Our Best Travel Tip: Sharing Our 'Secret'

We didn't even realize it was a secret until we read Clark Howard, the well known consumer advisor.

He describes his secret as "surprisingly simple" and his number one travel rule. What is this strategy for traveling economically while seeing the world?

As Clark Howard puts it, "buy the deal first and then figure out why you want to go there." It was a revelation to realize we've been employing the very same strategy for the past 24 years or so.

This approach is a little different from what members of FlyerTalk and other active flyers refer to as a "mileage run." FlyerTalk defines a mileage run as "a series of flights taken in a very short amount of time, solely for the purpose of accumulating frequent flyer miles, with a blatant disregard for the destinations."  

If you stay even one night at your destination, purists will tell you it's not a true mileage run. By that definition, we've seldom flown one. We have, however, completed many domestic trips over the years that involve as little as a day or two at our destination. When we're considering flights, we regularly check the  FlyerTalk forums on mileage run deals and premium fare deals. 

We also read travel blogs, but we've found some of our best deals on Google Flights. Others recommend the similar Kayak Explore. 

In January 2024 we found a bargain business class fare on British Airways from Vancouver to Larnaca, Cyprus via Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and London Heathrow (LHR) outbound, returning via LHR. That added up to a total of 15,307 air miles before class of service bonuses, giving us quite a start on earning miles for our Alaska accounts in 2024. We enjoyed a great holiday there and will eagerly return if we see another bargain business class fare.

We found similar bargains at the beginning of 2025 to fly to Italy, Hungary, and France, countries we never tire of visiting. Along with some great travels, we've already each accumulated more than 75,000 Elite Qualifying Miles for 2025 in our Alaska accounts, and hope to reach 100,000 EQMs by the end of the year.

Unlike business travelers, we rarely plan a trip with the destination already chosen. The major exceptions for us are traveling to or from cruises, FlyerTalk Oz Fests in Australia, and all of those European trips we've taken over the past decade with our eight grandchildren.  

For planning those trips we utilize the Matrix airfare search. It's an excellent resource that allows us to choose the lowest fare available over a month to a given destination, but be aware there's a learning curve involved in using it.  

Utilizing our "secret strategy," we've managed to visit about 82 sovereign countries over the past 2 1/2 decades with a couple more new ones planned over the next year. After all that, we haven't shaken the travel bug.

And you're welcome to share our little secret! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good News: An Amazingly Speedy Online U.S. Passport Renewal!

It's easy and sometimes justified to complain about the inefficiency of others, whether it's an individual tradesman or a giant corporation. Then there's government...

Almost everyone has stories to share in that regard, and that's why it's particularly gratifying, and something to celebrate, when Uncle Sam provides a service with whiz-bang speed.

Brian's passport was expiring in January 2026, and we have no plans to leave the country during the summer, other than a few trips to Canada for which our NEXUS cards will suffice. It seemed like good timing to renew his passport online. Some of us who travel frequently feel a little lost without having that little blue booklet handy. 

The eligibility criteria for online renewal can be found on a U.S. State Department website here.

You can renew online if you meet all these requirements:

1. The passport you are renewing is or was valid for 10 years, and you are age 25 or older. 
2. The passport you are renewing is either expiring within one year or has expired less than five years ago.
3. You are not changing your name, sex, date of birth, or place of birth.
4. You are not traveling for at least 6 weeks from the date you will submit your application. We will only offer routine service, and the time it takes to get a passport will be the same as renewing by mail. 
5. You are applying for a regular (tourist) passport. You cannot renew a special issuance (diplomatic, official, service) passport online.
6. You live in the United States (either state or territory). You do not qualify to renew online if you live in a foreign country or have an Army Post Office (APO), Fleet Post Office (FPO), or Diplomatic Post Office (DPO) address.
7. You have your passport with you, and it is not damaged or mutilated, and you have not reported it as lost or stolen. Keep your most recent passport and do not mail it to us. 
8. You can pay for your passport using a credit or debit card.
9. You can upload a digital passport photo.
10. You are aware that we will cancel the passport you are renewing after you submit your application. You cannot use it for international travel.

Brian met all of the requirements. He also saved time by already having an account with the State Department's My Travel website. We've both used that site in the past for our NEXUS applications, and also for registering trips abroad for State Department travel advisories. 

The actual completion of the form was easy, because much of the information was already filled in from his current passport. The rules for photos at first seemed challenging (no smiling, no shadows, etc.), but the actual picture-taking process was simple. Selfies are not allowed, so Kathy was the photographer. We managed to produce an acceptable photo on the first try and Brian uploaded it from his cell phone into the application.

The basic passport renewal fee is currently $130. It is not possible to pay for an expedited online passport, but one can pay an extra $22.05 for 1-2 day return shipping. Brian sprang for that and clicked to send off the application with his fingers crossed. The estimated processing time is 4-6 weeks. 

The State Department listed the submission date as June 19. After a couple of form emails, Brian received an email stating his new passport would be shipped June 27. It arrived at our door June 29. He'd checked the box to receive a passport with extra pages, and that's the way it arrived.

We luckily happen to live only four miles down the road from a Trusted Traveler Enrollment Center, and stopped by there July 1 to connect his NEXUS card to his new passport. After standing in line for 10 minutes, Brian left 2 minutes later with his documents updated. 

He also remembered to sign his new passport immediately. Travelers have experienced grief trying to enter a number of countries with perfectly legitimate passports that they failed to sign. See, for example, here and here. On one of our flights departing the U.S. earlier this year an announcement was made at the gate urging all passengers to make sure they had signed their passports, lest they be refused entry (and returned at the airline's expense). 

Relatives in Canada report a similarly efficient process and timeline when they renewed their Canadian passports online in February. Hurray!

Kathy's passport doesn't expire until July 2026, but we suspect we've stumbled on a sweet spot for renewal. All the people wanting to travel abroad this summer would have already applied, and winter travel is still 6 months away.

The State Department allows people to renew their passports up to one year before the expiry (some countries won't even admit you if your passport is expiring in less than 6 months), so as soon as the anniversary date arrives she'll be sending in her online application.

We'll let you know how that turns out.