Thrifty Traveler Co-Founder Nick Serati helps us answer a pressing points and miles question: Is Chase still the most important travel rewards program? After running the numbers, he’s changed his tune about Chase and wonders if newcomer Bilt has something to do with it. Plus, we talk about a potential government-owned Spirit Airlines, some devaluations, and the White Lotus choosing Hyatt! Plus, how to use points and miles on golf and a hilarious new travel mistake story.
Thrifty Traveler Co-Founder Nick Serati helps us answer a pressing points and miles question: Is Chase still the most important travel rewards program? After running the numbers, he’s changed his tune about Chase and wonders if newcomer Bilt has something to do with it. Plus, we talk about a potential government-owned Spirit Airlines, some devaluations, and the White Lotus choosing Hyatt! Plus, how to use points and miles on golf and a hilarious new travel mistake story.
Thanks to Surfshark for sponsoring this week’s episode! Go to https://surfshark.com/thrifty4 or use code THRIFTY4 at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
00:00 - Nick’s travel mistake: A $600 shirt in Vegas
04:45 - Nick’s daughter Elin introduces the show from Sedona!
05:15 - Thanks to our sponsor Surfshark VPN!
06:45 - The Hyatt Lotus & how to book it
10:20 - LifeMiles and Aeroplan hike award rates
15:55 - Something Stupid: A government-owned Spirit?
21:40 - Is Chase Still the King of Travel Rewards?
25:40 - The 5/24 rule & how Chase became king
29:15 - The Chase Sapphire Reserve isn’t helping
32:15 - Is Bilt’s complicated system worth it?
40:00 - Is the Bilt Palladium Card right for Gunnar?
46:00 - Is Chase still king? Our verdict
48:15 - A listener’s lap infant conundrum
52:30 - How to use points and miles on golf trips
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 Gunner, a flight deal analyst and travel reporter here at Thrifty Traveler. With me today is the Prince of Points. He's the king of Cards. It's Thrifty Traveler co-founder Nick Serrate. Nick, thanks for joining us.
Wow. I love the intro Gunner. Thank you. Uh, we got some big shoes, this to fill this week with, uh, with Kyle on vacation, but, uh.
Looking forward to, to chatting, travel and, uh, getting into some of these topics we have to, to talk about today.
Yeah, I would say medium shoes at best for Kyle Potter. Um, I wanted to bring you on today 'cause you wrote a really good story for our website asking a really simple question with a, a not so simple answer.
It was, is Chase still the king of travel rewards? Uh, we're gonna dive into that and we're gonna look. Uh, at an unlikely competitor of Chase's that has kind of upended the way that you and I are both thinking about this stuff now. But first I wanted to find something out, Nick, because you're filling in for Kyle Potter, who's out this week.
He's on a well-deserved vacation. Um, and on that vacation, he's probably like doing everything perfectly and not making any mistakes. If you listen to our travel Mistakes episode from a few weeks ago, you know that I'm a bit of a messy traveler. Uh. Nick, do you have any memorable travel mistakes that you can share with the team?
Uh, gunner, I feel like you're gonna sympathize with, uh, with this story. Um. I, I do have a good travel mistake story that I would love to share here. Uh, so my older brother got married in Las Vegas in 2015, so this is quite a while ago. I was pretty young at the time and I was the, the best man of the wedding.
Uh, and, uh, so it was a, it was a Saturday wedding at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. There was probably a hundred people that, that came to the, to the wedding and, uh. It's like an hour before the wedding is supposed to start on Saturday. I mosey on up to the room to start getting ready, get my suit on and everything.
I get outta the shower and start laying out my stuff and I realize I'm missing my white dress shirt that is supposed to go under my suit. Where is my shirt? So I called my mom who's in a different room. I was like, yeah, have you seen my my dress shirt by chance? She's like, why would I have seen your dress shirt?
So I can't find the dress shirt. There's like 30 minutes before the wedding, and. I'm panicking, absolutely panicking. So I go to my mom's room, I'm like, I don't have a white dress shirt. She just gives me this look like you are an idiot. Um, so we go downstairs into the lobby. I start talking to one of the concierges, like, where can I buy a white dress shirt?
Like very quickly. I needed in like 30 minutes. And he is like, unfortunately. Not anywhere cheap, but there's, uh, there's a, there's some shops in the Bellagio that you could probably find something. So the Bellagio is not a place you wanna be buying a cheap white dress shirt 30 minutes before you are the best man in your brother's wedding.
Uh, so lo and behold, I end up in Armani of all places. I've, I've got like no time. I explained the situation to the, the guy that's working and he finds this like, amazing shirt, fits me like a glove. Like, wow, this is, this is amazing. I want this shirt. And I look at the price tag and it is $600, $600. My, I'm, I'm sitting there with my mom.
I'm 25 years old, like I don't have enough money to be buying a $600 dress shirt. So my mom just gives me this look of disgust and she pays for the shirt and I put it on, put my jacket on and like run into the wedding with like two minutes to spare. Somehow during the wedding. Word gets out about this story.
So like everybody at the wedding is coming up to me like, wow, that is a really nice looking dress shirt. So my mom has not let me forget that story. So mom, if you're listening, uh, now everybody knows the story. Uh, I do still have the dress shirt. And the best part of the story is I, when I got back to Minneapolis, I went into my room and the white dress shirt was just laying there on the bed, like for some reason just never made it into my suitcase.
Uh, so I have a little bit of. Scar tissue from, from that incident and packing. So I, I usually, uh. Double check when I have something like that, that I need to pack for these days.
Oh, that's outstanding. Always double check your suit bag. Make sure that you have everything you need so you don't get stuck with a $600 white shirt from the Bellagio.
That's a really good, a really good travel mistake. I mean,
they took great care of me. I was trying the shirt on. They made me a drink. I was, I was loving it until I saw the price tag and then my mom had to bail me out. Just an ultimate loser move.
That's what moms are for. I bet you that she would do it again for you.
Uh, that's an awesome story. Okay. Today on the show, we are reexamining if Chase is still the king of Travel rewards. Plus we're talking about a potential government owned Spirit Airlines. Two points programs that are getting worse and we're checking in with our friends at the White Lotus, all that and more.
This is back to.
All right. Introducing the show this week was Nick's daughter, Elan Serrati. It's too bad that that little girl doesn't have any energy. Huh? Nick, that was awesome. Uh, that was from your trip, your spring break trip down to Sedona. How was that?
Uh, that was awesome. We, uh, we spent three nights in Sedona, and then we went up to, I should say, down to Scottsdale for the, for the remainder of the trip.
Uh, I love Sedona. I hadn't, I'd been there when I was really little. I didn't really remember it, but, uh, the temperature was like high sixties, low seventies. Uh, we did, we did some great family friendly hikes. Um, yeah, we had a, we had a great time. I'd highly recommend it.
That's awesome. Um, that looks like a really, really great trip.
I don't know who needs to hear this, but that random airport wifi you just connected to. Yeah, it's probably not the safest move. We've all done it, checking emails, logging into accounts, booking flights, all while connected to unsecured public wifi without thinking twice about the risks. And the thing is, on those networks, your data can actually be exposed or intercepted, which is obviously not ideal when you're traveling.
That's why I use Surf Shark VPN when I travel A VPN basically encrypts your internet connection, so everything you do online stays private and secure, even on sketchy public wifi. And you can change your virtual location too, which is super handy. For example, if you're traveling abroad and you wanna watch your usual shows or access content from back home, you can just switch your location and still use everything like you normally would.
It takes two quick taps to turn on, and with one subscription you can use it on unlimited devices. They also have features like Surf Shark Alert, which can notify you of things like your credit card information are ever leaked online, so you can take action right away. Surf Shark also offers a 30 day money back guarantee, so you can try it risk free.
So go to surf shark.com/thrifty four. That's the number four, or use code Thrifty four at checkout. To get four extra months of Surf Shark, VPN, you can also find that link in code in the show notes. All right, back to the show. Alright, let's get into something hot and something cold. And of course I've tacked on something stupid this week too, but we're gonna start with something hot.
Um, you and I, Nick, we're both fans of the HBO series, the White Lotus. It's a comedy drama. Set at a different five star resort every season, um, for a few months now, we've known the show was heading to the French Riviera, uh, and we assumed they would pick one of the Four Seasons resorts there because each of the first three seasons was out of four Seasons, uh, in Maui, in Tarina, Sicily, and in Como, Thailand.
Um, but now that production on season four is underway, we found out that the White Lotus dumped the Four Seasons. According to a report from Skift, the white Lotus has begun filming season four in the French Riviera at both. You ready for this pronunciation? Nick Ael, Chateau de Ard in San Ee, are you French I I am, as you can hear.
Uh, and. At the most importantly, at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, which is part of the Unbound collection by Hyatt. Uh, that means for the first time points and miles, sickos, like you and me, can get in on the white Lotus action after the show wraps filming. Um, it's a category eight hotel. It can be booked for as low as 35,000 points per night on off peak dates, and as many as 45,000 World of Hyatt points per night on peak.
Dates, uh, first Nick. Um, depending on what Mike White does to this hotel, what kind of atrocities occur there? Are you interested in staying at the hotel Martinez?
Uh, yeah, absolutely. I think this is one of those properties where I, I believe season four's at this point likely not gonna air until 2027, but I feel like once this airs and people see the property and realize it's a Hyatt that can be booked at points, demand is gonna go crazy.
And then I think the second piece of that is, uh, we, we now have a date for Hyatt's big upcoming devaluation. So, uh, May 20th, uh, Hyatt's new award chart changes go into, go into place. And instead of like the off peak standard and peak pricing that exists today, uh, there's gonna be five new tiers. And I think the, the hardest hit of those is going to be the top end, the category sevens and the category eights.
So while you can book it today for 35, 40 and 45,000 points, I have to imagine that demand is gonna go crazy. And this one's gonna be a property that's gonna cost 70, 75,000 points. Um, I did just check actually this morning, and you can still book this all the way out into May of next year. And there is pretty solid availability at that 35, 40, 40 5,000 points per night price point.
So yeah, I would love to stay here. Um. I, I would love to stay at the, the Four Seasons properties, uh, that have, that have been, um, the setting for, for season one, two, and three. But, uh. It hard to do with points.
Yeah. Really, really hard to do with points. I think, uh, booking this way out in next spring when the white lotus might actually be airing would be kind of cool to watch an episode while you're sitting in the hotel that it was filmed at would be pretty sweet.
Um, alright Nick, uh, second most important question here. Do you think it's time for a points and miles storyline in the White Lotus? I, it's all about these luxury travelers, but I want. I want like a fish outta water points and Miles nerd who, you know, booked this hotel that he can't afford. You know, I I I, I have this storyline in my head and I think they need to do it.
I think there's something there.
It would, it would be incredible. I think you have a Hyatt globalist that's complaining about his breakfast benefit and trying to demand the late checkout. And he is, you know, just rubbing elbows with, uh, with all the, all the. The standard characters in the, in the White Lotus, I think it would be amazing.
We have to do it. All right, let's pivot to something cold. Um, Avianca Life, miles and Air Canada, Aeroplan are two darlings of points and miles, especially when you need to book Star Alliance flights. They're the go-to programs for Booking United and Swiss and Tap Air Portugal and Lufthansa and other star lines carriers.
Uh, this week they both treated travelers to some higher rates, unfortunately. Um. There are two devaluations to talk about. They're not exactly created equal. I would say life miles in life. Miles form did theirs overnight with no warning. Uh, it affects overseas united flights and economy and business class raising rates 15 to 21%.
Um. A week ago, a united business class flight to Europe would cost you 80,000 life miles each way. Now it's over 92,000 each way for the same flights. And it affected partners like Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, and tap in all cabins. Uh, bringing those redemptions that were as low as 55,000 miles each way up to 81,000 miles each way.
Instead, Nick, when I started here and you guys were, were. Training me in the world of points and miles, like life Miles was the hack what happened?
Yeah. I mean, well, I mean, to start with, this is the third time life miles is devalued in 14 months. So, you know, from that perspective it's, it's just getting even hard to like.
To put much stock in, in the rates. Um, you know, if you're trying to, to save up for, for a potential redemption, uh, they're just showing that the, the goalposts keep moving. Um, and I think in, like you said, importantly, they keep doing this without any, any notice. And, you know, Aeroplan also added an evaluation, which we're gonna talk about shortly, and they're at least giving members, you know, a little more than a month to, to do something about it.
Um, but I think with life miles, the big thing for me is like, the whole pitch for a long time was like you can put up with the, the really subpar website and the, the subpar customer service, which you know all too much about with your Gunner Olson, Olson Olson story. Um, but you did that because the rates were, were good and worth it.
And you know, for me personally, right now, it. I'm not sure that the, the math just doesn't really work for me anymore. I'd rather just use Aeroplan Customer service is better, the website is substantially better. Um, and, you know, depending on what you're booking, the rates are just, they're, they're not that much different.
Yeah. And I would also add that, you know, getting Aeroplan miles from all the different transfer partners, I, I think is a little bit easier. Uh, Avianca has Citi, which does not have Aeroplan, but, and then I think they also have Wells Fargo, but, uh. The, the points and miles that I typically have, I can get those to Aeroplan easier than I can get to Avianca.
So for me personally, the case for using Avianca is almost. Uh, it's almost gone. I, I just am not sure if I want to even engage with it anymore,
especially when you consider that the change fee is $150 and the cancel fee is $200, uh, for life miles bookings, which is just so much higher than anybody else right now.
And it's, you know, you. B bundle that into everything that you just said, and it's just making it really hard to give life miles a shot. So let's talk about, uh, on the other side of the things this Air Canada Aeroplan devaluation. Um, there is some advanced warning here. Their updates don't go into effect until June 1st.
So this gives everybody more than a month to prepare. Um, they're, the increases are pretty small. I think the most noticeable one for US travelers will be those star alliance partners. So the taps, the Austrians, the Swiss, those, a lot of those flights are going from 70,000 to 75,000. Uh, it's not the craziest jump, but you know, those are meaningful points for some people.
Um, the kind of the shortest. Flights over to Europe. The ones from JFK and Newark and Boston are gonna stay at 60,000, which is nice. Those aren't changing. Um, the intra Europe business class awards are actually going down. Uh, and some economy awards are going down as well. Those like shortest, uh, north America to Europe and North America to Asia Awards are gonna go down in this too.
So there is some, some silver linings here, but it's. Definitely the partner awards and the first in business class awards are definitely going up across the board, but again, these are much more modest changes than what Life Miles has done. And you get a month to book at the current rates before those go into effect on, uh, June 1st.
Any thoughts on Air Canada's announcement, Nick?
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, they certainly don't have to give that advanced warning. Um, so the fact that they are doing that is, is quite nice. I would say if you have, uh, you know, plans to, to book a. A star alliance business class, flight to Europe for, for next summer, whenever it is.
I would say get booking or at least kind of get your plan together. Like you mentioned, you know, jumping up 5,000 points on those, on those US to, to Europe. It's not, it's not earth shattering, but uh. If you can save yourself five to 10,000 points if you're booking for, for two people, um, you know, just, just get booking it soon.
Um, yeah, like you said, I'm not, I'm not too bent outta shape about this one. Um, there's, there's literally no points program that's going to get cheaper, so this is kind of inevitable as, as time goes on. Um, and I think, you know, a, a jump of. Talking specifically here about the US to, to Europe business class, 5,000 miles is, is relatively insignificant.
Obviously it still hurts, but, um, it's, it's not something I'm gonna lose too much sleep over.
Yeah, for sure. Um, notably, neither of these programs announced that taxes and fees were going up, but programs never announced the taxes and fees are going up. We just catch them when they do it later. So, uh, I'm hoping that we don't get hit too hard with a taxes and fees bump like we've seen with so many other, uh, programs in recent.
Months because of the, uh, rising jet fuel prices. Okay, let's pivot to something stupid. Nick and I have a proposal for you. A deal proposal, okay? You give me your tax dollars and I will give you a fledgling ultra low cost airline in its second bankruptcy in many years. In a bad economy that's hitting low cost travelers hardest, that hasn't been profitable in a long time, even though every other airline is showing record profits in an industry that's increasingly reliant on the premium traveler.
Nick, are you excited about a deal that would have the US government loaning spirit $500 million in exchange for a 90% stake in the airline? Because that's what's being reported out there?
No, uh, no. I am not excited about that. Um, I mean, where, where do you even start with this one? I think, uh. You know, this, this proposed bailout, there's this, there's this, there's so many issues with it.
Spirit's currently in their second bankruptcy in, in what, the last two years?
Yeah.
And what, what is this money going to do for the airline without a, without a business pivot? Um, I think United, CEO, Scott Kirby said last week during the earnings call, uh, that that spirits business model right now is just fundamentally flawed.
And I would, I would agree with that. Um, also, I think, you know, we've been long, we, we've been fans of spirit for a long time and the, the biggest reason for that is where Spirit exists. They, they play a really important role in keeping fares, low carriers like Delta, United, Southwest American, they have to compete on price when Spirit is, is.
In the markets that they're competing on. So that has been, you know, for a long time the reason to keep spirit viable and, and why we needed those low cost carriers like Spirit and Frontier to, to be successful. However, uh, you know, something that we looked at last week and Jackson Newman on our team wrote a, wrote a really good story about this.
Um, according to Sirium data Spirit right now is less than one and a half percent of total available seat miles in the us. So when you're making the argument that you need a healthy spirit to keep fares low, um, they are already just such an insignificant part of, of the US fair market. And I would say, you know, one and a half percent, but I would say a lot of that one and a half percent is probably in their, their home base of Fort Lauderdale in Orlando, where they do have a lot of frequencies.
But I think like if you look at it from kind of a macro level across the us they're just, they have become very insignificant. And I think it's at the point where if spirit goes away. What does that actually do to, to faires holistically across the us? I'm not sure it really moves the needle much.
Yeah. I think, you know, the, you you mentioned it, the health of the low cost airlines broadly is important to the airfare climate.
But like, you know, spirit Spirit's gone from Minneapolis and when they left those faires to Atlanta and Detroit, the, and Fort Lauderdale, the routes that they were running went up for sure. Um, but you know. Is it going to affect fares in Grand Forks, North Dakota? And is it gonna affect fares in Pasco, Washington and in, you know, Greenville, South Carolina?
Probably not. Uh, spirit doesn't have robust operations there, and they're not their pricing powers and helping there. Um, so Jackson made the point, and I was at first when, when, you know, people were again, dunking on spirit after this news. I was, I I was quick to rush to. Our usual line of, uh, a healthy Spirit is important to you, whether you like flying spirit or not.
And Jackson made the point that I think I'm, I'm coming around on is that spirit is now so insignificant with just one. I mean, they, they had to shrink during these bankruptcies and they shrunk so much. I mean, at one point they were flying like almost 5% of available seat miles, and now they're down to 1.5% of available seat miles.
That is such an insignificant air airline that, uh, if, if they were to go away, it, it wouldn't. Impact things that much. And if the alternative is us pumping $500 million into spirit, that they'll definitely lose. Uh, I think that, you know, letting spirit go at this point is probably the best course of action.
So, um, a really interesting read from Jackson. I, I recommend, I recommend you, uh, go check it out. We'll put a link in the show notes. Um, but anything else on spirit?
Yeah, I think, uh, you know, the other big thing for me here is like the precedence that this sets for, for other airlines that get into. To a bad situation in the future.
This proposal, this $500 million loan, we'll call it, um, gives the US government a 90% stake in spirit, which is, which is completely unprecedented, and there's never been anything like that in the history of the US aviation industry. Um, and then so the question becomes, you know, what happens when, when Frontier has a problem, or Sun Country or whoever it is?
Um, they have, they're setting this precedent that, that this is an option. And I think that's just, it's, it's dangerous, number one. Um, and then the other piece, I think, you know, with Spirit, like they have a lot of issues. Um, the, the whole push into premium travel in the last couple years here in the US really coming out of the, out of the, the pandemic, uh, has not been good for spirit people.
People are spending on travel. They, they want a more premium experience, which is not really what Spirit offers. Um, and then I would also argue that they just have a brand problem, like people associate spirit with just like a bad travel experience and I don't know, without like a complete transformation of the airline, like how you, how you get around that.
So yeah, I, I'm not, again, I'm not rooting for spirit to fail, but it's, we're, we're getting to the point of. Um, you know, what, what role are they actually playing in the, in the aviation space right now?
Yeah, definitely. Well put. Um, alright, let's get into your bread and butter. We're gonna talk credit cards and we're gonna talk specifically about if Chase is still the king of travel rewards.
Okay. It's time for the extra mile where we dig a little deeper on an important travel topic. And this week, uh, I caught myself reshaping the way I think about travel rewards because of a story. That you wrote recently, Nick, and I wanted you to talk me through it. So the story, if you're interested, is called, is Chase still the king of Travel Rewards?
Nick, can you just gimme a 30,000 feet overview of why you started writing this story?
Yeah, so I like, like many people in the Points in Miles World have been collecting Chase ultimate rewards for forever. I had the Chase Sapphire Reserve was, I'm sorry, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, uh, was was the first travel card I got back in 20.
12, I think, um, something right around that time. And I would say since that time I've had some balance of chase points in my account. Um, I went to make a redemption. Uh, I booked, uh, a business class flight on Iberia from Boston to, uh, to Madrid on the, the new A 3 21 Neo, I know you've flown that product.
And so I transferred. There was a transfer bonus going on. I transferred some of my, or I should say, all of my Chase, uh, s. Chase ultimate rewards points to British Airways to make that booking. And I was sitting there looking at my balance, and it was at zero, and I haven't seen that for a really long time.
And then I started asking myself, do I actually care about this? Like, what am I using Chase points for at this point? Um, and the, the more I thought about it, I was like, I'm not sure if I actually really care that I don't have any chase points right now. Um, and the primary reason for that is I started to think about.
What am I actually using my Chase points for? And I would say the vast majority of them over the last 10 years has been transfers to Hyatt. Um, I used to use the, the Chase travel portal when it was, you could get the one point, excuse me, the 1.25. Uh, cents per point. Or if you had the reserve, you could get the 1.5.
Uh, so there was situations where, you know, if there was a cheap flight, you could make it cheaper and that redemption made sense. That has since gone away. It's now just one-to-one. Um, and then just looking at the other transfer partners that Chase has, there's really nothing unique or specific about them.
You can get a lot of those. Miles or points from, from other banks. And I think what really put the nail in the coffin for me here is, uh, back in February I got the, the new built Palladium card, which, uh, the built 2.0 rollout. If, if you guys have been listening to the show and just following the headlines, that did not go well at all.
It was, it was a little bit of a mess. Um, but I'm. I kept looking at the card and, you know, thinking like there's some, there's some real value here. And you look at built transfer partners, um, you know, Hyatt number one. So Chase is not the only way to get Hyatt points anymore. And then you look at, they have Japan Airlines, they have Alaska, they have all the other partners that I would really transfer from Chase.
Um, and I think the big thing for me is the, the built Palladium card now is a two x everywhere card. So it's, it started earning a lot of my spend. The palladium card came with a welcome bonus. So the built has, I would say over the last couple years, built up a really impressive stable of transfer partners.
But the, the kind of the untalked about thing was there wasn't really a great way to earn a meaningful amount of build points. So I just didn't necessarily care a whole lot. Um, you know, now I'm earning bill points at a pretty, pretty meaningful clip. I'm paying my mortgage with it, which previously wasn't possible.
And like I said, it's, it's really replaced my, my catchall spending that used to go to the Venture X because I'm earning two x on the bill card with, uh, on anything that doesn't earn a bonus elsewhere. So all of a sudden I have like this pretty significant balance of bill points and I start thinking about like, what am I gonna use these for?
It's the stuff that I used to use Chase points for. So that is kind of the, the genesis of why I started thinking about this. Like, do I actually care that I don't have Chase points anymore? I'm not sure.
Yeah, that's really interesting and that that is the kind of thesis that made me reconsider what I was doing with my own Chase points as well.
But I wanna back up a little bit and just talk about like, how did Chase come to power in the first place? You know, what, what made Chase points so essential?
Yeah.
I mean, our recommendation for a long time and. Maybe it still is, maybe it still isn't. Is the first card you should pick up is the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
It's what I did. It's what you did. And I'm sure many, many other Thrifty travelers out there did the same thing. Um, how did Chase come to power?
Yeah, and I would say that I, I would still recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred as a, as a great place to start for, for really anybody getting into points and miles.
But I think the, you know, how they became kind of the, the default defacto, number one? Um, number one, the Chase Ultimate Rewards program was kind of. Was kind of, uh, revolutionary when it came out. They were the first, the, the ultimate rewards existed before membership Rewards. Capital One didn't have, you know, their, their transfer partners until I think like 2018.
2019. Um, so Chase was really the one that kind of invented this whole like, transferable credit card points ecosystem and, you know. With Hyatt and all of the other airlines at that point that you could transfer to, it just made them like, this is something that you need to focus on. And so Chase put this rule in, which I'm sure many people listening to this podcast are familiar with, called the 5 24 Rule.
And essentially what that is, uh, is it means that if you have opened five credit cards from any bank, not just Chase in the last 24 months, chase will automatically decline you for. Any of their credit cards, regardless of your, your history with Chase, with your credit score, anything like that. So it became like, you gotta start with Chase, fill those spots with Chase because you're, they're not gonna be an option later.
And that was something that Chase put in place to kind of, to combat the, the people just opening and closing cards to, to earn these points. Um, so, you know, I think that is really how it became like the, you gotta start with Chase. Chase is important. And I, and I still certainly agree with that. If you're just getting started, like there's really.
No reason not to start with those Chase cards. But then for somebody like me, who's I'm over 5 24, um, and then to get, you know, underneath 5 24 again so I can start opening Chase cards, it's gonna require me to, to really shift what I'm doing. And that's the question of like, does it matter for somebody like me to, to go back and get some of these chase cards again?
Maybe. But I'm not gonna, I don't really want to change my approach and, and not open other cards and passive on opportunities. To get below 5 24 again. 'cause I just am not sure I care much about it anymore.
Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely interesting. I think, um, you know that when it was explained to me why, why you always start with Chase, it's 5 24 and then of course Hyatt, um, points and miles.
People love Hyatt. They have the lowest redemption rates on. I mean, they used to, at least until this devaluation, have the lowest redemption rates, uh, on these luxury hotels all over the world. And most importantly, they were the only transfer partner, um, for Hyatt at that point. But anything else to add on Hyatt on this?
I think that's kind of the gist of it. You mentioned at earlier as
well. I think, uh, you know, unfortunately for, for Chase. The Hyatt Angle's kind of getting hit from two different sides. Like Chase isn't the only transfer partner anymore and it's getting devalued. So like what was once considered and probably still is like Chase's best transfer partner, there's other ways to get 'em, and Hyatt is majorly devaluing the program.
So it just, it, it kind of gets hit from a couple different angles there.
Yeah. Okay. So I would say kind of chase's. Um, you know, I want to be clear, and you would say this too, chase is still not bad. These points are not worthless. They're really, really good points still. And, you know, having Hyatt as a transfer partner, having United as a transfer partner, all these other transfer partners are great.
If you have Chase points, you're still doing awesome. Yep. Like this is not a bad bank to be working with. This is not, um, you know, these are still points that you should be looking to earn and spend. Um, I think. We kind of started to sour a little bit on the Chase program as a whole when this new Chase Sapphire Reserve rollout happened.
And we've talked about this on the show, but can you just explain to me what the changes broadly, I mean Yeah, I know there were a lot of 'em, but broadly what the changes to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card were?
Yeah, so last June, this had been rumored for a while, but, uh, you know, as, as all the banks are, are doing, they're, they're really.
Going hard into premium travel. Chase had rolled out the Chase Sapphire Reserve in 2016. It was like the first real competitor to the Amex Platinum, which has been around forever. Uh, at the time the the card's annual fee was, was $450 and it came with a $300 kind of general use travel credit. So like anything you spent on travel, that credit still exists today, by the way, but anything you spent on travel would just automatically credit back.
And so, you know, most people getting. A premium travel card probably don't have too much trouble spending $300 in travel in a year. Um, and so it came with priority pass lounge access and, and really after you back out that $300 credit, you're looking at like $150 for a, for a premium card. So Chase like knocked it outta the park with the, with the Sapphire Reserve when it first launched.
And I think there was actual reports back in 2016 that the card was so popular that the metal that they were using to make the card, they ran out of it. So they were like sending people temporary plastic reserve cards until, until they were able to, to get the metal again, to, to produce those cards. Um, fast forward a few years, 2020 comes around, they increase the annual fee up to five 50 at a couple, I would say mediocre benefits.
And then, uh, fast forward again to last summer in June, they made a, a really big change. Probably the biggest change, not, not probably the biggest change that they've made to the card since it launched in 2016. They push the annual fee from five 50 up to 7 95. So still, still cheaper than the the MX Platinum, but I would say arguably requires much more work to actually get the 7 95 out of it.
And, uh, for me personally, the benefits just don't do a whole lot for me. Where I think, uh, we have a lot of. Content. And we've written a lot of stories on the website about how, you know, Amex increased the annual fee on the platinum card up to 8 95 and people were like overwhelmingly excited about it.
And I think the, the value proposition and the benefits are, are solid. And I think, you know, if you know how to. To work it. You can easily get that back. And as somebody that currently has the Sapphire Reserve, I'm gonna be dumping it when the annual fee comes due. But it is a lot of work and it's like a lot of stuff that just doesn't really move the needle for me.
So, you know, there's like a, there's a $5 DoorDash credit and then there's two $10 DoorDash credits, but they can't be used on restaurants, so it's gotta be like. Things on DoorDash that are not a restaurant. So it, I just like find myself doing things that I wouldn't normally do just to use these credits and I just despise doing stuff like that.
So they also removed, um, the card used to be three x on travel everywhere, so you'd earn three x points per dollar on any travel purchase. They got rid of that, which a lot of people have been, have been pretty upset about. So overall, I think the. I, I think they kind of swung and missed at the new, at the new Sapphire Reserve, and I think that is definitely part of my equation of like, do I still care about?
Chase points the way that I used to.
Yeah. So, okay. So, so Chase, you know, uh, maybe isn't as important as we thought that they were before. You know, still, still really good points to earn. They're just not vital because that 5 24 maybe is not as important and they have some overlapping transfer partners with a lot of other banks.
Let's talk about how built has changed this equation. You touched on it a little bit, but I want to frame this for a, with a question from Jennifer who wrote in. Has anyone at the TT staff decided to risk the new built cards complex mind-boggling math equations and sign up in order to collect the points on their mortgage?
I've run my particular scenario through some built calculators, and it seems like I can make it worthwhile, but I'm curious about real world experiences. I'd love to hear from anyone there if making it work is worth it. Um. So you, you have to Jennifer's question, you have done this. Um, can you take me through kind of, uh, first before we get into like your personal status, uh, builts origins?
Like how did, how did Built come around? They're still relatively new in this space. Um, like take me back to when Built started and what they've done to this space sense. Yeah.
Yeah. So Built, built came under the scene, um, pre pandemic. I, I don't know exactly the year. Um, but their, their whole value proposition was like.
People are not earning points or not being rewarded for their largest monthly expense, which it was rent at the time. There wasn't a way to, to earn on mortgage. Um, and so that was the whole value proposition. They had a, they had a no annual fee, uh, credit card through Wells Fargo. And if you made, as long as you made five purchases a month on that card and you paid your mortgage on the card, you would get, you would earn the points fee free so you could pay your mortgage, not pay a fee.
Um, and so a lot of people were, were kind of starting to, to game the system a little bit where they would. Built calls this like the five banana crowd. So people would go and buy like five individual bananas to qualify for their rent payment and then not put any other purchases on the card. Um, but over the years built has like really, really built up their stable of transfer partners.
And I think objectively, if you look at just builts program, I, I think, no question, they're probably the most valuable points out there. The hard part for a long time was actually earning them in a meaningful amount, especially for somebody that, that's a homeowner like myself. Like I didn't have the option to earn on rent.
The card didn't have a signup bonus. Um, so unless you, you know, you were really going hard on the, on the multipliers, like the three x dining, things like that, it just wasn't really feasible to earn, to earn a lot of bill points. And so I didn't necessarily care about their amazing stable of transfer partners.
But like I said, they, they, what they're calling built 2.0, they rolled out three new credit cards, including a premium card called the Palladium, which has a $495 annual fee. Um, and then just kind of back to like the, the whole Chase discussion, when you look at built transfer partners like Chase has, United, Southwest Hyatt.
They are also the issuer of those, those, uh, um, co-branded credit cards. So Chase kind of had like exclusively those three, those three partners, all three of them are now part or transfer partners to, to built. And so I don't know how much I'll actually use those, but like the, the case for like having Chase points because you have these exclusive transfer partner options is.
Is gone. They're, no, they're not really exclusive with any of them anymore.
So, as Jennifer mentioned, and as we've talked about on the show, the built 2.0 rollout was very confusing. It's, uh, our jobs to understand this stuff and it took us a while. Um, we had an episode of the show where we were basically asking what's going on here and who's gonna be able to possibly make this work?
What was there any like, uh. Perk or bonus or something included in there that made you decide to tip, dip your toe into the water other than, you know, maybe, uh, your just professional curiosity.
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I would say I, I went with the built palladium, which is the, the $495 fee card. And I think for me, the, probably the most attractive piece of that was earning two x on, on every dollar you spend.
Um. I have a lot of non bonus spend. My, my youngest daughter is still in daycare and fortunately, or unfortunately, I guess, I'm not sure which one, uh, you can pay, I can pay her her daycare bill with a credit card, which would otherwise earn one x. Um, I had previously been paying that with a Capital One Venture X Card, so I'd earn, I was earning two x, so I moved that over to, to my Bill Palladium card.
Um, and I would say again, objectively build points are just more valuable than Capital One. And so what I've found since February, um, is that my built palladium card has really just taken over as my kind of everything else catchall card, um, earning two x built, and I had, I didn't even actually set up my mortgage payments until like two weeks ago.
April was the first month that I did it. So that was really the big thing for me is like I can earn two x of the most valuable points on, on every, like, non bonus or non. On spending that would otherwise earn one x and that was super attractive to me. Card has a four $95 annual fee. It comes with a couple, uh, semi-annual hotel credits, and then the whole complication of, uh, built cash and how you actually kind of engage with this card again is super confusing.
Like Jennifer said, you know, those calculators I think are really helpful and I think probably more than any other card or points program, like the answer of whether this makes sense is super personal. Like, what, what are you spending on? Do you have a mortgage? Are you paying rent? Um, you know, all of those things kind of go into this.
But like Jennifer, I kind of sat down and, and did the math and I was like, I, I think I can make this work. But I think the thing that's like really important about this is you do kind of have to commit to built as being kind of a, like your everyday workhorse card. And I say that because I chose the, the built cash path, which without getting too deep into this built, has two different ways that you can essentially earn points on your, on your mortgage and rent payment.
And one of them. Which was the original one that they rolled out, and then there was a lot of confusion and backlash. So they rolled out another option like two or three days later, back in February. But, uh, I went with the version where for every dollar you spend, you earn two x bill points plus this like separate currency that they call built cash.
So. You earn two x bill points and then 4% built cash back. And the way that that works is built cash is essentially how you pay your mortgage fee free. Um, and to just use some nice round numbers here. For every 30, for every thousand dollars of your mortgage payment, you can use $30 of built cash to cover that.
Then you'll earn the one x. So if you have a $2,000 mortgage payment. You gotta kick in $60 of built cash and you earn one x on the mortgage. So to earn built cash, you gotta be spending on the card. And that's why I say you gotta kind of, you gotta kind of hit your wagon to it a little bit. Like it doesn't need to be all of your spend, but it needs to be enough that you're gonna cover your monthly mortgage payment with that built cash.
Okay, so, um. I am not Jennifer, but I have the same question as Jennifer because I am built Palladium Curious. I, I think this card would probably make some sense to me because of some of the things you said, and I want you to tell me if, if you think I'm right or wrong, I also have a daycare bill, uh, a insanely expensive daycare bill, uh, that I think I could put on this card to earn two x and most importantly, get that kind of built cash back in the coffers so that I can earn on my mortgage.
I also have a mortgage, another insanely expensive mortgage. Um, so. Do you think that this makes sense? If, if you have like big expenses like that, you know, I'm gonna have to, like you said, workhorse this card a little more. I'm probably gonna have to spend on other things, but I, I have no problem spending money, Nick.
I've never had a problem spending money. Um, do you, you know, and I, I do use like Alaska. Um, is one of the programs that I use the most to book flights. Uh, I really love using Alaska. I'm really curious about the J program, which I haven't really had the option to use. I have Capital One points too, but not as many.
And the transfer ratio isn't as good with Capital One as it is with Built. And of course, I, you know, I'm, I'm in the high, uh, the Hyatt program quite a bit, and they also have transfer partners like Avios, uh, et cetera. Um. Plus, you know, on, on, uh, tomorrow, I guess as you listen to this Friday May 1st they have their rent day promotion to avios, where if you transfer obvious, you can get up to a 100% transfer bonus.
The lowest level built people like me would get a 40% transfer bonus, which is still really, really good. Um, but they have these awesome rent day promotions too. Is it worth it for someone like me to get into the built ecosystem, do you think?
So, I mean, I would say yes. And the, the, the reason I say that for me, I can put my daycare bill on the built palladium and just the built cash I earn from that alone.
This is, this is kind of a depressing thing to say, but the built cash I earn from, from the daycare bill alone pretty much covers what I would need to earn on my mortgage, like the, the 4% back that I'm earning on that. Um. I do have to, you know, spend a little bit more just to, to fully cover that. But I think importantly with the built palladium, they give you, part of the welcome bonus is you get $300 in built cash right away, and then every year you hold the card, you get $200.
So they, they give you 200 bucks to start the year every year. So there are other ways to use built cash. And one of the ways that I've used it, uh, a handful of times now is you can, you can spend $200 of built cash. I know this is confusing, but you can spend $200 of built cash and add what they call a points accelerator.
So basically what that does is it makes every dollar you spend, instead of getting two x on it, you get three x on it. So, and up to 5,000 bucks. So you can activate that, uh, five times a year. So you can do it up to 25,000. So. Again, I have enough built cash to cover my mortgage, and then I have some leftover, and I think importantly, you, you can't have any built cash left at the end of the year.
It, it doesn't roll over, so you gotta kind of find ways to use it. Yeah. Um, but that makes my daycare payment three x.
Wow.
And so to me that's like pretty significant. I'm earning bill points at a, at a clip that again makes them super valuable just 'cause of what you can do with them. But I would say if you have a lot of.
Spend that would not earn a bonus on another card, which I think daycare is a perfect example of that. It's, to me, it's right now at this, at this moment in phase of my life, it's kind of a no brainer.
Yeah. That's awesome. Um, I think it does make sense to me hear that, honey, we're getting a bill card. Um, I, but I think you, you put this in good way.
One question I have, um, about just kinda the mechanisms of bill cash, I'm sure some people have questions about that too. So is this a, like a set it and forget it kind of mortgage thing? Or for every mortgage payment, do you have to go in and actually like apply the built ca you know, how does the mechanisms of applying built cash work?
Yeah, that's a great question. I had a lot of questions about this too. So like I said, I just, I just set up my mortgage, uh, earlier this month in the first payment. It went like just a week ago. Okay, so I wrote this up for the website just 'cause I was confused about it. So I assumed that people that we're gonna engage with Built would also be confused about this.
But the way that it works is, um, once you're ready to set it up, you go into your built account and they actually will generate like a, a routing number and an account number that are tied to your build card. And so I take the routing number and account number. I went to my mortgage servicer. And then I updated my auto pay from my actual bank account to the routing number and account number from built.
And then, so what happens is once your mortgage comes due, the auto payment hits those built numbers that charges your built card. And then pretty much immediately you, the, the bank account you have linked to build pays off the card. So it's like the same process that just built is in the middle of it, and then you're earning.
You're earning the built points on it. So, um, and the way that that works in terms of the built cash is that as long as you have the built cash in your account, you don't need to do anything. If you don't have enough to c to earn the full amount of points on your mortgage, you'll just earn points on the, the amount that you have enough built cash to cover.
So, like, again, use that two, $2,000 mortgage payment, which would require $60 in built cash. You know, if you have, if you're sitting on $200 of built cash, it'll just automatically remove the 60 you earn on your mortgage. So it took about 10 minutes to set up. Um, and admittedly, I waited a couple months just 'cause built was, it was a little bit of a dumpster fire that that rollout.
And I was like, I think I'm gonna let the dust settle on this a little bit before I start routing like thousands of dollars through this, through this rewards program on my mortgage. But, uh. Yeah, I've, uh, I paid April. It went, it went smoothly. But again, you just have to have the built cash sitting there and then it's, it's more or less autopilot.
Awesome. Well, thank you for the, the full breakdown on that. I wanna close this, uh, section with two questions. Nick, the first question, yes or no, is Chase still the king of travel rewards?
I would say that they're, they're sharing the throne Now, if that's a, if that's a way to put it, um. Again, chase was really the first to kind of introduce this whole transferable points currency and now, you know, every bank is doing it.
Um, but I think what made Chase unique in the past was, was some of the, the transfer partners that they had that other banks did not, and now built, has kind of made that irrelevant as long as you are, you know, willing to engage with, built and kinda do the things that are needed to, to really fully maximize the program.
I think it a case could be made that. They've, they've probably eaten away at Chase more than any of the other transferable currencies. Um, so again, this is it, it's, it's personal in terms of like, what are you using, what, what's most important to you? Um, but I would say like. You know, and I, I think everybody that's been in the Points world for a long time has, has treated chase as the kind of undisputed king.
Um, and I would say that they're just probably sharing the throne now. They're not, they're not as dominant as they once were.
Nice. Yeah. I, my, my second question was gonna be who is, who is on the throne now, but I think you answered it. Well, like it's kind of wide open. Um, there's, you know, of the, however many major banks you wanna say, uh, the top is, is very even right now, and you can't really go wrong with a lot of these points programs.
So it's just about earning the points that are most Yeah. Personal to you. I think that was really well said.
And I think, uh, just real quick, I think a case should always be made to, to, to diversify your points. I mean, I think you know, it, it rarely ends well for anybody that's like, I'm, I'm just, I fly Delta, I'm gonna earn sky miles.
I'm gonna go hard into Sky miles. Soon as something changes with that program, you're stuck. And I think that happens to a degree with, with flexible currencies because every one of them has like, you know, stronger ways to use them than others. Um, and when those devalue, you know, you still have other ways to use them.
But diversifying even further, like beyond just earning a flexible currency, like earning multiple flexible currencies, keeps it about as, as flexible and diversified as you can. So. Think that that's always gonna be the right approach.
Yeah. Really, really good advice there. Okay, let's help out a listener, uh, before we do a reminder to send in your welcome back videos to thrifty traveler.com/voicemail.
Okay. We have a question from Ben. He says, Hey guys, this is Ben. The one who bumped into gunner boarding our flight in Hawaii. Ben's the one that was like super handsome, like offensively handsome, like it was in a front, like he being that handsome right in front of me, in front of my wife. Come on, man. Um, Ben had a question, um, and he says, I'm not sure if you know the solution.
I recently booked some insane business class flights from Jakarta to Cairo on Qatar, on their A three 50 and on the triple seven it was only 40,000 AA miles, which is a crazy redemption. He's absolutely right about that. He says. The issue is my wife and I'll have our one-year-old with us. I contacted AA to try and get her added to our tickets, but they told me they have no way of doing so, so it has to be done by Qatar.
I then proceeded to call Qatar and got told that they have no way of doing it and that AA has to handle it, and so they're the ones who issued the tickets. After going back and forth to both sides a couple more times, they both keep saying they can't help and it's the other's responsibility and it's super frustrating.
Any idea of a way to solve this? Honestly, I don't know what to do at this point. I don't wanna cancel the tickets because the deal is so insane and it's now gone. Thanks Ben. And he says, he says, uh, open Parentes, the super good goodlooking guy with a cute family, parentes. I think Ben's getting a little full of himself.
I actually, I don't wanna help you anymore, Ben. Um, okay. Nick, you've traveled abroad with an infant before. Um. Any tips for Ben on how to get his kid added to a reservation when nobody seems to want to help you?
Yeah, this, I mean, this is so classic, uh, just in terms of award bookings that are made from, you know, one program flying on another airline and they, they both kind of try to pass responsibility back and forth.
Um. I, I, gunner and I both did some research on this yesterday and found varying answers, but from what I understand, I believe that Qatar is technically responsible for, for adding, uh, the infant to the ticket, even though you booked it with aa. So I know you've, you've already tried Qatar, but I would say, you know, get somebody on the, on the phone and ask to be, um, ask specifically for a supervisor or their, their premium desk.
My experience has been that some agents may just not actually know how to do that. So they just say that it's a's responsibility. So it's the, the age old points and miles advice of hang up call again or hookah. Um, just, I would say try a few more times until you can get an agent that, uh, that knows what's, what's going on.
But I would say overarchingly like the rules and the process for getting an infant on a ticket, just like. Across all airlines is so bad. It's just like they have rules posted of like what it's supposed to cost and it like almost never costs what it's supposed to. Um, so I know that's not super helpful, Ben, but I would, I would try to escalate your request to, to somebody higher up a guitar that probably has, uh, either the knowledge or the actual ability to, to add that to your ticket.
Yeah, I, I think our research yesterday, we, we were both spinning in circles, messaging back and forth because I, I read different things at different times, but you know, on domestic tickets here in the US the operating airline typically handles the infant reservations that's very clean and clean, cut and simple.
For international tickets, infants aren't always free. So oftentimes you'll need to pay what is almost always 10% of the cost of the adult ticket in cash. Um. But you know that, that said, like I, I did some research that said AA needs to ticket this infant. I saw had saw some things that said Qatar needs to ticket this infant.
Um, our main advice would just be keep trying until you get the best agent possible. And if you can try and call a premium desk, like Nick said, get try and get one of their better agents on the phone and at a last resort, maybe head to the airport, not on the day of travel, but way before, and try and find someone at an AA counter who maybe has, uh, a little bit more agency as well.
I'm sorry. Ben, we couldn't get you like the perfect answer other than hang up and call again. But this is a really tricky one and infant travel is like Nick said, so, so frustrating sometimes. If you'd like us to answer your questions on the podcast or if you have any feedback, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com.
We might feature your question on next week's show. Okay. Uh, as always, we're gonna close the show with on the spot and I've got a fun one for Nick. Um. Nick golf season is in full swing. Uh, I know you're an avid golfer and you love a good golf trip. What's your handicap?
Uh, I am currently at like a 12.
Okay. Which. Yeah, kids are not good for the golf handicap. There's kind of an inverse relationship with the number of kids you have and the the number at your golf handicap.
I'm a soft 19, so, uh, that shows you how that, so you love a good golf trip. Um, you have used points and miles to kind of feed your golf habit over the years.
Any fun redemptions? I know you have a, a master's story, but any other kind of fun ways you've done your own golf trips with points and miles?
Yeah. Uh, that's a good setup. I have a, I have a golf trip coming up in early June here. I'm going with seven, seven other good friends to Pinehurst in North Carolina.
Uh, so we are flying into to Raleigh and, uh, we rented a, a Mercedes Sprinter van via Turro, and all eight of us are gonna pile in with our clubs and drive, I think it's about an hour from Raleigh to Pinehurst. Uh, and we're gonna play golf for, for five days. And so the, the cool thing about this. Um, and probably one of the things that I think makes Capital One Venture Miles, uh, super cool is that if you pay for the Pinehurst Reservation with your venture card, so paying for the reservation is the hotel.
It has all your golf rounds. It's like everything that you're gonna do on the property. That transaction codes is travel because Pinehurst is a resort. So I can turn around and use Capital One miles to cover some or all of the bill. Unfortunately, I don't have enough Capital One miles or points, whatever you wanna call them.
I don't have enough to cover the whole bill, but it's a way that I'm gonna make this trip substantially cheaper. Um, and again, if you use this, uh, this method with Capital One points, it's, it's always gonna be one point equals a, um, 1 cent. So to remove, you know, a thousand dollars from the final bill, I'd have to use a hundred thousand points.
But again, capital One makes that pretty flexible, where you can apply like any amount that you, that you want. Um, and then really nicely, uh, a lot of the guys that I'm going with on this trip, uh, thanks to uh, to my advice have Capital One miles. So they've opened cards and uh, we all had to pay a $300 deposit like a year ago when we booked this trip.
Um, so a lot of them just sent me 30,000 capital one miles 'cause I paid the deposit for everybody. Um, so they sent me 30,000 capital one miles and I just was able to like, remove their charge from, from my account. So Capital One makes that easier than anybody. Um, all you have to do is call the number on the back of your card and you need the, the card number of the person you're trying to transfer to and just say like, I wanna send this many miles to this person.
It takes like five minutes. There's like, you don't have to live with the person, you don't have to be related to 'em. You can just kind of freely move Capital One miles around. So it works really well for something like this. Um, and yeah, we're, we're super excited. I've never been to Pinehurst. It's kind of a, the American golf mecca, if you will.
Um. But yeah, points and miles are gonna make this trip a lot cheaper, which I'm excited about.
That's awesome. How's, how's, what kinda shape is your game going into this trip?
Uh, I haven't swung a club in like two months.
Good. Right
where you wanna be. Yeah. Right. Where you wanna be when you're gonna spend a lot of money on a golf trip.
Um, but yeah, that's, uh, that's on my todo list for the next few months is at least get to the driving range a few times.
You're gonna birdie 18 on your last day, so your first birdie of the trip. Oh, that's awesome. That's a really good way. I know. Uh, quickly, briefly, do, um, your master's story. I know you, you saved like thousands of dollars on a master's trip.
Yeah. 'cause of your points too.
Yes. So I've entered the Master's ticket lottery like every year since 2006 or 2007. Um, you entered the lottery. Um, pretty much every year I've gotten the, I'm sorry, your, your selection was not picked. Uh, 2019, I got the email that we, I had gotten two Thursday practice, or sorry, two Thursday round tickets.
So the first round of the masters. I had to read the email a few times. I was like, wait a second. I've been, I've been rejected for like 20 years. What's going on here? Um, so that was very exciting. And then I was like, oh, crap, I have to get to Augusta where the masters is held and I need to find a place to stay, which is, which is not gonna be an easy task.
Um, so the first thing I did is I started looking at flights into Atlanta, which were crazy. I mean, every, all the flights into Atlanta were crazy. Um, however, I started looking into Charlotte, which is only like a 20 minute. Longer drive into Augusta. And there was a lot of good options. And I had aa miles and I booked, my wife and I like very reasonably on a, I can't remember exactly what the, what the price was, but we, we flew into Charlotte.
Uh, we rented, rented a car, drove to Augusta. And then, uh, again, looking for a hotel. There's not a lot of options in Augusta to begin with or Airbnb that are like reasonably priced. And, uh, I found this like really subpar Hampton Inn that, uh, the, the cash price of it was like 900 something dollars a night.
Um, but this is one place where Hilton Points can really shine, is like, they oftentimes won't necessarily track with the, the cash price when there's events like that happening. So I booked this Hampton Inn for 50,000 points a night, which felt like a, the deal of the century. Um, we got there in the room, like smelled horribly like cigarettes.
It was just not a nice hotel at all, but it, it just worked. It worked for the trip. Um, so yeah, and then if you get the master's tickets via the lottery, they're like. They're very affordable, like a hundred bucks. Um, so I had like all said and done, of course using some points and miles, but I had like less than $500 cash into that trip, which was, if you ever get the chance to go to the Masters, it's one of the coolest experiences.
Even if you're not a golf fan. Um, the course is just unbelievable. You can't have a cell phone on the grounds, so it's like everybody is engaged and talking to each other and like watching the golf. Um, it was like a time warp into the sixties. It was, it was so cool. Uh, I want to go back. I keep entering the lottery and I'll probably never get picked again, but, uh.
If you get a chance, definitely do it. There's, there's ways to make it cheaper with points and miles and, uh, it's, it's a pretty incredible experience.
If you get picked again before I get picked, I'm gonna be pretty bitter about it. Um, I also enter every year. I just, yeah, the, the whole lure of that is just is, is so cool.
And, uh, hopefully I could use some Hilton points to get out of paying a thousand bucks a night for a hotel like you did. But that's a great story. Points and Miles can help you with. Your golf game says Nick Serrate. Alright. Thank you so much for listening to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast. Rate us five stars on your platform of choice and like, and subscribe to the show on YouTube.
Send this episode to someone you know who needs a vacation. If you have feedback for us, send me a noted podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We'd love to hear from you there. This episode was produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas and edited for video by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Teso. Nick, thanks for coming.
Thanks for having me on.
See ya.