About Harlan

Just a dude living in Memphis, traveling, and working toward financial independence.

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Hotel Review: Radisson Blu, Limerick

by Harlan 3 Comments

a building with a glass roof

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After an underwhelming experience at the Radisson Blu in Galway, we hopped in our rental car and drove the ~2 hours to Limerick.

Through Shannon to Limerick

Through Shannon to Limerick

It was a pretty easy drive, except for the zillion confusing roundabouts.  And the fact that I don’t really know how I got to the Radisson Blu in Limerick other than dumb luck and some hairpin turns.

It’s literally one weird turn off the highway and then a narrow road into a parking lot that also randomly has a hotel in it. There seemed to be nothing around, but apparently it was only 15 minutes into downtown Limerick.

We didn’t end up going into the city because there was a marathon going on that day. Traffic was terrible and there was no parking. Instead, we drove to Killarney National Park for a day trip (though I could’ve spent several days there).

In a forest in Killarney #Ireland

A photo posted by Harlan Vaughn (@harlanvaughn) on

Anyway, we got to the Radisson Blu in Limerick and had a bite to eat and put our things down before we left again. But it was a fine crash pad.

Irish beers at the bar

Irish beers at the bar

Arrival and check-in

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In Praise of Humble Beginnings

by Harlan 10 Comments

I was reading an article called “How to invest even if you’re treading water financially” via Get Rich Slowly and a certain part jumped out at me (bolding and links mine):

“Don’t despise small beginnings.
The first steps in any endeavor are humble. Gustave Eiffel, famous today for his tower in Paris and the Statue of Liberty, started as an unpaid assistant in a foundry. Setting aside $10 a month might feel meaningless: “What difference can that ever make?” That’s wrong. It makes a difference in many ways:

Start somewhere

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Getting FIREd Up

by Harlan 9 Comments

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This is an out-of-control flaming emergency, according to Mr. Money Mustache

I have an out-of-control flaming emergency, according to Mr. Money Mustache

I recently wrote about life changes that I thought might happen… soon.

Well, even though Mercury was retrograde, nothing stopped chugging along. In fact, everything got a swift kick in the butt. And now life is different.

I’ve been getting used to the new rhythm. It feels so different. And it’s given me a chance to review where I’m at and how I want to move forward.

What is FIRE?

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Use Avios for Connecting Flights to Save Money

by Harlan Leave A Comment

I’ve been thinking about taking a trip down to New Mexico recently and it got me thinking about fare constructions and how to get to regional airports as cheaply as possible.

There's still lots of value to be had from Avios

There’s still lots of value to be had from Avios

The idea here is to fly on Oneworld into a hub city or cheap destination, and then use Avios for the (usually) more expensive, shorter leg of the itinerary.

LGA-DFW-ABQ

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Ibotta: Get Cash Back When You Shop

by Harlan 4 Comments

a group of plastic bottles with a pump

So… I’ve been getting into coupons lately. And ways to get cashback or maximize my spend as much as possible. I recently wrote about Paribus, which has already saved me some money on Amazon purchases.

And today, in my internet wanderings, I kept seeing this app mentioned over and over: Ibotta.

ibotta review

Loving Ibotta

I’ve already added it to the Services I Like page, but wanted to do a quick article about it, too.

What the hee haw is Ibotta?

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Reminder: Club Carlson Program Changes in One Week! Book awards by May 31st

by Harlan 3 Comments

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The time draws near.

RIP

RIP

I managed to burn most of my Club Carlson points during my trip to Ireland earlier this month (reviews of Radisson Blu Royal in Dublin and Radisson Blu in Galway are up so far). But I also had a paid stay at the Radisson Blu St Helens and ended up earning ~44,000 Club Carlson Gold Points between that and the room charges in Dublin.

Nearly enough for 2 nights at a Category 5 property... if booked before next week

Nearly enough for 2 nights at a Category 5 property… if booked before next week

Book now, change later?

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Hotel Review: Radisson Blu, Galway

by Harlan 2 Comments

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After getting the rental car out of the tiny garage at the Radisson Blu Royal in Dublin, I used Google maps to guide me out of the city and onto the highway that would take us the short drive into Galway (a little over 2 hours).

A pretty straightforward drive across Ireland's midsection

A pretty straightforward drive across Ireland’s midsection

We’d heard really mixed reviews about Galway, and were excited to explore the town for ourselves.

All was going smoothly until the home stretch into the city of Galway.

Arrival and check-in

The city is changing the entire flow of traffic, and the directions I’d pulled up were no longer accurate. One-ways were rerouted, or closed, and the road that the Radisson Blu is on (Lough Atalia) had horrible traffic. I had to figure out the reroute while driving on the left side, in a city I’d never been to… and I had to pee so bad OMG.

The roundabouts are the worst.

We finally got parked at the Radisson Blu after a few false turns. As soon as I got in, I found the bathroom, then went to check in.

There was some sort of convention there I guess, as there were all these teenagers draped and strewn about all over the lobby. But we checked in relatively quickly and the desk agent was beyond nice.

Again, we were upgraded to a “Business Class” room which included free breakfast.

Hallways of the Radisson Blu Galway

Hallways of the Radisson Blu Galway

The hotel is about a 10-minute walk from the pedestrian area of town where most of the shops and restaurants are concentrated. From there, it’s another 10-minute walk to the other side of the River Corrib where the “real” Galway is located – lots of authentic pubs and shops over there.

The room

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Quick tip about booking NYC or DC flights with Avios

by Harlan 5 Comments

There are a few cities that have multiple airports, so this tip could work for:

  • New York (JFK, LGA, EWR) – NYC
  • Washington, DC (IAD, DCA, BWI) – WAS
  • Chicago (ORD, MDW) – CHI
  • London (LHR, LGW, LCY) – LON
  • Paris (ORY, CDG) – PAR
  • Tokyo (NRT, HND) – TYO

I encountered this when searching BA.com for space to get to Boston from New York.

When I search for award space, I usually just type in “NYC” – because I’m open to JFK or LGA. So I rarely specify an airport.

But BA.com will not give you the complete picture of award space if you don’t specify an airport. 

Make sure you search city code and airport code

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Trip Report: Aer Lingus NEW Business Class DUB-BOS

by Harlan 3 Comments

a plane on the tarmac

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Happy to continue my Ireland series after the good news that the country is moving to legalize gay marriage. I saw the signs up everywhere when I was there to “Vote Yes” or “Vote No” and it seems that they’ve collectively decided to lead the 21st Century. Congratulations to Ireland!

If you’re interested in the new Aer Lingus business class product, you’ll want to also read my review of the BOS-DUB flight.

The key difference is that BOS-DUB is a red-eye whereas DUB-BOS is a daytime/lunch flight.

After an amazing flight over, I was excited to see how the finer points of service would differ during the day flight.

Flight details:

  • Aer Lingus Flight 137
  • May 5th, 2015
  • Depart: 11:50am
  • Arrive: 1:45pm
  • Duration: Duration: 6H, 46M
  • Aircraft: Airbus A330-200
  • Distance: 2,983 mi

First impressions

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Gratitude / Life Changes

by Harlan 3 Comments

The times, they are a-changin’ (aren’t they always?).

Ah, the open road...

Ah, the open road…

Thank YOU!

I’m having a great time keeping up with the points and miles community here, and hopefully adding helpful information where I can. So I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone reading.

thank-youI’m continually blown away by the kindness of my readers and how many awesome people there are who are as into points and miles and credit cards as I am.

My links

Also wanted to say thanks for hitting up my referral links lately. They’ve been there for a sec, kinda hanging out in the sidebar. I was accepted into the CreditCards.com referral program – which is awesome because I don’t have to swear allegiance to any card(s) in particular. Most of the good ones are there, though. So thanks for clicking when you’re considering opening a new card. It’s a nice bonus for sure, and I appreciate the support!

Oh, and I have a page of Services I Like, too. I do posts from time to time about a cool service (like Paribus or Evernote), then I’ll post the referral link. I only add services I really love, so thanks for using those links, too!

Life stuff

Sunset in ABQ

Sunset in ABQ

So this kinda goes hand-in-hand with the call-out of the referral links. I’m slowly but surely doing these things with my life:

  • Building up this blog
  • Doing more freelance writing
  • Slowly making an NYC exit plan
  • Paying down my debt and saving up for a house simultaneously

These past 6 months, I’ve had to get a lot of different projects off the ground by leveraging my own money (See Smart Debt: Is carrying a balance ever a good idea?). I’m happy to report that these projects are going well. There have been some hiccups and unforeseen stuff, like there’s supposed to be with new ventures, and I plopped down my credit cards to keep the momentum going.

Sure, I earned some points in the process. But it was mainly a gamble. And I straddled the fine line between Smart Debt and plain ol’ Dumb Debt. So I’d like to ameliorate that.

Then, I’d like to save up a nice down payment for a house somewhere that’s… Not New York. I was thinking a cabin in the woods in Vermont, or a little house in northern New Mexico, or… I’ve been tossing around a few places.

Mountains and lake in Vermont

Mountains and lake in Vermont

I’d like access to American Airlines at the nearest airport, an easy mortgage, and enough services that I can still do my art projects on the side. So that could be a lot of places. Definitely a small to mid-sized city. That’ll be a huge and welcome change.

Future travels

Getting back to travel, I’d like to focus domestically this summer. Yeah!

I was thinking of visiting Chicago, and/or flying into Vancouver, and making my way down to NorCal with stops in Seattle and Portland. It’s been far too long since I’ve visited Chicago, and I’ve never been to Oregon…

And this winter, I was thinking of an extended visit to Central America, a region I’ve never explored.

In general, I’m assessing my priorities and figuring out what I can do with this writing and blogging stuff. I’m working to fit everything in and to grow everything together.

Bottom line

So that’s it. Just wanted to say thanks for using my links – it’s been a real boost and a great support for me these past couple of months, especially as I figure out what’s next and how to grow from here.

Thank you – one of the most powerful phrases there is!

My experience renting a car in Ireland (Woof!)

by Harlan 43 Comments

a landscape with trees and a river

Also see: 

Thinking about renting a car in Ireland?

Woof:
verb: to declare something bad, ugly, terrible, or nasty.
interjection: use as an expletive to express disgust or surprise.
Can be a replacement for damn that sucks!

Upon landing at DUB, I knew the next step was to go pick up the rental car.

So here’s how I did it (made the booking not picked up the car).

The booking

I ran a quick search on the Chase Ultimate Rewards website – they generally have fantastic rates on rental cars. That’s how I got such a good deal in Hawaii. Keep in mind that they ONLY service airport locations and you MUST pick up and return to the same location.

They quoted me at ~$325 for a 6-day rental. Not bad.

But when I hopped on kayak.com to compare and they had rentals pricing out at 9 Euros per day. And 85 Euros for the 6-day rental (~$97). Now that was a screaming deal. I booked a car at Dollar via priceline.com.

renting a car in ireland

My Kayak to Priceline to Dollar car rental booking – 85 Euros

My only criteria were:

  • 4-door (for ease of getting luggage in and out)
  • Automatic transmission
  • Unlimited kilometers (I wanted to drive a lot)

So, I did it. I thought I’d gotten a better deal than what the Chase Ultimate Rewards site was displaying.

Now that I’m back safe and sound, I’m not so sure any more.

Pickup

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Is the Fidelity Amex the best cashback card in the universe?

by Harlan 22 Comments

<3

<3

Sorry for the hyperbole slash clickbait-y title. I thought I was being on trend.

But seriously, I love this card. I’m close to being obsessed with it:

We all love our points and miles. But I’ve been reading about straight cashback cards for a sec now, and the poor Fidelity Amex always gets swept under the rug.

Well no longer. This card is a gem. It has so much going for it. And it might just be the ace in the back pocket of cashback cards, which by default makes it the best cashback card in the universe.

Let me extoll the ways

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