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I think a lot of people use credit cards for travel. My husband and I travel occasionally, but I typically buy the transportation in one month, reserve the hotel/pay in another month, etc.
I'm 38 years old and have never been out of the United States.s
No need to be embarrassed. I didn't leave the US for the first time until I was forty. There's no single travel schedule everyone has to stick to!
But if you want to start traveling, there's really nothing to hold you back. Step 1: apply for a passport. Step 2: start saving some money every month for a future trip. Step 3: start researching where you'd like to go and shat you'd like to see. Step 4: once you know where you'd like to go and have some money saved up, shop for inexpensive airfare and lodgings. Step 5: GO!
Your possessions only own you if you let them. Time to show them who's boss!
in answer to the queries, move overseas. We lived in China for two years and now are in the Middle East. Teaching job has plenty of holidays/vacations and our rent is paid for. So every two months we are able to go someplace like Oman, Dubai, Greece, or India. When in San Francisco Bay Area, we were too busy worrying about the mortgage and transportation expenses.
I'm 38 years old and have never been out of the United States. My dad especially is a homebody , and we never really went anywhere growing up. As a young adult I was always in debt for cars and other stupid purchases, and couldn't afford to go anywhere. I'm actually very embarrassed about this and when i'm at a get-together and the subject of travel comes up, I feel very self conscious. I live more modestly now, but it seems to be that a person who has an average income in this country has to either live like a college kid and travel all the time.....or truly become a slave to your possessions
Average income is a somewhat meaningless term for the US because living standard differ so much for every state. But I find your juxtaposition weird. You always have to save some money, including for travel. I think anyone in the US with a middle class salary can afford to go on an overseas trip at least once a year. Provided that they live in the houses they afford and have reasonable expenses.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Affordable tickets via Airline bumps (volunteering your seat and taking another flight)
As home schoolers we were very flexible and took many 'field trips' via fly-drive.
Always booked Friday and Monday and holiday peaks, but always arrived at gate early and volunteered our seats. Essentially flew 'free' for 8 yrs (after the first purchase). We got 4 bumps on a RT to DC (blossom fest), that gives you credits for many flights, as we book cheap...
Last week, (Christmas) I took a Christmas Day bump, and then first flight the next day was oversold, so took that bump too! I ended up taking a bump inbound on a connection, and got a free hotel + great compensation. In all, $1898 in travel credits for (2) flights I had booked for $227 total. Credits are good for a yr SWA, free bags, free changes, great Customer service. Holding a companion fare, (credit card bonuses) I take someone anywhere I fly on SWA for $5.60 each flight for next 12 months.
We have negotiated free rental cars and food credits for bumps. I make it a point to ONLY take a bump that pays at least $300 + your fare (current SWA policy) some airlines are not so LUV'n.
As previously mentioned, we use 'guest homes' $free to $20 world wide. Over 100 stays in 2016
Every stay is a treasured relationship and FULL of friendship and free ideas! Hospitality exchange - Wikitravel
TRADES.
If you live in a hot area (SF or Portland) people will be coming through, you put them up and next time you visit their area , vice versa!
(Relative is getting an inlaw built in Thailand for their use, and they want to spend time here with us- so SWEET - Thailand vacation here we COME)-
Location: Born in L.A. - NYC is Second Home - Rustbelt is Home Base
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OP...I wonder this myself. Back in the 90's I used to go to Europe for $290 - $320 RT from Pittsburgh in the off season. Now it is always near $1000 Rt. I can't afford to go any more. Must be lots of people with $.
I'm 61. I started traveling when I was 6, so go figure, more than a half-century of travels, msost of them short-or middle-range, however (not more than 2000 miles). I was Lucky being from a relatively well-oof family (that changed a bit later on) and having both parents who enjoyed traveling and who, in part, traveled for Professional reasons (my father traveled a while for a tour operator and was even made Honorary Citizen of St. Martinville, La. because he wrote a positive article on the touristic potential of that town).I always managed to havesome money for traveling : as a kid of course from my parents, then as a student I saved money for it, because it was my main hobby. The first years of my carreer though I nearly stopped traveling, as I had other priorities; MY SON WAS ON HIS WAY and I had to buy my home. Then I divorcd, etc. But later in life, having more money and more vacation time, I began again traveling. And I look forward to more traveling when I'll retire next year, for luckily I inherited about 400K from my old man who croaked early this year.
OP...I wonder this myself. Back in the 90's I used to go to Europe for $290 - $320 RT from Pittsburgh in the off season. Now it is always near $1000 Rt. I can't afford to go any more. Must be lots of people with $.
I can hardly believe your story.
Airfare in general became cheaper, not more expensive. Maybe because in the 90s you were young and your time is more flexible and now you are less able to watch and take advantage of the deals.
I am not particularly familiar with Pittsburgh, but from Toronto, there are deals where you fly to Tokyo for US570 RT, to Copenhagen USD 290 and USD 340 RT to Honolulu, tax included.
Plus, 300$ in the 1990s is not the same as 300 today.
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How to afford travel
