One of the hardest lessons to learn in travel hacking is knowing when to let go of a trip, particularly when it is ‘free’.Recently, we took another gamble on Vegas. For new readers (or those who didn’t keep up with this) when we ‘Vegas’ we don’t gamble in the same way that others do. To […]
What I’m learning from the $5,200 upgrade
I wrote about a related topic recently, and some people thought it a little odd or rambling, I’ve no doubt this will have the same effect. But since a big part of the reason behind this blog is to explore thoughts, while helping friends and family travel for free, while hawking credit cards, let’s go!Here’s […]
What I learned from MS at Sea
We’re back from our cruise now, and I wanted to give a quick update on how the MS aspect went. Here’s the original post, for cave dwellers, and some Q/A from the comments there, along with some things I learned:Commenter: startspreadingthelove I think its more than “2minutes” there are alot of things involved. I’d love […]
Bidding for upgrades on NCL
NCL has introduced a upgrade system. The system works on a bidding system, and they have a fancy dial telling you ‘how good your offer is’. There were lots of really amazing suites on offer through the bidding process. Interestingly, they all had a minimum and maximum range, so the most exclusive was a minimum […]
Introduction to Today’s Manufactured Spend: at Sea Edition
Trevor just gave us a quick state of the union on MS today. Since, we I’m heading off on a cruise next week, I thought to share the ‘At Sea’ version. I really enjoy at Sea MS because it involves walking up to a machine wearing your favorite hawaiian shirt sipping on chilled beverage, typing in […]
Three Ways to Deduct a Cruise
Here’s three different ways that you might be able to deduct the cost of a cruise. When dealing with taxes we must remember that this is always a positional argument. We hope to find a part of the tax code that supports us, and must remember that the IRS can challenge that position in exam. […]
How I use data to support negotiation
We’re looking forward to our first cruise on Celebrity next month, where we will get to enjoy 4th of July at Sea, and then head on to enjoy some good food and drinks in Mexico. I thought this a good example to share how I book and negotiate things, and where I elect to bring […]
The Perplexing Case of an extra $137
I recently posted about my upcoming travel booking needs, I’ve had a bit of luck since then, as I’ll have 4 Marriott Nights rather than two (they reset in June) and I snagged roundtrip airfare for the three of us from NY to Miami for 14.5K Delta miles a pop, non stop. I was already […]
A free trip I just can’t afford
When it hit my inbox, I was pretty excited by my latest free offer from NCL. But with some hindsight, I’ve decided to pass on it. I know for some this would enter Prima Donna status, but in reality, you need to be able to both work out the math, the alternatives, and know what matters […]
Leverage
In this post I’d like to attempt to merge two topics from the forum, and add in a little more food for thought. The overall topic that we will be looking at is the cost of cruising full time, or pretty much living on a cruise ship, the ghetto way.The neat way to live on a […]