Day 3261 – How I Got $621.96 In Free Flights And Am Going to California For $521.96 And How You Can Too

Posted on June 15, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

Y’ll know I love Southwest. I’ve blogged about them a lot but I wanted to share about a recent experience I had with Southwest and a new experience with Allegiant free travel as well.

Now first, my biggest piece of advice when using a rewards credit card is to know your limits. We use our credit cards like cash and pay them off about once a week or every other week, depending on our income. The cool thing about both credit cards is I can pay off the card before the transactions post. Previous cards I used did not let me do this, maybe this is a newer feature and those cards now offer it, but this is a big feature to me. On some of my previous bookings, I purchased the tickets, then hopped over to pay them off right away. If you don’t think you can control yourself with a credit card (i.e. buy more than you normally would without a credit card), then use it to autopay some bills and keep it in a place where you won’t use it. We pay our cell phone and car insurance through our cards. I had a friend who put a large one time purchase on the card to get the bonus miles and paid it off right away. We use both cards for everything except rent.

Where we travel to in California is not a Southwest airport. That has caused us to do a few creative things like renting a car and driving from Vegas or sucking it up and paying for an expensive flight from Vegas to Fresno. Seriously guys, for a 45-minute flight, you’re looking at roughly $300+. A few years back, a new airline started flying into Fresno and it has made travel there SO much more affordable. That airline is Allegiant. It’s a very “you get what you pay for” and you do pay for what you want. If you’re traveling with checked bags and large carry-ons, it might be a little less affordable (you pay for each piece), but we’ve learned that our backpack and duffle bag work at personal items (i.e. they fit under the front seat). So we’re looking at a $40-80 (+taxes and fees) flight. You have to pay for drinks too (but you do get a free drink if you have the credit card).

On our last holiday trip to California, I signed up for the Allegiant credit card. I got a statement bonus of $50 after only six weeks of using the card. We then earned the signup bonus of 15,000 miles not long after. The cool thing about Allegiant’s miles is they translate miles to dollars (whereas Southwest’s miles fluctuate by the time of year and location). So 15,000 miles is $150 of travel. We used that card exclusively until we earned enough miles that I thought it would cover our next flight, then we went back to Southwest.

While both cards have a yearly fee, Southwest at least gives you 6,000 bonus miles on your anniversary. So a $99 fee that ain’t bad.

So that brings us to yesterday, where I booked flights from BWI to LAS to FAT (and back again). Here’s what my costs would have been for two people:
BWI -> LAS (roundtrip) via Southwest – $983.92
LAS -> FAT (roundtrip) via Allegiant – $160.00
Total cost – $1,143.92

I had enough points to cover Allegiant completely and I had enough points to cover one way on Southwest for each of us. That left me with paying for one way.
Total cost after points – $521.96
Total savings after points – $621.96

Over HALF of my flights were covered. What’s cool is that $521.96 will get me 3x the miles, which I’ll be able to use for later flights. If we end up staying in a hotel during our trip, if I book through Rocketmiles, I can get as little as 1,000 bonus miles.

I wrote a whole post on the ways you can earn miles, so make sure to check that out.

Do you have a Southwest card? Do you love it?

p.s. This photo is from a trip I took to Florida to visit a friend and flew for free and the whole trip only cost $139.99.

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Day 3257 – January Letter Status – or – How Visualizing The Future Helps To Change It

Posted on June 11, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

I told y’all a little bit about my January Letter a while back and I wanted to give an update to show just how powerful this technique can be.

The short description of a January letter is that it’s something you write in January like it’s the end of that year. So I wrote mine on 1/1/18 (and 12/31/17) and it starts with “It’s December 31, 2018.” After that, I listed how the year was going to look “we’ve closed XX deals…I have read XX books…I met the Super Carlin Brothers…etc”

There were a few items (and still are) that I’m not sure if they will actually happen. First was seeing John Williams in concert. I heard he was touring and after my life-changing experience at the Hans Zimmer concert, I knew I had to make it happen. Unfortunately, it was something I kept putting off and the less expensive tickets were gone and the left-over tickets were going for $200-300+. While I do think seeing a film composer is an amazing experience, I didn’t want to spend that much (especially when that amount of money can do a lot better in our real estate business). Another item was “I saw Thrice twice.” A few weeks ago, we could have seen Thrice at a pretty epic festival, but it just didn’t work out. I then realized there was only one more tour date in the US this year. Ugh, well, at least we can go to that one! (It just so happens to be the day after our anniversary, woo hoo anniversary trip!) While a little disappointed I wouldn’t be able to tick that off, I was happy to see them once.

The John Williams Baltimore show is this Wednesday and has been on my calendar for months. A few days back, I thought, let me see if he’s playing a show somewhat nearby that would be a little more within our budget. Dudes. Dudes. Dudes!! The first location I checked was in Massachusetts….in August (before Bret goes back to school)….and is at a venue JUST like Merriweather (where we saw Hans)…AND it was under $30 each!

On the SAME day, I happened upon an announcement….Thrice is putting out a new album and doing a tour this fall!

While I’m not saying that these things will now happen because I wrote this letter. What struck me is that because I have been visualizing this, I look for opportunities to make them happen. How you see the world has a major impact on how your life plays out. If you’re looking for a job and think “there are no jobs out there” it will be much harder for you to find one. If you think “there are plenty of jobs for my specific skill set, there are people who need what I can offer” odds are, you’ll recognize opportunities right under your nose.

It’s been so exciting to see my letter come to life. One of the items – meet The Super Carlin Brothers, will happen in only a few days time! They’re hosting a viewing party of Incredibles 2 and a meet & greet after. I’ve watched so many of their videos and they bring joy to my days, so it will be an honor to meet them in person.

Have you written a January letter?

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Day 3256 – Kyodai Rotating Sushi Bar – Fun Stop In Towson, Maryland

Posted on June 10, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

Last week, I had the joy of trying out Kyodai Rotating Sushi Bar in Towson, Maryland. I’ve seen places like this in movies and always wanted to try it out. It lived up to and exceeded my expectations! It was so fun to grab the sushi off of the belt. And it was GOOD sushi.

Have you ever done something like this?

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Day 3255 – Preparing For The Next Step In Our Travels

Posted on June 9, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

A few weeks ago, we talked about taking another epic road trip this summer. Our route would have taken us to Montana and near Lake Louise, which has been on our bucket for years. We thought, alright, time to get our passports. Originally, we were waiting until we hit all 50 states to travel internationally, but figured we’re so close to Canada, why not? Since then, we decided to postpone the drive and fly so we can spend the time working on our businesses. We’re big into the “sacrifice now for the benefits later” and this was one of them.

So while I’m not sure when we’ll start to use these bad boys, I’m SOOOOO excited to have my very own passport! (Shout out to the USPS for getting these two us in TWO WEEKS!)