LadyGang - The Points Guy

Episode Date: May 31, 2022

Founder of the The Points Guy, Brian Kelly, joins the show to teach the ladies how to maximize points, miles, airlines and credit cards. Plus, he’s giving all the best tips and tricks when it comes to travel. Check out our amazing sponsors!!! Nutrafol: Grow thicker, healthier hair by going to Nutrafol.com and use code LADY to save $15 OFF your first month’s subscription! Chime: Get started at Chime.com/lady - Applying for a free account takes less than 2 minutes! Freshly: Get $125 off your first FIVE orders when you go to Freshly.com/lady  CBDX: Go to CBDX.com and use code "LADY" for 20% off your first order! Sambucol: Get 15% off your next order of $9.99 or more at sambucolUSA.com and use code LADY! Hyundai: Learn more about the 2022 TUCSON and SANTA FE Plug-in Hybrid EVs at HyundaiUSA.com  Starbucks Baya Energy Drink: It’s energy that’s good! STARBUCKS BAYA Energy drink is available online, at grocery stores, convenience stores, and gas stations nationwide!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Today's episode of Lady Gang is brought to you by the new Starbucks Baya Energy Drink. With caffeine naturally found in coffee fruit, it's energy that's good. Starbucks Baya Energy Drink is available online at grocery stores, convenience stores, and gas stations nationwide. Well, what is this? Welcome to the Lady Gang. That's amazing. Say that again. The Lady Gang. Things are about to change around here.

Each week, we catch up with Hollywood's hottest girl posse, Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Lady Gang. I'm Becca Tobin here with Jack Vanek and Kelty Knight. and that was not fast forwarded that sounded like you're going two times speed it must be like oh my god let's get this over we're just starting okay it's because i just took a bite of my core bar oh and you know i just didn't want it to sound like i had food in my mouth so i just really needed to race forward yeah in fact you don't actually eat meals when you have a baby just in case you're wondering yeah i was wondering like you probably haven't sat down and like enjoyed like a salad where you're like i'll take a little

bit of protein. I'll take this grape and I'll take this thing. No, like it's a good thing that I was always a fast eater. So I think in a past life I was fighting for food because I have since the day I was born, I don't like to sit and really take my time when I eat. Interesting. I just want to like get it down. And I also think that it's because I have a fear of getting full before I'm finished eating. Cause I love eating so much that I don't want to feel this sensation so that I have to stop feeling how good it feels going into my mouth. That makes sense. That really does. Cause there's nothing worse than getting like halfway through your meal. That's so delicious. And you're like, my stomach can't handle anymore. And I'm so sad, much rather force feed myself and then feel

like shit after, because it's like, feels so great to shove it down my throat. But anyways, having said that now it's on a whole nother level. I am literally just grabbing things from my pantry and shoving them in my face because I'm holding a baby with one arm and then just trying to like, I'm like a rat in my kitchen. And I did an event for core foods that they have those delicious bars that I pretty much kind of lived off of before having a baby. But during the event, I got stocked up. They brought so many bars to my house and I threw them in the fridge and I'm like, thank God, what else would I be eating right now? I am like eating like three a day. oh my god have you taken ford out to like a meal yet has he come to like a restaurant or anything

yeah he's actually if we time it out um like if he's just eaten he's great he can just sit there and chill or sit there and fall asleep but that's for now kids go in such weird phases that i know that in a week i could take him to a restaurant and i'll scream his face off right so but like on the weekly basis it's hard to leave him he goes to bed after like his bath at 6 30 so it's not like zach and i can even like go to dinner unless it's like five o'clock with him so which is a good time for dinner if you ask me it's a great time for dinner but he's also the biggest asshole at five o'clock so it's a real it's a real situation but hashtag grateful um on that note it's time for good week yes it is bad week oh no i'll go okay um my good week is a little

bit delayed but um i had the best time at my birthday trip it looked fun it took me probably one full week to get over the hangover i'm getting this is just i've actually i feel like i'm aging backwards a lot of ways but the one way that i'm not is how long my hangover takes to get over and it took about a week but it was worth it i want to give a shout out to at the joy the place that i stayed because they were fucking amazing is that like an airbnb type company yeah they rented out um but it's like a six bedroom compound it's like a three bedroom house at the joy is the house is called at the joy the house is at the joy it's on a vineyard that makes this wine lytle barnett and obane and it's just it's gorgeous and beautiful um while we were there there was

the biggest ufo convention in the country that just happened to happen on my birthday it's right up your alley whoa so you are an alien so we went from like wine tasting like super bougie to taking fireball shots with everybody dressed up as aliens and it was pretty much the best thing that i've ever done in my entire life so it was so fun and i had the best time ever that is you really know had a birthday to go out with a bunch of people who are ufo enthusiasts it was bizarre in like because where this was like where the wine country was in oregon all the wineries are really beautiful but then everybody that lives there it's like a very um juxtaposition of the type of people that are around yeah so it was very interesting um but apparently it was like 30 000 people that

showed up for this stupid ufo festival do you at a festival for ufos do you look for them do you talk about them well there was a parent so we got there late it was like a daytime thing we got there at like 6 p.m after wine tasting but apparently it was at this hotel they had speakers and panelists and experts and you could get merch and dress up and it was a whole thing we made tin foil hats because you know we were coming there late that was the only thing that we could get but it was a whole thing people come in from all over the country for this festival so I was so happy that it was on my birthday. So that's my good thing. Everybody has their thing. Um, that's my good week. My bad week was, um, my period started early while I was there, which just

sucks to begin with, but it started on the last night that we're there, that we decided that we were just going to stay at the house cause the house is gorgeous and just like get drunk there. Um, the house is in the middle of nowhere. I had zero tampons. I had to pay $50 to have four regular sized Tampax tampons sent to me via Postmates or whatever. Went through those in an hour. So I had to spend the entire last day that I was there stuffing my underwear with paper towels and toilet paper to hope that I didn't bleed all over these beautiful white, nice comforters. So that was really great. Why did they only bring you four tampons? That was the only box that they had oh wow when you're in salem oregon in the wine country and there's only like

one little gas girls had an extra menstrual cup nobody had tampons i usually bring one of my one of one of my friends goes you can use one of my menstrual cups and i was like i would have boiled it in water and done it well i was i was going to it was actually like one of those she thought she had it she didn't but you remember those like flex cups they're like the discs and they're like you can dispose them she thought she had one but she didn't nobody had anything it was insane and i usually bring a whole slew of tampons and i didn't bring anything it was horrible but i i made it out alive shockingly shockingly yeah so that was my uh my recap wow well it looked very fun that was so fun and it made me want to go there so good job influencing great taste kelty

would you like to go there too sure um my uh good week is that the birds are back now i've kind of said this on instagram a little bit but did i use this already no no oh sorry i'm just laughing at you we're laughing no the birds are back that mom laid the birds and now they've been born and they're little squeakers and now they're getting so big that they barely fit in the nest and it's my literal joy of my life to look on my little camera and watch the birds just growing and life is beautiful. The circuit of life. My bad week is I want to talk about the rules. Okay. We had a major rule breach at the airport. And I just want to talk about people that are entitled as someone who is now traveling in business class and in coach class. I'm like, I'm Jack and Rose from

the titanic sometimes she's bouncy sometimes she's a normie okay i was traveling um from la gordia to toronto and then toronto connecting home to edmonton and we were late taking off from la gordia so like basically everyone was going to miss their connection and it was really really tight when we got to toronto these mother bleepers in front of me are like we're all running we're all trying to get through security the connections because internationally you got to go through customs and then get the connection and they're on the phone and they come to this guy this like security guard but that's like not a security guard and that he had no idea what was going on and he was like they're like we need to go they're holding the plane for us we're on the phone with

the concierge and he was like oh you have to wait here like you have to wait here until the security takes you and they're like no no we're gonna miss our flight gonna miss our flight these two mother bleepers ran for it they literally busted through security and ran for it to then i was next in line they took the stanchion pulled it across and locked us out no one else could go because it's considered a security breach if you run past security you'd be like you don't know what you're doing and just run to your plane the police went and arrested them and for 45 minutes all of the other passengers that had connections were just standing there and we all missed our connections every single one of us because these people didn't understand the rules now what could have

happened people is you could have stood there and said i have this connection they're holding the plane for us and then waited the probably 35 seconds for that guy to be like oh we're letting these passengers through and then you could have gotten on your plane and all of us could have gotten on your plane by the way human beings you are not better than anyone else this is not the titanic where you get to go down on lifeboat first like we all wait in the line the security people are doing their jobs chill out i hate you i hate you if i ever see you again i'll throw rocks at your face they definitely weren't canadian because canadians follow rules yeah well i will say when i was getting now then later i had to book myself on like the next flight six hours later i i took

a picture of it because i i was so in awe we're in toronto we're getting on the flight to edmonton which you know let's be honest is probably 97 percent canadians at that point yeah we're waiting in line this is the line guys this is the line to get on the plane this is just boarding group a do you see what that is it's a perfect line there's no people trying to scramble in that aren't in the boarding line there's no people like that are in boarding group b or c that are like also trying to get in line no one's like my biggest pet peeve it's so annoying everyone's in their seats and they're just like okay a and they're like wow imagine that but can i let me ask you something because i first of all canada is amazing for so many ways but that in particular really is

like orgasmic to see that line and i keep sitting there wondering when i'm in the airport when that line starts to get congested and people that aren't getting called up are going and i'm like i've been in a position where i've been antsy to board the plane because i'm scared they're gonna make me check check your bag yes yeah of course so airlines like you know how they talk about crises and they're like, you have to upstream, you have to upstream, like what's causing this thing? You have to go upstream. And I'm like, I guarantee you that if 90% of these people knew that they could get their, their bags in the overhead, they wouldn't be charging the door because there really is no point in getting on the plane first. Um, I don't know. I feel like

people just, I think that's like human nature for some people to try to crowd and try to get there before somebody else i think that people are very impatient becca i feel like when i've felt like really anxious and wanting to bust through before my group is called is always because of because of the bag so they need to figure the out i'm confused they're what every time they don't let you have the bag up top they're like this flight is really over or is really uh full it's completely full and i'm like shouldn't they design the plane to where if it's all full that everybody should be able to get one bag in the overhead compartment like what the and also isn't it designed like that when you look up above you you're like there's three spots here there's three seats here there's

three like what the is happening people it does make me feel like they have misjudged like it's not even that real scientific like we know how big a carry-on is so there should be room if every person on this plane that has a seat brings the maximum sized away carry-on luggage like let's make sure they all fit like a puzzle and then like i agree but i'm with becca and if i only time i get stressed is when i have like a connection or i'm going on a vacation or i'm going to jfk and i'm like i can't handle waiting an hour and a half for my bag to come out they're all the other problem with that though is people are putting their backpacks and their jackets and shit up in the overhead bin that is taking up space that like a full check or a carry-on suitcase could

fit that is my biggest pet peeve in the world is when people put their things that should go under the seat up in the bin and then about the rules sorry for that tangent anyway sorry uh uh becca do you have a bad week good week good week bad week oh my god my uh oh my good week it's a little complicated if you didn't see this in real time but i urge you to go over to tiktok and watch something so i hired um this amazing girl claudia to help me with my social media um you know she kind of does it all i'm still on it but she's kind of manning the manning the stations if you know and she's helping me film stuff and create content and yada yada um and so we were we got everything done we needed to do for the day on monday and we were on maybe it was on tiktok and

we saw this going down or it was on instagram or something but somebody was prank calling people using the google voice and so claudia and i were like let's do this to zach because zach's out of town and zach also is somebody who normally answers calls that are on numbers that are unknown. Whoa. Yeah. Because he has to with his business and he's assuming that it's something with his business and he'll just hang up quickly if it's not. So we call him, he doesn't answer. I call my sister, she doesn't answer. I call like two of my girlfriends, they don't answer. And then I say, I know she's not going to answer, but let's just give it a shot. Jack may be somebody who gets bold at times and answers her phone so we call jack no answer but we do leave a voicemail

and let me play this voicemail for you hello jack this is amazon calling to confirm your recent purchase of the beauty molly anal douche the beauty molly anal douche is a real product on amazon oh i know i know because after i got this voicemail i was like number one you called me at like 7 a.m my time so i was laying in bed yes you did i was laying in bed when i got it and i was like no that was actually what i was going to call you out on is that it was 11 o'clock your time no it wasn't yes it was i swear to god but i have a question jack did it not say becca tobin when it was calling you we called from another number so oh wow that's great they called from it actually doesn't say what time i no 8 30 a.m oh 8 30 so it's still the morning okay whatever

but i i was i got it and i was like uh i was like jared this is so weird it says my name like so it must be connected to something and i'm like i don't think i bought an anal juice let me check my amazon to make sure somebody didn't hack in and buy it for themselves and i'm getting charged for it it really did its job like i was i was looking on my emails i was looking at my my credit card. I just had to make sure. I don't know. God, it's so good. I highly recommend doing this. So that's what we did. And then Jack, we're just sitting there and we're just giggling about all these voicemails that we've left all over the world. And I'm on TikTok and I see Jack make a TikTok and she's posting about getting this voicemail and she's like, is this happening to

anybody else? And we're crying. Tears are coming out of me and Claudia's eyes. We make a rebuttal video of Jack and then we cut to me calling. And I just, I used to do this so much when I was in high school and in college, like the prank calling, it is such an underrated activity. It is. And laughter. It really is. Nothing is like a prank call. I had a friend in New York city who would call. So we lived across the street from a tanning bed and you could see into the front desk of the tanning bed she would call the tanning bed and pretend to be someone at the tanning bed stuck in their bed oh it would send the person running down the hallway and busting into people's tanning bed oh my god that's a great prank call because you can see

live in action the consequences of what you're doing it's terrible it's so terrible but anyways it was so fun um and my pad week is very simple i ordered this kit to test out my microbiome there's this company called viome or something yeah it could be a racket it could be real um but i'm just very paris hilton is an investor so that actually didn't help me discern one or the other as well who knows but i want i'm curious because my psoriasis is flaring up like a mother because i'm sleep deprived and i have a new baby and i'm stressed and whatever so all of that autoimmune stuff is very much linked to your gut health. So I really have to figure out what it is that I'm doing aside from not sleeping and being stressed, but what I'm eating

that's triggering it. So apparently you can take this test. It's like a blood prick and then a stool sample. Yeah. So they give you the little hot dog, the hot dog, like paper to put, to collect. I haven't even opened the kit yet because I, every time, so every time I like go to open it i'm nervous about how it's gonna have me collecting my poo i know how it will i can't even look at my poop in the in the toilet after i've pooped oh you don't no oh weird oh i do every time i give it gotta see how it came out i see it in my periphery just to make sure it's not absolutely like you know black or red i give it like a glance like a quick glance and then i'm I can't look at it anymore, so I'm very, very nervous about this.

It's sitting on my kitchen counter, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to achieve this goal. Okay, well, let me tell you what it does. You know when you get a hot dog, and there's a little paper around the hot dog? No, no. I've heard of where you just poop right into the cup. Oh, they give you a cup? Yeah, we'll have to see. Mine was like a hot dog wrapper, and you just put it, you hold it underneath, and when the log comes out, you roll it like a hot dog.

What if it's not a log? I don't know. Wait, I'm looking. Yeah, what if it's not a log? Anyway, we'll report back. We'll report back. On that note, would you like to travel around the world on points? Coming up.

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haha see what i did there just head to cbdx.com use code lady for 20 off your first order so do not drive or operate machinery when using these products please be responsible but check it out i think you're gonna like it this episode of lady gang is brought to you by my beautiful head of hair. Just kidding. It's brought to you by Nutrafol. 30 million women are impacted by weakened or thinning hair. As you get older, your hormones, maybe pregnancy, post-pregnancy, stress, thyroid issues like me, thousands of women have taken control back of their hair. And I love that Nutrafol sponsors this podcast because I've personally spent so much money on Nutrafol, but also I know that it works. Here's the deal, guys. You got to get it and then you

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3 million you want to travel to thailand for free you ever wonder what credit card is the best for earning miles the points guy is the place to go so please welcome to the pod a man that is here to teach us everything we need to know about how we can get on vacations cheap airlines credit cards miles he also helped me on twitter once brian kelly the guy's here that is a hyped intro if i've ever heard one i'm like ramped up let's go let's travel right now let's just like let's do it and you know what we are so so excited to have you like like more than any celebrity no i was like we need i have personal questions that i need to know like this is going to be so helpful for all of our girls so we're so excited that you're here before we get into like the secrets of the

sauce like let me take me to 2010 brian and like where your brain came with this well it actually started in the 90s um I was one of those dorks so I'm 39 years old it was like 1991 I got my first computer and I became like the like de facto computer admin of my house so I was like hacking AOL in the early days when you used to have to like plug in a modem and like so as like the little hacker of the house my dad in like 1995 he got a job uh where he was commuting from Philly to LA every week and he came to me and was like I have all these frequent flyer miles and if you can figure out how to use them like our family of six he's like otherwise we're like gonna drive to Orlando and being like the closeted queen that I am I was like Orlando is so 1989 oh my god and I

ended up booking our family of six I called up US Airways I became best friends with Glenda the phone agent and was like girl my dad has these miles and that is still one of my best tips like be nice to airline employees like everyone screams at them and guess what if you want to get them to do things for you you have to be nice to them so anyway I got my like chops like doing freaking flyer miles in the 90s I booked our family we went to the Cayman Islands because I had just read about it in the firm by John Grisham excellent book and then so every year in the 90s my dad you know he traveled a ton for work and that was like our bonding so like fast forward to 07, I graduated college. And that's when I was working on wall street. And

all of a sudden I was traveling nonstop. And I called up Amex one day and was like, this corporate card that I have, can I get the points for it? And they were like, yeah, but you have to pay $95, which most people don't want to do. Meanwhile, I'm spending like a hundred grand a month. Cause I was in like college recruiting. So I'd put like a $20,000 career fair on my Amex. So overnight I was like, holy crap. Hell yeah, I'm going to pay it. And then I became the go-to guy at Morgan Stanley HR. Everyone was like, Brian, do you mind putting this expense on your card? I'm like, oh, if I have to. If I must. So that's where all of a sudden I'm banking tons of points. It's the recession. Everyone's getting laid off. Luckily I never got

laid off, but I also didn't get big bonuses. But because I had points, I was going to the Seychelles for long weekends. And my friends were always like, are you on a truck? Do you have a trust fund that we don't know about? And I'm like, no, it's all about the points. So I started the blog just for fun in 2010. And then I would say within six months, it was right time, right place. That was when Google, my friends were like, don't try to do SEO, just write good content every single day. And they're like, trust me, Google will find you. And Google found me and it just like started to blow up from there. So it was like one year to the date of my first blog post that I left Morgan Stanley to do it full time. And then it was like 11 months later that

I actually sold the points guy to a publicly traded company. So it's kind of crazy that a decade ago I sold it, but we were now as big as ever. I'm still on board as like our key spokesperson and, and now I get to have fun and just travel and talk to fabulous women like you all. Wow. Truly living the dream. No, it's options your life story yet. yeah um not yet but i am working with the production company on a tv show so um stay tuned for that because i really do think like today like we have millions of readers like mostly like millennials who live in cities but like i think the points like the game that we play like every american should be doing so i want to do a show that like takes this points

magic to everyday americans and like pushes them outside of their comfort zone to kind of travel of the world. So. That's awesome. Yeah. It's so true. It can be like, I remember getting my first credit card and being so like confused and the small print. And I just was like intimidated by the whole thing. And so you just sort of think like, okay, I'll just, I'll just erase my purchases. Yeah. And the crazy thing is most people, so I have 25 credit cards, right? I don't recommend everyone getting 25 credit cards, but the more credit cards you have and the less credit that you use, your score goes up. So in this points game, I love most is educating people, opening your eyes. Getting a single credit card is not going to ruin your credit. In fact, it will

increase it because the number one factor of your FICO score, and that's the score that's going to determine your interest rate. That determines what you pay for everything in life is your amount of available credit to what you're using. So the more credit you have available, and if you're paying it off in full every month, your score actually goes up because the second piece of your FICO score is on-time payments. So as long as you're making payments on time and you're paying your balances off, your credit score goes up, you earn valuable points, and you get lower interest rates. So it's a win for everyone. But Brian, some of us don't have self-control. And every time I open a new credit card for that purpose, I find myself in Dior. Yes. So I would say, and look, I'm no saint.

it's kind of funny. My parents always laughed because I was a moron with credit. Like in college, I got a university of Pittsburgh MBNA card and like, I was like, Oh, spring break, you know? And I even got in trouble. My parents refused to pay it off. They made me take out a student loan to pay off my credit card bill. And then I racked it up again. And like, you know, I graduated college and I was six and was like, moved to New York, making 45,000 a year. And I was like, Oh, I'm going to be rich. That's like, you know, you're going to be making like 3000 in cash a month when in reality it's like two. But no, if you're going to spend too much, if you're going to carry balances, like the points credit cards are not for you because

if you're paying 20% interest, like the value of all those points is going to get wiped out. So to play and win at the points game, you've got to have self-control and you have to maniacally like pay your bills off. If not totally in full, like pretty much get there. That's how you win. I love it. Okay, so I want to – I actually am going to flip my questions. I'm going to start with someone in debt because you brought it up, and then I want to go to a couple scenarios for some overarching, and then I want to get into the dirty details. So for someone in debt that's listening to this and is like, oh, my God, I should get these points credit card. You're saying no go, and then is there – I know you're not a debt expert, but I'm sure that in your travels you've learned and have this Wall Street background.

Is there something you suggest? Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing you want to do is neutralize the amount of interest that you're paying. So instead of getting an Amex Platinum with points, you really want to be looking at getting a card that's going to allow you to transfer your balance and neutralize the interest. Because if you're paying the minimum payment on debt, it's quicksand, right? It's one step forward, half a step back. What you want to do is just get a card offering introductory 0% APR. You try to find some, once in a while, there are even cards that will waive the balance transfer fee of like 3%. So your number one goal is to pay off that debt. And truly, even if you've

got blemishes in the past, once your credit, you pay down your debt and you have available credit, it signals to the credit agencies, hey, they're actually responsible. They're paying on time and they're slowly paying off their bill. And, you know, track your credit. And you don't need a perfect credit score to get most credit cards. And you may not want to start with the super high in. And you may, if your credit's really bad, you can still get a secured credit card, which means you put up 500 bucks and you pay it six months, you pay it on time, you put purchases on it, and you will increase your credit score because you're showing that you're responsible in paying it down. And I know a lot of immigrants, I have friends who are bankers who moved to the

U.S. and they have the credit of a 15-year-old, right? Because they're starting from scratch. By the way, there's a new company called Nova Credit, which will actually use your international credit score to help you get Amex cards. Awesome call out for any immigrants who are new to the U.S. and are like trying to figure out this. Now it's like the first way you can actually pull in your old credit score from abroad. But basically start small and just really your number one goal should be to get out of debt, credit card debt specifically, because it's, you know, if you're paying all that in interest, you're negating the value of any of the points. And then once you get like 680 or so. Then you can start getting intro cards like chase freedoms or discover cards,

which are simple cash back. And then once your score is above 700, it doesn't matter what your income is. You can really start getting those chase Sapphires, the capital one ventures that are kind of the bread and butter points and miles cards, capital one venture. That's my, that's, those are my people. And I was actually recently on a trip with Austin Conkle who works for the points guy i was supposed to go and i forget what i had going on i like couldn't go because of my schedule and then of course i see you all at the like dallas airport on a private jet i'm like of course the one really fun trip like we joke that that was like the most non influencer influencer trip we've ever been on because we all genuinely had the best time

because you know that those are never fun no a lot of times you're like yeah no i was i i had severe FOMO, but like the VentureX card, look, the Points Guide, we work with all the top credit card companies. Any of the recommendations I give are not because someone's paying me to, of course we have relationships with them, but like the VentureX card is top-notch. Like for people who want, you know, flexibility in whatever hotel you want to, you know, getting 10X on hotels and their booking portal, actually we've done the math, is like cheaper. Even I stayed at the Four Seasons Costa Rica, booked through Capital One, and it was cheaper than getting it on four seasons.com plus i earned 10x points which is like 10% back yada yada yada so do i need

to get this credit it's the best yeah it's it's really good it's and there's a 75 000 point sign up bonus just for getting it now so i literally am like and then yeah okay so go ahead jack no i was gonna ask i know this is a nitty-gritty like question but is that the best card for traveling like if you're just looking for like travel points it's awesome well what i like about the venture card. So there's no one best because it really depends what you spend your money on. The venture gives like 10 X on hotels, book through them and two X on everything. And the goal of the points game is to be getting more than one point per dollar on everything. So I use my venture X for like, if I go to a doctor's office, like there are no credit cards out there that give five points

on doctors. So what I'll do is put the two X on the venture on everything non-bonus, but what I do is stack. So, you know, who doesn't go out to eat a lot? So the Amex Gold is four points per dollar on dining and groceries. So all that spend goes on Forex. And then, you know, Chase Sapphire Preferred, which I think is probably the best intro credit card for anyone out there. And there's an 80,000 point signup bonus right now, which is awesome. And it's only 95 a year. That's double points on dining and travel, but travel includes Uber, taxis, parking, tolls, mass transit. So the goal of the points game is to look at your, all that you spend your money on and then spend, you know, your dining on the 4X card, your, you know, platinum is 5X on airfare. So put your

airfare on platinum, you know, you kind of piece together the different spends, so you're earning multiples. And then the base spend on venture X is two. So you're always going to be earning more, you know, at least two points per dollar. You're so nerdy. I love it. I've learned so much already. today's episode of lady gang is brought to you by sambacol so let's talk about health for a minute because there's nothing more important than taking care of yourself i think that we can all agree you know as we get older and we feel our bodies kind of crumbling into oblivion that we really need to take care of our bodies if you're not feeling your best you just can't be your best in all aspects of your life so sambacol helps you feel your best by supporting your immune system

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so a lot it is wedding season and i know this because i'm literally going to wedding this weekend and flights are insane it is well expensive i googled why flights are so expensive and the first thing that came up is a points guy article by the way i know i was like wow so uh you've got a single lady a single lady traveling around to go to the wedding. Some of them are in Mexico, Costa Rica, she's going to New York and then she's going to like Kentucky. What is what, how can she use her points and figure this out? Venture X is five times on flights booked. Yes. Venture X is five. Oh, I said two X on everything. I didn't call out the five X. Okay. Sorry. I had to be a good ambassador for that moment. You are an amazing

ambassador. Um, okay. So first, uh, so just giving some of the stats from March to April was that flights rose 18%. All of us are shocked that year over year, 8% increase in the price of milk, but travel since January has raised almost 50%. From March to April of 2022, it's the largest one-month jump in the history that we've been tracking airfare. So bottom line, book now. Do not wait. The old adage was maybe wait till last minute. If you wait last minute now, flights are sold out. You can't even get to where you're going. You're going to have to spend a crazy amount. Now, that's not to say every single flight's expensive, but you've got to use technology. So I love using, there's two sites, Hopper, which is a part of Capital One,

and Hopper analyzes billions of airfare, the trends, and they'll be able to tell you like, buy this fare now, or wait, you can actually set alerts. And also the same, I love Google Flights. So google.com slash flights, it pulls in most airlines. It won't pull in like Southwest, us. But Google Flights will let you visualize. And I recommend just be flexible. You can look at a calendar and you can see, hey, if I actually stay an extra day, you know, I'll save $500 on airfare, right? You can kind of do the math, but you've got to, and also Google Flights will tell you this is low, medium, or high. Anytime these days that you see low or medium, book it. Because you know, chances are flights are going to continue going up because the biggest factor

is demand, right? Americans want to travel. We've been cooped up. We're pretty comfortable with the efficacy of vaccines and treatments, even if you do get COVID. But unfortunately, the airlines can't keep up with staffing and pilot shortage. You're going to be hearing more and more about pilot shortages. You know, there's not enough Air Force vets coming out of the armed services to fill, which historically there was. And at the same time, pilots are generally old and they're retiring in mass. So even as demand has bounced back, and we do think this summer we will beat 2019 levels of travel, which is wild to think about considering all of Asia is still pretty much closed. What's happened is people are just traveling more domestically, Caribbean. So book

now and use your credit card points. So for example, that 75,000 point bonus on the Cap One Venture X, like that's 750 in airfare off the bat. Chase actually gives you a dollar, I mean, And you get a 25% bonus, 1.25 cents. So 80,000 points you get from a Sapphire card, that's over $1,000 in just straight-up airfare. But the real value, especially internationals, when you take your credit card points and transfer them to the airlines. And I wrote my weekly newsletter about this. I'm friends with – he loves it. He calls me the points magician, Tyler Cameron from The Bachelorette.

He called me last week, and he was going to fly to Germany via Istanbul and coach. And I was like, Tyler, he's tall like I am. I'm like, you cannot do that. But what he did was he transferred Amex points. It was only 70,000 points business class when you transfer Amex to Aeroplan. And then he flew Air Canada business class to Munich. And then he flew home. It was just 50,000 points business class Air France.

So basically leveraging transfer partners, which sounds really complicated, but that's when you take your Amex cap one chase city built points and you can transfer them to airlines. And that's when you can fly business class for like pennies on the dollar. I have a dumb question. Oh, I also have a dumb question. Go ahead. You go first. It'll be just a bevy of dumb questions. Um, so when you say that, I, I don't know if I've ever transferred miles from a credit card to an airline if you don't have like i have the american airlines right the credit card cards i think it automatically automatically yeah so basically like yeah if you have like i have like a chase card and then i have my delta amx but i can transfer my chase

points to delta no you can transfer chase points to united uh to air france hyatt so each credit card company has their own list of partners and this is where like so if you are sitting listening to this and you've got chase ultimate rewards, literally Google the points guy, how to maximize chase points. And our team of experts, like we go through every single scenario. We'll tell you how long it takes to transfer. And it's in those transfer partners is where there's insane value. Um, like I said, like air Canada, most people are like, I'm not going to Canada. Why would I transfer Amex or chase points to air Canada, but their partners with star Alliance, which means you can fly Swiss Lufthansa. And that's what I helped Tyler do. Right. You

You know, and I literally just texted him, sign up for Aeroplan, log into Amex, link it to your Amex, and then you can do this all online. So what I would recommend to people who have credit card points, like understand the transfer partners. Like for Chase points, like transferring to Hyatt is an amazing value. You can stay at the Park Hyatt Paris for 30,000 points a night. That's a $1,500 a night hotel. You're getting five cents per point in value. So this is like the points experts. And this is why I love points.

They're a currency. But unlike crypto, which can crash overnight, like the more you mine your knowledge in the points that you have, whether it's American miles or Delta, like the more valuable they become. And once you start speaking the language, it gets easier and easier. And that's why like you all will be points addicts when I'm done with you. Well, I have a question. Do you have a team of experts that you could like, this is a great service because we're so stupid and I still don't really understand that. But like, if I had a you that I could text, like Tyler texted you, but one of your team members.

But you're not a tall, gorgeous man. We have the app and the calculator. So they have a few things. When Tyler texts me, it goes to like the top of the queue, like automatically. Obviously. Duh. I don't blame you. It's a great question.

So actually, the points guy, I started off, before I started my blog, I had that. And the pointsguy.com used to just be a form that you would submit. And I would charge $50 a ticket to help you use your points. See? I won't do that in a second. I know. And nowadays there's companies out there that charge like $200 a ticket because, frankly, when you're booking first in business class, you're saving so many thousands. Sure.

Yeah. The issue with that business is, like, it's really difficult, time-consuming. And, like, we have a team of experts, but, like, it's more impactful for them to write content that millions of people see than doing one-on-one. But there are websites like pointspros.com, bookyouraward.com that you can pay them. And they're like concierge services that will help you use your points. But the reason we created our app was to create technology that would allow anyone to learn about all these different transfer partners. So right now, our app is free.

It's in the Apple Store. Android is coming out soon. You can just search for The Points Guy. And it's the only app. We track all major loyalty programs, credit cards. Once you connect your accounts, if you want to, we use the same secure technology as like Mint. We actually give you your net worth in points. And most people have way more in value in points than they realize.

So we'll let you know if your points are going to expire. By the way, American Airlines just in April of this year started expiring their points. So if you don't have activity, you could lose your points. Because they suck in general. You said it, not me. I'm so excited about this app because I actually have a page in my Bujo. where I keep track of all my points and this is my old school level of doing this, but I'm a psycho and, and, and, and the points.

And I have, people are always like, you go on these crazy vacations. Like I went to Jordan at Christmas, I go to Seychelles and whatever. I do not think in 10 years of living with Chris Knight and being in love with him that we have ever paid for one of those vacations for our flights. Our whole thing is that I used to work in the news and so I would travel a ton and I was concierge key on American. So I got like so many points and we've traveled around the world. You have to be a little finicky about when you can go and when you want to go and, and

where you're going to go. Cause the things change, but like, I'm obsessed with this, but I have not hacked into hotels, dining. Like I'm so excited to hack into this. So I want to ask you one more pointed question. We have a lot of families in the lady gang and a lot of people are trying to travel. And now when you're a family of four or six, like you are, uh, or were, it's really expensive to get on a plane and go to Disneyland.

Do you have a suggestion for a family plan? Yeah. And certainly families also get dinged because they're limited. They can't just take a week off school. You've got to go over spring break. Um, you know, we have, so Summer Hull, who used to run the website, Mommy Points, which was a points website. We acquired her four years ago.

So she's just our core. so we have tons of family content you know delta actually is coming out with family seating which i love um you know so many if you book last minute you can't even get you and your kids together and delta now is holding off a section of the cabin just for large families um but it's tough you've got to really be especially just sitting together in the cabin and this is where i recommend so in general like my favorite credit cards are like the amex the chase the capital one you earn points into a central pool and then can transfer. But the airline credit cards can actually give you immense value. For example, the United Explorer card, it gives you access to more

award availability. So if you need six tickets on a flight, just having that co-branded credit card, when you log in, you see more availability. It also, you know, a lot of the airline credit cards help you get elite status. And elite status for families is key because you can select up to six other people on your reservation and get that premium seating for free in the economy cabin versus having to pay for it. Check bags. I mean, a lot of these co-brand credit cards will let you and seven other people on your itinerary check a bag for free. So while there's not like one family freaking flyer program out there per se, I just think families need to look at like, if you're flying certain airlines, let me get that credit card. Let me get elite status.

Because having elite status, especially when things go wrong and you need to be rebooked and you've got kids, and you really don't want to spend a night in that airport hotel, airlines, and actually, even if you don't have elite status, for family travelers, I recommend get a credit card that gets you lounge access. And even if you don't want to get a credit card with lounge access, here's the thing. I landed at JFK, pandemonium, there were storms on the East Coast. I see families waiting in line at the airport to talk to that one single rep in that mile-long line. Don't wait in that line. A, get on social media, DM the airline, see if they can handle you. Or just pay, even if you don't have membership, pay $50 and go to the lounge because

the agents in the lounges are like the top-notch agents that kind of get to get work in the lounge for the VIP customers. Even if you don't have a lead status, even if you're an economy, pay 50 bucks and then talk to an agent because if you wait in that mile-long line, all the seats home to your destination are going to be snapped up. Oh, yeah. That is the best advice. I know. Wow. that's so true i can't decide if at a dinner party i'd rather be seated next to you or a doctor like a doctor's gonna tell you things you probably don't want to know so exactly i do enjoy that though but like i this is just no it's like i need to book like five trips right now and i know i'm the different i'm different than like everybody else i am a point hoarder because i'm too scared

that i'm going to use the points wrong so i've like never used points for anything i probably have millions of points on my chase card. I have so many Delta points and I'm just like, I don't want to do the wrong thing and use too many points. So this is very, very helpful. So two things why I want to push you to use points. Number one, most loyalty programs. Now, when you use points, you can cancel your ticket and get full refund. This is in stark contrast. Like, yes, when you buy tickets now, they'll give you vouchers. They'll let you change it for free. Let's be honest. The vouchers they give you expire. They're crappy in terms of giving it to a friend or family member. So use your frequent flyer miles because when you redeem points for a trip, even if you want to cancel one hour before the flight leaves, you can get all your miles and points back for free.

It's like buying a fully refundable ticket. The second reason why hoarding is not smart is that the airlines are smart. Like over the pandemic, they needed to raise cash. They sold billions of dollars worth of points to credit card companies. Now, what this means is there's huge inflation. Everyone has millions of points. So over time, they've increased not just the cost of tickets to buy them, but how many miles it takes. I'm going to Paris this summer, and it was 400,000 miles one way, New York to Paris on American,

355,000 on Air France, and like 390,000 on United. Like so out of control. So there's inflation in terms of like how many points you – so use your points today, lock in the value they are today, and give yourself that flexibility. We have a points versus miles tool on the points guide that you can use. We'll tell you, hey, if the airline, if the cost of the flight is a thousand and they're requesting this many miles, this is a good deal or a bad deal. We kind of help do the math for you to kind of get over that hump of like, am I making

the right decision? That's the calculator, right? Yeah. Oh my God, amazing. And look, there's no one, we have valuations of points that as experts, we kind of assign. At the end of the day, though, especially if you're running low on cash and you're traveling, use your points. Save cold, hard cash. Travel better.

Go to the nice restaurant when you're out of vacation and use your points and take the value off the table today versus hoping down the line you'll be able to get the same value. Because trust me, these airlines are sneaky, and they will continue to raise the amount of prices. um so and and by the way one time the lady gang did a deal and instead of taking cash we took points hotel points and we got like i don't know a million hotel points which you're like okay we i wish we got money but that's fine and we used a bunch of points for the tour and then we split the remaining points and like i'm a psycho i spent those points i went to the sex shells and had like the most amazing trip and jack was like i really want to go somewhere and i was like have I still have those points because I don't want to use them wrong.

Yeah. Use them. Meanwhile, she's traveling around like a banshee. Like, come on. I know. I just get nervous. I like this. Now you have the ability.

Okay. So, Brian, let me ask you for three tips. If you're listening right now, obviously you just downloaded the app. You're going to the points guy and you're going to search. But can you give us actionable items that each of our girls can do today to start making use of their points life? Well, I'm going to give general travel tips because right now, like, number one, get global entry. I repeat, get global entry. Because global entry is $100, but it lasts five years.

So you're paying $20 a year. And even if you only travel once a year, global entry gets you VIP through immigration when you come back from being abroad. So when you're back from Cancun and you're at Houston and there's a three-hour line to get through, if you have global entry, you're through in 30 seconds, literally consistently. Global entry – and by the way, there used to be mobile passport, which was similar and free. Most airports now no longer accept it. So when I came home from Newark the other day, it was a two-hour line for all foreign visitors and Americans. They didn't care. Or global entry, which was 30 seconds.

So all my friends were like crying. I'm like, see you later. I'm not waiting for you. Like I told you. And there used to be problems getting global entry appointments. There is a tip. So once you get conditionally approved, you can actually get Zoom appointments to get your renewal. And also, if you have global entry already, look to see when it renews.

If you're within a year of it expiring, reapply today, and often they'll automatically renew it. But global entry also includes TSA pre-check, and that's just needed these days. So many people in airports, there's a staffing shortage at the TSA. So pre-check is just, you must have it. And then as a bonus, I'd say get clear. So a lot of airports and now even sporting events, stadiums, if you have clear, you skip that long line to get in. And clear will actually take you to the front of the TSA pre-check line, which in airports

like LaGuardia or Atlanta, where the pre-check lines are long, you can get the joy of bouncing that line and all those A-type personalities, like stabbing daggers in your back, like, who's this person that gets to cut me? 100%. Yeah. And then two is just like, look at your credit card spend. And if you have credit cards that are not giving you, and actually no, my number two tip is I'm the points guy, but I also love perks. So look at the perks on your credit card. You want to have it. So we always hear like every weekend airlines have meltdowns and people are stranded for like five days. Unfortunately,

United States, the airlines do not have to give you anything in compensation besides a refund. So if you get stuck somewhere, you have to pay for hotel, rental car, you're out of luck. Like the airlines, by law, don't have to do anything but refund you. However, there are a lot of credit cards, the Sapphires, Ventures, Platinums, that have built-in travel interruption coverage. So if shit hits the fan and you're at, you know, have to get extra hotels, your credit card will cover that. And same thing with like missing baggage. good luck getting like reimbursement from the airline, but a lot of credit cards have built in baggage fees. So protect yourself, book your travel on credit cards that have this coverage.

They also have purchase protection. And this is something that blows people's mind. If you lose your sunglasses on a boat, you know, you can call up and they'll wipe it off your account. I showed my friend how to do that with his Sapphire card. He's like, Amex is really good with it. I like lost a Montclair jacket once in Iceland when we were filming a vlog and they took $2,500 off my bill instantly. I just called and said, I left it. Can't find it. So everyone look at the perks on your cards and book using these cards that give you like that extra coverage. Cause like travels, it's wacky these days. It's going to go wrong. So like protect yourself by using cards that have those perks. And then I'm in love with you, Brian Kelly.

I'm going to throw one other tip. This is a general travel tip. So we're all nervous to travel internationally because the U.S. has this rule where you have to get a COVID test within 24 hours of coming home. This causes mass confusion. I know so many people are running around ruining their last day of vacation. Here's the thing. Always travel within your own test. You can pack it in your luggage, go to emed.com, and it's called a BinaxNOW proctored test. You can get them for $25. You put it in your suitcase, and then on the last day of your travel, you pull up your laptop or FaceTime and they watch you do your own COVID test in your room. And then they email you test results and those tests qualify to come back to the U S so smart. Brian Kelly, ladies and

gentlemen, so head on over to the points guy, download the app, get the calculator out. I want everyone to look through their credit cards, make some good choices here. You can follow at the points guy on Instagram. You can also file, follow Brian. If you're in love with him, the way that We all just fell in love with them, at Brian Kelly on Instagram. And you're incredible. I loved this so much. It was everything we wanted it to be. I can't wait until we all reach Tyler Cameron status in life.

We're going to go out there. We're going to make you proud, Brian. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much. Safe travels, everyone. You too. And we will see you next Tuesday. Thanks for listening.

The Lady Gang is produced by Alex Ingber, Steve Delameter, and Jared Monaco. Make sure you subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. And if you love it, share it with your friends on social media. Like, oh my god, I just listened to Lady Gang. This episode's so great. It's my bub to listen. And if you really want to, which we know you do, please follow us on social. At Kelty, at Becca, at Jack Vanek, and at The Lady Gang.

Sign up for our newsletter at theladygang.com and join our secret Facebook group. It's super fun. See you next Tuesday. Everything is better electrified, and Hyundai has the widest range of electrified vehicles on the market, including the first-ever Tucson and Santa Fe plug-in hybrid EVs. Visit your nearest Hyundai dealer or learn more at HyundaiUSA.com.