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Cost of attending MLG/EVO/Majors - Also tips/advice on how to save

Gesture Required Ahead

Get on that hook
Basically you're trading one hobby for another. If you're passionate about tournaments and the scene AND you're a smoker, that's money that you're pissing away to kill yourself. I do that all the time when I make a big purchase. I don't go out to the bar, I don't smoke, I don't have any other hobbies so I can afford a new console or video game when it comes out. Meanwhile smoker mcsmokey over there is coughing up a lung and can't enjoy a new video game until it hits the bargain ben basket.
But who are you to tell another to quit a hobby though? Health concerns aside, I think people should be free to do what they want with their money without being nagged.
 

Pnut

Mouth of the Illuminati
But who are you to tell another to quit a hobby though? Health concerns aside, I think people should be free to do what they want with their money without being nagged.
He's giving a suggestion about how to save money so people can travel. Stop being butthurt.
 

deathblooms2k4

Apprentice
I use Bank of America. 1% back + bonuses on misc shit from companies they are colluding with. Skraa is basically getting 2% back based on his purchases through the guise of a points system designed to misquide people. In the end Skraas deal yields him more back than a BoA card.

Credit card rewards are great in the ways they are sold to people and since I'm a selfish person and pessimistic about our country in general I do all of my purchasing with one. In addition to the benefits of getting a little bit back from your purchases they also act as a form of security. In this day and age where there are so many ways to have your card stolen (hacked websites, number scanners, delivery boy, etc.) it's stupid to use your Debit card as it can very easily get stolen which can cost you a whole lot depending on how much you have in your checking or savings. With a credit card those issues are alleviated as most companies have ways of generating individual one time secure numbers to use or they have policies in place for credit card theft. To reiterate this point I use my BoA card for everything, I've had my number stolen twice now. Each time BoA has called me to report this before I even noticed and quickly handled the dispute at no cost to me (more on this later). Sometimes it can be a hassle because they put holds on your card when they think it's stolen and you might be on vacation but that's why you do your due diligence to let them know when you're traveling.

You see when your credit card gets stolen it's within the banks best interest to keep you as a happy customer since they make a lot of money off of you and the last thing they want to happen is for you to be afraid to use their card. Similarly they don't want you spreading gossip about how some credit card bankrupted you after you used it to pay for gas. So they eat the losses when it gets stolen and send you a new one which is very different than what could happen if you had your debit card stolen.

Now the reason for this and why I eluded to my pessimism and selfishness earlier. Credit cards are not all gravy. Aside from paying a ton of interest if you are dumb and get a card with no grace period to pay it off in or simply neglect to pay, they cost our country a lot in other ways. While I get 1% back in my purchases and @Skkra gets 2% back in his, our companies are still charging the vendors we purchase things from 3%+ per transaction. So skraa had to make $17,500 in purchases to accumulate his 35k points for his 350$ ticket. His CC company paid him 350$ but made at least 525$ off of the purchases he made (likely substantially more). What this does is causes the vendors to inflate the prices on their goods to compensate for the cost of doing business with us the credit card users which is all fine and dandy aside from the fact that people who are paying with cash or check have to eat those inflated prices as well. So basically because you or I want to get a little bit back in our purchases we are costing everyone else more hence if you are doing as such you are accepting that you're being a selfish person. Alas, changing this system is futile so you might as well reap what benefits you can right?
 

Everlast

KTG | EVERLAST
General Tips
  • Put Aside $40 a month in savings
  • Buy Flights 2 months in advance (no later than 30 days before departure)
  • Every single purchase you make in every day life (coffee, food, tuition, gas, books, etc etc etc) put on your credit card. Never Pay for anything using a debit card as long as you have continuing income. Pay EVERYTHING on your credit only if you can afford it then that night pay that amount on your credit card from your debit. Why? Because Bank of America, MasterCard, Wells Fargo etc have reward programs and you save points you can trade in for money off your flights or you can get $$$ vouchers to help for your portion of a rented van, gas or hotel.
  • Preplanned travel months ahead of time brings huge benefits . Those who end up planning last minute end up not attending and being left out.
  • Purchase AAA yearly membership and get the discounted hotel rates. Example: MLG Raleigh hotel was $145 a night but with my AAA discount i was able to get the room for $108.00 but for some godly reason Raleigh taxes were enormous.
  • Quit Smoking. First off you smell, second you're killing yourself and third you're killing your Wallet. If you smoke a pack of day thats $1825.00 a year. YOU'RE SPENDING ALMOST $2000 TO KILL YOURSELF a year. You could spend this money in your vacations or better yet quit for 5 years and you know have a more than solid down payment on a house. lol or you attend every tourney lmao and then some. Moral of this story is giving up something like this that may be harming you can only provide positive returns.
TO BE FILLED IN SOON WHEN I COLLECT THE DATA WHICH WILL BE SOON 24/48 hours

***Priceline.com used for all flights
***Toronto Used for general Canada location
***Gas price/gallon estimate of $3.60 used
***Atlanta used for EC - For mid east take the avg of NYC/ATL and that's your new figure
***For midwest Chicago was used
***Mileage is Round Trip as is Gas cost
***Total expected cost of trip is derived from ATLANTA/EC figures only. If you want to figure out your total cost just replace the figures with those that apply to you. For me Atlanta applies to me.
Detailed Cost of Travel

MLG Dallas
Cost of flights to Dallas:
From NYC $268 Srint Airlines Special - $330.00
From WC $215 Spint Airlines Special - $271.00
From EC $221-260.00
From Canada $613.00
From Midwest $220-260.00

Travel cost for renting a 6 person van
260.00 from Avis for the 4 days
Gas Cost
From NYC 3100 miles $500-600 estimate
From WC miles 2880 Miles $475-$525 estimate
From EC 1600 Miles $250-300 estimate
From Canada 3100 miles est $500-600 estimate
From Midwest 2000 miles $300-350 estimate

General Hotel Cost sharing room w 3 others
3 nights @ $135.00 per night avg plus tax $55-$65
Total expected cost of trip flying $300 plus food and registration
Total cost of trip driving with 5 others $160 plus food and registration​

MLG Ohio 2013
Cost of flights to Ohio:
From NYC $221
From WC $340
From EC $280-300
From Canada $520
From Midwest $200

Travel cost for renting a 6 person van
260.00 from Avis for the 4 days​

Gas Cost
From NYC 1100 miles $240-255
From WC 4500 miles $850-900
From EC 1150 miles $240-255
From Canada 860 miles $280-320
From Midwest 356 miles $135-165

General Hotel Cost sharing room w 3 others
3 nights @ $135.00 per night avg plus tax $55-$65
Total expected cost of trip flying $360 plus food and registration
Total cost of trip driving with 5 others $150 plus food and registration​


MLG Anaheim
Cost of flights to Anaheim:
From NYC $280 <-----very surprising
From WC $150-200
From EC $320
From Canada $580
From Midwest $250-300 <---huge variation

Travel cost for renting a 6 person van
260.00 from Avis for the 4 days​

Gas Cost
From NYC 5400 miles $1250
From WC 500 miles $100-$125
From EC 4300 miles $800-850
From Canada 5050 miles $1000
From Midwest 4000 miles $775-$800

General Hotel cost sharing with 3 others
3 nights @ $135.00 per night avg plus tax $55-$65

Total expected cost of trip flying $320 plus food and registration
Total cost of trip driving with 5 others $251 plus food and registration​

EVO 2013
Cost of flights to Los Vegas:
From NYC $325
From WC $85-$120
From EC $400
From Canada $410
From Midwest $260 early bird special - regular $330

Travel cost for renting a 6 person van
260.00 from Avis for the 4 days​

Gas Cost
From NYC 5050 miles $1010
From WC 560 miles $120
From EC 4000 miles $800
From Canada 4500 miles $900
From Midwest 3400 miles $680

General Hotel Cost sharing room w 3 others
3 nights @ $135.00 per night avg plus tax $55-$65
Total expected cost of trip flying $460 plus food and registration
Total cost of trip driving with 5 others $240 plus food and registration​

MLG Raleigh 2013
Cost of flights to Raleigh:
From NYC $160
From WC $265 early bird or $365
From EC $195
From Canada $400
From Midwest $181


Travel cost for renting a 6 person van
260.00 from Avis for the 4 days​
Gas Cost
MLG Raleigh 2013
From NYC 1000 miles $200
From WC 5100 miles $1020
From EC 800 miles $160
From Canada 1450 miles $290
From Midwest 1600 miles $320

General Hotel Cost sharing room w 3 others
3 nights @ $135.00 per night avg plus tax $55-$65
Total expected cost of trip flying $255 plus food and registration
Total cost of trip driving with 5 others $136 plus food and registration
Notes:


  • 18 passenger vans are an option but aren't likely nor comfortable in 10-20 hours trips so that's why i chose to use a comfortable 6 passenger van with an avg 300 miles per full tank.
  • Renting a 6 passenger van with 6 people should split the cost to $50 a person plus gas plus hotel plus registration fee plus your food. You should never rent a 6 passenger van with less than 4 people, at that point flying becomes more viable, cheaper and smarter.
  • Giving someone a free ride or not charging them to stay promotes poor etiquette and further encourages one to never pay and take on the fact that he/she is more special and deserving than ones who do pay. Quite frankly this is BS and should never be allowed. We already provide medicare in this country, there is no need to add Tourneycare. Please allow them to develop the trait of personal responsibility.
Discuss and ask questions

STORMS
Tim Static
REO
jamessmk
Claude VonStroke
Maxter - see below
HAN - Tagged you and maxter cause you guys do a lot of driving for your scenes lol
MortySeinfeld
STB Shujinkydink
This is sooooo helpful bro. MLG Anaheim is the first tourney I am traveling for and had these questions. Lucky for me I live in Cali although its an 8 hr drive to MLG.
 

Pig Of The Hut

Day 0 Phenomenal Dr. Fate and Darkseid player
I use Bank of America. 1% back + bonuses on misc shit from companies they are colluding with. Skraa is basically getting 2% back based on his purchases through the guise of a points system designed to misquide people. In the end Skraas deal yields him more back than a BoA card.

Credit card rewards are great in the ways they are sold to people and since I'm a selfish person and pessimistic about our country in general I do all of my purchasing with one. In addition to the benefits of getting a little bit back from your purchases they also act as a form of security. In this day and age where there are so many ways to have your card stolen (hacked websites, number scanners, delivery boy, etc.) it's stupid to use your Debit card as it can very easily get stolen which can cost you a whole lot depending on how much you have in your checking or savings. With a credit card those issues are alleviated as most companies have ways of generating individual one time secure numbers to use or they have policies in place for credit card theft. To reiterate this point I use my BoA card for everything, I've had my number stolen twice now. Each time BoA has called me to report this before I even noticed and quickly handled the dispute at no cost to me (more on this later). Sometimes it can be a hassle because they put holds on your card when they think it's stolen and you might be on vacation but that's why you do your due diligence to let them know when you're traveling.

You see when your credit card gets stolen it's within the banks best interest to keep you as a happy customer since they make a lot of money off of you and the last thing they want to happen is for you to be afraid to use their card. Similarly they don't want you spreading gossip about how some credit card bankrupted you after you used it to pay for gas. So they eat the losses when it gets stolen and send you a new one which is very different than what could happen if you had your debit card stolen.

Now the reason for this and why I eluded to my pessimism and selfishness earlier. Credit cards are not all gravy. Aside from paying a ton of interest if you are dumb and get a card with no grace period to pay it off in or simply neglect to pay, they cost our country a lot in other ways. While I get 1% back in my purchases and @Skkra gets 2% back in his, our companies are still charging the vendors we purchase things from 3%+ per transaction. So skraa had to make $17,500 in purchases to accumulate his 35k points for his 350$ ticket. His CC company paid him 350$ but made at least 525$ off of the purchases he made (likely substantially more). What this does is causes the vendors to inflate the prices on their goods to compensate for the cost of doing business with us the credit card users which is all fine and dandy aside from the fact that people who are paying with cash or check have to eat those inflated prices as well. So basically because you or I want to get a little bit back in our purchases we are costing everyone else more hence if you are doing as such you are accepting that you're being a selfish person. Alas, changing this system is futile so you might as well reap what benefits you can right?
Bank of America left a massive bad taste in my mouth


Do U get a good interest rate w them??
 

Goldi

Warrior
Wow blast from the past here! The offer is still open actually, but I have to bring it down to $25 this year - and catch me quick as MK's online future is dicey </3

It's funny looking back, I was not lying about including the men folk! Turns out guys really like cupcakes lol :D