This week on the show, the guys are joined by Alex and Jess from the Points Talk Squad (formerly Travel Mom Squad) who spend the show teaching (and sometimes counseling) Gunnar how to travel with an infant! They dive into what it’s like having parents who are proficient in points and miles, how to survive delays as a family, how to earn and redeem even more points for bigger groups, and continually reminding Gunnar that everything is going to be OK. Plus, they take a listener question about Capital One Venture card sign-up strategies and get divided by the toughest On the Spot question yet. Leave us a voicemail for our upcoming holiday episode! We want to hear about your trips, big wins, and burning travel questions. Leave us a 1-minute voice message at thriftytraveler.com/voicemail and you might be featured.
This week on the show, the guys are joined by Alex and Jess from the Points Talk Squad (formerly Travel Mom Squad) who spend the show teaching (and sometimes counseling) Gunnar how to travel with an infant! They dive into what it’s like having parents who are proficient in points and miles, how to survive delays as a family, how to earn and redeem even more points for bigger groups, and continually reminding Gunnar that everything is going to be OK. Plus, they take a listener question about Capital One Venture card sign-up strategies and get divided by the toughest On the Spot question yet.
Leave us a voicemail for our upcoming holiday episode! We want to hear about your trips, big wins, and burning travel questions. Leave us a 1-minute voice message at thriftytraveler.com/voicemail and you might be featured.
This week’s episode is brought to you by Bilt. Earn points on rent and around your neighborhood by visiting joinbilt.com/thrifty. Make sure to use our link so they know we sent you!
00:00 - Welcoming the Points Talk Squad & having a parent who’s proficient at points and miles
04:15 - Something hot: How “Travel Mom Squad” became the “Points Talk Squad” and how it all began
11:15 - Something cold: Surviving delays and cancellations when flying with a family
15:50 - A word from our sponsor: Bilt Rewards! Earn points on rent and make your entire neighborhood more rewarding with Bilt
17:30 - The Extra Mile: The core truths, best tips & points strategies for traveling families from the experts at the Points Talk Squad!
45:00 - Send us a voicemail at thriftytraveler.com/voicemail and you may hear your voice in an upcoming episode!
45:30 - Listener question: Which Capital One card to sign up for first?
49:00 - On the Spot: Hotels or flights?
Produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas
Video editing by Kyle Thomas
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo, welcome to the show. I'm Gunnar Olson here, as always with Thrifty Traveler, executive editor, Kyle Potter. But today we have two very special guests. They're two thirds of the Points talk squad, formerly travel mom squad. They're prolific award travelers, some of the smartest people in points and miles, and they're here to make us a lot smarter.
This week. It's Jess Field and Alex Payne. Alex and Jess. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Yeah, we are, we're really excited to have you guys on today. I have to start with a question. I need to find something out. So. To start out, I, I wanna bring up who isn't here today. It's the other third of the points talk squad, and that is Pam.
Pam is Alex's mom and a points and Miles aficionado. So this question, I guess is for you, Kyle and Jess. I, I don't know what the points and miles literacy of your parents is like, but for both of my parents they're hard pressed to pull up a mobile boarding pass, not as, and I have never asked them to transfer points or anything like that.
Let's talk about the, the proficiency of your parents first. Kyle, I'll start with you. No, can we take a second to put gunner Olson senior on blast for his, his view of Marriott points? Oh gosh. Okay. I, I'll just, I'll ask you in a second, but my dad the other day, we're trying to plan a trip to go see my little brother at college in Michigan, and he gave, gives me his Marriott login and he said, I'm.
Flush with Marriott points. Like I've, I've been earning Marriott points for years. I'm ready. Like, let's just book a hotel in, in East Lansing so you can go visit your little brother at Michigan State. And I pulled up his account and he had 15,000 Marriott points in there and I had to call him and be like, dad, you don't have enough points for one single night anywhere in the world.
What are you doing? So flush with Marriott points. He was not. Jess. What is, what is your experience with with your parents and, and points and miles? My mom is actually a very willing player. I call her my player three. She is very willing to travel with me, but as far, and she's very willing to open cards, but I handle everything.
So like I have all her bank login information, I have her social security number, and she just gives me the green light. And I apply for carts for her. I transfer her points in miles. I book her trips and so she's willing, but like if you asked her to do it, she would have zero clue what to do or where to start.
That's pretty awesome. I don't know what's better. Is that the better scenario than what you have Alex? How awesome is it to have kind of close family involved in this game and hobby? You know what? I didn't realize, like my mom started doing this the same time I did. So I've never known any different. But listening to your stories, I'm feeling pretty fortunate.
'cause the nice thing is, is I can like treat my mom like she's still my mom, like a little kid. Like, Hey mom, like what should I do? Or like, Hey mom, we're going on this trip, and she can kind of still take care of it so I can still like be the kid. So it's pretty nice. I, I will just say, jess, you, you calling your mom.
Player three is much more diplomatic than how many people in the Thrifty Traveler office talk about their spouses or parents, which is there's an informal name called the Points Mule, which is just one of your blood relatives. Who becomes a, a means to earn additional points. So Player three is a, everyone in my family, everyone in my family is a points mule.
So if I called them all that, then I wouldn't have a way to differentiate them. So they have to each have a number. All right. Well then I guess we're, we're all what points shepherds then? Taking our families. You don't want us talking about agriculture. Nobody wants us talking about agriculture on this pot.
That's awesome. All right, let's get into, today on the show, we're talking with the Points Talk squad about their new name, their excellent travel content, and how they're able to earn and spend points in Miles as a family. And then Alex and Jess are going to help me mentally prepare for my first trip abroad.
With an infant. Whew. All that and more. Welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast.
All right. Welcome back. It's time for something hot and something cold. It's the good and bad news out there for travelers from the past week. And we'll start with something hot, which is always as brought to you by Thrifty Traveler Premium. Join the best flight deal Alert service out there. Use TT POD for $20 off your first year of premium so you can travel more for less in 2026.
Okay, something hot is the New Points Talk squad. So for years you all were known as Travel Mom Squad. You've undergone a bit of a rebrand lately. Tell us about it. Yeah, so this was not a planned rebrand. We'll start with that because we actually did a rebrand about two years ago, so we, we weren't thrilled to do this again, but we really wanted to legally own our name.
And this was the only way that we could do that. We already have a trademark for Points Talk, which is the name of our podcast. And so it was just a natural fit to, you know, be Points Talk squad. So we're, we're excited about it. And yeah, we're, we're really excited about it 'cause we love the podcast and we get to have everybody still be part of the squad.
Yeah. That's awesome. So, can you tell us about how your site started and, and how you all started doing this together in the first place? Yeah, so I started about, ooh, I think it's been seven, eight years now around that. And we just, I just really felt a need for beginner content, especially directed towards families and moms, and that was really what gave me the push to, to get started in this.
And then, what was it, how long ago was it that you came along, Jess? It was the summer of 2022, so three years ago. It's gone by really fast. So I got started. I, my mom was traveling way more than me because I at the time had a bunch of young kids. My mom previously was an extreme couponer and she was writing for a popular blog.
So it was a really natural fit. Like, oh, you extreme coupon, well, this is extreme coupon couponing on steroids. So. That's gonna be a lot cooler, you know, getting business class flights than toothpaste. So I knew when I told her about it, like she was gonna be all in. If, if anybody has heard my mom, they know that she's like.
Go big or go home kind of person, a little of CD and just goes all in on everything that she does. And so she dropped the couponing pretty quick and jumped onto the points of miles. So I got her involved with it and she started working with me. And then in 2022 we brought Jess on. Jess, do you wanna kind of share about that?
Yeah. So I had started, it was like during the pandemic, I had started my own. You know, Instagram account about points and miles, because I've been doing it since 2015 and I was just depressed about not being able to travel or like go to the gym, which were my two favorite things to do. And so I was like, I'll just start an Instagram account.
So I did that and then became friends with Alex. Like we literally met on Instagram and you know, I think Pam is the one, it was Pam's idea. She was like. Jess is killing it. We are killing it. Like we should come together and sort of just take, take it over, you know, like blow it up. We had really similar travel styles, really similar audiences and so yeah, they reached out to me, we came to an agreement and I quit my job like.
A month later. Wow, that's amazing. We're obviously gonna talk a lot about family travel, which is really what you all specialize in, and which we, well, Gunnar hopes do at some point soon. We, in gen, I mean, we, we just can't do what you guys do at the scale that you guys do and specializing the things that you talk about for family, but also on behalf of yet another podcast of two white men in a room.
How important is it to you to like bring more of a female. Perspective into the world of travel and points and miles on social media because there just isn't a lot of it. I think that was the why for both of us independently, like before we merged together and because the thing is. Women make, I think between 80 and 85% of travel decisions.
And so it's only fair that they're the ones who are involved in the process too. And I think that people, I know when I got started, there were very few women in the space and it was mostly business travelers. Single men who, you know, were flying business class with their champagne. That was it, you know?
And I was like, okay, there's gotta be a way for this information to be a little bit more relatable for women and families. And so I think we kind of independently did that. And then we came together and that's been a huge part of our mission. And not even just families, but like, Hey, moms deserve girls trips too.
Moms deserve to take a solo trip too. You know? It doesn't, you don't have to have young kids. You know, a lot of our. Followers are Pam's age, and they ha they're moms, but their kids are grown and out of the house, you know, and so it's just trying to reach all different generations and different types of people than I think we were used to seeing when we first got started.
I think I can speak for both of us. When I say, you guys, you're doing a great job at it, I, we really admire your perspective and especially the way on social media. You talk about annual fees and credit cards and how to, you know, make that money back and how to, you know, get the most out of those things.
I think you talk about those things in a really, really good way on social media. Anything else? Kyle, Alex, I'm curious as you've, as you've been doing this for years now, thinking about how male dominated these conversations were probably when you first started, do you feel like that's started to change?
And if so, what role do you think points Talk Squad formally travel mom squad has played in that? I think it's definitely changed. There's, especially in the social media space, we see so many more people teaching people how to do this and a lot more moms, and that's been really cool for us to see. I think we were fortunate that we got in a little earlier than I think our timing was really great, but I do, it is really fun to see.
We've made a lot of really good. Friends through social media, we've met up with different women and moms who are also teaching people how to do this, and that's been really, really cool and fun to see because that just wasn't, wasn't around at all when we started this. So I, I mean, I'd like to think that we have some influence in that and that we're, you know, pioneering it a little bit.
I don't know, I don't want to take credit for that, but it, it'd be pretty cool if that was the case. I think you can give yourself some credit. I think that's, I think that's, thank you. That's safe. Thank you. It's a safe pat on the back. Yeah, we will. Thank you. We'll say it, we'll say it for you. This conversation has gotten way too positive and I wanna bog it down by taking us to something cold.
So. We all know that November was pretty trying for the airlines. Thanksgiving week sure was. Thanksgiving week went okay, despite some bad weather it looked like. But the holidays and winter travel season are always tough in the skies, especially for delays in cancellations and when you're traveling with a family things, the stakes are a lot higher as I've learned out of.
Four hour delay at Denver on Saturday afternoon. What are some of your tips, Alex and Jess, for surviving delays when traveling with your family? I think my big one is just realizing a lot of it's out of your control. And just like it is what it is, and try not to get frustrated. I think that's the picking, and that is very hard to do when you're traveling with four little kids and they're like, are we done?
How long are we gonna be sitting on this plane? You know, I think one of the worst things is sitting on the tarmac for hours with your kids. That is like a parent's nightmare, especially if you have a toddler. I am fortunate that we're in the space now. My youngest is five and I think when he turned about three.
It was like, oh, we can do this. Now. This isn't, this isn't like as hard as it used to be, but I think for me, that's the biggest thing is just realizing, hey, like I need to stay calm because they're kind of looking to me for how to handle this situation. If mom and dad are all frazzled, your kids are gonna be frazzled too, and they're gonna be stressed.
They're gonna feed off of that. So I think that's my biggest thing is. Just staying as calm as I can when it's out of my control, like with the delays and stuff, obviously canceled flights, you're gonna invite me to scramble and try to figure things out, but that's, that's kinda my big thing is just trying to stay calm as much as I can.
For me, it's. Having credit cards that get me into a lounge. If there is a day. Yes. Like you said, you were at Denver. All right. Whipping out my Amex Platinum, going to the Centurion Lounge, whipping out my Capital One, venture X going to the Venture Lounge. You know, I think having those credit cards that give you lounge access can really come in clutch.
When there is a delay, especially a big one. I also think just traveling on points and miles gives me peace of mind for those kind of scenarios. Because not even around, not even just around the holidays when you have kids, we've had so many times where we have to cancel a trip the day we were supposed to leave because my daughter got the flu or my husband has a stomach bug that, that my daughter brought home from daycare.
You know, it's like. It's so unpredictable when small humans are involved that, you know, I was able to call the hotel and say, I'm so sorry, my daughter just tested positive for the flu and it was a Hyatt and they were so great. And they were like, no problem. We redeposited the points into your account. And so I think, you know, charging the taxes and fees to those credit cards for the protections, booking on points and being able to get them back if something goes wrong, gives me so much peace of mind as a mom in those situations.
Those are all really, really good tips. I know the the Capital One lounge at Denver came in very, very handy for us for a few hours there. The only lounge that didn't have a line out the door, and usually with Capital One lounges that you have list. Yeah. Denver is a good place to be stranded if you're gonna be stranded.
You've got some good options there. Yeah. That's true. That's very true. Well, thank you for those tips. Those are going into my toolbox as well as I learned to navigate more of these delays that I'm sure are going to pop up in this messy winter that we have ahead. Anything else? So how, how is reasoning with your five month old Emery about to, to just be aware of, of delays in cancellations?
How does she respond to that? Yeah. My lectures are falling really flat. Yeah, I mean, when you've got a little one like that, you're kind of just in survival mode. It really is. Right. There's really no point in even projecting forward. No. You know, it's just every moment is just a, I'm fighting for that next minute.
That's when you tell yourself, and luckily we, I'm never gonna see these people again. It's gonna be fine. That's right. Actually at that Capital One lounge, they have, they have specific family areas and when we walked in, they walked us like right to a big, nice table and gave us lots of space. So that is, that is another thing.
Nice. We're traveling with little kids, is you do get some nice perks. You're gonna see like. You get to the move to the front of lines, like, people treat you good when you've got little kids. That's true, that's true. I, the, the more tired I look, the better treatment I get as I walk around. So I. That's awesome.
Okay. I have a ton more questions for you both about traveling with families and more specifically how to earn and redeem points with as a family. But first we wanna take a quick break. All right, so let me get this straight. It's almost 2026 and you're still paying rent Without built. We can't have that built.
Is the loyalty program for renters that rewards you for your biggest monthly expense rent? Let me explain With built. Every rent payment earns you points that can be used towards flights, hotels, Lyft rides, Amazon purchases, fitness classes and more. And when you pay rent through built, you unlock access to exclusive benefits from a network of more than 45,000 merchants.
You just link your credit cards spend at your favorite local spots. Earn built points on top of your regular card rewards and get one step closer to that trip you wanted to take. Personally, I redeem my points for, you guessed it, travel. I've been stacking up Alaska miles for some business class flights to Europe that I'm eyeing and it's always useful to transfer points to Virgin and flying blue to book cheap Delta flights too.
Kyle, what built Transfer partners intrigued you? I mean, I will never say no to the ability to get more Hyatt points, but I'm thinking most about one of build's newest transfer partners, Japan Airlines, because this is the only transfer partner where it's one-to-one. So 50,000 built points is 50,000. Japan Airlines mileage bank miles, and that's.
Almost enough for a one-way business class seat to Japan. So that's what I'm thinking about, and that is honestly why bill points have been ranked the most valuable point currency by the points guy, and they just announced built cash a way to unlock even more value from builts partners. It's simple.
Paying rent is better with built earn rewards. And finally, get something back for being a renter. Join the loyalty program for renters@joinbuilt.com slash thrifty. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L t.com/thrifty. Make sure to use that URL so they know we sent you. Alright, back to the show. All right, it's time for the extra mile where we dig a little deeper on an important travel topic.
And this week I have a few things we need to talk to Alex and Jess about including an extremely selfish exercise where I'm gonna mine their expertise for help with my first Europe trip with an infant that's coming up in just a few days. So first I wanted to start just talking about family travel and, and infant travel in general.
Alex and Jess, what are some of the. Kind of core truths to you guys about family travel. Do you know what's one of our biggest pet peeves that we see is when we see people on like social media saying, you don't need very mini cards to earn a lot of points. And we. Like, well, clearly you are a single man sharing this because we've got four kids, like Jess has a family of six when she includes her step kids.
I've got four kids. When you have a big family, you're booking for six people, you're gonna need a lot of points, so you're gonna be opening a lot more cards. So that's a big thing. Like that's a, if you're a family, I, I just don't think you get, if you wanna travel a lot, you don't really get by with just opening one or two cards a year.
My least favorite thing is from that same crowd of saying like, oh, just the Chase Sapphire preferred and you're gonna travel, you know? Yeah. Three times a year in business class to Europe when you know that that person has like seven chasing cards and they're just not talking about it. 100%. Yeah. So what else obviously, you know, when you're, you're opening a lot more cards to earn a lot more points.
What other, any other core truths that you have for, traveling as a big family. I think on the plus side, the bigger your family, the more expenses you're gonna have and the easier it's going to be for you to meet those minimum spends. And so a lot of times families can open the cards with. The bigger minimum spins and hit those spins a lot easier than someone who is just a single guy who maybe can't hit those.
And so there is a silver lining to needing all those points and miles. I also think that. It gets harder. Like I know Gunner, I think you said your daughter is six months old and so you're in kind of a sweet spot of not having to adhere to any sort of school schedule. You have a lot of flexibility with when you can travel once you're, you know, if you are planning to send your kids to a traditional school.
Alex and I, both of our kids are in public school and so we kind of have to adhere to the school schedule and when that is the case, you know, once they start kindergarten. It's a lot of planning around spring break, summer and holiday breaks, and those are the most popular times for everyone to travel, which means if you wanna redeem your points and miles, you have to book really early.
And so that is just something to be mindful of. You know, if you, if you wanna travel for spring break, well so does the rest of the country. And so you are gonna have to really earn those points. Far in advance so that you can redeem them and get the redemption that you want for spring break. Yeah, it's such a critical point and we, we do a lot of Spring break coverage things here at Thrifty Traveler.
We, we like to write about, you know, when is the best time to book your spring break trip? And unfortunately, I think most people are googling that right around the end of January, which is not, you're not, not putting yourself in the driver's seat. Yes. When you're doing that. But we're, you know, we're talking about the availability.
We see you know, starting May and June, the year before about how to book the Best Spring break trip and our coworker Nick has several kids of his own and he's always kind of battling for spring break flights every year. And so we're, he's always keeping that top of mind for us. But, you know, fighting around the school calendar can be tough, but points and miles is obviously the key.
Yeah. One thing that I usually do with like spring break with my kids. Is, I'm fine if they miss a day or two. So what we'll usually do is come home on a Monday after spring break. The flights are usually way cheaper, like fewer points. So that's another little tip for people. If you're okay with your kids missing a day of school.
I mean, I young elementary kids, that's the time to miss it. Elementary, it's when they get like to high school or junior high, like my oldest is in an advanced math class right now and it is, it's kind of rough for him if he misses school. So take advantage when your kids are little. So gunner when she's in elementary, you keep going on those trips.
You have a while. You've got like a good, you've got like a good like six or seven years to have some flexibility in your schedule before you have to really buckle down. Are we, are we officially at the point where this has transitioned away from a podcast and into a therapy session for Gunner about what's ahead?
Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay. Okay. So when. When you're earning these points and miles that fuel these, these adventures what kinds of points are you focusing on? What you know, what are the, what are the points and miles that take your family's places? 100% flexible points, transferable points.
That is where we really, really focus on. And I think the reason is too, is we have large families, like we mentioned, and sometimes you're not gonna find, you know, if I'm trying to book. All of these tickets, I might have to work with some different airline partners to find the flights for all of us. And so it's important to have a nice stash.
I mean, we, we love 'em all. Like we've got lots of Chase Ultimate rewards. We've got Amex membership rewards, capital One. We are huge Hyatt people. I, I. Assume you guys are as well, who's not in the Points world. And so that's like huge for us is earning all the Chase ultimate rewards we can for Hyatt stays easy domestic flights, options for families.
I, I think you guys probably agree, like that's the most beginner friendly people. Foremost people and for families is starting with Chase. But we love Amex for people who are wanting to, you know, travel on premium airlines or looking to travel internationally. I will say for us. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but we think Capital One is a really great option for families for covering purchases depending on what your travel goals are.
You know, most people in points of mind are like, oh, never do that. That's a terrible use of your points. But a lot of families aren't looking to take their kids. To Europe, that that's not like a super common thing. Most families are like, Hey, we wanna take our family to Disneyland. How can we do that for cheap?
And so Capital One can really be really great for specific uses for families. So I'd say those are our like main points that we focus on. Just, I miss anything. We are also huge fans of the Southwest Companion Pass, just because you know, when you've got like this in 2026, my husband and I are both going to have the companion pass.
And so when you have a family of six and you can fly two people for just the taxes and fees, that is huge to be able to do that. So I was actually telling my daughter, she's 12, I said, okay, for Christmas next year we have to go somewhere that Southwest flies because. We we're gonna have two companion passes and she said, I wanna go to Alaska.
And I was like, I don't think they fly there. Like, choose somewhere. Choose somewhere else. Like, and I'm not going to Alaska in December, so choose somewhere else. And even if they do know. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's a lot of, it's a lot of. Where should we go? That Southwest flies in our household. Yep. Same with us.
I'm curious, Jess, with all the changes that have been made to Southwest, has that changed the way that your family thinks about them as an option to fly? Where are you at on the changes they made? Actually, my husband is more willing to fly them now because of the assigned seating. He was one of the people who anytime I said we were flying Southwest, he was just grumble, grumble, grumble, because.
Of, you know, having to check in at 24 hours and he, I was like, I'm the one doing it. I agree with you. I don't, it's not my favorite thing, but like, you're not doing anything. So I think he's actually more willing to fly Southwest now that we can choose our seats. And we don't. We're, we're kind of team carry on only.
So like the free checked bags was never a huge selling point for us. But as a credit card holder, you still get free checked bags. So I think he's more willing to fly them now and as long as they have the companion pass, I will be loyal to Southwest. I think Southwest is a perfect example of like how you two think differently about travel and points and miles than maybe the average person who is talking into a microphone about these things.
So beyond Southwest and the Companion Pass, whether it's, you know, like the ability to easily share Capital One miles between accounts or. An award program that you know is gonna have enough seats for your whole family versus, you know, me just worrying about the two seats for my wife and I. What are like one or two for each of you?
Different programs or features that are like, yes, this is tailor made for families. I think Flying Blue is an obvious one. Just because they have the 25% off award tickets for ages two to 11. That's one that, I mean, we use Flying Blue all the time. Yeah, I would say that's like I've booked more flying blue than when for international travel than any other airline or award program.
There are also often transfer bonuses to flying blue. That's one that we see come up a lot. And so, you know, if you're talking like 25,000 points in economy for an adult, even less if you have a child two to 11 and then you're getting a transfer bonus on top of that, you know, one welcome offer on a card could be enough to get an entire family to Europe with flying Blue.
And so that's one that we use. A lot for international travel. Yeah. One that's really big for me is Virgin Atlantic, and they have some really awesome transfer bonuses too. I have a sister that lives in London and so I, we've taken the kids back there to visit their cousins. We're actually headed back there this summer, and one, you can find some really low rates in general with Virgin Atlantic.
You will have to pay the higher taxes and fees, but when you think about. Flying six people and paying that low in miles. I'm trying to remember, I think we paid, I think it was 17,500 for premium economy flights from Boston to London. But then there was a transfer bonus, so I don't even remember what we got it down to.
I think it was maybe around like 13,000 points. Something crazy like that for premium economy. And I'm like, this'll be great. 'cause you know when you have six people flying business class, we have not done that with our kids yet. Like we've done where we've upgraded maybe one or two of us. For cash. We've done that.
But you know, it's usually pretty much only economy and so being able to be in premium economy, like, oh, the kids are gonna think this is like we're living the high life in premium economy and we got it so cheap. The other thing that I love too is flying home from London. We're actually flying Delta, but I booked it through Virgin Atlantic and I think it's a 20,000 point flight from.
London all the way to Salt Lake direct flight. And that's the other thing, when you're traveling with kids, direct flights are so, so nice, especially when you're going to Europe like that. And so. That's, that's something we do quite a bit is because Salt Lake is a Delta hub, and so I really like to utilize flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic for our families flights when we're going internationally and try to find those Delta flights that I can book through those other airlines.
And then if there's a transfer bonus that's just, you know, icing on the cake. Okay, so I have to ask in those situations where one or two of you upgrade, yeah. Do either of you play the oh, who earned all these points? Yeah, I'll be taking that upgrade. Have you guys ever played that with your spouses? Do you know what?
I have not. My husband, I think he, he's one, he's just, he's really nice and he's like, oh yeah, you should upgrade. You should go, go sit up there and take one of the kids like. He's, he's very like, you earned the points. You work hard, you go enjoy business class. I'll stay back with the kids. He doesn't even like ask.
I'm like, we could ask the flight attendant if we could switch. He's like, no, no, no. It's fine. You just enjoy it. Get a good night's rest. I'm like, alright, don't have to tell me twice. Mine is not that nice. But we still haven't encountered it because it's usually just both of us. And so like we flew. There were four of us who flew to Japan for spring break this year, and my husband and I were able to score.
First class on Japan Airlines, but there was only two. And so we sat in first class and our daughters who are 12 and like 20 something. So it's not like I'm putting four year olds in premium economy, but they were in premium economy, which I was like, Hey, I am more of like, Hey, I earn these points. So I'm sitting up front, you're traveling for free and you have no other worries in this world, and so you can.
Lummet and premium economy to Japan, they're gonna be fine. Yeah. Yeah. They're gonna have some important life experiences back in premium economy. Yeah. I'm looking forward to the day when I can leave my kids back there. I think we're getting close. My oldest is almost 14, but my youngest is five. I can't leave him with a 5-year-old, so.
Not quite there yet. I'm a little jealous of Jess though. That's awesome. Good, good. Strategies to note as I move forward. I was thinking you guys would probably just have the argument of who's more tired, who had the worst night's sleep, and just do that. That's our, that's that's your life. That's my battle in my house right now.
Us I remember those days. Yeah. Yeah. Us being performatively tired around each other to see who gets the most sympathy that day. Okay, so what, what other. Strategies. What other tools are you using to get the best redemptions? As when, as a traveling family. Do you wanna know? My little trick? It's pretty niche, but I will say, gunner, this could come in handy for you.
Back to gunner's therapy session. So this would be such a bad podcast if you said, do you wanna know my trick? It's really niche. And we'd be like, nah, we're good. Move on. Nah, nah, we don't care. If I don't know how many kids you're planning on having, maybe you don't even know yet, but if you get to the point where you can't all fit in one hotel room, that's when you invite the grandparents along.
My parents come on so many of our trips, and then I only have to book one room for our family of six, and we put two in with my parents. It is a huge point saver, but that's not, that's, that's a great perk. But the second thing is my kids love it. My parents love it. And if we plan a trip without my parents, my kids are like, well, why aren't grandma and grandpa coming?
Like, why didn't you invite them? They get so mad about it. My mom actually gets mad. We share our calendar. With each other, the three of us, like when we're traveling, my mom will say, Hey, I see you guys are going on a trip. Why didn't you let me know about this? So they just know they have a standing open invitation to travel with us.
But it's pretty cool because we run into people from our community who follow us and listen to our show or. And they will say, Hey, we're here with my parents. We invited the grandparents too. It's kind of become this thing where people are inviting their grandparent or their parents to come hang out with their grandkids and stretching their points a little further while building great memories with their family.
So I, I think that's pretty cool. That's a good tip. I'm we're actually bringing my in-laws to Finland with us later this month. Nice. Rick and Chris, I know you're listening. You guys are not perks. You're not a strategy. I love you for who you are, but we are so grateful that you're coming to join us and you get some babysitting, so you know That's right.
It's pretty nice. If you guys wanna go out to a nice dinner, grandma and grandpa are there. That's fantastic I think for me. So we don't have that perk unfortunately. And like Alex said, there are six of us and so, and my step kids are older, and so we're sort of past the point of all being in one hotel room.
Even if we were to stay somewhere like a Hyatt place. That sleep six. I do not wanna share one bathroom with six other adult sized people. And so we're past the point of even that. I will say though that it's a lot more for me now about following the deal versus the destination. So like I said, with the Southwest Companion Pass, we're going somewhere the Southwest wise so that we can get two flights free.
Another thing that I think when Chase debuted their points Boost feature. A lot of people in the points of Miles were grumbling about that. We, from a family perspective, have actually found some really incredible deals on hotels through Points Boost. And so like for example, this Costa Rica trip that I'm gonna book, I found a hotel that is on points boost for 2 cents per point.
And they have rooms that sleep sticks and they're like huge suites with like multiple bedrooms and multiple bathrooms. And so. Being able to get something like that for 2 cents per point to where we can all be together but still have our space is is really great for family travel. That's awesome. That's a great testament to the points.
Boost it, we, we minded a little bit and, and I don't know how much value you found in it, Kyle, but like on its face it didn't totally look like it was gonna be that helpful. And like you said, maybe we were part of the, the grumbler out there. But that's a really good tip and a good way to think about it too.
It was not something cold that week when it debuted, so we didn't grumble maybe as much as we wanted to. No, but that's, that, that's a great point of like looking past whatever the original, the initial headlines or what the initial take is on social media and being like, does this work for me? Because, you know, just to your point, for you and your family, the answer could very well be yes.
Even though for Gunner and I and, and Alex and Pam and others, the answer might have been no. Yeah, we've seen just the other day I was looking at it and we, one hotel we love for families is the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach. And I saw it on Points Boost as part of the edit, and it was fewer points than if you book directly through Hyatt.
So it was pretty cool. So especially for someone who doesn't have status, then you get your free, you get breakfast for two, you get a hundred dollars. Property credit works out really nice for some people. I, I mean, you know, it's not the easiest to search and find those, but when you stumble upon those, you can find some really good little golden nuggets in there.
That's awesome. Okay. I, I want to ask you both about a favorite trip, maybe, maybe one each a favorite family trip that, you know, you keep coming back to as a, a real points and miles victory for you as a family. Well, my kids would say their favorite trip was the Hyatt Zeva. Cancun. They're obsessed with that property.
But when Hyatt moved that up to, what is it, a category D? I don't, or EF, I don't even know how many It's, it's absurd. Yeah. It's like an X now. Category X. Yeah, it's crazy. So not the best deal anymore, but I will say that was one of their favorite things. My family's go-to is Hawaii. We love Hawaii. We go almost every year.
I think last year we went twice, so that is, that's the hotspot for us. We love the height regency for families in Maui, the grand height Kauai. Those are great. The ON is really nice, but the rooms are pretty small. The bathrooms are really small. Not the best option. If you have a bigger family, like if you've got one or two and they're young kids would be great.
But yeah, high Regency Mount and Grand Height, Hawaii, those are like, oh, top, top of the list for my family of where we're gonna use our points. Okay. Selfish question before Jess shares her. Yeah. I have a, I have a, some friends who are bringing their, soon to be 2-year-old to the Grand Hyatt Kauai in a couple of months.
What's one or two things they should be sure to do there? Ooh, do, what'd you say? A 2-year-old. Yeah, she'll be too. By the time they go, just hang out in the lagoon. The lagoon is, where is the spot to be? Because it's like walk-in entry. What do they call that? Where it's just, you know, super shallow. Zero, zero depth entry or something.
Yeah, the lagoon. Just, just hang out at the lagoon. That's where you're gonna wanna be. I think. Callie Miles, you heard it. I think go to Poi Poo Beach, which is just like five minutes down the road. See the sea turtles get a, get a Puka dog across the street. There's a playground at Poi Poo Beach too for kids to play on.
And so it's like, you got the turtles, you got the water, you got the playground, you got your puka dog. Like that's all you really need. Jess, can I. Can I tell you something? I think about the Puka dog on Po Poh Beach at least once a week. I have. I have like. Just ranted at people about how amazing the Puka dog is, and they're like, it's just a hot dog.
And then they actually go and they're like, oh my God, the Puka dog. And it's pretty inexpensive by Kauai Price standards. And so you know, you're getting a good deal. Have you guys been to Yes. The grocery store down there, it's like this little tiny grocery store, I can't remember the name of it, but in the back they have a juice shop and they make oais, I think it's called ais.
I am not exactly sure the name, but it's something like that. It is like the I dream of the Oai evil bowls there. So look up, look that up. I can send you the name later. You can put it in those show notes if you need to, but it is good. You need to go there. Amazing. Alright, we'll we'll follow up on that.
Yeah, for sure. Jess, what any trip that stands out to you? Big family trip, I'll do so. Okay. So we are in Houston and so there's a couple of Hyatts. Near us, like close enough for us to drive the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines, which is outside of Austin. And then the Hyatt Regency Hill Country, which is outside of San Antonio.
Those are our favorite, like quick weekend getaway, staycation type stays amazing for families. If you are in Texas or want to fly to Texas, Alex and her family actually met us at the Hyatt Los Pines, and we had a little family trip together. But as far as big trips go, Japan. Is still our family's number one.
We flew, we actually flew, like I said, my husband and I were in first class, but coming home, all four of us were in business class, thanks to a thrifty traveler email. And so, all four of us in business class from Tokyo to San Francisco, and then we stayed at the Hyatt House, Tokyo Shibuya, which is one of the newer Hyatt properties in Tokyo.
Their standard Suites Act suites actually sleep for there are washer and dryers in every single room. Wow. And so that comes in clutch with a family to have a washer and dryer. In your hotel room. And then we took the train to Kyoto and we stayed at the Hyatt Place, Kyoto there, and it was just an incredible trip.
And I, we, we literally spent $60 in taxes on our flights. Hmm. And our hotels were $0 with Hyatt points. And so it was just an incredible, an incredible trip outstanding. I love to hear it. The washer dryer in every unit of the Hyatt House in Shibuya is wild. I've never heard of that. And that's especially if your team carry on.
Essential. Yeah, I, one of the last trips my wife and I took, we were at the St. Regis in Istanbul, and I think we spent a hundred dollars on doing like a couple of items of laundry that we just needed before we flew onto our next stop. So washer and dryer in the room? Yes. Yeah. That's fantastic. Okay, I want to pivot.
My last question for you both is gonna be this, this very selfish personal exercise. So I'm, I'm going to Finland with my infant and my wife and my in-laws in just a matter of days here. So I'm going to Europe for the first time. With a very young child. What, what am I not thinking about that I need to know, you know, what is, what's gonna be harder than I think it is?
Or maybe what's, what's not gonna be as hard as I think it's going to be. You know, help me out here. What am I, what am I thinking of? What am I not thinking of? You need to lay down on the couch for this answer. I know the therapist. Alright. All right. I think. I think something that people forget, they will pack all the things for the baby.
They're like, okay, we got the toys, we got the snacks, we've got the bottle, we got the binky. All of the things, blankets, change of clothes, a jillion diapers, all the wipes. They don't bring extra clothes for themself. And we have been in that situation where your infant maybe has an accident on you. And so, you know, just, just bring yourself some extra clothes too.
You guys need to be prepared for a change of clothes. Hm. That's a really important tip. That's a good, good thing to have in the bag. Anything else jump to mind, Jess? So I think you said she's six months old, so a props for a great choice in age because she's not mobile yet, I assume. Yes. Because I swear to you between like.
10 months and a year and a half is the worst time to travel because they're mobile and they don't wanna sit still, but they're not entertained by screens yet. And so it's just like mayhem. So I do think six months is a great choice for the age. One thing that I find helpful is if you have any sort of bedtime routine at home, like you put her in her onesie, you read her a book, you give her her bottle, whatever it is.
If it's an overnight flight, which I assume it is, do your routine on the plane. So. Bring the paja, bring the onesie, take her to the bathroom, put it on on the plane. Read her her book. You know, like, just pretend like you are at home. Keep that same routine going, and hopefully that'll be a signal to her like, okay, it's time to go to bed and sleep for the night.
The other thing is my child did not sleep through the night until she was 13 months old, so I completely empathize if you're like freaking out that she may not sleep. I just tell myself I would rather be sleep deprived in Finland than in my house. And so if I'm gonna be tired. At least I'm gonna have some beautiful scenery to look at.
That's just what I would tell myself. That's an incredible tip. I, I, we have been told that and we, we wanted to make sure that we're, we're still a family that does things and we're still a family that travels when we, when we started a family, but yeah, that's, that's exactly the point. If I'm gonna be, if I'm gonna be sleep deprived, I'd rather do it under the Northern Lights in, in Finland.
So those are both great tips. Thank you so much. Can you guys stick around and help us with a listener question? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Before we get started with some listener questions, I wanted to again, call out for some voicemails from the listeners. We're doing a holiday episode and we wanna hear about your year in travel.
So if you booked something that you wanna brag about, if you have a trip coming up in the new year, if you have a question for us. Go to thrifty traveler.com/voicemail or find the link in the show notes and leave us a message under one minute. That's thrifty traveler.com/voicemail to leave us a message.
We cannot wait to hear from you all. Okay, our listener question this week is from Michan. Recently, capital One came out with their new rules about receiving signup bonuses on the venture cards and released their awesome elevated offers for the Venture X cards. Michan says, I don't have any venture cards for someone like me.
I'm wondering what a good course of action would be, should I skip the current elevated offer on the Venture X card and apply for the more basic venture card eventually moving up to the Venture X. Though it would probably no longer have the same elevated signup bonus. So what do we think? Should Mike and start at the bottom here with the venture and skip this a hundred K Venture X offer, or should they just go for the points on the Venture X and have to miss out on the venture offer going forward?
What do you think, Kyle? Well, I can tell Alex has some thoughts, so I think we open it up to her. Go. Alex, how could you tell? Well, I'm curious what you all think. My thought would be to go for the Venture X. But based off personal experience. So I have the Venture X, I don't, I haven't been approved for a venture card.
I think Capital One's really quirky with approvals. And if I'm gonna have one, I'd rather have the Venture X than the Venture card. So I would, I'd go for Venture X and odds are, if it was my luck, I probably wouldn't even get approved for the Venture card for 48 months anyways. And so that, that's what I would do.
Alex says, take the points. Take the points. What do you think Kyle? I think on Paper, capital One has these rules that allows you to move from the Venture Card to the Venture X and get bonuses on both. But in practice, I think it's really hit or miss whether you would actually be able to do both because Capital One is so secretive and restrictive with who they actually approve for these cards that you can't bank on getting two of them and earning bonuses on both.
So yeah, to Alex's point. Take the points, take the bigger bonus while you can get the card that you feel like you're gonna get and use, not just for the points, but also for the perks as well. Jess, what did I miss? I'm kind of torn on this one. I agree with like I agree with you. I think that, you know, capital One hasn't had this a hundred thousand point offer since the Venture X came out four years ago.
At the same time, the spend is $10,000 in six months. Versus $4,000 in three months on the 70 5K offer. And so I do think, I wish that spend wasn't as high. I get that they're giving you six months instead of three, which is great. But I still think, you know, if you spent $10,000 on the venture. That would be, you know, 20,000 points.
You get two x on every purchase, and then you're getting the 75,000 point welcome offer. So you're gonna get 95,000 points. I don't know, I, I go back and forth. I'm like, Alex, like I've already opened the Venture X, so I can't get the venture for 48 months. I'm kind of locked out of it, but I can see the appeal of going in order for the lower to start out with a card, with a lower annual fee and a lower minimum spend.
Yeah, that's a good point that that $10,000 is definitely a little bit eye popping. Well, now that I have a child in daycare, it's not at all actually, so I, it's a few days work in the minimum spend when you're a family. Right. That's right. So, all right, Mike, and I think we gave you some good advice there to consider.
If you want us to answer your questions on the podcast or if you have any feedback, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com and we might feature your question in next week's show. All right. To close the show, we have our usual on the spot question, but we sent it to Alex and Jess and want them to put us on the spot.
So what do you have? Okay. This is actually a question I've asked on Instagram before. I'm hoping you haven't gotten this question before, and there are so many big feelings about this question. So if you could either for the rest of your life, if you could either redeem points and miles for flights or hotels, which one are you choosing?
That's really easy for me. It's flights. I, I really like nice hotels. I like saving on lodging. It's great, but flights get you somewhere new. And hotels, I mean, some of the best trips that my wife and I have taken have involved staying in a small studio, Airbnb. Or a literal, crappy roadside motel, and that didn't change our experience one iota.
So being able to take the flight to get to an entirely different continent, and then if that means we have to rough it or spend money in order to stay in that destination, that is an easy, easy choice. I think I, I agree. I think that obviously online, the probably cents per point, people out there are probably gonna argue for hotels in a lot of cases, just 'cause the highest, highest end hotels are so, so expensive.
But I would agree, I just, I use most of my points for flights now. I, it's just how I prefer to book that mode of travel and I just you know, I get the most value out of flights still today. Can I flip it back on you Both. What do you, what do you think. For me. For me, it's so funny 'cause it's easily hotels.
Oh. But I part, see my thing is like I'm only on a plane for, you know, even if I go international, I'm on a plane for like. Eight hours, 10 hours, I can use my Thrifty Traveler emails to get a cheap cash fare on a flight. You know? And then I, like literally, luxury hotels are part of the experience for me, like they are part of the trip.
And so being able to stay in these, like, I stayed at the Park Hyatt, Sydney, and like walked out on my balcony and had a view of the Sydney Opera House. You know, like that was 100%. Part of my experience in Australia when I could have never afforded that room on cash, and so I'm gonna go with hotels. Nice.
Alex? Yeah, I just took the words right outta my mouth. I was gonna say the exact same thing, using Thrifty Traveler to help me find cash deals. The hotel is the trip. Like I get what you're saying, like with certain destinations, you're not really in your hotel, but I'm not that person. You know, you see like those reels and tiktoks where it's like, oh, the people who say the hotel's not part of the trip.
Like that is me. The hotel is part of the trip and I, I just feel like. Points of miles have made me kind of a hotel snob. And so like, I hate to admit it, but it's true. If I have to stay in a place that's not very nice, I'm kind of like, oh, this stinks. Like I wanna go stay somewhere Nice. So, yeah, I got, I'm with Jess on this one.
I'm honestly really glad that we're divided. Yeah. 'cause I think it goes to show what we try to do on this show and on our site and in our service, and what I think you guys try to do too is not tell people what they need to do in order to use points and miles, right? Yeah. But to show them how to do it so that they can make the right choices for their families, for their trips, for what they want to do.
Yeah. No, you, you do, you is one of our biggest sayings that, you know, I'm just like, there's no one right way to travel on points and miles. There's no one right, right way to redeem your points and miles. Every family has different goals, you know, and so you just have to do what's right for your family.
Well, Jess and Alex, we, we love your perspective. It's been really, really fun to have you on and I want to thank you so much for joining the show. Where can our listeners find you and the Points Talk Squad? Yeah, you can find us on Instagram at Points Talk Squad website is points talk squad.com and then our podcast is Point Stock.
Yeah. Did I miss anything, Jess? Is that it? I, that's it. I think you got it all. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us again and, and thank you all for listening to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast. If you could rate us five stars on your podcast platform of choice and like, and subscribe to the show on YouTube.
Also send this episode to someone you know. Who needs some tips on booking a family vacation? And don't send it to me. I hosted the show. If you have feedback for us, just send me a note at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We would love to hear from you there. Kyle, tell us about the TT podcast team. Yeah.
This episode was produced by someone who is now far better equipped for a family trip to Finland with a six month old Gunnar Olson. It was produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas, and edited by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Tissot. See you next week. See ya.