We did not get into points because it was interesting. We got into it because we had four kids going to college (the fifth was recently married, and we expected grandkids would soon be in the picture).
The bills went on credit cards, the credit cards got paid off with what we were earning, and a pile of points accumulated on the side while we were busy paying tuition. That is the whole beginning. There was no strategy and there was certainly no blog.
If that sounds more like your situation than a guy in an airport lounge talking about status runs, you are in the right place.
What we actually do here
We go places and write down what happened. The highlights, the parts that did not make the brochure, and what we would skip if we went back. Nobody is paying us to like anything.
We treat points as money. Because they are. We use them deliberately, we show the math, and we tell you what the trip actually cost. Including the taxes and fees, which is the number most people leave out.
We say the unflattering part. The best meal we have had in a Colorado ski town is in a restaurant we are not going back to. That is a real sentence on this site, and the reason it is there is that a review where everything is good is not a review. The pictures aren’t the best- when someone says, “That looks delicious,” my instinct isn’t to pull out my camera to take a picture, it is to pull out my hand to grab it to take a bite, so some photos are missing some or all of the food.
Four posts that show you what this is
If you only read one, make it whichever matches your next trip.
Best beach snorkel and volcano day on Maui. One day, Turtle Town in the morning and Haleakala in the afternoon. The clearest example of how we plan a day.
Rootstalk, Breckenridge. The best meal we have had in a Colorado ski town, and why we are not going back. Honest reviews mean writing that part too.
Walking the Camino as a multi-generational family. We walk the Coastal route this September with Shana’s parents. Eight months of planning, in public.
How to book awards with LifeMiles. The points side start to finish, with what it actually cost.
Everything else is on the blog, grouped by destination.
Who this is for
People who are past pretending. You have some points, or you have a trip coming, or both. You do not want a listicle and you are not trying to become a full-time travel hacker. You want to know what is worth doing and what something really costs.
We were exactly that, with a stack of statements and a kid touring colleges.
And if you would rather skip ahead
Shana cannot stand watching value go to waste. It is the thing that got her into this and it is the thing that keeps her in it, and it turns out it applies just as well to somebody else’s points as it does to ours.
If you have a boat-load of points you have never used, or a trip you do not know how to start, that is the part we are happy to just do with you.