Not Your Average Gal

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Travel Hacking

Total Costs: Travel to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong

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The biggest costs to any trip are usually airfare and hotels. I’m here to show you how those can be cut significantly, so you can easily take a quick round the world trip like I did recently to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

I wrote about the miles and points associated with flying and staying in hotels here:

Airfare: How I Flew in Business Class to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong for Under $100
Hotels: How I Stayed in Fancy Hotels for 10 Nights for Under $400

Flights:

FLL-ATL-LAX: Delta Economy – $179
LAX – SYD: Virgin Australia Business Class – 80,000 Delta Miles + $37.10 tax
SYD-AKL: Air New Zealand Economy $324
AKL – HKG: Cathay Pacific Business Class – 30,000 American Miles + $20.90
HKG – JFK: Asiana Airlines Business Class – 80,000 United Miles + $41.60
JFK-FLL: Delta First Class $397

Total: $999.60

Hotels:

Park Hyatt Sydney: 3 nights – 2 free-night certificates + 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points
New Zealand AirBnb: 2 nights – $127/each
Intercontinental Hong Kong: 3 nights - 120,000 IHG points (plus $240 for my upgrade)

Total: $367.00

FINAL COST: $1,366.60

Now, obviously there are costs associated with food and fun purchases like snazzy scarves you hastily buy because it was 60 degrees in Hong Kong and you are a full-blooded Floridian now so you were freezing.

hongkongtravelhacking

I digress… But since those costs are very particular to each person, I didn’t include them here.

If I desperately wanted to save more dolla dolla bills, I could have forgone the room upgrade, and perhaps planned a bit better and bought my ticket to New Zealand sooner. We paid a lot for that one-way ticket, but weren’t exactly proactive about finding flights in time.

Also, my flight from JFK-FLL was in paid first class because it was only $40 more than economy and I knew after a 15 hour flight from Hong Kong, I’d appreciate it. All of those costs could have been cut, but since I saved so much money in other areas, I was okay with spending it. That’s what’s so great about travel hacking!

The bulk of costs for any vacation are getting there and staying somewhere, I hope you took something from this to see that taking a major trip is a very real possibility if you plan it well and use miles and points.

Hotels: How I Stayed in Fancy Hotels for 10 Nights for Under $400

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I should have spent over $4,500 to stay in the hotels I fell asleep in during a wine-induced haze. But I spent less than $400. How? Take a looksie.

This is a series of Trip Reports where I'll breakdown the costs associated with airfare and hotels and how I pay for a significant portion of it with miles and points, like I did recently to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Airfare: How I Flew In Business Class To Australia, New Zealand And Hong Kong For Under $100

So how did I stay in some fancy schmancy hotels for less 8% of what they cost?

What it cost:

Park Hyatt Sydney:
4 nights – 2 free-night certificates + 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points = FREE
Waiheke Island, New Zealand AirBnb:
2 nights = $127/per person
Rydges Auckland hotel:
1 night – AMEX Membership Rewards = FREE
Intercontinental Hong Kong:
3 nights - 150,000 IHG points + I upgraded at check-in and paid $80/night =$240
Total: $367

Brush up on The Basics of Earning Miles and Points, so you know how travel hacking works. Obviously, I spent some time sleeping overnight on planes during this 2 week vacation, but that wasn’t a problem because I flew in business class like a boss. (Did that sound as badass as I wanted it to? Good.)

What it should have cost:

Sydney Park Hyatt City Harbour View Room
Just a normal view from my balcony…

 

Sydney Park Hyatt: Park King (upgraded to City Harbour King due to my Hyatt Platinum status)

I used my 2 free night certificates I received after meeting the minimum spend on my Hyatt credit card. Plus, I transferred Ultimate Rewards Points to Hyatt for the remainder of the stay. Currently, this my most favorite hotel redemption so far. It was a spectacular hotel.

$941 AUD/night x 4 nights = $2,648.91 USD

 

Waiheke Island AirBnb
I was okay waking up here everyday.

 

Waiheke Island, New Zealand AirBnb: You know, a house.

This is sort of a no-brainer. $381 split between 3 wine-loving gals = bundles of New Zealand fun.

$381 USD

 

Screen Shot 2016-01-13 at 07.37.36
Source

 

Rydges Auckland hotel: Standard Double Room

My friend used her American Express Membership Rewards points to stay in this hotel overnight before we took off on separate paths for the remainder of our vacations. Plus, it was one of the few hotel rooms that had 2 double beds. Bizarre, right?

$264 NZD/night x 1 night = $173.68 USD

 

Intercontinental Hong Kong Harbour View Room
Harbour View Room of the stunning Hong Kong skyline. Light show every night!

 

Intercontinental Hong Kong: Harbour View Room

I used my IHG points that I accumulated through meeting the minimum spend on my Chase IHG credit card, as well as earning bonus points for being a Spire Elite (one of the statuses in their hotel program). In the end, I don’t regret paying cash to upgrade to a Harbour View room, but truth be told, I should have pushed the front desk staff more to get it for free. Even though I’m a Spire Elite (the highest status), I was just too nervous to come across as pushy. Oh well, lesson learned. In the end I only paid $240 for room that should have cost me over $1400. I’d call that a win!

$3,700 HKD/night x 3 nights = $1,430.37 USD
Total: $4,633.96

 

You can read more about my favorite credit cards to use  and decide for yourself which programs make the most sense for you. For this 2 week vacation, I’d say I did pretty dang good for the hotels.

If I were backpacking through Southeast Asia, using my points probably wouldn’t make as much sense since rooms cost $15.

It’s all in how you want to work your points for your needs. Sometimes people feel an obligation to stay at the best hotel for the best points redemption value and sure, that’s great and all, but in the end it’s what you need at that time and if it wasn’t the very best value, so what? You still got a great deal most likely!

In an upcoming post I’ll share the travel costs I paid out of pocket and the grand total associated with that. You’ll probably be surprised.

Airfare: How I Flew in Business Class to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong for Under $100

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The biggest costs to any trip are usually airfare and hotels. So how in the world did I fly three 10+ hours flights, all in business class for under $100? Let me show you.

This is the first part in a series of Trip Reports where I’ll breakdown the costs associated with airfare and hotels and how I pay for a significant portion of it with miles and points, like I did recently to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

So how did I fly in glorious business/first class for under $100?

Here’s how:

LAX – SYD: Virgin Australia Business Class – 80,000 Delta Miles + $37.10 tax
AKL – HKG: Cathay Pacific Business Class – 30,000 American Miles + $20.90 tax
HKG – JFK: Asiana Airlines Business Class – 80,000 United Miles + $41.60 tax
Total: $99.60

I’m sure you’ve read up on The Basics of Earning Miles and Points, so you’re well versed in travel hacking, right? Obviously, staying at hotels and flying will earn you hotel and airline miles, but for those of us who aren’t jetsetting 24/7 just for funzies, travel hacking works.

I used Delta Skymiles that I’ve earned by flying with them for years, as well as miles earned on my Platinum Delta America Express to book a Virgin Australia business class ticket. Virgin Australia is a partner of Delta and easily bookable online on Delta.com.

Business Class in Virgin Australia...with, you know, a bar.
Business Class in Virgin Australia…with, you know, a bar.

 

I used American miles that I earned simply by meeting the minimum spend with the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card and AAdvantage Aviator card (formerly theThe US Airways Premier World MasterCard). Cathay Pacific is a OneWorld partner and was booked through American Airlines.

Note the headline on The Wall Street Journal...what shadow? From my stretched legs on Cathay Pacific?
Note the headline on The Wall Street Journal…what shadow? From my stretched legs on Cathay Pacific?

 

I used United miles that I earned through both my United MileagePlus Explorer card and my Chase Sapphire credit card to book on Asiana Airlines, which is a Star Alliance partner. You can easily transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United miles and book from there.

It was my own little apartment.
It was my own little apartment on Asiana.

 

As I mentioned previously, I utilized a great company to help me find my Cathay Pacific and Asiana Airlines flights. There was a $200 fee associated with it that I felt was well worth it, since I was flying around the holidays and Australia/New Zealand are notoriously hard award ticket routes. I could have booked all of these flights, meaning there wasn’t some special pricing I got by knowing a hidden website or password. I just didn’t know where to look and that’s where PointsPros helped me out. I highly recommend them and may post about my experience in the future.

Additionally, I also had to get to LAX, fly between SYD and AUK, as well as, you know, get home to FLL, so there were tickets that I paid for out of pocket that I will lay out for you in the final total of costs for a 2 week trip. Hint: All total, including hotels, was under $1500.

Do I have your attention now?

*maniacally raises eyebrows*

Still think travel is too expensive for you? Nah. With minimum effort and a lot of organization, you can easily travel in business class on three 10+ hour flights, for under $100.

Stay tuned to see how little I spent on hotels for this trip.

Top Posts of 2015 & How I Did with my Goals

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NYAG_2015It was an interesting year on Not Your Average Gal with a total rebrand (formerly Caroline Made This), more posts about travel hacking and a fun mix of what you guys liked to read.

Take a look at the Top Posts of 2015.

  1. How to: Valentine’s Day Wreath
  2. A Reminder for all Teachers
  3. Canceling our Trip to Southeast Asia & How Things Will Get Better
  4. Why I Flew to Atlanta Yesterday Morning (and was Home Before Noon)
  5. You seem so happy.
  6. Welcome to Not Your Average Gal!
  7. 2015 Changed Me
  8. What is Travel Hacking?
  9. Changes are Happening in my Life and on This Site
  10. Short-Term Health Goals Before our Trip

Recap of 2015 Goals

Now, how did I do with the goals I set back last January? Pretty darn well. Sort of…

I’ll keep chugging along to hold myself more accountable this year. Big things are planned, plus I have a big announcement coming in the next few weeks regarding my fitness and upcoming races.

Blog

  • Join a blog network and start expanding readers. Readership is way up! No blog network.
  • Gain more followers on Twitter and Facebook. Check and check.
  • Choose one medium for all my social networks, that can push blog posts to all of them. Check. Plus, I’m focusing more on what works. Facebook is my best network.
  • Include more videos. Big fail. I have some up my sleeve from this most recent trip.
  • Write more about “travel hacking.” Check and check and check.
  • Gain more freelance writing work. Woot! Check.
  • Feature sponsored posts, guest writers and perhaps open up advertisements. Guest writer: Check Still leery of advertisements. It could change. This year, I’m focusing more on writing about what I love and seeing where that goes, as opposed to focusing on what sponsors may like. Writing a post last year about something I loved actually worked out for this year…more on that soon. :D

Life

  • Travel somewhere new in July. July got switched to December.
  • Read a damn book. 4, in fact! Woohoo!
  • Give up TV for one month. Check.
  • Learn more Spanish. Fail. Big time. Aside from the fun terms my coworkers have taught me.

Health

  • Lose 15 pounds. I lost exactly half of that, 7.5 pounds.
  • Incorporate more lifting in my workouts. Check.
  • Allow myself to buy pre-packaged meals. Check.
  • Run 2 half-marathons. I only ran one. But I’ll cut myself some slack considering this past fall, when I would have run the second one, was somewhat of a shit show. BIG announcement coming about races this year though.
  • Get up each morning at 6am. Check.
  • Eat less meat. Somewhat of a check? Meh.
  • Letting go of guilt. Check!

I think I did pretty darn tootin’ okay. What do you think? Do you have any goals for 2016 you’d like to accomplish?

Why I Flew to Atlanta Yesterday Morning (and was Home Before Noon)

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Technically, I landed before 11am.

I then went to Starbucks, Trader Joes and grabbed some Chipotle before noon.

It was an eventful Saturday, okay?

So, why am I crazy and why did I fly to Atlanta and back in the same day?

I completed what travel nerds like to call a Mileage Run.

(It was really a status run, but you’ll see the details below.)

Preface: Us travel greeks tend to do some crazy things. A bit ago, Delta sent me a targeted email offering me Gold Medallion status for the next 3 months, as well as the next year if I completed 3 roundtrip flights before a certain date. Knowing full well that I wasn’t going to try make Silver again for next year, I found this offer especially enticing.

As a “lowly” Silver Medallion member, I still enjoy some benefits. Gold offers a bit more that I won’t bore you with (and some may find silly) including Sky Priority boarding and free C+ (formerly Economy Comfort) seats 72 hours before the flight.

Now, would I fly 3 RT flights specifically to get Gold status? Probably not. Seems like quite a bit of money just for those benefits.

But, I already was planning on taking 2 roundtrip flights anyway for upcoming trips that I had not yet booked.

So, are those Gold benefits worth the cost of 1 flight? For me, yes.

I just had to make it work:

  1. It had to be a weekend flight so as to not interrupt my work.
  2. It had to be an early flight so I still had most of the weekend to be productive.
  3. It needed to not cost me an arm and a leg.
  4. It needed to provide Biscoff cookies.

This past week, I saw the price drop for the earliest morning flight available and snagged it.

After I complete the next 2 flights, I’ll be Gold until 2017.

Take a look at how it all went down. (Hover over for captions.)

FLL -> ATL

I hopped off my flight in Terminal B, headed to Terminal A for my next flight, made a quick pit stop at the ladies room and then waited about 10 minutes to board my plane back to Fort Lauderdale. (My flight to ATL was delayed about 30 minutes, otherwise I would have gladly hit up Caribou Coffee. <sad face>)

ATL -> FLL

I landed on time and had the hubster swing by the airport to pick me up after he played a round of golf. All in a day’s work, amiright?

HI!
HI!

 

Does this sort of status stuff matter in the grand scheme of life? Nah. It’s important to keep that perspective, certainly. Plus, in the travel world, Gold isn’t much. But for me, the creature comforts it provides made it worth it to just hop on over to Atlanta for a half hour and fly home.

We all have hobbies, I guess I can include a mileage/status run as one of mine now.

My Next Adventure: Take a Guess Where & I’ll Buy you Something

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It’s been a rough and tumble, rock ’em, sock ’em few months in our household. Things are certainly looking up after having to cancel our trip to Southeast Asia and finding a healthier balance with the hubster’s med school schedule though. After sitting down with him to make sure he was in a better place now both mentally and physically with the rigors of med school, I decided to investigate my next adventure.

Where, you may ask?

That’s the fun part!

Especially since I’m going to bring something back for two fantastic readers.

office

Say what?

I know. I love getting free shit too!

The first two readers to correctly guess where I’m going on my upcoming trip, will win a gift from me that I will purchase on my international adventure. Obviously, I won’t know what I’m bringing back until I get there, but that’s half the fun. I imagine it would be something along the lines of a neat decorative item, fun jewelry, yummy local food or a plastic ashtray…who knows?! The possibilities are endless. If you win, I only ask that you post a photo of your gift on social media and tag Caroline Made This.

Hints:

My flights for this trip are booked and general itineraries have been made. I mentioned a few options for places I’d go in a post on here. Even better, and probably more accurate, there are hints on my social media accounts that will give you some ideas. If you meander over to my Facebook page you’ll see a screen capture of my first flight. Also, if you follow me on Twitter, you can probably see some tweets that offer insight. My Pinterest page may offer the best glimpse into my travels though…

I am traveling to 3 countries and you’ll need to guess all 3 (in no specific order). One country is considered a self-governing region. (I will not consider connecting flights as countries I’m visiting.) I will be with friends for the first portion of the trip and alone for the last half.

Psst. If you’ve read this much, you’re ahead of the game because most people just skip to the part below. Well done, chaps.

To Enter:

Step 1 – Comment below with your best guesses of the 3 countries I’m visiting
Step 2 - Share my Facebook page

(This won’t increase your odds of winning, but will win you a place in my heart, and that’s important, life-achieving kind of stuff.)

Best of luck!

Very Official-Looking Rules:
The giveaway concludes at 11:59pm on Sunday, September 20, 2015. (2) Two people will win. (1) One entry per person. The first (2) two people to guess correctly in Step 1 by commenting below on this page will win.  You do not need to complete both steps to qualify to be a winner. I will email the winners at the conclusion of the giveaway, so be sure to enter your correct email address. Also, if you know where I’m going because I’ve told you, I know you know and therefore you’re ineligible for Step 1. Consider being privy to the information before everyone else your reward!