Go Somewhere: Volume 13

I have two goals in 2024:

1. Justify buying a puppy.

2. Get this puppy to 3,000 subscribers.

If each of you gets around 10 people to subscribe, we’re there.

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Let’s get to the fun stuff…

You thought politics was confusing? Try airline alliances…

The Dem vs Republican battle has NOTHING on the battle of the airlines. They should make a movie about this stuff.

Bear with me. This can get boring, but you’ll see how understanding it is a KEY to successful travel hacking.

Take a minute and read over this chart.

There are three major airline alliances.

Star Alliance, Oneworld, and Skyteam. Each major U.S. airline (Delta, American, and United) is part of different alliances.

The airlines in the same alliance help each other out.

For example, you can log onto American Airline’s website, and book a British Airways flight to London. And vice versa.

You can use Turkish Airlines points to book a United flight in America.

How do I know this? Because I’m fancy?

No. I know who is in an alliance with each other.

So how does this help me travel hack?

Alliances should guide your thinking.

Imagine you need to fly from NYC to LA.

You go on Google Flights and find the *perfect* itinerary on a United flight. It’s actually the only one that works for your very tight schedule.

You have 75k Capital One points, which is great, but you can’t transfer directly to United.

Your next thought should be, “What transfer partners does Capital One have that are in Star Alliance with United?”

• Singapore, TAP Portugal, Turkish, Avianca, and Air Canada.

You could transfer your Capital One points to any of those loyalty programs and book a United flight.

The question of which program to use and why is another topic, but a simple google search could answer a lot of those questions.

The key to remember: When you see a flight with an airline you want to get, don’t be dejected when you don’t have points that transfer to that airline. You can take advantage of the partner system to go more places and save tons of points!

And here’s the crazy part.

While United may charge 15k points one way for that NYC—> LA flight, I know for a fact that Turkish Airlines only charges 7,500 points one way FOR THE SAME FLIGHT.

This is travel hacking.

If you want to level up your knowledge, study this topic.

Study how transfer partners among the different alliances can get you incredible value on flights you might not have dreamed of booking.

Do this to become an expert in travel hacking.

This newsletter is amazing, of course.

But I’ll be the first to say it. You’re gonna need more to become an expert.

Of course, you can always pay me to travel hack for you, and I’m happy to do it.

But I know most of you won’t, and most want to do it themselves.

Here are some of the resources I’ve utilized to grow in my expertise.

Podcasts:

• The Daily Drop Podcast

• The Travel Hacking Moms

• The Credit Card BS Podcast

Newsletters:

• The Daily Drop

• Smart Points (my favorite)

• The Points Guy

Youtube:

• Daniel Braun

• Bilt’s On Point show (my favorite)

• Professor Oak

• The Daily Drop/Kara & Nate

Blogs: This is where the really good stuff is

• Upgraded Points (my favorite)

• The Thrifty Traveler

• The Points Guy

• Nomadic Matt

There are obviously tons of people out there creating content around travel, but these are some of my favorites who’ve taught me tons!

I hope you can use these different resources to take you to the next level in your travel hacking journey.

I’m here to help, friends.

Email me. Message me on LinkedIn. I’d love to help you.

I offer paid consulting calls starting at $100. I can fast-track your travel hacking education for you.

See you next Friday!