Ever dreamed of jet-setting without breaking the bank? Let me, Marcy Backhus, be your guide as I spill secrets on how to transform your travel dreams into a cost-effective reality. Picture this: You've just scored an unexpected first-class upgrade, thanks to a loyalty program tip I'll share. And imagine the satisfaction of reuniting with distant family members, without the stress of overspending. In our latest chat, I recount personal tales of altered plans and blissful family gatherings, all while teaching you to master the art of stretching each retirement dollar. Learn how to leverage the flexibility of travel dates, join rewarding programs, and strategically utilize discounts to make your adventures not just possible, but also downright enjoyable.
Now, if that's not enough to awaken your wanderlust, wait till you hear about the luxe life that your travel credit card can afford you. My American Express Platinum card isn't just a piece of plastic—it's a golden ticket to a world of exclusive luxuries like airport lounge access, the convenience of TSA PreCheck, and the cutting-edge CLEAR biometric system. These aren't just perks; they're game-changers that revolutionize the way you travel. In this episode, we also touch on choosing the best hotels and smartly managing travel finances. And as a bonus, I dish on my infectious excitement for the changing seasons and reveal the next exciting destination on my travel list. So, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for takeoff into a world where savvy spending meets luxurious travel perks.
Ever dreamed of jet-setting without breaking the bank? Let me, Marcy Backhus, be your guide as I spill secrets on how to transform your travel dreams into a cost-effective reality. Picture this: You've just scored an unexpected first-class upgrade, thanks to a loyalty program tip I'll share. And imagine the satisfaction of reuniting with distant family members, without the stress of overspending. In our latest chat, I recount personal tales of altered plans and blissful family gatherings, all while teaching you to master the art of stretching each retirement dollar. Learn how to leverage the flexibility of travel dates, join rewarding programs, and strategically utilize discounts to make your adventures not just possible, but also downright enjoyable.
Now, if that's not enough to awaken your wanderlust, wait till you hear about the luxe life that your travel credit card can afford you. My American Express Platinum card isn't just a piece of plastic—it's a golden ticket to a world of exclusive luxuries like airport lounge access, the convenience of TSA PreCheck, and the cutting-edge CLEAR biometric system. These aren't just perks; they're game-changers that revolutionize the way you travel. In this episode, we also touch on choosing the best hotels and smartly managing travel finances. And as a bonus, I dish on my infectious excitement for the changing seasons and reveal the next exciting destination on my travel list. So, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for takeoff into a world where savvy spending meets luxurious travel perks.
Speaker 1:
Hello and welcome to the aging aim for sissy podcast. My name is Marcy Backes and I'm your host. Well, on today's episode, we are going to talk about traveling, a little bit about traveling. We're going to catch up on what I've been doing this week and guess what I'm traveling. So, apropos topic for today Sit back, relax, get that coffee, iced tea, diet coke, whatever you need, and we are going to start our weekly conversation.
Speaker 1:
Well, I'm here in California and it's chilly. It's actually colder in California right now than it is in Chicago. I don't know, Can't figure it out, don't know how to figure out the weather, but life has been a little crazy. So this week we had a leap week, leap year. We had an extra day in February. I hope you made good use of your extra day in February.
Speaker 1:
I traveled here to California on last Wednesday and I came in actually for my best friend's grandchild's baby shower, but it got canceled due to illness. So I have made the best of it, which is spent some time with my sister and her husband and got to see my nephew and his wife, who have moved back from Amsterdam. They lived in Switzerland, in Amsterdam. They've been gone from California for seven years and got to spend some time with them sitting and talking and hearing a little bit about their culture shock of coming back. There's a lot that's happened here in the last seven years in America and things have changed and they're really feeling it. And it was interesting to hear, because when you're living in it and as the changes happen here, things like the flipping around of an iPad to get a tip for everything, the additional dollar amounts to our bills, the inflation, although this is nothing like what it costs to live in Europe. But it was fun to get together with them and hear about what's going on with them and I really enjoyed that. I did a little shopping with my sister a little shopping damage, let's see what else did I do. So now that the baby shower is canceled, I had to think of something for my best friend and I to do. So we're out here in the desert, our favorite place. We're out in Palm Desert, staying at a beautiful West End, time shares out here and what a beautiful, beautiful afternoon we've had. So we'll be here for a few days. But it got me thinking about traveling and I do a lot of traveling. My husband does a lot of traveling. He did a lot before we met. We've done a lot together. He's got over 3 million miles on American and I think a million on United, so he's done a lot of traveling and as a couple, we've done a lot of traveling.
Speaker 1:
But as you come to your retirement and your money is more finite and things are more finite, I've been getting a little bit more creative with traveling and making sure my dollars, my traveling dollars, are going as far as they can, instead of just renting the first car or getting the first plane ticket. I've been doing a lot of shopping and we've talked about this before using your discounts Right now, the Marriott time share that we're in. The best rate I got on it was AAA, so I use my AAA, so let's just get into it. Let's just start talking about it's going to be a shorter episode today, but let's just talk about traveling and cost. So we know everything's gotten more expensive. So how can you make traveling affordable? And I want my traveling to be affordable so that I can do more of it. I want to come to California more often.
Speaker 1:
So this time when I went to get my plane ticket, I was using Southwest. I'm not using it anymore. I can get better deals on American, believe it or not, coming to California and it continues my point, raising my points. Plus, it got me. I've been traveling so much. I am now a gold member. Craig is a platinum for life, but I'm now a gold member and these things matter. If you don't think they matter, they do so.
Speaker 1:
Now, as a gold member on American, I get access to seats that you don't. When you're picking your seat, I get automatically put on the upgrade list. I flew first class on my way out here because I was upgraded for free. Now my ticket cost me a whole $230 from Chicago to LAX. Why? Because I looked at the calendar. If you put in your dates are flexible. A whole monthly calendar will come up for the airline and you can see what days it's cheapest to travel on. So I realized that Wednesday to Wednesday is cheaper. So this trip is a Wednesday to Wednesday trip, paid $230, was upgraded to first class on my way here and we'll see what if I get upgraded on the way home. If I don't, it's just fine. So it's things like that that I want you to be aware of. Don't just be willy nilly with your traveling and your picking. Figure things out. In a few minutes we're going to be talking about points and things like that. But if I can get a cheap flight, I'd rather pay for the flight than use my points and increase my points. Whenever you use points to fly, you don't get more points. So think about that.
Speaker 1:
I needed to rent a car for here and if you've rented a car lately, you know how much cars cost. Right, they're very expensive. So when I went and I shopped around, I have found for myself and for my travel that budget has been really good. I join always join the rewards program so it costs you nothing. I joined the rewards program so when I fly in, my car is ready for me. I get to get off at the fast track. I don't have to go to the desk. There's a lot of reasons why you want to join the programs. For whatever rental car you are, even if you're going to rent it once, join their program because you will not have to wait in line at that desk.
Speaker 1:
So this time I went with budget and there was, you know you could look at each level car and how much it's going to cost. And there was a mystery car and the mystery car was $125 for eight days, not including all the extra fees, but $125. I'm like I'm taking the mystery car. It's going to be a car, it's going to be new. Rental budget always has new cars, just like ever. You know all the different rental car companies. It may be small, it may be big, it may be something, I don't know, but I guessed it would probably be electric, because they have trouble for a lot of reasons renting electric cars. But $125, then with taxes, it was $200 and everything. I think between $250 to $60 ran me about $25 a day. What a deal, right, great deal. Eight days, sure enough, with electric car.
Speaker 1:
It's a Hyundai Ionic 5. I love it, but it also comes with range anxiety. How far are you going to get? So I happen to drive an electric car, so I understand how all the charging system works. I have the apps and that. But if you don't have an electric car, you don't have history with one. That could be a little unnerving, but I'm telling you, for $25 a day, you should learn how to deal with an electric car. It's not that hard. Get the apps. You can use Google Maps to search for charging stations. The only thing I will tell you that different charging stations are owned by different companies. You may need to have a few different apps, but it's super easy.
Speaker 1:
So, out of my sisters, I charged over at the, the outlet stores. It was a fast charger. There's so many of those fast, fancy chargers now, so that was good. Here at the timeshare, right in our parking lot where our room is, there was a charger, so I went to use it. It was a little. This one was a little bit trickier. The company that used to have it doesn't have it anymore. It took me a hot second to figure out what app I needed to use to get my car to charge. But my car is down there charging. It'll be all charged and that's the last time I need to charge it before I drive to the airport. You don't have to fill your car up with gas before you get there because it doesn't take gas. You don't have to bring it in with a full charge or anything like that. So you know, think about it. Look, don't be afraid to take the mystery car. You know if you're renting from a reputable company. It was a great way to save money and it'll allow me to take another trip Again.
Speaker 1:
My whole goal is to travel as much as possible, come back to California and see my friends and do it wisely. So points Points are important. If you have credit cards with points and things. The more you can figure out how to maximize that, the more travel you can do. And let's see. So Craig and I are going to Greece in April. We are flying first class to New York and then from New York to Athens we're flying business class. All done with points.
Speaker 1:
How do we get points? We get points many ways. We get points from flying, but we also get points from our credit cards. So I'll take a look at our credit cards for the month and I'll say to Craig okay, for eating out, we're going to use this one because right this month it's quadrupling the points for any dining dollars that go towards our American Airlines traveling. Now if you're not familiar with points or you want to maximize your points, there's a couple things that use. There's the point guy Follow him, get his app, make sure you're on his email list, get his emails, because he will help you maximize your points.
Speaker 1:
There is another website that I like upgradepointscom. You know, if you just think, oh, it's just too much trouble, well then you know, then you lose out. There's so much that you gain, like I said, by using American Airlines and stop using South me, stop using Southwest. I've been upgraded to gold. I get free luggage, check in, I get, like I said, I'm number three in the. When you get on the airplane, there's a lot of things and the automatic upgrades. Every time I'm already on the list for upgrading to first class for my flight home. Now there's people that have much higher status including Craig than me. I may not get first class, but this year I've already gotten two first class upgrades.
Speaker 1:
So think about what you're doing when you're traveling. Again, when I go to look for a hotel, like I did here, I got myself oh, I'm so sorry, my brain just went crazy there. I looked at the AARP discount. I looked at the AAA discount. I looked at all the discounts they offered and which one gave me the best price and it was AAA and you just put your number in in the beginning. You don't even have to show your card when you get here, and it gave me a nice discount. Now, one of the new credit cards that Craig and I have been talking about this for a while we're going to upgrade our American Express to American Express Platinum. It's $700 a year, but the amount of things that you get back are worth way more than that.
Speaker 1:
So I happen to belong to Equinox Gym. They give you $300 towards your Equinox membership for the year. They give you $200 in Uber Well, we use Uber when we're in the city, so that'll be right there. That's $500. They give you another $250 towards streaming services. Well, lord knows, I use a billion different streaming services. So already there it's paid for itself.
Speaker 1:
And there's several other things. You get to use all the Centurion lounges when you are in the airports and if you've never been to an airport lounge like an airline lounge, they are really nice. When you get there early and you have to sit, you get free food, free coffee. It's a nice place to be. If you've never done that, it affords you that. So up until now, once I joined the Gym the Equinox Gym that really made that American Express Platinum worth it. Also, you get the eye scan for free, two of them, one for Craig, one for me so that you do the eye scan when you get to the airport. If you've ever seen that and you have TSA precheck, there's never a line for the eye scan. You go, do the eye scan and then they put you right in the front of the line for the TSA precheck.
Speaker 1:
And again, when you travel a lot, these things matter. They may not matter to those of you that travel once a year or rarely, but to those of us, or those of you that are out there that really want to become a traveler, all these things matter. Let me see, is there anything else I can think about with traveling? It's. You know, that car rental thing, I'm telling you, is a big deal, it's expensive. Also, when you're looking at your hotels, look at your fees, look at there's free parking, if there's breakfast, all those things add up. If they don't have them, look at another hotel that might. Courtyard by Marriott never has breakfast. You have to pay for it, you know. Stay in a fair field and look at your different hotels, learn about your different hotels and make those travel dollars work for you.
Speaker 1:
Well, that's all I got to say today. Let's see, I fly home on Wednesday and then next weekend we have we spring forward. So it's going to stay light longer. That's an exciting time and it's also darker in the morning, which I kind of like. It is for a little while anyway, but we spring forward. We've got spring around the corner in Chicago, which is exciting because it means the million tulip bulbs are going to bloom down in the city and I'm just going to enjoy my vacation with my bestie here for the next few days. Maybe get a little swimming in, and I know we'll get some shopping in. So remember what I always say aging in versus news.