Journeyman: A very late December Budget Report, and the Beverly Hillbillies do first class

Hi everyone, Deena here, and we are in Bangkok now having a great time exploring the city, eating the food, and getting Thai massages. Our expenses for December ended up being $135 per day. Israel was a very expensive country, and the only reason we came in at $135 is that for several days we just hung around the house as a stomach bug hit most of us on different days. We enjoyed Israel and were able to take it at a relaxed pace due to the amount of time spent there. We did not travel outside the country so that eliminated our travel expenses; however, it cost us $500 to cross the border to Jordan. OUCH. To add insult to injury, we crossed into Jordan to catch our flight to Egypt for the weekend. Then we reentered Jordan for eight days. This required two single-entry visas at $56 each person times two. Unfortunately, we spent a lot of money on NOT fun stuff this month. We are really enjoying Bangkok low prices as we are digging out of the hole from December. This is why we are spending time in cheaper countries to pay for the expensive ones.

As Michael wrote earlier in the week, we finally experienced first-class travel due to our travel hacking. Almost one year ago, I booked a flight from Amman to Bangkok with American Airlines frequent flyer miles. The flight is actually flown by their partner, Royal Jordanian. At the time of reservation, there were two seats available in first class, so we took those and stuck the kids back in economy. American is known to release space in first class a little closer to the time of the flight, so I spent about seven months checking availability and in November was finally able to move the kids up to first class with us—four first-class tickets for the cost of taxes only. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what the taxes cost, but I’m betting less than $200 for all of us. Both Michael and I had US Air cards from a long time ago, and we were able to apply and get second cards for the added sign-up bonuses. I wasn’t sure one could get two of the same card, but it worked. We also applied for the American cards as well, and when US Air and American merged, we had a pretty sizable stash of points. We were able to get the flights to Bangkok, New Zealand, and Hawaii free from these point balances.

Here are some pictures of us descending on the first class lounge with our backpacks and some pictures in flight.