ATHLLC2168277091

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.240 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,

00:00:05.040 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.

00:00:07.880 | I'm Chris Hutchins, and I'm so excited you're here today

00:00:10.200 | for an episode focused on travel hacking, points, and miles.

00:00:14.080 | This one is jam-packed with a ton of amazing hacks

00:00:17.160 | you've all shared, so thank you so much

00:00:19.600 | for sending those in, as well as some great questions

00:00:22.560 | we're gonna tackle covering everything

00:00:24.920 | from paying taxes with your credit card,

00:00:26.840 | to earning points, to companion pass,

00:00:29.440 | to booking travel, getting deals, a bunch of great sites,

00:00:33.640 | and things you can do to optimize your next trip,

00:00:35.720 | and so much more.

00:00:37.040 | But I have a few cool things to share first.

00:00:39.120 | I'll start with some amazing listener wins

00:00:40.720 | you've all shared, and some of them

00:00:42.200 | are the biggest we've ever seen.

00:00:44.600 | First, Savannah wrote this in.

00:00:46.560 | "We have used multiple hacks from your show.

00:00:48.440 | "I've gotten into credit card points for travel

00:00:50.460 | "and believe it will save us around $10,000 this year.

00:00:53.840 | "From your show about insurance,

00:00:55.080 | "we realized our house had grown in value significantly,

00:00:57.820 | "and we can now drop PMI insurance,

00:00:59.680 | "which will save us $1,000 a year.

00:01:02.280 | "I also found seven claims of unclaimed money for my dad,

00:01:05.400 | "so thank you so much for your content.

00:01:06.960 | "You really are changing the lives of your listeners."

00:01:10.000 | Savannah, thank you so much for writing that in.

00:01:12.000 | It means so much to me that all the time and energy

00:01:14.880 | I spend can save people like you so much time,

00:01:17.800 | energy, money, and bring so much joy to your lives.

00:01:21.120 | I wanna run through a few more,

00:01:22.320 | because there were so many great wins

00:01:24.240 | since the last time I did this.

00:01:26.320 | Alex wrote in and said that after only a year

00:01:29.060 | and three months, he's already racked up

00:01:30.740 | 450,000 membership rewards points on Amex,

00:01:34.940 | but he really wanted to make sure people understood

00:01:37.020 | that his spending is only about 20 to $30,000 a year.

00:01:41.060 | He said he knew it was small compared to most people

00:01:43.300 | that live in more expensive places,

00:01:45.220 | but he did all this by maximizing referral bonuses,

00:01:48.600 | signup bonuses, and using Rakuten

00:01:51.060 | to rack up over 60,000 membership reward points

00:01:54.140 | for things he already needed to purchase.

00:01:56.280 | Zach, who we also talked about some wins

00:01:58.260 | about six months ago, wrote in with a follow-up.

00:02:00.940 | He was a medical student.

00:02:01.980 | He's now nearing the end of his third year,

00:02:04.380 | so he's making no income,

00:02:06.020 | but travel is really important to him and his girlfriend.

00:02:09.860 | So over the last two years,

00:02:11.220 | with some great signup bonuses and redemption values,

00:02:13.940 | he just wanted to share that from March 2022 to May 2023,

00:02:18.220 | they've taken three international trips

00:02:20.820 | using all the strategies he's learned in the show.

00:02:24.100 | He's earned and used over 800,000 points,

00:02:28.320 | paid only $2,000 in fees

00:02:30.400 | to redeem flights and hotels worth $29,000.

00:02:34.440 | He calculated it out after subtracting fees

00:02:36.860 | at 3.1 cents per point, which is absolutely incredible.

00:02:40.680 | It's allowed him to have six weeks of international travel

00:02:43.340 | to places like Italy, England, France, Spain, and Portugal,

00:02:47.020 | and he said it wouldn't have been possible

00:02:48.400 | without all this advice.

00:02:49.560 | So I'm so glad you were able to take those trips, Zach.

00:02:52.720 | A few more, we don't talk about hotels

00:02:54.740 | outside of Hyatt that much,

00:02:55.960 | but Noah had an awesome transfer

00:02:57.760 | from 45,000 city points to Wyndham

00:03:00.280 | to book three nights in a beachfront resort condo

00:03:03.080 | through their Vacasa Partnership

00:03:04.960 | and got a one-bedroom condo,

00:03:06.300 | which was way better than traveling in a hotel room

00:03:08.800 | with his three-year-old.

00:03:10.060 | A different Zach wrote in to say

00:03:11.800 | that he's planning on using his points

00:03:13.680 | that he's earned to fly business class

00:03:15.200 | for his upcoming honeymoon with his wife

00:03:17.560 | on her first trip to Asia this year.

00:03:19.480 | First off, congrats, Zach and your wife,

00:03:21.920 | and I hope that you have an amazing trip.

00:03:23.960 | I know we talk a lot about international travel,

00:03:25.760 | but let's focus on one domestic win from Angie.

00:03:28.680 | She wanted to take her children to all 50 states,

00:03:31.440 | and by August, she will have done it.

00:03:33.160 | She did that by opening up an Alaska card

00:03:35.320 | and her husband did the same,

00:03:36.920 | both of which come with a companion fare.

00:03:39.160 | So between the companion fares

00:03:40.800 | and the points they got on the sign-up bonus,

00:03:43.080 | she was able to reduce the cost

00:03:45.140 | of more than $7,000 in flights to Alaska

00:03:48.640 | for her whole family down to less than half of that,

00:03:52.000 | and that was a family of five.

00:03:53.600 | Another honeymoon win from Lexi.

00:03:55.800 | She booked 10 nights in Hawaii, in Kauai and Maui,

00:03:59.360 | at Hyatt's using her Chase Sapphire preferred sign-up bonuses

00:04:02.280 | that she and her fiance opened up

00:04:04.360 | to meet the minimum spend for all their wedding expenses,

00:04:07.360 | and they're now going on a $6,000 honeymoon just on points.

00:04:11.760 | So first off, congrats to Lexi and her husband.

00:04:14.160 | I hope you guys have an amazing wedding

00:04:15.800 | and a great honeymoon.

00:04:17.240 | Finally, Tim loved the Japan episode so much

00:04:19.800 | that he's already booked a trip using points

00:04:22.040 | to stay at the Park Hyatt in Kyoto,

00:04:23.760 | which is an amazing hotel.

00:04:25.680 | He's going in July.

00:04:26.780 | I'm so sure you'll have a great time.

00:04:28.640 | Everyone should check that out if they have the points

00:04:30.720 | and they have the opportunity.

00:04:32.740 | And then the biggest win I think we've ever had

00:04:35.160 | is Liz wrote in and said that the insurance episode

00:04:37.940 | came just at the right time.

00:04:39.520 | She was pricing out life insurance policies for her family

00:04:42.240 | and didn't realize the concept of laddering or layering

00:04:45.000 | was an option and it was exactly what she needed.

00:04:47.980 | So she priced out things with seven different carriers

00:04:50.600 | and the layered policy they landed on,

00:04:52.920 | which is actually a 30-year term

00:04:54.720 | with 10 and 20-year riders,

00:04:56.720 | will end up saving them over $14,000

00:04:59.880 | over the life of the policy

00:05:01.560 | compared to the lowest 30-year term quote.

00:05:04.120 | But she did point out

00:05:05.400 | that not all insurance companies offer these features,

00:05:07.960 | so it's worth searching for one that does,

00:05:10.020 | but it's also worth making sure

00:05:11.420 | that you push the agents on it

00:05:13.080 | because her agent actually asked her

00:05:15.080 | how she knew how to do it this way

00:05:16.840 | and thought it was a really smart option

00:05:18.420 | that he hadn't thought about.

00:05:19.840 | So that is awesome.

00:05:21.320 | I'm so glad you did that.

00:05:23.280 | So that's a few of the wins I've heard from listeners,

00:05:25.660 | but I'll put a few more at the end of the episode

00:05:27.840 | 'cause there's just so many great ones

00:05:29.520 | that I want you all to hear about.

00:05:31.300 | Next, I wanna talk briefly

00:05:32.840 | about what the All The Hacks membership is and isn't

00:05:35.640 | because I've gotten a few questions from you.

00:05:37.760 | First, it is not a guilt trip

00:05:39.420 | for you to feel pressured to join.

00:05:41.320 | If you think it'd add value to your life

00:05:42.960 | or if you've gotten so much value from the show

00:05:44.820 | that you wanna support me, great,

00:05:46.840 | but if not, totally fine.

00:05:48.840 | So what is it?

00:05:49.920 | My goal is to build a membership, something like AARP,

00:05:53.120 | but instead of focused on retired people,

00:05:55.240 | I wanna focus on people who like to optimize and upgrade

00:05:58.380 | and have the best experience and get the most out of life.

00:06:01.520 | So I wanna set up exclusive deals,

00:06:03.200 | products, and partnerships,

00:06:04.800 | and I actually just shared our first exclusive deal

00:06:07.520 | to members with trust and will

00:06:09.480 | who is offering 50% off their estate planning services

00:06:12.740 | to All The Hacks members.

00:06:14.200 | It's the product Amy and I use for our family.

00:06:16.900 | In fact, we just updated it last week

00:06:18.980 | to include our second daughter.

00:06:20.540 | I know, we should have done it sooner.

00:06:22.320 | So that's what I mean by exclusive deals.

00:06:23.880 | I hope we'll have more coming soon,

00:06:26.020 | but I also wanna build a community

00:06:27.820 | where members can connect with each other.

00:06:29.640 | So that's gonna be a part of the membership as well.

00:06:31.900 | In fact, our first members call is tomorrow.

00:06:34.200 | So if you end up joining quickly,

00:06:35.840 | I can send you the invite to that.

00:06:37.880 | And then at some point, I wanna build a community online,

00:06:40.480 | and I will consider opening that up

00:06:42.160 | or part of it to all listeners,

00:06:43.900 | but I'm gonna get my feet wet with members first.

00:06:46.560 | So if you wanna join,

00:06:47.560 | you can do that at allthehacks.com/join.

00:06:50.500 | And if not, I love you all the same, so no worries.

00:06:53.780 | Now, let's talk a little bit about credit cards.

00:06:56.460 | As you guys know, I have a page set up

00:06:58.500 | at allthehacks.com/cards,

00:07:00.460 | and one of the biggest ways you can support me and the show

00:07:02.900 | is to use those links when you apply for a new card.

00:07:05.680 | However, like I always say,

00:07:07.800 | I want you to get the best signup bonuses possible

00:07:10.180 | and sometimes those are from referral links.

00:07:12.900 | Unfortunately, I don't have much control

00:07:14.860 | over how that page works.

00:07:16.580 | So even if I know about a great referral offer,

00:07:18.740 | I can't include it on the page.

00:07:20.900 | In the past, I've gotten links from some listeners

00:07:23.340 | and from friends and put them in the show notes.

00:07:26.540 | And then on top of that,

00:07:27.380 | there's also some cards that I think are really great,

00:07:29.620 | like the Amex Green or the Built Rewards card,

00:07:32.380 | that because they don't have affiliate offers,

00:07:34.180 | they never end up showing up on that page either.

00:07:36.700 | Finally, there's just so much good information

00:07:38.700 | when you collect a list of all the cards,

00:07:40.840 | their signup bonuses, their annual fees,

00:07:43.000 | but there's no easy way to filter and sort

00:07:45.380 | on that information.

00:07:46.740 | So I had an idea.

00:07:48.180 | I fired up ChatGPT and I asked it to help me code

00:07:51.420 | a new page that had all that functionality.

00:07:54.360 | Honestly, I didn't think it would work at the start,

00:07:56.520 | but to my surprise, I got way further than I expected.

00:08:00.500 | I still have some design and user experience things to fix,

00:08:03.660 | and I haven't added all the filtering and sorting I want,

00:08:06.780 | but I actually have a working prototype of a new cards page

00:08:10.100 | that I'm excited to transition to soon.

00:08:12.540 | I actually hope it ends up being one of the best tools

00:08:14.800 | out there to find new cards,

00:08:16.640 | whether you wanna search on the biggest signup bonuses,

00:08:19.380 | the best earning in a category,

00:08:21.260 | or the best deals if you're over Chase's 5/24 restriction.

00:08:25.220 | So if you wanna check out an early version,

00:08:28.340 | you can go see the prototype

00:08:29.940 | at allthehacks.com/cardtool,

00:08:33.220 | and I would love your feedback,

00:08:34.980 | or if you're good with JavaScript or CSS,

00:08:37.220 | I would love your help getting it over the finish line,

00:08:39.820 | and then as soon as it's ready,

00:08:41.300 | allthehacks.com/cards will start directing to that new tool.

00:08:45.100 | So you can also just wait for that to happen.

00:08:48.100 | Okay, that's it with announcements.

00:08:50.480 | So let's move on to all the hacks and questions

00:08:52.540 | about travel points and miles right after this.

00:08:55.400 | First off, I wanna start with earning points.

00:09:00.300 | So very timely, I'll kick this off

00:09:03.180 | talking about paying taxes with your credit card,

00:09:05.340 | because as of recording this,

00:09:07.380 | taxes are due in six days on April 17th,

00:09:11.200 | and I'm always getting questions from people

00:09:13.380 | asking if it makes sense to pay on your credit card.

00:09:15.700 | So there are three payment processors

00:09:17.380 | that'll allow you to pay your taxes with a credit card.

00:09:19.600 | PayUSA Tax charges 1.85%,

00:09:22.820 | Pay1040 charges 1.87%,

00:09:25.660 | and ACI charges 1.98%.

00:09:28.520 | I'll look at this from two perspectives.

00:09:30.340 | One is, yes, there are cards like the Citi Double Cash

00:09:33.540 | that earn 2% cash back.

00:09:35.580 | So if you owe $5,000,

00:09:37.820 | technically, you could get $100 of rewards

00:09:41.180 | and pay as low as 92.50 for processing them.

00:09:44.700 | Is it worth it to make $7.50?

00:09:47.540 | Probably not.

00:09:48.580 | If you had a massive tax bill,

00:09:50.100 | might it be more worth it?

00:09:51.240 | Sure, but at the end of the day,

00:09:53.980 | I don't think that kind of a spread

00:09:55.500 | is worth the time and energy

00:09:57.060 | unless you have a really large tax bill.

00:09:59.060 | Where it might get a little bit interesting

00:10:00.740 | is if you're trying to meet a minimum spend

00:10:02.740 | on a sign-up bonus,

00:10:04.300 | or if you're trying to earn some points

00:10:07.300 | in a program really quickly,

00:10:09.340 | especially if you're trying to do that

00:10:10.660 | with a card like the VentureX,

00:10:12.460 | where you can earn two points per dollar

00:10:14.380 | and potentially make those points worth anywhere

00:10:16.580 | from 1.5 to three or four cents.

00:10:19.020 | Couple caveats to consider.

00:10:20.820 | One, you can only make two payments per processor,

00:10:24.140 | though if you're filing jointly,

00:10:25.540 | you can make them in each person's name, so four total.

00:10:28.500 | All those payment providers have clarified

00:10:30.420 | that they will not show up as a cash advance

00:10:32.420 | with any extra fees.

00:10:34.200 | And then finally, if you are doing all this for business,

00:10:37.020 | card fees are tax deductible,

00:10:38.780 | but not if you're doing it personally.

00:10:40.700 | So if you have a redemption in mind

00:10:42.900 | and you're gonna get outsized value here, great.

00:10:45.200 | If you're trying to meet a sign-up bonus,

00:10:47.280 | or if you wanna open up a card quickly

00:10:48.900 | to try to meet a sign-up bonus,

00:10:50.580 | I know there are some cards,

00:10:51.700 | I don't have a list off the top of my head,

00:10:53.760 | of ones that will give you a virtual card number

00:10:55.920 | you can use right away.

00:10:57.280 | That's worth considering.

00:10:58.760 | But otherwise, I think the fee relative to the cost,

00:11:02.420 | it doesn't make sense unless you have something planned,

00:11:05.160 | which is my general advice

00:11:06.580 | when it comes to buying points and miles as well.

00:11:09.260 | Similarly, a question from Cameron

00:11:11.680 | about trying to put expenses for his wedding onto a card.

00:11:16.300 | And in this case, the vendor only accepted a deposit

00:11:20.420 | and that the remaining they only accepted in cash or check.

00:11:23.460 | Are there any tricks here?

00:11:24.940 | The short answer is no.

00:11:26.720 | Yes, you can try to negotiate,

00:11:28.240 | and if you could negotiate the credit card fees into it,

00:11:30.800 | that would be an option.

00:11:32.240 | If not, you're usually gonna end up having to pay the fees

00:11:35.420 | or use a service online

00:11:37.260 | where you can use your credit card to send a payment,

00:11:39.440 | but then you'll pay the fees.

00:11:41.200 | And those fees, I don't think are worth it.

00:11:43.020 | They end up being much higher than the cost

00:11:45.960 | to pay your taxes on a credit card.

00:11:47.520 | I know they're typically more around 3%.

00:11:50.120 | So unfortunately, there's not a hack here

00:11:52.600 | that I'm aware of.

00:11:53.760 | But I will say, if you are able to pay your credit card,

00:11:56.320 | you can always ask.

00:11:57.680 | There are some cases where you might not expect

00:11:59.800 | to be able to do that, and that's possible.

00:12:01.880 | So definitely worth doing that.

00:12:03.320 | But if not, unfortunately, that won't work.

00:12:05.440 | Cameron did mention that he got engaged a couple years ago

00:12:08.080 | and put the entire ring purchase on his credit card,

00:12:10.720 | which is a great option there.

00:12:13.100 | In fact, two questions wrote in about engagement rings

00:12:16.920 | that I'll share right now.

00:12:18.540 | One, Tyler went out on a limb and asked his fiance

00:12:21.480 | how she felt about cubic zirconia or lab diamonds

00:12:24.880 | before they got engaged.

00:12:26.280 | It turns out she was thrilled with the idea.

00:12:28.640 | They ended up finding a ring that was only $650

00:12:31.520 | and put all the extra savings into an epic engagement.

00:12:35.040 | And then Jeremy wrote in that said,

00:12:36.840 | "Just make sure you're always looking shy

00:12:39.120 | "of the exact carat quartile."

00:12:41.560 | So if you're looking for one, look for 0.99.

00:12:44.040 | If you're looking for 1.25, look for 1.24.

00:12:47.380 | He also found out that jewelers have access

00:12:49.200 | to an online auction site for diamonds,

00:12:51.100 | where jewelers can request them be shipped

00:12:52.880 | for an inspection.

00:12:54.240 | So Cameron ended up rejecting the diamonds

00:12:56.160 | the jeweler had in stock,

00:12:57.440 | gave him the specs of what to look for.

00:12:59.580 | And then even before that finding the diamond,

00:13:01.680 | he just negotiated a fixed markup.

00:13:04.020 | So he agreed on 7% above the price he paid the seller,

00:13:07.200 | which is way below what jewelers used to charge

00:13:09.360 | before the internet made all this info available

00:13:11.320 | and ended up finding something great.

00:13:13.400 | So a couple of quick detour ring hacks.

00:13:16.120 | Coming back to trying to earn more points on dollars

00:13:19.700 | without spending more,

00:13:21.040 | I wanted to share a couple of things

00:13:22.240 | that I ran across recently.

00:13:23.680 | The first, and I don't know how I missed this

00:13:25.440 | when I signed up,

00:13:26.480 | but our utility provider in the Bay Area, PG&E,

00:13:29.520 | at least now, lets you put your utility bill

00:13:32.620 | on a credit card for a fixed fee

00:13:34.600 | of I think about $1.35.

00:13:37.680 | So first off, when I did the math

00:13:39.620 | of how much our utility bill was

00:13:41.080 | and what percentage fee that would represent

00:13:43.180 | and how many points I'd earn,

00:13:44.520 | it ended up being a good deal.

00:13:46.320 | But then I was reading around online

00:13:48.280 | and found a suggestion from someone,

00:13:50.180 | which was that you can actually pay

00:13:52.240 | a couple months of your utility bill in advance

00:13:54.920 | and just carry over that balance.

00:13:56.800 | So you're only paying that fee every quarter

00:13:59.580 | or really as much as you want.

00:14:01.300 | In fact, a lot of people I guess have used this tactic

00:14:04.400 | to meet minimum spend for signup bonuses.

00:14:06.840 | So they'll go and pay $1,000 towards their utility bill,

00:14:10.600 | which might cover them for three, six,

00:14:12.840 | maybe even nine months

00:14:14.600 | and be able to get all of that spend upfront.

00:14:16.800 | Similarly, it had me thinking,

00:14:18.160 | oh, I logged into USAA

00:14:20.080 | now that they're our insurance carrier.

00:14:22.120 | They don't charge any extra fees

00:14:23.400 | to pay your insurance bill monthly,

00:14:25.220 | but at any point in time,

00:14:26.400 | you can go in and pay off the remaining months

00:14:28.820 | on the six or 12 month policy.

00:14:30.880 | So if you're in a situation

00:14:32.660 | where you're trying to meet minimum spend

00:14:34.200 | for a signup bonus,

00:14:35.440 | or you're looking at a signup bonus

00:14:37.120 | and you're not sure if you will be able to meet this spend,

00:14:39.800 | two tactics there,

00:14:41.640 | pay your utility bill more than you need to

00:14:44.240 | if you can afford to pay off that bill,

00:14:46.520 | or go in and similarly,

00:14:48.020 | if you can afford to pay your insurance bill upfront,

00:14:50.340 | you might be able to pay that upfront

00:14:51.720 | if you're already paying monthly.

00:14:53.040 | Okay, another question from Zach

00:14:55.600 | about whether to prioritize points bonuses

00:14:58.280 | or signup bonuses.

00:15:00.040 | So he's looking at new cards,

00:15:01.760 | thinking about his spending

00:15:03.640 | and seeing cards like the Amex Gold

00:15:05.460 | with four points on groceries.

00:15:07.260 | He doesn't have enough spending

00:15:08.280 | to be able to hit all the signup bonuses

00:15:10.320 | unless he puts all of his spend on those cards.

00:15:13.360 | So he's wondering if he should prioritize cards

00:15:15.320 | that will earn him four points per dollar

00:15:17.320 | on the categories he spends most,

00:15:19.200 | or if he should focus on cards to earn signup bonuses.

00:15:22.640 | So let's take the example of that Amex Gold card.

00:15:26.120 | You're gonna spend $4,000 on purchases

00:15:28.960 | for 90,000 membership rewards points

00:15:31.040 | if you use a referral link,

00:15:32.320 | which I set up one at allthehacks.com/amexgold.

00:15:35.640 | You also get $200 statement credit.

00:15:38.180 | So for $4,000, you're getting 90,000 points,

00:15:40.760 | which is the equivalent

00:15:42.000 | of getting 22.5 points per dollar spent.

00:15:45.200 | So much better deal to be focused on signup bonuses

00:15:48.980 | than to be focused on earning bonus points

00:15:51.280 | in the categories you spend on.

00:15:53.280 | However, I realized that many people,

00:15:55.160 | myself included a bit,

00:15:56.520 | don't wanna be opening up that many cards every year.

00:15:59.480 | And so I like to have one or two cards

00:16:02.680 | that are just my base card that cover most of my spend

00:16:06.080 | and then open up opportunistic bonuses.

00:16:08.520 | So it kind of depends on your appetite

00:16:10.440 | for opening up new cards.

00:16:11.880 | And I've actually got so many great questions

00:16:14.240 | about opening up cards, the rules,

00:16:16.000 | how often to do it, the impact on your credit,

00:16:18.360 | that I'm gonna do a whole episode on that topic,

00:16:20.940 | but I just wanted to cover this as an example

00:16:23.260 | to try and answer Zach's question.

00:16:25.140 | And when it comes to annual fees,

00:16:27.120 | I want to remind everyone

00:16:28.980 | that there are a ton of opportunities

00:16:31.260 | to earn retention offers when your card renews.

00:16:34.220 | I'll link to a good post from Miles to Memories about this,

00:16:37.400 | but we tried this with Amy's platinum card recently

00:16:40.620 | and said, "Hey, the annual fee's really high.

00:16:42.220 | We're not getting as much value out of it,"

00:16:43.780 | which was actually true

00:16:44.820 | because I have a platinum card as well.

00:16:47.260 | And then they offered, if she could spend,

00:16:49.300 | I think it was $3,000 in the next 90 days,

00:16:53.460 | they offered 30,000 bonus points,

00:16:55.460 | which I value Amex points around two cents.

00:16:58.580 | So that's $600, pretty much covers the fee,

00:17:02.020 | especially if you factor in all of the different credits

00:17:04.580 | and perks that come with that card.

00:17:06.860 | So that was great.

00:17:07.900 | With the tax filing deadline around the corner,

00:17:12.080 | you're probably dreading sifting through all the paperwork

00:17:15.040 | to find those donation receipts

00:17:16.640 | or wondering if you missed out on maximizing

00:17:18.800 | one of the most generous tax deductions,

00:17:21.000 | charitable contributions.

00:17:22.640 | Well, thanks to Daffy,

00:17:23.640 | I never have to go digging through emails or desk drawers

00:17:26.360 | to find my donation receipts,

00:17:27.880 | and I'm proud to be partnering with them for this episode

00:17:30.520 | because they've helped me be more intentional with my giving

00:17:33.080 | and maximize the tax benefits of charitable giving

00:17:35.760 | all in one place.

00:17:37.080 | Daffy is a modern platform and app for charitable giving,

00:17:40.480 | allowing you to give to any 501(c)(3) across the US

00:17:44.000 | with just a few taps.

00:17:45.440 | And because it houses all your charitable contributions,

00:17:47.840 | you only have one place to go at tax time,

00:17:50.040 | and you can easily automate and optimize your giving.

00:17:53.560 | Daffy does all of that by helping you set up

00:17:55.720 | a donor advised fund or DAF,

00:17:57.960 | which is a tax advantaged account

00:17:59.820 | that lets you contribute cash, stock, or crypto

00:18:02.640 | on a one-time or recurring basis.

00:18:04.960 | Take the tax deduction at the time of the contribution

00:18:08.000 | and then distribute that money

00:18:09.480 | to over one and a half million charities, schools,

00:18:12.060 | and faith-based organizations whenever you want to.

00:18:15.480 | So head on over to allthehacks.com/daffy

00:18:18.720 | if you wanna start giving today.

00:18:20.520 | And for a limited time, if you visit that link,

00:18:22.960 | you can get a free $25

00:18:24.800 | to give to the charity of your choice.

00:18:26.640 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/daffy, D-A-F-F-Y.

00:18:31.640 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be.

00:18:36.680 | I get it, life comes at you fast, but trust me,

00:18:40.200 | your friends are probably desperate for a good hang.

00:18:43.080 | So kick 2024 off right by finally hosting that event.

00:18:47.140 | Just make sure you do it the easy way

00:18:49.080 | and let our sponsor Drizly,

00:18:51.040 | the go-to app for drink delivery, take care of the supplies.

00:18:54.760 | All you need to come up with is the excuse to get together.

00:18:57.560 | It doesn't even have to be a good one.

00:18:59.420 | It could be your dog's birthday,

00:19:00.840 | that the sun finally came out,

00:19:02.800 | or maybe you just wanna celebrate

00:19:04.280 | that you got through another week.

00:19:06.360 | With Drizly, you can make hosting easy

00:19:08.460 | by taking the drink run off your to-do list,

00:19:11.000 | which means you can entice your friends

00:19:12.760 | to leave their houses without ever leaving yours.

00:19:15.840 | And since I know you like a good deal,

00:19:17.520 | Drizly compares prices on their massive selection

00:19:20.080 | of beer, wine, and spirits across multiple stores.

00:19:23.080 | So when I really wanted to make a few cocktails

00:19:25.120 | while we were hosting family last week,

00:19:26.940 | not only could I get an Italian Amaro

00:19:29.000 | delivered in less than an hour,

00:19:30.640 | but I found it for $15 less than my local liquor store.

00:19:34.120 | So whatever the occasion, download the Drizly app

00:19:37.200 | or go to drizly.com.

00:19:39.060 | That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today.

00:19:43.080 | Must be 21 plus, not available in all locations.

00:19:46.300 | Next, I wanna share an email Matt sent me

00:19:49.820 | that included a bunch of incredible hacks

00:19:52.740 | for earning some points.

00:19:54.180 | First, he pointed out that if you're Canadian,

00:19:55.920 | you can actually get a US Amex card

00:19:57.900 | with your Canadian credit history

00:19:59.640 | as long as you set up a US bank account,

00:20:02.040 | have a mailing address in the US

00:20:03.820 | that you can receive your physical card at.

00:20:05.900 | He did it while he was renting an Airbnb in California

00:20:08.940 | and TD, his Canadian bank,

00:20:10.340 | made it really easy to set up a US-based account.

00:20:12.940 | Then he pointed out that the Capital One

00:20:14.980 | shopping rewards portal often offers really big cash back

00:20:18.880 | on travel booked via TripAdvisor.

00:20:20.980 | He's seen it as high as 30%.

00:20:23.280 | It's often capped at $500 per transaction,

00:20:26.220 | but he's gone in and booked three nights in his name,

00:20:28.500 | three nights in his partner's name,

00:20:30.260 | and gotten $1,000 back on an expensive hotel stay.

00:20:34.300 | He also wanted to share that he's been using

00:20:35.820 | Club One Hotels for stays over the past five years

00:20:39.500 | and is regularly getting 30 to 40% off

00:20:41.740 | the best rate he's finding on hotel websites.

00:20:44.760 | He said he just stayed in Charleston

00:20:46.280 | at the Restoration during a festival

00:20:48.460 | and paid $400 a night when the own hotel's website

00:20:51.500 | and Trivago were quoting 700 a night.

00:20:54.480 | Same deal for a trip to London this summer,

00:20:56.820 | and they occasionally sell gift cards for 10% off,

00:20:59.380 | which multiplies the savings even more.

00:21:01.660 | Then for chain hotels,

00:21:03.200 | he said check out Capital One Business Deals,

00:21:05.620 | which used to be called Capital One Spring,

00:21:07.820 | which is totally free to sign up,

00:21:09.740 | but sometimes has ridiculously good deals

00:21:11.980 | at chains like Intercontinental and others.

00:21:15.180 | Last for business class flights,

00:21:16.980 | he wanted to share that sometimes he's found

00:21:19.080 | that booking a vacation package

00:21:20.660 | and adding one night at the cheapest hotel

00:21:23.540 | can save thousands of dollars

00:21:25.080 | on paid business class airfare.

00:21:27.460 | He doesn't even always stay at the hotel he books,

00:21:30.180 | just does it to get a better deal on flights.

00:21:32.420 | So Matt, thank you for bringing all the hacks.

00:21:35.180 | Love hearing these.

00:21:36.420 | I'm gonna add them to the arsenal.

00:21:38.120 | Last two earning points questions.

00:21:40.380 | So Kristen wrote in asking

00:21:41.740 | about whether the Bank of America cards were worth it

00:21:43.960 | if you have enough money in their partners

00:21:45.780 | and you can earn their highest rewards tier.

00:21:48.140 | So I'll give a quick overview.

00:21:49.760 | The Bank of America Premium Rewards Visa

00:21:52.180 | earns two points per dollar on travel and dining,

00:21:55.200 | one and a half on everything else.

00:21:57.000 | But if you have $100,000 or more in an eligible account,

00:22:01.580 | they bump that up by 75%,

00:22:04.100 | which means you're earning three and a half points per dollar

00:22:06.600 | on travel and dining, or 3.5% cash back,

00:22:09.900 | and you're earning 2.625% on everything else.

00:22:14.100 | So I have to ask, how does that compare

00:22:15.900 | to what I would consider a comparable option

00:22:19.020 | on the points side,

00:22:20.840 | if you're not willing to spend the time and energy

00:22:23.200 | to transfer points to airline and hotel partners?

00:22:26.360 | If you're willing to do that,

00:22:27.380 | I think you're gonna get way outsized value

00:22:29.440 | focusing on earning miles and points,

00:22:31.760 | but let's take the Chase Sapphire Reserve

00:22:34.520 | and pair it with the Freedom Unlimited and compare.

00:22:37.080 | On the travel and dining spend,

00:22:39.000 | with the Bank of America card,

00:22:40.200 | you're getting 3.5% cash back.

00:22:42.960 | With the Chase Sapphire Reserve,

00:22:44.280 | you're earning three points per dollar,

00:22:46.040 | which you can redeem in the portal for 1.5 cents,

00:22:49.360 | so you're getting four and a half percent cash back.

00:22:51.700 | So you're getting an extra percent cash back

00:22:53.500 | on travel and dining,

00:22:54.920 | but for the everything spend,

00:22:56.000 | you're getting 1.5 points on the Freedom Unlimited

00:22:58.600 | that are also worth 1.5 cents in the portal,

00:23:01.160 | so that's 2.25% cash back compared to 2.625.

00:23:05.800 | So at the end of the day,

00:23:06.920 | if you're using the Bank of America card,

00:23:08.880 | you're losing out on 1% back on travel and dining,

00:23:11.680 | but you're earning half a percent on everything else,

00:23:14.400 | but you're doing it all with one card

00:23:16.320 | and you're doing it all without having to worry

00:23:18.120 | about booking in a travel portal and getting a deal.

00:23:20.620 | I always prefer the Chase option

00:23:22.240 | because if you just want the cash back, that's fine.

00:23:24.880 | You can use it as credit in the portal,

00:23:26.800 | but if you end up wanting to transfer to partners

00:23:30.160 | and get outsized rewards on aspirational travel,

00:23:33.640 | you have that option,

00:23:34.960 | whereas with Bank of America, you don't get that option.

00:23:38.040 | So I've always preferred the Chase option,

00:23:40.320 | but if you only want one card,

00:23:42.680 | you only care about cash back,

00:23:44.880 | and you're willing to put 100,000 or more dollars

00:23:47.200 | into a Bank of America Merrill Lynch account,

00:23:49.140 | and you factor the cost of doing that at nothing,

00:23:51.720 | which is not how I think about it,

00:23:53.280 | but if you're already there,

00:23:54.800 | then I do think the Bank of America option

00:23:56.760 | is a great single card option,

00:23:59.120 | but I think very few people are gonna be in that boat.

00:24:01.360 | Last on earning points,

00:24:03.000 | I wanna talk about Companion Pass.

00:24:05.280 | I got two questions from Scott and Jomar

00:24:07.640 | asking about applying for cards to earn Companion Pass,

00:24:11.240 | how long it's good for, how to use the strategy,

00:24:13.920 | and how to do it with your partner.

00:24:16.100 | So for people not familiar, Southwest has a status tier.

00:24:19.000 | When you earn 135,000 points in a year,

00:24:22.120 | you get Companion Pass for that year

00:24:24.400 | and the following year.

00:24:26.200 | And Companion Pass means that anytime you buy a ticket,

00:24:28.640 | whether it's with points or dollars,

00:24:30.500 | you can add a person to your flight for only the taxes,

00:24:35.160 | which domestically are $5.60.

00:24:38.200 | Now, you have to name that person in advance,

00:24:40.920 | and you can only change the name,

00:24:43.000 | I think, three times a year,

00:24:45.280 | but if you're a couple,

00:24:47.480 | and you're planning on doing a lot of travel on Southwest,

00:24:49.840 | it can save you a ton,

00:24:51.200 | especially if you're flying

00:24:52.520 | to a lot of the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii destinations

00:24:55.880 | Southwest flies to, but the strategy is when to do it.

00:24:59.360 | So the trick here is that when you earn it,

00:25:02.120 | you get it for the rest of the year and the following year.

00:25:05.320 | So you really wanna make sure you earn it

00:25:07.360 | as early in the year as possible.

00:25:09.400 | So if you're gonna do this with card bonuses,

00:25:11.280 | you need to make sure all the points you're earning

00:25:14.000 | post as early in the year as possible.

00:25:16.060 | Now, it's not about when you spend the money though,

00:25:19.180 | it's about when the statement is posted.

00:25:22.580 | So if you spend money in December,

00:25:24.100 | the statement closes on January 1st,

00:25:28.740 | sometime in early January,

00:25:30.140 | those points are gonna post to your Rapid Rewards account.

00:25:32.860 | So if you wanna do this, you need to hit 135,000 points.

00:25:37.080 | You could sign up for either the personal cards

00:25:39.340 | for 50,000 point signup bonuses,

00:25:41.220 | or there's 60 and 80,000 point bonuses on the business cards.

00:25:44.720 | You probably need two, which you can do at once.

00:25:47.860 | I have done this in the past to get companion pass,

00:25:50.540 | and then it'll be good for two years.

00:25:52.460 | Just make sure that you don't spend the bonus early,

00:25:56.500 | because if you sign up for those cards

00:25:58.360 | in November or December,

00:25:59.980 | and you hit the bonus before the end of the year,

00:26:02.260 | there is no way to push that out to the next year.

00:26:05.760 | But the follow-up from Scott was,

00:26:07.380 | could he have his wife do the exact same strategy

00:26:09.700 | in two years, and then he reverts in four years?

00:26:12.660 | And the short answer is yes,

00:26:13.940 | that is a tactic that I know lots of people do.

00:26:16.900 | They sign up for the Southwest cards in year one,

00:26:19.660 | earn companion pass for two years,

00:26:21.500 | hold on to them for one and a half, two years,

00:26:24.500 | maybe even three years,

00:26:25.900 | just so you're not potentially

00:26:27.060 | having a bad reputation with Chase.

00:26:29.220 | And then his partner will do the same thing in two years.

00:26:32.860 | Obviously, you need to be able to meet

00:26:34.020 | the minimum spends on the cards,

00:26:36.180 | and spend a little bit more to get to 135,000.

00:26:39.580 | So if you do two cards to hit 50,000,

00:26:41.900 | you still need to spend another 35,000 to get to 135.

00:26:45.340 | So it is a big effort.

00:26:47.540 | So this could be a great option,

00:26:48.820 | but keep in mind you do need to spend a lot

00:26:50.620 | on the cards to make this work.

00:26:52.540 | There have been plenty of times

00:26:53.860 | where the signup bonuses on the Southwest cards

00:26:56.220 | have been much higher,

00:26:57.380 | and you've been able to clear the 135,000 point requirement

00:27:00.780 | in two cards with no extra spend.

00:27:03.100 | So obviously, if you can hold out, and this isn't urgent,

00:27:05.900 | it's a great chance to take advantage of it

00:27:07.500 | when that happens.

00:27:08.660 | So those are all the hacks

00:27:10.180 | and the questions I got on earning points.

00:27:12.060 | There's a bunch of other travel stuff I wanna get to.

00:27:14.960 | So let's start with booking.

00:27:16.460 | I got a bunch of tips from listeners

00:27:18.240 | and things that I've found myself recently

00:27:20.620 | on trying to track fare drops.

00:27:23.100 | So one from my neighbor, Joe,

00:27:25.100 | he said he uses TripIt,

00:27:26.460 | which monitors his Southwest fare prices

00:27:28.620 | and alerts him if Southwest fares drop.

00:27:31.300 | And then Jessica actually pointed out to me

00:27:33.220 | that if your fare does drop,

00:27:35.300 | you can actually change the reservation,

00:27:37.900 | and then it'll show you a negative amount

00:27:40.020 | to change it to the same flight,

00:27:42.100 | and then you can just get a refund for that difference.

00:27:46.220 | Unfortunately, not all airlines are that easy.

00:27:48.520 | We just booked a flight for Amy to go to New York on United,

00:27:51.740 | and I wanted to make sure

00:27:53.300 | that I could monitor the flight prices.

00:27:54.960 | So what I did was I set up price tracking on Google Flights,

00:27:58.600 | and I got an email that the flight had dropped by $50.

00:28:03.100 | So we went to try to do the same thing

00:28:04.840 | that you can do with Southwest,

00:28:06.420 | but United wasn't making it possible

00:28:08.460 | to book that same flight.

00:28:10.320 | So we ended up canceling the flight

00:28:11.840 | and then rebooking the exact same flight with the credit,

00:28:14.880 | but because the flight had dropped $50,

00:28:16.880 | Amy now has a $50 United credit.

00:28:19.760 | So that was great,

00:28:20.680 | but a side benefit was I hadn't really used

00:28:22.720 | Google's price tracking for flights,

00:28:25.240 | and now I'm using it for all kinds of trips

00:28:27.420 | and getting updates on how those prices are changing.

00:28:30.160 | And they even launched price protection recently,

00:28:32.320 | which I noticed for a flight I was booking to LA,

00:28:35.220 | where Google says if you book this flight through Google

00:28:38.940 | and the fare drops by more than $5,

00:28:41.800 | we'll refund you the difference up to $500.

00:28:45.120 | So unfortunately that didn't work

00:28:46.900 | for the flight I needed to take,

00:28:48.200 | but it was really interesting.

00:28:50.120 | But caveat, if you're using an Amex card

00:28:52.680 | that gives you a point bonus for airfare

00:28:54.480 | booked directly for the airline,

00:28:56.120 | I don't think you're gonna get that airfare bonus with this

00:28:58.880 | because you have to book the flight through Google.

00:29:02.000 | If you're using a Chase card

00:29:03.000 | that gives you points on travel, I think you'll be fine.

00:29:05.200 | Capital One has a similar feature

00:29:07.200 | if you use their travel portal,

00:29:09.000 | and I have used that before,

00:29:10.800 | especially when I'm trying to use my travel credit

00:29:13.000 | for the Venture X card,

00:29:14.140 | but I haven't had the fare drop yet,

00:29:15.600 | so I haven't been able to actually take advantage of it.

00:29:17.560 | Tom wrote in another great hack.

00:29:19.800 | If you're traveling with a lot of luggage,

00:29:21.800 | he owns a video production agency

00:29:23.360 | and always has really big, heavy cases of equipment.

00:29:26.440 | He realized that domestically,

00:29:28.760 | checking bags can get so expensive,

00:29:31.600 | and sometimes upgrading to first class can be so cheap

00:29:34.920 | that he's looked, and it's been cheaper for him

00:29:36.760 | to add first class for $70, get two free items,

00:29:40.640 | including an overweight bag,

00:29:42.520 | instead of paying $40 per bag,

00:29:44.840 | or even $100 for heavy items.

00:29:46.720 | So this is something interesting

00:29:47.880 | that I always do just for fun anyways,

00:29:49.920 | is I always just look at the business class fare.

00:29:52.600 | Very rarely will I ever pay for it with dollars,

00:29:55.120 | but I've occasionally seen it so cheap

00:29:57.600 | where in one case, actually,

00:29:59.640 | I was flying to Southern California,

00:30:01.240 | and it was only $20 to upgrade to business class on Alaska.

00:30:04.760 | So in that case, I just said, "Why not?"

00:30:06.980 | Next, Jared sent in a hack that was a little bit longer,

00:30:09.640 | but it saved him hundreds of dollars on a rental car,

00:30:12.360 | so I thought it'd be worth going into.

00:30:14.400 | And he actually stumbled on it by accident,

00:30:16.360 | so I thought it was a really cool story.

00:30:18.280 | He'd been looking for a 2 1/2 week rental car

00:30:20.720 | out of Dallas-Fort Worth,

00:30:22.280 | and was seeing all these different prices

00:30:24.080 | depending on what device and shopping portal he went on,

00:30:27.300 | but he actually noticed on the Hertz app on his phone

00:30:30.640 | that a Tesla Model 3 was actually the cheapest option

00:30:33.960 | for only $600.

00:30:35.760 | But then when he looked on his computer and every browser,

00:30:38.580 | it was almost twice as expensive,

00:30:40.800 | or he couldn't even see a Tesla,

00:30:42.840 | and it was gonna come out to almost $1,000.

00:30:45.520 | He tried using the Amex Platinum discount, no luck,

00:30:48.720 | and he almost booked it on his phone,

00:30:50.420 | but the Capital One shopping portal had 30% back on Hertz

00:30:53.520 | if he booked on the Hertz website,

00:30:55.280 | so he really wanted to book it there.

00:30:57.080 | And after some digging,

00:30:58.520 | he found that when you use the Hertz app,

00:31:00.960 | they'll apply a corporate code,

00:31:02.960 | and they'll apply a rate code prepay.

00:31:06.560 | And that shows you prepaid rates

00:31:08.420 | that you won't see on the website

00:31:10.540 | unless you apply that code.

00:31:12.480 | So sure enough, he typed into the rate code box

00:31:14.780 | labeled RQ, prepay, all one word,

00:31:17.600 | and boom, he found the Tesla Model 3

00:31:20.500 | for the same price he found in the app on the website,

00:31:23.740 | booked it with the Capital One shopping portal,

00:31:26.500 | and now is saving over $500 between the rate

00:31:30.420 | and being able to use that 30% back from the shopping portal.

00:31:33.620 | And just to make it even sweeter,

00:31:35.640 | this purchase puts him right over the edge

00:31:37.900 | for his Delta Reserve card,

00:31:39.340 | so he's getting 120,000 points and 10,000 MQMs.

00:31:42.900 | So he's really stoked,

00:31:44.180 | and I'm excited to learn another hack for rental cars.

00:31:46.840 | One more little hack that I thought was great

00:31:48.660 | was from Julie, who wanted to share

00:31:50.580 | that she's been getting incredible value

00:31:53.020 | from using IHG points on hotels all over Europe,

00:31:56.980 | but she was trying to use one of her free night certificates

00:32:00.300 | and wasn't able to do it for a trip she wanted to take

00:32:03.420 | because it turns out it was a football weekend

00:32:05.840 | in the city she was going to,

00:32:07.360 | and all the rooms had a two-night minimum.

00:32:09.760 | Well, she tried calling the manager

00:32:12.160 | and asking if he would lift the two-night minimum

00:32:14.480 | for 15 minutes while she booked online

00:32:16.840 | because she actually wanted to book two nights,

00:32:18.840 | but she could only book them one at a time

00:32:20.720 | using her certificates.

00:32:22.560 | If you had asked me if this would have worked,

00:32:24.040 | I would have told you it's not worth your time,

00:32:25.920 | but I'm clearly wrong.

00:32:27.940 | Great job, Julie.

00:32:29.280 | I didn't even know that a manager at a hotel

00:32:31.200 | would be able to lift that restriction so easily

00:32:33.420 | or would be willing to do it for a short window of time,

00:32:35.940 | but it turns out that was the case,

00:32:37.780 | and she got that hotel, which was running over $600 a night,

00:32:41.540 | so it was a great deal.

00:32:42.780 | Then I got a question recently

00:32:44.380 | about the 25% transfer bonus from Chase to Flying Blue.

00:32:48.340 | So right now, until May 15th,

00:32:50.580 | you can get a 25% bonus when you transfer

00:32:52.780 | from Chase to Air France KLM's Flying Blue,

00:32:56.180 | and Myles wanted to know if it was worth doing this

00:32:58.440 | in anticipation of a trip.

00:33:00.340 | He says he's a Delta guy, so this seemed like a good deal,

00:33:04.060 | and he wanted to know if the goal

00:33:05.900 | is to book Delta One flights, if this is worth doing.

00:33:08.660 | I have the same feeling here, as I mentioned earlier,

00:33:11.220 | about paying for points or buying points.

00:33:15.240 | I really try to avoid doing this

00:33:17.140 | until there's a specific redemption in mind.

00:33:20.220 | It sounds like he's kind of on the fence

00:33:21.640 | where he knows a idea of a redemption,

00:33:23.680 | but not a specific redemption, and so I can see the allure.

00:33:27.620 | However, I just think that there are circumstances

00:33:30.920 | that you might not be able to predict,

00:33:32.500 | that you might need to take a flight,

00:33:34.220 | and it's not available to partner inventory,

00:33:36.380 | and so you aren't able to book it on Air France,

00:33:38.780 | and now you just have Myles and Air France

00:33:40.580 | that are harder to use,

00:33:42.080 | or maybe there's something else comes up,

00:33:44.040 | and you wish that you had those Chase points

00:33:45.860 | to transfer somewhere else.

00:33:47.560 | If you look historically,

00:33:48.980 | Air France has had a 25% transfer bonus

00:33:51.980 | every year since 2018, including twice in 2022,

00:33:56.460 | and in 2020, the bonus was 30%.

00:33:59.220 | So I think unless you're really coming up on a trip soon,

00:34:02.620 | and you've already done some searching,

00:34:04.140 | and you know the availability is pretty good

00:34:06.020 | for when you wanna go, you're just not sure on exact dates,

00:34:09.700 | I would hold off and wait

00:34:11.140 | until you are more certain about the trip,

00:34:13.740 | especially knowing that this is the kind of bonus

00:34:15.660 | that we see pretty regularly.

00:34:17.660 | And on the note of booking with partners,

00:34:20.140 | Caroline wrote in a question.

00:34:21.700 | She said she has 250,000 Capital One points, nice job,

00:34:25.260 | and she started thinking differently

00:34:26.900 | about how to use her points.

00:34:28.960 | She was looking to transfer to Air France or Virgin,

00:34:30.940 | but she comes into a problem.

00:34:32.660 | Every time she searches on these sites,

00:34:35.060 | she can't find the flight she's looking for,

00:34:37.620 | and wanted to know if she's searching wrong.

00:34:39.600 | And this comes back to one of the challenges

00:34:42.060 | of trying to get outsized value from your points.

00:34:45.140 | It's that you can't expect to be able to fly

00:34:48.060 | on every flight on every day for really popular routes.

00:34:51.620 | You might need to book super last minute

00:34:53.580 | or super far in advance.

00:34:55.620 | So the way it typically works is that airlines

00:34:58.220 | have two types of availability for flights with points.

00:35:01.820 | There's their saver availability,

00:35:03.460 | and then all the general availability.

00:35:05.700 | And so if you're looking on a site like United

00:35:07.560 | or Delta or American,

00:35:09.280 | you can usually book any of their flights with points,

00:35:12.440 | but only some of them will be a reasonable number of points.

00:35:15.620 | I've looked at United and found flights to London

00:35:18.380 | for 60,000 in points in business class.

00:35:20.660 | And then I've also seen it be close to 200,000

00:35:23.380 | for a flight as similar as the same day.

00:35:26.660 | So that saver availability when it's lower like 60,000

00:35:30.620 | is what they make available to partners.

00:35:32.660 | So if you're not seeing that saver availability

00:35:35.380 | with an airline,

00:35:36.260 | you're definitely not gonna see that availability

00:35:38.260 | booking Delta through Air France

00:35:40.660 | or Lufthansa through United or anything like that.

00:35:44.340 | So the challenge is it just takes a little bit more time,

00:35:47.660 | a little bit more searching,

00:35:49.260 | and it can sometimes be easier to search on the airline

00:35:52.660 | you wanna fly on websites first,

00:35:55.540 | and then searching on the program you have points for

00:35:59.540 | once you've found the dates.

00:36:01.140 | The added bonus there is that the airline websites

00:36:03.500 | for their own flights often have a calendar view

00:36:06.140 | where you can see more dates at once.

00:36:08.240 | Or you can use a tool like point.me,

00:36:10.420 | which will let you search all of the options,

00:36:12.820 | but you can only search one day at a time.

00:36:14.980 | Or there's a cool site called Seatspy.

00:36:18.020 | They only support a handful of routes,

00:36:21.080 | but they do support searching a year at a time.

00:36:24.300 | So you can see the entire year of dates,

00:36:25.980 | but again, it's only for a limited number of routes

00:36:28.300 | on a limited number of airlines,

00:36:29.980 | but there are some decent options.

00:36:31.860 | But it's enough that if your trip is supported,

00:36:33.860 | it might be a good option.

00:36:35.020 | Mike actually wrote in a question

00:36:36.460 | that seems as if he's taking the trip Caroline wants to take

00:36:39.660 | and wanted to know if he was booking a flight

00:36:42.820 | with Virgin Miles on Air France,

00:36:45.440 | and Air France changes that flight,

00:36:47.660 | whether it's to a different day or even cancels it,

00:36:50.780 | what happens?

00:36:52.100 | It feels like Air France might claim

00:36:53.900 | that they're unable to do anything

00:36:55.320 | because he booked it through Virgin,

00:36:57.260 | and Virgin will say we're unable to do anything

00:36:59.260 | 'cause it's on Air France.

00:37:00.740 | And then he's stuck in the middle of two airlines

00:37:02.820 | that are saying call each other.

00:37:05.000 | So I emailed Tiffany Funk, who I've had on the show,

00:37:07.460 | who runs point.me and asked her specifically how this works.

00:37:11.360 | And she said that as the operating carrier,

00:37:14.180 | it's Air France's responsibility to accommodate them.

00:37:17.260 | And there doesn't need to be award inventory

00:37:19.820 | for Air France to rebook them on another flight.

00:37:22.900 | I have had this happen in the past

00:37:24.700 | and ended up being quite an amazing experience.

00:37:27.340 | Air France actually canceled a flight from Paris

00:37:30.520 | to the Seychelles on our honeymoon.

00:37:32.420 | And so they ended up rebooking us

00:37:34.160 | in Emirates business class,

00:37:36.020 | which while we had a stopover was a much nicer flight.

00:37:39.160 | However, because Virgin is the ticketing carrier,

00:37:41.380 | it turns out that they usually need to all do this together.

00:37:45.340 | So fortunately, airlines have liaison desks

00:37:48.380 | for these exact issues,

00:37:49.940 | but it isn't uncommon to end up on a three-way call

00:37:53.260 | because not all airline agents

00:37:55.300 | know that liaison desks even exist.

00:37:57.760 | So I'll link to a couple of blog posts

00:37:59.380 | Tiffany shared with me,

00:38:00.780 | but I will say if you're in this situation

00:38:02.780 | and you're willing to put in the time and energy,

00:38:04.820 | I don't think it's one you need to worry about.

00:38:06.860 | It'll just take a little bit of time.

00:38:08.460 | All that said, if it is the day of travel,

00:38:10.860 | once the ticket goes under airport control,

00:38:13.380 | whoever's operating the flight has free reign

00:38:15.600 | to do everything and you won't have this problem.

00:38:17.940 | Next, Erin wrote in hoping to go to Paris this spring

00:38:20.660 | and said that she found tickets for her family of four

00:38:23.420 | from Seattle to Munich flying through Paris,

00:38:27.180 | but oddly couldn't find the Seattle to Paris flight

00:38:29.480 | for the same price and it was double the points.

00:38:32.640 | So she wanted to know,

00:38:33.580 | could she just buy the Seattle to Munich flight

00:38:36.000 | and get off in Paris and not take the next route?

00:38:38.900 | She said, which is a very important thing

00:38:41.460 | that she'd only have carry-ons

00:38:43.100 | and she wanted to know my thoughts on trying to do this.

00:38:45.500 | In her case, her return flight is already booked home

00:38:48.140 | on a separate ticket.

00:38:49.020 | So she's already covered most of the bases

00:38:51.060 | and there's actually a website called SkipLagged

00:38:53.300 | that helps you do this kind of searching for deals like this

00:38:56.580 | on paid tickets, but when it comes to award tickets,

00:38:59.600 | there are a few things that are similar

00:39:00.780 | and a few things are different.

00:39:01.700 | First off, the flight that you skip

00:39:04.380 | always has to be the last flight in the entire itinerary.

00:39:07.800 | So if you were to book a round trip,

00:39:09.460 | once you miss one leg, the entire rest of the ticket

00:39:12.180 | will most likely get canceled.

00:39:14.040 | So I would make sure that you're only trying to do this

00:39:17.140 | where you're skipping the last leg of your trip.

00:39:20.100 | Second, you need to make sure you're not checking bags

00:39:23.260 | because if your bags get checked,

00:39:25.260 | they'll likely get checked through the final destination

00:39:27.380 | and they won't be where you are if you get off your flight.

00:39:30.140 | There's obviously a risk that when you check in,

00:39:32.300 | they'll ask you to gate check your bag

00:39:34.220 | because maybe the overhead bins are full.

00:39:36.720 | That doesn't happen as much internationally,

00:39:39.220 | but I would just make sure that if that happens,

00:39:41.220 | you ask them to not check your bags

00:39:43.540 | through to your final destination.

00:39:45.460 | You could tell them that maybe there's something

00:39:47.180 | you'll need access to just in case

00:39:48.820 | there's a cancellation or medication.

00:39:50.860 | They shouldn't have a problem doing that.

00:39:52.780 | But airlines don't like this.

00:39:55.400 | There have been airlines that tried to sue people

00:39:57.320 | for doing this and have been unsuccessful in doing so.

00:40:00.660 | So it's not something that's necessarily illegal,

00:40:03.620 | but I would say it's a little extra risky

00:40:06.420 | when you're doing it with your frequent flyer miles

00:40:08.780 | because there is something that the airline

00:40:11.380 | could hold over you, which is the balance in your account.

00:40:13.980 | I know if I were doing this and I've done this

00:40:16.620 | probably a couple times with paid flights,

00:40:19.240 | I don't usually attach my frequent flyer number

00:40:21.820 | to the account, or if I do,

00:40:23.880 | I'll attach a frequent flyer number for a partner airline

00:40:27.820 | where I don't have a big balance of points.

00:40:30.220 | So I fly United enough that I have a lot of United miles.

00:40:33.960 | So if I were using United,

00:40:35.060 | maybe I would credit those points to Avianca

00:40:37.700 | just in case there's a problem.

00:40:39.540 | United's not gonna be upset about it and do anything.

00:40:42.660 | I think the risk is low,

00:40:44.140 | but if I were doing this for a ward ticket using my points,

00:40:48.500 | maybe I would either open up

00:40:49.580 | a new frequent flyer mile account,

00:40:51.220 | transfer the points there,

00:40:52.420 | transfer them to a partner where I don't have a big balance,

00:40:54.740 | or if I don't have a huge balance of points in the airline,

00:40:57.740 | it doesn't matter.

00:40:58.700 | So those are some considerations,

00:41:00.880 | but I think the biggest risk is that something goes wrong.

00:41:03.700 | And let's say the day of they cancel your flight

00:41:06.240 | and they say we're just gonna rebook you

00:41:07.940 | from Seattle to Frankfurt and then transfer you to Munich.

00:41:11.740 | And it's gonna be really hard for you to explain

00:41:14.420 | why that doesn't work for you

00:41:16.500 | without telling them you're trying to do something

00:41:18.460 | that they're explicitly trying to prohibit you from doing.

00:41:21.020 | So I think as long as you are flexible

00:41:23.980 | with something like that happening,

00:41:25.780 | then it can kind of be okay

00:41:27.860 | and you're willing to take that risk on yourself.

00:41:30.220 | That's not always a huge risk.

00:41:31.900 | If you end up landing in Frankfurt

00:41:33.740 | and having to buy a ticket to Paris,

00:41:35.700 | it's gonna cost you some money,

00:41:37.320 | but it's not gonna be thousands of dollars

00:41:39.840 | and it's a pretty low risk that it happens.

00:41:42.360 | That's something to be aware of.

00:41:43.800 | That would be the biggest risk in my mind of this happening.

00:41:46.020 | One other way to mitigate that would be to try

00:41:48.320 | and make sure you're doing it with a carrier

00:41:50.460 | where the stopover is their hub.

00:41:52.000 | So for example, if I'm trying to go

00:41:53.280 | from San Francisco to Paris

00:41:55.280 | and I buy a ticket to Munich on Air France,

00:41:58.460 | it's unlikely if something happens

00:42:00.160 | that Air France is gonna try to route me

00:42:02.240 | anywhere other than through Paris 'cause that's their hub.

00:42:05.240 | But if I were buying that ticket on United

00:42:08.380 | and they were flying United to Paris

00:42:10.060 | and then connecting to Munich on Lufthansa,

00:42:13.020 | then it's a possibility that if that flight got canceled,

00:42:15.560 | they would just book me on a Lufthansa flight

00:42:17.580 | directly to Munich through Frankfurt or something like that.

00:42:20.560 | So I'd feel better about it

00:42:22.020 | if the hub of the airline you're on

00:42:24.340 | is the city you wanna get off at.

00:42:26.460 | But in general, I would say if you're okay

00:42:28.340 | with a little bit of risk, it can be worth doing,

00:42:30.740 | but it's not a perfect solution.

00:42:34.980 | My fitness routine this year had a few rocky starts,

00:42:37.800 | but I am back into it now.

00:42:39.460 | And honestly, one of the things that helped me get back

00:42:41.920 | is that I just added some new workout gear.

00:42:44.140 | And if I'm gonna buy more,

00:42:45.420 | why not have the best performance apparel out there,

00:42:47.820 | which I think is Viori?

00:42:49.420 | And I am excited to be partnering

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00:42:52.500 | Viori makes performance apparel that's incredibly versatile.

00:42:55.660 | Everything's designed to work out in,

00:42:57.520 | but it doesn't look or feel like it at all.

00:42:59.800 | And it is so freaking comfortable,

00:43:01.420 | you will wanna wear it all the time.

00:43:03.360 | But it's not just for men.

00:43:04.460 | My wife is obsessed with Viori as much as I am.

00:43:07.700 | While my personal favorite

00:43:08.860 | will probably always be the Sunday Performance Joggers,

00:43:11.260 | I have at least three pairs.

00:43:12.780 | I just got a few pairs of the Core Shorts

00:43:15.180 | and three or four Strato Tech Tees, and I'm loving them.

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00:43:31.880 | or they even have a few things

00:43:33.160 | you can wear for a night out.

00:43:34.840 | Honestly, I think Viori is an investment in your happiness.

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00:43:39.000 | they're offering 20% off your first purchase,

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00:43:50.200 | Again, go to allthehacks.com/v-u-o-r-i

00:43:54.880 | and get yourself some of the most comfortable

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00:44:00.340 | Did you know that someone new gets impacted

00:44:02.380 | by identity theft every two seconds?

00:44:05.140 | It makes sense when there's so much

00:44:06.960 | of our personal information getting shared online

00:44:09.580 | without our consent.

00:44:11.100 | I found a listing for my dad on a site

00:44:13.420 | called Family Tree Now that had his name, age, address,

00:44:17.260 | phone number, email, past addresses,

00:44:20.100 | and the names of his relatives.

00:44:21.860 | And that was just one of the 69 listings that had his info.

00:44:26.420 | Fortunately, instead of spending hours

00:44:28.540 | finding all the sites with his info

00:44:30.380 | and submitting the request to take it down,

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00:44:35.780 | and I am so excited to be partnering

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00:44:42.020 | and remove your personal information

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00:45:04.860 | from all these listings on the internet,

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00:45:09.860 | and get 20% off a plan for you or your entire family.

00:45:14.380 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/deleteme.

00:45:18.380 | I just wanna thank you, Quick,

00:45:20.620 | for listening to and supporting the show.

00:45:22.920 | Your support is what keeps this show going.

00:45:25.740 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,

00:45:28.420 | and discounts from our partners,

00:45:30.180 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals.

00:45:33.740 | So please consider supporting those who support us.

00:45:37.080 | Finally, Tony wrote in because he's going deep

00:45:39.820 | on Antarctica research and wanted to follow up

00:45:42.440 | from the Antarctica episode.

00:45:44.140 | He hasn't booked anything yet,

00:45:45.860 | but there were two sites he wanted to share

00:45:47.660 | for anyone interested, Antarctica Travels

00:45:50.380 | and Freestyle Adventure Travel,

00:45:52.580 | who put out emails on cruise deals

00:45:54.980 | for Antarctica during the travel season.

00:45:57.260 | And the lowest he saw this year

00:45:59.100 | for a double occupancy twin balcony room

00:46:01.180 | on a traditional cruise was $3,400 per person,

00:46:04.740 | which is a crazy deal because the normal prices

00:46:07.920 | are over $6,000.

00:46:10.100 | So if you're looking to go on an affordable trip,

00:46:12.460 | sign up for those and see if you can find

00:46:14.380 | some last minute deals and you might be able

00:46:16.420 | to get to Antarctica for a lot cheaper.

00:46:18.480 | Next, I just wanna do a rapid fire

00:46:20.380 | of some sites I've found recently

00:46:22.200 | and you guys have shared with me

00:46:23.820 | that might be helpful for you,

00:46:25.340 | that might be interesting.

00:46:26.780 | First, Justin tried to share this cool tool

00:46:29.860 | called AI Hotel Review that summarized

00:46:32.500 | all the TripAdvisor reviews using AI

00:46:35.140 | to try to give you general sentiment.

00:46:37.100 | Between the time he shared it and now,

00:46:39.120 | that company has pivoted to a new company

00:46:41.720 | called Where2AI, which is an AI trip planner.

00:46:45.340 | You can also just use ChatGPT to do itinerary planning

00:46:48.500 | and I've been really impressed at how good it is.

00:46:50.500 | So if you wanna try to go in the weeds,

00:46:52.500 | you can do it yourself with ChatGPT

00:46:54.380 | or you can go to Where2AI and go through

00:46:57.020 | a kind of interesting AI trip itinerary planner tool.

00:47:00.620 | And right now, it's all free.

00:47:02.140 | Next, there is a site called bagsaway.com,

00:47:05.540 | which is just a directory of retail locations

00:47:08.700 | and stores in a city where you can store your bags

00:47:12.220 | like you would at the front desk of a hotel

00:47:14.480 | when you were checking out.

00:47:15.700 | So if you're on a day trip in a city

00:47:17.540 | and you want a place to leave your bags,

00:47:18.860 | that could be interesting.

00:47:20.860 | Kyle shared a site highche.com, H-I-C-H-E-E.com,

00:47:25.860 | which looks like they're doing a productized version

00:47:29.860 | of that reverse image search hack I've talked about

00:47:32.100 | on Airbnb, where you can use Google Images

00:47:34.820 | to try to find other sites that might be listing

00:47:37.300 | the property you're trying to book.

00:47:39.100 | So you go there and you paste the URL for an Airbnb

00:47:41.980 | and they'll go scour the internet to try to find

00:47:44.460 | another website that might be cheaper.

00:47:46.700 | So awesome there.

00:47:48.900 | Mike shared a link that I can't believe that I missed

00:47:51.180 | before our London trip, which is deltaairbnb.com,

00:47:54.360 | where you enter your SkyMiles number

00:47:56.020 | and you start earning a mile for every dollar you spend

00:47:58.300 | on Airbnb on stays all around the world.

00:48:00.980 | So don't forget to do that.

00:48:02.000 | Thanks, Mike.

00:48:02.840 | I can't believe I forgot.

00:48:03.940 | Jason wrote in to recommend checking out Max Rewards,

00:48:08.100 | which is an app that lets you link all of your rewards cards

00:48:10.780 | and activate the deals and offers they have.

00:48:13.600 | He loved it 'cause he got an Amazon offer

00:48:15.380 | that saved him $25, which was cool.

00:48:17.900 | It's a pay-what-you-want app that costs as low as $5 to $9

00:48:22.900 | a month or $60 to $108 a year.

00:48:26.020 | I've seen the app around for a while,

00:48:28.100 | but I always have used card pointers

00:48:29.900 | and I hadn't really taken it for a spin.

00:48:31.580 | But for the purpose of this question, I thought I would.

00:48:34.660 | I won't say I had the experience Jason had.

00:48:37.360 | The first time I loaded the app, it didn't load

00:48:39.220 | and I had to kill it and reopen it.

00:48:41.180 | Then when I went to link cards,

00:48:43.080 | it looks like it wants you to link your cards

00:48:45.060 | with a bank connection, which means you have

00:48:46.820 | to share your data to Max Rewards.

00:48:49.500 | Normally, I'm not opposed to doing this.

00:48:52.740 | However, when it doesn't seem necessary,

00:48:55.700 | I get a little hesitant.

00:48:57.020 | But what actually had me much more hesitant

00:48:59.740 | was that I'm very familiar from my time at Wealthfront

00:49:03.540 | at all the ways that you need to present

00:49:06.220 | how you're collecting data and what you're doing with it.

00:49:08.940 | And so whether you're doing that through products

00:49:10.940 | like Yodlee or Plaid, you'll almost always see a pop-up

00:49:14.480 | when they ask you to link your account

00:49:16.100 | that says, "Hey, this is what we're doing with the data.

00:49:18.300 | "This is who's the party that's doing this."

00:49:20.700 | And in the Max Rewards app, it just switched straight

00:49:23.540 | to a box that was enter your username and password.

00:49:27.420 | So I know at Wealthfront, when you put in your username

00:49:30.100 | and password, we don't store those credentials.

00:49:32.860 | We work with a third party like Yodlee

00:49:35.180 | to be able to process that.

00:49:36.860 | Company that's in the business of doing that exclusively.

00:49:40.260 | It made me very hesitant to use their syncing feature

00:49:42.420 | because I just don't know what they're doing with the data

00:49:45.000 | and how they're doing it.

00:49:46.240 | But just for fun, I tried to do it with one Amex account

00:49:50.240 | that I was willing to change the password with after.

00:49:52.800 | And it turns out, as soon as I clicked connect,

00:49:55.320 | it didn't work at all.

00:49:56.160 | And they forced me to manually add my card.

00:49:58.460 | I went in to try to manually add the card

00:50:00.200 | and there was a spinning wheel.

00:50:01.640 | It never actually loaded.

00:50:02.940 | I quit the app, came back in, it wasn't there manually.

00:50:07.080 | I tried to add it again.

00:50:08.240 | It was a spinning wheel, I couldn't do it.

00:50:10.200 | So I'm not sure exactly how to get the value

00:50:13.100 | that Jason has in the app.

00:50:14.500 | I was doing it all on iOS.

00:50:16.060 | Maybe their Android app is stronger.

00:50:18.180 | They do have a ton of great reviews in the app store.

00:50:20.260 | So there might be something there,

00:50:21.920 | but I couldn't figure out how to get value of the app

00:50:25.500 | because it just wasn't working for me.

00:50:26.820 | And I don't love that you have to connect

00:50:28.860 | your bank connection.

00:50:30.280 | So I'm gonna keep using card pointers.

00:50:32.980 | If anyone has a different experience

00:50:34.500 | or if someone on the Max Rewards team wants to reach out,

00:50:36.980 | I'm happy to give it another look

00:50:38.780 | and share the issues I'm facing.

00:50:40.860 | But for now, I'm sticking with card pointers.

00:50:43.220 | I think it's a great experience.

00:50:45.140 | They have a Mac, web, mobile, Android, watch,

00:50:47.940 | everything app, and they're all super fast.

00:50:50.520 | I have partnered with them to get you guys 30% off

00:50:53.260 | at allthehacks.com/cardpointers.

00:50:55.580 | But funny enough, while I was recording this,

00:50:57.380 | I was reflecting on my earlier conversation

00:50:59.660 | about getting good deals for members.

00:51:01.520 | I actually emailed Emmanuel, who is a listener,

00:51:04.300 | and said, "Hey, would you be willing to do

00:51:05.780 | "an even better offer for members?"

00:51:07.940 | And so through the end of the month,

00:51:09.580 | Emmanuel's gonna offer all the Hacks members

00:51:11.460 | who wanna sign up for Card Pointers Pro 50% off.

00:51:15.740 | So that's awesome.

00:51:16.940 | It's a great product.

00:51:18.060 | I've talked about it multiple times before,

00:51:20.020 | but they will go in and add all the offers

00:51:23.020 | on all of your cards with Chase, with Amex,

00:51:26.100 | so that you're getting all the deals that you can.

00:51:28.740 | Card Pointers actually hits Amex and Chase

00:51:31.060 | at the same time for all your cards,

00:51:33.260 | which lets you add the offers to multiple cards,

00:51:35.820 | but you can't actually do manually on your own.

00:51:38.420 | There is a free version of the app,

00:51:39.860 | so you can play with it before you sign up.

00:51:42.500 | Check it out.

00:51:43.380 | Let me know what you think.

00:51:44.900 | And if you're an All The Hacks member,

00:51:46.300 | keep an eye out for that 50% discount.

00:51:48.740 | Two more, Jason said to check out the app Fetch,

00:51:51.700 | which gives you points for scanning all of your receipts.

00:51:54.500 | Said it takes almost no extra time,

00:51:56.540 | and he just earns a nice little bonus there.

00:51:58.920 | Last, I have mixed feelings on this next one.

00:52:01.720 | As a content creator, I don't love it.

00:52:04.420 | But as a deal seeker, I see the appeal.

00:52:06.300 | It's a site called 12 Foot Ladder,

00:52:08.420 | one to ft.io, and they have an iOS app,

00:52:11.700 | and they basically let you get through the paywall

00:52:14.280 | for articles and content that you'd normally have to pay for.

00:52:17.720 | Matthew noticed that it even works for some of the ones

00:52:19.860 | where going into incognito mode doesn't work.

00:52:22.780 | So here's the caveat I'll put there.

00:52:24.860 | If you're just trying to get to know a site

00:52:26.460 | and you wouldn't otherwise pay or subscribe

00:52:28.460 | and you just wanna read an article, great, go for it.

00:52:31.420 | But if you find a content source that you really like,

00:52:34.380 | I would encourage you to consider supporting them.

00:52:37.020 | Being a content creator full-time myself,

00:52:39.100 | I really appreciate that support.

00:52:41.060 | Whether it's by checking out the sponsors

00:52:42.700 | we have on the show, joining my membership,

00:52:45.820 | or using the links for cards on our site,

00:52:48.020 | I really appreciate all that support.

00:52:49.680 | I'd hate to make recommendations

00:52:51.200 | that you should be finding ways

00:52:52.340 | to not support other creators,

00:52:54.940 | but this show is called All The Hacks,

00:52:57.020 | and I couldn't call it All The Hacks

00:52:58.420 | if I said all the hacks except for a few.

00:53:00.540 | So I wanted to make sure I put it out there.

00:53:02.300 | Last group of travel hacks before we wrap

00:53:04.380 | is when you're on a trip, and I'll just run through a few.

00:53:07.840 | Garrett wrote in after hearing me talk about jet lag,

00:53:10.100 | and he noticed that I didn't talk about fasting

00:53:12.560 | in addition to normal tricks,

00:53:14.340 | but he's found it's been one of the best

00:53:15.820 | when he's come across growing up traveling

00:53:17.660 | from Sweden to Japan for three years,

00:53:19.940 | and now annually from the States.

00:53:22.340 | He gave me a link to a Harvard post

00:53:24.380 | that I'll put in the show notes,

00:53:26.000 | but basically what he recalls was fast for 12 to 16 hours

00:53:30.780 | and then break the fast with breakfast

00:53:32.660 | at your arrival destination.

00:53:34.560 | Works better for some flights than others,

00:53:36.700 | and it means foregoing lounges,

00:53:38.420 | which he's a little bummed that he might be doing,

00:53:40.580 | but it really helped with jet lag for him.

00:53:43.100 | He's not a doctor, I'm not a doctor.

00:53:45.400 | This is not medical advice,

00:53:46.820 | but definitely something that you might wanna look into

00:53:49.140 | if you're trying to really optimize around jet lag.

00:53:51.560 | Next, Kush wrote in, wanted to share how his learnings

00:53:54.040 | from a bad experience could be really helpful for you.

00:53:57.260 | Back in 2019, someone stole his bag at a metro station.

00:54:00.420 | It had his passport, his money,

00:54:01.900 | and all his important documents.

00:54:03.980 | He couldn't find it and wasn't sure what to do,

00:54:06.460 | but he went to the embassy and it was so helpful,

00:54:10.100 | and he said, "I know anyone that gets in this situation

00:54:12.860 | "is probably gonna panic and be stressed,"

00:54:14.940 | but for him, the U.S. embassy was so helpful.

00:54:18.340 | They knew everything about how to submit

00:54:20.100 | the right paperwork, expedite the process,

00:54:22.420 | get him a new passport,

00:54:23.900 | and they even had an off-duty officer

00:54:25.680 | that could help with guidance when they were closed

00:54:28.260 | during the holidays or the weekends

00:54:29.580 | if something was urgent.

00:54:30.620 | So definitely a tactic I hope no one has to use,

00:54:33.800 | but if so, Kush, thanks for reminding everyone

00:54:36.700 | that your embassy when you're traveling abroad

00:54:38.780 | can be a great resource

00:54:40.260 | if you end up in a situation like that.

00:54:42.040 | Similar to citizenship and passports,

00:54:44.460 | Rob reached out with an episode idea,

00:54:47.060 | which I don't know if it'll make a whole episode or not,

00:54:49.300 | but it's at least worth sharing here as I think about that.

00:54:52.060 | So Rob is Italian, but he's not an Italian citizen,

00:54:55.380 | but he learned about getting citizenship through Bloodlined.

00:54:58.420 | He found out that his great-grandmother

00:55:00.540 | never officially became a U.S. citizen,

00:55:02.780 | which left the door open for him and all of his Bloodlined

00:55:06.420 | to claim Italian citizenship.

00:55:08.340 | He's been working with an attorney for the past few years

00:55:10.380 | to get all the death, marriage, and birth certificates

00:55:12.300 | going back four generations,

00:55:14.180 | and is just about ready to bring the case to Italy.

00:55:16.780 | The nice thing is that the whole process

00:55:18.700 | where the lawyers do all the work

00:55:20.940 | costs him only $10,000,

00:55:23.060 | which will get him EU citizenship and a passport,

00:55:26.260 | but not only him, it will get his father, two sisters,

00:55:29.340 | one uncle, two cousins, and three nephews citizenship too.

00:55:34.100 | If you compare that to the cost of getting citizenship

00:55:36.860 | through Golden Visas and other processes

00:55:39.780 | where you might have to spend $400,000,

00:55:41.540 | live somewhere for weeks at a time,

00:55:43.120 | and it only works for one person or one family,

00:55:45.620 | he thought this was an amazing hack.

00:55:48.140 | The process is called Gisanguinis.

00:55:50.880 | I'm probably pronouncing that wrong.

00:55:52.500 | There are 12 countries that do this,

00:55:54.700 | and so since the U.S. is a country of immigrants,

00:55:56.540 | there might be other people that don't know about this,

00:55:59.220 | and there are a bunch of benefits.

00:56:00.820 | If you ever need to get out of the United States,

00:56:02.740 | you have an option.

00:56:04.100 | Rob said it makes him feel a little bit like Jason Bourne.

00:56:06.840 | He can work anywhere in the EU.

00:56:08.620 | His wife can actually take a test to become a citizen.

00:56:11.460 | He gets free healthcare,

00:56:13.020 | and he could even play for the Italian National Soccer Club.

00:56:16.140 | It also makes owning property in Italy

00:56:18.020 | or other places much easier,

00:56:20.020 | and he can hide the fact that he's a U.S. citizen

00:56:22.160 | if he's ever traveling somewhere

00:56:23.740 | where he might want to do that.

00:56:25.260 | Unfortunately, I don't think I have any Italian heritage,

00:56:28.080 | but if I did, this is actually something

00:56:29.940 | that I would probably look into.

00:56:31.180 | It's super interesting.

00:56:32.500 | If anyone else digs into this and has experience,

00:56:34.700 | I'd love to hear about it.

00:56:36.040 | I'd love to share it with everyone else.

00:56:37.580 | Finally, I'll share a great hack from my good friend Mike

00:56:41.540 | that is just the perfect hack to end on.

00:56:44.580 | It's for getting free bottled water at a hotel.

00:56:47.700 | So every time Mike checks into a new hotel,

00:56:50.220 | he goes straight to the gym

00:56:52.180 | where almost always there's a cold fridge with free water.

00:56:56.420 | He stocks up on water in the gym,

00:56:58.460 | takes it up to his room

00:56:59.500 | so he doesn't have to pay the two, four, five, $10

00:57:03.120 | for a bottle of water from the mini bar

00:57:05.240 | and is stocked up for the week.

00:57:07.460 | Though it's funny because I get texts from Mike now.

00:57:09.700 | Every time he checks into a hotel,

00:57:11.260 | he just sends me a text of the photo

00:57:12.900 | of the fridge in the gym.

00:57:14.280 | So every time I check into a hotel now

00:57:16.360 | and I want some waters, I think of him.

00:57:18.600 | Hopefully you guys can use this hack

00:57:20.020 | and think of me and Mike as well.

00:57:21.740 | That was a ton of stuff

00:57:23.540 | and I didn't even get through all the questions I wanted to.

00:57:26.340 | There were a ton about opening cards,

00:57:28.340 | how often, how many credit score implications

00:57:30.620 | that I'm gonna make a whole episode on.

00:57:32.420 | There were a few about cruises

00:57:34.060 | that I actually wanna do a whole episode on as well.

00:57:37.300 | There were a bunch on booking hotels with points

00:57:39.760 | that I wanna do an episode on.

00:57:41.380 | And then I wanna come back

00:57:42.820 | and do a deep dive master classy kind of episode

00:57:45.940 | on booking flights with points.

00:57:48.060 | So stay tuned for all of that.

00:57:50.080 | Lots of content to come the rest of the year.

00:57:52.700 | If you made it this far,

00:57:53.940 | thank you so much to everyone who's listening,

00:57:56.500 | sending questions, sharing their hacks and wins.

00:57:59.780 | I'm so excited I found such an amazing community

00:58:02.180 | of other optimizers and hackers

00:58:04.660 | to share this journey through.

00:58:06.620 | And I hope you all enjoyed this episode.

00:58:09.340 | Before we go, I wanna share a couple more wins

00:58:12.060 | that you all had

00:58:13.120 | because I didn't get to all of them in the intro.

00:58:15.620 | Adam found $4,000 of unclaimed money

00:58:18.540 | from some old escrow issue in a mortgage after a refinance.

00:58:22.380 | So congrats, Adam.

00:58:23.900 | Big reminder to everyone

00:58:24.980 | to keep searching for unclaimed money.

00:58:27.100 | Then Medisa had an amazing experience.

00:58:29.680 | Thanks to Trustworthy,

00:58:30.900 | one of the partners of all the hacks,

00:58:32.840 | where she was flying with her kids

00:58:34.820 | to Singapore through Manila,

00:58:37.060 | which she's done all over the world.

00:58:39.320 | But she had an interesting experience

00:58:41.060 | where Philippine Air actually required her

00:58:43.500 | to show a copy of her son's birth certificate

00:58:45.740 | to prove she was his mother

00:58:47.400 | because of some of the human trafficking

00:58:49.000 | that's been happening.

00:58:50.440 | She obviously didn't have a paper copy of it with her

00:58:52.760 | because she's never had to travel with that,

00:58:55.420 | nor do we travel with our kids' birth certificates.

00:58:57.820 | But because she'd loaded up

00:58:59.100 | all of her important docs in Trustworthy,

00:59:01.220 | she was able to find a copy immediately

00:59:03.340 | and email it to them, which they accepted.

00:59:05.940 | And she actually wrote this saying,

00:59:07.540 | "We're currently sitting at our gate

00:59:09.020 | "and waiting to board our flight,

00:59:10.340 | "which we wouldn't have been able to do without this."

00:59:12.740 | She was so thankful for the recommendation.

00:59:15.000 | I think Trustworthy is such a great product

00:59:16.740 | for organizing all of your family's

00:59:18.740 | most important information.

00:59:20.220 | If you also wanna check out Trustworthy,

00:59:22.060 | you can go to allthehacks.com/trustworthy

00:59:24.340 | and get 20% off.

00:59:25.780 | Finally, the last win I wanna share is my own.

00:59:29.020 | I was taking a last minute trip down to Southern California

00:59:32.460 | and I looked online and it was $200

00:59:35.700 | to fly from San Francisco to Burbank.

00:59:37.860 | Now, I quickly did a search on United,

00:59:40.300 | saw that it was only 15,000 miles,

00:59:42.700 | which is about 1.3 cents per point.

00:59:45.220 | But I ended up saying,

00:59:46.620 | "I wonder if there's a partner that makes this cheaper."

00:59:48.820 | So I went to point.me, I did a search

00:59:51.380 | and found the flight for only 6,500 Avianca miles,

00:59:55.620 | which I could transfer from Cap One, Amex or Citi,

00:59:58.720 | which ended up being a three cent per point redemption

01:00:01.180 | and made me feel a lot better about the last minute trip.

01:00:04.400 | So big reminder, if you ever find a deal,

01:00:07.060 | make sure there's not a better deal

01:00:08.560 | by using a different transfer partner.

01:00:10.860 | Point.me makes this really easy.

01:00:12.460 | And if you haven't checked it out,

01:00:13.580 | you can get your first month for a dollar

01:00:15.500 | using the code ALLTHEHAX.

01:00:17.140 | Just make sure you select a monthly standard plan

01:00:19.700 | and put the code in all the way at the checkout,

01:00:22.260 | not in the "I have a code" field,

01:00:24.500 | which is a different promo.

01:00:26.260 | I also have been talking to a company called AwardLogic,

01:00:29.180 | which is a competitor to point.me.

01:00:31.100 | I'm trying to play around

01:00:32.420 | to see if I can do a good review on the two products.

01:00:35.220 | That was a lot of wins, I know,

01:00:36.820 | but it's just really exciting for me

01:00:38.380 | and hopefully for you to hear

01:00:39.620 | all the amazing experiences people are having

01:00:42.040 | using all the tactics we share on this show.

01:00:44.980 | (upbeat music)

01:00:46.380 | It's so awesome hearing all of those.

01:00:48.840 | Finally, I just looked at Apple Podcasts.

01:00:51.380 | I'm at 941 ratings.

01:00:53.820 | I still have a goal to get to a thousand,

01:00:56.180 | which means 59 of you could help me get there.

01:00:59.420 | So if you've gotten any value

01:01:01.180 | from this episode or this podcast,

01:01:03.060 | I would really appreciate a quick rating and review on Apple

01:01:07.100 | and see if I can get to a thousand soon.

01:01:09.500 | Thanks so much, see you next week.

01:01:11.740 | (upbeat music)

01:01:14.320 | (whooshing)

01:01:16.640 | [BLANK_AUDIO]