The Origin Story

If you have stumbled upon my website it is either due to you knowing me, a friend telling you, or you’ve begun looking into affordable ways to travel. If you are any of the aforementioned, welcome! I wanted to write a brief post outlining the beginning of my travel hacking and what it even is, since many people are probably foreign to the term. 

I’m Todd. I’ve been trying to find affordable ways to travel since I was in college. What started off as buddies' trips for snowboarding quickly ramped up to backpacking Europe, which, in just 2 months time, will evolve into my first lay-flat business class seat on a flight across the Atlantic. 

When I was back in college, everything felt expensive. Whether it was going to grab food with friends or a grocery trip for the week, money felt like it was fleeting (and still does)! While this fact remained, there was always something I was willing to dish a few extra bucks out for: travel. One thing led to another in my search for affordable travel and I found my first travel credit card, the Southwest Rapid Rewards card. At the time I didn’t realize what this card did for me, but I did know that with a 75,000 point welcome bonus, my flights for the next ski trip were covered. There was a catch. You had to spend $4,000 in the first 6 months. This was something my college self had no chance of doing, so I had to call in the person who I knew would help me travel more, my mother! So over the course of the next few months, she graciously put some of her bills on my card in order to help me hit my spending requirement. And just like that, the next December, I flew with my friends to Colorado for our annual ski trip. At this point, the realization that points could transport me across the country was incredible and quite frankly unfathomable. So where did I go from here?

I developed what was a bit of an obsession into what travel cards could do. I studied all of the information I could with regards to what cards carried the best bonuses and how I could earn the most points possible. I still went on a few more trips with a limited knowledge of points. Had I known more at the time, I would have saved boatloads more money. So that brings me to the big question everyone wants to know: Why are these credit card points so valuable?

Long story short, each of the major credit card companies/banks has their own form of rewards currency. The main three players are Chase (Ultimate Rewards), Capital One (Venture Miles), and American Express (Membership Rewards). All of these banks allow certain credit cards to earn points/miles (the term is interchangeable) which can be redeemed for cashback, gift cards, or travel. This is the key! Most people who are not familiar will proceed with earning these points and then redeem them for 1cpp (cent per point) or less! With the travel portal that each bank operates, you are able to transfer these points to either partner airlines, hotels, etc. and receive 2-10x the value. The takeaway is that not all points are created equal and what one bank may recognize the cash back value to be 1cpp an airline may recognize it to be 4cpp! 

A quick example is that the value of a point is determined by the net cost of a redemption. So let's say we use Capital One miles to book a flight worth $200. The points required to cancel out this purchase in the Capital One portal would be 20,000 miles. However, let's say that American Airlines (a partner of British Airways) only required 10,000 points for the trip. In this case, the trip just became half off and you didn’t even have to use your hard earned money to cover it. Your points covered it for you!

At the end of the day, points can be an invaluable asset for those who are hungry to travel but think they cannot afford to do so. They can also help others travel in a new found way. Now, am I recommending that every person who reads this go open up 5 new credit cards immediately? Absolutely not! However, I do encourage you to learn more about the potential of them. I’m here for you to reach out to see if there isn’t a way you can leverage credit cards you already have or if we can find one that suits your needs.