AlohaDaveKennedy

But with the government rolling out dollars like toilet paper and inflation at the pump and grocery store don't we owe it to the country to beat prices to the ground, stop business as is and solidy whack those politicians who want to turn the US into postwar Germany?.

Your money may be worthless and you can't afford food or gas to get to work, but here, have a dish of debt with a little health care sprinkled on it.

FlyerChrisK

Exactly. I evangelized very early on to my friends but then I stopped. If someone asks a direct question, I'm glad to help.

rajuabju

I'm in a beautiful suite at the HR in Hong Kong right now. Before this, had stops in Tokyo and Beijing, also in very nice suites. Oh, and I flew in J on JAL to get there... and flying F on CX going back home to Los Angeles in a few days.

And last year I did a 4 city tour in South America. Again, all suites, all J class. And I'll still have enough miles/points for at least 2 or 3 similar trips.

And my friends were all laughing at me when I was hauling 10k+ coins to the bank each week for months on end... I've sent every single one of them at least 1 email/photo/postcard from the various destinations I've been to so far, and plan to continue doing so

pnoeric

Indeed! This is one of the reasons I like the MegaDO and other frequent flyer events... it's great to be in a room full of folks who understand exactly what you're talking about, and with whom you don't have to self-censor about where you're going/where you've gone, and (more interestingly) how you got there ;-)

I agree, though with close friends who know me well, that's obviously not the case.

Of course... I am not pushing. I'm talking specifically about close friends & family who say they like to travel, and who say they envy me, and constantly say stuff like "I wish I could travel like that!" That's when I always respond with "you know, it's not that hard, and I can show you."

sent

I wonder if there are folks in a parallel Amway message board somewhere on the interwebs discussing the benefits of how easy their sales are and wondering why more people don't want to do Amway given how easy it is.

BaggerOne

hey! When are you headed to brazil? We are going for thanksgiving this year!!

pnoeric

That's a really interesting question. Of course, there are big differences between Amway (or any other MLM business) and the miles/points game that we all play. (The biggest being that we don't have to enroll anyone else in anything in order to get ahead... i.e. in most cases, I don't get significantly more miles/points if I share all my information with you.) But yeah, it's a funny thought!

sent

This is true. If I share all my information with you and you actually get hooked, well now I've just diluted the mileage/point redemption opportunity pool by just a little bit potentially hurting my ability to redeem. But as this thread shows, so few actually go through the effort to even try and get into the game.

jetsarefast2

I've recently made a friend into a convert. After some persuasion and a three hour discussion, he decided to jump on the two-browser trick that will help him get to South America and Europe. Even though there are other cards that require no minimum spend or have a small annual fee, which is often worth the investment, he's decided two cards is enough.

Others think it's easy to find a cheap flight without miles. (Because they're not into getting a credit card). That's sometimes true, but they expect me to find them something equivalent to a mistake fare. "You're going to Japan for under $500!? Can you find me something like that? Except I want to go to the beach, so, something tropical." It's very sporadic and spontaneous because the window is only a few hours (with mistake fares). And I haven't figured out how to decipher dumping, so I'm still a rookie.

Either way, it adds fuel to the fire that my excitement — and addiction — can positively influence others so they are able to travel and experience more than they imagined.^

Bohemiana

It depends on what your definition of "good" is. My husband and I traveled 5 months in 13 countries (Fiji, NZ, AU, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Bahrain, Jordan, Israel, Greeze, Spain and Portugal & NYC) and never spent anywhere near $100 per person. Our most expensive country was Fiji with $136 per day for two of us, and that included our hotel for $95 per night (buffet breakfast and sport activities included). Next highest was NYC for $125 for two of us, free hotel with SPG points at FourPoints. Yes, there were a few times we felt like we would have liked to spend more, like in Langkawi, Malaysia using our SPG points at the Sheraton it would have been nice to eat at the hotel more but we just walked 1/2 mile into town to eat at the local restaurants or ate at the hotel's happy hour. We have a couple of friends who hate our method of travel but most envy it. For us, it was a terrific trip that was worth staying on budget in order to take it.

Liar

wow... I mean wow that's so deep :P I can't sleep tonight after reading this.

AlohaDaveKennedy

Heck, my scouts have a good time on less than $25 a day. Then again we hike for transportation, camp in tents, sit on rocks and dine on MREs.

pnoeric

Strictly speaking, yes, but in practical terms, it's such a small, small, small drop of water in a big ocean, right? I mean, of the thousands of people I interact with in my life, there are only 2-3 that I would invest the time in sharing (and teaching) everything I've learned. And as you said, so few even go through the effort, regardless...

It's all kind of an interesting mind game, though. :-)

DHAST

My wife and I traveled through SE Asia for a month, and our non-lodging & transportation budget was $100/day for the two of us. That was enough. This year, we're heading back and throwing in a HKG stop. HKG is going to run up the tab, but that's because we want to eat at some nicer places.

Happy

Let's say you can get by with $100 per day for BOTH of you, (that is a very low level that I doubt it could be done when we are talking about EVERYTHING INCLUDED - foods, transportation, sightseeing, occasionally paid lodging), 5 months would be 150+ days, at $100, it is still $15K cold hard cash... so to put a perspective....

Not to mention the duration of the trip.... if the 5 months were done on a single stretch... The longish trips we tend to do at least one every year would normally be limited to 45 days for various reasons including certain regular monthly medical appointments we must keep, so 45 days would be as stretched as we could get. Besides, long trips do put strain on one's body and mind.