TravelingChris Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 I grew up with vacations (mostly to state parks and staying in cabins). My dh was the youngest child of 4 and his parent;s had mostly stopped going on vacations by the time he was little. He did go on a few over the years. My family had a vacation every year. We have emulated my family's pattern and go on at least one vacation a year and often more. Some ways we saved money is usually having car trips since airplane tickets raise prices quickly, doing such cost saving measures as camping, renting lodging where we can cook, staying at hotels where we redeem points from my dh's business travel, and traveling in non peak season. We really enjoy vacations and we put more money in that than in many other leisure activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mabelen Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 We try and usually manage to have a week's family vacation every year. Most years, to keep costs down, we stay in the U.S., drive, and use my husband's hotel points to stay at a nice hotel. Our struggle is fitting in (and affording) family visits. I see some other posters have families overseas. Our situation is more complicated because my husband is South Asian while I am European. Our respective families of origin live thousands of miles not only from us, but also from each other. Any family visit involves international air travel and thousands of dollars in air fares alone. It would be great is we could travel off season, but our girls have always attended school, and I work at an elementary school myself, it's just not practical. Our oldest is a college senior, and we are full pay, the money is definitely not flowing freely! We traveled to visit my family the summer before she started college, and then we visited my husband's family the Christmas before last. We are hoping that my inlaws will come to my daughter's college graduation. They are financially comfortable, but my father in law will be 92 by the time of graduation. It's a very long trip (over 24 hours flying time), so we can only hope he keeps fit and healthy. My family is less financially well off, so the reality is that we have to fly there if we want to see them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Idaho is within a long day's drive from us - want we should go visit your family for you? :D I think you're right about Europe. I was just talking with a co-worker last night who's planning to go to London in October. By flying out of LAX instead of PHX (which is where we live), her R/T airfare to London is HALF PRICE! And LAX is only about a 5 hour drive from here. To everyone, thank you ALL for the input! Just got a notice from RCI in the mail today about using my points. I REALLY need to do that! Time to start planning some trips! Yes, driving to another airport can save huge money. But so can just catching a great sale. The sales for airline tickets are insane right now. theflightdeal.com secretflying and airfarewatchdog are my favorite sites to get updates. But you can find your own deals on google flight explorer too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Thank you for these! I will have to look through them. Our flights are covered as DH works for an airline. Any hotel specific hacks that you can think of? I'd like to use hotels because then we can rack up points and DH can use them while working. Wow flights covered! Amazing. I am so jealous. There are a lot of credit card signups for hotels too. You can get a lot of free nights that way. You can sign up for hotel programs for specific hotel brands too. Like Hilton. Earn points for your stays. You can go through hotels.com and earn free nights. You get one free night for every 10 you book. You can use cash back sites like ebates too. And some airline cards you can use the points for hotels. Like Chase ultimate Rewards can be used for hotels. Or some that just give you a even $500 for travel you can use that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
importswim Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Our struggle is fitting in (and affording) family visits. I see some other posters have families overseas. Our situation is more complicated because my husband is South Asian while I am European. Our respective families of origin live thousands of miles not only from us, but also from each other. Any family visit involves international air travel and thousands of dollars in air fares alone. It would be great is we could travel off season, but our girls have always attended school, and I work at an elementary school myself, it's just not practical. I understand this. My family lives in Europe and DH's parents live in Asia. Thankfully his parents have a bit more money and are more mobile so they can come and visit us each year. We then use our family vacation time/money to go and visit my parents. I am very grateful that DH's parents are totally okay with this and not jealous at all. It would be really tough to have to make a decision. Either way you're looking at LOTS and LOTS of money. Wow flights covered! Amazing. I am so jealous. There are a lot of credit card signups for hotels too. You can get a lot of free nights that way. You can sign up for hotel programs for specific hotel brands too. Like Hilton. Earn points for your stays. You can go through hotels.com and earn free nights. You get one free night for every 10 you book. You can use cash back sites like ebates too. And some airline cards you can use the points for hotels. Like Chase ultimate Rewards can be used for hotels. Or some that just give you a even $500 for travel you can use that too. I know, right!?! This is a new job for DH and something that we never thought he would be able to do so I'm still in the completely shocked phase. :laugh: Thank you for the advice! I'm thinking about opening a card for hotel points but will have to do some research about which one would be best. I wonder if there's a card that you can redeem at any hotel and can rack up points fast rather than specific brand ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 I understand this. My family lives in Europe and DH's parents live in Asia. Thankfully his parents have a bit more money and are more mobile so they can come and visit us each year. We then use our family vacation time/money to go and visit my parents. I am very grateful that DH's parents are totally okay with this and not jealous at all. It would be really tough to have to make a decision. Either way you're looking at LOTS and LOTS of money. I know, right!?! This is a new job for DH and something that we never thought he would be able to do so I'm still in the completely shocked phase. :laugh: Thank you for the advice! I'm thinking about opening a card for hotel points but will have to do some research about which one would be best. I wonder if there's a card that you can redeem at any hotel and can rack up points fast rather than specific brand ones. Plan lots of trips while he has the job. There are cards that you can just use for travel expenses . I think the Barclay card is like that. Or you can use the Chase cards, you can find hotels, rental cars, and flights on their travel portal and pay for things that way. Or you can transfer their points to Hyatt, IHG, Ritz Carlton, and Marriott. I haven't used my chase points for hotels yet, so I don't have tons of advice on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdbates78 Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 The Starwood Card used to be one of the best cards around for quickly racking up points to use towards hotels or other travel-related credit even if you never stepped foot in a Starwood branded hotel. Just by signing up I believe we ended up with a great bonus. But that was a few years ago. The credit cards change so often. I follow Johnnyjet.com and he usually has great up-to-date travel credit card information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdbates78 Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 (edited) Travel credit card comparisons - https://www.johnnyjet.com/travel-deals/travel-credit-cards-from-our-partners/ https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/top-credit-cards/nerdwallets-best-travel-credit-cards/ Edited September 27, 2017 by tdbates78 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 I'm thinking about opening a card for hotel points but will have to do some research about which one would be best. I wonder if there's a card that you can redeem at any hotel and can rack up points fast rather than specific brand ones. Check with your husband if his employer already gives free travel benefits cards. My husband’s first employer here gave all employees who need to travel an Amex Worldperks card which is convenient because there is no fees for foreign exchanges when he needed to travel to China, Taiwan, Japan, Canada. The exchange rates were decent too. His current employer gave every employee a Cathay Pacific Marco Polo card that has privileges beyond collecting air miles. When we go out of states, we just ask what the benefits are for each card in the countries we are visiting. We already have three credit cards and heard that having too many would mess up our credit score. We do need to keep a high credit score though as we are looking to buy a bigger house and would need a mortgage then. Our travel dates are fixed mostly due to tagging along for business travels. Sometimes the AAA discount is higher and sometimes the hotel membership card discount is higher. You can use the hotel card to get discounted rate and use the credit card that would give the most points back. When we were in Europe, we weren’t staying in hotel chains but still in mid sized hotels. The credit card with the lowest exchange rate, no fees and highest points get used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Check with your husband if his employer already gives free travel benefits cards. My husband’s first employer here gave all employees who need to travel an Amex Worldperks card which is convenient because there is no fees for foreign exchanges when he needed to travel to China, Taiwan, Japan, Canada. The exchange rates were decent too. His current employer gave every employee a Cathay Pacific Marco Polo card that has privileges beyond collecting air miles. When we go out of states, we just ask what the benefits are for each card in the countries we are visiting. We already have three credit cards and heard that having too many would mess up our credit score. We do need to keep a high credit score though as we are looking to buy a bigger house and would need a mortgage then. Our travel dates are fixed mostly due to tagging along for business travels. Sometimes the AAA discount is higher and sometimes the hotel membership card discount is higher. You can use the hotel card to get discounted rate and use the credit card that would give the most points back. When we were in Europe, we weren’t staying in hotel chains but still in mid sized hotels. The credit card with the lowest exchange rate, no fees and highest points get used. A lot of people say that it really does not. People in the hacking world have 40 ish cards or more and their credit scores are better or the same as before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 A lot of people say that it really does not. People in the hacking world have 40 ish cards or more and their credit scores are better or the same as before. The home mortgage credit score is run differently from the credit score report apparently. We got a loan in 2006, refinance in 2008, and then look into refinancing a few more times. The mortgage score (> 700) is consistently lower than the general credit score. Our mortgage rates are still low but since it is typically jumbo loans here because of the crazy housing costs, the lower the mortgage rate the better. 40ish cards do honestly add up to a high combined credit limit though and a lot of cards to keep track of. I have a hard enough time with my one card and three supp cards, and not being annoyed about the high credit limits on each card but that’s just me. Other people like having lots of cards and high credit limits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbookbuzz Posted September 28, 2017 Author Share Posted September 28, 2017 40 cards?? That just seems a bit over the top to me. I have a hard enough time with one or two! I will look into other cheap travel hacks, though! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 (edited) We can only afford to go see family by plane because of dh earning airline miles from work travel. I am not sure what we would do otherwise. I hate already how we do not get to see them much. I have wanted to move closer ever since my oldest was a baby but it still has not happen. We never take vacations that are not visiting family besides tent camping long weekends. Edited September 28, 2017 by MistyMountain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 When we lived in CA and Dh's family lived in MI, we would fly out every other year. I would also fly to SC occasionally, like when my cousin died or when my Grandma died (My mom is originally from SC and my dad is from OR, so family is always on the other coast, no matter where we are!) And when the kids were younger we did a lot more. We would do road trips off season, go to Disney for dirt cheap (ok, comparatively), go up to Canada and Niagara Falls, when we lived in CA we would drive up to Seattle...... But then 2 years ago our lives changed quite drastically. The kids went to school and I went to work....in a school. No more off season vacationing. Summer of 2016 we drove from NC to MI to see Dh's family. We spent over a week. It is a 12 hour drive for us. This past summer we drove from NC to CA and took a 3 week trip, 7 days of driving to see my family. My guess is that is the last long trip we will take as a family. Oldest is going to a 4 year college and middle is a senior in high school. I did budget for the trip, but it was costly. I sympathize with the seeing family. We have family in AZ, CA, MI, and SC. OY! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbookbuzz Posted September 28, 2017 Author Share Posted September 28, 2017 We also even have family here in AZ that we don't see much. I don't know why. None of us plan for it, I guess. REALLY need to change that! I'm thankful we do get to see one of dh's brothers about once or twice a year. It helps that he's a pilot (dh's brother) for a private executive and Phoenix is metropolitan aread his boss like to visit on occasion for various sporting events! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschickie Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 When dd was younger we would drive to visit my Mom and my one sister a couple of times a year. A few years ago our cats became ill and then one need to be on medication, so that meant it was really a hassle to travel. We have just started doing some more traveling. Airbnb has been a great way for us to find cheaper accommodations for weekend trips. This coming year we are going on a cruise. The nice thing is that most everything is included on the ship and we can budget the rest. So the trip is a huge splurge for us but is going to be well worth the money. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Re: rental cars--I believe it's Hertz that lets you (or did a few years ago) stack a sale + a coupon + a AAA discount. I wound up with a car for ~$12 a day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Re: rental cars--I believe it's Hertz that lets you (or did a few years ago) stack a sale + a coupon + a AAA discount. I wound up with a car for ~$12 a day. was this a car or a minivan? Minis are harder to get cheap I always check Costco because we have found some amazing rates there. Or Just Expedia. Rates change a lot and you can get really lucky. Again go through Ebates for % 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 It was a car. The deal would've worked on a minivan, but of course the price & availability will vary with your destination. (The only time I ever wanted a mv, I was not the person in charge of renting & that person had not thought through how that location was going to be different from others.) We're usually traveling as 2-4 people, or my ILs have their own mv when it's the 5 of us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 (edited) It was a car. The deal would've worked on a minivan, but of course the price & availability will vary with your destination. (The only time I ever wanted a mv, I was not the person in charge of renting & that person had not thought through how that location was going to be different from others.) We're usually traveling as 2-4 people, or my ILs have their own mv when it's the 5 of us. wow 12 a day for mini is soooo good. that was a slick deal you got. Yes location makes a difference like crazy on rental rates too. Edited September 28, 2017 by mommyoffive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbookbuzz Posted September 28, 2017 Author Share Posted September 28, 2017 I may get to the point where I actually rent an SUV just to try it out for a week, without dealer pressure! I'm so tired of not being able to see around other vehicles! Not that that has anything to do with my original post! :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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