Monday, February 17, 2014

Barclaycard Arrival Changes

 If you've been thinking about signing up for the Barclaycard Arrival, you may want to do so quickly as the sign-up parameters will change soon.  Currently you receive 40,000 miles if you charge $1,000 on the card in ninety days.  You earn two miles for every dollar you spend, and those miles can be used for any travel expense:  a flight, hotel room, car rental. 

But soon you will have to spend $3,000 to earn those same 40,000 miles, so you will need to act fast.  While the company won't say exactly when the change will occur, it is promising to do it very soon.  Click here for more information from The Points Guy.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Cheap--Luxurious--Sleeps

Flying to Paris for a pittance is all well and good, but if you have to pay hundreds a day for a hotel, your savings are quickly frittered away.

That's why David and I find luxurious accommodations in every city we visit and always pay  m u c h  less than the cost of a five-star hotel and usually less than a bare-bones, toilet-down-the-hall hostel catering to backpackers.

Here's how we do it.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Paris for a Pittance

David and I are flying this June from Tucson to Raleigh where we'll spend five nights celebrating my son's wedding. Then we're going on to Paris for four nights, staying in our favorite apartment near the Marais, before heading to Colmar in the Alsace region of France for a week.  We'll round out the trip by renting a car in Germany to tour the Black Forest, the Alps, and the Romantic Road with detours here and there to see some of Switzerland and Austria, before boarding a flight in Frankfurt for the return to Tucson.

American Airlines says that these tickets (a one-way to Raleigh and an open-jaw ticket to Europe and back) should cost $1,885.50.  Momondo, a website The New York Times frugal traveler mentioned recently, says we can do it for $1,872.

But we'll do it for less.  A lot less.

My flights cost $513. (David paid $775 because he did not have Southwest FF miles.) And if we'd had a bit more time, the cost could have been zero.*