November 26th, 2009
5 Years Of Deals!
Related Posts:
4th Anniversary Post Linky
3rd Anniversary Post Linky
2nd Anniversary Post Linky
1st Anniversary Post Linky
It seems hard to believe, but this site is now 5 years old! Seems like just yesterday when I was down in Brazil and decided to stay connected by starting a little blog for friends and family and now some 10,000 people a day come to check it out!
And yes, together with the site’s birthday comes my own…I’ve now been around for quarter of a century! Best thing about turning 25? Cheaper car rentals!
It’s a been a great year, and a fun challenge to keep the site updated while flying across the world…A month at 4 Hawaiian Islands (I’ve been a hopeless Hawaii addict ever since the $87 inclusive deal of 2006), 2 weeks in Israel, 3 trips to LA, 2 to KC, 6 to NYC, Toronto, a free trip to Vegas at the beautiful Wynn and Encore…wow that’s a lot of miles burned! I’ve also enjoyed sharing some of my own thoughts on each place via the “Trip Notes” posts. (I’ll tag the end of this post with “trip notes” so you can click on it and read other trip notes postings.)
People ask me why I like traveling so much…it’s quite simple! I fly everywhere for free with my miles. Most of my flights are in First class and trust me, flying in a lie-flat bed to Israel makes you just wish the flight was longer! When I travel I carry around enough “wallet candy” to make sure that I never have to wait in a line and that I always have access to an airport lounge. My rental cars are Infiniti’s, Camaro’s and Caddy’s for the price of compact cars. I get upgraded to fabulous suites that I didn’t pay a cent for. What could be better? I hope that by following the site religiously and participating in the dansdeals forums that you too can have as much fun as I have doing this! It’s really not so hard…just start by churning some credit cards!
Anyway there have been a ton of incredible deals this past year. My favorites have been the US mint coins (hauling in a quarter million in coins is great exercise!) and all of the Hyatt deals, free top-tier diamond status, a free Hyatt night that came with the diamond status (which also counted towards faster free nights), and then the stay twice at any Hyatt and get 14,000 miles+6,000 points+1 free night in any Hyatt. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the 350K miles and 22 faster free nights that I got from that promo!
But there were lots of other amazing deals over the past year…let’s hear what your favorite was!
P.S. Stay tuned for the winners of the Dansdeals.com 5th Anniversary promotion…the raffle will take place by 11/30!
November 26th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Happy bday! Still remember the one twelve years ago in the apartments behind nordstrom….
November 26th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
(hauling in a quarter million in coins is great exercise!) YOU ARE NUTS!!!!
November 26th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
show off!
November 26th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
@eli k.:
Why thank you.
@danfan:
Not showing off, just showing what you can do by churning credit cards and working the system.
November 26th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
you probably meant luxury for the price of a mid size!
November 26th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
speaking about working the system , you are correct,so far for ’09 Ive been to (each its own trip) Dublin,Belfast,London,Paris,Vienna,Budapest,Rome(twice),Sydney,Auckland,Hong Kong,Israel (4 times), and back to London next week
If they werent mileage tkts then they were done as mileage runs on very cheap fares where it didnt make sense to use my miles cause the fare was so cheap.
that doesnt include my US trips which are too numerous to count and which 5 alone were to Hawaii
None for biz
I agree if a person gets it down pat how to work the system there are some very nice rewards to be had
November 26th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
If you would like to chip in for a present for Dan, please see this link:
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=1329.0
November 27th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Happy Birthday Dan. been very helpful getting around the world. Btw I need 16K aa miles (32K w/o promo) for exec, any good ideas before the 15th?
November 27th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Please post an email address. I, as well as many others are loyal readers but not forum members.
November 27th, 2009 at 11:58 am
And its the anniversary of the Mitteler Rebbes liberation!!
ps how did you get banks to accept so many coins, I got sick of their refusals after $20k of deposits.
November 27th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
DANIEL!!!
i love this site, and these deals, and i only wish i could get as much free stuff as you!!
im twenty years old and i want to start with churning credit cards etc.
can you give me tips on how to start this? is there a thread about this in your forum? could you post a link to that thread?
thanks!!!
November 27th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I use the points to buy My Little Ponies for my niece. I’ve churned 10 Starwoods Amex cards for it. It’s great!
November 27th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
For this year my favorite deal was the hyatt ffn +ua miles. For 1000$ my wife and I are looking forward to our 10 day trip this winter in biz class to the grand hyatt kuaui!
The diamond status with it is just the icing on the wedding cake!
Glad we were able to toast together on the 18th floor …..Hyatt covered the tab for that drink
November 28th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Dan,
Did you have your free hyatt place stay count towards the ffn promo? Please confirm that as it will save me some cash.
Thanks
Btw your site is awe inspiring.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
@DANFANTOYOTA: I would also like to know how to learn he ropes of the system. What’s a good place to start?
So it costs you next to nothing to travel, but how much is that?? For so many flights, the costs (even if small) must add up to quite a lot. No?
November 28th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
@dy: the present should be free- dan wouldnt like if we actually PAID for something!
November 28th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Hey Dan,
Thanks for informing us of all this. It is indeed awe inspiring and I wish I could emulate your ways. Since I’m new to your website and not yet so savvy with credit and how to use credit cards and accrue mileage etc. would you be so kind and perhaps when you have a chance create a post with step by step info for dummies on how to bets get to such status. I do travel much and tend to pay a lot and don’t know anything about savings, churning, mileage anything. I’m sure that this would be very helpful to many and we’d all be grateful to you. Thank you!
November 28th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
great to see so many newbies! welcome aboard
November 29th, 2009 at 2:02 am
ur getting me mad jealous dude but thanx and goodluck
November 29th, 2009 at 2:34 am
@Avi:
Many bank accounts, many bank branches
@DANFANTOYOTA:
There are lots of such threads on http://www.dansdeals.com/forums but feel free to start you’re own!
@mordy:
The key is in the bottled water…
@Uri:
Not if you play it right…