'All in', 'go big or go home', 'all or nothing', 'one track mind', 'obsessed'... When it comes to hobbies, I feel like all the statements above could frequently be applied to me. Every so often, I find something I really, really enjoy and throw myself into it whole-heartedly. When I was in junior high I was so into basketball cards that I didn't just organize them, I created a catalogue of every card I owned - I could look them up by value, alphabetical order, year, or team. When I started watching Lost, I caught up on five seasons in less than two weeks (and was unemployed and learned how to bake pies, but that's irrelevant). Don't even get me started on video games - I can count on one hand the number of games I've started but never finished, usually within a few days! Even my blog posts come and go in spurts...
Well, I've recently been overtaken by my next obsession - frequent flyer miles. It's bad - real bad. They occupy my mind all day. It's all I talk about. I dream about them. I'd rather be earning miles than exercising, reading, playing video games or watching TV. Seriously, they're like crack. Only more addicting!!
It all started when I was planning a short two-day trip for work. A simple thought rose to the surface of my brain - I wonder if there's one frequent flyer program I should aim for that's better than the rest? Forty-seven blog subscriptions and three days later, I had my answer - no, not really. But I also had something else - hope, examples of, and a strategy for - traveling. Often. For free.
The concept is simple - earn enough points/miles in order to book a free flight/hotel stay. But how to get that many points - especially for free/very little cost? There, things get tricky in a hurry. It's been done - there are numerous examples of people doing $20,000 trips after investing only a few hundred bucks. And they're willing to help others do the same - I've sent off several emails to travel bloggers in the last few weeks, and each time I've received detailed, personalized responses in less than an hour... Not bad!
So, have I completely lost it? Probably. But I'd argue I didn't have a whole lot to lose to start with, so I think that's a moot point... More importantly, does it really work? That is, for real people. Not just for that one person you heard about from that one place. Well, I've decided to try and find out. First, the parameters:
Objective - A once-in-a-lifetime vacation for my wife and I. A weekend in Chicago, while cool, doesn't count. Something counted in weeks rather than days, multiple destinations (preferably multiple continents), and possibly even first class and hotel suites.
Timeline - I'm trying really hard to not throw in everything I have, just in case it doesn't pay off like I expect. So we'll take things a bit slower - the goal is to travel between one and three years from now. That gives us time to figure out our destination(s) and earn more than enough points to cover everything.
Moderation - Finally, while it will take work and commitment, I won't go off the deep end with it. Some of these guys pay for afternoon flights to nowhere just to get cheaper miles or drop a few grand to get elite status - perhaps the payout is great, but that's more than I want to put into this regardless of the rewards. My goal is to achieve this trip with moderate work, but without straying too far out of our normal living habits.
So with those guidelines, I'll have a handful of posts on my strategies, just in case anyone else wants to take the plunge with me. I might throw out the occasional update here or there, but after that I'm basically handing you over to the experts - there are plenty of more comprehensive travel resources out there! I'd much rather point you to them than continuously regurgitate their information, and based on my past history, my attention span will never last long enough to maintain an up-to-date account of the free points industry. Consider this a plug and an experiment by someone you probably know, and for those of you not interested in the topic, you can tune back in after the next few posts for whatever my next passion is... Knowing me, it could be anything!
To close, I'll share a few quick thoughts on why [I think] I feel so motivated about this. First of all, I tend to prefer doing things more than having things - adventures before possessions. This is a great way to increase our adventure potential! There's also a pretty strong parallel between strategy games I love (RPG video games, Risk, Star Wars: Epic Duels...) and earning/redeeming miles - trying to reach goals and figure out the best possible way to maximize the payoff. Finally, I think to be good at it requires a mix of talents (or at least of things you don't detest) that not everyone necessarily has - patience, a love of analytics, and closely following the rules. I'm sure that last one comes as quite the surprise to some of you - knowing me to be the rebel that I am - but there you have it. If that sounds like it fits you, I hope you'll consider giving it a try ;)
Coming soon:
Credit cards (possibly two posts)
Actually traveling
Other partners (my favorite!)
Multiple travelers
Redemption (milage, not spiritual)
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