While saddened that they’d be gone on an expatriate work assignment for 2 or more years, I realized that it would be quite the opportunity to visit Israel for the first time and have familiar faces on the ground with them moving there!

Fast forward to late summer 2019. Since they moved to Israel, I traveled to the Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, California, and Arizona. Needless to say…I racked up a lot of airline miles with American Airlines.

Oh, and I still had some leftover miles from living in Japan for six months in 2017.

So when I returned home from a work trip to Japan back in August 2019, I knew the time was right to go burn some miles and go visit my friends in Israel!

When it was all said and done, I had plane tickets to Israel from Texas spending 110,000 miles and $157 USD (Economy class going there, and one leg in Business class coming back).

How I Booked The Trip

I used American Airlines’ own search tool for finding award space, or seats that are available for miles redemptions.

After logging in at aa.com, I clicked the “Advanced / Multi-city Search” link on the bottom right of the home page.

This took me to the advanced search screen, and at the top, there is a different link to a new award search. I like this new award search better because it displays the cost of taxes and fees while searching whereas the old way doesn’t display that cost to you until you’re about to book.

After clicking that, I input my search parameters. I knew I needed to fly from DFW to TLV (Tel Aviv), and I chose some dates in early November that gave me about a week’s worth of time.

Ok, so…honestly…I spent A LOT of time messing with this. Maybe like…3 days of searching around. To summarize the struggle of it all, I had some specific wants and nice-to-haves as well as requirements when searching:

• Minimize taxes and fees (because redeeming miles doesn’t cover these costs)
• Nov 7 thru Nov 14 had to be the dates, give or take a day on either end because I wanted to maximize my time there while not going severely negative on my vacation hours
• Decent layover times, if necessary even if ridiculously long
• Fly Business class at some point over the Atlantic Ocean

When thumbing through the available options, I was looking at a screen similar to this:

It was rather difficult to find an itinerary that allowed for most of this to happen. I frequently ran into something that seemed like it could work out but having to compromise elsewhere.

I wrestled with having layovers in London or in Amman or maybe avoiding British Airways altogether because they charge higher taxes and fees. I even explored having other connections within the US.

In the end…I booked:

• Coach class Nov 7 DFW-MAD-TLV for 40,000 miles / $79.60
• Business class Nov 14 TLV-LHR-MIA-DFW for 70,000 miles / $77.84
  • *Note: it’s only Business class between London Heathrow and Miami

Total: 110,000 miles / $157.44

I actually booked it as two one-way trips. I had to do that because booking a similar roundtrip award ticket would have costed me 140,000 miles and about the same in taxes/fees. I wanted to save the miles

Another thing to point is that I’ve got 9 hours on the ground in Madrid. And 16 hours in London. My goal is to be out and about in Madrid, and probably just stick around the airport while in London because London is an overnight layover.

The trip WOULD have costed me…

On the day that I booked my trip, for funsies I decided to look on Google Flights to see how much it would have been.

Going from from Dallas to Tel Aviv with the layover in Madrid in Economy class all the way, it would have been $2081!

And coming back via London and Miami would have been… a whopping $8980! Although, on Google Flights…it’s probably quoting a higher price because I couldn’t simulate my itinerary due to me being in Business class ONLY from London to Miami.

Still…visual proof:

Yikes.

So…altogether…if I had booked two one-ways on paid tickets for the same (or really similar) itinerary, the airfare WOULD/COULD have been…

Total = $11061

Now, that’s a really crazy number.

Granted, most normal people would be satisfied prioritizing lowest cost with roundtrip ticket in Economy class. And looking at Google Flights right now, a few days before I leave, such tickets are costing around $1000 and above.

Yeah, I’m glad I’m not paying even over $200 out of pocket. And that I have the miles.

Speaking of miles…

How I Earned The Miles

I mentioned earlier that I had leftover miles from traveling in 2017 due to a six-month work assignment in Japan. And I’ll add that I even did some “mileage running” to help secure elite status, and that added some miles too.

Back in July/August of 2019, I had a business trip to Japan. And that contributed as well (about ~50,000 miles earned).

But actually! A good chunk of miles that I earned this year weren’t even from flying!

Rather…shopping.

American Airlines has a shopping portal that you can tie your frequent flyer account to. They partner with many stores. Basically, you do your online shopping through AA’s portal and earn miles. 

Different stores have different earning rates. For example, Home Depot is typically 1 mile per $1 spent. Whereas Under Armour is typically 3 miles per $1 spent.

Sometimes there are bonuses.

Notice in the above picture that I earned 14,133 miles this year, which is more than half of what I’ve earned total since being enrolled in AA’s shopping portal.

A large contributor was purchasing my refurbished MacBook Pro 15” from Apple when they were running a 4 miles per $1 spent (normally 1 mile / $1). Uh wow, I earned 10,786 miles just from upgrading my laptop (and becoming #MacbookBroke)!

I also did a lot of smaller purchases but catching big bonuses.

After all the earning and saving miles, I had about ~150,000 to use. And 110,000 of that went towards this trip.

How else can I earn miles?

Note: while I do focus on American Airlines below, these methods are also applicable to other airlines, especially if they are a major airline. 

Fly

This is the quickest way. Haha, not much else to say here. However, the rate at which you can earn miles via flying will depend on elite status and if you’re flying on airline partners. Basically, the more elite you are, the more miles you can earn.

Also, class of service also impacts your miles earning. The more premium the class, the more miles you earn. 

More information on AA’s site here.

For earning miles for this Israel trip, I did quite a bit of flying.

Credit Card Bonuses

The second quickest way is to earn credit card bonuses. American Airlines has several co-branded credit cards, like the Citi cards, that grant bonus miles after meeting a minimum credit card spend. 

Typically, you have to spend $3000 or more within a few months to earn 50,000 miles or more, depending on the current bonus/promotion. 

Also, some of the credit cards out there let you earn miles just by using the card for purchases. Some categories of spending like Dining or Groceries earn bonus miles depending on the card.

I don’t have any American Airlines credit cards, but I have utilized credit card bonuses in other rewards programs.

Shopping Portal

I’ve already explained this above, but I find this to be a decent way to earn miles even without flying.

And actually…you can combine shopping with an AA credit card and those will double-stack!

Link to AAdvantage Shopping.

Dining Portal

In addition to the shopping portal, American Airlines has a dining portal. In this portal, the program partners with different restaurants. Again, you’ll tie it to your frequent flyer account.

You add your credit or debit card information to the portal, and anytime you eat at any of the listed restaurants, you earn miles based on your spending. 

Here’s the link to AA’s Dining Program.

I’ve found this typically to be a slow way to earn miles…probably because…I never seem to eat at the partnered restaurants! I should probably look at the list again…haha…

Buying Miles

Lastly, the other way to get miles is to simply buy them. Sometimes American Airlines runs bonuses so you can earn more miles per your own dollar spent.

I’ve read on travel blogs that this isn’t really a cost-effective way to get miles. However, it’s great if you’re short miles for an award redemption you’re wanting to do.

American Airlines usually emails about bonus buying miles for frequent flyers.

Bottom Line

Regardless of what crazy itinerary I can come up with that needlessly raises the cost of airline tickets to Israel, I probably would have spent over $1000 on airfare at minimum.

But thanks to frequent flying in the past and the shopping portal, I was able to pull off only spending $157 out of pocket and 110,000 miles. And that’s pretty good for flying cheap, and a little bit of style with Business class over the Atlantic coming home.

There are a handful of other ways to earn miles, and most of them don’t even require actually flying. 

My hope with this post is that you’re able to see that … earning and using miles is a great way to travel for less money. So if you have your eyes set on a great pilgrimage to the Holy Land, somewhere in Europe, or elsewhere…you can use miles to get there far more cheaper.

Got a question about airline miles? Let me know in the comments!

Featured Photo by David McBee from Pexels

JR

JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.

The post How I Booked Airfare to Israel for $157 appeared first on Pilgrim for Less.

Unless you’re on a packaged pilgrimage or tour-style pilgrimage with a set itinerary, then you’re probably not automatically scheduled to go to Mass somewhere. I like to do self-designed or do-it-yourself pilgrimages, and that often requires stalking church websites in order to find Mass times that fit with my intended itinerary. Here are two recent cases of me needing to look up Mass times quickly:

Case #1. Recently, I attended a wedding of a good friend in Kansas, US of A. I didn’t have my itinerary totally finalized in the days leading up to it. Because I have never been to Kansas before, I thought it would be cool to attend Mass near my hotel or the cathedral in Wichita, KS. After I returned home from the wedding reception Saturday night, I needed to look up Mass times for Sunday. Unfortunately, an intense winter storm hit first thing in the morning and derailed any plans I had to go to Mass in Kansas. So, I had to continuously look at Mass times during my road trip back home to find something that fit. I ended up just going to Mass at a church I’ve previously been to in Texas.

Case #2. Several months ago, I flew to Australia via Hong Kong and Singapore. I purposefully scheduled really, really long layovers in Asia so that I could enjoy the airports and lounge accesses due to my frequent flyer status, but because I flew on the weekends (including Sundays), I also wanted to give myself time to leave airports and go to Mass. Therefore, before leaving for this trip, I had to look up what churches were near Hong Kong’s and Singapore’s airports and what Mass times they offered. Unfortunately, on my return home, a significant typhoon cancelled all flights to Hong Kong, and I had to be rerouted to South Korea. I wasn’t able to go to Mass in South Korea because I found myself stuck in the airport…and furthermore, the airport did offer Mass at the airport, but I was stuck in the wrong part of the airport…

I’m sure there are more cases to share, but in general, finding Mass times quickly is a useful skill especially when traveling for pleasure, work, or with the express intent of going on a pilgrimage.

Here are some useful ways to quickly find Mass times:

1. Use an app

Most people have smartphones these days, so using an app is probably a no brainer. If you’re traveling internationally, this method only works if your smartphone is connected to WiFi or have an international data plan in order to connect to these services.

The Catholic Directory

For the longest while, I used The Catholic Directory as my primary app for finding Mass times. I like it because the interface is simple, and a very big plus is that they have a visual indicator showing you what churches have upcoming Masses based on time.

Using the “Nearby Churches” function utilizes your phone’s GPS to locate nearby churches. When you click on one, you’re presented with directory info, if provided, for the church as well as Mass times.

You can also select a Map View that shows you nearby churches relative to your current position.

If you happen to have the address of a church, you can search for it that way as well.

The app also lets you bookmark churches. It also has a directory of Catholic businesses, the daily readings, saint of the day, and videos.

I haven’t tested this app for international locations, but it works pretty well for U.S. domestic Mass-finding.

You can visit their website: The Catholic Directory (apps have been discontinued, it seems)

MassTimes.org

I recently downloaded this app to try it out. It’s even more simple than Catholic Directory. When you first start it up, it gives you the option to search for Mass based on city, state, or zip code. Or you can press the button to tell the app to search for times near you based on your location.

One thing I really like about this app is that it presents you the list of churches with Sunday Mass times automatically on the search results so you don’t have to click or tap on each church. When you do click or tap on a church, it gives you the rest of their Mass times. Another feature I like about this app is that when you tap on the church’s address, it pulls up driving directions in your default maps app.

The app also gives you the option of viewing search results in a list or map.

But other than that, it lacks some of the features that The Catholic Directory offers in their app. That’s totally fine, but this app gives you Mass times pretty well!

When I was in Asia and Australia, I used this app and can verify that it does bring up international results. That’s how I was able to search for churches and Mass times in Singapore and Hong Kong.

You can download this app here:

• App Store
• Google Play

Note: I will say that The Catholic Directory and MassTimes are also websites that you can access on a non-smartphone. And you can search for Mass times that way as well!

2. Go to the Google

When in doubt, go to Google! Isn’t that how we find…anything on the Internet? Haha.

Sometimes I do a combination of things utilizing Google to find Mass times.

Find the church website

If there’s a particular church i want to go visit, I’ll usually go Google that church or parish to find their website. Hopefully their website makes it easy to find Mass times and other useful information. Sometimes I do this even after I’ve looked up the church using an app because Mass times may have changed or, depending on if there’s a feast day or holiday, Mass times may be different. Sometimes I also like to see if the church offers other things like Adoration or Confession that I may wish to participate in, and websites will show this, if available.

Using Google Maps

I’ll pull up Google Maps and search for churches to see if there are any near me. The search results in Google Maps will link to a church’s website, if available, where I can look up Mass times and other information.

Find the diocese’s website

Not every church has a website or a website that provides useful information. Sometimes I’ll go to the diocese’s website to see if they have a directory of parishes and churches with Mass times. I’ll type something like “diocese of (insert current city here)” to find the diocese’s website.

The Easy Search

Literally just Google “mass times near me”, and Google will usually provide you some map results, links to MassTimes.org or other Mass-finding services, and some nearby church websites.

Benefits of Quickly Finding Mass Times

I know this skill seems like common sense, and using an app or Google is nothing revolutionary. But regardless of the method, there are some benefits to finding Mass times quickly.

Meet your Sunday obligation

Did you know that you’re still obligated to go to church on Sunday (or Saturday vigil is legit too) even if you’re traveling? Especially if you have the means to go to church? If you can find Mass times quickly, it’s easy to find a church and time that works. For me, when I traveled to Japan for work many times, I would often fly on weekends so finding Mass somewhere in-between landing from a flight and transferring to bullet trains was necessary.

Guarantee the church is open

I see this more in America where churches tend to be closed during the day or when Mass isn’t being celebrated. Such a shame, but I realize it’s usually for security concerns. It stinks when trying to visit a really cool-looking church only to find that it’s closed! One time, I flew to Tokyo with a friend, and we tried to visit a church on a way to a Tokyo Giants game because it was near their stadium, but it ended up being closed because Mass had been way earlier in the day. So, by finding Mass times, you can guarantee that a church will be open.

Helps with planning the itinerary

Trying to squeeze in Mass during airport layovers can be tricky, especially with international travel. I did a few hours of research prior to my Australia trip in order to work out the logistics and timing of going to Mass in Singapore and Hong Kong. Of course, the need to find your own Mass times is unnecessary if you’re on a typical, packaged pilgrimage.

I hope you found this useful! If you want to receive useful tips like this regarding pilgrimages delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe below!

Featured photo: Photo by George Dolgikh from Pexels 

JR

JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.

The post How to Quickly Find Mass Times Near Me appeared first on Pilgrim for Less.

One thing that’s really cool about pilgrimages is being able to talk about the travel aspects. Being a pilgrim is being at the intersection of faith and travel, after all. Therefore, I don’t consider travel as an excuse to NOT practice devotions, disciplines, and traditions. Basically, I’m here to say that you can carry on holy water.

Holy water is a frequent devotion in Catholicism. Most people’s encounters with using holy water are at baptisms and entering or exiting a church. We use holy water at baptism as the visible sign of the inward reality that original sin is washed away by God’s grace. For more info, you check out when we use holy water here, and some origin stories here.

Typically, holy water can be found in fonts at the entrances of churches. Some people like to keep holy water in their home with smaller fonts or maybe even bottles of it.

So how about traveling with holy water?

Why bring holy water with you?

When I traveled to Japan frequently for work, I knew I wanted to maintain my faith and devotions. An easy way for me to do that was to keep a small bottle of holy water packed in my carry on. I would use it bless myself before flights, and kept it just in case I needed to perform emergency baptisms. Or something.

Once on the ground, I kept a bottle on my hotel bedside table and used it before leaving for work each day. Again, just because I was out on travel didn’t excuse me from practicing this little devotion to holy water.

Using holy water while traveling is good way to feel #blessed and remember one’s own baptism.

TSA Rules for Liquids

I hope you’ve been able to fly recently. If you’ve traveled via air anytime since 9/11, then I’m sure you probably know that TSA requires liquids to be in a container  3.4 ounces or less and your containers to be in a quart-sized bag when in your carry on bag.

The rules haven’t really changed since then, but you can always check out TSA’s website for the current rules regarding liquids. I also recommend flying more than once a year because it helps keep you most up-to-date with changing airport security restrictions.

For the pilgrim traveling with holy water, it’s important to know easy ways to carry on holy water while remaining within airport security restrictions.

Don’t be that guy or gal who tried sneaking in a keg of holy water in your carry on and get questioned for a few hours causing you to miss your flight for your pilgrimage to Assisi.

That’s never happened, but I’m just sayin’.

Two Creative Ways To Carry On Holy Water

I recommend these based on creative ways I’ve seen holy water transported in a portable manner. Unless you plan on blessing large areas or amounts of people, I don’t think you would need to carry a lot of it.

Small containers are sufficient enough.

Hence, these ideas:

Contact Lens Case

My first time chaperoning youth on my parish’s annual youth pilgrimage to the March for Life in Washington, DC was in 2013. Back then, I bought a Benedictine crucifix and so did one of our youth. We both wanted to get our crucifixes blessed by a Benedictine because we knew that any religious item with the Benedictine medal also gets a minor exorcism prayer when getting it blessed. For next level legitimateness and spiritual extra, we wanted a Benedictine to do it.

While hanging around the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception before and after the Vigil Mass for Life, we finally saw a Benedictine-looking monk hiding out behind some of the statues in the crypt level of the basilica. We awkwardly went up to him and asked a) if he was of the Benedictine order and b) if he could bless our crucifixes. He thankfully agreed, despite looking busy in prayer.

He had a small backpack, but he pulled out a small satchel and an iPhone (monks with iPhones, wut) for the blessing. The smart phone was for him to look up the words for the blessing and minor exorcism, and the satchel contained a contact lens case and a small bottle of oil. During the blessing, he utilized these items.

Inside the contact lens case was holy water! I remember being surprised because I thought it to be really weird for him to bust out a contact lens case.

We got our crucifixes blessed, and we were on our way.

Contact lens cases are great for carrying on holy water because they’re small and portable. They’re not shady-looking because they are everyday items that I’m sure the TSA frequently sees because a lot of people wear contact lenses (I mean, I do…). Lastly you only need to dip a fingertip or two in order to use holy water contained in a contact lens case.

If you’re a contact lens wearer, then I’m sure you have several of these laying around. If you’re not, they’re pretty easy to pick up at the store, or you can order sets of them on Amazon. I recommend these because they’re from a reputable brand and won’t leak on you.

Small Soy Sauce Bottle

Wait. Before you freak out, I know this is a weird-sounding way to carry on holy water, but it’s very practical.

In Japan, if you order take out and ask for soy sauce, they usually don’t give you the small packet where you tear away from a corner to use the sauce like we’re familiar with here in the United States. Rather, they typically give you a small plastic bottle with a screw-on cap filled with soy sauce that you squeeze out to use.

The church I frequented in Japan made it a point to stock up on these bottles, fill them with holy water, and made announcements at nearly every Mass for the faithful to take home. And I totally did. Multiple times (because multiple trips to Japan).

Soy sauce bottles, especially Japanese-style ones, are a great way to carry on holy water because they are also small and portable. They can easily fit in a quart-sized bag per TSA. And to dispense holy water, you only need to lightly squeeze.

If you live in the US, these bottles are a little hard to obtain though you could check out your local Asian store or maybe even Japanese dollar store.

Otherwise, Amazon sells these small plastic soy sauce bottles. They come in bags containing different shapes, and most seem to be animal-shaped. Sometimes rectangular ones are part of the bag.

If that idea seems a little weird, you can upgrade the weirdness by using those squeezable salad dressing bottles like these.

Just please don’t put holy water on your food.

Bottom Line

Being a pilgrim involves some creativity in order to maintain practices and devotions while traveling. Air travel security restrictions shouldn’t hinder you, especially when bringing holy water. While I’m sure you can think of other ways to carry on holy water, the ways I mentioned in this post are ways I know to be easy and unique. You can be THAT pilgrim who busts out a contact lens case of holy water. Or (pig-shaped) soy sauce bottle.

Also, these containers are good for their intended design and purpose. I just don’t recommend using them for actual contact lens solution or sauces AND THEN holy water. Set aside a container or two for holy water use only that way you’re not potentially mixing uses. Use a sharpie to draw a cross on it so you know it has holy water.

Question for you–do you have any other creative ideas for carrying on holy water?

JR

JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.

The post 2 Creative Ways to Carry On Holy Water appeared first on Pilgrim for Less.

I was tuned into Morning Glory on EWTN Radio yesterday (feast day of St. James), and they were talking about the Camino de Santiago, or “Way of St. James”, which is a popular pilgrimage people go on in Spain. I forget the name of the priest that was walking about the Camino, but he added the point that we don’t need to necessarily go over to Europe in order to have a pilgrimage experience. You can easily visit a different church or other nearby holy sites and turn those into pilgrimages. I wholeheartedly agree!

The Sunday Pilgrimage

Remember that pilgrimages are journeys to sacred places as an act of devotion. If you think about it, going to church or Mass on Sunday is, in fact, an act of religious devotion. Sure, your typical pew-warmer probably treats going to church on Sunday like an obligation, but however deep the depth of one’s intention of making it a devotion, going to church is still an act. One thing I love about visiting Catholic churches, even on Sunday at Mass, is that they are immediately convincing that it is a sacred place due to the presence of the tabernacle with a lit candle indicating that Christ, truly present in the Eucharist in body, blood, soul, and divinity, is there.

With that said, I really think that you can turn this Sunday into a pilgrimage.

Here are some steps and ideas:

1. Where are you going?

The easiest location would obviously be your own church. It’s easy because you know how to get there, it’s familiar, and you can switch up how you approach going to your own church (see below).

A variation would be going to a different church or parish nearby. Or you could take it next level by going to a different church across your diocese. And if you’re hipster and have a monastery, convent, or shrine nearby, you could go to these places for a Sunday pilgrimage. I recently spent a weekend at a Benedictine monastery.

2. How are you getting there?

I live in Texas so most places would take too long to get to via walking, or the weather is too extremely hot or too extremely cold to walk. Therefore, most people ’round these parts drive to get to places.

But walking and biking are legit too. I’m going off of vague memory here, but if you do the Camino Real (visiting the 21 mission churches along the California coast) and buy their “passport booklet” thingy, I’m fairly certain that riding horseback is a checkable box you can input on how you went about the pilgrimage. So there’s that.

Of course, you could skateboard too.

3. What spiritual extra are you going to do?

Pilgrimages require some sort of spiritual intention, in my opinion. Otherwise, it’s easy to treat a pilgrimage like any other trip or vacation. With a spiritual intention or doing something extra spiritually, it helps keeps you accountable in keeping the pilgrimage intentionally spiritual.

I’ve already talked about how I solicit prayer requests before every pilgrimage and how the Moleskine notebook is a great notebook to keep those in. Feel free to steal those ideas.

Here are some more ideas:

• Bring a journal and take note notes during the homily or do spiritual journaling. Dynamic Catholic has a great article on how having a Mass journal can benefit you.
• Stay after Mass for 15 minutes for extra prayer time (THEN go grab your donuts or Knights of Columbus pancakes).
• Show up early to the church in order to actually catch the start of the Rosary before Mass.
• Read the Mass readings BEFORE Mass. I love using the USCCB’s site to access the readings of the day quickly, and there are good apps out there that do the same. Or use the missal in your pew. That works too.
• While driving to your church:
  • Listen to silence (ie. no music)
  • Listen to a good Catholic or Christian podcast (there are great podcasting priests like Fr. Mike Schmitz)
  • Listen to your local Christian music station
• Do an act of service or work of mercy after Mass. I’m on rotation to visit nursing homes once a month as part of my parish’s ministry to the sick.

4. How can you learn more about the place you went to?

Or perhaps another way of putting it is, how can you be a local tourist? No, I don’t mean walking into your church with your fanny pack and a huge DSLR sticking out from the middle of your chest. But rather… do you know the history of your parish? I know parishes in my diocese have cool and interesting histories. If you don’t know the history of your church, ask someone who does know! Call the office, talk to the pastor, or talk to a long-time parishioner or member of the church.

Similarly, do you know the significance of the features of the church? Sometimes the stained glass, architecture, decorations, etc. have further significance than merely being there to make the church look nice. My own parish actually has cool little hidden things that can be found in a few stained glass windows and paintings. One of my other favorite churches in my diocese is a German painted church, whereby every design on the walls of the inside of the church are actually painted on and not actual brick or tile.

Lastly, the easiest way to learn more about the place you went to is to ask a parishioner! One time, when I visited Philadelphia and went to Saturday evening Mass, my travel buddy and I ended up talking to some parishioners at their insistence. But through those conversations, we received a free book, and recommendations to some of the good local restaurants in that Philly neighborhood. Pretty awesome.

How A Sunday Pilgrimage Can Benefit You

I like the idea of a Sunday pilgrimage that’s unheard of, and no one thinks to treat going to church on Sunday as a pilgrimage.

Here are some benefits to a Sunday pilgrimage:

• A warm up to bigger pilgrimages
• So easy because there isn’t a whole lot to plan
• Quick and cheap
• Gives you an opportunity to be even more intentional with your Sunday experience and less going-through-the-motions
• Learn more about your local community

A question for you–if you turned Sunday into a pilgrimage, how did it go?

JR

JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.

The post How To Turn Sunday Into A Pilgrimage appeared first on Pilgrim for Less.

I’m striving to be a locally adventurous pilgrim. Kind of. I’m not that great at being such kind of pilgrim because of all the traveling I’ve been doing.

2016 was a ridiculous year of travel for me. Probably the biggest highlight that year was being able to attend World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland with 200 others from my diocese. Another big deal was completing the contract for my monthly, week-or-two work trips to Japan in August 2016. To top it all off, I visited my aunt and uncle in Sydney, Australia in October 2016. After these major travels, I had more mental bandwidth to think about local adventuring.

Traveling to Japan so many times and exploring Sydney had a weird effect on me. Because of these trips, I was more inspired to explore my own backyard much in the same way I had explored these particular places. When I say explore, this undoubtedly also means visiting churches and going to Mass in both Japan and Sydney. At some point before Thanksgiving turkey consumption in November, I got the crazy idea in my noggin’ to visit all the parishes in my diocese.

Visit all parishes in my diocese. That sounds kind of crazy.

The Challenge

Here’s the struggle with setting such a goal. My diocese covers 23,950 miles and 28 North Texas counties. Within those square miles are 97 parishes. That seems like a huge number, but this is Texas. Other dioceses in Texas are huge in both square miles and parish count as well.

The challenge I am putting on myself is to attend Mass at each of the 97 parishes. It’s not satisfying enough for me to merely just visit each church.

Why does going to Mass make it “count”?

One of the awesome things about being Catholic is being part of the mystical Body of Christ in a, truly, universal faith. With Mass, I’m really able to feel part of the Body of Christ because of celebrating the Eucharist as a community of God’s people. Going to Mass also allows me to experience the local community by actually being physically present among them. I’ve gone to Masses across Italy and other parts of Europe, across Japan, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, and all over the United States. The beautiful thing is that it’s essentially the same experience, but in different locales.

I stress the point of attending Mass because you can better appreciate it when you’re not in tourist mode. When I visited many churches in Nagasaki, Japan, I wasn’t able to catch Mass but actually stayed a while and prayed at each of them. Likewise for churches in Rome when I went to Mother Teresa’s canonization. I’m more than just a mere tourist–I’m a pilgrim!

Why even visit all parishes in my diocese?

I’m a video gamer, and I’m likely motivated by treating crazy goals such as this as a quest or goal. On top of that, I’m an engineer. I want a creative, measurable way to experience the local church near me. 97 parishes seems like a lot of churches to visit, but it’s a finite number and achievable goal. Perhaps a precursor to this idea was my last semester of college. During my last semester, I made it my goal to visit every building on campus, both outside and inside if possible, and take pictures of two Pokemon figurines I had of Charizard and Blastoise. Gotta visit ’em all, I thought. And I did! Though I finished it mostly after finals were over… And so it is also with parishes–gotta Mass at ’em all.

See what I’m dealing with on this map:

Another reason why I want to go to Mass at all the parishes in my diocese is to save money. If you recall, I don’t have a whole lot of money for lengthy or extraneous travel. Air travel is expensive. Road trips are easier to minimize cost, and I haven’t put too many miles into my car since I bought it new in 2016 due to Japan-ing so much.

Before I even came up with the idea for Pilgrim for Less, I knew that I could do my own small-scale pilgrimages. Lessons learned from visiting churches overseas taught me that there is usually an interesting and/or rich history regarding a church as well as appreciating any architectural or artistic beauty found within churches. Though history and beauty are fascinating to me, the main goal is still Mass.

Lastly, I want to visit all my diocesan parishes in order to have bragging rights and a better resume for entering Heaven. Lol jk. Honestly, I think it’d be cool to be a locally adventurous pilgrim. I ain’t got no extra money and time (right now) to do the big and cool stuff in Europe, and that’s okay. I can still work on my pilgrimaging skills through local adventure and exploration. Sure, be a locally adventurous pilgrim it’s not as glamorous as walking the Camino or visiting the Holy Land, but I know I can still have a solid, fruitful pilgrimage experience locally.

Progress So Far

I officially started this back in November 2016 on the feast day of Christ the King. Coincidentally and intentionally, I went to one of the parishes called Christ the King. It was in Vietnamese, and when I first walked in, it took me 10 minutes to figure out they were chanting the Rosary.

Pursuing this crazy goal SMART-ly would make it timebound, but I haven’t given myself a time limit on this. Obviously. It’s 2018, and I’ve only hit up a few parishes’ Masses (not counting my own home parish). The other excuse is that I was in Japan for six months in 2017 so that hampered my ability to work on this challenge. I likely won’t make too much progress until I’m done with grad school sometime in the first half of 2019. Totally okay. I don’t plan on moving anytime soon.

For your viewing pleasure, here’s a Google Sheet I created to keep track of my progress. It’s technically “live”, but as I just mentioned, I’m not sure how much I can update it, but I can probably work on it on my remaining weekends I have before starting grad school classes again in a few months.

YOUR TURN–Is there some sort of goal or challenge you can locally do to get you out the door and pilgrim (verb) for less? Comment below!

JR

JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.

The post Striving To Be A Locally Adventurous Pilgrim appeared first on Pilgrim for Less.

I know air travel makes us think of high costs for traveling. It’s often the fastest way to travel long distances, and doing so comes at a price. Flying for travel has always been a part of my life like my arms and my legs. And despite my frequent travels, flying doesn’t personally cost me those arms and legs.

Air travel doesn’t have to cost you your appendages either.

Pilgrimages often require flying in order to see and visit the really cool sites. But this is Pilgrim for Less. You don’t need to spend lots of money on air travel to go on pilgrimages.

Over the past several years, I’ve utilized different tickets for flights. Let me share with you three ways that you can fly cheap:

1. Paid ticket
2. Award ticket
3. Nonrevenue/Buddy Pass

Not too complicated, eh? Allow me to further explain each one.

1. Paid Ticket

Paying for an airline ticket is the most ordinary means of getting your literal arms and legs onto a plane. For most people, this involves booking directly with an airline or booking through a travel agency, whether brick-and-mortar or online. You pay actual cash monies for a guaranteed seat on a flight.

For most of my life, I did not utilize paid airline tickets (because my dad works for an airline (see last method)). It wasn’t until I started traveling to Japan frequently for work starting in 2015 that I really started using paid tickets to fly places. Therefore, I’m not as well versed in deal-finding for paid tickets.

However, I do utilize Google Flights as a starting point for researching cheaper flights. What makes it great is that it’s a search engine for airfare, and it provides a user-friendly interface where you can easily adjust your flight details in order to see how those changes affect the price. Google Flights will also allow you to compare results between booking direct with the airlines and some of the online travel agencies. One time I was able to find round-trip tickets on American Airlines from Texas to San Diego for $180 using Google Flights (unfortunately…I was never able to get on that plane because I got sent to Japan!).

Ways to Reduce Ticket Price

Within paid airline tickets, here are some ways or considerations to reduce the price of your ticket:

• Fly during non-peak season (ie. Rome in the winter and spring)
• Similarly, fly during the week and not during the weekend
• For round trip tickets, have longer trips between incoming and outgoing flights (7 day trip vs. 3 day trip)
• Add layovers or stops
• Utilize low cost carriers
• Purchase lower fare codes (like basic economy, or non-refundable fares)

Paying for an airline ticket is going to cost the most money out-of-pocket.

2. Award Ticket

Most major airlines have a loyalty program that you can sign up for. When you do, you can earn miles for that airline. Redeeming those miles to fly results in an award ticket. Typically, you can only redeem award tickets via the airline itself or through an airline partner. For example, I have American Airlines AAdvantage miles, and I can only redeem those on American Airlines or on one of American’s partners like Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific. Signing up for a loyalty program is pretty easy usually just requiring your name and basic contact information.

Because of frequent business trips to Japan for work, I’ve earned many miles. I’ve been able to redeem those miles for trips like flying my parents, my brother, and myself to Italy for a week in 2017 or attending Mother Teresa’s canonization in 2016. Using miles.

An airline’s website should allow you to search award tickets much in the same way you would search for flights normally. I often see a checkbox that you can check in order to tell the flight search bar that you’re looking for award tickets.

Award ticket costs usually depend on the airline and where you’re traveling to. One thing I didn’t know when I first started dabbling in award tickets is that redeeming such awards actually carries two costs: miles and taxes/fees. However, the taxes and fees you pay out-of-pocket are, generally, way cheaper than buying a paid ticket outright. For example, you can fly Singapore Airlines new first class suites for a one-way ticket costing ~$4500 (USD) from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. The award ticket for the same seat is 150,000 KrisFlyer miles and ~$70 USD for taxes and fees. When I went to Rome for Mother Teresa’s canonization, it only costed me 77,500 and $178.36 for a round-trip economy class seat from Texas to Rome on American Airlines when such a seat normally costs $1200+.

Ways to Earn Miles Easily

You can earn miles pretty easily using the following ways:

• Fly frequently
• Fly frequently with elite airline status (because bonus miles earned are usually given for passengers with status)
• Use an airline’s shopping portal to earn miles from shopping online
• Use an airline’s cobranded credit card
• Be on the mailing list for an airline’s award program for other miles-earning opportunities

3. Nonrevenue/Buddy Pass

Airlines usually give their employees benefits to fly for free. They are able to do this by flying nonrevenue standby whereby they can fly on flights with space-available seats or seats that are unsold. My dad works for an airline so when I was growing up, my family frequently used his benefit to visit family in different states. Even now, I’m still able utilize his benefits to save costs on flying.

For employees of airlines and immediate family members, standby tickets are free. Sometimes they can extend this benefit to others, sometimes called a “buddy pass”, but with a small(er) out-of-pocket cost that are usually just taxes and fees. On trips to the Philippines this year, my parents used my dad’s benefit to travel to Japan for free in order to connect to Manila. Because I’m over the age threshold for a dependent, I have to use my dad’s buddy passes, but using them I can travel to Japan round trip for ~$500, which normally costs $2300+ for a paid economy class ticket.

I have a friend that also has a father who works for the same airline, and we’ve been able to pull off day trips from Texas to other places in the US of A. One weekend, we went to Washington, DC for a day to visit a seminarian friend of ours, came home the same day, and the first thing next morning we flew to San Diego to visit another good friend, stayed one night, and came back first thing the next morning. All in a weekend. We’ve also hit up day trips to San Antonio, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. These day trips typically cost me <$200 round trip when they can easily be $300+.

Struggles Flying Nonrev

Despite the potential for saving lots of money, there are several struggles with flying using nonrevenue standby or buddy passes:

• You’re not guaranteed a seat and therefore can be bumped to standby on the next flight (and the next flight, and the next flight…until you’re having to sleep at the airport…)
• You usually board the aircraft last
• Your family member or friend with the benefit only has a limited amount of buddy passes
• People flying standby are processed by priority (and buddy pass travelers are often processed last)
• If you have elite status with the airline, those benefits will not apply

Unless you or your spouse works for an airline or you’re real buddies with some friends who do, then this method is going to be challenging to accomplish.

As I mentioned earlier, this is the method I grew up with, and its been my ordinary means of flying for forever. It’s only been with the past few years that I’ve been utilizing paid and award tickets.

Bottom Line

Flying is a fast way to get anywhere, but it does come at cost. Thankfully, there are multiple ways to fly cheap. For going on more pilgrimages for less, the key is to leverage lowering the cost of flying so that you can see more of the Church in the world.

I should also mention that packaged pilgrimages or pilgrimages done through a pilgrim office or travel agency are paid tickets but with a group discount. However, if done like this, you might not earn or use award miles. As an example of what I mean, if you flew from Chicago to Rome with a packaged pilgrimage, you’d be flying all those miles without earning award miles (9646 miles for round trip, to be exact!). That’s enough miles to almost cover a one-way flight domestically!

Now that you know about these three different ways, stay tuned, and we can further explore strategies on using these methods to go on more pilgrimages. For less. And fly cheap.

Question for you–have you ever redeemed award miles to fly somewhere? If so, where did you go?

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Screenshot of redeem miles from aa.com.

JR

JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.

The post 3 Ways To Fly Cheap appeared first on Pilgrim for Less.

According to American Airlines in a recent press conference, they found that 87 % of their passengers fly only once a year or less[1]. Wut. That’s crazy! I find that to be surprising because I’ve developed this habit of flying multiple times a month (or at least every few months) for work or for fun.

Because of that fact, I offer this nugget of travel wisdom: fly more than once a year.

But why fly more than once a year?

Allow me to give a few reasons:

Security policies. Sometimes you feel like you just got stripped searched, either by the officer or that new-fangled X-ray machine. Or maybe you had to have the good ol’ pat down even though you weren’t required to go through that three years ago when you flew to Chicago for Uncle Vernon’s retirement. TSA and airport security policies occasionally change depending on the airport or perceived threat to the country. When you fly more than once, it’s easier to get used to what airport security requires when going through security.

Tackle that fear of flying. I think flying is just one of those things that requires an acquisition of habit in order to combat anxiety and worries. How can you get used to flying if you never fly?

See more family. Maybe this makes more sense if your family is spread out like mine. I have family, including extended, across both coasts, Alaska, the Philippines, Canada, Australia, and Italy. It’s really hard to get the fam back together in one place so sometimes it’s easier to just go visit them via flying. Surely you have a 3rd cousin at least three states/provinces away.

See more places. Let’s be real. You probably have a bucket list of places you want to go see. You probably have Pinterest boards full of ’em And I bet a handful of those places require flying. Auntie Agnes might be living near Niagara Falls so why not go visit the Falls while visiting her?

Rack up those airline miles. If you’re enrolled in a frequent flyer loyalty program, you can use your flights as a way to earn more miles. If you only fly once a year, you won’t be earning many miles. Well, unless you fly to Australia once a year. These earned miles can then be redeemed for a future flight so you can pilgr—travel for less!

Speaking of pilgrimages…

If you fly more than once a year, you can go on more pilgrimages! Yay! And there was much rejoicing!

Sure, maybe you’re going to go visit your cousin Jimmy in San Francisco. It just so happens that the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi is in the northern part of town, like a 20 minute drive from Jimmy’s apartment. Why not go on a side pilgrimage while catching up with him?

Question for you—is American Airlines right? Do you fly once a year or less? Comment below!

Resources:

[1] American Airlines: Media and Investor Day, September 28, 2017

JR

JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.

The post Travel Tip: Fly More Than Once A Year appeared first on Pilgrim for Less.

But first! Background. At the end of 2016, I redeemed over 200,000 airline miles earned from going back-and-forth to Japan and redeemed over 600,000 hotel points earned from staying in Japan in order for my parents, my brother, and myself to go on a week-long trip to Italy. While in Italy, we visited Florence, Pisa, Venice, Rome, and the Vatican. Needless to say, it was an action-packed week, and it was amazing. Somewhere in the middle of planning that trip, I accidentally forgot to do the one thing.

My One Big Mistake

I forgot to check the Pope’s schedule!

Usually, he appears in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Wednesdays because that’s when he gives his general audience. This general audience is where the Pope gives a talk and lesson regarding the faith. Oftentimes, after his general audience he’ll do a grand tour of the square in his popemobile giving blessings and kissing babies.

Apparently in July of 2017, he canceled all his Wednesday audiences, and I had no idea until I looked it up during our Italy trip.This was a huge bummer because my parents and bro were looking forward to seeing him.

Lesson Learned

For next time, now I know to check the Pope’s schedule. I know he tends to be busy, especially during the summer.

You can see his Wednesday audience and Sunday Angelus schedule, where he can be publicly seen, here at this link on the Vatican’s website: Calendar

So the next time you plan on visiting the Vatican, check that schedule out before you go!

Bonus points if you can get your baby blessed by the Pope, even if your baby has to crowd surf among strangers and pilgrims.

Do you have any useful visiting-the-Vatican tips?

JR

JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.

The post One Major Tip Before Visiting The Vatican appeared first on Pilgrim for Less.