Something happened recently that underscores what we get out of day tripping.  We started this blog to share our ideas for more spontaneous travel.  Our satisfaction with this type of travel spawned from our frustration with conventional and long distance traveling.  This doesn’t mean that we limit ourselves to Puget Sound.  We have family in other parts of the country and sometimes we like to see something completely different.  However, we have found that day tripping adds a lot of joy to our lives.

Recently, I received an e-mail from a certain airline advertising a mileage bonus promotion.  In short, the offer was that they would add 40% more miles to any miles transferred to other accounts (e.g. friends, family, etc.).  This sounded like a great idea.  I figured I could transfer a good chunk of miles into a family member’s account that would then give them enough for a free ticket.  It would be a nice holiday present.

Well, after reading the fine print, I discovered that this airline wanted 1 cent per mile transferred plus a $30 processing fee.  Doesn’t sound like much until you do the math.  Most frequent flier programs require at minimum about 30,000 miles for a domestic ticket.  So although the recipient of these miles would have received 42,000 miles, it would have cost me $330 to transfer 30,000 miles.  If I were to buy a ticket today, it would have cost less than $300 and I could have earned a few hundred miles. Sigh!

For now, those miles are staying my account.  I am just glad we went day tripping this past weekend.