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Nashville Travel Hackers - December Meetup
- 1. Nashville Travel Hackers By: Nate Buchanan
- 2. Outline • Travel Hacking Euroland – Mistake Fare to Europe & Thailand – Free Hotels in Vienna & Bangkok – Free Train Rides Through Europe – $111 Flights Home from Bangkok • How to Earn the Southwest Companion Pass • Meeting Minimum Spending Requirements – Manufactured Spending
- 4. New York
- 5. Milan
- 6. Vienna
- 7. Prague
- 8. Bangkok
- 10. Beijing
- 11. Total Cost of Euroland Hacker Cost = $2,420 Retail Cost = +$7,000
- 12. Mistake Fare to Europe & Thailand Hacker Cost = $511 Retail Cost = $2,000
- 13. What is a Mistake Fare? • Abnormally cheap airfare that has been mistakenly priced too low for one reason or another – Computer Glitches – Human Error – Currency Conversion Errors – Miscommunication between OTAs and Airlines
- 14. How to Book a Mistake Fare • Sign up for My Email List [natebuchanan.org] • Follow my Travel Hacker Twitter List • Take Action ASAP – DOT 24 hour mandatory refund • Don’t Make Other Travel Plans Until You Receive Confirmation Number
- 15. Free Hotels in Vienna & Bangkok Hacker Cost = $0 Retail Cost = $700 78,000 Club Carlson Points
- 16. Earning Club Carlson Points • 85,000 Points • Instant Gold Status
- 17. Redeeming Club Carlson Points
- 18. Redeeming Club Carlson Points
- 19. Redeeming Club Carlson Points
- 20. Free Hotels in Vienna & Bangkok Hacker Cost = $0 Retail Cost = $310 31,000 Barclay Arrival Miles
- 21. Redeeming Barclay Arrival Miles
- 22. Redeeming Barclay Arrival Miles
- 23. Redeeming Barclay Arrival Miles
- 24. Redeeming Barclay Arrival Miles
- 25. Redeeming Barclay Arrival Miles
- 26. Redeeming Barclay Arrival Miles
- 27. Barclay Arrival Miles Travel Bonus
- 28. Flights Home From Thailand Hacker Cost = $111 Retail Cost = $2,000 80,000 United MileagePlus Miles
- 29. Earning United Miles 40,000 Ultimate Reward Points 50,000 United Miles
- 34. Savings from Travel Hacking • Mistake Fare – $2,000 - $511 = $1,489 • Free Hotels in Vienna & Bangkok – $700 • Free Trains Through Europe – $300 • Flights Home From Thailand – $2,000 - $111 = $1,889 Total Savings = $4,378
- 37. What is the SWCP • Companion Pass lets you designate one person of your choice to fly for FREE with you as long as you have the pass
- 38. How Long Does the SWCP Last?
- 39. Two Ways to Earn the SWCP
- 40. How to Earn Points towards SWCP • Credit card signup bonuses • Southwest Flights • Shopping Portals • Dining Rewards • Hotel Point Transfers
- 41. Southwest Credit Cards • Personal – Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier – Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus • Business – Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier – Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus
- 42. Application Strategies • Personal + Business – Apply on same day • Personal Premier + Personal Plus – Apply 91+ days apart
- 43. Earning Points in the Air • Points Earned Based Off Price Paid for Ticket • Business Select Fares = $1:12 • Anytime Fares = $1:10 • Wanna Get Away Fares = $1:6 • * A-List & A-List Preferred Members Earn 25% and 100% more points than regular members
- 44. Earning Points Through the SW Shopping Portal
- 45. Earning Points Through the SW Shopping Portal
- 48. Best Transfer Rate 2.5:1 Ratio
- 49. These Points Don’t Count • Points Transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards • Points Transferred from Another Southwest Account • Points Earned in Previous Calendar Year
- 50. Easiest Way to Earn the SWCP • Sign Up For Two Southwest Credit Cards – 100,000 Points • Meet the Minimum Spending Requirements – 4,000 Points • Earn and Additional 6,000 Points – Spend $6,000 on your credit cards – Transfer ~15,000 Hyatt Points – Shop through the Rapid Rewards Shopping Portal – Eat out with the Rapid Rewards Dining Program – Fly on Southwest
- 51. Questions About the Southwest Companion Pass
- 53. What is a Minimum Spending Requirement • A required amount of money you must spend on a credit card before receiving the signup bonus
- 54. Examples of MSR’s $3,000 within the first 90 days of card membership $10,000 within the first 90 days of card membership $5,000 within the first 6 months of card membership
- 55. Ideas for Meeting MSR’s • Put ALL of Your Spending on Your Credit Card – Bills, Groceries, Gas • Buy Gift Cards for Future Purchases – Amazon, Gas, Grocery • Charitable Giving – Charities, Church, Kiva • Volunteer to Pay for Group Purchases – Meals, Travel, Other
- 57. What is Manufactured Spending • Spending money without actually spending money…
- 58. My Strategy
- 59. Step 1: Sign Up for Bluebird Account
- 60. What is Bluebird • Partnership Between American Express & Walmart • Prepaid Bank Account
- 61. Adding Funds to Bluebird Account • Cash • Direct Deposit • Debit Card • Prepaid Card
- 62. Withdrawing Money from Bluebird • Debit Card • Checks (FREE) • ATM • Pay Bills Online
- 63. Other Prepaid Options • Bluebird • Serve • REDcard • More?
- 64. Step 2: Purchase $500 Visa Giftcard • Opry Mills $2.95 (Simon’s Mall Visa Gift Card) • Kroger $5.95 • Others $?
- 65. Visa NOT American Express
- 66. Step 3: Set Pin Number on Gift Card • Call the Number on the Back of the Card • Listen to Prompts • Key in Pin
- 67. Step 4: Load Gift Card to Bluebird • Go to Any Register at Walmart • Tell the Cashier You Need to Add Money to Your Bluebird Account • Give Them Your Bluebird Card • Tell Them You Want to Load $500 • Tell Them You’ll be Using a Debit Card • Swipe Gift Card • Enter Pin Number
- 68. Step 5: Pay Credit Card Bill with Bluebird
- 69. Cost of Meeting MSR $2.95 x 6 = $17.70 assuming $3,000 minimum spending requirement
- 70. Bluebird Total Account Limits • Total Funds Added – $100,000 Per Year • Total Account Balance – $10,000
- 71. Bluebird Limits to Adding Funds • Checking or Savings Account – $2,000 per month • Debit Cards – $200 per day, $1,000 per month • Cash (includes swipe reloads) – $2,500 per day – $5,000 per month
- 72. Bluebird Withdraw Limits • Bill Pay – $15,000 per month • ATM Withdrawals – $750 per day, $2,000 per month • Checks – Subject to total account balance
- 73. Personal Experience • Simon’s Mall Gift Cards – $500 x 4 = $2,000 – Purchased all four in a single transaction • Loading Gift Cards at Walmart – $500 x 4 = $2,000 – Loaded each card as a separate transaction
- 74. This Use to be WAY Easier
- 75. Questions
Editor's Notes
- Thanks for coming out tonight During our last meet up we cover some pretty basic stuff I’m excited to dive deeper into a few different specific strategies tonight Didn’t realize how much I had commited to tackling Travel hacking our trip around the world, southwest companion pass, and manufactured spending
- Before we get started I wanted to give you idea of what we’ll be covering 2 week trip around the world Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Thailand, and China 4 Strategies we used to save over $4,000 During our last meet up the Southwest Companion Pass came up multiple times. Plus, Kara and I are about to get the Companion Pass for the first time ever so this seemed like a good time to cover the subject I did the travel hacking meet up here as well as hosting an online webinar and by the most questions revolved around meetiing minimum spending requirements and manufactured spending
- An overview of our entire itinerary. Now we’re going to look at all our pictures from the trip… Just kidding. I made myself choose one picture from each location
- Flew from Nashville to New York. Seven hours to see the city before our flight left for Milan Times Square, Central Park, Macy’s Day Parade, and 911 memorial
- Arrived in Milan early in the morning and left on an overnight for Vienna late that night. Milan Cathedral and Last Supper
- 2 Days in Vienna. The highlight was exploring the Christmas markets. The whole city was decorated in Christmas lights Everyone should experience Christmas time in Vienna once in their life
- 1 Day in Prague. Prague didn’t have a chance to put it’s best foot forward. 28 degrees and raining Enjoyed seeing the castle & Charles bridge after the snow **Rick Steve’s Audio Tours in Prague & Vienna
- 2 Day in Bangkok Amazing Street Food Cool Temples Wat Pho (Reclining Buda) Spent the second day in Ayuttha (temple ruins)
- 4 days in the Islands of Thailand 3 days at Railay Bay (where this picture was taken) 1 day on a boat off the beach of Ko Phi Phi
- 11 hour layover in Beijing on the way home. Hired a private driver The Great Wall, Old Beijing, Peking Duck, and Over look the forbidden city Easy to get 72 hour visa – Passport and proof of flight out within the next 72 hours
- Saved over $4,000 thanks to several travel hacking strategies Now we’re going to look at the four strategies we used to over $4,000
- This is what started the entire trip Woke up one morning. Twitter was buzzing with a cheap deal to Thailand New York to Milan then from Prague to Bangkok
- OTA = Online Travel Agency ex. priceline Mistake fares are a mystery other wise the airlines would stop them
- The biggest challenge is finding mistake fares Don’t wait these can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours Once the airlines find and fix the airfare it’s over
- Second Strategy we used was using points to book free hotel rooms. We stayed in the Radisson Blu in both Vienna and Bangkok total cost of the rooms would have been over $700
- First step to using points to book hotel rooms is earning the points In our case… I earned 85,000 points by signing up for the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Card Instant Gold Status = BOGO Award Nights When you book an award stay of two nights or more the last night is free So if you book a two night stay the second night is free Walk you through booking a room step by step
- Go to clubcarlson.com and search for the property you want to stay at. Screen shot of homepage
- After searching for the property you’ll have the option to use cash or points If the hotel was almost full and there wasn’t any award availability you wouldn’t see the option to use points.
- Some airlines and hotels charge taxes and fees when booking travel with miles and points With Club Carlson it’s completely free! From here you’d just go through the checkout process
- Third Strategy we used on this trip was using arrival miles to pay for our train tickets 1 point = $.01
- Sign up for the Barclay Arrival Card and earn 40,000 points for the sign up bonus Use your Barclay card to make a travel purchase
- This is the homepage of Kara’s barclay account
- When you use arrival miles to pay for travel expenses you get 10% back. Since we spend 5,000 arrival miles to cover the $50 train ride we get 500 deposited back into our account
- 4th strategy we used was using united miles to book our flight home from Thailand
- First step is earning the points Sign Up for these two cards to get 90,000 United miles Instantly transfer your Chase Ultimate Reward points to United at 1:1 ratio
- Once you have the points you can book your award flight on United.com This is a screen shot of the home screen When searching for a flight make sure to click “AWARD TRAVEL”
- If you’re looking for a low level award flight look for dates highlighted in yellow or green.
- Select the
- If you’ve selected low level award from the U.S. to Thailand The flight should price out at 40,000 Miles – Two tickets = 80,000
- All you have to pay is taxes and fees Usually Between $5 - $10
- Good through the end of the current calendar year when you earn the companion pass + good through the end of the next calendar year. BEST TIME TO EARN THE PASS – January You could have the companion pass for almost two full years.
- There are five different ways that you can earn points towards the Southwest Companion Pass We’ll look at each one in more detail
- There are four Southwest Credit Cards The fastest way to earn Southwest Rapid Reward points is by signing up for Southwest Credit cards 2 Business & Two Personal The Sign Up Bonus on these cards fluctuates between 25,000 & 50,000 (Only Sign Up when they’re at 50,000)
- The fastest way to earn Southwest points is to apply for a personal and a business card on the same day If you don’t have a business, you can apply for two personal cards. No exact reasons for the 91+ days, that’s just what I’ve heard I’m earning the companion pass this year with two personal cards
- You earn points on Southwest flights based off the money you spend and the type of ticket you buy. Unlike most airlines it has nothing to how far you actual fly Southwest has three different kinds of tickets you can purchase
- Works basically like a mall online. You go to the rapid rewards shopping portal, choose the store you want to shop at, and then complete you purchase through the site just like you normally would
- Using Brooks Brothers as an example Clicking on the store would take you to BrooksBrothers.com Buy a $100 you’d earn 4 points per $1 = 400 points
- Join the Rapids Reward Dining Program (Link a credit card) Dine at a participating restaurant (use your linked card to pay for the meal) Earn 3x per $1 spent. Right now they’re over a 2,000 point bonus for first time users.
- Besides Signing Up for Credit Cards – Transferring Hotel Points is the fastest way to earn Rapid Reward Points It’s NOT a good deal. Most points transfer ratios are really bad.
- 2.5 hyatt points to 1 southwest rapid reward point 25,000 Hyatt points = 10,000 Rapid Reward points
- After I did this presentation here last week, I also did on my blog through a live webinar I got the most questions about how to meet minimum spending requirements Give ideas for meeting minimum spending requirements Then look at the grey area of manufactured spending I’ll give you the exact strategy I use for manufactured spending
- Examples of minimum spending requirements As you can see from the examples the minimum spending requirements vary depending on the card and the issuing bank If you wanted and “average” 2,000 – 3,000 within the first three months like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card
- Before we talk about manufactured spending, since it is a grey area I wanted to give some ideas of way you can get creative to meet minimum spending requirements You should be putting all your spending on your credit card anyway! Amazon is a great catch all, you’ll always going to have to buy gas and groceries
- Use my credit card to buy $500 Visa gift cards. Then I load my visa gift cards into my bluebird prepaid account Then I use my blue bird account to pay off my credit card bill Using this strategy it “cost” me $2.95 to “spend” $500 There are other similar strategies using different prepaid cards that other people use I’m going to walk you through step by step how “I” do it
- Go to bluebird.com and sign up for an account They’ll send you a card in the mail Before going any further, I think it’s important to have an understanding of Bluebird
- It’s basically a way to have bank account with going through a tradition brick and mortar bank.
- Cash Direct Deposit – Get your pay check deposited directly (created for the “unbanked” population. Save on check cashing fees) Debit Card – Add a small amount of money from your debit card Prepaid Cards like Vanilla Reloads (pretty much pointless, just adds and extra step)
- Debit – Use your bluebird card like a debit card anywhere American express is accepted Checks – After setting up and account you can order bluebird checks for free - I use these to pay rent ATM – After adding money to your account you withdrawal money for free from any Money Pass ATM Pay Bills Online – Pay Bills through Bluebird.com
- As I said earlier, there are other ways that people do manufactured spending These are other prepaid bank alternatives Just wanted you to be aware
- I buy my visa gift cards two different places It’s basically the exact same card just a different fee Much Cheaper to buy at Opry Mills There may be other places. Opry Mills is far from my house. When I want the best deal I go there. If I need something immediately, Kroger is just right down the road
- In order to add your gift card to Bluebird you’ll need a pin number American Express gift cards don’t allow you to set a pin number You’ll see why this is very important next
- Simple, just take 2 minutes
- The most annoying step
- Final step in the process is to pay your credit card bill Do this through Bluebird.com I have a video of how to do this on my website I’ve paid both my American express and my chase card using this method Payments usually take about 1 week to post
- The cost of meeting a $3,000 minimum spending using my Manufactured spending strategy Assuming you bought Simon’s mall gift cards
- Take a quick looks at Bluebirds limits
- Limits to adding funds. I just copied what was on their website I have vastly exceeds the $200 “debit” limit using giftcards so maybe gift cards are considered cash?
- Checks can’t exceed $10,000 because you can’t have more than $10,000 in your account
- I did this right before we left to meet the minimum spending requirement on my new southwest card
- You used to be able to buy $500 Vanilla reloads at CVS and you could load them straight into your Bluebird account without having to go to Walmart. With Amazon Payments you could send up to $1,000 every month to a friend for free (Service Discontinued in Oct.) Travel Hacking is a game and the playing field is constantly changing. That’s what makes it fun!