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Today we have an extraordinary guest joining us, Spencer 
Howard, the founder of “Straight to the Points.” Spencer is a foremost expert in the realm of travel optimization, and his innovative approach truly sets him apart. With a keen eye for maximizing credit card points and crafting impeccable itineraries, Spencer has transformed the travel experiences of countless families and individuals.
Spencer’s journey into the world of travel hacking began unexpectedly while working at the U.S. Travel Association after a career in politics. His knack for converting credit card points into unforgettable luxury travel experiences has since made him a go-to authority for anyone looking to unlock premium flights, five-star accommodations, and exclusive perks without breaking the bank.
In this captivating episode, Spencer shares invaluable insights into how he leverages points as an alternative currency to fuel high-end travel adventures. He demystifies the often complex loyalty programs and provides simple yet effective strategies to maximize credit card rewards, allowing even novice travelers to embark on luxurious trips they might have deemed out of reach.
One of the significant aspects of Spencer’s approach is his Flight Alerts newsletter, designed to help families find seats together, filling a crucial gap in the market. He also delves into the practical considerations of travel, such as evaluating the cost of business class travel against time efficiency and leveraging local partners for authentic, seamless experiences.
In This Episode
- Spencer’s initiative, the Flight Alerts newsletter
- Strategies for maximizing credit card rewards
- The complexities of loyalty programs and how to navigate them
- The importance of local insights and partnerships in travel
Yeah, there’s a lot of amazing experiences out there, and I think a lot of it’s just being aware of it. Most people aren’t shoulder deep in luxury travel thoughts every day, so it’s more about just kind of tapping into somebody who has. Who is.
Welcome to the Wealth Strategy Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy podcast where we help entrepreneurs like you exponentially build wealth through passive income to live a life of freedom and prosperity. Are you tired of paying too much in taxes, gambling your future, the stock market? And want to learn about hidden strategies for making your money work for you? And now your host, Dave Wolcott, serial entrepreneur and author of the best selling book, the Holistic Wealth Strategy.
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Wealth Strategy Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. I’m your host, Dave Wolcott, and today we’re diving into an exciting topic that combines luxury efficiency and adventure. Unlocking the power of points and luxury travel as currency. Joining us is Spencer Howard, a true expert in the world of travel optimization and the founder of Straight to the Points. Spencer believes that travel is about more than just reaching a destination. It’s about unforgettable experiences for you and your family, all while maximizing the value of your points and minimizing costs. In this episode, we’ll explore why points are the ultimate alternative currency for luxury travel.
How to unlock premium travel experiences like business and first class flights, high end hotels and exclusive perks, all using points and the strategies to simplify and demystify complex loyalty programs so you can actually use those points instead of letting them sit untouched. And insider tips on maximizing credit card rewards, lounge access, and even building custom itineraries to make every trip extraordinary. Spencer also shares insights into how his travel planning services take the stress and complexity out of your trips so you can focus on what matters most. Enjoying the journey. If you have ever felt overwhelmed by points programs or wondered how to make your travel experiences truly luxurious and efficient, this episode is for you. Let’s dive in. Spencer, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks so much for having me, Dave.
Yeah, you bet. Really excited about our conversation. And as we were talking in the green room, I love how you refer to points. Travel is currency, right? And identifying a different currency and there’s so much debate these days about whether crypto is an actual currency or not. We’ll leave that one for a different show. But today we really want to unpack, you know, the whole world of points and luxury travel. And I think it’s, it is pretty fascinating, right? Because as we’re building our wealth.
We’re always looking to be very efficient with our capital, right? But we want to create unforgettable experiences with our family as well. And I think travel is a big one. I know I personally travel a lot for both business as well as personally. So tell us a little bit about you and how you got into this space to begin with.
Yeah, for sure. Well, I had no idea this would be part of my life when I got out of university, but I was working in politics, just kind of the insane, 20 hours a day, seven days a week, sometimes not the healthiest lifestyle. But my last political job was actually at the U.S. travel Association. And they were, they lived the mission. They said, I remember being told like, you should take your time off, go find somewhere to, you know, travel to, and to me it’s like I’d never thought about it before, and at the time I was just like, well, how do I do this in a way that’s comfortable? I’m 63 and I didn’t want to cram myself into economy for too much longer, especially when flying, you know, to Japan or Hong Kong or something.
And I stumbled into a blog talking about using credit card points to book business and first class flights. And I thought, “Okay, I can get into this.” And that kind of like set off a chain reaction of researching, you know, four hours a night for like six months, trying to understand the ins and outs of everything to do with airlines and credit cards and fine print and yeah, that was my like go to school moment, I guess. But six or seven years after going to school, so, yeah, that’s where really where it all got started.
Yeah, very cool. Well, where can we start with the listeners? Right? Where, where do you kind of start, you know, from a high level and maybe we can kind of break it down because I know, you know, personally, for me, you know, one of the things we know is basically, you know, time is your greatest asset. So I see all these things for, you know, points that are always advertised and I got to tell you, I’m like absolutely one of the worst.
I’ve, I collect points, but I never, I never cash them in because of complexity. And then they have certain blackout dates and you know, and then it’s not when I want to go. So it just, you know, I think basically, yeah, the complexity and the time of figuring it out has really stopped me from utilizing really any of the value. So, you know, where, where should people really start to kind of simplify this?
That’s a great, I mean, you bring up some great points and it is almost intentionally complex and that’s in some ways good. If you’re willing to put in slightly more effort than 99% of everyone else, then you have a huge advantage. So to me, there’s a couple of things to start with. Do you really care about travel? If not, just get a cash back credit card. Never think about this again. Just don’t, don’t waste your time with it for this potential. Maybe one day I’ll want to travel. If travel is a priority for you, I think there’s a ton of value.
I think you can then just kind of decide how into it you want to get. I generally say there’s like three approaches when it comes to earning points. With credit cards specifically, you can kind of keep it simple. You get one to three. They each have different bonus categories that maximize your spend and you don’t have to think about it after that. I think that’s pretty common for people who just have a lot of spend. A lot of business owners do this for those who are a little more interested. You can kind of get like 4 to 5 and then supplement with new cards here and there because sign up bonuses are always the most valuable.
You’re never going to earn points faster and then there’s the people who are absolutely crazy maximalists who just get like new cards repeatedly. I don’t think most people do that. It’s great. It takes more time. That’s, that’s just my take and then after that is premium cabin travel a priority? To me, business and first class is why I’m into points.
It is not always the simplest because those are the seats they’re going to hold back the most. As you mentioned, there are blackout dates and kind of even worse. They don’t tell you when they are. It’s one year they could blackout, June 22. The next year you could find eight seats on one flight. So it’s just, that’s where the game part of it comes into play and that’s kind of where I’ve been helping my, my clients the last several years.
Yeah, got it. Yeah. No, it is very. I think you just hit the nail on the head, right? Is it’s complex on purpose, right? Because there’s there must be statistics that you know that they know a certain percentage of people are actually not going to even cash these in.
They’re not going to use those. Right?
Yeah and they, I mean they kind of bank on it. Loyalty is an interesting. I think loyalty program is one of the best marketing tools we’ve ever seen. And airlines have reaped the rewards from it. I mean, if you look at the value of air themselves, the loyalty programs are what make them so valuable. Yea and the hard part, I think for an airline is sometimes they want to do all the things to get you involved in the loyalty program, but then they don’t want to have to like, deliver on the, like, oh, you want to use the points.
And they’re kind of like, “Ah, but I’d rather sell this seat for cash” and I get it. It’s, you know, it’s a business. But there are ways to get them, get the most out of your points and actually not kind of bang your head against a wall while trying to use them. I mean, I’ve, I think we’ve talked before. Just like I’ve, I have a, where I share when you can book. Like, I give you the exact dates so that you don’t have to sit there and search forever and that’s the challenge.
I mean, I started the, my new Flight Alerts newsletter because families couldn’t travel together. They couldn’t find two, four, six seats together. And that’s really where I’m kind of, I’m sliding into this gap that, that was not being filled.
Yeah.
And that’s, but I think that’s where you can kind of, you can get those opportunities without all the legwork.
Got it. So I think there’s also an important mindset point for the listeners out there too, is, you know, when I think about, hey, you know, yes, it’s some additional cost. I mean, even outside of the points, if you can leverage the points, that’s great. But even from a cost perspective, to fly business class, you know, versus economy, you know, you really need to go through this exercise on your time and how much your time is worth to you right?
Because if you’re on a three, four hour flight and you’re all cramped up, you can’t open your laptop, you can’t read, you can’t do anything, and then you just end up watching Netflix on your phone or something, right? It’s a complete waste of time.
But, you know, I typically will fly business class and you know, I force myself to work, right? That gives me the incentive to work because I know my time is worth much more than that seed is. So even if I’m paying for it, you know, I, I think it’s important to do that. Yeah, it’s a mindset, you know, it’s a mindset thing, right? To be able to do that and, you know, streamline the efficiency of your travel.
So, you know, so that’s great. But if you can use the points, you know, even better, right? Because we all want a deal and everything. So what can you break down, you know, some of the strategies, things we should be looking for? Are there any specific cards that you know are better than others that we want to think about or any structures? Two cards. Like where, where do you actually begin? With this?
Yeah, for sure. So I think what I tell people the most is like, start with transferable points. So you can get a credit card that’s associated with an airline or a hotel and you will earn that program’s points directly. I don’t think that’s the best move for most people because you’re locked in and that reduces the number of options that you have. So let’s say you have a Citi card, a City, American Airlines card. You can book American Airlines flights or any of their One World partners. But what if none of those partners are flying where you want to go on the day you want to go, or they just don’t have award space? Then you’re just stuck. So you have all these points that are in theory worth something, but you can’t do anything with it.
So with transferable points, you can like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Awards, both really popular programs. You can transfer those points to a bunch of different airlines. In doing so, you then get access to flights on that particular airline plus their partners. And so if you just look at the main airline alliances, you know, SkyTeam, Star alliance and One World, now all of a sudden you can reach pretty much the whole world with somebody’s partner, but you have to have access to a program that can book it. And so rather than kind of locking yourself into One airlines network, you can open yourself up to a lot getting cards with one of these transferable points programs.
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. We fly to Europe a lot. So, you know, typically it might be on Lufthansa or something, but anything with Star alliance and I definitely don’t want to be locked into United or American.
Yeah, and it’s like they all have their purposes. It’s just, it’s all kind of like tools in a tool belt and when you have more tools, you have more options. I think that’s really where people can get the most bang for their buck. Especially those who aren’t just on the road constantly with like work paying for their travel.
Yeah, okay, so what you’re saying is that, you know, something like the Amex points, that’s a good card that you could get, and then basically what you do is you accumulate the max amount of points through that and then transfer that to your airline of choice that really has connections with global partners.
Yeah and just don’t transfer until you know you’re booking. That’s the thing, because you can’t transfer them back. So basically when you’re ready to pull the trigger, that’s when you transfer the points over. And even just kind of taking it a step further, you know, think about where you spend your money on a day to day basis. So with Amex you have like the Amex Green, Gold, Platinum, they all, they each have different bonus categories. The Gold in particular has like you can earn 4x points on dining or groceries, while the Platinum earns 1x on those, but the Platinum earns 5x on flights.
So where are you spending your money? That’s really kind of what you have to think about when you’re getting a card because that’s where your opportunity is to get kind of outsized value from your cards.
Got it? Yeah. So, so really understanding your spending habits, where you’re going to get the max value for those points.
Yeah.
What about, is there a typical, like if you’ve got this point system, is there like a correlation to dollars is like 1 point? You know, 3 points equal $1 or how does that generally work? Or can you not make that comparison?
It’s a great question. So let me give it, give an example. So Chase Ultimate Rewards, there’s the Chase Sapphire reserve card. They have a travel portal. It’s basically like going to Expedia, but you can redeem points and it’s at a set value of 1.5 cents per point. To me that’s a baseline however, because like AMEX points, you can transfer them to airlines. You’re not really set to that. So I’ve booked flights.
Trying to think of a good example. I’ve booked All Nippon Airways in first class from D.C. to Tokyo round trip, which would have been about $21,000, but I used less than I think ended up transferring about 87,000 93,000 points for that. So like if you do like a cents per point valuation, it’s insane, it’s not even close. So there isn’t a set value. I generally tell people to focus on the joy they get from it rather than like getting too in the weeds on calculating the perfect. Like you’ll get lost and stressed out trying to get the perfect redemption. Yeah, it should be fun.
You don’t need to agonize for 40 hours over which flight to book.
Yeah, got it, and how about. I want to ask you two areas. So one would be lounges and lounge access and then the second would be hotels.
Yeah, so lounge access you can get through credit cards. A lot of people are familiar with the Amex Centurion lounges. Capital One is now rolling out lounges. Chase Sapphire is now rolling out lounges. But each of these credit cards that comes with lounge access often has priority pass lounge access, which gives you even greater reach around the world. Some of them are not great, but some of them are quite good. But broadly speaking, if you’re flying business or first class internationally, you’re going to have lounge access anyway when you’re redeeming your points.
So it’s, I see that more as kind of like filling in the gaps if you’re taking short flights between places and you, maybe you’re not flying in business or you’re within the US And US carriers don’t give you lounge access for flying up front.
So yeah, the challenge I’ve had around lounges is if, yeah, you fly internationally, there’s always some different one at a different airport, so maybe you’re on the United one, but sure doesn’t work, you know, while you’re sitting in Frankfurt or something like that, right?
So that, that can always be challenging. And then even the local airport, like even if I go out of Tampa, you know, for me they’ve only got, I think American Airlines is like the only air, you know, lounge. And if you’re not flying on American, you know, you’re out of luck.
Yeah, so there’s the credit cards can help fill in those gaps. It does. You’re still kind of, it’s airport dependent. Like Washington Dulles has a Capital One lounge, but you know, Philadelphia doesn’t. And so there is some of that you have to kind of consider if you’re traveling from a particular tour, from a particular airport regularly. But otherwise, I think, yeah, using your points for business in first class international flights, lounge access is going to be included. Credit cards like the Amex Platinum, the Capital One Venture X, the Chase Sapphire Reserve are going to kind of fill in the gaps with additional lounge access.
Got it, and then from a hotel standpoint, would this be the same philosophy that you were talking about with airlines that we would want to transfer to that?
Sure, so you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards and Built Rewards points to Hyatt. And that’s mostly the only time I, that’s pretty much the only time I would say transfer your points to a hotel Hyatt. The rates they set are, they actually have an award chart that will like tell you how many points you’re going to need. They basically have off peak standard and peak rates and you know what you’re going to get. And the rates are low enough that it can be worth it. I think for people traveling a decent bit in business. And first, you’re generally better off saving the points for flights.
But that’s a personal preference of mine. I often prefer to pay cash for hotels and kind of escape the big chains that, you know, kind of loop you in with all the points. I think there’s just, there’s more options out there that people who like luxury travel can take advantage of. You know, you can’t book a Four Seasons with points.
You’re not going to book an Auberg property with points or Rosewood, you know, the Peninsula, whatever. I think the kind of play there is if you’re going to book a nice hotel, go through a luxury travel advisor who has access to additional VIP perks just through booking with them. But yeah, if just using points while traveling is the goal, like I think high, it’s your best bet. Okay, yeah, I have lots of thought on that subject.
Yeah, no, that’s an interesting one. I mean sometimes the larger chains, right, like Hilton and Marriott, I mean they have such a big footprint even globally that you know, you can actually use the points, you know, so that there’s.
Still some great value out there. I just think it’s when you start transferring like Amex points to Marriott, when you could be transfer, transferring them to an airline partner that would get you a multi thousand dollar business class ticket, I start to be like, well, if you’re gonna, if you just have so many points, you don’t know what to do with them all. I mean, go for it. But if you’re not kind of constantly flush with points, then you might want to save them for what you really want to prioritize.
Yeah, got it and then how about these offers? So I actually have an American Express Platinum, that’s one of the ones that I use for my travel. But they have their own like, you know, page. If you go on their site, you can book travel through their site. And again, entirely another level of complexity and you have no idea. So whether you’re trying to book, you know, a hotel, a flight, a cruise or some of these affiliate things, are those good deals or how does that all work?
Yeah, generally. No, that’s the simple overarching answer. I think banks and airlines and hotels are really great at giving you as many options as possible with very few of them being worth it. That’s just kind of what I’ve noticed. So, as an example, the Amex Platinum, if you’re redeeming points via Amex Travel, it’s basically just for a cash ticket. It’s $0.01 per point, which is not great. You can easily do better transferring points. If you have the Business Platinum, you can get a 35% rebate on the point you use.
Depending on the cost of a cash ticket. That can be a good deal. It’s just you got to, like, run the numbers. It’s not as common as it used to be. Cash rates have gone up quite a bit since, well, 2019. They’re kind of down, as you can imagine in 2020, 2021, but like, mid-2022, things went crazy and it hasn’t really stopped.
Hmm, interesting. So I’d like to divert a little bit for a second, Spencer and this is really fortuitous, right, because I’ve been kind of doing some 2025 goal setting and planning and, you know, travel is one of those things that’s, you know, really important to me and my family and as we try to create more freedom in our lives, you know, at different ways to do that. And what I find is that again, it all actually comes down to time, right?
And everyone’s, you know, looks at me and says, “You know, dad, you know, where are we going? When are we going?” And, you know, I might kind of start with, like, some of the ideas, but then, you know, five minutes later I get lost in the details. There’s, you know, 100 different hotel options. There’s, you know, where are we going to go? Who’s going to kind of make the decision and everything. So let’s talk about your travel business a little bit.
And how is travel agency really working these days? How can you add value to clients and really be another resource for them to really save that precious time that they have?
Yeah, you’ve got it right. There are always hundreds, especially if you go to a big city like London, just hundreds of hotels and there’s a lot of great options. So a lot of it’s kind of figuring out what’s right for you. I think that’s where the agency side of my business, that’s where we kind of come in and we just have experience going. It’s not even we. It’s. I have experience going to hotels and networking with hotel sales directors and colleagues in this industry. And so I’ve learned a lot about hotels so that I can kind of mix and match based on client preferences.
It’s always a fun little process getting to know people, but I think that’s there’s a lot of value there. I think also just some travel agents have access to VIP perks to just make it a better experience. Who doesn’t like an upgrade? I mean, like, that’s the other thing. I mean, I think one of the easy ones is daily breakfast at some of these properties can be $50 plus per person. But when you can just book through an agent and it’ll be included, I like it because you just don’t have to think about it.
I know not everybody eats breakfast or not everybody wants to eat at the hotel, but for me, I work when I’m traveling and so just knowing where I’m going is great. But that’s. Yeah, it’s really just the matter of like finding what’s right for you and getting some extra benefits out of it.
Got it and do you guys actually get paid by, let’s say, that hotel? Right. So if you’re bringing your clients in, they’re paying you on the back end, you know, or is there a fee that your client has to pay to working with you?
Yeah, I’m free to work with. It’s commissions from the hotels. That’s how we earn a living. But I, depending on the complexity of the trip, I will upfront tell someone,”Hey, this is going to require a ton of research on my part.” So I’ll charge like 150 bucks just to like figure out the right hotels for them. Yeah, I don’t always do that. It’s more just a precaution because there are a lot of people who like to window shop and then just disappear. But generally speaking, I don’t have to impose that.
The only other time would basically be if I have to work with local partners to build out more than just the hotels. So it’s like I want local transportation every day, want a car service, one private guides every day for this activity. You know, figuring out what activities, figuring out what restaurants, getting the reservations. Once we start kind of coordinating the entire trip, that’s when it’s like, okay, there has to be a planning fee, but otherwise, you know, it’s yeah, just a commission based thing.
Okay, that was going to be my next question, right. Is like, you know, let’s say whatever. Pick a destination. You know, Greece, Italy, something like that and you want to, you know, you’re going for five days.
Will you orchestrate a full itinerary?
Yeah, we can. We have local partners that we work with in pretty much every country I’ve ever tried to work with. And a lot of times they will like a good example. I work with a team in Japan, that’s amazing and when my clients go there and work with them, like, the entire schedule set out, they know exactly. They have literally written out, like, on a document just, like, where to be when, who they’re meeting with, phone numbers. They have a WhatsApp thread that the local team in Japan handles.
So if there’s like, “Oh, I don’t see my driver.” They’ll just message them. Here we go. “Oh, we’re running late to this reservation.” Can you let them know, send a WhatsApp message. They take care of it. So, yeah, it can go as anywhere from as simple as, like, “I would like to book this hotel. Can you book that for me?” Yes. To. Let’s plan everything.
Points aren’t just points. They’re freedom, luxury, & unforgettable experiences waiting to happen.
Yeah and do you guys recommend experiences as well?
Yeah, we usually rely on the local partners because. It’s one of the things I get asked the most is, like, where to eat. I like, I don’t live there. I much prefer to rely on somebody who is just absolutely obsessed with food in their hometown. Like, that seems like a better way to do it than, like, the tourist who happened to go to two restaurants, right? So even before I was doing this on as a profession, like, I would read local food blogs.
I don’t care where the tourists went. I want to know where I should actually go and the local folks always know what they’re doing.
Yeah, no, that’s awesome. Yeah. Because I can see, you know, huge value in that. right? Anytime we go on a trip, it’d be nice to just really have an itinerary just completely laid out for you. You know, you’re. This is what where you’re going. This is your schedule. And then everybody kind of knows what’s expected of them. You have a time frame to kind of work with and stuff.
Yeah, again, huge savings on time.
Yeah.
And the other thing I’ve been kind of thinking about with travel recently that’s interesting is a lot of people just always think about, like. Like a destination. So, for instance, okay, if you’re gonna go to Tokyo, it’s like, “Hey, that’d be great to go to Tokyo and go do an Asia trip and you know, maybe we go to Okinawa.” Right? But another way to look at it is just from that experience thing. Like maybe they have in the springtime, maybe they have like some amazing event, you know, that you could.
Cherry blossom season in Japan.
Yeah, yeah.
Unbelievable.
See, right. Yeah.
I was actually there this year as they were blooming unintentionally. I thought I was going to be like a week late. But they were, they were just delayed on the bloom and there were people posting about how they, you know, booked this amazing trip and then there were no flowers the week before. And then I showed up and I was like, “Oh, this is a nice surprise for my family.”
Yeah, I’ve seen some amazing itineraries. One was like the James Bond experience and it actually like starts in London. You get to drive one of the old Aston Martins and then it’s, you know, travels through Europe, you go to Croatia, you know, different things like that. This is pretty cool. I know Four Seasons does a really epic, you know, trip that they, you know, you can rent Ferraris, drive through Tuscany.
Four Seasons is great to work with. You can do they have their pri. It’s like a semi private jet. You’re traveling with others, but it’s a limited number of people. You know, everybody has lie flat seats, they’re serving champagne and caviar on board and you just, just go between Four Seasons properties and then also explore. So it’s more like a, a group trip with other people who really like Four Seasons. And you know, now they’re also rolling out their own kind of cruise collection. It’s a yacht more than a cruise.
But yeah, you know, yeah, there’s lots of. There’s a lot of amazing experiences out there and I think a lot of it’s just being aware of it. Most people aren’t, you know, shoulder deep in luxury travel thoughts every day. So it’s more about just kind of tapping into somebody who has. Who is.
Yeah, sure. Are there any AI tools that you can recommend for listeners, whether they’re just, you know, thinking about experiences or destinations or things that might help?
Yeah, I mean, I know I have some friends who’ve been playing around with like, chatGPT and other AI tools for building itineraries? It hasn’t, I don’t think it’s there yet. I think it’s still, there’s still too much that’s not getting pulled as like great options. And I think it’s just. It’s easier for stuff that’s well known to get kind of pulled into that stuff, and sometimes it’s not actually what you want.
Yeah, exactly. Now, our challenge, a lot of times when we go to Italy, I mean, everything is all hyped up around the, you know, top spots, but we like to go to all the unknown spots.
Right.
Where all the locals go and things like that and it’s, yeah. To your point, it’s all inside knowledge.
It’s, yeah, and like, the thing is, I think where the fun part about the travel industry is we’re all learning from each other. We find something, we share it with a colleague. And it’s like, you mentioned Italy, like, Lake Como is all the rage and for good reason. It’s beautiful.
I’ve been to Lake Como. I understand it. They have amazing hotels. I would go back. I recommend it still. But there’s also, like, Lake Garda. That’s what I was literally going to say Lake Garda.
So I was like, you go to Lake Garda instead and honestly, if, like, if 2,000, $3,000 a night isn’t in your budget, it. And that’s what a bunch of hotels in Lake Como are charging. You can go to Lake Garda. It’s not necessarily going to be peanuts, but it’s much cheaper than that. So it’s just. Yeah, it’s just kind of finding those options that are a little bit outside the box, and those are always kind of moving. It’s like a moving target.
Somewhere is going to be popular this year. Somebody’s going to be popped. Somewhere is going to be popular next year. So you just kind of find what works for you.
Instead of thinking about a destination, think about an experience. What event could you plan a tip around?
Yeah, no, and the locals will verify that Lake Garda is much nicer than Lake Como. That’s where they. That’s where they usually go. So.
Yep, that’s really. Just relying on locals is my favorite thing to do with travel. Doesn’t mean, I went to an amazing cocktail bar in Madrid because I met somebody randomly at a rooftop bar somewhere else in Madrid, and they’re local and they said, “Oh, your first time you got to go here.” Went there amazing. Now I recommend it to everybody.
Yeah, awesome. Well, this has been certainly insightful, Spencer. Really appreciate the tips. And, you know, I think all of us should be thinking about that in 2025. Right. How can we, you know, use some of these points that we have really, to be, you know, much more efficient with our travel and, you know, to your point, really, of going in luxury, right? And really, you know, doing it the right way make travel much more exciting, right? Then feeling like a pack mule. The journey doesnt’ yeah.
It always reminds me of my marine Corps days sometimes when I’m at the, you know, the back of the bus, right?
You thought you were thinking I’ve made it. I thought I’ve made it past this. Like why am I here?
Yeah, exactly awesome. Well, if people want to learn more about your points expertise or on the travel side, what is the best place for them to connect with you?
Yeah, so if you’re on Instagram, I met Straight to the Points. If not Straight to the Points, CO is the website. There’s a contact form if you have questions, but there’s details to everything that I offer there as well.
Okay, awesome. That includes your trout, the travel side of things.
Yeah, we’re building out a new website for that exclusively called Straight to the Perks. But it’s not quite ready yet.
Okay, sounds awesome, Spencer. Well, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and being with us today. Appreciate you.
Thanks so much, Dave. Appreciated it.
Thanks.
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