AND HERE’S MODI
AND HERE’S MODI is an inside look at the man behind the microphone. Hosted by comedian, Modi (@modi_live), AHM features a raw and unfiltered side of the comedian rarely seen on stage. He always finds the funny as he navigates the worlds of comedy, trending topics, his personal life and spirituality. AHM is co-hosted by Periel Aschenbrand (@perielaschenbrand) and Leo Veiga (@leo_veiga_).
AND HERE’S MODI
Brian Kelly - The Points Guy
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Episode 133: Brian Kelly (aka The Points Guy) joins us for an exciting chat covering travel etiquette, maximizing credit card rewards, and even the unique joys of owning llamas! Don’t miss his expert tips and insights, and be sure to preorder his new book, How to Win at Travel, available now!
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welcome to and here's modi and welcome back. Wow, back here again with uh and here's modi. We, of course, have in the house uh, periel ashen brand, we have leo, my husband vega and we have a special leo, full-time husband Vega, and we have what a guest we have for our guests.
Speaker 3I'm so excited.
Speaker 1We're so excited and they you listening, I know this is your like. This is a dream guest for you. We have Brian Kelly, which we're allowed to call the points guy.
Speaker 4The original. There's lots of cheap imitations now. A lot of them. I'm the original. You are the OG, the points guy the original.
Speaker 1There's lots of cheap imitations. You know you were the og og points guy. I will tell you. When I took a picture with you at the points guy awards event and posted it, maybe 15 or 20 people immediately sent me pictures of a draw full of canceled credit cards. Yeah, yeah, it's a lifestyle. The Jews love you. They love you, they listen to your advice, they hollish it, they soak it, they love it. And that's just the intro. You guys know him. He's the points guy. He teaches people how to maximize their the points that we keep earning on our credit cards and flying and all that.
Speaker 3And we would know something about that. And we're very excited to have you. Just to set some context, we know you socially. Yeah, you've come to a few of Modi's shows. Yes, so we've been dying to have you on the podcast. Thanks for having me, you're one of my favorite people to follow on Instagram.
Speaker 4That means a lot because there's a lot of thoughty people to follow these days.
Speaker 1We also know who you're flying with.
Speaker 4I travel lately, I've been pretty good. My engagement goes up when I'm like, of course. And then you know, the biggest catnip of all, my son, who's like a little star in his own right. Oh, my cutest little nugget you've ever seen. He's like I have to share him. I, you know, as a parent, I'm like, do I do this? You know, I want to give him privacy, but he's just a star, he's a public figure, honey, and he loves it like he.
Speaker 4We went to a conference with nobel peace prize winner and 400 screaming kids in cape town and dean walked into the room. I thought for sure he would melt down and he's like like he was relishing like during the Princess Diana wave 100% unfazed, and so he's my literal clone. He is your clone.
Speaker 3I see him running around in your story, which is frightening as can be because I know the shenanigans that I pulled.
Speaker 1I mean it's, my parents are just laughing and those videos are are not easy. People watch those videos, I think. Oh, he just puts the camera on, it goes the editing and the timing and all of that, and he's just like sitting there in his little pod and then he's sitting on you watching a movie or something and it's so we just flew newark to to south africa non-stop.
Speaker 4I just posted that reel and like it's challenging, like even in business class people like, oh, you're flying business, it's easy, a two-year-old does not sit still for, like even an iPad. You've got to have a rotating like constantly.
Speaker 2You're just like praying the whole time that they fall asleep, or a lot of Benadryl, yeah, I know well I actually tried the melatonin thing this time and it actually had her adverse effect.
Speaker 4He was hot and thirsty. I was like this is not working. I would not do that again. I always give him a bath before we leave and run him in the. I don't hold him in the airport or use a stroller. That boy is running down the terminal burning calories, getting steps in so that he's as tired as possible you took him on safari.
Speaker 4I did. Yes, that's amazing. Originally I was going to leave him at home and I'm taking my parents on this trip. But, being a single dad, I have amazing nannies that I love and trust. But it just didn't sit right with me and I was like this will be amazing. So I reached out to the safari camp and, because we were staying in our own villa, we'd have our own driver and they're like, as long as our driver assesses that your child is not going to be a risk, and dean is like cool, he would, he's like and he loves animals. He was amazing on safari, like he's sitting in a little car seat between me, you have to be like quiet and oh yeah no, and he was.
Speaker 4He was really good, and the only time he would get restless you just give him a snack we had like a fruit tray and I would just give him, and then he'd be like okay, and he'd just like be eating lion lion he actually like would start spotting animals we didn't see the elephant over there, over there. It was amazing like, and he did that. We took him whale watching in p-town because he's obsessed with whales and he would start spotting whales, whale over there, over there, like he's really. It's. It's like such a joy to like. I've had had so many amazing travel experiences and nothing compares to like seeing it through your kid's eyes and just watching the brain like expand in front of your eyes and it's just. It's like I've always wanted to be a dad. It's like pre-programmed in me.
Speaker 4My mom's one of 10 kids. Wow, I'm one of four and I have 11 nieces and nephews. So, just like the big Irish Catholic family vibe is it's genetic. So it's been everything. I mean it's.
Speaker 3It's just been incredible that's amazing Leo's Irish Catholic too yeah, but we don't unpack that now. Dump truck, I wouldn't say childbearing.
Speaker 1This is a dump truck no, leo, one of the first things I go I don't want kids, I go me neither. Perfect, let's get married, but wow. So where do we even begin?
Speaker 3so well, let's touch a little bit on what you just said. You came from a big family yes and you kind of got a little bit of you kind of got a little bit of. You kind of got the bug because you were booking your dad's business travel. Yes, so like people were always like how did you just become the points guy?
Speaker 4This is like 90s. In the 1990s I like was a little AOL hacker. I was on Prodigy in like 1992. And I remember I asked for it for Christmas. You'd have to act. You'd get the internet in a burlap sack. This is burlap sack. This is what the young kids today don't understand the struggle of like 90s kids. So I actually installed the modem, plugged in the phone cord and it was busy. You used to dial aol and it would be busy for like hours and hours and finally you get through
Speaker 3no, I'm old enough to remember the sound yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4So anyway, I was just like a little hacker. My dad ended up getting a job where he was traveling a ton, so I was his de de facto travel agent. I was booking his travels. And one day he's like I have all these miles, if you can figure it out, and there was no internet really in terms of like Google searching and stuff. So I called the airlines, I booked our family of six, we went to the Cayman Islands for free.
Speaker 4I routed my mom and I through Miami because he had AA miles. He had US Airways miles and I just learned and my biggest tip today us airways miles. And I just learned and my biggest tip today it's like just be nice to phone agents butter them up 100. It just it like amazes me when I see people in the airport like berating the person who has control over you getting home, they can just click and, of course, if someone screamed.
Speaker 4If someone screams at you, are you going to help them like? Of course not, especially when you're an underpaid frontline employee, exhausted when a jerk karen comes up. I would. I would do whatever it took to not you know, help them.
Speaker 3We just discussed that you call them frontline employees they are, I know, but I mean, those are the trenches honey yeah, yeah, I mean I guess that's because it has a like the medical worker connotation so I mean they're doing the Lord's work.
Speaker 4They are Boarding flights with people who don't want to listen.
Speaker 2Talking on the phone to annoying complaining, screaming people.
Speaker 3You talk about that on your book. You say be nice to the people.
Speaker 4It's crazy because these agents have power. They have power If they want to help you. I like I've gotten so much I've gotten refunds when I haven't you know cause. You know Debbie at the computers, can you know? They know how to override stuff right To make it look good, and so you know anything is possible. So always butter on. How's your day? Oh crazy day. You know there's a kid in the background. Oh, I got kids too. You know I'm really trying to get home. I know my ticket's not changeable, but you know.
Speaker 1So my line is I walk on the plane, I go what a great smile. I hit them with that, I hit them with the what a great smile.
Speaker 4And then you do, yeah, I do. Is this only the fit male Israeli ones on LL? No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1I know you, modi, every woman, every woman, anybody that's on, because they always smile when you go welcome aboard, hi, hi, and they give you the little thing, so you should start cleaning. They give you the little towel. So, you should here go clean your seat With a great smile. You're too busy already in your anxiety mode, but I right away start talking to them. You don't understand the power they have they now have a traveler.
Speaker 3I get no credit, I get zero credit they have, uh, their own phone.
Speaker 1That's on the plane. They can come over to you and go. I am so sorry that your seat was dirty. Someone spilled coffee. I can give you 5 000 points. They can. They can do that from the plane. So you again. You butter them up, but you always smile, and then do you have any advice for that couple?
Speaker 3they see a couple, they're so happy, yeah, when they offer, because, like one time, my screen didn't work and they just came over with the ipad and they're like here's x amount of points yeah should I be saying no, I want to talk to someone else, or?
Speaker 4should I just be like I mean, look, you got to choose battles. You know, there's like taking it to the extremes and there are complainers with airlines that you can actually get like kicked out of flying an airline if you complain all the time. This has happened. I mean it's really extreme.
Speaker 1We had a guest that was banned from Delta from making a video in the bathroom.
Speaker 2Like he was cooking a steak on the toilet. It was fake.
Speaker 3He wasn't actually doing it. He edited it, but it was fake.
Speaker 1He wasn't actually doing it. He edited it, but he got kicked off of Delta.
Speaker 3He's still on the no-fly list?
Speaker 4Yeah, because the video went viral so he tries to book a ticket and it'll just like yeah, he's banned for life.
Speaker 2His video went viral. He's a comic. It was very funny, so he had like all of these. Marcus Monroe.
Speaker 3And, to be clear, he did not actually cook a steak in cleverly?
Speaker 1edited a video that was very realistic looking and I guess they're like oh and it encourages reckless behavior. So, yeah, you don't mess around with. You do not mess around listen.
Speaker 2My best friend, since I'm 12 years old, is a flight attendant and has been forever, and the stories that she has told me about people's behavior on airlines well let's talk about it.
Speaker 3You have a book coming out called how to Win at Travel yes, and it talks about different things. It talks about you know, obviously points developing a personal travel strategy, and then you talk about travel etiquette, and this is what I want to dig into a little bit with you, because we fly a lot. Yeah, what do you disagree with? I think you're.
Speaker 4We didn't.
Speaker 3I think you're probably the only person we know who flies more than we do, so you mentioned reclining seats. Yes, let's talk about this, because I'm reclining yeah, no, I am.
Airplane Comfort and Etiquette
Speaker 4So I am a firm believer like and you know, in my book I interview experts, so it's not just my opinion but like richard branson I interviewed on this topic and you know he said like seats reclined for a reason, right like um, and I'm? I'm six foot seven, so trust me, I get you know when he's very tall, if you're listening.
Speaker 4I say I mean you are allowed to recline your seat, but don't be a jerk about it, right? Like? Don't just immediately slam your seat back right. I hate those aggressive seat recliners. You can actually break someone's laptop by like. Yes, that is true with kids and you know kids in a car seat you could smack into them. So just be like nice about it, right, um? And if you don't want someone reclining into you, then make sure you get a seat right in the bulkhead exit row, etc.
Speaker 3Like you kind of?
Speaker 4too many people expect everyone to cater to them you know, so, but I would say this during meal service, don't have your seat reclined.
Speaker 3That makes sense.
Speaker 4You know cause, like you know someone's scalp in your head, there's not a lot of room to begin with, so, but I do think at the end of the day it's your, it's your right to recline you don't want to recline.
Speaker 3Why spirit? This is our presidential platform.
Speaker 4I know, so you know.
Speaker 3No, it's true. You should book the bulkhead if this is an issue for you, and every airline these days will sell you those seats.
Speaker 4I see who.
Speaker 1Spirit wants, and I didn't realize what other comics have jokes about it. I didn't realize they were true. And she's like I'll take a coffee. She goes that's whatever, 99 something. And I was like really and I said to everybody in the area everybody, whoever wants coffee, it's on me. And I bought coffee for like three rows.
Speaker 4It was so Hot. Take I've flown Spirit several times when I need to Like on short flights. Who cares? Because you know like United will charge 4X. It's the same damn coach experience. I will challenge you on the short flight thing.
Speaker 1I don't believe there's such a thing as a short flight. There is, you can be flying. Hey, it's just a Chicago. A short flight? Yeah, there is. Uh, you can be flying. Hey, it's just a chicago, it's an hour and a half yeah, you might be on that tarmac right for seven and a half hours because of some delay.
Speaker 1And if you're sitting up front, right, you paid extra for that seat rather than it's only an hour and a half. If you're sitting up front, you have to go to the bathroom. They just look away. They look away if you're coming from the back of the plane to the bathroom they pull out a taser yeah they taser you. Yeah, they call the fbi, and when you arrive there's federal marshals waiting for you. So I.
Speaker 4Well, here's, here's my take on it. So when you fly the major airlines, all the so. I always book last minute, I always change my flights. So last minute all the good seats are taken by elite travelers. On american united delta you try to book the last minute flight in an exit row. On Delta, or even their premium economy, everything's full, it's middle seats, except on Spirit, because everyone's so cheap they don't pay for the exit row or all the premium seats. So for like a 45 minute flight, it's the same amount of legroom you're getting on the normal carriers, but you can pay the extra 50 bucks and sit in the exit row with no one else.
Speaker 4Next, to you because they're not letting people sit there for free, so the people who don't pay for those premium seats. Often you're flying with open seats next to you, which is like a real gift. When flying economy Same with like Ryanair you pay like the 20 bucks extra. Everyone's like it's so crazy. But I'm like but the cheap price you pay, just pay for the extras you can board you.
Speaker 2Yes, I have flown Ryanair multiple times and just am like paying.
Speaker 4It's so great, even your bags come out in one minute. There's only two bags checked because everyone's too cheap to check a bag.
Speaker 3Every bag.
Speaker 4I check with Ryanair, it's like one bag comes out.
Speaker 2It's one bag from Yorkshire, it's true, I paid like an extra $100 to check like three bags in like the front of the plane.
Speaker 1Where are you flying? Where's Ryan Air flying to Tel?
Speaker 2Aviv to Crete.
Speaker 4Oh, yeah, and in that case, it's probably one of the few airlines that fly that I would never connect to fly a full service carrier 100%, especially in Europe where business class is the biggest scam in the history of the world. Let's talk about an economy seat with no extra leg room, a blocked middle seat, I mean it's. It is a scam. Europeans aren't even fat like americans I don't need that middle seat blocked in america.
Speaker 1We do um we uh, the, the, the clothing.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, on one of our last podcasts I brought up um, if you are at the airport in open-toed shoes and shorts especially for some reason. If you're a man, I think you should be put on the no-fly list.
Speaker 4Especially most of the men with flip-flops and shorts have not ever had a pedicure. They have no business doing it.
Speaker 3I don't think it's appropriate to wear shorts on an airplane, yes or no?
Speaker 4I would say this so there are times when airports are so hot and you're like roasting on a plane in the caribbean, when, like, there's not even jet bridges and you're right, roasting. I've been there so I don't blame people. Like in my book, I talked to mika meyer, who's an etiquette expert. It's like, look like if you're flying in the islands. I'll say this I wear lululemon shorts and a lululemon t-shirt even when I'm flying in first class.
Speaker 4I flew etihad residence, the nicest I saw yesterday and I wore my lulu because I roast on planes it's like and I cannot sleep when it's hot, so I wear breathable. I don't go through the airport in my lululemon outfit, but I do think, like you, don't need to dress up for travel these days. It's about being comfortable because, as you said, the flight's never as long as you think, it's always longer. You're always delayed, so be comfortable. If you're going to not wear socks, don't put your feet up on anything.
Speaker 2Don't walk to the bathroom in bare feet.
Speaker 4Yeah, oh, that's disgusting.
Speaker 2I've never seen someone do that, you know what.
Speaker 3I do.
Speaker 4I bring flip-flops with me every time I travel so that in the middle, if you're like, if you really need to go to the bath sometimes it's annoying to put on your shoes or whatever so I always have like a pair of slides at my seat, like ready to just go, so I don't have to like really wake up myself and put on shoes.
Speaker 3I have special slip on sneakers that I wear for flights specifically for that reason, because I have to pee. So much.
Speaker 1You can't go to the bathroom and I have designated flight outfits Like this is breathable material, still pants.
Speaker 4So you will still sleep in pants.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I get really hot too. I get really hot on planes.
Speaker 4Man, just try shorts the next time.
Speaker 3It's so comfortable, I know, but then I just feel like I'm touching the back of my cat.
Speaker 4Okay, this is, you're really worried about like a cloth touching your skin. Yeah, you're like honey, I've seen where you party, I know where you've been, we've hung out in fire island, I mean, and we're gonna leave it redacted, redacted, redacted.
Speaker 3The other thing is I'm 5, 11, a normal height. This is like how they. This is like average, average height, not short, not tall. You're six, seven. Yeah, I'm uncomfortable on airplanes. Yeah, what are you doing? You have the.
Speaker 4You call it the canoe yeah, oh, I size 15 feet, so like a lot of times in business class. So the issues you have not just length, but like the width of the seat right where I'm like this and then your feet.
Speaker 4The worst is when you're I have to wedge my foot at an angle. I can't sleep. And there's certain aircraft now where they you know when, like delta 767. I don't everyone's like. Delta's a great airline, but internationally they're, they're 767s, which is the bulk of their fleet. Right, I mean, it's a coffin, it's a coffin.
Speaker 4I said you know, you drop into the ground and your feet have to like right. You know, jet blue mint is similar where it's like I love mint, but it's like that is a cramp, see up. So the old mint, not the new mint, is much nicer, like the planes that go to europe. But but yeah, so I'm very particular the plane type and I teach people in my book like selecting the right times, the right planes.
Speaker 4When you're going to France, you've got a bunch of different options. Air France business class blows Delta away in every metric Bigger sea, better food, more seamless connections, and most people just don't know that. So my book is about yes, it's points, it's travel etiquette. I have a whole chapter on jet lag which I learned a ton about jet lag. Jet lag is all about light. It is not about sleep and how it is literally exposed. Your eye has two functions it is to see things and it's to register daylight, to set your circadian rhythm, which then sets all the other bodily functions.
Speaker 4Well, you invested in a company about this yes Time Shifter, which is like which I follow on instagram. Now I need to. Obviously we'll get the time shifter app. You know it just pings you when you should stop drinking caffeine and, like the couple days before your flight, you just go to bed a little bit earlier each night, if possible, and so you're like biohacking yeah, I mean, you have to, I mean, but it's, it's beatable, you just can't.
Speaker 4I was always of the mind. So let me just take an Ambien and sleep for 12 hours, right.
Speaker 2And then that actually messes you up even more. Yeah, that makes it worse. Yeah, but I started taking melatonin.
Speaker 1That's so cute and that really helped. That's so cute. I began taking Tic Tacs.
Speaker 2Did the same thing as melatonin, but with mel before you fly.
Speaker 4It's all about the short release and it's a smaller dose. Some people like overdose themselves with long release, so that's why you're groggy. It's still releasing when you're trying to like land and go through immigration. So short release.
Speaker 2Take it the second before you go to sleep, or half an hour before you go to sleep.
Speaker 4Yeah, the short, smaller dose that's what like will put you down and let you sleep.
Speaker 3You'll be proud of us, because another thing that you feel strongly about and talk about is that you should not be hoarding points yes and we did a points cleanse this year, yeah, we flew to Australia because of you on points and Israel and Israel on points Israel's
Speaker 4tough these days with all the flight prices are crazy all my friends are like I'll help you. You know, I'm always like I'll help you book a ticket and then, whenever a friend texts, okay, I need to go to tel aviv on this one day, I'm like you're screwed, sorry like that's the least of israel's problems.
Speaker 2I'm gonna.
Travel Points and Rewards Insights
Speaker 1I'm gonna be honest with you and we are not. We do not know how to go in and do it ourselves yeah we have an agent, this Hasidic guy. First high-class travel.
Speaker 3High class travel. He has all of my login information.
Speaker 1High class with a low price he has every one of our pass codes.
Speaker 3He has my blood type, my social security number, he has our Amex codes and we book with him.
Speaker 1We need to get to Paris and then to Zurich and then to London and all of a sudden we're getting emails from you're now a member of Air France, You're a member of Air Morocco, and these points are coming and going and out of nowhere $300, 100,000 points and we're booked in first class. I don't know how he does it, but he does it.
Speaker 4Yeah, I mean so for anyone listening. A lot of people are like I just don't have the time to like learn about point. So there's high class that you, that you used. Pointme is a site that actually is the google flights of travel, where you can put in you want to go new york to paris and it'll actually search because the trick is these days it's not using delta, united and american. The us carriers are inflating right craz year. I mean you used to be able to 100,000 miles round trip go to Europe. Yeah, delta, it's literally. I've seen 1 million mile round trip itineraries.
Speaker 4You know it's crazy, but the foreign frequent flyer programs are still keeping it. That's where it's at. So that's why your broker is like oh no, there's an arbitrage opportunity. You know, if you transfer Amex points to Air France, you can get 100,000 mile round trip still on a lot of days to Europe, whereas that same exact Air France flight on Delta is 500,000 or more, so like 10x differential by just transferring to Porn. So Pointme is an app. If you have Amex points or Bilt points, you can use it for free. It's like $129 a year otherwise. But they also have a concierge service similar to what you use. So wise, but they also have a concierge service similar to what you use. So you can just pay someone 300 bucks a ticket, which is a no brainer for busy people who have so many points. What I hate is when people have like millions of Amex points which are so valuable and they're like well, I just redeemed them for a Saks gift card.
Speaker 4Oh, no, no, no, no, no, horrible, I just flew, yeah, Etihad first class it was 200,000 points and that for that amount of money I got an eight thousand dollar first class ticket, abu dhabi, new york for the same amount of points. It's a one thousand dollar sax gift card, so I'm like and what would you rather have?
Speaker 1they're trying to get those points obviously you spoke about in your book on amazon. Amazon tries like do you want to pay this with? Yeah you know, in new york city taxis yep, in new york city taxis. Now, right, when you're yeah and you can, you can make a mistake and just hit yes. They say would you like to pay this with 4,000 Amex points.
Speaker 2I do that all the time. You don't. Are you crazy?
Speaker 4I do not, until I read the book oh my god, I don't blame people, and that's why people once you.
Speaker 1I'm like the ride's free yeah, it's not it's not, I paid for it honey especially when you're trying to book a flight afterwards somewhere else.
Speaker 4Yeah, I know it's always people that do that. Then they're like okay, I want to go to the maldives and splurge, but I only have like 12 000 points. I'm like girl, you've been redeeming them on taxis you know like like and you get, you know what's the next like 20 bucks saved here or there. You're not even seeing the value and that's why so many people don't value their points, because they're just not they don't see it as real money.
Speaker 3It's like monopoly, but it is like so easily solvable and I I hope that people no, I learned so much because I just was basically spending everything on amazon.
Speaker 4I'm like and if you want to do that, it's totally fine. But just get an amazon card. The mistake people make is they'll pay like 600, 700 for an amex, platinum and then or gold. You know they're accruing these super valuable points and they're just liquidating them. But if you just got a two percent cash back, like if you want cash, just get cash back.
Speaker 4Don't mess with like gift cards and getting an expensive amex point and then just squandering it like you could actually get 4x the value by just getting two percent back. Yeah, it's like a hundred thousand dollars spent on an amex you're gonna get a hundred thousand points, which is worth like five hundred dollars. But if you spend 100,000 on a 2% back cash card, you'd have 2000 cash. So would you rather have a $500 gift card or 2000 in cash to buy whatever you want in the world? Put it in the stock market, you know. So it's like it's just about. I'm not not. Everyone wants to buy first class, that's fine, but at least then just get the best cash back and stop messing around with like a system you just consistently lose at.
Speaker 1That's good advice. It's amazing advice. I remember before there was frequent flyer points. When did frequent flyer points begin? In the 80s.
Maximizing Credit Card Points and Loyalty
Speaker 4Yeah, so 1978. So airfare used to be regulated. You know, the government would say to fly New York to LA was 500 bucks, no matter what airline or whatever. So in 1978, the US government said you know, let's just free market competition and see what happens. And it was amazing, all of a sudden the airlines had to compete against each other. So that's when they started creating freaking flyer programs, because they all realized, wait a minute, the business travelers we got to get and then from there it just has taken on. The airlines nowadays are actually they're called flying banks. So the airlines every major US airline they make more from selling miles than they do from flying planes.
Speaker 4Like the most profit. All the major airlines are making all like the most profit from their credit cards. Because think about it like if you fly Delta three times a year, delta's only getting money three times a year from you. But when you have a Delta Amex card, every single day you're buying things, delta's getting a cut. So 365 days a year. It's brilliant business. Like 1% of total US GDP goes on a Delta co-branded card.
Speaker 4And now all the airlines are in order to get elite status. These are not frequent flyer programs or frequent buyer, so you need to spend on the airline and they're incentivizing you to spend on the credit card. So it's a pretty amazing business what they've created. But there have been so many changes that I think when people read the book, my point is just take a breather. Like sometimes elite status may not be worth it. These days there's a stat like 10 years ago, delta in the first class cabin, 80 20% of passengers would be paying crazy business corporate fares. That's flipped. 80% of passengers today on Delta are paying yeah, that's us and then 20% get the scraps. So those 20% upgrades are really only going to diamonds and platinum.
Speaker 4So people who are like should I spend $5,000 to get gold status next year. I'm like, on what? On the hopes of maybe getting a couple $200 upgrades, that you could save the $5,000 and upgrade yourself when you actually want, versus like hoping for future returns. You know, and really what? I think people just instead of getting the airline and hotel credit cards, get the transferable cards that reward you the most, platinum Amex you talk about. Well, platinum Amex is good for perks, but people are shocked when I love the Platinum card but I don't put anything on it.
Speaker 4I have an Amex gold card which is four points per dollar on dining and groceries. So the platinum gives you 5X on airfare, but it's one on everything else. So I never earn just one point per dollar. That's like a rule of thumb. So I'm always getting 2X, 3x, 4x, 5x, and then for any purchase where I can't get a bonus on another card, there's a Capital One Venture X card that's two points per dollar on everything you spend. So, like doctor's offices, there's certain purchases you're never going to get a bonus, like no credit card has, like you know, pet supplies. But the Capital One Venture card is 2X, so that's my base earned too, and then I'll have 4X on dining. On Amex Gold. You can even earn points on the built credit card for rent with no fees. So it's just a matter of like make sure you're getting points for everything you spend.
Speaker 1So we book far out we have flights booked already in 2005 and deep, deep in because we see where the shows are. We also cannot get there. Missing a flight or a delay we can't get. So if we can, we arrive to the city the day before, so we wake up in the city where the show is and we are super early. So the lounges are so important to us. The lounges are just a very important thing. Now, I don't usually use American American Airline because their lounge. You have to be something special.
Speaker 4Well, they have different tiers of clubs.
Speaker 1Yeah Right, like we know, with Delta we're in because we have status and we're we have a business class ticket, but American Airlines is status and we're.
Speaker 4We have a business class ticket, yeah, um, but uh, american airlines is. It just depends where you're flying. So if you're in business on american, you're always going to get into the lounge internationally internationally, but domestically yeah domestically, no, yeah.
Speaker 4So delta now, yeah, they for their transcontinental premium flights. They will let you in united. If you fly newark to la, they won't let you in. So every airline has its nuance. So that's why they once again get the credit card, their 500 credit card, and they'll let you in um all the, and chase now has a new lounge.
Speaker 4Yeah, so the best lounges, in my opinion. Chase lounges are incredible. The new sapphire lounge at la guardia is probably one of the top lounges in America, is it? You can order food from a tablet. They bring it to you in the lounge Instead of having to wait in line at a picked-over buffet. I hate that, especially with traveling with my son. It's nice, you just order on the tablet, they bring it over to you. It's fresh. Credit card companies are the ones with the money. So the Capital One lou lounges are really nice. There's only a couple of them now, but they're expanding. You know, emmick, centurion lounges are nice, although overcrowded. Sometimes that's like the biggest. They can't expand them big enough. So, uh, lounges as a whole have gotten nicer. Yes, um, but during the pandemic they kind of extended everyone's elite status. Everyone was getting in there's lines and if, like everyone's vip at the club.
Speaker 3Is anyone vip at the club? Yeah, no, when we walk by the centurion lounge and there's like a line to get and I'm like, oh, like, let's just no, the, the jfk delta is is insane.
Speaker 1There's a line to get in, yeah, but somehow we, there's two lines, but we we have elite status so they'll put you to the front.
Speaker 4And now delta has delta has the new delta one lounges which are for just for business class flying, which alleviates some of the lines in the normal clubs.
Speaker 1Biggest three takeaways that anybody listening to this podcast should be from you, if I may, probably don't hoard points.
Speaker 4Yeah, don't hoard points. I would say number one loyalty goes both ways. An elite status is a drug. So many people are just like used to having elite status. But like the game is shifting and there are so many lucrative ways to earn points on credit cards, I would say focus first and foremost on just making sure you're maximizing, because get, get Amex, Chase, city Capital One points. These points you can transfer to all the airlines. These are the most valuable points. You want to have a lot of transferable points that give you options versus just like going all in on one airline, because I know so many people are like I have 2 million United miles, but like I want to fly Emirates.
Speaker 2Like you can't.
Speaker 4Can I transfer them back in it? No, no, no, like you've accrued into a very restrictive currency. If you just would have accrued on an Amex or a Chase card, you'd have millions more options. So generally always do a yearly check-in with your strategy and look at where you're spending the most money and try to get more than one point for every dollar.
Speaker 1Who do we check in?
Speaker 4with our strategy.
Speaker 3I mean you have to make your own strategy. That's what the book is.
Speaker 4Yeah, I mean, the book is about teaching you how to do it yourself. I mean, I'm sure the Pointme concierge they actually have a service where they'll sit down, review your cards, review what airlines you're flying, but yeah, really, the information is all out on the Internet. You know, it's about making sure you understand, but no one's going to be able to tell you what you spend your money on. There are some apps out there, but you have to be careful too about giving all your passwords out. Loyalty fraud is a huge issue these days. I do not recommend people giving out their passwords unless you really know the person, because accounts are getting drained like crazy nowadays. But I think the second. There's another tip shopping online. So we all shop online.
Speaker 4Most people don't know that you could just be getting free points for shopping online, not just from using your credit card that earns points when you cash out, but say, you shop at Saks. You know, never go to sakscom. Always go through their airline and credit card shopping portals where you put your frequent flyer number in and it stores a cookie on your computer. And basically, when you go to any retailer but Amazon's the only outlier they don't participate, but almost every other online store, whether it's Brooklyn and for your sheets or whatever, always check to see if there's an airline or hotel or credit card shopping portal. And you can go to a website called Cashback Monitor. So you'll put in the retailer you know Saks or whatever and it'll show you all the different airlines and credit cards.
Speaker 4You can get extra points and this is double dipping. So, for example, you could use a Delta credit card and you'll get Delta points but say you want to also keep your American Airlines account active. You can go to advantageeshoppingcom, you put in your AA number and for that purchase you could use your Delta credit card. You'll earn your Delta miles, then you earn extra points in American Airlines for the same exact purchase. So many people are shocked when they hear this. And that's free points and this can be up to 10 miles per dollar. Nike, apple, best Buy If you're buying appliances, you know always shop through the shopping portals. You know you're redoing your house.
Speaker 4Another thing is you know, if you've got a card like the Amex Skull, which is 4x points at supermarkets at supermarkets you can buy tons of gift cards for Home Depot. So all of a sudden, instead of getting like one or two points per dollar on your Home Depot, you can earn four points per dollar by buying gift cards at a supermarket. I mean, that's like a little bit more. Not everyone wants to do that, but there's certain things you can do that all of a sudden.
Speaker 2your points are like all of a sudden start skyrocketing. I am doing everything wrong, oh for sure.
Speaker 3My friend built a house on an Amex.
Speaker 4My friend built a house on an Amex and got so many Well, buying a car, you can always negotiate Buying a car, I always recommend get your price to the rock bottom that you're happy to pay and then to close the deal. They're going to say oh, we can only take $1,500 on credit card False. Any dealership can take the full price. I know people who have bought entire Porsches, whatever. If they want to hold it, you twist it in them and say no, I need you to put 20,000 on my Amex card. We can't do that. We can't. Okay, I'm not going to buy the car and you'll be shocked.
Speaker 2Suddenly they can do it. They can do it, they're lying when they say oh, I'm not allowed.
Speaker 4The finance manager can do it. They price. This is where you just like twist it even more and like I love hearing stories when people are like oh, I knew that you can actually ask for more and I just drove them home on it and they finally relented and even if it's 10K, I mean it's, it's still 10K. Yeah, so when you start just thinking of points, accruing points, they're all around us, like knowing what you can get.
Speaker 3Wow, the codes are in the air, Periel, I can't. You're just using them in the taxis.
Speaker 1You know it's also there's a Hebrew word called tipus. It's a type of person. I have a cousin in Israel, well-to-do guy, ron. He loves to negotiate Since we were kids. Since we were kids and he came from Israel and he went to school in Boston. Back then it was for long distance. Whoever you used for long distance phone calls If you call from New York to Boston, it was a long distance phone call. You paid, you saw it. He used to get on the phone and negotiate for hours with these people. I said why, how can you do this?
Speaker 4He just loves it. It's it, yeah, he, it's a sport. It is what I'll say. Now, with chatbots, I hate. I'm the opposite side, like bad things happen to me and I'm like I just don't feel like dealing with it. A I'm lazy and b I don't have that gene that like loves to go to war, like I'll go to war in different ways in business or whatever. But like customer service wise, I'm like, oh, this was really messed up. I should give them the feedback. But half the time I'm like my life's moving onward. But now with chatbots you can just send a message, be like. Like, for example, hotels are now charging resort fees. Some hotels are charging 200 a day, right, and I remember 150 dollars it's insane and then the wi-fi sucks.
Speaker 4You just send it. Like every time you're on in-flight wi-fi it's always slow, so you just send them a message, be like it was really slow, and most of the time they'll just give you back the 20 bucks or the 50 bucks. So it's like, instead of having to call and waste time, the opportunity costs to complain about legitimate things, it's easier than ever. You can just send a quick message on a chat bot. Hey, this is my pnr. Like that, my seat was broken. You know and right I know a lot of people get.
Speaker 4You know you can get a free business class ticket a year just by, like you know monitor.
Speaker 3Yeah, I I. There's been several times where I've paid for in-flight internet and it didn't work oh, same doesn't work right, you feel ripped off.
Speaker 1You feel you completely ripped off, but I I I'm too busy sleeping um someone's got to answer the email um, we, so this book is coming out when February 4th.
Animal Rescue and Travel Insights
Speaker 4So, yeah, I started the Points Guy in 2010. So it's taken me almost 15 years. I've always wanted to write a book, but now I basically overrode my ADD and it's been a really fun project too. How did you organize it? And it's been a really fun project too. How did you organize it?
Speaker 4So when I sold the book, I had a sample chapter list and a concept. That is pretty much what it ended up being. I ended up tweaking it as I went along and I had a lot more. I cut some chapters. I just couldn't. There's not a whole lot on cruises and I was gonna do a thing on private jets, which I found fascinating, interesting ways, but it's not relevant to most people. So I also had to say to myself like this is just the first book. This is the book I want people to have and have like a literacy and travel. You know it was really important for me to write the chapter on when things go wrong. Most people a flight's delayed and they just panic. And when you were saying earlier like you have to get somewhere, so not everyone can go the day before, but say you, you know you can only leave Friday after work, you've got to get your cousin's wedding. Your flight's getting delayed, you're at LaGuardia and you have. You're like oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.
Speaker 4You know, most people are just like finger in a prayer. Hopefully it goes. What I do and what points people do is no, I'm booking a secondary flight on points. Cause what people don't realize is the airlines will let you cancel up until the second of departure for free to get your points back. So when you're on a flight and you get that text delay 20 minutes, that might be a mechanical delay.
Speaker 2that could then cancel the flight instantly.
Speaker 4And sometimes, before there's even a delay, I'll book a second flight on a different carrier from the same airport later in the day. As an insurance policy, I don't cancel it until my flight is taking off in the air, and you just have to remember to always cancel. But you get it back. There's no fee. So it's an insurance policy. If you have to get somewhere, have that secondary. And that's the beauty of points, unlike buying a ticket where, if you can, you can book a Delta ticket or whatever. If you cancel it you get a voucher With points. You could make bookings proactively for next year and if something changes you can just get your points back for free. Pre-pandemic, the airlines would charge you like $100 every time you canceled, so you'd kind of be like, okay, let's try not to do this too much. But now most all freaking flyer programs let you cancel free of charge. So it's like booking refundable tickets as insurance policies.
Speaker 3It's amazing, I didn't know that Would you say that's one of the biggest things that changed with travel in the pandemic.
Speaker 4There's not all bad things that change. Yeah, the airlines got a lot more lenient with cancellation policies, like pre-pandemic, like if you canceled a flight half the time you'd lose it. You know like they were pretty strict, especially with points you had to pay. So they all like made it Relaxed a little bit yeah.
Speaker 3Interesting. I have relax a little bit. Yeah, interesting. Um, I have a, I have questions. So you know, obviously you're the points guy, you're a travel expert, etc.
Speaker 4You're also an animal lover?
Speaker 3I do and you have a very special place called carbon ridge. Yes, that I'm fascinated by and is like my childhood dream I'm inviting myself soon please but you, before we started recording, you said you had like an announcement about oh yeah, so people are wondering.
Speaker 4They're like it's a carbon ridge is just the name of my farm. In in 2020, I started riding horses and, in typical fashion of just taking everything to the extreme, I ended up so and and new hope, pennsylvania, is a place it's right near where I grew up. My parents, siblings, are all in that area, so when I have my son, I always knew I wanted to be close to my family, especially as a single dad Like I love my son having tons, like he sees his grandparents and usually has a sleepover every Friday night with them which to me is like priceless.
Speaker 4So I had a house in New Hope. I started riding horses in 2020. And then someone bought my old house off market for amount that I couldn't say no to and I was like the only way I'll sell is if there's this horse farm that I got for a really good deal.
Speaker 2Did you buy it with points? Um, I've earned a lot of points. It needed a lot of work.
Speaker 4And I, every contractor hates me because I'm, like you can't place the order like for the fiber optics, Like I'm doing it through, you know an online shop you know the kitchen remodel. No, no, no, that's all going on my credit card. They're like, fine, just like, but so anyway. So I bought this 30 acre horse farm. I have horses and people say like horses are like potato chips, you can never have one. And I love rescue.
Speaker 4My dog's a rescue. He's my dog's a rescue. He's the best dog in the world. So I'm a big believer in rescue. So you know, when I hear there was a 20 year old llama that needed to be rescued, I have a couple other llamas. Um fiasco is his name, and he's actually now 22. Llamas only live till 20 or so. I've got a 22 year old llama with two buck teeth, named fiasco.
Speaker 4I've got benny hana the llama so it's amazing to see my son like grow up with 30. So we have six horses, including ginger spice kelly, who is a um, a tiny miniature. She's a miniature. I've heard of her. She's sassy, she's like the most dangerous horse. Everyone's like oh she, I'm like that bitch will buck you like you know, wait, she's miniature yeah, ginger spice.
Speaker 4She was raised in a house with dogs and like really neglected she. So when I rescued her, like a year and a half two years ago, she was in terrible shape. She's a chestnut, so she's like a red-haired miniature pony I think she's like.
Speaker 4She's like you know she's like a mini pony. She's like probably two and a half feet off the ground but a big round belly. You know she's sassy, her hair whips around. She's really sweet, but she is like. She's like she'll you'll get her excited. She'll like run around in a circle and like try to kick you. You know, like you, know you gotta like she'll like step on your foot. Luckily she's mini, but it still hurts. So I have horses, I got llamas. I have these huge Benihana the llama.
Speaker 4Oh my God, benihana the llama and I have two alpacas for Yasco. I have three goats, the S'mores brothers. They look like Hershey, graham and Mallow Noah's Ark over there he was growing up with this pen too, so you shouldn't hoard points, but you should hoard animals. That's my take. So we have ducks. I got two guinea fowl which are great at eating ticks. Well, Martha Stewart has told me she's gifting me peacocks, which my farm manager.
Speaker 4Well, if everyone at people at home are like how are you taking care of all these? I have full-time staff that like do this.
Speaker 1They're not neglected. When I'm traveling, I want to give to every dog that's in my building yeah every dog in my building you can have every dog that's barking in my building you can have every one of them.
Speaker 4The barking dog thing thing is annoying.
Speaker 1It's insane.
Speaker 4But okay, Well, the newest. So I think I've gotten most of the animals, but we just what are the alpacas oh? Alpacas, brownie and blondie. They're just like little aliens. They serve no purpose whatsoever. I usually keep them when I'm home. They're in the pasture that when I come home, so they greet me.
Speaker 1They like run alongside my car, so it's like after like a crazy week in the city, like the farm.
Speaker 4When I just drive in, it is, it's like heaven to me and my blood pressure immediately drops and just like spending time with my son, like being able to ride horses. I turn my phone off. It's like what I think really keeps me sane. So when I was on my recent trip in south africa the local uh spca like I followed their instagram and I just see hello, we need rescues of three little piglets. So we have three piglets that I haven't even met yet because I am not going to be on my farm until next week, but, um, coming from where they were, from a local, I think a lot of times from South Africa the local SPCA in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3Yeah, sorry, these are someCA in Pennsylvania. Oh yeah sorry, these are some lucky South African pigs. Wow the.
Speaker 1South African piglets are really nailed it. No, no, no, I was in South.
Speaker 4Africa. So I messaged my. So my farm manager hates peacocks.
Speaker 3Because they're loud and they shit everywhere right Som?
Speaker 4They're shrieking like banshees. Yeah, but I'm just still at odds, because, like if Martha Stewart offers you peacocks- you take that, of course, absolutely.
Speaker 2So one of the things that you wrote about that was so funny was these emotional support animals or the animals and I had read something a couple of years ago that somebody actually tried to bring an emotional support. Peacock, yeah, on a plane.
Speaker 4The people this is why we can't have nice things. Because, like they use all these rules like and then people just take it to the extremes. However, I will say there are emotional support mini horses that I've come to learn because mini horses will live like 50 years. The issue with support dogs is that they only live 10 years Right yeah, and it's expensive and timely. So miniature. If you can train a horse to do all of your service needs, which is possible, horses are really smart and trainable, are?
Speaker 2we going to start bringing mini horses on planes with us On planes. You're going to see somebody. I think now most airlines have rules around that. Please don't pet my mini horse.
Speaker 1We've seen cats, dogsnies, we saw a bird. We saw people traveling with every type of animal as a it is unsettling when you're flying and you're just here like I. I thought it was like in the song. I go, yeah wait, yeah meow, and then there's a cat meowing it used to be pre-pandemic.
Speaker 4it was a free-for-all where everyone had their doctor's notes from their therapist. You can still kind of bend those rules, but you have to be a little bit more callous in how you interpret the new regulations. But there's been a huge decrease in the amount of animals on planes. There's now airlines like canine jets. It's private jets filled with I've seen those Because animal parents I mean, I do not recommend ever checking a dog if you can avoid it.
Speaker 2That's insane to check a dog Because airlines lose dogs I mean not all the time, but like enough, dogs die underneath.
Speaker 4Yeah, it's freezing right, so now yeah, there's a whole crop of airlines popping up just for pets.
Speaker 2Frozen dogs yeah.
Speaker 3No, they do like a Palm Beach New York run I've seen that yeah, they do London now LA.
Speaker 1Speaking of dogs, we'll take this moment to thank our sponsor, a&h Provisions Brian, the best kosher meat, glock kosher meat that's available and the best hot dogs in the world. Their website is kosherdogsnet and with the code word MODY, you get 30% off of your first purchase. And we'll also thank Weitz and Luxembourg, the law firm that not only does well, they do good. Very philanthropic Arthur Luxembourg, a big friend and fan of the podcast. Thank you all for thank you both for being collaborating with us and being our sponsors. Back to the dogs. Thank you both for collaborating with us and being our sponsors.
Taylor Swift Concert Experiences
Speaker 3Back to the dogs. I was like, how is that? When you walked in, you had some questions about the word Mishigas.
Speaker 4Yes.
Speaker 1And you also wanted to work out your.
Speaker 4Shukshuka Mishugana. You don't think that's cute for like a.
Speaker 1Shukshuka is the food.
Speaker 4Yeah, which I love.
Speaker 3And.
Speaker 1Mishugana is crazy. Yeah, mishugoi is a person who's not Jewish and crazy.
Speaker 4Why are you looking?
Speaker 1All of you looked at me immediately If I had to give you a drag name. Are you ready? Yeah, jen Tile, oh.
Speaker 4Can I spice it up, jenny Tile, you know, just because I'm more of a Jenny, you know.
Speaker 3You, jenny tile, you know, just because I'm more of a jenny, you know you would be a very jenny.
Speaker 4When I'm upset at the airlines, I'm a jenny. I'm not a karen, because I'm still nicer, but I'm a jenny um.
Speaker 3You also traveled for the eras tour. You're swifty. Would you identify as a swifty? I?
Speaker 4would funny of my ex-boyfriend, like he's like I took him to see the air and I'd seen taylor. I love taylor, like I like taylor. But when I saw the arias tour last year in philly I was like blown away. And then I was went to see her in tokyo, which I sat right like her team got tickets because I didn't know how to order them. In japan you can't and you can't. A lot of countries you can't buy. There's laws against resale. So through friends I got in and I sat at the diamond in Tokyo in February. I get chills thinking about it. It was this magical experience. I mean, she's on the diamond, she was like singing to us.
Speaker 4Wow and it was like you know, when Taylor Swift sings into your eyes with, like you know the whole dynamic, it just like. And then the summer in Europe. So I'm six, seven, so I hate concerts where, where you're like in a seat because in philly I was next to.
Speaker 3It was. I was next to these young girls who were crying hysterically like unwell, like just sobbing for hours and I would stop like, are you girls?
Speaker 4okay, and they were just like going through this, like you know, emotional breakdown at seeing their idol, which is great. But like then I had the 10 scream singers behind me, like scream, scream. They're all competing who knows the lyrics more? And I'm like girls. I literally couldn't hear tail. And then I sat next to a straight guy, so I've got the scream singers and then a straight man who sat in a seat like this the whole time vibe killer and I'm like stuck so in europe.
Speaker 4They had an open floor which I cannot stress enough. It was magic and it was like 800 bucks your front floor, you can move around, and summertime, europe, stadiums, fireworks, it was just everything about it. So Lisbon was the best, but then I saw her at the O2.
Speaker 2How many times have you?
Speaker 4seen her.
Speaker 3How many times have you?
Speaker 4seen her, I saw her before I was supposed to see her in Vienna, but thanks to ISIS it got canceled.
Speaker 2So I mean on one hand.
Speaker 4I'm thankful for these you know.
Speaker 2Thanks, ISIS, Thanks for not dying but that's crazy.
Speaker 4So I don't think. But now I'm watching everyone's footage in the US. But the US the ticket prices are stupid. Like 10 grand for like the same seat I had in Tokyo is 10 to 15,000. Get out of here.
Speaker 2Is she that good Is?
Speaker 4she that good? I mean, no one's that good for 15 grand or 10 grand, but I may do like I don't know.
Speaker 2Do you guys like Taylor Swift I?
Speaker 3like Taylor Swift, I did not go to the Eros tour and I regret it.
Speaker 2Really, do you want a bracelet? Do you want me to make you it?
Speaker 3never lined up with our schedule, with where she was going to be and me getting tickets, and, like I, I thought about going to um when she was doing it in warsaw because, right, I was like we should go to warsaw because that was like the cheapest too I know you got four seats like 400 bucks yeah, I was like we should just go to warsaw because we, it's on our list anyway yeah, and to do and uh, see her, but it just didn't work out. I would just say this.
Speaker 4It's not. It's not about everyone's like, but, beyonce, I'm like A. Let's just stop. You can like both, you know.
Speaker 3But Beyonce's a better dancer. I did go to the Renaissance tour, okay, great.
Speaker 4That's stop like the comparison, because do we say that with like male rock bands? But like you choose more much, you know like, but it is their moms, gays. Zero drama, like there's no fights, it's just like for three and a half hours.
Speaker 2You're just watching people have an experience.
Speaker 1It's just like three and a half hours wow, she's a showman, she's a show, she's up there, she's. Yeah, she's working. I didn't.
Speaker 4Yeah, now I like I will when I drive to the farm. It's an hour and a half I listen to like the era's, like playlist from the concert, like I'm so you're a swifty.
Speaker 3What would you say like some of your top three tracks?
Speaker 4oh, oh, my god.
Speaker 3Well, I can do it with the broken heart, so her new song and when in in that live that whole set she added in europe and it's like it's iconic but so don't you feel like that song is her kind of like taking a dig at her fans, though she's like hi, you're like making me miserable no, I don't know, I don't, I don't like, I don't know.
Speaker 4Take any of her lyrics that personally I don't know I just like, like I remember when that song was first. I heard it in lisbon, my memories being with all my friends at night, like having a very. We were just having a lot of fun, you know so that moment where you're like we were all just like on this beautiful porch, you know, lisbon Friday night, just like living our best lives, like you know so.
Speaker 2You have your two year old is like singing Taylor Swift songs.
Speaker 4Is Dina Swifty, huge Swifty he literally asked for Tay Tay and this morning, before I came here, he points at the Sonos. He goes Tay.
Speaker 2Tay on here.
Speaker 1Oh, my God.
Speaker 4He's stupid and as I was leaving the door, daddy, I come with you, I come with you, and then he's like crying as I'm leaving.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's like next time you come on, bring dean bring dean like.
Speaker 4Well, he's speaking so much now he'll be ready to podcast yeah, he'll be like.
Luxury Travel Insights and Perspectives
Speaker 1So the sapphire lounge isn't what it's cracked up to be growing up with, growing up with my dad as being the points guy. Now he'll have his own little influence podcast. Yeah, he should be well and live long and you should get lots of nachas from him. What's nachas? Nachas is joy.
Speaker 4Joy, I do, man. It's like what do you do if you have an asshole kid? You know, oh my God, you're stuck with someone.
Speaker 1Let's do this. So we obviously have friends that are gay and have kids. I just worry please don't be ugly, please, please. I just don't want them to have ugly kids and thank God all of our friends that have had kids. The kids are gorgeous, yours.
Speaker 4I don't mention it, but yeah and those of you listening.
Speaker 1A lot of moms listen to this, a lot of jewish mom. The amount of nannies that these gays have is not normal. They have staffs and they show up an hour before, so there should never be like an overlay. When one doesn't, she's running late. Coverage is important. Coverage is important Because I'm a dad.
Speaker 4I'm not dead and I'm single so I need to go out. And if my son sleeps from 7 to 7, I don't need to be there watching him sleep. I need to be able to have my life. So that was the one thing. I waited until I was 39 until I could afford. I knew I would. I'm obviously a very involved parent. I work from home. But like, yeah, the nannies are very important to me and finding the right yeah, yeah, it's very. Even people like, oh, it's so easy, you have nannies, I'm like, but you don't understand. Like just managing and finding the right nannies, not just they're good for your kid, but they might live with me and travel with me and it's like it's important.
Speaker 1It's very hard to find like the perfect balance where everyone is in harmony good help is hard to find totally so on on that flight where you just posted adorable, you and him.
Speaker 4There's a nanny behind you, there's a nanny I always fly my nanny in first class, which a lot of the nannies that follow me like thank you. I treat my nannies like gold. They get massages, they. But he flies with me, like to to south africa. He was sitting next to me, yeah, but I do have them there to, like we. I mean on a 15 hour flight we switched on and off and stuff, but I don't feel bad about that because I'm like, I'm a single guy, if I had a wife, that would be the same thing. So my nannies are like my stand-in wife, you know, and I always say to myself they're expensive, but I'm if I had a wife she'd be more expensive.
Speaker 3She'd be more expensive, and she'd still need a nanny, so like.
Speaker 4I'm coming out ahead.
Speaker 1Husbands are expensive too. Yeah, that's why I'm single.
Speaker 4I can either have a husband or a kid, so yeah, not that expensive. I wish you both.
Speaker 1That's amazing. I'm so happy you came on finally and the book is called how to Win at Travel.
Speaker 4It's out February 4th, but you can pre-order it now and for all of my travels with Dean. You can follow me at Brian Kelly on Instagram and, of course, our brand account is the Points Guy Follow. I write a weekly newsletter where I recap what's going on in my world and the best deals and whatnot.
Speaker 2So I have one final question.
Speaker 4Yes.
Speaker 2What's your favorite place to go on vacation?
Speaker 4I am a huge safari guy. I love, love, like being with the animals at sunrise, phones off, just like watching nature take action. It's like amazing in South.
Speaker 1Africa. I married Leo before he met you.
Speaker 4I don't know you guys looking for a third, because no too many texting yeah the safari South Africa in general. Like Cape Town, like when people are like where should I go on my wedding? Like honeymoon. Like Sabi Sands, the private game reserves are where it's actually an off-road, like a lot of countries in Africa. It's very regulated. You can't go off-road the sabi sands in south africa and then you go to cape town cape town's beautiful, very lgbtq friendly it's a lot of jews there.
Speaker 1We get a lot of requests for cape town.
Speaker 4Yeah yeah, and then the wine countries. An hour outside of cape town, franschuk and stellenbosch are like stupidly beautiful, mountainous, like. So there's a lot in south africa. Now you can fly non-stop using your points.
Speaker 3Delta flies there united, although I do like flying the middle eastern carriers can I ask you a question, sorry, um, how do you feel about the virgin flight or the flight configuration? That is the bed that you have to ask them?
Speaker 4no, I avoid those planes like the plague thank you, I call them like the bird cage thank you a who wants to look at other people's feet, and Virgin, an airline made by and I asked Richard Branson, I'm like you're a plane buff. Why would you have people not looking at a window on a plane that configuration's like?
Speaker 220 years. What did he?
Speaker 4say he was just like oh, at the time we were like the industry leader and it was like a new plane.
Speaker 1It was a new plane and our seats were not facing another face. We were the back of the other, the people facing each other, and then there's another row.
Speaker 2Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we put that that bed goes down. I hated it.
Speaker 1That bed goes you have to get out to make the bed.
Speaker 2Oh, the new.
Speaker 1A350.
Speaker 4And I never saw Leo sleep better in my life.
Speaker 1I thought you were talking about the old virgin seats that are like no they face into the aisle no, no, no this, but this shit you have to get out of yeah yeah, get into a bed, yeah and it was.
Speaker 3I like to be able to me. I don't want to ask for help if I want to like, I want to lay down down, I want to sit up like.
Speaker 2I just flew to Paris from New York on la compagnie.
Speaker 4Yeah, that was.
Speaker 1I flew them this summer, that wasn't a soap company, hope company, you bring as a gift. You're talking about Lossy Time, lossy Time.
Speaker 4And I'm waiting for the sponsorship now.
Speaker 2We're working on it. No, it's a business class plane.
Speaker 4So I flew them. It's not the most, you know, it's two and two, so it's not the most fancy business class, but it's usually like half of what Air France is yeah. And you can. That is a very dog friendly airline. A lot of people I knew were like no, la Compagnie is super flexible with the balance.
Speaker 2Oh, I didn't see any dogs on there. A mini horse maybe.
Speaker 4Is coming back. So funny enough, in my book we talk about the. I end them on the future of travel and I interviewed there's a company called boom supersonic um who are developing called the overture plane, so it'll be the concord, but they allege their concept will be much more like sustainable. The concord never worked. It was too expensive, loud, it was dangerous. So by the end of the decade they're hoping to have this where you can now fly. It'll be like three hours to Europe, four and a half from like the West coast to Asia. So it's in test mode. A lot of the airlines have they spent billions pre-ordering. You know United Airlines invested a lot.
Speaker 3So it definitely. Supersonic flight is definitely a potential. What about space travel? Are you going to space anytime?
Speaker 4soon. I am not going to space anytime soon.
Speaker 3He's going to New Hope. Richard Branson isn't going to take you up there. No, it's funny.
Speaker 4I was supposed to do Galactic in 2013 and I was going to wire the 50k or whatever deposit and that day there was like a rocket explosion on one of the test flights and I was like, are you kidding't? You're fine. Well, no, now I'm like, yeah, it's giving ocean you're not going anywhere, that ocean thing what's funny, in in february I did a submersible in the maldives and it was the worst experience of my and it only went down like you're six, seven, how, what's submersible?
Speaker 3actually, I did it.
Speaker 4I did an instagram reel. It was the dumbest two thousand dollars I've ever spent. It was a glass bubble, but in the maldives it was was 90 degrees. I roasted the whole time. I was sweating through my shirt.
Speaker 3I'm having a panic attack thinking about that, and my legs hit into the glass in front of me.
Speaker 4I couldn't. When your legs fall asleep, you have to move them. Yeah, and I couldn't, and I was like sweating profusely. I'm like this is what I get for going on a submersible as a single father.
Speaker 3No, no, no. Pennsylvania to the alpacas and the bucktooth llama.
Speaker 2Yes, that's it, fiasco.
Speaker 3I mean you're doing, jumping though on your horse up there.
Speaker 4Well, I'm trying not to do as much.
Speaker 3Well, you look good doing it.
Speaker 4I wear vests and I'm very careful.
Speaker 1Your outfits, your looks are insane. Your looks are good.
Speaker 4But I'm not jumping as much as I used to because I am aware of the risk symbol. Well, that's like.
Speaker 3Modi doesn't go skiing really anymore. Because he goes, I need my legs. I do stand up.
Speaker 4But I don't ski that much either, because I know so many friends now, oh yeah.
Speaker 2You break your collarbone.
Speaker 4I mean that's a real drag.
Speaker 1Yeah, there's no need to do it. There's no need for that.
Speaker 3We're about mitigating risk Need for that.
Speaker 1We're about mitigating risk. Yes.
Speaker 3And maximizing points.
Speaker 1We look forward to not only seeing you back on the podcast, but just seeing you in general.
Speaker 4We love partying with you. Come meet Fiasco before he passes.
Speaker 3We just got a place in Connecticut. Oh, congratulations.
Speaker 1It's not a massive horse farm, but it's just what we need.
Speaker 3Perfect. Our neighbors do have chickens, though.
Speaker 4Yes.
Speaker 3Chickens are pretty easy and those real farm fresh chicken eggs are like.
Speaker 1They are so good I mean the way we go through eggs. I eat a lot of eggs, I know uh, so yeah, so we have that going and um and that's, and so um, and come to, uh, come to the beacon I would love to come to the beacon. You have an invitation um you came to sony hall.
Comedy Show Ticket and Travel Tips
Speaker 1You are very good friends with our friends jason and caleb. Jason and caleb shout out to you guys these are guys. Jason, I know since la guardia was mayor of new york. Um, we literally, when we finished college, both moved to new york. We became friends. Caleb is his husband. Jason has watched my comedy career from like five people at a comedy club to um, to like sony hall, to town hall and now the beacon, and then he's just yeah they're very sweet they're like really super friends, super uh fans and uh and for the for the beacon shows.
Speaker 1The beacon shows are december 17, 18 and 19. 18 19 are sold out. There's a few tickets left on the 17th, but besides that, buy them, put them on your Amex get some cards put them on your Amex.
Speaker 3Cancel it, then get it on your on your Madison Square Garden has a portal on it. On American Airlines, does Madison Square?
Speaker 1Garden, have a portal to do something with points.
Speaker 4Well, they have a chase sponsorship so you can use your chase card to get through secret doors and whatnot.
Speaker 2I love that he actually knew the answer. Also, I'll say this Clear, if you have Clear for the airport.
Speaker 4It also works at sports stadiums and events. We have that yeah.
Speaker 1We have all of that and then shows are in. By now we still have shows in Chicago, montreal, toronto. We have shows in Houston, austin and. Los Angeles, the Milton.
Speaker 3Wiltern the.
Speaker 1Wiltern Sorry, the dyslexia, the Wiltern in Los Angeles. That's going to sell out very fast. So get your tickets for that. Everything's available on modilivecom. Be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show. Get a few tickets, not just one or two, and bring your friends. By the time the show comes around, they'll all be looking for it and you'll be the hero and uh, and that's it.
Speaker 3I feel like we need to have you on for part two let's do it from the farm yeah, absolutely sweet, that's actually a great idea. Okay, I have a, have a whole, like in my barn.
Speaker 4It's like literally a podcast studio okay, we're coming alright, thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1This has been amazing bye, bye and a chuck chuck here and a buck buck there and a hero buck. What's that song? Oh, mcdonald mcdonald had the farm. It's hot.