Before Scott Mackenzie mastered earning points and miles, he was earning his Ph.D in neuroscience.
He launched his travel hacking blog, Hack My Trip, while he was still in school. It was flying to interviews for his graduate school interviews that introduced him to earning enough frequent flyer miles for his first redemption. He quickly earned enough to extend his travel perks into his time spent living the frugal life of a student. Graduate students don’t generally have large sums of cash to help them fly to Asia during their school breaks; but Scott had figured out the secret to not only taking trips a student could pay for, but that most people couldn’t afford to take.
In this episode, Scott allows me to pick his brain to help you get started thinking about travel hacking to earn points and miles so that we can break down the cost-prohibitive aspects of travel and see the world for as close to free as possible.
Words from a Travel Hacker:
“A good redemption gets you where you want to go with minimal inconvenience and you end up happy.” Tweet this!
What You’ll Learn
- What is Travel Hacking, and how does Scott define it.
- Rather than travel for free, Scott considers it a moderate investment to travel in a much higher class.
- The basics of mile-running. How and why Scott might spend $125 and hours on a plane in coach to earn enough miles to redeem for a first class ticket to Asia.
- How Scott took his wife on a 2-week honeymoon to Southeast Asia, flying business class, and staying at the some of world’s best hotels, all on points and miles.
- Why diversification of points is a good strategy.
- Scott’s advice to get started earning and redeeming points and miles
- The ways Scott thinks about travel hacking to earn successfully
- Where Scott generally transfers his American Express Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards points
- How Scott defines a good redemption, and why good redemptions are subjective.
Scott’s Best Travel Advice
- The First Step: Have a plan. Don’t book at random. Don’t overlook opportunities to consolidate value and leverage earning.
- Money Saving Tip or Travel Hack: Cut your expenses. Priorities are important. “I’ve never subscribed to cable. Only got texting this month!” Use forced savings to make automatic withdrawals from one bank to another, so you don’t even have regular visibility on the other account.
- Cheapest Airfare: Practice makes perfect. Scott’s Guide to Using ITA’s Matrix. http://hackmytrip.com/2012/01/introduction-to-using-ita/ Then book through Hipmunk, which integrates ITA’s display features as well as the advanced routing language. RouteHappy helps ease the decision making process by showing seating, comfort, details of your journey.
- Travel Book:
- Travel Gear: Macbook Air 13”
- Weirdest Food: Durian
Mentioned in this episode
- Scott’s blog, Hack My Trip
- Scott on Milepoint.com
- @hackmytrip on Twitter
- Hyatt Points Program
- Starwood Preferred Guests points program
- OpenFlights.org
- Scott’s Guide to Using ITA’s Matrix.
- Google Flights
- Hipmunk
- RouteHappy
Music Credit: Passion Pit – Moth’s Wings (Artec Remix), Aaron Static – Intrepid Journey
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See you next time!
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