If you’ve read my FoundersCard review1, you’ll know by now that achieving elite status can be valuable. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be. Achieving travel status can also become an expensive hobby if you’re chasing points or status for the sake of points and status alone.
Free checked baggage can be useful, and business class lounge access can make a long connection much easier. Hotel breakfast and late checkout can definitely improve a stay, especially when the alternative is wandering around a foreign city with your suitcase for four hours pretending you’re having a good time. In reality, you’ll feel lost and out of place with a wet swimsuit underneath from that final dip into the pool or beach, before heading to the airport. Been there, done that.
There are benefits to loyalty programs and I’m definitely someone who likes getting something extra when I travel. Status should work for me, not the other way around. One of my friends told me that my approach of “paying for business class makes more [financial] sense than chasing points for the same perks”. Food for thought.
Status for the sake of status?
Programs like FoundersCard and American Express work best when it matches the way you already travel. Yes, through my referral links2 you can often get a much better deal than publicly available, but if these programs don’t match your travel style, what’s the point?
If I am going to fly a particular airline regularly anyway, there is nothing wrong with earning some recognition for that. If I stay at a hotel brand often enough to receive a free breakfast or late checkout, great. Maybe I’ll even choose to stay there more often on future trips. If you treat me nice, I’ll be back. Those perks have value because I was already going to be there.3
Travel gets awkward when maintaining or achieving the status tier becomes the goal. Even if that means achieving million-mile levels, like some of my friends are aiming for. Does achieving status really make sense?
If it ain’t Dutch it ain’t much
The Dutch are known for being frugal, if not cheap. I’ve been called a big spender before, but in my defence I just like to spend real money on things and experiences that truly matter. It’s never about spending more than you otherwise would for the same experience.
Please don’t take an unnecessary flight or connection. Yes, you may get a cheaper fare versus flying direct, but the extra stop may ruin the rest of your trip if something goes wrong. The same goes for booking hotels. I prefer to stay somewhere that fits the purpose of the trip, instead of a cheaper option on the other end of town. These are a few of the basic principles I teach in my Travel Revolution travel hacking program.
Status should make trips you already want to take even more rewarding, and never become the reason you are taking the trip to begin with.4
Travel is not a competitive sport
How many countries did you visit? From time to time I still see social media posts of influencers sharing their count. The metric may sound impressive, but nobody cares about the amount of countries you’ve visited, or how many miles you may have earned along the way. AI and PhotoShop can make the worst trip you’ve ever had look great online. How did you feel about your trip for yourself, before posting about it online?
Social media has almost turned travel into something competitive. Some Instagram posts make destinations look better than they are in real life. The experience of travel is not about counting countries and comparing who’s visited more places than I did. I prefer hearing real stories from real people. Even better if they’ve been somewhere I haven’t, or have redeemed a more difficult business-class ticket.5
Sometimes the better booking is the flight that costs more rewards points but leaves at a reasonable hour. It may even mean paying cash because the redemption rate on the rewards flight is terrible. In those cases it’s better to just spend the money, even if you pay full price, and keep your points.
The only goal I teach in my Travel Revolution class is to pay less than average when you can. Dropping the expectation from “bottom price” to “below average” should make things a lot more achievable.
Get Into Action
The true return of investment on travel hacking is about the stories you’ll tell after. The best experiences are about waking up somewhere unfamiliar and still finding your way.
These simple experiences or “small victories” are the reason I still travel. I’ll happily take the paid upgrade when offered and it makes sense to me. I’m happy to enjoy the business class lounge. In that process, I’m also happy to collect or use my points when it makes sense.
The travel hacking system I teach isn’t more important than the experience of enjoying travel itself. If travel has started feeling more like a points collection exercise than an experience, my Travel Revolution explores maximizing your Experience Value in much more depth: using travel hacking as a way to create experiences that you talk about long after the points have been posted.
Further reading
I’ve been a FoundersCard member since 2016, and recently upgraded myself to the elite highest tier. Membership can be an incredible value if you use it right. Details here.
On my VIP Perks page I’ll include access to many extra resources that people have asked me for over the 10+ years of running this blog and online learning experiences. Preview here.
Travel hacking is having a system and being intentional about it. Hotels make money by selling the same room at different rates. The system is being consistently on the “good” side of that equation.
You may already know that social media doesn’t work the way it used to. The reach is inconsistent. The algorithms keep changing. And no matter how much content you create, the needle barely seems to move. Sounds familiar? My course exists to flips your relationship with social media platforms on its head. Free preview here.