Top 5 Things To Do As You Start The New Year

“THE WORLD IS A BOOK AND THOSE WHO DO NOT TRAVEL READ ONLY A PAGE.” ~ SAINT AUGUSTINE

As we turn the page into 2020, look at your travel goals for this year and next year. Advance planning is the key to saving money on travel. For our trip to Peru and Machu Pichu, I started saving points and miles two years in advance and I booked our flights 330 days in advance. Look at the ages of your children and their personalities, what type of trip will they enjoy in two years. 

Here are the top 5 things you need to do now to save money on travel:

1. If you are not a planner by nature, sit down with your family and brainstorm places you would like to visit. 
2. Check to see which airlines fly to that country or region
3. See approximately how many miles/points you need for each ticket 
4. See which credit cards will help you get there. Remember to look at cards that earn flexible miles/points like Chase Ultimate Rewards or Marriott points. 
5. Make a plan and act on it! 

If you follow this plan each new year, pretty soon, you will be traveling often, for almost FREE, making lifetime memories for your family and giving your children the gift of experiences, culture, traditions and a global perspective. 

Have a wonderful new year from all of us at almostFREEfamilytravel.com 

Easy Ways To Earn The Extra 15,000 For The 2020 Southwest Companion Pass

One of the best emails you can find in your inbox is the one letting you know you earned the Southwest Companion Pass. The BOGO pass is one of the best travel perks around. Valid for two years, you can take a friend along with you on any flight for FREE. The friend must travel the exact same flight and route as you. Plus you can change your "friend" three times each calendar year. 

Pretty sweet! 

Up until Dec. 31, 2019, you needed 110,000 points to earn the companion pass, but starting Jan. 1, 2020 you will need to earn 125,000 points. So the question is what is the quickest and easiest way to earn those extra 15,000 points?

Here are a couple of ways to do it:

1. Fly and earn miles, duh

2. Open a Southwest credit card (see this post to help you decide which one)

3. Open a Southwest business credit card (see this post to decide which one)

3. Charge everything to the Southwest credit card 

4. Use the Southwest shopping portal 

5. Use Rocketmiles to book hotels 

6. Use Southwesthotels.com to book hotels 

7. Rapid Rewards Dining 

8. Hotel and Car rental partners

9. Refer a friend to open a Southwest Chase credit card 

Unless you are flying or charging to the Southwest credit card, be sure to check the fine print to confirm that the points will count towards the companion pass. From Southwest.com the fine print says you can actually start purchasing from partners now and the points won't post until 2020 so they will be counted in the next calendar year. 

Partner	Points count toward 2020 Companion Pass if…	When do points post to your account?
Laithwaite's Wine®	Purchase date in 2019	6-8 weeks after purchase date
Rapid Rewards Shopping®	Purchase date in 2019	6-8 weeks after purchase date
Rocketmiles	Stay completed in 2019	4-6 weeks after purchase date
Rapid Rewards Dining®	Dining completed in 2019	4-6 weeks after dining
1-800-Flowers.com®	Purchase of flowers completed in 2019	6-8 weeks after delivery completed
Reliant Energy	Points must be posted to account in 2019	Points post within 8-12 weeks
NRG Home	Points must be posted to account in 2019	First month’s points after 8 weeks
MakeItCount™ - Marathon	Points must be posted to account in 2019.	Points will post within 72 hours of the purchase or action that qualified for the earn offer
PlacePass	Experience completed in 2019	6-8 weeks after experience completed
Harry and David	Purchase completed in 2019	6-8 weeks after delivery completed
Rewards for Opinions	Points must be posted to account in 2019	Points will post within 6 weeks of completed activity

Note that miles transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards and Marriott DO NOT count towards the companion pass. Buying points and transfers or gifts of points also DO NOT count. Good luck and happy flying! And if you decide to open a Southwest credit card, please consider using my referral link. Thank you for your support. 

Happy Holidays!

“LIFE IS EITHER A DARING ADVENTURE OR NOTHING AT ALL” ~ HELEN KELLER

From my family to yours, we wish you lots of travel and adventure in 2020. 

Stephanie Antin

AlmostFREEfamilytravel.com

Two Weeks Left To Get 2x Hilton Points On Stays

If you are planning any hotel stays over the holidays, you may want to take advantage of this Hilton Fall promotion. You will earn double points on any stays completed by Jan. 5, 2020. If you have a Hilton Honors American Express card, you can earn triple points. 
You need to register for the Power Up promotion before booking your stay. 

Another promotion from Marriott ends Dec. 22nd. This one offers you 30% off if you buy points which works out to $8.75 per 1,000 points. I don't usually buy points except if I need to top off an account. But if you need some Marriott points, then now may be the time. 

Watch for deals and new promotions starting Jan. 1. 

Chase FREEDOM 5X Q1 Categories Revealed

One of my favorite no annual fee cards is the Chase Freedom. It earns Ultimate Reward points at 2x and every quarter there are 5x bonus categories. Past categories have included warehouse clubs, grocery stores, Paypal, Chase pay, streaming services and more. You can max out these categories up to $1500 so that's pretty sweet. 

Chase just announced the Q1 categories for 2020 and they are, drumroll please:

• Gas Stations 
• Select Streaming Services 
• Internet, Cable and Phone Services

Out here in California, gas is pretty steep so just charging my gas to the Chase FREEDOM card for 3 months will add up to some pretty nice savings. Also if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred along with the FREEDOM, you can combine your points and use them to book travel through the portal making them even more valuable. See my past post for how this works.  That's how we do it at almostFREEfamilytravel.com

5 Great Things To Do With Tweens In London

Tower Of London FREE tour with your ticket

London is a great city to explore with tweens and teens. There is so much to do,  no language barrier, easy public transit and affordable. So with so much to do, where do you start?
Here are some ideas, of course, there are many more things to do, but here are a few ideas:

1. Tower of London and the Crown Jewels - This may seem touristy at first look, but it's a great look back at history plus the FREE 1-hour tour is fantastic. Look online for discount tickets, but you must buy these in advance and bring your email voucher to the window to exchange for tickets. Even so, the Tower is not cheap with prices L24.70 for adults and L11.70 for children. Your ticket includes the Crown Jewels exhibit which has a separate line inside and is a stunning display of crowns, sceptres and jewels. 

Standing inside the hallway leading to the House Of Commons

2. Sit inside Parliament - This is an amazing opportunity to sit inside the House of Parliament and the House of Lords. Both houses have a public viewing area. You can check the website online to see the day's agenda. If you visit on Wednesday, you may even get to see the Prime Minister. This is FREE, but you have to wait in line for security so leave lots of time. 

The Making Of Harry Potter is a must do!

3. Visit The Making Of Harry Potter Studio - So whether you are a Harry Potter fan or not, you will want to visit this studio outside of London. It's an amazing look inside what it takes to create a blockbuster movie. This time, one of the artists who created the masks was there showing us how the masks were made. You have to buy your tickets online and in advance. Then you take a train from the London Euston Station to Watford Junction. Trains leave frequently, but some are direct which takes about 20 minutes and others stop more often and take about an hour. The HP shuttle will pick you up at the train station, but bring cash to pay the fare. 

Variety of bite size sandwiches and hot tea are served first 

Followed by an impressive dessert tray

4. Traditional Afternoon Tea - So this is a must while in London. There are lots of options and I would check groupon.com to see if you can get a deal. My personal favorite is the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory AfternoonTea at the OneAldwych Hotel.  It's a bit pricey, but this meal can cover both lunch and dinner plus it's an experience. 

5. See A Live Theatre Show - London rivals New York City for live theatre. However, London theatres are smaller and more intimate than the NYC counterparts. You can find discounts online for shows and at the 1/2 price ticket booth in Piccadilly Circus. 

Other notable things to do include the Churchill War Museum, The London Eye, Buckingham Palace changing of the guard and more. Let us know what other gems you find in the comments below.

New! Southwest Makes Locating Your Travel Funds Easier

Southwest prides itself on transparency, but using your old travel funds was one place where the airline didn't make it easy. Now that's changed. 

Travel funds are the $5.60 per ticket that you pay when you use points to fly on Southwest, any tickets you paid for, but canceled at least 10 minutes before the flight, LUV vouchers or gift cards. 

You have to use these funds within one year of booking your canceled ticket, but remembering how much you have was difficult.  

I stopped holding the funds for future use because they only way to use them was to refer to the confirmation code and who holds on to that? Plus you could only use the funds for a ticket in your name. 

That hasn't changed. You can still only use the funds for a ticket in your name, but now keeping track of those funds is a whole lot easier. 

How to find your travel funds:

• Sign in to your Southwest Airlines account
• click on my account
• see a tab called My Travel Funds. 
• If you click on that, you will see your funds listed. 

Only funds from tickets canceled since December 3rd will be shown right now. You can still lookup funds with the confirmation code. 
Southwest has the most flexible cancellation and ticket change policy around and again, the airline is making it easier for consumers. You can check out my previous post on how to change your Southwest flight here. 

Book Now Before Hyatt Changes Awards

Following in the footsteps of other hotel brands, Hyatt is changing its award structure starting in March 2020 to off-peak, standard and peak pricing. 

However, if you book now and a hotel drops to off-peak, you will receive the difference back. If you book now and a hotel increases, you will not be charged the difference. 

Before Wyndham changed its award structure from 15,000 points for all rooms to a range of 7,500 - 30,000 points last year, I booked the New Yorker hotel in NYC and the Super 8 in Kalispell, Montana. The New Yorker did increase from 15,000 to 30,000 per night so that was a good move. The Super 8 did not change at all. And in case you are wondering why I was concerned about a Super 8 in Montana, this Super 8 is located just outside the gate of Glacier National Park and we were there in August which is high tourist season. 

My daughter fed the birds each morning at the Hyatt Regency Maui

At this point, we don't know which Hyatts will drop in points and which ones will increase. But the point range will be from 3,500 - 45,000 per night. We also don't know what is considered off peak, standard or high peak. But you can probably make an educated guess and you have nothing to lose if you book early. 
The number of award categories will remain the same. 
Right now, Chase is offering a World of Hyatt credit card that has a $3,000 minimum spend for a bonus of 25,000 points which can net you a lot of category 1 nights if you go that route. 

How To Visit New York City On A Budget

Walking near Seaport across from Brooklyn

The big apple can take a big bite out of your wallet. But if you do some advance planning, you can visit New York City on a budget.
I always start with flights when planning my trips because when you travel as a family, you have to be flexible. For this trip to New York City, I was able to use Southwest points for my ticket and add my daughter as my companion so she flew for FREE.
You can read my previous post on how to earn the Southwest companion pass for two years here.
The hotel comes next. I start with awardmapper.com to see which hotels are in the city and how many points they require to book. For this trip, I tapped the Wyndham New Yorker for 15,000 points per night. Since I booked, Wyndham added three tiers for point redemption and unfortunately, they raised the points for this hotel to 30,000 per night.

Our hotel room at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel

I still think the New Yorker offers great value even at the increased rate. It is well located just 5 blocks from Times Square and next to Penn Station.  Our room at the New Yorker was huge plus the hotel is historic and bursting with charm.
For transportation, there is no better way to get around New York City than with the subway and your feet. On the subway, each ride costs $2.75. When you are ready to go to JFK airport, take the LIRR to the Skytrain. Total cost will be approximately $20 per person. The subway is less, but takes much longer. And of course, taking an Uber is way more expensive and can take just as long depending on traffic,
Now that we have our flights and hotels booked with points, we can move on to food and experiences.

View from our hotel room and our yummy bagel

My favorite bagel store, Liberty Bagels, is located across the street from the New Yorker next to the Starbucks. They told me they are opening a second location too. If you like vegan cream cheese, this is your place. And a huge bagel with smear costs approximately $6. Wow!

The line moves fast and the slices are big! 

Joe's Pizza is also a steal of a deal. Located right off Times Square, you can get a huge piece of delicious authentic NY pizza for just a few bucks per slice.
There is so much to see in New York City, you will just have trouble deciding what to do. Remember to check out Todaystix.com and the half price ticket booth for Broadway shows.
And have fun!

Travel Deal Tuesday - Where To Find The Deals

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, get ready for Travel Deal Tuesday! Yep, December 3rd may be the day for travel deals. According to Skyscanner, Travel Deal Tuesday usually has better deals than Black Friday, but not as good as Cyber Monday. 

However, Tuesdays are traditionally discount days to book travel. 

That said, here are some places to look for deals:

1. Travel Zoo - Great package travel deals, but do your homework. Some deals include $299 for an 8-day tour to China flights included, $599 4-night tour including flights to Iceland to see the Northern Lights. If you figure, just the flights alone could cost more than the whole package, it might be worth it. Wow! 

2. 3rd party sellers like Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Cheaptickets.com and Orbitz.com

3. Watch the shopping portals for increased cash back 

Good luck! and happy traveling!