Question for you: Is using your points & miles for travel worth it for you? How often do you redeem for a trip? And which cards are your favorite to help you do so? 👇
@DJThune
17 күн бұрын
Kevin, I'm doing these same searches and only showing 75k for 15% Business. Most of the Business Class seats are 400-500k. Am I missing something?
@KevinYang
16 күн бұрын
@@DJThune Flexibility! It takes some time and effort to find dates and routes that have those amazing redemptions. Typically 2-3 weeks out or ~1 year out
@Rolo555
24 күн бұрын
The truth about booking travel with points and miles is trying to earn alot of them outside credit card bonuses. Truth is it is hard to rack up the points for business class flights. Also some of these KZitemrs who make it appear to be easy get alot of points off referrals via links in the video.
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
Would have to disagree a bit on the first part. For most people with moderate spend, welcome bonuses are actually a huge chunk of one's points balance!
@antonh1709
23 күн бұрын
One of major sources of points for me, frankly, are hotel bookings. I use Capital One Travel and Chase Travel for 10x. Then - pretty much every trip you need an Uber or Lyft ride to/from the airport, the hotels. Those do help recover the points spent on J flights. Then there are things like 4x dining.
@KevinYang
23 күн бұрын
@@antonh1709 The 10x on hotel bookings is honestly pretty good, especially when a simple few day trip could already cost a few thousand dollars!
@marklicc
22 күн бұрын
👍a good assessment.
@KevinYang
22 күн бұрын
Thanks for watching!
@habeshafinance1710
24 күн бұрын
I don’t know why people is preaching business class redemption even though they know availability and true value is not there. I value 1-5 with flexibility and additional airlines miles. Personally I am not going Borabora and Maldives
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
Those max value aspirational trips would be nice, but so hard to do right! Personally (and I think for a lot of people in this credit card maximizing space) want to have these experiences by putting in effort instead of straight cash!
@jasonlaw1079
24 күн бұрын
The real truth: "value" is personal and depends on what you would purchase yourself with cash. An accurate comparison would include the hotels and airlines that you would have booked with cash (including non-chain hotels, and competitor flights). It also has to be holistic and include positioning flights/hotels as well as acceptable options on different dates that you would have considered if you weren't pigeonholed by award availability.
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
100%! There are people who just don't care about the more elevated experiences and that's totally fine. Personally I *want* to try out these experiences anyways, so getting them without paying out of pocket directly is always great. Add on my interest in this space + someone who loves finding "deals" makes it even better. Fortunately being near SEA and YVR, positioning is typically not as big of an issue! How about you? Does award travel work for your lifestyle Jason?
@newagain9964
24 күн бұрын
U typically only get outsized value Using pts for airfare fly 1st/biz class…and international As for hotels. lolz. Doable but more work.
@jasonlaw1079
24 күн бұрын
@@KevinYang I'm an outlier since I earn a lot of points a year so I typically only aim for 1-1.5 real value cents per point. I don't base the cpp on the sticker price, but on any viable alternative that I would have booked with cash. If I spend 100k points for international business class, that's probably around 2 cents per point because I value a RT business class flight at around $2k even though the sticker price is $10k. Award travel doesn't really save me money, just gets a more luxury for the same money.
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
@@jasonlaw1079 Haha I wish I can earn a ton more points every year... In that case getting 1.5cpp through the portal with the CSR example would be a perfectly fine use case. In order to get that many points anyways, you probably have something nice going on for work anyways which is a better use of your time!
@jona2080
20 күн бұрын
If you don’t live by a major airport, forget finding these “great international” deals. Also need to be extremely flexible.
@KevinYang
20 күн бұрын
That's where repositioning flights come in! Even being near SeaTac, lots more availability opens up when repositioning to SFO, LAX, and YVR
@PingPingTravel
24 күн бұрын
While I don't doubt your data, I think you may not have mentioned that paying cash for airfare means that you have a much better availability as opposed to booking with miles. Booking with miles limits you to only certain dates or certain times. For me, I like booking with cash because I need to be at a certain destination on a certain date and time with much less hassle.
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
Totally, that flexibility point is key because paying with cash gives you pretty much max availability! For those with strict schedules, it's a lot lot harder. However, if you know your schedule way ahead of time, you could schedule around that. For example, I scheduled around being in Taipei 6-12 months out knowing I needed to be there for a wedding!
@PingPingTravel
24 күн бұрын
@@KevinYang Haha, that is good. Long term planning. I have to beg my wife to travel and when she allows me, I only have a few days, at most, to book and plan everything.
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
@@PingPingTravel Haha gotta keep P2 happy! Or book something far in advance, and pay that $100 (on Aeroplan at least) to adjust as the date comes closer if needed!
@mwbrazier
6 күн бұрын
What is your advice for someone who doesn't care about international travel, expensive hotels, 1st class or business class flights? If you're only traveling across the United States, looking for economy flights, cheaper hotels & you can only plan trips a few weeks in advance, is transferring points out to travel partners even worth the effort? Or is it better to redeem through a portal?
@KevinYang
4 күн бұрын
I think doing domestic travel you probably only get like 2-3 cpp max for the best cases, potentially using programs like Avios to book AA. It's really up to the individual whether that's worth it, or go for a setup that maximizes cash back, getting 3, 5, or even more % back on most categories
@coedshowers
20 күн бұрын
what i have seen, the points for chase and amex... for travel suck, I can fly to asia for $1000 but if I try to use the points on an airline its about $1800+ in points... I usually drop them into cash and just use the cash to buy the plain tickets.. I've had to do this the last 4 times I went to asia in the past 2 years.
@KevinYang
20 күн бұрын
Really depends how you're using points. Through the portal is rarely better than straight cache, but transferring to partners is where you can get much higher
@coedshowers
20 күн бұрын
@KevinYang yea I've tried looking at that too but my flights to Asia just seem to always end up cash is better. So far anyways
@KevinYang
20 күн бұрын
@@coedshowers Are you looking purely at Economy, or also Business+?
@coedshowers
20 күн бұрын
@@KevinYang both. Better with business but still kore out of pocket, try8ng to get there cheap like 1k-1500. I haven't found a business class that low.
@KevinYang
20 күн бұрын
@@coedshowers They exist, but you'll need to be really flexible unfortunately. For example, getting over to Asia on Business class for 60-75k points + $100~ in fees is quite feasible for 1-2 people!
@newagain9964
24 күн бұрын
Where does the “benchmark value” number on spreadsheet come from?
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
Great question! I crowdsourced them from various other blogs such as TPG, OMAAT, etc
@newagain9964
24 күн бұрын
@@KevinYang thx. But benchmarking vs what?
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
@@newagain9964 Benchmarking against the average value people have thought is "fair" when using those points!
@ProdChikara
24 күн бұрын
What wallet is that? I kinda want a more minimal wallet I'm tired of a clunking a huge thing in my back pocket
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
Same here! I've had this one for years and has yet to break so I can try a new one haha! It's one of Saint Laurent's zipper card wallets (but I've seen plenty of other brands have similar for cheaper)
@pearlintheoyster
13 күн бұрын
Thank uuuuu For being a human person by speaking about vacay expenditures than only speaking just travel Everyday ppl with average income with this economy thats high is crazy Thx for slowing down on your “teaching” speech. Hate it when ppl just “talk”. I like joe barreto speak/teach on his channel bcuz he teaches in a way that everyday ppl can “listen” easily to him. He also gives real story telling on his experiences. All these others just talk talk talk on a fast tone as if theyre not remembering that theyre teaching n helping others in a way that others can grasp. It takes time to search for these good/great redemptions so ppl should talk slower with giving their advice adding storytelling so the audience understands. Thx for this as it is helpful 👍🏼
@paulfairchild8942
24 күн бұрын
Yeah its worth it to me. Just started collecting points in early 2023 and have done two return business class trips (Air France and KLM) so far, and have a flight on Qatar (biz class) and Lufthansa First Class coming up. Great video. Thanks Kevin!
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
Welcome to the game! From collecting points to actually using them for all those flights already is awesome. Personally haven't flown any of those, how were the ones you've flown already? AF seems to have some good redemptions like 50k to Europe, which combined with any transfer bonuses makes it even sweeter
@paulfairchild8942
23 күн бұрын
@@KevinYang AF and KLM biz class were both really good. Qatar was on a different scale though Kevin, their biz class was amazing, better than a lot of first class experiences. You gotta try to get a Qatar flight - Doha is a one hour flight from Dubai. From Doha Qatar fly to 170 destinations - you can fly SFO/LAX/SEA to DOH and onwards to e.g. Tokyo or Bangkok for just under 100K Avios pts
@KevinYang
23 күн бұрын
@@paulfairchild8942 Did you get their Q Suites? Yeah I definitely wanna try it still... maybe go the long way around through Doha to get to Asia or something one day haha
@andylawcc
22 күн бұрын
thank you!
@KevinYang
22 күн бұрын
Thanks for watching!
@newagain9964
24 күн бұрын
Sucks when u get it wrong. For example I put decent spend on my sorry jet blue card to help reach Mosaic (again) this yr. But won’t make it. Not flying JB rest of yr. Would have been waaay better to put on my usbar or Amex cards. Wasted. 😢
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
Yeah getting (and maintaining) status on airlines is HARD!
@newagain9964
24 күн бұрын
@@KevinYang I typically never bother. But jet blue had a lot of flights where I needed to go last year. This yr they cut back. They’re hurting and spirit purchase denial def didn’t help.
@antonh1709
23 күн бұрын
As for JetBlue - if I fly them on a cash fare, I credit the flights to Qatar Airways Avios. Then, it’s extra avios, and with these avios you can book American Airlines flights as well.
@ahmed-g4x2r
21 күн бұрын
quick question, I have the Amex business platinum card now. And I wanted to get the Amex trifector. Of personal platinum, gold, and blue business, in which order should i get them?
@KevinYang
21 күн бұрын
Gold before the Platinum, as having the Platinum will disqualify you from the Gold welcome bonus! The BBP I would say during a time where there's a higher welcome bonus (like targeted for 50 or even 75k)
@ahmed-g4x2r
21 күн бұрын
@@KevinYang Thanks for the reply. I also have delta gold, does that disqualify me from the regular gold
@KevinYang
21 күн бұрын
@@ahmed-g4x2r Nope! That's a different product line than the Amex Personal Gold
@ahmed-g4x2r
21 күн бұрын
@@KevinYang thank you so much
@KevinYang
21 күн бұрын
@@ahmed-g4x2r No problem, and good luck! Feel free to use the links in the description if you'd like to support the channel, but ALWAYS check if they're competitive offers, else use other links!
@randomaccount9212
24 күн бұрын
Yeah it’s never free travel. Highly subsidized travel for sure though, even at 1cpp
@KevinYang
24 күн бұрын
Definitely! Just a matter of subsidized by *what*, and in this case, time and effort!
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