Beginning this January, I ll start an epic journey that will take me across four continents, through

I have to tell you sir, this is easily the most ridiculous theories on time travel itinerary I ve ever put together, said the American Airlines operator the other night as I finalized plans for a worldwide adventure that would make Marco Polo blush.  Welp, that makes two of us!   I replied.
Beginning this January, I ll start an epic journey that will take me across four continents, through at least nine countries, and into more than fifteen cities.  I ll fly on fifteen flights theories on time travel covering a total distance of 35,000 miles.  To put that in perspective, that s almost 1.5 times the circumference of the globe.  While visiting these locations, I should be able to cross off over a dozen goals from my Epic Quest of Awesome .
Warning: I m totally going to geek out on travel-hacking with this post, so if you have no interest in learning how to travel the world and visit awesome places for dirt cheap, check back in on Monday.
Unreal, right? If I were to pay for this adventure with cash and book individual flights, it would cost almost $6,000 (using the cheapest option for each leg on Expedia.com).  The best part is, the dates of this adventure aren t set in stone as long as I don t change WHERE I m going, I can change the date and time of each stop without penalty.
After buying travel guru Chris Guillebeau s Frequent Flyer Master e-book last fall (who also now offers a more robust Travel-Hacking subscription ), I became addicted to travel hacking, acquiring an INSANE amount of frequent flyer miles for various airlines through an assortment of lucrative credit theories on time travel card deals.  I have excellent credit, generally get the first year fee waived, use the card for EVERYTHING, pay off each card in full, and receive a certain number of miles for spending theories on time travel enough money to receive the bonus.
I use these points to book insane trips around the world like this one! To answer your first question, I didn t buy ANYTHING outside of what I would normally purchase to get these bonuses I ve lived extremely frugally over the past year.  For example, to earn 100,000 British Airways points, I had to spend $2,000 in six months after prepaying my car insurance theories on time travel for the year, and putting all of my other payments (gas, food, cable, gym, etc.) on the card for a few months I hit the bonus with ease.
For me to complete this particular trip, I had to use a combination of American Airline miles and Starwood Preferred Guest points. I had already used 32,000 AA points for my trip to Peru last month , so I simply transferred 40,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points into my AA account (complete with a 10,000 point transfer theories on time travel bonus), which gave me the 140,000 points needed to book my trip.
If you re interested in learning more about frequent flyer credit card programs and last-minute deals, theories on time travel head over to Frugal Travel Guy and check out the different cards listed in the right hand column.  Rick runs THE best frequent flyer website out there, so start checking it daily if you re looking to take some fun trips for dirt cheap his site is one of the sites I make sure to visit every morning.
The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card .  10,000 points on first purchase, 15,000 points when you spend $5000 in six months.  These points are great for hotels, or you can convert them to many different airlines with a 20% bonus (convert 20,000 points to AA, get 25,0000 AA points, for example.)  This is one of the few cards I gladly pay the yearly fee for each year.
The Chase Sapphire theories on time travel Card 40,000 points when you spend $3,000 in three months.  These points also convert to various airline and hotel programs, or you can pay for flights and hotels directly with your points.  This is also one of the few cards I gladly pay to keep open each year.
You just have to keep an eye out for special deals (which is where One Mile At A Time and   Frugal Travel Guy comes in handy). Worried about your credit score? If you carry no credit theories on time travel card debt, pay off your cards in full, and then negotiate for fee-free cards after your first year your score will not be affected negatively.  If you decide to cancel the cards after a year, depending on your credit history it can take a hit of a few points before rebounding.  Do the research; it s not as terrifying as you d imagine!
As of three weeks ago, my plan was to book a one-way flight to Sydney and figure the rest out after that. However, after reading posts from Sean Ogle and Cody McKibben about Thailand, theories on time travel I knew I had to swing through Southeast Asia to check it out.  I calculated that using points to go from Los Angeles to Sydney to New Zealand to Thailand back to Los Angeles would cost me around 110,000 points.
OneWorld Awards theories on time travel are flights that are based on how many TOTAL miles you fly instead of dealing with individual flights. They also allow you to fly on most of American Airlines worldwide partners, and you can make a total of SIXTEEN STOPS.
theories on time travel According to their award chart , for only 120,000 points (10,000 more points than I would have used the other way) I could fly up to a total of 25,000 miles and make 16 stops anywhere along the way.   However, for only an additional 20,000 points, I could fly up to 35,000 total miles instead
Because I had 140,000 AA points at my disposal, I decided to tack on a visit to both Dublin and Spain for next fall !  Obviously it was a big decision to add a Europe portion to my trip, but it only cost me an additional 20,000 points, round-trip. theories on time travel Considering theories on time travel a round-trip flight to anywhere in the states is 25,000 points I d say it s a pretty good deal!
I can t stopover in the same city twice, which is why I m flying out of LA, then back in through San Francisco. theories on time travel It s also why I m flying out of Chicago and back in through Boston when going to Europe.
I can only have one open gap on the trip, which counts as one of my 16 stops but doesn t factor into the mileage calculation my open segment is a gap between San Francisco and Chicago.  I m responsible for getting myself from San Fran to Chicago next summer.
I have to give a HUGE shout out to the incredible community over at Flyer Talk.com for helping me put together this trip and answering my questions. That is the place to be if you have any sort of interest in frequent flyer programs, travel hacking, and such.  It can be quite intimidating due to the sheer amount of information on there, but once you get your feet wet it s easy to navigate and you can pretty much find an answer to ANYTHING.
If you re interested in seeing how many miles your dream flight would be, check out Great Circle Mapper . Simply plug in your airport codes ( which you can find here ) and it will tell you how long your flight is!  Here is my crazy itinerary .  I m not kidding theories on time travel when I say that I spent probably more than 24 total hours in the past three weeks having a blast on this thing creating itineraries, checking theories on time travel mileage, and figuring out where the heck I could go without going over the limit.
Try to book your trip either WAY in advance (flights open up generally 330 days in advance), or last minute like I did. If you NEED to go on specific days, book it as far in advance as possible, as each plane only has so many award seats available.  When booking last minute, you might need to be flexible with your dates as often the most popular legs have already been filled.
If you sign up for a Qantas FF number (you don t need miles or to fly them), you can search their database to see which flights have available theories on time travel award seats. You can also do the same for British Airways for flights that don t show up on Qantas (and vice versa).  Between those two I was able to line up all of my flights before calling American Airlines to book them.
When booking, it s a crap shoot how helpful your phone operator theories on time travel will be. I had to call back three times to get an agent that could help me re-calculate a segment of the trip that AA s computer had screwed up.  It s not the agents fault, some just happen to be more knowledgeable with this type of flight than others.  If the one you have doesn t help, simply hang up and call back!
Flights change. New award seats open up last minute, theories on time travel and these types of itineraries are free to change as long as you don t change the airline or destination.  I plan on getting to Australia much sooner than February 13th when a flight opens up while I m in Los Angeles.
Now, if you have your points in other airlines like Delta or United, they are part of their one worldwide alliances who ALSO offer flights like these visit their websites, look up their alliances, and start planning.
Next week, I will be moving out of my apartment in Atlanta, and I have no plans to actually RENT a place in the United States until at least 2012. I will also be selling my car, and I don t expect to own a car until 2012 either.  Once I m not paying rent, car insurance, car payments, or fuel my financial ties will be minimal theories on time travel (just some student loans and health insurance).  When I don t have my money promised elsewhere, I can use the rest of my money to live VERY CHEAPLY overseas (hostels, couch surfing, etc.).
I am certainly theories on time travel not rich, but I m incredibly fortunate to be 100% in control of my time and location because I am my own boss. I can operate Nerd Fitness from anywhere with an Internet connection, so I ll be working the entire time while traveling, connecting with readers, writing about my adventures, creating more awesome workout videos , and inspiring others to also do stuff that scares the crap out of them.
Because I m traveling so cheaply, I ll be able to use the majority of my money to cross off some of the more expensive things on my Epic Quest list .  These are the things I hope to accomplish in 2011:
Now, a lot of these things are incredibly expensive, so I ll be using any sort of connections or resources at my disposal to try and accomplish the goals as frugally as possible. If you happen to have ANY connection whatsoever theories on time travel with any of these goals and can help out, I would greatly appreciate it : specifically the NZ skydiving and Great Ba