Help this newbie get started! thanks
 

Hey all,
My name is Barry from Indiana. I am unemployed right now and wanna fly the world. This site is mighty complicated to me and so is the whole frequent flyer stuff. I live between Dayton and Indianapolis airports. Can anyone give me advice how to start on doing this stuff:) Like the first baby steps to begin an adventure. Like I say, I don't know anything about it, so any help would be awesome. Or if someone around here can take me on a trip with them and show me the ropes. Thanks so much!

Hi Barry! Welcome to FT.

I suspect if you are unemployed it might be difficult to get tickets, even for the best of us.

Welcome to FT - I'm going to help you get started by moving this over to a more appropriate forum. Please continue to assist in Milesbuzz!

Jenbel
Co-moderator, Communitybuzz!

Barry - Welcome to FT. It is difficult to get approved for credit card applications unless you have a proven source of income and a good credit score. So first things first you should have realistic expectations, good credit score and a source of income to pay down the credit card bills in full every month. If you don't have good credit score, then you should start building up your score. There are some forums that provide you information on how to do that. Once you get that down you can start reading the forums for more information on what credit cards you can apply etc. Baby Steps.

welcome to FT. I agree with others here that being unemployed does not help.

Unfortunately it is true that credit card bonuses are the easiest way to accumulate lots of miles quickly these days.

But there are some other things you can do. Most important, you need to figure out which airline(s) serve your nearest airports for when you do start traveling. Then you can focus your attention on building your miles account with the airline you are most likely to fly (or its alliance partners).

Even though you are unemployed, I suppose you still need to do some shopping. If you are able to do so, taking advantage of the online shopping portal of whichever miles program you decide to collect miles in will help you get some free bonus miles. Check the miles program's partners on their website. Most of them have a variety of way to collect miles that involve every day types of transactions.

Once you get a job you can start dipping into credit card world. Just make sure you can pay off your bill every month so you are not paying interest.

Good luck!

Barry:

If unemployed with a few thousand in cash reserves or a rollover IRA it is possible, but it will take a few months and you will need to travel off season. Just PM me with the correct answer to 3 civil war questions - who was Knoxie, which president blinded pigs by sewing their eyes shut, and what was the last name of the man who saved Lincoln's son's life while he was aboard a train?

Hi Barry, welcome to FT
Can you tell us are you just wanting to travel cheaply by paying cash and seeing the world while you have some time on your hands, or are you trying to learn how to save points/miles and travel for free? Most here in mile buzz will offer lots of advise on how to get credit cards to get points/miles to travel for free, this may be difficult if you have no income.

OK I give up. Which president blinded the pig????????????????

Newbie: thanks for the comments!
 

I guess I Should have been clearer. I am unemployed, just looking to have fun for awhile and see the planet. I have good credit, money is not a problem. My wife has a great job, so I don't have to work that much right now. Man them Civil War questions are tough...I do re-enacting but not that great of a historian ;)

So I guess the best way is just get some credit cards with miles on them is the best way? Thanks for the advice all!

The best way to get significant numbers of points is by credit card signup bonuses. Most cards have bonuses of 40-50 thousand. Some have tricks and catches, for example, the United Explorer card appears to give more points if you have miles in your United account. So open a Mileage Plus account, sign up for their dining program, go eat at one restaurant, then you have miles in your account.

Overseas premium class cabin travel can be fun (will your wife mind? I assume not) and the only way its afforbable is with points, but a lot of carriers have hefty fuel surcharges now.

One challenge can be getting enough points on a single airline for an aspirational trip. If you really want to go for the gusto, you might try getting a USA-based Aeroplan (Air Canada) Mastercard, and a few American Express cards. Aeroplan has a "mini-around-the-world" trip where I know people who've gone around the world in business for as little as 135K miles or first for 185K. (It's not easy to figure out, and Aeroplan won't tell you how, but there is a primer on it on the Air Canada board.)

If you are just looking to do one trip and are flexible on dates, it probably doesn't matter that much which airline or alliance you target, as all airlines will more or less get you from here to there if you're flexible enough.

It would help a lot if you were clearer about your travel plans. i know you may not have any fixed idea, but give an idea of some things you'd enjoy.

Since you claim to be a newbie, I'll try to be thourough about explaining stuff. Sorry if I insult your intelligence or something :p

Sounds to me that what you need is a Round-the-World-ticket (RTW). Each of the 3 airline alliances (Star Alliance, SkyTeam, Oneworld) offer this type of ticket. You can create your preferred itinereary at the respective alliances' websites and display the associated price (admittedly, I've only tried it thoroughly with Star Alliance myself). The benefits of an RTW-ticket is that it allows you to travel far with a lot of stops at an affordable price. Also, the extra cost for premium classes is smaller than for regular tickets.
There are many tricks associated with getting the RTWs as cheap as possible, such as starting your itinerary from specific countries/regions, and you need to decide wich alliance offer the RTW-ticket that best suits your needs. You should be able to get good advice on your choice from this forum.

And another thing: You should end up with a pleasant number of miles in your account afterwards. You can put miles earned on board an airline in the Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) of any airline in the same alliance. Every program have different conditions you need to consider when choosing which one to put your miles in. A US one will be a good idea if you think of getting a credit card at some time. Again, this forum is an excellent resource for advice.

If you're not familiar with the concept of airline alliances, start with Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_alliances
Wikipedia also lists which airlines are in which alliance.

Take a look at the How to Begin section of my website. Then I suggest you take a few hours to read everything on that site to see most every way there is to acquire free or very cheap miles. Then, to keep up with this fast changing subject, subscribe to the service that notifies you when I post anything on my What's New page.

Caution: This stuff is very addictive.

Addressing the assumption that the OP's employment status may make it difficult for him to travel: it's at least possible that his unemployment stems from recently winning the lottery, inheriting a large sum, etc. etc.

Do you have a country in mind? Also, what class are you hoping to travel in? Also, your wife should be opening the cards if only she is employed.