Paris was the main stop in our European travels so we spent a week there. This was a very good thing and we could have easily spent a month. Since we were already in Europe (London) with our stopover, I knew getting to Paris would be a relatively easy trip either by air or train. Figuring out where to stay would be decidedly tougher. Continue reading
Author: feckman
2015 Epic Summer Vacation – Part 3: Backbone Airfare
After the dense and wonky first and second parts of this series, I’m hopeful that the rest of the series will tie things together and illustrate how a serviceable understanding of basic travel hacking concepts really can provide incredible value for spectacularly luxurious travel to interesting and exotic places. Continue reading
2015 Epic Summer Vacation – Part 2: Travel Hacking Primer
Let’s get something out of the way. “Travel hacking,” at its core, is not an unethical practice. Rather, it is the art of understanding the rules of credit card signup bonuses, shopping portal multipliers, fare sales and frequent traveler programs in order to extract the maximum possible benefit out of the money you spend and the points you earn on just about anything. Understanding the rules of any system to maximize the benefits to you isn’t shady, it’s smart. Just ask Neo. And while there are definitely “fringe” practices that blur (or cross) the line between ethical and unethical behavior, those things are pretty obvious on their face. Simply taking best advantage of the established rules isn’t one one of them. Continue reading
2015 Epic Summer Vacation – Part 1: Introduction
Welcome to part 1 of a multi-part series of posts outlining my family’s epic 2015 summer vacation — specifically, how we managed to travel nearly 25,000 miles in the air in first and business class, and spend nights in 5-star hotels on 3 continents, in 7 countries and 10 cities, mostly on points and miles that were mostly earned for free. Continue reading
Jim Meets World 