I recently attended a Travel Hacking meetup in the Seattle area and met a lot of interesting people who share the common interest of traveling with miles and points, mostly earned from credit cards. After brief introductions, it didn’t take long before the discussion on various manufactured spend (MS) techniques got started, and that’s honestly the […]
Category: Churning
The Power of Travel Flexibilty: Our Cancun Trip Gets More Complicated
Not too long ago, I discussed an awesome Cancun trip that Becky and I booked for very little money out of pocket. In fact, the title of the post was How We Booked 4 All-Inclusive Nights in Cancun for $160. A few months after booking that trip, we got an email from Southwest informing us that […]
Tracking Our Miles and Points Redemption Stats
If you didn’t know yet, I’m big on statistics and tracking the ins and outs of whatever I’m involved in. Keeping track of the costs and benefits of just about anything makes it 100 times easier to make decisions such as whether or not you should keep doing that thing in the future. The first major […]
Your Credit Score Might Not Be As High As You Think
Very recently a combination of factors lined up to make refinancing our mortgage a smart financial decision for us. A year-end bonus and our house appreciating meant it was time to look into dropping Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), as discussed here, plus interest rates are about half a percent lower than when we got the […]
Starting Out The New Year With a Mattress Run – IHG Accelerate 2016
IHG has consistently been doing targeted hotel promotions over the past year or so of varying qualities, but I always register to see whether or not it’s worth pursuing. The latest IHG promotion is Accelerate 2016 and takes place from the beginning of the year until the end of April. Registering only takes a minute […]
Approved For The Chase Ink Plus and More
I recently returned from a whirlwind trip back home for the holidays that was both fun and exhausting. About half-way through the trip I received an awesome email from Chase stating I was approved for the Chase Ink Plus credit card! I’ve applied for and failed to get this card twice in the past, as […]
Our Side Gig Successes In 2015 – Churning, Arbitrage, and More
As 2015 winds to a close, it’s a good time to look back over the year and see how we did financially compared to our goals. Back in 2014, we discovered the idea of financial independence and decided to set ourselves up with a lifestyle that balances maximizing life in the present and setting ourselves […]
Schedule Your Global Entry Interview Sooner
Recently, I walked through my personal experience applying for, interviewing, and finally getting approved for Global Entry. Becky and I didn’t end up applying at the same time because we wanted to use the Global Entry fee reimbursement benefit from a credit card to cover the $100 application fee and only had one card that […]
Using British Avios to Book 2 Flights to Hawaii for 50k Miles and $22.40
There are two sides to travel hacking with points and miles, earning the points and then actually booking travel with those points. Both sides have their own world of respective methods and tricks to maximize your return, but are largely independent of each other except for the point and mile currencies that tie them together. […]
Global Entry: Easiest Interview of My Life
A few months ago, I applied for the Citi Prestige card which inspired this post about my changing travel strategy and my first “premium” credit card. Despite the card having a large $450 annual fee, I think it’s one of the best signup offers currently available if you’re able to take advantage of the benefits. […]