Dinner and a Plane Trip

One of the benefits of not working right now is that I have some free time. Having built up a lot of hotel points and flight credits thanks to the travel I used to do also means that I can fly and stay in a lot of different cities for no cost.

With all of these factors in my favor, it seems pretty reasonable to fly out to Chicago to have dinner with a friend, which is exactly what I did yesterday! My friend Lori lives in upstate New York and travels several times a year for work. We have been working to find a date and city that worked out for us to get together for dinner, and Chicago proved to be the spot.

Although it might seem a bit odd to fly all the way out to Chicago for dinner, it was totally worth it and a rather economical trip. My flight cost $5 (airport fees on my ticket) and round trip transportation from Midway airport to downtown was $4 thanks to the benefits of public transportation on the Orange Line train. Hotel charge $0, or 25,000 of the 80,000 Hilton points that I still have and breakfast is included, so that makes $9 my out-of-pocket costs.

Factor in a very nice dinner, visit and conversation with Lori at the Weber Grill (within walking distance of my hotel, no less) and it is easy to say that I couldn't afford NOT to go!

That's how the math works in my head, anyway.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed