Where are We Headed Next

March 5, 2012 - Rick

**Giveaway** — Each day, Monday through Friday of this week we’re giving away a $50 gift card to TheHotelCard.com ($250 total!). To win a gift card we need three things:

First Name, Last Initial, Home Airport (Example: John Q, SAN)
A travel tip you have to share (Example: Pack your socks inside of your shoes to save space)
A suggestion for a topic you’d like to read about (Example: Using Points / Miles for Free Rental Cars)

Post these three in the comments of the post for a chance to win. Enter as many times as you like, just make sure you provide a unique tip and topic to read about. Winners will be announced the following day during deal of the day. We’ll use random.org. (Friday’s winners will be announced during the Sunday Success Story)

Now for our post …

It has been quite some time since I’ve been in this position, and it is not a comfortable one. I only have one upcoming travel envelope started. It almost feels like depression I think???

The only travel booked is 9 days in Hawaii in September with the kids and grandson Carter.

Katybug and I have no personal travel plans. We are trying to put together an Alaskan cruise in June with friends of ours and I’m waiting for cruise prices to drop off a little. Anybody care to comment on the Norwegian Pearl as a cruise choice? I like the itinerary but have never been on Norwegian Cruise Lines before. And then after booking the cruise, I need to get two award tickets from Traverse City for our friends and two from Savannah for Katy and me. The tough part with booking awards to cruise cities is everybody else is trying to do the same thing for the same days. I’m looking a day or so in advance and coming up with nothing at this point. Maybe the answer is to take an award seat to a non cruise city and then jump on Southwest into Seattle or another low cost carrier into Vancouver if that ends up being our starting off point.

So our target for finding some travel days is April and May. We have thought about Hot Springs Arkansas for a few days. I’m hoping the weather will be warm enough. Katy also wants to see San Antonio and the Alamo. I’m hoping we can find a cheapie AA fare to San Antonio. We have often talked about a BBQ cook-off or Ribfest and will be Google searching for options along those lines.

I’d like to make these next couple domestic trips with our oddball points and miles I wrote about a couple days ago.. Maybe Alaska miles on Delta and using the two Priority Club nights and Hyatt 1-4 category nights to cover our hotel stays. Our son, Tony is off to Europe in a month or so and we can probably get him some hotel nights with the Choice points and Priority Club points.

I’ve noticed a change in Katy’s travel desires since the grand baby was born. She seems to want to stay US bound and shorter stays at that. We’ll try some National Park trips later in the summer but now it is stay in the southern tier of states for some warmer weather in the spring months. Come on folks. Have any spring US suggestions? In particular Hot Springs Arkansas?

Maybe these newer locations for us will offer the opportunities to use some of our oddball hotel points.

Alan

The title is a lie. Not to be rude but the trip was far from free. I don't get why people can't actually say the actual cost out of pocket. Is it not as impressive to say you got something worth thousands of dollars for only a few hundred dollars out of pocket??

- 125k miles from the Suntrust deal, did that not cost $200+ in sign-up fees?

- Two first class tickets to Europe, was there no taxes involved here?

I'm happy that the reader had an awesome honeymoon, but lets be honest that this trip cost something out of pocket.
Anonymous

How about activities and food too while they are there.
Nic

@ Alan , I agree with you in general, as I see that happen a lot, but in thi case it feasible he didn't have any out of pocket assuming he had gotten a capital one card that would reimburse general travel expenses ( like last years promo that earned $1100 per card) or something similar
Alan

@ Nice

This still would not have covered the expense related to the Suntrust accounts being opened. That's $275 for 125k skymiles. Jason posted some wrong information on his website that one checking account would allow one to obtain 125k, which is wrong. To open enough Suntrust accounts to obtain 200k miles he would have had to spend $440.

Yes, he could have used the Venture points to cover the taxes from his flights. Though he claims that three weeks he stayed in a hotel and rental apartment cost ~$2,000. So I don't know if the Venture points covered all travel expenses. He states on his website that he would get $500 statement credit from citi, and $70 from cashback sites. Though the $500 credit went to pay for activities in Europe. Leaving $70 to go towards the $440 in costs from the Suntrust deal and possibly taxes/fees from the flights.
peachfront

It's a tradition that goes back to olden times, to say that your award ticket is "free." I've tried to remember to mention the taxes to my friends, but for some reason when I tell them I flew business class MSY-JNB (twice now) for $90 and some miles, it doesn't make them feel any better that I paid a token fee while they paid four figures to sit in coach. The sophisticated traveler who tries to duplicate Jason's deal will soon figure out the costs. We're all adults here who know that there's no such thing as a free lunch. I get your point, and I used to argue the same point, but there isn't much difference between zero and a few hundred dollars when you're talking about a $20K trip. For zero, you'd do the trip. For a few hundred dollars, you'd still do the trip, no one would drop out for a few hundred dollars. For $20K, almost no one sane takes the trip who isn't already fabulously wealthy.
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Where are We Headed Next

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