January 1st, 2015. That’s the day I threw myself headfirst into the world of miles and points. We needed to fly to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for a wedding that June and even booking 6 months in advance the prices were about $950 per person on Southwest. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy. Spoiler alert; we went, and Southwest lost my bag so I walked around in the same St Louis Cardinals t-shirt for 3 days….and our air conditioner didn’t work very well….and it was 95 degrees…..and extremely humid. Fun times, but I digress.
Sitting there on New Year’s Day, mad that I just dropped about $1900 for 2 tickets on a trip I wasn’t excited about taking, I said to myself “there must be a better way”. I spent hours reading that day and eventually found my way to fellow BoardingArea site Frequent Miler. Greg has taught me more about this hobby than anyone else and I owe him and his (now much larger) team a great thanks for the education. If you only read one miles and points site, I would highly recommend Frequent Miler, but if you want to read two then this one might be a good second choice. 😉
Fast forward 3 months and I had my first Southwest Companion Pass. Fortunately, there was a small schedule change to our Punta Cana flights so I was able to cancel my wife’s ticket and get the full $950 back and add her as my companion for just the taxes and fees – a nice win.
A few months later we celebrated our 10th anniversary in Mexico using Southwest points and Hyatt points at the all-inclusive Zilara Cancun. A few months after that we did it again. We were hooked and the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, we have redeemed over 3 million airline miles and too-many-to-count free hotel nights, including 25 international trips.
Along the way I have found that as much as I love learning about new ways to maximize travel with miles and points, I love teaching others how to do it just as much. I started with some friends and coworkers, and really found joy in helping them realize their travel dreams. Lately I have been branching out to work with more people on a private coaching basis and after hearing “you should start a blog” for about the 50th time I decided that would be a great way to share my passion for this hobby and help more people.
How will this site be different?
There are some really great sites out there that cover travel and miles/points; many of them here on BoardingArea. However, there are three areas I find lacking with many of these sites:
- Emphasis on international, premium cabin travel. I love flying up front as much as the next person but for beginners it can be intimidating and create a bit of “first class to the Maldives or bust” perspective.
- Hyper-focus on pitching credit cards, especially affiliate offers which are not as good as public or referral options.
- Content that is not easy to understand for those new to the hobby. This can be within the blog posts themselves or the comments sections, which can often be confusing with lots of acronyms, insider terminology, and occasionally even hostility towards “newbie” questions.
I know what it’s like to be in your shoes, because I have been in your shoes! My goal is to help educate and bring value with a fresh perspective to those with experience but also be encouraging and sensitive to the needs of those just starting out in the world of miles and points. I will offer referral or affiliate links to credit cards or products that I think can benefit my readers, but I will always try to focus on the best options available with an honest assessment of who might be a good fit for it. Lastly, I will cover a range of travel topics but emphasize a few areas that I believe are underrepresented. One such area is Southwest Airlines, which is the largest domestic carrier in the US but tends to be less well covered outside of their Companion Pass offer.
My sincere wish is to help transform lives through travel by making it more accessible with the use of miles and points. Along the way I want to inform, educate, and hopefully entertain. For all of you who have that dream trip you want to take someday, I want to make someday today!
