March 20, 2025 • 53 mins
THE POINTS GUY RETURNS! NY Times best selling author Brian Kelly chats with Heather about his new book HOW TO WIN AT TRAVEL, how to properly use your AmEx points, the one thing you DEFINITELY need before your next international trip, their differing opinions about all-inclusive resorts, AND MUCH MORE!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Let's start with heatherdubro starts now. I am so excited
for my guest today. He's so fabulous Brian Kelly. He's
the founder of The Points Guy, the leading voice in
loyalty programs, Points Miles, travel and now author and also
a dat of Now too. His new book, How to
Win It Travel is out. You can get it anywhere
you find your books. It's so so good. Please welcome
(00:24):
Brian Kelly.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thank you so much for having me, and you can
actually add New York Times Bestselling author, New York.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Times best Selling author.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Is that so exciting?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
It has been so much fun. You know.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I've you know, started The Points Guy fifteen years ago
and it's just continued to grow and grow. And I've
always wanted to do a book, and you know, as
you know, life is always.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
So busy, kids, career.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So I'm so glad I finally put, you know, everything
down to do my I think it'll be my first
book because I had it. It's exhausting, but I had
so much fun writing it. You know.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It's funny people are always asking me about the work
balance family balance. I have to say, out of everyone
I know, I feel like you have figured it out.
I mean, when I watch you and you just had
your second son in December and congratulations, and when I
watch you schleppen Dean around the world and and sort
(01:23):
of also I want to say this unapologetically with nanny
and because you know, there used to be when my
kids were younger, like a lot of shame around help
and there's not. You take your kids everywhere. So does
that make it easier for you to be away when
you actually have to be away.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
To talk me through that a little bit, it does.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I mean, I love traveling with my son, and as
long as I'm not going for it, if I go
to like a one day meeting in another city, I'm
not schlepping him just well, but like I was in
Texas for the book tour for three nights, and I
mean he came to the Houston Rodeo and I just
there's nothing better for me than just watching his mind
and get blown, you know, like just like he was taking.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
It all in.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And you know, he's only two and a half now,
so he probably won't remember a lot of it, but
I know to the core like him just being used.
He can sleep in any crib at any hotel, like
he is doing what I love and being able to
bring the kids along, and yes, have help that is
critical to doing it while it's fun. I never try
(02:23):
to just be like, hey, I'm a single dad traveling,
working and bringing.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
The kid like. No, I've always had incredible help and
I you know, and I don't think anyone should be
judged for it.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
No, definitely not. But it is amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I have to say, like, and just so you know,
because you know, my kids are older now, the youngest
just fourteen, the olds to twenty one, they remember nothing.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I'm just going to tell you this now spoiler alert.
They remember nothing.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Terry didn't even pay attention to them until like last year,
and they think he is the sun in the moon.
I pull out photo albums to show them what I
have done with them since they were born, lest they forget.
But what I would say is this for people, and
tell me how you feel about this. But for people
(03:08):
who want to travel with their younger children, I'm going
to tell you two things. Number One, it's for you
because you're the one that's going to remember this. And
number two, it puts them in a mode of being
able to do these things because you can't wake up
when they're twelve and be like, Hey, we're going to
travel on a plane or we're going to go to
(03:29):
a hotel when they have never done this before. It's
a skill set that now they don't have.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I totally agree, and actually in my book I talked
about when I was twelve, my parents let me plan
our first family.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Trip, which is insane to me, by the way.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And I've talked to a lot of people who have
read the book and say, wow, you know, I give
my I don't reckon necessarily recommend letting your twelve year
old plan the full trip, but I do it's important
for parents, whether you're teenagers, whatever, give them portions of
the trip, allow them to take ownership, to do budgeting,
to do research on the internet, and to come up
with their own ideas. I think, you know, a lot
(04:03):
of families are like, oh, my kids don't want to
travel with me. But I think a lot of times
we don't let them in on the process at all,
and not only do what make them more interested in
the trip. I think a lot of these skills in budgeting,
these life skills, are smart to start impartying when kids
are young, not when they graduate and go to college
and they're traveling for the first time and making really
potentially dangerous mistakes.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I agree, and I think it's funny.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Like when my kids were younger, I did not include them,
and I probably.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Should have, but now you know they're at such.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Interesting ages, it's better to pitch them things, Hey, we're
going to do this, would you like to do A
or B?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Like what sounds interesting?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
But when they are younger and maybe they don't understand
what they want to do. I always tried because with
four kids with different genders and a bit of an
age gap, it's hard to satisfy everyone. So I always
made sure that there was at least one activity while
we were there that was theirs.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I think that's smart, and I think that's why
so many people go to I mean, all inclusives are
making a huge comeback.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I mean they were never Oh my god, kill me, seriously.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I know, but no, but seriously now higher end like
Hyatt has some high end all inclusives. I have not
personally done them more. I talked to a lot of
family travelers though, that, like, I get why when you have,
especially kids of all different ages, that you can just say, hey,
you go off and do whatever?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Did you ever do the kids clubs? Dean has been
too young. I think most kids' clubs are like three
or four. But did you ever drop the kids off
at a kid's club and let them go ham while
you, you know, went and had a drink by the pool?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yes and no. So like you, we were always very
lucky to have help.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Now, having said that, I have taken my four kids
on vacations.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Alone, no nanny when they were super little.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I remember I took them to the Grand Way a
Lea and it was like Easter time. They had spring
break and Terry couldn't come and so and he did
join us, but like it was a week long trip
and he came on four day, four and a half,
and so I flew with them by myself, entertain you know.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Did all the things. It is possible. It is exhausting.
But I have to.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Say, like, my kids never really wanted to go to
the kids club.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
But what I would do is I would.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Take them sometimes, or if I had a nanny with me,
I'd have the nanny take them over there, so I
had an extra set of eyes. But I will tell
you I have a ton of friends who will drop
their kids at the kids club all day long and
their kids love it.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yes, some of these kids clubs are super fancy. You know,
they've got me and music and stuff. So I'm sure
as my kids get older, but for now, we'll just
stay at the fancy hotels because you know, I'm the
travel dictator.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I'll tell you what I find more helpful to me
these days are these teen rooms, which I find that
more places have because there's like this tweener group where
they've aged out of the kids club right because whether
they go to a kids club or not for the day,
they usually have activities for the kids. There's paddle boards,
there's things, there's you know, something by the pool, arts
and crafts everyone can do. But in that tweener they're
(07:11):
not twenty one, they're not you know, sipping a margarita bullside.
But what do they or they shouldn't be, But what
do they do before that? So a lot of places,
like I'm looking into Cabo. We go to Cabo a lot,
but I'm taking a few of the kids and I'm
looking at some of the hotels that have these teen
rooms where they have you know, a pool table and
(07:32):
a and a ping pong and some games and some
video games, and a I don't know, a little singing lab,
you know, karaoke thing whatever, and whether you believe it
or not, even if they go do that for an hour,
that is so worth it.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah, get some busy. I know Disney.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
My friend is a huge Disney person, and Disney cruises
have that. They've got different age lounges for each like
age group. Have you ever been a cruiser?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
My parents took us on cruises when we were younger,
and one in particular in high school, and it does
have benefits, but I remember there was no one My
sister and I were like sixteen and seventeen, and there
was literally.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
No one our age on the entire ship.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So we ended up parting with the crew, which was
totally inappropriate, and I don't think my parents would do
it again if given the choice. But I think if
you go on an appropriate cruise, oh yeah, we were hammered,
we were hung everything.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
That was terrible. But yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Delinquent children and my kids are a lot more balanced
than that. I don't know what I did right, but
they just are. But I have not been a huge
cruiser personally.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
And then I saw but we just.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Rented a yacht and we'll talk about this later to
go to Croatia. But I just saw those images of
that huge cruise ship that was in that storm with
the waves. Do you know what I'm talking about? With
the waves crashing over That is my biggest nightmare, Brian.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, I've always Antarctica is my last continent in I
have because you have to go through the Drake Passage
where for two days straight. But now Lynn Blad Expeditions
National Geographic they have a you can fly from Chile,
you fly and you land in Antarctica and then you
(09:19):
just get on the boat. You cruise around all the
cute and let's for now. So I'm actually doing that
with and you can take kids on that. So I'm
crazy and going to be taking my kids on an
Anaarctica cruise later this year. But from everything I hear,
it's pretty civilized, and you know, you're in Tory, still
pain in Patagonia before the trip, and a lot of Antarctica.
(09:43):
So I'm excited for that.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
But so you're not a cruiser either.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
You know. I did a cruise actually with Martha Stewart.
She invited me.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
She was going to Greenland and so that sounded really
interesting because Greenland is so remote you can't really tour it.
So it was an expedition cruise. Swan Helenic was the company,
and I think it only had sixty five state room,
so it's more like a mega yacht and we could
pull into, you know, and then we go out in
zodiac boats.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
So I didn't mind that.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
If you go with the good crew and you have
you know, nice meals on board, then you go out
and explore during the day. But like I hate being
cattle called, you know, and so the mega cruise ships
and people these days love bigger is better. I mean,
the cruise ships keep getting bigger and bigger, huge, But
you know, four Seasons is coming out with cruz. Rich
Carlton has their cruise line or I think actually you
(10:34):
get yelled at if you call it a cruise. I
think they call it like yachting Rich Carlton yacht. But
from what I hear, those are really refined. But once again,
I think the age group on them tends to be
so much older. So so yeah, I'm generally not a
cruiser but for expeditions or maybe super high end though,
and make an exception.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I first of all, am a control freak. I you,
as you know, like to plan my trips really. I
curate really well. But I'm malleable. I can change on
a dime, but I like to have a framework of
a trip. I don't want to be on someone else's
schedule and I don't want to be trapped.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
That's what scares me about the big cruise thing.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
And also, honestly, I've been on reality television for fourteen years.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I me on a cruise. I like, I don't know,
how is that?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Like when you're traveling and stuff, like when you're just
by the pool, do people like do they just want
to photo or do people come up and like want
to chat through the drama and everything, or like when
you're vacationing people get the hint.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
It depends.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So it depends where you are and what the scenario is.
So there are places that Terry and I will go.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
No one knows who we are.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I mean, look, you know, we're not the Kardashians, We're
not Madonna. You know they're I mean our shows are
on in like one hundred and forty countries, But.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
You know, it's it's different.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
People are really really respectful and nice and yeah, people
don't really come up.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
To me to talk to the drama.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
They want to talk about our family, They want to
talk about our kids or you know that sort of thing.
But yeah, some places we go it's like a meet
and greet, especially if it's at night, if people have
been drinking and they've lost their in ambitions a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
But it kind of depends where you are.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I was just in Paris visiting Max for a couple
of days because she's studying there, and.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
You know, people are different in Europe.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
People are you know, lovely and respectful, and you know,
we'd be shopping people.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Would come up and say hi or whatever.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
But it's not like a big deal if you I
find it's almost worse in the States when you go
to anywhere outside of California.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I could see that. By the way, France, I know
you fly Air France. How I love Love Premiere. It's
like an older seat, but like the service and just
getting picked up in Paris at the plane, no lines
like that is that when people say, like what is
first class these days? Like taking the shower on Emirates
(12:59):
is nice, but I would prefer to just get that
VIP pick up and zip through immigration.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Okay, here's what I'm gonna tell you about Air France.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It's called La Premier and so my kids joke you
called m because they can't play, and so that's.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I fly that a lot. It is insane.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's four seats only, and it's like the ultimate experience,
like you know private suites in La where you don't
have to go to the airport. You go there and
they drive you on the tarmac. It's like that on steroids.
So they take you there and you have your own
jetway to walk on. You never interface with anyone else
on the plane, so you walk on the plane. There's
(13:37):
four seats and yeah, it's not like Emirates where it's
or some of those Asian airlines where you have a room.
But they there's a divider and there's curtains and they
literally make a bed for you with.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
A mattress and the whole thing. The food is excellent.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I never eat on airplanes, but you know, I'm obsessed
with French butter, and they have cab we are and
bread from France and all the things.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I will say this.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
They just told me here's a scoop that they are
redoing the first class.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
In fact, they're announcing it very very soon. I couldn't
go to Paris this week actually to see it, but
it's supposed to be stunning from what I hear. So
it's good because a lot of airlines are getting rid
of first class and just doing these nice business classes.
But you know, I just like the first class experience,
and anyone staying out there, never fly first class if
(14:32):
and say for business class, like you, if you're good
in premium economy or economy and you don't care, just
never start turning left on the airplane because of even
business class, and you're like, wow, my legs don't have
to be you know, because once you start getting a
taste of the finer things. I know myself, it's like
it is a very expensive habit, even if you have points.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I guess so, but I'm going to tell you with
your kids, oh yeah, I mean myself.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I'm gonna use Nikki as an example.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
He he's traveled since he was very young, with us
and with school. They went to Europe when he was
I think in eighth grade flu coach for all, you know,
eleven hours whatever it was, and even now he studied
in Italy last semester flu Coach did the things whatever,
and he's blown in on La Premier, he's blown private,
(15:23):
he's done all those things.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
He is just as happy and coach.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I think you when you make the it's all about
the experience of traveling and getting to your destination.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
But yes, I.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Mean, part of the fun for me is the travel experience.
And I'm sure you feel this way too because when
you work a lot or you're parent and it's part
of the fun experience is being I mean for me
to be on a plane for ten hours, I love it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, to be able to relax, watch your movies, and
it really changes the game when you are leaving a vacation.
You're not the flight home and you're like, oh, actually,
you know what, just like relax and kind of watch
some movies.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Wait. Great point.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
If you're going to splurge on a higher cabin, definitely
do it on.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
The way home, especially home from Europe because those flights
are like two hours longer because of the jet stream,
you know, forever to come back to the US. But
you know, in my book I was researching, there's you
can bring infants and kids on any there's no first
class that bans it, but Air France, and normally it's
you have to pay ten percent of your ticket price
to bring a baby on your lap internationally, so if
(16:32):
it's like a two thousand dollars ticket, it's two hundred bucks.
Air France is the only airline they actually they don't
want babies in first class, so they charge ninety percent
of full fare first class, which is like twenty grand,
so you actually have eighteen thousand dollars to bring your
infant in first class. Needless to say, I don't think
you will ever see an infant in first class.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Well, let me tell you on my not the last trip,
but when I the trip before, I I was heading
home from Paris, and there was a gentleman, so we
were opposite.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So it goes window and then two in the.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Center, and then one window, and we were in opposite windows,
and he had his child and the nanny in the
first row of business and they kept coming in and out,
and I'm cool with it whatever, but.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I thought, I think that's probably a no. No.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I think they tried doing that on my They actually
came and asked me do you mind, and I said,
I don't care, Like you know, I'm a dad. But yeah,
I think that's what a lot of people do. They'll
try to bring it back and forth. But for anyone
listening in general, you should put your baby on your ticket.
Like if you're in business and your partners in coach, like,
put your baby on the business ticket because you can't.
You can bring them to economy, but it's much harder
(17:44):
to bring economy to business class.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
But yeah, that first class, and they told me that
they're redoing them starting soon and that there's going to
be to give you an idea of space, I think
right now, I tried.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I tried to remember this.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Right now, you have four or five windows in the
first class base, and they're expanding it by three I think.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
I mean, it's kind of ridiculous how much spacer is today.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
So I know it's nice, but you're so tall. I mean,
you're a big guy.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You know, I'm six seven and I can lay out.
I mean, they don't need to make it any longer,
that's for sure. If I'm comfortable, the world will be comfortable.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
So far, I want to go back to the all
inclusives for a second, because I do think, you know,
I understand when people are going with large groups.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
It's spring break, your own college.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Or it's a wedding, or you know, it's a family
reunion and you don't want to have to split checks.
I do understand the value of the all inclusive. But
I remember when I was a kid, my parents took
us to Club Med Saint Lucia and it's a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Of buffet eating. But then we went they showed this
on the show. We went to.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Beaches in Turks and Caicos with the family, and I
have to say, I thought it was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Beaches is the one. Oh no, it was club med,
like the party one. I was in Turks and Caicos
once and I walk by. Was it beaches or a
club met where they had people like learn dances before
they go to the resort.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
It's yeah, club meed, that's club Med.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
That's it. Yeah, Beaches.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Oh, Beaches is like and it actually Sandals now is
actually really nice as well. And they're doing a whole
brand overhaul and going you know, upscale, and they just
had like an event in New York. I wasn't able
to go.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
But but yeah, I mean, I think people, especially when
you look at the cost of food, like if you
want to be able to control your budget on a
trip going eating at a hotel. I mean what hotel?
I mean the Peninsula, New York.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
I love, but I had a business meeting in my
room there and we got three Caesar salads and three
diet cokes and it was two hundred and seventy.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Dollars, Like it was crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Now, that's at like the extreme, but even at like
mid tier hotels, food is so expensive. So I can
see why families are doing cruises and doing the all
inclusives because you don't have to be stressed every night
thinking about the insane prices that hotels these days charge
for everything.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Yeah, and I mean obviously you travel a lot. You
travel bougie. I travel bougie.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
But I mean, I will tell you when my kids
were little, when we didn't have what we have now,
Like we went to you know, lots of different kinds
of places.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And went with other families and all the things.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
And I just think traveling with families as young as
you can is like just such a fantastic.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Thing to do.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Totally. Yeah, it's like an education in itself.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I am seeing a ton of things right now about
the etias so for people that don't understand, like you know,
usually to travel to Europe you just need your passport, right,
So things have been getting weird over the last couple years.
Now you need a real ID to travel within the
United States.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Yeah, wow, does that come into effect?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
The real ID keeps getting pushed, but you should. Whenever
you renew your license, there will be an option to
get real ID. Just do it because certain states. But
so that's two separate issues. So real life D is
an effort to just standardize ID practices across all fifty
states because some states have super flexible policies that are
(21:09):
easy to counterfeit. So that's a real security issue. The
issue you're talking about etias basically.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
But wait a minute, just to finish the real idea.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
If you once they put it in effect, if you
don't have quote real ID, which is this new kind
of driver's license, then you have to bring a passport.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, so I don't believe it's they keep pushing the
date back. But bottom line, just get the real I
renewed my passport or mean my license recently and it's
like one extra step or ten dollars more, But just
get it because yes, traveling for TSA, you will need
to have a real ID eventually, yeah, it should be soon.
But the bigger issue is these visa fees. So we
(21:52):
used to be able to just hop on a plane.
You could book a last minute ticket and just fly
to London. Now going to the UK you have to
apply for the et ias. It's like there or no,
the elect ETA Electronic Travel Authorization and it's like fifteen bucks.
They keep changing the price and it's good for two years.
Bottom line, this is just a money grab and the
(22:14):
EU is about to do the same.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
It was the EU. The e t I A S yes.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So the EU keeps pushing THEIRS back to a bureaucratic
technology integration or whatever. Maybe later this year you'll need
it to go to European countries. But in January the
UK did their ETA, and all this is is just
a money grab to get an extra ten bucks per
person traveling through which is substantial, and there's millions and
millions of people now. And also it's reciprocal because the
(22:41):
US has been doing this for many years. Pretty much
everyone if you want to you know, Europeans have to
apply for the ESTA visa in the US, which I
don't know how much it costs twenty five bucks, but
it's just all the money grab to get extra money
for travel. So yeah, I foresee more more of these
happening that Brazil has it. But basically the bottom line
(23:04):
is the US charges everyone to come to the US.
So now other countries are saying, well, hey, well now
Americans have to pay to come here, which sucks.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, all right, but it makes sense if we're doing
it too.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
But if you're going to the UK, you can apply before.
In most cases you get approved within a minute or two.
Sometimes it can take up to a day. But you know,
it's annoying to do once, but keep it because it's
good for up to two years of visits.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
You don't have to apply each time that you go.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Okay, so if we're talking about security, walk me through
what you think, Like, I say yes to everything. I
got clear, I got I mean I have everything, Global TSA,
all the things.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
What do you think is necessary?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Because my mother and if she's listening to this, if
you do not, I sent you the link. If you
do not do she's eighty two, she still does not
have global entry and what are you doing? Why would
you wait on these lines. And I was with a
girlfriend the other day going domestic somewhere and she was like,
all right, I'll meet you on the other side.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I'm like, you don't have TSA pre check? What is
going on?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Trust me, That's the number one thing when I hire
a nanny, it's like, get your global unchry. I'll pay
for it because I have a billion, so many credit
cards pay for it, so there's no reason not to
apply it. So they just change it to one hundred
and twenty bucks. So anyone listening, you should get global entry.
So it's one hundred and twenty dollars. It's good for
five years, and now all children are under eighteen are free,
So just apply for you and all your kids and
(24:28):
what it gets you.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
So global entry is you know, for when you come
back to the US.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
So even if you go to Mexico, Europe, you come
back to the US and go through immigration. Sometimes those
immigration lines at JFK lax they can be backed up.
Even for US citizens. Global entry you go through a kiosk.
You're through usually like one to five minutes. If it's
a really long delay, maybe ten minutes, but consistently so
that alone, even if you travel once a year internationally
(24:56):
or even once every other it's worth it because it
also gives you pre check, which anytime you fly domestically.
Pre check is you don't have to take your shoes
off much, quicker line. Even when the pre check lines
are long, they move so fast because people don't have
to bring out their laptops and take their shoes off.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
So pre check is a prerequisite. But Global Entry includes
pre check, So don't even pay for pre check directly.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Just get Global Entry and you know clear. You know,
I went through DC the other day. I have CLEAR
just because I like having all the things. It's a
nice to have. It's you know, an order priority.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Global Entry is.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Number one if you don't feel like getting Global Entry,
because it does require you to go to the airport,
you know, for a five minute interview. And also there
is an app called appointment Scanner. So the issue when
you get Global entry, when you get conditionally approved, you
have to go to the airport and.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
You know, they take your picture and fingerprints or whatever.
But there's an app called Appointment Scanner and it'll you know,
people every day cancel their Global Entry appointment, so it'll
text you when an appointment becomes available. And this is
really cool in New York City because there's a global
entry facility in the Financial District. You don't even have
to go to an airport. Really yeah, the Bowling Green
(26:08):
Station's amazing.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
So if you're ever in New York, mom, are you
hearing this.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Appointment scanner dot com?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's like twenty five bucks and it just scans the
global entry appointments every second, so whenever someone cancels, and
I everyone who's ever used this out, you will get
an appointment within a day or two because people are
constantly canceling. So you just click a button and then
you go in and take the appointment. I recommend getting
your global untry before you travel. You can get your
you know, when you come home from your first trip,
(26:35):
you can do your interview there, but you can't use it,
so once again, you have to wait in line and
then you do your interviews. Get your global untry before
your trip, you can use it when you land. So
in general, it's an absolute no brainer.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
All right, let's talk about planning a trip.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
So you how do you what is your process? Do
you are there, you have a list of places you
want to go, or do you hear about a place,
and then what's number one for you? Are you is
it the hotel, the you know, the home base of
where you're going, and then you build it all around.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
How do you build a trip?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, I often will like have hotels that I'm really
you know, dying to go to.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
You know, I'm like huge on social media. I love the.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Hotel account Hotels above Bar. They just like review beautiful
new hotels all around the world. You know, sometimes I
let my points decide or the deal decide where I
go on a trip, especially now that I have two
kids nanny, I often bring my family and friends, so,
(27:40):
like I don't want to pay for tickets, so wherever
I can use my frequent Flyer miles, I'll let that
kind of decide the trip. And in my book, I
talk about there's now all these tools. So you know,
ten years ago in the points world, if you wanted
to be a Points expert, you'd have to like log
on to Delta United, go to like an Air Canada website,
try to piece it all together. And this is where
most those eyes glaze over and they're like, I'm not
(28:01):
doing this edit.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, nowadays there are tools that do it all for you.
So one of them is called point me, so point
dot Me. It's a tool. It's like Google Flights but
for points. And if you have an Amex card, it's free.
It's point dot me slash amex and it's free to use,
and it'll tell you want to go LA to.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Paris on May fifteenth, and it's going to tell you
all the available flights, how much it is to buy
the ticket versus use points. So it's sort of a
game changer. You don't have to check all these different
websites to use your points. But there's also there's a
bunch of different daily emails that charge you. My favorite
one is Thrifty Traveler. So Thrifty travel you pay one
hundred bucks a year. But every single day they send
(28:42):
out deals. They'll be like, you know, Quitar airways to
the Maldives to the Sayshells, so whatever, there's four tickets
available from these twenty cities on these dates.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
So if you're flexible, that's good.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, So all like, for example, I want to go
back to the Sayshells. The Waldorf at Story there is incredible.
It's on its own private island. So I will then
look and see Okay, you know qatars Q suites are fabulous,
there's actually availability, and now I'll look at the season,
you know, like, oh, it's this is a great time
to go to the seashell. So I'm just very much
an opportunistic traveler when it comes to like, I let
(29:17):
the deals. I don't want to spend ten grand on
a ticket, you know, even though I could, I still
love to use the point. So, you know, for example,
that I'm about to go on a month long trip
with my kids, I got an email alert from Frifty
Traveler that Etti Hood which has huge first class suites.
They're called the Apartments. Have you ever flown Etsy hod
fabulous out of New York? Well, for now, they have
(29:38):
the A three eighty and each of their apartments it's
a massive room and you get showers on It's very
much like Emirates. It's a little bit more refined, it's
less gaudy.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
But where do they fly to?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, so they fly to Abu Dhabi, which is you know,
an hour from Dubai. So you know you can fly
into Abu Dhabi. This trip I'm actually going to be staying.
There's this really cool desert resort called called kaser Al
Sarab and it's like a beduine super luxe two hours
outside of Abu Dhabi. But it's in the red sand
desert and it is like unbelievably beautiful, serene.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Yeah, so I'm going to so I'm like great.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So my first I found out that there were four
first class tickets, so me, the kids, nanny, you know,
two hundred thousand points a piece. So I'm all of
a sudden, I'm in Nabugabi. I'm going to go to
this resort in the desert that I want. We'll go
to Dubai for a day and then from there. I've
been watching Are you a white Lotus person?
Speaker 3 (30:30):
No? But I know, I know I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Go to Thailand. I've be't done like a real south
fast So are you texting.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Me about this? We were talking about Bouquett.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's your first ever. I'man is
in Buquette. There's all sorts of fabulous, really nice hotels
all throughout Thailand and just like the cultural, the vibe,
and you know, April is a good time to visit.
It's not quite ringy. I mean it's always hot there.
But so then I just start piecing together. It's like
you can fly from Dubai to Krabi, which is actually
(31:00):
like south of Puquette, and then I just start piecing
it together and looking at, you know, the amazing hotels
that I want to go to, and then it just
so happens to be the Thai New Year Som Cran Festival.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Which is supposed to be really cool.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So it's just like this trip has been a work
in progress, but I change my trips, like as you know,
within a week or two of departure, I'm like still finalizing.
Or actually, do you ever go on Reddit. There's it's
called fat Travel, like friends, anytime you want to stay
at a luxury hotel, So fat travel is this subreddit
of all luxury hotels knobs and it's fabulous reviews. So
(31:35):
if you've heard about a hotel or you know, if
you yeah, if you want to say you're going to
go to Pouquette and the Amanpuri is really expensive and
Tresara is another super five star hotel, you can actually
go in and like read real reviews of high end
travelers and they can upvote, you know, you can kind
of It's much better than trip Advisor, which is just
a crapshoot, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
And also even when you go on stuff like that,
I always feel like you have to go in and
read them to make sure you're on this same wavelength
because it's like, it drives me bananas when I hear
someone ask a server what do you recommend?
Speaker 3 (32:05):
It's like, how do you know what this person likes?
They may not like something you like.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Go true, I know the same way. So yeah, I
don't know. I use all stores.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I do think like the tech the travel industry needs to,
like like, I don't quite use AI to plan trips yet.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Have you ever used like an AI pump to.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
I just started that, yes, because I wanted We're going
to Croatia. We're doing this yacht thing. I've never done
this yacht thing before. I'm a little nervous about the
yacht thing, but we're going with three other couples, and.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
You know, I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
But it is literally an area I know absolutely nothing about.
And so you know, I went on chat GBT and
I gave it some prompts and I wanted to see
what it had to say.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
But I like.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
To ask humans who know me because my chat GBT
I don't use it enough for it to learn my
preferences and stuff like.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
That's why i'll text you.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I'll text Gary Jannetti. But you know what's funny about Gary.
Gary and I do not have the same taste in hotels.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
He likes very old world like Grandma hotels, Like he
was at the Irel, you know, all right, so I
don't and in Paris, like he'll stay at the Kreon,
I'll stay at the George Sank. Yeah, we don't have
the same hotel taste, but we do have the same
restaurant taste.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
So like you have to know who you're asking.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Yeah, totally, But you're gonna love Croatia.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
The last time I was in Croatia was August of
twenty twenty. It was the only country that was allowing
Americans in if you had a positive or a negative
COVID test.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
So so I went with.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
My friends because it was a fraction of We rented
a goulette, which is like the like the Croatian boat.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
It was technically a yacht.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I mean they're not super super fancy, but it was
like six of us on this six bedroom boat and
we just went around to all the islands and it
is I mean a fraction of the.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Price of Italy. Beautiful water.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
You know, there's some like less developed islands that are
just like you know, you go to local you know,
you just go to these tiny little seaside fish restaurants.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
But yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
We did Havar. The island's like the party island with
the beach clubs and the music festivals there and stuff.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
So I love Croatia.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I think Croatia so many people are getting turned off
by Italy with pricing.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
It's just so insane.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Yeah, and it's crowded.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
We've been we we've spent a lot of time in
Italy in the last couple years. And you know, my
son was studying there last semester. So I feel like
I've been to Italy a lot. I love Italy, but
I'm more of a Francophile, to be honest with you,
Like I France speaks to me. Yeah, I love this
now with the France. I love Paris, I love I
just I love it.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
There's ever a bad time to go to France.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
That's yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I've never done Bordeaux, that's like high on my list.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I have not been to Bordeaux. I've been to the
Champagne region to lem Ate, which is is amazing.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I went once to the Pomeriy Caves Cobs. Yeah, that's
so easy.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
It's a one hour train outside of Paris.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
It's so great. Oh my god, it's the best.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
All right, Well let's talk about points, since you did
start off with the points guy.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
It's funny. When I was reading your book, I.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Thought it was so funny that you were talking about
when you were first working for like I think it
was Morgan Stanley or something, and.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Your boss got bought a grill.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah points, and you were like, dumbass, like you're buying
a grill.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
With PhD and computer science And he was like, I
just did this great thing. I used a million MX
points for like a four thousand dollars grill. And I'm like,
oh my god, would you have rather gone to Paris
ten times in business class? Like?
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Because it's confusing, but you.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Make it not confusing.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I mean, the one thing I do understand about my points,
and you know I'm terrible.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
That's why I'll text you.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
But the one thing I'm really good at is at
a certain level of MX cards when you pay with
points for your flights, they give you fifty percent back,
so it's like it's like free fly and you get
half the points back.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, well that's only for the Business Centorian card, but
the Business Platinum has a thirty five percent rebate.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
For business. Yeah, it's like that.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
That's a great way because sometimes you know, transferring your
points I talk about in the book. You know, if
you redeem your Amex points for gift cards or for
cash back, you have to stop doing that. Just get
a cash back credit card because you know, it's all math.
So basically an Amex you know, if you spend one
dollar and you're going to get you know, you can
get two cents back cash back.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
That's two percent back on your spend.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
What happens is with Amex points, if you're getting cash back,
you're getting like a half of one percent back. So
if you have all these Amex points and you're redeeming
them for like SAX, skift cards or cash back, you
you will get so much more value back by just
spending on a cash back card.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
And I know for so.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Many people that's hard to like comprehend. You just assume
the rewards will be the best. But Amex points specifically
are really only good when you use it for airfare
or transferring to airline. So that's why, like there's a
credit card for each type of person, there's no one
best for everyone. But yeah, there's so many credit cards
out there these days, and the sign up bonuses can
(37:11):
easily be worth one thousand dollars, and you know, you
have to play your cards right in order to win.
You have to pay off your bills in full every month.
Because interest you're paying twenty percent interest, which is low
these days, twenty percent interests, all the value of those
rewards are going out the window. So you have to
be vigilant, pay your bills in full every month. Then
(37:31):
you can kind of win at the points game. But
but for those people who you know you can put up,
you're not going to spend more than what you would
have spent already. Like you should have several different credit cards,
especially if you're married. Your spouse gets a carter two
a year, You get a carter two year. That's a
couple thousand dollars just in sign up bonuses. And I
know people right now are probably thinking that's going to
ruin your credit. In the book, I talk about your
(37:52):
credit goes up with the more available credit you have
to you. You know, the two biggest factors of a
credit score are and your bills on time, So just
maybe sure you pay them that auto pay at least
the minimum than your score. But number two is your
debt to credit ratio. So if you only have one
credit card, and even if you pay it off in
full every month, the credit agencies will randomly report your
(38:15):
balances at random times throughout the months, So even if
you pay it when it's due, you might be reported
that it's a fifty percent of its rations.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
You didn't even know that that's yes.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
So the credit it's not based on your due date.
The credit agencies just pull everyone's balances one day, you know.
So this is why I tell people if you're appaying
for mortgage, pay your bill off like every two days.
Just keep it low so that when it does report
your utilization. That's your number two factor. But my point
is the more credit cards you have open, the more
available credit you have, and as long as you're not
(38:46):
maxing out your cards and you're paying it off in full,
your score goes up.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
I have twenty nine credit cards and I just check right.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Before this I have an eight thirty byto out of
eight point fifty.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
So if me ask you a question on that because
I just heard, because I agree with all of that,
and I have a high score. Also, I don't think
it's the size of years, but it's pretty high. But
I had like some random credit card like Neman Markets
or something, but I like to put my charges on
my Amox because that's where I like most of my
points to go. And they closed my account because I
(39:21):
didn't use it. So you have to actually use them.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, So if it's like dormant, I think for two years,
some credit card companies will close it.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
So I mean you can put a purchase because the
reason is ding you, right, it will ding you in
this there's two you know.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
So not only will it make your available credit less,
it's not going to it's not a major leading you.
But where will hurt is if you've had that card
for a long time. Fifteen percent of your score is
the average age of your account, So you want accounts
that have been open for a long time. What a
credit score is is to say how trustworthy is this person.
So the longer you have credit a good history, the
higher your chances that someone wants to lend to you.
(39:58):
And this is why for people with kids, if you
put your kids as additional card holders on your credit,
they inherit your good credit can be This can dramatically
help your kids, especially if you're graduating college. They may
not even need you to post sign for an apartment
if you just put them as an additional cardholder and
you can spend to one dollar. You don't have to
(40:19):
let them spend away. But just adding them as additional
on you gives them good credit.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
So I remember having a credit card when I was
in college, a debit card in high school.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
But my kids, I remember with the.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Twins and then with Cat, she couldn't get a credit
card until she was eighteen.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Yes, your own credit card is like usually eighteen summer seventeen.
But you can give them additional cards. You can add
them as additional card holders, you know, as young as
sixteen some banks or even lower. So you can just
add accounts so that when they go to apply for
their own card and they should get like an everyone
(40:59):
should be telling their kids when they go to college,
start your credit journey. Then you know, be smart about
to teach your kids about I was stupid in college
and max out a credit card to go on. You know,
I did a lot of dumb things with credit, which
I think helps me speak about it because I've seen
the dark side of it and how much it can
be quicksand. But I think there's not enough education to
young people on financial literacy. And you know, get a card,
(41:23):
pay it off. You know, monitor your credit because when
you graduate kids you know, if they even just small
things putting books that they have the money to pay
for anyway on the credit card and pay it off right,
you know that then you graduate with an eight hundred
credits score and never need you to co sign a thing.
You know, it's it's possible, it's not. Credit is not
related to your income. You know, income will be a
(41:45):
factor in applying for loans and you know, mortgages and such.
But you can have amazing credit without having a huge income.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Tell me what you hope people take away from this book.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
You know, one of my favorite childs people just getting
confused all the time in the airport. I just saw
on Instagram right before this a man punching a gate
agent in the face and knocking him out because the airline,
you know, canceled the flight whatever. I think people are
confused by the system and they don't care to like understand.
And in the book, I mean, there's a whole chapter
(42:20):
on what to do when your flight gets delayed or canceled.
It's mentality. I want people to have a winning mentality
when you go to the airport, that you know how
to advocate for yourself. In the book, I talk about it.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
You know, we are trained to be cattle, like wait
in that hour long line to talk to an exhausted
agent who is probably sick of dealing with mean people,
and then you go up and you lose your shit
because you're tired too, and then it's just like the
spiral of no one helping anyone. I see that day
and day out. Look, I get it.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
The airline employees are not that friendly and you know,
but that's the reality. But they hold all the power.
So I want to teach people learn how to advocate
for yourself, search for how to get home even if
there's not another direct flight, Understand which airlines have policies
that will allow them to book you on a partner,
and when you know that information, when you approach an agent.
(43:12):
And by the way, I don't wait those lines you
can call. You can call the international phone number even
if there's like a blizzard in the wait times two
hours in the US. One of the tips I always
do call the Mexico service line for American airlines. It
is you can use Skype and not even have to
pay the fee and then it'll.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
Go through right away.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Or you know, go to an airport lounge, you know,
pay the fifty dollars for a day pass, because the
airline agents and those lounges will get you booked in
a second.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
I'll help you.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
And when you approach them with.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
The positive attitude and say, hey, look can you get
me on this flight connecting here, there's one seat available,
I appreciate it. That is going to allow you to
get to where you're going, way better than waiting in
the line waiting for everything to be taken. And I
think one other thing about points, you know, I think
people just think of them as like, oh, it's for
free trip. I want people to think of points as
an asset class. Because what I do when an airline's
(44:04):
delayed and I have tons of points, you know, transferable
credit card points, all different airlines, I will book myself
a flight.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
On another airline out of that airport for a little
bit later, because if my flight keeps getting delayed and canceled,
I'll have a backup option because the government now has
a rule that if the flight you're on is delayed
three hours or more, you are out a full refund.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
So I take matters into my own hands. If I'm
traveling in Europe and I need to get home family,
emergency points are the best insurance policy you have. The
airlines will gouge you if you try to do a
last minute change on an international ticket, or if you
try to buy even coach, you can be five thousand
dollars they gouge you. But at the same point, frequent
flyer mile tickets last minute.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
There are so many ways to use them. So think
of it as like, if I need to get somewhere,
I'm going to burn these miles because guess what, post pandemic,
every major airline, all the US airlines, will let you
cancel the points reservation until one minute before departure.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Really, it has to be a full award ticket, not
an upgrade.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Not an upgrade, So like say you're on a Delta flight,
it's like delayed or canceled and there's one United flight
home like two hours later. You can book that United
Award ticket and if Delta keeps delaying and you're like,
I'm never going to get home you or if Delta
goes out, you still have your United Award but you
know the Delta flight to actually leave, you cancel that
United ticket, You get all your miles back free of charge,
(45:28):
no fees.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
This is like, so you know, if you have a
wedding you need to go to.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Sometimes I'll even book a second Award ticket on a
different airline later, just as a backup policy, and then
when I'm going and you know, everything's fine. But this
really helps if you're an aspin and there's a snowstorm
and airlines are canceling.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
The aspen's the best place to do that because.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
It's always a crapshoot there. But using your miles this
is where people I want people to have that aha
moment of Okay, this miles thing isn't just about getting
a free airline ticket. It's about like owning the travel
experience and knowing how it works, knowing what your rights are,
and then just like knowing how to ask for what
you want because you know points. Are you know, points
(46:09):
going to open up the world even for people who
are in fixed budgets. You don't think that they're be
able to go on safari. Well, there's actually ways you
could use your existing points to go for a fraction
of the costs.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Let me ask you about trip insurance because we have
vacillated on this throughout the years. I've bought it sometimes
and now I'm I don't know. Like with flights, I
always tend to get refundable flights, Yeah, because for for
action more, I'd rather.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
Just have, you know, the ability to move them, change them.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Something gets But when it comes to hotels, tours, things,
what are your thoughts on tripajurants?
Speaker 3 (46:49):
When does it make sense?
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
So number one, never buy it through an airline or
a hotel or the tour operator or the cruise line.
Never because their policies half the time, they're not even insurance.
It's called travel protection, and they're really expensive with terrible,
terrible policies.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
You want to go to the.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Website's called insuremytrip dot com and it's a marketplace where
insurance companies go to compete for your business and you'll
put in your trip how much you want to ensure
it for In short, I always recommend travel insurance for
international trips because your US health coverage will not cover
you abroad, so God forbid something happens. Certain credit cards
will cover, like AMEX Platinum has global evacuation and stuff
(47:27):
that you can but a lot of times you need
to have book the whole trip using that credit card,
and so often different cards, so you don't want to
find yourself in this coverage gap.
Speaker 4 (47:36):
Ensure my trip.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
I always use it when I'm doing a boat that's expensive,
a villa, non refundable hotel, a cruise. These insurance policies
are so much better than what you'd get through the
CRUs or whatever, even if you've switched jobs, or even
if there's someone in your family who's sick. So many people,
and I write this in the book, people will say,
can you believe you know? United Airlines? I had to
(47:58):
go to the hospital the night before my trip and
they wouldn't refund me. That's the way it works. You
agree when you purchase non refundable tickets that even if
you get sick, you're assuming the responsibility. Even if there's
like you know, the wildfires and now way people kept
coming to me. Can you believe this small hotel won't
refund me. I'm like no, because it's not their responsibility
(48:19):
to ensure your loss. Like if the hotel's still open
but you don't want to go because of a natural disaster,
that's a risk you should have ensured yourself. You can't
expect a small Hotelia and Maui to ensure your risk.
Or if your grandma gets sick, that sucks, but like
that's you have to take responsibility. And travel insurance, really
good travel insurance. It's like five percent of the cost
(48:40):
of the trip. It's like a rounding error, you know.
So I firmly believe if you've got like that big
family trip, but you have a sick family member and
you know, you never know, I think you pay.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
That five percent you hope to never have to use it.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
But always get traveling. That money's gone. That money's gone.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Yeah, it's really not that expensive. I think if people
and you know, just make sure on insure my trip
and I'm not paid by them in any way. It's
just this is the best marketplace to get it. They'll
let you compare and contrast, and often the cheapest have
the best covered so don't just assume the most expensive
or the insurance company. You know, it's very easy to
(49:17):
compare and contrast policies and you'd be shocked. There's a
lot that it covers. It's you know, I was always
very skeptical, like they're not going to pay out claims.
But I've talked to a lot of people who have
been saved, you know, but usually just the big ticket trips,
if it's like a thousand or two thousand dollars trip,
you know, maybe, but like especially if you've got a
family trip or the cruise non refundable where you'll lose
(49:38):
everything if you can't go, then I absolutely recommend trial insurance.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Okay, other than your last content, are there any more
bucket list places?
Speaker 4 (49:47):
Yeah? I've actually never been to matchu peach you.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
I'd like to go there.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
Yeah, every you know, there's the Belmont train that'll take
you up the super Luxury and Lima is a food capital,
amazing amazing food.
Speaker 3 (49:59):
You have and down the Orient Express.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
Yet I haven't.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
I was supposed to. You're going to be tight in there.
I'm just telling you.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
Yeah, I know. That's why they actually invited me.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
They had like an LGBT train from Paris to Venice
with all but it was like a twin cot.
Speaker 3 (50:15):
We had a queen bed, but it's still tight man.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Yeah, there's some cool train experiences that I want to do.
I'm a scuba diver, so there's some places in Indian
Philippines I've never been to that's high on my list.
There's I'm on Pulo there and some amazing islands to
scuba dive.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
What are your thoughts on the LGBTQI plus community traveling
right now?
Speaker 4 (50:35):
You know, so I'm an out gay man and I
get every time I fly Emirates or Ettihat or you know,
I'm going to Abu Dhabi with my family, and you know,
I believe everyone needs to make the best decision for themselves. Now.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
I also really encourage the community to educate themselves, like, uh,
you know, people are not being stoned to death in Dubai.
In fact, I know many gay people who live very
authentically in Dubai.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
You have to, you know, adjust to cultural norms. You know,
even straight people, you know, making out on the street
in Dubai will get you in trouble. So if you're respectable,
you know, many countries have anti gay laws unfortunately. I mean,
some of my best travels have been throughout Africa trekking
with gorillas. Like I just know, you know, I do
what's best for me.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Now, I know trans people have a whole host of
other issues, especially now that the government is taking away
the non binary you know, gender markers.
Speaker 4 (51:31):
So it is tough.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
But I will say before you just judge and say
I'm not going to visit a country that doesn't have
pristine LGBTQ rights. I went to Jamaica, which is one
of the worst countries in the world for LGBTQ people.
I mean it is, but I funny enough, I wanted
to boycott Jammake and I talked to a lot of
the community there and they said, please don't do that,
because the hotels are safe havens where so many of
(51:54):
us work, and so much of the anti gay hate
is based around poverty and misinformation. So it's like by
restricting the number one tourism you know driver in Jamaica,
They're like, you'd actually be hurting us the most. So
I would just encourage everyone to, you know, not just
look at what a government law is, like, talk to
locals where possible, do research, talk to other people have been,
(52:16):
because I do think you're missing out on some of
the most incredible places that may not have the best
official stances. And you know, remind people the US is
no perfect angel, and we have plenty of people in
our community getting hurt, kidnap, murdered in this country. So
I think you have to be smart and make your
own personal call. But if you don't want to go
(52:37):
to somewhere that has a negative law on the books,
and that's your prerogative. Don't necessarily judge others in the
community who do go because they made a different personal assessment.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
Right, Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
Well, I am thrilled for you, I mean, best selling author.
This is so exciting. This is such a good listen
to me. This should be in everyone's house. This is
such a great read, and it's there's so many pearls
in here, and Eve it says in your like, look,
things change, you know, different awards kind of thing change.
(53:08):
But it's a really good like baseline of how to
handle your points, get the most out of your travel.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
And you know, you're just the best.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
I adore you and I wish you all continued success.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
Thank you so much. Heather and I'll just know for
people too. If you have a fear of flying, there's
a whole chapter on how to cope with that, as
well as jet legs. So what points are I think
the juiciest chapters, and I want people to understand like
the economy of points so that they can live better lives.
There's also tons of other information on budgeting and other topics.
So thank you for having me on Heather Safe Travels.
Speaker 3 (53:43):
Thank you
Let's start with heatherdubro starts now. I am so excited
for my guest today. He's so fabulous Brian Kelly. He's
the founder of The Points Guy, the leading voice in
loyalty programs, Points Miles, travel and now author and also
a dat of Now too. His new book, How to
Win It Travel is out. You can get it anywhere
you find your books. It's so so good. Please welcome
(00:24):
Brian Kelly.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thank you so much for having me, and you can
actually add New York Times Bestselling author, New York.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Times best Selling author.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Is that so exciting?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
It has been so much fun. You know.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I've you know, started The Points Guy fifteen years ago
and it's just continued to grow and grow. And I've
always wanted to do a book, and you know, as
you know, life is always.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
So busy, kids, career.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So I'm so glad I finally put, you know, everything
down to do my I think it'll be my first
book because I had it. It's exhausting, but I had
so much fun writing it. You know.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It's funny people are always asking me about the work
balance family balance. I have to say, out of everyone
I know, I feel like you have figured it out.
I mean, when I watch you and you just had
your second son in December and congratulations, and when I
watch you schleppen Dean around the world and and sort
(01:23):
of also I want to say this unapologetically with nanny
and because you know, there used to be when my
kids were younger, like a lot of shame around help
and there's not. You take your kids everywhere. So does
that make it easier for you to be away when
you actually have to be away.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
To talk me through that a little bit, it does.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I mean, I love traveling with my son, and as
long as I'm not going for it, if I go
to like a one day meeting in another city, I'm
not schlepping him just well, but like I was in
Texas for the book tour for three nights, and I
mean he came to the Houston Rodeo and I just
there's nothing better for me than just watching his mind
and get blown, you know, like just like he was taking.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
It all in.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And you know, he's only two and a half now,
so he probably won't remember a lot of it, but
I know to the core like him just being used.
He can sleep in any crib at any hotel, like
he is doing what I love and being able to
bring the kids along, and yes, have help that is
critical to doing it while it's fun. I never try
(02:23):
to just be like, hey, I'm a single dad traveling,
working and bringing.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
The kid like. No, I've always had incredible help and
I you know, and I don't think anyone should be
judged for it.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
No, definitely not. But it is amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I have to say, like, and just so you know,
because you know, my kids are older now, the youngest
just fourteen, the olds to twenty one, they remember nothing.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I'm just going to tell you this now spoiler alert.
They remember nothing.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Terry didn't even pay attention to them until like last year,
and they think he is the sun in the moon.
I pull out photo albums to show them what I
have done with them since they were born, lest they forget.
But what I would say is this for people, and
tell me how you feel about this. But for people
(03:08):
who want to travel with their younger children, I'm going
to tell you two things. Number One, it's for you
because you're the one that's going to remember this. And
number two, it puts them in a mode of being
able to do these things because you can't wake up
when they're twelve and be like, Hey, we're going to
travel on a plane or we're going to go to
(03:29):
a hotel when they have never done this before. It's
a skill set that now they don't have.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I totally agree, and actually in my book I talked
about when I was twelve, my parents let me plan
our first family.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Trip, which is insane to me, by the way.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And I've talked to a lot of people who have
read the book and say, wow, you know, I give
my I don't reckon necessarily recommend letting your twelve year
old plan the full trip, but I do it's important
for parents, whether you're teenagers, whatever, give them portions of
the trip, allow them to take ownership, to do budgeting,
to do research on the internet, and to come up
with their own ideas. I think, you know, a lot
(04:03):
of families are like, oh, my kids don't want to
travel with me. But I think a lot of times
we don't let them in on the process at all,
and not only do what make them more interested in
the trip. I think a lot of these skills in budgeting,
these life skills, are smart to start impartying when kids
are young, not when they graduate and go to college
and they're traveling for the first time and making really
potentially dangerous mistakes.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I agree, and I think it's funny.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Like when my kids were younger, I did not include them,
and I probably.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Should have, but now you know they're at such.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Interesting ages, it's better to pitch them things, Hey, we're
going to do this, would you like to do A
or B?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Like what sounds interesting?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
But when they are younger and maybe they don't understand
what they want to do. I always tried because with
four kids with different genders and a bit of an
age gap, it's hard to satisfy everyone. So I always
made sure that there was at least one activity while
we were there that was theirs.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I think that's smart, and I think that's why
so many people go to I mean, all inclusives are
making a huge comeback.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I mean they were never Oh my god, kill me, seriously.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I know, but no, but seriously now higher end like
Hyatt has some high end all inclusives. I have not
personally done them more. I talked to a lot of
family travelers though, that, like, I get why when you have,
especially kids of all different ages, that you can just say, hey,
you go off and do whatever?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Did you ever do the kids clubs? Dean has been
too young. I think most kids' clubs are like three
or four. But did you ever drop the kids off
at a kid's club and let them go ham while
you, you know, went and had a drink by the pool?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yes and no. So like you, we were always very
lucky to have help.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Now, having said that, I have taken my four kids
on vacations.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Alone, no nanny when they were super little.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I remember I took them to the Grand Way a
Lea and it was like Easter time. They had spring
break and Terry couldn't come and so and he did
join us, but like it was a week long trip
and he came on four day, four and a half,
and so I flew with them by myself, entertain you know.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Did all the things. It is possible. It is exhausting.
But I have to.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Say, like, my kids never really wanted to go to
the kids club.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
But what I would do is I would.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Take them sometimes, or if I had a nanny with me,
I'd have the nanny take them over there, so I
had an extra set of eyes. But I will tell
you I have a ton of friends who will drop
their kids at the kids club all day long and
their kids love it.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yes, some of these kids clubs are super fancy. You know,
they've got me and music and stuff. So I'm sure
as my kids get older, but for now, we'll just
stay at the fancy hotels because you know, I'm the
travel dictator.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I'll tell you what I find more helpful to me
these days are these teen rooms, which I find that
more places have because there's like this tweener group where
they've aged out of the kids club right because whether
they go to a kids club or not for the day,
they usually have activities for the kids. There's paddle boards,
there's things, there's you know, something by the pool, arts
and crafts everyone can do. But in that tweener they're
(07:11):
not twenty one, they're not you know, sipping a margarita bullside.
But what do they or they shouldn't be, But what
do they do before that? So a lot of places,
like I'm looking into Cabo. We go to Cabo a lot,
but I'm taking a few of the kids and I'm
looking at some of the hotels that have these teen
rooms where they have you know, a pool table and
(07:32):
a and a ping pong and some games and some
video games, and a I don't know, a little singing lab,
you know, karaoke thing whatever, and whether you believe it
or not, even if they go do that for an hour,
that is so worth it.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah, get some busy. I know Disney.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
My friend is a huge Disney person, and Disney cruises
have that. They've got different age lounges for each like
age group. Have you ever been a cruiser?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
My parents took us on cruises when we were younger,
and one in particular in high school, and it does
have benefits, but I remember there was no one My
sister and I were like sixteen and seventeen, and there
was literally.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
No one our age on the entire ship.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So we ended up parting with the crew, which was
totally inappropriate, and I don't think my parents would do
it again if given the choice. But I think if
you go on an appropriate cruise, oh yeah, we were hammered,
we were hung everything.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
That was terrible. But yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Delinquent children and my kids are a lot more balanced
than that. I don't know what I did right, but
they just are. But I have not been a huge
cruiser personally.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
And then I saw but we just.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Rented a yacht and we'll talk about this later to
go to Croatia. But I just saw those images of
that huge cruise ship that was in that storm with
the waves. Do you know what I'm talking about? With
the waves crashing over That is my biggest nightmare, Brian.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, I've always Antarctica is my last continent in I
have because you have to go through the Drake Passage
where for two days straight. But now Lynn Blad Expeditions
National Geographic they have a you can fly from Chile,
you fly and you land in Antarctica and then you
(09:19):
just get on the boat. You cruise around all the
cute and let's for now. So I'm actually doing that
with and you can take kids on that. So I'm
crazy and going to be taking my kids on an
Anaarctica cruise later this year. But from everything I hear,
it's pretty civilized, and you know, you're in Tory, still
pain in Patagonia before the trip, and a lot of Antarctica.
(09:43):
So I'm excited for that.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
But so you're not a cruiser either.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
You know. I did a cruise actually with Martha Stewart.
She invited me.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
She was going to Greenland and so that sounded really
interesting because Greenland is so remote you can't really tour it.
So it was an expedition cruise. Swan Helenic was the company,
and I think it only had sixty five state room,
so it's more like a mega yacht and we could
pull into, you know, and then we go out in
zodiac boats.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
So I didn't mind that.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
If you go with the good crew and you have
you know, nice meals on board, then you go out
and explore during the day. But like I hate being
cattle called, you know, and so the mega cruise ships
and people these days love bigger is better. I mean,
the cruise ships keep getting bigger and bigger, huge, But
you know, four Seasons is coming out with cruz. Rich
Carlton has their cruise line or I think actually you
(10:34):
get yelled at if you call it a cruise. I
think they call it like yachting Rich Carlton yacht. But
from what I hear, those are really refined. But once again,
I think the age group on them tends to be
so much older. So so yeah, I'm generally not a
cruiser but for expeditions or maybe super high end though,
and make an exception.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I first of all, am a control freak. I you,
as you know, like to plan my trips really. I
curate really well. But I'm malleable. I can change on
a dime, but I like to have a framework of
a trip. I don't want to be on someone else's
schedule and I don't want to be trapped.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
That's what scares me about the big cruise thing.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
And also, honestly, I've been on reality television for fourteen years.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I me on a cruise. I like, I don't know,
how is that?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Like when you're traveling and stuff, like when you're just
by the pool, do people like do they just want
to photo or do people come up and like want
to chat through the drama and everything, or like when
you're vacationing people get the hint.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
It depends.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So it depends where you are and what the scenario is.
So there are places that Terry and I will go.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
No one knows who we are.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I mean, look, you know, we're not the Kardashians, We're
not Madonna. You know they're I mean our shows are
on in like one hundred and forty countries, But.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
You know, it's it's different.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
People are really really respectful and nice and yeah, people
don't really come up.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
To me to talk to the drama.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
They want to talk about our family, They want to
talk about our kids or you know that sort of thing.
But yeah, some places we go it's like a meet
and greet, especially if it's at night, if people have
been drinking and they've lost their in ambitions a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
But it kind of depends where you are.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I was just in Paris visiting Max for a couple
of days because she's studying there, and.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
You know, people are different in Europe.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
People are you know, lovely and respectful, and you know,
we'd be shopping people.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Would come up and say hi or whatever.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
But it's not like a big deal if you I
find it's almost worse in the States when you go
to anywhere outside of California.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I could see that. By the way, France, I know
you fly Air France. How I love Love Premiere. It's
like an older seat, but like the service and just
getting picked up in Paris at the plane, no lines
like that is that when people say, like what is
first class these days? Like taking the shower on Emirates
(12:59):
is nice, but I would prefer to just get that
VIP pick up and zip through immigration.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Okay, here's what I'm gonna tell you about Air France.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It's called La Premier and so my kids joke you
called m because they can't play, and so that's.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I fly that a lot. It is insane.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's four seats only, and it's like the ultimate experience,
like you know private suites in La where you don't
have to go to the airport. You go there and
they drive you on the tarmac. It's like that on steroids.
So they take you there and you have your own
jetway to walk on. You never interface with anyone else
on the plane, so you walk on the plane. There's
(13:37):
four seats and yeah, it's not like Emirates where it's
or some of those Asian airlines where you have a room.
But they there's a divider and there's curtains and they
literally make a bed for you with.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
A mattress and the whole thing. The food is excellent.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I never eat on airplanes, but you know, I'm obsessed
with French butter, and they have cab we are and
bread from France and all the things.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I will say this.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
They just told me here's a scoop that they are
redoing the first class.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
In fact, they're announcing it very very soon. I couldn't
go to Paris this week actually to see it, but
it's supposed to be stunning from what I hear. So
it's good because a lot of airlines are getting rid
of first class and just doing these nice business classes.
But you know, I just like the first class experience,
and anyone staying out there, never fly first class if
(14:32):
and say for business class, like you, if you're good
in premium economy or economy and you don't care, just
never start turning left on the airplane because of even
business class, and you're like, wow, my legs don't have
to be you know, because once you start getting a
taste of the finer things. I know myself, it's like
it is a very expensive habit, even if you have points.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I guess so, but I'm going to tell you with
your kids, oh yeah, I mean myself.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I'm gonna use Nikki as an example.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
He he's traveled since he was very young, with us
and with school. They went to Europe when he was
I think in eighth grade flu coach for all, you know,
eleven hours whatever it was, and even now he studied
in Italy last semester flu Coach did the things whatever,
and he's blown in on La Premier, he's blown private,
(15:23):
he's done all those things.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
He is just as happy and coach.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I think you when you make the it's all about
the experience of traveling and getting to your destination.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
But yes, I.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Mean, part of the fun for me is the travel experience.
And I'm sure you feel this way too because when
you work a lot or you're parent and it's part
of the fun experience is being I mean for me
to be on a plane for ten hours, I love it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, to be able to relax, watch your movies, and
it really changes the game when you are leaving a vacation.
You're not the flight home and you're like, oh, actually,
you know what, just like relax and kind of watch
some movies.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Wait. Great point.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
If you're going to splurge on a higher cabin, definitely
do it on.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
The way home, especially home from Europe because those flights
are like two hours longer because of the jet stream,
you know, forever to come back to the US. But
you know, in my book I was researching, there's you
can bring infants and kids on any there's no first
class that bans it, but Air France, and normally it's
you have to pay ten percent of your ticket price
to bring a baby on your lap internationally, so if
(16:32):
it's like a two thousand dollars ticket, it's two hundred bucks.
Air France is the only airline they actually they don't
want babies in first class, so they charge ninety percent
of full fare first class, which is like twenty grand,
so you actually have eighteen thousand dollars to bring your
infant in first class. Needless to say, I don't think
you will ever see an infant in first class.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Well, let me tell you on my not the last trip,
but when I the trip before, I I was heading
home from Paris, and there was a gentleman, so we
were opposite.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So it goes window and then two in the.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Center, and then one window, and we were in opposite windows,
and he had his child and the nanny in the
first row of business and they kept coming in and out,
and I'm cool with it whatever, but.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I thought, I think that's probably a no. No.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I think they tried doing that on my They actually
came and asked me do you mind, and I said,
I don't care, Like you know, I'm a dad. But yeah,
I think that's what a lot of people do. They'll
try to bring it back and forth. But for anyone
listening in general, you should put your baby on your ticket.
Like if you're in business and your partners in coach, like,
put your baby on the business ticket because you can't.
You can bring them to economy, but it's much harder
(17:44):
to bring economy to business class.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
But yeah, that first class, and they told me that
they're redoing them starting soon and that there's going to
be to give you an idea of space, I think
right now, I tried.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I tried to remember this.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Right now, you have four or five windows in the
first class base, and they're expanding it by three I think.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
I mean, it's kind of ridiculous how much spacer is today.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
So I know it's nice, but you're so tall. I mean,
you're a big guy.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You know, I'm six seven and I can lay out.
I mean, they don't need to make it any longer,
that's for sure. If I'm comfortable, the world will be comfortable.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
So far, I want to go back to the all
inclusives for a second, because I do think, you know,
I understand when people are going with large groups.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
It's spring break, your own college.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Or it's a wedding, or you know, it's a family
reunion and you don't want to have to split checks.
I do understand the value of the all inclusive. But
I remember when I was a kid, my parents took
us to Club Med Saint Lucia and it's a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Of buffet eating. But then we went they showed this
on the show. We went to.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Beaches in Turks and Caicos with the family, and I
have to say, I thought it was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Beaches is the one. Oh no, it was club med,
like the party one. I was in Turks and Caicos
once and I walk by. Was it beaches or a
club met where they had people like learn dances before
they go to the resort.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
It's yeah, club meed, that's club Med.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
That's it. Yeah, Beaches.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Oh, Beaches is like and it actually Sandals now is
actually really nice as well. And they're doing a whole
brand overhaul and going you know, upscale, and they just
had like an event in New York. I wasn't able
to go.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
But but yeah, I mean, I think people, especially when
you look at the cost of food, like if you
want to be able to control your budget on a
trip going eating at a hotel. I mean what hotel?
I mean the Peninsula, New York.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
I love, but I had a business meeting in my
room there and we got three Caesar salads and three
diet cokes and it was two hundred and seventy.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Dollars, Like it was crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Now, that's at like the extreme, but even at like
mid tier hotels, food is so expensive. So I can
see why families are doing cruises and doing the all
inclusives because you don't have to be stressed every night
thinking about the insane prices that hotels these days charge
for everything.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Yeah, and I mean obviously you travel a lot. You
travel bougie. I travel bougie.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
But I mean, I will tell you when my kids
were little, when we didn't have what we have now,
Like we went to you know, lots of different kinds
of places.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And went with other families and all the things.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
And I just think traveling with families as young as
you can is like just such a fantastic.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Thing to do.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Totally. Yeah, it's like an education in itself.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I am seeing a ton of things right now about
the etias so for people that don't understand, like you know,
usually to travel to Europe you just need your passport, right,
So things have been getting weird over the last couple years.
Now you need a real ID to travel within the
United States.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Yeah, wow, does that come into effect?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
The real ID keeps getting pushed, but you should. Whenever
you renew your license, there will be an option to
get real ID. Just do it because certain states. But
so that's two separate issues. So real life D is
an effort to just standardize ID practices across all fifty
states because some states have super flexible policies that are
(21:09):
easy to counterfeit. So that's a real security issue. The
issue you're talking about etias basically.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
But wait a minute, just to finish the real idea.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
If you once they put it in effect, if you
don't have quote real ID, which is this new kind
of driver's license, then you have to bring a passport.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, so I don't believe it's they keep pushing the
date back. But bottom line, just get the real I
renewed my passport or mean my license recently and it's
like one extra step or ten dollars more, But just
get it because yes, traveling for TSA, you will need
to have a real ID eventually, yeah, it should be soon.
But the bigger issue is these visa fees. So we
(21:52):
used to be able to just hop on a plane.
You could book a last minute ticket and just fly
to London. Now going to the UK you have to
apply for the et ias. It's like there or no,
the elect ETA Electronic Travel Authorization and it's like fifteen bucks.
They keep changing the price and it's good for two years.
Bottom line, this is just a money grab and the
(22:14):
EU is about to do the same.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
It was the EU. The e t I A S yes.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So the EU keeps pushing THEIRS back to a bureaucratic
technology integration or whatever. Maybe later this year you'll need
it to go to European countries. But in January the
UK did their ETA, and all this is is just
a money grab to get an extra ten bucks per
person traveling through which is substantial, and there's millions and
millions of people now. And also it's reciprocal because the
(22:41):
US has been doing this for many years. Pretty much
everyone if you want to you know, Europeans have to
apply for the ESTA visa in the US, which I
don't know how much it costs twenty five bucks, but
it's just all the money grab to get extra money
for travel. So yeah, I foresee more more of these
happening that Brazil has it. But basically the bottom line
(23:04):
is the US charges everyone to come to the US.
So now other countries are saying, well, hey, well now
Americans have to pay to come here, which sucks.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, all right, but it makes sense if we're doing
it too.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
But if you're going to the UK, you can apply before.
In most cases you get approved within a minute or two.
Sometimes it can take up to a day. But you know,
it's annoying to do once, but keep it because it's
good for up to two years of visits.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
You don't have to apply each time that you go.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Okay, so if we're talking about security, walk me through
what you think, Like, I say yes to everything. I
got clear, I got I mean I have everything, Global TSA,
all the things.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
What do you think is necessary?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Because my mother and if she's listening to this, if
you do not, I sent you the link. If you
do not do she's eighty two, she still does not
have global entry and what are you doing? Why would
you wait on these lines. And I was with a
girlfriend the other day going domestic somewhere and she was like,
all right, I'll meet you on the other side.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I'm like, you don't have TSA pre check? What is
going on?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Trust me, That's the number one thing when I hire
a nanny, it's like, get your global unchry. I'll pay
for it because I have a billion, so many credit
cards pay for it, so there's no reason not to
apply it. So they just change it to one hundred
and twenty bucks. So anyone listening, you should get global entry.
So it's one hundred and twenty dollars. It's good for
five years, and now all children are under eighteen are free,
So just apply for you and all your kids and
(24:28):
what it gets you.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
So global entry is you know, for when you come
back to the US.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
So even if you go to Mexico, Europe, you come
back to the US and go through immigration. Sometimes those
immigration lines at JFK lax they can be backed up.
Even for US citizens. Global entry you go through a kiosk.
You're through usually like one to five minutes. If it's
a really long delay, maybe ten minutes, but consistently so
that alone, even if you travel once a year internationally
(24:56):
or even once every other it's worth it because it
also gives you pre check, which anytime you fly domestically.
Pre check is you don't have to take your shoes
off much, quicker line. Even when the pre check lines
are long, they move so fast because people don't have
to bring out their laptops and take their shoes off.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
So pre check is a prerequisite. But Global Entry includes
pre check, So don't even pay for pre check directly.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Just get Global Entry and you know clear. You know,
I went through DC the other day. I have CLEAR
just because I like having all the things. It's a
nice to have. It's you know, an order priority.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Global Entry is.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Number one if you don't feel like getting Global Entry,
because it does require you to go to the airport,
you know, for a five minute interview. And also there
is an app called appointment Scanner. So the issue when
you get Global entry, when you get conditionally approved, you
have to go to the airport and.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
You know, they take your picture and fingerprints or whatever.
But there's an app called Appointment Scanner and it'll you know,
people every day cancel their Global Entry appointment, so it'll
text you when an appointment becomes available. And this is
really cool in New York City because there's a global
entry facility in the Financial District. You don't even have
to go to an airport. Really yeah, the Bowling Green
(26:08):
Station's amazing.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
So if you're ever in New York, mom, are you
hearing this.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Appointment scanner dot com?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's like twenty five bucks and it just scans the
global entry appointments every second, so whenever someone cancels, and
I everyone who's ever used this out, you will get
an appointment within a day or two because people are
constantly canceling. So you just click a button and then
you go in and take the appointment. I recommend getting
your global untry before you travel. You can get your
you know, when you come home from your first trip,
(26:35):
you can do your interview there, but you can't use it,
so once again, you have to wait in line and
then you do your interviews. Get your global untry before
your trip, you can use it when you land. So
in general, it's an absolute no brainer.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
All right, let's talk about planning a trip.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
So you how do you what is your process? Do
you are there, you have a list of places you
want to go, or do you hear about a place,
and then what's number one for you? Are you is
it the hotel, the you know, the home base of
where you're going, and then you build it all around.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
How do you build a trip?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, I often will like have hotels that I'm really
you know, dying to go to.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
You know, I'm like huge on social media. I love the.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Hotel account Hotels above Bar. They just like review beautiful
new hotels all around the world. You know, sometimes I
let my points decide or the deal decide where I
go on a trip, especially now that I have two
kids nanny, I often bring my family and friends, so,
(27:40):
like I don't want to pay for tickets, so wherever
I can use my frequent Flyer miles, I'll let that
kind of decide the trip. And in my book, I
talk about there's now all these tools. So you know,
ten years ago in the points world, if you wanted
to be a Points expert, you'd have to like log
on to Delta United, go to like an Air Canada website,
try to piece it all together. And this is where
most those eyes glaze over and they're like, I'm not
(28:01):
doing this edit.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, nowadays there are tools that do it all for you.
So one of them is called point me, so point
dot Me. It's a tool. It's like Google Flights but
for points. And if you have an Amex card, it's free.
It's point dot me slash amex and it's free to use,
and it'll tell you want to go LA to.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Paris on May fifteenth, and it's going to tell you
all the available flights, how much it is to buy
the ticket versus use points. So it's sort of a
game changer. You don't have to check all these different
websites to use your points. But there's also there's a
bunch of different daily emails that charge you. My favorite
one is Thrifty Traveler. So Thrifty travel you pay one
hundred bucks a year. But every single day they send
(28:42):
out deals. They'll be like, you know, Quitar airways to
the Maldives to the Sayshells, so whatever, there's four tickets
available from these twenty cities on these dates.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
So if you're flexible, that's good.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, So all like, for example, I want to go
back to the Sayshells. The Waldorf at Story there is incredible.
It's on its own private island. So I will then
look and see Okay, you know qatars Q suites are fabulous,
there's actually availability, and now I'll look at the season,
you know, like, oh, it's this is a great time
to go to the seashell. So I'm just very much
an opportunistic traveler when it comes to like, I let
(29:17):
the deals. I don't want to spend ten grand on
a ticket, you know, even though I could, I still
love to use the point. So, you know, for example,
that I'm about to go on a month long trip
with my kids, I got an email alert from Frifty
Traveler that Etti Hood which has huge first class suites.
They're called the Apartments. Have you ever flown Etsy hod
fabulous out of New York? Well, for now, they have
(29:38):
the A three eighty and each of their apartments it's
a massive room and you get showers on It's very
much like Emirates. It's a little bit more refined, it's
less gaudy.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
But where do they fly to?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, so they fly to Abu Dhabi, which is you know,
an hour from Dubai. So you know you can fly
into Abu Dhabi. This trip I'm actually going to be staying.
There's this really cool desert resort called called kaser Al
Sarab and it's like a beduine super luxe two hours
outside of Abu Dhabi. But it's in the red sand
desert and it is like unbelievably beautiful, serene.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Yeah, so I'm going to so I'm like great.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So my first I found out that there were four
first class tickets, so me, the kids, nanny, you know,
two hundred thousand points a piece. So I'm all of
a sudden, I'm in Nabugabi. I'm going to go to
this resort in the desert that I want. We'll go
to Dubai for a day and then from there. I've
been watching Are you a white Lotus person?
Speaker 3 (30:30):
No? But I know, I know I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Go to Thailand. I've be't done like a real south
fast So are you texting.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Me about this? We were talking about Bouquett.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's your first ever. I'man is
in Buquette. There's all sorts of fabulous, really nice hotels
all throughout Thailand and just like the cultural, the vibe,
and you know, April is a good time to visit.
It's not quite ringy. I mean it's always hot there.
But so then I just start piecing together. It's like
you can fly from Dubai to Krabi, which is actually
(31:00):
like south of Puquette, and then I just start piecing
it together and looking at, you know, the amazing hotels
that I want to go to, and then it just
so happens to be the Thai New Year Som Cran Festival.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Which is supposed to be really cool.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So it's just like this trip has been a work
in progress, but I change my trips, like as you know,
within a week or two of departure, I'm like still finalizing.
Or actually, do you ever go on Reddit. There's it's
called fat Travel, like friends, anytime you want to stay
at a luxury hotel, So fat travel is this subreddit
of all luxury hotels knobs and it's fabulous reviews. So
(31:35):
if you've heard about a hotel or you know, if
you yeah, if you want to say you're going to
go to Pouquette and the Amanpuri is really expensive and
Tresara is another super five star hotel, you can actually
go in and like read real reviews of high end
travelers and they can upvote, you know, you can kind
of It's much better than trip Advisor, which is just
a crapshoot, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
And also even when you go on stuff like that,
I always feel like you have to go in and
read them to make sure you're on this same wavelength
because it's like, it drives me bananas when I hear
someone ask a server what do you recommend?
Speaker 3 (32:05):
It's like, how do you know what this person likes?
They may not like something you like.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Go true, I know the same way. So yeah, I
don't know. I use all stores.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I do think like the tech the travel industry needs to,
like like, I don't quite use AI to plan trips yet.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Have you ever used like an AI pump to.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
I just started that, yes, because I wanted We're going
to Croatia. We're doing this yacht thing. I've never done
this yacht thing before. I'm a little nervous about the
yacht thing, but we're going with three other couples, and.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
You know, I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
But it is literally an area I know absolutely nothing about.
And so you know, I went on chat GBT and
I gave it some prompts and I wanted to see
what it had to say.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
But I like.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
To ask humans who know me because my chat GBT
I don't use it enough for it to learn my
preferences and stuff like.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
That's why i'll text you.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I'll text Gary Jannetti. But you know what's funny about Gary.
Gary and I do not have the same taste in hotels.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
He likes very old world like Grandma hotels, Like he
was at the Irel, you know, all right, so I
don't and in Paris, like he'll stay at the Kreon,
I'll stay at the George Sank. Yeah, we don't have
the same hotel taste, but we do have the same
restaurant taste.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
So like you have to know who you're asking.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Yeah, totally, But you're gonna love Croatia.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
The last time I was in Croatia was August of
twenty twenty. It was the only country that was allowing
Americans in if you had a positive or a negative
COVID test.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
So so I went with.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
My friends because it was a fraction of We rented
a goulette, which is like the like the Croatian boat.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
It was technically a yacht.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I mean they're not super super fancy, but it was
like six of us on this six bedroom boat and
we just went around to all the islands and it
is I mean a fraction of the.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Price of Italy. Beautiful water.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
You know, there's some like less developed islands that are
just like you know, you go to local you know,
you just go to these tiny little seaside fish restaurants.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
But yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
We did Havar. The island's like the party island with
the beach clubs and the music festivals there and stuff.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
So I love Croatia.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I think Croatia so many people are getting turned off
by Italy with pricing.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
It's just so insane.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Yeah, and it's crowded.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
We've been we we've spent a lot of time in
Italy in the last couple years. And you know, my
son was studying there last semester. So I feel like
I've been to Italy a lot. I love Italy, but
I'm more of a Francophile, to be honest with you,
Like I France speaks to me. Yeah, I love this
now with the France. I love Paris, I love I
just I love it.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
There's ever a bad time to go to France.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
That's yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I've never done Bordeaux, that's like high on my list.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I have not been to Bordeaux. I've been to the
Champagne region to lem Ate, which is is amazing.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I went once to the Pomeriy Caves Cobs. Yeah, that's
so easy.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
It's a one hour train outside of Paris.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
It's so great. Oh my god, it's the best.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
All right, Well let's talk about points, since you did
start off with the points guy.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
It's funny. When I was reading your book, I.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Thought it was so funny that you were talking about
when you were first working for like I think it
was Morgan Stanley or something, and.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Your boss got bought a grill.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah points, and you were like, dumbass, like you're buying
a grill.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
With PhD and computer science And he was like, I
just did this great thing. I used a million MX
points for like a four thousand dollars grill. And I'm like,
oh my god, would you have rather gone to Paris
ten times in business class? Like?
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Because it's confusing, but you.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Make it not confusing.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I mean, the one thing I do understand about my points,
and you know I'm terrible.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
That's why I'll text you.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
But the one thing I'm really good at is at
a certain level of MX cards when you pay with
points for your flights, they give you fifty percent back,
so it's like it's like free fly and you get
half the points back.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, well that's only for the Business Centorian card, but
the Business Platinum has a thirty five percent rebate.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
For business. Yeah, it's like that.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
That's a great way because sometimes you know, transferring your
points I talk about in the book. You know, if
you redeem your Amex points for gift cards or for
cash back, you have to stop doing that. Just get
a cash back credit card because you know, it's all math.
So basically an Amex you know, if you spend one
dollar and you're going to get you know, you can
get two cents back cash back.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
That's two percent back on your spend.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
What happens is with Amex points, if you're getting cash back,
you're getting like a half of one percent back. So
if you have all these Amex points and you're redeeming
them for like SAX, skift cards or cash back, you
you will get so much more value back by just
spending on a cash back card.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
And I know for so.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Many people that's hard to like comprehend. You just assume
the rewards will be the best. But Amex points specifically
are really only good when you use it for airfare
or transferring to airline. So that's why, like there's a
credit card for each type of person, there's no one
best for everyone. But yeah, there's so many credit cards
out there these days, and the sign up bonuses can
(37:11):
easily be worth one thousand dollars, and you know, you
have to play your cards right in order to win.
You have to pay off your bills in full every month.
Because interest you're paying twenty percent interest, which is low
these days, twenty percent interests, all the value of those
rewards are going out the window. So you have to
be vigilant, pay your bills in full every month. Then
(37:31):
you can kind of win at the points game. But
but for those people who you know you can put up,
you're not going to spend more than what you would
have spent already. Like you should have several different credit cards,
especially if you're married. Your spouse gets a carter two
a year, You get a carter two year. That's a
couple thousand dollars just in sign up bonuses. And I
know people right now are probably thinking that's going to
ruin your credit. In the book, I talk about your
(37:52):
credit goes up with the more available credit you have
to you. You know, the two biggest factors of a
credit score are and your bills on time, So just
maybe sure you pay them that auto pay at least
the minimum than your score. But number two is your
debt to credit ratio. So if you only have one
credit card, and even if you pay it off in
full every month, the credit agencies will randomly report your
(38:15):
balances at random times throughout the months, So even if
you pay it when it's due, you might be reported
that it's a fifty percent of its rations.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
You didn't even know that that's yes.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
So the credit it's not based on your due date.
The credit agencies just pull everyone's balances one day, you know.
So this is why I tell people if you're appaying
for mortgage, pay your bill off like every two days.
Just keep it low so that when it does report
your utilization. That's your number two factor. But my point
is the more credit cards you have open, the more
available credit you have, and as long as you're not
(38:46):
maxing out your cards and you're paying it off in full,
your score goes up.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
I have twenty nine credit cards and I just check right.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Before this I have an eight thirty byto out of
eight point fifty.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
So if me ask you a question on that because
I just heard, because I agree with all of that,
and I have a high score. Also, I don't think
it's the size of years, but it's pretty high. But
I had like some random credit card like Neman Markets
or something, but I like to put my charges on
my Amox because that's where I like most of my
points to go. And they closed my account because I
(39:21):
didn't use it. So you have to actually use them.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, So if it's like dormant, I think for two years,
some credit card companies will close it.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
So I mean you can put a purchase because the
reason is ding you, right, it will ding you in
this there's two you know.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
So not only will it make your available credit less,
it's not going to it's not a major leading you.
But where will hurt is if you've had that card
for a long time. Fifteen percent of your score is
the average age of your account, So you want accounts
that have been open for a long time. What a
credit score is is to say how trustworthy is this person.
So the longer you have credit a good history, the
higher your chances that someone wants to lend to you.
(39:58):
And this is why for people with kids, if you
put your kids as additional card holders on your credit,
they inherit your good credit can be This can dramatically
help your kids, especially if you're graduating college. They may
not even need you to post sign for an apartment
if you just put them as an additional cardholder and
you can spend to one dollar. You don't have to
(40:19):
let them spend away. But just adding them as additional
on you gives them good credit.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
So I remember having a credit card when I was
in college, a debit card in high school.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
But my kids, I remember with the.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Twins and then with Cat, she couldn't get a credit
card until she was eighteen.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Yes, your own credit card is like usually eighteen summer seventeen.
But you can give them additional cards. You can add
them as additional card holders, you know, as young as
sixteen some banks or even lower. So you can just
add accounts so that when they go to apply for
their own card and they should get like an everyone
(40:59):
should be telling their kids when they go to college,
start your credit journey. Then you know, be smart about
to teach your kids about I was stupid in college
and max out a credit card to go on. You know,
I did a lot of dumb things with credit, which
I think helps me speak about it because I've seen
the dark side of it and how much it can
be quicksand. But I think there's not enough education to
young people on financial literacy. And you know, get a card,
(41:23):
pay it off. You know, monitor your credit because when
you graduate kids you know, if they even just small
things putting books that they have the money to pay
for anyway on the credit card and pay it off right,
you know that then you graduate with an eight hundred
credits score and never need you to co sign a thing.
You know, it's it's possible, it's not. Credit is not
related to your income. You know, income will be a
(41:45):
factor in applying for loans and you know, mortgages and such.
But you can have amazing credit without having a huge income.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Tell me what you hope people take away from this book.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
You know, one of my favorite childs people just getting
confused all the time in the airport. I just saw
on Instagram right before this a man punching a gate
agent in the face and knocking him out because the airline,
you know, canceled the flight whatever. I think people are
confused by the system and they don't care to like understand.
And in the book, I mean, there's a whole chapter
(42:20):
on what to do when your flight gets delayed or canceled.
It's mentality. I want people to have a winning mentality
when you go to the airport, that you know how
to advocate for yourself. In the book, I talk about it.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
You know, we are trained to be cattle, like wait
in that hour long line to talk to an exhausted
agent who is probably sick of dealing with mean people,
and then you go up and you lose your shit
because you're tired too, and then it's just like the
spiral of no one helping anyone. I see that day
and day out. Look, I get it.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
The airline employees are not that friendly and you know,
but that's the reality. But they hold all the power.
So I want to teach people learn how to advocate
for yourself, search for how to get home even if
there's not another direct flight, Understand which airlines have policies
that will allow them to book you on a partner,
and when you know that information, when you approach an agent.
(43:12):
And by the way, I don't wait those lines you
can call. You can call the international phone number even
if there's like a blizzard in the wait times two
hours in the US. One of the tips I always
do call the Mexico service line for American airlines. It
is you can use Skype and not even have to
pay the fee and then it'll.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
Go through right away.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Or you know, go to an airport lounge, you know,
pay the fifty dollars for a day pass, because the
airline agents and those lounges will get you booked in
a second.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
I'll help you.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
And when you approach them with.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
The positive attitude and say, hey, look can you get
me on this flight connecting here, there's one seat available,
I appreciate it. That is going to allow you to
get to where you're going, way better than waiting in
the line waiting for everything to be taken. And I
think one other thing about points, you know, I think
people just think of them as like, oh, it's for
free trip. I want people to think of points as
an asset class. Because what I do when an airline's
(44:04):
delayed and I have tons of points, you know, transferable
credit card points, all different airlines, I will book myself
a flight.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
On another airline out of that airport for a little
bit later, because if my flight keeps getting delayed and canceled,
I'll have a backup option because the government now has
a rule that if the flight you're on is delayed
three hours or more, you are out a full refund.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
So I take matters into my own hands. If I'm
traveling in Europe and I need to get home family,
emergency points are the best insurance policy you have. The
airlines will gouge you if you try to do a
last minute change on an international ticket, or if you
try to buy even coach, you can be five thousand
dollars they gouge you. But at the same point, frequent
flyer mile tickets last minute.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
There are so many ways to use them. So think
of it as like, if I need to get somewhere,
I'm going to burn these miles because guess what, post pandemic,
every major airline, all the US airlines, will let you
cancel the points reservation until one minute before departure.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Really, it has to be a full award ticket, not
an upgrade.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Not an upgrade, So like say you're on a Delta flight,
it's like delayed or canceled and there's one United flight
home like two hours later. You can book that United
Award ticket and if Delta keeps delaying and you're like,
I'm never going to get home you or if Delta
goes out, you still have your United Award but you
know the Delta flight to actually leave, you cancel that
United ticket, You get all your miles back free of charge,
(45:28):
no fees.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
This is like, so you know, if you have a
wedding you need to go to.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Sometimes I'll even book a second Award ticket on a
different airline later, just as a backup policy, and then
when I'm going and you know, everything's fine. But this
really helps if you're an aspin and there's a snowstorm
and airlines are canceling.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
The aspen's the best place to do that because.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
It's always a crapshoot there. But using your miles this
is where people I want people to have that aha
moment of Okay, this miles thing isn't just about getting
a free airline ticket. It's about like owning the travel
experience and knowing how it works, knowing what your rights are,
and then just like knowing how to ask for what
you want because you know points. Are you know, points
(46:09):
going to open up the world even for people who
are in fixed budgets. You don't think that they're be
able to go on safari. Well, there's actually ways you
could use your existing points to go for a fraction
of the costs.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Let me ask you about trip insurance because we have
vacillated on this throughout the years. I've bought it sometimes
and now I'm I don't know. Like with flights, I
always tend to get refundable flights, Yeah, because for for
action more, I'd rather.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
Just have, you know, the ability to move them, change them.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Something gets But when it comes to hotels, tours, things,
what are your thoughts on tripajurants?
Speaker 3 (46:49):
When does it make sense?
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
So number one, never buy it through an airline or
a hotel or the tour operator or the cruise line.
Never because their policies half the time, they're not even insurance.
It's called travel protection, and they're really expensive with terrible,
terrible policies.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
You want to go to the.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Website's called insuremytrip dot com and it's a marketplace where
insurance companies go to compete for your business and you'll
put in your trip how much you want to ensure
it for In short, I always recommend travel insurance for
international trips because your US health coverage will not cover
you abroad, so God forbid something happens. Certain credit cards
will cover, like AMEX Platinum has global evacuation and stuff
(47:27):
that you can but a lot of times you need
to have book the whole trip using that credit card,
and so often different cards, so you don't want to
find yourself in this coverage gap.
Speaker 4 (47:36):
Ensure my trip.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
I always use it when I'm doing a boat that's expensive,
a villa, non refundable hotel, a cruise. These insurance policies
are so much better than what you'd get through the
CRUs or whatever, even if you've switched jobs, or even
if there's someone in your family who's sick. So many people,
and I write this in the book, people will say,
can you believe you know? United Airlines? I had to
(47:58):
go to the hospital the night before my trip and
they wouldn't refund me. That's the way it works. You
agree when you purchase non refundable tickets that even if
you get sick, you're assuming the responsibility. Even if there's
like you know, the wildfires and now way people kept
coming to me. Can you believe this small hotel won't
refund me. I'm like no, because it's not their responsibility
(48:19):
to ensure your loss. Like if the hotel's still open
but you don't want to go because of a natural disaster,
that's a risk you should have ensured yourself. You can't
expect a small Hotelia and Maui to ensure your risk.
Or if your grandma gets sick, that sucks, but like
that's you have to take responsibility. And travel insurance, really
good travel insurance. It's like five percent of the cost
(48:40):
of the trip. It's like a rounding error, you know.
So I firmly believe if you've got like that big
family trip, but you have a sick family member and
you know, you never know, I think you pay.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
That five percent you hope to never have to use it.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
But always get traveling. That money's gone. That money's gone.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Yeah, it's really not that expensive. I think if people
and you know, just make sure on insure my trip
and I'm not paid by them in any way. It's
just this is the best marketplace to get it. They'll
let you compare and contrast, and often the cheapest have
the best covered so don't just assume the most expensive
or the insurance company. You know, it's very easy to
(49:17):
compare and contrast policies and you'd be shocked. There's a
lot that it covers. It's you know, I was always
very skeptical, like they're not going to pay out claims.
But I've talked to a lot of people who have
been saved, you know, but usually just the big ticket trips,
if it's like a thousand or two thousand dollars trip,
you know, maybe, but like especially if you've got a
family trip or the cruise non refundable where you'll lose
(49:38):
everything if you can't go, then I absolutely recommend trial insurance.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Okay, other than your last content, are there any more
bucket list places?
Speaker 4 (49:47):
Yeah? I've actually never been to matchu peach you.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
I'd like to go there.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
Yeah, every you know, there's the Belmont train that'll take
you up the super Luxury and Lima is a food capital,
amazing amazing food.
Speaker 3 (49:59):
You have and down the Orient Express.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
Yet I haven't.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
I was supposed to. You're going to be tight in there.
I'm just telling you.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
Yeah, I know. That's why they actually invited me.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
They had like an LGBT train from Paris to Venice
with all but it was like a twin cot.
Speaker 3 (50:15):
We had a queen bed, but it's still tight man.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Yeah, there's some cool train experiences that I want to do.
I'm a scuba diver, so there's some places in Indian
Philippines I've never been to that's high on my list.
There's I'm on Pulo there and some amazing islands to
scuba dive.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
What are your thoughts on the LGBTQI plus community traveling
right now?
Speaker 4 (50:35):
You know, so I'm an out gay man and I
get every time I fly Emirates or Ettihat or you know,
I'm going to Abu Dhabi with my family, and you know,
I believe everyone needs to make the best decision for themselves. Now.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
I also really encourage the community to educate themselves, like, uh,
you know, people are not being stoned to death in Dubai.
In fact, I know many gay people who live very
authentically in Dubai.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
You have to, you know, adjust to cultural norms. You know,
even straight people, you know, making out on the street
in Dubai will get you in trouble. So if you're respectable,
you know, many countries have anti gay laws unfortunately. I mean,
some of my best travels have been throughout Africa trekking
with gorillas. Like I just know, you know, I do
what's best for me.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Now, I know trans people have a whole host of
other issues, especially now that the government is taking away
the non binary you know, gender markers.
Speaker 4 (51:31):
So it is tough.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
But I will say before you just judge and say
I'm not going to visit a country that doesn't have
pristine LGBTQ rights. I went to Jamaica, which is one
of the worst countries in the world for LGBTQ people.
I mean it is, but I funny enough, I wanted
to boycott Jammake and I talked to a lot of
the community there and they said, please don't do that,
because the hotels are safe havens where so many of
(51:54):
us work, and so much of the anti gay hate
is based around poverty and misinformation. So it's like by
restricting the number one tourism you know driver in Jamaica,
They're like, you'd actually be hurting us the most. So
I would just encourage everyone to, you know, not just
look at what a government law is, like, talk to
locals where possible, do research, talk to other people have been,
(52:16):
because I do think you're missing out on some of
the most incredible places that may not have the best
official stances. And you know, remind people the US is
no perfect angel, and we have plenty of people in
our community getting hurt, kidnap, murdered in this country. So
I think you have to be smart and make your
own personal call. But if you don't want to go
(52:37):
to somewhere that has a negative law on the books,
and that's your prerogative. Don't necessarily judge others in the
community who do go because they made a different personal assessment.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
Right, Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
Well, I am thrilled for you, I mean, best selling author.
This is so exciting. This is such a good listen
to me. This should be in everyone's house. This is
such a great read, and it's there's so many pearls
in here, and Eve it says in your like, look,
things change, you know, different awards kind of thing change.
(53:08):
But it's a really good like baseline of how to
handle your points, get the most out of your travel.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
And you know, you're just the best.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
I adore you and I wish you all continued success.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
Thank you so much. Heather and I'll just know for
people too. If you have a fear of flying, there's
a whole chapter on how to cope with that, as
well as jet legs. So what points are I think
the juiciest chapters, and I want people to understand like
the economy of points so that they can live better lives.
There's also tons of other information on budgeting and other topics.
So thank you for having me on Heather Safe Travels.
Speaker 3 (53:43):
Thank you
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