At the beginning of the week I shared some web stats and plans for a Million Reader Giveaway.
I only wish I had realized the traffic milestones earlier for this blog, I could have reached out to my favorite travel providers and asked them to help me celebrate… with promises of riches beyond readers’ wildest dreams elite status and points.
Instead, I’ve had to get creative with the sorts of things I’m able to offer on my own.
So here’s part one of the Million Reader Giveaway!
Prizes will include:
- (5) Milepoint premium packages (1000 United miles, Hilton Gold status, National Car Rental Executive status, and more)
- $200 Gift Cards
- Amazon Gift Cards
- Miles in your choice of several programs
- Amazon Gift Cards
I might even throw in elite status and a club membership with an airline. There will be at least 15 prizes in this round, and probably more in round 2!
It’s a bit of a grab back of most high value prizes, half of which will be given away randomly and half will be give away based on quality or usefulness of entry.
Here’s all you need to do:
- leave a comment in this thread sharing either your best travel-related tip or advice, or the most useful thing you’ve learned from this blog.
- Since quality is key (as half the prizes will be given out based on quality), you may enter as many times as you like.
- All entries for this round must be submitted as a comment to this post by Sunday 5pm Eastern.
Thank you very much — in advance for your tips and for reading and sharing along with me, all these years!
Now enter away…!
Best,
Gary
- You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Don’t have to high expectations on the flight, it is and will always be a form of transportation. If you do go in with normal expectations you will probably be pleasantly surprised more often the not. This tip is especially true when you fly first class.
The most useful thing I’ve learned is to search for award travel one leg at a time. Thanks for all of your informative posts over the years. I have learned so much from you.
Never pass up an opportunity, no matter how small, because you never know what kind of memory it will leave you with. A few years ago my dad, brother, and I were in Rome and saw a sign for a free olive oil tasting at our hotel. I convinced everyone to go, and it turned out that we were the only ones there. It was great because we had the whole spread to ourselves. The oil was the best I have ever had and we all ended up buying a bottle. We still talk about it to this day.
love the blog, thanks to you now I too travel like a Mr Fancy Pants! 🙂
Have a plan before accumulating points. I always set a goal and that is what drives the type of points I accumulate.
I’ve learned about the 90k miles to north Asia in business class on us airways.
The most useful thing I’ve learned is Southwest Rapid Rewards award flights are fully refundable. I am constantly planning possible trips when there are sales knowing if plans change I can just get my miles redeposited.
When going somewhere that jet lag may affect you, start preparing before you leave. Even if it is just getting up or going to bed an hour or two later the few days before departing, it will help ease you into the new time. This is especially true for short trips where you don’t want to waste time waiting for your body to fully adjust when there.
Never give up.
Best thing I’ve learned? By far it’s the credit card deals. We have a family trip coming up in two months…by using the links here to various deals we have been able to spread the cost over several members and cards, earning more than 1m total ‘bonus’ miles just for taking the trip we were already going to do! And my in laws are headed to Europe, paying for the hotel and misc with new cards at will let them recover all the miles they redeemed for the tickets. Nothing beats those lessons!
Gary, the best tip by far I ever learned from you was how to book ANY flight in the world for JUST 1 MILE! My entire family of 4 has been all around the world for only 152 miles total on that tip alone! I cannot thank you enough.
(Oh crap, did I just screw up? That wasn’t a blog post, that was from the super top secret group meeting we had last month wasn’t it? As Emily Litella would say, NEVERMIND!)
Hydrate!
Stop thinking about and just do it, take a trip.
I always knew I could earn miles fairly easily, I just didn’t know I could earn this many this fast!
Don’t hoard your points/miles – use ’em and enjoy – that’s what they’re for.
This points/miles hobby has completely changed my view on travel. It’s no longer a “once in a lifetime” thing. Instead I find myself visiting friends & family more, knowing I can find a way to return to an exotic location, and overall enjoying the whole travel experience more! Thanks for all the help along the way!
I like how your blog always keeps me up to date in all the industry news and shares so much from the blogosphere. I don’t know how you do it!
Before traveling, layout all your items on your bed and take a picture to document everything you’ve brought with you. Also have copies of your passport in multiple locations just in case you lost your real one. It’ll be a lot easier for the embassy to identify you if you have a copy of your passport.
Learned here: Earn and burn points in roughly the same cycle.
The Club Carlson Visa is underrated. So many free nights!
Learned here: A points redemption is only worth the maximum you would pay if using cash.
All bloggers have their niche (at least as I see it). Through this blog, I have started reading many other bloggers. This is probably the most well rounded, with anything from airline industry news and analysis to alerts of the W hotels bedding sale. FrequentMiler focuses a lot on credit card bonuses (not only sign up bonuses) and MS. Lucky focuses a lot on award tips and tricks, routing, maximizing points value, etc.
Get tethering ability on your phone. Then, at least domestically, you won’t have to worry about whether you have enough status for Internet access.
It never hurts to ask (and be polite). I’ve gotten many better seats and flights this way.
Mistake fares are real !!!
If something goes wrong with a flight or hotel stay, you can usually get compensated with a few miles/points if you politely complain by submitting a form on their website.
Take advantage of adverse weather situations to change your flight free of charge and create the perfect itinerary. I’ll often be scheduled on the last flight of the day because it was the cheapest when I booked, but as soon as the adverse weather situation arises I’ll be on the phone and changing the flight to a more preferred time.
Register for all promotions, even if you don’t think you’ll ever complete them. I have earned tens of thousands of IHG points this way, and almost completed the 4Q Big Win.
Sign up for Ink, Plink, and do as much shopping as possible at offices supply stores. Also double (or triple) dip by going through online portals. If points from a portal don’t post, follow up. Cartera (the company that runs several portals) customer service can be slow, but I always get my missing miles in the end.
Comment or provide unsolicited feedback to airlines and hotels based on exceptional employees or service. You never know how many points you can earn doing this until you give it a shot!
When done properly, signing up for numerous credit cards doesn’t negatively impact your score. Watch out for and take advantage of targeted offers, which often come in the form of “junk mail”
Diversify! I got caught with way too many United Miles during this round of devaluation. Hold currencies such as UR or MR points that have options. Also, for couples of families where only one member is a FF, don’t overlook southwest. The companion pass can literally save you thousands (and double the value of your UR points transferred to WN)
Subscribe to theflightdeal.com and their RSS feed. They seem to have just about every major flight deal out there, and can be useful for mileage running.
When staying at hotels that need your room key to make the electricity function, it can be slightly frustrating if you need to charge a device while you’re out of the room. Just slide in a credit card instead and it will work perfectly. Fully charged computer when you get back to your room!
Keep your VR receipts. Once I was charged an extra 500 for one I didn’t get due to a CVS register malfunction. When I went back in, they had 504 in cash waiting for me in an envelope. Free 504 in spend!
Best general travel tip: let the airline and hotel staff help you to get what you need. If it’s not clear how to get an upgrade or use an award, call, explain what you want to do, and ask for help. Most of the time the person answering will want to help you and sometimes you will be offered alternative promotions that are even better than what you requested. The same tip applies to expired offers and promotions: Call and ask. Often you will get either that offer or something else equally useful.
When buying souvenirs, don’t get something small and insignificant just to “buy something”. If you want something, get something large and high-quality enough — even if it’s more expensive — that you will frequently be reminded of your trip.
Have points/miles on multiple hotels and airline programs and you will most likely find good use of them for each trip.
The most valuable thing I learned from your site, Gary, is that there aren’t very many bloggers whose advice can be trusted. Wait, don’t get the wrong idea!! I mean that over the past year since I became a regular reader on VFTW, I’ve seen so many travel blogs pop up, pushing credit cards that are not the best deals, or providing incorrect travel advice that even I know is wrong. When I read your blog, I feel comfortable knowing that your information is correct and, more importantly, that your information is trustworthy. As the other blogs come and go, VFTW continues to be my main source of quality travel tips and information. Thanks for all of your hard work!
Car Rental Tip: Take photos and video of any damage on the car — including the roof. Then take one more photo far enough back to see the plates of the cars beside you. The adjacent cars will “timestamp” your footage if there is any dispute. They should know what they had on the lot on any given date.
I have learned the sky is the limit when it comes to trips. Nothing is out of reach with miles and points.
Actually learning that miles and points are worthwhile compared to a few hundred dollars in cash back. I would have used chase points to just buy thru travel/hotel reservations thru them rather than learn to use FF/Hotel points program to get a better value.
Always pay in local currency when using a card. The card gives a better exchange rate than the local establishment.
Get a State Farm checking account. The debit card gives 8 ATM withdrawals without international fee per month; unlimited if you have direct deposit set up.
If flying on an international airline, sometimes learning some of the flight attendant’s native language might help your case if you need another soda or if you slept through breakfast.
Keep your boarding passes, particularly for partner airline flights. I’ve needed them several times to get flights on Royal Jordanian credited to American.
Track-It-Back: bought enough stickers to fly TATL LH F twice, for a family of 4, two trips through the FCT.
One of the most useful things I’ve learned from this blog is to always read the Terms and Conditions (T & C’s) of the loyalty promotions I participate in. When it comes time for service recovery it’s important to be on top of the facts!
Chase Ink Credit Card, allows me to have a one way flight with points on airlines that do not usually allow you to do this. The use of Shopping Portals has been a points grabber also.
Chase Ink, has been great for the use of points for one way flights on airlines that usually require round trip tickets.