ATHLLC5293968946

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.480 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,

00:00:05.480 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.

00:00:08.400 | I'm your host, Chris Hutchins,

00:00:09.480 | and it's been a while since I did a solo mailbag episode,

00:00:12.120 | and that's long overdue,

00:00:13.640 | but I am so excited for this one

00:00:15.320 | because I think the timing will be so helpful

00:00:17.480 | for anyone who has upcoming travel these holidays,

00:00:20.960 | because I'm gonna cover everything you need to know

00:00:23.280 | when things go wrong with your travel.

00:00:25.300 | That means delays, cancellations, missed flights,

00:00:27.760 | sold out hotels and rental cars,

00:00:30.000 | some preventative measures you should take, and a lot more.

00:00:33.140 | I'm also gonna cover a few other travel topics,

00:00:35.560 | including some recent news and deals,

00:00:37.760 | tips for earning companion pass for two years,

00:00:40.780 | a card that earns three X points on everything for a year,

00:00:44.560 | and a lot more.

00:00:46.080 | But before we jump in,

00:00:47.720 | I wanna share that our annual listener survey

00:00:50.080 | is live as of today at allthehacks.com/survey,

00:00:54.400 | where it's linked in the show notes,

00:00:56.040 | and it would absolutely mean the world to me

00:00:58.520 | if you could spend a few minutes to take it.

00:01:00.800 | Your feedback is one of the major ways

00:01:03.120 | I'm gonna decide how we focus all of our time and energy

00:01:06.440 | with all the hacks next year.

00:01:08.480 | However, I wanna give you a little more incentive

00:01:10.920 | to help out, so we have three incredible giveaways

00:01:14.040 | for this year's survey.

00:01:15.340 | First, we have a $100 gift card to Viore,

00:01:17.800 | a longtime partner of the show,

00:01:19.720 | and currently at least 50% of my weekly wardrobe,

00:01:23.440 | thanks to them having the most comfortable

00:01:25.480 | performance apparel in the world.

00:01:27.400 | Seriously, I'm wearing it almost every single day,

00:01:30.120 | and if you can't wait for the giveaway,

00:01:31.520 | go to allthehacks.com/viore to get 20% off your order.

00:01:36.200 | Next, we have a free "Any Day, Every Day" cookware set.

00:01:39.400 | And if you're not familiar with "Any Day,"

00:01:40.920 | go back and listen to episode 122,

00:01:43.120 | where Chef David Chang and I talked about "Any Day,"

00:01:45.840 | and how it's completely changed our home cooking game

00:01:48.840 | by unlocking the power of the microwave.

00:01:51.200 | We use our "Any Day" cookware almost every single day,

00:01:54.940 | so if you wanna check them out,

00:01:56.020 | you can go to allthehacks.com/anyday

00:01:58.600 | and get 15% off your purchase.

00:02:00.800 | Finally, for me and Amy at All The Hacks,

00:02:02.880 | we're giving away a round-trip economy class certificate

00:02:05.600 | on United, valid for travel to or from the U.S.,

00:02:09.000 | excluding Hawaii, valid for travel to and from

00:02:12.360 | the 48 United States, Alaska, Canada,

00:02:15.040 | Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America.

00:02:17.500 | So I really hope someone takes an epic adventure with that.

00:02:20.800 | Please consider taking a few minutes

00:02:23.080 | to take the survey this week at allthehacks.com/survey.

00:02:26.600 | I would really appreciate it,

00:02:28.120 | and we'll be emailing the giveaway winners in a few weeks.

00:02:31.320 | Okay, there is so much good stuff

00:02:33.280 | to cover in today's episode,

00:02:34.880 | so let's jump in right after this.

00:02:36.980 | Oh, and one more thing.

00:02:38.180 | I got 20 free download codes for the new movie "Dumb Money,"

00:02:41.500 | which I'm gonna talk about in the outro of today's episode,

00:02:43.920 | so keep listening for that.

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00:04:10.440 | (upbeat music)

00:04:12.800 | Okay, so I wanted to do this episode

00:04:14.560 | because, well, first, so many of you have emailed

00:04:16.880 | asking questions about this topic,

00:04:18.480 | but also because there's a lot of holiday travel coming up

00:04:21.680 | and I really wanna make sure you all are prepared,

00:04:24.160 | but this information isn't just holiday specific.

00:04:26.880 | So it should be helpful to anyone

00:04:28.880 | who has plans to travel in the future,

00:04:30.960 | which I hope is just about everyone listening.

00:04:33.840 | So let's start with a couple general tips.

00:04:36.640 | First, keep in mind whenever you're in a tricky situation,

00:04:40.800 | three P's, patient, polite, and persistent.

00:04:43.640 | Whoever you're dealing with is probably dealing

00:04:45.920 | with tons of passengers problems or other guests problems

00:04:49.360 | and might only have limited information for you.

00:04:52.080 | So using things like please and thank you

00:04:53.880 | and just generally being nice,

00:04:55.480 | I think is one of the most valuable tactics

00:04:58.040 | for making sure that you have a good outcome.

00:05:00.400 | And if you know you're in the right

00:05:02.000 | and their rep who you're working with

00:05:03.520 | isn't doing enough to fix things,

00:05:05.280 | I'd say hold your ground, speak to their manager,

00:05:07.720 | or just try again.

00:05:09.040 | The persistent thing doesn't always mean

00:05:11.200 | sticking with the same person.

00:05:13.200 | If I'm calling up an airline

00:05:14.840 | and someone isn't able to help

00:05:16.200 | and I just think I'm getting nowhere,

00:05:17.760 | I'll just hang up, call again,

00:05:19.200 | and see if I can get someone else.

00:05:21.280 | The next broad thing I wanna remind you about

00:05:23.080 | is credit card benefits.

00:05:24.720 | So there are a lot of credit card benefits

00:05:26.360 | I'll talk about in this episode

00:05:27.960 | because there are so many travel perks

00:05:29.760 | that you get with your credit cards,

00:05:31.160 | but I'm not gonna go through all the nuance and detail.

00:05:33.840 | So episode 113 of all the hacks

00:05:36.040 | was about all the hidden credit card benefits.

00:05:38.400 | So if you wanna go deeper on that topic, you can go there.

00:05:41.000 | And then on insurance,

00:05:42.640 | we're gonna talk a little bit about travel insurance,

00:05:45.200 | but I've done two episodes covering the topic in the past,

00:05:48.040 | so I just wanna point you that direction.

00:05:50.000 | Episode 104 was all about insurance,

00:05:52.280 | and at the end, we covered travel.

00:05:54.320 | And then episode 110 with Nomadic Matt,

00:05:56.760 | about 35 minutes in, we talked about travel.

00:05:59.360 | My general thought on travel insurance

00:06:01.040 | is that make sure you're not paying for something

00:06:03.320 | that you already get from your credit cards.

00:06:05.360 | You'll need to go on a per credit card basis

00:06:07.320 | to see what's going on and what's offered,

00:06:09.000 | but many credit cards cover a lot of things.

00:06:11.320 | However, if you're going on something specialized,

00:06:13.560 | if you're going on a cruise and you wanna make sure

00:06:15.680 | that you're gonna get a refund for something expensive,

00:06:18.560 | if you're trying to cover a unique sport,

00:06:21.480 | or you're really worried if another pandemic kicks up,

00:06:24.600 | all of those things might be worth

00:06:26.400 | a more detailed look at travel insurance.

00:06:28.400 | I'm not gonna get too deep in there,

00:06:29.880 | but I just wanted to flag that up front.

00:06:32.080 | And for anytime I mention an episode, if it's episode 66,

00:06:36.280 | feel free to just go to allthehacks.com/66,

00:06:40.000 | and that'll take you straight to the page for the episode.

00:06:42.480 | If you click the link for Spotify or Apple Podcasts,

00:06:45.360 | it'll jump you right to the episode within those apps.

00:06:48.360 | For other apps, you're gonna have to scroll

00:06:49.760 | and search for it, but hopefully that's helpful.

00:06:51.960 | All right, let's start with air travel.

00:06:54.240 | And there is a lot here.

00:06:55.640 | So first, I'm gonna talk about cancellations and delays.

00:06:59.400 | Before you go into any of these situations,

00:07:01.240 | I would say there are a few things

00:07:02.680 | that you can do to prepare.

00:07:04.480 | So one is just making sure you know what's covered.

00:07:07.080 | So look at your credit card, look at the airline policies,

00:07:10.520 | anything like that.

00:07:11.660 | I always try to monitor my booking

00:07:13.040 | just to see what's happening as early as possible.

00:07:15.800 | Time is really, really helpful in these circumstances.

00:07:19.060 | So I use an app called Flighty, which is amazing,

00:07:22.080 | and I get push notifications from them

00:07:24.240 | as soon as the schedule's changed.

00:07:26.200 | Oftentimes, I've gotten notifications sooner

00:07:28.980 | than I got them from the airline, from Flighty.

00:07:31.600 | I recently signed up again for TripIt Pro,

00:07:34.160 | which right now is about $40 a year.

00:07:36.260 | I think Flighty's about the same price, around $50 a year.

00:07:39.120 | But the thing that I'm interested in TripIt Pro,

00:07:40.800 | which I'll get to later in this conversation,

00:07:42.520 | is around price drops.

00:07:44.360 | But they also have monitoring,

00:07:45.760 | and I'm gonna be curious to compare Flighty and TripIt Pro

00:07:49.680 | and the airlines the next time we're leaving.

00:07:52.280 | The other thing for really important travel,

00:07:55.220 | time-sensitive events, is booking a backup.

00:07:58.540 | And now, in a world where there are free cancellations,

00:08:01.760 | I think it's really, really worth doing

00:08:03.840 | if something's really urgent or timely.

00:08:05.960 | For example, for this Thanksgiving,

00:08:08.060 | we had a really, really early morning flight,

00:08:10.560 | and we decided we weren't gonna take it

00:08:12.860 | because it's just gonna be a little too crazy.

00:08:14.920 | So we booked a little bit of a later flight,

00:08:16.800 | but the first flight was on Southwest, so I just kept it.

00:08:19.600 | We booked it with points.

00:08:20.640 | I know if I cancel it, I'll get the points back

00:08:22.600 | as long as I cancel it 10 minutes before the flight takes off

00:08:25.760 | and so we'll just leave it there.

00:08:27.400 | On the off chance the flight we are taking

00:08:29.640 | gets canceled sometime before schedule changes something,

00:08:33.320 | we've got that backup.

00:08:34.680 | I don't always book a backup,

00:08:36.360 | but especially if I make changes,

00:08:37.760 | I might as well keep it because it's already there.

00:08:40.060 | But if you have something really time-sensitive,

00:08:42.120 | I think booking something that comes with free cancellations

00:08:45.120 | or totally refundable is something you could do

00:08:47.700 | to protect yourself.

00:08:49.120 | But that's what you can do in advance.

00:08:51.360 | What do you do when you find out

00:08:52.680 | that your flight is canceled or there's a delay?

00:08:55.340 | Well, in some cases, it can be a huge bummer,

00:08:57.680 | especially if you're right at the airport

00:08:59.380 | and it's messing all your plans.

00:09:01.000 | But if this happens in advance, it can be a huge advantage

00:09:04.040 | because when your flights get canceled or changed,

00:09:06.960 | the airlines have to help you.

00:09:08.600 | So sometimes that could mean

00:09:10.360 | you're gonna miss your connection that you had booked

00:09:12.880 | because it was way cheaper than a direct flight

00:09:15.280 | and you can use that to get on a direct flight.

00:09:18.000 | So what you're gonna do is you're gonna wanna get in touch

00:09:19.420 | with the airline as soon as possible.

00:09:21.520 | Bypassing all of the phone menus to reach a human

00:09:24.440 | is something that I think will be helpful.

00:09:26.800 | So here's how I think about it.

00:09:29.640 | I call and I say existing reservation

00:09:32.800 | depending on the airline,

00:09:33.920 | and I almost always just say agent

00:09:35.720 | or press zero until someone answers.

00:09:38.060 | Every now and then, maybe it's weather,

00:09:39.800 | maybe it's a technical system for an airline,

00:09:42.080 | and you just aren't gonna get a human

00:09:43.680 | and there's really long hold times.

00:09:45.460 | Whenever that happens,

00:09:46.760 | I try to call one of those airline desks in another country.

00:09:50.600 | So for example, if you're flying on United,

00:09:53.280 | United has desks in Japan, in the UK.

00:09:57.140 | You could call those numbers

00:09:58.720 | for usually a very nominal fee

00:10:00.200 | using a service like Google Voice.

00:10:01.680 | I think it's usually like a cent a minute.

00:10:03.600 | Some plans, if you have US Mobile, for example,

00:10:06.000 | just include free international calling.

00:10:08.080 | So that is where I go if I'm not having any luck.

00:10:10.780 | It's also a tactic I use if I'm trying to get an agent

00:10:13.360 | outside of business hours in the US.

00:10:15.640 | And if you're at the airport

00:10:16.620 | and there's a massive line at the gate,

00:10:19.280 | some airports have customer service desks.

00:10:22.000 | And if that doesn't work,

00:10:23.160 | there's usually reps that can help you

00:10:25.000 | inside of an airline lounge.

00:10:26.700 | So if you have access to the United Club,

00:10:29.000 | when you're flying United, you could go in there.

00:10:31.180 | Worst case, if security wasn't that long

00:10:34.000 | and you wanted to talk to someone faster,

00:10:35.800 | you could leave security

00:10:36.820 | and go to one of the ticketing desks

00:10:38.240 | and the check-in desks.

00:10:39.520 | So basically the goal here

00:10:41.160 | is to get a person as fast as possible.

00:10:44.360 | If you're 50th in line,

00:10:46.040 | there are 49 people that are gonna get a flight rebooked

00:10:48.760 | on something else before you.

00:10:50.320 | So if you can get on the phone to someone

00:10:51.920 | or get to a person sooner,

00:10:53.600 | you're gonna have a higher likelihood

00:10:55.080 | of getting a better option.

00:10:56.260 | So that's how you get your flights changed.

00:10:58.120 | But as far as compensation,

00:10:59.740 | when an airline cancels the flight

00:11:01.520 | or makes a significant change,

00:11:02.920 | you're gonna be able to get a refund for sure,

00:11:06.200 | even on a non-refundable ticket.

00:11:07.840 | That's according to U.S. Department of Transportation rules.

00:11:10.460 | That's also true if the airline moves you

00:11:12.280 | to a lower class of service.

00:11:14.080 | If you were flying in business class

00:11:15.560 | and a flight was changed,

00:11:16.840 | and that meant that there weren't enough business class seats

00:11:18.900 | and you got bumped down.

00:11:20.200 | But usually you can actually get a bit more compensation

00:11:24.400 | than just a refund,

00:11:25.480 | especially if you're not canceling entirely on the airline.

00:11:28.760 | If you're willing to let them put you on another flight,

00:11:31.540 | sometimes that's $100.

00:11:32.820 | Sometimes that's an upgrade to first class.

00:11:34.780 | Sometimes that's 20,000 miles.

00:11:37.140 | Sometimes it's $500.

00:11:38.340 | It really depends.

00:11:39.500 | But I would absolutely,

00:11:40.980 | anytime an airline is inconveniencing you,

00:11:43.780 | ask them for something for that inconvenience.

00:11:46.640 | Even if they don't give you something in the moment,

00:11:48.900 | I would follow up by email,

00:11:50.340 | follow up by a phone call,

00:11:51.920 | and you'd be surprised what happens.

00:11:53.580 | I know right now we just booked flights next year on Delta,

00:11:57.060 | and we took $375 off those flights

00:11:59.440 | because we had $325 certificates from Delta

00:12:02.680 | because there was a major change

00:12:04.320 | to a reservation we had earlier this year.

00:12:06.580 | Also, if missing the flight is your fault,

00:12:08.820 | there's this thing that I just recently learned

00:12:11.120 | when doing some research called the flat tire rule,

00:12:13.280 | where most airlines have some rule

00:12:15.800 | that will help you get on another flight,

00:12:18.680 | whether it's a rule or just a common practice,

00:12:20.860 | if you miss the flight.

00:12:22.280 | So on American, if you arrive within two hours,

00:12:24.560 | you can get booked on the next flight as a standby traveler

00:12:27.280 | with no extra fees.

00:12:28.800 | One time, I went to the wrong airport in the DC area.

00:12:32.540 | I was supposed to go to Reagan National Airport,

00:12:34.560 | and I went to Dulles, and I was able to get on a flight.

00:12:37.340 | I can't even remember what airline it was,

00:12:38.840 | but it was one that flew to both DC airports,

00:12:41.040 | so I was lucky there.

00:12:42.240 | So I would say, if you're gonna run late

00:12:43.880 | and you're gonna miss your flight,

00:12:45.480 | at least try calling before you get there,

00:12:47.660 | but I'd say you probably have a decent likelihood

00:12:50.640 | of being able to stand by.

00:12:52.720 | That doesn't mean you're gonna get on,

00:12:53.960 | but you probably have a good option.

00:12:55.880 | And if all of these things happen

00:12:57.680 | and you're really struggling

00:12:59.120 | and you need to buy something last minute,

00:13:01.240 | I'll just throw out there that last minute flights

00:13:03.840 | using points and miles can sometimes, not always,

00:13:06.280 | but sometimes be a really great deal.

00:13:08.700 | So Drew wrote in talking about

00:13:10.420 | how he had this exact situation.

00:13:12.320 | He was going on a trip for work

00:13:13.620 | that he was linking together with a personal trip

00:13:15.520 | and the work side of it canceled.

00:13:17.440 | So they actually canceled his ticket back home,

00:13:20.320 | and he was about to be stuck buying a $387 plane ticket,

00:13:23.860 | but using American Airlines points,

00:13:25.640 | he was able to get that same flight for 7,500 points,

00:13:29.080 | which is 5 cents per point in value, which is awesome.

00:13:31.860 | And while I usually try to save my points

00:13:33.840 | for big trips that I'm planning in advance

00:13:36.120 | and business class and premium cabins,

00:13:38.360 | if something happens on a domestic trip

00:13:40.240 | and last minute you need to use some miles,

00:13:42.160 | it can be a great way to use up some miles

00:13:44.800 | in a program that you don't have a huge balance on.

00:13:47.760 | So that 7,500 miles that Drew needed for his flight

00:13:51.020 | is something that you might have

00:13:52.620 | in an airline you don't fly that often

00:13:55.040 | that might be able to be a great way to use those points.

00:13:57.840 | As I'm dialing in my health,

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00:16:50.540 | Next, I talked briefly about credit card benefits before,

00:16:53.140 | but specifically, a lot of cards have trip delay

00:16:55.860 | and trip cancellation insurance.

00:16:57.820 | You'll be able to get reimbursed

00:16:59.060 | for any non-refundable or prepaid expenses

00:17:01.740 | if you have to get canceled for a situation.

00:17:04.340 | Cancellation is often more for you,

00:17:06.460 | like an unpostponable jury duty,

00:17:08.860 | or a hospitalization, or a major injury.

00:17:11.820 | Sometimes includes severe weather or named storms.

00:17:15.040 | Usually doesn't include fog and basic stuff like that.

00:17:17.840 | It's a pretty common insurance that covers $3,000 to $10,000

00:17:21.900 | so that's something worth keeping in mind.

00:17:23.940 | I think the best insurances I've seen

00:17:26.440 | are probably from Chase and Amex,

00:17:28.440 | but even Capital One has trip cancellation insurance as well.

00:17:32.240 | When it comes to delays, it's another common coverage,

00:17:35.120 | which you can be reimbursed for reasonable expenses usually.

00:17:38.940 | So if you were delayed

00:17:40.040 | and you had to spend the night at a hotel

00:17:41.840 | that wasn't covered,

00:17:43.000 | or if you needed to even sometimes buy a meal,

00:17:45.360 | that can be covered.

00:17:46.460 | So oftentimes, this is a much smaller coverage,

00:17:49.560 | so maybe $500 a person,

00:17:51.280 | and might require a really meaningful delay,

00:17:53.620 | six to 12 hours, not just two hours.

00:17:56.280 | As for getting compensation,

00:17:57.680 | if you're trying to get compensation from an airline

00:18:00.160 | and you're not having success,

00:18:01.920 | it's definitely worth filing a complaint

00:18:03.840 | with the Department of Transportation.

00:18:05.500 | That can sometimes get more eyeballs than you think,

00:18:07.680 | and it actually counts against the airlines.

00:18:10.040 | So I think they really try to respond to these

00:18:12.120 | if it gets to that,

00:18:13.080 | but I've never had to go to that point.

00:18:15.160 | So hopefully you don't as well.

00:18:16.840 | And by the way, if you're doing all of these things

00:18:18.400 | and if flights are canceled and you need to move around

00:18:20.120 | and you've already checked your bag,

00:18:22.140 | usually you'll have to go back to the baggage carousel

00:18:24.280 | to pick it up and then reload and recheck it on.

00:18:27.120 | Some airlines might also try to just reroute the bag

00:18:29.900 | to your final destination if you're staying on that airline,

00:18:32.500 | but just keep that in mind during this process.

00:18:35.240 | It's one of the reasons we used to never love checking bags,

00:18:37.320 | and then we had children and now it's not really an option,

00:18:39.920 | so we're checking bags,

00:18:41.100 | but I'll get to what to do with bags in a little bit.

00:18:43.520 | I mentioned if you do miss your first flight,

00:18:46.080 | but what about when you're on a layover?

00:18:47.840 | So first off, I think it's really important

00:18:49.800 | to consider planning for layovers properly.

00:18:52.720 | I think we used to plan for them differently

00:18:54.320 | without children than we do now,

00:18:56.120 | but I always try to have enough time.

00:18:58.600 | There's something called a MCT or a minimum connection time

00:19:02.160 | where different airports have an amount of time

00:19:04.920 | at which they'll let you book a connection,

00:19:07.220 | but some of those minimum connection times

00:19:09.240 | are totally crazy.

00:19:11.120 | Especially in Europe,

00:19:12.280 | there are times where I've seen connections

00:19:14.520 | that I know are gonna be across a very large airport

00:19:18.120 | and it's allowed to book something for 45 minutes.

00:19:20.800 | I can't remember what the minimum connection time is

00:19:22.800 | for Charles de Gaulle in Paris,

00:19:24.760 | but if I were to book a flight and it said,

00:19:26.920 | "Oh, it's okay to book a 50-minute layover in Paris,"

00:19:30.360 | I wouldn't book that flight.

00:19:32.300 | Our au pair is going back to Italy over Thanksgiving,

00:19:35.020 | and there are a few options that were bookable

00:19:37.160 | with 45 to 60-minute layovers in international airports.

00:19:41.740 | I just wouldn't book that

00:19:42.700 | because it seems like you're putting yourself

00:19:44.980 | in a situation where you are likely to have an issue.

00:19:47.620 | So I try to plan a buffer.

00:19:49.260 | I also like to just search online

00:19:50.500 | for how long it takes to walk between terminals.

00:19:53.020 | Anyone who's been to a very small airport

00:19:54.780 | knows that a 30-minute layover could be fine.

00:19:57.400 | So sometimes if you do a search online,

00:19:59.720 | either results on Reddit or TripAdvisor

00:20:02.180 | or Flyertalk come up,

00:20:03.360 | but I'll search LAX, how long to walk

00:20:07.320 | from terminal two to terminal seven.

00:20:10.400 | And you'll usually find someone out there on the internet

00:20:12.740 | who has done that or even asked that question before

00:20:15.480 | and someone who responded.

00:20:17.120 | So that's great.

00:20:18.360 | If you do miss a connection,

00:20:20.440 | one other important thing is sometimes I will try

00:20:23.980 | to save money by booking two separate airlines

00:20:27.160 | and connecting them.

00:20:28.520 | Obviously, if you check bags,

00:20:29.780 | you're gonna need a lot of extra time

00:20:31.080 | to go retrieve your bags and recheck them

00:20:32.880 | 'cause airlines usually won't connect through.

00:20:35.520 | Maybe if they're on the same alliance,

00:20:37.140 | but often if they're on separate tickets,

00:20:39.240 | that's gonna be tricky.

00:20:40.400 | One important thing to remember in that circumstance

00:20:42.960 | is that because you are on separate tickets,

00:20:45.840 | the second airline isn't just gonna automatically care

00:20:49.400 | that the first airline was delayed.

00:20:51.760 | They're gonna treat you just like you missed your flight,

00:20:53.920 | got to the airport late and potentially slightly worse

00:20:57.360 | for not just booking the entire flight through that airline.

00:21:00.040 | So I would leave a ton of extra time

00:21:02.680 | if you're connecting between two airlines

00:21:04.560 | that aren't partners that weren't booked on the same ticket.

00:21:07.440 | But if you are on all the same airline

00:21:09.520 | and you are missing a flight due to a late takeoff

00:21:12.280 | or some other mechanical issue,

00:21:13.920 | the airline is responsible

00:21:15.280 | for getting you on the next flight

00:21:16.880 | and even offering you accommodation or meal vouchers

00:21:19.260 | if you're stuck overnight or at a long period at the airport.

00:21:22.140 | So keep that in mind.

00:21:23.400 | Depending on where you're traveling,

00:21:24.760 | it might not be required,

00:21:25.840 | but it's pretty standard practice.

00:21:27.560 | So I would just push for it

00:21:28.760 | if it's not being voluntarily given to you.

00:21:31.080 | If you do have to cancel a non-refundable ticket

00:21:33.440 | and it ends up happening after the flight is taken off,

00:21:36.480 | I would try to contact the airline as fast as possible.

00:21:39.260 | It's very likely you're not gonna get anything back.

00:21:41.960 | Though sometimes in Europe,

00:21:43.640 | if you have a non-refundable ticket

00:21:45.280 | and you have to cancel it,

00:21:46.680 | you can at least get your taxes back.

00:21:48.960 | That's not always true in the US,

00:21:50.220 | but in Europe I've had that situation

00:21:51.860 | where it's still worth canceling a non-refundable ticket

00:21:54.520 | to at least get your taxes back.

00:21:56.480 | Debbie wrote in asking for a rule of thumb on layovers.

00:21:59.220 | My general rule of thumb is at least an hour

00:22:02.880 | if I'm very comfortable with the airport

00:22:05.000 | and I know how it's laid out

00:22:06.360 | and I know I'm not gonna be running between terminals

00:22:09.000 | and I'm not traveling for some super sensitive timely thing,

00:22:12.880 | 30, 45 minutes is okay.

00:22:14.960 | One of the really cool features of a lot of travel apps,

00:22:17.600 | but specifically within the Flighty app

00:22:20.280 | is that you see the average delay times.

00:22:22.720 | You can see how frequently this flight gets in early or late.

00:22:26.440 | And if you're on a kind of route where it's constantly late,

00:22:29.500 | that might make you feel differently

00:22:30.860 | versus I know a lot of times long flights

00:22:33.940 | between Japan and the US typically get in a little bit early

00:22:37.420 | so you might feel a little better there,

00:22:38.660 | but obviously you're gonna have to go through immigration.

00:22:40.820 | International is a whole different bag,

00:22:42.940 | especially in other countries with immigration

00:22:45.340 | that you're not sure how long it may or may not take.

00:22:48.060 | The only hacks I have there in the US,

00:22:50.280 | the US Passport app and Global Entry

00:22:52.260 | are great options to speed up time.

00:22:54.500 | And then if you are eligible for the APEC Business Card

00:22:57.720 | because you do business overseas in Asia

00:23:01.160 | or any of the APEC region,

00:23:02.880 | you can upgrade your Global Entry

00:23:05.120 | to have an APEC Business Card

00:23:07.100 | and that'll get you expedited immigration,

00:23:09.520 | basically letting you in the crew lines in APEC countries.

00:23:13.040 | Now, let's talk about bags a bit more.

00:23:15.360 | If you do have your bags lost, delayed, damaged,

00:23:18.480 | the first thing you're gonna need to do

00:23:20.000 | is find the baggage desk of the airline

00:23:22.000 | that operated your last flight.

00:23:24.100 | And that last flight part is important

00:23:26.320 | because if you're flying on a ticket

00:23:27.840 | that was booked on two passengers,

00:23:29.640 | you wanna make sure you,

00:23:30.640 | even though your bag might've been lost

00:23:32.280 | by the first airline,

00:23:33.760 | the operating carrier of your last flight

00:23:36.520 | is the one who's ultimately responsible

00:23:38.200 | for getting the bag to you.

00:23:39.620 | I don't envy anyone in this situation,

00:23:42.220 | but that's who you're gonna wanna talk to.

00:23:44.100 | You're gonna wanna make sure you file a report

00:23:46.320 | before you leave the airport.

00:23:48.200 | If they tell you they're gonna email you something

00:23:50.380 | or ask you to do it later in your hotel,

00:23:52.720 | don't leave the airport without filing that report.

00:23:55.240 | For both insurance purposes and tracking purposes,

00:23:57.760 | it is absolutely something I would want to give them.

00:24:00.400 | Make sure they have an address for you

00:24:02.040 | so they can get your bags to you.

00:24:03.980 | Airlines generally are pretty good about this.

00:24:06.040 | When we landed in Hawaii,

00:24:08.040 | United didn't get our car seat to us in time.

00:24:11.120 | We had checked that bag.

00:24:12.440 | And so a few things I learned there.

00:24:14.280 | One, they were really great about offering

00:24:16.840 | to get the bag delivered to us the next day.

00:24:20.080 | They even offered if we didn't need the bag

00:24:22.400 | to hold it back in San Francisco

00:24:24.600 | so that we could just get it when we get home.

00:24:26.880 | Unfortunately, we had booked a flight from San Francisco

00:24:29.240 | and back to Oakland.

00:24:30.400 | So we needed that car seat to get home

00:24:32.560 | when we landed in Oakland to put in a Lyft or an Uber.

00:24:35.360 | But they ended up delivering it to us the next day.

00:24:39.240 | They also offered to loan us a car seat.

00:24:41.240 | It turns out a lot of airlines have loaner car seats

00:24:44.060 | for this exact purpose.

00:24:45.280 | So that's something to keep in mind.

00:24:47.080 | I didn't know that and had already gone

00:24:49.280 | to the rental car counter and had already paid $120

00:24:52.840 | to rent two car seats for the week.

00:24:55.040 | Fortunately, United also took that receipt.

00:24:57.680 | They didn't reimburse it directly at the airport,

00:24:59.960 | but I uploaded it online, got a check in the mail,

00:25:03.000 | and it was totally covered.

00:25:04.120 | So shout out to United for at least handling that situation

00:25:07.520 | as well as they could have outside of the fact

00:25:09.440 | that they did not bring the bag.

00:25:11.360 | So when you do have these situations,

00:25:13.560 | you are eligible for some kind of compensation.

00:25:16.440 | Every airline has a different policy.

00:25:18.480 | United is for expenses based on proof of claim.

00:25:21.940 | Delta allows reasonable expenses,

00:25:24.480 | and they generally say about $50 a day.

00:25:27.180 | It really depends on the circumstance

00:25:28.940 | and what was in your bag and what was necessary.

00:25:32.160 | I would make an argument that if you had an important meeting

00:25:34.680 | and you needed a suit, like renting one or buying one

00:25:37.280 | might be a reasonable expense,

00:25:38.600 | but if you're going on vacation,

00:25:40.320 | buying a suit probably wouldn't be.

00:25:41.600 | So I haven't had a lot of experience with lost bags.

00:25:45.040 | So I don't have a lot of anecdotes here.

00:25:46.960 | Feel free if you have specific ones to share them

00:25:49.200 | so I can let people know, but in general,

00:25:52.000 | I would definitely try to get some sort of reimbursement

00:25:54.440 | for anything that you needed.

00:25:55.920 | But honestly, the hassle of talking to someone

00:25:58.760 | and going through this process,

00:26:00.440 | if you're just trying to get reimbursement

00:26:02.320 | to get reimbursement might not be worth it,

00:26:04.280 | though some of these airlines

00:26:05.520 | make it really easy to do online.

00:26:07.240 | When it comes to reimbursement,

00:26:08.720 | delayed baggage is actually something

00:26:10.780 | that is not very common on credit cards.

00:26:12.760 | I have seen a few chase cards with it, so take a look,

00:26:15.680 | but it usually requires at least a six hour delay

00:26:18.360 | and it's capped at $100.

00:26:20.040 | So it's not gonna be that big.

00:26:21.800 | But one really important thing is keeping track of receipts.

00:26:24.640 | Depending on the airline,

00:26:25.920 | they may or may not need receipts for a lot of things.

00:26:28.360 | I can't remember the threshold at United,

00:26:30.040 | I think it was over 75 or $100 they needed a receipt.

00:26:33.000 | But if you're going out to buy toothbrushes,

00:26:34.880 | toothpaste, deodorant, whatever that is,

00:26:36.640 | just keep a receipt so you can make sure to get reimbursed.

00:26:39.460 | If your bags are lost or damaged,

00:26:41.940 | that actually is something that is common,

00:26:43.840 | credit card benefit.

00:26:45.080 | So if the airline's not gonna cover that,

00:26:46.840 | your credit card probably would.

00:26:48.560 | But I'm not sure actually how hard it will be

00:26:50.840 | to prove what was in it and how much it's worth.

00:26:53.360 | One quick thing, kind of like rental cars

00:26:55.480 | that I like to do now is if I'm gonna check a bag,

00:26:57.680 | I'll just take a picture of the open bag before I close it,

00:27:00.640 | just so I can at least have some documentation

00:27:02.800 | of what was in there.

00:27:03.900 | But in general, I'm not putting expensive things in my bag

00:27:07.000 | because if it gets lost, at least a bag that's checked,

00:27:10.440 | I don't have high expectations

00:27:11.840 | that something expensive will be covered.

00:27:13.640 | As for how to avoid this, well, obvious, don't check bags.

00:27:16.280 | That's an easy one.

00:27:17.120 | But for some people, that's not possible.

00:27:19.420 | What I try to do is keep anything valuable

00:27:21.360 | and really important in carry-ons.

00:27:23.520 | I also try to think about a simple journey.

00:27:26.600 | So if you're gonna save $50 to take one or two stops,

00:27:30.920 | keep in mind that there's a chance

00:27:32.760 | that that affects the likelihood that you get your bag.

00:27:35.200 | And I'm sure in that moment, it won't be worth it.

00:27:37.760 | If you're gonna save thousands of dollars, then absolutely.

00:27:40.840 | I also put Apple AirTags in all of our bags

00:27:44.200 | so that at least I have a good sense of where they are.

00:27:46.760 | From all the experience of people I know,

00:27:49.000 | it doesn't actually help get anything resolved

00:27:52.080 | other than knowing where things are,

00:27:54.120 | but there is some peace of mind

00:27:55.640 | being able to sit on the plane before it takes off

00:27:57.840 | and just say, "Yep, I know my bags are on the plane."

00:28:00.160 | And some airlines actually scan at all these intervals

00:28:02.840 | and will update the mobile apps with bag is on the plane,

00:28:06.120 | bag made it here, bag's on the carousel.

00:28:08.460 | So that's something to keep in mind as well.

00:28:10.480 | Now, if your travel does go awry,

00:28:12.840 | one awesome recommendation from Katya who emailed in

00:28:17.000 | said that she has a little hack

00:28:18.800 | she's been doing with her daughter.

00:28:20.200 | And anytime they have a challenge throughout the trip,

00:28:23.720 | she pretends with her daughter

00:28:25.180 | that they're on an amazing race adventure.

00:28:27.620 | So for example, she'd experienced a mechanical issue

00:28:30.940 | as they were gonna take off

00:28:31.960 | and they had to spend a night in a hotel

00:28:33.680 | at Heathrow in the UK.

00:28:35.800 | And so because British Airways didn't make everything clear,

00:28:38.800 | she kind of made it a game with her daughter.

00:28:40.720 | And she was like, "Here, we have to get to this hotel.

00:28:42.840 | "How are we gonna get there?

00:28:43.760 | "What's the best way?"

00:28:45.000 | And it kind of became a fun event for the family

00:28:47.720 | and it was a lot less frustrating.

00:28:49.160 | So awesome idea.

00:28:50.940 | Obviously, I hope no one has to use it,

00:28:52.440 | but if so, might make traveling with kids

00:28:54.600 | in these circumstances a little better.

00:28:56.620 | So let's move on to hotels.

00:28:58.080 | In general, I think we're not as used to hotel problems,

00:29:01.560 | but there are a few reasons why a hotel

00:29:03.160 | might not end up having your reservation.

00:29:05.400 | So administrative errors is one,

00:29:07.640 | which is getting better with confirmations.

00:29:10.280 | Booking through third parties is another.

00:29:12.520 | For example, I actually helped someone make a reservation

00:29:15.440 | just last week and we called up to confirm something

00:29:19.520 | and the hotel didn't have it.

00:29:21.040 | And we had a confirmation from a third party,

00:29:23.800 | but we did not have a reservation confirmation

00:29:26.480 | with the hotel.

00:29:27.400 | So in general, I would say,

00:29:28.360 | if you're booking on a third party,

00:29:29.680 | which sometimes can save you a lot of money,

00:29:31.280 | can get you a lot of perks, is totally worth it,

00:29:33.800 | you might wanna make sure you call the hotel

00:29:35.560 | just to make sure they have your reservation.

00:29:37.720 | Some hotels intentionally oversell to maximize profit.

00:29:41.320 | And then sometimes you have guests that just don't check out.

00:29:44.000 | I know that might sound crazy to some of us,

00:29:45.720 | but any of those could result in your room

00:29:48.080 | not being available.

00:29:49.400 | And similar to guests overstaying,

00:29:50.840 | I guess you could also have health,

00:29:52.400 | cleanliness, mechanical issues.

00:29:54.280 | So if a room was no longer able to be used,

00:29:56.900 | maybe they didn't oversell the hotel,

00:29:58.940 | but now the hotel has less capacity

00:30:00.900 | because one room's out of service.

00:30:02.960 | So unlike airlines where there are really clear rules

00:30:05.960 | about what happens and what rights people have,

00:30:08.380 | there's no government regulations in this area.

00:30:11.160 | You're almost always gonna be able to get a refund

00:30:13.320 | if a hotel can't honor your reservation,

00:30:15.200 | but I would be pushing a lot harder

00:30:17.360 | for compensation in that circumstance.

00:30:19.480 | And I would certainly be asking them to book me

00:30:22.080 | in a comparable or better hotel nearby.

00:30:24.920 | And I would be pushing the front desk, the manager, the GM,

00:30:28.560 | or worst case, calling the hotel loyalty program,

00:30:32.160 | someone in central reservations at Marriott or Hyatt

00:30:34.640 | to see what can be done.

00:30:36.000 | If your room class isn't available

00:30:37.520 | and all they have is suites,

00:30:39.460 | I wouldn't expect to pay any extra for that.

00:30:41.840 | So keep all of those things in mind.

00:30:43.560 | Every hotel chain has some rules published

00:30:45.640 | about what they will do,

00:30:46.880 | some of them more clear than others.

00:30:48.840 | But in general, I've found that most hotel chains

00:30:53.000 | that you work with will probably find some way

00:30:55.320 | to take care of you, but it's up to you to push for it

00:30:58.480 | and make sure that you get something reasonable.

00:31:00.420 | As for how to avoid this,

00:31:02.080 | when hotels have to decide how to walk guests,

00:31:04.440 | there are a few criteria I know they look at.

00:31:06.640 | People who have booked through a third party,

00:31:09.160 | who aren't part of their loyalty program,

00:31:11.200 | who have never stayed before,

00:31:12.720 | who are only staying for one night,

00:31:14.900 | or who have really, really, really discounted rates

00:31:17.800 | are often reasons that you could be chosen

00:31:20.320 | for someone who's walked.

00:31:21.700 | So I think the easiest way to solve that

00:31:23.480 | is to just make sure

00:31:24.480 | that you join all the hotel loyalty programs

00:31:27.360 | and add a number to your reservation.

00:31:29.600 | That one is one where I think it's going to have

00:31:32.720 | a huge impact for a very little cost.

00:31:35.520 | In addition to that, calling ahead, confirming your room,

00:31:39.120 | even calling early in the morning

00:31:40.860 | and getting a room assigned if you're really, really worried

00:31:43.920 | could be something that could help.

00:31:45.600 | Some hotels allow you to check in online,

00:31:47.880 | you could check in early, or you could just book direct.

00:31:51.080 | I think booking direct is always gonna give you

00:31:52.940 | a little edge here, but at the end of the day,

00:31:55.120 | if you can save 30, 40% booking elsewhere,

00:31:58.300 | I think that could be worth it.

00:31:59.440 | Just know that in these rare circumstances,

00:32:02.180 | you might not be on the same playing field

00:32:04.000 | as someone who booked direct.

00:32:05.600 | Last on hotels is just when things go wrong in the hotel.

00:32:08.720 | If you check into your room, something's not working,

00:32:11.520 | there's a weird smell,

00:32:13.360 | I've had a couple of situations like this.

00:32:15.240 | In that circumstance, I wouldn't try to wait it out.

00:32:17.720 | I would just immediately call down and say,

00:32:19.800 | this is what's wrong with the room,

00:32:21.160 | can you get me in something else?

00:32:22.940 | Oftentimes that something else will be a little bit nicer,

00:32:25.920 | or you'll get some bonus points, or some free drinks,

00:32:28.380 | or something like that.

00:32:29.580 | I don't try to use this to my advantage.

00:32:31.380 | I'm not looking for problems in a room

00:32:33.100 | when I'm going into them.

00:32:34.420 | But when we were staying in Bora Bora,

00:32:35.860 | the air conditioner wasn't working.

00:32:37.300 | And so that was certainly a reason to ask for a new room.

00:32:41.220 | And we tried calling to get it fixed.

00:32:43.820 | It was late, we were trying to go to bed, someone came,

00:32:46.900 | they said they fixed it.

00:32:48.180 | And if it didn't work in 30 minutes to call back,

00:32:50.780 | we called back in 30 minutes, it wasn't fixed,

00:32:53.420 | no one answered.

00:32:54.580 | And so we actually ended up staying in the room.

00:32:56.480 | And the next morning, I went to the front desk and said,

00:32:58.760 | hey, our room's air conditioner isn't working,

00:33:00.160 | can we get a new room?

00:33:01.160 | They were great, they put us in a new room.

00:33:02.740 | And I asked them, I didn't demand it necessarily,

00:33:05.320 | but I said, hey, given that last night,

00:33:08.040 | the air conditioner wasn't working all night,

00:33:09.940 | do we need to pay for that night?

00:33:11.400 | And they said, no, no, no,

00:33:12.240 | we'll take that night off your bill, which was awesome.

00:33:14.100 | I wasn't gonna put up a fight if they said no,

00:33:16.760 | but it never hurts to ask.

00:33:18.960 | If my voice sounds a little different right now,

00:33:20.680 | it's 'cause I'm recording this

00:33:21.840 | after I recorded the whole episode.

00:33:23.720 | But on the topic of hotels,

00:33:25.460 | I wanted to share something I've been working on

00:33:27.140 | for a while.

00:33:28.320 | If you've listened,

00:33:29.160 | you know that we have a luxury upgrade program

00:33:31.440 | that can give you access

00:33:32.480 | to some really awesome exclusive benefits

00:33:35.040 | at about 4,000 luxury hotels around the world.

00:33:38.120 | Think five-star hotels like Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt,

00:33:42.200 | Ondas, St. Regis, Ritz-Carlton, that kind of stuff,

00:33:45.600 | as well as some boutique hotels.

00:33:47.220 | And you usually get daily breakfast for two,

00:33:49.720 | a $100 property credit, free wifi,

00:33:52.640 | and a free upgrade if it's available,

00:33:55.000 | and early and late checkout if those are available.

00:33:57.760 | And so the way this had worked before

00:33:59.840 | is you have to send an email

00:34:01.160 | and include all this information,

00:34:02.840 | and we try to help you out with it.

00:34:04.760 | Well, I'm really excited that we finally built a site

00:34:07.260 | where you can do all of this on your own.

00:34:09.440 | So if you go to hotels.allthehacks.com,

00:34:12.960 | you can actually do a search yourself

00:34:14.840 | for these exclusive deals and perks and benefits.

00:34:17.760 | You can either search by property or search by city,

00:34:20.680 | and when the results come up,

00:34:22.000 | just make sure to click View Details,

00:34:24.760 | and you'll get a list of all the rooms,

00:34:26.440 | and you'll see whether they have

00:34:27.960 | all the Hacks Preferred rates or Virtuoso amenities.

00:34:31.400 | And when you click View Full Description,

00:34:33.340 | you'll get all the details.

00:34:34.800 | So for example, I just quickly searched for London,

00:34:37.440 | and the first hotel that pulled up

00:34:38.920 | was the Great Scotland Yard, which is a Hyatt hotel,

00:34:41.720 | and it says one king bedroom, highlights,

00:34:44.720 | Hyatt Privé breakfast for two, welcome amenity,

00:34:47.620 | $100 property credit, early check-in,

00:34:49.920 | late check-out, room upgrade.

00:34:51.880 | So hopefully this is an awesome tool

00:34:54.640 | for anyone looking to book a luxury hotel

00:34:56.480 | and get some extra perks.

00:34:58.160 | The rates are not gonna be any different

00:34:59.780 | than you would find for a standard rate on the website,

00:35:02.440 | but you are gonna get some benefits.

00:35:04.440 | If you've already gotten perks like this

00:35:05.880 | through a program like Amex's Fine Hotels and Resorts,

00:35:08.440 | or what Chase and Capital One have offered,

00:35:10.200 | you'll be familiar.

00:35:11.360 | The only difference here is I'm pretty sure

00:35:13.200 | we have about 4,000 hotels,

00:35:15.080 | and each of those programs has anywhere

00:35:16.840 | from 300 or 400 to I think Amex has a little over 2,000.

00:35:20.760 | So we have a bit of a broader set,

00:35:22.680 | and from what I've been told

00:35:24.200 | from the travel partner we're working with,

00:35:26.600 | that because all these reservations

00:35:28.200 | are actually getting routed through a boutique travel agency,

00:35:31.480 | you'll probably have slightly better preference

00:35:33.800 | or priority over the reservations

00:35:36.640 | going through a bigger platform like Amex or Chase.

00:35:39.680 | That said, find the best deals you can,

00:35:42.060 | but I just wanted to let you know

00:35:43.140 | that we made this site available to everyone,

00:35:45.240 | and hopefully it can hook you up on a future trip.

00:35:48.240 | All right, let's move on from hotels.

00:35:50.280 | There is nothing like watching your kids grow up so fast

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00:37:03.000 | a fully balanced diet every day,

00:37:05.000 | but the reality is I'm not.

00:37:06.960 | But if you're a longtime listener,

00:37:08.160 | you might know I've been drinking AG-1 for about two years.

00:37:11.600 | When I started drinking AG-1 daily,

00:37:13.480 | it was to help with daily nutrition,

00:37:15.240 | but I also felt a real difference

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00:37:21.680 | And that's because AG-1

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00:37:42.000 | Every morning, I mix it up with some cold water,

00:37:44.360 | add a few ice cubes because it's so good cold,

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00:38:28.920 | I just wanna thank you, Quick,

00:38:31.720 | for listening to and supporting the show.

00:38:34.040 | Your support is what keeps this show going.

00:38:36.860 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,

00:38:39.560 | and discounts from our partners,

00:38:41.320 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals.

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00:38:48.440 | All right, moving on to car rentals.

00:38:50.160 | We did a really deep dive episode

00:38:52.180 | with Jonathan Weinberg from Auto Slash in episode 66.

00:38:55.800 | So if you wanna go deep on car rentals, check that out.

00:38:58.160 | But a few tips here.

00:38:59.840 | One, a lot of rental car reservations

00:39:01.720 | require no upfront payment

00:39:03.100 | and there's no cancellation fees.

00:39:04.840 | So if you're really worried

00:39:06.400 | that your car might not be available,

00:39:07.880 | you're welcome to book a backup.

00:39:10.000 | Some rental car companies might look at a backup

00:39:12.880 | under the same name at the same place negatively.

00:39:16.200 | So you could book it in a spouse's name

00:39:17.720 | or book it at two companies.

00:39:19.280 | Two companies might be a little bit safer

00:39:20.920 | because if a rental car company

00:39:22.860 | just doesn't have a car for you,

00:39:24.400 | then it doesn't matter if you have one reservation or two.

00:39:27.160 | There are some policies that seem like

00:39:29.240 | they might be changing,

00:39:30.720 | not necessarily to not give you

00:39:32.940 | that flexibility of booking backups,

00:39:35.060 | but saying if you don't cancel

00:39:36.380 | before you're supposed to pick it up,

00:39:37.760 | you might get charged a fee.

00:39:38.840 | So definitely keep an eye on those rules

00:39:40.740 | as they might evolve.

00:39:41.740 | And by the way, that's exactly why

00:39:43.380 | I think some of these can be problems

00:39:45.020 | with so many people being able

00:39:46.220 | to book car rental reservations

00:39:47.760 | and no penalties for not canceling them.

00:39:50.460 | It's really hard for rental car companies

00:39:52.100 | to manage inventory.

00:39:53.460 | So they're obviously gonna be overselling

00:39:55.240 | and when everyone picks their car up,

00:39:57.300 | they're gonna have an issue

00:39:58.340 | and you're not gonna have a car.

00:39:59.620 | So in that circumstance,

00:40:01.260 | if a car rental runs out of cars,

00:40:03.180 | absolutely, if they offer you an upgrade to a next class,

00:40:06.980 | make sure that you're not paying for it.

00:40:09.220 | If they say we don't have your class,

00:40:10.500 | but we can put you here,

00:40:11.460 | that is an immediate, I would be happy to upgrade,

00:40:14.020 | but I would like to have that upgrade for free.

00:40:15.980 | It's pretty standard industry practice

00:40:17.900 | to go book you into a car from a competitor.

00:40:20.720 | So if they don't have a rental car,

00:40:22.140 | I would ask for that and I would push for it.

00:40:25.340 | If you have to take a cab or go farther

00:40:28.040 | to get to your other rental car,

00:40:30.140 | I would expect that rental car company

00:40:31.780 | to cover that as well.

00:40:33.340 | If you're looking in advance and you just don't see cars

00:40:35.900 | because you didn't book early enough,

00:40:37.900 | a few options here.

00:40:39.300 | One is to widen your search.

00:40:41.520 | Don't just look at airports.

00:40:43.340 | A lot of times the airports are sold out,

00:40:45.260 | but for example, in Park City one year,

00:40:47.900 | we just couldn't get an SUV for the family at the airport.

00:40:51.560 | They were all sold out,

00:40:52.740 | but we looked in downtown Salt Lake City

00:40:54.740 | and there were plenty of cars.

00:40:56.120 | So actually, as soon as we landed,

00:40:57.920 | one of us took a lift over

00:40:59.380 | while everyone collected bags and all that stuff

00:41:01.300 | and then we came back and picked everyone else up.

00:41:03.960 | So that was a good option if you have a lot of stuff.

00:41:06.100 | If you don't have a lot of stuff,

00:41:07.000 | you could just all head there.

00:41:08.340 | But looking at those neighborhood branches can help.

00:41:10.620 | If you do have elite status with rental car companies,

00:41:13.700 | which a lot of credit cards,

00:41:15.260 | the Venturex, the Amex Platinum, include some coverage,

00:41:18.740 | some of them actually include coverage

00:41:22.100 | that guarantees you a rental car.

00:41:24.100 | So even though you might look online and see it sold out,

00:41:27.140 | you might be able to call up

00:41:28.280 | and guarantee yourself a reservation.

00:41:30.600 | So that's one.

00:41:31.620 | And then in general,

00:41:32.700 | just when it comes to things going wrong,

00:41:35.440 | if you rent a car,

00:41:36.620 | I would absolutely make sure

00:41:38.300 | that you either are insured through their program

00:41:40.500 | or use a card that includes insurance.

00:41:43.020 | I go a little bit deeper in this

00:41:44.360 | in the insurance and rental car episodes,

00:41:46.320 | but primary rental car coverage is awesome.

00:41:48.780 | There are a lot of cards that cover it.

00:41:50.620 | I highly recommend using that

00:41:52.080 | to save having to pay for the collision coverage

00:41:55.100 | from the rental car company,

00:41:56.240 | which is usually a lot more expensive.

00:41:58.100 | But if you don't have a car insurance policy

00:41:59.860 | for your own vehicles,

00:42:01.740 | then you'll wanna make sure you have liability coverage

00:42:04.180 | because that is not covered by credit cards

00:42:06.220 | that offer rental car coverage.

00:42:07.700 | They're only covering damage to the vehicle.

00:42:10.120 | They're not covering your liability

00:42:12.340 | if you get an accident and cause damage to someone else.

00:42:14.940 | So a few things you can do in advance,

00:42:17.040 | confirm your reservation,

00:42:18.460 | make sure that you have everything written down.

00:42:21.300 | If you're worried about your phone dying, print it out,

00:42:23.860 | arrive on time, checking in as early as possible.

00:42:27.080 | You don't wanna give them any reason

00:42:28.420 | to think you're not gonna pick up your car.

00:42:30.200 | So if your flight's late,

00:42:31.760 | you could call and let them know you're running late

00:42:33.760 | and then have a plan B.

00:42:35.000 | So always be thinking about what's an option.

00:42:37.180 | Do you wanna back up?

00:42:38.080 | Is there a cab?

00:42:38.960 | How is that gonna work?

00:42:39.880 | So it really depends on the type of trip you're taking

00:42:42.600 | and how necessary it is and how mission critical this is

00:42:45.840 | and how sold out they are.

00:42:47.600 | If you look for cars a couple of days before your trip

00:42:51.280 | and they're all super cheap, then it's not a problem.

00:42:53.980 | If a couple of days before your trip,

00:42:55.580 | you do a quick search for cars

00:42:57.360 | at the airport you're going to

00:42:59.060 | and it's completely sold out everywhere

00:43:01.420 | or they're all hundreds and hundreds of dollars a day,

00:43:04.620 | that might be a circumstance

00:43:05.940 | where I'd be thinking about backup options

00:43:07.960 | or I'd be thinking about calling ahead

00:43:10.040 | just to try to make sure I have something.

00:43:11.900 | And finally, two tips here.

00:43:13.900 | When you do rent a rental car,

00:43:15.180 | I would always make sure you take pictures and walk around.

00:43:18.280 | And if you notice any damage,

00:43:19.640 | make sure to flag it before you leave.

00:43:21.740 | When we were in Hawaii,

00:43:22.660 | the rental car had a bunch of dents in it.

00:43:24.900 | And so I just made sure that we stopped

00:43:26.540 | before we left the lot,

00:43:27.980 | right at that gate where you're about to roll over

00:43:30.240 | those crazy spikes.

00:43:31.740 | And they brought out a piece of paper.

00:43:32.980 | We marked all the dents.

00:43:34.040 | I took pictures of them.

00:43:34.980 | We drove off.

00:43:36.100 | The last thing you wanna do is return a car

00:43:37.580 | and then have to get into an argument

00:43:38.780 | about whether you caused damage or it was already there.

00:43:41.340 | And then especially if you're in a foreign country

00:43:43.180 | and you get in an accident,

00:43:44.220 | always try to get a police report.

00:43:46.020 | Some countries that's very, very necessary

00:43:48.340 | to get anything covered.

00:43:49.620 | Not usually in the US, but overseas it can very much matter.

00:43:52.900 | So that's something that I would do

00:43:54.060 | if you were getting in a car accident with a rental car.

00:43:57.060 | So that's the main stuff.

00:43:58.060 | Let's talk about a few other ways things can go awry.

00:44:01.140 | Getting lost.

00:44:02.140 | One of my tips here is Google Maps has offline maps.

00:44:05.220 | So get that all figured out in advance.

00:44:07.340 | Download all those maps.

00:44:08.460 | That way, whether you even are traveling

00:44:09.960 | with data on your phone,

00:44:11.180 | you'll be able to find your way around a city.

00:44:13.740 | And then last, if you're abroad and something happens,

00:44:17.400 | one of the places that can be your best friend

00:44:19.660 | is the local embassy for your country.

00:44:21.540 | So I can't remember the name of the listener

00:44:23.980 | who shared a story that I mentioned earlier,

00:44:26.180 | but they had a problem and they worked with their embassy

00:44:29.340 | and they were able to get a lot of support,

00:44:31.800 | getting things resolved,

00:44:33.780 | helping find the right departments within the country

00:44:36.060 | to talk about.

00:44:36.980 | That's just something that I think they're there

00:44:38.580 | to help you when you're traveling if something goes wrong.

00:44:41.820 | So that's something that I would keep in mind.

00:44:43.920 | As for holiday travel, general tips,

00:44:46.460 | book things in advance.

00:44:47.680 | One thing that I don't always think about

00:44:49.060 | booking in advance is airport parking,

00:44:51.620 | but there are both two reasons to do it.

00:44:53.340 | Sometimes you can save money.

00:44:54.620 | I know I got an email from the Oakland airport

00:44:56.580 | saying book it in advance and save some money.

00:44:58.540 | So that's cool.

00:44:59.460 | But also you can sometimes guarantee a spot.

00:45:01.840 | Getting to the airport a little extra early.

00:45:04.020 | When we went to Hawaii,

00:45:05.740 | I saw the longest lines we have ever seen for security.

00:45:09.740 | It blew my mind.

00:45:11.580 | Even with pre and clear and some basic status on United,

00:45:15.860 | it was at least 45 minutes to go

00:45:18.620 | from getting dropped off at SFO through security,

00:45:21.660 | which was absolutely crazy.

00:45:23.800 | What we ended up doing,

00:45:25.320 | which certainly saved us time

00:45:26.860 | because we actually tracked the people

00:45:28.620 | that were getting in line at the same time as us.

00:45:30.400 | And this doesn't always work at every airport,

00:45:32.800 | but you can go through any security.

00:45:35.140 | So at SFO, for example,

00:45:36.580 | terminal three is the domestic terminal for United,

00:45:39.340 | but it's connected to the international terminal,

00:45:42.380 | specifically the G gates.

00:45:44.300 | And so we saw these ridiculously long lines.

00:45:47.580 | There must've been at least 50 to 75 people

00:45:50.220 | just in the clear line for TSA pre-check plus clear.

00:45:54.380 | So we actually walked from terminal three

00:45:56.540 | to the international terminal

00:45:57.980 | where the line was two people,

00:46:00.120 | went through security

00:46:01.340 | and then just walked back over to terminal three.

00:46:04.200 | I'm a hundred percent sure we saved time doing that.

00:46:06.740 | If we didn't check bags,

00:46:08.260 | we actually would have made it through a lot faster,

00:46:10.260 | but the line just to be able to drop your bags,

00:46:13.100 | even if you tagged them yourself was so long.

00:46:15.140 | So going forward with kids and checking bags,

00:46:18.280 | I unfortunately think gone are the days

00:46:20.740 | of getting to the airport last minute.

00:46:23.400 | When it's just me, I'm traveling solo.

00:46:25.580 | I don't have any bags to check.

00:46:27.280 | Sure, I might show up 45 minutes before the flight,

00:46:29.680 | but around the holidays with family, check bags,

00:46:33.060 | that you just can't do that anymore.

00:46:34.480 | So definitely consider pre-check and clear

00:46:37.060 | for your next trip.

00:46:38.540 | You don't need to enroll your children,

00:46:40.480 | I believe under a certain age.

00:46:42.100 | Definitely consider that.

00:46:43.260 | If you get global entry, you get free pre-check,

00:46:45.900 | but if you're not gonna be traveling internationally,

00:46:48.540 | I have heard that the wait times to get your appointments

00:46:52.460 | and everything for global entry

00:46:54.700 | can be a lot longer than pre-check.

00:46:56.700 | So you could just go pre-check.

00:46:58.620 | However, there are two tips

00:47:00.660 | for getting global entry appointments faster.

00:47:02.660 | One is you could just do it on demand.

00:47:04.640 | So if you get global entry,

00:47:06.420 | your next time you're coming back

00:47:07.940 | from an international trip,

00:47:09.260 | you could just go do your appointment there.

00:47:11.180 | And then two is appointmentscanner.com

00:47:13.980 | is an amazing website that'll monitor

00:47:16.020 | your local global entry appointment center

00:47:18.220 | and send you an email as soon as there's an appointment.

00:47:20.820 | I've been able to get appointments

00:47:22.180 | within a few days using that tactic in the past.

00:47:25.420 | Those two things will certainly help

00:47:27.140 | get you through airport security in advance

00:47:29.220 | on your next trip if you don't already have them.

00:47:31.320 | So that makes up a lot of the when travel goes awry,

00:47:33.940 | but there is a bunch of other stuff

00:47:35.340 | I wanted to cover in this episode.

00:47:37.380 | So let's jump through it quickly.

00:47:39.340 | First off, two awesome wins.

00:47:41.020 | One from a listener who's asked not to share their name,

00:47:43.660 | but in the 18 months

00:47:44.980 | since they started seriously playing this game,

00:47:47.280 | they have now booked over $115,000 worth of travel

00:47:51.620 | with some points left for other things.

00:47:53.820 | I'm so glad this podcast has helped you save that much.

00:47:56.260 | Obviously, you might not have spent that much on your own,

00:47:58.740 | but it's awesome to see what you've been able to do.

00:48:01.060 | Finally, awesome email from a family of four

00:48:04.140 | that was able to do a trip to LA, Tokyo, Singapore,

00:48:07.340 | and Bali, they have two young boys,

00:48:09.860 | and they were able to do it all

00:48:11.620 | with a bunch of deals and hacks using points,

00:48:14.620 | using discounts, using perks from the upgrade program.

00:48:18.020 | If you're not familiar there,

00:48:19.140 | allthehacks.com/upgrade will allow you to book travel

00:48:23.660 | and get perks like free breakfast,

00:48:26.260 | property credits, and whatnot

00:48:28.140 | for over 4,000 hotels worldwide.

00:48:30.220 | They ended up saving over $15,000 on that trip.

00:48:33.680 | So awesome, awesome, awesome to hear that story.

00:48:36.780 | It makes me so, so happy.

00:48:38.540 | They ended up doing that whole two-week trip

00:48:41.020 | for only $3,500.

00:48:43.300 | They priced it out otherwise,

00:48:44.500 | and it would have been $18,500.

00:48:47.220 | Next, I wanna share a mix of deals, travel stuff,

00:48:51.140 | and a few awesome tips.

00:48:52.620 | The first is an awesome bonus for new cardholders

00:48:56.580 | for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card,

00:48:58.180 | and that is that you get double cash back,

00:49:00.540 | which is actually the same as double points

00:49:03.060 | for your entire first year.

00:49:04.940 | And they say there's no limit to how much you get.

00:49:06.820 | So this card typically gets one and a half points

00:49:08.980 | on everything, three points on drugstores,

00:49:11.940 | three points on dining,

00:49:14.020 | and five points on travel through their portal,

00:49:16.740 | which means you're actually gonna get 2X

00:49:18.980 | all of those numbers, which is really, really crazy.

00:49:22.180 | The downside is there's not a big welcome bonus,

00:49:24.540 | but being able to get 3% on everything,

00:49:27.180 | 6% on restaurants and drugstores

00:49:30.540 | is a huge, huge, awesome deal all at no annual fee.

00:49:34.180 | It's only for one year,

00:49:35.900 | but I think if you are spending a lot

00:49:38.260 | and are looking for just an everyday workhorse card

00:49:41.420 | that you can use, being able to get 6X on restaurants

00:49:44.580 | and 3X everywhere else is really unheard of.

00:49:47.020 | The other really cool thing is that for the first 15 months,

00:49:49.660 | there's 0% intro APR.

00:49:51.500 | I never really thought about it from this perspective

00:49:53.740 | until someone reached out to me and proposed this,

00:49:56.700 | which I will share probably in more detail in the future.

00:50:00.580 | But if you wanna think about the benefit

00:50:02.860 | of not having to pay off your card in full each month

00:50:05.580 | for 15 months, taking all the money

00:50:08.340 | you would have otherwise paid it off for

00:50:10.300 | and putting it in treasuries

00:50:12.300 | or even a high-yield savings account,

00:50:13.780 | earning an effective 5% or more,

00:50:17.140 | that could be a meaningful amount of money too.

00:50:19.220 | While it doesn't have an intro bonus,

00:50:21.020 | if there's a card that let's say you put $2,000 a month on,

00:50:25.260 | you can only make minimum payments,

00:50:27.220 | let's say that allows you to carry a balance of $20,000

00:50:30.500 | for on average, let's say seven or eight months.

00:50:34.220 | Well, that $20,000 at 5% for seven months is over $500.

00:50:39.220 | So pretty cool little hack for playing the 0% APR game

00:50:45.180 | as a way to take your money, invest it and earn a return

00:50:49.500 | that potentially, this is where I wanna go deeper

00:50:52.060 | in a future episode, could rival the points you earn.

00:50:55.500 | But in the case of the Freedom Unlimited,

00:50:57.220 | you're getting the points and getting the ability

00:51:00.020 | to invest your money instead of pay off your bill.

00:51:01.940 | So really great win for a card

00:51:04.740 | that doesn't have a welcome bonus or an annual fee.

00:51:07.100 | And in general, if you're playing the Chase ecosystem,

00:51:09.980 | the way this card works is it's marketed

00:51:11.700 | as a cashback card, but it earns ultimate rewards points.

00:51:15.100 | And if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred

00:51:17.700 | or Sapphire Reserve or an Inc Business Unlimited,

00:51:20.420 | you can transfer all your ultimate rewards points

00:51:23.100 | to airline partners, including the ones you earn

00:51:25.500 | with the Freedom Unlimited card.

00:51:27.140 | So all the links to all the cards

00:51:29.340 | that I'm gonna talk about are at allthehacks.com/cards.

00:51:33.700 | Signing up with those links does support the show.

00:51:35.940 | So I appreciate you going there.

00:51:37.780 | For the Freedom Unlimited,

00:51:39.180 | this deal doesn't show up at first on that page,

00:51:41.900 | but I promise you, if you click through enough,

00:51:43.980 | learn more and get started buttons,

00:51:46.060 | you will land on a page that has that bonus listed.

00:51:49.460 | So that's one cool card.

00:51:51.220 | When it comes to transfer bonuses,

00:51:52.980 | there are a couple right now.

00:51:54.140 | On the Amex side, you're getting 25% bonus

00:51:56.980 | going to JetBlue, 20% to Marriott, and 30% to Hilton.

00:52:01.660 | None of those are exciting enough

00:52:03.340 | to get me to want to make a transfer,

00:52:05.820 | but if you have something in mind

00:52:07.860 | or you need just a few more points

00:52:09.860 | to be able to get to the threshold

00:52:11.340 | to book a hotel or a flight, it could make sense.

00:52:14.740 | On the Chase side, you get 25% bonus

00:52:17.780 | to Air France KLM's Flying Blue program.

00:52:20.740 | That's only through the end of November,

00:52:22.860 | but I'm really interested in that

00:52:24.780 | because Air France and KLM Flying Blue

00:52:27.060 | also just confirmed that they're gonna change

00:52:29.660 | their pricing model for award flights,

00:52:31.940 | and those changes are gonna result

00:52:33.460 | in needing 66 to 71% fewer miles than you needed before.

00:52:38.460 | So I'll post an article in the show notes

00:52:41.460 | if you wanna read more about that,

00:52:43.140 | but really cool combo here, transferring to Air France KLM,

00:52:46.900 | getting bonus points, and then needing less points

00:52:49.340 | to book your flight.

00:52:50.300 | Along the lines of airline program changes,

00:52:53.060 | anyone that's a Delta flyer probably already knows this,

00:52:55.580 | but Delta made a bunch of changes to the negative,

00:52:59.180 | then walked back those changes,

00:53:00.980 | and in some ways walked them back so far

00:53:03.540 | that the new ability to earn status from credit cards

00:53:07.740 | is even better than it was before.

00:53:09.540 | So there are a lot of changes.

00:53:11.260 | I won't go into all those details here

00:53:13.500 | because if you're a Delta flyer,

00:53:14.900 | you've probably already read about them.

00:53:16.420 | I will link to a couple articles in the show notes,

00:53:18.860 | but I will say one interesting thing

00:53:20.620 | is that if you were to get two Delta cards,

00:53:24.140 | you'd be able to get Delta silver status easily next year.

00:53:27.660 | And if you were to get all four Delta platinum reserve,

00:53:31.420 | business, and personal cards,

00:53:33.260 | you'd actually get Delta gold status from those four cards.

00:53:36.660 | So that's something to keep in mind as well.

00:53:38.540 | If you really want Delta status,

00:53:39.940 | but you're not gonna fly them,

00:53:41.060 | though I will say silver status on Delta

00:53:43.500 | is not gonna get you a whole lot more

00:53:46.260 | than free check bags,

00:53:47.780 | which you can get with one credit card anyways.

00:53:50.300 | Speaking of which, the Delta platinum card

00:53:53.180 | and the platinum business card

00:53:54.940 | is something that right now,

00:53:57.260 | I never thought I would say

00:53:58.220 | 'cause we don't fly Delta that much,

00:53:59.460 | but it's something that's probably on my list

00:54:02.140 | for my next few cards to sign up for,

00:54:04.500 | primarily because we have a Delta trip next year.

00:54:07.300 | The free check bags is valuable.

00:54:09.220 | The platinum companion certificate is pretty interesting.

00:54:12.140 | You get one companion flight,

00:54:14.060 | and then you also get 15% off all of your award trips.

00:54:17.220 | So I factored in how many miles I have,

00:54:19.960 | what that 15% would be worth.

00:54:22.180 | It's probably gonna save us

00:54:23.020 | close to 200 bucks in check bags as well.

00:54:25.820 | Plus, depending on the bonus that you are targeted for,

00:54:29.740 | you could be looking at anywhere from 50 to 100,000 points.

00:54:33.100 | So I have links for those.

00:54:34.820 | There is also a website that I will link to

00:54:36.880 | that you might find a better bonus for.

00:54:39.220 | But all in all, I think that card

00:54:40.760 | is actually pretty decent

00:54:41.920 | if you're gonna be traveling for Delta enough,

00:54:44.900 | but not enough to meet status.

00:54:47.080 | There are also a bunch of changes to the Amex Hilton lineup.

00:54:49.960 | And so with really no notice,

00:54:51.540 | they made changes to the Aspire and to the Surpass card.

00:54:55.740 | The Aspire is actually one of my favorite cards

00:54:58.220 | because the benefits from the card

00:55:00.340 | have historically really outweighed the annual fee.

00:55:03.660 | That said, the annual fee is going up.

00:55:05.660 | There's still a great welcome bonus,

00:55:07.920 | but the annual fee went up from 450 to 550.

00:55:10.500 | And how it's gonna work now

00:55:11.820 | is you're gonna get a $200 resort credit

00:55:14.780 | at Hilton twice a year.

00:55:16.220 | You're gonna get a $200 flight credit, but $50 a quarter.

00:55:20.080 | However, in the past,

00:55:21.720 | these Amex flight credits have only worked on fees

00:55:24.840 | and these are gonna work on any airline purchase.

00:55:27.240 | I just used our Hilton Aspire to buy,

00:55:30.800 | I think $50 of United Travel Bank credit

00:55:33.120 | and that triggered the credit.

00:55:34.160 | So that was great.

00:55:35.280 | You're also gonna get a free night with the card

00:55:37.480 | and then another one at $30,000 a spend

00:55:39.920 | and another one at $60,000.

00:55:41.640 | And that's a free night at all Hilton properties

00:55:44.640 | at their standard rates.

00:55:46.460 | And then finally,

00:55:47.300 | you're gonna get an annual reimbursement of Clear.

00:55:49.340 | So if you're interested in Clear status,

00:55:51.120 | this could kind of combine with that.

00:55:52.880 | And you also get national executive status for rental cars.

00:55:56.040 | So it's still becoming a bit of a coupon book

00:55:58.820 | to put piece together.

00:56:00.060 | But if you stay at a couple Hiltons a year,

00:56:02.940 | it would be hard for me to imagine

00:56:05.020 | you don't get value from this card.

00:56:06.780 | And the biggest perk I forgot to mention,

00:56:08.220 | you also get Hilton Diamond status,

00:56:09.860 | which is their top tier of status.

00:56:11.460 | You won't see this card on allthehacks.com/cards.

00:56:15.000 | We don't have any partner links for this card,

00:56:17.040 | but my wife's referral link

00:56:18.840 | is at allthehacks.com/hilton.

00:56:20.920 | So if you're gonna check it out,

00:56:22.260 | you can check it out there.

00:56:23.100 | And right now I think the bonus is 180,000 Hilton points,

00:56:26.840 | which is pretty cool.

00:56:28.300 | On the surpass card,

00:56:29.720 | annual fee went up from 95 to 150.

00:56:33.600 | You now get $50 of Hilton credits each quarter.

00:56:36.940 | So you're gonna need to be staying at Hilton's a lot

00:56:38.760 | for that to work.

00:56:40.040 | And you lose lounge access,

00:56:41.480 | but get national executive status.

00:56:43.940 | So I still think that if you're gonna be staying

00:56:46.180 | at Hilton enough,

00:56:47.020 | you'll get more value out of the Aspire,

00:56:48.900 | getting the free night and the other credits.

00:56:51.320 | But just figured I'd share some of those changes.

00:56:54.200 | Coming back briefly to the airline conversation,

00:56:56.700 | Southwest has made it a little bit easier

00:56:59.520 | to get A-list and A-list preferred,

00:57:01.860 | which are their two elite statuses,

00:57:03.780 | which have a few better perks like upgrades

00:57:05.980 | and free drinks.

00:57:07.220 | But the big status that everyone's targeting

00:57:09.420 | on Southwest is companion pass.

00:57:11.340 | And towards the end of the year becomes

00:57:13.560 | what I'll call companion pass season.

00:57:16.020 | And that way it works.

00:57:18.000 | And I'll probably link to an article in the show notes

00:57:20.140 | 'cause I've talked about this a few times,

00:57:22.040 | but very high level.

00:57:23.620 | If you get 135,000 rapid rewards points,

00:57:27.300 | you're able to get a companion pass with Southwest.

00:57:30.660 | You get it the year you qualify and the following year,

00:57:33.780 | and you can nominate one person.

00:57:35.980 | You can change it up to three times a year,

00:57:38.500 | but in that person will fly free for you except for taxes.

00:57:41.920 | And so the reason why it's so popular to talk about now

00:57:44.840 | is that if you were to get two Southwest credit cards

00:57:48.020 | and wait until January 1st to complete the minimum spend

00:57:52.580 | and earn your welcome bonuses,

00:57:54.420 | those welcome bonuses will post in January

00:57:57.340 | or maybe February, you'll earn your companion pass

00:58:00.280 | and you'll get it for the entirety of 2024 and 2025.

00:58:04.340 | And right now all three Chase consumer cards

00:58:06.800 | are offering a 75,000 point welcome bonus.

00:58:09.380 | The business cards are at 60 and 80,000 points.

00:58:12.460 | So if you have a business,

00:58:13.780 | you can get one personal, one business.

00:58:15.980 | I've done this in the past.

00:58:17.660 | That'll quickly get you well past your threshold.

00:58:20.400 | And not only do you get companion pass,

00:58:23.320 | but you will have all of those points

00:58:25.960 | from those signup bonuses to be able to use on Southwest.

00:58:30.180 | And companion pass works on points reservations.

00:58:33.060 | So those two welcome bonuses will get you

00:58:35.180 | probably close to $2,000 of Southwest credit

00:58:39.080 | in the form of points.

00:58:40.420 | Southwest program is pretty fixed.

00:58:42.060 | So you get about 1.4 cents per point, no more, no less,

00:58:46.540 | within a range sometimes maybe 1.1 to 1.5,

00:58:49.460 | but you're never gonna get outsized value.

00:58:51.500 | So that could be a way to travel almost for free

00:58:54.180 | for two years with two signup bonuses,

00:58:56.180 | which is something that in the past

00:58:57.980 | we've definitely taken advantage of.

00:58:59.920 | I'll link to a full guide to Southwest companion pass

00:59:02.460 | from the Frequent Miler blog, which is really good.

00:59:05.020 | And last for Southwest people,

00:59:06.780 | there's a hack I wanted to share,

00:59:08.340 | which is Southwest lowest tier of ticket,

00:59:11.820 | the wanna get away fares.

00:59:13.860 | The one downside to them is that if you cancel your flight,

00:59:16.760 | that credit you have is only eligible to be used by you.

00:59:21.000 | You can't transfer it to anyone else.

00:59:22.920 | However, the trick here is you can use that credit

00:59:26.420 | to buy yourself a ticket on a wanna get away plus fare,

00:59:31.100 | and then cancel the wanna get away plus fare

00:59:33.620 | and get transferable credit.

00:59:35.300 | So that's been really handy

00:59:36.820 | for a couple of situations for us this year.

00:59:39.300 | Last, there's one more card that's on my radar

00:59:41.660 | for the rest of this year or next year.

00:59:43.260 | And I've talked about it a lot.

00:59:44.340 | It's the built card.

00:59:45.700 | And if I paid rent, I would absolutely have the card.

00:59:48.860 | It's the only card out there that earns points on rent.

00:59:51.180 | I think you're gonna earn up to 100,000 points a year.

00:59:53.660 | You earn one X point per dollar on rent.

00:59:55.980 | You also get three points on travel

00:59:57.520 | and two points on dining.

00:59:59.060 | Not too different from Chase Sapphire preferred reserve.

01:00:02.220 | So might not help you there.

01:00:03.620 | But a couple of things that Built's been doing

01:00:05.540 | that makes me just really want Built points

01:00:07.700 | is they have a stellar lineup of transfer partners.

01:00:10.780 | In addition to a lot of the common ones

01:00:12.500 | that everyone has, British Airways, Air France, Air Canada,

01:00:15.160 | they also have United, which only Chase has.

01:00:17.940 | American, which they're the only card

01:00:19.880 | that has American as a transfer partner,

01:00:21.900 | which is a really big standout perk.

01:00:23.900 | And then they have Hyatt, and they just added Marriott.

01:00:27.100 | With Marriott, you get the one-to-one transfer,

01:00:30.300 | which I don't think is necessarily that compelling.

01:00:32.540 | But if you do transfer in batches of 20,000 points,

01:00:36.420 | you get an extra 5,000 points.

01:00:38.060 | So it's one to 1.25.

01:00:40.560 | You do get 100 points for linking your Marriott account

01:00:43.380 | as well as all your other accounts.

01:00:44.900 | So even if you don't have the Built card,

01:00:47.260 | I think it's worth signing up for a Built Rewards account.

01:00:51.300 | Every first of the month, they have rent day,

01:00:53.600 | and they have games, and you can earn points.

01:00:55.420 | And while it might only be 100, 200, 300 here or there,

01:00:58.980 | over time, they add up.

01:01:00.540 | And if you ever do get the Built card,

01:01:02.500 | you can start stacking those.

01:01:04.100 | Also on rent day, they've had some crazy, crazy promotions

01:01:08.700 | that are really the reason why I'm thinking

01:01:10.900 | I need more Built points.

01:01:12.380 | In addition to doubling all your points,

01:01:14.460 | meaning you're getting 6x on dining, 4x on travel,

01:01:18.180 | and 2x on everything else,

01:01:19.740 | they've been offering some transfer bonuses

01:01:21.720 | that are unbelievable.

01:01:22.640 | So they've had ones where not just your standard 25,

01:01:26.100 | 30% transfer bonus, but they've recently had transfer bonuses

01:01:30.060 | as high as 175% bonus, meaning one point to 2.75.

01:01:35.060 | They did a 100% transfer bonus to Air France,

01:01:39.740 | which I wish I had the Built points to do.

01:01:42.340 | So those are all really awesome.

01:01:44.100 | And then last, one really cool perk

01:01:46.220 | of just being a Built Rewards member, which is totally free,

01:01:49.100 | is that using the Built Rewards travel search,

01:01:52.520 | you can actually search for flights and hotels

01:01:56.120 | using Point.me and Aways free of charge.

01:01:59.260 | So instead of needing to buy a Point.me account,

01:02:01.700 | you can use it through the Built app.

01:02:03.860 | It is only limited to Built's transfer partners,

01:02:06.740 | but you get it for free.

01:02:08.220 | The same thing is also true for Aways,

01:02:10.020 | which is an awesome award hotel search site.

01:02:12.620 | And now that Built has Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott,

01:02:15.740 | you can search all three of those on Aways

01:02:17.760 | for free through Built.

01:02:19.380 | So overall, everyone should just go get a Built account

01:02:21.820 | for free searching tools and some extra points.

01:02:24.220 | But if you wanna start earning more Built points seriously,

01:02:27.420 | I would obviously love it if you wanna use my referral link,

01:02:29.680 | which is allthehacks.com/built, B-I-L-T.

01:02:32.940 | And I'd encourage you, once you sign up,

01:02:34.940 | to share with your friends.

01:02:36.700 | Okay, last I'm gonna run through five quick things

01:02:38.820 | with the one that's gonna save me the most at the end,

01:02:41.280 | which is really awesome.

01:02:42.460 | So first, I never knew this,

01:02:44.760 | but Odessa emailed in to let me know

01:02:47.380 | that a lot of local libraries have museum passes.

01:02:50.660 | And so sure enough, I looked up our local library

01:02:53.180 | and they have a partnership

01:02:54.180 | with a program called Discover & Go

01:02:56.520 | that has free passes you can check out and borrow virtually

01:03:00.580 | to really great museums.

01:03:02.180 | So California Academy of Sciences,

01:03:04.200 | SFX, the San Francisco Exploratorium.

01:03:06.860 | So definitely make sure you go look

01:03:08.760 | at whether you can get access

01:03:10.380 | to local museums from your library.

01:03:13.020 | If you have an Amex Platinum right now,

01:03:14.500 | you might've known that you get access

01:03:16.200 | to Walmart Plus for free.

01:03:17.920 | We don't really ever shop at Walmart,

01:03:19.380 | so I never really activated it,

01:03:20.820 | but Walmart Plus has a partnership with Paramount Plus

01:03:24.120 | so that with a Walmart Plus membership,

01:03:25.920 | you get Paramount Plus free.

01:03:27.500 | So if you do have an Amex Platinum,

01:03:29.240 | you can go through that double link

01:03:30.880 | and get free Paramount Plus, which is interesting.

01:03:33.400 | They are not a partner of the digital entertainment credit

01:03:36.380 | that Amex provides.

01:03:37.820 | But I will say if you do have an Amex Platinum

01:03:39.660 | and you are using your digital entertainment credit,

01:03:41.880 | which gets you $20 a month on New York Times,

01:03:44.780 | SiriusXM, Wall Street Journal.

01:03:46.740 | I noticed my New York Times subscription went from,

01:03:50.200 | I think it was like $18 every four weeks to 25.

01:03:53.680 | And I went online and said, "No, that's too much."

01:03:56.400 | And they said, "Well, what if it was $4 every four weeks?"

01:03:59.800 | And I was like, "Well, I'll take $4."

01:04:01.160 | So that's one way to kind of lower that.

01:04:03.960 | I will say that I don't know if you have access

01:04:06.560 | to all the online cancellation options

01:04:09.240 | on the New York Times website unless you live in California.

01:04:12.820 | So I would say either VPN to California,

01:04:15.760 | if you have a VPN or ask a friend in California

01:04:18.920 | to do it for you.

01:04:19.760 | Otherwise, you might have to do a phone call or a live chat.

01:04:22.960 | There's some law that requires you to be able

01:04:25.000 | to cancel subscriptions online in California

01:04:27.620 | that doesn't apply everywhere.

01:04:29.120 | That might've changed,

01:04:30.020 | but at least a couple of years ago, that was true.

01:04:32.000 | So one app I've been loving lately is called DaisyDisk.

01:04:35.000 | If you have a Mac and you wanna just figure out

01:04:36.920 | what's using all your hard drive space,

01:04:39.480 | it's really great and better

01:04:40.880 | than all the other ones I've tried.

01:04:42.120 | It even supports Dropbox and Google Drive

01:04:44.300 | to analyze where your space is going there.

01:04:47.200 | And then last is a site I'm really excited about

01:04:50.280 | called OwnWell.

01:04:51.920 | The way this works is in a lot of states,

01:04:54.560 | you can appeal your property appraisal

01:04:57.320 | and therefore lower your property tax.

01:05:00.200 | I didn't realize how possible this was.

01:05:02.600 | For people who live in Texas,

01:05:03.900 | I guess you get a lot of mail about this.

01:05:06.120 | In California, you don't.

01:05:07.940 | But I got connected with the founder of this company

01:05:10.440 | because one of his investors

01:05:12.320 | is one of the investors of my last company.

01:05:14.340 | And effectively, they go out and do all the work

01:05:17.500 | to create the comps and the data and the backend,

01:05:20.820 | file with the county or whatever the regulatory body is.

01:05:24.540 | And if it gets to a hearing,

01:05:26.380 | we'll represent you at the hearing

01:05:28.140 | to help push for lower property appraisals.

01:05:30.860 | So I went through this entire process with them

01:05:33.060 | and the amount we're pushing for on our property

01:05:35.760 | is about 17% lower than what we're currently at,

01:05:40.060 | which would save us meaningful amounts of money every year.

01:05:43.160 | And thanks to Prop 13 in California,

01:05:45.560 | if you do this once, it'll go on forever.

01:05:47.960 | They also operate in Georgia, Texas, Florida,

01:05:51.800 | and parts of New York, Illinois, and Washington.

01:05:54.600 | The service is free,

01:05:56.200 | but any amount of money that they save you

01:05:59.100 | on your property tax,

01:06:00.920 | they take 25% of for that first year.

01:06:04.500 | So you can go through this entire process yourself.

01:06:07.760 | I started doing it just to try to understand it.

01:06:10.620 | And then I realized the number of hours

01:06:12.480 | I was gonna spend to go build these models

01:06:15.080 | and do them in the very specific way

01:06:18.000 | that the county requires,

01:06:19.820 | which isn't always published, is just too much work.

01:06:22.960 | So big fan of them.

01:06:24.200 | I actually asked him if he could do anything

01:06:26.120 | for our listeners,

01:06:27.640 | and he offered to put $25 off

01:06:30.560 | any of the services anyone uses.

01:06:32.640 | So if you go to allthehacks.com/ownwellocean,

01:06:37.800 | O-W-N-W-E-L-L,

01:06:39.800 | you can sign up and get that deal.

01:06:42.200 | Wow, okay, that's it.

01:06:43.400 | I was long overdue for one of these episodes.

01:06:45.680 | I really hope it was valuable.

01:06:47.220 | I love doing them,

01:06:48.300 | and I'm gonna start trying to do them a bit more regularly.

01:06:51.280 | Keep questions coming,

01:06:52.800 | keep your tips, hacks, and wins coming.

01:06:54.760 | All of those can come to podcast@allthehacks.com.

01:06:58.080 | And two more things.

01:06:59.280 | First, if you have a few minutes this week,

01:07:01.240 | I would greatly appreciate it

01:07:02.680 | if you could fill out the All the Hacks survey.

01:07:04.480 | It would mean so much to me.

01:07:06.380 | You can do that at allthehacks.com/survey

01:07:09.640 | or the link in the show notes.

01:07:11.120 | And I will keep you guys posted by email

01:07:13.040 | if you are the winner of a $100 Viore gift card

01:07:16.040 | on any Day Essentials cookware set

01:07:17.900 | or a free ticket on United.

01:07:20.160 | Second, as for the giveaway I mentioned earlier,

01:07:22.640 | if you haven't already seen the trailer,

01:07:24.760 | there is a new movie out called "Dumb Money,"

01:07:27.100 | which I'm really excited to watch.

01:07:29.240 | The movie chronicles the meme stock craziness back in 2021,

01:07:33.000 | and specifically the GameStop short squeeze

01:07:35.640 | and the journey of Keith Gill, AKA Roaring Kitty.

01:07:39.140 | It's got an 84/85 on Rotten Tomatoes,

01:07:41.980 | and the cast includes Pete Davidson,

01:07:43.900 | Seth Rogen, Nick Offerman, Shailene Woodley,

01:07:46.680 | and a bunch more.

01:07:47.780 | If you wanna check it out,

01:07:49.060 | I have 20 free download codes for you all.

01:07:51.720 | I'm gonna put them up at allthehacks.com/dumbmoney.

01:07:56.540 | And if you go to that URL

01:07:57.940 | and it ends up redirecting you to the All the Hacks survey,

01:08:00.620 | then you'll know they've already been claimed.

01:08:02.860 | Also, just for full transparency,

01:08:04.680 | the PR firm for the movie didn't pay me to talk about this,

01:08:08.220 | but the movie actually looked really good,

01:08:09.820 | and they offered 20 free download codes for listeners,

01:08:12.460 | so I figured it'd be worth sharing with all of you.

01:08:14.700 | Okay, thank you so much for listening.

01:08:16.620 | That's all for this week.

01:08:17.660 | I will see you next week.

01:08:18.860 | (upbeat music)

01:08:22.380 | (upbeat music)

01:08:25.560 | (upbeat music)

01:08:28.140 | (birds chirping)

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