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Wanna Get Away?

April 17, 2012 in Travel with 11 Comments

Last week I wrote a post on Travel Hacking, the method of using credit card sign up bonuses to travel the world for (almost) free. In the last year we’ve used points to fly to Rio, Barcelona, New York City, and Vancouver, and we still have enough points to take around twenty of our closest friends to Europe and back. Some of you asked for a specific credit card deal you could take advantage of, so I though I’d write about one today…

Right now, CITI has a pretty nice deal on their AMEX and Visa branded American Airlines card. The annual fee of $85 is waived for the first year, and you earn 40,00o AAdvantage Miles after spending $2,000 in the first 4 months. You also earn an additional 10,000 AAdvantage Miles after spending $5,000 in the first 12 months of card membership.  Best thing is, you can actually get both cards on the same day using the two-browser trick outlined by Darius at Million Mile Secrets, (this post was written back when the deal was for 75,000 AAdvantage Miles, but it still applies today). Basically, you open two browsers and apply for both cards at the same time. Voilà!

So what will 100,000 AAdvantage Miles get you? Well, 80,000 can get two people to Europe during off-peak season (Oct 15 – May 15), and 90,000 can get two people to Hawaii (70,000 during off-peak), and 80,000 can get two people to Brazil or Argentina during off-peak season (Mar 1 – May 31 then Aug 16 – Nov 30).  Here is the American Airlines reward chart.

Want to go to France this October? Tickets for two from Atlanta to Paris will cost you 80,000 miles and $184 in taxes and fees, and a quick check of the American Airlines website reveals there are plenty of flight available.

These CITI American Airline cards also come with a $150 credit statement for eligible American Airline purchases, and I think taxes and fees are eligible purchases (just don’t quote me on that), so this flight could cost you $0.

Are you married? Lots of couples (including Tricia and me) have both cashed in on these cards, netting over 200,000 AAdvantage Miles, which can just about get you anywhere you want, anytime you want. There is even a business version of the card, which could get you another 50K miles, but you’ll need to wait at least 65 days before applying after you apply for the two personal cards. Here’s a post from The Points Guy about getting a business card.

Here is another link from Million Mile Secrets, it’s Darius’ 10-part series on how to book American Airlines Rewards Like a Pro, but before you jump on these deals, a few more words from me.

  • Do not get these cards if you cannot meet the minimum spend limit to earn the points.
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  • Do not get these cards if you do not plan on paying off your monthly balance on time and in full. Late payments will kill your credit score, and the interest rate on credit card purchases will cancel out your points and miles if you carry a balance.  Do Not Carry A Balance!
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  •  Be flexible! Don’t get 100,000 points and expect to find flights the exact dates you want. You might be able to, but you might not. American Airlines does have AnyTime Rewards, but they will cost you a premium in points. It’s more fun to find the Saver Rewards, and you get more flights for your miles!.
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As always, if you have any questions I’m at emailchadgibbs@gmail.com.
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Now tell me, if you had 250,000 AAdvantage Miles, where would you go, and who are you taking with you?

 

 

Exploring Alabama: Hurtsboro

March 6, 2012 in Exploring Alabama, Travel with 23 Comments

Two weeks ago I mentioned that I have been to London three times, but I have never been to Cullman, and the more I thought about that, the more it bothered me.  Not so much that I haven’t been to Cullman – which I’m sure is lovely – but that there is so much of Alabama that I’ve never seen, despite living here for the better part of 34-years.  So I decided that every once in a while I’m just going to pick a town in Alabama, drive there, and write about what I see.  And this is why last Thursday I found myself in Hurtsboro, Alabama

My plan was to eat lunch in Hurstboro, assuming they had restaurants, and maybe talk to some locals, assuming they could talk, to try and get a sense of the town.  I left home around eleven that morning, but just as I was leaving Auburn I began to wonder if restaurants in Hurstboro, should they exist, would even accept credit cards.  Better safe than hungry, so I doubled back to my bank and withdrew twenty dollars, just in case.

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Minding the Gap

February 23, 2012 in Travel with 7 Comments

After two days in Spain I flew on EasyJet (the sluttiest airline) to London.  This was my third time to visit England, which might lead you to believe I’m a well-traveled person, until you realize I’ve never even been to Cullman.  The flight landed around noon at Gatwick Airport, the Ozzie Canseco to London Heathrow’s Jose.

Compared to other European countries, visiting England is easy, because they speak English, or at least a form of it called Fancy English.  They do not however use the Euro, opting instead for something called the Pound, a magical currency that makes everything cost twice as much.

Excuse me, sorry, pardon me, excuse me, move, sorry

My train from Gatwick dropped me off at Victoria Station, where all the Earth’s people had apparently just gathered for a flash mob.  The soulful sounds of a jackhammer echoed throughout the building, a booming voice kept reminding us all to ‘mind the gap’, and my overstuffed suitcase and I just wanted to buy a Tube pass and get out of everyone’s way.  But instead I found myself holding up the ticket line because I had no idea what zone I wanted to travel to. Twilight?  Auto?  It was all so bloody confusing.

Things settled down once I checked into my hotel though, and soon I was back out in cold London night, heading for the Evensong service at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Evensong, or evening prayer, is held just about every day at St. Paul’s, and from what I gather it is more popular with tourists than locals.  I say this because most of the worshipers had on ‘I Love London’ t-shirts, and had to be constantly reminded not to take photographs.  After the service I ate pizza, an English delicacy, and went to Oxford Circus, which disappointedly is not an actual circus, at least not in an elephants on trampolines sense, though there were some bearded ladies.

The next morning I took a train to Oxford, home of The University of Oxford, and had lunch at the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien use to meet and try to guess what each other’s initials stood for.  Chester Sam?  Joe Ricky Robby?  Then it was back to London for a soccer match between Fulham and Stoke, two teams that sound as if they were named after car parts.

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Never Been to Spain

February 21, 2012 in Travel with 9 Comments

Last week I went to Spain, which is a state in Europe, and I believe Mexico’s uncle.

My flight left from Miami on Tuesday at 6:00PM and landed in Madrid at 9:00AM, even though we’d only been in the plane nine hours.  The missing hours probably have something to do with the fact that we flew straight through the Bermuda triangle.  In fact I may now be living in an alternate universe, though in this alternate universe I apparently still cannot understand Spanish.

At the airport a man, who’s job description undoubtedly includes ‘scowling’, stamped my passport and loosed me to roam about his country.

2,800-room fixer-upper in a very desirable location

Through some rather poor planning, I had left myself about 47 minutes to explore Madrid, and as any seasoned traveler will tell you, you need at least an hour to see it all, so I decided I would visit the Royal Palace, and miss whatever was left.

The Royal Palace is the official residence of Juan Carlos I, the King of Spain.  Of course Juan Carlos and his family don’t actually live there, because at 1,450,000 square feet it’s possible the king could get lost and not be found for decades.  Instead the King and his family live at the Palace of Zarzuela, which is a more modest 33,900 square feet.  The Royal Palace, best I could tell from the twenty minutes I stared at it, was built primarily as a means to attract gawking foreigners.

From there I took a train to Barcelona.  This cost me $100 or so, and I have no idea if it was a good deal.  That’s because Spaniards, like the rest of Europe, use the metric system, which is a scale of measurements designed specifically to confuse Americans.  I tried to calculate the price of a train versus the price of renting a car by creating a word problem, but this only managed to give me a headache.

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