All of our Sunday Success Stories serve as a living example that all of us average Americans can, indeed, see the world at prices we all can afford. We can do this by working together and sharing our stories. Send your story to me at rick@frugaltravelguy.com. Include your first name and last initial, along with your occupation and a photo, if you wish. - Rick
I love Hawaii, there is no hiding it. Every time we go it is a great time, and every time we leave we try to figure out when we can go back. See how all of our stories inspired another story; to one of our favorite places…
I first started with the points and miles hobby 2 years ago when my coworker introduced me and directed me to the Frugal Travel Guy website. My coworker talked about his upcoming trips that he was taking for practically free! I couldn’t believe it at first but when I started to read the blog and the way to go about doing it…I was convinced that this would work for me.
How I got my 2 free economy flights to HNL was by appling for the Continental Credit Card and the Chase Checking Account (when they were offered) getting me 50k Contiental points (which were later transfered to United) and then applying to the Chase United Card for another 55k points. I used 80k points to get 2 flights for my mom and I and had points left over.
For a hotel we actually used my parents timeshare, however, I did have enough points to get at least a week of free hotels by applying for the Chase Priority 80k bonus points credit card and the Marriott 70k bonus points credit card.
For activities I used Groupon to get at least half off the stated prices and these were wonderful experiences. My mom was extremely happy to go on this awesome trip and that I was able to do it for little cost. I defintiely plan to go back one day as there is so much do to and more islands to experience. Thanks again!
Elena Garcia (read more on Elena’s blog)
