Family Travel Hacking Guide Archives - Page 3 of 3

Jun 20 2016

Family Travel Hacking Guide 04: Who to Follow on Social Media

To do: Pick a few of these accounts to follow on your preferred social media network

As we continue getting you and your family set up to hack your next family vacation, I think it’s important to acknowledge the power of social media these days. Social media and following the right accounts is a powerful tool: it can alert you to ultra cheap fares – both with cash and with points. While I generally find the “Won’t last!” language to be a bit annoying and click baity, the fact is that mistake fares and award space don’t last as long as they used to, so it is important to move quickly.

That’s why it’s important to have your travel goals set long before you are ready to book. If I know my family’s goal is to go to Europe this summer, then I should be on the lookout for flash sales on both cash or miles. That gets me best positioned to strike if those sales meet my goals.

Following the right people can also help you get a feel for the game overall. However, if you follow some more advanced hackers it might sometimes feel like they are speaking a different language. Someone like @freequentflyer is a great resource once you get to a certain point in the game (a must follow, really), but he can also send you scrambling to Wikipedia to figure out what he is talking about. Doubly so when he tweets about subjects other than travel hacking!

Here is a list of sources you can start with if you are new to the game. I’ve also included more “advanced” follows, but you should know that I’m biased (duh). Also, while some are worth following, I’ve left out all the huge bloggers. They can be good sources of news but they can also tempt you into making bad decisions or get you into the wrong mindset before you have a solid foundation. Aka not every amazing credit card offer is the right one for YOU right now.

I’ve broken down accounts by social network, and when applicable, broken down people to follow by type.

Twitter

Twitter is all about finding deals in real time and jumping on them before they are gone. I actually find it more useful for cash fares though sometimes it’s good for revealing temporary award availability.

For cheap flights be sure to follow:

@airfarewatchdog, @theflightdeal

For news on bank and credit card bonuses follow:

@Drofcredit

For general news an miles and points you can follow any of the full time bloggers, but I generally like (for simplicity and clarity):

@milestomemories

Family oriented miles and points bloggers:

@thedealmommy, @pointswithacrew, @tripswithtykes

People who tweet more advanced stuff that you’ll probably end up following anyway so might as well start now:

@Saverocity, @freequentflyer

And if you can handle me going nuts for a few hours when my favorite sports teams are playing, follow me @asthejoeflies!

Facebook

There are various Facebook groups out there oriented towards travel hacking but the best is probably the Travel Hacking 101 group run by @thepointsjock. I’d suggest joining that group and following along, Rich has just started a Thursday series for beginners but he also shares a lot of next level stuff.

Instagram

Instagram is mostly only useful if you like seeing pictures to be inspired for where to go, so follow whoever doesn’t make you feel too inferior for not traveling enough! Or people with cute kids and/or dogs.

I don’t use Reddit very much but there is a lot of great info on there, though most of it tends towards the advanced side. You can keep abreast of credit card sign up stuff at /r/churning and award travel at /r/awardtravel.

Blogs

Blogs basically all report on the same information these days, there is very little that is groundbreaking. Yes, my blog too.

I’d say follow whoever has a style and opinion that resonates with you. Then follow at least one or two bloggers who you generally disagree with: contrast in opinions is good for growth.

If you need a place to start, here are some of the blogs in my RSS feed (alphabetical order):

Doctor of Credit

Miles to Memories

Points with a Crew

Saverocity (covers all blogs in the network)

Forums

Forums have useful information if you know what you’re looking for but can also be a huge time suck. If you’re looking for quick information usually googling your question plus “flyertalk” should get you started.

To build a community, which I think is important as you progress in this game. I’m of course partial to the Saverocity Forums. The percentage of good people posting on there is high and that’s where I always start when I’m looking for information.

Podcasts

Dots, Lines, and Destinations is kind of AvGeek-y but you can pick up some good hacks from time to time. I like Vacation Mavens for family oriented discussions, plus there is a severe lack of female voices in the podcasting world. I also host the Saverocity Observation Deck along with Trevor (@tmount) and Joe Cortez (@JoeCortez) – the official podcast of Saverocity! We have a good time and I’d like to think we throw some good tips in there.

Use IFTTT to set alerts for yourself

As you can tell, I’m not active on all these forms of social media. But I can still keep tabs using IFTTT alerts. For example, I can use IFTTT to keep an eye on certain subjects on Reddit and get them sent to my email – useful since I almost never go to Reddit.

IFTTT, which stands for if this then that, can basically send you emails when certain search criteria are met. It takes a bit of work to set up, but Yihwan wrote a great tutorial: I highly recommend it!

Final Thoughts

I’m sure I’ve missed some great follows, obviously this is just my personal list. I will also update when I inevitably realize I forgot someone. This is a HUGE list of people, websites, and media to follow – obviously you can’t do it all at once. As I will throughout this series, I advise you to start slow: pick a few people to follow on your preferred network and let things build from there. There is no point starting to follow Reddit regularly if you never use it: just stick with what you know and if you have time set up some IFTTT recipes for the rest. Up next: we’ll finally move on from all this set up and start talking about saving some money!

To do: Pick a few of these accounts to follow on your preferred social media network

Family Travel Hacking Guide Index

Introduction

Set a Travel Goal

Using and Tracking Frequent Flyer Programs

Who to Follow on Social Media

Saving Money on Cash Flights

How to find cheap airfare with airfarewatchdog

Jun 15 2016

Family Travel Hacking Guide 03: Using and Tracking Frequent Flyer Programs

To do: Sign up for three to four frequent flyer programs and enter them into Award Wallet or an equivalent tracker

Frequent flyer programs were originally created by the airlines to incentivize loyalty. They are at the core of travel hacking: if you know how to get the maximum value out of them. Of course, to get value out of them, you first have to sign up, and that’s what this post is about. I promise we’ll get to the good stuff soon.

I was listening to Mark Maron’s WTF podcast this week: an old one where he debriefs his chance to interview President Obama. In it, he says how he wanted to cancel the interview because the President of the United States could only meet during a time when Maron had a vacation scheduled and he was stressed that he would “lose all the points that he had been saving up for this dream vacation!”

Family Travel Hacking Guide - Frequent Flyer Programs — The president probably doesn’t know how to use frequent flyer programs, but you should!

Mark Maron had a common reaction, but it showed a lack of understanding about the strengths of frequent flyer and hotel points. Another common reaction is “I don’t bother signing up for the programs because I can’t get any value out of them.” My goal is for you to be wiser than either of these schools of thought.

It is important to change your paradigm for viewing frequent flyer programs. Frequent flyer programs were made by the airlines to create loyalty from customers, but they do not need to be used that way. In fact, for the average non business traveling family just trying to take a few vacations a year on the cheap, they should not be used that way. Kenny from Miles4More summed it up better than I could:

Being loyal to just one program is a waste of perfectly good loyalty.
— Kenny B (@KennyBSAT) June 8, 2016

This was in the wake of American Airlines’ announcement about going fully revenue based, but it is a tweet that could have been said at any time throughout the course of frequent flyer program history.

At this point, some might advise you to sign up for every frequent flyer program out there, but since this guide is being written for beginners with limited time, I’d advise against that. Instead, here are a few suggestions for you as to what programs you should be signing up for to start. As you get deeper and deeper into the game, I’m sure you’ll end up signing up for a lot more when you’re ready and when the time comes (aka when you need it).

0 – Don’t forget your travel goal from the last post

In the last post in the Family Travel Hacking Guide, I had you write out a few destinations you are interested in visiting. A simple visit to Wikipedia can tell you what airlines fly to that location. Make sure you bear that in mind as you think about what frequent flyer programs you are signing up for. In fact, remember to keep that goal in mind every step of the way.

1 – If you fly an airline more than twice a year, sign up for its frequent flyer program

I suggest this not for the reason you might expect. You actually don’t earn that many miles these days flying actual flights (like I said, we’ll get to the fun stuff soon). Still, if you are flying the same airline multiple times a year, it’s usually for a reason (you like it, it has the most convenient times, you find value there), so you might as well sign up for its frequent flyer program if you haven’t already.

2 – If you live in an airline hub, sign up for that airline’s FF program

An airline hub is basically any airport where a certain airline sends a whole lot of flights to. If you live in a city that is a hub, you probably know (Delta is all over Atlanta, AA all over Dallas, United all over Newark, etc.) If you live in a hub the odds are you’ll need to take advantage of that frequent flyer program eventually, so sign up! If you’re not sure, you can find a list of airline hubs here.

3 – Sign your kids up for frequent flyer programs

While you won’t be earning credit card bonuses for kids, you still should sign them up for frequent flyer programs. It’s easy, they earn miles, and you can even get frequent flyer cards for them (even if you have to print them out) so they can feel like professional flyers!

4 – If you must sign up for multiple programs at once, start with the big ones

If you want to sign up for everything, I’m not going to stop you. I would suggest at least just focusing on the big programs for now: American, Alaska, British Airways, Delta, Southwest, United. Those six programs are not comprehensive, but they are a good starting point and can pretty much get you everywhere you want to go.

5 – Sign up for Award Wallet or an equivalent frequent flyer program tracker!

Once you start signing up for a bunch of frequent flyer programs, you need to start managing passwords, remembering mileage expiration dates, and a whole bunch of other junk. The best way to do that is to sign up for Award Wallet, an online frequent flyer (and more) program tracker that helps you keep track of all that stuff. It can even help you keep track of expiration dates for your miles.

Honestly, I’ve cooled on Award Wallet a bit, their advertisements have gotten a little annoying, but it still is the best program I’ve found for tracking all this stuff.

Final Thoughts

Taking advantage of the value to be had in frequent flyer programs is the core of travel hacking. Start signing up for programs now to prepare for next steps.

To do: Sign up for three to four frequent flyer programs and enter them into Award Wallet or an equivalent tracker

Family Travel Hacking Guide Index

Introduction

Set a Travel Goal

Using and Tracking Frequent Flyer Programs

Who to Follow on Social Media

Saving Money on Cash Flights

How to find cheap airfare with airfarewatchdog

Jun 13 2016

Family Travel Hacking Guide 02: Set a Travel Goal

To do: Choose 2-3 destinations with your family that you might be interested in traveling to within the next year

So you’re interested in saving money on travel with your family. Great! In this beginner’s guide, my goal is to help you to learn the basics and get started down this deep, dark (but fun!) rabbit hole.

The first question everyone likes to ask is “What credit cards should I sign up for?” While we’ll get there eventually, I posit that is the wrong question to ask.

Instead, you should be asking: “Where does my family want to go?” Or if you get to choose, where do you want to take your family?

Travel hacking requires a certain degree of organization, and its impossible to organize and plan unless you know where you want to go. Your choice of credit cards, earning strategies, mileage programs, and a lot more might change depending on your preferred destination.

Our first international trip as a family of four was to the Hyatt Regency Aruba

Unfortunately, unless you are dealing strictly with cash rewards, your preferred destination might not be a feasible goal for travel hacking given the amount of time you have. This is probably one of the most frustrating things to the spouses of travel hackers. Get used to this question: “What’s the point of you doing all this if I can’t go to ________?”

Still, if you follow along with this guide, I promise you you will be able to maximize your chances of getting to your preferred destination. But make sure you have your general travel goals in mind first.

This is a short post, so I’ll include a slightly longer action step. I’ve put together a little questionnaire to help you set forth your general travel goals. If you don’t know them already (or even if you do), jot down the answers to these questions and keep them with you as we continue on with this series. They should help you to clarify and solidfy where you and your family wants to go.

Remember, for the purposes of this series, my goal is to help you to plan one vacation or trip with your family using travel hacking to offset the costs. Feel free to answer these questions with that one trip in mind or answer with multiple trips in mind!

1) When is your family free to travel during the next calendar year? (Jot down actual dates)

2) For each trip: how long can you be away from home?

3) For each trip: how long would you want to be away from home if money were no object?

4) Where do you want to travel to?

5) Where do your spouse and children want to travel to?

6) What frequent flyer/hotel programs do you currently have an account with?

7) Do you have any balances in the programs in #6 that you have been “saving” for a trip or are you starting from scratch?

Final Thoughts

To me, the biggest mistake you can make in travel hacking is not knowing where you want to go. Having a clear goal helps you to create a clear strategy – so make sure you think on the end before you start!

To do: Choose 2-3 destinations with your family that you might be interested in traveling to within the next year

Family Travel Hacking Guide Index

Introduction

Set a Travel Goal

Using and Tracking Frequent Flyer Programs

Who to Follow on Social Media

Saving Money on Cash Flights

How to find cheap airfare with airfarewatchdog

Jun 13 2016

Family Travel Hacking Guide 01: Introduction

So I haven’t seen any family travel hacking beginner’s guides out there, so I thought I might try my hand at one. As my family has grown from two to three to four, our travel needs have changed. Strategies that worked to get my wife and I into first class flights are less relevant now.

On the other hand, strategies for how to make travel as smooth and painless as possible are way more relevant now; as every parent knows logistics go a long way to avoiding the much dreaded meltdown. Saving time and energy has skyrocketed up my priority list and saving (the maximum amount) of money and enjoying maximum comfort has taken a seat on the backburner.

So join me Mondays and Wednesdays (hopefully) as we take a look at tips and tricks to maximize your travel with your family while saving as much money as possible. Each post in this guide will have some kind of concrete action step to take you one step closer to your travel goals. As a bonus, I’ve published the first post in the series already. In the meanwhile, here’s a little FAQ about the series.

Family Travel Hacking Guide — Taking the family to Disney World

What is travel hacking?

For the purposes of this guide, I will be defining travel hacking very loosely as anything that makes traveling with your family cheaper, more comfortable, or more convenient. While the majority of this guide will focus on using miles, points, and cashback to cut down the costs of travel, I also will spend a few posts discussing the things that I believe can make traveling with kids go more smoothly (e.g., emergency bags for infants and toddlers).

Who is this guide for?

In general, I’m writing this guide with strategies catering to people looking for four tickets. Obviously that conventionally can be a family of four, but if a strategy works for four it will usually work for two or one. Things get much more complicated for four people so what I talk about might not be the best practice if you’re traveling solo. I’m hoping everyone can get something out of the guide, whether it’s reminders for veterans or support for people just getting into the game. This is a resource, but it isn’t meant to be comprehensive.

In addition, this is written for people with little time (or at least those not willing to devote all their free time to such things). I am a dad with young kids, so I will be writing about some of the trade offs that I feel need to be made in order to maximize your time with your family while still engaging in travel hacking on the side. If you have tons of free time to devote to this hobby, there are plenty of other blogs that will help you use that time for maximum savings: this is for those of you with limited time and resources!

What is the end goal for this guide?

Ever since I started learning about travel hacking with miles and points, my goal has been to take 2-3 international trips a year with my family. To give the guide a purpose to aim towards, it will be written with a single goal in mind: a vacation for four with your family (or any four people, really) booked and executed using travel hacking techniques. It’s a broad goal, but it should be enough to give the posts a purpose to focus on.

Ready to go! — We’ll also include some tips on travel with kids in this guide

What topics will this guide cover?

My goal is for this guide to cover all the basics you need to know to really get into the travel hacking game. It will be written with the above goal in mind and cover a range of topics. A bulk of the posts will be on earning points through credit cards and utilizing those points to book award travel using the various frequent flyer programs. We’ll cover the basics of those programs, but as I said above we can’t get into every nuance and trick. We’ll also touch upon some hacks for making your actual vacation run more smoothly (e.g., minimizing meltdowns and keeping your kids happy).

Is travel free?

When I started this blog almost four (!) years ago, all the talk was about how you could fly in business and first class for little or no cost. I totally bought into that line of thinking, and in some (vague) senses it’s true. When I first started, my wife and I were able to fly a couple flights in international first class per year without spending more money than we normally did in our daily lives. This was all “free” except for the cost of taxes and fees.

Like all things in life, things aren’t quite that simple. With a family, things are definitely not that simple. The best I can say is that if you follow along with this guide, you’ll get ideas for how you can save money, use the same amount of money to travel more and more comfortably, or something in between. It definitely won’t be free; at the very least you will consume a lot of time. But in the end you will have the opportunity to travel with your family and save some money on the final sticker price – not too shabby!