Travel Is Cheaper Than Divorce
"Travel is cheaper than divorce, I should know. My wife and I were at the door to it." - David Packer
In this podcast I share some of the places, experiences and moments that changed the dynamics of not only my marriage but also the relationship with my kids. Travel was a big key of growing together, becoming stronger as a family and truly saving my marriage with my wife.
I share with you, how you can gain and travel using points and other rewards programs to see and explore some of the most amazing places in the world. In this podcast I share some of the lessons both good and bad, that have guided me and my family as we have navigated the growth and expansion of a family unit.
TRAVEL IS POSSIBLE... when you do it smart. In this podcast I give the tips and tricks I have used and the secrets I teach others of using rewards & point programs to maximize the dollars you are already spending to create some unforgettable memories with your family.
Travel Is Cheaper Than Divorce
Creating Lasting Memories with Patience and Points
Ever found yourself caught in the whirlwind of an emotionally charged conversation with a loved one, wondering how to keep the peace? Let's venture into the intricate dance of patience within family relationships. Sharing personal stories, I explore how patience acts as the bedrock of healthy communication, especially in marriage and parenting. Interruptions can derail an exchange, but with patience and strategy, meaningful dialogue flourishes. Journey with me through the nuances of planning budget-friendly luxury travel, where patience and timing convert potential mishaps into unforgettable family experiences. My tale of booking flights to Hawaii reveals how waiting for the right deal can unlock the door to cost-effective and memorable adventures.
Imagine navigating the complex world of booking flights with points, where patience and flexibility reign supreme. In this episode, I unravel my unconventional strategies for saving on points, such as exploring multiple airports and dates to secure the best deal. It's a path filled with challenges, but one that fosters a deeper familial connection through travel. Reflecting on a memorable trip to Hawaii, I unveil how these journeys knit families closer together, fostering understanding and unity. Embark on this exploration of love, patience, and the transformative power of travel as a catalyst for nurturing the bonds that hold us together.
You are listening to. Travel is Cheaper than Divorce. This podcast for all those who may be struggling with their spouse or their children and the relationship with them. We help give you tips and tricks by using travel as the means to be able to help your relationships with your family. I will provide those tricks and other ways to help travel with little or no cost.
Speaker 1:So let's get into it. Will you please have patience with me. Please have patience with your kids. Please have patience. If you've been married long enough, you'll hear these words from your spouse's mouth. Please have patience with your kids. Please have patience. If you've been married long enough, you'll hear these words from your spouse's mouth Just have patience, just have patience.
Speaker 1:This is also a good nomer for how you should deal with your spouse during very emotional conversations, during really strong emotional conversations. It's a good tact, in my experience, to just be patient. Let them have their say. In the few we'll call them heated discussions I've had with my spouse I shouldn't say few, we've had a lot of heated discussions. Almost every single one of them goes to the point where I am interrupting her somehow Because in my mind I already know the answer before she asks the question. I don't have the patience to just wait, just wait and let her continue to speak until she is finished, and then I have to have the patience in my experience with her to not answer immediately, even still, but just let it simmer for a second and then. Patience is important when you're in a marriage. Patience is important when you're raising children. Patience is important in so many areas in your life, but patience is especially important when you're learning a new way to travel.
Speaker 1:I've talked in earlier episodes I've alluded to mostly. I really haven't talked in full extent because this is not the place for it. I want to talk more about the family here and what to do, but I've talked in some measure about traveling in luxury for little or no cost, which is what I teach people to do in my business. In that system, it requires really two things, two things, that's it, two things from the people that are trying to learn this system. One is knowledge and the second is patience. I can help anybody who's willing with the knowledge. I have several ways of doing that for people. I can help you with the knowledge. I, however, cannot help you with the patience, because if you don't have patience in this game, I don't want to call it a game, but we'll call it a game right now. If you don't have patience in this game, it won't work. You will lose, you will lose.
Speaker 1:Let me give you another example, a real life example, when I was booking airfare to Hawaii for my entire family consider points currency, which I do it still wasn't that expensive because you can get some good deals with points. But anyways, if you're patient because that's the point of the story is that the first time I searched for flights, I did not book. I waited. I didn't find a deal that I wanted. The second time I looked, I didn't book, didn't find the deal. I waited, I didn't find a deal that I wanted. The second time I looked, I didn't book, didn't find the deal I wanted. The third time, I didn't book. I still don't find the deal I wanted.
Speaker 1:Now, these aren't simple searches. These searches take me because I'm looking at multiple airlines and multiple airports to fly out from. Why airports? We can talk about that, if you want to, in a different form. Um, it just has to do with spending the least amount of points possible, because points are currency. But I have to make basically in this. In this case, I think I searched 10 different airports and six different cities. So every time I no, no, 10 different airports, pardon me, six different dates, because you also have to be flexible on the dates to win in this game.
Speaker 1:When I search for a flight, I have to search. When I do a search for flights, I have to search for flights 60 different times 60. So it's not a simple search. When I say, on this day I searched and didn't find anything. This day I searched and didn't find anything. On this day I searched and didn't find anything. On this day I didn't search and didn't find anything. It's not a simple search. I don't do this daily. I can only do it when I had time to sit down and search 60 different flights. Now there's programs that can help you with this, but still it takes me at least over an hour. So you see the patience part.
Speaker 1:The fourth time I searched for this flight, I finally found a flight that I really liked in cash Not in cash, pardon me in points and I booked it. So I booked these flights. At this point Now I was going with my whole family and this point I booked two seats for my wife and I in first class from the San Jose airport in California to Honolulu, hawaii. I booked these flights through Virgin Atlantic. No, no, no. This one was through British Airways to book a flight on Alaskan Airlines. Does that sound like crazy? It's another technique you learn is you usually don't not, usually don't, but sometimes you don't book directly with the airline you fly on because you can get it cheaper through a different airline. It's really strange how it all works. It's a whole nother world, guys, I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:So I had the patience enough to wait for the flight that I want. I had a goal amount of points I want to spend and I made sure it was under that or at that or under it. In this case it was under. Well, now I have a problem, kind of. The problem is I have two seats for my wife and I and none for the kids. So the next thing I did is I decided that I did not want to book my kids' flights in points. Now I'm basically stuck on that flight. So I had to find seats on that flight for the children. So you're kind of stuck, unless you put them on a whole separate flight, which I wasn't willing to do.
Speaker 1:But imagine the patience it takes to search and search, and search, and search and search again and then nail that flight that you wanted. Not only that, I determine when I go home based on my flight home, because I always book. This is another technique you learn. I only book one-way seats because I don't care. I'm airline agnostic, I don't care what airline I use. So the flight to Honolulu was on Alaskan Airlines. Then I started searching how many days am I staying in Hawaii? I didn't know. I didn't. I had a list of dates I wanted to go home and I just found the one that had the cheapest airfare. Again took me more searches again, and that determined how long we were staying in Hawaii. Same technique I already told you earlier. But do you imagine the patients? So I just gave you some knowledge of how this works. So I just gave you some knowledge of how this works.
Speaker 1:But you have to have the patience to run the searches and do the research yourself. I can give technique all day long, I can give knowledge to you all day long, but patience is the key. Patience and knowledge, both of them are actually the key. Now take that same thing into your family. Knowledge and patience is a key for your family too. You have to know your spouse. You have to know your children and not just know them with your head. You've got to open your heart and know them with your heart, and once you know them with your heart, it's easier to have patience with them. When you travel with them too, boy, do you feel like you can have more patience with them? Because you travel with them, you get to know them more, you have fun together. They will have more patience for you, because sometimes that patience has to run both ways. Your children sometimes have to have patience with you and what you're going through as an adult. Now you're the adult in the room, so you should be able to have more patience with them. You have more experience. They also need to learn to have patience with you and as you grow together on these trips, on these travels, everywhere you go, you grow together. You go, you grow together.
Speaker 1:I remember you can tell I talk about the Hawaii trip a lot because that was our last major trip together as a family, but so it's like fresh in my mind. But I remember going to Hawaii and we snorkel together and spend time in the beach together and I remember just feeling so close to my children and my spouse. I absolutely adore the trips I'm able to take just with my spouse. We're planning one now, actually, where we don't know Destination. Agnostic sometimes is good too. Get the best deals you can. Sometimes is good too, get the best deals you can sometimes. Anyway, but I remember, just in that sense, in that time that we were in Hawaii, I got more hugs, thank yous, I love yous.
Speaker 1:In the short amount of time, short-ish amount of time that we were in Hawaii than I have in a while. In the short amount of time, short-ish amount of time that we were in Hawaii that I have in a while, your kids start loving and they start seeing and it's not because you're spending money on them. It really literally has little to do with that. It really has to do with the memories and because, honestly, it's a lot easier to have patience with your children when they're having so much fun. They're not doing anything stupid at the time. So, anyway, so you have to have knowledge and patience, not only for the points system, but you have to have knowledge and patience for your family so you can enjoy the time you have with them wherever you may be, wherever you may go. Because this I mean, we talk about the points and miles system, but we could also talk about the family and spouse system.
Speaker 1:Everybody's system in their household works differently. Some people are white collar, some people are blue collar. Some people have both parents that work. Some people only have one parent that works. Some people it's just the mom that works and not the dad. Either way, the dynamics don't matter ultimately in the family, because it always takes the same things Patience and knowledge and heart. It takes that heart too. There's no heart when it comes to necessarily with you know, with the point system. That's not a heart thing. It's basically, like I said, just knowledge and patience. But that's because we're dealing with, you know, numbers, cold money, all that stuff. We're not dealing with people in your family. You're dealing with people. So it's knowledge and patience and it's also love.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know if I've ever asked this in any of the episodes that have been released so far. I'm just going to ask you do you love your family enough to take them somewhere, to use the time and energy and sometimes money or sometimes points? Whatever way you choose to do it do you have the time and energy and the love to take them somewhere? Do you have the patience and the love to bring your family together by taking them out of their house. You ever sat down and thought about that?
Speaker 1:I mean, with everything that I've said, everything that I have said throughout this episode and the things I've said in other episodes, you can see I wanted from the very beginning to have a family that lasts forever. I didn't want it to last until we were so sick of each other we had a divorce. That's what happened with my family my mom and dad and it affected me greatly. I didn't want that for my children, but we were so close so many times I was desperate. Desperate for a solution. I loved my spouse and my children enough that I wanted it to work. I was willing to have the patience to make it work. I was willing to do whatever it took for it to work.
Speaker 1:And there was no. This podcast or anything like it didn't exist. Nobody was saying, as far as I've seen, that travel helps so much with it. My wife just said she wanted to travel. I said what a great idea. So I started doing it. Once I figured out how to do it with little or no cost, because we didn't have any money. I loved her enough to try? Do you love your family enough to try? I loved her enough to try to do the impossible, which was go traveling with no money. I didn't know what was going to happen, I didn't know it was going to turn into all this, but it did, because I was willing to try. I was willing to try.
Speaker 1:Are you willing to try? Are you willing to try to keep your family together? Are you willing to love them enough to do whatever it is? If it's travel, I think that's a great solution. First of all, it's good for you too. But if it's something else, it's something else. But are you willing to try? Are you willing to open your heart to your family and to love them? Or are you going to point fingers and blame and then you end up in a place where a place where you think you're going to be happier the grass is always greener? They say it's not. You lose everything, boy, do you lose everything? And you lose your children in the process too. You lose a lot of money too. That's why, as I always say, the solution in this case, I believe travel is still cheaper than divorce. You have been listening to Travel is Cheaper Than Divorce with David Packer, please let us know what you think about this episode or any other comments you might have, by visiting our website at wwwtravelpointdadcom. Please join us for our next episode, where we continue to explore how travel can help bring your family together.