You don't have to be an influencer to fly for free!
Angel Trinh is the founder of @pennywisetraveler, where she teaches travel hacking to her audience of over 70,000 travellers. To date, she has been to 36 countries and all 7 continents. Her most recent redemption was a $30K trip to Japan for $109.
Key Takeaways:
- When is the best time to book a flight?
- How does signing up for credit cards impact your credit score?
- Should you ever pay for airline loyalty points?
- Which credit card gives you the best travel perks?
Discover the alchemy of converting loyalty programs into first-class experiences and the truth behind booking flights at the right moment – all while keeping your credit score as pristine as untouched snow.
Resources:
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About the show:
Sam Laliberte - entrepreneur, digital nomad and freedom seeker, hosts the Freedom Lifestyle Podcast to expose people to the many ways you can design your dream life and unlock your own version of the freedom lifestyle. Her guests have empowered themselves through flexible work as a way to “have it all” - financial, location AND schedule freedom.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Travel hacking is taking advantage of all the
different current rules in place, from credit card programs,
airline programs and hotelprograms, and seeing what
different loyalty programs youcan use to maximize your points
to books that's as cheap aspossible, so it doesn't matter
if you're flying economy orflying business or staying in a
lecture hotel.
Find a cheapest way to getthere, either on points or on
(00:21):
cash.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You're listening to the Freedom Lifestyle podcast
series.
I'm sharing relatable storiesof freedom seekers who ditched
conventional office life andcourageously asked for more the
energy just completely shiftedmy entire being just felt so
free.
My business was stillgenerating income while I was on
the beach.
I decided to quit and just stayat home.
(00:46):
I really can't work for anyonebut me.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's literally just doing whatever the hell you want
to do.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
As for me, I'm your host, sam, and I've spent the
last four years creating abusiness that allows me to work
from anywhere.
The Freedom Lifestyle looksdifferent for everyone.
What's your free?
You're listening to a newepisode of the Freedom Lifestyle
podcast, where I introduce youto relatable people who have
found a way to leverage flexiblework arrangements, alternative
(01:16):
ways of living, in order todesign their lifestyles based on
how they want to live and showup every day.
And today you're going to meetAngel, who is the founder of
Pennywise Traveler.
If you're not following her onInstagram yet, you should.
She is already attracted anaudience of almost 100,000
(01:36):
people based on her contentaround travel hacking.
Angel has hacked her way to 36countries and counting.
She has been to all sevencontinents, and this year she
traveled via business classeight times, so she knows a
thing or two about how toleverage credit card points,
(01:57):
loyalty programs, stacking whichis a new term I learned about
and various cashback programs inorder to get things for free.
Angel's journey here startedwhen she was in college, when
she actually got herself a bunchof scholarships and grants in
order to get free housing, freetuition and $7,000 of spending
(02:20):
money when she wanted to studyabroad in Rome.
Nowadays she is doing thisregularly.
She is traveling once a month.
You will see her flying inbusiness class yes, definitely,
but she's not afraid to flyeconomy and even spirit airlines
.
She answered a lot of myquestions around.
One is the best time to book aflight.
(02:42):
Is there any truth to certaindays of the week being better
than others?
What types of loyalty programsshould we be signing up for?
Do credit cards and signing upfor a bunch of credit cards
really impact our credit scores?
And many other myths aroundthat.
I've included links in the shownotes to a freebie she's giving
our audience about travelhacking one-on-one, creating
(03:04):
your blueprint to get started,as well as her course and her
own podcast on this topic.
There was no further delay.
Meet Angel Angel.
Welcome to the FreedomLifestyle podcast.
How is your day going today?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
My day has been pretty great.
I just finished a travelhacking challenge today, so this
is day two of my travel hackingchallenge, where I taught
people how to use differenttypes of credit cards and how to
maximize and get more pointsfor their purchases.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I was actually in your private Facebook group and
I joined that and I alreadylearned so much about stacking
and gift cards and cash back, soI'm really excited about what
the audience can learn from youtoday.
But before we get into thosehacks, I really want to know you
and the person behind all ofthis content and all of these
amazing resources, and so one ofthe first couple of questions I
(03:57):
like to ask is where in theworld are you joining from and
what would you normally be doingif you didn't have a podcast
interview right now?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, so I'm based out of Los Angeles, california.
Usually I travel at least oncea month, so today you have hit
me at my house.
Last weekend I was in Asheville, north Carolina, and the week
before I was in Bali.
So, like I usually travel atleast once a month.
If I wasn't doing this podcastright now, I would be actually
going to the gym.
My gym is usually around thistime, but I will go to the gym
(04:28):
after this podcast interviewbecause I need to have like my
routine in place.
So for me, it's like going tothe gym.
It's not really about thephysical aspect, it's more of
the mental aspect for me, whereI have to, like get the mental
detox out of like cause Iactually go crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'm so with you.
I would actually also beworking out at this time.
I've just been following younow for a couple of weeks.
Someone nominated you to be onmy podcast after I put out a
reel saying I was looking tomeet people like you because I
see you on my Instagram feedsall the time flying business
class free hotels, la la la, lala champagne at the airport and
(05:04):
I'm like who are these peopleand how are they doing it?
So we're going to get into this, but I'm curious how did this
all start?
In your bio you wrote I studiedabroad in Rome after getting
free housing, free tuition and$7,000 and spending money.
Take the picture of this timeof your life.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So I was like a broke , 22 year old, right.
So, like in college, you havelike no money.
So I was like, okay, I need tofigure out a way for me to study
abroad, because I have no money.
I don't want to get morecollege loans.
What can I do?
So what I did was I literallyapplied for a bunch of
scholarships and everything.
Like your college has ascholarship website.
There's also like a bunch ofother scholarship websites you
(05:44):
can find, like college board,fasa, there's like a bunch of
ones.
You can just Google them aswell.
I literally did that.
I was like, okay, I need tofind a way to pay for this.
And my school financial officewas like, yeah, your college
scholarships can go towards yourstudy abroad program.
So I was like I knew that waslegal.
So I was like, okay, well, I'mgoing to do that.
Then I'm going to apply to abunch of scholarships and grants
and everything and see what Ican get.
(06:05):
And then what ended uphappening was I was able to
compile a bunch of scholarshipsto save for the money.
So I had financial aid and thenI had the scholarships to pay
for the housing, the tuition andthen the spending money.
So that's what I literally didwhen I was in undergrad, because
I was like I need to figure outa way to do this, because I
don't have any money.
My parents don't have any money.
What is the way that I can dothis?
And that was throughscholarships.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And back then, were you also sharing what you were
learning with others?
Because right now, not only areyou benefiting from travel,
hacking and stacking and creditcard points and all the things,
but you've also built thisamazing community around this
and you're sharing everythingyou've learned.
Were you even kind of doingthat back then, or were you
(06:47):
keeping those secrets foryourself?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So it's so funny back then.
I haven't dated myself, so Igraduated college in 2012, but
we didn't really have likeInstagram.
It wasn't until like the springsemester, when I was finishing
my program, where it actually,like, launched for Android users
.
So it wasn't even until then.
So before that it was foriPhone and I didn't get an
(07:09):
iPhone until the year after.
So, like when they launched itfor the Android, that's when I
got my Instagram account.
So this wasn't really like athing back then.
Like it's so funny becausethat's like a dinosaur, like you
couldn't get Instagram if youwere an Android user until, like
I think it was like May orApril 2012.
So before that was exclusive toiPhone users.
It's so funny because it's like, if you think back to it, like
(07:31):
if you started postingimmediately since the get go,
you would have probably built away more followers back then.
But then for me it wasn'treally like a business idea
concept just yet, because, justbecause I didn't really know
anyone that was doing it justyet in that sense, so I didn't
really have that.
So, like in my program I wasthe only one that I met Like, so
there was about, like I wouldsay, maybe 60 people.
(07:54):
So I did a UC program.
I went to UC Berkeley forundergrad.
So this UC program was at UCcenter Rome.
So only the UC students fromUCLA, uc Irvine, uc San Diego,
uc Santa Cruz all the differentUC campuses can only go to this
program.
It wasn't open to like thepublic and stuff.
It was only specifically forUniversity of college students.
So I was only one in my programwho applied to a bunch of
scholarships and everything andI went traveling up pretty much
(08:16):
almost every single weekendbecause the school was like if
you don't use up all this money,you might have to give it back.
And I was like, I'm not givingit back to the university, I'm
going to go use some money.
So, like, I just did that.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So that's what I did Amazing and did you tell your
friends that you were doing it?
Because it sounds like okay.
You didn't even know about acareer as a content creator,
because Instagram had not gonemainstream.
And if you're a dinosaur, I'm adinosaur because I graduated in
2011, right around the sametime as you.
But when you were in Rome andyou were on these experiences
(08:48):
for you sharing, like, hey, Ihave this free money to spend
while.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I'm here.
So I did share with my friendsand stuff.
But at that point it was toolate, because you're already in
the program, because it reallydepends on the scholarship.
But a lot of my scholarships Igot either like six months or
beforehand, so it was kind oftoo late for them.
And then some of them they werekind of like jealous, because
they're like, well, like, youget to go every single weekend
because you have money, but Idon't have any money.
(09:12):
So what I did was I justtraveled by myself.
I was like, okay, well, if youcan't go, I'm going to the
hostels in this differentcountry.
I'm going to find a flight onRyanair, easyjet or a train
somewhere to go and justexperience the place, because I
have no one else to go with me.
So that's what I'm going to do.
And then back in my campus Iwould print out guides from that
(09:33):
blog about stuff to do thereand my my map in itinerary,
because back then T-Mobile didnot have free Wi-Fi to roam
around so I didn't have freeinternet to use in a different
country.
So I would have to print outthe guides of like a map and
everything and then right on themap of where I'm going and
stuff, because back then Ididn't have free roaming and
(09:54):
internet.
But nowadays, when I haveT-Mobile, I can just use it
anywhere that's on T-Mobile forthe Wi-Fi to roam for free.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Well, I remember my Euro trips back then.
It was always the McDonald's.
You'd go to McDonald's becausethey would have the free Wi-Fi
and you'd have all these youngbackpackers just hanging out in
the McDonald's loading maps,texting people checking in with
their family.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It was the McDonald's for the free bathroom and the
free Wi-Fi.
It was both.
It actually was People because,like in Europe, certain places
they charge you if they use thebathroom, but if you go to
McDonald's it's free.
I was actually in Europe inSeptember and I had to use the
restroom because I was going toa tour and the nearest place I
saw was a McDonald's.
So I literally went inside,asked the person who was sitting
(10:36):
down, can I just have thereceipt for the restroom?
And they gave it to me in acode to use for the bathrooms.
I didn't have to pay for it.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I know.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
It's the fact, your backpacker days.
What stuff you would do.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, your hacking extends far beyond credit card
points.
It seems we're hearing T-Mobilehacks how to get a receipt at
McDonald's so you can just peefor free.
You heard it here first.
Okay, so first experience, itsounds like, was this study to
roam abroad, where you had yourfirst encounter, first big
(11:10):
encounter, with free money beingable to hack your way into
getting something you want.
The next big moment on yourresume is around what you call
the biggest financial mistake ofyour life, where you took your
first adult job in advertisingand basically you just took the
first job you were offered.
You didn't apply around, youdidn't negotiate and you felt
(11:34):
really uncomfortable about howit ended up, and it's one of
your regrets.
Tell us more about this.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I felt like for me when I was graduating from
college, I didn't have thatfinancial background, so I had a
lot of different friends fromBerkeley that had parents that
had a lot of money, so they hadtime to think about what job
they wanted, because theyweren't stressed, they were
still on their parents'healthcare plan and everything,
but my parents.
I couldn't do that with them,so I felt like I had to find a
job ASAP, versus a lot of mypeers that I went to college
(12:01):
with.
They had the flexibilitybecause their parents paid for
their stuff, but I didn't havethat.
So literally I got a job offerto work as an assistant media
planner in New York and it waslike $35,000 a year that they
paid me for.
They worked me so hard.
They literally I had to stay somany late hours there.
It was one of the scenarioswhere I felt like I was really
(12:21):
pressured to take this jobbecause I felt like I needed
money ASAP versus getting toknow what I wanted to do.
I feel like it's very fortunatefor some people that they have
the time flexibility, but whenyou're pressed on benefits,
healthcare insurance and payingoff your college loans and you
have no money, you just takewhatever you can get first.
And I wish I had more moneyback then to say, actually this
(12:42):
isn't for me and actually I canstand up for myself, because I
feel like the person I was backthen, when I was 23 years old, I
didn't know how to say certainthings because you're still your
first job out of college.
But now I feel like I'm moreevolved and I just wish I had
the skill sets back then.
But I think, younger Angel, shewas just so lost and she just
wanted to get a job soon out ofcollege because there was just
(13:02):
so much pressure to find a jobthat she took whatever she can
get instead of get to know whatshe really wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I mean I can relate to that.
I took the first job offer Ireceived after university and
didn't negotiate at all.
I didn't even know that I couldask for more money or to ask
for more perks, or I didn't feellike I had any negotiating
power whatsoever and I felt alot of shame around that because
once you accept the terms,that's your job now and those
(13:29):
are the conditions and maybe youcan renegotiate for a raise.
But there's typically standardsand procedures around that when
you're not an entrepreneur andyou are following that
traditional career path.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
Also, back then there wasn't asmuch resources.
Now there's a bunch ofdifferent podcasts about finding
jobs and whatnot, but back thenthere wasn't really that much
resources.
Just yet, again, instagramwasn't a thing.
But you go to Instagram nowthere's a coach for everything.
There's a coach for humanresources, there's a coach for
finding a job, there's a travelhacking person like me.
There's a bunch of differentpeople you can find on the
(14:03):
internet now for different typesof career advice and different
advice about different things,but that wasn't really a thing
back then.
Not that I'm trying to blame,because I do take accountability
in that.
I wish I did know better backthen, but I just didn't have
someone to tell me that backthen.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well, let's catch up to where we are now, because it
starts with this amazing tripand study abroad to Rome, to
then getting your first job andfeeling like you made the
biggest financial mistake ofyour life, to a number of
exciting, windy roads in betweenthat.
But now you have been to 36countries, all seven continents.
(14:40):
How did the travel hackingstart entering your radar?
Did you have a mentor or acontent creator in the space who
inspired you, or were younaturally investigating this
stuff on your own?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So it was a combination of both.
So one of my good friends, seanI met him in undergrad at
Berkeley.
He told me about travel hacking.
So I got my first credit cardwas like well, I got a credit
card when I was an undergrad fora Capital One so that one
didn't charge for foreigntransaction fees when I was
studying abroad in Rome.
But my first actual, like realtravel credit card was a Chase
Sapphire preferred, so that oneyou can use to transfer out to a
(15:13):
different airline and hotelpartners.
So my friend, sean from college,told me about this and he was
like you have to go to thisconference called Chicago
seminars.
And for me back then I was likeI barely making enough money,
like I'm not going to pay to goto a conference learn about
travel hacking.
So then I'm like I'm just goingto Google whatever I can get.
And you know how that goesSometimes when you don't invest
in learning a specific course,you can just get whatever it's
(15:36):
on the internet.
It's not organized, it'swhatever you can find on the
internet.
And I think back then I was ableto get some redemptions, some
different airline and hotelredemptions that were okay, but
I wasn't getting the maximumvalue out of them.
And it's funny because Iactually spoke at Chicago
seminars this year and last year.
So I got invited to theconference that I went to back
(15:57):
in 2019, where I felt like Ididn't know anything, like I
felt like I knew stuff.
But I went into the conference.
I was like I don't knowanything All these people are
way smarter than me and then Igot invited back last year, this
year, to speak at theconference.
Wow, full circle moment that'spretty cool yeah, with a full
circle moment, like I shouldhave paid a long time to go to
this conference becauseeverything would have made more
sense.
I would have done myredemptions better.
We can talk a little bit moreabout this too, about how, like,
(16:19):
if you book certain things, ifyou book it through a bank
portal, you're getting a setrate.
So like a set rate might be onecent versus if you book a
different way, where you cantransfer out to different
airline and hotel partners, youmight get seven cents per dollar
.
So you could have technicallybooked that trip seven times
versus one time for theredemption value.
So I think the full circlemoment was that, like my friend
Sean told me about this, abouttravel hacking, and then I got
(16:41):
myself into it but I didn't likedabble as much as I should have
, just because I felt like I wasalso restricted by the income I
was getting from theadvertising job.
So I did a little bit, but onceI started getting to tech, when
I made more money, that's whenI started really getting to it,
because then I had more likemeans and stuff where I paid off
my college loans.
That was a financial barrierfor me where I was like no, I
can't do this travel hackingstuff I will like once I pay off
(17:03):
my college loans, then I'lldive deeper into it.
And that was should have beenthe reversal, because you ended
up fluce call.
We learned from the fluce call.
Today you can actually buy giftcards to pay for your college
loans.
So it's funny how, like, youthink you know something but you
actually don't.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And so I guess let's break it down for people who are
listening to this episode,because they were like me.
They saw an Instagram reel andthey saw someone flying business
class who looked young, whowasn't like royalty or celebrity
, somebody who seemed relatable,and they had something that
they were curious how they got.
How do you define travelhacking?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
First of all, so travel hacking is taking
advantage of all the differentcurrent rules in place from
credit card programs, airlineprograms and hotel programs, and
seeing what different loyaltyprograms you can use to maximize
your points to book the trip ascheap as possible.
So it doesn't matter if you'reflying economy or flying
business, or staying at a luxuryhotel or just a normal hotel.
Find a cheapest way to getthere, whether on points or on
(18:01):
cash, okay.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And what do you mean by on cash?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Okay.
So let's say you're trying tobuy something on Macy's.
There's this thing calledshopping portal.
So before you can go to Macy's,if you go to American Airlines
website for the AmericanAirlines shopping portal or you
go through Rakuten, you can earncash back or miles on that
purchase.
So that's additional miles youcan add up.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I just got a Dyson Airwrap and it was seven times
the point.
So, for I bought like a $700Dyson Airwrap and it was seven
times the points.
And so is that what we'retalking about here, where I
purchased it through my AeroPlantech, bought it online and then
I got more points on myAeroPlan card.
Yes, Cool.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So last week when I was in Asheville there was a
Chase offer on my Chase SapphireReserve to save 10% I think 10%
or 15% on Marriott at that townsweets that I was staying at.
So that was an extra couponthat I went through and I used a
Rakuten to get extra points aswell.
So it's like you're layering onthe discounts so you have to do
the math sometimes.
Is it cheaper for me to bookwith points or do I pay cash and
(19:06):
that's actually cheaper becauseI can save my points for
something?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
else, and that's a question I wanted to ask you
about because my husband and Ihad this debate last night.
Aeroplan is having a big BlackFriday points deal right now
where you can actually pay tobuy points, where the more money
you invest, the more points youget, and usually it's like a
dollar per point kind of thing.
If you're purely spending yourcredit card, when does it make
(19:30):
sense to pay for points?
Would you have a recommend?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I don't really buy points just because I feel like
it's more useful to get themthrough a credit card signup
bonus.
But there are situations whereit might make sense for you to
buy points.
If you're very short on aredemption and you bought points
and it'll get you thatredemption that you wanted
because you don't have time tomake a signup bonus, then that's
perfect for you because it'srelevant to you, because you
would rather let's say that youbought points it was $100.
(19:56):
But you redeem a flight that'sworth $7,000 but you're just 100
points short.
That makes sense to buy thepoints because the flights were
$7,000.
So I think it kind of dependson your situation.
If you're short on a redemption,I would buy the points just
because it's so close versusjust waiting for that deal to
come back, because sometimes youfind flash deals.
(20:16):
Sometimes, like, I booked aflash deal what's it called
Literally the other day.
So this is back in March I wasgoing to Japan for Cherry
Blossom.
Literally, I flashed for 80,000points to book the AA flight
I've been searching for the pastfew weeks and then flashed for
80,000 points for me to book thefirst class flight.
So I booked it.
But it doesn't happen all thetime where you find a word
(20:37):
availability to book your flight.
So if you find a flight for thedates you need to travel,
that's very helpful becausethat's part of the game.
Like people think it's hard toget the points, but it's also
hard to redeem the travel forthe most maximized points
possible to save the most moneyand points.
So that's just part of it too.
Like you also have to know howto use your points efficiently
to get the most value out ofthem.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
And how did you get notified that the trip that you
wanted to be on, that all of asudden, it was this flash sale?
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Oh a flash.
I was on the American Airlineswebsite and I literally was
refreshing the page and then Isaw it flash for 80,000.
I was like, oh my gosh, I haveenough points.
I need to book this ASAPbecause I was trying to find a
flight to go home.
So, just for perspective, forthose that are new to travel
hacking, you don't always have aword availability.
Sometimes they're saver spaceand sometimes there's a normal
price.
(21:26):
So, like, sometimes a flightcan be 80,000 points, but
sometimes that flight is 400,000points.
So when it flashes and there'sa saver space that you see on
the website, you book it becauseyou would rather pay 80,000
points versus 400,000 points forthe same flight and I'm such a
noob, like, when you say points,what are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Like I'm familiar with Aeroplan, but, chase,
that's a whole different creditcard with a whole different
point system right.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Think of points as this way.
So you have your bank right.
So the bank is Chase, chase.
They have transfer partnerswhere you can transfer your
points out to different programs.
So there's Air Canada, forexample, there's Hyatt for
hotels, there's Marriott forhotels, there's United Airlines,
there's Southwest Airlines,there's British Airways.
There's all these differenttransfer partners that you can
(22:15):
use to book your flight or hotel.
So you can use the points fromyour Chase account to transfer
out to that program that youwanted.
I did this two weeks ago when Iwas in Bali, so I booked a
flight.
This is going to cause peoplestress, but I'm going to explain
it in a way.
I booked my flight less than aweek before departure because
the business class seat openedup.
There was no business classbefore that.
(22:36):
I had to fly economy and Ididn't want to fly economy for
11 hours to get to Asia.
So when it opened up and I sawit for 75,000 points on Air
Canada to fly United players, Itransferred 75,000 points from
my Chase account to Air Canadato book the flight.
Okay, got it and it was lessthan a week out, so I know that
causes people stress.
(22:56):
It's also different for mebecause, like I work in tech, so
I can bring my laptop anywhere,so I have a flexibility.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
How important is that flexibility?
Because there's a couple ofmyths that I wanted to see if
you could debunk or tell us ifthat's true or not related to
getting travel for as affordableas possible, and one of them is
how much advanced notice shouldyou book your travel?
I've heard about a month beforeyour trip.
That's the best time.
Anything less than that it'sgoing to be the worst time, but
(23:25):
then 24 hours before is a goodtime.
What have you learned aboutthat?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So you either have to book your flight way in advance
almost a year out or you canbook last minute when the award
seats get released.
So it depends on the airlinewhenever they release seats.
So not every airline is goingto have saver space all the time
.
Lufthansa is notorious for this, where they released the award
space two weeks out.
So you have to be verystrategic of how you book your
(23:51):
flights.
So when I booked my flight fromBali, so I went from Bali to
Taiwan and then Taiwan to SFOand SFO to LAX that Taiwan
flight to SFO did not open untillike four or five days before
the flight for 75,000 points.
Before it was like 200 or300,000 points.
So when the saver space openedup I booked it Okay.
(24:12):
So it depends.
It really depends on an airlineand what kind of seat you want,
because I could have bookedeconomy but I won business.
So it depends on what kind offlight you are.
If you're fine, if economy, youhave to remember a plane Right,
an airplane has way more economyseats than a business class
seat.
If you don't care about whatyou're flying, then economy is
pretty flexible.
You can book economy prettyeasily.
(24:32):
But if you're trying to getbusiness class and then when you
want to lie flat seat so youcould easily go to sleep and
have a Blanket and everythingand have nice food, then you're
gonna have to see when thataward seat opens up and it can
really vary.
It could be almost a year inadvance, depending on the
airline.
Because when the airlinereleases it almost a year in
advance you have first dibs wheneverybody's opened out to
everyone, where you can bookthat seat ASAP.
(24:53):
But if you don't book it, thenyou have to periodically watch
it to see if it drops in priceFor you to get the price you
want to book the flight, andit's not gonna be guaranteed
that it will drop to the priceyou want.
So for my Japan flight when Iwas going to Asia, I actually
wanted the midnight flight for12 am For 60k thousand points
but never opened up.
So I ended up booking theflight at 9 am Not that it's the
end of the world, but stilllike.
(25:14):
I booked at the flight at 9 amFor 60 thousand points, but I
wanted the one that was at 12o'clock because I would have
landed in Tokyo around 3 or 4 pmand then checked in my hotel
and had more time to explorebecause I could have just slept
on the airplane.
But that flight never opened upfor me on American airline
miles, so I had to take 9o'clock flight.
So now every flight is gonna beguaranteed that they will open
up for a world space.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Got it, so you sometimes will see the flights,
but then it won't be in yourportal and won't allow you to
use the points for that you hada thing about this way.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So bank portal is like pretty much equal to cash.
It's like one cent or 1.25 or1.5 cents in the portal to book,
so you can always pay with cash, but that's not always the
smartest way to book.
So, like my flight, I believeit was 200,000 points to book in
the bank portal, but when Ireleased saver space for me, it
was only 75,000 points to bookof air Canada, so I saved over
(26:04):
100,000 points.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I, yeah, you'll be proud of me.
This will be my second businessclass redemption flight that
I'm doing in January.
I'm going to I was going fromVancouver to Costa Rica and it
was going to be like a terribletravel destination anyway, like
one of the options was a 13 hourlayover in Mexico City and the
(26:27):
business class points was verysimilar to economy.
If you are willing to do this13 hour layover in Mexico City
and because we're flexible,we're like we've never been to
Mexico City let's do thebusiness class flight, which is
fun and experience, great way tokick off the year, and then
we'll just do two nights inMexico City and then we'll fly a
cheap direct flight to CostaRica two days later.
(26:48):
So that's what we're doing.
It's only my second timebusiness class, but I'm super
inspired by you and I want to dothis more for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Also, I tell people all the time to start slow.
Your first redemption doesn'thave to be business class.
Like I fly business class nowbut that's because I have enough
points to fly business class.
But if you're starting out,you're starting out from zero.
You can't be with someone thatlike has over 20 credit cards
and then like for you to haveonly one credit card.
I assume that you're going toalso fly business class.
(27:15):
It's not the same level, youknow.
Like you have to think aboutthat too.
It's like it's okay to startslow, like I didn't start like
this is the first year that Iflew business class eight times.
Like last year I flew businessclass three times, but like
before that I never flewbusiness class.
Truth be told, if you think onecredit card will get you that
business class seat for you tokeep flying each year, that's
(27:35):
not gonna happen.
The math don't make sense.
The math makes sense when youget different credit card
sign-in bonuses.
You save up the points to buildup enough points to redeem for
the business class flight.
But if you're thinking youcould get away with just signing
up for one credit card andnever a credit card ever again,
you're gonna either have tospend a lot of money on that
credit card to get enough pointsto get there, because that the
math doesn't make sense.
So the sign-in bonuses are theway to go to get more points for
(27:57):
the flights and hotels.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
A big concern I've heard from people is their worry
about their credit score.
If I am constantly signing upfor different credit cards,
signing up here, cancellingthese credit cards, that's gonna
screw me over when I want to gowhatever get a mortgage, get a
cell phone bill.
What do you say to people whohave that concern?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
So if you're trying to get a mortgage soon, I would
prioritize that.
Just because you want the bestrate first.
So maybe put off travel hackingthe back burner for now, just
because you want to get the bestrate possible long-term wise
for your house, right?
So that's the main priority foryours.
But if you're not, like me likeI'm not buying a house anytime
soon, so it's not a big concernfor me, like I think.
(28:39):
For me, you have to remember howcredit scores work as well.
So a credit score most of yourcredit score is mostly from the
payment history.
So the payment history and theamount of owed that makes up
more than 60% of your creditscore.
So don't max out your creditcard.
So for me, I have a bunch ofdifferent credit cards but I
don't max them out.
I just continue to spend thatlike normal, like I treat my
(29:00):
credit card like a debit card.
So I'm disciplined.
If you're not disciplined, thisis not for you, because you can
easily go crazy and buy a bunchof stuff just to make that
sign-in bonus, and that's nothow that's going to work,
because then the bank is goingto win.
In that sense, the bank isgoing to make money off the
interest that you're paying forand everything.
But if you're responsible andyou pay all your bills on time,
the easiest way on a pay.
So what I did to make somecertain sign-in bonuses
(29:22):
sometimes is that I would havefriends pay me back.
So then I make the sign-inbonus.
I hope I explained that goodenough.
You did you did.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
You were inspiring me .
I'm like, oh no, I only haveone credit card.
I have a really good travelcredit card, but I need to get
another one.
You are inspiring me, I'm goingto do that.
You're saying that you'retraveling once per month on
average.
How often are you flyingbusiness class?
How often are these points?
Can we talk about the scale?
Like is this we're talkingabout once a year?
(29:52):
We're getting this hookup.
Is this happening like yourregular travel experience?
Now Tell us more about thescale.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
So I would say this past year I flew business class
eight times.
I also have status of anairline.
So if I pay off cash sometimesthey'll upgrade me to the higher
class.
So when I was going to BahamasI booked a basic economy ticket,
so that's the lowest of low toget to under seat right but I
got upgraded.
So when I was flying from LAXto Miami I was bumped up to
first class.
Miami to Bahamas was bumped upto business and then back home I
(30:23):
was bumped from Bahamas toMiami in business and then Miami
to LAX and premium economy.
So they bumped me up because Ihad status.
So some of them were because Ihad airline status as well.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
And can we talk a little bit about getting status?
Because for me I had to work sohard to get even just the
lowest status With Star Allianceon airplane and I feel like
it's coming harder and harder toget status, like now you have
to get basically premium economyor like a flexible economy
ticket to even get it and thenif you're using your points you
(30:57):
aren't actually getting anythingtowards your status.
So can you talk a little bitabout how you made that happen
for yourself?
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Okay.
So I had high globalists.
So high globalists in AmericanAirlines they have a partnership
.
So they were doing a promowhere I got Platinum Pro status
for a while.
So I had Platinum Pro statusfor a while for American
Airlines so I kept it that way.
So for American Airlines it'svery different than other
programs.
So American Airlines you cankeep your status by buying stuff
through the shopping portal, bydoing simply miles.
(31:27):
You can get your status frombooking hotels through rock and
miles or AA hotels.
So there's a lot of ways to getpoints from American Airlines
and as long as you have acertain amount and they had the
instant status pass I was doingIf you got enough points for
that quarter, then you wouldhave kept the status.
So I'm going to go over to youabout status.
Until now, nice.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Okay, another myth that people often say is that
there's a better day of the weekto travel.
So you said, basically you needto be a year out or you have to
just watch for it.
If you're watching a certainflight, and generally last
minute is going to be best foryou, is there any truth to like
Tuesday mornings was the besttime to book a flight, or
(32:06):
Thursday afternoon is where theflights are the cheapest?
From what you've learned, isany of that statistically true?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
If you're doing points and miles deals.
No, because it's based onwhenever the airline releases
the space.
So it could be any time becauseyou don't think about it this
way.
If an airline has only like 20seats in business class but
someone just canceled theirflight and guess what, that
business class seat might beopened up and you got an award
alert because I get alerts fromexpert flyer.
So if I got an award alert fromexpert flyer that the seat just
(32:35):
opened up, I'm going to book it.
Like you know, like there's abunch of different websites to
give you a word alerts, but I'mjust giving one example.
But like, let's just say, likethat just opened up because
before that seat wasn't open butsomeone just canceled their
flight with points, so thatseats now open for you to book.
Or the airline didn't releasethe space yet because you didn't
think from the airline'sperspective, they're going to
try to sell as much seats aspossible, but closer towards a
(32:55):
date, kind of like my Taiwanflight from Taiwan to SFO, I
didn't book them to like a fewdays in advance because the
airline didn't release it untilthen.
So like they're trying to sellall the seats on cash as much as
they can, before they releaseit out on points, because they
make less money on the pointsversus they get flat out cash,
got it.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
If someone's booking on cash.
Do you know if there's anystats around the best day of the
week to book a flight, or thebest day from any of the events
that you've been to or speakersyou've gotten to meet and hear
from?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
You can monitor the flight on Google flights to see
if it drops, or so you can lookat the history.
So that's a good one.
I have Kappa One Venture X.
If you book the flight in theKappa One portal, if you're
using cash, you can actually geta partial refund if the price
drops through Hopper.
So it's powered by Hopper, soyou can get a partial refund if
it drops.
So for me, I buy mixed,sometimes I buy cash flights,
(33:47):
sometimes I buy flights withpoints.
It really depends on what I'mdoing.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I'm assuming you've compiled a lot of this
information somewhere yourfavorite credit cards, your
favorite loyalty programs.
If someone was just discoveringyour content for the first time
, what are some of your favoriteresources you've created that
we should include in the shownotes?
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Okay, so we do have some.
I think I gave you a link for afreebie, so we do have a free
travel hacking freebie that youcan download for the Blueprints.
You can get started from there.
We lay out what travel hackingis, some different programs on
there, so that's definitely agood way to get there.
I do have a travel hackingcourse as well, so there's
definitely a note in the shownotes too Amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Okay, we'll include both of those.
Absolutely, we're over time,but I do still want to ask you
about how you got into contentcreation, because it's one thing
to spend your time researchingall of this and learning how
this all works, because what'sclear to me is you invest a lot
of time and a lot of energy indoing this, and that's why
(34:47):
you're so successful with it,and so you could have just kept
these secrets for yourself.
Or now you've figured out howyou can actually pass on this
knowledge so that I don't haveto spend the X hours that you
spend on it.
I can take your resources, takeyour courses, be part of your
programs.
How did you transition into nowbeing an educator and a content
(35:07):
creator in this space?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So it's so funny.
So back in 2019, when I started, I got featured in today's show
and that one of the editorswere, like you need to make a
blog about this because you knowso much about this.
So it wasn't until someone toldme that I had to that I
actually started making thisstuff.
They're like you're a wealth ofknowledge, you know what you're
talking about.
So like it wasn't until thenthat I got into it of making
(35:31):
different types of content andeverything.
And then, my friend, we met onClubhouse during COVID but
during WITS last year we decidedto make a podcast, but we
didn't do anything for a wholeyear almost, and finally this
year we did the podcast.
So we started launching ourpodcast through travel hacking
challenges.
So the one we did in June wasabout stacking.
The one we just did in Augustwas about travel hacking, and
(35:53):
then the one we just did aboutlike travel hacking in the sense
of booking your flights andstuff I mean they're all travel
hacking related, but likedifferent parts of travel
hacking.
And then the one we did inOctober was about Southwest
Companion Pass, about getting byone, getting free flights.
And the one we just did now isthe holiday shopping one that
you just joined about how tostack and save more for your
holiday purchases.
So it's funny because, like myfriend and I were like back when
(36:14):
we first started, you had toread so many different types of
blogs.
You had to listen to differentvideos on YouTube.
There was just informationeverywhere and when you don't
have an organized format, itcould get confusing quick
because you can go down therabbit hole and you can get
confused by that rabbit holebecause there's different rules
for each program.
So, like how I book airlineflights it's very different than
(36:35):
how I book Delta flights.
So you have to be verystrategic and know how the
different programs work for youradvantage.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Okay, so it started with this podcast, these
challenges that you were doingwith your friends, but I now
follow you on Instagram.
You've attracted an amazingaudience on there.
I saw you have over 70,000followers.
Since you're all about hacksany hacks you can share with our
audience about how you wereable to build your following so
quickly.
It sounds like only a year.
Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 1 (37:02):
I built my following mostly from Instagram Reels, so
I had some Reels that went viraland it's always the ones are
controversial, like it'swhenever I fly Spirit.
Whenever I post anything aboutSpirit, the budget airline, I
tell them well, I don't know why, like I could be flying
business class, but the SpiritReel usually does better than
the business class Reel.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Because people just hate Spirit.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
I think it's because more people relate to spirit,
because more people can afford aspirit flight than a business
class flight.
And it gets so controversialbecause some people are in the
comments saying like eels,spirit, they're not even paying
for my flight, and they're likeEW and then like and I was like
well, I also fly business classtoo.
And then people got so angryand it was this real, I compiled
together where I was flyingspirit first and I transitioned
(37:47):
over to a business class seatand I was like yeah, I'm
irresponsible, I paid $200 for aspirit flight and only paid
like 50 bucks for my businessclass seat.
And that one went viral too.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Okay, so controversial content, leaning
on on Instagram reels and yourpodcast is really how it all
started and just sharing thisknowledge with people that it
sounds like you just enjoylearning about.
Like when you talk about it, youlight up, like you're so
excited to understand how it allworks and how you've hacked the
system and all of this and youknow, not everybody gets that
(38:20):
excited about this stuff, so Ifeel like it's just so authentic
.
It must really resonate withpeople.
I want to ask you aboutsomething that you put on the
form and you let me know if youwant to go here, but I asked you
about the impact that thislifestyle has had on your
relationships and you mentionedthat your parents think you're
still a failure because you'renot married.
Can you go there?
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Oh my goodness.
So like traditional immigrantparents, right, they're like you
know you have to go to school,have a traditional job, be
married and stuff.
I'm not married.
My parents, they were like theythink it's weird.
They're like why do you sendthem for something different?
Credit cards, like isn't that ascam?
Like and everything.
And you're also like you're notmarried yet.
You're in your thirties.
You should be married by now.
(39:03):
You should have kids, and I'mlike, yeah, but that lifestyle
is really not for me.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And what do they say back to that?
You're like I'm flying firstclass, mom, I'm doing something
right Traveling once a month.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
I'm still a failure.
I'm the black sheep in thefamily, like my sister has a
house in San Francisco.
My brother is buying a houseand I'm not going to buy a house
anytime soon, so I'm theoutsider in this aspect.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, no.
I think a lot of people whocome on the show can relate
where the whole idea and conceptof the show is people who have
pursued some type of alternateway of living in order to live
the lifestyle that they want tolive and have figured out how to
hack their way through life,and that often can.
That can confront people withtheir own shit, right?
(39:49):
Maybe people are wondering,well, what if I lived more
authentically myself?
And sometimes we can triggerpeople.
Do you think that's at allgoing on with your parents?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, I think they're kind of like they're just
shocked about which level I gotto, because they're like I can't
believe she flew business classeight times already.
Most people don't fly businessclass in their life, so like,
right, I heard I go eight times.
That's pretty pretty out of theordinary, you know.
And then I used to live in NewYork too, so it's like a lot of
(40:19):
Asian communities you stay athome, so I left to go to New
York.
So like it's very differentthan the realm of things, of how
things are run.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Well, I think you're a huge success and I think some
of these publications you'vebeen featured in Forbes, morning
Brew, buzzfeed, theseconferences around the world
would also say you're a success,angel.
So I'm not sure how you weightthose accolades versus your
parents, but I think what you'vedone is super impressive and
I'm so grateful you came on theshow to share this with us.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Oh, thank you so much .
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Thanks for tuning into another episode If this one
inspired you to take action,but you could use some help on
your plan, or perhaps you've gottoo many ideas bouncing around
in that beautiful brain of yours.
You'd love some clarity on yourstrategy, what you should
pursue first and why.
Well, I am now offeringone-on-one freedom coaching
(41:12):
sessions.
You can book these atBuyMeacoffeecom slash what's
your Free.
This is our opportunity to havea virtual coffee together.
Spend an hour getting clarityon how you can unlock more
freedom and flexibility in yourlife.
On these calls, you can ask meanything, but here are some
things that I'm an expert inCreating a location, independent
(41:34):
lifestyle, buildingservice-based and freelance
businesses, leveraging the gigeconomy and platforms like
Fiverr, utilizing podcasts tobuild your personal brand and
developing passive incomestreams.
So book your freedom coachingsession with me at
BuyMeacoffeecom.
Slash what's your Free.
(41:55):
I would love to have a virtualcoffee with you.
Travel hacking is taking advantage of all the
different current rules in place, from credit card programs,
airline programs and hotelprograms, and seeing what
different loyalty programs youcan use to maximize your points
to books that's as cheap aspossible, so it doesn't matter
if you're flying economy orflying business or staying in a
lecture hotel.
Find a cheapest way to getthere, either on points or on
(00:21):
cash.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You're listening to the Freedom Lifestyle podcast
series.
I'm sharing relatable storiesof freedom seekers who ditched
conventional office life andcourageously asked for more the
energy just completely shiftedmy entire being just felt so
free.
My business was stillgenerating income while I was on
the beach.
I decided to quit and just stayat home.
(00:46):
I really can't work for anyonebut me.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's literally just doing whatever the hell you want
to do.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
As for me, I'm your host, sam, and I've spent the
last four years creating abusiness that allows me to work
from anywhere.
The Freedom Lifestyle looksdifferent for everyone.
What's your free?
You're listening to a newepisode of the Freedom Lifestyle
podcast, where I introduce youto relatable people who have
found a way to leverage flexiblework arrangements, alternative
(01:16):
ways of living, in order todesign their lifestyles based on
how they want to live and showup every day.
And today you're going to meetAngel, who is the founder of
Pennywise Traveler.
If you're not following her onInstagram yet, you should.
She is already attracted anaudience of almost 100,000
(01:36):
people based on her contentaround travel hacking.
Angel has hacked her way to 36countries and counting.
She has been to all sevencontinents, and this year she
traveled via business classeight times, so she knows a
thing or two about how toleverage credit card points,
(01:57):
loyalty programs, stacking whichis a new term I learned about
and various cashback programs inorder to get things for free.
Angel's journey here startedwhen she was in college, when
she actually got herself a bunchof scholarships and grants in
order to get free housing, freetuition and $7,000 of spending
(02:20):
money when she wanted to studyabroad in Rome.
Nowadays she is doing thisregularly.
She is traveling once a month.
You will see her flying inbusiness class yes, definitely,
but she's not afraid to flyeconomy and even spirit airlines
.
She answered a lot of myquestions around.
One is the best time to book aflight.
(02:42):
Is there any truth to certaindays of the week being better
than others?
What types of loyalty programsshould we be signing up for?
Do credit cards and signing upfor a bunch of credit cards
really impact our credit scores?
And many other myths aroundthat.
I've included links in the shownotes to a freebie she's giving
our audience about travelhacking one-on-one, creating
(03:04):
your blueprint to get started,as well as her course and her
own podcast on this topic.
There was no further delay.
Meet Angel Angel.
Welcome to the FreedomLifestyle podcast.
How is your day going today?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
My day has been pretty great.
I just finished a travelhacking challenge today, so this
is day two of my travel hackingchallenge, where I taught
people how to use differenttypes of credit cards and how to
maximize and get more pointsfor their purchases.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I was actually in your private Facebook group and
I joined that and I alreadylearned so much about stacking
and gift cards and cash back, soI'm really excited about what
the audience can learn from youtoday.
But before we get into thosehacks, I really want to know you
and the person behind all ofthis content and all of these
amazing resources, and so one ofthe first couple of questions I
(03:57):
like to ask is where in theworld are you joining from and
what would you normally be doingif you didn't have a podcast
interview right now?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, so I'm based out of Los Angeles, california.
Usually I travel at least oncea month, so today you have hit
me at my house.
Last weekend I was in Asheville, north Carolina, and the week
before I was in Bali.
So, like I usually travel atleast once a month.
If I wasn't doing this podcastright now, I would be actually
going to the gym.
My gym is usually around thistime, but I will go to the gym
(04:28):
after this podcast interviewbecause I need to have like my
routine in place.
So for me, it's like going tothe gym.
It's not really about thephysical aspect, it's more of
the mental aspect for me, whereI have to, like get the mental
detox out of like cause Iactually go crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'm so with you.
I would actually also beworking out at this time.
I've just been following younow for a couple of weeks.
Someone nominated you to be onmy podcast after I put out a
reel saying I was looking tomeet people like you because I
see you on my Instagram feedsall the time flying business
class free hotels, la la la, lala champagne at the airport and
(05:04):
I'm like who are these peopleand how are they doing it?
So we're going to get into this, but I'm curious how did this
all start?
In your bio you wrote I studiedabroad in Rome after getting
free housing, free tuition and$7,000 and spending money.
Take the picture of this timeof your life.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So I was like a broke , 22 year old, right.
So, like in college, you havelike no money.
So I was like, okay, I need tofigure out a way for me to study
abroad, because I have no money.
I don't want to get morecollege loans.
What can I do?
So what I did was I literallyapplied for a bunch of
scholarships and everything.
Like your college has ascholarship website.
There's also like a bunch ofother scholarship websites you
(05:44):
can find, like college board,fasa, there's like a bunch of
ones.
You can just Google them aswell.
I literally did that.
I was like, okay, I need tofind a way to pay for this.
And my school financial officewas like, yeah, your college
scholarships can go towards yourstudy abroad program.
So I was like I knew that waslegal.
So I was like, okay, well, I'mgoing to do that.
Then I'm going to apply to abunch of scholarships and grants
and everything and see what Ican get.
(06:05):
And then what ended uphappening was I was able to
compile a bunch of scholarshipsto save for the money.
So I had financial aid and thenI had the scholarships to pay
for the housing, the tuition andthen the spending money.
So that's what I literally didwhen I was in undergrad, because
I was like I need to figure outa way to do this, because I
don't have any money.
My parents don't have any money.
What is the way that I can dothis?
And that was throughscholarships.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And back then, were you also sharing what you were
learning with others?
Because right now, not only areyou benefiting from travel,
hacking and stacking and creditcard points and all the things,
but you've also built thisamazing community around this
and you're sharing everythingyou've learned.
Were you even kind of doingthat back then, or were you
(06:47):
keeping those secrets foryourself?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So it's so funny back then.
I haven't dated myself, so Igraduated college in 2012, but
we didn't really have likeInstagram.
It wasn't until like the springsemester, when I was finishing
my program, where it actually,like, launched for Android users
.
So it wasn't even until then.
So before that it was foriPhone and I didn't get an
(07:09):
iPhone until the year after.
So, like when they launched itfor the Android, that's when I
got my Instagram account.
So this wasn't really like athing back then.
Like it's so funny becausethat's like a dinosaur, like you
couldn't get Instagram if youwere an Android user until, like
I think it was like May orApril 2012.
So before that was exclusive toiPhone users.
It's so funny because it's like, if you think back to it, like
(07:31):
if you started postingimmediately since the get go,
you would have probably built away more followers back then.
But then for me it wasn'treally like a business idea
concept just yet, because, justbecause I didn't really know
anyone that was doing it justyet in that sense, so I didn't
really have that.
So, like in my program I wasthe only one that I met Like, so
there was about, like I wouldsay, maybe 60 people.
(07:54):
So I did a UC program.
I went to UC Berkeley forundergrad.
So this UC program was at UCcenter Rome.
So only the UC students fromUCLA, uc Irvine, uc San Diego,
uc Santa Cruz all the differentUC campuses can only go to this
program.
It wasn't open to like thepublic and stuff.
It was only specifically forUniversity of college students.
So I was only one in my programwho applied to a bunch of
scholarships and everything andI went traveling up pretty much
(08:16):
almost every single weekendbecause the school was like if
you don't use up all this money,you might have to give it back.
And I was like, I'm not givingit back to the university, I'm
going to go use some money.
So, like, I just did that.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So that's what I did Amazing and did you tell your
friends that you were doing it?
Because it sounds like okay.
You didn't even know about acareer as a content creator,
because Instagram had not gonemainstream.
And if you're a dinosaur, I'm adinosaur because I graduated in
2011, right around the sametime as you.
But when you were in Rome andyou were on these experiences
(08:48):
for you sharing, like, hey, Ihave this free money to spend
while.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I'm here.
So I did share with my friendsand stuff.
But at that point it was toolate, because you're already in
the program, because it reallydepends on the scholarship.
But a lot of my scholarships Igot either like six months or
beforehand, so it was kind oftoo late for them.
And then some of them they werekind of like jealous, because
they're like, well, like, youget to go every single weekend
because you have money, but Idon't have any money.
(09:12):
So what I did was I justtraveled by myself.
I was like, okay, well, if youcan't go, I'm going to the
hostels in this differentcountry.
I'm going to find a flight onRyanair, easyjet or a train
somewhere to go and justexperience the place, because I
have no one else to go with me.
So that's what I'm going to do.
And then back in my campus Iwould print out guides from that
(09:33):
blog about stuff to do thereand my my map in itinerary,
because back then T-Mobile didnot have free Wi-Fi to roam
around so I didn't have freeinternet to use in a different
country.
So I would have to print outthe guides of like a map and
everything and then right on themap of where I'm going and
stuff, because back then Ididn't have free roaming and
(09:54):
internet.
But nowadays, when I haveT-Mobile, I can just use it
anywhere that's on T-Mobile forthe Wi-Fi to roam for free.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Well, I remember my Euro trips back then.
It was always the McDonald's.
You'd go to McDonald's becausethey would have the free Wi-Fi
and you'd have all these youngbackpackers just hanging out in
the McDonald's loading maps,texting people checking in with
their family.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It was the McDonald's for the free bathroom and the
free Wi-Fi.
It was both.
It actually was People because,like in Europe, certain places
they charge you if they use thebathroom, but if you go to
McDonald's it's free.
I was actually in Europe inSeptember and I had to use the
restroom because I was going toa tour and the nearest place I
saw was a McDonald's.
So I literally went inside,asked the person who was sitting
(10:36):
down, can I just have thereceipt for the restroom?
And they gave it to me in acode to use for the bathrooms.
I didn't have to pay for it.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I know.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
It's the fact, your backpacker days.
What stuff you would do.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, your hacking extends far beyond credit card
points.
It seems we're hearing T-Mobilehacks how to get a receipt at
McDonald's so you can just peefor free.
You heard it here first.
Okay, so first experience, itsounds like, was this study to
roam abroad, where you had yourfirst encounter, first big
(11:10):
encounter, with free money beingable to hack your way into
getting something you want.
The next big moment on yourresume is around what you call
the biggest financial mistake ofyour life, where you took your
first adult job in advertisingand basically you just took the
first job you were offered.
You didn't apply around, youdidn't negotiate and you felt
(11:34):
really uncomfortable about howit ended up, and it's one of
your regrets.
Tell us more about this.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I felt like for me when I was graduating from
college, I didn't have thatfinancial background, so I had a
lot of different friends fromBerkeley that had parents that
had a lot of money, so they hadtime to think about what job
they wanted, because theyweren't stressed, they were
still on their parents'healthcare plan and everything,
but my parents.
I couldn't do that with them,so I felt like I had to find a
job ASAP, versus a lot of mypeers that I went to college
(12:01):
with.
They had the flexibilitybecause their parents paid for
their stuff, but I didn't havethat.
So literally I got a job offerto work as an assistant media
planner in New York and it waslike $35,000 a year that they
paid me for.
They worked me so hard.
They literally I had to stay somany late hours there.
It was one of the scenarioswhere I felt like I was really
(12:21):
pressured to take this jobbecause I felt like I needed
money ASAP versus getting toknow what I wanted to do.
I feel like it's very fortunatefor some people that they have
the time flexibility, but whenyou're pressed on benefits,
healthcare insurance and payingoff your college loans and you
have no money, you just takewhatever you can get first.
And I wish I had more moneyback then to say, actually this
(12:42):
isn't for me and actually I canstand up for myself, because I
feel like the person I was backthen, when I was 23 years old, I
didn't know how to say certainthings because you're still your
first job out of college.
But now I feel like I'm moreevolved and I just wish I had
the skill sets back then.
But I think, younger Angel, shewas just so lost and she just
wanted to get a job soon out ofcollege because there was just
(13:02):
so much pressure to find a jobthat she took whatever she can
get instead of get to know whatshe really wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I mean I can relate to that.
I took the first job offer Ireceived after university and
didn't negotiate at all.
I didn't even know that I couldask for more money or to ask
for more perks, or I didn't feellike I had any negotiating
power whatsoever and I felt alot of shame around that because
once you accept the terms,that's your job now and those
(13:29):
are the conditions and maybe youcan renegotiate for a raise.
But there's typically standardsand procedures around that when
you're not an entrepreneur andyou are following that
traditional career path.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
Also, back then there wasn't asmuch resources.
Now there's a bunch ofdifferent podcasts about finding
jobs and whatnot, but back thenthere wasn't really that much
resources.
Just yet, again, instagramwasn't a thing.
But you go to Instagram nowthere's a coach for everything.
There's a coach for humanresources, there's a coach for
finding a job, there's a travelhacking person like me.
There's a bunch of differentpeople you can find on the
(14:03):
internet now for different typesof career advice and different
advice about different things,but that wasn't really a thing
back then.
Not that I'm trying to blame,because I do take accountability
in that.
I wish I did know better backthen, but I just didn't have
someone to tell me that backthen.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well, let's catch up to where we are now, because it
starts with this amazing tripand study abroad to Rome, to
then getting your first job andfeeling like you made the
biggest financial mistake ofyour life, to a number of
exciting, windy roads in betweenthat.
But now you have been to 36countries, all seven continents.
(14:40):
How did the travel hackingstart entering your radar?
Did you have a mentor or acontent creator in the space who
inspired you, or were younaturally investigating this
stuff on your own?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So it was a combination of both.
So one of my good friends, seanI met him in undergrad at
Berkeley.
He told me about travel hacking.
So I got my first credit cardwas like well, I got a credit
card when I was an undergrad fora Capital One so that one
didn't charge for foreigntransaction fees when I was
studying abroad in Rome.
But my first actual, like realtravel credit card was a Chase
Sapphire preferred, so that oneyou can use to transfer out to a
(15:13):
different airline and hotelpartners.
So my friend, sean from college,told me about this and he was
like you have to go to thisconference called Chicago
seminars.
And for me back then I was likeI barely making enough money,
like I'm not going to pay to goto a conference learn about
travel hacking.
So then I'm like I'm just goingto Google whatever I can get.
And you know how that goesSometimes when you don't invest
in learning a specific course,you can just get whatever it's
(15:36):
on the internet.
It's not organized, it'swhatever you can find on the
internet.
And I think back then I was ableto get some redemptions, some
different airline and hotelredemptions that were okay, but
I wasn't getting the maximumvalue out of them.
And it's funny because Iactually spoke at Chicago
seminars this year and last year.
So I got invited to theconference that I went to back
(15:57):
in 2019, where I felt like Ididn't know anything, like I
felt like I knew stuff.
But I went into the conference.
I was like I don't knowanything All these people are
way smarter than me and then Igot invited back last year, this
year, to speak at theconference.
Wow, full circle moment that'spretty cool yeah, with a full
circle moment, like I shouldhave paid a long time to go to
this conference becauseeverything would have made more
sense.
I would have done myredemptions better.
We can talk a little bit moreabout this too, about how, like,
(16:19):
if you book certain things, ifyou book it through a bank
portal, you're getting a setrate.
So like a set rate might be onecent versus if you book a
different way, where you cantransfer out to different
airline and hotel partners, youmight get seven cents per dollar
.
So you could have technicallybooked that trip seven times
versus one time for theredemption value.
So I think the full circlemoment was that, like my friend
Sean told me about this, abouttravel hacking, and then I got
(16:41):
myself into it but I didn't likedabble as much as I should have
, just because I felt like I wasalso restricted by the income I
was getting from theadvertising job.
So I did a little bit, but onceI started getting to tech, when
I made more money, that's whenI started really getting to it,
because then I had more likemeans and stuff where I paid off
my college loans.
That was a financial barrierfor me where I was like no, I
can't do this travel hackingstuff I will like once I pay off
(17:03):
my college loans, then I'lldive deeper into it.
And that was should have beenthe reversal, because you ended
up fluce call.
We learned from the fluce call.
Today you can actually buy giftcards to pay for your college
loans.
So it's funny how, like, youthink you know something but you
actually don't.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And so I guess let's break it down for people who are
listening to this episode,because they were like me.
They saw an Instagram reel andthey saw someone flying business
class who looked young, whowasn't like royalty or celebrity
, somebody who seemed relatable,and they had something that
they were curious how they got.
How do you define travelhacking?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
First of all, so travel hacking is taking
advantage of all the differentcurrent rules in place from
credit card programs, airlineprograms and hotel programs, and
seeing what different loyaltyprograms you can use to maximize
your points to book the trip ascheap as possible.
So it doesn't matter if you'reflying economy or flying
business, or staying at a luxuryhotel or just a normal hotel.
Find a cheapest way to getthere, whether on points or on
(18:01):
cash, okay.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And what do you mean by on cash?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Okay.
So let's say you're trying tobuy something on Macy's.
There's this thing calledshopping portal.
So before you can go to Macy's,if you go to American Airlines
website for the AmericanAirlines shopping portal or you
go through Rakuten, you can earncash back or miles on that
purchase.
So that's additional miles youcan add up.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I just got a Dyson Airwrap and it was seven times
the point.
So, for I bought like a $700Dyson Airwrap and it was seven
times the points.
And so is that what we'retalking about here, where I
purchased it through my AeroPlantech, bought it online and then
I got more points on myAeroPlan card.
Yes, Cool.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So last week when I was in Asheville there was a
Chase offer on my Chase SapphireReserve to save 10% I think 10%
or 15% on Marriott at that townsweets that I was staying at.
So that was an extra couponthat I went through and I used a
Rakuten to get extra points aswell.
So it's like you're layering onthe discounts so you have to do
the math sometimes.
Is it cheaper for me to bookwith points or do I pay cash and
(19:06):
that's actually cheaper becauseI can save my points for
something?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
else, and that's a question I wanted to ask you
about because my husband and Ihad this debate last night.
Aeroplan is having a big BlackFriday points deal right now
where you can actually pay tobuy points, where the more money
you invest, the more points youget, and usually it's like a
dollar per point kind of thing.
If you're purely spending yourcredit card, when does it make
(19:30):
sense to pay for points?
Would you have a recommend?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I don't really buy points just because I feel like
it's more useful to get themthrough a credit card signup
bonus.
But there are situations whereit might make sense for you to
buy points.
If you're very short on aredemption and you bought points
and it'll get you thatredemption that you wanted
because you don't have time tomake a signup bonus, then that's
perfect for you because it'srelevant to you, because you
would rather let's say that youbought points it was $100.
(19:56):
But you redeem a flight that'sworth $7,000 but you're just 100
points short.
That makes sense to buy thepoints because the flights were
$7,000.
So I think it kind of dependson your situation.
If you're short on a redemption,I would buy the points just
because it's so close versusjust waiting for that deal to
come back, because sometimes youfind flash deals.
(20:16):
Sometimes, like, I booked aflash deal what's it called
Literally the other day.
So this is back in March I wasgoing to Japan for Cherry
Blossom.
Literally, I flashed for 80,000points to book the AA flight
I've been searching for the pastfew weeks and then flashed for
80,000 points for me to book thefirst class flight.
So I booked it.
But it doesn't happen all thetime where you find a word
(20:37):
availability to book your flight.
So if you find a flight for thedates you need to travel,
that's very helpful becausethat's part of the game.
Like people think it's hard toget the points, but it's also
hard to redeem the travel forthe most maximized points
possible to save the most moneyand points.
So that's just part of it too.
Like you also have to know howto use your points efficiently
to get the most value out ofthem.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
And how did you get notified that the trip that you
wanted to be on, that all of asudden, it was this flash sale?
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Oh a flash.
I was on the American Airlineswebsite and I literally was
refreshing the page and then Isaw it flash for 80,000.
I was like, oh my gosh, I haveenough points.
I need to book this ASAPbecause I was trying to find a
flight to go home.
So, just for perspective, forthose that are new to travel
hacking, you don't always have aword availability.
Sometimes they're saver spaceand sometimes there's a normal
price.
(21:26):
So, like, sometimes a flightcan be 80,000 points, but
sometimes that flight is 400,000points.
So when it flashes and there'sa saver space that you see on
the website, you book it becauseyou would rather pay 80,000
points versus 400,000 points forthe same flight and I'm such a
noob, like, when you say points,what are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Like I'm familiar with Aeroplan, but, chase,
that's a whole different creditcard with a whole different
point system right.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Think of points as this way.
So you have your bank right.
So the bank is Chase, chase.
They have transfer partnerswhere you can transfer your
points out to different programs.
So there's Air Canada, forexample, there's Hyatt for
hotels, there's Marriott forhotels, there's United Airlines,
there's Southwest Airlines,there's British Airways.
There's all these differenttransfer partners that you can
(22:15):
use to book your flight or hotel.
So you can use the points fromyour Chase account to transfer
out to that program that youwanted.
I did this two weeks ago when Iwas in Bali, so I booked a
flight.
This is going to cause peoplestress, but I'm going to explain
it in a way.
I booked my flight less than aweek before departure because
the business class seat openedup.
There was no business classbefore that.
(22:36):
I had to fly economy and Ididn't want to fly economy for
11 hours to get to Asia.
So when it opened up and I sawit for 75,000 points on Air
Canada to fly United players, Itransferred 75,000 points from
my Chase account to Air Canadato book the flight.
Okay, got it and it was lessthan a week out, so I know that
causes people stress.
(22:56):
It's also different for mebecause, like I work in tech, so
I can bring my laptop anywhere,so I have a flexibility.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
How important is that flexibility?
Because there's a couple ofmyths that I wanted to see if
you could debunk or tell us ifthat's true or not related to
getting travel for as affordableas possible, and one of them is
how much advanced notice shouldyou book your travel?
I've heard about a month beforeyour trip.
That's the best time.
Anything less than that it'sgoing to be the worst time, but
(23:25):
then 24 hours before is a goodtime.
What have you learned aboutthat?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So you either have to book your flight way in advance
almost a year out or you canbook last minute when the award
seats get released.
So it depends on the airlinewhenever they release seats.
So not every airline is goingto have saver space all the time
.
Lufthansa is notorious for this, where they released the award
space two weeks out.
So you have to be verystrategic of how you book your
(23:51):
flights.
So when I booked my flight fromBali, so I went from Bali to
Taiwan and then Taiwan to SFOand SFO to LAX that Taiwan
flight to SFO did not open untillike four or five days before
the flight for 75,000 points.
Before it was like 200 or300,000 points.
So when the saver space openedup I booked it Okay.
(24:12):
So it depends.
It really depends on an airlineand what kind of seat you want,
because I could have bookedeconomy but I won business.
So it depends on what kind offlight you are.
If you're fine, if economy, youhave to remember a plane Right,
an airplane has way more economyseats than a business class
seat.
If you don't care about whatyou're flying, then economy is
pretty flexible.
You can book economy prettyeasily.
(24:32):
But if you're trying to getbusiness class and then when you
want to lie flat seat so youcould easily go to sleep and
have a Blanket and everythingand have nice food, then you're
gonna have to see when thataward seat opens up and it can
really vary.
It could be almost a year inadvance, depending on the
airline.
Because when the airlinereleases it almost a year in
advance you have first dibs wheneverybody's opened out to
everyone, where you can bookthat seat ASAP.
(24:53):
But if you don't book it, thenyou have to periodically watch
it to see if it drops in priceFor you to get the price you
want to book the flight, andit's not gonna be guaranteed
that it will drop to the priceyou want.
So for my Japan flight when Iwas going to Asia, I actually
wanted the midnight flight for12 am For 60k thousand points
but never opened up.
So I ended up booking theflight at 9 am Not that it's the
end of the world, but stilllike.
(25:14):
I booked at the flight at 9 amFor 60 thousand points, but I
wanted the one that was at 12o'clock because I would have
landed in Tokyo around 3 or 4 pmand then checked in my hotel
and had more time to explorebecause I could have just slept
on the airplane.
But that flight never opened upfor me on American airline
miles, so I had to take 9o'clock flight.
So now every flight is gonna beguaranteed that they will open
up for a world space.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Got it, so you sometimes will see the flights,
but then it won't be in yourportal and won't allow you to
use the points for that you hada thing about this way.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So bank portal is like pretty much equal to cash.
It's like one cent or 1.25 or1.5 cents in the portal to book,
so you can always pay with cash, but that's not always the
smartest way to book.
So, like my flight, I believeit was 200,000 points to book in
the bank portal, but when Ireleased saver space for me, it
was only 75,000 points to bookof air Canada, so I saved over
(26:04):
100,000 points.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I, yeah, you'll be proud of me.
This will be my second businessclass redemption flight that
I'm doing in January.
I'm going to I was going fromVancouver to Costa Rica and it
was going to be like a terribletravel destination anyway, like
one of the options was a 13 hourlayover in Mexico City and the
(26:27):
business class points was verysimilar to economy.
If you are willing to do this13 hour layover in Mexico City
and because we're flexible,we're like we've never been to
Mexico City let's do thebusiness class flight, which is
fun and experience, great way tokick off the year, and then
we'll just do two nights inMexico City and then we'll fly a
cheap direct flight to CostaRica two days later.
(26:48):
So that's what we're doing.
It's only my second timebusiness class, but I'm super
inspired by you and I want to dothis more for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Also, I tell people all the time to start slow.
Your first redemption doesn'thave to be business class.
Like I fly business class nowbut that's because I have enough
points to fly business class.
But if you're starting out,you're starting out from zero.
You can't be with someone thatlike has over 20 credit cards
and then like for you to haveonly one credit card.
I assume that you're going toalso fly business class.
(27:15):
It's not the same level, youknow.
Like you have to think aboutthat too.
It's like it's okay to startslow, like I didn't start like
this is the first year that Iflew business class eight times.
Like last year I flew businessclass three times, but like
before that I never flewbusiness class.
Truth be told, if you think onecredit card will get you that
business class seat for you tokeep flying each year, that's
(27:35):
not gonna happen.
The math don't make sense.
The math makes sense when youget different credit card
sign-in bonuses.
You save up the points to buildup enough points to redeem for
the business class flight.
But if you're thinking youcould get away with just signing
up for one credit card andnever a credit card ever again,
you're gonna either have tospend a lot of money on that
credit card to get enough pointsto get there, because that the
math doesn't make sense.
So the sign-in bonuses are theway to go to get more points for
(27:57):
the flights and hotels.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
A big concern I've heard from people is their worry
about their credit score.
If I am constantly signing upfor different credit cards,
signing up here, cancellingthese credit cards, that's gonna
screw me over when I want to gowhatever get a mortgage, get a
cell phone bill.
What do you say to people whohave that concern?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
So if you're trying to get a mortgage soon, I would
prioritize that.
Just because you want the bestrate first.
So maybe put off travel hackingthe back burner for now, just
because you want to get the bestrate possible long-term wise
for your house, right?
So that's the main priority foryours.
But if you're not, like me likeI'm not buying a house anytime
soon, so it's not a big concernfor me, like I think.
(28:39):
For me, you have to remember howcredit scores work as well.
So a credit score most of yourcredit score is mostly from the
payment history.
So the payment history and theamount of owed that makes up
more than 60% of your creditscore.
So don't max out your creditcard.
So for me, I have a bunch ofdifferent credit cards but I
don't max them out.
I just continue to spend thatlike normal, like I treat my
(29:00):
credit card like a debit card.
So I'm disciplined.
If you're not disciplined, thisis not for you, because you can
easily go crazy and buy a bunchof stuff just to make that
sign-in bonus, and that's nothow that's going to work,
because then the bank is goingto win.
In that sense, the bank isgoing to make money off the
interest that you're paying forand everything.
But if you're responsible andyou pay all your bills on time,
the easiest way on a pay.
So what I did to make somecertain sign-in bonuses
(29:22):
sometimes is that I would havefriends pay me back.
So then I make the sign-inbonus.
I hope I explained that goodenough.
You did you did.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
You were inspiring me .
I'm like, oh no, I only haveone credit card.
I have a really good travelcredit card, but I need to get
another one.
You are inspiring me, I'm goingto do that.
You're saying that you'retraveling once per month on
average.
How often are you flyingbusiness class?
How often are these points?
Can we talk about the scale?
Like is this we're talkingabout once a year?
(29:52):
We're getting this hookup.
Is this happening like yourregular travel experience?
Now Tell us more about thescale.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
So I would say this past year I flew business class
eight times.
I also have status of anairline.
So if I pay off cash sometimesthey'll upgrade me to the higher
class.
So when I was going to BahamasI booked a basic economy ticket,
so that's the lowest of low toget to under seat right but I
got upgraded.
So when I was flying from LAXto Miami I was bumped up to
first class.
Miami to Bahamas was bumped upto business and then back home I
(30:23):
was bumped from Bahamas toMiami in business and then Miami
to LAX and premium economy.
So they bumped me up because Ihad status.
So some of them were because Ihad airline status as well.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
And can we talk a little bit about getting status?
Because for me I had to work sohard to get even just the
lowest status With Star Allianceon airplane and I feel like
it's coming harder and harder toget status, like now you have
to get basically premium economyor like a flexible economy
ticket to even get it and thenif you're using your points you
(30:57):
aren't actually getting anythingtowards your status.
So can you talk a little bitabout how you made that happen
for yourself?
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Okay.
So I had high globalists.
So high globalists in AmericanAirlines they have a partnership
.
So they were doing a promowhere I got Platinum Pro status
for a while.
So I had Platinum Pro statusfor a while for American
Airlines so I kept it that way.
So for American Airlines it'svery different than other
programs.
So American Airlines you cankeep your status by buying stuff
through the shopping portal, bydoing simply miles.
(31:27):
You can get your status frombooking hotels through rock and
miles or AA hotels.
So there's a lot of ways to getpoints from American Airlines
and as long as you have acertain amount and they had the
instant status pass I was doingIf you got enough points for
that quarter, then you wouldhave kept the status.
So I'm going to go over to youabout status.
Until now, nice.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Okay, another myth that people often say is that
there's a better day of the weekto travel.
So you said, basically you needto be a year out or you have to
just watch for it.
If you're watching a certainflight, and generally last
minute is going to be best foryou, is there any truth to like
Tuesday mornings was the besttime to book a flight, or
(32:06):
Thursday afternoon is where theflights are the cheapest?
From what you've learned, isany of that statistically true?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
If you're doing points and miles deals.
No, because it's based onwhenever the airline releases
the space.
So it could be any time becauseyou don't think about it this
way.
If an airline has only like 20seats in business class but
someone just canceled theirflight and guess what, that
business class seat might beopened up and you got an award
alert because I get alerts fromexpert flyer.
So if I got an award alert fromexpert flyer that the seat just
(32:35):
opened up, I'm going to book it.
Like you know, like there's abunch of different websites to
give you a word alerts, but I'mjust giving one example.
But like, let's just say, likethat just opened up because
before that seat wasn't open butsomeone just canceled their
flight with points, so thatseats now open for you to book.
Or the airline didn't releasethe space yet because you didn't
think from the airline'sperspective, they're going to
try to sell as much seats aspossible, but closer towards a
(32:55):
date, kind of like my Taiwanflight from Taiwan to SFO, I
didn't book them to like a fewdays in advance because the
airline didn't release it untilthen.
So like they're trying to sellall the seats on cash as much as
they can, before they releaseit out on points, because they
make less money on the pointsversus they get flat out cash,
got it.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
If someone's booking on cash.
Do you know if there's anystats around the best day of the
week to book a flight, or thebest day from any of the events
that you've been to or speakersyou've gotten to meet and hear
from?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
You can monitor the flight on Google flights to see
if it drops, or so you can lookat the history.
So that's a good one.
I have Kappa One Venture X.
If you book the flight in theKappa One portal, if you're
using cash, you can actually geta partial refund if the price
drops through Hopper.
So it's powered by Hopper, soyou can get a partial refund if
it drops.
So for me, I buy mixed,sometimes I buy cash flights,
(33:47):
sometimes I buy flights withpoints.
It really depends on what I'mdoing.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I'm assuming you've compiled a lot of this
information somewhere yourfavorite credit cards, your
favorite loyalty programs.
If someone was just discoveringyour content for the first time
, what are some of your favoriteresources you've created that
we should include in the shownotes?
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Okay, so we do have some.
I think I gave you a link for afreebie, so we do have a free
travel hacking freebie that youcan download for the Blueprints.
You can get started from there.
We lay out what travel hackingis, some different programs on
there, so that's definitely agood way to get there.
I do have a travel hackingcourse as well, so there's
definitely a note in the shownotes too Amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Okay, we'll include both of those.
Absolutely, we're over time,but I do still want to ask you
about how you got into contentcreation, because it's one thing
to spend your time researchingall of this and learning how
this all works, because what'sclear to me is you invest a lot
of time and a lot of energy indoing this, and that's why
(34:47):
you're so successful with it,and so you could have just kept
these secrets for yourself.
Or now you've figured out howyou can actually pass on this
knowledge so that I don't haveto spend the X hours that you
spend on it.
I can take your resources, takeyour courses, be part of your
programs.
How did you transition into nowbeing an educator and a content
(35:07):
creator in this space?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So it's so funny.
So back in 2019, when I started, I got featured in today's show
and that one of the editorswere, like you need to make a
blog about this because you knowso much about this.
So it wasn't until someone toldme that I had to that I
actually started making thisstuff.
They're like you're a wealth ofknowledge, you know what you're
talking about.
So like it wasn't until thenthat I got into it of making
(35:31):
different types of content andeverything.
And then, my friend, we met onClubhouse during COVID but
during WITS last year we decidedto make a podcast, but we
didn't do anything for a wholeyear almost, and finally this
year we did the podcast.
So we started launching ourpodcast through travel hacking
challenges.
So the one we did in June wasabout stacking.
The one we just did in Augustwas about travel hacking, and
(35:53):
then the one we just did aboutlike travel hacking in the sense
of booking your flights andstuff I mean they're all travel
hacking related, but likedifferent parts of travel
hacking.
And then the one we did inOctober was about Southwest
Companion Pass, about getting byone, getting free flights.
And the one we just did now isthe holiday shopping one that
you just joined about how tostack and save more for your
holiday purchases.
So it's funny because, like myfriend and I were like back when
(36:14):
we first started, you had toread so many different types of
blogs.
You had to listen to differentvideos on YouTube.
There was just informationeverywhere and when you don't
have an organized format, itcould get confusing quick
because you can go down therabbit hole and you can get
confused by that rabbit holebecause there's different rules
for each program.
So, like how I book airlineflights it's very different than
(36:35):
how I book Delta flights.
So you have to be verystrategic and know how the
different programs work for youradvantage.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Okay, so it started with this podcast, these
challenges that you were doingwith your friends, but I now
follow you on Instagram.
You've attracted an amazingaudience on there.
I saw you have over 70,000followers.
Since you're all about hacksany hacks you can share with our
audience about how you wereable to build your following so
quickly.
It sounds like only a year.
Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 1 (37:02):
I built my following mostly from Instagram Reels, so
I had some Reels that went viraland it's always the ones are
controversial, like it'swhenever I fly Spirit.
Whenever I post anything aboutSpirit, the budget airline, I
tell them well, I don't know why, like I could be flying
business class, but the SpiritReel usually does better than
the business class Reel.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Because people just hate Spirit.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
I think it's because more people relate to spirit,
because more people can afford aspirit flight than a business
class flight.
And it gets so controversialbecause some people are in the
comments saying like eels,spirit, they're not even paying
for my flight, and they're likeEW and then like and I was like
well, I also fly business classtoo.
And then people got so angryand it was this real, I compiled
together where I was flyingspirit first and I transitioned
(37:47):
over to a business class seatand I was like yeah, I'm
irresponsible, I paid $200 for aspirit flight and only paid
like 50 bucks for my businessclass seat.
And that one went viral too.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Okay, so controversial content, leaning
on on Instagram reels and yourpodcast is really how it all
started and just sharing thisknowledge with people that it
sounds like you just enjoylearning about.
Like when you talk about it, youlight up, like you're so
excited to understand how it allworks and how you've hacked the
system and all of this and youknow, not everybody gets that
(38:20):
excited about this stuff, so Ifeel like it's just so authentic
.
It must really resonate withpeople.
I want to ask you aboutsomething that you put on the
form and you let me know if youwant to go here, but I asked you
about the impact that thislifestyle has had on your
relationships and you mentionedthat your parents think you're
still a failure because you'renot married.
Can you go there?
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Oh my goodness.
So like traditional immigrantparents, right, they're like you
know you have to go to school,have a traditional job, be
married and stuff.
I'm not married.
My parents, they were like theythink it's weird.
They're like why do you sendthem for something different?
Credit cards, like isn't that ascam?
Like and everything.
And you're also like you're notmarried yet.
You're in your thirties.
You should be married by now.
(39:03):
You should have kids, and I'mlike, yeah, but that lifestyle
is really not for me.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And what do they say back to that?
You're like I'm flying firstclass, mom, I'm doing something
right Traveling once a month.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
I'm still a failure.
I'm the black sheep in thefamily, like my sister has a
house in San Francisco.
My brother is buying a houseand I'm not going to buy a house
anytime soon, so I'm theoutsider in this aspect.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, no.
I think a lot of people whocome on the show can relate
where the whole idea and conceptof the show is people who have
pursued some type of alternateway of living in order to live
the lifestyle that they want tolive and have figured out how to
hack their way through life,and that often can.
That can confront people withtheir own shit, right?
(39:49):
Maybe people are wondering,well, what if I lived more
authentically myself?
And sometimes we can triggerpeople.
Do you think that's at allgoing on with your parents?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, I think they're kind of like they're just
shocked about which level I gotto, because they're like I can't
believe she flew business classeight times already.
Most people don't fly businessclass in their life, so like,
right, I heard I go eight times.
That's pretty pretty out of theordinary, you know.
And then I used to live in NewYork too, so it's like a lot of
(40:19):
Asian communities you stay athome, so I left to go to New
York.
So like it's very differentthan the realm of things, of how
things are run.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Well, I think you're a huge success and I think some
of these publications you'vebeen featured in Forbes, morning
Brew, buzzfeed, theseconferences around the world
would also say you're a success,angel.
So I'm not sure how you weightthose accolades versus your
parents, but I think what you'vedone is super impressive and
I'm so grateful you came on theshow to share this with us.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Oh, thank you so much .
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Thanks for tuning into another episode If this one
inspired you to take action,but you could use some help on
your plan, or perhaps you've gottoo many ideas bouncing around
in that beautiful brain of yours.
You'd love some clarity on yourstrategy, what you should
pursue first and why.
Well, I am now offeringone-on-one freedom coaching
(41:12):
sessions.
You can book these atBuyMeacoffeecom slash what's
your Free.
This is our opportunity to havea virtual coffee together.
Spend an hour getting clarityon how you can unlock more
freedom and flexibility in yourlife.
On these calls, you can ask meanything, but here are some
things that I'm an expert inCreating a location, independent
(41:34):
lifestyle, buildingservice-based and freelance
businesses, leveraging the gigeconomy and platforms like
Fiverr, utilizing podcasts tobuild your personal brand and
developing passive incomestreams.
So book your freedom coachingsession with me at
BuyMeacoffeecom.
Slash what's your Free.
(41:55):
I would love to have a virtualcoffee with you.
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