Join host Justin Vacula on the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast as he explores the world of points and miles with Julia Menez from Geobreeze Travel.
Discover how to travel at low cost using credit card rewards, benefits, and loyalty programs.
In this episode, they discuss the points and miles lifestyle, financial independence, and share tips on maximizing travel rewards. Learn about exciting conference experiences, favorite travel tips, and upcoming events.
Subscribe for more insights on budget-friendly travel adventures!
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to Low-Cost Travel with Points and Miles
01:03 Meetups and Social Media Engagement
01:43 Interview with Julia Menez
02:05 Las Vegas Travel Tips and Zorkfest
09:33 Financial Independence and Geobreeze Travel
11:18 Maximizing Points and Miles for Travel
21:28 Intangible Benefits of Points and Miles
27:59 Getting Started with Miles and Points
29:14 Choosing the Right Credit Cards
30:12 Maximizing Points and Benefits
30:32 Cash and Points
31:58 Earning AA Loyalty Points
34:02 Creative Spending Strategies
41:01 Listener Questions
45:05 Upcoming Cards and Trips in 2025
50:25 Closing Announcements and Events
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Rough Transcript:
Theme Song: [00:00:00] Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold.
Fight the war on happiness, pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold.
Justin: You’re listening to the hurdy gurdy travel podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you travel the world at next no cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty program rewards. Make money, save money and take advantage of great deals. Thanks for joining me for today’s episode, miles and points with Julia Menes of GeoBreeze Travel.
We’ll talk about the benefits of the points and miles lifestyle, getting started with miles and points and how [00:01:00] miles and points can allow for financial freedom. Visit meetup. com slash Philly miles and points to RSVP for monthly greater Philadelphia travel credit miles and points meetups. I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
The next meetups are March 23rd and April 13th, 2025. Find a link in the show notes for more content between podcast episodes. Follow Hurti Gurti travel podcast on Facebook and X follow Justin Vukula on Instagram, subscribe to Hurti Gurti travel podcast on YouTube. Where you can also become a channel member for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips, community, and bonus videos.
Welcome to the show. Julia.
Julia: Hi, I’m so excited to be here.
Justin: We get to flip the script. You had interviewed me before on your show, and now you’re on mine.
Julia: I rarely get to be on this side of the interview table, so it’s always a fun time. [00:02:00]
Justin: All right, excellent. It was fun on yours. So we’ll have some fun today following some fun.
We had in 2024 we met in Las Vegas at the Zork Fest event hosted by Travel Zork and Michael Traeger.
Julia: Yeah, it’s a fantastic conference. I’m a huge fan of anything where I actually don’t have to travel for the conference I am local to Las Vegas the Former Capital of Status Matching. We can talk about how all of that got gutted pretty recently, but it was nice while it lasted, and there’s so many fun travel tricks that can be had here in Las Vegas, and Zorkfest is a great conference that kind of combines the love of points and miles and travel.
with people who are into the world of casinos as well. I’m not as much into the world of casinos, but it’s always interesting to hear about how all of you think about the advantaged place and the expected values and all of that because I used to be an actuary in a former life and [00:03:00] was deep into statistics.
Justin: America indeed loves math. And Vegas I still love. The status matching got a little bit more complicated, but it’s still very much alive. I’ve discussed this in past episodes with Podcast guest Darren Remsburg talking about the Caesars Rewards Visa, the MGM MasterCard, online gambling, and many other opportunities.
So with a little bit of effort, hope is not lost. And we still have MyVegas Rewards in Vegas and the wonderful Phone Army. I know you’ve redeemed several MyVegas Rewards in the past as well.
Julia: I have. I used to use this a lot more when MyVegas was partnered with Hyatt because I would redeem the MyVegas points for free nights at Park MGM or Excalibur or something like that where maybe we were staying at the hotel but most likely we probably weren’t.
But it was a really cheap way to get some elite knights with Hyatt and when they were partnered with Hyatt when you [00:04:00] redeemed through the MyVegas app Usually you still have to pay the taxes and fees, but they would waive that when you had globalist So it was like getting completely free elite knights towards renewing Hyatt globalist status every year But alas they broke up And they no longer have that.
So I haven’t redeemed a MyVegas prize in a long time. Usually just buy one, get one free drinks here or there whenever people are visiting us at Las Vegas.
Justin: Yes, and many of the free play rewards are still alive. Lots for the 20 off of 40 food, 25 off of 50 food. And I’m using my MGM comps combined with the MyVegas rewards.
I’m earning the comps through the MGM MasterCard. So still lots of Opportunity there and the comp nights Maybe if you wanted to get a hotel night for someone else who came into Vegas or you just want to stay at a casino That’s still alive as well
Julia: Not as free as it used to be because you still have to pay the taxes and fees now, but it is still alive [00:05:00]
Justin: Alright good and the community for my experience has been very good with Zork fest and many other miles and points events How has that been for you?
Julia: Oh, the community at Zorkfest is fantastic. Like I mentioned, it’s always nice getting to talk with people who have a little bit of shared interest, but the Venn diagram isn’t just one circle. I think I get bored at a lot of different conferences where everybody just wants to talk about the same thing all the time, and nothing against people who are like, I got a Chase Sapphire Preferred, and then I redeemed it for Hyatt Nights, and then we got Southwest Companion Pass.
Like, love that. I just don’t want to go through that conversation. with every single person at a conference. So at Zorkfest, it’s really interesting because everybody’s trying so many different strategies, and it’s like a whole new language for me since I’m not into the casino comps as deeply as I am into points and miles, so it keeps it a little bit interesting for anybody who’s like, what’s like the next foray that people delve into after getting into [00:06:00] points and miles?
One of these days, I don’t know, maybe Traeger will convince me to To become an advantage player as well?
Justin: Yes, yes. Only if you had online gambling in Las Vegas. And it’s so bizarre that it just doesn’t exist for the most part. All those Staples Mastercards can be recycled in the online casinos. So that’s one of my favorite things in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Julia: Where you just go to Staples and get your 5X on the Chase Inc. business cash and then use those to load into the casino apps?
Justin: Absolutely. Really nice to run through the money in Blackjack and some other place. So lots of opportunity. But Vegas is also nice. It’s always changing, new places opening, new opportunities, and even the tier matching.
We had the win in Fountain Blue tier matching last year, Fountain Blue is matching again, and maybe we’ll see more opportunities in 2025.
Julia: I was able to take advantage of that. Technically, I did get my win, my win platinum [00:07:00] tier. I got my Fountain Blue, got a lot of free food out of that. If you’re going to dine at Fountain Blue, make sure you make reservations in advance.
Don’t just show up to restaurants there, even if it’s on a Wednesday night or whenever we went. They fill up fast. That hotel is constantly full of people trying to eat dinner at all the different restaurants. And then with Wynn, we went first thing in the morning so that we wouldn’t have to wait too long, even though you get to skip the line if you have status, but we went to the Wynn buffet, which is fantastic.
I will say, the dessert game is not as strong as just the normal savory food game. The crabmeat is great, the sushi is great, the prime rib and all of the roasts and everything, those are great. The desserts I thought it would be a little bit better, but it’s still not bad. I did not get to use the spa or salon credits at all.
Those just went to waste. I did not get to use my win masterclasses because those fill up so fast. So [00:08:00] if those status matches or tier matches ever come back, make sure that you book them way ahead of time. Don’t try to be picky like I did of, Oh, do I really want to learn to make these cocktails or this dessert?
Just take whichever masterclass you can get into.
Justin: Yes you could. You were even able to meet the canine and police officers.
Julia: I thought about doing that ’cause everyone online was like, you should meet the police dogs, the security dogs and when, how much of like a dog person. I was like, how much am I really going to enjoy this?
So we just ended up not being able to use our credits, which is unfortunate.
Justin: And the buffet, I remember, two buffets anyway, were exactly 150. So it was 150 with the birthday comp at Win Las Vegas, and two people got in for exactly 150, so I like that better than going somewhere else and being under the 150 or having to pay extra.
And the tip expectation at a buffet is significantly lower than if you were to go to a quote [00:09:00] unquote fine dining restaurant. And then perhaps you’re tipping something like 50 on a 150 comp. Not as great of a deal in my mind.
Julia: I didn’t realize there was different expectations. We’re usually just between 20 and 25 percent no matter what.
Justin: Yeah, yeah, usually the buffet tip expectation is lower. Yes, I, I was looking into that online and seeing what people were saying about the tip expectation at buffet because that was one thing with Caesar’s and the celebration dinner. People were going to the Bacchanal buffet and using it there, but that’s increased in price.
So the war on happiness. Indeed continues. So to continue the conversation, like me, you don’t have a traditional job. You talk in your podcast, the Geo breeze travel podcast about fire, financial independence, and you’ve embraced a miles and points lifestyle and scaling up Geo breeze as well.
Julia: I used to have a traditional job and I think it’s worth level setting what our financial journey was.
So back in the day. I [00:10:00] was an actuary, and my husband was and still is a software engineer, and we reached financial independence by living off of my salary and then saving or investing his. So for anybody who’s trying to get to financial independence, it is so much easier if you have two high incomes in the same household.
Like, let’s just start there, where people are like, how do I get to five if we only have 50, 000 of household income? It’s a lot harder. You could try to live off of 25, 000 a year, but it’s going to be a lot easier for you if you can increase your household income. After a while, I moved from corporate actuarial work to a startup that was bleeding money and I, after about five months did not have a job anymore.
So I was like, okay, well, while I am searching for. Um, I guess I should just work on GeoBreeze for a few hours a day because I don’t have much else going on. And in those couple of months where I was job searching, GeoBreeze started to grow more and more. [00:11:00] And I thought, no, I can just do this full time for a while.
So now full time, we produce content, we produce YouTube videos, the GeoBreeze travel podcast. We serve our clients in a one on one capacity to help people maximize their points and miles and so many other different services that we have online.
Justin: And miles and points reducing expenses significantly.
Before I got involved in the hobby, I would go to many gaming conventions. I’d go to concerts and I’d have to pay cash money for hotels. I’d have to pay full price, transportation costs, all kinds of considerations, flights, but now being able to use points to offset hotel costs, being able to use points to offset flight costs.
And even here in Pennsylvania, my gas and groceries are largely covered thanks to grocery. Reward programs. So it’s a lot of saving money and also making money through many things we’re doing in the hobby with bank bonuses, with cash back and so much more.
Julia: Mine’s a little bit different where the money has come in [00:12:00] because it’s turned into my full time job.
So just from, so just from enrolling clients or Patreon members, a little bit of YouTube income, that’s how it’s paid for a lot of our lifestyle now, which I know is a little bit different than most people who just do this purely as a hobby. Instead of providing it as a service to other people, I think a lot of people also think that most bloggers or points influencers make all of our money through affiliate links, which I lost my affiliate links a while ago with Chase.
Uh, they, they have a lot of rules and I did not want to follow the rules, so I don’t have those links anymore. Long story short.
Justin: Ah, you were, you were controversial enough or speaking the truth, let’s say.
Julia: Yeah, they required you to do so many things. And to not do so many things that I wanted to do, and I’m like, Alright, how much am I making off of this?
100 grand a year? I don’t need that. That’s the magic of fire.
Oh,
Julia: it was like more than 100, 000 a year in affiliate money, and I’m like, Okay, Chase, is it worth the [00:13:00] headache? No, it was not. For like, for what they needed us to talk about, and more so not talk about, where every time I had like a good video, they’d be like, you have to take it down.
I’m like, no, this is like my best content. This
is
Julia: really valuable for people. I don’t want to take down this tip. So I don’t have links anymore on geobreeztravel. com slash cards. Uh, we share the referral links from students in our community so that they just get the referral points instead. And I’m not too sad over that 100k.
We’re fire. We’re fine.
Justin: You mentioned having this as a full time gig, and I think it’s a misconception. People think that it’s all or nothing, that you must be full time with miles and points to be successful in the hobby. But I know many podcast listeners, many people I’ve met with are doing this as a hobby, as you mentioned, and still having tremendous success.
Julia: Absolutely. Whether you’re doing it as a hobby, kind of like you’re doing, where you’re earning a lot of points and miles, even grocery rewards points to cover daily expenses, or. [00:14:00] Some people have an Instagram where they’re getting some referral links and some affiliate link money. That’s another way to do it.
Or, if you just don’t want to have your face online, there’s so many creators who are constantly hiring, where, I have a team of I think 12 people right now, and we always are looking for more salespeople or client managers or people to prepare a word search tutorials, because there’s always people asking, Hey, can you help me with this?
It’s a lot for just one person to take on. I think that’s something a lot of people also don’t realize is there’s an entire team behind me that makes the machine run. So we’re always looking to expand and grow the team. So if you have a lot of points knowledge and you want to kind of monetize this as a side gig, make a couple hundred or a couple thousand extra dollars a year.
Or sorry, a couple hundred extra or a couple thousand dollars extra per month. But not quit your day job, just reply to customer service emails or prepare award search tutorials at night while watching Netflix. There’s the flexibility to do that too. [00:15:00]
Justin: Ah, so for people who aren’t content creators or won’t be doing that, I’ve heard people having success maybe getting two, three credit cards a year.
They get their big trip, they get their big redemption, and they’re still very happy even though they’re not fully in and getting something like 20 or 25 credit cards a year.
Julia: I don’t think I have 20 or 25. I think I have some teen number of credit cards and we open to a year or something. I’m not that dependent on signup bonuses anymore.
Justin: So for those that are looking for success, can they have success in Malice in points, getting something like two cards or even just starting with one, I think there’s that misconception that people think they have to be all in and have all these cards and all these accounts in order to have success.
Julia: Yeah, it depends on how you define success, because I think a lot of people think they need to go from zero to the number one ranking point Instagram or blog in the history of forever. And [00:16:00] that’s not true. First of all, success is however you want to define it. Some people are like, well, I can’t do this because I don’t have a lot of money or I don’t want to open credit cards or whatever.
There’s always a strategy around that. It just depends what you want to be flexible on. Even for people outside of the United States, if you can’t get these credit cards, look into the strategies of buying points on sale. So, it’s very common to find point sales where you could spend Maybe 1, 000 on points.
Flip it into a 4, 000 business class ticket. Getting 75 to 80 percent off is very, very common that way. And so many people will write off that strategy because they expect to be able to get everything for free. Where there’s the conception, the misconception of, well, I don’t want to pay 1, 000 for points, even if I’m getting 4, 000 worth of value out of that because I didn’t win enough.
If I still had to. Do a cash outlay of [00:17:00] 1, 000, but you literally saved 3, 000 off of that flight just by taking advantage of point sales, and it didn’t require opening any new credit cards. So I think that’s a strategy that people don’t take advantage of enough because so many people just expect to get everything for free.
Justin: Yes, sir. Otherwise they would slum it up and fly in economy and have around 1000 or maybe like 500 to 1000 in a flight. The one benefit of points and miles is having. A better quality of travel, not just saving money on travel, but having a better experience.
Julia: Absolutely. There’s so many people who always solve for the cheapest possible option where, whether it’s with travel or where they live or who they hire or what they do.
The gadgets they buy, the travel bag, it’s always what’s the cheapest possible option that I can get. And sometimes it is more expensive to be that cheap because you booked a low [00:18:00] cost carrier in Asia, and they canceled your flight, they don’t have the trip protections that we have here, and then you had to just book a secondary ticket.
It can be more expensive to do it wrong that way, or you’re like, I’m just going to do everything myself, I don’t want to pay for any of the software help, I don’t want to pay a person to help me with this, and then you realize you spent way more points than was, than was necessary. I mean, if you’re the kind of person where you’re in the phase of life that you need to solve.
For the cheapest possible option and save as much money as possible. Absolutely. No shame in that. I just find it’s odd when that group also starts getting upset about not being able to get all of the business class flights they could ever want, because it seems like those should be two different phases in life.
Justin: And I hear too about people complaining being broke or they’ll say things like I just got back from vacation and now I’m broke and I’ve told some people about the hobby and Hey, if you could be [00:19:00] responsible with credit. If you’re already organized, you didn’t have to pay for that vacation. You didn’t have to pay full price.
You could have saved in those hotels and those flights. So I think that’s a really interesting opportunity. I would think that people that are lower income or don’t have as many resources would be more motivated to do this for the savings. But unfortunately I found that’s not the case in many scenarios.
Julia: If you’re already Well established and have good financial foundation. And you should absolutely be taking advantage of this because business owners who don’t even realize how many passive points they can get just from running their business on the correct credit cards could be saving so much money and maybe saving on.
The travel costs from deploying their sales team all over the country or something like that, if that was covered on points or anytime they host a conference, getting a lot of that covered on points for the hotel rooms for people, there’s so many different ways to look at it. And I also have been tracking like my percentage of cash outlay versus [00:20:00] the sticker price of the flight.
I try to keep it around 10%. I’m not maximizing for a lowest possible spend, but also I want people to think to themselves, what is your actual travel budget? If the world of points and miles didn’t exist, how much can you actually afford to spend on travel per year? Is it 1, 000, 5, 000, 10, 000, 20, 000? And then I would recommend trying to get Five times that or 10 times that and stretching your budget out further that way by using points and miles.
So if you have 10, 000 a year, you can spend on travel. We have about that. And then we try to stretch it to a hundred thousand dollars worth of sticker price value. If you only have a travel budget of 1, 000, that’s completely fine. Try to stretch that to a 10, 000 trip. But where people go, I think a little bit insane is with misaligned expectations where.
They don’t have 5, 000 [00:21:00] in a checking account. They can’t cover a minimum spend. They, they just don’t have it. Which, people are in different phases of life, and that’s okay. It’s just important to realize what phase of life you’re in. Because if you can’t afford a minimum spend on a card of 5, 000, and you’re upset that you can’t save 100, 000 on travel with points and miles because you’re not generating enough points, it’s a little bit disjointed.
Justin: And on the budget of travel, how much people would spend? One thing that I like about the hobby is that I receive many intangible Benefits and have a better quality of travel. Maybe things like seat upgrades that I otherwise wouldn’t pay for or wouldn’t get. I would get some room upgrades, different benefits at hotels.
What are some intangible things that you like that you’ve gotten through the hobby?
Julia: My ideal world of traveling if I have to do it Very often is that I’m just teleported from my home to where I need to go. I think [00:22:00] a lot of people enjoy flying a lot more than I do. I’m not a nervous flyer or anything, but if I just have to take an economy flight, three hours for a conference, getting to skip lines, if something goes wrong, having a priority phone line to just make it right and help me with that.
Maybe the upgrades, but more so just the speed of having stuff ready to go when I need it to go priority boarding, so I don’t have to fight people for where am I going to put my suitcase? Because if you’re the last person to board, who knows if they’re even going to have room up there. So those kinds of intangible benefits of just how much inconvenience can be removed by having some kind of status is worth a lot to me.
Justin: Extra check bags, maybe lounge access. So, I’ve known some people that really don’t like sitting in the noisy, busy terminals, and they could otherwise get lounge access that maybe they couldn’t even pay for in some circumstances, and I’ve heard that, oh, it’s nice to have a quiet space, and [00:23:00] I had an issue with my flight.
I was able to talk to the person at the desk, and they were able to fix things for me, so I think lots of benefits that we get a better experience.
Julia: If you have lounge access, oftentimes they will put some of the most competent customer service agents in the lounge. So if you have a flight that’s canceled or delayed or something and you have access to that lounge.
See if they can get you rebooked on a flight because they’re probably going to be a lot Those agents are probably going to have a lot more experience and a lot more technical know how for how to get your problem solved Versus the poor entry level person at the gate who is bombarded with 50 other people screaming with them Just head to the lounge and see if they can get you rebooked
Justin: Yes And not having to wait in that very long line that everyone else is in when flights get canceled or delayed
Julia: for sure
Justin: Yes.
And at hotels, many times I’ve seen priority lines as well. I know at Rio and Las Vegas, there’s the separate VIP check in area. I’ve had this with Caesars and MGM as well. [00:24:00] I’ve seen lines at Hilton’s and Hyatt’s elsewhere and not having to wait 40 minutes to check in. So that’s a nicer experience too.
Julia: Absolutely.
Justin: All right. And what are some of those trips that you’ve taken that you otherwise would not have paid for?
Julia: I often ask chat GPD, I’m like, okay, if we have this much extra budget, what would we spend it on? I don’t think we would spend on first class, like our cafe Pacific first class flights recently from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, Google flights said it was 17, 000 per person.
The comments can fight on whether it’s actually worth that much or not, but that’s what, if I just wanted to. Buy it once. That’s what it would cost on the Cathay Pacific website. I don’t think I would pay that. There are a lot of business class flights now that are like 5, 000 or so. I think that if I had to cross the ocean, I wouldn’t want to do it in economy if there were no award seats.
[00:25:00] And they’re like, you have to do this on this date because of a family issue. Like you have to get back on this date. I’d probably just pay for it in business class. We, if it’s a few thousand dollars, okay. Um, we have the budget for it, but the first class ones, I think that one’s still a little bit ridiculous and I would not pay more than 10, 000 for it.
Justin: And perhaps hotel rooms or room upgrades that you have that otherwise would have been extremely expensive.
Julia: There are some hotels where I’ve gone to them just because they were expensive and made my cent per point valuation look really good, and I just wanted to see if it was worth the hype. So like, Alila Ventana, Big Sur, Park Hyatt, Paris Vendome, those are a couple that are just, the sticker price is very, very high.
I think Alila Ventana normally goes for two or three thousand dollars per night for the room. It was nice. I, I very much enjoyed the experience at Alila Ventana. Well, I know it would not normally be [00:26:00] our style because my husband and I prefer cities. That one was very much off the beaten path for how to get away from it all.
I like it all. So, um, it was very nice. It’s all inclusive, very California style spa, all inclusive hotel, but I’m not going to pay two or 3, 000 a night for it. I think the nice thing about points and miles is that it also lets you experience some of these different things where you’re like, it’s not my normal style, but I can cover it on points.
Maybe I can experiment and see if I like it because maybe some people are like, uh, Alila Ventana would not normally be my style, but then they fall in love with it. I liked it, but it’s not something I would spend 3, 000 on. Same with Park High at Paris Vendome. I actually liked the Hotel du Louvre more than that.
We stayed at a couple different hotels in Paris. Those are a couple of examples of hotels where I’m like, I don’t think I would pay to stay here for multiple thousand dollars per night. I think if we’re covering our own hotel costs, we [00:27:00] would be a bit cheaper with it versus with flights. Like, I just don’t think I could physically make it over an ocean in economy anymore if we’re flying to Australia or something.
I think I You’d
Justin: become spoiled. I It’s good, though.
Julia: I’ve become spoiled. I’ve also aged. Um, I just don’t I don’t think I’d physically survive it, but if it’s a tiny shoebox room in Sydney, once I’m there I mean, we’re gonna go explore Sydney anyway, so We can just throw our stuff in the room as long as it’s clean and safe.
I used to be completely opposite about this, where I’m like, You’re only spending four hours on the flight, but you’re spending four days in the hotel room. The hotel room has to be much nicer. I think I’m kind of switched on that now where I need to be able to lay down on the flight. And as long as it’s a clean hotel, once we get there, it doesn’t have to be that fancy.
It doesn’t have to be that huge. If there’s free breakfast, fantastic. If not, usually we’re in a city center where we can get breakfast somewhere else. There’s going to be a coffee shop down the street.
Justin: All right, good. How about [00:28:00] advice for people getting started with miles and points?
Julia: I always advise people to start backwards.
When they are first getting started, there’s so much content on the internet where you can get shiny card syndrome, where you’re like, oh, maybe I should get the chase card and then a capital one card and then an Amex card and I hear Alaska is really good too. And then Marriott has this good one, but also people keep talking about Southwest companion pass.
And before you know, you’ve got 20 different cards. You don’t know what you’re doing. If you’re first getting started and you have points everywhere, you’ve probably stretched yourself to meet these minimum spend. Instead of that. Figure out where it is you want to go and the general vibes, at least, of the trip that you want to do.
Are you going for more of a resort style? Do you want to visit a particular city? Is there a time of year you want to go? Work backwards from there to figure out the trip you want. Price out what it’s probably going to cost in points. What kind of points you’re going to need in order to take that trip.
And then that, and then let [00:29:00] that Drive the decision for what cards to get rather than going the other way. Because if you just have a whole bunch of different hodgepodge of points and then try to stick them together for a trip, you’re probably not gonna get the best valuation that way.
Justin: And evaluating the cards that they currently have.
I’ve run into a lot of people, Oh, I’ve always had a Discover credit card, I had this with Chase, and I’ve run into people paying high annual fees on cards and not even using the benefits. One person with the Chase Sapphire Reserve not using TSA Pre, People not using certain benefits and credits.
Julia: Yeah, don’t do that.
Just, just don’t do that. Before you get a card, figure out why are you getting this card. And it’s, if it’s because everybody’s talking about it online, we’re paid to talk about it online. That’s how people make money. That’s why people talk about credit cards, of why every card is the best card ever. So, before you get these cards, figure out what it is you’re going to do with it and how it’s going to add value to your life and your strategy and Working backwards [00:30:00] helps with that.
If you just are like, Oh my god, I need to fit into the cool girl lunch table of having 25 different credit cards, good luck. I guess. But don’t do that.
Justin: I find the answer to everything is still more credit cards, but after starting small, after knowing what you’re getting into, and after having a good strategy.
Julia: The answer is not always get more credit cards. Oh no! I do not get more credit cards. We probably get two a year. Like, between me and my husband, we each get one per year. The answer, I think, is always put real money before fake money, because if you just have a good, sustainable way of generating cash flow, I know it takes so much longer to build that up than just getting more and more credit cards, but it’s so many fewer headaches if you’re just like it.
Oh, well, now we can just put our emergency fund into Basque Bank and then get passive income American Airlines miles every year because that account pays out interest in the form of points instead [00:31:00] of in money. That’s headache free. So rather than the answer being get more cards for me, the answer is put real money before points money because then the points just come in like gravy.
Justin: Uh, and many like the high APY accounts like Wealthfront, perhaps Laurel Road. Although I think some of these rates have been going down, it was at 5 percent APY and I think it’s around 4 at the moment.
Julia: American Airlines BASC Bank I think pays 2 miles per dollar per year. So if you have 10, 000 in that account, you’ll get passive 20, 000 AA miles into your account.
Justin: Ah, any loyalty points out of that as well? Sadly, not
Julia: anymore.
Justin: Ah, war on happiness. And we’re recording in February of 2025, February 24th. And it’s coming to the end of the AA loyalty points earning period. So would you like to talk about that? That we’re on the topic of AA.
Julia: Yeah, if you want to get your [00:32:00] AA status again, I have executive platinum, so I need 200, 000 loyalty points over the calendar year.
There’s a lot of different ways to do this. You could fly with AA. Who does that? Um, but you could just give them money. If you have the strategy of putting Real money before points, money, and you have a business and you have high expenses. We get a lot of points just by putting stuff on American airlines, credit cards.
A lot of our clients are the same way where they just get their American airlines or Hyatt status by putting spend on the card. If you’re into the churning games, you can turn your way through the spend on those cards as well. So that’s a very common strategy, simply miles portal, the shopping portal.
And then also the Advantage Hotels, that’s a very common strategy these days, or I don’t know if it’s that common, but it’s a very lucrative strategy, where you have a co branded American Airlines credit card, and then you’re booking hotels through Advantage Hotels, because maybe it’s a boutique hotel, or maybe you care about [00:33:00] your American Airlines points and loyalty status much more than you care about any hotel status, You can get 20 or 30 AA miles per dollar on the hotels there.
There’s a lot in Las Vegas as well.
Justin: And a lot of stacking opportunities. I was seeing offers for meal kits that you can get meal kits through a portal, different sources, and you would see Chase offers or Amex offers giving some kind of discount or rebate on those too. So that’s been an interesting one that people have been doing.
Julia: Absolutely. There’s so many different stacking opportunities with American Airlines and. Also, whatever program you’re using, or whatever credit cards you’re using, just link them up to the free Build app because I get a lot of passive Build points that way from Walgreens shopping, Lyft rides, we try to go to a lot of the partnered restaurants.
I like a lot of the partnered restaurants just near where I live here in Las Vegas. You don’t need the build card if you don’t want it, if you don’t pay rent, that’s fine. But just, it’s another stacking opportunity if you can link [00:34:00] up your different credit cards up to the free build tab.
Justin: And on more credit cards, I gave a presentation in New York recently, talking about creative spending, generating spend on AA cards.
And it usually doesn’t appear that 1x AA is good earning, but if you could also earn the loyalty points with it, and then use certain rewarding debit cards to get cash back on those payments. With some creative spending portals going to the finish line, it could be an interesting way to gin up more spend and get that status.
So lots of creative ways to get the loyalty points without flying, or flying a little bit.
Julia: Is there a reason we’re just not mentioning what the debit cards and the portals are?
Justin: Those in the know will know. But I’m not giving away all the secrets.
Julia: I’m like, I know what they are and I’m like, I didn’t realize those were still on the down low, but okay.
I don’t play these games. This is [00:35:00] another, like, everybody thinks this is how we all earn points is like, earn a whole bunch of credit card points by opening more cards or just like Do this nonsense that gets things shut down, like create 99 employee cards, get 99 dogs, get each of them a card. I’m not doing any of this.
The
Justin: dogs having dogs. The dogs have
Julia: dogs. I’m not gonna have dogs who have dogs. Who have credit cards.
Justin: The, the Julia puppy mill.
Julia: You’ve got your phone army, I’m not gonna get a puppy army. But yeah, everybody thinks this is the only way to get points, and I’m just like, we fund A hundred thousand dollars plus points and miles travel every year from not doing this.
And I will stand by that. My philosophy on the whole game is put real money before points money. I know it’s like, super frustrating for people to hear that. If they’re like, that’s a very slow climb. It is. I, I did not get into points and miles until like [00:36:00] 2017. I think I was into it. Um, Everybody’s like, Oh, if I had just gotten into this sooner, but I’m kind of glad that I didn’t.
And I instead focused on like financial foundations before going deep in because I can’t imagine the opposite of not focusing on financial foundations and then making up 99 dogs to get American Express cards and then getting shut down by American Express and being like, I have no other way to fund this.
It’s not like I have real money like that would truly suck to be used to business class. And then like. Having stuff taken away from you hurts a lot more than not ever having it in the first place.
Justin: I would have liked to do both. I wish I had the Points and Miles memo about 10 years before I started, and I still would be focused on the real money and also doing the credit card stuff as well.
For all the times I think, oh wow, I could have saved money instead of spending on this hotel, or I could have had another card for another sign up bonus, perhaps another checking [00:37:00] account for a checking account bonus, but unfortunately I didn’t get the memo. But now, um, it’s all we can do. We couldn’t know what we didn’t know, so we’re just going to make Good steps.
I’m going forward. I’m
Julia: okay with not knowing because let’s see, I found out about this game when I was like 27, probably if I had known about this as soon as I turned 18, I would have been so distracted, like both for points and miles and also like monetizing stuff on Instagram. I would have been so distracted.
I would have failed all of my actuarial exams. I would have given up on that, not reached by, but been like a very upset 22 year old being like, why don’t people like my posts? I did not need to be in that game before my frontal cortex was fully developed. I’m okay with not knowing. And some people are like, if only I’d known this sooner, blah, blah, blah.
I’m okay with The way life turned out and I missed out on some of the golden years because for everybody the golden years of points and miles is just before they got into it. Um, that’s when everybody’s like, when was the [00:38:00] best time to go into points and miles? Right before I did. But I’m okay with the way everything turned out.
We’re still able to fund all of our stuff with points and miles without shenanigans that get us shut down and without opening 20 cards per year.
Justin: I try, I try not to cross the line. I don’t know where the line is, but so far it’s been a good run.
Julia: Yeah. For people who are like, how should I earn points miles?
Like the reselling game is like, that’s legit most of the time. That’s legit. Like, let’s just say that if you just do like legit limit sourcing of buying things and reselling them and getting cashflow in that way, that’s a great way to earn points and miles.
Justin: Yes, and it’s OPM as well, rather other people’s money, rather than just using your standard checking account, your own money and debit cards, probably earning nothing.
So there’s certainly an advantage of that, of course, using credit responsibly and sourcing well and spending responsibly. And I’m sure you’ve talked to a lot of people who had their business [00:39:00] expenses and maybe they’ve said things like, Oh, I’ve only just had. One card and I’ve just been earning like one X Delta sky miles using my Delta business gold card.
And after some chatting with you and learning more about the hobby, surely they’ve leveled up their game.
Julia: We have a lot of clients who run ads. So if they can get MX business gold or chasing business preferred, depending on if they want more hotel or airline miles, those are great. Or just even. A capital one venture extra business like two X everywhere is better than one X everywhere.
Yeah,
Julia: maybe allocating a couple hundred thousand dollars per year to earning status with Hyatt or American Airlines. A big tax payment can get people over the hump with status as well. So that’s where a lot of these strategies can really come into play for business owners who have high expenses is you can get status.
You can easily. If you’re earning more points per dollar and getting more out of the points, which is a [00:40:00] huge aspect of this game, as well as just knowing how to maximize your points a little bit better. It’s easy to get ten times as much travel out of your points in a year if you’re earning two points per dollar instead of one point per dollar.
You’re earning five cents per point instead of one cent per point in the portal. Yeah, that’s 10x.
Justin: And surely the flexible points are going to be more interesting compared to Fixed points. So perhaps earning something like membership rewards is more desirable than just outright earning Hilton points or Delta points for many and earning chase ultimate reward points are more interested than just earning Southwest points for many.
Julia: Oh, for sure. Most people, I think, just use their chase points for Hyatt hotels anyway. So if that’s the deal, then you could get a world of Hyatt business card, get your status that way. But definitely get some Amex points or Capital One points, build points or something like that for flights Because those bonus, the transfer bonuses can be a [00:41:00] hugely beneficial as well.
Justin: All right, good We’re coming up to the end here one benefit I have for podcast listeners who subscribe on my subscribe star page is asking guests their questions So we have some interesting questions sent in for this episode Uh, subscriber says, the only current questions I have for Julia are a little silly, but what is an ENTJ?
She says this at the beginning of each podcast. Episode
Julia: ENTJ is part, it’s one of the 16 personalities on the Myers-Brigg Personality Test, which if you’re not familiar with that, is it’s corporate astrology. Mostly four different letters that. Combine into your personality type. So for E, I’m very extroverted.
N, it stands for intuitive. So some people are more conceptual. Some people are more detail oriented. I tend to think of things more conceptually. T versus F, I am more thinking versus feeling. Whenever I approach problems, I think of it more from logic and math. I’m [00:42:00] very into math instead of like. How does this affect people’s feelings?
I’m trying to work on that. I’m terrible at it, but working on it. And then J is judging versus P, perceiving, which I can explain best by saying like, judging people, or perceiving people are like, okay, let’s see how things go, and then they kind of, they’re more open to it, and judging people are like, okay, this is how it’s gonna go, and then you lay out a plan, and that’s, I think that would Very much describe how I approach life and business.
Justin: I consistently come up as the I N T J, but sometimes the I is close to the E, but the N T J is really solid and the T versus F dimension is interesting as it’s like 99 percent thinking versus the 1 percent feeling. So it’s definitely the numbers, the logic, the sense of things rather than the, Oh, are people going to be emotional about this or do feelings matter more than the thinking are the two [00:43:00] dimensions there.
Another listener question, what inspired you to speak into random objects such as combs and toothpaste tubes for your Instagram reels?
Julia: Back in the day, I did a lot of like green screen where I’d be like, okay, and then you have to click here and then click on this thing. And I was trying to record one where I was pointing with a pen, but the Instagram app was So glitchy with its green screen that the pen kept disappearing whenever I tried to point to things, but then I was like I need a bigger object So I used a knife like a chef knife to point to things and people just like all through the comments were like What’s with the knife?
This is kind of weird and I’m like, okay, maybe not a knife So then I just started using what other objects were there spoons forks hairbrush And that’s, that’s how it happened.
Justin: And the final listener question. Why do you wear glasses if you had corrective eye surgery?
Julia: So this person definitely knows a lot about me.
Um, I have corrective eye surgery, but it [00:44:00] wasn’t LASIK. It, I have implanted contact lenses because I was too blind to get LASIK. You know, the free LASIK consultations. I thought they just sell you LASIK. But they were like, oh no, you can’t get LASIK. Your corneas will collapse. So I was like, well, what do I do?
And they were like, well, there’s another procedure called ICL, um, implantable columnar lens. So they drilled some holes into my eyes and I have contact lenses, subcorneal. My vision’s great now, but the question about, like, why I wear these glasses all the time, um, in my videos, or, like, oftentimes, I’ll just put them on my head, uh, to hold my hair back, it’s because I have bad hair days, and, like, there’s a ponytail crease, so I’m wearing my hair back today, but oftentimes, like, it’s just, it’s creased weird, or it’s sticking out weird, and I use the glasses as a headband, because I don’t actually have any headbands, so that’s what these glasses are for.
They’re also blue light blocking glasses, so I should wear them more when I’m just staring at screens all the time, [00:45:00] but I’m very bad about that. I don’t actually use them as blue light blocking glasses, I just use them as a headband.
Justin: Alright, and to move on from the listener questions, any upcoming cards you’re looking forward to to be released in 2025 or maybe applying for a card that already is out?
Personally, I’m looking at the Bank of America Premium Alaska. Credit card and maybe we’ll get that during the summer.
Julia: Maybe I’ll get that MGM card for the free parking.
Justin: Yeah MGM MasterCard one of my favorites.
Julia: Yeah, it’s annoying not having free parking anymore Um in Las Vegas, so I don’t know maybe my husband will get that one.
He recently got the Alaska card Maybe we’ll link up Trying to decide if we want to pay our built rent with that where you get three points per dollar But you have to pay the 3 percent fee versus with the regular built card You get one point per dollar, but no fee. So I’ll probably have to
run
Julia: the math on that.
Probably a good YouTube video idea. Um, maybe one of those.
Justin: Another, [00:46:00] another fun math moment.
Julia: For sure.
Justin: And any upcoming trips in 2025 that you’re looking forward to?
Julia: Yes, but I have to change all of these like at the last minute it seems because in first quarter I changed this trip so many times. So originally I had booked into New Zealand back through Cambodia.
But then that Cathay Pacific first class availability came up, so I was like, okay, Cambodia, another day, we’re going to fly into New Zealand, then back through Hong Kong to take this first class flight, and I had to move the date for the Qantas flight to New Zealand a little bit. But then, two weeks before the trip, I realized I did it wrong, they did it wrong, something, like, it was an economy for the long part from Los Angeles to Fiji and I’m like, I’m not going to survive this.
So I canceled that flight with Qantas and then we went to Korea instead. It was freezing. All that to say, I do have fun plans. We have, I [00:47:00] mean, maybe we go to Australia, maybe we go to Asia. We have Europe planned, but everything’s going to end up changing at the last minute because this has happened like three trips in a row where I’ve had to just Nuke it and redo it.
People are like, are you the book at 11 months in advanced person or the last minute person? I’m like, I am both kinds of people at this point. So that’s the plan for 2025.
Justin: I mentioned it was a seven or eight cruises this year. And now I’m expecting another, as I’m on the way to reaching the Caesar’s rewards, seven star status or seven stars status.
And I might get a Norwegian cruise through them. So I’m looking forward to that. I’ve got Poland and Amsterdam coming up. So lots happening in 2025.
Julia: I’m not a boat person.
Justin: I did get a little sick towards the end of the cruise. Many others were complaining that the ship got very rocky. So I [00:48:00] was out for a little bit and just got extra rest.
But I like the experience. It’s cool going to all the different stops. And it being comped or mostly free is very appealing for me. I was on the fence initially, but I’ve really liked it after I’ve gone on several of them.
Julia: Maybe one day I can convince myself to like cruises. For now, I’m just like, eh, fly to a big city, explore the city.
I like trains. I like public transit. It’s one of my favorite things to do, is just go to a city abroad and then kind of judge how good they are at public infrastructure and transit, because I forgot whose quote it was, but they, they said that a developed country isn’t one where poor people have cars.
It’s one where the rich people use public transit, like Zurich. I’m like, I like that. I, I really enjoy that quote.
Justin: I guess London and Poland, I’ve heard interesting things about the trains and the transit. And I’m planning on going to Warsaw and Krakow or Krakow. So it should be interesting to see how that all plays out.
Julia: I haven’t been to [00:49:00] Poland, but I love the public transit in London because they have tap enabled for the subways. Anything where I don’t have to go to another stupid machine to print out a ticket that I just then feed into the subway. Like, that entire thing is stupid. Everything should just be like, tap to pay with credit card now.
London does this, Hong Kong does this, New York City mostly does this now. Those are great. And I also just really like any city. Where the public transit you would ride just for entertainment like the double decker buses in London or the Trams in Hong Kong or the ferries in Sydney. I just I like cities that do that
Justin: All right, and to close here any upcoming things people can expect from you perhaps contact what content wise social media wise Maybe YouTube travel videos.
Julia: Yeah, if you are looking to learn how to make more out of your points since that can be hugely Beneficial much more so than getting 20 cards. We do have a free live training coming up in April You can register at [00:50:00] geobreeztravel. com slash webinar and join us for the free live training. It’s not recorded I talked about some things that probably get me in trouble if I post them on social media So if you guys want More exclusive content there for free.
Come join us in April, sign up at geobreeze travel. com slash webinar.
Justin: All right. Very good. Thanks for coming on.
Julia: Thank you so much for having me on. It was a pleasure.
Justin: Thanks for listening and stay tuned for future episodes. Some closing announcements, ticket sales for Zork Fest 2025, a miles points and gambling event are live at zorkfest.
travelzork. com. I hope to see you at Zork Fest 2025 in Las Vegas. From December 5th through December 7th, I’m also looking forward to other events in 2025 and had a successful 2024 speaking at events with award travel 101 travels work, frequent traveler university, and both Chicago seminars events. If you’re an event organizer and would like to have me speak [00:51:00] at your 2025 event, please contact me.
Visit meetup. com slash Philly miles and points to RSVP for monthly greater Philadelphia travel. Credit miles and points meetups. I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The next meetups are March 23rd and April 13th, 2025. Find a link in the show notes for more content between podcast episodes. Follow Hirty Gertie travel podcast on Facebook and X follow Justin Vukula on Instagram, subscribe to Hirty Gertie travel podcast on YouTube, where you can become a channel member for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips, Community and bonus videos search hurdy gurdy travel on subscribestar.
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Theme Song: Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will [00:53:00] unfold.
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