It’s a December news roundup! On the latest Thrifty Traveler Podcast Gunnar and Kyle run through eight major news stories in travel and points and miles, including breaking down the latest Unicorn alert for Delta One flights to Brisbane, a pair of troubling trends in points and miles, a hefty fee if you don’t have Real ID, some lounge and check-in openings, and more!
It’s a December news roundup! On the latest Thrifty Traveler Podcast Gunnar and Kyle run through eight major news stories in travel and points and miles, including breaking down the latest Unicorn alert for Delta One flights to Brisbane, a pair of troubling trends in points and miles, a hefty fee if you don’t have Real ID, some lounge and check-in openings, and more!
Thanks to HotelSlash for sponsoring this episode of the show! Try it out today: Use promo code THRIFTYTRAVELER for a free 90-day trial – plus, get $20 off your first prepaid booking!
00:00 - Gunnar’s strange clothes habit and a Delta One Unicorn deal to Brisbane
05:00 - 2 troubling new trends in points and miles: Will they get worse?
12:00 - The 2025 End of Year Checklist
17:40 - Why it’s the best time of year to open a new credit card
20:00 - The TSA’s new $45 fee you’ll (soon) pay if you don’t have Real ID
24:40 - A word from our sponsor: HotelSlash, the easiest way to book a cheaper hotel stay - & rebook when prices drop
25:30 - More Delta One check-ins are open now - including a mini-review of the Minneapolis Delta One check-in
30:10 - Chase’s Sapphire Lounge in Las Vegas (LAS) is now open…but is it big enough?
35:30 - RIP: The cheapest way to fly to Hawaii using points and miles
39:14 - Listener Feedback: Brian tells Gunnar not to worry about traveling with kids…yet, Karla recommends a travel baby carrier, and Jessica brags about her rebooking wins
42:55 - Kyle puts Gunnar on the spot: What did Gunnar learn from last week’s Points Talk Squad interview about traveling with kids before his first big trip abroad
Produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas
Video editing by Kyle Thomas
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo, welcome to the show. I'm Gunnar Olson, a travel reporter and flight deal analyst for Thrifty Traveler. Joined as always by this man, TT executive editor, Kyle Potter. Kyle, I need you to tell me if I'm crazy or not. Yes. Okay. I'm now within one week of going on a vacation and I'm doing this thing, and I'm wondering if other people do this too, where for the week before vacation, I only wear my JV clothes.
Just like the back of the closet stuff. 'cause I'm trying to save all the best things for my trip. Is this something, is this an experience that other people have or am I nuts? I don't know that I had ever actually like mentally clocked it, but you are certainly not alone. Okay. That is I think, I think I just intuitively do that.
The, the opposite approach is. Wearing all your nice clothes, or at least some of them, and then bringing stuff that you want to throw away on the trip. So like a, a relative of mine, he bring packs all of his bad underwear and socks on the trip, and then when they're done and just throw 'em out and buy something new if you need it.
I think we talked about this on the show, burner Clothes as a way to, to travel light, just bring things that you know, you're just gonna wear and then throw away. Yeah, somewhere else. Kind of a good strategy. Then you got more room for souvenirs and in your case, booze in your suitcase to bring back.
That's right. Alright, Kyle, I need to find something out as we get started today. So. We, last week we had a unicorn week at Thrifty Traveler Premium. We sure did. Where we find and send kind of the rarest ultra rare award availability. And this one was Delta one to Brisbane. Did you get Booksy on this?
What do you think about this deal? I did not get booksy though. I will admit. I thought about it. What a, what a deal. Not just one of the best delta sky miles, delta one deals we've seen in years. One of the best deals to Australia, period. We've seen in many years. Pretty incredible. So what with, with the 15% off discount, it got as low as about 102,000 sky miles each way, which that is still a lot of miles.
Let's, let's acknowledge that, but not just for Delta, but for every airline. That Al actually allows you to book a live flat seat on that 15 plus hour flight all the way to Australia. That is about as good as it gets now. It's, that is about the right. There have been a couple of deals within the last year, especially flying American, where we've seen it in the territory of 75 to 80,000 miles, but.
This is, this is what you can get. And especially if you're sitting on a big stash of delta sky miles that you're having trouble using deals like this aren't worth their weight in gold. Yeah, I, I think it was 135,000 sky miles each way nationwide. And that's before that 15% off discount with the Delta credit cards.
It was 120,000 on the nonstop from LAX an amazing deal. Our video editor on this. Podcast Kyle Thomas saved more than 45,000 sky miles from his previous booking just by rebooking as soon as this alert went out. So my question for you is, who's responsible here? Is this a Delta thing or is this a Brisbane thing?
As we know, Brisbane has kind of been the target as the, the. You know the softest destination in Australia and where you're most likely to find the best deals. Is this just another skymile incredible deal, or is this a just people need to fly to Brisbane and Delta needs to put your button seats? I'm gonna say it again.
Poque. Nolo dose. I think it is both. I think it's Delta needing to fill seats. It's Delta trying to juice the perceived value of its sky miles. And the best way to do that is to offer deals that they know are going to generate headlines, including from yours, truly here at Thrifty Traveler. And a way to make sure that people continue to be interested indel earning and using delta sky miles when for a good chunk of the last five plus years, it's been pretty rough sledding, but also there's a reason why this happened on Brisbane.
Not Sydney and not Melbourne, because Brisbane is, to your point, the newest and by far the weakest, nonstop route from the US to Australia. And this is where their airlines, not just Delta, but everybody is having the most trouble because it's new. The best way to, again, not just generate. Excitement about sky miles, but a excitement about going to a destination that may not be your first pick to fly nonstop in Australia is to offer you a pretty killer deal to get there.
Yeah. Pretty amazing. Happy unicorn week everybody. I hope you booked it. If you did, let us know at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. Okay. Today on the show we're running through some year-end news you need to know, including an end of year checklist for award travelers. We're gonna talk about this new fee.
For real, ID procrastinators a new lounge in Vegas. And the end, sadly, of a classic points and miles redemption to Hawaii. All that and more. Welcome back to the Th Traveler Podcast.
Okay, welcome back. Let's get into our first story this week and it's sad one Kyle. Two troubling. Trends that we've found in points and miles this week, one of which is Cafe Pacific raising, lowering, I guess it's a transfer ratio of points from American Express to Cafe Pacific Asia, miles to a confusing and annoying five to four transfer ratio.
What's going on here? They're making me do math, which I hate. Fortunately, American Express at least makes it a little bit easier so that when you enter kind of, there's a slider of how many miles you're gonna transfer, and that equates to how many miles you'll ultimately get in Cafe Pacific as a standalone story.
This is maybe not the biggest deal. Why I think this is an important story is that this is not coming in isolation. This is coming after. Emirates did the exact same thing, and not just with American Express, but with virtually every transferrable points program. Chase Capital One. This to see another airline go this route so soon.
Is is troubling because we've talked a lot on this show for the last 40 episodes and counting about how much value there is in foreign airline programs in large part because they clearly want a slice of the US points market. We Americans have. Billions, if not trillions, more points than any other country in the world.
And airlines, it seemed, wanted some of that money. And seeing two major foreign airlines make decisions that say, you know what? We're good. We don't need all of this anymore, I think is concerning, especially because you know, when it's airlines like Emirates. And Cat Pacific, two of the highest rated airlines in the world.
I think that gives license to everybody else to start to move this way. So I don't want to get too alarmist and say this is going to happen with everyone. Use all of your Amex points. Use all of your chase points. Now this is going to take time to play out and see exactly how far this is going to spread, but I am concerned that we're starting to see this.
'cause it's a major, major change. Yeah, and they haven't carved up. The transfer ratio, you know, they haven't courted out, right? Like you're still getting a little bit of value from your Amex points if you wanna send them here. But yeah, this is not the way that I want to see things going. You flagged for me a different one this morning of another troubling trend in the industry.
What, what else are you seeing out there? You know, this one doesn't necessarily have, you know, the same kind of recency time peg, and let's back up quick. This change for am transferring Amex points to Cafe Pacific doesn't take effect until March 1st, 2026. So if you have Amex points and you have some use of C Pacific miles in mind, you've still got plenty of time.
But still this is something negative in the headlines. What also has been increasingly clear is that airlines across the board are. Really rethinking what they're trying to get out of their mileage programs and stamping out a lot of the value that we talk about. And again, this isn't happening overnight.
It's not happening at every single airline. But, you know, we talked a few weeks ago about United making these changes at first seemingly positive of re. Reducing partner award rates to use United Miles to fly Lufthansa to Europe. And that seemed like it was gonna be good. But then very quickly, they reserved those lower rates for only members of who have either status with them or have a United Mileage plus credit card from Chase.
And that to me, fits into this bigger picture of airlines just getting stingier. And, and reserving the best deals for their truly engaged flyers. The people who are racking up United Miles, not by transferring in chase points, but by putting their butt in a united seat day in, day out. And I think we're, we're seeing that across the board of.
Of airlines getting stingier with when they reduce release partner award inventory, which, you know, that's the gold standard of being able to book A A NA business class flight, not just using a NA miles, but using virgin Atlantic points. And not only have those award rates increased over the last two, three years, but also finding that award space period has become.
Borderline impossible. We've seen EVA air, which, you know, an amazing Taiwanese airline that a couple of years ago was a cinch to book business class seats on flying to Taiwan. If you were booking, you know, five to six or more months in advance, and now finding more than one seat, more than. Two weeks in advance by using Air Canada points, which you can transfer from all the major banks, it has become impossible.
And so I think what we're seeing is after, you know, basically every airline in the country going bananas with record setting, welcome bonuses, I. And being, you know, in many cases, much more generous with award space and allowing people to book the great seats that they really want to fly using their points.
It feels like we're starting to approach a tipping point where airlines are just kind of rethinking things altogether and how generous they truly want to be with these loyalty programs. Yeah, it's an interesting conundrum. You know, we've been telling people for years that this is the best way to do it, to go through partner awards, and that's where you're gonna get the best value and you still are for the most part.
But it'll as the landscape shifts and airlines are keeping more of their seats kind of in-house, I guess in their own programs, I think the opportunities are still gonna be there, but they're just gonna be a little different and we're gonna have to earn and spend points differently. And as we do that, we'll definitely cover it here on this show.
Anything else on this? You know. Again, this, this isn't coming in a vacuum. I think Emirates, not just with transferring points, but also with how they're making changes to how you can actually book awards. Earlier this year, they banned anyone who doesn't have status with the airline from booking Emirates first class using Emirates own skywards points period.
And that again, is, is kind of a. A watershed moment, I guess in, in how these airlines are thinking about things. And so I texted someone I know who is deep in this industry about kind of what is changing and you know, what to make of these changes. After years and years of airlines really wanting our points and, and I got a text back.
For Emirates, I know they don't want Rich New Yorkers saving on business class or worse first class. And I think that says it all, that you know, not only are they rethinking the role of loyalty programs and how far they want to go, but apparently they believe that they can just sell these tickets to wealthy Americans who are traveling more than ever, rather than giving them out to Schlubs like you and I using points.
Yeah, sch loves like us, who should never be in an Emirates business class seat if it weren't for points and miles. So we will keep an eye on all of those trends. I wanna pivot now to our next story, Kyle, and this is just our end of year checklist, an award travel checklist, and we have a full checklist on our website.
I recommend you go look at it. Their checklists are much better in print than they are in audio, but I wanted to give people a sense of some of the things they should. Look out for, as you know, kind of we're in the middle of the month of December here. Before the year ends, what are one or two big things for you that people need to be aware of?
You know, really the, the biggest thing, maybe the only thing is just to make sure you get every dollar that you can out of your travel credit cards, because, you know, by the time this episode drops, we've got 20 days. Until the end of the year, and most of if, if almost exclusively, with a handful of important exceptions.
All of the big credits, especially on those expensive travel credit cards, reset with the calendar year, not based on when you open the card and when it renews next, but just December 31st is the last day to use, you know, in some cases hundreds of dollars worth of statement credits and January 1st. If you don't use that.
It's gone and you get a new set. So acting within the next couple of of weeks I think is really, really important to get your money's worth. And so, I mean, the biggest thing I think people can do is we did our best to make this easy for people by creating a set of spreadsheets that allows you to. Click on every single card that you have.
It will show up as a tab on that spreadsheet, and then you can click into each card and see, have I used this credit? When does it expire? If it's expiring within the next couple weeks, it's gonna change colors. And that can be your key to make sure you remember, oh, you know, I've got my first. $300 hotel credit on the Amex Platinum card that I haven't used, and I can use that to book a hotel stay for far out into 2026.
But if I don't actually book that hotel by December 31st, that's gone and you're losing that $300 in value. So really, really important to just do some inventory on the cards you have and figure out what's worth using. There are a couple other big, big kind of money saving credits on top travel cards.
What stands out to you? Yeah, I think just especially if you have an Amex card, all these year end, credits. I mean the, the airline fee, the hotel credit. I know you, you showed me the, the workaround for the hotel credit on the Amex Platinum back when it was just an annual $200 where you booked I think it was like two nights at a hotel on December 31st, and then you put booked the other two on January 1st.
Then you called the hotel and you're like, Hey, can we just put these together? And then you got the credit twice. Double dipping the credit on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is kind of an awesome way to do that. And you can, I mean, now with the new credit, you can get 600 bucks. Of savings in, in less than 24 hours there.
So that's pretty amazing. But other than that, I, you know, obviously check on all your credits and your credit cards and use our spreadsheets to do so. It, they are actually the best way. But check your status levels on various hotels and airlines if you're really close to something that you could maybe get before a year end.
If that level of status is worth it to you maybe go try and do it. It's not the best. Right now we are kind of nearing kind of higher airfares into the holidays, but if you're able to book something and get it done before the year end, and you can qualify for that next level of status, it might be worth it to you.
Go use Google Flights Explorer, search for flights from your airport on the airline that you wanna fly, and see what you can pull up in terms of spending. But obviously, do the math to one, make sure you actually can hit the status and you're not just doing a, you know. MQD run for no reason but also that that status level is actually going to be worth it.
And there's a perk in there that you need. Yeah, that's the most important math. Yeah. I, I would not go fly, you know, $700 worth of airfare in order to earn Delta silver Medallion status. I've just given up on that personally. Yeah. Really importantly, I, with all of this stuff be it status or credit card statements to use before the end of the year, you cannot leave it until the last minute.
Very importantly for airfare, you have to actually put your butt in that seat before December 31st in order for that to count. So the clock is ticking on, you know, with some of these airlines you're gonna have to take a close look, especially because some airlines have different timelines for when the status year actually ends.
In the case of Delta, it's January 31st. But you know, with these credit card statement credits, I definitely would not make a purchase on December 31st. You wanna make sure that that. Purchase that you make, that qualifying purchase to trigger one of these credits, actually hits your statement beforehand, which means, you know, my personal deadline for this stuff is typically like December 29th, maybe December 28th.
Two more that I think are are worth calling out. On the Amex Platinum card. A lot of big. Dollar credits, especially after they overhauled that card this fall. But there's still that longstanding Uber credit where you typically get 15 bucks a month in December. That's $35. So there's a lot more there to use, whether you use it on an Uber ride to the airport for your next trip or on an Uber Eats order, you've got a little bit more money to play with.
And then finally on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, also a big facelift earlier this year with just loaded up. With, you know, high dollar questionable value credits, but, you know, using a $250 hotel credit for the edit hotel stays by the end of the year. $150 for StubHub, $150 for dining through the Chase Sapphire exclusive reserve, blah, blah, blah tables.
All of these things. Just use whatever you can on whichever cards you have before the year is up. Yep. Really smart. Okay. Our next story is very related to this. If you're looking to open a new credit card, December is the best time of year to do so. Why is that? Because as you talked about before, you can double dip.
You know, that's, that's one of two really important reasons. So, you know, let's say you are in the market for a new travel card, and all of this comes with the very important caveat that you shouldn't open a credit card just to open a credit card. And because we say it's, it's a good time and it's important and it's valuable.
Credit cards are serious business. In order to earn the points and use all of these things, you need to be responsible. And if you can't. Just move on. Fast forward about three minutes through this podcast 'cause we're gonna talk about something else, but great timing for two reasons. One, if you're signing up for a new credit card, you obviously want a big bonus.
And this is spending season when people are, you know. Procrastinating on their Christmas and holiday presents or tax season, you know, coming at the end of January. And so if you have a, a card that has a a 6,000, $8,000 spending requirement, and you've got three or maybe even six months to do it. You can fit a lot of heavy spending into those things.
And two is you can double dip on these statement credits that you just talked about. So let's say for example, you decide you really want that bonus of up to 175,000 points on the Amex Platinum card, and you wanna try and save on that now $900 annual fee and get as much value as you can. You can use that first $300 hotel credit right away as soon as you get that card in mid-December, and then again turn around and use the next one right away in January.
And then again, use the next one in July or August. You can use the first of $200 airline credits before the end of the year. And then get another one in January so you can potentially not just double but triple dip on all of these credits before paying the second year's annual fee. So especially with those high dollar premium val premium travel cards with high annual fees, this really is the standout time of the year to, to put one in your wallet if you're in the market and you can afford it.
Yep. You can find a good list of all the top credit card bonuses on our website as well. Just go to Thrifty Traveler and you can see credit cards tab at the top of the page there. Okay, let's move on to story number four which is some more bad news from the TSA. Beginning February 1st, 2026, travelers who show up at airport security without a real ID, compliant driver's license or another approved form of ID, will be charged a $45 fee just to get through TSA checkpoints.
That is a lot steeper than the $18 fee that they just proposed a few weeks ago on November 20th. The fee is going to be non-refundable and it does not guarantee. That you will be ver verified by the TSA when you show up. The fee will cover you for up to 10 days of travel. So if you have like a week long trip, you won't have to pay the fee twice.
And the TS A says the new fee will help fund its updated identif identity verification system called confirm id. Basically they want. This burden to be passed on to the people who don't have real ID and not the taxpayers overall, which is why they're planning to charge this fee. First, your thoughts on the $45 fee instead of the $18 that was proposed?
Can I zag a little bit here? Okay. I get it. Mm-hmm. If only because, you know, in, in May of 2025, after quite literally two decades of punting real id. Unquote took effect, except it really didn't. They, they said it had taken effect, but anybody, including myself who tried this out on day one, who didn't have a real ID, was allowed to continue with a not even stern warning.
You know, I was just handed a, a little leaflet that said, get a real Id soon. Otherwise at behind nothing, nothing more. Yeah. And, and you know, the, the TSA said, you know, they, you might be subjected to additional screening. What that meant is anyone's guess, so far as I can tell, it meant basically nothing.
And so the rub here has always been what is the strong enough stick that is going to get people to get a real id. Without causing mass disruptions. And that is the reason why real ID requirements were punted for, you know, the better part of two decades. And this to me, while $45 is certainly steep and I do definitely sympathize with and worry about people who.
Can't afford that. This is the middle ground. This is how they have come up with how to thread the needle and get more people to get these compliant IDs, which are the law of the land, and have been for 20 years now without. Actually turning people away. So I think huge question marks about how this is actually going to be enforced upon people who don't have a real ID or an alternative.
I think really importantly, a lot of great alternatives, including just your passport if you have one, a global entry card, if you have one, either of those will satisfy these requirements and then you don't have to worry about going to your local DMV and waiting for hours in order to get one of these compliant licenses.
But yeah, I, I, on the whole, I'm, I'm not, I'm not disturbed about it. No, I'm not, I'm not disturbed about it either. I, I was, I mean, surprised to see that they doubled the, the, the price that they initially put forth. But other than that, I mean, they do need to make this transition and they, it's taken them, like you said, 20 plus years to do it.
And if this is the way that they can do it to get it across the finish line, that's good. Like you said, I don't know how they're gonna. Collect this fee. Are the airlines gonna sell it when they sell you a ticket? Are you gonna buy it at a kiosk at every airport? Then are we putting more kiosks in at the airport, or are you gonna be paying the TSA agent or, you know, the TSA agent's gonna be collecting payment and then swiveling the iPad around and asking you for a tip?
I have no idea. And is there, is there going to be a dedicated lane at every airport for non-real ID travelers and all of them need to have their credit card out in order to pay this if they didn't pay it in advance. Yeah. So many questions still about how this is actually going to work, so stay tuned.
I guess. I don't know one kind of upside here from the story as well. This new digital ID solution where you can. Upload your passport more or less to your smartphone. That works as a real id. Now, we saw some video evidence. Someone sent it into us from over the weekend of them using a digital ID on their iPhone.
To go through TSA and it's basically just passport storage in your like Apple wallet. At TSA checkpoints, it does not work as a passport. Don't try and bring it to customs but it does work to get you kind of domestically through the airport if you need to do that. So it's something that we saw that could save you that $45 if you don't have a real ID with you.
Every single day. Okay. We have a few more stories to get to, but first we're gonna take a quick break. There are hotel deals out there that the general public never sees and hotel slash gives you the keys to them. Yeah, exactly. It's a members only site with exclusive hotel rates, usually like 20 to 40% cheaper than booking direct or through the big travel sites.
And they show you the real all in pricing, taxes, fees, and even resort fees. No surprises. Yeah. Just look at this A five night stay at the Escar at resort. Was $4,900 on hotel slash compared to around $5,700 on other sites. That's nearly $800 saved on the exact same trip. Try free head to hotel slash.com.
Use code thrifty Traveler, all one word, and get a 90 day trial membership. Plus save up to $20 on your first prepaid booking when you check out with that code Hotel slash the Smarter way for Thrifty Travelers to book hotels. Okay, welcome back. It's our fifth story now, and we're talking about Delta One Check-Ins, Kyle.
So these Delta One check-in areas are exclusively for business class customers. They're now open at all of Delta's nationwide hubs, but as we're seeing, they're not all quite created equal. They've now opened outposts at like Salt Lake City and most importantly Minneapolis. And to do a quick little mini review of the Minneapolis Delta One check-in area, we're actually gonna throw it to our video editor, Kyle Thomas from a very special place, Kyle.
Hey guys, it's your favorite podcast editor. Checking in from London. Now I flew here flying Delta one, and I got to try out the new Delta one check-in area at MSP. And overall, I thought it was pretty nice. It was a very spacious area. At first, I thought it was gonna be really out of the way, which kind of is, you have to take a little bit more effort to get into the terminal, but drop off was super easy using the Flex Lane.
There was absolutely zero cars, so overall, a pretty nice area, and my full review will be coming soon. Thanks guys. See you later. So Kyle was kind of pleasantly surprised, I think at at how convenient this was, although it doesn't seem like it's quite up to par with like the Delta one check-in at JFK, right, Kyle?
Yeah, I mean, I think everybody with a Delta one ticket. Who is counting on using one of these private check-in areas may need to adjust their expectations because I mean, JFK Delta has gone all out. It is one of their most important hubs. And so you get, I mean, as soon as you walk into terminal four, there's like a core, a private corridor that you walk down with private check-in desks and plenty of places to sit, which that is what it seems to share with Minneapolis and and other.
Smaller hubs like it, but from there you walk into a dedicated security lane, which every time I've used it, which is twice it's completely empty. Which is amazing. You still can use your TSA pre-check benefits, but there's not a line you, you. Breeze through. And then from there, most importantly, you walk around the walkway straight into the Delta One lounge.
So this is, you know, where the experience right now is inconsistent. If you're flying Delta one, if you're flying from JFK or LAX, you get all of these things. You get a Delta one lounge, you get private security, you get a private check-in area at some others, including Boston and Seattle, you get a Delta one lounge and a private check-in area.
But that kind of private security treatment is, is not there. At least not yet. And then at the rest, including some of their biggest and most important hubs like Minneapolis, Atlanta, salt Lake City, and Detroit. It's, it's just a dedicated check-in area, some of which are, are better than others. I mean, the photos that we've seen from Salt Lake City, it kind of seems like they just threw up some plastic privacy partitions and called it a day, at least, you know, in, in Kyle Thomas's experience.
Minneapolis has its own separate dedicated area and separate, dedicated drop off at the airport at Terminal one. Yeah, for sure. The dedicated drop off is at least, at least something to make you feel a little special before they just throw you in with gen pop to go through security. So I I don't know.
I, I think this is still like, it's a nice little perk, but without there being a Delta One lounge at some of these places, you know. The experience is still, is not exactly that high end. It doesn't seem to me as of now, but hopefully they get a little more uniformity on these things going forward. It's hard, you know, it's hard to build in airports and especially if you're gonna try and build like a fully cordoned off delta one experience where you, you know.
The Delta one passengers don't have to brush elbows with the regulars out there. That's gonna be hard to do and very expensive to build. So I don't know if all of those things are gonna happen to all of these kind of interior Delta hubs, but we'll see. Yeah. I'm, I'm very sorry, Kyle, you had to brush elbows with Gen Pop as, as Gunner calls them.
No, it, it's gonna take time. Delta has said that they plan on opening Delta one lounges in all of their hubs. So over time, that will happen in Minneapolis and Salt Lake City. And Atlanta and Detroit. But. If is, or when is the big question? It's going to take years, probably until the end of the decade because building an airport lounge, any airport lounge takes a lot of time.
But building one at the scale that they need in order for this to make sense, you know, like 20,000 plus square feet in all of these hubs, that is going to take a long time to find that space and then build it. Yeah. We, we need to get both of our Kyle's. Out of gen pop, you know, Kyle, both our Kyles hate interacting with economy travelers and we just, whatever we can do to get them out of there we can.
Alright, let's talk about another special space in the airport. The Chase lounge at Las Vegas has opened, so a couple of the details. This lounge is two stories. It's near Gate C 23, interestingly near the Spirit, Southwest and Allegiant Gates. It is the second smallest. Chase lounge To date, it's a little bit bigger than the Phoenix Outpost.
It has a champagne parlor as all the chase lounges do. It has some QR code, food and drink ordering, which I really like. It has some food options from Momofuku, which is really cool. And si Kyle, it has locally inspired drink options. Of course I didn't see that coming. Yeah. Who would've thought more locally inspired fair in an airport lounge?
I think this is interesting 'cause the lounge, it looks kind of nice. It is small, but most importantly to me, all of the big three, Amex, capital One and Chase now have lounges at Las Vegas, which is pretty interesting as well. What piqued your interest about this one? I mean, the, the tiny elephant in the room is the size.
This is under 5,400 square feet. That is in, in the terms of airport lounge, real estate, a broom closet. There, chase has said there is room for 87 people, and I would imagine, unless if you're flying at 6:00 AM or 11:00 PM. All 87 people are gonna be there in there, and this lounge isn't even open during those hours.
So all 87 people are going to be in this space all the time. I would not count on, you know, while you can of course get in with a Chase Sapphire Reserve card or with the Ritz Carlton card, those are the best ways to get in. You can also, in theory. Use Priority Pass from a card like Capital One, venture X or Amex Platinum and others once per year in order to access a Chase Sapphire Lounge.
And I will just say right now, I would not bet on using priority pa your normal priority pass to get into one, to, to get into this Chase Sapphire lounge. It is going to be far too busy for that to happen. Yeah, I think the, the Chase lounge in JFK was also pretty small when I went there. I, I did still like it because they.
Control how many people go in. So it's not just, you know, packed to the gills and you're having trouble finding a seat. Like you, you have a go, you have a place to go sit if they let you in and then they bring food to you. So it's not like there are people constantly buzzing about and creating commotion either.
So it doesn't feel. Overwhelming when you're in there, but yeah. 80 something seats is so small for an airport lounge at a place like Vegas, which usually has so much traffic. Although I think the demand for Vegas is clearly bottoming out right now. Which is very interesting as well. A big travel trend to watch going into next year and beyond.
But, yeah, this, I'm, I'm intrigued by this lounge. It's just good to have another option. And you know that Amex lounge, there's always a line out the door. They have just like a permanent gate or what do you call those? Rope line. Rope line, yeah. You don't spend enough time with celebrities? I, I sure don't.
But yeah, they, I mean, those lounges are very busy there in Vegas, so we'll see. See if they can get some. Spirit and Allegiant customers to open up some high-end credit cards to get into this tiny lounge. That's a, that's an interesting point. Jackson on our team pointed this out that because it is in the area of the terminal where Spirit, Southwest and Allegion, apart from.
Not to, not to draw a tube out of a brush here. You would think that those travelers would be less likely to have a chase Sapphire reserve in their wallet, and thus, you know, maybe fewer people just think to enter this lounge or see that it's open and say, oh, of course. Well, I'll go in. I have my Chase Sapphire reserve card with me.
That said, I mean. Man, 5,400 square feet, less than that is really tiny. The Capital One lounge is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10, 10,000 square feet, and so I vividly remember doing an interview. With, with the executive from Plaza Premium Lounges, the, the operator of these lounges a couple of years ago, and I, and I asked him a question about how they lost out to Chase on the bid for this lounge.
'cause Capital One wanted this 5,400 square foot space and they both bid for it, capital One and Chase. And he stopped me and he goes, did we lose because we got a bigger space in the end, which I, it's just goes to show you again how cutthroat. This industry, this cottage industry of building lounges inside of airports is, but yeah, I mean, it, this, that lounge is going to be packed.
I, I don't know that I'm interested in checking it out because again, I don't think I'll be able to, I don't have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. I probably never will. I certainly won't get one Just for Chase. Sapphire Lounge access because there aren't any at the airports that I frequently travel at. And so I'm guessing I'm gonna walk by that lounge the next time I'm in Las Vegas and I'm gonna see a sign that says we're not accepting Priority Pass members right now, only Chase Sapphire Reserve.
'cause that is how they control access to those lounges. When it's too busy, they cut off anybody who doesn't have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Yeah. Definitely the way the disdain in your voice when you said those travelers when referring to Spirit and Allegion Flyers is pretty amazing. Delta one Potter over here.
Don't put that on me. Net Jets Potter coming in Hot net jets. That's how I get my status. Net jets, I don't have status. All right, our last story today, story number seven. The cheapest way to fly to Hawaii with points and miles is officially gone. Rest in peace. Kyle, what was this deal that we were also obsessed with?
I want to preface this with, this was not for the faint of heart. Yeah. You really needed to be dedicated to getting to Hawaii the cheapest way on points as humanly possible. But for the last year and change, you could book. United United Flights from anywhere in the country to any of the Hawaiian Islands.
Whether you fly nonstop or have one connection, or even two for just 10,000 Turkish miles each way, and you can transfer points from Capital One City and built to Turkish in order to do this. So 20,000 miles round trip is great. It actually. Had been even better. It had been 7,500 miles each way. So prior to it devaluation in early 2024, it was just 15,000 miles roundtrip.
Incredible deal, especially considering United often charges 50, 70, 80,000 United Miles roundtrip for the same fares. Because Turkish, unlike most airlines, considered Hawaii just part of the United States. Most airlines in their award charts that they use to determine award pricing, say that there's mainland US and then there's Hawaii and Alaska, and they are two totally different things.
And in the eyes of Turkish, a flight from, you know, Chicago to Honolulu was exactly the same as a flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. And those days are over. Yeah, it's it's really too bad. So why, why did this happen? Because nothing good can last forever. Gunner, how philosophical do we want to get I as philosophical as you need to, is this just another, like, is this, you know, what, what we've referred to as points inflation?
Is this just everything's gonna go up eventually, or was this. Turkish just finally realizing that maybe you should price Hawaii a little differently than the rest of the country. What's, what's, who's to blame again? I think it's some of both. I, I think two things can be true at once. That there was something truly unique about how these flights to Hawaii were priced and that Turkish could easily get away with just making this change.
They also raised the, the one way rates of normal. Domestic flights, not just within the United States, but within Europe as well. So there are some changes across the board, but I think this one clearly merited special attention for, I don't know, a as long as this basically, as long as this redemption had been on people's radar, it was really tough to do because Turkish website was pretty crap.
And so in order to actually book these United flights, you would need to. Email or call Turkish and then wait a couple of days for it to get ticketed. And over the course of, I don't know, the last year, year and a half or so, Turkish website got a lot better. So you could actually find and book these awards online.
And so I wonder if the combination of. Ease of access with expanded awareness that, holy cow, I can fly to Hawaii and back for 20,000 points if I transfer my points to Turkish, led them to just finally drop the hammer and say, you know what, we, we can't, we can't do, we can't sustain this anymore. So now these exact same flights are gonna cost you 25,000 Turkish miles each way.
It's a huge increase overnight without a word of warning, but again, I understand it. Yep. It's that was one of those, yeah. Too good to last, as you said before. Okay. Let's hear from a couple of listeners. We have no questions this week, but I just wanted to to touch base with a few people who took some time to write in.
Brian wrote in said, first off, I love the podcast. Even with Kyle jk, but you should tell him that, Brian, I couldn't have told Kyle about this email fast enough after you sent it. Thank you very much. Just abusing me on our company Slack. Thank thanks so much, Brian. Brian had some parenting feedback for me, which I've been getting a lot of, and it's all been very helpful.
Thank you for everyone who sent stuff in just. Parenting in general. Yeah. Or, or travel. Traveling with an infant. Traveling with an infant. But just, you know, helpful tips. Just people who are just very invested in, in my new stage of life. So don't, don't let your infant daughter drink coffee. Yeah. I guess so.
That kind of advice. Exactly. So Brian said he was watching the podcast from last week. I just, he said quote, I just wanted to say even if you put your kid in public or private school, staying with the school schedule doesn't come into play until high school. You can easily take your kid out anytime you want to.
Up until that point, Brian, that's exactly the kind of advice that I was looking for and was hoping for. So thank you. That was just some feedback that I needed to hear and I needed to forward directly to my wife right away. So thank you for that. Carla also wrote in, was very excited about how having the travel moms from Points Talk Squad on our show the other day.
That was a really fun show and I'm excited to talk with them again. Maybe stay tuned to their feed. If you want to hear more from Kyle and I. Maybe, maybe Carla says, I just wanted. You to know how much I love that y'all had Jess and Alex on the pod today. Both teams really do focus on very different components and points and miles travel.
So elevating the point or the mom squad and recognizing that moms make most decisions about travel for families is so cool. She also said. Gunner, if you haven't left for Scandinavia yet. I have not. I'm right here, Carla. If your daughter is cool in a Tula or any other kind of baby carrier, it's an excellent way to get a little sleep on the plane.
We are not sponsored by Tula, but Tula come at us if you wanna sponsor the show. But a Tula is like a little like a front carrier that I've seen lots of parents using in airports, and we've definitely been looking into it. We have a different brand than Tula right now, but if Tula, you wanna sponsor us, I'll switch over to Tula.
Do you think I could get away with that with my 30 pound Corgi in Aula? We should try that. You absolutely could. Your, your Corgi joins us for a lot of work. Zoom calls and your corgis always a hit in the show. Yeah. FAA hit us up. Can, can I bring my Corgi on a flight in Aula? Okay. And then we have a little brag from Jessica here.
So Jessica says, I just started listening a few months ago and I'd like to thank you guys for the constant reminders to recheck your flight prices after you book. I was able to save money on a very inflexible date trip for our family of four over spring break next year. I was able to get a discounted delta fair to Hawaii from Texas and was also able to get reasonable to me, upgrades for all of us to comfort plus using miles for all four legs of our trip.
Which was less miles to upgrade after booking the trip versus booking it the way that it was in the first place. Thanks again. That's exactly what it's all about, Jessica. That's why we rebook trips to make them cheaper and to make them better, and that's why you stay on it. So I just wanted to shout you out, Jessica, 'cause that's an awesome booking.
Bravo. Okay. If you'd like us to answer any of your questions or you have feedback for us, or you just wanna brag, I love the people who just hit the inbox with just a quick brag about how good their booking was. Just not even humble. Yeah. Don't you don't. Don't worry about being humble. Just brag. No room to be humble on this show.
If you want us to answer your questions or your feedback, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We might feature your question on next week's show. We close the show with on the spot, and it's Kyle's turn to put me on the spot. What do you have? So. Within a few days, you will be going on your first big international trip with your daughter, Emory and the rest of your family.
And so I'm curious whether it was last week when we talked with Jess and Alex or has, you've asked anybody within earshot for advice, what's the best piece of advice about traveling with an infant or a small child that you've gotten that you can share with our listeners? I honestly, I think both I've, Jess and Alex both gave me things that made me think a lot.
So I think Jess is the one who said to make sure that you pack yourself an extra outfit and not just the baby on the flight, which is like a very kind in the weeds practical recommendation that we'll definitely be taking heat of. That's a really, really smart choice. You know, Emery has ruined lots of her own clothes and lots of my clothes over the past few months, and if that happened one hour into a 10 hour flight to Finland, I'd be devastated.
And so would all of my my traveling companions in, in business class, and all of the flight attendants. So I'll definitely be packing extra clothes also. I think it was Alex's tip was to just go through the baby's full routine and on the plane, like, you know, read them a book and read them a story and then put them to bed and do all those things.
I think was also a smart tip. I also have heard from lots of parents who just say, let go of the expectation that this is going to be the same kind of trip that you always do, and your baby's probably gonna have a meltdown, but at least you'll be in Finland while they're melting down and you won't just be sitting at home again.
So. Our goal has always my, my wife, Megan, and I. Our goal since the beginning is we're gonna be the family that does things, and this is the first big thing, so I'm very excited for it, however it goes. Baby's not sleeping right now, and we're one week out, so we'll see. Who do you, who cries louder? Emory Mid Meltdown.
Or you, when you don't get your two glasses of red wine fast enough? Oh my gosh. It's going to, I mean, both things are gonna happen on this flight at the same time, so we'll see these poor flight attendants on Fin Air, they have no idea what's coming, but I'm very excited for the flight. Thanks for the question, Kyle.
Okay. Thank you all for listening to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast. Rate us five stars in your podcast platform of choice and like, and subscribe to the show on YouTube. On YouTube, you're gonna be able to see Kyle Thomas' video from London in a very, very special place. I'm so excited for everybody to see Kyle's debut on the show.
Send this episode to someone you know who needs a vacation. If you have feedback for us, send me a note at podcast@thrifttraveler.com. We'd love to hear from you there. Kyle, tell us about the team. This episode was produced by your favorite host who is gonna be seeing the Northern Lights in person with his six month old and wife and their family in a couple weeks.
Gunner Olson. It was produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas, and edited by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Teso. See you next week. See ya.