It’s our first ever mailbag episode! Kyle’s on vacation, so we lined up a bunch of the best questions we’ve been asked and gave you our best advice. We tackle topics such as positioning flight tips, what we would pay for a Delta One upgrade, how to maximize your Amex Platinum credits with a refresh coming, destinations that exceeded our expectations, airlines as NFL quarterbacks, and the best and worst parts about our jobs. And remember: Be like Kyle and take your vacation days, people!
It’s our first ever mailbag episode! Kyle’s on vacation, so we lined up a bunch of the best questions we’ve been asked and gave you our best advice. We tackle topics such as positioning flight tips, what we would pay for a Delta One upgrade, how to maximize your Amex Platinum credits with a refresh coming, destinations that exceeded our expectations, airlines as NFL quarterbacks, and the best and worst parts about our jobs. And remember: Be like Kyle and take your vacation days, people!
00:00 - Kyle’s on vacation, and you should, too! (Only 48% of Americans use all their vacation days…and that stinks)
03:00 - It’s Mailbag time! Brought to you by…us! Sign up for Thrifty Traveler Premium today. Use promo code “TTPOD” for $20 off your first year of flight deal alerts.
04:00 - Airlines & hotels questions - More Southeast Asia flights, positioning flights strategies, Delta One upgrades, and more.
18:35 - Award travel questions - Thailand on points, biz class to Tokyo, booking to Athens now that Emirates fees got too expensive, and more.
34:30 - This week’s show is sponsored by Abundo Wealth!
35:30 - Credit card questions - When cash back makes sense, ways to get points fast, with the new Amex Platinum card coming, can you double dip on credits?
51:00 - Travel tips and wanderlust - Places that exceeded our expectations, Glacier National Park recommendations, best backpacks and more.
59:15 - Personal questions: Fear of devaluations, fighting FOMO, airlines as NFL quarterbacks, and why we love our jobs!
01:13:00 - On the Spot: What’s our best episode of the pod so far?
Produced by Gunnar Olson
Edited by David Strutt
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo, welcome to the show. I'm Gunnar Olson here with a guy whose upcoming vacation is the reason we have to pre-record this mailbag episode. It's Kyle Potter. Kyle, because this episode will air when you're in England and Scotland, how is your trip going right now? Sorry, who are you? I've forgotten how to type. I can barely speak into a microphone. I am checked out and zenned out.
That's good. I'm really excited for your trip. Are you excited for your trip? What can you expect? What are you most excited for? You know, like we talked about in the episode where we talked about kind of the logistics of booking this and planning it. This has been a very, very long time coming, like six plus years in the works. Really, it's a decade in the works because my wife and I
started talking about this trip basically from our second date and onward. So I'm just really excited that it's actually happening this time. Yeah, that's awesome. I promise you I'm not vacation shaming you. I don't mind pre-recording to get you out on the road. One thing that you guys told me when I first started at Thrifty Traveler was this insane stat from Pew Research that only 48% of Americans use all their allotted vacation days every year, which is a truly terrible stat. And
It's really hard to hear. So I'm really happy that you're getting out on the road. Yeah, you know what? For a lot of reasons, travel is really important. Just time off is probably the most important piece of that. But marrying the time away from work and resetting with experiencing new things and meeting new people and having new experiences. I mean, that's why we do what we do.
And we got to get those numbers up, people. Take your vacation. If you have unlimited PTO, which has become more and more in vogue at employers across the country, actually take vacation. But if you have a set amount of vacation days, use all of them, please. Whether you're going on a really cool trip on a couple of short, long weekends domestically or just taking time at home, you got to use those vacation days. It is part of your compensation.
Yeah, I cannot stress that enough. Vacation is part of your compensation package. If somebody offered you $70,000 to work, you wouldn't take $60,000 just because you wanted to work more. You know, it's like, just think about it that way. You know, people are better workers when they have time off and people who don't travel are boring to talk to. So we could solve both of these things. Take your vacation and get out on the road like Kyle is this week.
Yes. Otherwise, you're boring to talk to and I don't want to talk to you. Awesome. All right. Hey, today on the show, we're doing a mailbag. You asked us a bunch of questions and we chose to answer only the ones that are going to make us look cool and smart. We'll see how that goes. Yeah. All that and more. Welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler podcast.
Hong Kong
An insane deal. Crazy. In the 400s round trip all the way to Hong Kong from the US and Canada. A real wild one. Sign up today at thriftytraveler.com slash premium and use promo code TTPOD, all one word, for your first year of flight deal alerts. Kyle, the first question to you.
Yes, we're batching this up in a couple of themes. And we're going to start off with some questions that we got about airlines, airline news, airfare, and then a couple of hotel related questions as well. So the first question is from reader Nate, who asked, do you expect to continue seeing increases in U.S. Airlines presence in Southeast Asia? Thinking of United's recent additions into Southeast Asia, flying via Hong Kong,
selfishly hoping there gets to be a point of oversaturation. Nate knows how to say that word. I don't, apparently. And a stretch of slightly cheaper flights to places like Thailand and Vietnam. Gunnar, thoughts? Hopefully, we continue to see this growth into Southeast Asia. I think everyone's pretty excited by it. Those United routes were at least a little more tantalizing. But I don't know. It does seem like we have a ton of recommendations
into Southeast Asia right now. And right now it seems like maybe it's too much and into the wrong places. Like I don't need to see another Taipei route. I would love to see airlines actually branch out and get into Vietnam and Thailand a little more nonstop from the US if they can. But that's, you know, that's the growth I hope to see. I just, you know, I think for now it seems like...
Some of these Taipei routes might not even be performing that well. So I don't know if the airlines are going to be super thirsty to get back down there. Yeah, this is a tough one. I mean, the good news is that airlines need to grow in order to grow their profitability. And so they need to get more planes, which means they need to fly to more places. And
the best way to do that is to fly to places that people want to go. And clearly people want to go to Southeast Asia. I mean, we saw that with what United did this year with its one-stop flights into Thailand and Vietnam. Um,
At the same time, though, you know, these flights are 17, 18, 19 hours, and we're really pushing the boundaries of how far an airline can fly nonstop. So I think what we're going to see is probably just more connectivity into these destinations flying via Taiwan or South Korea or Japan or Hong Kong,
And I don't think we're going to see a ton of additional nonstops. There are a few operated by, you know, foreign airlines like Vietnam Airlines from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh. I don't know how much more we're going to see, though. So I'm sorry, Nate. Yeah, I agree. All right. Next up, Rebecca asks about positioning flights, a big topic in last week's episode.
I hear you guys reference booking a positioning flight to get to the major hub. Well, you then take your long haul flight. You mentioned booking these on separate itineraries, maybe even on different airlines to minimize your spend. I understand that this allows you to get the best deal, but what happens if my positioning flight is delayed? What do you guys typically do to mitigate the risk of missing your connection?
Is there a way to connect your itineraries or do you build in extra, maybe even excessive buffer time at your connection city? What do you do Gunnar? So, um,
To answer one of the questions, you can connect itineraries sometimes. If the airlines are very close partners, occasionally I've heard of people who are able to connect their itineraries. I wouldn't bank on this. What I do is I just book long connections. This is why I prioritize lounge access in my travels. It's because I like to eat and drink and I like to do it for free. And if I need to sit in an airport for five hours, six hours, I can do it for free.
maybe even more to make sure that I make my connection, it's totally fine with me if I have a nice lounge to sit in. So that's what I do. I just book myself a little extra time, even overnight if you need to. If you've got a way to book a cheap airport hotel, that's not a bad option either. Yeah, if it's a really big flight or, you know, especially we hear about this from people who are flying in order to take a cruise. Flying in the night before is a good idea. It's going to cost you an extra hotel night, but that sure beats missing your
$5,000 or 50,000 point business class redemption or that very expensive cruise that you're about to hop on. So my rule of thumb is typically in the neighborhood of four to five hours, taking the first flight of the day, even if it means you end up being there for
eight to 10 hours, not the worst idea, because as we've talked about, those early morning flights are your best bet to get where you need to go on time. And if that's, you know, New York City or Boston, in order to take that long flight overseas, that's well worth the extra time, especially if you have lounge access from a credit card or whatever flight you end up ultimately taking across the pond. Yeah, book that flight flexible too, so that if you see issues starting to pop up, if you know weather's coming in, then you can quick change it if you need to, to salvage the trip.
So Mike asks a kind of a similar question about positioning flights with an interesting wrinkle to it. He asked, is there a general rule to follow with these positioning flights to make it less stressful if you're trying to get, say, from, as we're talking about, US to Europe involving a connection? And so if...
And Mike asks, if the fare and mileage costs were about the same, what would you choose? Would you build in a connection in the United States? So fly from, his example is from Miami to Philadelphia in order to fly to Lisbon. Or would you prefer to connect in Europe and fly from Miami to London and then onward to Lisbon on a separate connecting flight? Yeah.
Well, my first rule, never Heathrow. Don't Heathrow. Never Heathrow. Mike, I'm sorry you picked a really horrible example. Yeah, no. I would rather connect in the U.S. if it is unprotected. So if it's two different separate fares, if it is one PNR, one reservation all the way through, I'll go through Europe, no problem. I don't mind doing that. But if it's an unprotected connection, I would definitely rather do it.
here. A little more flexibility, you know, some more frequencies of flights in a lot of cases, and then more, you know, options to book from place to place if I need to do that.
as well. So good question. Yeah, I think in theory, it would be better personally to me to fly to Europe and then connect onward from Europe to where you need to go. But in practice, I don't know that you're ever really going to come out ahead that way, because you're talking about booking a nonstop flight to Europe, which is where we're going to see, you know, the higher fares to begin with. So I think in practice, exactly what you said, connecting domestically where you've, you know,
potentially got a lot of options to get to that city that you need to get to whether it's philadelphia or boston or new york or la and then connect onward is going to give you the most flexibility and savings to make this happen all right mallory asks what would you consider a good deal for a delta one upgrade it's a good question obviously it'll depend on the route and um
I guess your appetite for booking anything with cash. Uh, I would say, you know, especially on the long haul, anything under a thousand dollars is probably a good deal. I think my limit would probably be about $500. I don't like to spend cash for flights period, uh, if I can avoid it. So usually, you know, anything over 500 would be way too rich for my blood, but anything under a thousand is actually probably a good deal. Um, especially if, uh, you make a little more money than I do.
No comment. We're not begging for raises on the podcast. Yeah, it's a good question and it really is very subjective. I think primarily because it probably hinges most on what you originally booked for. If you got an awesome SkyMiles deal, for example, to fly to Europe for like 30,000 SkyMiles for a main cabin fare...
And then it's like $1,200, $1,500 upgrade if you have that money and you're willing to spend it for a special trip to arrive in Rome or London or Amsterdam refreshed and ready to go. Then I think the bar is a little bit higher. I will say over the course of the last two, maybe three years, we've seen probably cheaper international upgrades than ever. Certainly things under $700 each way.
sometimes under 500. The most notorious one, in a good way, is Seattle to Taipei, where we've now seen upgrade offers as low as $299 to move from an economy seat to a Delta One suite. That's like, don't even ask the question. Just go for it. So I think it depends. But yeah, I think the bar for what is good
objectively is probably about a thousand dollars and as if you can get to close to half of that or even less then it's like that's a screaming deal that you got to jump on yeah always keep an eye on those things keep monitoring check your app every once in a while just to see what they're offering because every once in a while things move fast so you can get yourself in the way of a really nice deal laura asks a question that is near and dear to my heart
Any advice for Istanbul? Hotel recommendations and flights from DTW, which is Detroit. Thanks. Laura, I mean, Istanbul is a long flight.
You can't beat a nonstop on Turkish Airlines. They do offer nonstops from Detroit and have for a couple of years now. If you want to spring for business class and you have transferable points from either Capital One or Citi, being able to book Turkish Airlines business class on their Dreamliners, which is what they fly to and from Detroit, for 65,000 miles in about...
200 or so dollars in taxes and fees apiece is a very good use of miles if you have them. And then, you know, for for hotels, my personal favorite is Tom Tom Suites, which is now part of Hilton because it is a small luxury hotel of the world, which Hilton kind of gobbled up last year.
It is in the perfect location. The rooms are spacious and excellent. The service is top notch. And probably most importantly, they have a rooftop restaurant where you get for free, whether you book a cash rate or with, I think about 70,000 Hilton points is what it runs you now.
the best Turkish breakfast I've ever had in my life with an amazing view of the river and the towers and the minarets across the city. It's incredible. I would go back to Tom Tom Sweets in a heartbeat. Go there. Tom Tom Sweets? I love the rec. Nothing for me. I've never been to Istanbul. Thanks for nothing. Okay, Kevin says,
We're back on Hilton asks, and he says Hilton points have long been regarded as one of the best ways to use for high demand dates, like for concerts and sporting events when cash rates are high. That is true. We talked about that in our now woefully outdated Hilton versus Hyatt episode, kind of when we first got started.
That said, I noticed that award rates during football weekends are astronomically high. I feel like this change has gone under the radar. And he goes on to explain that, you know, for even pretty meh, his words, not mine, Hilton Garden Inns and Hampton Inns in prominent college football towns like Ann Arbor and Madison are going for 120,000 to 150,000 points per
And so Kevin asks, has Hilton switched to a pure dynamic pricing structure with no ceiling? If so, what is now the best hotel program to use when cash rates are high?
So it's not a pure dynamic structure, but Hilton's not dumb. And I think, uh, the college football schedules come out very early and they're able to just like, you know, adjust things as they need to. I don't think that those are tied to the cash price at all. I've also seen this in like resort towns, like a white fish. And I was there a few weeks ago, the Hampton and white fish was going for over a hundred thousand Hilton points a night. And that's just cause they know it's a super high demand destination. Um,
Yeah, I would say, you know, Hyatt keeps their points rates true, but the availability has to be there. And that availability gets gobbled up pretty quickly. So that's a tough thing, you know, especially when you're booking in these small towns where there are only a few hotel options. You know, there's no Ritz Carlton in Tuscaloosa. So they're going to price, you know, or I guess that's a bad example. There's no Conrad in Tuscaloosa. So Hilton's going to price that Hampton Inn, that Hilton Garden Inn,
at the top right so um and they can do that because the demand is there especially on football weekends my uh my brother-in-law owns a few airbnbs in sec territory down in the south uh that he rents out making a killing just printing money so it's uh it's definitely good business they they know they have kind of a captive audience there especially in these small towns so
Any advice? You know, just to provide some background, Hilton award rates have always kind of had a one-two structure. There's the good one, which is a standard award rate, which is generally as cheap as it gets.
And then there's the dynamic stuff, which is if you want a room and we don't have a cheaper standard award rate, you can book it, but it is going to be 150,000 points. And there's generally been the choice between those two things. And I think what we've started to see expand within the last couple of months is that there's a wrinkle with that standard award availability where there's now a range of
exactly what it might cost for a standard room award. So normally it might be 50,000 points, but we're starting to see some of those even still standard room award rates slide up to 60 or maybe even 70,000 points per night. So that has to me been the biggest change, I would say, especially if you're booking a big event, follow Gunnar's constant advice.
Book something that's going to work. Book it flexibly so that if a better deal pops up, you can cancel that original booking and book something better with your Hilton points. And what I have seen with Hilton in particular is that
As you get closer to some of these events, if, you know, rooms aren't filling up the way that these hotels want them to, they will release some standard room award availability. So just as an example, I talked in our Hilton episode about booking a hotel for 50,000 points in Indianapolis ahead of the Taylor Swift show for my wife.
And I rebooked that at a cheaper rate three days before that trip actually happened. I actually booked a different property for a slightly different cheaper rate that wasn't even available when I first searched. And in just the days leading up to that, there were several hotels in the area that opened up standard room award availability. So it might be ugly right now, but keep checking back as that draws closer. You might start to see a better deal pop up. Yeah, great advice. Can we move on to, I guess, a CWC?
segment we're calling award travel some questions about points and miles we're kind of already there so let's continue okay it was a hypothetical i don't know why i keep asking you for permission to move on um all right nate asks us he said thailand will be a trip likely in the next three to four years for me given current offerings which airlines should i be targeting for transferable points both in terms of the cheapest flight and the best value any advice for nate
Three to four years is a long ways out to start making plans. We always encourage people to plan ahead, but the world of award travel and where airlines fly is bound to look a lot different in probably two years, let alone four. So, I mean, I think, Nate, you're spot on in just earning as many transferable points as possible. We could tell you that, you know, you could book
business class for X amount of points or you know a Japan Airlines economy seat with a connection in Tokyo but those rates are going to be out of date by the time it's actually able to book this so transferable points are going to be the key I
I would say one of the trends that we're seeing is airlines starting to throttle partner award availability, especially in business class cabins, but also in economy too, which means that you might end up needing to actually book sometimes for more points through the actual airline program that you wind up flying with. So if you want to fly Cathay Pacific,
you might need to transfer points to Cathay Pacific rather than transferring them to American Airlines or one of the other partner programs where in theory you might get a lower rate
But you might not actually be able to book that because that award availability just isn't being extended to those partners. Yeah, I would say, you know, more specifically, if you're looking to travel next year, I would recommend stacking up some points that transfer to Cathay Pacific and Asia Miles. $88,000 to $115,000 each way in business class.
It's really comfy. The Hong Kong experience when you're flying Cathay, transiting through that airport is really clean and really easy. It's a really good business class experience. Those lounges are awesome. And they keep their connections pretty tight as well. So I loved my experience with Cathay. I'd recommend doing that, especially if you want to fly up in front. Ready to move on to Bradley?
What do you got for us, Bradley? All right, Bradley. Bradley says, I am thinking of traveling to Tokyo in March or April and wanting to, of course, fly business or first class. I've looked at an A&A and it seems pretty difficult to navigate the website and redeem award flights. What airlines do you recommend are the best for traveling from LAX to Tokyo in business and first class? Um,
Lynn also asked a similar question about a summer trip to Tokyo, saying that they've been looking on Seats.Aero and American Airlines almost on a daily basis from LAX, SFO, and ORD. What's the best way to secure business class tickets, or should I just settle for premium economy if there's more availability? Any advice for Bradley and Lynn?
look off the beaten path a little bit. You know, LAX and San Francisco are, you know, definitely the biggest airports on the West Coast with the most volume of flights to Japan.
ANA is really tough to book, and I doubt that's going to change anytime soon unless if you're happy booking just a couple of days before departure where, you know, if we're talking about summer trips or spring and peak cherry blossom season in March in Japan, that's probably not going to happen. However, there is a Japan Airlines flight from L.A. to Osaka.
which at least lately we've seen better availability than the non-stops to Tokyo. So that's a really good option. It's bookable for as low as 60,000 American Advantage miles. So for either Bradley or Lynn, I think that's worth looking into. And, you know, it's hit or miss, but Seattle tends to have, I would say, better availability than,
The last one to plug, especially if you're trying to fly business class, is the Singapore Airlines flight from L.A. to Tokyo Narita flight.
I would always try to fly into Tokyo Haneda if possible because it's so much closer to the city itself. But Singapore is pretty generous with that award availability. Sometimes you can even book it through Air Canada Aeroplan. But otherwise, transferring any bank's credit card points to Singapore from American Express or Chase or Capital One, go down the list. There's an easy way to get all the points you need to book that, but you'll want to book that pretty soon because those award rates are going to go up starting November 1st.
Yeah, the Singapore example was something that I thought of as well. I think, Lynn, you might be on to something there just in general, if you have the points to do both. I would go ahead and secure some premium economy seats to make sure your trip's going to happen and then do your best to hunt out that last minute.
ANA space. I was able to do that in late January, which is clearly not as peak as March and April or peak summer. But that space does open up. You can't totally rely on it and you may have to change a day of travel here or there. So you have to kind of make yourself ultimately flexible to make that work. But
Why not just secure the premium economy? It's still a comfy ride over there and get to make sure that your trip actually happens. Yeah, Katie Rollins on our team flew Japan Airlines premium economy earlier this year, in fact, and I think she absolutely loved it. So I wouldn't feel like you're making a huge sacrifice by booking that. I think it's a very fine way to fly.
Yeah, especially on the foreign airlines. The premium economy actually feels a little bit more premium. Sometimes on the domestic airlines, it feels like it's just a comfier seat. And then they smash a tray of economy food on your table and give you some real silverware and pretend it's premium economy. All right, Lindsay.
is really bummed about the higher fees Emirates is now charging on award flights. So she was planning on booking the Newark to Athens route in business class on Emirates. Now that the higher fees are in place, any other options you recommend for getting to Athens in business or first class? Her home airport is Tampa, but she'll definitely reposition. Any thoughts for Lindsay? Just get to Europe.
Athens is a little bit tough to get to. There are a lot of nonstop flights, especially from New York. But yeah, it's a tough one. I would get as close to Athens, Greece generally, as you can and then make your way from there. And if you're flexible to getting on a flight from either Miami or Atlanta or even D.C.,
over to continental Europe and then making your way ultimately over to Athens or wherever you're going in Greece. I think that's probably the winning strategy here. Flexibility is really important for Greece. Yeah. Luckily, everybody flies to Athens, every European airline. So if you get over to the European continent, that's a good way to do it. I would recommend, Lindsay, check on Flying Blue, Air France KLM Flying Blue Awards. You have from Tampa, the Delta nonstop to Amsterdam. And
And you also have the Virgin nonstop to London, which means you could fly to Europe from your home airport and piece it together from there. That does break my never Heathrow rule. Uh, but if you can get over there nonstop from Tampa, that's, that's a pretty appealing way to do it as well. Um,
Otherwise, your best bet will be taking that Europe connection. I would check for Tap Air Portugal, bookable through Air Canada, maybe out of Miami. That's close enough to you. And Iberia, bookable with Avios. Both definitely fly to Athens a lot and have pretty quick, convenient connections there on the Iberian Peninsula. So that's what I'd recommend that you do, Lindsay. We have a question from Arla.
If you have used airline points or Avios booking a flight, do you follow Google Flights to see if the basic price goes down and compare to points so you can rebook? Also, if you find a lower price for that booking, do extra points get returned to you? What's the process for rebooking? Do you cancel and rebook? Arla, yes, I do do this. It doesn't work for every program. So when...
The program is dynamically priced. So I'm thinking like Delta Sky Miles or Southwest Rapid Rewards. JetBlue. Which ones? JetBlue. JetBlue. Yeah, exactly. So what I'll do is I will book it using points and miles, and then I'll set a Google Flights price alerts to track. I'll do that to see if the price moves, but also if the cash price gets low enough, maybe I'll just rebook it for cash if that makes more sense too. Yeah.
Prices can, but don't always reflect that cash price though. So, um, you know, sometimes it's worked for me other times it hasn't, but if you book main cabin or higher in those cases, you do get those extra points returned to you when you rebook, uh, when the price drops. So I just did this for a flight from San Diego to Minneapolis. I booked with sky miles, the price dropped, uh,
So did the points rate a few days later. We call that the SkyMiles lag. It kind of happens a little bit more slowly, a few hours. 12 to 24, sometimes more. Yeah. And then I booked myself just up into Comfort Plus because the Comfort Plus rate was actually cheaper than the main cabin rate that I actually booked before. So a little upgrade and a bit of a refund for my wife and I to get a few SkyMiles back. So yes, I do do this.
It does not always work, especially when you're booking with partner airlines. And those, you know, those rates don't move. So you're basically booking for the rate that it will always be if the availability is there. Any other advice for Arla? I think you covered Arla's question well. Awesome. Okay, then we're moving on to Jenna.
My husband and I have learned so much from your podcast and appreciate all the tips and insight. We were hoping to get some feedback on an upcoming trip we'll be planning where we are hoping to redeem our Delta companion ticket to cover airfare and use our Marriott Bonvoy boundless welcome offer for a hotel stay. Do you have any tips on or favorite destinations reachable with these redemptions? Anything come jump out at you right away?
So the wrinkle here is that this particular Marriott offer was for 50,000 per night certificates. They got five of them. And I'll be honest, it's pretty tough to find anything really special for a special trip using those certificates within the U.S. as well as, you know, kind of the major haunts around Europe.
So I think if you're willing to use that Delta Companion ticket not to get to your final destination but to position or use it as a separate domestic trip, if you're open to going somewhere further, those free night certificates go really far in Asia. I used this exact same bonus to book three, four nights actually at the St. Regis in Istanbul during our last trip.
And it was bookable for 45,000 points per night. So I used four of those certificates to book a hotel stay that would have otherwise cost $600 per night. You do not get that kind of value with these certificates in the continental United States, in Hawaii, in Europe, in the Caribbean. You got to get a little bit further away to really juice them. So yeah, Turkey...
Southeast Asia, to a lesser extent, Australia. If you're willing to think outside the box a little bit, that's the best way to get the most bang for your buck with these. Otherwise, if you can find something that is as expensive as 65,000 points per night, what Marriott allows you to do is kick in up to 15,000 points per night to cover the difference. So you can use a mixture of a certificate and then a
Marriott Bonvoy points to cover something a little bit fancier that might be closer to home. But otherwise, I think you're going to be hard pressed to find something that is special for a trip like this. Yeah, it kind of screams a wedding to me. Like you got to be there for a weekend. You know what? That's not a bad thing. There are necessary trips, weddings,
soccer trips or football trips or golf trips or whatever, there are good ways to put this to use in ways that are going to be valuable from a financial perspective, but also valuable personally.
It's just it's going to in the United States, it's going to be a lot more courtyard Marriott's during a road trip than it is, you know, kind of an all inclusive resort or a beach property in the United States. Yeah. Good advice there. All right. Let's move on to Bonnie. Bonnie asks a few podcasts ago, you advised that a decent idea to work toward airline points was to think of where you want to go and how you want to get there. Then see what kind of cards might help you towards that goal.
I just reserved a cruise to Antarctica in November of 2026, a dream vacation. That's awesome, Bonnie. Wondering how I might tailor my credit card strategy in the next year or so to earn enough points and miles for a lie-flat seat from the States to Buenos Aires and hopefully back.
Just before you answer, I need to get my notepad because my wife and I are trying to hit our seventh continent, Antarctica, before we turn 40. So I need to take some notes here. All right. Bonnie, you're helping Kyle out here. This is a reverse mailbag. My advice for Bonnie. So what we do all the time, actually, is we use the Wikipedia pages of the airports and we can look for all the nonstop routes from there.
I do this all the time to try and kind of reverse engineer what airlines, what points I need to book trips. So look at the Wikipedia page and go to airlines and destinations, and then you can see who is going to fly you to Buenos Aires nonstop from the United States. You can make a list of those routes that you want to target. I would keep that list as big as you possibly can to stay flexible. But then you can kind of look at and see, you know, okay,
United is going to be able to fly me there from Newark. If that's a possibility for me, I'm looking at American who can fly me there from Miami and Delta from Atlanta and JFK and things like that. And then you can decide, you know, which, which of these airlines has the route that's best for me. And most importantly, what points can I use to fly those routes in particular? Particularly, I would set your sights on LATAM.
because we've seen Miami to Buenos Aires award space open up a few times over the last few months. Lie flat business class bookable for 50,000 Alaska at most each way or 76,000 thin air obvious. Um, and right now, if you're, especially if you're looking that far out, you have time to sign up for an Alaska card to get those points or an Alaska and a Hawaiian card to get
you know, a lot of points and that'll get you there for two. Or you can transfer some points to obvious from any bank. Any other advice, Kyle? I mean, I would just say, you know, we're talking about a trip to Antarctica in November of 2026, which means flights will be bookable this fall or early winter, just depends on which airline you're flying and which airline mileage program you're trying to use. So,
The time is coming up. The time is exactly right now, Bonnie, to start kind of coming up with the right point strategy, earn the points that you need so that you're ready come November or December to book those flights. And then, you know, just anybody out there, Bonnie, or otherwise, if you have a line on a cheap Antarctica cruise, podcast at thriftytraveler.com. I will be waiting.
All right, please, please help Kyle out. Okay, next up is going to be your questions about some credit cards, our favorite and least favorite destinations, and then we're going to get really, really personal. But first, a quick break. Today's episode is brought to you by our very first podcast sponsor that isn't directly signing our paychecks. It's Abundo Wealth.
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Go to Abundowealth.com, that's A-B-U-N-D-O-Wealth.com to schedule a free initial discussion. Mention Thrifty in the notes and get 50% off your first month as a Thrifty Traveler podcast listener. You'll be glad you did. All right, back to the show.
All right, we're back and we are ready for some questions about credit cards. And we're going to start with a question from Leanne, who says, I currently use a Visa Bank of America card, which earns cash back. And she typically earns about $200 to $250 a month in cash back.
But Leanne says, I'm hoping to begin to travel more with my husband as we approach our 60s and retirement age. And I'm wondering if getting an Amex gold card and using it in order to earn points would benefit me more to book more travel. I know that gives up that means giving up all that cash back. But our priorities are changing to travel more. And honestly, even though $2,500 a year in cash is great, it doesn't do anything to earn upgrades or book award travel.
What do you think for Leanne? Yeah. First of all, Leanne, the sobriety with which you're going through these decisions is really good. Like, just think about exactly what your goals are and set them based on that. You know, I always recommend travel rewards, credit cards to people. And that's because I know a lot of people who want to travel. But sometimes cash back is what makes most sense to you.
in your financial decisions. So this is just a really well-calculated thought process. And yes, I think an Amex Gold card would help you rack up points really quickly. It's almost hard to not rack up points fast on that card if you're putting spend on it because of the four X points multipliers at grocery stores and at restaurants. So if you think you can make use of some of those other credits and things like that, the Amex Gold card is still one of the most recommended cards that we have.
out there in the travel rewards portfolio. Great way to rack up points. I think you're absolutely right. I don't, however, want to write off cashback credit cards altogether because while earning points is great and redeeming points is even better, it takes a lot of time. So, Leanne, if you are willing to put in the time to wait for that great Thrifty Traveler premium deal and book something with your points...
or do the research of the best ways to do the points for the trips that you wanna be taking, then definitely switching into a more points first mindset is really great. But if that sounds like too much,
I get it. None of any of this in the world of travel is one size fits all. And if that is just not the way that your brain is wired, sticking with or at least supplementing with a cashback credit card is not the worst idea in the world. So I think there's not a right or a wrong answer here. It could be some of both. Yeah.
Brad asks, what's the best way to earn points besides maximizing credit card usage? What do you got, Gunnar? Flying on an expense account. That is the ultimate cheat code to earning points to travel more. If you are flying on your employer's dime, make sure you are booking on your own credit cards. Make sure that you are not just booking through a corporate portal, but that you're booking that individually as
If you can do that, man, I wish we had an expense account. We just have like points that we throw around every now and again here at Thrifty Traveler. Yeah, Billy Briefcase is doing all right. He doesn't even have to check his account. Bradley Briefcase, I think in this case. Bradley Briefcase. Yeah, I guess other than that, sign up bonuses, you know, sign up for credit cards when the bonuses are their highest.
A lot of the cards will offer, you know, either a once every couple of years bonus if it's a really good one or for cards like the, you know, the airline credit cards through, you know, Delta and United, they'll offer, you
Every year, maybe sometimes a few times a year in Delta's case, some sign up bonus offers. So getting those bonuses when they're highest is the best way to fill up your accounts. You could also do things like referrals. If you have friends that are interested in getting into travel rewards, send them your referral link. And that can add, you know, sometimes a healthy chunk of points to your account. It's a lot easier to earn than spending. That's for sure. So any other advice for Brad?
shopping portals just making sure you know we talked about in our the 10 commandments of points and miles having a mental block before any transaction of how do I make the most of this and even if it isn't directly tied into earning signup bonuses or maximizing category spending bonuses on your travel card using a travel portal like Rakuten and others and
is a really great way to just make sure you're constantly adding to that balance. It might not be that big 100,000 point welcome bonus, but every little bit helps. And then the last one, a little bit more unorthodox here, is just look for opportunities to either buy points or to use workarounds to in effect buy points. And that sounds really strange because I worded it quite poorly. But what I mean is, here's an example.
As we're recording this, there was very recently this promotion through Capital One, which now has this offers program to buy a subscription to the Motley Fool and earn Capital One miles for that transaction. I don't personally care about having a Motley Fool subscription. I would never use it.
But there was kind of this sliding scale of how many points you could buy based upon what subscription you purchase. And the best one in my mind was an opportunity to buy a Motley Fool subscription for $299 for the first year and earn 60,000 Capital One miles. That's a lot of money. But at the same time, if you play your cards right, you could get much more out of that, much more than $300 in value out of that.
with those 60,000 Capital One miles. So whether you're buying miles directly from one of the airlines that sells them at a discount, American, Alaska, and Avianca Life miles are probably the three biggest where we routinely see great promotions where you can buy miles and then come out ahead when you turn around and redeem them, or these kind of strange workaround opportunities. Keeping your eye out for both of those things, I think, can help you make sure you pad your balance of points.
All right. Sarah asks about the Amex Platinum update on the horizon. Sarah says, we got our Platinum card in February this year. Are you saying it's likely that if we use the current benefits of the card, we will also have access to the new perks when they become available? For example, could I use the $200 annual fine hotels and resorts credit now and then potentially also have access to the new system, which is allegedly available
$300 twice a year once that goes into effect. That is absolutely correct, Sarah. You should go out and do that right now. If you haven't used it already, Amex Platinum cardholders, go out and book something now with your $200 once a year credit because come mid-September, by the looks of it,
A new system is coming online with up to $600 a year. And so you would be able to use $200 now and then use the first of those $300 twice a year credits once that change actually gets made. Yep. Sarah, I had the exact same question. I was really excited to read it. So that's the initial July to December $300 credit. We think that's going to be able to be used this year.
That is the way that these card refreshes typically work, is that as soon as the card is made available for new applicants under the new system with new benefits and higher annual fees, existing cardholders typically...
get access to those benefits straight away. So there is a possibility, but regardless, you're not going to be costing yourself money by using that $200 hotel credit now before this change is made. This is massive news for my potential stay at the Thompson Denver in November. I can't wait to use this credit.
So Keith has a question in the same vein. He's debating getting the Amex Platinum card and asks about kind of how he could use these hotel credits, especially under the new system that we've reported with $300 twice a year for fine hotels and resorts. And he asks, you know, how easy it would be to use...
Those credits without spending additional money and then bigger picture I was wondering how you feel about these coupon book style statement credits when debating a new card And kind of how people should value that the kind of the dollar amount of those credits versus what they're actually worth it to you as an individual and
Sorry for the long questions. Keith says, love the podcast. Keith, thank you. Gunnar, what do you got? Keith, my advice is just to get super organized and figure out if you can get the value back on this card. I think if lounge access at DCA is important enough to you, if you're going to DCA a lot and spending a lot on food and drink there, build that into your calculus. And I would say you can go ahead and pick up the card. If you're
a few other of these credits work for you, then I think it might be worth picking up the card. It's obviously a big, uh, annual fee, but, um,
You just have to do your own math. I've plugged this before, but our coworker, Nick Cerati, wrote an awesome story about how he uses ChatGPT. He had a very simple prompt in ChatGPT to help him track all of his uses of all of these credits to make sure that he's getting his money back on all of these travel rewards credit cards. I think that's a great way to do it.
I think it's a great use of AI to help kind of fight back and make sure that you're not falling victim to the coupon book because they are betting on the fact that you're not going to get organized. So that's my recommendation every time. Yeah. In terms of hotels, I have had pretty good luck with booking single hotel night stays.
Using $200 or so a night under $200 or so a night. So I'm not spending a ton of money out of pocket in addition to that credit, which is that's exactly what American Express wants. That's how they structure this this way.
you know, as this credit, you know, apparently changes to $300 twice a year, that gets even easier. Albeit you have to do it twice a year. So I think, you know, as long as you're not looking primarily in cities like New York city or law
Los Angeles. I mean, I've had good luck redeeming even at $200 a night or so these credits in Denver, Chicago, and other cities like that. So I think, again, as long as your heart's not set on booking the New York City edition, which costs like $900 a night and knocking $200 or $300 off of that, you can come out ahead on these things as long as you're vigilant and organized, as you said, Gunnar.
Greg asks, and he prefaces this with,
Here's my question, and I think it's a pretty stupid one, but I don't think I'm the only person who doesn't know. First of all, I know Greg from my past career. You are not stupid, and you certainly are not the only person who asked this. So Greg went on to explain that he opened and earned a 100,000-point bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred earlier this year and added his wife as an authorized user. And what Greg asked was, should she have opened the card herself to earn a second bonus?
And since they didn't, but added her as an authorized user, could she still do that? Or does being an authorized user on his card prevent her from opening that card herself? Caitlin followed up with, kind of chimed in and said, I have the exact same question, which she put very poetically. How do I put this? How can I go about, quote, unscrewing myself with my credit card choices? Caitlin and Greg, you guys are fine. You're doing okay.
Being an authorized user on a credit card does not make you ineligible to open and earn a bonus on that exact same credit card. The only potential wrinkle here that you might need to be aware of is if you have opened or become an authorized user on several credit cards because most importantly, Chase has what's called its 524 rule, which says if you've opened five or more credit cards within the last 24 months,
you may not be eligible to open another Chase credit card. So if you're under five, that's fine. But the wrinkle here is that Chase generally considers being an authorized user as a new credit account. There are reports that you can get Chase to reconsider this by calling the reconsideration line and saying, hey, you know, that six credit card that I have on my credit report within the last two years, that's just an authorized user account.
So that's the only thing to keep in mind. But otherwise, there's really not a long-term harm, and you're not getting boxed out by being an authorized user on some of these accounts. Yeah, good advice. Greg and Caelan, Kyle does not think you're stupid for whatever that's worth. All right, Gunnar, you are a, or were, a Southwest fan. So Lauren has a question for you. Is Southwest going to drop or change the companion pass for
after we all get the current 100,000 point sign up bonus on the Southwest credit card portfolio. What do you think? Lauren, no. Don't give them any ideas. Please don't tell them. You know what? We could have just chosen not to read this aloud on our podcast. So that's kind of on us.
I don't know. I don't know. The Southwest prediction business is, is tough business to be in. Are they going to maybe do the worst thing possible for their customers? Yeah. Yeah. Their track record as of late, probably going to do that. So I would say, uh, don't bank on it, but I think, I mean, that kind of a rug pull, uh,
It would be so nasty. And just, I'd have a hard time thinking that it would be this year. You'd probably get a year of it. And then maybe they'd pull the rug next year or something, but I don't know. You know, they, if they, they can find a new low, they might just try and go hit it. You know, Southwest has already slaughtered the sacred cow by removing two free bags on every reservation. So clearly there's no length to which they won't go. That said, uh,
I have a hard time seeing Southwest really playing around with the companion pass because I think if anything, it encourages people to fly Southwest more than they otherwise need to in order to earn more of those points to earn the companion pass. So,
Man, if they do this, just sayonara, Southwest. That said, we could see them continually raising the points threshold in order to earn this. So currently it's at 135,000 companion pass qualifying points per year that you need to earn. You get a good chunk right off the bat just by holding a Southwest credit card.
Maybe that goes a little bit higher this year, maybe next year. I don't know. But I have a hard time seeing them making drastic radical changes to the companion pass. That would be another big mistake. All right, let's move on to travel tips and wanderlust, our next category. And I'm going to read some of these questions. We'll go kind of more or less rapid fire on these. Jennifer asks, where's a place you've been that exceeded your expectations or where you were pleasantly surprised? Kyle.
You said rapid fire, and I don't know that I have anything off the top of my head. I will just say, and I've said this before,
I don't think I expected to love Istanbul as much as I did. I have, generally speaking, an aversion to the big capital cities or the biggest cities and the big urban hubs. And there's just something about Istanbul where it's so massive and there are so many people. And yet through every corner, you can feel like you're in an alleyway in a very small town. And that is just a very special experience. So yeah,
Yeah, I got to go with Istanbul. Very cool. Mine would be Dubrovnik, Croatia. I thought it would be a gimmick, and it is a little bit, but Old Town.
Dubrovnik, but it is so damn cool. It's worth every touristy bit just walking the walls of that place and just kind of going into the alleys and streets of that old town Dubrovnik is actually so cool and it is as beautiful as advertised. It was super crazy busy, but man, worth it as far as like a touristy place that I would definitely recommend you should stop and see at least for a night. Dubrovnik was super cool. All right.
Allie asks, where would you never go back again? Mine is Myrtle Beach. Love how concise that question was. Can I tell you something? This is my wife. So on behalf of the Potters Myrtle Beach Tourism Board, I'm really sorry for this. Oh, no, no more Myrtle for the Potters. I do not have my own Myrtle Beach. I can honestly say I've never been somewhere where I'm like, get me out of here. I never want to come back.
I would say I would be fine not going back to Las Vegas again. I lived there for a summer and got more than enough of a lifetime worth of Las Vegas. The other one, this is an unpopular one, and I'm not saying I don't want to go back. I would be fine not returning to Cartagena, Colombia again. Very glad we went, had a great time, but I think I got my fill of Cartagena and I'm okay. I would rather go back to Bogota or some of the other coastal cities than Cartagena again.
I can't believe I didn't think of Vegas. That's definitely one for me. My other ones, I used to coach youth travel boys lacrosse. And because of that, we spent so much time in Delaware and in South Bend, Indiana. And if I never have to go to either of those places again, it would make me very, very happy. Not a lot going on in either of those places. And most of the time, I spent my time on lacrosse fields in what was
Almost always terrible weather coaching a bunch of bratty 11 to 14 year olds.
slinging the rock around. Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, if you're listening to this, I'm really sorry. Gunner doesn't mean it. Come on the pod and make the case for South Bend, Pete. I'm excited to hear it. All right. Amy has a question specifically for me, it seems. My husband and I are headed to Glacier National Park in mid-September. We booked the flights, accommodations, and rental car all with points and miles. After hearing Gunner's review of Under Canvas, I'm thinking we'll have to do a return trip there.
Meanwhile, what are your favorite hikes at Glacier? And do you have any neat breweries or restaurants to recommend? We're staying in Whitefish. So excited for you, Amy. Okay, I'll go fast. Bonsai, B-O-N-S-A-I, Brewing Company, is a brewery just north of Whitefish. It's basically just like a big picnic grounds. They also sell beer there. They have great food as well. Awesome place. My wife and I went there three times in five days on our last trip there. I love Bonsai. Okay.
Lula's Cafe, L-O-U-L-A Cafe for a little brunch in Whitefish if you're having a slow morning. First come, first serve. So go put your name in, go walk around downtown Whitefish and then come back when they text you. But Lula's Cafe was so delicious. They specialize in pies too. So pick up a pie for your hotel room or your Airbnb late at night.
And then hikes inside the park. There's Avalanche Lake, which is it ends at Avalanche Lake, which is an unbelievable view. One of the best views in the park. It's about four to five miles, depending on how far around Avalanche Lake you want to go. Hidden Lake at the very top of Glacier National Park is like a three mile round trip. I would go early, early, early if you can, because parking up there is a bit crazy and
And then all the way on the other side, on the east side of the park, St. Mary's Falls. It's a series of three waterfalls. Depending on if you want to see all three, that's how long your hike's going to be. But you can always stop and turn around at each one. That's an amazing hike, too. Always, always bear spray in Glacier National Park. Don't mess with that.
And then if you don't want to go into the park one day, just head up to the ski resort. The Danion Trail starts at the bottom of the resort, goes all the way to the top. You can take the lift one way, either way you want. So you can take the lift to the top and hike down. You can hike all the way to the top and take the lift down. I prefer to hike to the top, have a beer at the top, overlooking the whole mountain on the patio up there, and then take the lift down. It's a pretty awesome experience. You did it. Wow.
Uh, I, I will just chime in and say that, uh, my friend Jim and I went to Whitefish last January to go skiing where we got four runs in before every lift shut down because it was negative 35 to negative 50 every single day we were there. So Jim and I got to know at the Bulldog Saloon in downtown Whitefish real well and spotted a
campaign sticker for former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura. So we're going back like four governors here on one of the coolers. So yeah, Bulldog Saloon, I guess that's maybe the only thing I could recommend. Kyle has spent some money at the Bulldog. Okay, another one from Jay. What do you think is the best on the plane backpack? I've searched forever and love my Cole Haan leather backpack, but was curious if you guys have found something better.
I do not splurge a lot, but one of the best things that I've ever, one of the best material items I've ever purchased is my Tumi backpack. You know, I talked about in one of the, in the big travel tip show that we did a couple of weeks ago,
that having a good backpack is arguably even more important than having a good carry-on in order to pack and just to carry on. And I say that because my to-me backpack literally has a spot for every single item that I need to bring with me on a short trip or a long trip.
So I think it's honestly, that's about me and the things that I want to bring with me and my headphones and my chargers and my Kindle and my iPad and whatever. So I would start first with the inventory of the stuff that you have and then seek out a backpack that has a spot for everything that you need to bring with you. And whether that's to me or Cole Haan or something else, I don't know.
Yeah. I have a, uh, koala tree compass backpack. Koala is C-O-A-L-A tree, all one word. Um, super simple bag, very thin. It's got good volume, but it's not huge. It's not a, uh, it's not a carry on for, you know, spirit flight where you're packing your entire, uh,
your entire trip in a personal item. But it has a little passport pouch on the backside that zips up, which I really like as well. And it has two water bottle holders that are too shallow. That's the only downside of it. I like to carry a big old water bottle around like a typical American tourist. And I need to put a little rubber thing on the bottom of my water bottle just so it doesn't fall out of my backpack. And it has fallen out onto the airport concourse floor. And it sounds awful.
when a uh hydro flask hits the floor of an airport concourse so um i would make those uh those water bottle pockets a little bigger but other than that love it all right it's time to get personal as if you're dropping the water bottle in the concourse floor isn't personal enough all right uh
An account on Instagram, Vexil Builds, I don't know, sorry, send a correction to podcast at thriftytraveler.com, asked, do you fear eventually all the airline programs will devalue to such a point where it's too much? No. I don't either. There's always pain, but there's always gain. When things change, the sweet spots just shift or adjust. What we've seen is the airlines...
need these loyalty programs. They're extremely lucrative for them. The banks also need people to be loyal to their credit cards and spend money on them. So for either the banks or the airlines to completely destroy their programs makes no business sense for them. Things are just going to keep changing. And if you can stay up on it, you're always going to find a way in. I think what we've seen is as I would say,
Mainly the U.S. airline programs have gotten significantly worse. And I get the heartburn about that and wondering whether it's too much. But at the same time, we've seen more and more foreign airline programs get more interest in getting a slice of the U.S. points market. So airlines like Air Canada and Air France and Virgin Atlantic have made more
some negative, but generally speaking, positive changes in order to get more of our points. And I think as long as that continues, we're going to be okay. And there's going to be more doors that open than close. All right, Gunnar, Alexandra wants to know, what's the best thing about your job? John Schallbetter, Peter Thornton, and Katie Rollins, the three-headed monster that is Thrifty Traveler Premium. I'm leaving. I'm done. Yeah. No shout out from Gunnar across the table. Yeah.
I just, I mean, the deals that they send us are so good and I get to, you know, I help them vet deals a lot of the time. So I get probably a 10 minute headstart on our premium members, even sometimes on some of the best stuff. So yeah, that's pretty amazing. It's cool to be in front of that many good deals all the time. Plus another perk of this job is that because everybody likes to talk about travel, small talk is such a breeze for me. Like,
At weddings, people are like, what do you do? It's like, oh, I'm a travel writer and now podcaster. And everyone has a million questions. And I just love to chop it up about travel. I can talk about any destination. And that's one of the things that I really love. I love, love this job. And I love it when people talk to me about my job, which is not something that a lot of people get to say.
How many white male podcasters are at the weddings you attend? Oh my God. Because like that's, you're not special for that part. They always put us at the same table. It's just a nightmare table to be at. I love two things. First of all, I love news. I love breaking news. I love big news stories. So like nothing else gives me adrenaline like that. And that is and always will be a huge part of my job. I just look beyond that though.
This is like such a mission driven place to work. We love helping people travel more for less. We believe that travel is important and everybody should do more of it. And helping people do that, whether it's what we talk about here on the show or the flight deals that you and John and Katie and Peter and the rest of the team send people and seeing the email responses that we get and that very important.
verification that yes we are helping people that that is everything I think to everybody on the team yeah the replies we get to emails and all the comments on the show and on our stories and everything it's it's awesome all right less sappy Megan says my husband and I have been enjoying the podcast and wake up early every Thursday morning to watch it together that is dedication thank you Megan that's awesome
So Megan asks if we ever have FOMO when you can't book a deal, whether you don't have the PTO, you don't have the money or the points to do it. I'm just kind of wondering what kind of tips we should share to kind of keep perspective and excitement for what's possible. First question, yes, I get FOMO. Again, I get to see every deal. I'm involved in writing a lot of the deals and in finding a lot of the deals. And I can, I mean, the reason why we send a deal is that it sounds like an awesome trip.
Like we don't, you know, when we're vetting these things, it's very human process. We're always thinking, would I take this trip? Would I spend my money or my points on this trip? The answer is always yes. So if I'm writing a deal, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I could make this work. Here are some days that can, that could work for me. You know, my poor wife getting text messages before she's awake most morning being asking her how many points she has, or if she's interested in going to the Pharaoh islands, it's, it's constant FOMO. Like, uh,
I'm so happy for our customers who get to book things, but I, you know, we, we send out like, you know, four or five deals a day where I know I could make that trip work and would love to. But, um, luckily I, uh, I don't, I don't book everything that comes across my desk. Otherwise I'd still be out of the job. Yeah, exactly. But, um, your second question, just tips for keeping perspective and excitement for what's possible. Uh,
I've long told Kyle, travel's not a competition and travel's not a personality trait. It's one of the many things that we've shared over the years. Travel is not a personality trait is like the biggest pearl you've ever dropped. That's a good one. Yeah, I put that pearl to the test sometimes too because sometimes it does feel like it's become it. No, but I think just, you know,
Stay off social media. Don't compare your travels to other people. Travel the way that makes you happy. I would say do the things that you love. Put your points and your cash towards destinations that you know are going to be exciting. And then make sure to push yourself every once in a while to try something new. Go to a different place, whatever that means to you. But keeping perspective and excitement. There's always going to be excitement. Perspective is important. And
If social media makes you feel like you're an inadequate traveler, get rid of it. Yeah, that's really good to not compare yourself to others and not compare the volume of your travels to the volume of other people's travels because there's no right or wrong way to travel as long as you're doing it and you're enjoying it. I think I view every flight deal that we send or every deal that pops up elsewhere in the internet as one of two things and sometimes both, an opportunity or education.
So if it's an opportunity that you can take advantage of, great. And if it's not, you can still learn something from that, whether it's, oh, I didn't realize there were nonstop flights to this destination that's on my radar now. Or, oh, there's this new way to book this flight using points. That's great. I mean, the amount of things that I've learned from the flight deals just that we send, sometimes that I see, also see before we send them out is incredible. So there's always education in this stuff too.
Awesome. Okay. Mal asks, a fun one. Since Delta got Tom Brady, should United get Travis Kelsey? I don't think they can afford him. Not now. Well, first of all, it's Travis Swift. So come on.
Yeah, my answer is absolutely yes. And then I came up with some other ones. All right. American Airlines gets Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, the Dallas connection, obviously, and underperforming expectations. Alaska gets Sam Darnold, now a Seattle Seahawk. Sneaky good, quietly efficient. No frills, though. Nothing special, nothing fancy.
And then Sun Country gets new Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy, obviously based in Minneapolis. And are we sure that he can get you where you need to go? You like those? I was sitting here trying to come up with a few more like for Southwestern Spirit, and I don't know enough about football to not embarrass myself on the podcast. So, no, I'm good. All right. Then Travis asks us, what's the most disgusting thing you've seen at an airport or on a plane?
You know, fortunately, I've never seen anybody like use their bare feet to control an IFE screen because if I would lose it. I did, however, see someone eating sunflower seeds and then dropping them on the floor of the plane like a dive bar. Like, come on, people. This is bad enough for a lot of your fellow passengers. You don't need to be gross.
Yeah, that's a brutal one. The one that I thought of was I saw a very rebellious kid go to lick a railing and his mom immediately screamed at him, don't lick the railing. And so he proceeded to lick the entirety of a horizontal handrail on the terminal trains at the Denver airport. His mom couldn't catch him. He was running around with his tongue out, licking the railings as much as he could just to make his mom angry. And it worked. I hope that kid's still with us. Yeah.
He's got a hell of an immune system if he is. Mark asks, what's your favorite airport lounge of all time? Kyle? I have two. The Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt is one of a kind. I think the lounge itself is very nice. They have nice showers. They have sleeping rooms. But most importantly, when it's time to go, you get whisked away by a personal attendant brought to a car, sometimes a Porsche, sometimes a Mercedes van.
and driven on the tarmac to your flight. It's like pinch-me-bucket-less stuff. But the most special airport lounge to me, and I don't think it's the best in the world, but it is the best to me, is the Alsafa First Class Lounge for Qatar Airways in Doha.
It is not a lounge. It's a museum where you get to eat and drink for free. Just walking around that place for even 30 minutes. I've spent so much time in that lounge. So much more than 30 minutes. It is a sight to behold. It's incredible that a space like that exists in an airport.
It's awesome. Mine is the Pier First Class Lounge in Hong Kong. Get foot massages and super dedicated service. It's really small, but there's almost nobody in there. And every space is just perfectly curated for everything. I loved my time in that lounge. Can't wait to go back. Madeline asks, what's your emotional support airport snack?
I am a sucker for the pretzel sticks in Delta Sky Clubs. They're in almost all of them from lunchtime and onward. And sometimes there's just hummus, which I don't know where they get their hummus for or what's in it, but it's like crack. There's either MSG or PCP, I don't know, something, something magical. And then other times they have like a beer cheese dip. And I don't know, that's like synonymous to me with like going on a trip somewhere.
That's good. Trolley gummy worms is mine.
See, I can't buy sour candy in airports because I will inhale it before boarding finishes. Yeah, yeah. Just full-on stomachache, chapped lips, taking down a bag of trolley gummy worms. Doesn't take me much time, but my wife and I always make sure to pick up one on our way to the gate. All right. Allie asks, F. Mary Kill, Biscoff Cookies, Sun Chips, or Snack Mix? Good self-censoring there. I'm proud of you.
I got F Biscoff. They're amazing. People love them for a reason. Mary, the snack mix, Delta snack mix with the seasoning is very, very good. I was very glad when they brought that back.
And I would kill Sun Chips because I think they're overrated. They're like my least favorite chip. Yeah, the stinky breath you get from Sun Chips is the clincher for me. I wasn't thinking of that at all, if I'm honest. It's a fine chip, but when you get just an airplane cabin full of people who just devoured the seven Sun Chips that come in one of those bags, it's pretty disgusting air. But that snack mix is so good. That Delta snack mix with the...
It's like teriyaki almost. I don't know what the sauce is. It's good. It's great. Keep it Delta. Mary, the snack mix for sure. I have the exact same order. Okay. Travis asks, if you could put a private airstrip anywhere in the world, where would you put it? This is a sweet question, Travis, by the way. You nailed this. I would cheat, Travis, and I would build two. And I would put one in northwestern Minnesota where my in-laws live and the other one in Knife River, Minnesota, where my parents live.
Oh, that's a good one. That's easy. Um, I'm going to look like such a better son than you. I know it. Um, okay. I would put one in North Lake Tahoe. Uh, South Lake has a private airstrip, but something in North Lake by Palisades Tahoe and by the town of Truckee would be so awesome that Reno to Tahoe is like an hour. It's really not that bad, but I'd be able to love to be able to just fly in there when the weather's really bad. Um,
There is one already at my favorite ski resort in the world, Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia, but it's not super accessible. It's like right on the water, right below the mountain. But if I could have access to one, that's the one I would choose is Revelstoke Airport there.
This was really good. This was fun. We'll do this again. This is a really good mailbag. We have so many good questions coming in, and please keep them coming. We really like to hear from you guys. And honestly, a lot of these questions inform what we'll talk about on the show day to day and week to week anyway. And of course, we always do a listener question of the week. But before we go, I'm going to put Kyle on the spot. Fine. All right. We are now...
with today. 26 episodes, so about a half a year into this podcast. If you had to tell people to listen to one episode of our show to get them hooked, well, it is our best episode so far. I really like what we did on the Ten Commandments of Points and Miles episode. We have a lot of really good episodes.
I think the one that we did with Jason Matheson is the funniest by far. That's mostly because of Jason and not because of us. But I think if people want to learn a lot quickly and come away from this show with something new, I think that one gives you the most opportunity to come away with something to build on. Yeah, that's a really good answer. I honestly, the...
it's, it's hard for me to break them down into one. I love all of our guests. I think our first interview with Jared, I think it was episode three. That was a really fun, fun chat, uh, talking a lot about the future of points and miles in that one too. Um, I also, I also really loved the Jason episode. It was so fun to have him in here. His energy is insane and it just made us both better too. So both great episodes. And then, you know, just the, the
The news of the week two weeks ago was a great episode as well. We just broke down the 12 major news stories that were burning a hole in our heads and we walked through everything. And that was also a really fun one. But I'm going to give the Tom Brady answer, which when they ask him, which one was your favorite Super Bowl? He'd always reply the next one.
So I'm doing that. Next week's episode will be the best one yet. Join us for it. Dream big. Thank you so much for listening to the Thrifty Traveler podcast. Rate us five stars on your podcast platform of choice and like and subscribe to Thrifty Traveler on YouTube. Send this episode to someone you know who needs a vacation and who needs to get their questions answered. If you have feedback for us, send me a note at podcast at thriftytraveler.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 no longer welcome within city limits of South Bend, Indiana, Gunnar Olson. It was edited by David Strutt. Our theme music is by Benjamin Tiesel. See you next time. See ya.