3 for the price of 1 travel

This week, United announced a change in how one can book award travel. The implications are significant for people who use frequent flier miles to travel for pennies on the dollar.

In this article, I'm going to do two things...some of you might find the second one useful, especially if you're interested in saving money, and turning a basic vacation into an incredible adventure.

There's more to travel than flying "The Big 3"

I've got A LOT more flying ahead of me
to make a dent in this list...

While I'm a believer in the old adage, "life is a journey, not a destination", that doesn't apply to airline travel. For me, flights are time in a big aluminum tube that I endure so that I can enjoy more significant adventures once I'm on solid ground.

What follows is a list of travel carriers I have used to save time and money while expanding the new destinations I'm able to visit. Hopefully it inspires readers to think "outside the box" when it comes to planning an adventure.

Money for nothing...in the form of hotel stays

What if someone gave you a $500 stay in the heart of London for doing what you normally do?

In essence, that's what happened to me this summer as I decided to get better at maximizing hotel reward benefits.

Travel costs for round-the-world 2014

Reaction to my most recent trip has been mixed; some have been inspired to travel more often, while others cite all sorts of reasons why they can't. 

Either way, a common concern is cost. After crunching the numbers, I've come up with a figure that should be encouraging to most aspiring globetrotters...

Round the World... for peanuts

Peanuts? I like peanuts.

They say that reading is fundamental...that includes travel blogs and forums, right?

I was all set to go to London and Paris this fall--a few months ago, I'd booked airfare using some frequent flier miles, identified which hotels were ideally located for short visits, and looked at what's involved to take the Chunnel between the two cities.

Then I ran across this*: Under $400: From Los Angeles – Visit Budapest / Prague then Tokyo, One way, including all taxes.

A new meaning for "paid vacation"

"Wait...you want to pay me 80 bucks
to fly to New York? Sure!"

It's like a pitch on a late-night infomercial: "What if I told you that we could get you to your destination at the same time as scheduled... and we'll pay you the price of your ticket, plus an extra eighty dollars?"

That was the question posed to me when I checked in for my flight to New York this past weekend. Turns out that United overbooked the flight, and since I hadn't chosen a seat, I got "bumped". (I skipped selecting seats in the hope that I'd wind up in a roomier "Economy Plus" seat for the five hour redeye from LAX to JFK.)

Crumpets, Tea...and Raiders

Roger Goodell...if you're
listening: Hong Kong.
Just sayin'.

I'm starting to think that the NFL knows that I like to travel.

In late August, I ran across a rockstar deal from Sacramento to New York City - $220 round trip during the Veterans' Day holiday. A cheap, three-day weekend to New York was enough to make me want to book the flight, but the fact that my team is playing in the Giants' new stadium on Sunday made the trip a no-brainer.