This week, Kyle gets to fire up the grill and interview his co-host Gunnar his own career in journalism and travel, why he hates “cents per mile,” his trip to Antarctica (?!), and how he feels about his looming future in family travel. Plus, the guys break down one of the best flight deals of the year, the lingering issues at Newark, and their biggest travel pet peeves.
This week, Kyle gets to fire up the grill and interview his co-host Gunnar his own career in journalism and travel, why he hates “cents per mile,” his trip to Antarctica (?!), and how he feels about his looming future in family travel. Plus, the guys break down one of the best flight deals of the year, the lingering issues at Newark, and their biggest travel pet peeves.
(00:00) - Our travel pet peeves (including a fired-up rant from Gunnar)
(04:40) - Something Hot: Sizzling Europe fares in the $300s RT
(08:10) - Something Cold: Emirates makes its First Class awards tougher to book…again
(12:50) - A word from our sponsor: Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal (and hotel!) alerts
https://thriftytraveler.com/premium/
(15:25) - Kyle grills Gunnar on this career in journalism and finding Thrifty Traveler
(22:35) - Gunnar’s “aha!” moment in miles & earning his first flexible points
(27:00) - Why Gunnar hates “cents per mile”
(31:30) - His surreal trip to Antarctica
(40:15) - Listener Question: What the *bleep* is going on at Newark (EWR)?
(43:45) - On the spot: What airport & airline would Kyle avoid?
Produced by Gunnar Olson & Long Tran
Edited by David Strutt
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo. I'm Gunnar Olson here with your favorite single kidney punk bassist. It's Kyle Potter. I'm getting new business cards printed ASAP right when we're done recording this. Single kidney bassist.
Yeah. Punk bassist at that. Very important. Yes. Yeah.
We learned all about that in our interview with you last week, which was super fun. I think our listeners loved getting to know you a little better too. And, this week, it's your turn to grill me. Are you ready for that? I am ready.
The question is, are you ready? Yeah. We'll see what you dig up. You're a good journalist, and I'm a little afraid. So but I have, something I need to to find something out today to get started.
As we know, air travel can be a little stressful experience. It forces people together that otherwise would prefer not to get to know each other in most cases. And those factors make it the perfect breeding ground for pet peeves. So, Kyle, what are some of your biggest travel pet peeves? You know, I try to remind myself on a flight by flight basis that air travel is magical.
The fact that we can get in a metal tube and soar through the air at 500 miles per hour at 3,800 feet, 38,000 feet is pretty incredible. But every time I get into a security line to clear security, that's not the pet peeve. The pet peeve is there is inevitably somebody in front of me who puts their bag and their carry on luggage on the machine to get it to go through and only then realizes, oh, I've got a pocket full of change and a wallet and a watch on and a jack jacket that's too bulky. And the time to do all of these things is so much longer before you actually get in the line. It's when you step out of the car.
It's when you get out of the Uber. It's when your friend drops you off, whatever. Just please, everyone, if you're listening, please be prepared to go through security. It's a miserable experience as is. It doesn't have to be worse for everybody.
Just plan ahead a little bit. You know what's gonna happen. Most of you have done this before. If you haven't, you're forgiven, but it's weird that you're listening to this podcast. Let's be better about this.
And I would just give an honorable mention to something I've never actually seen in person, but I'm bracing for is bare feet on planes. I just what are what are we doing? That is instant no fly list if not sent down to Guantanamo Bay. What about you? What are your pet peeves?
I think, we're in a similar boat where there's really not any reason to be surprised by anything in the flying process anymore. And mine is a similar thing. When we are deboarding, folks, look at me. When we are deboarding, why is everybody always so surprised when it gets to their row and it's time to get off? How is it that every time we have to get off a plane, there's always a row of people for whom it's like they didn't see everybody in front of the plane getting off from all the seats face the same direction.
You know everyone's getting off in front of you, and then it gets to their row and they're like, well, my bag's back here, and I don't have any of my stuff, and I'm just pet putting my phone away now. No. No. No. You have so much time to make a plan as to what to do.
And guess what, folks? We gotta communicate out there. Alright? If your bag is one row back, say, hey. That's my bag up there.
Would you mind helping me, or would you take one step back so that I could grab it and we could all get out of here on time? And you don't have to do this when it's your row's turn. You can do this at any point in the deboarding process. It drives me nuts, and I can't believe that people aren't ready to get off the plane when it's their turn to get off the plane. We have worked together for four years almost, and I have never seen you this worked up about anything.
Not, like, not even close. I mean, if you're watching on YouTube, if you're not, you should be because Gunnar literally stared into the camera as he read this diatribe. It's that I I don't disagree with you. In fact, I respect your passion for it. Mhmm.
We gotta clean it up, folks. It's, atrocious out there. Being at the end of your flight, that should be the time when everyone's like, you know what? Let's work together and get out of this tube. And instead, everyone's always surprised that it's their turn to get off.
We can't have that. We can't have that anymore. Today on the show, I promise I'm not gonna be this worked up. I guess I can't promise that. But, we're gonna dig into something hot and something cold as always looking at at some, pretty spectacular fares that we found recently.
We're also going to, interview me. Kyle's gonna take me through the ringer and, see what he can find out about my life. We have a listener question, of course, and then I'm putting Kyle on the spot to end the show. Welcome to the Thrifty Traveler podcast. Alright.
Let's jump into something hot and something cold where we look at the good and the bad news out there for travelers from the last week, and we're gonna start as always with something hot. So, Kyle, where were you when you got the Thrifty Traveler pre premium flight deal alert for fares to Europe in the 3 hundreds round trip on Thursday night? I was, I was sitting at home. It was probably 6PM or so. So we had finished work for the day, and I got a message from John who runs our premium service.
You you around? I've got a Sizzler coming. And Sizzler is a, I wouldn't say infrequent, but I would say it's a rare term that John and company use to describe some of the deals that they find. And and if if John or or you or Peter or Katie or anyone on our team find something after hours, Sizzler or not, you know it's something special. And so John didn't describe it, but he sent me a test of it to give it a quick proofread.
And it's like, this is, you know, easily some of the cheapest round trip fares to Europe that we've seen in years, maybe even pre pandemic. And I think we'll probably go down. It's early, but let's mark it. We'll probably go down as one of our top 10 deals of the year. Yeah.
I'd think we always put that list together at the end of the year, and I think that's a shoe in for, what's gonna be in the top 10 deals of the year, especially considering the summer on there. But for those those who missed the deal, they were all one world fares flying American Airlines and its partners Aer Lingus, Iberia, and Finnair. And, in the deal, American targeted seven delta hubs. So Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, JFK, Salt Lake, and Seattle were the departure cities from The US, and the destinations were Barcelona, Dublin, Helsinki, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Rome, Zurich, and more. This deal was pretty widespread, and, it featured from several cities peak summer availability too, which was really crazy.
Fall and winter was kinda where you could find the most of the best fares, but, plenty of peak summer stuff, especially to Dublin, flying Aer Lingus. This deal was just so much fun to see, when I checked my laptop late. I believe when John messaged me, he called it a heater, not a sizzler. We gotta we gotta have him iron this out whether it's a heater or a sizzler. These are important details that we need to answer on the Thrifty Traveler podcast.
No. But, I mean, under 390 some dollars nationwide from all of these Delta hubs, fares from Minneapolis, which, you know, this is not just our home our hometown airport, but, you know, a very important Delta hub. Also, a Delta hub that tends not to benefit from the best of the best flight deals. You tend to see the lowest prices especially over to Europe from the East Coast or or bigger cities like Chicago. Seeing a round trip fare from Minneapolis to Dublin nonstop on Aer Lingus for $335 round trip is truly something special.
And, again, why this will easily be, you know, one of the top 10 flight deals of the year. Yeah. I was also really happy for the folks in Salt Lake who Salt Lake again and again gets throttled with airfare. They're stuck. They're really hub captives there with Delta dominating so much of that airport.
It's hard to find really great deals from Salt Lake, so you love seeing them jump in on this. And I hope, our folks out in the mountains got to book the trip of their trip of their year this year. So, Kyle, do you wanna talk about something cold, though? I think we have to talk about, Emirates first class, one of the most coveted airline seats flying. It's getting harder and harder to book.
Can you tell us more? Yeah. So, I mean, it has been it has gotten harder and harder to book over the last few years as, Emirates has eliminated the ability to to do what most people did for years, which was book through Alaska Airlines mileage plan, which had the cheapest rates to fly from, you know, all of their many US outposts over to Dubai or back, as well as really, really reasonable taxes and fees. But Emirates ditched that a handful of years ago. And in the year since, they've raised award rates on basically all of their flights.
They've raised fees on all of their flights, in some cases, just by, you know, $50 here or there, but in the case of their non stops to Dubai, to as much as $900 1 way. I mean, this is an insane amount of cash to fork over when you're also, by the way, forking over a 36,000, a 50,000 miles or more each way to book first class. That's all bad enough. But what Emirates did this week was effective Monday, May 12, they said that you are not allowed to book an Emirates first class seat using miles, which are easy to earn because you can transfer them from Chase and American Express and and all of the other major banks. But even so, you are not allowed to book Emirates first class unless if you have status with us, which is you know, we've seen so many, airline companies again and again over the last few years raise their award rates just to make those things a little bit harder to do, a little bit more expensive for everyone.
This is not a brand new tactic, but it's a relatively unusual one to see the airlines say, you need to have status with us in order to do this. It's a bit of a bummer, though, as we'll get into quickly here. Doesn't mean this is impossible. It's just going to make it, it's gonna introduce some additional hurdles if you really, really wanna make this happen. Yeah.
I I think, you know, there's it's kind of a a double edged sword here where where it is gonna be a little harder to, you know, find these awards and book them or be able to book them yourself, but in a way that could make some of these awards a little easier to find. Right? I mean, that that's the hope we've seen. Again and again, airlines promise that this is going to lead to greater availability only to find, oops. Never mind, guys.
This just isn't gonna happen for you anymore. I think the hope and and my expectation right now is that for those people who do have Emirates status, they will have an easier time actually finding not just one, but maybe two seats so that they and a companion can book one of these flights from JFK to Milan or Newark to Athens or, you know, one of the many nonstops over to Dubai or back. Because that has been really, really hard for the last few years, in particular since the depths of the pandemic. It has gotten really hard to find more than one Emirates first class seat. And then if that is true, then maybe it's worth taking an extra step to get Emirates status because it doesn't require, flying thousands upon thousands of miles with Emirates as it does with your major US airlines.
You can get instant status with Emirates from one of their cobranded credit cards. One of them just has a $99 fee. You get, Emirates low level silver status, which is enough to qualify to book these Emirates first class awards. But, you know, maybe it's worth $99 for a year of status, and then you can book that, you know, prized Emirates first class redemption. And hopefully hopefully, knock on wood, it's easier as a result of that.
You know, the last thing to plug here is that for years, we've been telling people the easiest way, especially in light of how challenging it is to find the availability to book miles in Emirates first class. The best way is to book a business class ticket and then take advantage of Emirates relatively unusual upgrade program, which allows you to use miles at the check-in desk on the day of your flight to bump up from business class to first class. And that, as far as we know, as we're talking right now, is still available. And it's, it's gonna cost you more miles than an Emirates first class ticket would outright booking it from the very beginning. But, hey.
You know, being able to do it for an extra, you know, twenty, thirty thousand miles or more, to be able to actually make that happen, it's well worth it. And as long as that six round or as long as it's six round, we're gonna be in okay shape. But this is still definitely something cold. Yeah. Definitely something cold.
But, I guess we'll see if availability gets a little better and people are willing to open a card to make this work or, like you said, upgrade at the airport. Still a fantastic deal, and hopefully, people who wanna fly Emirates first class aren't gonna be shut out just yet. Let's take a break. We talk a lot about finding flight deals for our Thrifty Traveler premium members, but that's not all we do. For about the last year, we've also been sending hotel alerts as a new optional add on to our premium service.
So two or three times a week, our hotel alert subscribers are getting alerts to book some of our favorite top rated hotels, resorts, all inclusives, you name it, using their hotel points. And then within their flight deals, we also include discounted cash rates as well as some points deals. So when we send you a flight deal to Denver or Dublin, we're gonna include some recommendations of some of the best hotels with discounted rates that you can book in Denver or Dublin. Our guy, Long Tran, who runs our hotel alert service, is killing it with these deals lately. And I think it just keeps getting better and better since we launched this back, last summer.
What hotel deals stand out to you, Gunnar? Well, the problem is they all stand out to me. It's hard to pick one, but we got a resounding response from our, premium hotel alerts members. The Alila Ventana Big Sur, hotel in California really struck a chord with our members. All inclusive Hyatt property about two and a half hours south of San Francisco.
It was bookable for 45,000 World of Hyatt points each night. The best availability was in March and May of next year. To get those same rooms with cash, it was looking like $2,500 a night, which is not reasonable. But for that hotel, I mean, that's what they charge. That is exactly what you're getting.
It's it's, five star all the way. And with that 45,000 World of Hyatt Points a night, you get a room with a private deck and room service and poolside dining, restaurant dining, all of it included. So an unbelievable deal and, one of those that I wish I had the points ready to go to book, but it sounds like a lot of our members did. They did because this is one of, if not the hardest property in Hyatt's entire portfolio, to book using Hyatt points. Typically, you go through an entire calendar and you won't find more than a random date or two.
So to be able to have the entire basically the entire months of March and May of twenty twenty six, as well as a handful of other weeks throughout early twenty twenty six, you know, this means that we're on it. We're searching for this stuff. So if you want deals like this, you need our premium plus package, which bundles flight deals and hotels. Sign up today at thriftytraveler.com/premium. As a special treat, podcast listeners can use the promo code t t pod for $20 off the first year of alerts.
That's thriftytraveler.com/premium. Use the promo code TTPOD, five letters, all one word for $20 off your first year. Alright. Back to the show. Alright.
Welcome back. So last week, we got to know Kyle a little better, and this week, the tables have turned. So my, direct supervisor at work is about to ask me a bunch of personal questions. What could go wrong? What do you got, Kyle?
How many organs are you missing, and please name them. I have all my organs. Haven't done an audit or or count lately, but I think all my know. I don't think you need an audit. I think you would probably know.
I think they're all there. I don't know if they're all working, but, heart's pumping. Lungs are working today. Alright. That was a joke question to actually get started.
So it's been, you know, almost four years as we touched on before since you joined us. So as you think back on your life and then your career before joining us, what pivotal moments brought you to a life of travel and then eventually working with us? Oh, wow. As far as a life of travel, I've always loved everything about the travel experience. I have a good story from when I was a very little kid.
My dad tells me this story. I don't totally remember it, but we were skiing in Colorado. Surprise, surprise for people who know me. We got caught in a blizzard, and our connection to Denver got canceled. And so my dad booked us an overnight van ride.
So sitting in the back of a van on I 70 in an absolute whiteout blizzard. Sitting in the back, we get to a Motel six or a Super eight or something at the Denver Airport. It's like three in the morning. We're waiting for our, you know, 7AM flight back to Chicago. And, my dad says that at in that moment, we're sitting in the bed watching whatever random cable movie that you watch, after a very long drive to Denver.
And I looked at him and said, dad, is travel always this great? And so I think, my dad traveled like crazy when I was a kid, for work and for pleasure too. And he just taught me all about, you know, where in the world, you can go and and, you know, where a plane can take you. And that was kinda like my I've always had a bit of the travel bug. And, and then obviously, I left the nest.
And as an adult, you realize that travel's really fun, but someone's gotta pay for it. Yeah. And, that's kind of where my, you know, my budget travel chops started coming in because I realized that if I wanted to actually do this, I better figure out how to do it on the cheap. But that was kinda where the travel part came in, and then the writing and journalism part is obviously a whole different story. Well, let's start there, though.
I mean, how did you get into journalism, and then how did that shift to, you know, just writing about news for the publications and news outlets that you work for into turning your love of travel into something you could actually make money from, which I think I'm sure you feel the same way as I do. I've been doing this for seven years. You almost four. And it's still, like, how how is this a job? How is this a career?
How do I explain this to people and not sound like I'm actually unemployed? Yeah. Exactly. It's a yeah. Whenever you say, you know, I'm a travel writer, people like, oh, do you, like, work for a company or you just, you know, like, does somebody pay you?
Like, yeah, actually. But, yeah, I always wanted to be a sports writer. I thought I wanted to be a hockey writer or a Major League Baseball beat reporter. Those are the things I thought I wanted to do when I was a kid. When I got to college, I, you know, found, there's a much bigger world out there and also that every single kid, every single dude wants to be a sports writer, and that it's probably, a little easier for me to find a new lane.
I got into just regular old local news right out of college, and The Kenyon Leader, a tiny little newspaper in Southern Minnesota weekly. They just handed me the paper, and they said it's yours. I was 22 years old and had never even had an editor before. So I learned how to write there and at the Fairbow Daily News in, Faribault, Minnesota. I had two really good editors there, Brad Finau and Susie Rook.
I doubt you're listening because you guys are probably actually busy people. But, shout out to you guys for teaching me how to write. And then I went up and, joined the team at Fox nine in The Twin Cities. Moved up here, and started that job in 2018, where we just covered local news in The Twin Cities. We're I was a an assignment desk editor and a content editor.
So I was kinda running dispatch for all the news crews and trucks and cameras and everything while also writing the website every day. And that I just love that pace. Like, it's super fast newsroom environment. We were on a big desk in the middle of the newsroom, kinda surveying everything around us and watching monitors and live streams. And, it was fast fun work, that I really enjoyed.
And then, you know, 2020 came around, and the news kinda turned into a slog for a while, especially here in the Twin Cities. It was, obviously covering COVID, remotely was really not that fun. You know, the killing of George Floyd and everything that happened after that was, you know, obviously important news to cover, but, you know, just really tough news to cover as well. Mhmm. And kinda coming out of that, I still loved being in local news.
I wasn't looking for a new job, but I saw you guys posted that you wanted someone to write for Thrifty Traveler. And I obviously knew of Thrifty Traveler, and I was just excited about the opportunity to be a travel writer because I've always had the bug, and, it was just something very different that I was really excited to try. And it's, worked out okay. Right? Sure.
Yeah. Yeah. It's fine. No. It has been great.
And I think it's been great because I think you've been kind of uniquely positioned to help people connect the dots and kind of ratchet up their understanding of how to find cheap flights and how to really start to learn how redeeming credit card points and airline miles work. And we talk a lot on our team about, you know, having an moment where things start to click and you really start to understand that you can use this. You understand why it works and how to apply it to the things that you wanna do in a way that just seems really out of reach to most people when they first get started. So what was your moment when you realized that, you know, whether it's just kind of using Google Flights or redeeming points and miles or both, where it started to fall into place for you and you started to kind of, build on that foundation? Yeah.
Well, to your point before the moment, yeah, it was when I started on this team, you guys told me, you know, learn slowly because that perspective of being a newbie. I remember for a long time, you know, in meetings, you guys would turn to me and be like, Gunnar, what do you think about this? Because I didn't totally know everything. And I kinda started from scratch in the broader world of points and miles. I was, you know, earning and burning rapid rewards in sky miles for, you know, my entire adult life up until that point.
But I I learned really slowly. I'm still learning every day. This is obviously a good office to be in, from a personal standpoint. But, you know, I I never you know, I I I guess I'm turning into an expert on it, but I'm learning alongside everybody else and things change so fast in this business that, you know, there's no there's no real true experts out there because whatever you know today might be gone tomorrow. But as far as an moment, it was picking up the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for the first time.
It was, like, right before I started here, actually. And then all of a sudden, I have an account full of flexible points, and that was something that I never understood the value of that before. I was always stuck in Delta or Southwest, and those were my two options coming out of MSP. But then all of a sudden, I have a hundred thousand Chase Ultimate Rewards from signing up for that bonus four years ago. And, I've all of a sudden have, you know, World of Hyatt points.
And all of a sudden, I have United points and Avianca LifeMiles, which, unfortunately. Yeah. I wish I'd never learned about that. But, you know, that was kind of the moment for me. And then after that, starting to plan a honeymoon and realizing that I could pull it off, was pretty special.
So I think also, booking my first business class flight, Tap Air Portugal, JFK to Lisbon, Thirty Five Thousand Avianca life miles. That was also, I can't believe this is possible. I've spent 35,000 miles on way, way dumber trips than that one. So RIP. Pour one out for that redemption.
Yep. So we talk a lot here about, the nuts and bolts of booking travel and how to do it for less, how to maximize your points, how to get the most out of your miles. But, ultimately, travel is really personal, and what you want out of travel is really personal, and where you wanna go is personal. And I think one thing that we really pride ourselves on across our entire team, not just, you know, the people that write on the website and the two of us doing this podcast and the unfortunate people who join us as a guest now and again, everyone on our team brings a different perspective to travel. So what do you think is different about your perspective of travel and what you want out of it?
Yeah. Good question. I think, you know, a lot of how when I got started with budget travel, it was basically just to get myself skiing every year. In a lot of ways, that hasn't changed. I still use award travel and budget travel just to get myself skiing every year.
That's changed a little bit now. You know, my wife and I like to travel all over the world, but my favorite redemptions every year are just getting myself to Banff, or getting myself to Jackson or, you know, going to these places where I can go ski. And, obviously, it's a it's a little different because when I got here, everyone's perspective is at Thrifty Traveler, never check a bag. Right? And I came with the perspective of, can't carry my skis on.
So what's what's going on? Tried? I have not tried. No. I doubt that they would let you, but it would be a a funny visual at least.
But Just see I just want a photo of you standing in a security line with your skis standing straight up. Apparently, there's some prototypes for some foldable skis, which I can't imagine ski very well. But That sounds like an ACL tear waiting to happen. Yeah. I I I would, it would save you, you know, $40 each way on check bags.
But I guess maybe that's part of the unique perspective I have is that my travels have always been, let's go get to the highest mountain I can. And, I gotta bring a bag with me because I've always got equipment and things like that. But other than that, I don't think there's anything unique about what I do. I'm doing the same travel that everybody else does. It's getting to weddings and taking that one or two big trips a year and then getting myself to the mountains.
Well, I I I do want you to give yourself some credit though because I do think that that perspective is different, different, at least in terms of the people who work for organizations like ours who talk about this stuff on a regular basis and who write about it where the emphasis is on and solely on things like Emirates first class or booking Qatar Q Suites or Japan Airlines business class. And don't get me wrong. I love that stuff, and I know you do too. But I mean, to kind of ground it in more everyday experiences, more attainable things, things that really truly matter because the experience is special whether or not, you know, that cheap Southwest flight to Denver or, you know, that cheap flight to Calgary flying Delta that you booked using Virgin Atlantic. Is that the world's best redemption?
Probably not. But who cares? Because you went on an amazing trip, and I think that to me has always been more of the perspective that you bring to it, which I think is really, really necessary. Yeah. I think we have plans to talk about this on future shows, but I kinda loathe the idea of cents per point.
And I think that kinda thinking is it's helpful for people who wanna kinda wrap their minds around what kind of value you can get out of here. But your points and miles, the best value is going to be for something you otherwise couldn't afford. And that's really just the basis that I use things. You know, I've spent the same, number of points on a business class flight to Europe as I have on a round trip sky miles booking to Banff. And to me, those things are both equally important because in the end, I didn't have to pay cash to do either.
And that's really all that matters to me. And I I think, I mean, a lot of people are the same. Most people, especially young adults, are looking at their points accounts and being like, this is just gonna get me to the weddings I have to go to this summer. And it you know, you don't have to save up a hundred, you know, 200,000 points to fly q suites to The Maldives. Sometimes you just need to get to Kansas City on Friday, and you need to be home Sunday night.
And that's the best use of your points in a lot of cases. So I try not to be, I guess, too judgmental of the way people use their points because I've definitely made some bookings where it's like Yeah. Didn't get the greatest value compared to the cash price, but I otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford it. But you went on the trip, and that's the point. Yeah.
So when you're not seeking out the highest mountain that you can to ski down, you spend a lot of time coaching high school sports. You coach a high school lacrosse team. Could you please share with us two or three of the best or worst, depending on your perspective, phrases that you've learned from your Gen z lacrosse players? Oh, man. Every year, at Stillwater Area High School in on the Eastern Part of Minnesota, I learned new ways to speak and new ways to talk.
And sometimes I just prefer to not learn what they mean. But over the years, I think it was two years ago was, everything that was good was yucky. So, like, if somebody scored a really awesome goal, everyone yell, yuck, yucky. And then, if it was bad, it was buns, which, buns is now just a part of my lexicon. I adopted that full on.
I think it's great. I hear buns two or three times a week in our office. So, yeah, that you don't get to play high and mighty with, with Gen z lexicon there. Yeah. Everything was yuker buns that year.
And this year, when you're addressing a group speaking verbally, you say chat, and then it's like chat comma. So, like, oh god. I don't even know how to describe it. You know, there everyone is, if you're just talking to the greater group, they started out with chat. It's kinda like the way I use Yo to start the podcast.
It's everyone just says chat now, which I can't get behind. I don't think that their hearts are behind it either. I think that's That one that one might flame out, but I think buns and buns definitely has saying power. No. Buns is great.
That's a perfect way to describe things. But, yeah, high schoolers teach you all the wrong things. It's kind of fun. So we've been at this together for the last almost four years. How do you think what you care about, what you want out of travel has changed since you kind of built your career and in some ways your life around talking about travel and working in travel?
I'd say, you know, obviously, the being around you guys, you've all rubbed off on me, and I I do appreciate the journey a little more now. You know, I think, finding a really comfortable way to fly business class somewhere is really fun. And if you have a flight you're looking forward to, it makes the trip so much better. Mhmm. A lot of people just brace for flying, and then it you know, the just the stress of knowing that you're gonna have a bad flight in economy on the long haul, can, you know, make people dread traveling.
And I I hear from people all the time who say who say, you know, I I have to take, like, two or three days to recover after a trip just because, you know, traveling just takes it out of me so much. And the solution there is to give yourself a bed in the sky and to fly business class. So I I do think, I've I've definitely started skewing towards that a little more and most importantly, sharing it with other people. You know, just showing other people how possible all this stuff is. And, if you earn the correct points, you can fly as comfortable as you want to to wherever you want.
So I think that's maybe how my perspective has shifted a little bit. But it's all still based in, just get me the flight for free. I'll pay whatever number of points it takes in a lot of cases. So speaking of flying anywhere you want, you are the only maybe the only one of the few people that I know that has been to Antarctica. You are definitely the only person in the world who went to Antarctica before you entered the country of Mexico.
Tell us a little bit about how that happened. Yeah. In high school, we had a very wealthy influential donor to our high school who was obsessed with Antarctica. And he would sponsor every five years, trip to Antarctica for about a quarter of the student body. And you had to enter a lottery and write an essay.
And I won the lottery one year and got to go. It was my sophomore year of high school. I was way too young and stupid to appreciate it. It was still an amazing experience. I lost every single photo I ever took. The one there are a few that are on Facebook still is the only ones I have left. Zuckerberg. Yeah. Help us.
Help us get this. Elon, whoever's listening to this, help us get Gunner's photos, please. Yeah. But it was a crazy trip. We flew to Santiago.
We flew LatAm. I remember that. JFK to Santiago, and then, we spent some time there. We spent some time in, Patagonia, which it was honestly, like, the most was the prettiest and coolest part to me. Antarctica itself is, also incredible, but it's kinda just a big wasteland.
And you're, you know, we're on a boat for a long time on a cruise. We left from Ushuaia, Argentina. Went to South Georgia Island too and got a very fun passport stamp from there as well. But, just a crazy trip that I didn't deserve and didn't earn, but got to go on, just because I, you know, got in the way of some opportunity there. But it was so cool.
And, I remember telling you guys about that at my interview. Like, where's the coolest place you've ever been? I was like, well, I have to say this, but then I have to explain this whole story as to why I went and how I didn't pay for it and things like that. So but, unbelievable opportunity. And, I've been looking for ways to do it again, and hopefully someday I will.
I hope so too. What's a place that you've been to that surprised you? Good or bad? Oh, I maybe recency bias here, but in January, I went to New Orleans for the first time, and I did not think that I was gonna love New Orleans. And I loved it.
Just one of the coolest, most interesting cities I've ever been to. So that was that's definitely on the list. Is it the food? Is it the culture? Just the overall vibe, the history?
I think it's just so unique and, you know, every block is different, and the food was so good everywhere. I wasn't really prepared for that. I'm not like a crazy foodie traveler. I my, you know, food knowledge is pretty limited, and my, you know, kitchen know how is even more limited. But I, you know, I can appreciate great food, but just it's so accessible there.
The best food is not, you know, you're not you're not chasing stars chasing Michelin stars. You're just going to find the best food which you can find on any corner. So I was actually there, like, three days after that massive blizzard that hit. And so the city was, like, ground to a halt too. I think our Uber from the airport into downtown was, like, a hundred dollars, and I was like, this is a bad start.
I don't know if I like it here, but every minute we spent there, I really liked. So that place really surprised me, but I think there everywhere surprises you a little bit, because, you know, I I spent a lot of time on Google Maps, but it's never exactly the same. Right? No. No.
Google Maps is not the same as actually being somewhere and talking to people and smelling the smells and seeing the things that pictures just can't quite capture. Right? Are you a prepared down to the minute of what you wanna do in a place? Are you kind of more free wheeling or somewhere in between? And, like, what advice would you give people for how they plan their travels based on what makes you happy?
Yeah. I've evolved on that actually. If ask my wife how our honeymoon went, it was like the amazing race. I planned every second. I way over planned it.
And by the end of every day, we were just exhausted. And this was the honeymoon when you went to Zanzibar in the Maasai for the safari, which we talked about in a previous episode. Yeah. It was an awesome trip. We had so much fun, but it was way too much.
And since I've started kinda under planning, especially on the day that you arrive, there's no need to pack a bunch of things in, especially when you're flying long haul. But I would just say, you know, an activity or two a day is fine, and building in a rest day if you have the time is also not a bad idea. Just leaving a little more opportunity for some spot in 80 is always smart. But, you know, when I was younger, it would be you know, I'm only going for three days, so I'm doing 75 things. And, you know, when we do review trips here at work, those are usually, like, one or two day trips.
So I'm used to but usually, I'm alone. So I just pack in as much as I can as much as I can handle. But, you know, when I'm traveling with my wife or my family, I tend to under plan a little more, give yourself a little extra time around transit and things like that. It all it makes it just more enjoyable. You'll never regret having some downtime.
Go find a patio and a beer. You'll be just fine. Mark it on the podcast booze counter. We got there. Alright.
You and your wife are about to welcome your first child. On a scale of one to 10, how terrified are you? Terrify let's see. If I put it on a travel scale, ten, ten terrified. We do have, several team members who have learned to travel with their families and who make it look pretty easy.
And there are a lot of people out there who make it look fun, and I am actually very excited for it, but it's definitely gonna change the way I do almost everything. In general, I'm honestly not that scared. I have a crazy good support network. Our village, for whoever this kid is, is so strong, and we're really, really excited. We're very, very fortunate to have as many good people in our lives as we do.
How on the travel thing, not to downplay the just in general thing, which is way more important. And we'll circle back on that before we're done here. On travel, how are you thinking about travel differently as the big day comes? I like, to our last point, just, you know, under planning a little bit. Right now, my flighty app doesn't have a flight on it until, October.
So I'm just kinda under planning. I gotta meet this kid and figure out what they like, and then we can book some more trips later on. But just a little a little slower. I'm not expecting to have my sprint trips like usual. And then I think, you know, the trips were, my annual ski trip up to Canada is probably gonna have to be a few days shorter and things like that.
So the trips on my own are gonna be shorter and faster, and the trips as a family, hopefully, longer and slower. And, honestly, I'm excited for all of that, but it's changed a little bit. Now I'm digging into, you know, award tickets for infants and that whole world, which is just, like, really convoluted. And, luckily, we've had so many parents at this company go through it before me that I'm not the first one through the glass here. Yeah.
You've got a village here too. Yeah. So you get to pick one trait one trait from yourself to give to your newborn child and one trait from your wife that you want to make sure your kid has? What are they? For my wife, it's easy.
I I want them to just have the ability to learn new things like she does. It's my wife just is nine months pregnant and just is still finishing a house project. She just built us a new kitchen. I just am disposing of garbage is my entire role here because I have not a handy bone in my body. And, but just her willingness to learn and to get better at things is just awe inspiring.
So I hope that my kid has that from her. And, for me, I hope they have red hair. We gotta keep the species alive. You know? It's gotta be red species.
I need more redheads out there. We're dwindling, and it's important that this kid has red hair. I really hope they do. Well, Gunnar, that's all I have for you. This was, super yucky to borrow the Parlance of your Lacrosse team.
Thanks for doing this. This was really fun. Yeah, man. This was fun. Alright.
Let's take a question from our listeners. So today, we're hearing from Mike v from Minnesota who asks, please detail how horrible this summer will be at Newark as they will only have one runway working for most of the summer travel season. Please advise any alternate options to using Newark. LaGuardia and JFK. Yeah.
The alternate options are obvious, Mike. But so, Kyle, this runway closure is causing some issues, but it's just kind of the tip of the iceberg here. Right? Right. I mean, Newark is really in the thick of it in terms of, you know, on the one hand, a long brewing a long problematic shortage of air traffic controllers nationwide.
I mean, air traffic control has been having problems across most of the country, in particular, the East Coast, up in the New York City area as well as Philadelphia and, down in the Florida area for a long time. And those problems aren't going away anytime soon. But Newark in particular is getting hammered by shortages of controllers, at the office, which runs out of the Philadelphia area, and it has been drastically exacerbated by a handful of technical outages. As we're talking right now, there have been three, if not four, outages where controllers basically lose radar. In some cases, they've lost contact with pilots who are inbound or outbound.
I mean, this is not good, and it just creates more, staff shortages as as people leave the control office for trauma leave. I don't know when this is gonna get better. As we're talking right now, there are no indications that there is a silver bullet that Newark is gonna get right back on its feet. I mean, United CEO Scott Kirby needs Newark to work well. It's one of their most important hubs, and United has cut a significant portion of their flights through the summer and into the fall because they realize that if they don't, they're going to have to continue canceling hundreds of flights.
So as for what this looks like in the summer travel season, I mean, I'd put it this way. Newark for for a trip that I have coming up in, late August would be my preferred airport. It's just the closest one to the area of Manhattan where I'm gonna be staying, and I'm not looking at Newark anymore. I just don't wanna expose myself to the likelihood, the strong possibility, maybe even the certainty that there's gonna continue to be problems. So I think the answer though I said it jokingly, I think the answer is the alternatives are flying to LaGuardia or JFK.
You're it's a much safer bet right now if you wanna avoid disruptions. Yeah. If you're heading south, into kind of New Jersey area too, consider looking at Philly. That's not that terrible to get to New Jersey from there. Also, if you have a flight booked to Newark that is, you know, not refundable or not changeable or anything, think about just trying to change yourself into that first flight of the day.
Typically, delays and cancellations cascade over the course of the day, especially in the afternoons. In the summertime, that's when you're most vulnerable to get weather. So if you can, just, move that flight to the first one of the day. You're gonna have to get out of bed a little earlier, but it might save you some big headaches. That's flying into or out of Newark.
But, again, if you can avoid it, I probably would at this point, just because lot going on there. So if you want us to answer your question, email us at podcast@thriftytraveler.com, and your question might be featured in next week's show. Alright, Kyle. Putting you on the spot this week. I love asking travelers what airport and what airline they'd never fly again because those two things are always different based on the one or two bad experiences they had there.
So, Kyle, what airport and airline would you never fly through or on again? Wow. I am totally unprepared for this one. I think in terms of on the spot, you win. Podcast over.
Oh, a bad airport. I don't love the Jakarta Airport in Indonesia. My wife and I have been to Bali twice, first for our honeymoon and the second time most recently for our fifth anniversary a couple of years ago. And the first time we went there, we made a really poor decision and decided not to fly from, Chicago to Taipei direct to Bali. Don't ask me why.
We flew from Chicago to Taipei to Jakarta and then booked a Lion Air flight from Jakarta to Bali. Jakarta is just not a very easy airport to navigate. The terminals are really far apart. There is a, like, a tram system, but it's on the other side of security, so you need to re clear. It was just not a lot of fun, and it would be one thing to be there when you were, you know, fresh faced and had just gotten up for the day or midday.
This was after about twenty eight hours of travel, and nobody is at their best after twenty eight hours of travel. That's why I love this question is because it's always based on something other than maybe the exact airport itself. Like, it sounds like a pretty inconvenient place, but it's also I'm on hour twenty eight of not sleeping, and maybe that's why. But, yeah, everyone I'm sure there's someone out there who has some, you know, a gripe with every single airline in the world and probably every single airport in the world. And any airline come top of mind?
Yeah. I mean, the first one that comes to mind is that exact same trip is that Lion Air flight. And what I remember most is, a, just being so tired and needing to be in a bed and then being delayed after this really inadvisable connection through Jakarta, by another two and a half hours. And then finally getting on the plane, and the plane was just roasting hot because there was apparently no APU auxiliary power unit for AC on the plane before we actually took off. And they had left the windows open on the tarmac, prior to boarding and then asked us to close them.
So it we were, like, running on fumes, it was maybe 85, 90 degrees inside of this plane. It was just again, had it been the beginning of a travel day, I'm sure it would have been fine, but it was, like, just the last thing we needed at that particular moment. So I'm not in a hurry to repeat that line air flight. Those are both good answers for, for looking like you were really on the spot there at the beginning. Nice job.
I pulled them out of my, you know what, gunner. Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much for listening to the Thrifty Traveler podcast. If you would please rate us five stars on your podcast platform of choice, we'd really appreciate it. Also watch us on YouTube so you can see me very animated at the beginning of this episode.
And also, like and subscribe to us there. And then, send this episode around. Somebody you know needs a vacation, and they should hear this show as well. If you have feedback for us, send me a note at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. I'd love to hear from you.
Kyle, tell us about the TT podcast team. This episode was produced by our hotel alert aficionado, Long Tran, and your favorite yucky podcast host, not buns at all, Gunnar Olson. It was edited by David Strutt. Our theme music is by Benjamin Tissot. See you later.
See you.