Expert: Stephen Tanenbaum - 9/8/2006

Question
1. Alone  2.  Branson to Dallas  3. No   4.Retired, 1 1/2 incomes (My mom works PT, Dad owns his own dirt hauling business)

We left our family and moved to Dallas 2 months ago and my Mom would be down here every month if she could get a good deal on airline tickets - her back just won't take the 10 hour drive - but they all say $300+ for a roundtrip ticket.  Any ideas?  
Also, if it's not too much I'd like to ask for myself, too.....1. As a couple or family (5 yr old, 4 yr old, 15 mo old) 2. Anywhere cheap! :-) I would love to go to Maine.  3. No  4. Husband is a terminal manager for a trucking company, I stay home with our children so 1 income.
We never even fly anywhere for vacation because by the time we would pay for the airline tickets we wouldn't have anything left for the vacation!
Thanks so much for your help!!

Answer
Hi Angie:

Would love to help your mom visit you more often.

Let me first invite you to the world or free airline travel. We have not paid for a ticket in years and we travel 6 mos per year to all corners of the world.

First, just for fun here is our Author's web site with scores of pictures from around the world.

www.cheaptravel.net (note: our books are pretty much out of date for the most part so NOT trying sell them)

Next, a five page article I wrote just to help those who are not familiar with free travel.

www.cheapskatetravel.blogspot.com

Now more fun with our FREE most recent Newsletter, Steve * Pat's Cheap Travel Newsletter. In this newsletter there is a current deal for 100% FREE airline tickets for U.S. travel on Delta. Both Patty and I have already received our free tickets. And Yes there such things as REALLY FREE.

The newsletters spells it all out. So long as your folks are able to apply for two 100% FREE credit cards each, a personal and business card (newsletter tells you hou EASY that is) they will each receive 25,000 FREE miles, without
spending one red cent. And your dad can use his miles to book your mom on her second trip. This all assumes Delta or partner airlines service the Branson-Dallas route.

Anyone like your dad and you both as well should follow my other advice to start getting future free travel awards. We have over 800,000 unused miles and all of them are either from bonus miles when you sign up or from using our airline credit card for ALL our purchases. Don't ever use checks again. All this spelled out in DETAIL in my article and newsletter.

I'd say you do the U.S. airways offer and get two tickets to Mexico, central America OR MAUI or any other Hawaiian island for $45 each way, yes $90 round trip. You DESERVE IT! That's $180 for BOTH of you TO MAUI! And no limit on season so you can go anytime during the year so long as the airline has free award seats.

If you get into the swing of deals you will see a smaller deal with Holiday Inns offering one free night each for applying for their FREE credit card. I'd go the larger deals like Hawaii and the FREE U.S. airline ticket.  

Paying for let's say a week in Maui is another story. If you are interested let me know. We've been to Maui about 40 times and are total experts. If Maui does not work there is always Waikiki with its very cheap hotels. Check out our own condo in Maui on our web site. You can even see what a studio looks like.

Of course the $90 U.S. airways ticket does not have to be used for Hawaii, mexico etc. which are 35,000 mile awards (your get 40,000 miles for your $90)You can also use 25,000 of the 40,000 miles for that trip to Maine so total air cost is $90 round trip PLUS if you wish they would include a SECOND free flight, like Dallas to Maine then later in the week to Orlando and then back to Dallas.

This should give a few things to sort out. You can email me directly if you have any questions about any part of this reply and/or my web site info at: stevepat99@hotmail.com

Hope some of this helps. Steve T.