Brothers' blog explores every aspect of traveling for next to nothing

Tickets for six for an insanely small amount of money.

I’m sure you’re aware of all the credit cards that offer travel points in exchange for signing up and charging a certain amount. Sounds confusing, or perhaps like more effort than it’s worth, right?

Guess again, says Brad Christensen, an Idaho Falls financial adviser who with his brother Sheldon has made a hobby out of exploring all the angles and traveling with their families for as little as possible.

Their accounts of these trips can be found on their blog, WorldWanderlusting.com, where they also share their secrets for almost-free travel.

“Nothing pains me worse than hearing people say, ‘I’d love to travel, but I just can’t afford it,’” Brad said.

Nevertheless, there are some basic things you want to keep in mind. What follows is his basic advice for plunging in.

A Five Finger Formula for a Frequent Flyer Fortune

In the past three years, I've stayed 49 free nights in hotels. I flew my family of six to Panama for $261 out-of-pocket. My wife and I just returned from a two-week trip to Italy that we booked for 40,000 points and $81 each.

I could go on and on, but you're catching the vision. You see, most people think they're already playing the frequent flyer mile game, but they aren't even in the stadium. There is a world of travel-hacking out there that would astonish you, and the fact that you have an Alaskan Airlines credit card is only getting you started. There are people like me who are hoarding loyalty points aggressively (chubby-kid-under-the-piñata style) and I want to invite you to become one of them.

1. Understand the Programs

The first key to taking advantage of loyalty programs is, of course, to understand them. It's not nearly as intimidating as you'd think. To begin, know that there are essentially three forms of travel rewards you can accrue:

• Airline Miles: You probably belong to at least one of these programs - Delta Skymiles, American AAdvantage, Southwest Rapid Rewards. These are the most visible of all loyalty points and they're a key to making free-travel happen.
• Hotel Points: Similarly, hotel chains offer loyalty programs that usually span a few different brands. Ones that may be familiar might include the Marriott Rewards program or Hilton Honors.
• Bank Points: These are generally deeper in the shadows, but they are supremely powerful because often they can be transferred to various other programs or spent like cash. Examples include American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Barclaycard Arrival Points.

Now that you know that there are programs in each of these categories, consider that you can obtain points a few different ways.

• Direct Usage: Airlines usually give you miles for every mile you've flown and hotels give points based on the number of dollars spent. This is a painfully slow way to accumulate points. If you consider that a domestic flight is typically 25,000 points and the United States is about 3,000 miles wide, you'd need to do at least four to five round-trip flights from coast to coast in order to have enough for a free flight.
• Per Dollar Spending on Credit Cards: If you have a business that is heavy on inventory or that makes other large-dollar purchases that you can pay with a credit card, this is a great way to build points, yet most of us are not that fortunate. I find that I can spend about $1,000 to $1,500 per month in everyday expenses, also making the accrual to free-travel levels achingly sluggish.
• Upfront Bonuses from Credit Cards: For me this has been the rainmaker. In the past three years, my wife and I have applied for 34 credit cards and racked up more than 2,200,000 loyalty points across a number of platforms. This is not for everyone, as it does require discipline, but it is so insanely worth it.
• Promotions: Loyalty programs are about creating — you guessed it — loyalty. They want to see you look to their brand first when making travel plans, and they get that by helping you love what they offer. Often programs will run special programs to bump your balances. You need to know about these.
• Transfers: Some programs like the Starwood Preferred Guest will even allow for specific transfers, but usually these come from the bank points we mentioned above. It's especially nice to make transfers when they're offering multiplier bonuses. (what does this mean? Quick definition or example)
• Buying Points: I almost didn't include this because more often than not, it's not a plausible thing to do, but every once in a while, they make it worth it.

2. Sign Up for Them

You don't need to go out and sign up for a bunch of credit cards right away, but there is no harm in enrolling in the loyalty programs for airlines and hotels. Do yourself a favor and create a single username and complex password that you'll use to register for all of the programs. E-mail yourself the account numbers once you've registered and keep them in a special folder. By doing this you'll also be piped into special promotions they'll e-mail from time to time. Also, this way you'll always be ready in case you happen to fly on an airline you don't normally use or stay in a hotel you weren't a member of. Commit that you won't allow opportunities to fall by the wayside. I have friends who are crazy about travel and yet somehow they allowed 17,000 miles to go uncaptured after flying to China without registering for a program. Don't do that to yourself.

Also, create a stream of ongoing points and miles education by subscribing to some blogs. Obviously we'd welcome your subscription to WorldWanderlusting.com and we'd urge you to check out MillionMileSecrets.com and the forums at Flyertalk.com. This way you'll always be aware of what's happening in the Miles and Points world.

3. Get Some Points Coming

Maybe you've already got some built up. Perfect, that's a good start, but good is an impediment to great. I want you to get a taste of what it feels like to be empowered by an award wallet that is brimming with opportunity. My favorite "getting started" strategy right now is to begin piling up points with the Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard. It's super simple to redeem the points - just reimburse yourself for travel purchases. The up front bonus is healthy. You get $440 in free travel after spending $1,000.

Aside from that, make a determination about which programs best suit you. If you fly Southwest Airlines often, search out some ways to pile up Southwest Rapid Rewards. If you love staying in Starwood Hotels, get the Starwood card that offers a bonus of enough points to stay as many as eight nights in Category 2 hotels after meeting the minimum spending requirement.

4. Know How to Value Them

This is easily the most challenging part. Travel points are currency, and as such, their value is variable. The most confusing element for people is the concept of "miles." They're referred to as such because historically airline miles have been accrued on a "miles-flown" basis. But with most programs,  redemption has little to do with distance flown. Because I always think in terms of maximum value, these figures are for the lowest possible redemption for each program. You can pay much more in points than this, but these are baseline figures for the lowest amount you can get away with.

Airlines
Here's how redemption breaks out for most airlines:

Domestic flights are generally 25k points on the major carriers. The exceptions are Southwest, whose redemption is directly relative to the cost of the flight (~70 Rapid Reward points per dollar on Wanna-get-away fares), and British Airways which does consider the length of your flight in valuing redemption (making it an incredibly cheap way to book short flights.)

Central America/Caribbean/and Hawaii flights are 30-40k. Availability for these is best on American, Frontier, and US Airways.

Europe and South America run between 40-60k. I think the greatest value in all of frequent flyerdom is the 40k redemption to Europe on American between Oct. 15 and May 15. Getting $1,300 flights for 40k miles is like an ultimate clearance sale. American Airlines is also an incredible value to South America, sometimes even offering flights for 30k points.

SE Asia, Africa, Australia, and everything else are 60-100k. I like United for these kinds of flights. Delta works, too, but availability is scarce.

You can research each program on their individual websites, but we consolidated the links in our Using Airlines Miles page.

Hotels
But getting free flights is just the cake. Free hotels? Now that's the icing. The variance on hotel points is far greater, so it's nearly impossible to create a value system that runs across systems.

The first thing you need to understand about hotel points is that all hotel chains divide their hotel properties into categories. The higher the category, the more points they call for. In most cases, Category 1 hotels are very few and far between. I always like to look at programs in terms of how many points it takes to redeem for a Category 2 hotel. That gives you a good baseline value to compare across the board.

Approximate points required for one night in a Category 2 hotel:

Marriott Rewards, 10k. Obviously there is an abundance of Marriott hotels across the globe. The best finds for Category 2 hotels are right here in the U.S. and in Spain (don’t ask me why).

Starwood Preferred Guest, 3-4k (Sheraton, Westin, Aloft). I used a few of these hotels in Italy and there are some good ones in popular vacation destinations in the U.Ss as well.

Club Carlson, 15k (Country Inn & Suites, Radisson). This is my favorite program right now, especially because having the card they offer equates to a "book one, get one free" deal that really stretches the points. There are super nice Category 2 hotels all over England and in a number of countries in Central and South America.

Hilton, 12.5k (Hampton, Doubletree). I feel like this is the most overvalued chain, charging a lot of points that are tough to accrue for hotels that aren't all that great.

Priority Club, 15k (Holiday Inn, Candlewood). You can search out Category 2 hotels, but the best way to use these points is on their Point Breaks hotels that allow you to stay for only 5k a night.

Choice Hotels, 8k (Comfort Inn, Quality Inn). This is a great option for free stays in good locations in large cities that usually require far more points from other programs. Examples are Paris, Rome, London, Frankfurt, etc.

Cruises and rental cars
Now, you've got a stash of hotel and airline points that you're greedily counting like Scrooge McDuck. All you need is a way to tie it all together. Is it too much to ask for free car rentals and cruises too? No, it's not, in fact. You can pull this off with Bank Point programs that have a portal that allows you to book these things for free, or that provide reimbursement for travel purchases. In many cases you can also transfer these points to hotel or airline programs to top off your accounts when you need a little boost.

Here are the major bank point programs:

Barclays Arrival Points. I lead with this one because I love how flexible it is and how simple the earning capacity is. You earn 2 points for every dollar you spend and a 10 percent-point kickback when you reimburse yourself for travel purchases. It equates to 2.2 percent cash back for travel, and that just doesn't get beat.

Chase Ultimate Rewards. This is another solid program with an option to use the points as cash at a 1.25 ratio. You can also transfer to a lot of other programs. There are a few different cards that you can use to pile up these kind of points.

American Express Membership Reward Points. AMEX controls the market on business spending, so there are a lot of people with hundreds of
thousands of these points. I'd much prefer to have the others, though.

Capital One Venture Points. Also a travel reimbursement program, this one is good, but it has been a long time since there have been big up front bonuses to lure me in.

Overall, the points are only worth what you value them for. If you never want to go on a cruise, maybe the Barclay Arrival points aren't all that great for you. If you stay with friends or rent vacation homes, maybe you're better off to focus on airline miles over hotel points. The important piece is that you know what you want and go get them.

5. Know How to Redeem Them

All this is for naught if you can't figure out how to use these points you've been gathering. There's always the good old-fashioned way of calling in, but unless you’re a pro at interpreting broken English and waiting on hold excites you, you're going to want to book online.

I keep track of all my points in various programs with www.AwardWallet.com - it's a handy tool that keeps me organized and feeds my wanderlust when I need a pick-me-up.

Why is AwardWallet.com good? What does it do? Can I book through there? Tell me more!

Every program has an online portal and booking with points is not much different from normal reservations.

We've done a number of instructional videos on our Youtube Channel, but fiddling around with it yourself is really the best way to get it accomplished.

When booking, the most important rule is to be flexible. This is the real secret to using loyalty points efficiently. I tell people, "If you want to use frequent flyer miles to go to Hawaii from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2 and stay at a specific hotel, there's a chance you could do it, but it's going to completely drain you. If you want to go to someplace with a nice beach in the wintertime and stay in a clean hotel, you will be amazed by how much you can do with how little."

Your frequent flyer adventures will be so much cheaper, so many more, and so much more memorable if you'll be willing to take what opportunities present themselves, rather than prescribing a necessary plan that they must conform to.

Here's an example: Every quarter Priority Club releases its list of Point Breaks hotels, properties they let you stay at for 5,000 points per night. Since I have 85k, I could stay in one of them for as many as 17 nights. Looking through the list I think, "Hmm ... a Staybridge Suites in Valley Forge, Pa. Isn't that where General George Washington knelt and said a humble prayer before leading the Continental Army to victory?" Guess who just booked a trip to Pennsylvania?

Travel (real travel, as in, going places that are not occupied by cartoon characters) is about experiences. It's about learning and living and loving. It's about adventure and risk and excitement, and you don't get any of that if you aren't willing to break out of your comfort zone.

Commit now to do more than casually collect frequent flyer miles and points. If you're doing it right, it will feel like stealing - the exhilarating part, without the guilt. Just like travel itself, it's something you'll never regret.

Bachelor’s degree requirements: Big deal or big bust when recruiting candidates?

I am going to share a little secret with you. With five-and-a half years of higher education and two bachelor’s degrees I have only used a portion of what I learned in college in my career.

That’s not to say I haven’t used anything from college, in fact I have utilized what I learned in my human resources classes, legal courses, and marketing classes. You can thank Boise State University for my ability to write these articles as well (I was a terrible writer going into college). However, I certainly haven’t used anything from my statistics, calculus or computer information systems classes.

Obtaining my degrees wasn’t easy. In fact, it was one of the hardest things I had to do. As a young adult I was learning what the real world was like on my own, working full-time and going to school full-time.

No one paved my way or gave me handouts to help. I had to do everything on my own. I learned about what it takes to finance life goals when you do not have the financial resources to do so (i.e. student loans). If that wasn’t enough, I had to learn how to persevere when I tragically lost my brother my sophomore year and had my husband deployed to Iraq my senior year.

I almost gave up. Actually, I was probably a couple semesters away from Boise State giving up on me at one point. But I didn’t give up. You see that despite all the hard work, heartache and just wanting to take some steps back when I was being pushed forward, I knew that without at least a bachelor’s degree I would never be able to have the career I wanted or even be considered for jobs I wanted.

I was right. After college, any and every job I wanted in human resources required at least a bachelor’s degree at a minimum. It wasn’t until after college I realized how valuable those little pieces of paper with my name on them were. Not only were they my ticket into the stadium of career dreams, they were my ticket onto the playing field.

Now on the other side of the table, recruiting day in and day out through our firm – with jobs from entry level administrative assistants all the way up to executive directors – I am faced with determining what qualifications we will require as a foundation and a basis of knowledge to attract and retain top level talent. And guess what? We too require bachelor’s degrees, some courses in higher education, or at least equivalent experience for certain positions.

My take on recruiting and qualifications isn’t unique and has become more or less the norm for recruiting these days. The fact is, companies want to see a bachelor’s degree for most of the jobs that they will recruit for. As we discussed last week, nationally more and more companies are requiring bachelor’s degrees for entry level jobs.

But why? What’s the big deal about a $30,000 plus piece of paper? And more importantly why does it make or break your chances of getting a job? Well there are a lot of reasons, to be honest with you.

One of the very basic reasons that companies require some degree of higher education is to streamline qualification requirements – especially in the application process – and later on ensure that job descriptions can be streamlined. This is extremely important to ensure an employer has base level analysis and requirements for jobs, to try to ensure discriminatory recruiting, hiring and retention practices are in place. Companies need a way to compare candidate vs. candidate in a very basic and streamlined way – and degree requirements are an easy way to do that.

Employers also require education or degrees in higher education to try to ensure that candidates have a base level knowledge of what is needed to be successful in a job. Now, employers typically aren’t going to give you the equivalent of a degree-related SAT, but by knowing you obtained a degree
within a certain major (i.e. finance, marketing, communications, business, etc.) the employer is aware of the courses required to complete the degree program. Employers that specifically require degrees or coursework within a certain major have targeted the foundational areas of knowledge needed for the job.

However, on the other side of the spectrum, employers that are just seeking a bachelor’s degree without any specific major are probably doing a disservice to themselves and potential candidates.
Bachelor’s degrees don’t necessarily equal the most qualified candidates in this case.

Lastly, completing a degree program is a strong demonstration to employers of a candidate’s degree of dedication. Most bachelor’s degrees take an average of five years to obtain. This means that candidates have dedicated half a decade of their lives to obtaining that pricey of piece of paper, picking a major, completing course after course down the degree checklist, stressing over test after test during finals week, writing paper after paper, and participating in everyone’s favorite “team or project” group assignment. There’s also the issue financing: financial arrangements with the college or university each semester, possibly going into debt that will have to be paid off long after the diploma is framed and hung in an office.

When employers require a degree as a part of their recruiting and hiring process keep in mind they aren’t trying to hire the right degree. They are trying to hire the right person. Sometimes that right person has professional experience that is above and beyond what any degree program could have ever accomplished, and we do take that into consideration too.

Monica Bitrick is CEO of Bitrick Consulting Associates, a human resources company in Idaho Falls.

Riverbend stations add Dave Ramsey to weekday lineup

Dave Ramsey

Riverbend Communications’ news and talk stations, NewsTalk 97.7FM, KEIR-AM (1260 AM) and KEII-AM (690 AM) added The Dave Ramsey Show to their weekday line up beginning Monday. The show will be broadcast live weekdays from noon to 3 p.m.

Dave Ramsey is one of America’s most popular talk radio hosts, with more than 8 million listeners on 500-plus stations nationwide. Nearly 20 years ago, he began his radio show in Nashville, only a few years after he climbed out of bankruptcy. The painful reality of his life story feeds the compassion and sincerity he has for each caller. Listeners respond to the tough love and appreciate the straight talk.

“This is an exciting relevant program to add to our line-up,” said Mike Nelson, operations manager for Riverbend Communications, which owns the stations. “It’s also a great alternative to political talk offered at the same time.”

Idaho’s Midday News with Jolyn Thomas, east Idaho’s only live and local midday talk show, will be heard weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon.

Teton Pharmacy open on West Broadway

Teton Pharmacy owner Jason Bailey

Teton Pharmacy had a grand opening and ribbon cutting Tuesday at its branch at 1855 West Broadway, in the same building as Papa' Murphy's Pizza.

This is part of an expansion and refiguring of the business since Jason Bailey bought it in 2008. After decades off Channing Way, Bailey moved the pharmacy, home health, hospice and medical equipment business to a new, 6,000-square-foot building on Hitt Road, south of Sunnyside. "Being so far on the east side, we found we needed a branch to serve our customers on the west side," he said.

The big question is, of course, how does a relatively small, local operator compete with Walgreen's, which will have a brand new store at Skyline and West Broadway open by then end of the year?

In 2011, the pharmacy giant took a hard stand with Blue Cross of Idaho and decided not to re-sign its contract with Express Scripts, Blue Cross' pharmacy benefits manager. Blue Cross balked, and sent a a letter to members saying that allowing Walgreen's back into the network would result in higher fees that would be passed on to members. When Walgreen's tried to renegotiate, Blue Cross said no.

This means that people employed by the Idaho National Laboratory, the city of Idaho Falls and Idaho Falls School District 91 have to pay significantly more to have their prescriptions fills at Walgreen's. The situation will remain that way until at least 2017.

"It is a big advantage," Bailey said. "The other advantage is that at Walgreen's you wait 45 minutes for a prescription and we can have you in and out of here in less than 10."

I.F. BMW dealership receives recognition

BMW of Idaho Falls has been named Number 5 in the United States in the company’s annual Center of Excellence honors. The awards go to BMW dealerships that distinguished themselves through exceptional performance, consistent brand representation and a dedication to providing an outstanding customer experience.

Of the 339 BMW dealers in the United States, 32 achieved "2014 Center of Excellence" status based on their 2013 performance.

Dealers are listed below in numerical order based on their final scores:
1 Hendrick BMW, Charlotte, N.C.

2 BMW of Murrieta, Murrieta, Calif.

3 BMW of Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii

4 Valencia BMW, Valencia, Calif.

5 BMW of Idaho Falls, Idaho Falls
6 BMW of Beaumont, Beaumont, Texas

7 Peter Pan BMW, San Mateo, Calif.

8 Hilton Head BMW, Bluffton, S.C.

9 BMW of Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas

10 Sun Motor Cars BMW, Mechanicsburg, Pa.