What are you still doing here? All the action is now at:
beijing mind spill
and
chinese people looking at me
Go on then!
Yours,
Seth
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Hey you...
What are you still doing here? All the action is now at:
beijing mind spill
and
chinese people looking at me
Go on then!
Yours,
Seth
Monday, November 15, 2010
I've moved
Until I hit the road again, all the blogging fun can be found at Beijing Mind Spill:
http://sethfranciscoleman.com/blog/
See you there!
http://sethfranciscoleman.com/blog/
See you there!
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Flying Free: A guide for those with lots of time and less money
Normally cross continental flights will cost a chunk of change - often $1000 or more. I was amazed to learn how easy it is to work the airlines for free miles using credit card sign up bonuses as a way of very quickly accumulating enough miles international airfare.
The world of airline mileage clubs is a murky and convoluted one, designed by the airlines for maximum financial benefit for them, and minimum for you. However, with a bit of research and attention to detail, it's fairly easy to turn the tables on them.
First, you have to decide which airline alliance to accumulate miles on. There are 3 main alliances: SkyTeam, One World, and Star Alliance. Each has airlines spanning most global destinations, but it's important to find out which airline has the most airlines serving your departure points and potential destinations. The biggest, and my personal favorite, is the Star Alliance network, but your, ahem, mileage may vary.
Next it's time to start racking up some points for award travel. The slowest and most expensive way is to actually buy tickets on an airline in your chosen alliance, and fly on their airplanes. The way to rack up significant miles quickly though, is by taking advantage of the generous credit card sign up offers linked the airlines' mileage programs.
To see what is available, go to the flyertalk forums which is constantly updated by people who know way more about this than me.
Most credit card deals have a minimum purchase requirement, usually to be completed within x months in order to receive your sweet sweet miles. In case you hadn't planned to spend that much money in that amount of time, you can take advantage of the US Mint's scheme to buy $1 coins online, using a credit card. These are purchased at face value and shipped to you free of charge. You can then spend them, or more likely, head down to your local bank branch to deposit them into your account. Be sure to call your bank to make sure they will accept the deposits before you proceed.
Once you've completed the purchasing requirements, it generally takes a month or two for them to post to your airline frequent flier mileage account, so plan ahead. Once your miles have posted, you can search for awards flights through the airline's website, but sometimes you have to call them to have access to all the award seats of their partner airlines.
For those interested in pursuing this further, I recommend browsing the above mentioned flyertalk forums for much more detailed information regarding the particulars of credit card deals and mileage programs.
Happy Flying!
The world of airline mileage clubs is a murky and convoluted one, designed by the airlines for maximum financial benefit for them, and minimum for you. However, with a bit of research and attention to detail, it's fairly easy to turn the tables on them.
First, you have to decide which airline alliance to accumulate miles on. There are 3 main alliances: SkyTeam, One World, and Star Alliance. Each has airlines spanning most global destinations, but it's important to find out which airline has the most airlines serving your departure points and potential destinations. The biggest, and my personal favorite, is the Star Alliance network, but your, ahem, mileage may vary.
Next it's time to start racking up some points for award travel. The slowest and most expensive way is to actually buy tickets on an airline in your chosen alliance, and fly on their airplanes. The way to rack up significant miles quickly though, is by taking advantage of the generous credit card sign up offers linked the airlines' mileage programs.
To see what is available, go to the flyertalk forums which is constantly updated by people who know way more about this than me.
Most credit card deals have a minimum purchase requirement, usually to be completed within x months in order to receive your sweet sweet miles. In case you hadn't planned to spend that much money in that amount of time, you can take advantage of the US Mint's scheme to buy $1 coins online, using a credit card. These are purchased at face value and shipped to you free of charge. You can then spend them, or more likely, head down to your local bank branch to deposit them into your account. Be sure to call your bank to make sure they will accept the deposits before you proceed.
Once you've completed the purchasing requirements, it generally takes a month or two for them to post to your airline frequent flier mileage account, so plan ahead. Once your miles have posted, you can search for awards flights through the airline's website, but sometimes you have to call them to have access to all the award seats of their partner airlines.
For those interested in pursuing this further, I recommend browsing the above mentioned flyertalk forums for much more detailed information regarding the particulars of credit card deals and mileage programs.
Happy Flying!
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