The Internet’s Biggest Travel Nerd Shares Pointers on Points

Is that how the blog started – a passion for sharing small characters?

When I lived in Washington, DC, in 2002, a group of people I knew started political blogs, but I did not feel like I had something unique to say that nobody said in this space. I thought, what does he ask me for people? So I just started writing travel tips. A weekend in May, I created a free account on blogspot.com and I started writing for, you know, 30 people reading it, then 500, then 1,000. Last month, in June, blog traffic dropped a little at 5.5 million visitors, but in March, it was 7.5 million.

Very well, let’s talk about numbers. Each punctual system feels a little different from the previous one. It is difficult to know what, let’s say, 100,000 miles is really worth a given loyalty program. What is your method?

So I have a narrow idea of the value of each currency. I appreciate a marriott point at 65 bases of base, for example, and a point of Hilton at around 40 or 45, which concerns the place where I appreciate an IHG point, while I appreciate a hyatt point at 1.4 cents, which is around what I evaluate an American and a mile plain at. I evaluate a Delta Mile about one penny, a virgin mile at around nine tenths of one hundred.

By using these measures as a general rule, how do you benefit from your kilometers?

You want to think about the value of miles as a private currency. There is no central bank, and it will be subject to a given price level. The simplest model for this is the same type of analysis you would do with inflation for a currency issued by the government. Take the simple monetarist formula, MV is equal to PQ. The amount of money in the saving time of speed, or the speed at which it is spent, will be equivalent to the amount of Q, to the quantity, to the amount of goods in the economy and price level, right?

Yes, it’s true. I knew it.

The price is allocated by the quantity of seats on planes. Airlines have become quite good in what they call capacity discipline and not on flights that do not sell. They print many more kilometers than what is bought in a given year, and there are many more ways to win kilometers.

How can a beginner start?

Do not leave Miles on the table. Register for the programs. Follow your points. I use Awardswallet, but keep a trace of your accounts as you wish. Take your account number when you buy something online and go through a shopping gate. Maximize it by comparing the portals, whether it is something like Savewise or Cashback Monitor.

You look like someone who, like any good point hacking, knows their way around Microsoft Excel.

I don’t really use spread sheets. I have a very good memory and I pay attention to this thing for almost 30 years.