Welcome Fellow Point Mavens

A warm welcome, hello and thank you to all of you who are also privy to Daraius' Million Mile Secrets.  I've learned plenty of tips and tricks from Daraius and the rest of my fellow active participants in the community.

Thanks also to the Points Guy for first introducing me to the notion of amassing significant volumes of airline points through credit cards, to MileValue for answering my toughest questions on the minutiae of AAadvantage rules, to my good friend Nancy for her constructive criticism, and especially, to my dear wife Nancy (no relation) and my kids for their tolerance of this hobby/chore/obsession.

Thanks to all of you, my wife and I were able to take a trip last month that I hadn't expected to be able to afford for at least ten years.  Now our only constraint is my time off from work.

You may have seen my comments on other blogs under my now-blown cover "zzd".  If you didn't like those, you probably won't like this blog.  This is a bit different in that I try to cover ways to save money on traveling in various ways, including but not limited to using points.

If I felt like I got any kind of a good deal - or could have, had I played my cards right - I include a section at the bottom of the post under the heading The Finagle in which I try my best to explain how to get the deal.

You may be interested in the series of posts that cover our recent trip to Paris, or perhaps the series (still in progress) about traveling to Las Vegas with your children - something most Las Vegas web sites, and many people, seem to ignore or harrumph.

Here are links to the series.  If you know anyone who might benefit from this information, feel free to share.

Paris and 2 days in the Loire Valley: Trip Report (March 2012)

• Introduction
• Bringing kids down to Los Angeles
• Flying to Paris
• Barbes-Rochechouart Market and Musee du Louvre
• Hotel in Paris, and how to call home
• Joinville Market and Chartier Restaurant
• A Day at the Opera
• Arc de Triomphe and evening walk
• Bicycle riding in Paris, and keeping it real in the 18th
• Trocadero and Musee d'Orsay
• Using a Groupon in Paris for dinner at Le Meltin in the 19th
• Renting a car in Paris
• Staying at a goat farm in the Loire Valley
• Chateau de Chenonceau
• Driving back to Paris
• Chateau de Versailles
• Last Tango in Paris:  Hyatt Regency at CDG Airport
• Customs issues at O'Hare Airport
• Epilogue

Traveling to Vegas with your Children

• Tips, Tricks, and Transportation
• What to Do with Kids in Vegas
• Where to Stay
• Where to Eat (or how to figure out where to eat)

(Sorry, nothing yet on Paris Las Vegas, Paris with kids, or Las Vegas without kids specifically.)

Other Topic

I also posted one discussion on a recent deal for the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas offered through Living Social, which turned out to be a debacle.  The company that offered it (not the hotel itself) canceled the offer and gave participants refunds.  This turned out to be my most-read blog post, I think mainly by people that had tried to participate in the deal.  It provides some interesting lessons on the fine line between a great deal and something that the offering company can't realistically deliver.

Coming Soon

In the next few weeks, I'll be posting more on ways to save money while in Vegas, with and without kids, using coupons, signing up for slot clubs, etc.

I try to add about two posts per week.  (I don't know how these other folks with day jobs do it.)  

Please let me know if there is any moderately relevant topic that you would like to know more about.  If it is something I think I can speak to, I'd be happy to write about it.