Don’t dwell on the bad stuff, the guys remind themselves … because there’s plenty to be excited about in travel right now! So this week on the pod, Gunnar and Kyle outline all the things that are going well in travel right now: flight deals, new routes and airplane seats, big improvements for airport security, bigger and better lounges, massive credit card offers, and more. Plus, the guys help a listener decide on an airline from a Midwestern city and see if Kyle can stay positive for an entire 45 minutes!
Don’t dwell on the bad stuff, the guys remind themselves … because there’s plenty to be excited about in travel right now! So this week on the pod, Gunnar and Kyle outline all the things that are going well in travel right now: flight deals, new routes and airplane seats, big improvements for airport security, bigger and better lounges, massive credit card offers, and more. Plus, the guys help a listener decide on an airline from a Midwestern city and see if Kyle can stay positive for an entire 45 minutes!
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00:00 - A word from our sponsor, Bellroy!
01:19 - Is it actually “The Golden Age of Points and Miles”?
03:18 - Shiloh welcomes us back from Costa Rica!
03:50 - Flight deals are still good
07:00 - Delta SkyMiles deals keep getting better
09:45 - A bevy of (fun) new route announcements
14:10 - An exciting newcomer: Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
18:05 - Touchless kiosks & CLEAR improvements are changing TSA lines
21:40 - Credit card bonuses are better than ever
24:25 - A word from our sponsor, Saily!
25:30 - A word from our sponsor, Monarch!
26:45 - New, more lucrative ways to earn points
29:40 - New seats, new planes & new hotels
33:20 - Airline loyalty gets you further (sometimes)
36:45 - Bigger, better lounges & more of them
40:00 - An Indy listener weighs American vs. Delta
43:22 - What positive trend impacts Gunnar the most?
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 Olsen, and with me, as always, is Kyle Potter, who for today is going to adopt a different kind of persona. Uh, his alternate personas are going to be Plucky Potter. That's what you've promised me. How 'bout Peaceful Potter? Do you like maybe Pleasant, Peppy, or Perky Potter?
I- All of them are an improvement over what I thought you were gonna say, which is just, uh, he's gonna adopt a different personality where he's positive and has nice things to say.
Well, I guess we'll go with Positive Potter then. Positive Potter, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me, Gunnar.
Uh, today we're going positive, both of us. Uh, we know there's a lot of bad news or annoying things out there about award travel right now, but our team has been talking about how much there still is to be excited about in travel, and we wanted to talk about all of those things. Um, this leads me to a theory that I'm working on, Kyle, and I think it's we're heading into a golden age of points and miles.
We're not coming out of one. I think everyone thinks that the last decade, maybe the last 15 years, has been the golden age of points and miles, but I, I think right now we have Alaska, uh, and American, which both have incredible mileage programs here in the US. I think we both agree that Delta and United are getting better in some ways, too.
Right now, the flexible, the transferable currencies, the foreign programs, some of them are getting worse with higher fees and less availability, but there's still a ton there. So while this window is open where the transferable points programs are still good and our programs here in the US are getting way better, I think right now we're in the sweet spot, this perfect middle ground that's gonna create this golden age of points and miles.
What do you think?
You are putting the positivity to the test real early, really testing my mettle here. Sure. Yeah. Positive Potter says yes.
Positive Potter is in. Okay, today on the show, Kyle and I are going back and forth to talk about all the things in travel and travel rewards that we're excited about right now.
All that and more.
Hey, I'm Shilo. I'm on the Papagayo Peninsula in Costa Rica, and welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler podcast.
Okay, welcoming us back this week was Shiloh on the Papagayo Peninsula in Costa Rica looking blissed out and definitely feeling very, very positive about travel right now. Thank you for taking a minute of your vacation and sending us your video, Shiloh. Okay, let's get into our all something hot episode of the show because there's so much to be excited about right now, and I'm gonna start with, uh, you guessed it, flight deals, Kyle.
Because the really good flight deals are still out there. We saw last month in May airfare was up 30% year over year. That's, that's a truth, unfortunately.
Not what you wanna see.
Not what you wanna see. Uh, hard to get positive about that. But everyone who's listening to this knows that that's never the whole story.
There's still really good flight deals out there for travelers with some or really any flexibility. Um, that 5:30 PM flight on Thursday night and that 2 PM flight home on Sunday, those are always gonna be expensive, and if, if that's the only flight you can take, that's the only flight you're willing to consider, you're going to be paying full, full boat for that, for that flight.
And, and right now, you know, if you're looking at the 6 AM flight or the 9 PM flight on those same days, or better yet, any flight on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, there's still massive savings. We're seeing it all the time with so many of our deals to the Caribbean, to Northern Europe, to big hub cities, to anywhere that Southwest flies because they continue to have their awesome sales like they always have.
Focus on those places with competition. Be a little bit more flexible about the days and times you can fly, and there's still tons of great deals out there.
Yeah. Uh, this is, this is the hard thing is it's, it's hard to get down on those big picture numbers, and it's definitely much harder when a lot of people are still looking for flights and seeing prices that are 30% higher, 50% higher, twice the price of what they're used to seeing because that is still happening.
But what has happened within the last, let's call it three-ish weeks, is most importantly the price of jet fuel has come down by a lot. We are now, as we're talking right now, the average price of jet fuel in the United States is $2.72 a gallon. That is lower than it's been at any point since, like, the first few days of March of this year.
It peaked as high as almost $5 in April. So that has just given airlines more breathing room, not all of the breathing room. Again, they still are charging some higher fares. But that has just kind of loosened the reins to be able to offer cheaper deals than what we saw for most of the spring This is great news.
Uh, the, we, our premium team is finding more deals than we had for, you know, a good chunk of the last three, four months, and the deals are getting better too.
Yeah, for sure. And you know, airfare goes up quickly when the airlines get really nervous about these kinds of things, and now the jet fuel price is coming down, fares will go down a little more slowly, so that kinda average over time.
I'm expecting that number of 30% to be pretty similar in June, and then over time I think we'll get a little bit more relief hopefully. And then of course, most importantly with flight deals, uh, points and miles rates never rose as fast as the cash rates did, and we saw that continuously throughout this whole thing where, you know, the, the cash rates were just getting so, so high, and then you go check the same points prices either with your, your, you know, preferred US points provider or your, uh, the international partners, and it's looking, you know, it's still looking the same where the flight deals are still there if you're willing to use your points or miles.
What's, uh, what, what do you have to be positive about now, Kyle?
I think it's a, it's a, an important piece of what we just talked about, about airfare deals, which is that I think that Delta SkyMiles are better than they've been at any point within the last six-plus years, and the deals just keep getting better at a time when most airline programs are getting worse, or they're at least treading water.
But the fact that in this environment of these last three, four months, as the price of most flights has skyrocketed in some cases, again, coming back down, through all of that, the SkyMiles deals have been bigger and better than probably any time in our c- in our company's history of, you know, 10-plus years of tracking these kinds of deals.
To be able to still, you know, book round trips to Mexico or the Caribbean for as low as 8,000 SkyMiles round trip, to see an unprecedented flood of Delta one deals. You know, if you're used to seeing 500,000 SkyMiles for a one-way business class flight, just within the past few weeks, we have found one-ways to Europe in Delta one for 97,000 SkyMiles, not in January or February, but during the peak summer of July and August, when typically those fares are 400,000, 500,000 SkyMiles or more.
On the new route to Hong Kong for a record low price of 85,000 SkyMiles. If you look at these numbers and you think, "Oh, well, you know, the, I see better rates with other airlines all the time," I would ask, do you? Because we're not seeing those kinds of rates, low rates on other carriers. These, this is truly as good as it gets right now to have these kinds of deals with Delta.
102,000, uh, SkyMiles each way for a Delta one suite to Seoul as well. I mean, we could go on and on. I think people really need to start paying Delta SkyMiles closer attention to make it a part of their travel strategy, not the entire strategy. There's -- You're still gonna see some ugly rates using SkyMiles.
Uh, that is never going to change, but what has clearly changed is Delta is being more generous with th- these kinds of truly great deals.
Yeah, for sure. It, like you said, make it a part of what you're doing with points and miles. Don't make it the whole thing. If you go all in on Delta, you're probably gonna be disappointed over time overall, but if you can have some SkyMiles in your account or flexible Amex points that can transfer to SkyMiles, you put yourself in a position to take advantage of these deals.
We just, just on Tuesday, that 34,000 round trip to Europe during this fall, uh, p- Gotta take a hard look at deals like that. That's a really, really good one. Anything else on SkyMiles?
I think I've said enough. I need to take a sip of water.
I, yeah, I, I can't believe it. Uh, if you'd have told me five years ago that SkyMiles would be one of the things we're super positive about, uh, in the year 2026, be pretty amazing.
All right, my next piece of positivity, um, we've always loved new route announcements, not just because they're really fun and kinda nerdy looks at the industry in general, what airlines are seeing, where people wanna go, what people are telling the airlines that they want From them, but because they always lead to great deals, and I just, this year especially, we've had some really fun new route announcements, and the airlines have been, especially the US airlines, have been pretty crafty about what they're adding.
Uh, and it's been kinda exciting to see them, you know, do a little bit more than just, uh, connect to their European partner in Amsterdam or Frankfurt and London. You know, now they're, they're really branching out and saying, you know, American is saying, "People wanna go to Prague and Budapest, and we'll take you there from Philadelphia."
And Delta is saying, "People wanna go to Sardinia and Malta, and they're just gonna fly you directly there from JFK." I mean, it, these are really, really cool routes. But, you know, we've seen just despite all the headwinds, the airlines just in the last little bit a- we saw Qatar re-add their Philadelphia route.
Um, that created a ton of Qsuites award space as soon as we found that one.
Um- The first widespread Qsuites award space that we have seen in probably two years as a result of, of Qatar adding back this route that they had served years ago. I mean, the linkage between airline adds new route and being able to book either at a cheaper rate or using your points is absolutely undeniable.
Yeah, we, we also saw that with Delta's new route to Hong Kong, which just started, right?
Earlier this month. Yeah. It started, uh, as of j- early June.
Which is a really exciting one. Um, I'll bet you anything that when this long-rumored, not-so-secret secret LAX to Manila route on Delta opens up, we're gonna see the same thing there.
Um, we're gonna see some great SkyMiles deals there. Um, we, you know, United already flies to Manila, and Philippine Airlines is adding a route to Chicago, too, so we're seeing lots of extra lift into the Philippines, which is someplace really exciting. Um, we have all of Alaska's new international routes that they launched this year and last year, Japan, Korea, Rome, Spain, London, and Iceland, flying Alaska from Seattle.
And then the ones I really love, the nerdiest ones, are these, like, really fun leisure routes. Like, I mentioned the Delta routes to Sardinia and Malta. There's United's new-ish, they started it last year, route to Greenland, which is so cool. No overnights on that one, either. A daytime flight there, daytime flight back, which is really cool.
And then that U- new United route was just, just built for me, San Francisco to Sapporo to go skiing on Hokkaido. Amazing. Um, so there's just so many good things, and the airlines have not stopped. And, and then we even see, like, these mega-ambitious projects like Project Sunrise. Qantas wants to fly nonstop from Sydney to London, which is gonna clock in at over 20 hours.
Uh, which is a wild, wild flight that I'm gonna have to take apparently. I al- I have the longest flight in the world, uh, on my list right now. I've already taken that one, so now I need to go fly the next longest flight in the world.
You've done JFK to Singapore- Yeah ... nonstop on Singapore Airlines. Yes, you do need to in fact be on this flight.
We're gonna put you in economy though. Yeah. We wanna keep you humble.
Qantas flies, it has an economy cabin on this flight. I, I just can't imagine what that cabin smells like after 21 hours. It's, it's a horror show back there, it's gotta be.
I'm, I am choosing not to chime in on that. Good. Let's move past it.
Um, also with Project Sunrise, JFK is rumored to start at some point here too after they start this London route. I think they're gonna try and go Sydney to JFK, which is a haul, but man, that'd be a really, really cool route as well. There's also the very exciting new nonstop route from Gunner, uh, my airline that I've started.
Um, joined the Vanilla Alliance earlier this year. Uh, Gunner is gonna fly nonstop from Kalispell, Montana to Calgary with a s- with a, a fuel stop in Saskatoon. It's not fuel for the plane, it's fuel for us. We stop and go to the bar, have beers, get back on the plane, and then we head into Calgary. Uh, very exciting new route there.
It clocks in at about 18 hours.
Can Gunner legally serve Kokanee on board?
Uh, we're still working on our contracts for what we're allowed to serve on board, but there will be Kokanee on board either way. If we get a cease and desist, we'll take it. It's worth the, it's worth the penalty. Uh, what else are you excited about, Kyle?
I, I, I know I can't shut up about it, but I don't care. Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, I still think is one of the brightest bright spots, not just within the last year in points and miles, but of the decade so far. I mean, this was an airline program that was impossible to earn in unless if you were a Japanese resident, and therefore was just not on anyone's radar.
And within the course of the last, you know, 18 months, we've seen Bilt, Capital One, and then Rove Miles all add Japan Airlines Mileage Bank as a transfer partner, all but Capital One transferring on a one-to-one basis. All of them have offered big transfer bonuses to JAL. I'll, I'll say, I gotta get a teensy bit negative here.
There has been some problems with this because of this newfound attention, because of how amazing the deals are to be able to book business class to Japan on Japan Airlines itself for as low as 55,000 miles each way, or 75 or 80 or 100,000 miles at, in, with availability you won't find through other programs, among many, many other deals that we'll get into, it has become oversaturated.
And just within the last, let's call it week, maybe two weeks, Japan Airlines has started to get much more restrictive with the awards based on Japan Airlines. I think that's gonna pass as people burn through the miles, the millions upon millions of miles that they've transferred into this newfound glorious program.
But even if it doesn't, there are still some amazing deals out there. I mean, to be able to book Emirates business class round trip from JFK to Milan, 60,000 miles for a one-way, but not 120,000 miles for a round trip. It is 85,000 miles and under $250 in taxes and fees. Booking that directly through Emirates, you would have to pay 108,000 miles and close to $1,000 in taxes and fees.
There are so many variations on these round trip deals, and even economy redemptions as well. I mean, being able to book 60,000 miles round trip to Peru and back in LATAM business class The- there, we could just go on and on. I love this program so much. There is still more value here that we haven't gotten into.
People need to start exploring how they can make it work.
Yeah, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is, like, perfectly indicative of why we're so positive on points and miles, even as we see things like devaluations and taxes and fee hikes. It's because y- we never saw this coming, that this would become a major player in points and miles and, and not only a major player, but offer, like, truly great value, like those sweet, sweet spots that we used to love in programs like Avianca, which is also something that most people, including me, never thought that they would ever touch.
Um, and then, you know, there's always another JAL Mileage Bank around the corner. Who knows what it is next? Who knows what that next points program is? But as things fade away, as some programs get worse, others like this one, which is just a goldmine, continue to pop up. It's really exciting.
I mean, this is just total proof positive of why we say when one door closes, another one opens.
There's always going to be another opportunity. Are many, uh, you know, foreign airline programs reconsidering how much they wanna play in this US points sandbox? They absolutely are, but there's probably another one out there that just isn't on our radar that we can't or easily earn points in today by transferring from the likes of Amex, Chase, Capital One, et cetera, that is looking here and they're like, "You know what?
We're gonna give this a shot." And so, you know, it, in 2025 and 2026 so far, that story has been Japan Airlines and its Mileage Bank program. What happens through the second half of the year and into 2027, I'm betting there will be something.
Yeah, for sure. Um, can I move on to my next piece of excitement?
Am I too excited?
Am I too positive, Kenny?
No, you're being great. You're being great. Um, I, I need something better than piece of excitement Is it just an excitement?
I thought you said pizza excitement- ... and I got hungry.
All right, my next thing is getting through TSA security lines is actually getting better. The worst part of the airport experience, the easiest thing to make fun of, the most made fun of thing in every stand-up comedy routine, besides the airplane food, is the TSA security line.
Well, it was Spirit. It was Spirit, yeah, but, you know, what's SNL gonna do now? Um, these new touchless kiosks that we've got through TSA PreCheck and through Clear, uh, Clear Plus specifically, are- have made the experience a lot better. The lines are going faster, even if there are long lines. Um, these things started out as press releases that we got probably three years ago.
We were like, "Okay, sure." Mm-hmm. Touchless Kia. I think at one point Clear called it Lane of the Future, and, uh, luckily they've gotten rid of that naming and now it's just Clear Plus or, you know, touchless kiosk or whatever they call it.
I had to go to an optometrist after Lane of the Future because my eyes rolled so far into the back of my head I couldn't see.
Uh, Lane of the Future was a terrible name. Uh, they made a good choice getting rid of that. Um, but all of these things are a more and more prevalent reality at, at more and more airports. If you, if you live in a very small regional airport, you might not have touchless ID yet. You might, you probably don't have Clear yet.
But at the major airports, you're getting all of these things and they're growing. They're spreading to airports all over the country. Um, the best part about TSA touchless ID is right now it is still its own line, and not everybody has opted into it, even from the PreCheck line. So that line is incredibly short.
Um, I've seen, you know, I've been standing at a Clear kiosk and watching someone at a PreCheck kiosk go through at the exact same rate. Like, it's just super smooth and super fast. Um, and, you know, these, these, what... They're called EnVe, E-N capital V-E, pods from Clear Plus. You do, you do not have to call it that.
I can see the pain in your eyes. You hate Clear's naming. Let's, let's move past it. Uh, these EnVe pods are also way better. It's like going through a global entry kiosk where it just scans your face real quick and you're on. Um, and there's way less, like, employee friction, where there's always, like, some, some employee's trying to log into this thing, and then they're logging into someone else's phone, and then they're taking you to the front, and that was always the slow part of the Clear process.
It's really quick. This, these systems are getting way better. As long as you're not in the GenPop security line, you're doing pretty well in security lines right now.
I am shocked at how quickly, uh, both Clear and TSA have implemented these systems. Uh, not, not quite nationwide, but throughout a big piece of their networks, and also just how much it truly has, uh, improved the security process.
I haven't used touchless TSA yet, uh, in large part because Clear has become so reliable for me with this new technology where in some cases you are borderline not breaking stride. You can continue walking. You basically go up to an e-gate that scans your face, it checks your boarding pass, and then a TSA agent waves you through after the gates open.
It's amazing. Um, I was really down on Clear for a long time because in many cases it was such a coin flip as to whether it would save you time or hurt you, and within the last, you know, probably 10 flights that I've taken, it has uniformly gotten me through every single airport that I've gone to within five minutes or less.
Yeah. As long as you're not, you know, paying for it with cash, I think it's still definitely worth it. If you have a card that covers it, Clear is pretty easy to enroll in. It's very simple and, and I quite like it, especially flying with an infant. It makes it very easy there, too. What else are you excited about?
The credit card bonuses just keep coming, and they are bigger than they've ever been. Um, this again, there are two sides to this coin. Uh, it, are- it's kind of a chicken or egg. Are the bigger bonuses on credit cards a result of award rates going up on airlines, or are award rates going up because of all these big bonuses?
I think we are kind of in this cycle where one is pushing the other up higher and higher, where it's kind of turned into an arms race. But regardless, it makes whatever higher rates that you're seeing on your airline of choice more palatable because you can earn far more points than you could, you know, not just a decade ago, but five years ago, two years ago even.
I'll put it this way. When I opened my Amex Platinum card in 2018, I earned a welcome bonus of 60,000 points, and that was the standard. That was as good as it got then. Today, you can earn as high as 175,000 points on that exact same card with a, with a spending requirement that is just 1,000 or $2,000, uh, dollars more over a six-month span and not just three months, as with many credit cards.
So, uh, up to 175,000 points. We just saw 150,000 points, a record bonus on the Chase Sapphire Reserve, a card that launched not even a decade ago with 100,000-point bonus that broke people's brains. Uh, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is back out with 100,000-point bonus as we're talking right now. Delta is out with a slew of offers on, you know, everything from the Delta Gold to the Reserve card for as much as 125,000 Sky Miles with reasonable spending requirements.
You can just keep going. Credit card offers and bonuses like these just keep getting bigger, and again, while that does have some kind of a downside, I think ultimately it's a win.
Yeah, it's definitely a win, and this is, you know, these signup bonuses are just spend that you're already doing. You're just putting it all into one card to get this big batch of points that can really help you fuel something much bigger, if, if that is flying up front in a business class seat or if it's taking the whole family somewhere.
I mean, these are, this is, like, the most, the easiest and best way to earn meaningful points, um, on the spend that you're already doing. It's just such a no-brainer, and yes, the bonuses are better than ever, especially right now. We talked about that in a recent episode, uh, where we were just talking about how this might be the best month ever to sign up for a credit card right now that we're in.
So take a look if you're in the market for a card. Really good time to take a look. Uh, we have a lot more positivity to get to, Peppy Potter, Perky Potter. Uh, but first we're gonna take a quick break. Okay, we're back with our all something hot Positive Potter episode. What do you got next, Positive Potter?
I can't. I, I will continue to be positive. I will, however, reject Positive Pot- Potter, especially Peppy Potter.
Okay.
All-
Pleasant, Pleasant Potter?
Nobody's called me that. Okay. Uh, I've got, uh, I mean, it's a corollary to just how big bonuses are. There are also increasing ways to add to your stash of points just with the spending that you're doing, especially online shopping.
So I think Rakuten has really come into its own, has become much more popular and also more lucrative within the last, let's call it two years, uh, to be able to earn, you know, 10X on, on an online retailer that you're shopping at, sometimes 15, even 20. But also to be able to buy something like a VPN, which you may or may not actually use, and earn 100% cash back, or the option to turn those either into, um, Amex membership rewards or built rewards, and that's 100X points.
I mean, these are, like, really important creative ways to continue to earn points and miles. Rove has really entered the space within the last year in much the same way, doing this for shopping as well as booking flights and hotels. I mean, there are just some really good ways where even with your normal spending, you could probably pretty easily earn an extra 10 to 20,000 points every single year if you use those kinds of creative opportunities to basically buy points for cheap.
I mean, we could be talking about hundreds of thousands of points a year. I know many people in our office are doing this and just treating it as a relatively low-cost way to add to their stash of points.
Yeah, we had our, our coworker, Jackson Newman, who you see all over thriftytraveler.com, he used that, that same VPN just as a way...
He did the math. He was like, "This is way better than just buying Amex points at this point." So he, he went and go- went ahead and got a VPN, got a big stash of points from it. We talked to, uh, Kyle Thomas, our video editor here on the show, in the episode about how to earn a million points. Um, he did that as a college student by using Rakuten and using his side business, uh, to make all of his purchases through Rakuten and, and he racked up points so quickly doing that.
If you're, if you're really a hawk about it, it's easier than ever to just add up those points on your existing spend. This isn't added spend or anything like that. This is just the stuff you're already buying in most cases. Just make sure you have the Rakuten plugin plugged into your browser and shop that way.
It's very, very easy.
Jackson on our team, uh, is now the proud owner of I think at least four VPNs. Uh, I'm sure he doesn't use any of them for exactly this reason. It is just a cheap way to buy valuable points that you can redeem for far more than what you paid for them, which is really the name of the game.
Is it nice to just do s- to buy things that you're gonna buy and earn points on them? Absolutely, but if you do both, you can really accelerate the, the kinds of points you earn.
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great thing to be positive about. All right, my next one, Kyle, we, we, I talked about all the new routes.
The airlines are so competitive about these new routes, all the flight deals that are coming with them. Uh, the airlines are competing with each other there. The airlines and hotels are competing like crazy right now to make their experiences better with no signs of stopping. All the new products, all the new airplane seats, all the new planes themselves, all these new hotels are getting better and better.
It's, it's the best time in the last decade for onboard airplane product innovation. After the previous decade where it seemed like everyone was racing to the bottom to make everything worse, everyone really is putting a bunch of money into making these planes more comfortable. They want more and better Wi-Fi.
They want all these things that are, that are making travel actually better right now. Um, you know, we saw United, Delta, American, and Alaska all introduce brand-new business classes in the last year. Uh, they haven't all started flying them yet. Delta's is still way out on the horizon, but they've all announced, like, their next generation of their best business classes.
Um, we've also seen in the past few years the foreign airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Finnair, all with brand-new A350s with really nice business classes onboard that we love. We saw Air Canada come out with new suites, Air France come out with new suites. Qatar has this new Qsuite coming. We don't know exactly when, but probably soon, uh, based on when that announcement was.
Um, and there's just so much more. And, and it's not just all in business class either. Most airlines are investing in economy. You know, it's more modest investment, but they're giving us perks like much bigger 4K screens and, like I mentioned, Wi-Fi on most planes. Um, the airlines are investing in the products right now, and that is something to be excited about.
I think even if you're not a business class or first class flyer, Wi-Fi alone is really big. Um, look at it this way In the United States, at least 50% of the time, if not more often, de- depending on which airline you're flying, you're not paying for Wi-Fi anymore, and that Wi-Fi is significantly better than it ever was, even when you were paying 29-plus dollars per flight to connect to crappy Wi-Fi.
Just how far Wi-Fi has come within the last three years, and looking out at how much better it's going to be on board, not just in the United States, but basically everywhere as more airlines add service like Starlink, which is free and has to be free, is, is pretty incredible. Um, I d- I didn't really see this coming at the start of the decade, that free Wi-Fi would basically just become a given, and we're basically there right now, which is impressive.
Yeah, it really is. And I- I'll, I'll add this. Um, the hotels are also, uh, all the major hotel brands are creating these new beautiful properties too, and there's been no signs of stopping there either. We saw, you know, just here are a few examples. Just from Hilton, we saw two Waldorf Astorias, uh, l- the London Admiralty Arch, which is open for bookings now, and the Waldorf Astoria Kuala Lumpur.
Uh, from Hyatt, we have that Andaz Turks and Caicos, which I had my eye on, uh, very briefly. I ha- I balked at that. I should've booked it when I had the chance. And the, uh, the Park Hyatt Riviera Maya as well. And then for Marriott, we have the W Sardinia, Italy. We sent out a, a premium plus hotel alert for that one, and same thing for the St.
Regis Budapest. Um, in all of travel, but especially luxury travel, there's just this arms race to make things better, and I think that that's something to be really excited about as we look into the rest of this year and beyond.
I agree.
Okay, more positivity from you. What else do you have?
I- you get one more out of me, and then I gotta, I gotta take a nap or something, I think.
This one, this one is, is really complicated, but there is an undeniable upside that airline loyalty or just having a credit card is getting you much more than it did before. It's not getting you free upgrades certainly, but I think especially with United being the poster child of this, you know, they now have this system where cardholders and status holders don't just get a, a discount in the same way that Delta has done its take off 15.
You get 15% off of Delta-operated flights when you redeem Sky Miles. With United now, you get 10% off if you're a cardholder and 15% if you have United status But they're still and really expanding the use of discounted award inventory specifically for people who have a credit card or status with them. So you get both.
You get that 10 to 15% discount, but then you get access to these lower-priced awards that people who don't have that kind of loyalty, United just will never see. So the, the perfect example of this is, you know, searching Newark to San Francisco, flying United Polaris business class. Me, as an everyday United traveler, I would see 80,000 points for that flight.
Uh, on a, on a random flight, you might see much more, you might see a little bit less. But on that exact same redemption that we saw, it was just 30,000 points, United miles for that exact same flight, United Polaris business class seat from Newark over to San Francisco on the transcontinental route. That is a huge discount.
So I think f- especially for people who are already in that ecosystem, I think we're starting to see you're getting something back. People have clearly lost out on upgrades, but that is a massive discount that you get, and even if you don't have a United credit card, it might be worth considering picking it up, or maybe you fly that one extra leg with United this year in order to, in order to earn status to be eligible for these kinds of discounts.
This is gonna spread to other airlines. We talked about that earlier this year. I'm frankly a little bit shocked that we haven't seen Delta do something borderline identical. I bet we will from American next year. It makes a ton of sense. Does it stink for, you know, everyday people who aren't loyal to the airlines or don't wanna have a credit card with an airline that they may or may not fly?
Yeah, it absolutely does, but there's tremendous upside for those who do.
Yeah, this is way better loyalty than the old version of book a seat and pray that you get that, that upgrade cleared, or like banking on that upgrade to clear. This is way better. This is giving you an actual shot at paying way less than other people.
That's what you should be lo- rewarded for, for your loyalty, right? Like, this is the version of loyalty that I think is actually smarter for the airli- um, clearly smarter for the airlines 'cause they're doing it, but it's also just better for travelers, I think, than the kinda the old, uh, book and pray for your first class seat.
Well, and it's also much easier and cheaper. Uh, you know, you don't have to spend $5,000 a year flying United in order to be, to have a shot at upgrading to first class on that transcontinental route. You get a credit card that costs $150 a year, but that annual fee doesn't kick in until year two, and, you know, all of the sudden you have access to these far, far cheaper business and, in many cases, economy awards, too.
There's a, there's a ton of upside here
All right, Kyle, that's enough positivity out of you. You can, you can go back into your curmudgeonly hole if you- I'm
gonna walk out.
I have one more though. I have one more to be positive about. Um, lounges, they're getting big- bigger and they're getting better. Uh, we mentioned the arms race in upgraded planes and hotels.
It's happening at the airport too. Uh, suddenly everyone needs a lounge. JetBlue and Southwest are in the lounge game now, which is just bizarre, something that you couldn't ever imagine saying a few years ago. Um, the airlines have also, and the banks who got into the lounge game, you know, 10 years ago or so, they've also realized that these spaces need to get bigger and better, and they need to be more customized to what travelers actually want.
So we've seen, like, this Amex launch its Sidecar concept to try and ease crowds. It's trying to move people through, churn people through this lounge area so they're not, you know, gumming up the bus- the busiest part of the actual lounges. Uh, we saw Amex announce a new Boston location, which is coming, I think, in the 2030s sometime.
Uh, and we also saw that they're expanding their Dallas location, which is kinda notoriously busy as well. Um, we saw Chase announce lounges in Vegas, Philly, Dallas, and LA. We saw Capital One announce a new one in Charlotte. Like I said, Southwest and Hawaiian, uh, or s- sorry, Southwest and JetBlue both announcing lounges, and Hawaiian announcing a big expansion at their, uh, Honolulu hub.
Um, and then Delta says it's gonna make more Delta One lounges, including one here at MSP, to kinda ease crowding and create a better, more premium experience for travelers there. Um, the airlines have put their money where their mouths are, and they've basically taken what people were really frustrated about with their lounges is too small, not enough, you know, people hate waiting in line for the lounge, they're too small, they weren't good enough, and they're just expanding.
There are more lounge options than ever, um, for people who really want to access them. So I think this is something that's a positive. They're getting bigger and better. They're actually working to address the issues that we saw pop up a few years ago.
Yeah, I, I mean, I don't... L- I'll put it this way. I don't think that this is going to solve the problem, period, but I do think it's going to make it significantly better over time.
Airlines and banks are clearly investing a lot of time, and resources, and most importantly money into building more lounges, making the lounges that they have better. So my hope is that, you know, by the end of this decade, the talk about lounge overcrowding will be a lot quieter than it was, you know, just within the last year or two when it, it just felt like, right or wrong, every time you went to line up at a lounge, you'd be standing outside for 20-plus minutes.
Airlines are, airlines and banks are doing a lot to try to solve this problem, and that's really encouraging.
Yeah. Well, you know, I'm a lounge creature. I'm always gonna be in the lounges. I've argued with our coworkers who are, who are souring on the lounge experience, but you're always gonna catch me in the lounge.
For what I need, I can get my value out of a lounge visit no matter what. Some people prefer going to a restaurant in the concourse. No, not me. I'm in there. I'm a lounge creature. Headphones on Sparkling wine in hand 'Cause
as long as you got those headphones on, we're fine ...
couple times through the buffet line.
I love me an airport lounge. Are you done being positive? Are we good to help a listener?
I'll, I'll do my best to try to help out a listener and be positive about it.
Okay, let's see if we can be positive for Rachel from Indianapolis who reached out. She said her husband- she said that she and her husband have earned 1.8 million points in the last 15 months after starting their credit card journey from scratch.
Isn't that kind of an enviable position? Like, if you got to just start over from scratch, like how quickly you could rack up points in a big, big way. Um, so what they're trying to do is they're trying to figure out if they wanna go all in on American or Delta. So some, some other data points here. They have Amex, Chase, Capital One, Hilton, and IHG points.
Uh, her husband is a big work traveler and has United Global Services. Psh, must be nice. Pretty nice. They have four school-aged kids between 10 and 14, and their priorities are just to fly domestically to the Caribbean and to Central and South America. So her question is, quote, "Which program should I get into, American or Delta?
Which one will provide me the best experience with the best deals from Indianapolis to mostly domestic or Caribbean and Central America?" End quote. Uh, I have an answer for her. What's your answer?
When I saw and heard Caribbean and Central America, I, it, I think you have to go with American Airlines here.
There's, there's a lot of pros and cons to both of these programs, especially when you talk about redeeming miles but no, Delta just can't even touch American's reach into the Carib- especially the Caribbean, but also Central America as well. I think if that's where you're planning to do most of your travels and where you're planning to redeem most of your miles over time, then American is the clear way to go here.
I think you're absolutely right. I would ... If, if you, if you're dying to choose one, uh, I would go with American. I would also say, you know, try, like we mentioned in the segment earlier, just have a little stash of SkyMiles though, because you never know when you're gonna get that 8,000 round trip SkyMiles to Cancun or, or the deal that we sent earlier.
Um, I mean, y- you get those crazy flash sales that could lead you to massive savings when you're flying with a family of six. So having, you know, maybe just getting one sign-up bonus on a Delta SkyMiles card, especially if, obviously you have some appetite for opening cards earning 1.8 million points, but having a little bit in Delta or Amex just so you have something there because, you know, I- Indianapolis, I would say, because of those connections through, you know, Charlotte and Miami and Dallas, like you're, you're really well connected there on American.
With Delta, you're, you're pretty well connected too, but, um, just ha- there's no reason n- y- with, if your husband has United Global Services and you're in on American, there's no reason to not also have the, the next big airline in your pocket too.
Yeah, I, I think it, figure out a way to dabble in both while maybe going harder on American, I think in this example, is the one to lean further into.
But yeah, there's no reason to, to limit yourself, especially at an airport like Indianapolis, which has service from both.
Yeah, and if you do still have the appetite to open more cards because of that Citi partnership, you can go open that Citi Strata Elite card, get a bonus there, open an American card or two, and all of a sudden you've got a lot of American miles to play with.
So you have a, a pretty quick and easy on-ramp to a ton of miles there too. I hope that helped. Uh, if you'd like us to answer your questions on the pod or if you have any feedback, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We might feature your question on next week's show. To close the show, as always, we go on the spot, and it's Kyle's turn to put me on the spot.
What do you have?
So we, we covered a lot of positive headlines and developments and trends in the travel industry right now. What's the biggest, most important one to you personally? What are you personally most excited about for your own travels?
Personally most excited about for my own travels, I, maybe with more thought at 30,000 feet I could figure out a better answer to this, but truly the making the onboard experience better.
I know that there's people are, are complaining a little bit about how premium planes are getting and, like, how it's really catered to the, the front of the plane. But like I said, like you mentioned, the Wi-Fi is so much better and completely free in most cases now, um, which makes the onboard experience a lot easier.
Uh, and I think just as long as they continue to invest in what is that worst part of travel, which is the part where you're stuck in the tube in the back. Uh, if they're making that better for people, I think ultimately that's, that's just huge. Especially I think about just the little comforts that I need traveling with an infant now.
Uh, it just makes all the difference in the world if you just have, you know, a slightly better screen and a little bit better Wi-Fi, it really does make a difference. So I think the, the investment in the plane itself, um, is what's, like, really most pertinent to me. Um, of course, the new routes are always gonna be exciting for us, uh, professionally just because we always find such good deals there for Thrifty Traveler premium members.
But I think for my personal travels, investing in the plane.
So this is gonna sound like I'm challenging you- Yeah ... and I am. Uh, to you, does, does free Wi-Fi, better screens outweigh the fact that, you know, what used to be, let's call it 34 inches of legroom, is now more like 31?
Yeah, yeah. I'm, I, I think it does, honestly.
Like, you know, when you're, when you're in a seat that's, like, 28 inches of legroom, and I know we're nitpicking a few inches here, but it really does make a big difference. It does. If you're in 28 inches of legroom, you're not... There's no way I'm gonna be happy, no matter what. Uh, I think the difference between 30 and 32 or 33 is pretty negligible to me, honestly, and if there's, you know, something to distract myself with, like, a good screen or Wi-Fi, I think that that does make a difference to me.
I really, really hope Delta wasn't listening to you- ... to basically give away another two inches of legroom.
No, I will keep those two inches of legroom, Delta. I, I, I really will. Um, and I'll pay a little of extra for them, I guess, too, but please don't take those away from us. You're not gonna make any more money back there anyway.
Make the front of the plane, continue to make the front of the plane better and better and leave us alone in economy.
They're certainly not going to, but I like the way you're, y- I like your positivity.
A very positive episode of the Thrifty Traveler podcast. Thank you all so much for listening. Rate us five stars in your podcast platform of choice and like and subscribe to the show on YouTube.
Send this episode to someone you know who needs a little positivity. Send it to the curmudgeon in your life who won't stop complaining about travel. Uh, if you have feedback for us, send me a note at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We would love to hear from you there. Kyle, tell us about the team.
This episode was produced by your favorite host, who is absolutely not giving away a single inch of legroom.
Do not listen to him, Delta Airlines. Gunnar Olsen. It was, uh, produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas and edited by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Tissot. See you next week. See ya.