Getting out of your Comfort Zone

And boy are we ever.  I recently talked about our splurge on a Liveaboard on a previous post for the Great Barrier Reef diving we'll be doing.  A few changes have been made and along with a new boat, we have a new itinerary.  And one that includes something I swore I would never, EVER do. 

Actual photo taken from the dive we're doing.

  A shark feeding.  Yep, me, the girl who was scared to get in the ocean at one time because a fish could bite me will be watching from a distance of this picture of a full on shark feed.

  Ok, I haven't lost my marbles.  For one, there are many, MANY different types of feeds and this one involves us dropping down the bottom of the sea floor in a specific location and then the boat lowering a trash can full of food.  No one is actually physically feeding the sharks (an excellent way to donate a finger, hand or side of your body to Poseidon) but we are in the vicinity of sharks in full on feeding mode.  That somewhat eased my mind. 

  Second, the liveaboard we'll now be doing is a day longer, includes more dives but automatically does this as one of them.  It's roughly 20 minutes of your hour or so dive but those who have done it say it's something not to be missed.  When we were first looking at liveaboards, part of the reason we chose Taka was because they DIDN'T do this dive in their package.  However, after research and lots of talking, we decided it was worth it to have an extra day at sea, more dives and go with a boat that has a bit more experience than Taka. 

  Enter Spirit of Freedom.

   It's ranked very high in the liveaboard world and every person on our favorite Scuba forum swears by it.  (the other one we really wanted was full, Mike Ball, except for the $4500 pp Ocean View Stateroom.  No thanks Mike, we'd like to pay our mortgage.  For a year)  The boat is very professional, specializes in longer trips to sea and is willing to stop for Minke whales if we see any, more so than others.  Because it's only a day longer but it's going literally out to sea, this trip includes what's called a low-level flight from Cairns to a small island where we'll board. 

  So back to the sharks.  We're not spending the cash on a liveaboard to sit out any dives so we're biting the bullet and facing our fears.  I was always so afraid of these because a) most shark attacks happen when they're being fed.  Not a fun statistic to know when 3 months from now I will be sitting on the sea floor watching this. b) I feel like it could have a detrimental impact on the sharks because well, they're being fed and not looking for food.

 Some fears were calmed by watching videos of this exact dive posted by many, many divers.  Yes, the sharks are very close but why would they want us?  We're not yummy and delicious chum, that's available in the trashcan.  Note to self, do NOT dress up like a trashcan and go diving on Osprey Reef.  And I said some fears, not all.  I'm still terrified.

   As for the environmental impact, the vessels are set on a strict schedule so that no two boats are out there during the same week.  So at most, assuming weather is nice, we're looking at a feeding a week.  Throw in a few weeks of no bookings, bad weather or holidays and you're talking 30 feeds a year.  That made me feel a lot better since the same sharks may not be visiting during that time. 

  So, after watching countless videos, determining the best liveaboard for us and researching how long it takes to get a shark bite victim to shore before they're a goner, we're diving in head first.  :) 

Home Depot Slyness

So, as many of you have noticed, it's Spring.  (finally!  I'm not a winter girl) With spring comes the time when homeowners everywhere spend WAY too much trying to get their yards/house in order so they have pretty things to enjoy in just a few weeks/months.  We are in this category. 

What does this have to do with travel?  Well, we found a way to "capitalize" on the system.  See, we're frequent Home Depot visitors.  So much that every time we go in, a good 20 mins is spent just saying hi to all of the people we know there.  Just earning miles on our Aadvantage credit card wasn't enough to appease my dear hubby.  Nope, we found a way to earn even more miles.

Home Depot is an AA Shopping place where you can shop online for items and earn additional miles through the website.  So, if you go to https://www.aadvantageeshopping.com/ and find Home Depot, you can earn 3 miles for every dollar spent by ordering through that URL.  Use your Starwood card (that earns you 1.25 miles per dollar) and you're looking at 4.25 miles per dollar spent.  Sweet!

And here's where we take it a step further, as we usually do.  You can order gift cards through this website and earn your 3 miles per dollar on those, paying for it with your Starwood card for 4.25 miles per dollar.  THEN, once you get the card in the mail (which is fast, like 4 days tops) you can turn around and order the items you want through the Aadvantage shopping site, paying for it with your gift card for another 3 miles.  Make sense?  The miles are earned for simply using the site, not a card, so you get miles twice over by using a gift card purchased earlier.  Voila, you now just earned 7.25 miles.

Example:  you priced out a fan you like at Home Depot and it's $100.  You have 2 options:

1) Pay for this fan at your local store and earn 125 miles using your Starwood card.

2) Order a Home Depot gift card online through Aadvantage shopping for $100 using your Starwood card.  Earn 325 miles.  Buy the fan online through Aadvantage shopping, pay for it using your new gift card and select in-store pickup to save on shipping.  Earn an additional 300 miles.  Total= 625 miles

One requires a tad more work than the other, although mostly patience, but the results do not lie.  Order gift cards in larger numbers at one time and you'll always find a way to use them if you're doing home projects!  So if you order a $500 gift card from HD and shop online, you're looking at 3,125 miles. 

Yet another simple way to max out your mileage earning potential. :D

When to Splurge

  I know I've talked a lot about how to save money over and over again by taking advantage of company reward programs but every now and then, there comes a time to splurge.  Whether that's on a special trip, a ridiculously nice meal out or an over the top pair of expensive shoes, it's ok to indulge from time to time.

  Curtis and I talked a lot about where we would splurge on our big trip this year.  To me, the trip itself is a splurge; something I am so lucky to be able to do and grateful to stay in a hostel, much less a nice hotel.  To us, the main highlight of this trip is diving the Great Barrier Reef since it's one of the top places people say you must see/do in your lifetime and we love to dive.  After looking into the locations of the best dive spots, the "splurge" portion of our trip kind of fell in our laps.

  We're going to do a Liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef.

Taka Dive GBR Liveaboard

  Some of the best diving spots on the Reef are located too far out for a day trip, unless you plan to charter a plane to a private island and then take a boat to the bigger boats already there.  Yeah...too much of a splurge!  The main sites we wanted to visit were the Cod Hole and the Ribbon Reefs, two sites that include many diving sites within and tons to see.

  We haven't booked anything yet but I think we've decided on the Taka Liveaboard for 4 days and 3 nights including 10+ dives.  The entire purpose of the boat is to dive so it will be nice to be around divers, marine biologists (who tag along to do research) and people genuinely interested in ocean life.  I'm a little nervous (my worst case scenario mind does that to me) but excited at the idea of living at sea for a few days!


  The itinerary includes:
(click on each name that's underlined to see a picture of the animal)

-Leave Tuesday night to embark on an overnight trip to the Cod Hole

Wednesday
-Cod Hole dive 1- likely sightings include the Giant Potato Cod, Moray Eel, Reef Sharks & Maori Wrasse
-Cod Hole dive 2- Cod Feed; close encounters with the Famous Potato Cod!

Potato Cod

-Pixie's Pinacle/Reef/Wall or Challenger Bay dive 3- likely sightings include Lion Fish, Nudibranchs, Garden Eels & Barracuda

-Night Dive at Challenger Bay dive 4- likely sightings include Cuttle Fish, Seat Turtles, Reef Sharks & Manta Rays

Thursday
-Clam Gardens dive 5- likely sightings include Giant Clams (200+ years old) anenome

-Steve's Bommie dive 6- sightings include Red Flame File Shell, Stone Fish, Wobeegong Sharks, Turtles & Thousands of schooling Anthias

-Temple of Doom dive 7- sightings include Flatworms & Clownfish

-Night Dive, Beer Gardens dive 8- sightings include sleepy Turtles & Parrot Fish

Friday
-Hogs Breath dive 9- sightings include Blue Spot Lagoon Ray & Clown Fish

-Split Bommie dive 10- sightings include Octopus & various Butterfly Fish


This itinerary is their desired dive plan but it can change depending on currents, weather and even time of the year.  We will probably end up skipping a few sites due to the latter.  Why?  As if this dive trip couldn't get any better, we're there during Minke Whale season!

  These whales migrate to Australia every year between May-July and up to 100 may be seen at one time.  There are strict rules in place (as there should be) to prevent harm to these animals but they're very friendly and are likely to approach snorkelers near boats.  They are the Dwarf Minke Whales but don't be fooled!  They run about 8 meters long and weigh up to 5 tons!

 

WOW!  How many times in your life can you say you swam with whales?!  There, of course, is no guarantee we'll see any but because we're with a dive group solely for 3 days, the boat will stop (by law) and cut the engines so we can jump in the water with them.  Yet another advantage to being on a liveaboard that you just don't get with day trips!

  The experience will be well worth the money and we're thrilled to get the opportunity to see some parts of the ocean most have never seen before.

Have you splurged on travel before?  In hindsight, was it worth it?

Eat. Pray. Love. Go.

  One stop I am looking forward to SO much on our trip is Bali.  Everything about this island seems picturesque!  The backdrop of many, many movies, it's the place to go when you want to unwind, relax and get to know yourself all over again.  Yoga is a big part of the way of life in Bali with many resorts offering it as part of the rooms.  Bali was also featured as the last stop by Julia Roberts in "Eat. Pray. Love." and from what we've read, the scenes from that movie barely touch on the beauty of this place!

He's real! His name is Pak Ketut Leyar and if he's feeling ok, we plan to make a stop and see what the future has in store for us.

   This is a place I have always wanted to visit and I can't believe we're going in just 3 short months! We're still trying to pick hotels to stay at (there are a LOT to choose from!) but here are a few of the sights we'll be visiting. Yes, a little Bali eye candy. :)

Pura Danau Batur

Pura Tanah Lot

Jatiluwih

Pura Uluwatu Temple

Rice Field, Ubud

Unbelievable beauty that I know pictures will not do justice!  We plan to stay on the coast for a few days to dive and then move inland to Ubud, the cultural heart of Bali.  The diving in Bali?  Considering the fact that it's relatively close to Fiji, where diving was out of the world, we're looking forward to seeing some wild marine life!

Mola Mola

Garden Eels:  Looks like grass but they're really eels!

Interesting Coral

  So many things to see and do!  We're there for a week and since it's in the middle of our trip, it will be a nice chance to relax between the bustle of Hong Kong and the thrill of Australia!  :)

  One part I'm REALLY looking forward to?  The Balinese massage.  At a top notch spa, massages will run anywhere between $15-20 for 2 hours and 2 people massaging you at once.  For once a spa that I can actually relax at instead of worrying about how much its going to set me back!! Ahhh....

Does it get any better than this?

 I'll blog more on Bali once we nail down our hotels but for now, I'm having fun researching all the things to do around the island!  Anyone or anyone you know been to Bali?  I'd love to hear from you if so!

Aadvantage Facebook, Free Miles!

Just stumbled across this on Facebook and scored an additional 200 miles this morning for simply liking the page!  Already AAdvantage has seen a 15k "like" increase in the last few hours just from this one contest, almost double the likes they started with back in mid-January.  A great place to keep up with Aadvantage promotions (besides this fabulous blog of course) so Like the page today!  http://www.facebook.com/#!/aadvantage

Enter the Mystery Miles contest by simply putting in your AA number and voila, free miles!  It's that easy!

You're a Star!!!

Well, you can be.  A Starwood cardholder that is!  I know I've mentioned numerous times and ways to earn miles using this card and why it's important to use it for additional mileage.  Because you get a bonus when converting points to miles, each dollar spent equals 1.25 miles per dollar, ON EVERYTHING.   May not sound like much but that's the difference between a domestic flight and an international one to the Caribbean or Mexico.  Hmm, for spending the same amount of money.  I'll take that extra passport stamp anyday. :)

   It's super easy to sign-up and every now and then, like now, they're offering an additional 5k points if you refer a friend and they sign up!  So your friend gets 25k bonus miles, no annual fee for the first year and you get an additional 5k miles, PER FRIEND.  Score! (friends, be on the lookout, mass e-blast coming your way shortly.  With love of course)

  Enough chatting Frank!  How do I sign up?  Here you go friends! :)

Get a Card! http://bit.ly/fYbXFv

Not my card number. 

Hungry for more?

One of our favorite ways to earn miles lately has got to be the AA Dining Program.  Every week, new restaurants are added that offer 3 or more miles per dollar spent making it very easy to earn miles for simply going to happy hour! 

  How does it work?  American has an entire website dedicated to it!  http://aa.rewardsnetwork.com  You enter the city you live in and select GO to see all of the places in your city/state/zip.  You can search by proximity to your office/house or if you're looking for something specific, like Sushi. (I capitalized it because it's THAT good) Another fantastic feature is the map function, which allows you to view the location of the restaurants listed on a map!  Again, very easy to see where something is in relation to where you are.  (And when you are searching for happy hours, this info is vital)  In addition to all of that, this allows you to filter by neighborhood, cuisine, price and what they're open for!  Don't believe me??

See?  Really handy when searching for places for miles.  So, you wanna take part, huh?  I don't blame you!  The great thing about this program is that to earn miles, you do NOT have to have an Aadvantage credit card.  Create an account and then go in and register every credit card and bank card you have active.  You will not earn miles unless the card is listed within the program.  (They're good but they can't use Satellite to track your dines for miles.  One day...)  It's very safe, no one is going to steal your stuff and even if they did, they don't have enough information to do anything with it.  You only give the number, not the expiration or security code.

  It's a great way to introduce yourself to new restaurants around the area you may have never tried before!  So many are jumping on board because it brings in customers plus you're getting miles for something you already planned to do. You get 3 miles per dollar, so if you treat your sweetheart to a $100 night out, you just scored 300 miles! 

  Any rookie would probably stop there.  But this is us you're talking about and well, we're what you call mile whores.  :)  The Dining Program has a VIP member level.  When you dine 12 times at AA restaurants, you earn VIP status and 5 miles per dollar spent!  I realize that's only 2 more miles but when you get into double and trip bonuses for dining and reviewing, we're talking some serious additional mileage.  For example: right now, for everyone, the current promotion running is "Make it a Double."  When you dine out 5 times between now and March 1st and review the restaurant you went to, (within 30 days) AA doubles the miles you earned!  If you're a regular member, that's 6 miles but for VIPs, it's 10.  Very difficult math I know.

  Again, still doesn't seem like THAT much huh?  Here's why you need to play the system properly.  Let's say between now and the end of March you chose to dine out for Valentine's day at an Advantage restaurant, (go you! and yes I know it's after) have a birthday for you or your special someone, have 2 business lunches and a happy hour scheduled.  Seems pretty normal huh?  I'm going to average that all of those events were about $75 each since they included business and a very pricey holiday.  That's $375 spent total and at 3 miles per dollar, you just earned 1,125 miles for simply signing up and registering your cards on AA.  Pretty cool!

  Let's say you took it a step further and were savvy by reading this life-changing blog and had already gained VIP status.  As a result you have now earned 1,875 miles!  Aren't you so smart!

  And here's why taking advantage of those bonus offers, which you have to elect into btw so login often to check them out, pays out.  By simply reviewing the restaurant with either a simply checked box of "I Recommend" or a full blown review if you feel compelled to, you just earned 2,250 miles as a regular member and 3,750 miles as a VIP!  That's the equivalent of flying from Dallas to Hawaii for "butt in seat miles" and MUCH cheaper I might add.  Plus, you already planned on going out for those events so you didn't really spend anything more than you already would have!  Tie in Aadvantage to your corporate cards as well and you'll earn miles without spending a penny. 

  The dining program runs promos like this ALL the time and usually has a running list of restaurants that are offering double miles per month in addition to this.  http://aa.rewardsnetwork.com/bonus.htm?promoId=hotDeals&detail=y  That also means that if you are very lucky, enrolled in the double miles program AND dine at one of these restaurants, you're looking at doubling your double miles.  This will be me in NYC in 2 weeks and I will report back with a mileage update. 

 Need more??  Use your Advantage credit card for an additional mile per dollar or your Starwood card for 1.25 miles per dollar.  This is taking full advantage of the system. It all adds up so quickly this way because you're not really doing anything different and yet you're earning over 4k miles! If you're doing this month, and participating in double dine challenges, that's easily a free domestic ticket each year!

Oh Clooney.  Racking up Airline miles from dining.  You are so damn pretty, er,  I mean smart.