Alyce just informed me that she put the link to the blog on facebook. Things have changed some since many of you have probably been here.
First and foremost…See the blue words “continue reading” immediately below? Click them.
Disclaimer…This post is long…and it is pretty much all words. So put your reading hat on if you want to learn about the basics of credit card sign up bonuses. I’ll include a random picture or two for motivation.
Disclaimer #2…Proceed at your own risk because there is some risk to this – though minimal if done right. Further, know your situation. Looking to buy a house within a year? Move a little slower with this than you would otherwise. Planning on putting 5% down on the maximum loan you can qualify for on that house? Reconsider your need to sign up for credit cards because you’re likely to be scrutinized far more than someone who puts down 20% on a loan that they easily qualify for.
What is the one easiest way to earn tons of miles/points in a very short time?
It’s not actually flying all that much, nor is spending on your American Express.
Signing up for credit cards is the correct answer. I went through my latest round of applications a week ago (as of writing this). I signed up for 5 credit cards; Alyce signed up for 4. This was a little higher than our typical application round, but it had been a little longer than usual since our last applications.
So…You may have wondered while reading the blog how we pulled off some of this stuff. Fair Question.
While I’d like to think that Alyce and I have both worked very hard to set ourselves up for the future, there is no way we could have afforded this vacation if paying anywhere near retail prices for a lot of what we did. Hell, the one-way flight from New Orleans to Hong Kong in first class on Cathay Pacific would have cost in the neighborhood of $25,000 alone.
Here are some of my best tips. They are just my opinion, but they have served us well throughout our travels. This is what I can think of at the moment; I’ll try to update the post if I forgot anything important. It’s long and mostly words, but I threw in some random pictures along the way. Also, I’ll do separate posts on money saving tips.
Stay Organized
Especially if you are taking a longer trip…I had an excel workbook with a sheet for every destination and a couple for general stuff (flights, hotels, etc.). Again, you need to stay organized or you could be faced with some major issues if you accidentally mess dates up or forget to book something.
As a check when booking vacation rentals/non-chain hotels, I always give the date, year, and day of the week. That way, if I screw up the year when looking at a calendar (or anything else), the person booking will hopefully catch it by noticing that the day of the week is off. It also helps to keep them from making a mistake.
Print out every hotel, flight, rental car, etc. reservation. Don’t feel like it? Too bad – do it. You never know when you will need it. For us, the biggest occurrence was trying to enter the airport in Bali. To get in the airport, you needed your ticket; to check in, you needed to get in the airport. You can see how this could be a problem. Fortunately, they accepted my printed out confirmation. There were also several other countries that wanted to see proof of onward travel, but that is pretty standard.
Since getting back, one of the things I get asked about almost as much as anything else is how in the hell did I plan all of this. The answer – to put it simply – was a lot of time, effort, and organization.
At the very beginning of the trip, the only constraints in my planning were money and time (Alyce’s limit of being gone from home). I also knew that we’d be traveling mainly in our winter months, so I’d prefer the southern hemisphere. And, if we were going to be gone for a long time, it made sense to go somewhere far away that we may not get the opportunity to visit again.
All these factors considered, I narrowed in on Australia and New Zealand. And my original plan to minimize the long flights was to stop at the Cook Islands on the way to AU/NZ and to stop in French Polynesia on the way back…making the flights much more bearable and getting some quality beach/Scuba time in.
I figured our maximum budget and the maximum time away from home I could get away with from Alyce was around 6 to 7 weeks. This would allow for 2 weeks in Australia, 2 weeks in New Zealand, and a week or so in the islands each way.
Now, it was time for the hard part – getting Alyce on board. I still remember plain as day first mentioning this idea to Alyce. We were walking Moose, and I brought up taking a big trip when she finished with school to someplace like Australia and New Zealand.
Her response – “I don’t know….What are we talking about? Something like two weeks? I don’t know. There is NO WAY we will be gone for anything longer than two weeks. I don’t know….” I knew I could work the length up from two weeks; there was still about two years of planning to go at this point. I just did not know exactly how much I’d be able to get away with…So I went ahead with planning the trip I’d plan without worrying about time.
I write this nearly 4 months after the conclusion of our trip. Reality has firmly returned (it didn’t take long). Life is the same as it was prior to leaving – except Alyce is done with school.
So…Was it worth it?
We were able to save plenty of money through various tricks, but we still spent a lot. An even bigger expense was the loss of income from each of us not working for three months. Still, I’d do it again in a heartbeat…to answer the question – it was without a doubt, absolutely worth it.
We were able to see and experience more things in 3 months than many people do in their entire life. We experienced many things we’ll never forget. Plus, we had both been very busy over the last couple years between work and school, so it gave us a break.
We got up early and said good-bye to Tommy, Mallory, and the girls. Similar to when we arrived, a complimentary car ride to the airport was provided for premium cabin passengers. So, we took advantage of the free ride.
The Abu Dhabi Airport is Etihad’s hub. There is a completely separate terminal entrance for Business and First Class passengers, complete with bellhops waiting to take your luggage.
The final destination…Here at last. It was definitely bittersweet. I loved all the traveling we did and could have absolutely gone for more. On the other hand, I was dying to see our dogs. Also, being home and sleeping in our own bed was very appealing as well. Alyce was definitely ready to head home.
Our last stop was almost like a semi-transition to being home. I had ran into my friend from high school, Tommy, at wedding party for another friend not too long back. I told him about our trip – including a planned stop in the UAE.
Tommy, his wife (Mallory, who was in Alyce’s high school class), and his two daughters live in Abu Dhabi, while he works there in the oil field. We said we’d need to meet up when we were there and left it at that for the time being.
