This Simple Step Will Help “Free” You up for an Adventure Abroad

Summary

The web content provides advice on using frequent flyer miles and travel hacking to save money on flights for extended or permanent moves abroad, as detailed in the book "Let's Leave the Country! A Guide to Your Family Year Abroad."

Abstract

The article emphasizes the importance of planning ahead for international travel by accumulating frequent flyer miles and credit card points. It suggests that by doing so, one can significantly reduce or even eliminate the cost of airfare, which has become more expensive and environmentally burdensome post-pandemic. The author, referencing their own experience, illustrates how their family saved nearly $10,000 on flights to Italy by using accumulated miles. The piece also encourages considering carbon offsets to mitigate the environmental impact of flying and points readers to resources for learning travel hacking techniques. This strategy is presented as part of a broader series of tips from the author's book, aimed at helping families plan a year abroad.

Opinions

The author believes that the current state of air travel is more costly and carries a greater sense of environmental responsibility since the pandemic began.
Accumulating frequent flyer miles and points over time is seen as a practical way to cover travel costs for an extended stay abroad.
The article conveys that even small amounts of accumulated miles can be valuable due to airline practices of charging for additional services.
There is an opinion that being flexible and not under immediate time pressure can lead to greater travel hacking rewards.
The author suggests that buying carbon offsets, despite their imperfections, is a consideration for travelers concerned about their carbon footprint.
The value of joining frequent flyer clubs is highlighted for benefits beyond just mileage accumulation, such as free checked bags or seat upgrades.
The author encourages readers to support writers by subscribing to Medium through their link, indicating a belief in

Tips from my book “Let’s Leave the Country! A Guide to Your Family Year Abroad”

Photo by ©chengwaidefeng from Getty Images via Canva.com

Travel by air is not what it used to be. It’s more expensive and in many ways more burdensome since the pandemic began. That doesn’t even include the culpability we bear for contributing to carbon emissions. If you’re planning to fly overseas, the last thing you want to do is turn over exorbitant sums of money to the airline industry.

Still, because we haven’t yet developed travel-by-wormhole or portkey a la Harry Potter, we are stuck paying airfares (and adding CO2) to see the world. But the beauty of planning for extended time abroad someday in the future means that you have plenty of time to find lower-cost workarounds. Hence, this Save It For Someday tip from the “Find and Keep Good Company” chapter of my book:

Start saving frequent flyer miles and points for an eventual reconnaissance trip. That way, when it comes time to meet your good company, you’ll be ready to fly there without the burden of a ticket purchase. By using credit card points and accumulated miles, you might even be able to cover the travel costs for the entire year abroad for you and your family. Explore sites such as extrapackofpeanuts.com, onemileatatime.com, or frugaltravelguy.com to learn the ropes of travel hacking.

Whether you want to explore a location for a year abroad or make a permanent move, playing the frequent flyer game and travel hacking can reduce your airfare to zero. And the longer “runway” of time you have, the more points or miles you can accumulate before you take off (i.e., the more money you can save).

If you succeed in getting free tickets, the money you save can go toward your actual experience of life abroad. And you might also consider buying carbon offsets, imperfect as they are, for your flight(s).

To put this into perspective, my family had several years’ worth of accumulated miles that helped with flights during our Italian adventure in the 2010s. We used those miles to get four roundtrip tickets from the west coast of the US to Italy (with two stopovers in separate countries) saving us almost $10,000.

Collecting frequent flyer miles, whether through credit cards or other methods, may seem like a no-brainer. And if you haven’t started yet, it might also seem like you’ll never reach a threshold that could make a difference. But times are changing.

Airlines are nickel and diming passengers for everything. The simple act of creating a frequent flyer account — even if it accumulates only a few miles here and there — can have value down the road. Becoming a member of a frequent flyer club can give you access to other things, such as a free checked bag, or a lower-cost upgrade to a better seat.

The bottom line: There’s a world of hacking tips that reward travelers who are flexible, especially those not under time pressure to book tickets anytime soon. If that’s you, it’s worth going down this rabbit hole.

And I write about other stuff too:-)

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