Well, if you were in the points in Miles game, or you want to be in the points in Miles game, or you don't even know what the points in Miles game is, but you like the idea of traveling for free. My next guest, you really really need to pay attention because Zach Hood is a former elementary school teacher who has left the little children behind to herd an entirely different kind of kittens on his app.
Travel Freely. So, first of all, Zach, welcome to the show.
Yeah, thanks Mandy, thanks for having me.
Get right on that microphone. Get I always say, get uncomfortably close.
You can move it up.
Yeah, there you go, Yeah, there you go. So tell me a little bit about travel Freely. Let's start with that.
Yeah, So it started about seven years ago when I was elementary school teacher at Saint Mary's Academy just a few miles away here, and I was able to travel
a lot with points in miles. My wife and I, even though we were in grad school, had lower paying job school teacher, mental health counselor my wife and we were able to take these incredible trips because we learned just the base of maximizing points and miles through credit cards, and we started getting asked all the time from friends and family how we were doing it because they knew we didn't have this money to stay.
At five start hotels exactly.
His class flights, those kind of things.
So I did some seminars around Denver, tried to be like a consultant and I'm an introvert, and that did go super well for the long term. But I realized there's something here people really want to know about it, and so the idea came, let's turn this into an app and have it be a tool that helps people manage this process, but also educational resources that can go alongside it, where we can hold your hand on how to get started, how to keep going, and move forward
from there. So it was a bit of a as needed kind of thing as I saw people really connect with it, but wanted to give them tools to be able to cash in and take those big dream to trips.
So one thing I want to start our conversation by saying, I'm going to say this, and I'm going to say it very clearly, do not go out and run up a bunch of credit card debt to get free points in miles. That is counterintuitive. It is not the way the system is designed to be maximized, and it is a dumb choice. I'm just going to lay that out there right now. We are not talking about going out
and running up debt you can't afford. And I would even go as far to say, if you can't afford to pay your credit cards off monthly, you're really in a very precarious situation. So that's my disclaimer of our conversation. Now you don't disagree that, and.
You took my words out of my mouth there, because when everything we say, when we get started with whether it's a webinar email, it's like, if you don't trust yourself to pay your bills off on time, pay the balance off, then don't even get started with this.
Don't do it. It's hot worth it.
If you do trust yourself, you're financially savvy, you understand paying your bills off on time won't bring any extra fees or anything like that, then this is pretty much the number one coolest thing you could learn to do. If you have great credit and instead of just staring at a really cool credit score, actually put it to use. And it's some great credit cards that can give you amazing free trips, you know, for your lifetime.
Really well, let's talk about the excellent credit score. What is that seven to fifty.
Based on the there's I think a few different ones now eight fifty to nine hundred, but anything pretty much above seven fifty is great, above eight hundred is even better.
Okay, so let's talk about how to play the game. How does this start?
Like, assume I know nothing and you're going to say, look here, we're going to walk you through.
I'm getting my first credit card. What does that look like? What am I looking for?
Yeah, so I would say that's step three or four. Try to start at step zero and just say, you know, if you trust yourself, like we just talked about, to pay your bills off on time, you need to realize that banks are fiercely fighting for your business. The average person that gets a new credit card holds it for seven years. And so these big sign up bonus offers that we see all over the you know, internet and on commercials, they're hiding in playing sight, but they're actually
really really good deals. And then there's certain cards that are better than others, that have more value, more flexibility, and how to redeem them. So it's really about I always think it's about getting the very first, next best credit card for you, going through that process of hitting the sign up bonus and earning the free travel, and then stop and pause and say, you know, does that fit your lifestyle?
Was that easy? Hard, complicated, stressful?
And if you book that free travel, little extra encouragement motivation like, okay, I could do this again. So pretty much take everything out of this being a long term hobby and just focus on what I like, one thousand dollars worth of free travel, how much do I spend each month on my regular credit card expenses? Can I put that to work in a smarter way and earn a big bonus at the beginning, and then go through
that process. So I think that just starting with baby steps, not thinking too far in the future, just get the hang of it, see if this is for you is a big first step. And I would also say that there's a lot of misconceptions about it. There are really really good cards that we recommend first that are more flexible, kind of like an UNO wild card, where you can use it for flights, hotels, car rentals, you could cash
it out for money. You're not locked into an airline brand or a hotel brand, and those are the better cards to get at the beginning, so you're not going to get frustration getting locked into some points or miles that you can't end up using. And then the other part of it is just making sure you're smart about how much you actually do spend each month that you're going to hit that bonus, and then being able to use it when you get it.
When we get a new credit card, because Chuck and I have been doing this for a little while, we'll shift all of our spending to that one credit card until we hit the bonus. Like we put our monthly bills, we put everything on that one credit card until we hit the bonus, and then we may shift stuff around because we get a better deal. The part that you just mentioned, though, that I think is really important is
being able to use those miles. I've been frustrated by American Express, which is surprising because I can't transfer my miles to where I need them to be. So how do you in the Travel Freely app address those specific issues? Do you go through each card in terms of what's easier to use, or who has more partners or what alliance there with or whatever it is to make sure that people can use the rewards in the way that they would normally use them.
Yes, for sure.
So we think of it as kind of dipping your toes in the water at the beginning, and we're going to try to hold your hand into learning these basics and then learning what programs might be best for you. MX is probably further down the list in terms of a beginner program.
It is kind of complicated.
They have a lot of high annual fees and if you're not going to maximize that, it's kind of you know.
You have to be intentional with those. I always make sure that I pay I get back my annual fee. That is my own personal line in the sand. So we use it for Uber, we use it for all the little various things that we get bonuses on, just to make sure we get back that annual fee. But it's been frustrating just getting it to where getting those points to where I need them to be.
Yeah, And so for Denver specifically, the Chase program called Ultimate Rewards, I found is much more friendly to the Denver Home Airport because it has very friendly travel portal where you can book very easily, basically kind of like
Expedia and use your points instead of money. But then you have transfer partners, which a lot of people don't realize, you know, like one Chase point can equal one Southwest mile, one Chase point can equal one Higatt point, one Chase point can equal one United mile, and those three are super valuable. For Denver, you can go stay in the Grand Hyatt Vale, you can go stay take Southwest United out of here to a lot of different places. So
that's the flexibility of that program. But also you can just use the Travel Portal if you want to book a car, book a hotel anywhere, book a flight in the travel portal to do that.
And is all of this helpful information on travel freely? Do you help people when they're ready to make, you know, do those awards and get back or book that travel.
Yes, so we kind of have a one on one free travel one on one that's a like ebook webinar. You know, however, you like to learn going about it as you're learning, getting your first card, earning your first bonus, celebrating that first bonus, then being ready to book and show you your options kind of like what's beginner friendly, easiest to do if you're really nervous about doing it.
What are the next steps and what's two.
To ozho one to be able to see what some of these partners are and then it's never been a better time. Like when I started, you have to just know the secrets of you know, how to book some really cool redemptions. But now there's a lot of tools out there that are basically kind of like Google Flights for points of miles, that allow you to just search and see what programs cost what to get get to your destination.
I don't want to get too much in the weeds about what you do on the app, because I want to ask some questions and I think a lot of people who don't do this want to know the answer to Like somebody will ask, well, how much how many points does a flight cost? And that is a hugely variable question, right, depending on where you're going class that you want. I always use mine for business class, which is expensive, but you know what, not as expensive as mine a business class ticket.
Yeah, so business class international and five star hotels are probably the best, absolutely best like value for redeeming your points and miles. It does take you know, some searching to find the absolute best redemption, right but you'd be surprised what's out there.
And so I totally agree with that.
If you can get across the ocean in business class, it kind of is a life changer.
For we do pig it on the leg that we're going to sleep on. We will do business class and then premium economy on.
The way back.
Okay, because you're going to be awake.
Right, it's not you don't have to be as you're you're probably not going to sleep on the way back, so it's easier that way.
But what are what are.
Some of the deals that you have gotten or that you have seen that are pretty remarkable.
Yeah, So just with my last ten years or so, I think one of the coolest redemptions was a year and a half ago. My family and I, my wife, three year old, and six year old, we went to Australia and New Zealand for nine months. My son missed the cutoff for kindergarten and we kind of made that an excuse for a gap year. Went to Australia, New Zealand, and the flight down there, just using the regular kind of basic search tools, we found the light flat business
seat from Los Angeles. All four of us got to go in the middle two rows back to back, and we got that flight for seven hundred dollars worth of taxes and fees, and the retail price you booked it with cash was twenty eight thousand dollars.
Holy crap, Holy crap.
And see you you just kind of answered a question that I had, and that is what if you have a family, so you can do this with your family as well?
Sure?
Yeah, so I would say a lot of peopeople are able to do this with your family if you want to take advantage of the flights and use all your points and miles. You know yourself, that's one thing, but
there are a lot of families doing this. Literally, to get my one and a half year old at the time, get her a seat as a lap infant with my wife or I would have cost seven to eight hundred dollars for the lap infant fee because it's ten percent based on the retail price, and so to get her her own seat was another seventy thousand points plus one hundred and eighty dollars, and so it was cheaper for us to get her her own seat, and the pictures of it, of her and my son who was four
and a half, like sitting in this huge seat with you know, pancakes and all sorts of stuff for business class was really cool, and it honestly was also very helpful to get that long of a trip with having sleep and arrive not completely wrecked for the next week or two.
I mentioned to you that we paid for a trip to Switzerland, but we did it over the holidays. Do not recommend if you want to maximize your miles, because like a normal airline flight using miles over a holiday is that they just jack them up so high. What are other times I went over Christmas? What are some other times that maybe you want to avoid or you're not going to be able to get the kind of deals that you want.
That's a good question, I think, regardless of when I think, one of the big factors is being able to be a little bit flexible. Right, so if you can go a couple of days earlier, a couple days later and search for those sweet spots. Some people don't have that luxury, but that's a a big difference that could cut the amount of points or miles needed in half. If you're able to be flexible, then another really really well. Two other big things are consider your flights as two one
ways instead of a round trip. Yeah, so you know United is not if you fly there and fly back United, there's nothing special about while you're there.
You're part of.
United's family, right, come back on the round trip, and often like one way there on a certain airline is a really good deal, but not a good deal on the way back. So you can piece two different one ways back and forth. And then the other aspect to that would be think about what's called a positioning flight. So maybe Denver doesn't have the best direct flight somewhere, but maybe another airport does, like Houston, or in New York,
or Philadelphia going east, or Los Angeles San Francisco. You know, we flew out of Los Angeles to go to Australia. If you can take one smaller flight to get in position to that bigger airport that then has a really good deal, then that's another way to kind of maximize
your points. And you literally if you do the searches from like La to Australia versus Denver to Australia, sometimes it could be three or four times as much compared to just grabbing a very short Southwest you know, cheap flight to get to La then take the big expensive.
Oh I was telling you off the air Zach.
I have a friend who flew first class from Mexico City to Paris on Emirates air Line, which is the most luxurious airline out there apparently, and she paid for a ticket to Mexico City, which was cheap on Frontier, and then flew round trip in first class for like twenty eight thousand points. Because she was flexible, she waited, she just kept an eye on it and grabbed it as soon as was available and made that her trip.
And I just thought that's amazing. I mean, she's self employed, so that is part of it when you work for somebody else and you got to set that vacation time up.
How far in advance can you book with points?
It's a little bit tricky because each airline has their kind of quota of seats that are available, but they actually don't, you know, just open them up all at the same time. So there's there's certain that's that's a helpful way to follow blogs that kind of if you're tracking a certain flight or location, they'll know you know there's availability now you can check it. But in general, I would say you know a lot of the international flights.
I don't know the exact dates, but you know up to a year in advance for sure, right and then sometimes if you're more flexible of a traveler, there are really really good deals just like a few days before, a few weeks before, but not around Christmas.
And I'm just like you, not around Christmas.
And it does fluctuate.
And just because you know it's a few weeks or a couple of months before, it doesn't mean anything in terms of you know, missing out on deals, because even right now there are deals coming out for June getting to Europe that are you know, just becoming available, so that I think, you know, the airlines don't want to have people grab all the flights advance then there that they can sell can jump on.
Zach's app is travel Freely as in travel for Free, travel Freely, and on the app you allow people to upload their information and then give them an idea of how they're doing with their points in miles. That's a that's one of the things you guys offer.
So the two main components of the app is one adding the cards you currently have if you have any cards kind of wallets, as you will on the on the app, and then we actually don't sync with banks or do any kind of like fancy tech API sinking because we found our users don't really like that and I don't even want.
To that's a security for you guys.
Yeah, So we literally just ask people to add the name of the card that they have and when they opened it, and based on that information, we can auto populate the rest to help track like the sign up bonuses, do the annual fees, and so that will start helping keep track of those key dates for you that will pop.
Up in the app, send you emails and alerts.
One of the most important things about that is that there are certain kind of decision points to be made. And if you're at a blog post eight months ago on exactly what to do with this annual fee coming up, and then it pops up, odds are you're not going to remember it, So we try to hold your hand in that.
So when we have the.
Email notification, it ends up giving you the advice on here's what to consider with this card, here's the benefits if you want to keep it, Here's what to do if you want to change it to a no annual fee card or cancel it, and then on the other side, we use the cards that you have to understand what
your next best offers are and the recommendation. So we call that the car Genie and it has all the crazy bank application rules in a quasi algorithm that will then show you what the cards you're eligible for, the best offers that are available, and we rank those according to the everyday busy person who's a beginner, So if there's a card that's really low value, that's not going to be at the top.
Of the list.
And we also rank the cards according to like the welcome bonus offer, right, and we always post the best offer, so those big corporate sites out there will push the offer that they're getting a pretty good commission for, whereas some of those cards, we know there's a different link to use that could get you forty fifty sixty thousand more points in some instances, and we'll share those with you because we want to have that long term trust and have you really get that extra spending for.
Your travel app It's like playing the most disorganized game of checkers blindfolded with one eye.
You can only say it's like a game changer.
Saying freely is the app Zach, what is my guest? And we've already roped him in because now it's time for the most exciting segment all the radio of its guy in the world.
That day.
All right, what is our dad joke of the day? Now, Zach, you've already gone over what this segment.
Is all about because you agreed to it.
Yes, all right, so Zach's ready for dad joke of the day.
What is it Apparently to start a zoo you need at least two pandas a grizzly and three polars.
It's the bare minimum. Thank you anyway.
Today's word of the day.
Please it is a noun polaver v e r You do or do not?
I do not? Do you know what a polavor is? I feel like I should know it, but I don't.
Lever with a p on it.
There you go, an informal word that usually refers to unimportant or meaningless.
Talk show is basically collaborate for three hours. That's all it is, all right. Today's trivia question. What is a beaver's home called? I believe it's a damn, right, a beaver dam They only live in a damn.
Oh no, it's called the Lodge.
Beaver's buildings, dome shape homes from Stick's grass, moss and mutt. They're quite the little builders there. Okay, Zach, Mandy, now, Zach. If you get it right, you get a point. If you get wrong, you lose a point. So be careful. But you do not have to wait until the end. Just yell your name when you're ready to answer those because.
He's never played. Okay, you are a travel guru. He is the travel genius.
Uh huh.
Travel and tourism is the cabinar. Okay.
London's Transport Museum offers a tour of Charring Cross that afternoon. This at the Clermont with delicious scone. Maybe what is t that is correct?
Okay?
Nice?
With some buildings about a century old?
Pretorious cop rest camp has hosted many of this kind of trip.
With a name from Swahili.
I need that whole thing one more time quickly.
With some buildings about a century old. Whatever this rest camp is called has hosted many of this kind of trip with a name from Swahili.
I have no idea what it is.
A safari Oh.
Dah, we're dumbing.
Thirsty after your one hour canal tour of Amsterdam. Stop at this Europe's number one brewer for another tour and a beer man.
Oh, go ahead, Zach, I'll give it to you.
Correct in Spain.
Rent a car and follow the path of scenes in this novel, including the cave of Monsignones and the windmills of Conce. Yeah, Zach, quiot that is correct, too long.
I didn't know that one.
If you're vacationing in Remini, Italy, it's a fifty minute ride on a shuttle bus into this country.
Mandy, what is Switzerland wrong?
Zach, say nothing. Get the dub because the answer is San Marino. Digging it.
Dig it anyway, Zach, thank you so much for coming in today.
I really appreciate it.