In this episode of the Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast, Sean Ogle of Location 180 sits down to discuss how to start a business that can be run from anywhere in the world, why travel has changed his life, and how to create a killer bucket list…and then actually cross stuff off it!
Sean also opens up about how he personally went from a “life that sucked” in 2009 to now becoming a wildly successful entrepreneur who is not only living his dream, but is spending his time helping others do the same.
You’ll even learn what his least favorite place in the world is…and which happens to be mine as well!
If you’re looking for some motivation to start doing something that matters, or you just want to hear some great travel stories, you’ve got to give this a listen!
If you haven’t already done so, I would love if you took one minute (seriously, only one) to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below! It is vital to helping us move up the iTunes rankings!
In this episode, world-famous travel blogger Gary Arndt of Everything-Everywhere sits down with me to talk about how he has become one of the world’s most recognized travel bloggers and how a 2-year trip has turned in to 6.5 years (and counting) of full-time travel.
He’ll dish out some of the best advice I’ve ever heard about how to become a successful blogger (hint: it’s not what you think), discuss how he taught himself to become an award-winning photographer despite no formal training, and we’ll tackle the difference between travel vs. vacation.
And of course, since this is a man who seeks to see everything and go everywhere, he’ll also share some of the most amazing places he’s been as well as some pretty big countries that he hasn’t yet gotten to.
Gary’s passion for travel, his incredible talent for storytelling and photography, and his drive to push the boundaries of travel blogging to new heights has catapulted him to the forefront of the travel industry.
He was one of the very first travel bloggers and now, rightfully so, is one of the biggest, so you definitely won’t want to miss the wisdom and advice that he shares in this revealing podcast.
If you haven’t already done so, I would love it if you took one minute (seriously, only one) to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below! It is vital to helping us move up the iTunes rankings!
In this episode of the Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast, travel podcasting legend Chris Christensen joins me to discuss how the average American can best maximize their two weeks of vacation time a year.
He’ll also share the best travel tips he’s gotten over the course of recording over 500+ travel podcasts, discuss the state of the podcasting industry and why it is undergoing such a resurgence, and tell you how you could possibly be a guest on his show, the Amateur Traveler.
Chris is the Godfather of the travel podcasting industry, and someone I’ve been following closely for a few years now. Not only does he know his stuff, but his silky smooth voice is one that you could listen to all day long, so go have a listen!
If you haven’t already done so, I would love if you took one minute (seriously, only one) to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below! It is extremely important to helping the show grow!
Renting a car can often be confusing, frustrating, and worst of all, expensive. But it doesn’t have to be.
Because of the dynamic price-gouging nature of car rentals, the tips below could end up saving you over 50% off the “regular” price.
And with all these savings, you may actually find renting a car enjoyable…as long as you keep an eye on the speedometer!
1. Deny the insurance
I get it: you’re not a risk taker and you want to be covered. No worries!
If you’re renting a car in the United States and already have car insurance, your car insurance should cover a rental car (just call to make sure).
If you are renting in the US and don’t have car insurance, book your rental car with a credit card that offers supplemental insurance as a perk. This includes all Visa signature cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase British Airways, or Hyatt credit card, and many World Mastercards as well.
If you’re renting internationally, the supplemental insurance that the credit card offers usually becomes primary insurance, and so once again, you’ll be covered.
2. Say no to the GPS
You don’t have to turn the clock back to the 20th century and use only a map and the stars, but don’t get the GPS the rental company offers. If you’re renting in the US, simply use your smartphone’s map function.
This option is also available when renting internationally as well. Instead of a $13 a day GPS, get a new SIM card for your phone (make sure your phone is unlocked first).
In most countries, $15 will get you data plan large enough to use the map for a few days and also be able to answer email and check Facebook!
3. Fill up where it’s cheapest
A no brainer. But oftentimes, especially when traveling between countries, you aren’t aware of the difference in gas prices, which can be dramatic. Do your homework ahead of time.
In Spain, the gas prices hovered around $7.50 a gallon. Insane, right?
That’s what I thought until I got to Portugal, where I was paying $8.50 a gallon!
I was cursing myself for not filling up at the border and determined to not make that mistake again. I put in just enough to roll out of Portugal on fumes and fill up at it’s much cheaper Iberian neighbor!
4. Use Rentalcars.com or Kayak as a starting point but always check the actual rental car websites.
Using Rentalcars.com or Kayak or any other search engine is a great way to find out a decent range of what you should pay for a rental car. However, always make sure to actually check the rental car companies websites as well.
On my last trip, rentalcars.com wanted 192 euros for a 10 day rental from Europcar. When I went to Europcar’s actual site, the same rental priced out at 150 euros, a whopping 25% less.
A few minutes of work can save you a nice chunk of change, especially on long rentals.
5. Avoid airport pickup
It’s not always the most convenient, but if you can avoid picking up the car at the airport location, you can save some big money.
Most rental car companies will place a charge on to your rental for picking it up at the airport, sometimes up to $30.
Instead, save those shekels and head to a secondary location to pick up the car. If you’re in a big city, there should be plenty of options and they should be located conveniently around public transport.
Hop on the metro, get away from the airport, spend the extra money on a nice lunch, and then pick up your car.
6. Always return the car full
Fill ‘er up!
This has to be one of the biggest scams out there, right up there with the Nigerians princes offering you millions for your bank account information.
The rental car companies will charge you 2x or 3x more than the gas station for a gallon of gas, so if you don’t return the car full, you’ll be paying HUGE amounts to have them fill it.
Also, never agree to pre-pay for gas. You’ll be charged upfront for a full tank of gas and unless you return it completely empty, you’re losing money.
Instead, simply opt for the “return on full” option…and then make sure it’s full!
7. Earn bonus frequent flyer miles for your rental
Before renting, always make sure to check the Frequent Flyer Bonuses website to see what type of bonuses are being offered by each car rental company.
All you’ll have to do to get the bonus(es) is give them your frequent flyer number when renting the car and it should post automatically.
Who doesn’t love free miles!
8. Grab a discount code
Rental car companies are always offering special discounts for all types of things, from business rentals to AARP members.
A simple Google search of “(Your Car Rental Company) discount code” will return a ton of hits. Look through the first few sites and see what type of codes there are. Then, use those codes to get up to 50% off your rental!
9. Use hotel status to score perks
Oftentimes, if you have status with a hotel chain or two, you can score some perks with the rental car companies as well. For example, my Gold Status with Hilton earns me a 25% discount with most major car rental companies.
Hotel status can also earn you perks like free upgrades or a free GPS rental (while I don’t recommend paying for GPS, if it’s free, take it!).
These extra perks MAY be stackable with promotions offered by discount codes, meaning you’d be able to use your status to get the perks AND use the discount code you found online. Call the company up to make sure.
If they aren’t stackable, simply choose the one that is the best offer.
10. Don’t speed
As someone who has racked up speeding tickets in multiple countries, do as I say and not as I do.
There’s nothing worse than opening an envelope from the Victoria state police four months after your vacation has ended and being hit with a couple hundred dollar speeding ticket.
Of course, if you aren’t planning on returning to that destination for awhile, and the statue of limitations might be over by then, and you have a significant other who could rent the car in their name next time, then…maybe speeding isn’t so expensive after all.
Final Word(s)
As long as you do a little bit of homework, renting a car should never cost you an arm and a leg. Just denying the insurance they push on you can save you a huge amount of money.
Couple that with using your own GPS, scoring a discount code or two, and quickly checking multiple websites for the best price and you’re staring down some big savings.
And always remember, return the car on full!
What tips do you have to save money on car rentals? Do you have a memorable car rental experience? Share them below!
Want to go to Hawaii, London, or Tokyo using frequent flyer miles? No sweat. All the alliances fly there, and fly there often. In fact, you’ll most likely have your pick of partners.
But what about trying to get to a more remote destination, like the Maldives?
This is where using frequent flyer miles can take a bit of work and planning.
And while it might be a bit of a pain, I’m guessing it will all be worth it once you see this:
I’ll be using the Maldives, one of the world’s hardest spots to travel to, as an example. However, this step by step process can be used for any destination you wish to travel to.
Step 1: Use Wikipedia to Find Out What Airlines Fly in To The Airport
We all know Wikipedia is an invaluable resource for basically anything, and it doesn’t disappoint here. If I’m not familiar with an airport and what airlines fly there, I always first turn to Wikipedia.
Here is the list for airlines flying in and out of Male International Airport (MLE), the main airport in the Maldives.
Step 2: Figure Out Which Airlines You Can Use
Most of the airlines on the list above aren’t of interest to us because they aren’t part of an airline alliance.
What you’ll need to do is figure out which airlines are part of one of the three major alliances: OneWorld, Star Alliance, and Skyteam.
If you’re not a complete frequent flyer nerd (what, you don’t have them memorized?), head back to Wikipedia to see a list of all 3 airline alliance members.
Here are the airlines flying in to Male, broken down by alliance:
OneWorld: British Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar (joining late 2013), SriLankan Airlines (joining late 2013)
Star Alliance: Austrian, Singapore Airlines, Turkish
Skyteam: Aeroflot, China Eastern Air, China Southern, KoreanAir
Step 3: Determine How Many Frequent Flyer Miles it Will Cost
This step is easy. Simply head to milez.biz and plug in your starting point and your destination.
Check to see if any of the carriers happen to be cheaper than the others.
For Philadelphia (PHL) to Male (MLE), United, USAirways and Delta costs 80k roundtrip in economy or 120k in business, whereas American Airlines costs 90k and 135k.
Step 4: Take Inventory of Your Points and Consider Transfer Partners
Now that you know how much it costs for each airline to fly to your destination, you’ve got to figure out if you have enough points to get there.
Don’t forget to consider points, such as Chase, American Express, or Starwood Preferred Guests (SPG), that you can transfer to airlines.
Here’s a sweet infographic about what points transfer to what airlines:
(courtesy of idoru at Flyertalk)
Since I’m looking at flying using United, USAirways, AA, or Delta miles, I have the following transfer options:
Chase points –> United.
American Express points —> Delta or USAirways (if you use a work-around).
SPG points —> AA, Delta, USAirways
After considering transfers, determine which airlines you’ll have enough miles in.
Step 5: Check for Flight Availability
Now, for the (sometimes) hard part. Luckily, there are some good tools out there to make it easier.
The first place to start is Award Nexus, you can get a free login by using your Flyertalk login on this page. This site is great because it allows you to search across all three alliances, but it can be a bit complicated to use
Of course, there will be plenty of times where you won’t find availability right away.
If you are not finding availability with Award Nexus, here are a few tricks to try:
2. For more complicated itineraries, such as PHL to MLE, you may need to search in segments. The computer systems may not be able to handle a request with so many layovers.
In this case, if I was looking for OneWorld flights, I’d search from PHL to Kuala Lumpur (KUL), since I know Malaysia Airlines flies from KUL to MLE. Then, I’d search separately for the KUL to MLE route.
3. Look for routes from other close airports. For example, I may choose to look for flights from New York (JFK, EWR, LGA) since there are many more international flights from those airports than PHL.
Check the bigger airports in your area, as they will often have a lot more availability, especially for long international flights.
Step 6: Book Your Tickets
After finding the flights you want, write down all the information, including times, flights numbers, and the airports you are flying from and going to.
Most likely, you won’t be able to recreate the tickets on the airline’s website whose miles you are using, so you’ll have to call the airline directly and spoonfeed them the information you’ve found.
For example, the two flights I found on AwardTravelr above from PHL-MLE would not show up when I searched for them on USAirways or United’s websites. Depending on what miles I decided to use, I’d have to call up that airline and book the tickets over the phone.
While I usually fly economy class, I would consider splurging and flying business for this trip. With 28+ hours of total flying plus numerous layovers, the extra comfort and lounge access during the layovers would probably be worth it.
Final Word(s)
Using frequent flyer miles to get to some destinations, especially remote places like the Maldives, can sometimes be difficult.
However, if you follow the six steps above, you should be able to use your frequent flyer miles for any dream destination you have, no matter how far away it is.
What are some of the tricks you have for using frequent flyer miles to get to remote destinations? What are some of the more obscure places you have traveled to? Inspire us in the comments below!
