Credit Card Churning: How does it work? Is it bad?

OK, so you followed the great advice in Credit Card Churning Post #1, and you have some credit history. But isn't there some catch? Opening up a lot of credit cards seems sketchy. Here's the list of things that go into your credit score, from most important to least important, and some essential tips:

Using credit card points for free travel, or: Why The Radio Silence?

Hey blogopals,

I know I've been a little radio silent the past year. Part of that is because I had a crazy amount of free time at weird intervals last year, so I was able to really commit to blogging, part of it is that there are so many new discount flights these days that the deals don't seem as amazing, and a big part of it is that I've found an even better way to travel long distances for cheap, but I didn't know how to say it without sounding like all those self-serving bloggers out there with a get-rich-quick scheme...but after so many people telling me I should really write a blog post about it (instead of just advising friends one by one when the need arises), and because my students moved up their lesson so I ended up having an extra hour of free time today, I figured that time is now.

WowAir 50% off sale for round-trips

WowAir is having a 50% off sale with the code WOWXMAS. The best prices tend to go FAST,

Cyber Monday: US to Europe for $180 round trip (Norwegian)

Catch this fairly shweet sale from the US to a few locations in Europe for just $89 one-way

Cyber Monday: Round trip to Iceland $165

WowAir, the most bare-bones Icelandic airline, is offering a "40% off" sale

Black Friday deals

Keep your eyes open for Black Friday travel deals! Ryanair has already released some sub-$10 flights around Europe

London to Bangkok + visa-free stop in China for 280ish pounds round-trip

Hey pals! What's better than paying like $140 for a visa to visit China? Not paying like $140 for a visa to visit China! Many Chinese airports offer a free visa-free stopover, so as long as you're only staying for less than 72 hours, this can save you a whole bunch of money and hassle. And what's better than a visa-free stop in China? Visiting your favorite blogger in Bangkok! Really, this deal has your name written all over it, [name].

http://www.secretflying.com/posts/london-uk-bangkok-thailand-288-roundtrip/

$99 US to Europe

WowAir is having another impressive flight sale, with flights from the US to Europe for only $99 one way. Fly from many East coast cities to many places in Europe. Check it out! To sweeten the deal, they just announced flights from JFK airport, in addition to EWR (Newark). Norwegian is having a flight sale now, too, but the options are more limited. Flying with Norwegian is a more pleasant experience, though, in my opinion.

Try using both sales to get a cheap round trip flight, as that’s the hardest part with these sales. If you plan, you may be able to get a flight for, say, $99 from Pittsburgh to Paris, a cheap $40 hop from Paris to Oslo, and $150 from Oslo to Pittsburgh. Try something like that! Anyway, I’m off to the beach, but this sale was too good to pass up. Enjoy!

$69 FLIGHTS USA TO EUROPE! GO GO GO!

WowAir is having another $69 flight sale! GO GO GO!

WowAir sale: flights US to Europe starting at $89

WowAir is having a sale starting at $89 one-way from Boston to London, and has $99 flights from many locations to destinations all around Europe (+ Tel Aviv). Aside from London, Milan, Italy and Lyon, France are particularly good deals at $99-129 one-way from most US served cities. Prices bounce around a bit, but you can snag a deal to numerous European destinations for $89-149 one-way from:

Washington D.C.
San Francisco
Pittsburgh
Miami
New York
Los Angeles
Chicago
Boston

WowAir sales tend to disappear fast, so GO! Flights start as soon as this month.

USA to Asia from $375 round trip this fall

UPDATE: There is also a sale from Los Angeles and San Francisco to multiple Asian cities for as low as $349 round trip! Go go go!

Check out this sale from New York or Chicago to Asia (India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, or Indonesia) starting at $375 round trip. Fly Sept-early Dec. Come visit me!

New discount transatlantic airline: Primera!

Primera Air, an Icelandic airline, will be offering transatlantic flights from Newark/NYC and Boston to Europe starting at only $99!

US to Paris direct with Norwegian $149

Norwegian has been expanding their network fast, and they just announced nonstop flights from the US to Paris for $149 one-way! This is very exciting

$89-99 one-way flights from US (many cities) to Europe (many cities)!

WowAir is the airline I have the most unhealthy relationship with. I hate flying with them, but I can't say no to prices like $89 FLIGHTS TO EUROPE! This is incredible, especially because you can fly from Chicago, San Francisco, LA, and Miami with this flight. Fly to France, the UK, Germany, Belgium, and more,

Weird politics in Qatar = super cheap one-ways with Qatar Airways?

About a week ago, in a rather surprising move, a whole bunch of Arab countries severed ties with Qatar, claiming it destabilizes the region by supporting terrorist groups. Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the UAE cut all flights to/from Qatar, which includes major gulf airlines like Etihad and Emirates. The US has just said it's a complicated political situation and hasn't issued any travel warnings or cut off flights (other than the widespread carry-on laptop ban), so I wouldn't worry about traveling to Qatar unless you're from the aforementioned countries.

Now, modern Middle Eastern politics may not be my forte, but cheap flights are,

June flights US to/from Europe $127 round trip!!!! (Even less with promo code??)

UPDATE: This is dead. Died fast. RIP.

My Workaway experience

Howdy, blogobuds. I’m writing this on the plane away from my first “real” Workaway experience. I’ve had a couple of fun WWOOF day trips to a farm, but this was my first time staying over with a Workaway host in exchange for labor. In case you don’t know, here’s a quick rundown on what Workaway, WWOOF, and HelpX are all about.

20% off Norwegian flights: under $85 one way US to Europe!

Norwegian is having a Mother's Day sale with 20% off flights! That puts it under $85 one-way for their flights to Europe from the out-of-the-way Boston/Providence or New York/Newburgh airports. Flights are any time from June to December. Heck!

How to get a refund on a nonrefundable flight

If I had a penny for every time I booked a nonrefundable flight too far in advance, plans changed, and I couldn’t take the flight, I would have a handful of pennies and still no refund.

Norwegian to begin flights from London to Singapore for $200ish one-way

Norwegian has just announced that, this September, they will start flying from London to Singapore for about $200 one-way (some say $230, some say $140, I say...wait and see.

Norwegian connects London to Denver and Seattle this September

Norwegian just announced flights connecting London to Denver and Seattle, starting at only $199 one-way! This is pretty exciting for those of you who live in Denver and Seattle, as they have not yet been served by a discount transatlantic airline. To get the promotional price, buy ASAP but definitely before April 12, and fly between September and March. Check it out!

1 month Canadian UNLIMITED train pass for youth, only $150!

There is an incredible sale on right now for an unlimited rail pass for only $150,

WowAir now flies Chicago to Europe for $99-149

WowAir, the ultra-low-cost Icelandic airline, has just announced flights from Chicago to Europe, with promotional fares starting at $99

US bans large electronics from carry-on luggage from major Arab airports

Update: The UK has followed with a similar ban, and has warned that other EU countries may follow suit. This seems to indicate that there is some kind of real security concern.

The US government has once again wowed the world by initiating a ban on large electronics, including laptops and anything else bigger than a phone, on all flights that go directly to the US from the following airports:

Norwegian Air Saint Patrick's Day sale

Norwegian Air is having a sale on most flights in honor of Saint Patrick's Day, with up to 20% off many fares,

NEW low-cost transatlantic airline: Level. Sort of.

British Airways has just announced a new low-cost sister airline called Level that will start off with direct flights between the Americas and Barcelona from $149/99 euros

Megabus $1 tickets for travel 'til May 22 on sale NOW!

Just this minute, Megabus released a new batch of tickets. Book US-based Megabuses up until May 22, and snatch up those $1 tickets! You can't do a search by price, but since the tickets were just released, you should be able to search for any given date and find $1 tickets. Go do that!

Error pricing: Fancy 4* hotel in New York for $44 in March

The excellent SecretFlying.com has brought to my attention this pretty exciting hotel misprice: $44/night to stay at the Roxy Hotel Tribeca on select dates in March. Book ASAP before the hotel notices their mistake, and they may well give you the room for the low price. As with all error fares and misprices, there is a possibility that they will cancel the booking and refund your money. So basically, as long as you don't have your heart set on it, you can't lose! Check it out here.

Greyhound's loyalty program: Road Rewards

Greyhound bus has a pretty awesome loyalty program, the only downside being you have to ride Greyhound buses. Ha I kid, I kid. Or do I?

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OK anyway, you can check it out here, so I won't bore you with what's already clearly on the website. What it means, though, as far as I can tell, is that you could take 8 short/cheap round trips, even as a daily commute (for example, 45ish minutes between Delaware and Philadelphia), and then get a free round trip ticket across the country for you and a free companion. Not sure if you can stack the companion award on top of the free ticket like that, but the fine print never says you can't. So you could theoretically take 16 one-way $10 trips and then get a free trip across the country for you and a pal, round trip (worth maybe $300-400 per person), which is awesome as long as you don't mind being on the bus for like 30 hours. Or you could go somewhere else closer. Whatever tickles your fancy. Pretty awesome though! Points all expire after 1 year though, so I've never gotten that far. I have gotten the companion pass at the lower levels, though! Pretty neato.

So you wanna get across the US...

So you heard about some sweet travel deals on the coasts (WowAir's Valentine's Day $69 flight sale from San Francisco to London or Norwegian's just-announced $65 flights from the East coast to Scotland and Ireland, for example), and now you gotta get there. Now, each airport has different requirements regarding public transit, and I'm not going to go into that too much. Here is a basic guide on some ways you can get across America on the cheap, roughly rated from cheapest to least cheap.

NORWEGIAN $65 TRANSATLANTIC US -> UK/IRELAND FLIGHTS ARE ON!!!!

HO MY GAWD YOU GUYS, NORWEGIAN HAS FINALLY RELEASED THEIR $65 TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

WowAir Valentines $69 sale US to Europe all through 2017

Check out this awesome $69 flight sale between the US and Europe, with flights from all of WowAir's hubs (including San Francisco, Boston, Miami, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Berlin, and more). All round trips include a free stopover in Iceland, too. This will probably sell out very quickly. Get on it! Note that all of their flights to/from the US are fully refundable within 24 hours of booking, so you can buy now and think later! But like, think within the next 23 hours.

ESL Scam: Globaltefl.uk.com

Oh hey there, blogopals, didn't see ya there. Let me tell you a little story about GlobalTEFL.uk.com.

As some of you know, I got my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification through an online course I bought off of Groupon. That course, which you can read about here, was pretty comprehensive, although there were some significant typos towards the end. Before I bought that, I had accidentally purchased a non-accredited TEFL course, but I quickly realized that it wasn't accredited, and I got a refund.

Fast forward two-and-a-half years to now.

WOWair sale: $69 California to Europe!

Well, it looks like WOWair is upping their game what with all the news about $69 flights with Norwegian...because right now, they are offering $69 one-way flights in January through May

HUGE Qatar Airways 40%+ off sale, now til Jan. 16

Qatar Airways is having their semi-annual massive 40% off sale, plus an extra 15% off for buying with a visa card and promo code VISA, plus a possible extra 10% off

$69 transatlantic flights loom nearer: Norwegian adds 130 jobs in Edinburgh

Well, I'm sure you're all watching with bated breath to see how this unfolds. Are those $69 Edinburgh - New York flights real, or just a spectre?

Middle Eastern airline comparison (economy): Etihad, Qatar, Emirates

UPDATE: Well, over a week ago, Emirates, the so-called best airline in the world, mutilated my suitcase and promised that someone would come by the next day to fix it. After I didn't hear from them, I emailed them and was told it might take a few weeks, as there have been a lot of damaged bags lately. The big airlines really don't feel they need to do anything for the economy customers, do they?

If you're making the trek between Europe and Asia for cheap, chances are you're thinking about taking one of the gulf state carriers. The big three are Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, and Emirates.

WOWair 20% off sale until Jan. 5

WOWair, the uber-discount Icelandic airline, is having a 20% off sale between now and January 5, flying any time up to May 31, 2017. With one-way flights as low as $99 from many US cities to Iceland as well as many European cities, this is a heck of a deal. Use promo code WOWSALE. Check it out!

Greyhound buses: 40% off, buy TODAY ONLY

Greyhound bus, America's iconic crappy interstate bus experience, is having a 40% off sale

£289 round trip UK to Asia with Qatar Airways

Hi, all! I'm sitting in Dubai International Airport on a short layover between Birmingham, UK and Bangkok, and I found this gem of a sale.

Angloville: Get a free TEFL certification in exchange for chatting in English in Central/Eastern Europe

Last time, I told you about my experience with an online TEFL course, but maybe you want something a bit different. Angloville is a cool program that a friend of mine did and highly recommends. Basically, you (a native English speaker who may or may not have a certification or experience) apply/volunteer to spend a few days to a few weeks chatting in English (NOT teaching formally, just hanging out) with some folks who want to improve their English

Fly one-way Boston to London for $80! + a suggested 2-city Europe vacation for $218

Norwegian is having a heck of a sale, with one-way flights from Boston to London for only £65, or $80!