe and I was curious if it would be able to give us public transit options for the cities that we would be visiting. Boy was I surprised!! Not only did it give me the transit options for trips in each city (Milan, Zurich, Geneva and London) it also gave me options for long distance trains!!!

For instance we took trains between Milan and Zurich as well as Zurich and Geneva. If you wanted to figure out the best way to travel from the Hilton Milan to the Park Hyatt Zurich and arrive tomorrow by midnight you would start by entering your starting and ending points and then enter either the time that you want to depart or arrive. Make sure you have the middle transit option (the tram/bus looking icon) to get the mass transit options.

Once you hit enter you will see the many different options that you have to depart/arrive by the time you designated, a brief overview of what trains, busses or trams you will have to take and how long the trip will take.

Overview of Transit Options 

 Once you found your preferred option you can click on it and it will give you step by step directions on how to get from point A to point B. It will also give you the proper times for each departure in the next step and how long that trip will take. My favorit part, and what's best for a city that you have never been to and may not speak the language, is it gives you how many STOPS you have until your stop!

For this trip it shows that we will walk .2 miles from the Hilton Milan to the Milano Centrale Station and board a European Connector train to Zurich HB. After 7 stops we will get off and transfer to the S2 tram, get off and walk .4 miles until we reach the Park Hyatt Zurich.

Step By Step Directions 

The best part is that if you type in the directions before you leave you can still use them without a wireless signal! I would use the hotel wi-fi and get the directions that we needed before we left. Then I would keep the directions open in the maps app and refer to it whenever we would need it!

This proved to be very very valuable because it gave us an idea of where we were going, how many stops it would be, how long it would take and what time we would need to leave to make sure we made it on time. The ultimate test was on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in London when the transit schedule is modified for the holiday and Google out did its self again predicting the times perfectly! This is something you have to try out for yourself and something that can save you many headaches while traveling abroad!

New Year/Birthday Travel Resolutions

This time of year is always weird for me, while most people are making their New Year's Resolutions I am also making my birthday resolutions since my birthday is January 2nd. It has been a really big year for me this past year. I graduated from grad school, started an awesome job and I fully embraced travel as something that I WILL do, rather than something that I will dream about doing.

But despite all of these successes I want even more from this year and I have two specific travel resolutions for this year:

1. Travel with less fear: This one might seem like a strange resolution to some. If you love travel you would think that you would love every aspect of travel, and I do, but I realized that I am a traveler who is a huge worrywart. I am someone who likes to know exactly what route to take to get from the airport to the hotel, what the ticket process is for boarding and leaving a city tram system, I don't like to look like a clueless tourist when I am traveling. But often that makes me obsess over silly little things and doesn't let me focus on the experience while traveling. I need to step out of the worrywart stage and move into a stage where I can enjoy travel for what it is....an amazing experience that allows me to see new places and fall in love with old places again.

2. Meet more people in the travel community: I have a great group of friends here in DC. Some of them love to travel and I could see them getting in to miles and points eventually. Others just don't understand why anyone would go stay in a hotel room for a night just to get points. But one of the greatest things over the past year has been getting more involved with the travel/miles and points community and "meeting" awesome people. Everyone that I have "met" online through Twitter, Milepoint or the blog are just great people who are always willing to help folks understand the hobby better and throw around ideas. I hope that this will continue again this year and I will meet even more people who love this hobby. That being said....if you are coming to Washington DC this year...let me know! I would love to meet up in person and have drinks/dinner/lunch so I can start putting faces to names. I'm so excited for FTU in Virginia in April and I can't wait to meet folks there as well.

I know that you all must have some travel resolutions for this year....what's on your list?

News Article: 8 Travel Resolutions for 2013

CNN has a great article (here) on 8 Travel Resolutions for 2013. Written by blogger Maureen Jenkins, Urban Travel Girl, who is a freelancer travel journalist based in Paris. This article really caught my attention, because Chris and I are putting together our own travel goals, at the moent(to be shared soon). After reading her article, I added two more goals to my own list. Here is her list of 8 goals, you should consider in 2013 and my own commentary on each:


    1.                 Take off on your own -- even if you're traveling with a group

I love traveling by myself. I personally like the silence; not having to talk to people and being alone with my thoughts. Also, I like to people watch and its easier by yourself. However, even when I am traveling with friends or family, I need "me time." Be it a walk in a park by myself or a nap, I need that time to decompress. If you have never traveled on your own, I say go for it. Start small, a weekend away in a city in the United States. Learn how to eat by yourself, which isn't an easy thing to do. (My suggestion is always sit at a bar to eat at the beginning  you can always strike up a conversation with someone). After you have done a weekend, try a few days before hitting a full week trip like mine recent one to Tokyo. Traveling by yourself might be something you like, but don't let the fear of the unknown stop you from doing it.

    2.                 Don't let the lack of a foreign language keep you at home.

This is one I need to work on. Tokyo was one of my first time going to a place that I did not know the language, not a single word. Before you leave, learning a few phrases to get you by. When you arrive, understand you will be at a disadvantage, but with patience and pointing to items, you will get by fine. There are hundreds of languages in the world, if you limited your travel to those countries that speak the language you speak...your travel list would be pretty short.

    3.                 Say you're not a "tour" or "cruise" person? Give one a shot.

I dislike tours. I don't like being rushed to one place or another. I hate schedules on vacation. All I want to plan is when I am arriving and when I am leaving. Everything else should be up in the air. However, I might try a cruise in 2013. If I want to complete my goal of visiting all 7 continents before 2015, I am going to have to get over my dislike of tours and cruises, as a cruise is the only easy way to get to Antarctica. Unless I decided to become a scientist and get a National Institute of Science grant to study the mating pattern of penguins in the next 3 years, so I will have to get over my dislike of cruising. 

    4.                 Don't be ashamed to fall back on what's familiar.

Its ok to stop at McDonald's abroad for a hamburg, just don't do it every day. In India and have a craving for Pizza, go for it. One meal out of a dozen will not ruin your vacation, its when all of your meals have been at McDonald's that you have a problem.

    5.                 Vow not to leave vacation days on the table.

I am working on this one. Its easy not use vacation time and have it roll over. Many of my friends  who work for Uncle Sam, are not taking vacation time and having it roll over. There goal is to cash-out in the end. Yes, I know the idea that if one takes vacation time, they are seen as a slacker in the eyes of a boss. The reality is that many studies have shown that works who take vacation time have better productivity. Also, you are only young once. Take your vacation time and visit a foreign country, because it will be much more difficult, when you have a wife, kids, a mortgage and a dog named Sam. (I don't have experience with this, but I can only imagine its true).

    6.                 Start a travel-specific savings account.

I have a travel savings account. Each year a percentage of my annual bonus goes into the account and I can spend it on travel throughout the year. All your travel expenses should come out of this account (ie annual fees for credit cards, mattress runs, mileage runs etc.) The savings account becomes a travel budget. Setting yourself a travel budget is important, because you can get caught up in the "game" and wind up spending yourself into debt. I have been meaning to do a post about the need for a travel budget, so expect one soon (especially after a frank conversation with my friend and coauthor Chris about the need for a budget.)

    7.                 Do at least ONE thing that scares you while you're on the road.

All I can say is AMEN to this one. Its something that I preach every time, I hear someone is going on vacation. Try something new to eat, go somewhere off the beaten bath or do something that is outside of your norm. On my trip to Tokyo, I went to a public bathhouse. Well, the rules at a bathhouses in Tokyo require you to be buck naked. Yes, I was naked with 500 other men. It was actually got liberating. On top of that, I treated myself to a pedicure, which consisted of hundreds of fish eating the dead-skin off my feet and legs (lets say it tickled.) Back to this goal, I actually believe you should do something out of your norm or different each day of your trip. When I vacation, I eat things I never would at home. The way I do it? I don't ask what I am eating until after I am finished . . . roasted pig ears, anyone?


    8.                 Don't let other people's fears keep you from going.

This one is key. My Jewish grandparents lament on how they have never visited Israel. Them not going to Israel is not because of money, but rather fear. I had many opportunities to go to Israel for free, but I never went because my grandparents talked me out of it. I was not scared to go, they were. Similarly, before I went to Niger, many people told me I should not go, because I could get kidnapped. I didn't let there fears stop me and I had a great time. At the Tokyo public bath, I struck up a conversation with a gentlemen named Mike (who went to school in Washington, DC before moving to Japan), and he was telling me how he wanted to go to Israel, but his GFs and his families told them not to. I was frank with him, I told him to go, but buy great travel insurance. If the security situation worsens before you leave, using the travel insurance to get your money back. Don't let other people dictate where you travel, you need to make your own decision. However, going back to goal # 7, if you are a worry wort - sometimes you need to do things that scary you, but still buy great travel insurance.

I think all 8 goals are perfect for all travels. Regardless, if you are beginner, an avid traveler or a points addict, I think each of these goals makes perfect sense for people who share the travel hobby. For example, if you only stay at chain hotels on vacation, why not try a B&B. (Yes, I know its about the points, but its also about the experience, lets not forget. Spending as much time as we do earning points, we must get something out of it) I am personally adding #3 & #5 to my list this year. #5 (vacation time) might be hard, since I am new to the industry and job, but I will just have to make it work. 

Have you started your goal list for 2013? Do any of these 8 goals make it on to your list?

Why We Travel

A friend posted this essay from The Guardian (The essay is actually from 2010) the other day and as we both are starting to make our way back from another adventure it made me stop and wonder...and sit in awe of this idea that travel allows us to be free enough to get on a plane and head to the other side of the world with a whole set of people and cultures we have never seen before...or if we have, we always  endeavor to find a new side of it. I believe that the only way to really truly see a country is to dive so deep into it that you feel uncomfortable and that you fit in all at the same time. My favorite line from the essay is this quote:

"We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything."


I hope that all of you are having a great holiday season, thank you for reading our blog and we wish you and yours a fruitful and healthy new year. 

Chris' Travel Goal: London

As JD stated in his last post, it is very important to have a travel goal when you are first starting out getting points and miles. For me, the goal was to travel back to one of my favorite cities in the world, London!

I had the great opportunity to study abroad in London during my junior year of college. It was an amazing experience! I fell in love with the city and I vowed when I left that I would go back as soon as possible. But, when I graduated the next year I went straight into graduate school and figured that I wouldn't be returning to London anytime soon. I resigned myself to look at my pictures and wish.

Then JD finally said...why don't you just go, you can do it! So after a little convincing and my introduction to the world of points and miles, which I've written about previously, I thought that it might actually be possible. So I told the GF that we might be able to make this happen (she visited London when she studied in Rome and wanted to go back as well)...but if we did, I wanted to go in business class!!!

Understandably, she looked at me like I was crazy and just passed it off as another one of the crazy ideas that JD and I come up with on a regular basis. She just wasn't sure how we could pull off trans-Atlantic business class tickets when we only had 5,000 miles or so each. But once I sat her down again and showed her how we could make it happen she was cautiously on board.

So the plan was launched....a trip to London it is.

Look for my next post on the strategy approach for London next week.

What's your travel goal? What was your first trip using points and miles?

Setting Travel Goals

Why do we go to these extremes to earn points? To go on vacation, of course! Earning points just to increase your frequent flyer account balances is crazy. Hoarding points is a dangerous tactic. The frequent flyer community has seen a devaluation of points on many airlines and hotel chains. The number of miles one will need for that coveted “free ticket or stay at a hotel” has gone up. If you have the points it is best to use them sooner rather than later.

Many of my family and friends disregard frequent flyer points because they complain that there are never “any free seats for 25,000 miles” or “too many blackout dates.” (Or they have seen the Alec Baldwin Capital One Credit Card commercial one too many times). I don’t argue with them because the more people in “the game” means fewer available award tickets or nights for the rest of us. Yes, I know this statement is harsh, but it’s the truth. The airline and hotel industries purposely limit the number award inventory on any given day or plane.  If people don’t want to join the game, I’m not going to fight to get them to join.

While the chance that you will score a free ticket home for Thanksgiving or Christmas is limited, a little planning and forethought can help you score tickets to almost any destination at almost anytime through the year. How do you score those difficult tickets to go on your dream vacation? By setting vacation goals and aligning your point earning strategies to accomplish those goals.

For example, earlier this year, Chris and his girlfriend, Kelsey told me that they wanted to go to London in the fall and were searching for cheap airlines fares. My first thought was "You are going to pay to go on vacation?!" After a long discussion, I convinced them to let me help them get to London with points. Oh, and to make things more difficult, they had to fly business class. The GF told me they didn’t need to fly business class, economy was fine. I smirked and told her by the time she was flying to London her ticket would be business class, not economy. She was skeptical, but I knew better.

With Chris and his Kelsey’s destination and timeframe picked, next was to figure out how many miles they need to get to and from London. From Washington, DC, direct flights to London are easiest flown on the Star Alliance (US Airways, United, Lufthansa etc.). Next go to these airline's award charts and see how many miles you will need for the trip. US Airways is here. United is here. 

I suggested they focus on United, as they already had small balances in their United accounts. Let's take a closer look at the United award chart:

		Planning as far ahead in advance as Chris and Kelsey were, each could get a Saver Award Ticket in business class for about 100,000 miles roundtrip . Saver Award Tickets cost less, but are not offered on every flight. However, I have been able to purchase saver award tickets with less than 48 hours notices, so it is the luck of the draw.

I know some might be thinking why I pushed them to go business class when it cost 40,000 more miles with the Saver Ticket (Kelsey had the same question). I am of the belief that the airplane ride is very much a part of your vacation experience, so why not pamper yourself getting yourself there? Many people dread the thought of riding on an airplane because they know their seat in the back of the plane will be cramped and uncomfortable. Why not spend the extra miles and make yourself feel better? I don’t always sit in business and first class; you will many times see me in economy on flights shorter than 4 hours, but for my long-haul flights, I spend the extra points for comfort.

With the information that each would need 100,000 miles each for the trip, Chris and Kelsey were now ready to do the hard part: earn the miles. They sat down and created a list of ways the two of them could earn 100,000 miles on United. Did they sign-up for the 75,000 mile American Airlines Chase Credit Card? Not at that particular time, because it did not help them get points on United. However, they did apply for the Chase Sapphire because it got them 50,000 miles on United. I am going to leave Chris to explain the various methods they used to obtain the miles for their trip. All I will say is that the two of them are going to London, in business class, and have most of their nights in hotels paid for by points as well.

The first step to any great vacation starts with a dream. That dream will eventually turn into a goal, which then requires a plan to get the miles needed to accomplish that goal. Then you are halfway to your dream vacation. With a direction and a plan, you can tailor your spending habits to earn the miles needed for that dream vacation (we will talk soon about the various ways to earn miles).  Earning enough miles for your vacation will not happen overnight, but with time and persistence, the points needed will start to accumulate in your frequent flyer account.

Until next time, keep dreaming!

Welcome to Do It For The Points!

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to our new blog, "Do It For the Points!" This blog is a little brainchild that we have been kicking around for awhile as we deal with our addiction to points and miles. We know that there are tons of points and miles blogs out there who provide amazing advice and have pushed us to where we are with our points and trips, so you might be asking yourself...why another blog? 

Well the answer is....we wanted to share our awesome travels with people and start a discussion of points and miles from the newbie side of things. We (JD and Chris) are both newly into the points game, JD is more of a veteran than Chris, but we are both still feeling our way into the miles and points world.  Overall, we wanted to share our perspective, trips, and just general questions we may have about points and miles that you might have but were too shy to ask. Don't worry....we don't mind embarrassing ourselves for you.

Now for a little bit about ourselves. We are both residents of the Washington, D.C. area and have lived here for a combined 16 years! We met in college where our motto was, "Do It For the Story" (thus the name for our blog) and we are always trying to live by that motto.

Chris graduated in May with his MA in public communication and now works in media and public relations for a non-profit organization. His goal in the next 7 years (before he turns 30) is to hit all 7 continents. He has already has 3 (North America, Europe and Australia) under his belt but needs to get going on the next four. 

Chris will be traveling with his girlfriend (a newly made points addict) Kelsey to London and Amsterdam in October on their first ever fully funded points and miles trip. The trip features UA Business Class, an overnight ferry to Amsterdam and a Lufthansa Business Class trip back home.

JD came to DC in pursuit of a degree in his passion, politics. As time went on, his love of politics diminished and he went to work in the mortgage industry. In his spare time, his hobby is points; collecting, hoarding, and spending. Like Chris, his goal is to travel to all 7 continents before he is 30 (in less than 3 years - eck!)

The goal of our blog is to bring you the tips and tricks along the way as we find them, and to also share our trip reports so we can hear your experiences on similar trips and start planning the next one. We also want this to be a place where we can all ask the questions we have as newbies to try and understand the points and miles world. We will then ask them to the people who are much smarter and well-versed in the points and miles world.

We hope you will tune in and have a chat with us on a regular basis so we can help grow this blog and tell all about our favorite trips and dream places we want to go. As always....Do It For the Points!