Frequent Miler on the Air - Our favorite travel gear | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep323 | 9-12-25

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

In today's podcast episode, we're sharing our favorite travel gear (like Nick's Japanese nail clippers), and we'll explain why a UK power adapter is especially useful, and why we carry backpacks in our backpacks.Giant Mailbag(01:18) - One reader writes in about their first big redemption(03:14) - Preferred Hotels & Resorts safari lodges, bookable with iPrefer points, hiccups and allRead more about Preferred Hotels & Resorts with points here.(07:28) - Mother and son plan a 9-country, 1-month itinerary booked on pointsMain Event: Our favorite travel gear(11:40) - Which backpacks and go bags do we like best?(17:57) - Our favorite luggage and toiletries(33:38) - Which tech gear do we keep in our backpacks?(45:50) - Why we carry backpacks inside of backpacks(48:28) - Travel Wallet(52:25) - Misc weather gear(58:45) - Miscellaneous clothing tipsQuestion of the Week(1:05:40) - When deciding between an option that costs more miles and less cash, or more cash and fewer miles...how do you decide?Want some of these products for yourself?Disclosure: With the following product links, Frequent Miler will earn a commission for qualifying purchases.Greg's Tumi backpack: https://amzn.to/4gvAiiLGreg's Briggs & Riley carry on suitcase: https://amzn.to/4mcnG1iPacking cubes with compression zipper (similar to cubes Greg uses): https://amzn.to/4ghB5ncGreg's toiletry bag: https://amzn.to/45ZR3PwNick Stick (for shaving cuts): https://amzn.to/3KhkX9kGreg's travel-size antiperspirant roll-on: https://amzn.to/3JZzIgXGreg's tiny usb-c charging brick: https://amzn.to/46v7sM1Greg's magsafe wireless charging battery: https://amzn.to/462ad7xInternational power adapter that won't fall out of wall socket: https://amzn.to/3VhirlU (this is not one we have, but it looks useful!)UK adapter: good for staying put in airplane power sockets (Greg uses similar item): https://amzn.to/45ZyICeKindle paperwhite (Greg has an older model): https://amzn.to/3VhirlUGreg's portable laptop stand: https://amzn.to/4gli9nRGreg's magnetic phone holders for selfie photos and videos:Clamp style: https://amzn.to/3Im3wUDSuction cup: https://amzn.to/4nstX9VGreg & Nick's backpack inside backpack: https://amzn.to/47BUcq1Greg's passport wallet: 

This is a Voyescape podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. On today's show, we're going to be talking about our favorite travel gear, including Nick's Japanese nail clippers, why a UK power adapter is particularly useful, and why we carry backpacks inside our backpacks. Frequent miler on the air starts now. Today's main event, our favorite travel gear. Nick and I today are going to be talking about what suitcases we prefer, what

backpacks we like to carry everywhere, and what gear goes into those things. What do we take everywhere with us when we travel? What's our favorites? That's the topic of today's show. Yeah, I'm excited because, you know, we travel quite a bit, and so there are things that we've come to love over time, and people do periodically ask about, you know, which types of things we like or we always bring with us. So it's kind of fun to share that. So we'll share some of that stuff. And remember, if you want to jump ahead to something or you want to come back

to something later on, you can always find the timestamps in the show notes. Just expand the description box. And if there are links to more information about any of the stuff we've been talking about today, that's always where you can find that stuff as well. Wherever you're watching or listening, don't forget to give us a thumbs up, a like, leave us a review, leave a comment. We always appreciate hearing about you. And I'd love to know what stuff you always bring with you to. On that note, let's drag out this week's giant mail bag. All right. Today's giant mail is quite giant.

We've got three giant entries today. And I'm going to start the things off with Neil, whose subject heading was First Big Redemption. Neil said, I wanted to reach out to thank you guys and the whole FM team. I recently returned from my first points redemption. My wife and I had a bucket list 14th anniversary trip to the Conrad Bora Bora, earlier this month. Using tricks I learned from you guys,

I was able to book the room with a combination of two Hilton Free Night certificates and points earned via Hilton aspire and surpass sign-ups last July. Flights were handled via a combination of United Miles, points from work travel,

and Air Canada for a United Medal. The Freakimiler team has truly made tackling the hobby approachable, but also laid out in-depth tips and insights both on the podcast and web, which I greatly appreciate. That's awesome.

Congratulations. That's exciting. That's the type of trip that I feel like a lot of people would think is inaccessible. Because if you just are looking at cash prices, it's something that most people would have to save for for years and plan for and may not be able to do. And yet with a few credit card signups, you know, a few new credit card bonuses, boom, you made that kind of a trip happen. So that's great.

That's a big start. So you set the bar high. Now you've got some more planning to do. Neil did. And, you know, and for a beginner, like knowing things like that you can book United flights with Air Canada miles that presumably Neil probably transferred from transferable points to Air Canada in order to make that happen. That's great because that's sort of award travel 201, not 101.

So good job, Neil. All right. Next up, T, who's advanced. points and miles person. T. says first, a huge thank you to the frequent mileer team for consistently staying ahead of the blogs and posting incredibly useful information. I was recently planning a safari trip for my family. I was flexible on the location, but not on the dates since it had to happen during Christmas break. My first idea was the J.W. Marriott Mesai Mara, but the points pricing was sky high, and I never have a lot of Marriott points.

Virgin Limited Edition properties had blackout dates during the time I needed. As I did more research, it became clear that points redemptions were limited and I'd likely have to pay cash. For Family 4, that would have been a hefty price tag. I considered using cashback cards or erasing travel charges, but many Safari providers didn't even accept credit cards. I was starting to feel stuck until Greg came to the rescue with his post about preferred hotels and resorts, safari lodges bookable with I prefer points. Bingo. I was thrilled to book two rooms for three nights for my family of four at last word Mediqui Lodge in South Africa. Oh, that's exciting. Yep. And T goes on to say, side note, it didn't come without hiccups. And then T goes on to

list a bunch of complications that happened. The booking started at, it looked like it was going to be 100,000 points in night, but it actually was 150,000. And, They had to call in to get it all resolved, but finally get it booked, and then T says all's well, that ends well. Once the points were returned, because of the issue that I didn't go into the detail, the availability was still there, and I was able to book. I'm absolutely over the moon. It cost me 900,000 I prefer points, which I got by transferring 225,000 city points. It's not an insignificant number of points, but considering the cash value of any all-inclusive safari trip, not even just this lodge, it's a stellar deal.

Yeah, that's fantastic. That's great. I'm excited to hear about that, and I'll be excited to hear how your experience is or was after the trip is done because I love the idea of Safari, been to South Africa a couple of times. I've stayed in Kruger National Park and the National Park cabins, which are fine. They're not fancy, but they're fine. And there's a restaurant if you pick the right camp, but it kind of depends on where you are. And so it's not the same as an all-inclusive safari camp type of a situation. It's much less expensive than the luxury safari camps

typically are, but there's a little bit more like self-catering to it, I suppose. And so I'm curious to hear how your experiences with this, because I'm interested in trying that out one of these days. My kids probably have to get a couple of, become a couple years older, but but it's certainly something that's on my radar. So I'll be curious to hear more. I'm glad that it worked out well. Yeah, yeah. And think about it.

T.U. 225,000 city points for two bedrooms, three nights. And think about how much Marriott charges these days at that JW. It could easily be 225,000 or more merit points per night for one bedroom. Right. And so it just really shows what a stellar deal this is. The whole I prefer thing is at its sort of infancy in that when City first introduced the ability to transfer 1 to 4 to I prefer, the I prefer website barely worked at all.

It sometimes showed points availability, sometimes didn't. It seems to have settled down a lot and become more reliable, but it's still not without hiccup. So there is incredible value to be had, but there is the risk which T encountered of having to deal with some of those startup hiccups with that program. Yeah. Well, that's good, though, to know that it got resolved in the end anyway. So hopefully those hiccups continue to smooth out over time. Yeah, exactly. All right.

Last up, we have Kelly, who wrote in saying, just wanted to send a big thank you from a mom and her two sons who now plan travel around podcast drops. I love that. I've been into points and miles for years, but what surprised me is how much my 12-year-old Mika has taken to it, spotting sweet spots, remembering Alliance quirks, and yes, choosing to listen to your podcast every week. Honestly, most of what Mika knows comes straight from your podcast. We've booked trips we never would have thought possible without it. Last year, Mika and I booked Qatar Airways Q Suites via JetBlue and a Qatar Airways first-class leg to Abu Dhabi via American Airlines. It completely blew his mind, the Al Safua Lounge, the service, the full experience.

Ever since, he's tucked it up non-stop. When we started planning this year's trip, he insisted we book it again, this time with his dad and brother so they could see why he's obsessed. Here's just part of what he put together for our December through January trip, a nine country one-month itinerary booked on points, Qatar Airways first class, again, a stopover in Cairo to see the pyramids, Virgin Atlantic Upper Class from India to London for 29,000 points plus $213 in taxes and fees, American Airlines premium economy home from Europe via Alaska, meaning using Alaska miles, and other sweet spot redemptions across.

Asia and Europe. That's fantastic. That's exciting. Congratulations. I mean, that really does amaze me because at 12 years old, if you're already in this world enough to plan something like that, I'm just excited to see where the hoppy takes you over time because there's just so many places to see and things to do. And if you're that engaged in it now, I can't imagine where you're going to be in another 10 or 15 years. So hats off. Hats off to that. Great planning. Well done. I'm excited to hear more about the trip and follow along. Yeah, real quick, Nick, I want you to explain the Qatar Airways' first class leg to Abu Dhabi that she made sure to mention. Why was that important?

Yeah, because the flights within the Middle East are very short flights. Like Doha to Abu Dhabi is less than an hour. I think it's about 45 minutes probably. But even though many of those are only operated by two cabin planes, well, let me back up. ordinarily a two-cabin plane, the front classifies as business class and then the rest is economy for most award programs. However, Qatar markets those flights within the Middle East as first class in the forward cabin. And because they do, if you book one of those, you get access to the first-class lounge in Doha. And the thing is, like, you could be booking a business class

award from Europe to the Middle East, let's say. And just by having that connector, oftentimes that connector will book into first, even though you're paying the business class award price because it's a two cap and plane. So you can often book it for the business class award price and get into the first class lounge in Doha. And the first class lounge in Doha is very nice. There are sleeping rooms where you can, you know, rest. You get a bed, like a full hotel room essentially for a few hours. And the food and the wine is excellent. So it's what we call an elevated experience, for sure. Yeah.

So I think that little detail just really shows how much Micah really gets it, you know, and it's getting into the little details that can really make a difference in how amazing a trip is. Really, for sure. And if you're picking up on those details now, the thing is, I feel like this hobby is sometimes intimidating to people who get in on it later on, you know, when they're adults or older because it is hard to learn something new and it's a little overwhelming in the beginning because there's so many little things like that and trying to learn all of it at once is again

just kind of overwhelming but if you're learning it now then the new things that come up 10 years from now and 15 years from now and 20 years from now are going to be so intuitive so I'm excited for you keep up the good work absolutely I think that brings us to this week's main event main event time our favorite travel gear let's talk all about what we carry when we travel? What do we put in our backpacks? What do we put in our luggage? What types of backpacks and luggage do we carry? Let's go. So we're going to start with backpack. So the way I think about my backpack, I have this, I have a little backpack. I keep packed all the time with like essential stuff that I need for travel. And that's, I feel like that's so important if you travel a lot

Because actually, even if you don't travel a lot, it's really, really useful because when you do travel, you don't really have to think about all those little details. Did you remember to bring, you know, phone chargers and your passport and other stuff? It's all in there. And that's been like a lifesaver to me since I started doing that. Anyway, with that intro, I'll talk about my backpack. I have a ToMe Alpha Bravo navigation backpack, and I'm not necessarily advertising to me as like, oh, you got to go out and get a Toomey backpack, but I'm going to talk about what I like about it that makes it useful to me and why I would, if I was looking for a new backpack, I would look for

the following qualities, not so much whether or not it's a to me. That part doesn't really matter to me. So what matters to me? That is comfortable on my shoulders. Like, that's one main thing. I've had different backpacks over time, which some of them are just painful, and that, of course, makes a big difference. I need it to be relatively small. I need it to fit under the seat in front of me, because I'm going to be carrying it every time I travel.

It should have lots of pockets, ideally at least some of them, if not all of them, are zippered pockets so that I can organize things. zip things up so that if the backpack is upside down, stuff doesn't fall out, for example. I like having an external water bottle holder, and here's an interesting feature that I would have never thought of in a million years until I got this to me and started using it. It's self-standing, and I find that really handy. So if I'm at an airport and I put it down on the seat next to me, it stays standing up and I can reach in and grab what I want easily. It doesn't like flop down on the ground. And so that makes it just, you know, that much more useful. Yeah, you know, I think that that's something that I really love as well. And going back to what

Greg said about brand, I'll share some of the brands of certain things that I have, but I'm much less married to any brand thing than I am, like Greg said, to the things that make that useful. And I'm sure that there are other companies that make something with similar characteristics. So totally agree on the standing up thing, very big. Also, the quality of the zippers makes a big difference to me because I can stuff my Toomey backpack full to the brim, and I've never felt like the zippers might fail. They're very thick and heavy and quality zippers. So that makes a big difference, too. Now, I did have the same backpack as Greg for a little while, but it was too small for me. Even when it had a part you could unzip to expand it and still didn't have enough room for

everything I wanted to put in it. And more importantly, it didn't have as many zippered pockets as I wanted. So I use the Toomey Alpha Bravo brief pack, which is bigger and doesn't fit as well under a seat in front of me on some smaller regional planes. When I'm on one of those smaller regional planes, though, I just turn it backwards and I put it in like with the top part going in first and then it usually fits. So that's just my little tip there. But anyway, What I like about this is that there are numerous different zippered pouches. There's one on top specifically where I keep my earbuds and I keep a pen so I can fill out a form if I need to. And a couple of those types of things, cough drops that I might need during the flight.

I keep those in a little zippered pocket at the top. And I really appreciate that separate zippered pocket. The other thing that I like about this is, or actually, let me back up. Let me say one thing I miss about the backpack that Greg has is that the one that he has, has these little nylon loops sort of at the top. And I bring a carabiner with me. So one of these large kind of carabiners. And instead of putting my water bottle in a pouch on it, I attach my water bottles, mine and my kids water bottles to something on the backpack. Now, in my case, I use the handle on top of the backpack. And so I just clip the carabiner on there and then clip the water

bottles on that. I do that. So I never have to worry about one of them spilling on my laptop inside the bag. And it also just gives me all the space in the bag. And the loops on the backpack that Greg has are better for that than anything I have on this particular bag. Anyway, so I definitely love my, my Toomey backpack. The other thing, the other feature, the killer feature that this is pretty standard on a lot of bags these days, but I would never go back to something that doesn't have it, is a sleeve on the back to slide it over top of the bar on your carry on. Once you have that, You will never want a backpack that doesn't happen again. Oh, my gosh.

I can't believe I forgot to mention that. That is so key. And it's something that used to be really unusual. And so I remember years ago, being so happy when the first time I got a Toomey backpack that it had that. I was like, ah, that's what I need. Yeah. And it's so convenient in so many situations. And actually, I still have the backpack that Greg has.

I've been planning on selling it. But after our most recent trip, my older son, he had a backpack that didn't have that. And I kept trying to put it on top of bags and it kept falling off. And I said, you know, for the next trip, I might just have him carry that navigation pack because it's just so much more convenient to be able to put it on top of the carry on like that. Yeah, makes sense. All right. Let's move on to luggage.

So, all right. I used to have Toomey suitcase. And it wasn't because of my Toomey backpack and loving that so much. It was actually because Delta used to, I don't know if they still do, but they used to give Million Milers a free Toomey suitcase. And so my wife and I each went and got Toomey suitcases, and we liked them at the time, and we got a couple more when they were really good sales.

But one of my Toomey suitcases that I used to rely on, it was this little half-height weekender bag, spinner bag thing. I was traveling. The handle broke. And it can really ruin your trip having to carry a, you know, even though it was half-hight, it was still pretty darn heavy, carrying that around Toronto. and so I, you know, I called to me and they said, sure, we'll fix it for like a hundred bucks or whatever it was. I can't remember what they charged me. And I was pretty annoyed by that. I thought it would have a lifetime warranty, but it apparently didn't. So I had it fixed. I paid for it to be fixed. And then a couple of years later, it broke again. And they would not even honor,

like they didn't warranty the service they did on it. So they were going to charge me again, I'm just like, nope, never again with Toomey suitcases, forget it. You've lost my business forever, Mr. Toomey. So I'm going to talk more about what I like in suitcases. I like spinner wheels. I know that's not something that everybody prefers, but I like the ability to just have the suitcase next to me and it kind of walk along like a well-trained dog, you know,

next to me as I walk in the airport. I like for them to be very lightweight. I don't want the thing to be heavy when it's not filled with heavy stuff. Ideally, it's expandable, that there's a zipper or something, so you can open it up bigger for when you've bought more stuff than you expected to on your travels. And I like when suitcases are soft-sided and have external pockets so that either there's some things that I know I'm going to need to get to easily in the airplane. or at the airport, or maybe I forgot to put some small stuff in and I don't want to unzip everything, so I could just slide it in an outside pocket. I really find that convenient. Right now, because I got a great deal on it, I have a international-sized carry-on from

Briggs and Riley, which I love. I think it looks great, and it has all those features I just mentioned. I also have a half-height wikender that replaced that to me, I complained about, which I don't even know the brand of it, but it's not expandable, but all the other things are there. It's very lightweight. It has external pockets, and it's tiny. So that's great, great as well. Sorry, excuse me. Yeah, okay, well, that's interesting to know about your experience with Toomey.

Similarly, I have a Ramoa bag that I got. It was some debit card that was out for a while, had a referral promotion, and, man, things have fallen apart on that bag and the handle doesn't work all that well for the price they charge. I am not impressed. I mean, luckily, I didn't pay the price for it. I'd be really unhappy if I did. So, yeah, and the problem is that I'd like to get it fixed. And I don't know, maybe I can. Maybe I can't. I'm not even sure. The problem is that there's so few Ramoa stores in the United States where you can take it to get it fixed. So then I'm going to be paying to ship it somewhere. And at that point, I might we'll just buy something else. So I feel kind of similar on that front. One thing I meant to

mention, by the way, about the backpack that I forgot is my Toomey brief pack. I actually got it from Sam's Club. And Sam's Club carries that particular backpack, the one that I have, not the one that Greg has, but they do have some other ones. And I wanted to mention that because you should keep your eye out. This bag is normally about $450, $500, I think. Wow. Sam's put it on sale for $2.20 something a few months back. So about half the normal price of the backpack. So it might be worth keeping an eye out, setting an alert for a sale on that somewhere. So anyway, that was that. So back to luggage. In terms of luggage, I use a brand called Mugi. And Mugi is not a luggage brand. And this is the one case. I know I said for the most part, I'm not all that brand particular on most things. This is one that

is kind of an oddity for me. We were in Japan years ago and our bags broke. We had a wheel break on a bag. We needed to get something new. We went looking around and didn't love the stuff that was really expensive. And then we found this Moji store that we'd never heard of. And we saw the bags and we were like, well, those seem like they would work. They were less expensive than the expensive bags, more expensive than the cheap bags we had been used to using. We didn't love them. We were like, ah, they seem fine, but we didn't love them. And then I got back to the hotel that night. And I got reading their website about what Moji is and what their kind of motto is. And so it's mentioned that Mugi on their web page does not make objects to entice responses of strong affinity,

like, this is what I really want or I must have this. Mugi's goal is to give customers a rational satisfaction expressed not with this is what I really want, but this will do. And it goes on to explain why they want that. And that was totally it. That nailed it. We were like, oh, yeah, it'll do. And not only did it do then, but now we've stuck with Mucci for the last 10 years. They're not terribly expensive. So my carry on, I think I paid about 150. might be $200 today with inflation. And what I love about it is that the wheels roll really smoothly. So it's a spinner, just like Greggs.

I prefer spinners. And I love how smooth the motion is on the wheels. And that's going to be the case on most decent bags these days. I love that the wheels lock. There's a button on the back that you press to lock the wheels. And so on a train at an airport, the subway, whatever else, I'm always locking those wheels. Or just when I'm taking the bags out of the car and I'm on any kind of an incline, I always just lock the wheels.

and then I don't have to worry about the bag rolling away. Or if I'm in a situation where I'm on the curbside somewhere and I want to just make it not easy for somebody to grab the bag and run with it, if they were going to steal it, again, easy to just lock the wheels and make that at least a little bit more difficult. So I love that about them. I like the fact that one side is zippered on the inside,

but that's, again, pretty standard. Of course, not with my Ramoa, but a pretty standard feature of having an interior pocket. I go with hard-sided. I don't have the exterior pockets. I can certainly see why Greg likes that. but I prefer the hard-sided in order to just have a little extra protection for the stuff that I put inside. So that's kind of a, I think, something that's going to be variable,

though, person-to-person in terms of what you prefer. The Moji ones are not so hard-sided that you can't over-pack them a little bit. And I like that also about them. So that's kind of nice. And they do have a locking mechanism on them, but I don't personally use that. Yeah, yeah. That ability to lock the wheels, that would be really nice. I would love to have that and that's not something i've ever ever had on a on a suitcase so that's yeah great addition i i don't know why not everybody does that because because it's such a simple easy and super convenient feature that i just wish every bag had then maybe i'd try something else and briggs and riley in particular they have a couple of carry-ons that look really cool to me that i feel like i would really like but i don't think i can

give up it's sort of like the sleeve on the back of the the backpack once you have it it's hard to give that up. Yeah. Yeah. All right, moving on. Do you use packing cubes? So I organize my clothes with packing cubes. What about compression cubes or bags? I don't do that. No, mostly because I feel like it's just going to be a pain to redo it. Maybe I'll get it right at home, but then later on, I haven't had a hard time compressing everything right. And then it's just not going to fit in the bag anymore. So, no, I don't do compression. I do use packing cubes, though. I find it makes it much easier to organize the bag and actually I feel like I fit more in it by keeping things kind of more compact and so yeah I'm a big fan yeah yeah me too and I do like I have some packing cubes that have like

an extra zipper so that like it opens up and then you pack your stuff in and then you zip it like tighter so it's it's not a compression you know bag but it just kind of tightens it up Yeah, interesting. One downside of compression bags is that they do make things a lot smaller, but they also become very hard. And so if you're trying to fit the stuff into a weird shape opening in your bag, it might not actually save you any room because it's not going to, you know, adjust to the shape. So anyway, yeah, I don't bother with the compression stuff anymore either. Although I am intrigued by, I've seen one where, and I think this must be common these days. It used to be you had to kind of roll them and squeeze the air out, but now there's like little device that sucks all the air out and you could travel with that device.

So that looks intriguing, but I haven't tried it. So other, I mean, standards, you know, other stuff I pack is pretty standard, except for one thing. I want to talk about the toilet tree bag. It's not that that's not standard. Everybody has probably as a toiletry bag. But I think what's maybe different and something I recommend is just like my backpack, I keep a toiletry bag always prepared so that when I travel, I just need to check a couple things in it.

Like do I need more shaving cream or more hair gel or whatever it is? But it's always packed with like everything I. need so it's it's just basically grab and go and boy does that cut down on the amount of stuff you have to think about when packing so I'm just thinking about what clothes you know do I want warm clothes cool weather you know cool weather clothes warm weather clothes a swimsuit or not that kind of thing because the toiletry stuff's all handled I have a spot for everything I have so I have a basic toiletry bag it folds up and zips up it has a it has a hanger hook So I can hang it, you know, on a hook in the bathroom.

And, you know, I keep in it, like everything I need for shaving. I'm a mini antiperspirant. I keep everything I need for brushing my teeth and, you know, whatever hair maintenance I need. Allergy meds, decongestant. So sort of basic, not quite, you know, first aid stuff, like things like Band-Aids. I keep a few of those type of things in there. But just stuff like that, that you're like, anything you need, certainly for a nighttime routine and a morning routine should all be in there.

And then, you know, maybe a few other things like Band-Aids that might come up now and then. And I do want to mention for shaving needs, a stiptic pencil. I have a tiny little stiptic pencil, which if you don't know what that is, it's like a chemical that stops bleeding. So if you nick yourself, you just put that little thing on and you're good to go. I saw that there's a brand that's called a Nick Stick. So if Nick doesn't carry a Nick Stick.

I don't have a Nick Stick. I didn't know a Nick Stick existed. So I learned something new every day. Thank you for teaching me that because I would definitely like to have that in my little toiletry kit as well. I actually repurpose an amenity kit from a flight for my toiletries. And it varies. I'll switch one out every now and then.

And lately I've been using a Cathay Pacific one, which I thought I had right here, but I don't see it now. At any rate, it's small and it's soft-sided, and I like that. I don't have the hook and stuff. I just want it to be more compact. But a couple of things that I keep in my toiletry bag that Greg didn't mention. A lot of the stuff is the same. So a couple things you didn't mention. One thing is that I have these cadence, they're called cadence capsules.

A reader suggested this to me. At some point, a reader reached out or sent me an email or something. I can't remember exactly what it was. And I think it was for a gift for my wife, really, but I use them more than she does. They're magnetic, and so they kind of go together. And what I like about these is that they're little twist tops,

and they have pre-printed labels. You can get whatever you want in terms of the labels on them. And so then I'll just put the stuff that I use, because I use like a shaving, like a, I don't know what you can call it. It's a Jack Black product. It's more like an oily type of a thing rather than shaving cream out of a shaving cream bottle. And so I'll fill this up. It'll last me for a couple of weeks.

And so after shave, stuff like that, I put in these little cadence capsules. And that helps keep everything organized. And so, and then it's easy and organized on the sink whenever I get to where I'm going. So I like those. Another, I don't know if it was a reader suggestion or if this came from Reddit when I was in Japan last. And I looked up things you should buy when you're in Japan. Because sometimes when I travel now, I want to know, is there a particular product that a place is known for that maybe I should consider getting something here. And one thing that came up again and again was Japanese nail clippers.

And I was like nail clip. People were so enthusiastic. There were a number of people on Reddit I saw that were like, I got out of nail clipper in Japan 15 years ago and I still use the thing. It's the best nail clipper I've ever had. And so sure enough, I bought one, just at, like, you just go to a pharmacy or like, they have these little places. Apparently they're known for the skincare products and stuff like that also.

And so you just walk in any of those places. And I'll tell you what, this nail clipper I got there, this green bell is the brand. I don't even know if that's the best brand or what, but it is the best nail clipper I've ever owned. It works very well. I don't even know how to tell you why other than to say that people, Reddit was right. Reddit was right. I was really, I was like, the nail clipper, like a six or seven dollar item. Sure enough. Love it. So I keep that in there. And then last but at least, my wife had given me. So I take a prescription medication. And I'm pretty good about the routine at home remembering to take it.

but when I travel, things get thrown off between the routine and, of course, you know, time zones and stuff like that. So she got me one of these little things that if you're watching on YouTube, you'll see. I've showed a couple of things here that has the days of the week. And so you just move it over on the day you've taken it. And it's got like a two-sided tape on the back. So I can just put it on the side of the new bottle when I get a new bottle or whatever and mark it off each day because I do start to forget these days whether or not I've taken it.

And so that stays in the toilet shoe bag at all time. times because that that's something that I find particularly useful. Yeah, totally. Yeah, and I forgot to mind. I also carry nail clippers in my bag. They're not from Japan as far as I know, but they work fine. Japanese nail clippers, I'm telling you, Craig, you're going to someday you're going to go to Japan, you're going to buy one. You're going to be like, wow, wow. They were, Reddit was right. I tell you what, I'm intrigued by that. I'm also intrigued by that idea of searching for what you should buy when you go to different places for exactly that

reason to get to get these kind of novel things that you might swear by going forward. All right. Let's go back to our go bags, our backpacks. And what do we keep in them so that when we're traveling, we have everything we need? The first big category is technology. There's a lot of tech packed into our backpacks. So I'm going to go through these what's in mine. Obviously, I keep my laptop. I have a 14-inch, I don't know if it's 13 or 14-inch laptop. It charges via USBC, which is very common most laptops do these days. And I always carry a charger brick. So this one is an anchor charger brick. It has two USBC slots, so I can charge two things at one. with it. And I love that it's small and light. And one of the reasons I love that is that it's less likely to fall out of the wall if it's, you know, not a tight connection. And that's important. I also carry a anchor magnetic battery. So it's a backup battery for my phone. So because

it's magnetic, I can just, you know, clip my phone to it at any time. And it'll, it'll charge my phone up next showing off is let the record show for podcast listeners nick was showing his magnetic battery one right now i have a small bag in my in my backpack that's full of charging cables USB c i have a micro USB or one or two because there's still a couple devices here and there that use that old old standard luckily i've been able to get rid of all my uh apple um what are those called lightning lightning lightning connect Because my, even though I have an Apple phone, it no longer uses the lightning connector. I recently acquired an Apple Watch, so I, so I carry with me an Apple Watch charging cable.

And I also carry with me international plug adapters. And this is something I learned from next. So I used to have a single big, you know, multi-country adapter, and you could pull out different things for every, for any country. You have. Instead, I got one where a bunch of different connectors all like connect together to make a little line and just pull out the one you need. And the reason I like that, same reason I like my charging brick being small, it doesn't fall out of the wall. Those big multi-country ones, invariably, you have a loose connection and the whole thing falls down. I can't tell you how many times in hotel rooms. I used to pile up books and other things underneath the power socket so that I could rest all those charger pieces on top of there so it wouldn't all fall out of the wall. I also, this aside benefit here, I love my UK adapter because on airplanes, on airplanes U.S. style plugs just fall out of those plugs all the time. Unless a really modern, better ones. But all those old power plugs, power outlets, I really lose.

These are hefty thing. And it'll go into those, because they're like multinational outlets. This will fit in, and it's not going anywhere. And then you could plug your U.S. one into it, and it stays put. So love that. I think I learned that trick from View from the Wing, maybe. Smart hack. Yeah, yeah, a good hack.

Okay. What else is in my backpack? Tech-wise, I've got my Apple AirPods Pro. I've got a set of small wired earbuds. So that's for the rare times where I'm flying economy and the seatback thingy doesn't have Bluetooth or often these days. Sometimes they do a Bluetooth, but I just can't get the darn thing to work. And so easy enough, just plug that in and they work so much better than

the ones they hand out on the airplane. I have a backup phone. This one's an Android phone, but I got on an Amazon Prime Day special, so really cheap. And so just in case something happens to my main phone, I don't know how you can travel anymore without a phone. So I have that there. I usually have my Kindle paperweight ebook reader. This is the only item that I've mentioned so far that I don't keep in my backpack at all times. Because this one I do take out at home in order to read it, I don't have two of these, which I could. You know, you could have it so that the one automatically sinks up with where you are on the other, but I don't do it that way. And so, so yeah, if I forget my Kindle Paperweight, I can always read on my phone

or my backup phone if I had to. And then I also have some stuff for, because I'm, you know, part of the Freakimiler team and wanting to record travels and everything. I have a couple different phone mounts that make it easier to do like selfie videos and things like that. One is a suction cup mount, and the other one is a clamp mount and with a magnet on the back. So it holds my phone that way. And I have a set of mini wireless microphones for recording sound. Yeah, I have a lot of the similar types of stuff that Greg has. So a lot of that stuff, I keep just.

one thing that I carry that's a little different than what Greg has is that I have my wall charger is a four port U.S. well, it's three USB C ports and one regular USB. It's a 200 watt max output. So it'll put out 100 watts on two channels at the same time. And I carry that because I can then charge my laptop at a decent speed, not quite full speed for what my laptop will charge at, but a decent speed while simultaneously charging my phone at full speed and or a tablet at full speed. And even if you use three, you get 85 out of I think the first two. So I can't remember exactly. But there's a bunch of these types of products on Amazon. The one that I use what I like and dislike at the same time about it is that it has an external cord that clips to the back

of it. I can't show you right now because I'm actually using it right now. So it's got a long cord that I can, or it's a brick that will plug into the wall on its own, or it has an extension that I can clip onto it that has a cord that just plugs in with like a normal standard outlet things. You avoid the falling out of the wall problem with the weight. For the most part, yes, exactly. That's the purpose of it is to avoid that problem. Now, sometimes you still run into outlets, though, they're just so loose with the U.S. connectors that I think that that British connector trick might actually work. But anyway, so yes, that's the purpose of that, both A, so it won't fall out and B, it gives you

a little more length when you need it. A couple of other things that I carry. So now that particular charger, like I said, it's got a cord that clips to it. It also has the international adapters for British and Euro that, again, just slide onto the back where the prongs would come out of the brick that goes into the wall. And so I carry one for UK and one for Europe. And that seems to have me covered most places I've gone recently. Other things that I carry for just in case sort of in the sort of bag of cables is I keep a

45 or a 90 degree, um, USB C adapter so that I can turn a cable into a 90 degree angle when I want to. Sometimes that's useful so that you're not scrunching a cable up. I hate to scrunch up my cables and ruin them. I also keep in that same little zip pouch with my cords, these Velcro, uh, cable ties. So, you know, most cables you buy these days have like the, the, I don't know, what'd you call it the Velcro thing that goes around it to kind of coil it up when you want to coil it up. And so I keep, I have a whole bunch of those that I just keep in there, because they get ratty from time to time and stop working and whatever. I want to get rid of one or I realize I just didn't have one that I wanted. So I keep that in there also. And

then finally, last thing. And I bought, I should say the 90 degree cable adapters I bought from Dell using Dell credits. And I also, and I think they still carry those. And I also, oh, that's right. I'm using it. I also have an extender, a USBC extender. So it's essentially like an extension cord for a USBC cable. And I bought that also at Dell using up a Dell credit, but it's come in handy so many times. In fact, like I said, I'm using it right now. That's the reason that I can't show it to you because it's actually plugged into my laptop

since the outlet I'm plugged into is far across the room. So that's another thing that kind of goes with the chargers. I carry two battery packs these days, but if I only had to carry one, it wouldn't actually be the magnetic one. I carry an anchor 20,000, whatever it is, M-A-H, I don't know, the correct terminology, power bank, it's big, it's heavy. A lot of people would find it inconvenient, but it'll charge my phone entirely, like at least four times, I think.

And in a pinch, it'll charge my laptop up at least a third of the way anyway. And so in a pinch, I've used it to charge my laptop also. So I find the extra capacity nice. and this falls just under the maximum, whatever the maximum in watt hours is that you can take on the plane. And that's usually not an issue. Most people don't check it in the U.S. or even in Europe in my experience. But in Asia, I've had them look more than once before. So if you carry a big battery pack like this, take a look and find out where it shows the watt hours so that you can point it out to a security person who wants to check out your power bank. I find that useful.

All right. So I carried that. Let's see. I carry my podcast equipment. because we do this, and I use, again, an amenity kit. This is an old kind of falling apart Emirates amenity kit that keeps all my podcast stuff in it. I bring a laptop stand, which most people will think I'm crazy because it's just taking up space. My laptop is sitting on it right now. It's just a cheap $10 or $12 item from Amazon, but I find that it saves my neck and shoulders so much. On the plane, it's not always useful because the tray table isn't big enough to accommodate it necessarily, but in a hotel room, I just find that it puts so much less strain on my shoulders.

I'm not hunching down over my laptop as much to I can lift the screen up a little bit. So I like that. I also, and this is again, takes up space. This is why I need the bigger backpack. I bring the vertical mouse with me everywhere. The track pad drives my wrist knots after a while. So I use a vertical mouse and that has made a lot of difference. I used to have quite a bit of wrist pain and I was sleeping with braces on my wrists at night for a while.

And the vertical mouse has more or less completely alleviated that. So I'm a big fan of that. So I bring it with me, even though it kind of takes up some space. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. That's great to know about the vertical mouse. I actually, years ago, I used to have a ton of wrist pain from the mouse, and I switched entirely to using track pads, which solved my problem.

But it's kind of interesting that it was track pads that were the problem for you. Yeah, I get a pain in, like, right around here when, you know, kind of in my, below my thumb from using the track pad if I use it for too long. And I mean, sometimes I do use it still, but then I start to get that pain again. Once I go back to the vertical mouse, I'm usually good. Yeah, yeah, makes sense. All right, let's talk about, so that was all the tech that's in our backpacks. I think we covered that.

Do you also carry a backup phone? Oh, yes, I do. I do. Yes, I carry a backup. We have an extra line on our plan. So actually, it has full service because at some point during the pandemic, T-Mobile was offering a whole bunch of free lines. And so we had added a bunch.

And so we have one that we, it's just a dedicated, like, hot spot when we travel. So, yes, right, right. That's great. I wish I'd gotten in on that deal. Anyway, all right, let's talk about other stuff we keep in our, in our backpacks. The other thing that I swear by, I just love having it's so convenient to have in your backpack, is a backpack. What? A backpack in your backpack? I have this tiny, foldable backpack, which the reason it's so important is because, you know, my main backpack is full of all technology and stuff, and it weighs it down. It's not like it's, you know, incredibly heavy, but it's heavy enough that if I'm,

if I'm parking it in a hotel room or in my car and then going for a hike or just walking around town, I don't want to carry that thing with me. But I do want to carry things like a water bottle, maybe some snacks, maybe, you know, miscellaneous other stuff. That's where the little tiny backpack in the backpack comes in. Now, I had a different brand a while back, but a few years ago when my big backpack was stolen, I lost all the contents of it, including my little backpack. And I did a lot more research that time because I wanted to find one that not only collapses this small,

but also has a zippered pocket, an additional zippered pocket besides the main zippered pocket. And that's unusual for backpacks as small. And this one does. So it has two size, two separate zipper pockets in it, which I find really useful. And it's called the four monster. That's all one word, four monster, the number four monster. Hiking day pack is what it's called. Yep.

I've got the same exact one. In my case, the sort of waterproof lining on the inside has started to peel off. And so I haven't loved that. but size wise and you're right the two zippered pockets and the side pouches for water bottles I found it very convenient so I would want a very similar design if not the same exact one in the future but yeah that it really is it's been like a game changer it's so nice to have an easy unfoldable backpack because otherwise we always have to unpack one of the backpacks in order to just bring what we need for the day and this way we can just carry this and then

every now and then I'll get in a situation where just need an extra, we have an extra carry on. We could have an extra carry on, but we didn't bring another bag. And it's like, oh, well, here, I've got another bag. We can toss those things that we bought at the Christmas market and that, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so my wife and I both have these so that we can do exactly that whenever we need to. Okay. Another thing in my backpack that is always there is my travel wallet.

So my travel wallet is not what I'm. I'm going to carry around in my pocket when I'm traveling. It's the cards and IDs and things that I may need when I'm traveling to get through security or for other reasons. So let me explain. So my travel wallet has in it my passport, which obviously when I'm traveling internationally is useful. Miscellaneous ID cards such as my global entry card. Normally you don't actually need the physical card, but there are places where it's useful to have the actual physical card. I used to my diving certification ID in there.

That got stolen along with my other stuff. I haven't replaced that yet. And then I also have lounge access cards. More and more, you can get into airport lounges electronically, but I still carry the physical ones like a priority pass card, an Amex Platinum card. I right now have an American Airlines executive... executive card, which gets you in an American Airlines lounge. I'm saying right now, because I'm probably going to get rid of that card.

But anyway, so yeah, so that kind of thing is in there. Travel credit cards, so things like hotel credit cards and airline cards that I don't use for everyday spend, but like hotel cards are often ones that you want to use when checking into a particular hotel. You use your Marriott card when you're checking to the Marriott to get the 6x points for that. Otherwise, it's not like great value for your spend. Airline cards, usually, if I carry those at all, it's usually more for things like I have a American Airlines card that refunds the Wi-Fi if you buy Wi-Fi on board. So stuff like

that. If I have any hotel gift cards, they'll be in there. It's awful to have hotel gift cards and be at a hotel where it would work and realize you left that. at home. And there's a little tiny pen that clips into my travel wallet. So that's what's in there. Interesting. That seems like it must be a big wallet. Is it like is it thick? There's a lot of stuff you mentioned there. It's it sounds thick. I mean it's it's normal wallet size thickness but I mean it's passport size length. Ah, okay. I see I see that makes sense. Interesting. Yeah. I carry basically the same type of a thing. I'm using a wallet that's essentially like an elastic band around like a card so that that way you can add lots of cards to it because it does start to get a little thick for me too because we've got platinum card and I keep my Ritz card for Sapphire Lounge access in there. And of course, the hotel gift cards, et cetera, et cetera. So I probably carry more cards. I shouldn't say this on the air. Probably carry more cards on me than I should when I travel. But I always, I don't want to be and not have the one that I wanted.

So I keep a bunch of that stuff in that travel wallet that just stays in the bag and rarely ever comes out. But it's there when I need it, hopefully. Yeah, yeah. I mean, hopefully we'll get to a place where everything can be done electronically and then we won't have to do that. But for now, there's still things when you're checking at hotels. You generally often, not always anymore, but you often have to give them a physical card.

Oh, I should mention to my separate, not in the travel wallet, but there is. is a little sort of a pouchy compartment inside my backpack where my international driver's licenses right now, which we talked about on a show at some point. You can get those online now from AAA. So that's worth it. That's a really good point. As soon as I get mine, that's going in there. All right. So that's our travel wallets. Let's talk miscellaneous other stuff. So I have a grouping of things called weather gear. So I keep a tiny sunscreen stick in my backpack. I keep my sunglasses or a pair of sunglasses. I have multiple pairs that I own. And so there's one pair that's always in my backpack. I have a small raincoat. So a lot like having a little zip up backpack. I have a

little black raincoat, which it used to have a pouch that went with it. I lost the pouch. So now what I do is I just fold it up inside its own pocket into one of its side pockets. And that works fine. I tried a bunch of different ones i tried even smaller ones than this that i found just like on amazon and and unfortunately you have to read the reviews really carefully because a lot of the tiny rain coats do not actually stop rain so i i was in yeah it seems that would be kind of important that's an important i was it's really really important i was in uh bogota and uh it started pouring rain. And even though I had my little travel raincoat on, I was absolutely soaked top to bottom. This one, so I read all these reviews on Amazon. It's like a no-name brand,

but it actually stops the rain. So that's a key component. I did learn, though, that you do need to wash these every now and then. Because along with the rest of your clothes, Greg. Yeah. I mean, because the thing is, like, normally what, you know, if I take it out because it's raining, I wear it, and then it goes back in my backpack and I forget about it, but it can get moldy and stinky, so wash it every now and then. Good tip. Okay. Another thing.

Here's something that most people probably wouldn't think of unless they are hitchhikers, Guide to the Galaxy fans, bring a towel with you everywhere. This is a micro fiber towel, so it's really tiny. Um, but, uh, it can be used obviously as a towel to dry off, but it's also come in handy when it's been unexpectedly cold. I can take it out and use it as a scarf. And it's, uh, it's a decent looking scarf. Um, and you just never know when you're going to need, uh, or a little blanket for the ground to sit on, whatever. Um, that's the micro fiber towel. I think I need to get that. I, I need that in my backpack. That's something that I, I feel like I'm, missing. And you've mentioned it before, and I've never really, I don't know, given it that much thought, I guess. But now that you mention it, there are numerous times where it'd be nice to just have something like you said to sit on or to, you know, if you're outside and it is raining, you want to wipe something up and order to be able to sit down, et cetera. There's plenty of times

where I could see that coming in handy. So I will have to get that in my backpack as well. In terms of weather gear for me, I don't really plan for the weather. So I don't bring most of those things. I do bring sunglasses. I wear prescription glasses. And And so I bring prescription sunglasses. I used to wear contacts more often, but I got kind of lazy on that. And I buy my sunglasses online. I have for years. I really like kits.com.

And so I have the same exact set of frames just in sunglasses form. And I keep those in my travel backpack at all times also. And I have a pair that I wear in the car, but then I have a pair that just stays in the travel backpack. So I always have them very similar. Makes sense. Oh, and by the way, I don't keep this in my backpack. But I have been traveling with during our three car, or no, during our Million Mile Madness challenge, the SAS Million Mile Madness, I bought an umbrella on Air Asia for like $5 or $6 that looks like an airplane and it's very compact. It's cheap and not particularly high quality, but it's small and it fits really nicely in my carry-on.

So I've been bringing that and that did come in handy on my most recent trip. So I do carry that umbrella usually in my carry-on bike. Oh, there you go. All right. some miscellaneous other stuff that you'll find in well you won't find hopefully in my backpack but that is in my backpack don't rummage around my backpack people i have a uh ziplock bag with snacks uh miscellaneous snacks in there um i i always carry a water bottle um i have like miscellaneous things like wet wipes tissues napkins hand sanitizer that kind of stuff um i have a tiny little

medical kit that has like band-aids sterile pads and stuff in it um luckily i've never had to use that i have a backup pair of reading glasses i i don't i have prescription reading glasses but i don't need them like just a uh my backup pair is just a uh you know 1.5x or something reading glasses and uh a tiny thing of emergency toilet paper so it's a little uh little container uh just in case just in case never know, like to be prepared. You know, I like to be prepared, but I don't carry most of the things, Greg just mentioned. One thing that I do bring, though, is a Ziplock bag. I always have at least one Ziploc bag in my bag for numerous different reasons. Sometimes it can be handy for when you want to obviously carry something. But also sometimes if something gets wet or something

gets like, I don't know, something gets stained dirty in some way. And I don't want it to get on the rest of my clothes. Then I've put things in that small bag before, too, just like, kind of keep them separate or something's wet. I don't want the, like you mentioned, you get that musty odor after something gets wet, right? And so that kind of helps to keep that sealed. I have been often traveling with two Ziploc bags, one empty and one with a couple of dryer sheets in it.

That's a tip I picked up from another frequent milder team member that can help if you're traveling a lot and you want to neutralize odors in your bag, then a dryer sheet can help for that. So I do get a couple of those in one of that. that. Great tip. And I'll second, I'll second, you're saying bring, bring Ziploc bags. I do that as well. I forgot to mention that. Yeah, they give me handy in all kinds of situations, including you just have some food, like leftovers or something that you want to take with you and you have that bag right there. So that's, that can be really handy. Yep. Yep. On a clothing standpoint, a couple of things that I

have really gotten into bringing with me on every trip. I'm really loving Marino wool shirts, but any quick dry sort of a shirt would probably be good. It doesn't necessarily have to be marino wool. I found it really convenient to be able to wash and dry my own stuff in the hotel sink when it's stuff that I know will dry by morning. And so I've been really happy with items that I know I can do that with now. And I did a video that's on Instagram a while back. You'd probably have to dig through the frequent my archives to find it with washing and drying my merino wool clothing in a hotel room. And one technique I picked up from somebody on Instagram, might have been Geo Breeze travel. I can't remember. Um, was rolling the clothes in the towel. So you lay a

flat, a towel flat. So after you've washed your clothes in the hotel sink or bathtub or whatever, lay a towel flat, put the clothes on top of the towel and then roll the towel really tightly. And so I do that. And instead of wasting a whole bunch of time trying to ring it out, I just like, get on it with my knees and go back and forth with my knees on the towel. That puts plenty of weight and pressure on it to wring out a little bit of moisture and the towel, of course, so it dries much faster and probably whatever material thing you're trying to dry. I did this with swimsuits on the recent trip. We were on because we went to the pool on checkout day and it just made stuff much less wet going into the bag. Yeah, that is a great tip. I also travel with like boxers

and t-shirts that are quick dry for the same reason. Like those I need to, if it helps me like pack less, you know, knowing that I can wash that stuff in a sink and it'll be dry by morning for sure is really, is really handy. Yeah, I think that that's really the thing, right? I pack way less now than I used to because I don't need as much stuff because I know I can wash it and I have plenty of times now in hotel rooms. It's convenient enough to do that I do it pack far less clothes and that's been that's been nice so i like that i always pack also zip off pants to have the option of pants or shorts when almost anywhere obviously i'm going to a cold weather place i might not worry about that as much but anywhere that's going to be warm i like to have the option on the

plane it's often i find cold and so i want full-length pants then maybe i'm traveling to a hot place i want to be able to zip them off so that's something i've been carrying for years i had the same pair for about 15 years that I got it all being years ago. And then I finally ripped those during our million mile madness. I stepped on bottom of it and ripped the cuff of the pants. So I got a replacement pair and I'm a big fan of those. We carry, because we have young kids, our kids are seven and almost five. We bring inflatable booster seats with us. And so if you're watching on YouTube, you'll see this. Now, I want to be clear that you should do your own research as to what's safe and and what you're comfortable with for your kids.

So don't take this as an endorsement that this is the safe solution. This is a recommendation from readers that I've been happy with. So this was not a product I found on my own, but it was, what is this? This is hiccup hop is the brand of this one. Now, there were two different brands that readers had recommended. I didn't like one of them. I think it was called Bubble Bum,

just didn't like the product very much. The Hiccop one I liked a lot. And so this one I like because it folds up pretty small. I get it into like a little draw, string bag. And so it gets smaller than what it looks like right now, probably. And when you want to blow it up, it's got a great little valve here. And it takes like four or five breaths. I'll blow this up right now. There we go. Three, three breaths. And that's it. I do like having the inflatable boosters. It's been saving us on renting a booster seat from the rental car company. And they work

pretty well. My seven-year-old is quite tall. Both my kids are very tall for their age. And so my seven-year-old's almost probably out of the size for a booster anyway. But anyway, once you blow it up, uh, works as a seat, it's got the clippy part that goes over the shoulder that can move on to either side of it. So I really like that. We've been bringing these everywhere with us now, uh, for quite a while. They have not, uh, lost the ability to, to inflate. They don't, they don't deflate anyway. They don't lose the air. Uh, they seem to work very well and be pretty comfortable for the kids. So I've enjoyed that. And just like it, it inflates very easily. deflates very easily to just push the valve in and it's like very simple to deflate so so anyway

that's a product that has come with us everywhere we go and then last but not least Greg a while back you mentioned a great capital one shopping offer you had had for sketchers and you mentioned getting sketchers slip-ons and I got a set of sketcher slip-ons and man it's hard to imagine going back to something else now and I don't want to sound like a commercial for sketcher slip-ons but the slip-on shoes are so nice If anybody else makes them, I love to know about what other brands make them. I don't know who else makes them. But man, those things are so comfortable and so easy and convenient. And when you go through a security checkpoint, I know we don't have to take our shoes off anymore in the U.S.,

but if you have to take them off and put them back on, it is so nice. It's very much like that sleeve in the back of the backpack where it's like, I'm wearing those now when I travel. That's pretty much my deal. Yeah, I cannot go back either. I just, and you could get all different kinds. They could look like dressy. They could look casual. They could look like sneakers, whatever.

And they are those things. It's just that they're made to easily slide your foot in. And it still keeps like it's not like it feels loose on your foot once it's in. But your foot just slides right in. And it's very easy to slide your feet out when you intend to. So I absolutely love it. And yeah, the idea of going back to having to like tie my shoes. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, forget it. Paul, that's lazy. But I don't want to have to tie the shoes either. So, yeah, I very, very much enjoy that. And like Greg said, I've got a pair that looks a little dressier. I get a pair of sneakers. So I've got several because Capital One shopping, like I said,

I've gotten great cash back offers. I think when I bought them, I was like 60% back on buying them from Skechers. So and I've seen 30, 40, 50% a number of times now. So anyway, that's what I'm wearing for footwear these days. I was wearing Alberts for a while, which were really popular travel shoes. And I started having a bunch of problems with my feet, just that my feet hurt. And I eventually realized it was because of the shoes once I switched to something else. So, so I've been very happy with the, the sketcher slip on so far.

So hopefully that'll, that'll remain or other companies will start to make slip on shoes. I don't know why everybody isn't making those. Like, you should be copying those. You make sneakers. You should be copying whatever it is they're doing. Because much, much easier. Anyway, all right, anything else that you bring with you? Is that pretty much wrap up our main event?

I think that wraps it up. Okay, so that brings us to this week's question of the week. This week's question of the week, once I find the tab where I had it open, there we go. I came in via email and this is less about the specifics of the question and more about the concept of the question. A little complicated, but I thought it was probably worth discussing. The short-ish version of the story is that Rob wrote in and had two different options. to book a trip and was trying to decide whether he should use more miles and less cash or fewer miles and more cash. And so the particular situation that Rob was looking at here was booking Virgin

Atlantic, I think he was booking on Virgin Atlantic upper class to Europe for 35,000 points a person. Essentially, it was going to cost him 210,000 points for his family and $4,744. or he could book instead with KLM through Flying Blue, book a different itinerary, more direct actually, for 60,000 per passenger plus 276. So altogether it came out to, he had to decide between spending 210,000 points and $4,744 or 360,000 points and 1616. And each way. So it was going to be a round trip, I think, of like, nine grand.

using fewer points and 3,200 using more points. And so I want to ask, how do you decide in cases like that? Because the point that the reader made here overall was that he tends to use points for quite a bit of value. So there are the totals I was looking for. $410,000 points and $9,500 or $720,000 round trip and $3,300. Ignore the numbers I threw out a second ago. So trying to decide between $410,000 points and $9,500 or saving.

being $6,000, but spending an additional 300,000-ish points to save that. How do you decide in cases like that? Do you say, well, I'm going to use the points for more value later on, so I should use the cash now? Or do you say, you know what? The cash is more flexible. I should use a few more points. How do you decide which to use? Yeah, I mean, it's tough. So let's start with the obvious. If you don't have enough points for the bigger point redemption, then your choices do you buy more points, which can be very expensive, and probably then the cash rate would end up being just as bad as the other one. And so it probably wouldn't, it'd probably be obvious then to use the lower number of points with the higher cash outlay. But assuming you have all the points, let's also simplify and say that, all of these points would be coming from transferable points either way and that there's no

transfer bonus to one or the other going on that you know let's try to keep that simple so yeah let's keep it simple in that case what what the way I would think about it is that choosing the one that has requires fewer points but a bigger cash outlay I would think of that as like buying the difference and points. So I would say, oh, I have to spend $3,000 more on this one, but I'm going to save 300,000 points or whatever it is. So am I willing? Do I want to? Basically, buy that many points for that price. And then I would do the math and say, okay, that comes to, let's say it's one cent per mile. If, if, um, if you are like relatively short on points in general, like you have enough for this trip, but, but you, uh, you don't have like millions of other

points going on. And so you have other trips you want to plan for. It may very well be that you'll be like, oh, yes, I'm a buyer at one one cent per point. Um, and that's great. Then then do the one that has a higher cash outlay, but if you're like, no, I've got so many points that I'm not a buyer at that price, then I would do the one that's more, that's more points, but less cash is how I think. Yeah, you know, I think that your point there is exactly what people need to be thinking about. Am I a buyer of points at that rate? Would I, if I could buy those points, would I pay that amount? Because Rob was focused on how he might redeem the points in the future. And so he wrote in. He had said, oh, well, but I'm getting six cents per point in this redemption. And I'll probably

get that in the future. So I should pay more cash and hold on to my points. Well, would you buy the points at two cents per point, though? That's the question. It's not so much, how are you going to redeem them in the future? But would I pay that much to buy those points now? Are they worth that to me? And in his example, he was looking at two cents per point. And so does that make sense? Well, I think that's exactly what Craig explained. If you've got lots and lots of points, then it might not make sense to you. And if you don't have a lot of points, it might. It's going to vary from person to person. Personally, two cents per point is a high price for me to pay. Even though I know I'll probably redeem it two cents per point or higher, I don't really want to pay two cents per point

if I can avoid it because there's so many ways to earn points. And I can replace the points with referral, you know, like referring my wife for a new MX card or she can refer me for one, obviously the various spending bonuses and of course, all the welcome bonuses out there. I can replace. I can replace the points very easily. Coming up with an extra $6,000 cash out of thin air is much harder. And it's not that it's impossible, but it's harder to make that fall out of the sky. And obviously, you might make that from your job, but that's not making up an extra $6,000, right? Like that extra is something that's harder to make fall out of the sky. So whereas the points, we can essentially make them fall out of the sky with new credit card, welcome bonuses and whatever else.

So I find that much easier to replace. And so I would be much more interested in using slightly more points there, though it does depend on how much value you're getting. So you've got to say, okay, well, how much? Because if I'm only getting half a cent per point in value, well, you know, then it'll make a difference in the math. Maybe I'm a buyer at half a cent per point, but I'm not necessarily a two cents per point. You need to figure out for yourself where that is. Right, right. Two cents is a lot to, is a lot to pay for, for, for, for a buyer.

miles unless you need them immediately. In this case, you don't. You're talking about you already have the miles and which one to use. So in general, I wouldn't do that because, like, let's say you think you're a buyer at two cents per point. Then you should be looking at things like using a card that earns 2x everywhere to pay your taxes for a 2% fee or slightly less than 2%. then you're buying points at one cent each by doing that. Or even when there's some big expense you have to pay, if it costs you 3%, 3%, sorry, to pay with a credit card, which is sort of a common thing. A contractors might charge you, or if you're using a service like Plastic to pay a bill

with a credit card for a fee, that would cost you about 3%. Then a 2x Everywhere card, you're going to be buying. at what, one and a half cents per transferable point. And so two cents is a lot. Yeah, and a lot of airlines put their points on sale from time to time for less than two

cents, not all airlines, but a number of airline programs sell their points from time to time for less than two cents per point. Avianca Life miles often sells for around 1.3, sometimes even a little bit less every now and then we see the same kind of thing from Air Canada Aeroplane or Virgin Atlantic. So there

are a number of those programs. And so personally, I would be more inclined to say, you know what, I'll keep the $6,000, and if I need more miles down the line, I'll keep my eye out for one of those sales and find a way to make those work for me and get more miles for my money. Again, I wouldn't be the buyer at two cents, but, but you may. And so you need to decide that for yourself. But that's the question to ask yourself, not how much value am I going to redeem for in the future? How much am I willing to pay now to speculatively keep these based on the prospect of maybe

redeeming them for better. That's the key. Yep. Okay, that brings us to the end of this week's episode. If you've enjoyed this and you like to get more of this stuff in your email inbox each day or each week, you want to go to Frequentmyler.com slash subscribe to join our email list. Follow us on all the various social media. Join our Frequent Myler Insiders Facebook group

where you can ask questions like this and interact with other group members all the time. Wherever you're watching or listening, don't forget to like this episode. Give us a thumbs up, leave us some stars, feedback. We always appreciate hearing from you. Tell us what's in your travel backpack. I would legitimately like to know a number of the things in my bag are things that readers have suggested. So I'd love to hear from you too. And if you have a question that you'd like to be considered for a future question of the week or a piece of

feedback for a giant mailbag. You can send that too. Send it to mailbag at frequent miler.com. Bye everybody. Hi, I'm David Brody, co-host of the Travel and Ten podcast. Together, myself and my co-host, Tim Johnson, have traveled to over 150 countries around the world and all seven continents. Now we're sharing our favorite places, some of our best tips and experiences from all around the world in just 10 minutes on Travelin'10. Join us at Voyescape.com. I'm Pauline Fromer. I've spent most of my life writing, talking, and thinking about travel, not just where to

or go, but how to go in a way that's meaningful. On the Frommers Travel Show, we explore the trends, people, and ideas shaping how we see the world. If you care about the why, as much as the where, I hope you'll join me. You can find new episodes weekly at voyescape.com.