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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.

Rapid Rewards Shopping

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Rapid Rewards Shopping

Southwest’s reward program is called Rapid Rewards. One of our favorite airlines is Southwest, so it’s not shocking that one of our favorite shopping portals is their Rapid Rewards Shopping portal. One disadvantage of this program is that Southwest doesn’t have any airline partners, so you do have to redeem the points you earn with them.

To get started with this program, visit the Rapid Rewards Shopping portal and Sign up for a new account.

How Can I earn Points?

There are several ways that you can earn points, but how quickly you earn them depends mostly on your shopping habits. There are are many ways to earn points you should refer to the Rapids Rewards website for all the details. However, Here are a few of our favorites:

  1. Ultimate Rewards Credit Card – This is a Chase credit card and the only bank partner of Southwest.  Pro Tip: Earning points through the Ultimate Rewards program and then transferring them to Southwest. Earning Points through Ultimate Rewards gives you lots of options for points redemption, and you can still use them for Southwest as needed.
  2. For everyday online spending use the Rapid Rewards Shopping portal. This is a great option to earn points when you are making purchases online anyway.
  3. Hotel Rentals – Rapid Rewards currently has eight partner hotels where you can earn points by booking with them. Among our favorites are Hyatt and Mlife due to the numerous trips Jason takes out there each year.
  4. View and make sure you take advantage of any promotions that Southwest is currently offering. They have an entire section of their website devoted just to their current promotional content.

Extra Benefits we love:

  • No Blackout dates for flights
  • Your points don’t expire as long as you have activity at least once every 18 months

We hope you have learned a little something extra about the Southwest Rapid Rewards program. Please let us know what else you would like to know about by contacting us!

How to earn points with everyday purchases! Rapid Rewards Shopping

Travel Hacking: How to Fly Delta Cheap

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Which Airline?

Everyone has their own favorite airlines.  I prefer to fly Southwest and Delta airlines.  I like Southwest due to their flight cheap redemption options for direct flights to Las Vegas and Orlando from Milwaukee.  Another reason is due to their nonstop fights for Cancun out of Chicago Midway. However the other airline that I like to use is Delta.  So one of the first things I had to figure out was how to fly Delta cheap.
Delta has a very heavy presence in Minneapolis.  You can get many different nonstop flights to areas throughout the US.  Delta has to compete against Spirit, Southwest, and Sun Country for Minneapolis travel.  Because they are up against these ‘low cost carriers’ they tend to have cheaper rates for travel. This allows you to fly Delta cheap without putting in a lot of extra effort right off the bat.  I have been able to book several trips now for as low as 12,000 miles round trip from Minneapolis to Vegas or Phoenix which would be over 30,000 miles from our local airport.
A big feature I enjoy of Delta is being able to book my trip 300 days in advance. I was already able to book my Las Vegas trip at the end of December 2018 during the busy holiday season.  By booking the travel this far out, you do receive better redemption options.

Why Not United or American?

I hate flying out of Chicago O’Hare mostly due to the flight delays. According to multiple articles on www.insuremytrip.com, Chicago O’Hare consistently appears in the top three airports for flight delays.  That airport is a main hub for American and United Airlines.

How to fly Delta Cheap?

Due to enjoying the Delta flight options one of the first travel credit cards I got was the Delta Amex.  Delta charges for bags as part of your flight reservations but with the Delta Credit Card I am able to check my bags for free.  The annual fee for the card is $95 however they do not charge an annual fee for the first year to allow you to get a good feel of the card.  I am going to assume that I will have two round trip flights each year. By saving the money for baggage, I have already covered the cost of the annual fee. One of the benefits I consider priceless is the better boarding position.  Nothing is worse than getting on the plane, and having to put your carry on bag rows and rows away from where you are sitting.  Being one of the first several groups on the plane with your Delta Amex almost guarantees you will have your bag near you.
Right now, by using my referral link, you will receive 50,000 miles after spending $2,000 in normal purchases in the first three months.  This is enough miles for 2 round trip tickets to many areas throughout the continental United States when flying out of Minneapolis.  You also have an option for a $50 credit if you have to do a Delta purchase and 10,000 more miles with $1,000 in purchases within the first 90 days.  The fact that American Express does have the no annual fee the first year, this is a great starter card to consider.  Another huge perk is that Delta Miles, unlike other airlines, do not expire due to inactivity.
If you enjoyed this article check out these others you may enjoy.

Thank you for reading, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

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Travel Hacking: How to Fly Delta Cheap #travel #travelhacking #delta #cheapflights

What is Travel Hacking?

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“Travel Hacking?, What is travel hacking?”

What is Travel Hacking? This is the most common question I get after people ask me what my hobbies are. I think the best way to look at it is ‘extreme couponing,’ but the benefit is in travel. Just like couponing, it all depends on what you want to put into it. Many people look at the amount I do and think its extreme. I look at what I do and see it kind of like driving in second gear. I watch others who are more extreme than I am as driving in overdrive.

Like most things, start with baby steps… what extra steps are you willing to take to travel. For some, it will be dumpster diving for a couple of pennies, and others it is just like looking at the sales flyers before going grocery shopping.

So in its simplest explanation Travel hacking is the ability to play within and by the established rules that airline companies, credit card companies, and hotels and use them to your advantage. People who travel frequently or have kids in traveling sports will likely find themselves earning free stays or discounted options if they book through the same hotel chain and use their rewards program. We take this concept and apply it to every purchase we make to see how we can make it happen to our advantage.

Travel hacking is not a new concept after all rewards programs have been around forever. I’m sure even when the first program started; someone finds a way to take advantage of the rules so they would benefit from it.

Travel Hacking Benefits

As we stated, like most things the benefits largely depend on the effort, you want to put into it. It doesn’t have to be super complex if you don’t want it to be. There are a lot of small things you can do that will add up over time. If you’re going to take full advantage of your everyday spending, planning purchases strategically and all-out points redemption, then you will have lots of benefits.  Some benefits you may get over time are free airfare, free hotels, upgraded hotel rooms, rental car discounts. The list would be too long for me to list entirely but you get the idea.

Travel Hacking Example

The example of it in use I like to give is my wife’s “Starbucks Addiction“. After several months, I realized there is no use talking her out of her $6 lattes and cheese danish, so I needed to determine how to benefit from the purchase. Knowing my wife uses a Starbucks app to pay for her coffee, I knew it could be loaded using a gift card. That produced two options. Option one is when I was at Staples, Office Max or Target, purchasing a gift card with a specific credit or debit card. This could get me back between five to ten percent back on my purchase to use towards travel. Option two is using an app- Mileage Plus X with a rewards card attached. This allows me to collect rewards credit card promos and nets about 5% back in travel rewards.

When doing the math, if my wife makes 10-12 trips a month to Starbucks in a month. Which unfortunately she does, option one will provide enough points for one round-trip ticket from Chicago to Cancun. Keep in mind; this example is just with her Starbucks addiction. Other stores have many options for purchasing gifts cards as well. We use Target, Walmart, Petco, and Amazon for many of our everyday purchases. And we go to restaurants such as Panera Bread and Buffalo Wild Wings using gift cards too. One simple step we added – Using gift cards, before checking out has allowed us to partially pay for multiple trips to Las Vegas (seven times just in 2017), Orlando and Cancun. This is only one of the examples I hope to show over the next several months as we dive deeper into the ‘hobby’ of travel hacking.

How can I get started?

So now that you’ve read this far, you are probably wondering what you can do to get started. Here are a few simple tips to help you get your feet wet. Sign up for rewards credit cards, but make sure you have a strategy in place to pay them off every month. Carrying a balance and paying interest will net you no real forward momentum and negates your rewards.

Every time you stay at a new hotel chain or fly a new airline, sign up for their rewards programs. You will likely end up with many and may find using a program like Award Wallet to be useful to keep track of them all. Whenever possible use your favorite airline and hotel programs. Being a frequent or return customer will reward you.

On many of your free purchases, you will still be responsible for tax and extra fees. These are usually minimal, but something to be aware of. If you don’t want to have to track every little thing you do, start with what you already do. Such as maximizing those Starbucks purchases or taking advantage of purchases on Amazon.

Do you have any tips you can share on earning free points or for our fellow travel hackers? If so leave us a comment, we love to hear from you.

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