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Tips and Tricks for Kinney Chaos

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We get asked about a lot of things and since we cover a wide range of topics here is a list of our tips and tricks, FAQ and the blog posts that go with them. If you have a question we would LOVE to hear from you! Drop us a message by contacting us or commenting on this article!

Travel Tips and Tricks

What is Travel Hacking?

Should I hoard my points or spend as soon as I can?

How can I earn free trips? We earn free hotel stays and airfare by maximizing our reward points. Don’t get overwhelmed. If you are just starting out, pick one or two and get really consistent with those before adding more.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you get started.

What are your favorite hotls to stay at?

What are your tips for flights?

What are the best credit cards to have to get reward points and earn free trips ?

Quotes

Budget and Money Tips and Tricks

How can I budget?

How can I teach my kids about money?

How can I save money on everyday expenses?

Social Media Tips

Travel from Wisconsin: Local vs Hub Flights

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A large number of my Vegas trips are between October through March.  The last couple years I have averaged 4-5 of my trips per year during this time frame. Whenever you are trying to decide what flight options you should take, you have to consider how you want to travel from Wisconsin.

Other articles we think you may find useful talking about travel to and from Wisconsin are Road Trip tips and Why we Travel.

Travel From Wisconsin: Flight Hubs vs. Local

With the snow already starting to fly during the fall and winter, I have found I prefer to fly out of a hub vs locally. The local flights around here in central Wisconsin connect you to a regional flight hub. These centers are in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Detroit or Chicago.  From one of those main airport centers you then have to catch another flight anyway.

I have found when considering how to travel from Wisconsin I prefer to drive to Milwaukee or Minneapolis and fly from there.  Many people have questioned why I would want to drive in the snow during these attempts.  My usual response is “I prefer to gamble when I get to Vegas, not if my flight will make my connecting flight to get to Vegas.” 

With flying out of a hub, I find that there are more options if my flight is delayed or canceled.  Delta seems to have a non-stop trip to Vegas every couple hours from Minneapolis; United has the same in Chicago and Southwest out of Milwaukee. 

Delays

Where I have found my most significant delays are from the small airports.  Most of my canceled flights are the puddle jumpers from the regional hubs back to Mosinee or Appleton.  There are fewer flights, sometimes only 1-2 a day per carrier to these small airports.  I have had a flight canceled for work where they decided to bus us to Chicago.

By that time the connecting flight was long gone leaving me to wait on standby to try to get to my training classes.  I have also been stuck overnight due to some of these flights being canceled and rescheduled for the next morning. These are not good experiences for those of us who need to travel from Wisconsin.

These experiences are why I prefer to drive to the hub location the night before. This way I have the flexibility and no worries if I am going to make the flight due to traffic.  It also reduces the stress on the connecting flight issues if the plane needs to be ‘de-iced.’  When trying to travel on the cheap, even with the increased number of flights at the hubs, you have the best ability at finding a great deal.  

And the biggest tip for flying in the winter when you travel from Wisconsin?  Do not watch Die Hard 2 before flying out.  Yes, I did make that mistake back on my first ever flight back in Junior High during the Winter.

Will Refundable Flights Save you Money or Stress?

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One of the reasons I like Southwest Airlines the most is their refundable flight policy.  I have had incidents where I have booked for the incorrect weekend and was able to switch flight dates within minutes. Southwest allows you to cancel or change your fare within 24 hours of booking for a refund.

Additionally, if you need to you can cancel your flight up to the departure time you will get a credit. Your Southwest credit is then good for a full year towards a new flight. If you used your Southwest points to book your flight and need to change flights your points are refunded to you. This is just one of the many reasons we love to fly Southwest.

Other airlines I would have paid change fees which would negate any gains I had with using points.  Another benefit is when the flash sales come up, you can at times rebook parts of your flight for the cheaper costs and get the points or cash refund. 

The biggest key to getting the best deals on travel is booking so far in advance.

Refundable Flights

The biggest key to getting the best deals on travel is booking so far in advance.  When you use the flexibility of booking in advance by booking nine months out, that is a lot of time for other things in life to pop up.  It also isn’t just things that change for you in your life. Sometimes you may need to change your flights due to an airline or hotel changing. Right now Marriott workers are on strike at certain areas throughout the country. 

There are current reports of hotels in Hawaii in Waikiki Beach that have no assistance for their bags, no housekeeping or no restaurants available.  When traveling to a dream location in Hawaii, you don’t want to worry about this. The last thing I would want to worry about is if my garbage is still sitting in my room for five days straight and not having towels. 

Having the refundable options would allow you to shift to a different hotel.
This is one of the reasons I prefer to book right through the airlines and hotel companies. Instead of the ‘search engine’ sights such as hotels.com or expedia.com you can usually get better deals. Plus, the refund policies are harder to find at times on different stays and flights through those big companies. 

Will Refundable Flights Save you Money or Stress? #flight #savemoney #delta #southwest #airline

Conclusion

Always look at all your options, and I have seen most hotels will match prices that are located on those sites if there is a big difference.  I recently have found over the last several years that there has not been a significant cost difference between these locations.

Disney World Park Tickets

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One of the most expensive parts of a Disney vacation is the Disney World park tickets.  Disney also over the last several years have moved to peak and off-peak pricing.

Disney World Park Tickets

The new pricing will cause the cost of your Disney world park tickets to fluctuate $20 per ticket, per day possibly.  This money difference will add up real quick when you take into consideration the number of days at the park and the size of your family.  This has added the additional planning part of looking at the cost of tickets, along with flight and hotel costs when trying to do Disney on a budget.

Purchase from Online Sources

There are websites such as Undercover Tourist and Mousesavers that you can get discounts getting tickets through them.  These two sites have been around for several years and were very helpful when we first started to plan trips to Orlando.

Target

The other way we have found to reduce the cost of our Disney World park tickets is Target.  With using the Target Red Card, we get 5% off Disney gift cards.  We can then purchase the tickets right from Disney as part of our hotel package with these cards.
Within the last year, they also have direct gift cards where you can purchase 2-3 day park ticket packages for Disneyland right from the gift card section.  I am hoping they will release these for Disney World also.

Other Money Savings Considerations

One of the other Disney expenses that you have to consider is your hotel costs. Disney World Hotels is an article that was written previously to help you with these costs. We love staying on Disney properties when we visit, but you could use off-site deals to help you as well.
Disney World: Cheap Airfare is hard to find. However, it is not impossible. Take advantage of all the offers you can find to make your Disney adventures amazing!

Black Friday Travel Deals

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If you are like us, you love to travel. We are always on the lookout for the best travel deals. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the best times to look for bargains. There are many different Black Friday travel deals, so I will tell you about some of my favorites.
Many of the airlines and hotel companies run great cyber deals for their flights and properties.  The biggest key is to watch your email.  Make sure you have signed up for email advertisements for the hotels you are looking for.  I have a separate email address that receives these notices, so I can filter through them as needed.

Las Vegas Deals

Now you know it would be almost impossible for me to talk to you about travel deals without talking about Las Vegas. Las Vegas casinos love to offer deals around this time.

With preferring MGM Resorts, I usually try to book a large number of my stays during this period.  In 2017, most of the resorts offered reduced rates and free food/buffets daily for each visit.

This also gave me the flexibility of canceling and rebooking if I ended up with a better-personalized deal as the date got closer through my Mlife player’s account.

International Travel – Cyber Monday

The resort in Mexico that Joni and I prefer to stay at runs major deals during this time of year too.  During Cyber Monday and the days prior they will run a deal that will end up saving almost 50% on the cheapest rate that I could find during the year.  The biggest thing is with booking so far in advance; you will need to check cancellation policies or be sure of your travel dates.

Airline Black Friday Travel Deals

Airlines also run Black Friday travel deals.  My favorite airline, Southwest, also now has travel open through August 2019.  This allowed me to book my Vegas Trips through most of the summer already.  And with their no fee, cancellation or change policy, I can always modify if the number of points for the flights that are needed to drop over that period.  I prefer booking out as far in advance as the cost for those flights back on Sundays tend to go up quickly the closer you get to the travel date.
Make sure you don’t wait for your Christmas travel till now though.  The costs will already be through the roof.  The last couple years when I have traveled over the Christmas week till New Years down to Las Vegas for the UFC fights I had booked already back in February of that year due to trying to lock in the cheapest costs.

Road Trip Tips you can use NOW

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I love this time of year as we get to spend so much time with families. The rest of the year we may see each other, but the winter months tend to have more people make an effort to attend events. As the holidays quickly approach many families to travel to congregate together, but on the road traveling leads to needing some road trip tips.

Additionally, many people enjoy taking road trips for their vacations. Either way, we get it, after all, we often get asked why we travel as much as we do. We wrote this article in response: Why Travel? 5 Reasons You Should. If you find yourself on the traveling side of things, here are some road trip tips you can use.

Plan your Stops

If you are traveling for vacation, consider using a service such as Roadtrippers to help you plan your stops. The key to scheduling for fun is to schedule your destination stops but ensure you leave time each day to stop at things you find, or see that are of interest to you.

Pack a Survival Kit

Depending on when you are traveling and where you are going will probably determine some of what you pack. The things you need no matter what are basic first aid supplies, water, and extra clothes.

If you are traveling in warmer weather or to warmer destinations be sure to think about bug spray, sunscreen, towels, baseball caps.

If you find yourself traveling to colder destinations or within states where snow is a factor during the winter, consider packing appropriate winter things. Some of the things to consider are thermal blankets, jackets, mittens, and boots.

Buckle your seat belt

Everyone should know they need to buckle their seat belt while the car is in motion. But make sure you buckle it even when you get out of the car. This is one of my favorite road trip tips as no one likes to get burnt after the sun makes that buckle hot.

Organizers! Road trip tips

If you are traveling with kids, one of your best road trip tips will be using organizers for all those toys and activities. There are many options such as shower caddies or shoe organizers. Some stores even sell organizers just for this purpose. Find one you like and use it.

Use Charging Adaptors

Charging Adaptors are a little-known lifesaver. You can use them to convert your primary car plug into a regular plugin. This lets you plug in a power strip and charge up all those devices!

Use a Gas Card

Any road trip means fuel and Simple Miles; Airline Miles by Buying Gas. Use that to your advantage either get a Gas Card or use the credit card that gives you the best mile return for using it.

No one wants unexpected bumps and roadblocks along the way. We hope this list will help you on your next road trip with some road trip tips you can use.

Comment below and tell us your favorite Road Trip Tips!