Travel Hacks & Hottest Tips with The Points Guy Brian Kelly

Presenting your Summer (and Fall) 2025 Travel Guide! Yes we have The Points Guy himself, Brian Kelly, joining us to share all the tips, tricks, and hacks you need for traveling, including which credit card(s) to have, which airlines to fly, the best hotel rewards programs, and sites and apps to use for planning trips and finding deals. We also discuss his #1 tip for planning luxury travel/honeymoons, and on the flip side, how to ball on a budget. Before Brian joins us, Ashley shares the latest on wedding planning and a recent mood killer she experienced in the bedroom, and Rayna gives updates on her nephew and new jewelry decision. Enjoy! Follow @thepointsguy on Instagram, get Brian's book How to Win at Travel, and check out his website thepointsguy.com. Follow us on Instagram @girlsgottaeatpodcast, Ashley @ashhess, and Rayna @rayna.greenberg. Visit girlsgottaeat.com for more. And shop our sexual wellness products at vibesonly.com. Thank you to our partners this week: Feeld: Download Feeld on the App store or Google Play. Vegamour: Get 20% off your first order for a limited time at http://vegamour.com/gge with code GGE. Bilt: Start earning points on rent you're already paying at http://joinbilt.com/gge. Simply pop: Go to https://cokeurl.com/simplyPOP to find out where you can try Simply Pop. Skims: Check out the Skims Ultimate Bra Collection at http://skims.com/gge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  There's a lot of travel experts on TikTok that'll be like, go on Tuesday at 11:00 PM. It's BS. The best way to get the best deal is like using these tools to basically hunt for them yourself.

• 0:26Ashley Hesseltine?

  This podcast is a Dear Media production.

• 0:28Rayna Greenberg?

  Hi guys.

• 0:29Ashley Hesseltine?

  Hi guys.

• 0:30Rayna Greenberg?

  Welcome back to another episode of Girls Gotta Eat.

• 0:32Ashley Hesseltine?

  Welcome back.

• 0:34Rayna Greenberg?

  What's up?

• 0:35Ashley Hesseltine?

  Tomorrow is my two-year anniversary.

• 0:38Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, yeah, it is.

• 0:39Ashley Hesseltine?

  It's kind of funny to celebrate anniversary when you're like engaged.

• 0:43Rayna Greenberg?

  It will be the last anniversary that you have.

• 0:45Ashley Hesseltine?

  Last day, because now we'll celebrate.

• 0:47Rayna Greenberg?

  Your wedding anniversary.

• 0:48Ashley Hesseltine?

  Always will celebrate your like dating, which it's May 20th, by the way, is our anniversary. You always will celebrate. That's like special.

• 0:54Rayna Greenberg?

  I always like feel bad when people are like, our anniversary, it's been 10 years. I'm like, just shouldn't you build in like the whole time you've been together and not the time you've been married? Like, I'm trying to get credit for all of it.

• 1:05Ashley Hesseltine?

  Well.

• 1:05Rayna Greenberg?

  Our two-year anniversary, have you been together for six? You should get credit for all of it.

• 1:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  No, but yeah, people have been together, like, what, 10 years total, two years married? They're not two-year anniversary people.

• 1:17Rayna Greenberg?

  Chip me out of here.

• 1:18Ashley Hesseltine?

  Think, yeah.

• 1:19Rayna Greenberg?

  So my brother's wedding anniversary, I think, is May 20th, is eight-year wedding anniversary.

• 1:23Ashley Hesseltine?

  We share an anniversary.

• 1:24Rayna Greenberg?

  But they've been together for like 15 years.

• 1:26Ashley Hesseltine?

  Right.

• 1:26Rayna Greenberg?

  I want some fucking credit if I put up with the same person that long.

• 1:29Ashley Hesseltine?

  That's so true. Fuck my wedding anniversary.

• 1:31Rayna Greenberg?

  We're celebrating our sex-aversary.

• 1:34Ashley Hesseltine?

  That's both in one. I had the most intense dream nightmare like hours ago about my wedding, which I feel like is the new live show nightmare. So Rand and I used to have the same recurring nightmare as we were getting ready to tour, that things weren't ready, we weren't prepared, we had to get on stage. There was varying degrees of like. The outfits, we don't have the outlines, we don't have the notes, the performers. And I had the, just a terrible, terrible nightmare about my wedding. Like, nothing was ready, hair and makeup people weren't there, my wedding planner wasn't there. And I woke up just like in a cold sweat, but I do have to say, we had a call last week with my wedding planner. Her name's Jaclyn and her company is The Wedding Plan and Co. You guys can look them up, The Wedding Plan and Co., they're like the fucking best.

• 2:19Ashley Hesseltine?

  And it just, I feel like so lucky to work with her. She has like designed like the vibes. And she knew, I have a vision, but I'm also like, here's what I'm thinking. I'm pretty specific about what I want, but then you are the expert, you go and do it. And what she came back with, I was dying over it.

• 2:38Rayna Greenberg?

  You didn't show me it. What the fuck?

• 2:39Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh, I gotta show you some stuff. And then you left, though, you were out of town and I was gone for the weekend.

• 2:43Rayna Greenberg?

  Well, I saw the phone.

• 2:45Ashley Hesseltine?

  I know, but I want to sit you down and show you the deck.

• 2:47Rayna Greenberg?

  All right, sit me down.

• 2:47Ashley Hesseltine?

  But I just, I love her so much and she's showing me different hair and makeup people. And everybody's like very inclusive and it's like, that means a lot to me, too, that that's the vibe. You know, like I looked at the makeup people and it's like, we're a queer couple. And I'm just like, I want everybody to be on the same page, super inclusive. She's like, all the vendors we work with are inclusive. I'm like, I just love this and I love you and everything you do. And I can't imagine doing this without you. And so we'll have her on, we'll talk about all the tea and everything. She just has such incredible insights and she's just really the GOAT. And I feel so excited, we're like really getting there.

• 3:21Rayna Greenberg?

  It's really nice to feel like somebody has a checklist, you trust them, they can communicate on your behalf. I mean, I'm planning a birthday party, it's difficult.

• 3:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  You need to get Jaclyn to play a birthday party.

• 3:31Rayna Greenberg?

  I have like spreadsheets on spreadsheets, like, did I put the down payment down for this? Have I contacted the vendors? Have I like picked out the things I have to pick out? Have I named the drink shed or the gift bags ready?

• 3:41Ashley Hesseltine?

  Not the drink names.

• 3:42Rayna Greenberg?

  I mean, I'm really doing a lot for this. So like, is everything correct and ready to go? It's a lot stressful.

• 3:48Ashley Hesseltine?

  Are all your vendors inclusive? You have to check these days.

• 3:50Rayna Greenberg?

  Who did you vote for? Just be honest with what you're talking about. You check if they follow.

• 3:55Ashley Hesseltine?

  No, but you know what I mean?

• 3:56Rayna Greenberg?

  If they're following the real Donald Trump, they're fired.

• 3:58Ashley Hesseltine?

  Some people don't have the same views on marriage. You know what I'm saying? It's important to me.

• 4:03Rayna Greenberg?

  Totally.

• 4:04Ashley Hesseltine?

  And I'm just so thrilled. So anyway, get excited to have her on probably in the fall. And then if you guys want to check them out, The Wedding Plan and Co. is the website and she has other planners too. And they're just fucking doing it. Their Instagram is great. They did a whole carousel on how much chairs matter. Like chairs are huge.

• 4:19Rayna Greenberg?

  Chairs for the seated dinners?

• 4:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  Chairs.

• 4:20Rayna Greenberg?

  For seated dinners or for the reception?

• 4:22Ashley Hesseltine?

  You usually use the same chairs.

• 4:24Rayna Greenberg?

  The ceremony and the reception is the same chairs?

• 4:26Ashley Hesseltine?

  Not everybody, but like we are using the same chairs that you'll sit in for the wedding that are then going to go into the ceremony. And then it'll go into the reception.

• 4:32Rayna Greenberg?

  Did you get chair options?

• 4:34Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah. A black chair, a white chair and a green and gold chair. I was like, uh, hate that black chair. What are you doing? We're doing the green and gold.

• 4:41Rayna Greenberg?

  For Eagles, green.

• 4:42Ashley Hesseltine?

  Kelly Green.

• 4:43Rayna Greenberg?

  What do you mean green and gold? Together on the same chair?

• 4:46Ashley Hesseltine?

  Listen, I'm giving away too much now.

• 4:48Rayna Greenberg?

  I don't think you're gonna, you're gonna scoop yourself.

• 4:50Ashley Hesseltine?

  What? Green velvet.

• 4:52Rayna Greenberg?

  Green velvet seats, gold hardware.

• 4:53Ashley Hesseltine?

  The gold back.

• 4:54Rayna Greenberg?

  Ooh, I like this.

• 4:55Ashley Hesseltine?

  They're bomb.

• 4:56Rayna Greenberg?

  I like this a lot.

• 4:57Ashley Hesseltine?

  But I was like, I saw that chair. I was like, it can be a vibe, but I saw that chair. I was like, my brother can't sit in that chair. We need a special chair for my brother. My brother said at his wedding, I didn't realize this because I was joking about the chairs. I showed him the chairs. He was like, yeah, I can't sit in that chair. And he was like, at my wedding, we had like a dozen special chairs for like the football team. You know how many big men were at Matt's wedding? Two of them split their pants. Two offensive linemen split their pants on the dance floor. Like Matt was like, we had like 10 to 12 chairs for like me, Corey, Herman, like, you know?

• 5:28Rayna Greenberg?

  No one offered me a special chair.

• 5:31Ashley Hesseltine?

  So I just thought that was so funny. You have to accommodate big and tall.

• 5:34Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay. I never thought about it. I never thought about it. I never thought about chair design, but I guess we go through a lot of chairs when we do live shows. People send us all the photos of the chairs.

• 5:41Ashley Hesseltine?

  The chairs we've seen. And sometimes we don't have options we like and we're like, we'll fucking take it. The way some people have sent us a swivel chair.

• 5:49Rayna Greenberg?

  A swivel chair.

• 5:49Ashley Hesseltine?

  Right onto the floor. You and I would slide up a swivel chair so quick.

• 5:52Rayna Greenberg?

  Arm chairs like real low to the ground like we're sitting in now.

• 5:55Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 5:56Rayna Greenberg?

  Would die.

• 5:56Ashley Hesseltine?

  Would die.

• 5:57Rayna Greenberg?

  All right, we're gonna thank a couple of our partners. This is a great one to start with, speaking of your wedding. Thanks to Field. Download Field on the App Store or Google Play and thanks to Skims. Check out the Skims Ultimate Bra Collection at skims.com/gge.

• 6:11Ashley Hesseltine?

  And thank you to Vegamore. I'm so excited. How good does my hair look today? Take back control of your hair with Vegamore. For a limited time, go to vegamour.com/gge, code GGE to get 20% off your first order. And Bilt, start earning points on rent you're already paying at joinbilt.com/gge. And thank you to Simply Pop. Go to cokeurl.com/simplypop to find out where you can try Simply Pop.

• 6:36Rayna Greenberg?

  Thank God for hairstylists because I got my weave taken care of. It looks great. I got a cut collar. I got the extensions taken out, put back in.

• 6:43Ashley Hesseltine?

  So fresh.

• 6:44Rayna Greenberg?

  Five and a half hours, but here we are. I love going in there. There's celebrities in and out of that place. There's so much tea every time I'm there. I love it.

• 6:52Ashley Hesseltine?

  I mean, I really love my hairstylist and I'm not with her as long as you, but I like hanging out with her.

• 6:57Rayna Greenberg?

  You gotta have somebody you can hang out with.

• 6:59Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah. All the time I'm like, are we real friends?

• 7:01Rayna Greenberg?

  I know. I'm like, I hope you take me.

• 7:03Ashley Hesseltine?

  And the last time I was there, she was telling me about this guy she started dating and I'm like, can I check in?

• 7:07Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, I text her about people we're dating. Yeah.

• 7:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  You guys have logged a lot more hours than Haley and me.

• 7:13Rayna Greenberg?

  We talk a lot of shit and I'm like, do you do this to me? I've given her vibrators.

• 7:18Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah. Well, speaking of.

• 7:19Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, so.

• 7:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  Why do you have the rain out?

• 7:21Rayna Greenberg?

  Well, I thought I would hawk the whole company, you know?

• 7:23Ashley Hesseltine?

  Let's do it.

• 7:23Rayna Greenberg?

  I thought I would masturbate during this. You know, if you were long-winded about a story, I would just start jerking it.

• 7:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  That's my light. You're like, wrap it up. Buzz buzz.

• 7:32Rayna Greenberg?

  Ashley, I'm trying to come. I've been so horny lately. It's crazy. I was so horny in Pittsburgh. I was literally thinking like.

• 7:37Ashley Hesseltine?

  That's a sentence you don't hear a lot.

• 7:40Rayna Greenberg?

  It's so horny and I've been like, is, who's the last people I like hooked up with in Pittsburgh?

• 7:45Ashley Hesseltine?

  From Field.

• 7:45Rayna Greenberg?

  And the last person I hooked up with in Pittsburgh is married. So he wasn't married at the time, but like, that's how long since I fucked in Pittsburgh. But anyways, Ashley and I is Sexual On Us Business Vibes Only. One of our absolute best sellers, our Suck and Blow Gel Oral Enhancer for all body parts. We are re-releasing one of our best flavors ever.

• 8:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  No, keep going, keep going.

• 8:10Rayna Greenberg?

  I'm gonna let you finish.

• 8:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  Sorry, I'm thinking about when we released Juicy Peach and that was the whole butthole discussion with the Dutch butt.

• 8:19Rayna Greenberg?

  The Dutch butt, not the Dutch fun.

• 8:21Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 8:22Rayna Greenberg?

  So we are re-releasing Juicy Peach, which is one of our all-time bestsellers. Great for summer.

• 8:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  Great for people from Georgia.

• 8:29Rayna Greenberg?

  Great for if you want to eat a butthole.

• 8:31Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, or a pussy or a dick.

• 8:33Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes, any body part will do. I always encourage people, if you're not a huge fan of giving oral, this will make it a really fun experience for you because it's so tasty. If you love oral, but you're just like, I'm looking to switch up my routine, this, one little drop, it's the same texture as lube essentially, if you're like trying to think like, what does it feel like? And it's just subtly sweet, it's delicious, perfect for summertime. It's a great gift for your partner or for the bedroom, just, you know, I was thinking about you. Toss it in there with any of the things that we sell, and I do have our Rayna, our best-selling vibe, and it is a double-ended vibrator. There's an AirPulse vibe on one end and a regular just vibrating end on the other. So, you know, if you want to switch it up, you're not sure what you're gonna like each day of the week, this is a great option. But we have tons of toys, whether you like AirPulse vibes, whether you like vibration,

• 9:17Rayna Greenberg?

  whether you want to do internal stimulation or external, we have couples toys, we have an incredible cock ring, the Richard, and we have an adjustable cock ring, the Bond Band, really tends to choose from NR Lube is second to none.

• 9:29Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yes, I'm gonna hype the Poppy today. It's truly one of my favorite toys, your favorite toys too.

• 9:33Rayna Greenberg?

  My go-to is the Debbie, AirPulse vibe, my second go-to, Poppy.

• 9:38Ashley Hesseltine?

  So it fits perfectly in the palm of your hand, has a finger loop, so you never lose your grip, great vibration, you can hold it one of two ways, you'll figure it out, it's super easy, and it's a beautiful magenta color, great for travel, and it'll give you a great orgasm, it's powerful, it's not, but it also is super quiet and it's just really discreet, and I love the way you hold it, it's so comfortable. I mean, we started this company for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons being like, we saw what was out there, we were like, we don't like this, we can do it better, and a lot of that was the way that vibrators feel in your hand in terms of the comfort level, the way they can slide out of your hand, they don't feel comfortable to hold, and the way they make your hand vibrate. And so that'll never happen with our toys, they really are second to none.

• 10:18Ashley Hesseltine?

  And grab those, find the one that fits, fits your body best and then get that juicy peach suck and blow gel at VibesOnly.com.

• 10:25Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes, get it for yourself or a gift. Our packaging is so beautiful. Oh, we just are so proud of it and the best orgasms ever.

• 10:32Ashley Hesseltine?

  So you were just in Pittsburgh. I was in Santa Barbara. You were in Pittsburgh, different vibes.

• 10:35Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah, different vibes, but I, I wrote you a list of fun stuff to do because I'm very passionate about Santa Barbara and I love living in LA because you can be so many places in 90 minutes.

• 10:43Ashley Hesseltine?

  We loved it so much. I had not been to Santa Barbara. I've been to a lot of places in California, but that was really the top of my list. I mean, it took like two hours to get there from LA. Even less if there's not much traffic and we stayed at the Canary Hotel, which is a Kimpton, so dog friendly. I guess all the Kimptons are crazy dog friendly, like dog bowls in the lobby. They're like, you want a bed and bowls brought up to your room, like no weight limit or anything. Just here, Azul can just come and stay. And just did the most fun stuff. You gave us great recommendations for like dinner. We did a brewery wine or there's all this wine and beer and it's so fun to walk around. It feels like a dream. It's just one of those gorgeous places ever. And then we stopped in Montecito on the way home and went to the beach.

• 11:23Rayna Greenberg?

  It's just, there's a lot of Spanish architecture.

• 11:27Rayna Greenberg?

  It's great for girls trip. Just, oh, it's the best. So I'm really glad you went. I was in Pittsburgh for Mother's Day to see my nephew and he's just so cute and little and he's just giggling now. And just like smiling and just being so like cute and chubby. And my God, I felt like I was fine with babies. Like I thought I was like good, but like, so my sister-in-law's sister is a pediatric nurse and he just like giggles his ass off with her and she just like had so much fun with him. And I'm like, I'm jealous, like the other people can make him laugh like that. Like at one point he started crying and I was like, you're embarrassing us.

• 11:59Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 11:59Rayna Greenberg?

  Like, don't act like this with me. So I, I will work on like being even better with babies. It's embarrassing that her sister is better than I am at it.

• 12:06Ashley Hesseltine?

  Well.

• 12:07Rayna Greenberg?

  I mean, she's great and she should be. She's a pediatric nurse.

• 12:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  Was she around him more? Obviously, like, was she in the home?

• 12:12Rayna Greenberg?

  London a little bit more, but I mean, she just works her kids all day. And so she just knows how to like, I guess it's not natural for me to like make a bunch of weird noises. And like nursery rhymes and stuff like my sister-in-law's mom is also a nurse. They just like sing to him a lot. They've been around kids a lot more.

• 12:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, watching my mom with my nephews. I mean, she's a former elementary school librarian. But then the stepsister Kat, who takes care of the boys a lot, like both of them, like just two against one sometimes. She'll stay the night, just her and them. I'm like, what the fuck? They just love her so much like, cause she's just with them more.

• 12:51Rayna Greenberg?

  That's true.

• 12:52Ashley Hesseltine?

  They spend more time with her. So that's just, it's not gonna be me, unfortunately. Like, I mean, I don't know, who's to say where we will end up living? But like, for the next, I don't know, year, a couple of years, I'm just not gonna be the one that they like, see the most.

• 13:06Rayna Greenberg?

  All right, that makes me feel better. Cause like, every, it's not that I'm not good with him, I'm like, really good with him, I'm obsessed with him. I just sit on the floor and I'll tell me time with him and like, I will sit there while she like, plays them too and just like, make them laugh. But it does make me feel a little bit better, cause Aunt Sherry took him and he was just laughing his ass off, Uncle John's wife. And, but she also was a, she's a speech pathologist for children. So I was like, all right, Ren, it's fine, we'll get there.

• 13:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  She's got the vibes.

• 13:29Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah, she's got the vibes. But it was a, it was a nice trip.

• 13:32Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 13:33Rayna Greenberg?

  And that was that.

• 13:33Ashley Hesseltine?

  So I have to tell you this thing that happened, I would like, dying to tell you. So we got over Santa Barbara, it's a Sunday, so two days ago now. And we started to make out in, in bed.

• 13:45Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay.

• 13:46Ashley Hesseltine?

  And it was beautiful weather this weekend.

• 13:47Rayna Greenberg?

  I know you're gonna say it was a beautiful make out.

• 13:49Ashley Hesseltine?

  It was so beautiful. So we had like, the, I have a door off my bedroom, so the door was open and the screen, and just have it letting the breeze come in. This is afternoon time and-

• 13:59Rayna Greenberg?

  You guys love a noon-er.

• 14:01Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, we never miss an afternoon. I mean, we do, but like, when we were long distance, that's our favorite, favorite time. So we were like, starting to make out, you know, do things, and I could hear these kids playing, like, kind of behind my house. Like, there are some houses behind my house, I could hear these kids playing, they're bouncing a ball. And I'm like, this is kinda taking me out of it a little bit, hearing these kids play. I was like, Ashley, just ignore it, I don't wanna, we're really getting hot and heavy, I'm like, just don't, I don't wanna get up and shut the door. I'm loving the breeze and the kind of sunshine's coming in. And then I hear one kid say to the other kid, what grade are you in? And the other kid goes, second grade. And I was like, I can hear their conversation, I can hear their conversation. Right, I was like, the fact that I can hear them getting to know what, and then I'm in my head, like, do they not know each other before?

• 14:46Ashley Hesseltine?

  Now I'm trying to figure out their dynamics. Did they just meet on the street? So now I'm like, just, don't say anything, like, I'm just trying to get back in the mood. And then Azul jumps up in the bed. So we like, kind of had Azul go-

• 15:01Rayna Greenberg?

  Sorry, I'm gonna wipe his face off my head. And she's like, when I hear kids outside my house in a mess, I can't, fuck, no.

• 15:06Ashley Hesseltine?

  Exactly. So then Azul jumps up. We're like, okay, you know, get off of the bed. We don't want him on the bed.

• 15:11Rayna Greenberg?

  You're not one of those couples, yeah.

• 15:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  So he goes on his bed and then I take off my fiance's like boxers and I just kind of toss them. They land on Azul. Azul gets up, goes to the door and looks behind us. He's so pissed. And my fiance goes, you threw my boxers on Azul. And then I start laughing hysterically. And then he goes, what grade are you in? And I was like, oh my God, you heard it too. I was like, you heard it too. And so like, we laughed probably the hardest we've laughed in the bedroom.

• 15:49Rayna Greenberg?

  He had a callback.

• 15:53Ashley Hesseltine?

  And then I was like, I wanted to keep going. And but I was like, hearing those kids talk. Our new thing is like, what grade are you in? Second grade. Like last night-

• 16:01Rayna Greenberg?

  That's your new dirty talk?

• 16:04Rayna Greenberg?

  That's your new role play? What grade are you in?

• 16:06Ashley Hesseltine?

  Last night, we kissed and he was like, that was my first kiss in second grade.

• 16:10Rayna Greenberg?

  Ew, you got to role play little kids.

• 16:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  No, it's just like, it's so funny. Like, kind of ambient kids playing is one thing, but hearing their conversations is another.

• 16:23Rayna Greenberg?

  Your dirty talk is now, what grade are you in?

• 16:29Rayna Greenberg?

  I mean, it's definitely like a teacher, student fantasy.

• 16:33Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh, my God. No, we'll find something new in like a week, I'm sure. But we are really laughing about this for now.

• 16:39Rayna Greenberg?

  I cannot hear children when I'm having sex or masturbating. I can't be distracted at all. Sometimes like I'll be masturbating or having sex and like, I'll think of a work thing I have to do. And I'm like, oh, Ashley, oh, get her out of here. Like, I'll like, you'll pop into my mind for a second, not on purpose.

• 16:54Ashley Hesseltine?

  But is this parents' life?

• 16:56Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 16:57Ashley Hesseltine?

  Like, you're a parent and you're in your home and you maybe have the bedroom door shut or locked. You're trying to get it in. Can you hear your kids? I mean, I, I guess.

• 17:08Rayna Greenberg?

  I'm saying.

• 17:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  I can't decide if it's worse, if it's your own kids.

• 17:16Rayna Greenberg?

  I can't, I think it's worse if it's your own kids.

• 17:18Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, I can't, I can't decide.

• 17:20Rayna Greenberg?

  I don't want to hear their voices in conjunction with like my man's hard on.

• 17:24Ashley Hesseltine?

  Right.

• 17:24Rayna Greenberg?

  I know that's how they got here.

• 17:25Ashley Hesseltine?

  Exactly.

• 17:26Rayna Greenberg?

  Like, that's how we made you.

• 17:27Ashley Hesseltine?

  They've, they've kind of always been in the bedroom.

• 17:29Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 17:30Ashley Hesseltine?

  They started in the bedroom.

• 17:32Rayna Greenberg?

  The neighborhood kids, though, that was a hard line for me.

• 17:34Ashley Hesseltine?

  There's a school near my place, so there is.

• 17:36Rayna Greenberg?

  There's kids.

• 17:37Ashley Hesseltine?

  They're second graders. So that was the mood killer from the weekend. But honestly, something about having that break and laughing, I don't know, it made us even hornier. Like, I came twice.

• 17:51Ashley Hesseltine?

  It was wild. And I, it was like, I don't know, it was like this long, lazy, Sunday afternoon sex with this like hilarious laugh break.

• 17:58Rayna Greenberg?

  The breeze always helps me. I swear, breezes make me horny. Like, a afternoon breeze makes me so, I gotta stop at full stop, whatever I'm doing.

• 18:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  Well, this reminds me of Osama when we had him on and then he said, remember Osama said he went out.

• 18:13Rayna Greenberg?

  I like when you ask me if I remember things from five years ago.

• 18:16Ashley Hesseltine?

  No. Well, when he was like a young boy and then the breeze touched his dick.

• 18:20Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes.

• 18:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 18:21Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah. I, when you, summertime, when you like come in from like tanning and you take that shower and it's like the middle of the afternoon, nothing makes me hornier. I'll come six times.

• 18:31Ashley Hesseltine?

  It's the breeze for me. What are your turn-ons? Breezes?

• 18:35Rayna Greenberg?

  Wind.

• 18:35Ashley Hesseltine?

  Kids playing.

• 18:39Ashley Hesseltine?

  I was gonna tell you this thing I've been wearing recently, but I can't think of like a segue into it. Is it sexy?

• 18:43Rayna Greenberg?

  No.

• 18:44Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay. We can keep this in.

• 18:46Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay. I've been wanting to share with you that I have decided to reincorporate silver jewelry into my life.

• 18:50Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 18:51Rayna Greenberg?

  And I've started doing it. You wear a silver watch every day, but I, I'm just, I'm coming out as being into silver jewelry now. I've been doing like silver earrings, silver rings, silver necklaces. You didn't even know it was happening and I've just, I think I like it. I think I associate it with like Western wear too. And you know, I like a lot of cowboy hat.

• 19:07Ashley Hesseltine?

  Like silver and turquoise or those vibes.

• 19:09Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah. So I mean, that's what I wanted to share with you.

• 19:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  I love gold. I think it looks better on, on me. I think I have warmer undertones versus cool.

• 19:20Rayna Greenberg?

  Have any of you ever done your colors?

• 19:22Ashley Hesseltine?

  No, I just

• 19:23Rayna Greenberg?

  I don't even know what that means.

• 19:24Ashley Hesseltine?

  I'm guessing my colors. I'm guessing Azul's breed. I'm just out here just always guessing.

• 19:27Rayna Greenberg?

  Guessing.

• 19:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  But silver was tough for Renaissance tour two years ago, 2023, where we were like, we gotta do silver. And then I wore that silver sequin blazer for the holiday show in December. And I was like, I have no jewelry. I have nothing. So I ordered like my favorite pair of hoops. I ordered like some faux little diamond like drop style earrings. I was like, I just don't have any.

• 19:49Rayna Greenberg?

  I have never had any. And

• 19:51Ashley Hesseltine?

  I mean, I love it, though.

• 19:52Rayna Greenberg?

  I, well, here's how it started. This is so interesting. You're like, wow, you guys are really running out of stuff to talk about. I bought this belt with a silver buckle that I liked to go with these silver studded jeans that I like. And then I was like, well, I can't wear like gold, these silver studded jeans. And so now I've just, I've incorporated a lot of silver into my life. I'm excited about it.

• 20:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, well, go off.

• 20:10Rayna Greenberg?

  Thank you so much. So that's what I wanted to tell you.

• 20:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, well, I'm so happy for you. It's looking great. And you can do both.

• 20:17Rayna Greenberg?

  I can do both.

• 20:18Ashley Hesseltine?

  I love to mix metals.

• 20:19Rayna Greenberg?

  I, I don't mix metals that often. I am wearing one olive av rang that's, that's gold. And then my watch is a mixed metal watch, but you get subtle.

• 20:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  I guess I'm always mixing metals because I am always wearing this.

• 20:30Rayna Greenberg?

  I thought of you because I was like, she wears a silver watch.

• 20:32Ashley Hesseltine?

  But then my normal bracelet is the silver with the gold. I'm not wearing it today. I changed my bracelet.

• 20:38Rayna Greenberg?

  I've been meaning to tell you. I noticed that.

• 20:40Ashley Hesseltine?

  Well, this is the one my mom got me, my versus what my fiance got me versus what his mom got me. So I just mix up my bracelet every like month.

• 20:47Rayna Greenberg?

  His mom got me a wind chime and it's silver. So I hung that.

• 20:52Ashley Hesseltine?

  You know who also loves silver? Cindy Hesseltine. She just has always loved that look, like turquoise, silver.

• 20:59Rayna Greenberg?

  That doesn't surprise me. I can see her wearing a lot of turquoise.

• 21:01Ashley Hesseltine?

  Totally. Okay. Well, let's just talk about our partners and then we will get into it with our guest today. You guys are absolutely gonna love Brian. I am so excited to talk about Vegamore. I gotta be honest with you guys.

• 21:12Rayna Greenberg?

  You really were so excited.

• 21:13Ashley Hesseltine?

  Well, I've been using it.

• 21:15Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes.

• 21:15Ashley Hesseltine?

  So I am going to talk about the Grow Hair Serum today. I have been using this for about the last month, the serum and the shampoo and conditioner. And then they became a partner. I was like, is this happening? I was going to specifically ask if we could try to get them as a partner. It has changed my life.

• 21:31Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, my God.

• 21:32Ashley Hesseltine?

  Over the years, I have had issues with hair thinning. I've talked about it so much in this podcast and I'd always known about Vegamore. And I was like, I'm finally going to try it. I'm going to get a bunch of different products and try them. Immediately I noticed a difference. And I noticed my hair feels thicker and fuller, which no, it doesn't grow in the shower, but like it feels thicker and fuller. And I was having dry scalp and that has gone too. So I feel like my hair is softer, feels thicker and fuller. And I was kind of dealing with off and on dry scalp. It's like a miracle.

• 22:01Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, my God. What an endorsement.

• 22:03Ashley Hesseltine?

  But this truly is the best hair growth serum out there. Vegamore is the leader in plant powered, science backed solutions for thinning hair. Their Grow Hair Serum was recently named the number one prestige hair serum, and it's clinically proven to reduce shedding, leaving you with visibly fuller, healthier hair. So again, the product's vegan, cruelty free, formulated without harsh chemicals, packed with peptides, plant stem cells and plant based phytoactives to deliver real results in as little as three months. And the best part is clinically tested, 93% of users experiencing less shedding and 90% seeing an improvement in the overall appearance of their hair. So you could just add this Grow Hair Serum right into your routine. You can use it on wet or dry hair and you just like use the dropper and you know, you can put it directly in your scalp or you can do your fingers, however you really want to get it into your, into your scalp.

• 22:45Ashley Hesseltine?

  Super lightweight. Again, it's not going to be like greasy or anything. People really do worry about that and they're like, what do you mean? It's going to make my hair greasy. Not at all. Promise you. And after just a few weeks, you guys should start notice less shedding, your hair feeling healthier. I mean, I'm just so obsessed and of course you guys really start with the serum, but get the shampoo and conditioner too. I love it so, so much. It's and Rain, you know how many different ones I've tried? I'm not going to name any names, but the shampoo and conditioner, I think one reason why my hair was like. Thinner, once it started to grow back from when I really had a lot of the shedding, was breakage. I'm like, I shouldn't have baby hairs at this point, two years later. Like, it should have been growing back. And I think it's been breaking because it's dry.

• 23:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  And this has made it like moisturized. Because you can feel your hair, you're like, this is too short. Why'd this break?

• 23:33Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 23:34Ashley Hesseltine?

  You know what I mean?

• 23:34Rayna Greenberg?

  Totally.

• 23:35Ashley Hesseltine?

  So I think the breakage was due to dry hair. This moisturizes my hair. So, guys, I'm gonna stop.

• 23:39Rayna Greenberg?

  Drop the discount, sis.

• 23:40Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, okay. So if you are tired of dealing with shedding and thinning, take back control of your hair with Vegamour. For a limited time, go to vegamour.com/gge, code GGE to get 20% off your first order. That's V E G A M O U R dot com slash GGE, code GGE to save 20% on your first order. If you guys don't do this, do not talk to me. Do not talk to me until you start using Vegamour and you use this discount. V E G A M O U R dot com slash GGE, code GGE.

• 24:08Rayna Greenberg?

  I'm gonna talk to you guys about something that changed my life, and that is Field.

• 24:10Ashley Hesseltine?

  Is this the best ads today? Ever? These are the things that matter most in our lives, right now. It's literally Vegamour and Field.

• 24:17Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah. So, I'm gonna, I mean, this is pretty organic for me because I use it and I love it. But Field is the, uh, it's a dating app for the curious, and they're on a mission to elevate the human experience of sexuality and relationships. I mean, I have had the most positive experience on this app. We've had the founder on the show, and she was fantastic. We loved talking to her just about why she started it. But in general, the purpose of this app is to just allow you to express and explore gender, sexuality, and desires outside of the sort of existing blueprints. And I truly, this is a personal endorsement. It's my favorite dating app I've ever used. I think people are just more open. I think that they're just more fun. It's light. It is really built to allow you to express any sexuality and gender. And of course, those

• 25:00Rayna Greenberg?

  things are evolving. So they have 20-plus sexuality and gender identities to choose from, and you can explore who you are, what you are. You find all kinds of stuff on this app. I mean, people looking for a third, people looking to open their relationships. And sometimes I just see people that I see on other apps on this app and the conversations, I say just flow easier and I like the way the profiles are laid out because it doesn't immediately list your height and your profession and you can, lots of people do, but like, I don't know, I find that I'm just, I'm having fun, just like swiping through and reading what people have to say and it's not as like stuffed into this box of these like, these specific prompts and this is your height and I've had great dates and it just feels like fun and people really express their

• 25:43Rayna Greenberg?

  desires and you will find some crazy stuff on this app. I mean, it's everything from like interests of like biking, hiking, jogging to like sexual desires.

• 25:51Ashley Hesseltine?

  But like, I also don't want people to be intimidated. I feel like this is for the freakiest person imaginable and also just someone who is, you know,

• 26:00Rayna Greenberg?

  Me, like me.

• 26:00Ashley Hesseltine?

  More vanilla. Like, I mean, I think you're on the freakier side in terms of what you want, but like, if you want to be monogamous and you just want one person, that's fine too.

• 26:09Rayna Greenberg?

  So my profile says I am looking for a monogamous,

• 26:13Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yes.

• 26:13Rayna Greenberg?

  serious life partner. Let's see how things go.

• 26:16Ashley Hesseltine?

  Totally.

• 26:16Rayna Greenberg?

  I feel that the app, at least for me personally, has fostered really good experiences and no one has really led with sex for me. I don't feel like I have to have sex with anybody, but I am welcome to express my desires and you can sort by desire. I mean, if what you really want is BDSM, Dom sub, things like that, search for that, you know?

• 26:37Ashley Hesseltine?

  The whole thing.

• 26:37Rayna Greenberg?

  And I've had great dates with great people and I just have like really loved it.

• 26:41Ashley Hesseltine?

  You had a guy early on trying to wife you up?

• 26:43Rayna Greenberg?

  I mean, that was crazy.

• 26:44Ashley Hesseltine?

  You can find love on FEELD, just sex.

• 26:47Rayna Greenberg?

  I'm trying to find both this week. I'm so horny. Yes. So you guys check it out down on FEELD on the App Store or Google Play and that is F E E L D.

• 26:57Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, let's get into it.

• 26:58Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay, guys, we are very excited to welcome our guest today. He is the content creator of the powerhouse travel media platform that reaches a global audience and helps consumers make their travel dreams a reality. One point at a time, his influential work has led him to be recognized on AdVee's Young Influential List, be labeled as Forbes Number One Travel Influencer, and he's included in Travel and the Year's Most Notable People in Travel. He and his team have won numerous awards, including Webby's, Shorty's, Loveys. Isn't that funny?

• 27:27Ashley Hesseltine?

  Please welcome to the show the points guy, Brian Kelly.

• 27:30Speaker 00

  Thank you so much.

• 27:31Ashley Hesseltine?

  What an honor.

• 27:32Speaker 00

  It is my pleasure to be here. We have so many mutual friends.

• 27:35Ashley Hesseltine?

  We really do.

• 27:37Speaker 00

  We're about to pop off.

• 27:38Ashley Hesseltine?

  You know, all the girlies.

• 27:39Speaker 00

  All the girlies, yeah.

• 27:41Ashley Hesseltine?

  I think I might have been introduced to you by Heather McMahon for the first time.

• 27:44Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 27:45Ashley Hesseltine?

  Really? But Heather, Taylor.

• 27:47Speaker 00

  How about her cruise? Let's talk about, let's start our travel episode with the Heather McMahon cruise at sea.

• 27:52Ashley Hesseltine?

  Heather McMahon's cruise content was second only to her honeymoon content. Her honeymoon content, the golf clubs trying to get in the rental car. Like, I was like, this is the best TV I've ever seen.

• 28:03Speaker 00

  She needs a freaking TV show. That's one thing our country should unite behind. Heather McMahon needs her own show, like.

• 28:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  I think she could unite the country.

• 28:11Speaker 00

  I, I believe there's only one woman capable and it's Heather McMahon.

• 28:15Ashley Hesseltine?

  Joan Rivers is dead. It's gotta be Heather.

• 28:18Speaker 00

  Joan anointed Heather, you know, Joan.

• 28:21Ashley Hesseltine?

  And you're a horse guy.

• 28:23Speaker 00

  I'm a late in life horse boy. Yeah, six foot seven, 240 pounds. And at age 39, I was like, it was July of 2020. Bored, couldn't travel. So instead of like drinking and partying like most people did during the pandemic, I, I was taking my nieces to horse lessons and one, and their instructor was a pretty handsome Spanish guy. So I was like, can I get on the horse?

• 28:47Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh, this is about getting fucked. Okay.

• 28:50Ashley Hesseltine?

  It will drive me to make a lot of decisions. Okay. No, I get it. Where you brought a whole horse form to fuck a guy. It's fine.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  That's, I saw, well, I just started riding for fun and, um.

• 29:01Ashley Hesseltine?

  That's how it always starts.

• 29:02Speaker 00

  Yes, I could say a lot of things right now, but I'm bashing. My publicist is in the room. She's gonna read a yankish interview.

• 29:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  It's okay. We'll take it out if you need to. Really tall guys and horses are funny to me because you're as big as the horse.

• 29:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:15Ashley Hesseltine?

  You know, your legs are.

• 29:17Speaker 00

  I have big horses though, so it looks proportionate.

• 29:19Ashley Hesseltine?

  A hundred percent. Yeah. I love a big horse.

• 29:21Rayna Greenberg?

  You walked in here, I wasn't expecting your height. I guess you probably get that a lot. When you started the Points Sky, were you the face of the account? I don't remember.

• 29:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. So originally, I mean, I started it actually 15 years ago. So it was June of 2010.

• 29:32Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, damn.

• 29:33Speaker 00

  I started as a fun little blog. And I've always, so there's a lot of travel bloggers, especially in like the frequent flyer mile and point world. People think I'm the first to have done this, but actually there were plenty of others before me, but they're all very, I mean, dorky.

• 29:46Rayna Greenberg?

  Bad at it.

• 29:47Speaker 00

  For example, they would like blog about planes, but only clinical photos of like a plane in a wing and a seat, but like never a picture of them in a seat. And so when I started blogging, being the gay New Yorker, busy business traveler, I'm like, I'm not going to write about all these silly little deals. Like, there's a lot of weird stuff you can do in the points world, like buying gift cards and selling them. And I'm like, I'm going to take the approach of like, this is just what like normal people need to do. And being six foot seven, whenever I review hotels and airlines, so hotels, I always do the shower test where I go in and can I stand underneath the shower? Which shockingly, so many even new hotels have like really bad showers. But like, if I can fit on an airplane seat, anyone in the world can.

• 30:28Speaker 00

  You know, so I think when people are like, oh, well, Brian, big shouldered, like six foot seven guy likes this, then clearly I will too.

• 30:34Rayna Greenberg?

  I was wondering if your height was a motivation for figuring out how to get upgraded on planes.

• 30:38Speaker 00

  A hundred percent. I was broke. I don't come from money. I've always wanted to travel. I was a little kid. I wanted to go everywhere. And I, for me, it was necessity. And even after college, I was working at Morgan Stanley, traveling a ton for work, but like corporate policies were to buy coach. And so I'm like, how do I get elite status? So I started really diving in deep and realized, once you get elite status, all the perks and hacks. So I've been playing this, I've been playing the game since the 90s, actually, when I was 12 years old. But like, out of necessity, because as I grew, I'm like, I want to travel, but if I couldn't sit in the front of the plane, I would not go to Asia.

• 31:12Rayna Greenberg?

  Well, yeah, my brother, again, he's

• 31:14Speaker 00

  It's like physically painful.

• 31:15Rayna Greenberg?

  He physically can't sit there.

• 31:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, like my This is like the pitch of a seat. This hits on most planes. So like, look, I could probably do an hour or two, but even two hour flights, you're sitting in the seat for 45 minutes before takeoff, minimum.

• 31:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 31:29Speaker 00

  Taxi, landing, delayed. So you're in the seat for hours. Like, I actually will go numb.

• 31:34Ashley Hesseltine?

  No, it's really bad for you.

• 31:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:35Ashley Hesseltine?

  And can you confirm that plane seats have gotten smaller?

• 31:38Speaker 00

  In the back of the plane, yes. So this is-

• 31:40Ashley Hesseltine?

  Coach seats, yes.

• 31:41Speaker 00

  In my book, I talk about, like, I do believe we are in the platinum age of travel. It's this new age, like, travel's amazing in the front of the plane. Like, in the golden age of travel, people don't really talk about it, but planes were janky. They would fall apart. They were really dangerous. You used to have to, you know, even New York to LA was the equivalent of like first class prices what coach was back then. So when people like in coach, they used to serve like goose on like silver, silver platters, like, but you were actually paying more than what first class is today. You certainly didn't have live flat seats. You know, there was just a bunch of drunk men being clowns, you know, wasn't like the fancy affair.

• 32:19Ashley Hesseltine?

  Harassing the flight attendants.

• 32:20Speaker 00

  Essentially.

• 32:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  You still see it.

• 32:21Speaker 00

  You still-

• 32:21Ashley Hesseltine?

  But not as much.

• 32:23Rayna Greenberg?

  Your website is such like a wealth of information. Your book, How to Win at Travel. I mean, I, people had so many questions for you.

• 32:30Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh, I know.

• 32:31Rayna Greenberg?

  I almost don't know where to start, so I'm gonna let you guide us. But like, people wanted to know what airlines do I look at? What hotel rewards programs? What credit cards? If somebody's like, I want to revamp my travel.

• 32:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:41Rayna Greenberg?

  And point, like, do you say, start with a credit card or start with an airline?

• 32:44Speaker 00

  Luckily for anyone in America, we are, America is the ultimate country for points and credit cards. If you talk to any of your friends in any other country, they're gonna be like, we don't do this points thing like you guys do. And this is amazing, because in the US, there are probably 20 top banks, each with top credit cards, and they're all competing for you. So over the last 15 years, and currently in 2025, we've seen a huge amount of big offers, like 100,000 point offers.

• 33:12Speaker 00

  What that all means is if you are smart about your credit and in order to win the points game, you have to pay off your bills in full because any of the points you're earning, if you're paying 30% APR, you're immediately throwing that out the drain. So I do not recommend anyone, if you're not good with credit, you might want to spend outside of your means, don't do this. Then it might make sense to use cash, as much as it pains me to say that. Because when you use cash to buy something, not only are you foregoing the valuable points that you earn, but also the protections. When you use a credit card, I have a two and a half year old son, I bought a thousand dollar brand new dining chair and he took a marker and just wrote all over it. And because I had purchased that chair within 90 days,

• 33:57Speaker 00

  my Capital One Venture Card has what's called purchase protection. So if it's stolen, vandalized, so my two and a half year old was counted as vandalism and they immediately gave me the thousand dollars back.

• 34:07Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh my god.

• 34:08Speaker 00

  So flight delays.

• 34:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  Vandalism from inside the house.

• 34:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, so and people just don't realize, if you buy a pair of sunglasses, you know, using a credit card with purchase protection, you leave them in a hotel room, they fly off the side of a cruise ship and you immediately can get purchase protection to get that all back. So, points are one thing, but protections are another, and then perks of like credit cards. So, you need to have a couple good credit cards. And the number one type of credit card everyone should have is called a transferable points credit card.

• 34:36Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 34:37Speaker 00

  So these are credit cards that allow you to get points with the credit card company, like for example, Chase Ultimate Rewards, which is the program of the Sapphire cards. Amex Membership Rewards, your Amex points, which you get from an Amex Gold or Platinum card, they accrue into a central Amex pool and then you can transfer to 30 different airlines. So, you want to go to Paris and fly Air France, bam, you transfer to Air France. You want to splurge and fly Emirates First Class, one of my favorite airlines, you can transfer to Emirates at a really valuable ratio. So the name of the game is to not just have like, oh, I fly American, I'm just going to get an American card and put everything there. That's a dated philosophy of, because American and all the airlines are decreasing the value of points over time.

• 35:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 35:21Speaker 00

  So if you expose yourself to just one airline, you're setting yourself up for failure and just not flexibility. If you have American miles, but you want to take the dream trip on Emirates,

• 35:30Rayna Greenberg?

  Totally.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  you can't. But if you would have spent on an Amex or a Chase or Capital One card, you would have had so much more flexibility. So I think for everyone listening, the key thing then is to look at the top credit cards, and I'll go over like the top ones to look at, and where you spend the most money. So the goal is to, you know, you're going to get a good signup bonus for getting the card. But then also, like, you want to be rewarded, and a lot of credit cards will reward you for certain categories. One of my favorites, the Amex Gold card. You get four points per dollar for dining and groceries.

• 36:02Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay.

• 36:02Speaker 00

  We all spend in those categories.

• 36:04Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 36:04Speaker 00

  Four points per dollar is crazy. That's very, very good. So you don't want to put all your, you know, dining and groceries on your Amex Gold. If you pay rent, there is a credit card called Bilt, B-I-L-T.

• 36:16Rayna Greenberg?

  We do ads for them.

• 36:16Ashley Hesseltine?

  They're a partner for them.

• 36:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, Bilt's amazing. I'm a founding investor.

• 36:19Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, amazing.

• 36:20Speaker 00

  You know, when Enkore came to me, I said, this will be the biggest thing if we can get this off the ground, and we did. And now, no fees on rent, no fee on the credit card.

• 36:29Rayna Greenberg?

  Amazing.

• 36:30Speaker 00

  I'm telling you, if you pay rent, your landlord doesn't need to accept Bilt. They'll literally send a check, they'll direct deposit into their routing number and account number. So anyone listening, if you pay rent, a Bilt card is a no-brainer. Then there's like a Capital One Venture, Venture X card, which gives two points on everything. So that's my base card.

• 36:48Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay.

• 36:48Speaker 00

  My challenge to everyone is earn more than one point per dollar on everything you spend.

• 36:51Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay.

• 36:52Speaker 00

  So if you have like an insurance payment, there's no credit card that gives like insurance bonuses, but the Capital One Venture is two points per dollar. So that's my baseline card, and then I use my Gold, Amex Gold for 4X on the dining and groceries, the Bilt for your rent, or now soon it'll be mortgage as well. So.

• 37:10Rayna Greenberg?

  Amazing.

• 37:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 37:11Rayna Greenberg?

  So I have a question for you. So credit cards that are like the Delta Amex.

• 37:15Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 37:15Rayna Greenberg?

  So like airline credit cards. Well, how do you feel about those?

• 37:18Speaker 00

  So the transferable points are my favorite. Everyone's got to have one, maybe two, maybe three of those cards, because you're getting max flexibility. Now, the co-brand cards, this is airlines and hotels, they make sense. I have a bunch, but you don't want to put all your spend on them, because when you spend on one of these airline cards, you're foregoing earning much more valuable points by putting it on like the Chase or the...

• 37:41Rayna Greenberg?

  Totally.

• 37:41Speaker 00

  So what you need to do the math is say, well, I'm going to lose value by just getting one airline mile with this purchase, but... What the airlines are doing these days is saying, well, we'll give you elite status. Like if you're an American Airlines flyer by just spending on their credit card, that'll, and if that gets you executive platinum status, which makes your work travels more enjoyable, which gets you upgrade certificates, then it might make sense, but I want everyone to understand the trade off. Most people are just stuck in the habit of using a card and they're just doing it because when they could be earning a lot more value.

• 38:14Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah, it depends on how much you travel, what your lifestyle is. Ashley and I, I mean, we've had years where we've done 40 live shows. We're on planes constantly, we're in airports and hotels and having that status is important to make our lives a little more comfortable.

• 38:25Speaker 00

  Totally, and the perks like hotel status. Airline status is amazing because they own the planes, they can control the experience. But the fact of the matter is, when I started the Points Sky in 2010, 80% of first class seats were being given out for free for elite members.

• 38:39Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh.

• 38:40Speaker 00

  Now it's flipped. 80% of people are buying those seats and just 20% are given out.

• 38:45Rayna Greenberg?

  Right.

• 38:45Speaker 00

  So 10 years ago, elite status was amazing. You could fly half the time. Always upgraded. Always upgraded. Now, it just depends where you live. Sometimes if you're in a smaller airport flying Delta, you might get upgraded 80% of the time, but if you live in Atlanta and you're gold, you're not getting upgraded.

• 38:59Rayna Greenberg?

  Ask Heather, I feel like she's complaining about this.

• 39:02Speaker 00

  So.

• 39:02Rayna Greenberg?

  It's changed.

• 39:03Speaker 00

  I know it's confusing to people out there, but basically you can have the airline co-brands or just don't put all your spend on them, juice them for the perks. I mean, check bags alone, a single airline card that's 90 bucks, like the Delta cards give you, for you and up to eight traveling companions, free bags.

• 39:18Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 39:19Speaker 00

  Crazy, and for an $89 card. And then plus those cards often will come with, you know, companion tickets and elite status.

• 39:28Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah. And you, on your website, you have like a lot of this broken down also.

• 39:31Speaker 00

  Exactly, yeah.

• 39:32Rayna Greenberg?

  I encourage people to buy the book. Should we talk about airlines? Yeah. So I think the next thing people are like, do I focus on one airline? What's the best ones? What do you like? Who has the best lounges? Like, what do we say about airlines?

• 39:43Speaker 00

  When it comes to airlines these days, I think, you know, there's been a lot of consolidation. So mergers, there's like four major airlines out there. So, you know, Delta, United and American are the big three. We, at the Points Sky, we do a best yearly airlines report and we look at, you know, the biggest thing we look at is on time. These days, like, that's the biggest factor. Are you getting there safely, on time?

• 40:03Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 40:04Speaker 00

  So Delta is consistently the best performing airline. So if you value your time and money, you know, like flying an airline that's on time. Is the most important thing. I think, you know, and in general, Delta has the best customer service. When things go wrong, like Delta will throw you some miles. They actually kind of care about their customers.

• 40:21Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 40:21Speaker 00

  I would say United is number two, and United is trying to become the next Delta.

• 40:26Ashley Hesseltine?

  Uh, we gotta fix some of them planes.

• 40:27Speaker 00

  And then a distant third is American.

• 40:29Ashley Hesseltine?

  No screens.

• 40:30Rayna Greenberg?

  No screens.

• 40:31Ashley Hesseltine?

  Can we talk about the planes?

• 40:33Speaker 00

  The planes are falling apart. I mean, that, the New York LA plane, I flew in paid first class seat. My in-flight entertainment screen just said Android on it the whole time.

• 40:40Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes, there's no, there's aren't laydowns in most of the planes.

• 40:43Speaker 00

  This is a $2,500 ticket one way.

• 40:44Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes, they're most, as expensive as Delta One, and it's not laydown. I get very passionate about it.

• 40:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, what I will give American credit for, their lounges are pretty decent. You know, Delta went overboard giving everyone lounge access, so.

• 40:56Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 40:56Speaker 00

  They've since cut it back quite a bit, but you know, it wasn't uncommon to go to a Delta lounge and see a line down the terminal.

• 41:02Ashley Hesseltine?

  Still, we always see it all the time.

• 41:03Speaker 00

  Still, it's happening, yeah. So, there's no one perfect airline.

• 41:07Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 41:08Speaker 00

  I love flying JetBlue Mint, and I like to support the smaller airlines, but JetBlue is like, operationally, a shitshow. Often, if you look at their on-time.

• 41:16Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 41:16Speaker 00

  Departure and arrivals, so.

• 41:18Rayna Greenberg?

  Are there ones that are like, better with points? So, to like, upgrade and things like that?

• 41:22Speaker 00

  So, if you were gonna give me a million of any airline currency of the US airlines, Alaska Airlines miles are my favorite.

• 41:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh.

• 41:29Speaker 00

  Alaska miles are really valuable. They're actually, you can transfer your built points to Alaska.

• 41:33Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 41:34Speaker 00

  The only major credit card that you can. And Alaska is One World, so they partner with American and a whole bunch of different partners. But for going to Europe, the taxes and fees are really low. And then I would say I would take American Airlines miles. So, AA miles for, you know, it's a worse airline of the other two, in my opinion, just based on the core metrics, but they do have a pretty good frequent flyer program. And it's, it's like an inverse. The nicer the airline, the worse the frequent flyer program. Because Delta, I love Delta, but their frequent flyer program's crazy, where it's a million miles to go to Europe.

• 42:05Ashley Hesseltine?

  I mean, I fuck with American, because they don't give any fucks. We are landing tray table down, bag, they don't, they've never told me to put my, like, on Delta, they say, you cannot hold your purse in your lap. Man, why? This, American, they, no fucks.

• 42:18Rayna Greenberg?

  We love the flight attendants on American.

• 42:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  A Philly flight attendant on American is just, it's chaos, in the best way. So, I have a soft spot. I'm just like, get some screens, you guys.

• 42:27Rayna Greenberg?

  I know, but their points do go further.

• 42:29Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, I, no, I fuck with American.

• 42:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, their program's really good.

• 42:33Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 42:33Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay, I'm telling you guys about Skims. That is the bras that I wear literally every day of my life. I'm wearing it right now. If you think that my boobs look amazing, it's because of Skims. So I'm wearing the Fits Everybody bra and because I'm wearing a racer back, the straps unhooked, I could crisscross them in the back. They have so many sizes and colors. It's crazy. But on top of that, what I am really telling you about today is the Ultimate Push-Up Bra. So I really have not enjoyed push-up bras from other companies because they tend to be like kind of thick and bulky. And I have large breasts to begin with, so I haven't felt that those were comfortable or enjoyable to wear until Skims. So they have great push-up bras. I love the Ultimate Balcony Push-Up Bra. It is my favorite push-up bra I've ever had. It's sexy, but it's comfortable to wear all day long. I sleep with them. I've always said I like to

• 43:16Rayna Greenberg?

  sleep with bras on. Skims is really a bra that's comfortable to sleep in if there's underwire or not. And the sizing is exceptionally inclusive. They have tons to choose from and also colors. I love their pajamas, but the Balcony Push-Up Bra, fantastic. You guys can shop the Skims Ultimate Bra Collection and more at skims.com in Skims LA flagship on Sunset Boulevard. And after you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you. Select Podcast in the survey and be sure to select our show in the drop-down menu that follows.

• 43:44Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, and we are talking to all of you renters. If you haven't heard of Bilt, you are going to thank us. You can earn your favorite airline miles and hotel points through Bilt just by paying your rent on time. We will explain it to you. And we have Brian Kelly and we talked about Bilt with him. And we just love this so much. And I feel like we were really early in talking about Built, and now I see it everywhere. I saw at my yoga studio, they work with Bilt. And so we really just love it so much. There is no cost to join, and just by paying rent, you unlock flexible points that can be transferred to your favorite hotels and airlines, a future rent payment, your next Lyft ride, and more. When you pay rent through Bilt, you unlock two powerful benefits. First, you earn one of the industry's most valuable points on rent every month, no

• 44:26Ashley Hesseltine?

  matter where you live or who your landlord is. Your rent works for you. Second, you gain access to exclusive neighborhood benefits in your city. Built's neighborhood benefits are things like extra points on dining out, complimentary post-workout shakes, Free mats or towels at your favorite fitness studios. Like I mentioned, that's probably one of the perks at my yoga studio and unique experiences that only Bilt members can access. And when you're ready to travel, Bilt points can be converted to your favorite miles and hotel points around the world, meaning your rent can literally take you places. So if you're not earning points on rent, my question is, what are you waiting for? Start paying rent through Bilt and take advantage of your neighborhood benefits by going to joinbilt.com/gge. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T.com/gge. Make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you.

• 45:09Ashley Hesseltine?

  joinbilt.com/gge to sign up for Bilt today. And another partner we absolutely love and are so excited to tell you about is Simply Pop. Simply has launched a new prebiotic soda, Simply Pop, the new juicy soda. There are five flavors, pineapple, mango, lime, strawberry, citrus punch, and fruit punch. We love this. I mean, I obviously like, who doesn't want something that's going to be prebiotic and that's going to taste great, made with real fruit juice? Simply Pop supports gut health, so big on gut health with six grams of prebiotic fiber, no added sugars, sweetened with juices, monk fruit extract, supports immune health with zinc and vitamin C. Simply Pop is flavor that pops. I really love all the flavors,

• 45:50Ashley Hesseltine?

  but I'm just like a pineapple mango kind of tropical flavor. I also love a lime, any citrus fruit I love, but they all are really delicious. Again, made with real fruit juice and you pair that with the zinc and the vitamin C and it's going to support your immune health. You just really can't beat it. So this is all new. You guys might be hearing about it for the first time here today.

• 46:08Rayna Greenberg?

  Heard it here first.

• 46:08Ashley Hesseltine?

  And we really encourage you guys to check it out. You can go to cokeurl.com/simplypop and find out where you can try Simply Pop.

• 46:20Rayna Greenberg?

  Anything else in terms of airlines, like what people ask you?

• 46:22Speaker 00

  Actually, so when it comes to airline miles, without going too far into the business behind this, but basically airlines make more money.

• 46:30Speaker 00

  Creating frequent flyer miles and selling them to credit card companies than they do flying planes. So the airlines have created these huge currencies worth billions of dollars. The airlines actually like during COVID, when you know, they were on the brink of disaster, no one was flying, they mortgaged, they use their loyalty programs because they're so valuable to get cheap loans to kind of finance themselves. So like, I cannot stress enough, this is big business. And it's an amazing business, when you think about it, that they can just click a button and like, print billions of dollars worth of more miles and sell them to these big credit card companies. And so the big US airlines have been like devaluing, so it's more and more miles every year to use their points. The real value is foreign frequent flyer programs. So Air France Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic, they have not increased the amount

• 47:14Speaker 00

  of miles like the US airlines have. So points experts, we actually generally don't fuck with the big US programs. Like, we find the sweet spots in, you know, you can use your Virgin miles to redeem on Alnapon. So if you're LA based, you want to go to Tokyo, redeeming on Delta would be 2 million miles for like a mediocre business class seat, but you know, redeeming via Virgin on their partner Alnapon for this insane suite is like 70,000 miles.

• 47:41Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh.

• 47:42Speaker 00

  You know, so it's the same flights even, you know, using these foreign programs are much less. So

• 47:47Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 47:48Speaker 00

  Basically, and this is why those credit card programs, the Amex, Chase, Cap One, they all transfer to all these foreign frequent flyer programs.

• 47:56Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 47:57Speaker 00

  So it becomes a little bit different. So you might be saying, okay, Brian, you're losing me.

• 48:00Ashley Hesseltine?

  No, like, I'm like, how do I do that? Yeah.

• 48:02Speaker 00

  Now, there are tools that'll automate and tell you. So if you've got a bunch of Amex and Chase, and you're like, I don't know, I want to go to Paris on June 29th. So there's a tool called Point Me. Point.me is the website. And if you have an Amex card, it's free. Point.me/Amex will let you use this tool.

• 48:18Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 48:19Speaker 00

  And it checks all the different airlines, and it'll give you all the options and the cheapest ones. So it'll say, don't transfer to Delta, 500,000 points. You could transfer to Virgin Atlantic for 49,000 for that same flight.

• 48:29Ashley Hesseltine?

  Wow.

• 48:30Speaker 00

  So there's that, and then there's another tool called Seats.Aero. Seats.Aero. This one's really cool. It's a little more niche. And both of these tools are a little bit confusing at first, but like anything in life, take 10 minutes. Your listeners are smart people.

• 48:44Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 48:45Speaker 00

  What I tell you is like, these tools will unlock crazy value, because so many people have lots of points, but then when it comes time to redeem, they're like, They kind of stumble. These tools do all the heavy lifting. So say you want to fly Emirates first class in their A380, which I think everyone should do before they die. It is, you know, the shower in the sky. It's, they now have unlimited caviar, Dom Perignon, like, it's insane.

• 49:07Rayna Greenberg?

  I'm really dying to do it.

• 49:09Speaker 00

  So the seats that, from LA to Dubai, it can be hard to just find seats. If you go on the Emirates website, it may show no availability. People check a couple of times and then they're like, oh, I'm never going to be able to do this. Well, what seats. arrow allows you to do, you can filter down and say LA to Dubai and sort for an entire year and then sort by first class, business class, whatever. So if you're going on your honeymoon and you want to go to the Maldives, you want to find that flight to Dubai, you can actually, it'll just tell you over the entire year, here are dates where there's availability.

• 49:38Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay.

• 49:39Speaker 00

  And this is how you win.

• 49:39Rayna Greenberg?

  I will do this.

• 49:40Speaker 00

  At redeeming your miles. If you're flexible and then you find the availability and say, hey, let's go on vacation when we can fly these amazing, you know, use your miles.

• 49:48Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 49:49Speaker 00

  That's a tip I give people. And even if you don't have any frequent flyer miles, a tool everyone should use, so Google Flights to find the cheapest flights when you're searching.

• 49:57Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay.

• 49:57Speaker 00

  But say you live in Chicago, it's freezing cold and you're like, I just want to go to the damn Caribbean. I don't care which island, but like, let me see what's the cheapest. Instead of like, single-handedly searching every, google.com slash explore. So it's called the explore map. You can put in Chicago to the Caribbean or Europe or whatever.

• 50:15Rayna Greenberg?

  Keep it broad, like that?

• 50:16Speaker 00

  You can keep it broad and reverse engineer. So you can say, I want to go on these dates. You can say, I want to go for a week in July, whatever. There's all these different parameters.

• 50:23Rayna Greenberg?

  I'll have to do this.

• 50:24Speaker 00

  And it'll reverse engineer and just show you all the Caribbean islands. You can filter by non-stop, first class. And then that's how you hunt out the best deals. There's a lot of travel experts on TikTok that'll be like, go on Tuesday at 11pm. It's BS. The best way to get the best deal is like using these tools to basically hunt for them yourself.

• 50:46Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay. I was actually gonna ask you, is there a best day and time to buy flights? Is that a myth?

• 50:51Speaker 00

  That, that whole, that was like years ago.

• 50:53Rayna Greenberg?

  It does feel dated, yeah.

• 50:54Speaker 00

  When the airline industry, they used to upload fares to the database and it would process on Mondays and then they're. Airlines now use instant, they, they change the prices of tickets hundreds of times an hour.

• 51:06Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 51:06Speaker 00

  So there's no one best time. It's all based on demand.

• 51:09Rayna Greenberg?

  Yep.

• 51:10Speaker 00

  In my book, I talk about a lot of the nuances of air travel. There are ways to trick the system by like flying out of less premium cities, like, cause when you live in New York and LA, the airlines know that rich people live there. So like, when you put in LA to Dubai, there are plenty of like studio execs paying 29,000 for that Emirates flight. But if you put in like Boise to Dubai, that connects on that same Emirates flight, it might be a third of the price.

• 51:34Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh.

• 51:35Ashley Hesseltine?

  And you just gotta get to Boise.

• 51:37Speaker 00

  You gotta get to Boise, but for like a hundred bucks to save 20 grand. In my book, I talk, my friend lives in Dubai and she'll actually fly one of the cheapest airports in the world for airfares is Sri Lanka, is Colombo, which is like three hours from Dubai.

• 51:48Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay.

• 51:49Speaker 00

  So she routinely will fly to Sri Lanka on a three hour flight, that's cheap, and then fly these first class fares that are like a third of the price.

• 51:56Rayna Greenberg?

  Love that hack. Love this hack. And also I was thinking, there's been times when I've changed a Delta flight like six times in a day because the prices keep changing. And I'm like, Delta's gonna kick me off.

• 52:04Ashley Hesseltine?

  Well, it's the best thing that came out of COVID was the, no change fees. Like when we were, when they got rid of change fees and it was just like this easy, flexible thing. I was like, if this ever changes, I'll die.

• 52:13Speaker 00

  So let me, let me blow your mind and everyone listening. So we love a fancy vacation, but this is why I love frequent flyer miles. When you have them. So the airlines, and now they've kind of, the airlines still allow free changes, but not like the refund. They've slowly been cutting it back, like where they're giving you vouchers that expire on paid tickets. It's not as easy as what it used to be. With frequent flyer miles, it's amazing. So all the major programs now, you can cancel tickets up until departure for free. So what does this mean? When I'm in an airport and I'm flying Delta and my flight's like delayed or something, I'll immediately just use my United miles to book a backup flight on United or American, you know, you get the drift. And you use the miles to book a backup flight, because if you have to get somewhere for a gig or whatever.

• 52:56Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 52:56Speaker 00

  And then if your flight ends up going out on time, you just cancel your award ticket and get all your miles back for free.

• 53:01Rayna Greenberg?

  That's what I did with Andrew and Brenna's wedding. I had two flights booked with miles on two different airlines and I was like, whichever one comes down more.

• 53:06Speaker 00

  And you just have to remember to cancel them.

• 53:09Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes. That's the trick.

• 53:10Speaker 00

  But what I tell people is frequent flyer miles are an insurance policy. If you're in Europe and you have a family emergency and you need to get home, you go to the airport, you try to change your ticket last minute, they're gonna fleece you. They charge thousands for coach ticket. But airlines at the same point also want every single seat to be full. So. Using frequent flyer miles last minute is actually one of the best ways to travel.

• 53:32Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, okay.

• 53:33Speaker 00

  Airlines will drop and just open up tons of seats at the lowest rate just to fill the plane.

• 53:38Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 53:38Speaker 00

  So.

• 53:39Ashley Hesseltine?

  Be flexible.

• 53:40Speaker 00

  Even if you book a, you know, your honeymoon trip, you just want to get it booked, but you spent like 300,000 miles. You're like, whatever, let me just get it booked. Keep checking because you can rebook at the lower rate.

• 53:50Ashley Hesseltine?

  We do that all the time.

• 53:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:51Ashley Hesseltine?

  All the time.

• 53:51Speaker 00

  So many people don't do that.

• 53:53Ashley Hesseltine?

  Well, I'll put a calendar, like check the flight today. Like I'll do it a couple of times and just like boom, boom. Yeah. Cheaper. Do it with hotels too. Yeah, me too.

• 54:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, hotels, most hotels are refundable up until like a couple of days before.

• 54:03Ashley Hesseltine?

  They're getting way less.

• 54:04Speaker 00

  I know.

• 54:04Ashley Hesseltine?

  It's really annoying.

• 54:06Rayna Greenberg?

  I have one more question before we go to hotels.

• 54:07Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 54:07Rayna Greenberg?

  How do you feel about like being like airline agnostic? You think like pick one airline, stick with it?

• 54:12Speaker 00

  I think for most people, if you're flying a couple of times a year, pick the best airline for the time and just never connect if you don't have to. So here's the bottom line, if you're flying in coach, it doesn't matter. Hear me out, unpopular take Spirit can be totally fine. It is not worth it to depart with $300 of your money, like LA to Vegas. Like to pay $400 extra to fly American on the 49 minute flight, just to say you don't want to fly Spirit? Who cares? Like I've flown, I've flown Spirit when it makes sense. You know, I flew to, it was at the perfect time. I didn't want to fly later on United at triple the price. And guess what? Spirit, even as a tall person, it's great because the seats don't recline. No, no seats recline on those planes. So like, you know, you know what you're getting into.

• 54:55Ashley Hesseltine?

  Flying Spirit, it's a badge of honor.

• 54:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:57Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay. I think I asked that weird. I guess what I meant was like, do you encourage people to pick one airline, stick with it?

• 55:03Speaker 00

  I mean.

• 55:03Rayna Greenberg?

  Or jump around according to price?

• 55:05Speaker 00

  If you're flying a lot and you might get elite status, but in general, I would encourage people to pick the airline that is most reliable, that serves your needs, but don't just blindly pay extra to fly an airline. Because like, I know a lot of people. Take flights to get elite status and you're jumping through hoops and hoops and hoops. But what you're doing is like, you're spending a lot of money. You're departing with cash today that could be used to make your trip more fun or that you invest for your future with like the hopes of getting treated better in the future.

• 55:36Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 55:37Speaker 00

  And I just think back in the day, that calculation made a lot more sense when tons was being given out, but the airlines just keep whittling that back.

• 55:44Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 55:44Speaker 00

  In general, you know, fly the airline that best serves your needs and.

• 55:49Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, it's weird to me when people have this airline allegiance and they they'll literally do a connection over a direct flight.

• 55:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's where you lose me.

• 55:57Ashley Hesseltine?

  My comprehension.

• 55:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:59Ashley Hesseltine?

  I would never do a connecting flight if I didn't have to. I don't care. I'd fly whatever airline it was for a direct flight.

• 56:03Rayna Greenberg?

  Absolutely. Cause we, I mean, we lived in New York for so long. Delta's the hub. We are Delta forever, but we have to fly American a lot now.

• 56:10Ashley Hesseltine?

  We do.

• 56:10Rayna Greenberg?

  We go to Philly. We do American and so like I'm between the two. I try to, I don't want to add a third one.

• 56:15Ashley Hesseltine?

  You gotta do United to Denver. You know, you gotta fuck with United sometimes.

• 56:17Rayna Greenberg?

  I had to do United from Florida to New York one time because I booked two flights with points, you know? Sometimes you gotta do. Okay, hotels. Are there hotel chains that you like a lot? The rewards programs for hotels you like a lot?

• 56:29Speaker 00

  There's one that stands out. Hyatt is like the best. If you talk to most frequent traveler experts, the Hyatt program's great. And then both Built and Chase Points transfer one to one to Hyatt.

• 56:39Rayna Greenberg?

  Okay.

• 56:39Speaker 00

  So yeah, I would say Hyatt is like the best of those programs. Marriott's the, you know, one of the biggest now. Marriott and Hilton, you know, that you get your fifth night free on award stays. But I'm just a hotel snob and I found myself over the years, like, I don't want to stay at a big box hotel. Like, I'm all about just getting like the nicest hotel. I need room service. Like, I don't like these new hotels that are like, no closets in the room, no room service, stripped back everything.

• 57:04Rayna Greenberg?

  No refrigerator.

• 57:05Speaker 00

  But, but an Instagrammable lobby. Like, I couldn't care less about a DJ in a lobby or like, I need linens, I need room service, I need a minibar. Mini bars are disappearing. I love paying eight dollars for a Kit Kat.

• 57:16Rayna Greenberg?

  Totally.

• 57:16Speaker 00

  Who doesn't? It tastes better.

• 57:17Rayna Greenberg?

  We do too.

• 57:18Speaker 00

  When they're cold, a cold Kit Kat from a mini bar?

• 57:20Rayna Greenberg?

  You know what I've always thought was kind of crazy about you and I is that like we travel so much and we don't have like a hotel. Like, I'm not like just a Marriott girlie. Like, we just pick what's gonna be closest.

• 57:29Ashley Hesseltine?

  Nice experience.

• 57:30Rayna Greenberg?

  And we want to be near what we want to do, like.

• 57:32Ashley Hesseltine?

  But I mean, I love a Thompson. Like, I like a.

• 57:34Speaker 00

  The Thompsons are great, and that's Hyatt.

• 57:36Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah. Oh, they're okay.

• 57:37Speaker 00

  Yeah. So what I will say about booking the cheapest hotels, I talk about this in my book, but if you book through Expedia and online travel agencies, often the hotel is going to give you the crappiest room because they have to pay a big commission. So it's much better. You can use Expedia or hotels.com to like, you know, search for hotels and, you know, sort by price. But I almost always will go directly to the hotel.

• 57:58Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 57:59Speaker 00

  Or even, you can even email the hotel and say, hey, look, I want to stay, but can you match this price or beat it? Except for luxury. So if you're gonna go on your honeymoon, you want to splurge, never go to a hotel website.

• 58:10Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh.

• 58:10Speaker 00

  You always want to use a luxury travel advisor.

• 58:13Ashley Hesseltine?

  What do you mean?

• 58:13Speaker 00

  So there are travel agents out there that are specialized in like luxury travel. So if you book a Four Seasons hotel on the website, you're gonna get no extra perks. But if you book it through a Virtuoso agent, and there's so many, people think travel agents are dead. That couldn't be more. So when you want to book a big trip, a safari, a cruise with your big family, you want to use a luxury travel advisor. Not only they'll get you the same rates, maybe even lower, but then they will give you tons of perks, upgrades, free breakfast, late checkout.

• 58:45Ashley Hesseltine?

  Uh huh. But this is virtual? Or like, do you pay them a cut?

• 58:49Speaker 00

  So Virtuoso, Virtuoso is the, it doesn't necessarily mean virtual. Virtuoso is the, the network of travel advisors who are high end. In my book, there's, you know, so how do you choose the best luxury travel advisor? There are a lot of agencies out there. Smartflyer is one of them. They're like cutting edge technology new. And Wendy Perrin has this list of top travel advisors, and Wendy Perrin's this icon in the travel. She like tests all the top travel advisors and then recommends the best. So on big ticket trips, book through a travel advisor. They will add tons of extra value and perks, you know, to your stay. And if you ever have an issue at the hotel.

• 59:25Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 59:25Speaker 00

  When you book through a travel advisor who's giving that hotel tons of business.

• 59:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 59:29Speaker 00

  You better believe. You call your travel advisor and you say, they put me in a crappy room in the back of the hotel. When that travel advisor rains down on the hotel and is like, you're gonna take care of my client, you will be shocked at what mountains can be moved. But when you book direct with the hotel, you don't have that.

• 59:46Ashley Hesseltine?

  That same buying power.

• 59:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:47Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, it's like, we have an agent. They do the dirty work. But is this, I guess I just wanna understand this because I have not done it and I'm gonna have to book a honeymoon eventually. But like, this isn't what people picture. You gotta find a person, meet with them, right? Is it easier than that?

• 1:00:02Speaker 00

  Well, I would recommend, I mean, even virtually, meeting with the travel advisor. Because what they'll do is, it's not just hotels, right? They'll make sure you get into the best tours, the best tour operators, they'll get you the scenic helicopter ride. They can do so much. And often, you don't have to pay them a single cent extra. They get paid on the commission for all your tours.

• 1:00:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:00:21Speaker 00

  Depends if you want someone to do a really bespoke trip.

• 1:00:24Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:24Speaker 00

  And they're not gonna do this if you're staying in cheap hotels because their commissions are low.

• 1:00:27Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:28Speaker 00

  But for big-ticket trips, you know, they will gladly plan your whole vacation. They do itineraries, they'll help you in planning and visas and connect you with all the right people.

• 1:00:37Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 1:00:38Speaker 00

  Seamless, like, gate-to-gate transfers and stuff. So I highly recommend, you know, if you like luxury travel, always book through an advisor.

• 1:00:46Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, that sounds huge. We have, remember when we were talking to Gino about going to Mykonos? And he had like Amex Travel, just booked his whole trip.

• 1:00:53Speaker 00

  Amex Travel is one of them. So Amex Travel, especially if you have a Platinum Card or a Centurion Card, Amex Travel's great. That is an example of you can call up and speak to those agents. And especially going on safari, in my book, I give a bunch of, Roar Africa is like the top luxury travel agency in Africa. Those agents, because safari in every different country in Africa is different, every lodge is different. When you're spending this amount of money trying to research that online and you're like, so wait, what's the difference between Botswana? And certain times of the year, you don't wanna go to certain countries.

• 1:01:22Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yes.

• 1:01:22Speaker 00

  So when you book a trip with someone, like, or even in cruises, someone who's been on all the cruise ships and can get to know you and what you like and, you know. It can totally change your trip.

• 1:01:33Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, and it's worth this extra step.

• 1:01:35Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 1:01:35Ashley Hesseltine?

  For like a honeymoon, like big, big ticket trip.

• 1:01:38Rayna Greenberg?

  Also, like I think there's just destinations, I don't know what they, going on a safari in Africa other than what my friends have done, like, how do you plan that without an expert?

• 1:01:45Speaker 00

  You should go through an expert.

• 1:01:46Ashley Hesseltine?

  So on the other side of the coin, traveling more on the cheap, you know, like budget friendly travel, do you have tips for that? And obviously using points, but we just, I mean, I think this is what a lot of people want, you know?

• 1:01:57Speaker 00

  I just cannot stress to people enough, like, start traveling shoulder seasons, like, this whole peak Europe, I want to remind people.

• 1:02:05Ashley Hesseltine?

  Go off, King.

• 1:02:06Speaker 00

  Europe was not like built for air conditioning, like Italy in July.

• 1:02:12Rayna Greenberg?

  I'm not doing it.

• 1:02:13Speaker 00

  Is roasting hot.

• 1:02:14Rayna Greenberg?

  I've done it the last four years and I could attest to it was amazing.

• 1:02:17Speaker 00

  And now, you know, like five years ago, a thousand dollars got you a Four Seasons room, now it's 3,900. I mean, I was looking at going to Mallorca this summer, the Four Seasons was 4,200 for like a 400 square foot room. I don't mind spending three grand, but I'm getting a suite. You know, like nowadays, when you go peak, peak and you're, it's just all Americans at these restaurants.

• 1:02:37Rayna Greenberg?

  It's not pleasant. I mean, I just, as somebody who has done this every year, my brother lives in London, I like to go over to Europe and the UK, but like, it's, it's not that pleasant.

• 1:02:44Ashley Hesseltine?

  Raina, like, I haven't been Italy in a long time and I have this big dream to go with my fiance and everything and Raina's like, I can't stress to you enough, she goes every year, she's like, you will hate it, it's not what you remember when you went 10 years ago in the summer, the summer is different, do not go in July or August, you will hate it. Like, you're, you're not prepared for what happens when you get close to the Trevi Fountain that you, like 10 years ago was different.

• 1:03:04Rayna Greenberg?

  I think about, I mean, I tried to get to the Trevi Fountain and every road leading to it was backed up with people for, like, for blocks.

• 1:03:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  So like September, October, I mean.

• 1:03:14Speaker 00

  October in Italy is amazing. Like, and I would also just say, like, go to places where the US dollar is strong. So the US dollar is still really strong. I was just in Thailand. And you get, you can say a five star, I stayed at the best hotel in the world, the Capella Bangkok. It was like $550 a night. You know, you can do, and once you're there, the activities and, you know, cultural experiences, you can still go boating. And so, yeah, I would just tell people like, just following the pack is so basic and it's just not that fun.

• 1:03:42Rayna Greenberg?

  And it's kind of miserable. I mean, like, I want to be outside and walking around and I literally want to throw up in the middle of summer. I'd like to have the ability to walk around a market and enjoy it. I want to be able to make a reservation and be able to get it. And it's just, I mean, Right, even just going out to eat. Just shopping, like if you want to go to like the Gucci store in Rome, because that's like, you know, where the movie was filmed and everything, like, good luck getting in there. You'll never get in.

• 1:04:06Speaker 00

  I mean, my biggest pet peeve, like, who waits in line to get into stores? Now they have like, security guards outside of stores.

• 1:04:11Rayna Greenberg?

  It's like a Delta lounge.

• 1:04:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, seriously.

• 1:04:14Rayna Greenberg?

  Well, people really wanted like budget friendly travel destinations. For me, Thailand was a huge one in Southeast Asia.

• 1:04:19Speaker 00

  Central America's huge. Nicaragua has amazing surfing. The Caribbean itself, Puerto Rico is a really good budget destination. It has nice hotels. Puerto Rico is part of the US, no passport, your phone works, there's no currency, it's easy. Like, I'm a big Puerto Rico fan. You get culture too. Like Puerto Rico is an island where you are encouraged, like, as a tourist, it's completely safe to go around the whole island. I mean, South America, Colombia, like, the US dollar just goes so far. Even, I would say, South Africa. So, South Africa is a long flight, especially from the west coast, but it's one of my favorite destinations in the world.

• 1:04:55Speaker 00

  The US dollar is so strong against Iran. I'm not kidding when a full, for two people, amazing, five course meal and wine, $60 US. Like, you can go to vineyards and ship, you buy wine, it's essentially like $3 a bottle. And it's $3 a bottle to ship and they're always like, oh my God, it's the same price. But I'm like, To have $12 a bottle, amazing South African wine delivered to my door like.

• 1:05:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:20Speaker 00

  So basically everywhere but Europe, but even within Europe, there's like, if you really want to go have an Italian like experience, Croatia is like

• 1:05:27Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay.

• 1:05:27Speaker 00

  much cheaper, still kind of crowded, but.

• 1:05:30Ashley Hesseltine?

  I like that. Thinking about like what the cost of entertainment is in places like in Bangkok, I got a 90 minute massage every day for 20 minutes. You know, and now in Europe, they're $490 at a hotel for a massage. Like it's crazy at the five star hotels. Exactly. It's like this weird thing in the summer, like even I get it and I don't have a family. I can travel whenever I want. Cause a lot of people have to take their summer vacations with the kids, which why do you want to be out with the kids anyway? Is this as a person who doesn't have kids? Like I want to be where the kids aren't. I want to go when they're back in school. But this weird thing you get in July and you just see everyone there and you were like have this weird FOMO. And you have to like self-talk like it's so hot. I don't want to be there. I'll go in September, but I think we all have this pack mentality even.

• 1:06:12Speaker 00

  By the way, I will say one of the biggest trends I'm seeing now due to the, you know, the whole political environment going on now. So many Europeans, Canadians are dropping like they are not coming to the US.

• 1:06:23Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:23Speaker 00

  So this summer, I more than ever am thinking about almost staying at home this summer and going places in the US because the hotel pricing is much cheaper. I know in a lot of different markets, we're about to see it happen even more. The March numbers were crazy. Almost a third of Canadians stopped coming.

• 1:06:38Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:06:39Speaker 00

  You know, with Trump taunting about Canada becoming the 51st state, like it is now a national sense of pride. People are selling homes, not coming to the US as a way of sort of protesting with their wallets. 18% less Europeans came in March than last year, and I think those numbers are going to continue to plummet. I'm talking to people around the world and there's a big sense of people avoiding trips to the US. But what does that mean? That means that there's going to be way more people in Europe this summer. The Europeans are staying in Europe, you know, so there's going to be pressure on prices like never before in Europe. And I think it's going to be less in the US.

• 1:07:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  But I like what you're saying. And we were talking with a guy last night, comedian Josh Wolfe, who lives in Vegas. And he was like, Vegas is fucked. I mean, Vegas depends on tourism from Canadian, from Asia. And he was like, their hotels are firing their staff.

• 1:07:24Speaker 00

  Firing their staff, their concierge staff. It's like, it's literally a crisis that's brewing.

• 1:07:28Ashley Hesseltine?

  It's maddening. And we all feel that. Well, most of us feel that way. But I like your point of like, pick these luxury places in the US. I mean, Jackson Hole was incredible.

• 1:07:37Speaker 00

  Unbelievable.

• 1:07:38Ashley Hesseltine?

  So many places in California, like, feel like you're in Italy. And I think there's these places.

• 1:07:43Speaker 00

  For the first time last summer, which is not a budget destination by any stretch. But I went in July, and it was so hot, but it was still amazing. And a fraction of what it is at other peak times of year, and you're still getting the culinary experience. So yeah, I mean, the US, we live in such a beautiful country.

• 1:07:58Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:58Speaker 00

  There are so many beautiful places to go.

• 1:08:00Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes. And that FOMO that like, I like that you brought that up, like, it's just not as, listen, I will go to London every year to see my brother in the summer in July. But like, I, it's not that pleasant.

• 1:08:11Ashley Hesseltine?

  It's not what you think. It's not what you think.

• 1:08:13Speaker 00

  I went to Ibiza last summer, August, so packed. I mean, DC 10 is a really cool club, but it is so packed, person to person, hot, sweaty. I haven't been, but so many of my friends who live in Europe are like, closing weekend in Ibiza in October is it. It's so fun, beautiful weather. And it's like, the real

• 1:08:30Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:30Speaker 00

  cool crowd. So I would push people to think differently. Opening weekends, closing weekends, and like.

• 1:08:35Ashley Hesseltine?

  I like that.

• 1:08:36Rayna Greenberg?

  I agree. When I was in Positano a couple of summers ago, the boat driver, I was, they were like, it's amazing here in September. No one's here, and it's still 75 degrees every day.

• 1:08:43Ashley Hesseltine?

  Right. But I like this, like, as sad as the state of the world is, like, use this summer to like, take this luxurious vacation somewhere here, while no one else is coming here. It's as sad as it is. So.

• 1:08:56Rayna Greenberg?

  I mean, anywhere I can spend less on food, too, because that's what I anchor my trips around, is like, Mexico City.

• 1:09:00Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:09:01Rayna Greenberg?

  Cheapest St. Regis in the world is in Mexico City. And the food, I mean, it couldn't be cheaper. South America is a great point. I mean, you just, maybe the flight's expensive, but once you're there, it's so inexpensive to stay in all these places.

• 1:09:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  But there really are so many places here that I go to, and I'm like, damn, this is America. I mean, this is dope. You know, like, when we were in, like, Wyoming. And the older I get, I'm like, I don't want a big party atmosphere. Anyway, I want to be in like, a small town in Maine as a vacation, you know?

• 1:09:27Speaker 00

  I love Provincetown, Massachusetts. It's one of my favorite places to go. Have you ever been? It's like this idyllic little

• 1:09:32Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:33Speaker 00

  kind of gay. It's definitely gay, but it's like, Just like Americana lobster rolls, happy people.

• 1:09:39Ashley Hesseltine?

  Totally.

• 1:09:40Rayna Greenberg?

  We're obsessed with Portland, Maine. Love it. I am so obsessed with Newport, Rhode Island. I can't stop talking about it. I don't think it's a budget destination.

• 1:09:47Ashley Hesseltine?

  It might be now.

• 1:09:48Speaker 00

  But if you're saving on the flights.

• 1:09:50Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes, yes.

• 1:09:51Speaker 00

  And Newport, Rhode Island's no more expensive than, it's probably cheaper than Positana, you know? So it's like, and it's still beautiful, you know?

• 1:09:57Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, my God, so beautiful.

• 1:09:58Speaker 00

  The money you save on flights, rent a boat for a couple of days. I don't know.

• 1:10:01Ashley Hesseltine?

  Exactly that. What is it?

• 1:10:02Rayna Greenberg?

  Catalina.

• 1:10:03Ashley Hesseltine?

  Catalina.

• 1:10:06Speaker 00

  I love Palm Springs. I'm a big Palm Springs.

• 1:10:08Rayna Greenberg?

  Totally. It's amazing. Santa Barbara. I mean, I actually was at a town for like two weeks last summer and I just like lost my mind and went everywhere because I was like, I have nothing to do. And I went to Catalina, Santa Barbara, Ojai. There's just a lot. It's a lot more to do besides go to Paris.

• 1:10:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:10:22Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, can we talk about real ID? And do you think this is going to be fucking people up? Or do you think most people have had the five year warning?

• 1:10:28Speaker 00

  Well, it's crazy. I was just looking like New Jersey is like the least compliant state. Only 20% of people have it.

• 1:10:34Rayna Greenberg?

  I don't understand how. In New York, they started telling us. I got mine in 2020.

• 1:10:37Speaker 00

  I know, you know, and this passed. This was supposed to be enacted 20 years ago. So and just for anyone listening, after nine 11, the US Congress said, okay, all you states, like some states had really janky processes. They were like printing things on like, you know, very easy to forge. So Congress mandated to all the states, here are all the security standards you need to have. You have like five years to do it, four years. States never did it. It would be billions of dollars. They bitched and moaned and this and that. So it's literally been 20 years of extensions. And finally, the federal government this year was like, no more. So May 7, 2025, if you want to use your license, you need to have a real ID, which is, you know, most states, like a star on the top right of your ID. You know, and they say 80% of people's IDs today qualify.

• 1:11:21Speaker 00

  So most people do, but 20% is still a big number.

• 1:11:24Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:25Speaker 00

  So if you don't have either an enhanced or real ID by May 7, you have to use a passport to travel domestically or a global entry card, which everyone listening, please, even if you travel once a year internationally, get global entry.

• 1:11:38Rayna Greenberg?

  And isn't it $15 more than TSA?

• 1:11:40Speaker 00

  It's $120 now, but yeah, it's a little bit more than TSA, but it includes TSA.

• 1:11:45Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes.

• 1:11:45Speaker 00

  Plus you're getting global entry. And when you get Global Entry, just make sure you get a Global Entry card so that you could use it if you ever lose your license.

• 1:11:52Rayna Greenberg?

  I always encourage people to get Global if you're gonna get TSA.

• 1:11:54Speaker 00

  And so many credit cards will give you free Global Entry.

• 1:11:56Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes.

• 1:11:56Speaker 00

  There's like 15 of the top credit cards out there.

• 1:11:58Rayna Greenberg?

  Yes.

• 1:11:58Ashley Hesseltine?

  Okay, yeah, and this episode is gonna drop after it will be in effect unless they keep pushing it down the line.

• 1:12:04Speaker 00

  Nope, they said not.

• 1:12:04Ashley Hesseltine?

  They said no, so 20 years, you guys have 20 years to do this. So yeah, if you guys, I'm sure you guys know this, but if you're, it's domestic, so if you don't have it, you gotta bring your passport. If you don't have either, you're fucked, right?

• 1:12:14Speaker 00

  That being said, the TSA, you can get through the TSA without a license. There's a process, like they can Google you, like you can show a library card, like they'll work with you, but it's a pain.

• 1:12:23Ashley Hesseltine?

  Right.

• 1:12:23Speaker 00

  You know, so getting clear also, you can avoid this, not, not every airport has clear, so.

• 1:12:29Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:30Speaker 00

  Long story, but I'm hearing that there's like a year-long wait in some states and there's multi-hour waits to go to these real ID centers, so it's a pain for those who waited, so.

• 1:12:38Rayna Greenberg?

  So for the last little part of the episode, I thought I would ask you, people wanna know, what are like really good like travel apps? Like Splitwise is like my favorite tip if you're gonna go on a group trip with a bunch of people and you're like, I don't know who should pay for what, like that's my favorite, we'll tally it up and this app will do it for you. What kinda apps do you like for travel?

• 1:12:54Speaker 00

  Oh, so I love an app called Flighty. Flighty will track your plane, where it's coming from, cause I have a whole chapter in my book about, you know, what to do when things go wrong. And the biggest piece of information travelers, you need to be a step ahead. You need to not be waiting for the angry gate agent to spew out, oh, the flight's late. There are apps that'll tell you before. You can track your incoming plane, so when you know your incoming plane is in Buffalo and they just got hit by a blizzard, like you need to go a step ahead and be like, uh-uh, no, I'm booking my backups, I'm gonna ask the airline. So Flighty is one of my favorites. It'll also track all the flights you've ever taken, it'll tell you if you've flown on a plane before, how old the plane is, like if you're like an aviation geek.

• 1:13:34Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:34Speaker 00

  I also love Flight Radar 24. This is an app that'll, if you ever see a plane in the sky and you're like, I wonder what that is, it'll actually, you can click a button and point it in the sky and it'll tell you the plane type, where it's going, where it's coming from.

• 1:13:45Ashley Hesseltine?

  Oh my god.

• 1:13:46Speaker 00

  A little niche.

• 1:13:47Ashley Hesseltine?

  It's a dating app, you're like, is there any singles on that plane?

• 1:13:51Rayna Greenberg?

  We asked people for their worst like travel nightmares and a lot of people said, I went to the airport, wrong day, wrong time. I went to the wrong hotel. I switched AM to PM. Ashton, I went to the wrong airport one morning. It was a nightmare. Is there anything other than, I mean, I'm obsessively, I've just, I have, I have spreadsheets on spreadsheets, but is there any like tools that you like?

• 1:14:08Speaker 00

  The trackers. No, but I'll say like I showed up at a hotel the wrong day once. This is book direct when possible with these hotels or with the agent because when you book through an OTA, I went to this hotel and they're like, we would totally waive this and change it in our system right now. But you're not a client of ours. You're a client of this online travel agency. The same is with flights. When you book a flight through an online travel agency, if your flight's delayed or canceled, the airline agent could literally click one button and put you on the next flight, one gate over. But a lot of times now, if you book through an online travel agency, you have to call them. So there might be a flight leaving in 10 minutes that you could get on, but instead you're on hold with the, so it's not an app.

• 1:14:45Rayna Greenberg?

  It's a good, that's a good tip.

• 1:14:46Speaker 00

  Tip in general is the closer the relationship you have with the people providing your travel, the better.

• 1:14:50Rayna Greenberg?

  Yeah. I sometimes like those third parties because it's all in my app.

• 1:14:54Speaker 00

  Yeah. Tripit is really good at that. It'll, it'll trip it. You can have all your reservations get sent to it.

• 1:14:59Rayna Greenberg?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:15:00Speaker 00

  And it'll track. Yeah.

• 1:15:01Rayna Greenberg?

  What else like goes wrong? You have a whole chapter about things going wrong. Like what else and what tips do you have?

• 1:15:06Speaker 00

  Well, in general, people think that the airlines owe you something. Unfortunately, there's no legislation. Like we have no consumer rights. Like the Department of Transportation in 2024 just made a rule that airlines have to get, at least give you your money back when they screw up. Whether, and it doesn't matter the reason, but if your flight's delayed three hours or longer domestically, like you have the option. Like if you're at an airport and they just keep delaying, you can just be like, I'm tapping out. Like, see you later. Give me my money back. Before the airlines could mess with you and be like, no, you're a no show. You didn't stay. You know, they played games with people because, or they wouldn't let you cancel. So you couldn't even take that other backup flight you booked because you're like, but people, there are no. Airlines are cheap. So instead of waiting in an hour long line to get, you know,

• 1:15:49Speaker 00

  an $8 voucher thrown at you to get a hamburger. What people don't know is if you book flights using travel credit cards, those Chase Sapphires of the world, they have what's called trip delay and cancellation coverage. So when the airlines go haywire, you don't wait in that hour long line for a Motel 8 gift card. You immediately book yourself at the airport Westin, or you get an Uber to a nice hotel, and then your credit card will reimburse you for everything. And the credit card coverage goes a step further. If you miss that cruise because of the missed connection of the airline, that's a covered reason. During COVID, when you book, I know a lot of people who booked villas that couldn't go to Europe because it closed down, a lot of the credit card companies reimburse for them. So that's, you know, back to the whole point

• 1:16:30Speaker 00

  about credit cards and perks and the power of a credit card company backing you up. You know, having the right credit card use can help solve things when they go awfully wrong.

• 1:16:39Ashley Hesseltine?

  Is there a line of like when you can leave that, like, I don't know, a flight canceled is one thing, but like, they keep pushing it hour, hour, hour, like, will your credit card back you up if it's been delayed three to five hours?

• 1:16:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, so with the credit cards, it's usually six hours is like when their delay coverage kicks in, or 12. It just depends on the credit card. But yeah, so no, when it hits six hours, instead of like waiting at the airport, you can, when your coverage kicks in, and sometimes it's a thousand dollars a person in coverage. So there are tools like Resort Pass where you can pay like a couple hundred bucks to use a hotel. So if you're at the Miami airport, don't wait in the airport. You can like pay to use the W, sit by the pool for a four hour delay that you have and have your credit card reimburse that.

• 1:17:20Ashley Hesseltine?

  Do you like that?

• 1:17:21Speaker 00

  I love Resort Pass. Yeah, it's great.

• 1:17:23Ashley Hesseltine?

  I think I matched with a guy in Raya that like founded it once. And I was like, I just want to get to know him and send him our deck.

• 1:17:30Speaker 00

  It's a great company.

• 1:17:31Ashley Hesseltine?

  It seems, yeah, you can get like cabanas and pool time at hotels, right?

• 1:17:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, totally. So even if you want to do a staycation and like go and order your flights delayed. Or a lot of people like will get off a cruise at 8 a.m. and you have until your flight's at 4 p.m. You're like, what do I do? Resort Pass, you can literally get cabanas.

• 1:17:47Ashley Hesseltine?

  And then you can shower. This is a great hack. And I feel like I've been in those scenarios where you have to check out at 11 or whatever, and then you want to spend the day in the city and go fly out at night. And you're like, what the fuck are we supposed to do? And if the hotel doesn't have showers?

• 1:18:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, and Resort Pass even has day rates at certain hotels where you can pay a fraction of the amount, so you can still get a room that day. Because a lot of fancy hotels will try to charge you, you know. Let you check out at like 1pm, but

• 1:18:12Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:12Speaker 00

  They charge the whole rate to check out at 4. It's stupid.

• 1:18:16Ashley Hesseltine?

  Right, right, right. I could talk to you forever. This is so fun. But I really encourage people to get your book and go to your website and follow you on Instagram. Tell everybody where they can like find all of your things.

• 1:18:25Speaker 00

  So thepointsguy.com is our website, thepointsguy on social channels. I'm personally at Brian Kelly, so my antics of me jet setting and also on my horse farm with alpacas, llamas, pigs and

• 1:18:37Ashley Hesseltine?

  That's where we're vacationing this summer.

• 1:18:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:18:39Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yeah, we're just getting Heather McMahon.

• 1:18:41Speaker 00

  New Hope PA.

• 1:18:42Ashley Hesseltine?

  Yes. Well, this is a pleasure. Thank you.

• 1:18:44Speaker 00

  Thank you for having me.

• 1:18:46Ashley Hesseltine?

  And you guys know where to find us, girlsguteat.com, girlsgut eat podcast on Instagram and TikTok. I'm Ash Hess, Raina is Rayna Greenberg. Subscribe on YouTube and share this episode with a friend. Have fun traveling this summer or not in the shoulder season and we will see you Thursday. Have a good week, guys. Bye.