saving money

How to enter the airline matrix and pounce on invisible fares and discount codes.

By Brad Beckstrom

I recently wrote about creating a frequent flyer points machine, using everyday expenses, including healthcare and utilities, to rack up 2X, 3X, 4X frequent-flier points. As a follow-up, I wanted to provide an update on the latest tools I’ve found for spending those points.

Once you’ve figured out how to earn points twice as fast, the real benefit kicks in by spending fewer points, making them go twice as far. Anyone can do this by finding the cheapest days to travel combined with fare deals from your local airport. If you can find the lowest fare, then you can spend your points more efficiently and get the specific flight you want by using your points through your credit card providers travel service. (I use Chase Sapphire Ultimate Rewards for an added 20% points bonus on booking.)

I found the key to doing this is having the exact flight you want to book at hand when you call to apply points to the total price. You don’t want to depend on the agent to find you the best fare, and you certainly don’t want deal with airlines directly which often charge you for the privilege to book. Airlines also like to drastically limit the frequent-flier seats available, unless of course you’re willing to cough up more money or double points.

So how to do it? [Read more…] about How to enter the airline matrix and pounce on invisible fares and discount codes.

How to create a Frequent Flyer Points Machine.

10/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

The tools you need to automatically earn 2% or 2X points on nearly every dollar you spend, creating a perpetual flow of frequent flyer points.

Most airline frequent flyer programs have become a joke. When I started travel hacking years ago, you could get a decent domestic ticket for 25,000 points and get tickets to the Caribbean and Mexico for around 35,000 points. No more. Sure you might be able to find one of those 25,000 point tickets they promote between two Rust Belt cities with a 5 AM departure and a three hour layover. Forget about flying anywhere near the holidays and get ready to hear them laugh if you’re looking to cash in points for a family of four directly with the airline, to let’s say the Caribbean, Europe, or even Florida. The airlines seem proud of the fact that they’ve become so superefficient through mergers and online ticketing algorithms that they only need to cough up a few regular seats per plane for frequent flyers, unless you’re willing to pay the premium, double sometimes triple points (then the seats will appear). I plan over six months out and I still can’t track decent ones down.

Unless you are flying alone, dealing with airlines to use your points is a waste of time. If you do get lucky and find a seat you can use points for, some airlines like British Airways will hit you with a $500+ “fuel surcharge” on top of the points you’re coughing up. On more than one occasion that surcharge to the UK or EU was more than the entire cost of the ticket from another discount airline like Norwegian Air or WOW airlines. Check out their $199 fares to Europe.

There is a solution.

I’ve been able to travel with our family of four once, sometimes, twice per year using high 2% reward credit cards. And yes, we were all on the same flight departing from and arriving to the airport we wanted. To do this we created a frequent flyer points machine using two cards from Chase, one business, one personal and an American Express card from Fidelity. [Read more…] about How to create a Frequent Flyer Points Machine.

How to separate wants from needs.

10/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Putting your wants on a wait list so you can end up with something much better. Time.

By Brad Beckstrom

Have you ever purchased something then regretted it later? I think we all have at some point. I look at all the stuff I’ve been getting rid of over the last few years and there’s some regret there. The regret may be less about what I spent on an item and more about the fact that I purchased something and didn’t use it much. Maybe there is some regret over the time I spent researching, purchasing, storing, and now getting rid of the stuff I didn’t use. Regret that the time involved in all that could’ve been spent much better elsewhere. If you have a family, you can often multiply this frustration times each family member. You could be spending time having fun together, versus managing stuff in closets, plastic storage bins, basements, and garages.

The Wait List

So, if you want to avoid wasting this time in the future, maybe there’s a new way to go about this. This stuff problem, this impulse purchase problem. Have you ever walked into a restaurant and been told there’s over an hour wait. Many of us, instead, use that time to find somewhere else to eat and we often stumble upon something better. That wait list made us think about how we wanted to spend the next hour.

I hear about kids getting wait listed for universities. The university is saying we’re interested in you, but not as much as we’re interested in some of these folks we’ve extended offers to. Those are the people we really want. If those don’t work out, we will get back to you. You’ve been wait listed.

While working, if there’s a lot on your plate, you keep a few to do lists going, prioritize some things each morning and let the less important items fall to the bottom, often fall off the list completely. [Read more…] about How to separate wants from needs.

Getting rid of GAS. Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

09/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Buying stuff you don’t need in hopes it will make you better at something.

By Brad Beckstrom

I have it. I think I’ve had it for a long time. At least, I still have many symptoms. Psychology Today defines Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) as “lustily buying more tools than you need.” Wikipedia’s describes (GAS) as “the urge to acquire and accumulate lots of gear.” They single out musicians in their definition, saying the term sometimes refers to Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. Guitarists tend to acquire lots of guitars, guitar amplifiers, custom pedals and effects processors.

But this goes way beyond musicians. In fact, I could list any number of hobbies, interests, careers, passions etc. that suffer from gear acquisition syndrome. Just pick up any magazine on cooking, photography, technology, fitness, beauty, cycling, hunting, fishing, boating, camping, gaming, music, cars and you’ll see gear featured front and center on nearly every page. Web sites are worse, the candy colored gear pops up and can lead you on click tangents.

I recently canceled a free subscription to a photography magazine because they weren’t really talking about photography, they were talking about gear, tricks and tools to make you a better photographer. Most of the photos in the magazine were of …..gear. What I know now is that gear will not make me a better photographer. The best camera, latest versions of software, and the fastest Mac out there will not make me a better photographer. Going out and doing the work, taking the photographs will make me a better photographer.

GAS can definitely be a problem for someone like me who is interested in everything. Technology, music, boating, even healthy stuff like hiking, cycling………lots o’gear.

Even self-help junkies (people constantly trying to improve themselves ) are not immune to this syndrome. Our gear just looks different, books, online courses, the latest to do list app software and razor thin laptops, tablets and phones to run it all. Holy shit, I am in that group as well. If I’m not careful GAS could kill me!

Getting rid of bad GAS

The first step in getting rid of GAS is admitting that you have it. So how do I get rid of it? There is no remedy that you can go out and buy in chewable tablet form for this. Even if there was, I would probably tell you not to buy it.

Once you know you have it, understand that it will pop up in the strangest places. This is not your fault. If you’re reading this, you are lucky to live in a place that has a paradox of choice. Meaning that there are so many choices and options screaming for your attention that some of that cream really has risen to the top and grabbed your attention. You feel the urge to buy and the pressure to make the “right choice.” Smart phones, motorcycles, vacuum cleaners, laptops, guitars, high-tech shoes and clothing, all available all the time, next day delivery. This stuff all looks great doesn’t it ? Which one will be best for me?

How to deal with this? Do what you do best, procrastinate. Put off the decision, stop spending time researching, tell yourself “I’m going to think about this for a few weeks.” This is one of the single best things I’ve found for getting rid of GAS and avoiding purchases I will regret later.

Once you’re able to put that decision off, think of the time you just saved yourself. You’re done with the research. You can use that time to go fishing, go skiing, cook, or do whatever it was you were trying to improve with new gear. I recently heard a writer speaking about how she used to be a self-help junkie, taking every course, buying every book, attending seminars. What she finally realized was that she could improve her writing, by actually doing it instead of reading about it. She had found the secret! She literally found the secret, instead of buying a book called The Secret for $14.95.

Output versus Input [Read more…] about Getting rid of GAS. Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

The Time Poor.

09/15 by The Frug 1 Comment

How to escape time poverty and join the free.

By Brad Beckstrom

My oldest son came home a bit stressed out the other night. He recently started driving and has started to experience the chaos of rush hour traffic. I enjoy having everyone home for dinner and gave him a hard time about being late. I told him he needed to start managing his time better.

I sounded like one of my first bosses who used to say “We start at 8 Beckstrom, not 8:07 am or 8:11 am” or whatever the exact number of minutes I was late by was, as he tapped his Patek Philippe watch. At the time, I fixed the problem by planning to arrive at 7:45 AM. That worked for a while, until I realized putting on a suit and commuting to an office would not be my path.

Later, as an entrepreneur,I took time management to a whole new level, using day timers, Palm pilots, Treo phones (remember those?) I created multiple to do lists and scheduled my day to the minute, starting early and often finishing late. It was my turn to give people a hard time about being late. I was time poor.

The Time Poor from the book Vagabonding

“Sierra Club founder John Muir used to express amazement at the well-heeled travelers who would visit Yosemite only to rush away after a few hours of sightseeing. Muir called these folks the “time poor”- people so obsessed with their material wealth and social standing that they couldn’t spare the time to truly experience the splendor of California’s Sierra wilderness.”

120 years later, this hasn’t changed. Despite more people being fortunate enough to be able to travel, many, including myself often take only one week to see a place like Ireland or a day or two to see Rome as part of some whirlwind European trip. Staying in nice hotels, eating expensive meals but never really seeing a place. “Yep kids, look there’s big Ben Parliament.” Chevy Chase from European Family Vacation.

Many have chosen stuff and material wealth over time as a way of life. We tell ourselves we’ll take that long trip someday, spend more time with family, friends. Will take some time to get healthy again when things “slow down” a little or after we retire. Some of us fool ourselves into believing that by working harder we can buy ourselves some time, only to find out that managing more work and acquiring the finest, biggest stuff only makes us more time poor. Even the wealthiest billionaire cannot buy more time on this planet. In many cases, a high stress lifestyle will shorten your life versus lengthening it.

Bigger homes, bigger cars, bigger jobs, longer commutes only escalate time poverty. For years I was a victim of time poverty. In my 50 some odd years on this planet there are few things I wish I had picked up on a lot earlier. The good news is we’re fortunate enough in this century to fix the time poverty problem and it’s never too late to start.

So here are a few things I would’ve told my 25-year-old self.

Develop core principles and a philosophy of life. [Read more…] about The Time Poor.

The completely new face of travel. High-speed travel hacking and toilet paper races.

08/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

How to hack a quick trip.

By Brad Beckstrom

Last month I visited Portland, OR. I was in town for 5 days attending a conference. The conference included lots of evening events spread throughout the city, as well as daily events downtown. I also had a dinner and a breakfast meet-up with friends on opposite sides of the city and a day long photo shoot, many locations. I did not rent a car, call a cab or set foot in a hotel. I purchased cross country nonstop flights separately on Southwest at a total cost of $391. The return nonstop flight was particularly impressive arriving 20 minutes early and crossing the country in 4 hours and 40 minutes! Price for that leg was $186. What jet lag?

I was elected captain of the toilet paper race team on one of the flights. These things just happen to me, I hear they don’t happen as often for other people.

While in town, I stayed at a very nice private home. The home was a short ride from the event and less than two blocks from hundreds of restaurants and bars on 21st and 23rd street in Portland. The owner left out an assortment of fruits, nuts coffee for me. My total tab for four nights in these deluxe accommodations $323 about $80 a night.

I got around the city just fine using a combination of my feet, UBER and Portland’s cool light rail system called Max. If I were just to go back 30 years to 1985, many of my travel habits today would be completely unrecognizable. I’m not talking about flying cars or high-speed magnetic rail trains. Some might have predicted those back then if you asked them to describe the future of travel. [Read more…] about The completely new face of travel. High-speed travel hacking and toilet paper races.