I can’t travel much, as my job and my husband’s job not only don’t pay well but are fairly grounded – libraries and research. so anything we can use to shave a few more dollars off of next year’s Luxury Week, as we call it, are absolutely invaluable.

I will continue to scour your site for hints on how to save, but in the meantime, I am loving your travel diaries! makes me want to go to uni, get a real job and find something that will sustain a travel-oriented lifestyle, just for an excuse to fly!

thanks again for your amazing site and inspiration;

Xenia

One thing, I’m not sure Couchsurfing is for the desperate. While in many cases, you are literally sleeping in a busy living room, many times you have an apartment to yourself. I know one person who not only had an entire floor of a house but had a servant washing his clothes and cooking for him.

And quite frankly, nothing quite matches having a local guide to the place your staying. We’ve made our way through Europe, Central, South and North America couchsurfing, and it’s been priceless.

Your posts may not always be “practical,” but they’re always interesting and thought-provoking.

I’ll just add that Couchsurfing is not for the desperate. It’s a way of getting a truly different perspective on a culture by living with locals, and not even paying anything for the privilege. How you referred to it suggests that you have never even tried it – almost any country on your list of places to visit will have a host. If privacy is an issue there are actually a lot of hosts that give you private bedrooms that they aren’t using, in comfy king sized beds sometimes! The title is misleading because there are actually more hosts that don’t host you on their couch.

I know you like being able to wonder around a place and discover it for yourself, but a lot of Couchsurfers are glad to give you a tour from a local perspective. Even if you never use it for accommodation, it’s a great means of meeting locals willing to lend a hand and share lunch or a drink with.

I highly suggest you try (starting with an experienced and well referenced host so you have nothing to worry about). I’m sure lots of your readers (me included) would friend you through CS and make your chances of acceptance higher. here is my CS profile. If anything it would be a very different experience, and isn’t that what travelling is all about?

As I said in my previous comments, I hesitated to buy because I know a lot about the subject already and didn’t know if it would be worth the price.

I should have had more faith in you. I did learn a few new things and the references were worth more than the investment in the book. I take detailed notes on every book I read. Most 150-200 page books I condense down to 10-12 pages of notes. I took 15 pages of notes from your 54 page book. That means you had a lot of content and little fluff.

Everyone who wants to have a business should have this guide. Looking forward to the non-geek idiot’s guide for the computer illiterate and the advanced strategies book.

@Michael,

Great – that’s exactly what I’m going for! I definitely want to help as many people as possible.

@Danny,

Well, in terms of Northwest I’d recommend requesting the match as soon as possible, since it’s not clear how long that will still be an option. But otherwise, it’s good to do a request like this either at the beginning of the year or close to the end of the year (right around now), because they will usually give you the status for a full calendar year plus or minus a couple of months. Of course, each airline will have its own policies since this is considered an undocumented benefit – something they will usually do upon request, but they do not advertise or guarantee it.

Make sense?

I’m very interested in the idea of using your status with one airline and getting it comped by another airline. Do you recommend doing that at this time of year, or waiting until the new year so you have longer at the higher status? Also, how long will Northwest remain a separate entity?