Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Leaving on a Jet Plane... Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again

It's official, I finally bought my flight to Dubai... I'm leaving June 2nd!  It's completely nonrefundable and non-changeable so there's no backing out - it's set in stone.  There's something quite unsettling yet liberating about that!

I have been following some of the great travel bloggers, including The Points Guy, who taught me about "travel hacking" to maximize my travel rewards credit cards and collect airline miles and points.  I have excellent credit, so I added a few new travel rewards cards to my wallet (Chase Sapphire, Barclaycard Arrival Plus MasterCard, Capital One Venture Card, and Citi ThankYou Premier) that offer 40k-50k bonus points if you spend a certain amount within the first three months.  By the end of this year I should have enough points to fly around the world for free!

Anyway, as for my ticket to Dubai, I used Priceline Negotiator's Name Your Own Price feature - found a great deal with Delta, only $732 return from LA to Dubai.  It's always cheaper to buy roundtrip, so I booked my return leg for November 2nd.  That's five full months!  Considering I have 34 countries to see in that time, I hope it will be long enough!  I will spend the whole summer and autumn months in Africa and the Middle East.  When I return to LA I will have a week or so to gather my warmest winter clothes and then head off again, this time south to Ushuaia, Argentina (southernmost city in the world) where I will set sail for Antarctica to celebrate my 30th birthday with the penguins, seals, glaciers, and icebergs!  Seven continents and 100 countries before 30.  That's my plan.

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