VACATION PLANNING STRATEGIES - In Short

STRATEGY

This page is a succinct description while the blog post is supposed to show how the strategy is applied.  Please be sure to read the post if you would like an illustration of this strategy in action.  There are 3 parts to this blog series:

VACATION PLANNING STRATEGIES

VACATION PLANNING STRATEGIES - Price Comparison, Stacking, and Creating my own discounts

VACATION PLANNING STRATEGIES - FLIGHTS (working the credit card/airline miles programs to fund the flight)

DESTINATION

1. Choose to go during the location's "off season"

2. Ask about different promotions for which you may qualify.  Some of the more common ones are the following:

• Kids stay free with paid adult
• Senior discount
• Stay X number of nights and get the next night free
• Affiliation with some group - AAA (e.g., Automobile Club of America)
• Military discount
• Costco discount
• AARP
• Single parent
• Employer-specific or association-specific discount (e.g., UCLA benefits plan or Wyndham members rewards account).

3. Leverage one deal against the other.  For example, at a minimum, use a credit card that gives you a rebate back for every dollar purchased (from the credit card company).  See if there is another program, such as Upromise, which will also give you a rebate based on your online purchase.  Finally, see if the credit card you are using gives you any additional cardholder protection such as traveler's insurance, accident insurance, cost protection, etc. simply by using their credit card.

FLIGHT
1. Find the airline(s) that fly to your targeted destination.  It is better if you find an airline that travels to many places.  For example, you do not want to focus on Fiji airlines and be locked in with miles that you can only use where they travel (which is limited). 

2. Look for a credit card miles program that is the best fit.  I am not going to go into detail about this because there are great blogs about this and a great discussion on the discussion forum, Flyertalk.  If, however, you would like me to blog about this more specifically, drop me a line.

3.  Apply for the credit card(s) and exclusively use that credit card to run your household expenses.

(Disclaimer - I do not advocate using credit cards and being in debt.  I recommend using the credit card to pay your expenses but then paying off that credit card every month.  If you have a remaining balance at the end of the month, you end up paying more in the end.  Then, you really are not saving money because of all the interest you are paying.  I am saying run your household expenses - expenses that you necessarily have to pay such as utilities, phone bill, gas bill, groceries, etc. )

4. Choose to go on your trip when both your destination spot AND your chosen airline is off-peak.

Be flexible.  Flexibility is key.  Think outside the box.  As I stated in my post, Southwest Airlines did not fly from Los Angeles to the Dominican Republic (our destination).   However, they flew to New Orleans.  And, from New Orleans, Southwest Airlines flew to the Dominican Republic.  So, I created my own personalized lay over with sufficient time between the two legs to squeeze in a vacation within a vacation.