Part I
Take a look at the origin of the idea. I’m a huge fan of cruising, so when I decided to travel the world for a year I knew (at least) one cruise had to be a part of that. he previous year; to get a 100% completely free cruise. Here I outline some of the ways I was planning on making this happen, including the biggest piece of the puzzle, the Barclay Arrival World Mastercard.
Part II
Here I refine and finalize some of my earlier ideas. I also list out the specific categories that each cost associated with the cruise will belong to, to help me better plan how to cancel out that expense. I examine the Barclay Arrival miles I have to work with, simply from the card bonus and a few months of spending.
Part III
Here I’ve finalized the cruise and made the final booking. Sure that was exciting, But even more exciting is putting the plan into action. I go through the redemption process to wipe out the entire base charge of the cruise, taxes, and port charges. That’s a $475 cruise that I got completely for free.I’m a huge fan of cruising, so when I decided to travel the world for a year I knew (at least) one cruise had to be a part of that. he previous year; to get a 100% completely free cruise.
Part IV
With the cruise itself paid off, I now look at how to pay for additional expenses necessary for the cruise. Remember my goal was to get everything for free. Here I examine the flights needed to get me to and from the cruise terminal itself and incur some out of pocket expenses that I’ll need cash to cancel out.
Part V
I use some more Arrival miles to wipe out the expense of shuttle transportation from my hotel to the port. I decided to come in a day early and not risk a delayed flight causing me to miss the ship. I discuss using a free hotel reward night I have vs. paying for the hotel with cash. While it will put me in a larger hole for out of pocket costs, it allows me to see if it’s always worth it to redeem points when it comes to inexpensive tickets or hotel rooms.
Part VI
Points and miles are great, but with now over $100 in out of pocket expenses, I need cash in hand to get the cruise for free from start to finish. I took advantage of a special promotion from a bank to receive $400 cash for opening new accounts. Here I calculate how I found the best offer, how I did it, and a little known fact most people forget; calculating the tax implications from receiving new account cash bonuses.
More to come!