The Costs of 1 Year of Selfish Traveling

01 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Australia, Best Of, Europe, Oceania, Travel Hacking

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Miles, Points, Selfish Years, The Selfish Years, Travel Hacking

This is the final part of our 15 part series on the Best of Our Selfish Years of Traveling. You can check out the other parts below:

Our great Selfish Years adventure started when I discovered the world of miles & points, back in September 2011. Mrs. Selfish and I applied for 2 Citi AA cards, for a grand total of 150,000 AA miles a piece: enough for two business class tickets around the world!

We’ve done some pretty awesome things, flown some amazing flights, and stayed at some world class hotels. So how much did it all stack up?

Let’s look at the numbers, shall we?

Mrs. Selfish and I spent a grand total of 372 days of straight traveling, leaving the States in August 2012, and returning in August 2013. During the course of the trip we saw 102 cities and flew 61 flights across 25 countries.

We spent the most days in France, followed by Japan, Australia, and England. Expensive countries, indeed – though surprisingly, Australia was the MOST expensive country – coming in at roughly 50% more in costs than any other country.

Some random factoids:

Miles traveled: 70,150
Number of pictures taken: 50,326
Average number of pictures taken daily: 136
Best award redemption (value for cost): Park Hyatt Sydney
Best business class flight: Qantas, Sydney to Los Angeles
Number of beds we slept in: 97
Average number of days in same bed: 3.81
Best bed: Heavenly Bed, any Westin Hotel
Amount of time spent packing & unpacking bags: 3.36 days
Number of massages: 46
Number of native languages we encountered: 16
Number of languages we learned “hello” and “thank you” in: 8
Most expensive economy ticket: Siem Reap to Bangkok at $1.31 per mile
Most free attractions: Paris
Days we spent no money: 1

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Travel Hacking Our Way Around the World

27 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by misterselfish in Travel Hacking

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Around the World, Miles, Points, RTW, Travel Hacking

Though the Selfish Years started as a dream years ago, the idea for a year long trip around the world didn’t become a reality until September 16, 2011.

Mrs. Selfish and I have always liked to travel, but we’ve usually limited ourselves to one international trip per year – mostly for time reasons, but also because international trips can be utterly expensive. This all changed after our trip to Peru last fall.

After an amazing trip to Machu Picchu, I became deathly ill upon our return to Orlando. Bed-ridden, I spent an entire week lying on the couch when I wasn’t doubled over. My only solace was the internet – and on this particular day, I stumbled across an article about how some guy had spent the last 9 months traveling around the world.

And he had done it for $418.

Immediately, Mrs. Selfish and I started plotting. Was it possible for us to accumulate the necessary miles to fly around the world for next to nothing? Better yet, could we do it all in business class?

The short answer, was yes.

What is Travel Hacking?

Travel Hacking is about earning miles and points to get free flights or accommodations. Travel hackers are typically looking for ways to accumulate the most miles, points, or elite status for the least amount of money. They look for ways to game the system. Some of it can be pretty hardcore, like a mileage run where the goal is to fly as many miles as possible for the least amount of money (think New York to San Francisco by way of Philadelphia, Tampa, Dallas, and Seattle). Other times it can be pretty easy, like signing up for a new credit card, or moving your investments into a different brokerage account.

Shortly after reading the initial article last September, I became completely obsessed with the idea of earning enough miles to get us around the world. And it worked.

Over the last year, Mrs. Selfish and I have managed to rack up over 1.5 million miles and points (all without flying), including: