Travel Hacking SECRETS: $6K Business Class for $5.60! | Eli Facenda DSH #615

Yeah, I used to have to fly with CBD like every time.

Oh, if I didn't take it, I'd freak out.

Okay, now I've gotten better.

I think a lot of it is mental.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

For sure.

It's just like a control thing, right?

Like you're kind of just sitting there, you feel packed in.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I totally get that.

Yeah, I don't like that feeling of not being in control.

Mm-hmm.

Like you're not in control.

At least when you're driving, you're somewhat in control of so far at least.

When someone's flying you, you have no idea what's going on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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All right, guys, we are back.

We're going to talk travel hacking today.

Eli, the travel guy, one of the best in the game.

Thanks for coming.

Yeah, man.

Thanks for having me on.

I'm excited to dive in and talk travel points, all the good stuff.

Yeah, you've been at this for a while, right?

Yeah, dude.

I've been doing this myself for about 10 years and then as a company for about three to four.

Nice.

So what was that moment where you just dove into this?

It's kind of funny.

So, you know, the first moment that I like realized, like,

you know, I really want to explore this, it was out of necessity.

It was, I was basically 23 years old.

We were just talking about, you know, I went to Lehigh University, which is a school in the Northeast.

And

I was a finance degree.

So all my friends are basically on Wall Street at this point.

They're making like $150K out of school.

I was making like $20,000 a year because I was trying to start a business.

So I was driving Uber.

I was coaching baseball lessons.

I'm like doing everything side hustling to make it work.

And I remember our group of friends had like a trip to Thailand planned.

We were getting this text and I read it and I was like, oh shit, all my friends are going to Thailand and I can't afford it and this is embarrassing.

Like, I was like, I don't really know what I'm going to do.

So I was like, I need to figure out how the hell do I get on this trip?

And I basically, you know, I had a mentor at one point who told me, like, you don't need more money, you need a better strategy.

And he was kind of talking about growing a business, but I was like, I was already in this mindset of like thinking resourcefully.

So I was like, there's got to be another way.

Like, who can I trade with?

How can I figure this out?

And I was like, credit card points.

I was like, I think there's something there.

So I figured that out.

I opened up my first cards, got a free trip to Thailand.

And that was kind of the, the, the kickstart into it.

And I made like a shit ton of mistakes, botched a lot of this.

And then the real big kind of like first, holy shit, this is epic moment was actually like a year later.

I was going to Europe to London for an event.

And I got like a $6,000 business class ticket for $5.60.

And I paid 60,000 points.

So I'm like, I was making like $30,000 a year at this point.

Yeah.

And I was like walking down.

I remember like walking onto the plane and doing the math in my head being like, this ticket is a fifth of my income, and I got it for five dollars and sixty cents.

And I was like, okay, whatever it takes, I'm obsessed.

I was like, I'm in.

So that was kind of how it started for me.

Wow, that's nuts.

Is it still possible right now to like get a new card and fly for free?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Dude, there's cards out there literally today.

And this is one of the first ones I did because when you get into this, you'll be like, oh, some people will be like, I don't spend enough money to do this.

Like, I'm not, yeah, you know, I only spend two thousand dollars a month.

It's totally fine.

That's how I was when I started.

There's cards today where if you open them on the first purchase, so you get the card, you go to 7-Eleven, you buy a a Slurpee, you'll get 60,000 points, which is enough to fly round trip to Europe.

Damn.

So you buy a Slurpee, you pay the $95 annual fee, round trip ticket to Europe.

So for the younger people out there, like that are just starting, they don't have a lot of spend, or people that just don't spend a lot, that's a game changer.

Yeah.

That opens up so many possibilities.

So yeah, you can, you can totally do it.

And you could just, there's probably tens of dozens of credit cards that you could do that for, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

They have, all have different like spend requirements.

So some will be like, hey, you know, spend $4,000 in 90 days to hit the bonus.

And there's other ways to maximize like your earning on the points.

But there's a few that have really good, just like super easy signup bonuses like that.

And those are like for people just starting out that don't have a lot of spend, those are ones where if you can hit a couple of those, dude, it's like you have like hundreds of thousands of points.

You can travel all over the world without having to like do a lot of additional crazy stuff.

That's baller.

What card do you use the most right now?

Personally, I use the Amex Gold the most.

I would say, you know, groceries and dining is a pretty big expense for pretty much anybody, and that's the best card for that, in my opinion.

So I use that a lot.

And then the business, I mean, I have a kind of whole suite of setup for the business and personally, but usually the Amex business gold ends up racking up the most, or I have some Chase Inc.

cards.

There's a couple different versions of those cards where I spend a lot there too.

It just depends on what I'm spending on because basically the thing that most people kind of get wrong here is they're not maximizing.

their earnings on every different type of category of spend.

So like if you spend on ads, it's a different card than if you spend on maybe software or travel or dining.

So you want to have the right cards lined up.

So it just depends on like the category of spend that month of what's really high.

That makes sense.

Is the Amex Platinum overrated?

The MX Platinum, in my opinion, is super overrated.

And here's why.

Basically, it's like a super high annual fee and it comes with all these perks and benefits, which most people don't use.

And the difference maker is it doesn't actually earn that many points on your everyday spending.

So for example, the Amex Gold is a slightly less popular, lower annual fee card, but in most purchases, it's going to earn four times as many points as the Amex Platinum.

And most people think that because the Amex Platinum is the heavily marketed card, it's like the the big fancy one with the higher fee that everyone kind of like flashes a little bit.

They think that's the best card.

But in reality, the smart people are usually using the Amex gold when they're out at a restaurant or, you know, they're doing their normal spending.

So I think it's pretty overrated.

It does have some great perks and benefits to it.

Like, so out here in Vegas, right, there's this thing called Find Hotels and Resorts.

It's like a benefit of the Platinum card.

That benefit will mean that you're getting upgrades.

It means you're getting early check-in, late check-out, you're getting hotel credits, you're getting free breakfasts, high-speed Wi-Fi.

You'll get Marriott status.

You'll get Hilton status.

You'll get Uber credits.

You get a lot of benefits out of that.

Yeah.

Centurion lounge access, which they have all over the country.

So there are a lot of perks to it, but I think it's really overrated in terms of the way that most people perceive it and how they use it.

Yeah, I feel that.

I used a Centurion lounge.

It's nothing crazy, to be honest.

Yeah.

Like the food is kind of whatever.

Yeah, exactly.

More than anything, it's just, it's a nice place to be.

I mean, you're a big networker, too.

So like for me, a lot of times, like that was a big driver for me as I was starting to build my business too.

It was like, I would just go in these lounges, like on the way, you know, normal trips and just be like, who seems receptive to strike up a conversation, see where it goes and like always have these fun chats and like if they're in an amex lounge they're probably doing something right yeah business or life like they found their way in there at least so maybe there's some collaboration opportunity so i found that really fun you know just having more space some of them are nicer um you know there's some where you get like massages and stuff like that damn yeah not in vegas not in vegas yeah yeah it depends on the lounge um but uh yeah having a good space good place to work hang out a little more room than just like waiting by the gate it just upgrades the experience a little bit um they're not mind-blowing if you want like the most epic lounges you need to to do some of these like premier international carriers like if you go to

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if you fly Qatari always first class there's a lounge called al Safwa Lounge in Doha and this lounge has literally like you can get your own private bedroom and so you can stay overnight sleep in a bed they have a jacuzzi tub tub, massages.

Like some of these lounges have like cigar lounges,

outdoor terraces.

Some have a pool.

Like there's like some really, really epic lounges out there.

Yeah, that we don't really have in the U.S., but those exist.

I remember there used to be travel hawkers that would just stay in lounges.

They didn't even have a house.

But then they patched it because

they would buy refundable airline tickets or something.

Yes.

Yep.

Yeah, exactly.

So people, you could buy a ticket, get into the lounge, cancel the ticket and get the refund and then like lounge hop.

Nowadays, I think there's better ability to kind of track that.

And so people like, they'll shut you down.

It's a little bit of a risk risk to do anything like that like in my opinion You know, there's some there's some gray way gray areas to do like travel hacking.

Yeah, I don't like to do those because I'm gonna be a customer for these brands for a long time I'm gonna be traveling for a long time.

Yeah, and a lot of times if you do something a little bit sketchy like Eventually there's a way they catch you and they track it and they shut you down Then you're blacklisted and you're banned and like to me That's not worth it.

Yeah.

So that's kind of why I've never really done that kind of stuff.

But there are people who do that and it's pretty pretty hilarious.

It's pretty wild.

That's why I never bought the flight pass because first of all, yeah, I don't want to get banned.

Second of all, you're on standby, so you don't even know if you're getting on the flight.

Exactly.

You know what I mean?

I'd rather just know I have a guaranteed seat.

Yeah, I don't like the flight passes either for that exact reason.

Like, I don't have a lot of trips where I'm like super flexible, where I'm like, oh, I could go anytime today because I'm just sitting at the airport, like waiting for a flight potentially.

Or, you know, if it's a long-haul flight, like at this point, I've flown so much and experienced some pretty awesome stuff where it's like, if it's over a few hours, like, I want to do it in first class.

And, you know, flying standby, it's not always guaranteed.

And so it's just like, there's different restrictions with that.

So, you know, in some cases, it works.

But I even know we have clients of ours that like we work with, like some of our higher ticket clients where they have a family member who's a pilot.

So they have like a legit standard flight pass that they didn't just like buy online or something.

And they're still using us because they're like, yeah, but it doesn't really work all the time.

And it's like kind of depends on the routes.

And so I'm not a big fan of them either.

But some people love them and that's cool.

Yeah, you got to fly at random times sometimes.

Exactly.

If the flight's full, you're not getting on.

Exactly.

Yeah.

What's your thoughts on domestic first class?

Because I talk about this with my friends.

And sometimes I feel like I pay for it and it's like not even worth it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So for me, like everyone has their different preferences.

For me, if it's under a few hours, it's not that big of a deal.

If it's over like three to four hours, I want to fly first for a couple of reasons.

I think the comfort's better at that point.

Having more space to work, I'm usually just going to be able to like get in the zone a little bit better up there.

But the key is like, are you getting a good deal or not?

Right.

And so if I'm paying cash for it, that makes it a lot harder.

But with the right point strategy, you can get domestic first for way less than normal economy fares.

And so if you do it like that, then it makes the decision a lot easier where you don't feel like, ah, it's like this tough.

Is it worth it or not?

So, for me, like, I flew back from San Diego to Austin two weeks ago, and the first class tick was like 800 bucks per person.

I was with my girlfriend.

I was like, I would not pay that for a two and a half hour flight.

Like, just no way.

It's just stupid in my opinion.

But I was like, okay, but I could use points and by using the right transfer partners with these points programs, we can kind of explain like how that works.

Yeah, I was able to get that flight for like 35,000 points a person or something.

And I was like, that's reasonable.

That's not bad.

So I did that.

But otherwise, I'm not a big fan.

The exception would be these long haul, like transcontinental flights.

Like if you're going like LA to Miami, you're going, you know, maybe even like Vegas to Miami.

Some of these like four or five, six-hour flights, if you can get some domestic first-class experiences where they actually have the lay-flat beds, that is a game changer.

Wow.

So you need, you usually are flying on longer routes for that.

There's some that are going to be on shorter routes.

And these are the bigger, like wide-body jets, not the narrow body where it's like one aisle.

These are going to be the ones that have three cabins, are going to have economy, like a full premium and a business in first.

And some of these are going to be, you know amazing experiences so in that case it's worth it um particularly jet blue mint would be my favorite domestic first class of all time it's such a good experience you get these whole like lay flat beds and suites they just don't have a ton of routes yeah so you're probably not going to see a lot of that out of vegas that's the only problem damn i didn't know there was flat beds on domestic routes that's crazy i took one to china once and that was a hundred percent worth it oh my gosh yeah yeah for the long international that to me it's like a requirement yeah like you need that because you're going overnight you're going to sleep you're going to show more rested uh You're just getting a way, way, way better experience.

So I get what you're saying with domestic first, but if you can find those routes that have the lay flat beds, particularly anytime you're flying from like a major city to a major city and it's like a five to six hour flight, there's probably a couple routes that will have a lay flat bed.

And there's a way that you can actually see that when you're searching.

Really quickly, there's actually a Google Chrome extension called Legroom.

And this Chrome extension will allow you just on Google Flights to search and it will show you a quick icon of what type of seat you're going to be in.

So yeah, it will be like, is this a normal chair?

Is it kind of like a more extended recliner or is it a lay-flat bed?

I'm literally downloading that after this episode.

It's amazing.

It's free and you can just like literally just do your normal searching and you'll see like, oh, this one has lay-flat bed options.

I'll take that.

I need that because it's so hard to memorize the plane names and like what it looks like on the inside that I just don't even do it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's that's like a deeper nerd level.

Like there's this whole sub-niche of like aviation geeks.

Yeah.

And those people like will literally know the code of the plane from when it came out of the factory.

And it's like, that's insane to me.

It's wild.

Yeah.

But that's the shortcut.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And those guys are going after one of the Boeing planes right now, right?

People are scared of one of them.

Yeah, yeah.

There was that door that fell off in an Alaskan Airlines flight.

And yeah, the 737 MAX right now is like under a lot of pressure.

There's some issues with, I guess, how they're producing them and the quality on the factory line.

In my opinion, most of them are still probably fine.

I think there's probably a lot of media hype around it.

But yeah, the fact that there's like whistleblowers in Boeing and like one guy, I think.

One guy died.

Yeah, one guy died.

And it was an alleged suicide thing where he had a gunshot on on his head.

And it's like, that's kind of sketchy.

So that's not a suicide.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a disappearing kind of act right there.

So I don't know what's going on with that.

Personally, I've still flown on some of those, but

yeah.

If you have an option, you can fly a different aircraft, probably we'd use that.

I used to be terrified of flying.

I used to get anxious.

Yeah.

I still do, actually.

It's funny.

I don't fly all the time.

Yeah.

I'll sometimes randomly just be like flying, just get like random kind of like.

anxiety attack type stuff in the middle of the air and I'm like it just happens it's the worst too because you can't even do anything yeah you're just kind of like stuck in the middle of an airplane.

Like, oh my God.

There's two strangers next to you.

Yeah.

I think that the reason I even share it, though, is because I think a lot of people have that.

And then, like, it's kind of a normal thing.

I think a lot of people deal with it.

And so the more you normalize it, the less it becomes an issue.

Right.

And then, you know, you just kind of get used to it.

And when you get used to it, you normalize and then it kind of fades away a little bit.

Is that what happened for you?

Yeah.

I used to have to fly with CBD like every time.

Oh, really?

If I didn't take it, I'd freak out.

Okay.

Now I've gotten better.

I think a lot of it is mental.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

For sure.

It's just like a control thing, right?

Like you're kind of just sitting there, you feel packed in.

Like, yeah, so I totally get that.

Yeah, I don't like that feeling of not being in control.

Like, you're not in control.

At least when you're driving, you're somewhat in control of your car, at least.

When someone's flying you, you have no idea what's going on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the funny thing is, right, like logically, less people die from plane crashes than like most other major forms of death.

So like if you look at the stats and the numbers, like there's not a lot of logic behind it, but when you're flying in the air, it doesn't feel like that.

Right.

That's true.

Yeah, it's very rare to die in a plane crash.

Yeah, yeah.

Like last year was the safest year of flying in aviation history.

Really?

Yeah.

I think there was like, I don't remember the exact set, but I think it was either like, there was like no commercial deaths or something like that.

It was like the safest year for commercial aviation ever.

Wow.

But that's not what you see in headlines.

You hear about the

private plane that was doing an African safari and crashed into a jungle there and like four Americans died.

That's the stuff you hear.

You don't hear, hey, 12,000 planes landed perfectly fine today.

No one.

No one's showing up.

That's not newsworthy.

Exactly.

Would you ever go on a helicopter?

I would.

I would.

I mean, I don't think it's going to be a part of my lifestyle, you know, know, but like, but I would definitely, you know, if I'm in like Hawaii and I want to get like a, do like a Nepali Coast tour of like Kauai and it's like a helicopter tour, I'd probably

love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If it was a safe space like that, there's some sketchy like routes, I think.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

I mean, the Kobe thing was like a big

mountains.

I don't know if I do it in the mountains like that.

You know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I've done some, definitely some things where you get in, you're like,

God,

I got full faith right now.

Like I did a, I did a trip through Africa and

we did this gorilla trekking experience

in the deep jungle in Uganda, like out there.

So, you get, first off, to get to Uganda is like kind of a mission.

Like, you have to fly the way that I did, I flew through London, then London to Addis Ababa, which is in Ethiopia, then Ethiopia to Entebbe, which is in Uganda, then from Entebbe to a small Uganda airport, then from a small Uganda airport to like a really small Uganda airport.

Oh, my God.

And then a five-hour drive through the jungle.

Dude.

So that's how that's how long it took to get to it.

You really wanted to get to the jungle.

What was was in there?

Yeah.

So it was a gorilla trekking experience, which is a total bucket list for anyone that's like into wildlife or nature and like wants to go to just like see some crazy shit in the wild.

Yeah.

So trekking, not trekking, by the way.

Some people confuse me.

So what's trekking?

Gorilla trekking basically means like gorilla hiking.

So like you're going into the jungle with a local guide to go see gorillas in the wild.

Okay.

So they have like all these like really, you know, uh

well, they're just really good at being able to like find footprints and trails and figure out like, okay, the gorillas were just here and there's like certain families of them and you could basically track where they went through in the jungle, and eventually you'll just see them like in the wild.

And so, literally, you're like hanging out with a family of gorillas, like this close from them, and they're just like doing their daily life, and you're just basically like up close and personal.

No offense or anything like that.

It's not a zoo.

So, on this experience, it's pretty cool.

We had a guide, and I remember just saying that we're looking at this like family of gorillas, and I'm like, holy shit, these are like 500 pounds.

Like, those are some big silverbacks that could like rip my head off.

Yeah.

And, and they have like shotguns with them

in case, not to shoot them but to like shoot a scare shot over their head yeah and that scares them off if they ever charge but they they don't really do that so but that that's a really cool bucket lister i the whole point was that i got on some sketchy planes to do that but uh

if you want to go do some of that stuff like there's usually going to be a a little bit of a smaller local plane involved yeah

yeah when i was in bolivia i had some some sketchy flights over there yeah yeah that'll happen yeah damn 500 pounds dude were you shitting yourself it was intense it was intense it was really cool i felt pretty safe because the guides um and they do this all day every day.

But yeah, man, it was the craziest part was how human they felt.

It literally feels like seeing someone that just speaks a different language than you.

Like you can kind of sub-communicate to each other.

Like if you met someone that only spoke Chinese, I don't think you'd speak Chinese, right?

No.

So you probably have to kind of like use hand gestures.

Like there's ways to communicate without words.

It kind of felt like that.

I was like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm looking and speaking to a human.

Yeah.

But it's obviously it's a gorilla.

Wow.

So

super cool.

Super cool experience.

Did the guides speak English?

They did.

Yeah.

And these guys are, I mean, these hikes were like insane, like muddy, up and down, like crazy hills.

We're going through wild terrain and we're like trekking through like struggle.

And these guys are, and we're in like all the proper gear.

These guys have like a random t-shirt on and like terrible quality boots.

And they're just like, they're like dancing through the jungle.

Like it was just like they're so used to it.

It was really cool to see them in their elephants.

That's cool.

Africa's on my buck list.

I'm actually going to Egypt this year.

Nice.

Yeah.

I remember you talking about that.

I just went last year to the pyramids.

Oh, nice.

Sick.

I'm pumped you got to go see the pyramids is that where you're going to definitely i'm going with billy carson so he'll definitely be bringing me all over man it's a really dope trip and if you actually there's a really really awesome hotel that's a points hotel right in front of the pyramid about right in front of the pyramids so yeah if you want to use points and go to egypt and do the pyramids well this is definitely the property it's called the marriott mana house beautiful views you literally wake up and the pyramids are right in front of your face wow it's so sick yeah so there's like uh there's only a couple properties that have good views and this is the only one you can do well on points and it's actually a really good deal, too.

So I would check that out if you're not like staying somewhere for the group tour, but that's a, that's a great property.

That's cool.

I want to dive more into the points.

So how much percent on average are you saving when you use points on hotels and flights, you think?

Well, I mean, it's almost hard to say percentage because a lot of times it's 100%.

So I mean, you're just using points for the whole thing.

So here's the thing, right?

There's different ways to use points.

So, and I like to chunk this into three buckets.

It's like, how do you think about the point side?

So the first bucket is you want to make sure that you're maximizing your points earnings.

Okay.

So this means the right cards on the right expenses to get the most points back.

Okay.

The second chunk is going to be: are you getting the best value out of your points?

And so that's kind of what you're asking about.

How do you use them, right?

How do you make sure every time you use your points, you're getting the highest value and highest return?

And then the third piece is, how do you maximize your perks and benefits?

And so that's going to be like upgrades, status, lounges, things like that, like all the kind of nice like one-off things.

So when it comes to using your points, that kind of second key to this, the biggest thing is you want to make sure that you know how to determine if it's a good deal or not and if you're actually getting good value.

Okay.

Because Because, like, if I go to use points, probably the way that you may be using them, you're going to get one cent per point when you go through like Amex Travel.

Yeah, okay, so they give you a fixed value on your points.

There's strategies to use these points where you're getting like two, three, five, sometimes 10 to 15x the value.

Damn.

So, like, you mentioned you have a million points, right?

Yeah.

If you go through Amex Travel, that's going to be worth $10,000 worth of travel.

Okay.

If you do it the right way that I'm talking about, that same million points will now be worth $50,000.

Wow.

Yeah, that's what happened, right?

Because I spent a million on an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, a million points for the week.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So if you use the points more effectively, you could have gotten that for instead of a million, maybe like $150,000 or $200,000.

It just depends on the property because not all properties have that ability.

But if you're like, hey, I want to do a five-star hotel in Mexico for a week that's an all-inclusive, there are really good points properties where if you use the right strategies, you could do a week there for 100,000 points instead of a million.

Damn.

Yeah.

That's cool.

So you basically transfer it to, I think I stayed at Sandals or something like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So Sandals would be an example where like that, that type of property wouldn't be an optimal way to use points.

You'd want to look at one of the major hotel brands, like a Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, IHG type hotel.

And I mean, each of these have insane five-star category properties like, you know, Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, Ritz-Carlton, St.

Regis, Park Hyatt, Andas properties.

These are all really nice five-star properties.

that are part of these groups, even like the Six Senses, which is like a really luxury one part of IHG.

So you can use points at a lot of these properties.

And the whole thing where you transfer these points around, like I'm talking about, is a capability for those properties.

Something like Sandals would not be a part of one of those major chains.

So you could still use points through like Amex Travel, but it's just not going to be as good of a value out of them.

Right.

Which airline or hotel chain do you think status is important to get?

Yeah, I like picking specifically one major brand on the hotel side to get top status, starting there.

And if you can get status at multiple, that's great.

But my favorite is actually Hyatt.

Really?

Yeah.

Over Marriott?

Over Marriott.

Wow.

Yeah.

The Hyatt points points are worth way more than Marriott points.

The upgrades are amazing.

I think their quality of service, generally speaking, is great.

The loyalty program as a whole is amazing.

And the benefits, the way the benefits work out are good.

And there's slightly less competition in the Hyatt world.

Marriott's the biggest hotel brand.

It's the biggest global footprint.

It also has a lot of people that are very frequently staying at Marriott.

It's like a lot of corporate travelers, because they have more properties, they're staying in a lot more Marriott properties.

Hyatt is a slightly smaller footprint, and they still have some insanely nice hotels.

And so when you have status there, you'll get some really epic benefits.

So for example, actually, I took my girlfriend to Sardinia, Italy last summer,

and we stayed at this five-star hotel right on the water.

It's like beautiful.

It's this really luxury island in the Mediterranean.

So the hotel would have been about $3,000 a night for four nights.

It's really nice if I was going to pay cash, right?

And plus we got all these free, brief perks and benefits.

So it would have been $13,000 for the stay.

Okay.

So if I was going to go to Amex Travel or Chase Travel, that would cost me 1.3 million points.

Instead, I converted my points and then I had status with Hyatt.

So I got upgraded into that suite.

So I only used 140,000 points instead of 1.3 million points.

Holy crap.

For that, for that stay.

And so that's the benefit.

And that's the kind of stuff that Hyatt as a program to me has the best benefits for when it comes to status.

Those kind of upgrades you can get with other properties and other brands, but it's more difficult.

So that's the hotel side.

On the airline side, it's really going to be more about where you live and what routes you fly the most.

Because first off, getting to status is more difficult for airlines.

It requires a lot more spend, a lot more travel.

Getting the actual benefits from that, like the upgrades is more difficult than from hotels.

And depending on where you live, there's going to be different routes and hubs that are common for your location.

So it should really be determined more around that than it is just around like which one has the best value.

Because if you really like flying Delta, but you live in Dallas,

most of the flights you're going to be on are going to be American because it's a giant hub.

It's where the headquarters are.

So if you try to get Delta status in Dallas,

unless you're flying maybe to Atlanta or Salt Lake, which are Delta hubs a lot, you're going to end up on American flights or you're going to have to connect to keep your status.

So it's like, for me, flying direct is more of a priority than having top status.

Yeah.

I hate those stops, man.

Direct all the way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you can fly, I mean, you're in a great hub.

Vegas is amazing for direct flights.

It's like one of the most connected airports in the country.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's very few places I can't go direct in the country.

Exactly.

From Vegas.

But we actually, international is tough here.

Yeah.

It's not the best for international, but I mean, you're so close to like other major hubs.

Denver's close, which is a huge international hub.

LA, San Fran.

I mean, those are all three really big ones.

And Salt Lake is pretty good, too.

So, all of those are within like a couple hours for you.

So, that's that's big.

I feel that.

I have this debate with my friends all the time, so I'm curious your answer.

Favorite domestic airline.

My favorite domestic airline is JetBlue.

Really?

Yeah.

I've never heard that answer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Most people sleep on it because specifically their JetBlue first class is what is called Mint.

It is the best domestic first class hands down.

I mean, there's no debate about it.

Delta One would be the next, the next best first class.

But the JetBlue Mint experience to me is definitely superior.

So the problem with Mint, though, is they don't fly on a lot of routes and they don't have a good points program.

So it's more difficult, but like there are some really cheap first class options comparatively.

So if you were even flying, I remember seeing from like LA to, I think it was Liberia, Costa Rica.

Okay.

So if you want to go to Costa Rica from the West Coast, it was like 600 bucks round trip for their first class.

What?

Where you get like the lay flat bed, you get the full suite.

That's a steal.

It's a steal.

Yeah.

So sometimes you'll find some good deals like that.

But again, they don't have a ton of great routes.

So if you're flying first class, that's my favorite.

Even their economy product to me is really good.

I just think they have a good airline as a whole.

Delta would be my next favorite.

And that's out of the major carriers between United American and Delta.

Delta to me is like way above the rest.

But their points program is not that great.

And just depending on where you live, that means we're probably connecting a lot.

Like I live in Austin.

I'm oftentimes going to be connecting if I'm flying Delta, which kind of sucks, but that's just the nature of living in like a not a major, major, major airport hub.

Yeah, I got Delta number one.

Oh, did you?

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

When I lived in Jersey, United was big.

Yeah.

So that's all I knew.

Yeah.

But now I got some options out here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's good.

That's good.

Yeah.

I'd say American is probably out of the major ones, my least favorite.

I would, if I had to rank them, I'd go American would be fourth.

United would be third, Delta would be second, Jet Blue would be first.

Wow.

I've never flown JetBlue, so I can't speak on it, but I like that list.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Again,

a lot of the flights of JetBlue, you're not going to see the plane I'm talking about, so you got to make sure it's the right plane.

Okay.

I'm going to get that.

That will be like when you start to be like, okay, I get it.

Yeah.

I'm going to get that Chrome extension, man for real.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm doing this so wrong.

I'm paying full price for these flights in hotels right now.

I'm not using any points.

Yeah, yeah.

You can definitely switch it up.

I mean, so here's the thing.

Like, you probably do a lot of business networking when you're traveling.

Yeah.

So a lot of these are going to be business expense for you, right?

All of them.

So that's good.

If you're going to pay for it, at least it's a business expense.

If there's ever trips where it's like a personal trip and it's not a business write-off, that would be the first priority to start to use points.

Because normally what would happen, like, okay, you run a business, you're making money, there's profit.

If you were going to pay for a personal trip, you're taking cash out of the business and then you're going to pay for that.

So in order to do that, you're going to pay tax.

Right.

Okay.

If you use points, they're non-taxable.

So because points are non-taxable, what that means as a business owner is that if you use your points for a personal trip, not only do you not have to pay for the travel, since you don't have to take the money out of your company, you also don't have to pay that amount in taxes.

So I'll give you an example, right?

Like, say you're going to do a $20,000 trip personally.

You're going to go to, you you know, Egypt with your girlfriend or your fiancé.

So if you were to do that personally and you pull that money out of the business, let's say your tax rate was 25%, that means you're going to pay $20,000 in cash for the trip.

You're going to pay 25% in taxes, which would mean that's an extra 5K.

So the total cost would be like $25,000.

Okay.

If you use points, right, you'd cover the $20,000 on the trip, which means you don't have to pull that money out of the company, which means you don't pay the $5,000 in taxes.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

That is brilliant.

I never even thought about the tax aspect.

Yeah, yeah.

It's big.

So like for business owners because people are like oh should i use my points for my business trips

make sure it's like bucket number one is personal travel

once you've knocked all that out and you're like okay i got all my personal trips covered on points then you'd want to start to tackle more of the business trips that's how i think about it and that's kind of what i recommend yeah um yeah that's that's a good kind of general way of thinking super cool so you've been over 40 countries was that all on points Not all of it.

I've built a tour company as well.

So like the first seven years of my career, I was building this international sports travel company.

So we take youth sports teams and families on international tours.

So a lot of it was for that.

I was like going all over the world, setting up events and tours and tournaments like for these sporting events, all over the world.

And so some of the time it was on points, sometimes it was cash fairs.

More recently, it's pretty much all been on points.

And I'd say out of those 40, probably like 25 to 30 were

points trips.

But some of those countries I've done like 10 times, like Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, like I've done.

UK, I've done some of those like probably 10 to 15 even.

And so there's a lot of repeats in there where it was like maybe a few of those I was paying for as part of the company.

And then I'd go back and be like, okay, now it's time to try British Airways' nicest business class.

Let's see what that's about.

I'll try that.

I love it.

Yeah.

Do these airlines reach out to you to like partner at all?

Not the airlines as much.

The hotels will do more of that.

The airlines, I think, just because they're so big and the operations are so crazy, like

they don't do a ton of that.

If I had a big YouTube channel, specifically in aviation, they might like Sam Chewy.

I actually met him the other week.

He will get like special partnerships with airlines because they're like, hey, we just redid the interior of this aircraft.

We want to get Samichui to do exposure on it on YouTube.

So, like, that would be the play.

If you just wanted to basically build a brand around showcasing specific things within aviation, then you'd probably get that.

But right now, I don't really do too much with them on that.

Sometimes, you know, we'll talk to the gate agent and be like, hey, we're doing like content.

Can we get on first?

And they'll let that happen, but that's about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think the hotels are more flexible.

I got friends of mine getting 10K comps at the nicest hotels.

That's sick.

Yeah.

Nuts.

Yeah.

If you position yourself right for those hotel properties, some of them, I mean, they have vacant inventory.

It's like that that whole priceline.com model where it's like, you know, basically, you know, it's similar to like a grocery store that has like bad bananas, right?

And they're going to like sell them off.

It's kind of like that with hotels.

And so it just makes sense for a hotel to be like, okay, well, this suite isn't going to be sold.

So we might as well get someone that has influence in here.

And I actually, this is another status story.

This is kind of like, I think partially brand and partially status, but I stayed at the Park Hyatt in New York City over on Christmas, which is like a very crazy time to go there.

It's a five-star hotel right near Central Park.

Okay.

I got upgraded i booked into a thousand dollar a night room i used 30 000 points or no i used 40 000 points for this but i booked into a thousand dollar a night room i got upgraded to a thirty thousand dollar a night project

so it was like yeah so we talked about that cent per point thing where it's like how much value you're getting out of amex points amex gives you one i got 75 cents i got 75x oh my

god it was insane yeah so that was that was crazy came with like a butler unbelievable views uh it was basically an apartment unit yeah here in vegas you just uh you're supposed to tip the guy when you check in.

Sometimes it works.

Yeah.

I did it at Fountain Blue and got the nicest room there, but I didn't really like that hotel, actually.

Have you stayed there yet?

I haven't stayed there.

No, I've only done a couple

Vegas trips the last couple of years.

And like right now, we're staying on the strip at the MBM, which kind of sucks.

Yeah, they're like, they call that the C-tier.

And then there's like BNA.

Yeah, exactly.

The last two, I've came out here a few weeks ago to do the Michael Sartani podcast and then this.

Both times, I'm like, I came during the Super Bowl weekend and then March Madness.

So it's like everything's been nuts.

And I'm like, it's like the point redemptions weren't great.

The cash values were really expensive.

So I was like, we'll just do kind of like a standard hotel.

Oh, yeah.

Hotel Super Bowl week.

Oh my gosh.

It was insane.

Thousands a night.

Yeah, exactly.

For like not nice properties.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's wild.

Any favorite trips, countries that stand out to you?

Yeah, so I always say, like, you know, there's a whole different bunch of reasons to go to different places.

But for me, if I was going to give like the most unique experience that I've had in a country, it would be Japan.

And the reason I always say Japan is because, you know, there's a lot of awesome countries countries in Asia that cater to tourism.

Like you can go to Thailand, you know, Vietnam, Bali, places like that.

A lot of them have relied heavily on tourism dollars, which means when you get there, there's unless you go off the beaten path, it kind of feels like, okay, they're catering to Westerners and stuff like that, which is cool.

Like, I still love those places.

But when you're in Japan, you're like in Japan.

Like, it's their way.

It's not.

bent for like American tourists.

So like you feel like you're really in the culture.

And I think just the way that their culture works, how the society operates from the subway station to the way they order in restaurants to how welcoming and

hospitable they are.

Like all these things are so cool.

And then the food is insane.

So I'm a huge fan of Japan.

That's my favorite.

That's the one I always say to go to.

I mean, there's other really unique ones.

Going to see the pyramids, for example, is like such a bucket list experience.

I wouldn't say Egypt itself is a place I want to spend a lot of time in, but going to do that experience in Egypt or potentially going to Luxor would be like top bucket list things to do.

Yeah, that's what I've heard.

I heard the food's kind of mid there, but the pyramids make up for it.

Yeah.

And I mean, like, anywhere, there's going to be like certain restaurants and experiences that are great.

I highly suggest, like, it sounds like you're going with a group, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I always suggest definitely for places like that, you want to have a local guide.

Whether it's through the group or on your own, like, I went there and I've traveled all over the world.

So it's not like I need one in order to have to know what I'm doing.

It's more because it enhances the experience so much in a place like that, right?

Where you're getting better deals, you're getting better access to things, you're getting better restaurants.

They're showing you the kind of behind the scenes things, they're giving you the history and the context.

Because if you go see the pyramids, it's mind-blowing.

But you kind of look at it and you're like, wow, that's cool.

But if you go see the pyramids with a guide who has the history and the different stories and perspectives and the science of it all and like all these different things you can ask questions to, it makes that experience go from just like a cool thing to see to like a mind-blowing experience that makes you just think about like the world and history and humanity and culture and all that stuff.

And to me, that is like a complete game changer.

I can see that.

That makes total sense.

Yeah.

Certain countries you definitely need a guide.

100%.

100%.

So being a huge foodie.

Yeah.

I'm curious what your top country was for food.

Yeah.

So, well, Japan's up there too.

You know, sushi, ramen.

I remember actually like the first time I went, I was like, oh, we'll see how it is.

And I had two meals.

And I was like, oh my God.

I was only there for like three days.

So I was like, I started waking up earlier in the morning so that I could go get more meals in the day.

I was like, I was like, I do that at all-inclusive spots.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't eat breakfast, but those I do.

Yeah, those you do.

Yeah.

Yeah, because I'll crush it.

So that'd be one.

But my honest answer is Italy.

Okay.

I mean, dude, it's just have you been to Italy?

No, it's on my list.

It is phenomenal.

And here's the thing: like, you go to Italy, and the quality of food is so much better.

You know, here, if I eat like a pizza, it's like I'm down for a day, right?

You know, you like crush a whole pie, you're like, you're, you're, like, out, out of commission.

In Italy, it's like you wake up, you have a full spread.

It's like the Nutella, the pastries, the fresh fruit, the local meats and cheese and stuff like that.

You might have like an entire giant pizza for lunch and like a giant pasta for dinner.

And all of it, the ingredients are so good.

It's unbelievably delicious, but the ingredient quality is so much better there that you don't feel just like, you don't feel that heavy, you don't feel dead.

So, like, you can eat bread, you can drink more wine, and it doesn't have all the

chemicals and everything like that that unfortunately we have in the U.S.

So, in my experience, going there, not only is the food way better, the quality, but how you feel is also way better.

Add in the fact that like, there's hardly any major chains there for great food.

So, like, when you're going into these major, you know, Italian cities or even out into the local places, like they have a couple, you know, fast food places and stuff like that.

But even if you go to like the gas stations, there's a place called the Auto Grill on the highway in Italy.

Yeah.

And throughout some of these European places, you'll go in.

It's like fresh cooked pasta.

Wow.

And it's like, this is a gas station.

And it's like a hot bar with like, yeah, really nice, high-quality stuff.

That's funny because in America, we associate gas station food with food poisoning.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I was actually, I was in Denmark last summer and.

It was at a 7-Eleven and they had like homemade banana bread samples that someone was handing.

I was like, so confused.

I'm like, you're allowed to do this in a 7-Eleven?

Like have someone that's just like making homemade banana bread in the back and like bring it out front?

Like you would never see that in the U.S.

ever.

That is weird.

It was so cool, but it was awesome.

I was like, this is great.

Yeah, I'm willing to try interesting foods, actually.

Yeah.

I think it's important to experience the culture.

So I'm out there, you know?

I ate cow heart in Bolivia

on the street.

He was just grilling it.

Wow.

I got super sick, to be honest, but I'm always down to try stuff.

You got to try it.

You got to try it.

I mean, life's short.

Like, some of these places, like, when are you going to be back?

I had a, I actually remember when I was on that trip in Thailand,

there's a backpacker road called Khaosan Road in Bangkok.

And this is like wild party city.

Like people all over the world, it's just reckless.

Yeah.

This is where they have like the ping pong shows.

If you've heard about that, I haven't.

Oh, you haven't heard of the ping pongs?

Ping pong shows?

Oh, yeah.

What is that?

Basically, it's like, there's...

It's kind of like going to like a strip club kind of thing.

Okay.

But they're going to have, it's like more like performative.

So they're going to shoot like ping pong balls out of their pussy.

what yeah

damn yeah sounds hard to pull off i don't know how they do it but yeah you can go see stuff like that there so there's all sorts of weird stuff happening down there okay so that's cow sandroid and bangkok now on the street um

it's just it's just packed it's like kind of like new orleans like bourbon street feel and i remember the first night i ate like a scorpion off a fried scorpion off a stick and i like they were like do it and i was like oh that's crazy like weird food and i ate it and i done it and i was like oh cool and then a bunch of my friends arrived the next night and i was kind of like trying to show it off i was like like yo I'm exotic.

Like, I'll eat the scorpion.

I ate it and I just vomited.

So it's like, sometimes when you do some of these trips and you're eating some wacky food, you got to be careful.

Yeah.

Because, yeah, that was,

yeah.

I heard that happens in Bali, actually.

Yeah, Bali Belly is a different thing.

I'm thinking a little bit.

It's just like the food,

it's something with either the contaminants or sometimes I think it has to do with like

they say it's like not what you eat, but it's what you eat.

So it's like the type of grain or grass that like the cows may be having there is different and your gut microbiome might not be used to that.

So you eat it and like you get kind of, you get kind of messed up from that.

So that can happen, or it's just sometimes the contaminants, I guess, will get you.

But a lot of people, yeah, Bali, India, those are definitely places where it's like

you can venture off and go eat some cow heart off the street like you did and stuff like that, but it does come with a little bit of a risk.

India's on my list too, to be honest.

Yeah, I feel like that's a country where you need to know someone.

Yeah, yeah.

I've had a lot of clients that have gone to India.

Some going back to visit family.

Some going to have just a cool experience and see the culture.

Some Some going to do like kind of spiritual retreat type stuff.

And I would agree.

I would agree.

I think if you're going, especially if you're like an American, you're just going to go to India, either going with someone who's from there, which there's a lot of people who are like, I think India has a very strong culture of people that come back to visit.

Yeah.

So if you have friends in the U.S., there's a good chance that at some point they may be going back to visit family and that's kind of a cool thing to experience.

Or you want to get like a good guide or be a part of an experience where you're going to, you know, know the right places to go and stuff like that.

It'll just make it so much more painless and you'll get better quality of experience.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Indian foods, dude, that's in my top five.

Yeah, yeah.

Great Indian is money.

I had a friend who just went and like he, you know, similar thing.

He was there for a month and he basically, you know, had a great time for the whole time.

And like the last couple of days, he ate something.

He said the food was great the whole time and he ate something.

He doesn't know what it was.

And he was just like, he was out for like five days.

Damn.

Just like five straight, just in bed.

So yeah, that'll happen sometimes.

It's a game we play, right?

Exactly.

Eli, it's in fun.

Anything you want to promote or close off with, man?

Yeah, man.

So basically, you know, I just want to reiterate, like, when it comes to maximizing points for travel, like this is a true game changer for literally anybody, no matter how big your business is, or even if you have a business.

So getting started with it and getting in the game is the first key.

I'm a big fan of being effective in our life and efficient.

And the first key to being effective is doing the right thing.

And then being efficient is doing the right thing as efficiently and doing it the right way.

Like basically, that's the key.

So getting into the points game would be a very effective way to create the travel experiences and checking off things off your bucket list like you're talking about.

So for people that want to get started, we do have a

awesome little mastermind that people can join if they're interested in checking it out.

It's basically super low cost, high value.

We have a lot of content in there, live calls, stuff like that.

It's on the new school platform.

You see people coming out with some of these really cool kids.

Going up.

It is.

Yeah.

So it's the Freedom Travel School.

And so this is something that people want to check out and get into points and travel hacking and find deals and excursions and ways to create their bucket list trips.

That's going to be the best way to get started.

So otherwise, yeah, check us out on social.

But it's been really cool.

And yeah, man, you got a lot of good adventures.

So I'm excited to see your journeys ahead too.

Yeah, we'll link that below.

I can't wait to talk to you about Travel Hocking Man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Once you got your next trips, let me know.

We'll hook you up.

Awesome.

Sounds good.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you next time.