Introducing the One Way Podcast by Jeffsetter

Last updated on January 22nd, 2016 at 09:04 am

This week we have an addition to our weekly recap. Not only do you get to see our highlights, photos and insights in written form as you are accustomed, you also get to hear my voice talk about some of our travels in the form of a podcast!

While I have been a guest on a few podcasts before, this is my first time recording a podcast. I have recorded my voice for training videos before and have a professional quality microphone, so I think it actually sounds pretty decent. Next week I hope to get the audio quality even better.

The recording is less than 20 minutes and I would be honored if you give it a listen. The goal is to post the podcast each Saturday with our weekly updates, wherever we may be located. There will be an iTunes feed and everything once I figure that out as well.

Funny thing is that this week there wasn’t a lot of bookings for our trip, so I spent much of the time on the podcast talking about some of the travel logistics I have been trying to book, but aren’t working out too well.

Contents show

Destination Research

2 Years ago, Mrs. Jeffsetter and I created a “top 10 places to visit” list for each of us. It ended up being 20 places each in the end, 35 places when you combine overlapping areas. I revisited that list this week and 30 places remain. We have a long way to go on that bucket list! Sounds like a good topic for a future podcast episode.

South America Research

Machu Picchu – Trying to decide on which time to go. Either Early January or Late February. I hear both are rainy, especially February. Anyone have thoughts?

Why the heck isn’t Easter Island available as a saver economy award with Avios? Should be!

Should we be using Singapore Airlines miles for travel in South America? Here is a post about using only 20,000 Singapore miles to travel from Bogota to Buenos Aires. I also enjoyed reading Points with a Crew’s post on the sweet spots of Singapore Airline’s award chart.

New Caledonia

For our time in New Caledonia, I am trying to figure how the heck do we get to the island where we are staying? There are flights and ferries, but none of them really make a lot of sense. I emailed the hotel and they haven’t responded.

Flight Research

I am waiting for my Citi ThankYou Points spend bonuses for August to post so we can book AKL-NOU on Air Calin for free. It seems like ThankYou points posted for July in the middle of the month, but I don’t have them for August yet. Seems really arbitrary.

Ok, I just realized that it is probably updated on my statement date (in this case, mid month). Now I feel dumb.

Also researched adding Cusco (CUZ) to our Latin Hopper ticket as an open jaw. Seems that it will work without any extra miles or anything to make this happen. The ticket just became even more valuable!

Flight Bookings

Will be light on flight bookings for the next few weeks, since we have a lot of travel booked 6 months out. We don’t know our schedule after that, so playing it by ear until more develops.

Flights Taken

No flights for us this week. This is our last week of no flights for quite some time. Many more flights in the next month.

Hotel Research

I just status matched to Best Western Diamond based on the post from Miles to Memories. There are best western hotels in New Zealand that I am considering for a night or two.

Hotel Stays

Still in our same Maui AirBNB condo for our last full week. More variety upcoming.

Hotel Bookings

One night booked at the Crowne Plaza Auckland. This bookends our trip to Waiheke island and allows us to keep some of our baggage stored at the hotel while we ferry to an island for a few nights.

Points Earning

If you listen to the Podcast, you will notice that I do a little ranting about the SPG American Express card and their current 30,000 points signup bonus. But my rant isn’t actually what you might think.

My rant is that while SPG points are valuable, they are just so hard to earn. Business card + Personal card will get you 60k points. Add them for your spouse and you might get 60k points as well. That’s great! But that is a lifetime bonus (I understand that may not be entirely true with the business card, but you get the point).

That may get you one great round trip ticket for an outsized value. Or a week at a hotel. But that’s about it.

The reason why I was ranting was simply that I think almost everyone who plays this game has been there done that with the SPG 30k bonuses in the past. The bonus comes around several times a year. It is a decent bonus, no doubt. But that’s about it.

Anyway, after all of that, I do mention in the Podcast that I have a referral link that you can use to get the business card for 30k points. If you use my link, you get the bonus and I get 5k bonus points too. So if you survived my rant AND have not signed up for the card yet AND you like this blog enough to use my link, please email or leave a comment and I will send the application link over.

Fun activities and pictures of the week

This week we spent most of our time enjoying the beach in Maui. We did some reading, ate Shave Ice and just enjoyed ourselves without the use of a car.

When we rented a car later in the week, we enjoyed a winery, a distillery and a brewery. No, we don’t have a problem.

Totals for our One-Way Neverending Trip

Map generated from Great Circle Map.

These totals are a little behind. Fresh update next week.

Total committed flight cost (2 people): $2,021.10 ($31,327.32 saved over retail)

Total flight cost in miles: 555,390

Average redemption value per mile: $.056 cents per mile

Total flight segments/person: 21 (3 first, 2 business, 16 economy)

Total nights booked in hotels, home stays and vacation rentals: 114

Total committed per night for lodging: $74.54

Total hotel points/flexible points used: 163,000 + 6 free night certificates + 1 IHG Ambassador Weekend Certificate