Digital Social Hour - Travel Hacking SECRETS: $6K Business Class for $5.60! | Eli Facenda DSH #615

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

Discover the *Travel Hacking SECRETS* that can turn a $6K Business Class ticket into a mere $5.60! ✈️💼 Tune in now to the latest episode of the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly, featuring Eli, the travel hacking maestro! 🌍   From flying anxiety tips to navigating lay-flat beds in domestic first class, this episode is packed with valuable insights that will transform how you travel. Eli shares his incredible journey, from being a broke 20-something to mastering the art of travel hacking, unlocking luxury experiences around the world. 🌟   Don't miss out on these insider secrets to maximize your points, snag unbelievable upgrades, and jet-set like a pro. 🏆💳 Join the conversation and learn how to make your dream trips a reality without breaking the bank. 🙌   Watch now and subscribe for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more jaw-dropping travel hacking tips and exclusive guest interviews! 🚀   #DigitalSocialHour #SeanKelly #Podcast #ApplePodcasts #Spotify #TravelHacking #InsiderSecrets #EliTheTravelGuy #LuxuryTravel #TravelPoints   #TravelingOnABudget #CheapBusinessClass #TravelTips #TravelLoyaltyPrograms #ExploringTheWorldCheaply   #FlyBusinessClassCheap #UltimateTravelGuide #TravelHackingForBeginners #CheapFlightsTips #PointsAndMiles   CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:41 - Eli's Travel Hacking Journey 02:38 - Flying for Free: Is It Possible? 03:46 - Eli's Most Used Travel Card 04:32 - Amex Platinum: Worth the Hype? 06:33 - Invitation to Join the Show 08:56 - Value of Domestic First Class 11:18 - Chrome Extension for Seat Types 12:44 - Managing Anxiety While Flying 18:35 - Maximizing Travel Points 20:24 - Getting the Most Value from Points 21:12 - Importance of Airline Status 24:12 - Top Domestic Airlines 27:50 - Building Airline Partnerships 31:13 - Best Countries for Unique Travel Experiences 33:30 - Best Countries for Culinary Delights 38:52 - Eli's Mastermind Insights 38:58 - Efficiency in Travel Planning 39:27 - Freedom Travel School Mastermind 39:51 - Outro   APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]   GUEST: Eli Facenda https://www.instagram.com/elitravelguy   SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly   LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yeah, I used to have to fly with CBD like every time. Oh, really? If I didn't take it, I'd freak out. Okay. Now I've gotten better. I think a lot of it is mental. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure.

It's just like a control thing, right? Like you're kind of just sitting there. You feel packed in like. Yeah. Yeah. So I totally get that. Yeah. I don't like that feeling of not being in control.

Like you're not in control. At least when you're driving, you're somewhat in control of your car. At least when someone's flying you, you have no idea what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe.

It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting. And here's the episode. All right, guys, we are back. We're going to talk travel hacking today.

Eli, the travel guy, one of the best in the game. Thanks for coming. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me on. I'm excited to dive in and talk travel points, all the good stuff. Yeah, you've been at this for a while, right? Yeah, dude. I've been doing this for myself for about 10 years and then as a company for about three

to four. Nice. What was that moment where you just dove into this? It's kind of funny. The first moment that I realized I really want to explore this, it was out of necessity. you know the first moment that i like realized like you know i really want to explore this it was out of necessity it was i was basically 23 years old we were just talking about you know i went to lehigh university which is a school in the northeast and i'm uh it was a finance degree so all my friends are basically on wall street at this

point they're making like 150k out of school i was making like 20 000 a year because i was trying to start a business so i was driving uber i was coaching baseball lessons i'm like doing everything side hustling to make it work and remember our group of friends had like a trip to Thailand planned. We were getting this text and I read it and I was like, oh shit, all my friends are going to Thailand and I can't afford it. And this is embarrassing. Like, I was like, I don't really know what I'm going to do. So I was like, I need to figure out how the hell do I get on this trip?

Um, and I basically, you know, I had a mentor at one point who told me like, you don't need more money you need a better strategy and he was kind of talking about growing a business but i was like i was already in this mindset of like thinking resourcefully so i was like there's got to be another way like who can i trade with how can i figure this out and i was like credit card points i was like i think there's something there so i figured that out i opened up my first card it's got a free trip to thailand and that was kind of the the the kickstart into it and i made like a shit ton of mistakes botched a lot of this and then the real big kind of the kickstart into it. And I made like a shit ton of mistakes, botched a lot of this.

And then the real big kind of like first, holy shit, this is epic moment, was actually like a year later, I was going to Europe, to London for an event. And I got like a $6,000 business class ticket for $5.60. Wow. And I paid 60,000 points. So I'm like, I was making like $30,000 a year at this point. Yeah. And I was like walking down, I remember like walking onto the plane and doing the math in my head me

and like this ticket is a fifth of my income and i got it for five dollars and sixty cents and i was like okay whatever it takes i'm obsessed i was like i'm in so that was kind of how it started for me wow that's nuts is it still possible right now to like get a new card and fly for free oh yeah absolutely dude there's cards out there literally today and this was one of the first ones i did because when you get into this you'll be like oh some people will be like i don't spend enough money to do this like i don't know yeah you know i only spend two thousand a month it's totally fine that's how i was when i started there's cards today where if you open them on the first purchase so you get the card you go to 7-eleven you buy a slurpee you'll get 60 000 points which is enough to fly round trip to europe damn so you

buy a slurpee you pay the 95 annual fee which is enough to fly round trip to europe damn so you buy a slurpee you pay the 95 annual fee round trip ticket to europe so for the younger people out there like that are just starting they don't have a lot of spend or people that just don't spend a lot that's a game changer yeah that opens up so many possibilities so yeah you can you can totally do it and you could just there's probably tens of dozens of credit cards that you could do that for right yeah yeah they have all have different like spend requirements so some will be like hey you know spend four thousand dollars in 90 days to hit the bonus and there's other ways to maximize like your earning on the points but uh there's a few that have really good just like super easy

sign up bonuses like that and those are like for people just starting out that don't have a lot of spend those are ones where if you can hit a couple of those dude it's like you have like hundreds of thousands of points you can travel all over the world without having to like do a lot of additional crazy stuff that's baller what card do you use the most right now uh personally i use the amex gold the most i would say you know groceries and dining is a pretty big expense for pretty much anybody and that's the best card for that in my opinion um so i use that a lot and then the business i mean i have a kind of whole suite of setup for the business and and personally but uh usually the amx business gold ends up racking up the most or i have some chase ink cards there's a couple different versions of those cards where

i spend a lot there too um it just depends on what i'm spending on because basically the thing that most people kind of get wrong here is is they're not maximizing their earnings on every different type of category of spend so like if you spend on ads it's a different card than if you spend on maybe software or travel or dining. So you want to have the right cards lined up. So it just depends on like the category of spend that month of what's really high. That makes sense.

Is the Amex Platinum overrated? The Amex Platinum, in my opinion, is super overrated. And here's why. Basically, it's like a super high annual fee and it comes with all these perks and benefits, which most people don't use. And the difference maker is it doesn't actually earn that many points on your everyday spending. for example the amex gold is a slightly less

popular lower annual fee card but in most purchases it's going to earn four times as many points as the amex platinum and most people think that because the amex platinum is the heavily marketed card it's like the big fancy one with the higher fee that everyone kind of like flashes a little bit they think that's the best card but in reality the smart people are usually using the mx gold when they're out at a restaurant or you know they're they're doing the normal spending so i think it's pretty overrated it does have some great perks and benefits to it like so out here in vegas right there's this thing called fine hotels and resorts that's like a benefit of the platinum card that benefit will mean that you're getting upgrades means you're

getting early check-in late check-out you're getting hotel credits you're getting free breakfast high-speed wi-fi you'll get uh marriott status you'll get hilton status you'll get uber credits you get a lot of benefits out of that yeah centurion lounge access which they have all over the country so there are a lot of perks to it but i think it's really overrated in terms of the way that most people perceive it and how they use it yeah i feel that i used to center in lounge it's nothing crazy to be honest yeah like the food is kind of whatever yeah exactly more than anything it's just it's nothing crazy, to be honest. Yeah. Like the food is kind of whatever. Yeah, exactly.

More than anything, it's just it's a nice place to be. I mean, you're a big networker, too. So like for me, a lot of times, like that was a big driver for me as I was starting to build my business, too, was like I would just go in these lounges like on the way, you know, normal trips. And who seems receptive to strike up a conversation, see where it goes and always have these fun chats. And like if they're in an Amex lounge, they're probably doing something right in their business or life. They found their way in there at least. So maybe there's some collaboration opportunities. So I found that really fun, just having more space.

Some of them are nicer. There's some where you get massages and stuff like that. Damn. Yeah. Not in Vegas. Not in Vegas, yeah. It depends on the lounge. But yeah, having a good space, good place to work, hang out, a little more room than just waiting like waiting by the gate just upgrades the experience a little bit uh they're not mind-blowing if you

want like the most epic lounges you need to do some of these like premier international carriers like if you go to are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest we'll click the application link below in the description of this video we are always looking for cool stories cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life click the application link below and here's the episode guys if you fly qatar airways first class there's a lounge called al safwa lounge in doha and this lounge has literally like you can get your own private bedroom and so you can stay overnight sleep in a bed they have a jacuzzi tub massages like these some of these lounges have like cigar lounges they have outdoor terraces some have a pool like there's like some really really epic lounges out there baller yeah that

we don't really have in the u.s but those exist yeah i remember there used to be travel hackers that would just stay in lounges they didn't even have a house but then they patched it because they uh they would buy refundable airline tickets or something yes yep yeah exactly so people you could buy a ticket get into the lounge cancel the ticket and get the refund and then like lounge hop. Yeah. Nowadays, I think there's better ability to kind of track that. And so people like they'll shut you down. It's a little bit of a risk to do anything like that.

Like in my opinion, you know, there's some, there's some gray, gray areas to do like travel hacking. I don't like to do those because I'm going to be a customer for these brands for a long time. I'm gonna be traveling for a long time. Yeah. And a lot of times if you do something a little bit sketchy like eventually there's a way they they catch you and they track it and they just shut you down then you're blacklisted and you're banned and like

to me that's not worth it yeah so that's kind of why i've never really done that kind of stuff but there are people who do that and it's pretty pretty hilarious pretty wild that's why i never bought the flight pass because first of all yeah i don't want to get banned second of all you're on standby so you don't even know if you're getting on the flight. Exactly. You know what I mean? I'd rather just know I have a guaranteed seat. Yeah, I don't like the flight passes either for that exact reason. Like I don't have a lot of trips where I'm like super flexible, where I'm like, oh, I could go anytime today because I'm just sitting at the airport like waiting for a flight potentially. Or, you know, if it's a long haul flight, like at this point, I've flown so much and experienced some pretty awesome stuff where it's like if it's over a few hours, like I want to do it in first class and,

you know, flying standby, it's not always guaranteed. And so it's just like, there's different restrictions with that. Um, so, you know,

in some cases it works, but I even know we have clients of ours that like we work with, like some of our higher ticket clients where they have a family member who's in, who's a pilot. So they have like a legit standard flight pass. They didn't just like buy online or something. And they're still using us because they're like, yeah, but it doesn't really work all the time and it's like kind of depends

on the routes and yeah so i'm not a big fan of me either but some people love them and that's cool yeah you got to fly at random times sometimes exactly if the flight's full you're not getting on exactly yeah um what's your thoughts on domestic first class because i i talk about this with my friends and sometimes i feel like i pay for it and it's like not even worth it yeah yeah so for me like everyone has their different preferences for me if it's under a few hours it's not that big of a deal if it's over like three to four hours i want to fly first um for a couple reasons i think the comfort's better at that point having more space to work i'm usually just going to be able to like get in the zone a little bit better up there but the key is like are you getting a good deal or

not right and so if i'm paying cash for it that makes it a lot harder but with the right point strategy you can get domestic first for way less than normal economy fares and so if you do it like that then it makes the decision a lot easier where you don't feel like ah it's like this tough is it worth it or not so for me like i flew back from san diego to austin two weeks ago and the first class ticket was like 800 bucks per person i was with my girlfriend i was like i would not pay that for a two and a half hour flight. Like just no way. It's just stupid to, in my opinion, but I was like,

okay, but I could use points. And by using the right transfer partners with these points programs, we can kind of explain like how that works. Yeah. I was able to get that flight for like, like 35,000 points a person or something. And I was like,

that's reasonable. That's not bad. So I did that. But otherwise I'm not a big fan. The, the exception would be these long haul, like transcontinental flights. Like if you're going like LA to Miami, you're going, you know, maybe even like Vegas to Miami, some of these like four or five, a big fan the the exception would be these long-haul like transcontinental flights like

if you're going like la to miami you're going um you know maybe even like vegas to miami some of these like four or five six hour flights if you can get some domestic first class experiences where they actually have the lay flat beds that is a game changer wow so you need you usually are flying on longer routes for that there's some that are gonna be on shorter routes and these are the bigger like wide body jets not the narrow body where it's like one aisle yeah these are gonna be the ones that have three cabins they're gonna have economy like a full premium and a business and first and some of these are gonna be you know amazing experiences so in that case it's worth it um particularly jet blue mint would be my favorite domestic first class of all time it's such a good experience you get these whole like lay flat beds

and suites they just don't have a ton of routes yeah so you're probably not gonna see a lot of that out of vegas that's the only problem damn i didn't know there was flatbeds on domestic routes that's crazy i took one to china once and that was a hundred percent worth it oh my gosh yeah yeah for the long international that to me it's like a requirement yeah like you need that because you're going overnight you're going to sleep you're going to show up more rested uh you're just getting a way way way better experience so i get what you're saying with domestic first but if you can find those routes that have the lay flat beds, particularly anytime you're flying from like a major city to a major city and it's like a five to six hour flight, there's probably a couple routes that will have a lay flat bed. And there's a way that you can actually see that when you're searching.

Really quickly, there's actually a Google Chrome extension called Leg Room. And this Chrome extension will allow you just on Google Flights to search and it will show you a quick icon of what type of seat you're going to be in so yeah it would be like is this a normal chair is it kind of like a more extended recliner or is it a lay flat bed i'm literally downloading that after this episode it's it's amazing it's free and you can just like literally just do your normal searching and you'll see like oh this one has lay flat bed options i'll take that i need that because it's so hard to memorize the the plane names and like what what it looks like on the inside i just don't even do it yeah yeah that because it's so hard to memorize the plane names and what it looks like on the inside. I just don't even do it.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a deeper nerd level. There's this whole sub-niche of aviation geeks. Yeah. And those people will literally know the code of the plane from when it came out of the factory. That's insane to me. That's wild.

Yeah. But that's the shortcut. Yeah. Yeah. And those guys are going after one of the Boeing planes right now, right? People are scared of one of them. Yeah. Yeah. There was that door that fell off on an Alaskan Airlines flight. And those guys are going after one of the Boeing planes right now, right? People are scared of one of them. Yeah, yeah.

There was that door that fell off on an Alaskan Airlines flight. And yeah, the 737 MAX right now is like under a lot of pressure. There's some issues with, I guess, how they're producing them, the quality on the factory line. In my opinion, most of them are still probably fine. I think there's probably a lot of media hype around it. But yeah, the fact that there's like whistleblowers in Boeing and like one guy, I think. One guy died. Yeah, one guy died.

It was like an alleged like suicide. They were going to gunshot his head. And it's like, that's kind of sketchy. That's not a suicide. Yeah. Yeah. That's a disappearing act right there. So I don't know what's going on with that. Personally, I've still flown on some of those.

But yeah, if you have an option, you can fly a different aircraft probably. I used to be terrified of flying. I used to get anxiety. Yeah. I still do flown on some of those. But yeah, if you have an option, you can fly a different aircraft probably. I used to be terrified of flying. I used to get anxiety. Yeah. I still do actually. It's fine. I fly all the time. Yeah.

I'll sometimes randomly just be like flying, just get like random kind of like anxiety attack type stuff in the middle of the air. And I'm like, it just happens. It's the worst too because you can't even do anything. Yeah. You're just kind of like stuck in the middle of an airplane. You got two strangers next to you. Yeah.

I think that the reason I even share it though is because I think a lot of people have that and then like it's kind of a normal thing i think a lot of people deal with it yeah and so the more you normalize it the less it becomes an issue right and then you know you just kind of get used to it and what are you used to it you normalize and then it kind of fades away a little bit yeah what happened for you yeah i used to have to fly with cbd like every time oh if i didn't take it i'd freak out okay now i've gotten better i think a lot of it is mental. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure.

It's just like a control thing, right? Like you're kind of just sitting there, you feel packed in, like. Yeah. Yeah, so I totally get that. Yeah, I don't like that feeling of not being in control. Like you're not in control. At least when you're driving,

you're somewhat in control of your car at least. Yeah. When someone's flying you, you have no idea what's going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the funny thing is, right, like logically, less people die from plane crashes than like most other major forms of death so like if you look at the stats and

numbers like there's not a lot of logic behind it but when you're flying in the air it doesn't feel like that right that's true yeah it's very rare to die in a plane crash yeah yeah like last year was the safest year of flying in aviation history really yeah i think there was like i don't know the exact step i think it was either like there was like no commercial deaths or something like that. It was like the safest year for commercial aviation ever. But that's not what you see in headlines. You hear about the private plane that was doing an African safari and crashed into a jungle there and like four Americans died. That's the stuff you hear.

You don't hear, hey, 12,000 planes landed perfectly fine today. No one showed you that. Yeah, that's not newsworthy. Exactly. Would you ever go on a helicopter? I would. I would. I mean I don't think it's going to be a part of my lifestyle you know but like but i would definitely you know if i'm like hawaii and i want to get like a do like a nepali coast tour of like kawaii and it's like a helicopter tour i'd probably i'd probably do that yeah yeah if it was a safe space like that there's some sketchy like routes

i think oh for sure yeah i mean the kobe thing was like a big yeah in the mountains i don't know if i do it in the mountains like that you know yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean i've done some definitely some things where you get in you're like god i got full faith right now like i did a i did a trip through africa and we did this gorilla trekking experience really in the in the deep jungle in Uganda, like out there. So you get, first off, to get to Uganda is like kind of a mission. Like you have to fly the way that I did. I flew through London, then London to Addis Ababa, which is in Ethiopia, then Ethiopia to Entebbe, which is in Uganda,

then from Entebbe to a small Uganda airport, then from a small Uganda airport to like a really small Uganda airport. Oh, my gosh. And then a five-hour drive through the jungle so that's how that's how long it took to get really wanted to get to this jungle what was in there yeah so it was a gorilla trekking experience which is a total bucket list for anyone that's like into wildlife or nature like wants to go to just like see some crazy shit in the wild yeah so trekking not tracking by the way some people confuse so what's trekking gorilla trekking basically means like gorilla hiking so like you're going into the jungle with a local guide to go see gorillas in the wild okay so

they have like all these like really you know uh well they're just really good at being able to like find footprints and trails and figure out like okay the gorillas were just here and there's like certain families of them and you could basically track where they went through in the jungle and eventually you'll just see them like in the wild and so literally you're like hanging out with a family of gorillas like this close from them and they're they're just like doing their like daily life and you're just basically like up close and personal no fence or anything like that it's not a zoo so on this experience it's pretty cool we had a guide and i remember just saying that we're looking at this like family gorillas and i'm like holy shit these are like 500 pounds like these are some big silver racks i could like rip my head off yeah and uh and they have like shotguns with them okay in case

not to shoot them but to like shoot a scare shot over their head yeah and that scares them off if they ever charge but they don't really do that so but that's a really cool bucket lister i the whole point was that i got on some sketchy planes to do that but uh that's wild if you want to go do some of that stuff like there's usually going to be a a little bit of a smaller local plane involved yeah yeah when i was in bolivia i had some some sketchy flights over there yeah yeah that'll happen yeah damn 500 pounds dude were you shitting yourself it was intense it was intense it was really cool i felt pretty safe because the guides um and they do this all day every day but yeah man it was the craziest part was how human they felt it literally feels like

seeing someone that just speaks a different language than you like you can kind of sub communicate to each other like if you met someone that only spoke chinese i don't think you speak chinese right no so you probably have to kind of like use hand gestures and like there's ways to communicate without words it kind of felt like that i was like oh my gosh i feel like i'm looking and speaking to a human yeah but it's obviously it's a gorilla wow so um super cool super cool experience did the guides speak english they did yeah and these guys are i mean these hikes were like insane like muddy up and down like crazy hills we're going through wild terrain and we're like trekking through like struggling these guys are and we're in like all the proper gear these guys have like a random t-shirt on and like like terrible quality boots and they're just like

they're like dancing through the jungle like it was just like they're so used to it um it was really cool to see them in their in their element that's cool africa's on my buck list i'm actually going to egypt this year nice yeah i remember you talking about that i just went last year to the pyramids oh nice sick i'm pumped you gotta go see the pyramids is that where you're going to definitely i'm going with billy carson So he'll definitely be bringing me all over. Man, it's a really dope trip. And if you actually, there's a really, really awesome hotel. That's a points hotel right in front of the period, right in front of the pyramids.

So yeah, if you want to use points and go to Egypt and do the pyramids, well, this is definitely a property. It's called the Marriott Mena house. Beautiful views. You literally wake up and the pyramids are right in front of your face. Wow. It's so sick. Yeah.

So there's like, uh, there's only only a couple properties that have good views and this is the only one you can do well on points and it's actually a really good deal too so i would check that out if you're not like staying somewhere for the group tour but that's a that's a great property that's cool i want to dive more into the points so how much percent on average are you saving when you use points on hotels and flights you think well i mean it's almost hard to say percentage because a lot of times it's 100 i mean you're just using points for the whole thing so here's the thing right there's different ways to use points so um and i like to chunk this into three buckets it's like how do you think about the point side so the first bucket is you want to make sure that you're

maximizing your points earnings okay so this means the right cards on the right expenses to get the most points back okay the second chunk is going to be are you getting the best value out of your points and so that's kind of you're asking about about. How do you use them? Right. How do you make sure every time you use your points, you're getting the highest value and highest return. And then the third piece is how do you maximize your perks and benefits? And so that's going to be like upgrade status, lounges, things like that. Like all that kind of nice, like one-off things. So when it comes to using your points, that kind of second key to this, the biggest thing is you want to make sure that you know how to determine if it's a good deal or not and if you're actually getting

good value okay because like if i go to use points probably the way that you may be using them you're going to get one cent per point when you go through like amex travel yeah okay so they give you a fixed value on your points there's strategies to use these points where you're getting like two three five sometimes 10 to 15 x the value damn so like you mentioned you have a million points right yeah if you go through your mx travel that's gonna be worth ten thousand dollars worth of travel okay if you do it the right way that i'm talking about that same million points will not be worth fifty thousand dollars wow yeah that's what happened right because i spent a million on an all-inclusive resort in mexico a million points for the week

exactly yeah so if you use the points more effectively, you could have gotten that for instead of a million, maybe like 150,000 or 200,000. It just depends on the property because not all properties have that ability. But if you're like, hey, I want to do a five-star hotel in Mexico for a week that's an all-inclusive, there are really good points properties

where if you use the right strategies, you could do a week there for 100,000 points instead of a million. Damn. Yeah, that's cool. So you basically transfer it to to i think i stayed at sandals or something like that yeah yeah so sandals would be an example where like that that type of property wouldn't be an optimal way to use points you'd want to look at one of the major hotel brands like a hyatt marriott hilton ihg type hotel and i mean each of these have insane five-star category properties

like you know waldorf astoria conrad ritz carlton st regis park hyatt on doz properties these are all really nice five-star properties that are part of these groups even like the six senses which is like a really luxury one part of ihg yeah so you can use points at a lot of these properties and the whole thing where you transfer these points around like i'm talking about is a capability for those properties something like sandals would not be a part of one of those major chains. So you could still use points through like Amex travel, but it's just not going to be as good of a value out of them. Right. Yeah. Which airline or hotel chain do you think status is important to get? Yeah. I like picking specifically one major brand on the hotel side to get top status starting there. And if you can get status

at multiple, that's great. But my favorite is actually hyatt really yeah over marriott over marriott wow yeah the the hyatt points are worth way more than marriott points the upgrades are amazing i think their quality of service generally speaking is great the loyalty program as a whole is amazing and the benefits the way the benefits work out are good and there's slightly less competition right in the hyatt world marriott's the biggest hotel brand. It's the biggest global footprint. It also has a lot of people that are very frequently staying at Marriott. It's like a lot of corporate travelers. Because they have more properties, they're staying in a lot more Marriott properties.

Hyatt is a slightly smaller footprint. And they still have some insanely nice hotels. And so when you have status there, you'll get some really epic benefits. So for example, actually, I took my girlfriend to sardinia italy last summer and we stayed at this five-star hotel uh right on the water it's like beautiful it's this really luxury island in in the mediterranean so the hotel would have been about three thousand dollars a night four nights it's really nice if i was gonna pay cash right and plus we got all these free free perks and benefits so it would have been thirteen thousand dollars for the stay okay so if i was gonna go to amex travel or chase travel that would cost me 1.3 million points instead i converted my

points and then i had status with hyatt so i got upgraded into that suite so only used 140,000 points instead of 1.3 million points holy crap for that for that stay and so that that's the benefit and that's the kind of stuff that hyatt as a program, to me, has the best benefits for when it comes to status. Those kind of upgrades you can get with other properties and other brands, but it's more difficult. So that's the hotel side. On the airline side, it's really going to be more about where you live and what routes you fly the most. Because, first off, getting to status is more difficult for airlines. It requires a lot more spend, a lot more travel.

Getting the actual benefits from that, like the upgrades, is more difficult for airlines it requires a lot more spend a lot more travel um getting the actual benefits from that like the upgrades is more difficult than from hotels and depending on where you live like there's gonna be different routes and hubs that are common for for your location so it should really be determined more around that than it is just around like which one has the best value because if you really like flying delta but you live in dallas yeah right you're most of the flights you're gonna be on are gonna be american because it's a giant hub it's where the headquarters are right so if you try to get delta status in dallas like unless you're flying maybe to atlanta or salt lake which are delta hubs a lot you're gonna end up like on american flights or you're gonna have to connect to keep your status so it's like for me flying direct is more of a priority than having

top status yeah i hate those stops man direct all the way yeah yeah if you can fly i mean you're in a great hub vegas is amazing for direct flights it's like one of the most connected airports in the country oh really yeah i didn't know that yeah yeah there's very few places i can't go direct in the country exactly from vegas but we actually international is tough here yeah it's not the best for international but i mean you're so close to like other major hubs denver's close, which is a huge international hub. LA, San Fran. I mean, those are all three really big ones.

And Salt Lake is pretty good too. So all of those are within like a couple hours for you. So that's big. I feel that. I have this debate with my friends all the time. So I'm curious your answer. Favorite domestic airline. My favorite domestic airline is JetBlue.

Really? Yeah. I've never heard that answer. Yeah. Yeah. Most people sleep on it because specifically their JetBlue first class is what is called Mint. It is the best domestic first class hands down. There's no debate about it.

Delta One would be the next best first class. But the JetBlue Mint experience to me is definitely superior. So the problem with Mint, though, is they don't fly on a lot of routes. They don't have a good points program. So it's more difficult. But there are some really cheap first class options comparatively so if you were even flying i remember seeing from like la to i think it was liberia costa rica okay so if you want to go to costa rica from the west coast it was like 600 bucks round trip for their

first class what where you get like the lay flat bed you get the full suite that's a steal it's a steal yeah so sometimes you'll find some good deals like that but um again they don't have a ton of great routes so if you're flying first class that's my favorite even their economy product to me is really good i just think they have a good airline as a whole uh delta would be my next favorite and that's out of the major carriers between united american and delta delta to me is like way above the rest yeah um but uh their points program is not that great and just depending on where you live that means we're probably connecting a lot like i live in austin so i'm oftentimes going to be connecting if i'm flying delta which kind of kind of sucks but that's just the nature of living in like a not a major major airport hub yeah i got delta

number one oh did you yeah okay cool when i lived in jersey united was big yeah so that's all i knew yeah but now i got some options out here yeah yeah yeah that's good that's good yeah i'd say american is probably out of the major ones my least least favorite. If I had to rank them, I'd go American would be fourth, United would be third, Delta would be second, JetBlue would be first. Wow. I've never flown JetBlue, so I can't speak on it, but I like that list. Yeah. Yeah.

Again, a lot of the flights with JetBlue, you're not going to see the plane I'm talking about, so you got to make sure it's the right plane. Okay. I'm going to get that out. That will be when you start to be like, okay, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to get that Chrome extension, man. For real. Yeah get that chrome extension man for real yeah yeah i'm doing this so wrong i'm

paying full price for these flights and hotels right now i'm not using any points yeah yeah you can definitely switch it up i mean so here's the thing like you probably do a lot of business networking when you're traveling yeah so a lot of these are going to be business expense for you right all of them so so that's good if you're going to pay for it at least it's a business expense if there's ever trips where it's like a personal trip and it's not a business write-off, that would be the first priority to start to use points. Because normally what would happen, like, okay, you run a business. You're making money. There's profit.

If you were going to pay for a personal trip, you're taking cash out of the business, and then you're going to pay for that. So in order to do that, you're going to pay tax. Right. Okay, if you use points, they're non-taxable so because points are non-taxable what that means as a business owner is that if you use your points for a personal trip not only do you not have to pay for the travel since you don't have to take the money out of your company you also don't have to pay that amount in taxes so i'll give you an example right like so you're going to do a $20,000 trip personally you're going to go to you know egypt with your girlfriend or your fiance

so if you were to do that personally and you pull that money out of the business, let's say your tax rate was 25%. That means you're going to pay 20,000 in cash for the trip, you're going to pay 25% in taxes, which would mean that's an extra 5k. So the total cost would be like 25,000. Okay, if you use points, right, you'd cover the $20,000 on the trip, which means you don't have to pull that money out of the company, which means you don't pay the $5,000 in taxes. Does that make sense? Yeah. That is brilliant. I never even thought about the tax aspect of it.

Yeah, it's big. So like for business owners, because people are like, oh, should I use my points for my business trips? Make sure it's like bucket number one is personal travel. Once you've knocked all of that out and you're like, okay, I got all my personal trips covered on points, then you'd want to start to tackle more of the business trips. That's how I think about it.

And that's kind of what I recommend. Yeah, that's a good kind of general way of thinking. That's super cool. So you've been over 40 countries. Was that all on points? Not all of it. I've built a tour company as well. So like the first seven years of my career,

I was building this international sports travel company. So we take youth sports teams and families on international tours. So a lot of it was for that. I was like going all over the world, setting up events and tours and tournaments like for these sporting events all over the world. And so some of the time it was on points. Sometimes it was cash fares. More recently, it's pretty much all been on points.

And I'd say out of those 40, probably like 25 to 30 were points trips. But some of those countries I've done like 10 times, like Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands. Like I've done UK. I've done some of those like probably 10 to 15 even um and so there's a lot of repeats in there where it's like maybe a few of those i was paying for as part of the company and then i'd go back and be like okay now it's time to try british airways nicest business class let's see what that's about i'll try that i love it yeah do these airlines reach out to you to like partner at all not the airlines as much um the hotels will do more of that the airlines i think just because they're so big and the operations are so crazy like they don't they don't do a ton of that if i had a big youtube channel specifically in aviation

they might like sam chui yeah um i actually met him the other week he will get like special partnerships with airlines because they're like hey we just redid the interior of this aircraft we want to get sam chui to do exposure on it on youtube so like that would be the play uh if you just wanted to basically build a brand around like showcasing specific things within aviation then you'd probably get that yeah but uh right now i don't really do too much with them on that sometimes you know we'll talk to the gate agent and be like hey we're doing like content can we get on first and they'll they'll let that happen but that's about it yeah yeah i think the hotels are more flexible i got friends of mine getting 10k comps at the nicest hotels that's sick yeah nuts. If you position yourself right for those hotel properties,

some of them, I mean, they have vacant inventory. It's like that whole Priceline.com model where it's like, you know, basically, you know, it's similar to a grocery store that has like bad bananas, right? And they're gonna like sell them off. It's kind of like that with hotels. And so it just makes sense for a hotel to be like, okay, well, this suite isn't going to be sold. So we might as well get someone that has influence in here. And I actually, this is another status story. This is kind of like, I think, partially brand and partially status. But I stayed at the Park Hyatt in New York City around Christmas, which is like a very crazy time to go there.

It's a five-star hotel right near Central Park. Okay, I got upgraded. I booked into a $1,000 a night room. I used 30,000 points. Or no, I used 40,000 points for this. But I booked into a $ dollar night room i used 30 000 points or no i used 40 000 points for this but i booked into a thousand dollar night room i got upgraded to a 30 000 a night personal suite so it was like yeah so we talked about that cent per point thing where it's like how much value you're getting out of amex points amex gives you one i got 75 cents i got

75 x oh my gosh that was crazy it was insane yeah Yeah. So that was crazy. Came with like a butler. Unbelievable views. It was basically an apartment unit. Yeah. Here in Vegas, you're supposed to tip the guy when you check in. Sometimes it works. Yeah. I did it at Fountain Blue and got the nicest room there.

But I didn't really like that hotel actually. Have you stayed there yet? I haven't stayed there, no. Yeah. I've only done a couple Vegas trips the last couple years. And like right now, we're staying on the strip at the MBM, which kind of sucks yeah they're like they call that the c tier and then there's like bna yeah exactly the last two i've came out here a few weeks ago to do the michael sartain podcast and then this both times i'm like i came during the super bowl weekend and then march madness so it's like everything's been nuts and i'm like it's like the point redemptions were great the cash values were

really expensive so i was like we'll just do kind of like a standard hotel oh yeah hotel super bowl week oh my gosh it was insane thousands of night yeah exactly for like not nice properties yeah yeah yeah that's wild um any favorite trips countries that stand out yeah so i always say like you know there's a whole different bunch of reasons to go to different places but for me if if i was going to give like the most unique experience that i've had in a country would be Japan. And the reason I always say Japan is because there's a lot of awesome countries in Asia that cater to tourism. Like you can go to Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, places like that. A lot of them have relied heavily on tourism dollars, which means when you get there, there's – unless you go off the beaten path, it kind of feels like, OK, they're catering to Westerners and stuff like that, which is cool.

I still love those places. But when you're in Japan, you're like in Japan. It's their way. It's not bent for American tourists. So you feel like you're really in the culture. And I think just the way that their culture works, how the society operates from the subway station to the way they order in restaurants to how welcoming and hospitable they are. Like all these things are so cool. And then the food is insane.

So I'm a huge fan of Japan. That's my favorite. That's the one I always say to go to. I mean there's other really unique ones. Going to see the pyramids, for example, is like such a bucket list experience. I wouldn't say Egypt itself is a place I want to spend a lot of time in. But going to do that experience in Egypt or potentially going to luxor would be like top bucket list things yeah that's what i've heard i heard the food's kind of mid there but the pyramids make

up for it yeah and i mean like anywhere there's going to be like certain restaurants and experiences that are great i highly suggest like it sounds like you're going with a group right yeah yeah so i always suggest definitely for places like that you want to have a local guide that's not whether it's through the group or on your own like i went there and i've traveled all over the world so it's not like i need one in order to have to like to know what i'm doing it's more because it enhances the experience so much in a place like that right where you're getting better deals you're getting better access to things you're getting better restaurants they're showing you that kind of behind the scenes things that give me the history and the context because if you go see the pyramids

it's mind-blowing but you kind of look at it and you're like wow that's cool but if you go see the pyramids with a guide who has the history and the different stories and perspectives and the science of it all and like all these different things you can ask questions to it makes that experience go from just like a cool thing to see to like a mind-blowing experience that makes you just think about like the world and history and humanity and culture and all that stuff and i to me that is like a complete game changer i can see that that makes total sense yeah certain countries you definitely need a guide 100 100 so being a huge foodie yeah i'm curious what your top country was for food yeah so well japan's up there too um you know sushi ramen i

remember actually like the first time i went i was like oh we'll see how it is and i had two meals and i was like oh my god i was like that's like three days so i was like i started waking up earlier in the morning so that i could go get more meals in the day i was like i do that all inclusive spots yeah yeah i don't eat breakfast but those i do yeah those you do yeah yeah crush it so that'd be one uh but my honest answer is italy okay um i mean dude it's just have you been to italy no it's on my list it is phenomenal and here's the thing like you go to italy and the quality of food is so much better. You know, here if I eat like a pizza, it's like I'm down for a day. Right. You know, you like crush a whole pie. You're like, you're like out, out of commission. In Italy, it's like you wake up, you have a full spread.

It's like the Nutella, the pastries, the fresh fruit, the local meats and cheese and stuff like that. You might have like an entire giant pizza for lunch and like a giant pasta for dinner and all that the ingredients are so good it's unbelievably delicious but the ingredient quality is so much better there but you don't feel just like you don't feel that heavy you don't feel dead so like you can eat bread you can drink more wine and it doesn't have all the uh the chemicals and everything like that that unfortunately we have in the u.s yeah so in my experience going there not only is the food way better the quality but how you feel is also way better add in the fact that like there's hardly any major chains there for great food so like when you're going into these major you know italian cities or even out into the local places like

they have a couple you know fast food places and stuff like that but even if you go to like the gas stations there's a place called the auto grill on the highway in Italy. Yeah. And throughout some of these European places, you'll go in, it's like fresh cooked pasta. Wow. And it's like, this is a gas station and it's like a hot bar with like, yeah, really nice high quality stuff.

That's funny. Cause in America we associate gas station food with food poisoning. Exactly. Yeah. I was actually, I was in Denmark last summer and it was at a 7-Eleven, and they had homemade banana bread samples that someone was handing out. I was so confused. I'm like, you're allowed to do this in a 7-Eleven? Have someone that's just making homemade banana bread in the back and bring it out front?

You would never see that in the U.S. ever. That is weird. It was so cool. But it was awesome. I was like, this is great. I'm willing to try interesting foods, actually. I think it's important to experience the culture yeah i'm out there you know yeah i ate cow heart in bolivia oh did you on the street he was just grilling it wow i got

super sick to be honest but yeah i'm always down to try stuff you gotta try it yeah try i mean life short like some of these places like when you're gonna be back i had a um i actually remember when i was on that trip in thailand uh there's a a backpacker road called khao san road in bangkok and this is like wild party city like people all over the world it's just it's reckless yeah um this is where they have like the ping pong shows if you've heard about that i haven't oh you haven't heard of the ping pong shows oh yeah what is that it basically it's like there's uh it's kind of like going to like a strip club kind of thing. But they're going to have – it's like more like performative.

So they're going to shoot like ping pong balls out of their pussy. What? Yeah. Damn. Yeah. Sounds hard to pull off. I don't know how they do it. Yeah, you can go see stuff like that there.

So there's all sorts of weird stuff happening down there. Okay. So that's Khao San Road in Bangkok. Now, on the street, it's just packed. It's kind of like new orleans like bourbon street feel and i remember the first night i ate like a scorpion off a fried scorpion off a stick and i like they were like do it and i was like oh that's crazy like weird food and i ate it and i done it and i was like oh cool and then a bunch of my friends arrived the next night and i

was kind of like trying to show it off i was like like yo i'm exotic like i'll eat the scorpion i ate it and i just vomited so it's like sometimes when you do some of these trips and you're eating some wacky food, you got to be careful. Yeah. Because, yeah, that was – It happens, yeah. I heard that happened in Bali, actually.

Yeah, Bali belly is a different thing, I'm thinking a little bit. It's just like the food – it's something with either the contaminants or sometimes the thing it has to do with like – they say it's like not what you eat, but it's what you eat. So it's like the type of grain or grass with like they say it's like not what you eat but it's what you eat ate so it's like the type of grain or grass that like the cows may be having there

is different and your gut microbiome might not be used to that so you eat it and like you get kind of you get kind of messed up from that so that can happen or it's just sometimes the contaminants i guess will will get you but a lot of people yeah bali india those are definitely places where it's like you can venture off and you know go eat some cow heart off the street like you did and stuff like that but it does come with a little bit of risk india's on my list too to be honest yeah i feel like that's a country where you need to know someone yeah yeah i've had uh we've had a lot of clients that have gone to india some going back to visit family so i'm going to you know have just a cool experience and see the culture or something going to do like kind of spiritual retreat type stuff and i would agree

i would agree i think if you're going especially if you're like an american you're just going to go to india either going with someone who's from there which there's a lot of people who are like i think india has a very strong culture of people that come back to visit yeah so if you have friends in the u.s there's a good chance that at some point they may be going back to visit family and that's kind of a cool thing to experience or you want to get like a good guide or be a part of an experience where you're gonna you know know the right places to go and stuff like that. It'll just make it so much more painless and you'll get better quality experience.

Absolutely. Yeah. Indian foods, dude, that's in my top five. Yeah. Yeah. Great.

Indian is money. I had a friend who just went and like, uh, he, you know, similar thing. He was there for a month and he basically, you know,

had a, had a great time for the whole time. And like the last couple of days he ate something. He said the food was great the whole time. And he eats something. He doesn't know what it was and it was just like he was out for like five days damn just like five straight just in bed so yeah that'll happen it's a game we play right exactly yeah roll the dice eli it's been fun anything you want to promote

or close off with man uh yeah man so basically you know i just want to reiterate like when it comes to maximizing points for travel like this is a true game changer for literally anybody no matter how big your business is or even if you have a business. So getting started with it and getting in the game is the first key. I'm a big fan of being effective in our life and efficient. And the first key to being effective is doing the right thing. And being efficient is doing the right thing as efficiently and doing it the right way. Basically, that's the key. So getting into the points game would be a very effective way to create the travel experiences and checking off things off your bucket list like you're talking about so for people that want to get started uh we do have a a awesome little mastermind that people can join if they're

interested in checking it out it's basically you know super low cost high value we have a lot of content in there live call stuff like that it's on the new school platform you see people coming out with some of these really cool blowing up it is yeah so it's the freedom travel school and so this is something that people want to check out and get into points and travel hacking and find deals and excursions and ways to create their bucket list trips. That's going to be the best way to get started. Um, so otherwise, yeah, check us out on social, but, uh, it's been really cool. And yeah, man, you got a lot of good adventures. So I'm excited to see, you know, your journeys ahead too. Yeah. We'll link that below. I can't wait to talk to you about travel hacking, man. Yeah. Yeah. Once you got your next trip,

just let me know. We'll hook you up. Awesome. Sounds good. Thanks for watching, guys, as always. See you next time. Get 15% off a set of BrakeMess Select, Select Pro, or Import Direct brake pads and two rotors now at O'Reilly Auto Parts. O, O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts.