Continental Airlines/OnePass

Planning the Perfect Time for a Hawaiian Vacation (Infograph)

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I came across a terrific infograph on my friend Derek’s site, The Points Guide, the other day highlighting some of the trends surrounding travel to our favorite state, Hawaii, from FlipKey, a division of TripAdvisor.

I am partial to the lovely State of Hawaii. I do not know exactly what it is about the fresh ocean air, gorgeous beaches, and delectable tropical cuisine, but I was captured by Hawaii during my first visit in 2006. Then, when I was fortunate to be able to experience Hawaii’s grandeur with my wife, boys, and in-laws, I was forever changed, and feel a deep connection with the islands. This coming from a born and raised Cleveland boy.

FlipKey Travel Trends: Hawaii Infographic
FlipKey Travel Trends: Hawaii by vacation rentals site FlipKey.com

As I listen to Jimmy Buffet’s Radio Margaritaville on Sirius/XM, I am taken back to a Hawaiian island. I figured now would be as good a time as any to look back at what we have so far in regards to our Hawaiian experiences.

Listed from most recent to oldest

– Finding a Moment of Solitude Waiting for a Disaster
– Our First Sea Turtle Experience at Kahalu’u Beach Park (Big Island, Hawaii)
– A Little Rain Did Not Keep Us From Viewing the Grand ‘Akaka Falls (Big Island, Hawaii)
– Exploring Peepee Falls and Boiling Pots Along Wailuku River (Big Island, Hawaii)
– Leaving Our Vulnerabilities at Rainbow Falls, Big Island, Hawaii
– Exploring Pearl Harbor and Remembering the Sacrifices
– A Review of the Kona Tiki Hotel (Big Island, Hawaii)
– I Almost Lost My Wedding Ring Again at Hanauma Bay (Oahu, Hawaii)
– Tropical Farms Macadamia Nut Farm (Oahu, Hawaii)
– Touring the Dole Plantation via the Pineapple Express Train
– Oahu Hawaii: Waikiki Beach and the $20 Sand Toys
– A Chocolate Crime Scene at the Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber
– Mission Accomplished: We Have Returned from Vacation
– The Hawaiian Waterfall Gods Were Watching Over Me

Here are some of the articles on planning for the trip.
– Sharky’s Airplane Bag has Goldfish Crackers; Mommy’s Bag Has Money for Emergency Wine
– Toddlers on a Plane are Harder to Entertain than Snakes
– We Are Headed to Teddy Bear World Hawaii
– The Value of a Free Car Seat with Vehicle Rental
– Go!Mokulele $69 Hawaiian Inter-Island Airfare Sale
– So Our Hawaii Flights Now Cost $255
– Points or Points + Cash for Priority Club Stays?
– How We Are Going to Hawaii and Disney for $30

Hopefully in some way we are able to inspire you to take that trip of a lifetime. Traveling for really cheap is all possible with a little bit of work and patience.

Save Money, Travel More!

Mission Accomplished: We Have Returned from Vacation

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Well it has been a little over a week that our family has returned from their Hawaiian vacation, and wow was it an incredible travel experience! Dare I even say, that the trip was life altering for our family. We saw the boys grow tremendously over the 2.5 week experience, and felt a tremendous bond as a family. We loved the whole trip, and look so forward to sharing our experiences with everyone over the next couple of months.

We captured a staggering number of photos and video from this trip, just shy of 32 gigabytes. Spending 3 days at Disneyland captured just over of 1,200 photos and tons of video alone. The only disappointing thing after returning home was seeing that we only have about 2,700 photos (plus video) from 2 weeks in Hawaii; it is crazy how much footage one can capture, particularly with kids when you “just keep swimming clicking.”

Even more impressive at Disneyland was seeing our two little boys faces during the parade, and when they saw their favorite characters, they about jumped out of their strollers. Or riding Autopia and having Bug (3) jump into my arms and tell me how mush he loves me and how much fun he was having. Those are moments that can not necessarily be captured on film, but live in our memories. It is moments like those that justify the validity in traveling with our children and as much as possible. It is an understatement just how much our family loves to travel! As much as it is nice to come home to a great house, at the same time it makes we wonder if we were meant to be nomads, taking the world in.

Spending 2.5 weeks on vacation does not just happen without a well thought out plan. The first thought or comment that others ask when they learned of our extended vacation was, how were we able to afford traveling for so long? While I am not going to lie and say Hawaii is cheap, I will say we probably spent less in 2.5 weeks than most families may spend on a week vacation. We were able to cut costs on all kinds of aspects of the trip, which allowed us to spend money on other more valuable experiences.

We spent months and months planning and shopping for the best deals. In addition, with some smart planning ahead of time, our family was able to earn enough airline miles and hotel points to not only fly our family of four (4) roundtrip tickets to Hawaii, with a multi-day stopover in Los Angeles, but also fly my in-laws out to spend time with us in Hawaii.

Flight tickets to Hawaii, during the summer months, were $800+ depending on exactly when we wanted to travel. Considering we needed three (3) seats (plus one lap child), the cost of flights can add a tremendous amount of upfront cost to a trip. However, over the past couple of years, both my wife and I were able to apply for United Airlines credit cards issued by Chase, as well as Continental Airlines cards (prior to the merger with United), and earn plenty of miles to make traveling to Hawaii a reality.

Hotel planning started back in 2009-10, with a Priority Club promotion called Crack the Case. By staying a total of 10 nights, we were able to earn enough points to stay a total of seven (7) nights for free in Honolulu. This was a case of taking part in the right promotion at the right time.

Every little bit of mile and point earning really helps to make cheap or free travel a reality. That is why it is so important for everyone that has any interest in traveling to not only sign up for frequent flyer and hotel programs, but to also pay attention to promotions, sign up for credit cards that offer tremendous incentives, and register and use those credit cards to earn bundles of rewards that can be redeemed for memorable experiences.

Sometimes offers come around that we are only able to share via Facebook or Twitter to help get the information out there as fast as possible. So please consider following us in any of the social media platforms to stay up-to-date with all the latest information.

We look forward to retelling our Disneyland and Hawaiian story over the next several months, and hope that we can help inspire you. Travel does not need to be expensive. The information is free for the taking and does not cost a thing as long as you have an open ear. Now I am going to go back to trying to kick this jet lag. Save Money, Travel More!

Mileage and Reward Points Status (February 2012)

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This is our monthly recap where we look at what reward programs we were able to add miles or points to over the previous period. Now that we have depleted a good amount of our rewards, I am back to looking to build them back up again. With all the really great credit card rewards being offered for signing up for new cards, the rewards are there for the taking. To read proof how collecting miles/points can work for your family, read our post on how we are going to Hawaii (and Disneyland) for $30 in total cost for the flights. So far, we have received our mainland flights and all of our hotel nights on Oahu for absolutely “free” using miles and points in various programs. I am also currently looking at the value of using airline miles to fund expensive vehicle rentals.

With our last credit card churn back in October, we are gearing up for our first official multi-card churn shortly. Now that we no longer carry Continental accounts, options become available to possibly score United Explorer cards, as well as other options. We will also probably be trying for several other cards too. Stay tuned later this month.

Below is where we stand at month end.

[easychart type=”line” height=”300″ width=”350″ title=”Mile/Point Status (As of 2/29/12)” groupnames=”Delta,United,Continental,USAirways,American,Hilton,Intercontinental,SPG” valuenames=”Jan2011,Feb2011,Mar2011,Apr2011,May2011,June2011,July2011,Aug2011,Sept2011,Oct2011,Nov2011,Dec2011,Jan2012,Feb2012″ group1values=”69447,69447,70447,70947,70947,70947,71007,71097,71197,71287,71377,71465,71555,71615″ group2values=”100043,100043,108043,108059,108059,109059,109059,109059,110115,58569,58569,58570,117079,120577″ group3values=”67333,67333,67333,67333,67333,67433,68433,68433,68433,0,0,45040,8,106″ group4values=”8018,8020,11759,13778,13778,13778,13899,13977,14090,28713,41516,46578,46678,46726″ group5values=”0,300,600,600,600,4600,6500,9500,17000,19500,20000,20500,20500,20500″ group6values=”11679,11679,21979,24479,24479,26297,26297,26297,26297,26547,26547,26547,26547,27547″ group7values=”29271,29271,29271,29271,167571,169571,173571,173571,174071,174071,174071,1071,1071,1071″ group8values=”0,0,0,0,0,0,16,34,294,294,360,360,360,360″]

The following is a brief summary of the things we have done in the past month to build up our accounts.

Delta SkyMiles– Audience Rewards trivia questions in all three of our accounts.

United Mileage Plus- The accounts also will seem skewed in relation to the Continental accounts, because we moved all of the miles over into United. In addition, we had 2,000 miles post going back to the Month of Miles promotion from long ago. I completely forgot all about the promotion once all the terms kept getting revised, so the bonus miles are nice.

Continental OnePass- Again we cleared almost all of our miles out by moving them over into United.

US Airways Dividend Miles– Audience Rewards accounted for most of the miles posting to each of our accounts. I am still tracking down some Grand Slam promotion issues I am having with the magazine subscriptions, and will be reporting shortly on the issue.

American Airlines AAdvantage– No change.

Hilton HHonors– 1,000 miles from the mobile promotion in January.

Priority Club Rewards- No change.

Starwood Preferred Guest– Our account has not been credited with SPG points via Audience Rewards going all the way back to the end of Nov. 2011. I have been working with Audience Rewards, and I may be getting some of the missing miles. I finally figured out what the problem was and started receiving miles from recent questions.

Note, we also have reward accounts with AirTran, Southwest, Frontier, Choice Hotels, Wyndham Rewards, and various other programs, but since we do not really use them, there is little advantage in including them in this list.

The point of showing these reports each month is to show you that every little bit of miles and point collecting can really add up to big rewards. It is never to late to sign-up and start collecting for your future travel needs. Thanks for reading! Save Money, Travel More.