Tag Archives: Travel Hacking

From Worst to First: Flying Lufthansa 1st Class

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Europe, Travel Hacking

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Mrs. Selfish and I purchased our business class the tickets for the European leg of our trip back in March 2012 for the very reasonable price of $128.27 + 100,000 miles each. The plan was to fly from Washington Dulles, to Vienna with a 6 week stop-over in England. For our return flight we were going to leave from Lisbon, returning to Dulles by way of Madrid.

Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

While in England last August I received an email from United that our Madrid flight to Dulles had been canceled. Their new routing ended up adding an extra layover through Newark and tacking on an extra 5 hours of travel time.

I immediately jumped on United.com to find a shorter alternative, and within 20 minutes found a better route via Frankfurt using United’s partner, Lutfhansa. Not only was the layover time a breezy 50 minutes, but we’d be able to try out Lufthansa’s new business class seats, which been receiving a lot of praise in the travel hacking scene.

Lufthansa’s sexy new business class!

I called United, and within half an hour the new tickets had been booked and seats had been confirmed via the helpful United rep. Mrs. Selfish and I were flying home on Lufthansa in style!

Or so I thought.

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The Great Marriott Quadruple Play

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Spain, Travel Hacking

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Back in November, Mrs. Selfish and I drove from Barcelona to Madrid, stopping in a total of 5 cities over the course of 8 nights: Valencia, Murcia, Malaga, Seville, and Cordoba.

8 Days of driving in Southern Spain!

While Mrs. Selfish was excited to try authentic Spanish paella, take in the Moorish ruins, and experience Flamenco dancing, I was excited to try out Marriott’s latest promotions.

Marriott acquired the AC Hotel chain in Spain, which is a low-to mid tier chain with quite a number of cheap hotels. While a few of the hotels ran us upwards of 80 euros a night (or $106), the majority were 60 euros ($80) or cheaper.

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On to the Next!

15 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in Accommodations, Europe

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Today we’re saying goodbye to our cozy London studio flat, and are hopping on a train to Scotland to start our trip from London to Paris by way of Eastern Europe.  While two weeks would normally be a decent amount of time, we’re passing through 5 separate locations and covering over 2,100 miles, so I expect it will be a little frantic.

Along the way we’re hitting up:

Edinburgh

Home to kilts, haggus, scones, and a host of tough man stereotypes!  Mrs. Selfish and I plan on hitting up castles, pubs, Arthur’s Seat, and the Royal Mile.  For our three nights in Edinburgh, we’re staying at the Hilton Grovesnor hotel.  It’s slightly pricier than I’d like (about $120 a night), but with Mrs. Selfish’s gold status we should be getting wifi and free breakfast every morning – so not too shabby!

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Travel Hacking Our Way Around the World

27 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by in Travel Hacking

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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:

  • – 600,000 American Airline Miles
  • – 256,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
  • – 206,000 Delta Miles
  • – 107,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Points
  • – 169,000 United Miles
  • – 96,000 Priority Club points
  • – 50,000 Jet Blue Miles

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