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    i.Wander: The Definitive Guide to Travel Hacking (India Edition)
    i.Wander: The Definitive Guide to Travel Hacking (India Edition)
    i.Wander: The Definitive Guide to Travel Hacking (India Edition)
    Ebook163 pages1 hour

    i.Wander: The Definitive Guide to Travel Hacking (India Edition)

    By Amod Puranik

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    About this ebook

    [Note: This is an India edition book]
    You have a desire to travel around the world - a desire of most Indians (as per IMRB), second only to owning a home. But you find that travel, especially international trips is expensive. It is not. You can travel abroad at much less...sometimes even FREE! This is where Travel Hacking comes in.

    What is Travel Hacking?

    Travel Hacking is use of certain strategies, tactics and tools to bag travel deals. You can enjoy low cost (and sometimes free) foreign travel by techniques like exploiting airline frequent flyer miles and hotel loyalty points. Perhaps you knew that you can earn frequent flyer miles and loyalty points by flying more with your preferred airline or by enjoying stays at your choice of hotels. But, what if you could earn these miles and points without flying and staying??!!

    i.Wander : The Definitive Guide to Travel Hacking

    This PDF eBook has more than 110 pages of no-fluff, hands-on guidance on all aspects of travel hacking. Whether you are a family, a business traveller or a youngster, this eBook will let you in on the simple techniques which will enable you to travel in comfort at low cost or even free and with no stress.

    i.Wander: The Definitive Guide to Travel Hacking will provide you with insights on the following:

    -How can you earn airmiles & loyalty points using credit cards & without them?
    -Which frequent flyer program should you join? Why?
    -When should you buy an air ticket to minimize cost? Which airline? How?
    -When should you travel? (It has nothing to do with auspicious times )
    -How can you travel in style – for less / no money? (Private jets, condos, lounge access, limousines etc)
    -Where and when should you book your accommodation?
    -How can you save money on attractions and tours?
    ...and much more

    How This Guide will Benefit You

    Save Money. i.Wander will empower you to save money instantly, right from its first chapter. As you apply the formula on other aspects, you will gain more. How about a saving of at least Rs. 10,000 on ONE trip per person (approximate value). Now, multiply that with the number of members in your family or group and by the number of trips you will take and suddenly the savings become huge. So, for an investment of Rs. 99 (actual price Rs. 199), you are getting returns of more than hundreds or thousand times. So which guide will save you that much?

    Save Time. I have written this guide based on own experience and after reading, analysing and making sense of almost 100+ travel blogs and forums online as well as books. The result is a distilled ebook without the verbosity.

    Still Have Questions?

    Why am I Qualified to Write this eBook?

    I am a military guy, engineer and an avid traveller – which implies that the military has given me the skills & discipline for planning our travels, the engineering has given me the rational, calculating brain, while travelling across the nation and the globe has given me the experience and practical knowledge of travel. Did I mention that my father was in the airline industry?

    Why is the eBook costing Rs. XX when lot of the info is available on the Internet for free?

    Okay, sure. First up, about 40% of the stuff is available on the Internet for free (like all other information). You will need to look up hundreds of travel and lifestyle related websites, blogs and forums, read up on various airline and hotel material to get that 60%. Moreover, lot of that info is for the US. What I have done is researched the material off the Internet, some offline sources and collate them in a clutter-free, coherent, easy to understand eBook tailored for us in India. And I have added our own travel experiences to get you first hand information. You will also get to download the Excel files for planning and documenting your trip.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAmod Puranik
    Release dateMay 4, 2014
    ISBN9781311635792
    i.Wander: The Definitive Guide to Travel Hacking (India Edition)
    Author

    Amod Puranik

    Hello! I am an engineer by education, military officer by profession, traveler and writer by spirit. I love web programming and also read in my leisure time. I (along with my family) have traveled to more than 30 destinations across the globe. So, I married the twin passions of traveling and writing to produce my blog and book on traveling. I hope you like my website and my books.

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      Book preview

      i.Wander - Amod Puranik

      PROLOGUE

      As a six year old in the 1970s, I was trying to get my head around the concept of ‘foreign’ country, when I saw Amitabh Bachchan in The Great Gambler. One song - ‘Do Lafzo Ki Hai Dil Ki Kahani’ - particularly held me spellbound as I watched my hero romancing with Zeenat in a Gondola in Venice. Even the Gondolier’s singing seemed beautiful, although I didn’t understand anything he sang…heck, I don’t even now! That image of Venice remained and I promised to visit it. I finally kept that promise to myself when we visited Venice some years back. Visiting Venice is not a notable feat, I agree – millions of tourists go there every year, and many of them are from India. But then, you also think that these people can afford to travel there since they are loaded, implying that travel, especially international travel is the preserve of the affluent class only. We went to Venice on a 18-day trip to Turkey, Greece and Italy…all by ourselves…in less than Rs. Three Lakhs! This amount assumes significance in the light of the fact that a similar trip for our family by a leading tour operator would have set us back by Rs. Nine Lakhs. (I have written a post on DIY Travel at http://tripwiz.in/diy-travel-vs-travel-agents) The point of this book is not to tell you how to travel to places you dream of – it is to enable you to discover the path to travelling with much less money and stress.

      Outbound tourism from India has risen over the years. But, considering the sheer numbers of us Indians, we still have some catching up to do. As per United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourist arrivals grew 5% in 2013 - an additional 52 million tourists, reaching a record 1,087 million arrivals despite global economic challenges. For 2014, UNWTO forecasts 4% to 4.5% growth. In spite of the weakening Rupee and the economic conditions, India is the world leader for outbound tourists in percentage terms - second only to China which leads in terms of number of tourists. The UNWTO predicts that India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020. As of 2014, the number Indian travelers going abroad will exceed 15 million, spending more than US$ 300 million or nearly Rs. 1800 Crores! Dubai and Singapore are the top favourites for the Indian tourists. And which state leads the pack among outbound tourists? - Apno Gujarat, of course, closely followed by Maharashtra.

      It is, therefore, hardly surprising when tourism boards and departments of many destinations are rolling out the red carpet for the Indian traveller. Yeah, we like going abroad – a wish that is second only to owning our own home (a survey conducted by IMRB confirmed that). But, does travelling abroad have to be expensive? Especially, for us in India where we are so ‘value conscious’ sometimes these prices prove to be a downer. But it doesn’t have to be this way…if you know how and where to look for the deals.

      I would stick my neck out by saying that, if you plan and implement what I reveal in this book, you will be able to travel abroad at much lesser expense – in fact sometimes, even lesser than domestic travelling! I am saying this from experience – in 2011, we were planning our summer vacation to a tourist place in the North – you know researching various destinations, and experiencing disappointment that all the good hotels were either sold out or way over the budget. Then suddenly out of whim, I said why not try some nearby destination abroad. We had already been to South East Asian places. So why not try Dubai? To cut the story short, we enjoyed a 10-day vacation in Dubai for less than what it would have cost us in the hill-station. How did I do that? That is what I will tell you now and this is called Travel Hacking.

      Now, when most people hear the words hacking or hacker, they relate it to computers and the Internet. Yes, these terms were popularized by IT, but the origins are much older. To hack (colloquially) means to ‘cut through’. So when you hack travel, you essentially cut through the various ‘not-so-well-known’ ways and means of travelling in style with much less money. And like you need a tool to cut through, say the forest, you need several tools for travel hacking which this eBook tells you. While this guide deals mostly with aspects related to travel to foreign destinations, it is equally applicable to domestic travel as well, because the strategy and tactics are the same for both categories of travel.

      Strategy Vs Tactics for Travel Hacking

      You saw these military terms coming, didn’t you? Having a strategy means to have clear, big-picture goals – the what of your objectives, whereas tactics is use of procedures or resources i.e. the how, when etc. of achieving the goals or sub-goals that define the overall objective. Your tactics may change over a period of time, but the strategy shouldn’t.

      In travel hacking, your strategy is simply this: Score travel deals by searching, comparing, and documenting data for your travel. The searching and comparing will mostly be done on the Internet, but some offline reading will not hurt. Tactics, on the other hand, is use of tools and resources which I will explain, to achieve your aim of bagging great travel deals. It sounds like lot of work, but it isn’t. In fact, it is enjoyable and maybe even therapeutic to read up on your next vacation and search for the required information. It builds up the excitement, just like when we were kids raring to go during summer vacations. Remember?

      Here is how I intend to reveal to you the information on travel hacking and see the world.

      1. Travel Hacking Toolkit. Like any other method, the process of travel hacking will need you to possess a toolkit. By now, you have obviously guessed that you need a computer (desktop / laptop / tablet… anything) with an Internet connection for search-and-compare. For international travel, you will need a valid Passport – that too is known. For booking, you need a credit card, a frequent flyer membership and a hotel loyalty membership. Just any credit card will do? Ahhh, this is where I say, And the truth shall set you free! Okay, that sounded cheesy. But, if you exploit the toolkit correctly, you stand to gain from every tool. How does getting 20000 free airmiles (enough for a trip to Dubai) sound? And what if I told you that you can earn more miles without flying! Enough said.

      2. Plan Your Trip. You know you want to go on a trip. Research indicates that most people base their choice of destinations based on…wait for it…Ads – no wonder that travel companies put out those full page colour ads which tell you that you are getting a deal of a lifetime. The second biggest factor is obviously, the budget. In this chapter, I will include planning aspects on where to go and when. You should take into account the various dynamics for your trip which include your budget, number of days of the trip, the season at your destination etc.

      3. Hacking Your Voyage. While air travel for international holidays is a given, you must not ignore rail and sea travel which have their own charm and in some cases will save you money and time. This chapter will guide you on how to save money when you get your tickets to travel by air, rail, road and sea. I will tell you how to book your transport from the airport / seaport / railway station to your place of stay. The chapter will also cover lounges and accommodation at the airport. How about travelling in style…by a private jet? Yeah that. The cost - a business class ticket or sometimes even less! Read it here.

      4. Stay in Comfort – For Less. There are options galore when you begin hunting for any accommodation during your travels. You can stay in a Presidential Suite, a bed and breakfast or Couchsurf your way round the world. This chapter will tell you all about these options and how to bag those deals on hotel stays.

      5. Let the Fun Begin. It seems logical when most travelers concentrate on planning for the journey and the stay, considering that it takes up most of your travel budget. But, the most important part of a vacation is that you should enjoy the tours and attractions. If one ignores this part, either you will have to stomach the creeping costs which will adversely affect your travel budget, or you will have to relegate fun if budget takes priority. Now, you don’t want to do either. Therefore, in this chapter, I will guide you on how to get around and enjoy the attractions at your destination. I will show you how to mitigate this and getting by at reasonable cost.

      6. Trip Organizer. This is an essential ingredient for enjoying a stress-free trip. I will tell you how-to’s of organizing in the physical domain (documents) as also in the digital domain (apps, email and online storage). You can download the planning tables on the website at http://tripwiz.in/resources/downloads/

      At the end of each chapter, I have included a short exercise which will demonstrate the steps related to that chapter. This exercise will show you the benefits / gains that you accrue and you will also

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