As we are now waiting for Trip Two, and we am going through some financial stuff, we thought we would mention a few ways we have learned to save a few dollars while going through this (We just wish someone had told me about this before hand).
If we were to do start now, with what we know now, first thing we would do is get a Marriott Rewards Number and then apply for a Marriott Visa card. Put all your adoption expences on that card, so you get the reward points. You also pick up 15,000 points for simply signing up. Also start talking to your friends and family and find out if anyone has reward points that they can give you to help you out. Marriott will let people transfer points to you (there is a trap we will get to in a moment). We have in less then 2 weeks been given almost 100,000 points (about 1/3 of what we will need for trip 2). At the same time, talk to people about frequent flyer miles. A friend of DH's sister had 170,000 miles on US Air that they donated to our cause. We are going to use them on trip 2 to fly Business Class round-trip. We figure that gives us a little extra leg room with our little guy. Lastly (and we did this one), get your own FedEx and UPS accounts, and give them a credit card number to charge to. We then gave our agency our account numbers, and had them charge all of our shipping costs directly to us. This avoids a mark up, also both shipping companies have lower rates if you have an active account and autobill to a credit card.
Now for the Marriott trap. . .
Call Marriott and let them know what you are doing. Get the name of one person at Marriott and deal exclusively with him/her. What will happen is when you get a list of people, get all their information (Name / Account # / Phone / Fax). When your are ready to make a reservation, call your person at Marriott, make your reservation , and then FAX to the person you have already talked to all the information and have them send all these people the formal request for transfer form. Your friends / family will sign it, then get it to you to sign, and you will FAX it back to Marriott. The trap is, technically Marriott can not transfer points until with those points there is enough to complete the reservation. Since we are getting the points peace-meal (3,000 here, 10,000 here, 17,000 here, etc), some people who contacted Marriott were told that even with their points we would not have enough to complete the reservation. DH had to call Marriott several times, before getting a person who understood what was going on and would then be our point person.
(An 18 night stay is almost 300,000 points.) You can also buy points. They cost $10 per 1,000 points. This is still cheaper then the outragous prices at the Marriott.
Knowing how much we are all spending, and how expensive the travel costs are, anything you can do to reduce that is a good thing.
Now here's hoping we get our date for trip two soon. . .
JB (RB's DH)