November 16, 2025 • 32 mins
The source provides a detailed guide on maximizing the value of credit card points and miles for booking stays on Airbnb during 2025–2026, arguing that paying cash is inefficient. It outlines three high-value methods for sophisticated travelers: the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR) hack for luxury bookings, which offers significant perks and point rebates; utilizing the Bilt Rewards portal for discounted rates and point redemption on Rent Day; and employing the Capital One Price Match + Purchase Eraser strategy, which works on any listing by matching lower prices found elsewhere. The episode emphasizes that these strategies consistently yield superior value (2-7+ cents per point) compared to older, outdated advice. Ultimately, the source encourages readers to choose the method that aligns with their current points balance and the type of property they wish to book.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the deep dive. Today. We have a
critical mission for anyone out there with a serious stash
of travel points or miles. We're cracking the code on
Airbnb bookings. But look, we're not here for the usual
low value advice you see everywhere. We are diving deep
into how to turn those points into free or at
(00:21):
least heavily discounted stays in villa's homes you name it
for twenty twenty five and.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Twenty twenty six, and we're talking about value that really
starts at two cents per point and you know, just
rockets up from there exactly. And this deep dive is
it's just so crucial because of the sheer amount of
money we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
The scale is staggering, it is.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The source material really confirms the missed opportunity here for
the average traveler, if you're planning just one or two
big international trips in the next couple of years, yeah,
the amount of cash you'd spend on a place to
stay is just enormous. Travelers spent over eighty one billion
dollars on Airbnb in twenty twenty four alone.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Eighty one billion.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Wow, when you see a number that big, you start
to realize that paying cash for your vacation rental is well,
you're actively destroying your travel budget for the future.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
That's a great way to put it. Eighty one billion
dollars flowing through just one platform, and most people are
using reward strategies that I mean, they're basically throwing away
half their potential saving at least half. So the real
question isn't if you can use points for an Airbnb.
The question is how do you do it and guarantee
you're getting the absolute maximum value?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And that is exactly where the traditional, you know, the
outdated advice just completely falls apart.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Like what what's the bad advice we need to avoid?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
The big one is just book gift cards for your
credit card portal or trying to redeem points directly at
one cent per point.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
The flaw there is the massive opportunity cost. I mean, sure,
you might redeem one hundred thousand points and get one
thousand dollars back, which feels good, it feels like a win. Yeah,
but if those same one hundred thousand points could have
easily gotten you a twenty five hundred dollars business class flight,
well you've just taken a sixty percent loss on your redemption.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Ouch. Yeah, that's painful when you frame it like that,
it is so okay. Our mission today is very precise.
We are unpacking the three highest value, proven methods that
savvy travelers are using right now in late twenty twenty
five to routinely hit two, three, five. I've even seen
(02:22):
seven cents per point in value.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
It's definitely possible.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
These are the strategies that make paying cash for a
rental just feel utterly ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And we've synthesized all the data to give you a
really clear roadmap. We're going to start with the highest value,
maybe the most complex strategy, okay, and then work our
way toward the one that's the most universally applicable for
you know, pretty much any booking.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, let's unpack this. We'll start at the top. Then
the highest ceiling redemption out there really reserved for people
who have American Express Membership rewards points and appreciate the
finer things in travel. So method number one is what
the sources are calling the luxury Airbnb plus AMX fine
hotels and resorts hack. And if you're sitting on a
(03:05):
pile of MX points, this is really where you should
look first. The data says it is the single highest
value way to use those points on an AIRDNB style property.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Right now, it is, and you're often getting that phenomenal
three to seven cents per point in value, sometimes even
more so.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
How does it work? What's the core concept here?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
It's all based on a really quiet strategic move MX
made back in late twenty twenty three and early twenty
twenty four. For years, you know, the FHR and the
hotel collection programs were strictly for traditional luxury hotels, your
four seasons, you're Ritz Carlton Rights, the usual suspect exactly.
But they began to expand there let's call it hidden inventory,
to include hundreds of these high end properties that look,
(03:44):
feel and function exactly like an Airbnb listing.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So we're talking about luxury villas, beachfront estates, these incredible
design forward homes that you'd normally only find on Airbnb
or maybe.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Vrbo precisely, and here's the secret sauce that makes the
whole arbitrage possible. Okay, these are often the exact same
listings you see on Airbnb, same host, same photos, same location.
But why when you book them through the MX Travel portal.
They are flagged and coded internally as a.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Hotel, not as an online travel agency in Ota exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
And that distinction, that little bit of code, is everything.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Why Why does that hotel code matter so much?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It matters for two huge reasons. First, it's what triggers
their entire value stack of guaranteed FHR perks.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
We're going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And Second, and this is the technical piece of sophisticated
listener really needs to grasp. Booking travel through MX Travel
that codes as a hotel allows Platinum or Gold card
holders to earn that aggressive five x membership rewards points
on the purchase.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Ah okay, most OTA bookings don't get that bonus.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Right, they're usually excluded. But by coding this Airbnb villa
as a hotel, MX lets you spend your points and
then earn a massive chunk of points back on the
entire dollar amount of the booking.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So you're basically being paid points to use your points.
That's where that infinite value claim we sometimes hear comes from.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
That's the idea you neutralize a huge portion of the
cost before you even start adding up the perks. And
you know, speaking of the perks. We should detail that
benefits package. It's what truly transforms the booking.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Let's walk through them, because for a multi day villa stay,
each one of these represents a pretty substantial cash saving
or you know, just a better experience.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Okay, So we start with the simple one, guaranteed four
pm late.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Checkout, which is huge.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
It's huge. Think about a normal Airbnb checkout. It's ten
am sharp. If your flight is at eight pm, what
do you do. You've got what six seven hours to kill?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You're scrambling. Yeah, you're trying to find a cafe or
paying for a cheap day rate hotel room.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
FHR just eliminates all that friction. It's a massive quality
of life perk.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Okay. So that's a big one. But the next benefit
is where the real dollar value starts to kick in.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
That would be the one hundred to two hundred dollars
property credit per stay. Now, in a hotel, you'd use
this for the spa or a restaurant, but since we're
booking a luxury home, the sources confirm this credit is
often usable for services you would have paid cash for anyway,
like what pre stocking the fridge, paying for laundry service,
(06:15):
or and this is a big one, heating the private pool.
Pool heating alone can be seventy five to one hundred
bucks a day in some places.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Wow, So that credit isn't just some abstract bonus. It
directly offsets real cash you were planning to spend on the.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Trip itself exactly. Then you get daily breakfast for two
okay on a five or seven day trip, especially somewhere
expensive like the Caribbean or Europe. That's easily saving you three, four,
maybe five hundred dollars in food costs for sure. And
then the room upgrade when available.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Let's pause on the upgrade because in a villa, this
is where the valuation can get whoa a little aggressive?
How do we responsibly assign a value to an upgrade
from say a five bedroom to a six bedroom house.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That's a fair challenge. We have to be realistic. If
the upgrade means you jump from a five bedroom garden
view villa to a six bedroom ocean front estate, Okay,
that extra bedroom and that view had a nightly cash
rate that was probably five hundred to one thousand dollars
higher than what you paid for with points.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I see. So even if you wouldn't have paid the
cash for it. That market value is what justifies the
elite sens per point rate exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
The key is that FHR guarantees this entire package, the
late checkout, the credit, the breakfast, the potential upgrade. You
can't get that value stack anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Okay, let's put some numbers to this. Let's apply this
massive value stack to a real world scenario. Because the
math is well, it's pretty stunning.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
We'll use the Los Cabos example for October twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Okay, so we're looking at a five night stay in
a high end ocean front villa in Los Cabos. On Airbnb,
the price was eighteen fifty.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
At night, eighteen hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But crucially, that price gets inflated by mandatory fees a
four hundred dollars cleaning fee and a two hundred and
fifty dollars service fee.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
So that's six hundred and fifty dollars in hidden costs
right off the bat, right.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It immediately erodes the value.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So on Airbnb it's eighteen fifty a night plus six
hundred and fifty in fees. Now compare that to booking
it through FHR.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Through FHR, the price was also listed at eighteen fifty
a night, but it was all in all, no cleaning fees,
no service fees, nothing tacked on. The total cash price
for the five nights was nine two hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So just by avoiding those six hundred fifty dollars in fees,
the FHR booking is already ahead even before we redeem
a single point.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Absolutely. Now we start layering on the perks. In this
specific example, the traveler got a two hundred dollars property
credit okay, over three hundred dollars in value from the
daily breakfast, the priceless Elite checkout, and they received an
upgrade from a five bedroom to a six bedroom villa.
If we conservatively value that upgrade at just say, four
(08:56):
hundred dollars a night, that adds another two thousand dollars
in per received value over the stay.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Okay, let's add it all up. We take the nine thousand,
two fifty base cost, add the six hundred and fifty
in avoided fees, plus the two hundred dollars credit, the
three hundred for breakfast, and two grand for the upgrade.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
The effective cash value of that trip easily surpasses twelve thousand,
four hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Twelve thousand, four hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
The traveler paid with Amex points redeemed at the baseline
one cent per point through amex Travel. That costs them
nine hundred and twenty five thousand points.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
So securing over twelve grand in value for nine hundred
and twenty five thousand points, that works out to a
redemption rate of about wait five point four cents per point.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's elite, but it actually gets even better because of
the earning mechanism.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Ah right, the five X points back.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yes, on that nine thousand, two fifty pre paid stay,
the traveler earned five x membership rewards points back. That's
forty six thy two hundred and fifty points.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Which significantly lowers the net cost of the.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Whole thing and makes the value you proposition even stronger.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
That's the real magic, securing a twelve thousand dollars stay
for under a million points and then getting enough points
back for another domestic flight.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
MM.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
But you remember in an ultimate power move something to
push this value even higher for the really sophisticated.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Listener, we have to talk about the ultimate power move
for AMEX Business Platinum card holders, it's using the pay
with Points feature with that substantial rebate.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
This is the financial engineering part.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
This is what separates great value from truly extraordinary value.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Okay, we need to be crystal clear on how this
works because the rules can change. What's the deal with
that redate in late twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Five, So if you hold the Business Platinum card, you
can redeem points for flights using pay with Points and
get a thirty five percent rebate.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Right for business or first class or on your chosen airline.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Correct. But the key for this Airbnb scenario is that
the redemption against selected classes of hotels and prepaid travel
like an FHR booking can also qualify for a rebate.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I've heard it was fifty percent. At one point it was.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That's less common now, but the thirty five percent rebate
mechanism can still apply to a general travel booking like
this FHR redemption if it's structured correctly.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Okay, let's be conservative. Let's assume the thirty five percent
rebate applies to this Los Cabos trip. What does that
do to the net cost?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, the initial cost was nine hundred twenty five thousand points.
A thirty five percent rebate means you get three hundred
twenty three thousand, seven hundred and fifty points back automatically. Wow,
So the net points you actually spent is only six
hundred and one thousand, two hundred and fifty for that
twelve four hundred dollars plus value stay.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Securing over twelve grand in luxury travel for just over
six hundred thousand points. That is truly maximizing the currency.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
What's fascinating here is you're not just buying a stay,
You're leveraging the AMEX ecosystem to acquire a whole package
of guaranteed luxury services and financial protections like the five
X are and that fundamentally changes the true value.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
The value becomes almost immeasurable.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's hard to put a price on some of those perks.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah yeah, Okay for the listener who wants to try
this right now, what's the best way to search for
these villas? Because they're not just labeled Airbnb on the
amex site.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
No, it's a technical process. You don't start on AMEX travel, Oh,
you start on Airbnb or vrbo. Find that jaw dropping
luxury villa. You want note the exact property name, the
host's name, the specific location. Then you go to MX
travel and search for that name directly.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
And that pulls it out of the FHR inventor.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Much more reliably. Yes, because these are high end, often
boutique listings, a specific search.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Works best, and the sources say these deals are most
common in where high end vacation markets.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Exactly places where amex is trying to gain market share Mexico,
Los Cabos, Riviera Maya, Costa Rica, parts of Greece, Bali,
and the premium Caribbean islands. If your destination is on
that list, this is your first.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Stop that MXFHR strategies. It's elite, but it's also restricted
to those lociury properties, you know, eight hundred bucks a
night in that. So now we need to pivot. We're
going to method number three, which is the most democratized,
the most universal strategy. It works on any Airbnb listing,
regardless of price or location, as long as you hold
(13:18):
capital one miles.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
This is the capital one price match plus purchase eraser arbitrage.
It's a mechanism that really exploits the fee structure of these.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Platforms and When you do it right, it.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Routinely delivers two to four cents per mile, sometimes even more.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Okay, let's break down the execution step by step. The
timing and the cards seem really important here.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
They are. Step one, You book any Airbnb you want,
just like you always would. But the key is the
transaction must be charged entirely to a qualifying capital one card.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
So a venture x Venture or Spark Miles card.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Correct, and that purchase starts the.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Clock a ninety day window. Right, you have ninety days
to execute the arbitrage.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Exactly with In those ninety days, you have to find
the identical listing for the same dates, but cheaper somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
And the best place is to look for that cheaper price.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Are competitive platforms like vrbo or booking dot com or
and this is the ideal scenario directly on the host's
own property management website.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Why are those other platforms so important for finding a
price difference.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It all comes down to the fee structure. I mean,
hosts universally despise Airbnb's fees. I can imagine the platform
charges the host a big service fee, and then it
turns around and charges the guests another set of fees,
the combined stack can easily be between fourteen and twenty
percent of the total booking cost wow twenty percent, So
to encourage direct bookings or bookings on platforms with less overhead,
(14:45):
hosts will list their property for significantly less on those
other channels.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
So that fourteen to twenty percent savings margin that's the
exact financial gap that Capital one is willing to match.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Precisely, that discrepancy is the engine of the entire arbitrage.
So once you find that lower price, you submit a
best price guarantee claim to Capital one Travel.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Okay, that's step three, and Capitol one matches it and
gives you the difference back as a statement credit.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Which immediately and dramatically lowers your net cash costs for
the trip.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
In the final step.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
The final step, also within ninety days of the original purchase,
is you use the purchase Eraser feature. You redeem your
Capital one miles against that remaining now discounted charge at
the standard guaranteed rate of one cent per mile.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Here's where it gets really interesting, because you're not just
getting one cent per mile. The process consistently generates two
plus cents per mile because Capital one is matching prices
that are often thirty to seventy percent lower.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
The higher the initial feel load was on Airbnb, the
better this strategy works. The biggest opportunities are on those
luxury or long term stays where the fees can be huge.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Let's quantify this. Let's use the Tuscany Villas scenario from
September twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Okay, traveler was looking at a seven nights stay in
a magnificent Tuscan villa. The initial Airbnb quote was forty
two hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
And that included what about five hundred fees?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Five hundred dollars in cleaning and service fees. Yeah, pretty
standard for a high end property like that.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So then the traveler went looking.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
They did, and they found the exact same villa listed
on the host's private direct booking website, priced at twenty
eight hundred euros, which at the.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Time was about thirty one hundred US dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Correct. That's an eleven hundred dollars price difference right there.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
An instant eleven hundred dollars discount.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So the traveler submitted the claim capital one matched the
lower price, and they got an immediate eleven hundred dollars
statement credit.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Okay, So now the balance on their card is down
to thirty one hundred.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Dollars, and to eliminate that remaining charge, the traveler used
three hundred and ten thousand capital one miles redeemed at
one cent each with the purchase eraser.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
So three hundred and ten thousand miles got them a
stay that was originally valued for forty two hundred. But
we can't forget the miles they earned back, right.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
The original forty two hundred dollars purchase earned two x miles,
so they got eighty four hundred miles back.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
So the net cost is around three hundred and one thousand,
six hundred miles for forty two hundred dollars in value.
That gets the redemption rate to what about one point
four cents per mile?
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That's the floor value, yes, but the sources are clear
that for travelers who find really aggressive price gaps on
these villas, they're routinely hitting two and a half to
four cents per mile or even more.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
The key leverage point is just maximizing that initial price
match credit. It is which brings us to the advanced technique,
the bonus level up that the sources claim is still
working as of November twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
This is the more tactical maneuver. It's for the high risk, high.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Reward traveler negotiating directly with the host to manufacture a discount.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Exactly many professional hosts, if you contact them off platform
and offer to pay via bank transfer or venmo, they'll
offer a twenty to forty percent discount just to bypass
the platform completely.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Well, wait a minute, isn't that against Capital One's terms?
The policy technically requires a publicly available rate. It does,
so accepting a screenshot of a private negotiated offer seems risky.
Are the sources saying Capital one might crack down on
that loophole?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
That is a phenomenal and necessary challenge, and the source
material is very clear you are relying on an operational
loophole here. It carries risk.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
However, as of November twenty twenty five, it has remained
open for over eighteen months, and the reason it seems
to work is that the Capital one review staff are
just looking for clear, unambiguous evidence of a lower price.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And a screenshot of a text or an email is enough.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
An email or text screenshot directly from the property owner
or their management company. Stating their best direct rate often
carries enough weight for them to approve the credit.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So even though it's technically outside the literal published policy
the C one review team, they just tend to err
on the side of matching clear evidence exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It works because the initial Airbnb quote is often so
inflated by fees that the match strate even with the
manufactured discount, still looks plausible. It just dramatically increases your
arbitrage gap.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Okay, so we've covered the MX high end play and
the Capital one universal arbitrage. Let's move to method number two,
which focuses on built rewards. This one brings a reliable,
mid to high value redemption that's tied directly to a
monthly calendar event.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Built is really uniquely situated. It's built around turning one
of life's most expensive costs, rent into high value travel rewards. Right,
and the key advantage for this deep dive is built
Travel Portal, which they quietly launched in twenty twenty four.
It's powered by Expedia.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
And crucially that portal actually includes a surprising number of
Airbnb style listings and vacation homes.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yes, and the advantage starts before you even redeem a
single point because of the wholesale rates Built gets through
that Expedia partnership. These listings are often ten to twenty
percent cheaper than if you book them directly on Airbnb.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Site, so there's a built in discount from the moment
you start searching right.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
But the value proposition gets dramatically better on the first
of the month.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
This is Built's secret weapon, Rent Day.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
It's their unique lever for sure. On a standard day,
Built points redeem at a very respectable one point to
five cents per point toward any travel in their.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Chortal, which is already pretty good it is.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
But on rent Day, the first of every single month,
that rate jumps to a very compelling guaranteed floor of
one point five cents per point.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And one and a half cents per point is a
really high floor for a simple portal redemption. There's no risk.
It's not like the amex or Capital one methods, which
rely on finding specific inventory or loopholes.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Absolutely, it's guaranteed value and Built stacks other earning advantages
that make the overall cost even.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Lower, like the three X on travel.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Exactly paying with the Built master card earns you three
x points on travel up to fifty thousand points a year.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And we have to mention the financial protection here. No
foreign transaction fees.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
That is such a significant detail that people often overlook.
If you're booking an international airbnb, it's often charged in
the local currency. Most US cards will hit you with
a three percent fee.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Which adds up fast. On a big booking.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Built waves that fee entirely, you're immediately saving potentially hundreds
of dollars right there.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Okay, let's apply that one point five cents per point
rent day rate to the Tokyo scenario from November twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
So a traveler was planning a high demand four night
stay in Tokyo. Booking direct on Airbnb would have cost
them twenty four hundred dollars, but checking the built portal
immediately showed a discounted price of two thousand and forty dollars.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
That's a fifteen percent savings right away, right.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
The traveler just waited until the first of the month
rent day and redeemed points against that discounted price.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
At the one point five cent rate.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
At one point five cents per point, wiping out that
two thousand forty dollars charge required one hundred and thirty
six thousand Built points.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
And since they use the Built card, they also earned
points back.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
They did, they earned about six and twenty points back.
That's three x on the two thousand, forty dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So net cost of around one hundred and thirty thousand
points for a stay valued at twenty four hundred cash.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
That works out to a baseline of about one point
eighty five cents per point, but after you factor in
the points runed back, it pushes closer to two point
two cents per point.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
And it's reliable, it's consistent, and it requires zero.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Effort, no hunting for price matches.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
No. Now here's a key challenge for a lot of
our listeners. What if they don't pay rent, or maybe
their landlord doesn't accept credit cards. Is the Built card
still worth getting just for the travel rewards.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
That's a common misconception, but Built users have successfully overcome it.
The card is absolutely worth holding even for non renters. Why,
specifically because of the aggressive ways you can manufacture spend
to keep your account topped up. We have to talk
about the five x dining.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Hack, which the sources say is still highly effective as
of November twenty five. It is so unpack that hack.
How do you feed the Built machine if you're not
paying rent?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So the builtmaster card earns three x points on dining
every single day. Many sophisticated travelers are using this category
bonus to buy Airbnb gift cards at restaurants.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Well? Services like Resi or Toast often let you pay
your tab through an app if you load funds, or
buy a physical gift card through a restaurant chain that
also sells third party gift cards.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Or just buy one while you're at the restaurant, or.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Just buy one there. Yes, the transaction code says dining
and you get three x points.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And the advanced play here.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
The advanced play is that Built frequently runs category promotions.
During those promos, that dining category can jump to five
x or even six x. So by strategically buying five
hundred or one thousand dollars worth of Airbnb gift cards
during those bonus windows.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
You can easily generate five to ten thousand points a
month easily.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Even without paying a dime of rent through the car.
You're basically turning your food budget into high value points.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And that manufactured spend makes the one point five cent
redemption floor much more appealing. But the real value of
built points, you could argue, is still in the high
value one to one transfer partners.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
That's correct. We have to remind everyone that built's ultimate
power lies in its partners Hyatt, United Alaska, Virgin Atlantic, IHG,
Air France KLM.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Hyatt is the big one.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Hyatt is the big one. When you transfer built points
to Hyatt and book a premium suite, you are often
getting three, four, even five cents per point in value.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
So the power users are achieving that max three to
five cents per built point by combining everything.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yes, they combine manufactured spending to get points cheaply. They
use the portal for reliable Airbnb redemptions, and then they
use the rest of their points for high value flights
or hotel transfers to connect those trips.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
It's a beautifully closed ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So we've dissected the three proven pathways for high value
Airbnb redemptions. You now have the key data on on
mx FHR, the Capitol one price match, and the built
rent day advantage.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
The final critical step is providing you with the framework
to actually apply this knowledge immediately to choose the right
method for your specific trip.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And this decision tree, which we've pulled directly from the
source analysis, is designed to be really quick and definitive.
We advise you to ask these three questions in order,
based on the property you're looking at.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Question number one, is the property a luxury home generally
priced at eight hundred dollars or more per night?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And isn't it one of those high value resort zones
like Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, or Bali.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
If the answer is an enthusiastic yes.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
The choice is immediate use method number one mx FHR.
This is going to guarantee the highest redemption value. It
avoids all those nancty fees, and you get insane perks
like the credit and the late checkout for high end travelers.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
It's the undeniable winner.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Okay. Question two, is the.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Property under eight hundred dollars a night? And do you
currently have built points or a good strategy to manufacture
them with that dining hack.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
If that's your scenario, then you go with method number two,
the built portal. Right, you get the built in wholesale discount,
the three x earnings and if you time it for
the first of the month, that guarantee one point five
cents per point redemption floor.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's the highest floor, lowest friction method of the three.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Okay, and finally, question three, does.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Your booking fall into the everything else category or is
your primary points currency capital one miles?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Then you go with method number three, the Capital one
price match plus purchase eraser.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
It works universally no price restrictions. It leverages the host's
desire to avoid fees to generate a really high value
redemption floor of around one point four to five cents.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Per mile, but it often spikes will past two and
a half cents on those discounted villas.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
This simple decision framework just ensures you never ever default
to redeeming your hard earned points at that abysmal one
cent per point rate.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Right, no matter which ecosystem you're in.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Exactly Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
To ground this in reality, let's quickly run through the
current best cards that support each strategy as of November
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
For method one the AMX ecosystem, the key cards are
the Platinum card for the five X on travel and
those massive welcome bonuses.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Which are like one seventy five K right now.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
At least the Business Platinum is essential for that critical
thirty five percent points rebate. And don't forget the Gold card,
which gets four x on supermarkets. An easy way to manufacture,
spend and build up your points balance fast.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Okay. For Method two Built, it's pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
It's all about the Build Master card, no annual fee,
and it's the only card that earns full points on rent.
The welcome bonus is also pretty appealing right now.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
And for Method three Capital one.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
The venture X card is the undisputed powerhouse there. The
three ninety five annual fee is heavily offset by a
three hundred dollars annual travel credit and a ten thousand
mile anniversary bonus.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Plus it has great welcome offers and top tier benefits
like primary car mental insurance.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Right it's the ideal card for making those big travel
purchases you plan to price match later.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Okay, let's ruarn one final definitive comparison, the Maui scenario.
A family of six planning a seven night trip to
Maui in summer twenty twenty six. This is a high cost,
high demand situation.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
And this comparison really illustrates why your strategy matters so much.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Option E bay cash on Airbnb. The quota is twelve thousand,
six hundred dollars plus a staggering eighteen hundred dollars in
fees ouch, the total cash outlay to the painful fourteen
four hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Okay. Now, let's look at Option SEE using the Capitol
one price match, the traveler does their homework, finds a
host direct rate of eighty eight hundred dollars and gets
a fifty six hundred dollars statement credit.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
That's a huge credit, it is.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
The remaining balance to erase is eighty eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
To erase that, they need eight hundred and eighty thousand
Capital one miles. After you factor in the miles they
earned back, the net cost is around eight hundred and
fifty one thousand miles.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Which it works out to about one point seven cents
per mile. Solid way better than one cent, but it
did require burning almost a million miles.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Okay. Now, for the grand finale option B, using the
mx FHR Luxury arbitrage, the property qualifies for FHR. The
all end price is thirteen thousand, five hundred dollars and.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
This comes with the massive perks, the two hundred dollars
credit daily breakfast, and a really nice ocean front upgrade.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
So if the traveler pays with points and uses the
business Platinum thirty five percent rebate, the gross cost is
one point three five million.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Points, but that rebate drops the net cost dramatically. They
secure that fourteen thousand, four hundred dollars plus value trip
for a net of about eight hundred seventy seven thousand,
five hundred membership rewards points.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Wait a second, if the value is fourteen thousand, four
hundred and the net cost is almost eight hundred seventy
eight thousand points, that's only one point six four cents
per point. That's actually less than the capital one option.
Why did the source still call amex FHR the clear winner.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
That is a crucial insight. The mx FHR option is
the clear winner by a mile, but only when you
factor in the upgrade valuation and the guaranteed perks. Ah
the soft value exactly. If we assign a conservative five
hundred dollars value per night to that upgrade and the
perks combined, the effective value of the MX day jumps
to nearly seventeen thousand dollars okay, And when you divide
(30:25):
that seventeen thousand dollars plus value by the eight hundred
and seventy seven thousand net points spent, the redemption rates
skyrockets past one point nine four cents per point.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I see. So the comparison really shows that while Capital
one has great utility on price matching, it's the strategic
conclusion of those guaranteed luxury perks from AMX that transforms
the whole sense per point calculation for high end properties.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Yes, the effort of shifting your high end bookings to
the FHR portal, even if it's the exact same property
you saw on Airbnb, pays dividends that the other methods
simply cannot touch for these big luxury bookings.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
So what's the big picture takeaway here? I mean, we've
systematically dismantled all the old low value strategies.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
The central insight is this in twenty twenty five and
twenty twenty six, paying full cash price for an Airbnb
as well, it's just avoidable. You now have three distinct
high value blueprints AMEX Built and Capital one that cater
to different point currencies and travel styles.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
The reward isn't just a free stay. It's achieving two
to seven cents per point in value, which beats out
most first class flight redemptions.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
It often does.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, the ultimate satisfaction really is turning a ten thousand
dollars plus vacation into an expense measured only in points.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
And if we connect this to the bigger picture, the
savings here aren't just monetary. They actively fund your future.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Trap'll explain that.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Look back at that Maui FHR example. You secured a
phenomenal seventeen thousand dollars plus trip, but because you use
the business Platinum rebate, you only spent a net of
about eight hundred and seventy eight thousand points instead of
paying almost one point point four million points at face value,
you saved yourself half a million points.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And the final provocative thought we want to leave you
with is this, because you secured that Maui stay with
a strategy that saved you hundreds of thousands of points,
those unspent points are still in your wallet.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
So what high value experience will you secure with the
rewards you didn't have to spend?
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Right? Will you transfer those rebated AMEX points to Ana
and book a couple of aspirational first class suites to Japan.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
That is how you truly win the travel game. You
let your points fund the trip you're on now, while
simultaneously securing the next big aspiration on your list.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Time to apply that decision tree to your next booking.
We hope this deep dive helps you travel farther, stay better,
and pay a whole lot less.
Welcome back to the deep dive. Today. We have a
critical mission for anyone out there with a serious stash
of travel points or miles. We're cracking the code on
Airbnb bookings. But look, we're not here for the usual
low value advice you see everywhere. We are diving deep
into how to turn those points into free or at
(00:21):
least heavily discounted stays in villa's homes you name it
for twenty twenty five and.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Twenty twenty six, and we're talking about value that really
starts at two cents per point and you know, just
rockets up from there exactly. And this deep dive is
it's just so crucial because of the sheer amount of
money we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
The scale is staggering, it is.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The source material really confirms the missed opportunity here for
the average traveler, if you're planning just one or two
big international trips in the next couple of years, yeah,
the amount of cash you'd spend on a place to
stay is just enormous. Travelers spent over eighty one billion
dollars on Airbnb in twenty twenty four alone.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Eighty one billion.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Wow, when you see a number that big, you start
to realize that paying cash for your vacation rental is well,
you're actively destroying your travel budget for the future.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
That's a great way to put it. Eighty one billion
dollars flowing through just one platform, and most people are
using reward strategies that I mean, they're basically throwing away
half their potential saving at least half. So the real
question isn't if you can use points for an Airbnb.
The question is how do you do it and guarantee
you're getting the absolute maximum value?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And that is exactly where the traditional, you know, the
outdated advice just completely falls apart.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Like what what's the bad advice we need to avoid?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
The big one is just book gift cards for your
credit card portal or trying to redeem points directly at
one cent per point.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
The flaw there is the massive opportunity cost. I mean, sure,
you might redeem one hundred thousand points and get one
thousand dollars back, which feels good, it feels like a win. Yeah,
but if those same one hundred thousand points could have
easily gotten you a twenty five hundred dollars business class flight,
well you've just taken a sixty percent loss on your redemption.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Ouch. Yeah, that's painful when you frame it like that,
it is so okay. Our mission today is very precise.
We are unpacking the three highest value, proven methods that
savvy travelers are using right now in late twenty twenty
five to routinely hit two, three, five. I've even seen
(02:22):
seven cents per point in value.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
It's definitely possible.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
These are the strategies that make paying cash for a
rental just feel utterly ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And we've synthesized all the data to give you a
really clear roadmap. We're going to start with the highest value,
maybe the most complex strategy, okay, and then work our
way toward the one that's the most universally applicable for
you know, pretty much any booking.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, let's unpack this. We'll start at the top. Then
the highest ceiling redemption out there really reserved for people
who have American Express Membership rewards points and appreciate the
finer things in travel. So method number one is what
the sources are calling the luxury Airbnb plus AMX fine
hotels and resorts hack. And if you're sitting on a
(03:05):
pile of MX points, this is really where you should
look first. The data says it is the single highest
value way to use those points on an AIRDNB style property.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Right now, it is, and you're often getting that phenomenal
three to seven cents per point in value, sometimes even
more so.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
How does it work? What's the core concept here?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
It's all based on a really quiet strategic move MX
made back in late twenty twenty three and early twenty
twenty four. For years, you know, the FHR and the
hotel collection programs were strictly for traditional luxury hotels, your
four seasons, you're Ritz Carlton Rights, the usual suspect exactly.
But they began to expand there let's call it hidden inventory,
to include hundreds of these high end properties that look,
(03:44):
feel and function exactly like an Airbnb listing.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So we're talking about luxury villas, beachfront estates, these incredible
design forward homes that you'd normally only find on Airbnb
or maybe.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Vrbo precisely, and here's the secret sauce that makes the
whole arbitrage possible. Okay, these are often the exact same
listings you see on Airbnb, same host, same photos, same location.
But why when you book them through the MX Travel portal.
They are flagged and coded internally as a.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Hotel, not as an online travel agency in Ota exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
And that distinction, that little bit of code, is everything.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Why Why does that hotel code matter so much?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It matters for two huge reasons. First, it's what triggers
their entire value stack of guaranteed FHR perks.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
We're going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And Second, and this is the technical piece of sophisticated
listener really needs to grasp. Booking travel through MX Travel
that codes as a hotel allows Platinum or Gold card
holders to earn that aggressive five x membership rewards points
on the purchase.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Ah okay, most OTA bookings don't get that bonus.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Right, they're usually excluded. But by coding this Airbnb villa
as a hotel, MX lets you spend your points and
then earn a massive chunk of points back on the
entire dollar amount of the booking.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So you're basically being paid points to use your points.
That's where that infinite value claim we sometimes hear comes from.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
That's the idea you neutralize a huge portion of the
cost before you even start adding up the perks. And
you know, speaking of the perks. We should detail that
benefits package. It's what truly transforms the booking.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Let's walk through them, because for a multi day villa stay,
each one of these represents a pretty substantial cash saving
or you know, just a better experience.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Okay, So we start with the simple one, guaranteed four
pm late.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Checkout, which is huge.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
It's huge. Think about a normal Airbnb checkout. It's ten
am sharp. If your flight is at eight pm, what
do you do. You've got what six seven hours to kill?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You're scrambling. Yeah, you're trying to find a cafe or
paying for a cheap day rate hotel room.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
FHR just eliminates all that friction. It's a massive quality
of life perk.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Okay. So that's a big one. But the next benefit
is where the real dollar value starts to kick in.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
That would be the one hundred to two hundred dollars
property credit per stay. Now, in a hotel, you'd use
this for the spa or a restaurant, but since we're
booking a luxury home, the sources confirm this credit is
often usable for services you would have paid cash for anyway,
like what pre stocking the fridge, paying for laundry service,
(06:15):
or and this is a big one, heating the private pool.
Pool heating alone can be seventy five to one hundred
bucks a day in some places.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Wow, So that credit isn't just some abstract bonus. It
directly offsets real cash you were planning to spend on the.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Trip itself exactly. Then you get daily breakfast for two
okay on a five or seven day trip, especially somewhere
expensive like the Caribbean or Europe. That's easily saving you three, four,
maybe five hundred dollars in food costs for sure. And
then the room upgrade when available.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Let's pause on the upgrade because in a villa, this
is where the valuation can get whoa a little aggressive?
How do we responsibly assign a value to an upgrade
from say a five bedroom to a six bedroom house.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That's a fair challenge. We have to be realistic. If
the upgrade means you jump from a five bedroom garden
view villa to a six bedroom ocean front estate, Okay,
that extra bedroom and that view had a nightly cash
rate that was probably five hundred to one thousand dollars
higher than what you paid for with points.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I see. So even if you wouldn't have paid the
cash for it. That market value is what justifies the
elite sens per point rate exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
The key is that FHR guarantees this entire package, the
late checkout, the credit, the breakfast, the potential upgrade. You
can't get that value stack anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Okay, let's put some numbers to this. Let's apply this
massive value stack to a real world scenario. Because the
math is well, it's pretty stunning.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
We'll use the Los Cabos example for October twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Okay, so we're looking at a five night stay in
a high end ocean front villa in Los Cabos. On Airbnb,
the price was eighteen fifty.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
At night, eighteen hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But crucially, that price gets inflated by mandatory fees a
four hundred dollars cleaning fee and a two hundred and
fifty dollars service fee.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
So that's six hundred and fifty dollars in hidden costs
right off the bat, right.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It immediately erodes the value.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So on Airbnb it's eighteen fifty a night plus six
hundred and fifty in fees. Now compare that to booking
it through FHR.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Through FHR, the price was also listed at eighteen fifty
a night, but it was all in all, no cleaning fees,
no service fees, nothing tacked on. The total cash price
for the five nights was nine two hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So just by avoiding those six hundred fifty dollars in fees,
the FHR booking is already ahead even before we redeem
a single point.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Absolutely. Now we start layering on the perks. In this
specific example, the traveler got a two hundred dollars property
credit okay, over three hundred dollars in value from the
daily breakfast, the priceless Elite checkout, and they received an
upgrade from a five bedroom to a six bedroom villa.
If we conservatively value that upgrade at just say, four
(08:56):
hundred dollars a night, that adds another two thousand dollars
in per received value over the stay.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Okay, let's add it all up. We take the nine thousand,
two fifty base cost, add the six hundred and fifty
in avoided fees, plus the two hundred dollars credit, the
three hundred for breakfast, and two grand for the upgrade.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
The effective cash value of that trip easily surpasses twelve thousand,
four hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Twelve thousand, four hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
The traveler paid with Amex points redeemed at the baseline
one cent per point through amex Travel. That costs them
nine hundred and twenty five thousand points.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
So securing over twelve grand in value for nine hundred
and twenty five thousand points, that works out to a
redemption rate of about wait five point four cents per point.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's elite, but it actually gets even better because of
the earning mechanism.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Ah right, the five X points back.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yes, on that nine thousand, two fifty pre paid stay,
the traveler earned five x membership rewards points back. That's
forty six thy two hundred and fifty points.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Which significantly lowers the net cost of the.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Whole thing and makes the value you proposition even stronger.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
That's the real magic, securing a twelve thousand dollars stay
for under a million points and then getting enough points
back for another domestic flight.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
MM.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
But you remember in an ultimate power move something to
push this value even higher for the really sophisticated.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Listener, we have to talk about the ultimate power move
for AMEX Business Platinum card holders, it's using the pay
with Points feature with that substantial rebate.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
This is the financial engineering part.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
This is what separates great value from truly extraordinary value.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Okay, we need to be crystal clear on how this
works because the rules can change. What's the deal with
that redate in late twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Five, So if you hold the Business Platinum card, you
can redeem points for flights using pay with Points and
get a thirty five percent rebate.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Right for business or first class or on your chosen airline.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Correct. But the key for this Airbnb scenario is that
the redemption against selected classes of hotels and prepaid travel
like an FHR booking can also qualify for a rebate.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I've heard it was fifty percent. At one point it was.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That's less common now, but the thirty five percent rebate
mechanism can still apply to a general travel booking like
this FHR redemption if it's structured correctly.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Okay, let's be conservative. Let's assume the thirty five percent
rebate applies to this Los Cabos trip. What does that
do to the net cost?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, the initial cost was nine hundred twenty five thousand points.
A thirty five percent rebate means you get three hundred
twenty three thousand, seven hundred and fifty points back automatically. Wow,
So the net points you actually spent is only six
hundred and one thousand, two hundred and fifty for that
twelve four hundred dollars plus value stay.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Securing over twelve grand in luxury travel for just over
six hundred thousand points. That is truly maximizing the currency.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
What's fascinating here is you're not just buying a stay,
You're leveraging the AMEX ecosystem to acquire a whole package
of guaranteed luxury services and financial protections like the five
X are and that fundamentally changes the true value.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
The value becomes almost immeasurable.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's hard to put a price on some of those perks.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah yeah, Okay for the listener who wants to try
this right now, what's the best way to search for
these villas? Because they're not just labeled Airbnb on the
amex site.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
No, it's a technical process. You don't start on AMEX travel, Oh,
you start on Airbnb or vrbo. Find that jaw dropping
luxury villa. You want note the exact property name, the
host's name, the specific location. Then you go to MX
travel and search for that name directly.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
And that pulls it out of the FHR inventor.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Much more reliably. Yes, because these are high end, often
boutique listings, a specific search.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Works best, and the sources say these deals are most
common in where high end vacation markets.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Exactly places where amex is trying to gain market share Mexico,
Los Cabos, Riviera Maya, Costa Rica, parts of Greece, Bali,
and the premium Caribbean islands. If your destination is on
that list, this is your first.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Stop that MXFHR strategies. It's elite, but it's also restricted
to those lociury properties, you know, eight hundred bucks a
night in that. So now we need to pivot. We're
going to method number three, which is the most democratized,
the most universal strategy. It works on any Airbnb listing,
regardless of price or location, as long as you hold
(13:18):
capital one miles.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
This is the capital one price match plus purchase eraser arbitrage.
It's a mechanism that really exploits the fee structure of these.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Platforms and When you do it right, it.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Routinely delivers two to four cents per mile, sometimes even more.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Okay, let's break down the execution step by step. The
timing and the cards seem really important here.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
They are. Step one, You book any Airbnb you want,
just like you always would. But the key is the
transaction must be charged entirely to a qualifying capital one card.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
So a venture x Venture or Spark Miles card.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Correct, and that purchase starts the.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Clock a ninety day window. Right, you have ninety days
to execute the arbitrage.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Exactly with In those ninety days, you have to find
the identical listing for the same dates, but cheaper somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
And the best place is to look for that cheaper price.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Are competitive platforms like vrbo or booking dot com or
and this is the ideal scenario directly on the host's
own property management website.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Why are those other platforms so important for finding a
price difference.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It all comes down to the fee structure. I mean,
hosts universally despise Airbnb's fees. I can imagine the platform
charges the host a big service fee, and then it
turns around and charges the guests another set of fees,
the combined stack can easily be between fourteen and twenty
percent of the total booking cost wow twenty percent, So
to encourage direct bookings or bookings on platforms with less overhead,
(14:45):
hosts will list their property for significantly less on those
other channels.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
So that fourteen to twenty percent savings margin that's the
exact financial gap that Capital one is willing to match.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Precisely, that discrepancy is the engine of the entire arbitrage.
So once you find that lower price, you submit a
best price guarantee claim to Capital one Travel.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Okay, that's step three, and Capitol one matches it and
gives you the difference back as a statement credit.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Which immediately and dramatically lowers your net cash costs for
the trip.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
In the final step.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
The final step, also within ninety days of the original purchase,
is you use the purchase Eraser feature. You redeem your
Capital one miles against that remaining now discounted charge at
the standard guaranteed rate of one cent per mile.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Here's where it gets really interesting, because you're not just
getting one cent per mile. The process consistently generates two
plus cents per mile because Capital one is matching prices
that are often thirty to seventy percent lower.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
The higher the initial feel load was on Airbnb, the
better this strategy works. The biggest opportunities are on those
luxury or long term stays where the fees can be huge.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Let's quantify this. Let's use the Tuscany Villas scenario from
September twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Okay, traveler was looking at a seven nights stay in
a magnificent Tuscan villa. The initial Airbnb quote was forty
two hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
And that included what about five hundred fees?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Five hundred dollars in cleaning and service fees. Yeah, pretty
standard for a high end property like that.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So then the traveler went looking.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
They did, and they found the exact same villa listed
on the host's private direct booking website, priced at twenty
eight hundred euros, which at the.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Time was about thirty one hundred US dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Correct. That's an eleven hundred dollars price difference right there.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
An instant eleven hundred dollars discount.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So the traveler submitted the claim capital one matched the
lower price, and they got an immediate eleven hundred dollars
statement credit.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Okay, So now the balance on their card is down
to thirty one hundred.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Dollars, and to eliminate that remaining charge, the traveler used
three hundred and ten thousand capital one miles redeemed at
one cent each with the purchase eraser.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
So three hundred and ten thousand miles got them a
stay that was originally valued for forty two hundred. But
we can't forget the miles they earned back, right.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
The original forty two hundred dollars purchase earned two x miles,
so they got eighty four hundred miles back.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
So the net cost is around three hundred and one thousand,
six hundred miles for forty two hundred dollars in value.
That gets the redemption rate to what about one point
four cents per mile?
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That's the floor value, yes, but the sources are clear
that for travelers who find really aggressive price gaps on
these villas, they're routinely hitting two and a half to
four cents per mile or even more.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
The key leverage point is just maximizing that initial price
match credit. It is which brings us to the advanced technique,
the bonus level up that the sources claim is still
working as of November twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
This is the more tactical maneuver. It's for the high risk, high.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Reward traveler negotiating directly with the host to manufacture a discount.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Exactly many professional hosts, if you contact them off platform
and offer to pay via bank transfer or venmo, they'll
offer a twenty to forty percent discount just to bypass
the platform completely.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Well, wait a minute, isn't that against Capital One's terms?
The policy technically requires a publicly available rate. It does,
so accepting a screenshot of a private negotiated offer seems risky.
Are the sources saying Capital one might crack down on
that loophole?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
That is a phenomenal and necessary challenge, and the source
material is very clear you are relying on an operational
loophole here. It carries risk.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
However, as of November twenty twenty five, it has remained
open for over eighteen months, and the reason it seems
to work is that the Capital one review staff are
just looking for clear, unambiguous evidence of a lower price.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And a screenshot of a text or an email is enough.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
An email or text screenshot directly from the property owner
or their management company. Stating their best direct rate often
carries enough weight for them to approve the credit.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So even though it's technically outside the literal published policy
the C one review team, they just tend to err
on the side of matching clear evidence exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It works because the initial Airbnb quote is often so
inflated by fees that the match strate even with the
manufactured discount, still looks plausible. It just dramatically increases your
arbitrage gap.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Okay, so we've covered the MX high end play and
the Capital one universal arbitrage. Let's move to method number two,
which focuses on built rewards. This one brings a reliable,
mid to high value redemption that's tied directly to a
monthly calendar event.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Built is really uniquely situated. It's built around turning one
of life's most expensive costs, rent into high value travel rewards. Right,
and the key advantage for this deep dive is built
Travel Portal, which they quietly launched in twenty twenty four.
It's powered by Expedia.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
And crucially that portal actually includes a surprising number of
Airbnb style listings and vacation homes.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yes, and the advantage starts before you even redeem a
single point because of the wholesale rates Built gets through
that Expedia partnership. These listings are often ten to twenty
percent cheaper than if you book them directly on Airbnb.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Site, so there's a built in discount from the moment
you start searching right.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
But the value proposition gets dramatically better on the first
of the month.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
This is Built's secret weapon, Rent Day.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
It's their unique lever for sure. On a standard day,
Built points redeem at a very respectable one point to
five cents per point toward any travel in their.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Chortal, which is already pretty good it is.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
But on rent Day, the first of every single month,
that rate jumps to a very compelling guaranteed floor of
one point five cents per point.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And one and a half cents per point is a
really high floor for a simple portal redemption. There's no risk.
It's not like the amex or Capital one methods, which
rely on finding specific inventory or loopholes.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Absolutely, it's guaranteed value and Built stacks other earning advantages
that make the overall cost even.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Lower, like the three X on travel.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Exactly paying with the Built master card earns you three
x points on travel up to fifty thousand points a year.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And we have to mention the financial protection here. No
foreign transaction fees.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
That is such a significant detail that people often overlook.
If you're booking an international airbnb, it's often charged in
the local currency. Most US cards will hit you with
a three percent fee.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Which adds up fast. On a big booking.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Built waves that fee entirely, you're immediately saving potentially hundreds
of dollars right there.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Okay, let's apply that one point five cents per point
rent day rate to the Tokyo scenario from November twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
So a traveler was planning a high demand four night
stay in Tokyo. Booking direct on Airbnb would have cost
them twenty four hundred dollars, but checking the built portal
immediately showed a discounted price of two thousand and forty dollars.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
That's a fifteen percent savings right away, right.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
The traveler just waited until the first of the month
rent day and redeemed points against that discounted price.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
At the one point five cent rate.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
At one point five cents per point, wiping out that
two thousand forty dollars charge required one hundred and thirty
six thousand Built points.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
And since they use the Built card, they also earned
points back.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
They did, they earned about six and twenty points back.
That's three x on the two thousand, forty dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So net cost of around one hundred and thirty thousand
points for a stay valued at twenty four hundred cash.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
That works out to a baseline of about one point
eighty five cents per point, but after you factor in
the points runed back, it pushes closer to two point
two cents per point.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
And it's reliable, it's consistent, and it requires zero.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Effort, no hunting for price matches.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
No. Now here's a key challenge for a lot of
our listeners. What if they don't pay rent, or maybe
their landlord doesn't accept credit cards. Is the Built card
still worth getting just for the travel rewards.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
That's a common misconception, but Built users have successfully overcome it.
The card is absolutely worth holding even for non renters. Why,
specifically because of the aggressive ways you can manufacture spend
to keep your account topped up. We have to talk
about the five x dining.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Hack, which the sources say is still highly effective as
of November twenty five. It is so unpack that hack.
How do you feed the Built machine if you're not
paying rent?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So the builtmaster card earns three x points on dining
every single day. Many sophisticated travelers are using this category
bonus to buy Airbnb gift cards at restaurants.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Well? Services like Resi or Toast often let you pay
your tab through an app if you load funds, or
buy a physical gift card through a restaurant chain that
also sells third party gift cards.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Or just buy one while you're at the restaurant, or.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Just buy one there. Yes, the transaction code says dining
and you get three x points.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And the advanced play here.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
The advanced play is that Built frequently runs category promotions.
During those promos, that dining category can jump to five
x or even six x. So by strategically buying five
hundred or one thousand dollars worth of Airbnb gift cards
during those bonus windows.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
You can easily generate five to ten thousand points a
month easily.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Even without paying a dime of rent through the car.
You're basically turning your food budget into high value points.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And that manufactured spend makes the one point five cent
redemption floor much more appealing. But the real value of
built points, you could argue, is still in the high
value one to one transfer partners.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
That's correct. We have to remind everyone that built's ultimate
power lies in its partners Hyatt, United Alaska, Virgin Atlantic, IHG,
Air France KLM.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Hyatt is the big one.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Hyatt is the big one. When you transfer built points
to Hyatt and book a premium suite, you are often
getting three, four, even five cents per point in value.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
So the power users are achieving that max three to
five cents per built point by combining everything.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yes, they combine manufactured spending to get points cheaply. They
use the portal for reliable Airbnb redemptions, and then they
use the rest of their points for high value flights
or hotel transfers to connect those trips.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
It's a beautifully closed ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So we've dissected the three proven pathways for high value
Airbnb redemptions. You now have the key data on on
mx FHR, the Capitol one price match, and the built
rent day advantage.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
The final critical step is providing you with the framework
to actually apply this knowledge immediately to choose the right
method for your specific trip.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And this decision tree, which we've pulled directly from the
source analysis, is designed to be really quick and definitive.
We advise you to ask these three questions in order,
based on the property you're looking at.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Question number one, is the property a luxury home generally
priced at eight hundred dollars or more per night?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And isn't it one of those high value resort zones
like Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, or Bali.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
If the answer is an enthusiastic yes.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
The choice is immediate use method number one mx FHR.
This is going to guarantee the highest redemption value. It
avoids all those nancty fees, and you get insane perks
like the credit and the late checkout for high end travelers.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
It's the undeniable winner.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Okay. Question two, is the.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Property under eight hundred dollars a night? And do you
currently have built points or a good strategy to manufacture
them with that dining hack.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
If that's your scenario, then you go with method number two,
the built portal. Right, you get the built in wholesale discount,
the three x earnings and if you time it for
the first of the month, that guarantee one point five
cents per point redemption floor.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's the highest floor, lowest friction method of the three.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Okay, and finally, question three, does.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Your booking fall into the everything else category or is
your primary points currency capital one miles?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Then you go with method number three, the Capital one
price match plus purchase eraser.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
It works universally no price restrictions. It leverages the host's
desire to avoid fees to generate a really high value
redemption floor of around one point four to five cents.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Per mile, but it often spikes will past two and
a half cents on those discounted villas.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
This simple decision framework just ensures you never ever default
to redeeming your hard earned points at that abysmal one
cent per point rate.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Right, no matter which ecosystem you're in.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Exactly Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
To ground this in reality, let's quickly run through the
current best cards that support each strategy as of November
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
For method one the AMX ecosystem, the key cards are
the Platinum card for the five X on travel and
those massive welcome bonuses.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Which are like one seventy five K right now.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
At least the Business Platinum is essential for that critical
thirty five percent points rebate. And don't forget the Gold card,
which gets four x on supermarkets. An easy way to manufacture,
spend and build up your points balance fast.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Okay. For Method two Built, it's pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
It's all about the Build Master card, no annual fee,
and it's the only card that earns full points on rent.
The welcome bonus is also pretty appealing right now.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
And for Method three Capital one.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
The venture X card is the undisputed powerhouse there. The
three ninety five annual fee is heavily offset by a
three hundred dollars annual travel credit and a ten thousand
mile anniversary bonus.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Plus it has great welcome offers and top tier benefits
like primary car mental insurance.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Right it's the ideal card for making those big travel
purchases you plan to price match later.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Okay, let's ruarn one final definitive comparison, the Maui scenario.
A family of six planning a seven night trip to
Maui in summer twenty twenty six. This is a high cost,
high demand situation.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
And this comparison really illustrates why your strategy matters so much.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Option E bay cash on Airbnb. The quota is twelve thousand,
six hundred dollars plus a staggering eighteen hundred dollars in
fees ouch, the total cash outlay to the painful fourteen
four hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Okay. Now, let's look at Option SEE using the Capitol
one price match, the traveler does their homework, finds a
host direct rate of eighty eight hundred dollars and gets
a fifty six hundred dollars statement credit.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
That's a huge credit, it is.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
The remaining balance to erase is eighty eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
To erase that, they need eight hundred and eighty thousand
Capital one miles. After you factor in the miles they
earned back, the net cost is around eight hundred and
fifty one thousand miles.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Which it works out to about one point seven cents
per mile. Solid way better than one cent, but it
did require burning almost a million miles.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Okay. Now, for the grand finale option B, using the
mx FHR Luxury arbitrage, the property qualifies for FHR. The
all end price is thirteen thousand, five hundred dollars and.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
This comes with the massive perks, the two hundred dollars
credit daily breakfast, and a really nice ocean front upgrade.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
So if the traveler pays with points and uses the
business Platinum thirty five percent rebate, the gross cost is
one point three five million.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Points, but that rebate drops the net cost dramatically. They
secure that fourteen thousand, four hundred dollars plus value trip
for a net of about eight hundred seventy seven thousand,
five hundred membership rewards points.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Wait a second, if the value is fourteen thousand, four
hundred and the net cost is almost eight hundred seventy
eight thousand points, that's only one point six four cents
per point. That's actually less than the capital one option.
Why did the source still call amex FHR the clear winner.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
That is a crucial insight. The mx FHR option is
the clear winner by a mile, but only when you
factor in the upgrade valuation and the guaranteed perks. Ah
the soft value exactly. If we assign a conservative five
hundred dollars value per night to that upgrade and the
perks combined, the effective value of the MX day jumps
to nearly seventeen thousand dollars okay, And when you divide
(30:25):
that seventeen thousand dollars plus value by the eight hundred
and seventy seven thousand net points spent, the redemption rates
skyrockets past one point nine four cents per point.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I see. So the comparison really shows that while Capital
one has great utility on price matching, it's the strategic
conclusion of those guaranteed luxury perks from AMX that transforms
the whole sense per point calculation for high end properties.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Yes, the effort of shifting your high end bookings to
the FHR portal, even if it's the exact same property
you saw on Airbnb, pays dividends that the other methods
simply cannot touch for these big luxury bookings.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
So what's the big picture takeaway here? I mean, we've
systematically dismantled all the old low value strategies.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
The central insight is this in twenty twenty five and
twenty twenty six, paying full cash price for an Airbnb
as well, it's just avoidable. You now have three distinct
high value blueprints AMEX Built and Capital one that cater
to different point currencies and travel styles.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
The reward isn't just a free stay. It's achieving two
to seven cents per point in value, which beats out
most first class flight redemptions.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
It often does.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, the ultimate satisfaction really is turning a ten thousand
dollars plus vacation into an expense measured only in points.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
And if we connect this to the bigger picture, the
savings here aren't just monetary. They actively fund your future.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Trap'll explain that.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Look back at that Maui FHR example. You secured a
phenomenal seventeen thousand dollars plus trip, but because you use
the business Platinum rebate, you only spent a net of
about eight hundred and seventy eight thousand points instead of
paying almost one point point four million points at face value,
you saved yourself half a million points.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And the final provocative thought we want to leave you
with is this, because you secured that Maui stay with
a strategy that saved you hundreds of thousands of points,
those unspent points are still in your wallet.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
So what high value experience will you secure with the
rewards you didn't have to spend?
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Right? Will you transfer those rebated AMEX points to Ana
and book a couple of aspirational first class suites to Japan.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
That is how you truly win the travel game. You
let your points fund the trip you're on now, while
simultaneously securing the next big aspiration on your list.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Time to apply that decision tree to your next booking.
We hope this deep dive helps you travel farther, stay better,
and pay a whole lot less.
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