Spencer Howard: How to Fly Business Class Using Credit Card Points

Welcome back to the Authority Is podcast, where we help you to grow your business, attract new opportunities, and outpace your competition. My name is George Wright III. I'm your host, and I've been partnering up with Valiant CEO Magazine to bring you the hottest entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and experts from around the world that are crushing it in business. Together, we're going to unpack strategies and tactics that they're using to become the authority in their field. And my goal is to help to inspire and motivate you to do the same. So let's get right into it. All right, welcome back. George Wright III here. And I'm joined by Unlocking Luxury Travel with Credit Card Points, a conversation with Spencer Howard. Great topic. This is going to be really fun. I'm joined by Spencer Howard. I'm going to give you a little quick background on him, but he's a credit card loyalty and travel reward expert. He's a founder of a company called straight to the points. And he teaches strategies behind how to use your business card to create luxury travel lifestyle. But he's been a travel writer, editor for over a decade, featured on podcasts and outlets. What I loved about when I saw his background is he travels three months per year, 60 plus countries. So welcome to the podcast, Spencer. How are you? Hey, thanks so much for having me. I'm doing well. Yeah, this is great. This is a good topic because as people know me, They know I'm all about mindset and business and money, but lifestyle is the whole point of it, right? So tell us a little bit about your story. Like, I'm curious what your background is, but more importantly, what settled you into this niche of luxury travel? Yeah, for sure. So I actually used to work in politics, everybody's favorite industry. And oh, man, it's crazy. But I guess towards the end of that, I picked up just by reading a blog, just something about it was like, oh, points. What are points? And I kind of dove into this a bit. And the guy was like, oh, I fly business class with points. And I was like, oh, I'm sorry. I'm 6'3". I would love to lie down. I think I had just booked a flight to Japan or something in economy. And I was like, my knees are going to be in the back of the seat in front of me. I need to do this better. And that was like the jumping off point for me. And then I spent entirely... Have you been traveling already, though? Your whole life, have you kind of traveled or not really? Not a ton. But it's something I always wanted to. when you work in politics, you don't really get a lot of time off. So you're just kind of go, go, go on the work side of things, not a lot of lifestyle. So this was towards the end of it. And I was starting to have a little more time to travel. And I just made figuring out the best ways to do it a priority. And then I would say I spent four hours a night for like six months learning everything you could never want to know about airline programs and credit card fine print. And now I basically just say, you don't need to do that. I'll do it for you. That's awesome. So you and, you know, this is credit card travel, but you've been blogging and kind of writing. And so was that writing and blogging in this particular topic that you were learning and studying and growing on? Yeah, it was about nine months after I got really into this that I started writing part time, just freelancing. Picked up enough writing to leave the previous job and just kind of start a new career path. And it was all educational writing. I would say I'm not very good at clickbait. I'm really good at breaking down complex topics and making them understandable. So that's been my focus. And yeah, that's what I still do now with my email newsletter. So at what point did this turn from an interest to a business for you? What made you decide, I like this. I want to make this a business. Because at the end of the day, I'm sure a lot of people will be like, there's a lot of things I'd like to do. I'm going to study them. I'm early get into them, maybe even write. but how do I monetize it? So at what point did it turn into a business? And did you see initially that there was an opportunity with it? Or was it just, I think I can do this and I want to focus my time on it? Yeah, at first it was freelance writing. So I just had contracts with different sites to write for them. And that was easy enough. I guess about two years after I started writing, I started my email newsletter as just a hobby. I think I was looking for a flight. I was looking for a flight, notice something on you, like a rare opportunity to use points for some like business class flight. And I mentioned to a friend of mine, I was like, I do all this research for the articles I'm writing. I should just like send emails out when I find something worth booking. And he was just like, do it right now. I'll sign up, do it, do it. I think I started an email newsletter the next, like an email list the next day. So that's great. And it's really kind of funny you say that because I think a lot of people, they dabble. You know, I've got this interest. I do some things, But you, you know, I'm going to make a real interesting point to the listeners. Four hours a night for like six months, like you really studied it. You got to know it. You went deep, right? I think most people dabble. I think they should go deep. And then a couple of years, you know, freelance writing for a couple of years and decided to do a newsletter. Why did you choose newsletter? Just because you were already a writer and you thought that's a great way for me to just kick out my ideas. Yeah, I, you know, it's funny because I remember when it was 2018 and I remember hearing people say like, oh, email newsletters are dead. And I was like, okay, that's fine. I like blogging. This is a little bit more of a, I don't know, curated space, I guess you could say. Like, I'm only going to talk to people who are interested in what I'm interested in. Like, you're not signing up for my newsletter if you don't care about flying business or first class or if you don't care about traveling abroad. So I knew that it was going to be like people interested in what I'm interested in. Also, I wanted to kind of, it keeps a strong word, but I wanted to like, I wanted people to kind of commit. if I was going to give them all this info and I'm giving them an advantage over other people who maybe aren't aware of this award space, uh, where they can book, uh, flights with points. So it was, it was just a way to like, make sure people who had committed to me had a chance to book before I got out, you know, more broadly. Yeah. Well, I think that, um, you were going to dig into kind of the, the points and how it works and things in a minute here, but I always love interviews like this because I think it, it shows that success is pretty consistent and principles are consistent. You found something that you actually had the interest in. You started working with it. You really went deep with it. You focused your time on it. You also drilled down a little bit into a niche. And I was going to ask you, when it comes to luxury travel, is that because you saw the opportunity or because that's really what you were focused on for you? So you decided to kind of stay in that vein. Yeah. So for me, it started just because I love flying. And if I can make the journey fun, that seemed like an awesome way to do it. So this is just what I cared about and what I, what I was interested in doing. Um, I would tell people, I don't, if you want to use points and go fly economy around the world and do that, like have at it. I'm like very supportive of people figuring out what matters to them. Uh, this is what mattered to me because I like flying and I thought it'd be fun to like have champagne while flying and be able to lie down and take a nap and have a better meal and go to a nice airport lounge or something. So that just what I wanted to do And not everybody cares about that That great But uh that my little circle Well and you and I talked a little bit about this Not everybody believes that they can do it Meaning I don't think that they think they could ever afford it or have enough money on their credit card to do it. But then also, I don't think they'd know where to go or if it's even possible. So have you run into that? And what do you say to somebody that says, you know what? because I believe abundance is a mindset, right? So it's like, if you wanna be, how do you wanna live your life? Luxury, economy. Do you wanna be average or first class? Do you wanna be a VIP or general admission? I mean, it's a mindset for me, but for the people that don't share that because they don't think it's possible, what would you say to that? Yeah, I think especially with points and credit cards, people see credit cards as dangerous and I'll like readily admit they can be if you're not in a good position financially and you're not responsible with your finances. So I always say that this is an extra to enhance your life. It is not the key to your life. If you don't have a 700 plus credit score, maybe even 720 plus, if you don't pay your credit cards on time, every time, if you see you have credit available and you feel tempted to spend, this is not the world for you and that's fine. But just like, I don't want to see anybody in financial hardship because they decided to play a game. In the end, this is a game. It's fun. So I think you start there, just kind of let's be upfront about stuff. But after that, it's really just about piecing together a strategy. It's like a puzzle. Which credit cards work best for you based on your spend habits? Lots of credit cards have bonus categories that'll earn two, three, four points per dollar instead of one. So like, it's just a matter of kind of figuring out a strategy that can work for your interest level and for the time and energy that you have to give to it. Yeah, I think that's kind of the case in point for everything in life is if you're intentional, because I agree with you, we're not talking about, you know, use a bunch of credit cards if you don't have any discipline, but you also don't necessarily need the discipline if you're doing it as a blueprint and a strategy. I think I love how you use the words like it's a game because I think things have to be fun and you have to enjoy them but I think also I know enough about you now to know that it's it's a strategic game and you have absolutely you don't just you're not just like hey if you're gonna spend a lot of money on credit cards let's make some points and get something out of it you go into it with a strategy it sounds like you really kind of hacked the model you need to fit yeah for people it's it's not a game for winging it. It's, uh, you can be spontaneous with it. Like, oh, last minute trip. There's a, there's a ticket I can book with points and just go. I've done that. I booked a flight six hours before departure and just gone to Europe. Like that's kind of the fun part with points, but to get there, like spreadsheets have been involved in my life. I'm really good at tracking things. Uh, and a lot of people in this space, they, we, we, you know, we were very aware of like what we're spending, where we're spending, um, how much our annual fees are. are we getting more value out of the credit card than the annual fee? Like we're constantly thinking like 10 moves ahead. Do you look at it like, for somebody that's thinking about, I want to start looking into luxury travel with credit card points, are there certain spend levels that really make that feasible and doable? Or is it not so much about the spend level because the amount of travel you do will just depend on the spend level. It's more about a strategy you apply at all levels or is it about certain categories of spend? I would say if you're spending $1,000 a month, maybe $1,500 a month, there's like, yeah, I would probably say like $1,500. You're probably going to be able to do at least something. It all comes down to interest level. So I would say there's like three strategies with credit cards. There's the kind of set it and forget it. You get one to three cards. Hopefully they all have bonus categories that help you earn the most points on your spend. I know a lot of business owners who do this. A friend of mine runs a ton of digital ads, constantly has like millions of Amex and Chase points. Other people don't have the level of spend that he does. And so they'll get like four to six credit cards and then they'll supplement with a new one every few months. Other people will just get credit cards repeatedly. And that's the maximalist approach. It's the most work, but you'll also earn the most points because every time you get a new credit card, you spend something like $4,000 in three months, you earn 75,000 points. You're never going to earn points faster than that. But you have to be really interested in it to do that. Yeah. And maybe you feel free to kind of jump into a little bit of the strategy behind it, but is it about the credit cards that you're utilizing or is it about the companies, the airlines, the hotels you're using them with? What's more important? And maybe you can give us just some details because the goal of this podcast was to kind of introduce the principles and ideas and we can kind of give them some resources at the end, but give me a few of the strategies and tactics that you feel really make this possible? Yeah, sure. So my main focus is what we call transferable or flexible points. Banks like Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One, Bilt, they all have programs that they've built with transfer partners. So different airlines where you can transfer your points to. To me, this is the ideal way to start. You get access to tons more flights this way. So I always say like, if you have American miles, you can fly American Airlines or any of their one world partners or any of the partner airlines they have. But if you, I mean, another same thing with like United or Delta, you're just, you're locked into whatever their ecosystem is. If I have chase points, I can transfer points to British Airways, which is a one world carrier, just like American, and they can book anything in one world. But I can also transfer to Air Canada's program and they can book anything in Star Alliance and I can transfer to Air France KLM and they can book anything in Sky Team. And so like now just from like one hub of points you have access to almost every airline in the world to fly. Transferable points, obviously, is the starting point. I think so. And I think it's, yeah, the reason I say that too is also sometimes airlines aren't going to release award space. So I live in DC, say I want to go somewhere in Europe, maybe there's no Star Lions partner that has award space. So I can't transfer chase points to Air Canada or United to book, but Air France has a flight. So I can transfer them to Flying Blue, their program and book. So you just kind of find the opportunity wherever it is based on like your travel needs versus just focusing in on like one particular airline or program. I think that's huge because I've experienced that. I get a bazillion delta miles all the time, but not only do they limit the award travel, but you find yourself planning any kind of travel around what's open rather than creating a path to the travel with whatever's the best deal with whatever airlines or whatever else is. So I like transferable points because it just opens the options for you. That's really good. It really does. And the other thing is it's an arbitrage game. So since you have Delta SkyMiles, I'm going to like ruin SkyMiles for you right now. So like a one-way business class ticket to Europe, we're going to stick with Europe for now, like Air France or KLM you use their own program Flying Blue it going to be 50 you can get it for 50 miles one way a couple hundred bucks taxes and fees Great deal If you were to use Delta Sky miles the taxes and fees are lower to only about 560 but you need 150 to 300,000 miles for the one-way ticket. And so you just think about how long, if you're just earning points off a credit card spend, how much longer is it going to take you to earn the points you need for a flight if you're using a program that requires so many miles? The fun part- there's only certain tickets available. Oh, sure. And to me, the fun part is that each airline has its own program, different rates. And so like one airline's program would be great to Europe and one will be great to Asia. And so when you have transferable points, you're playing this arbitrage game of like, oh, this is the better option. Let me go do that. Oh, this one over here. Let me go do that. And so you're getting the, I mean, in a sense, you're getting the most out of your relationship with banks and airlines. That's kind of how I look at it. Yeah, no, I love that. And I I don't know necessarily how your program works because we're going to be digging into that, but myself personally as well. But what the logical thing that comes to mind for me as a CEO, which I know many of your clients are CEOs, business owners. That's kind of the main target of our podcast as well. The number one thing that comes up in my mind is, oh, man, how much work is this? Because sometimes, even though I know it's way more beneficial, Michelle's always giving me a hard time because she's like, man, you'll spend a ton of money on something that you could have just spent less on. And I'm like, it's just not worth the time to think about it. So what do you do to help people think, all right, it's not as difficult as you think. And it's probably also, once you have a blueprint or strategy, it kind of is easier to work. But give me some feedback on that. Yeah. I think there's always value that you should always value your time. I think people forget that too often. They spend hours and hours to save like three cents. And I was like, just pay somebody. But I think with points, I think I have a quick start guide on my website that kind of give you that foundational kind of understanding of what we're even doing here. And once you kind of know the basics, when you see other things, it all kind of fits into a puzzle. And you're like, oh, I see how this is like this. And it's just a matter of kind of understanding the basics where it's like bank rules around getting credit cards or which airlines can book which airlines, you know, just basic things like this. Once you have that, it becomes a lot easier to say, to say, oh, I'm going to Europe. Star Alliance has a lot of airlines that fly there. Let me just go check them. It's just kind of that thing. Um, I also go ahead. Oh yeah. Oh, as I say, I also send a newsletter with actual award space, like the exact date you can book, um, business and first class flights on international routes. And I break down the different ways you could use your points to book it and explain like why you would want to use one program versus another. Nice. That's how I'm trying to like make this right about that in business as well. You know, the thing is, is this, what I tell people a lot of times is this, you're so busy, you're so, you know, scattered when you have a blueprint, then everything you're looking at fits into that blueprint or it doesn't, it's sort of your litmus test. You can be intentional. So when you have clarity around what you're trying to do. And so I love the idea. You got a quick start guide. We'll, we'll make sure we put some links in the show notes and, and, let everybody know we have that before we end here. But once you have that blueprint or that strategy and you're intentional, then as you bump up against things, and it sounds, it's great that you also have a newsletter that kind of pushes out that information. But I think that's a really, really good point to do. What are some, are there some maybe myths or false beliefs that people have about travel? Like I can't do this, I can't do that. Is there certain things that maybe would be eye-opening for people that you could mention to us on this whole topic? Yeah, I think there's a couple. There's like the credit card side and the travel side. The credit card side is just like you're going to ruin your credit score. You're going to just be in financial ruin after this. Like I said, if you're on top of your finances, you won't be. And for whatever reason, the way the credit bureaus have arranged your credit scores or they calculate your credit scores, having more credit actually helps. So I think like my credit score is over 800. A lot of my friends in this world, we're all over 800. So I think I understand the nervousness around credit because it's kind of a black box and they don't, you know, you don't fully understand every little thing that happens, but it doesn't actually hurt you to have credit cards. So. Well, and I want to just mention, cause I know you're going to, I know you're gonna make a point, but I want to kind of comment on this. I think people that don't understand the flow of money don't understand the power of being able to use a card. And so I'm not a proponent of using credit cards, but when it comes to business, which is kind of what we've hit, this idea of business, flow of money, funding your luxury travel, there are a lot of benefits because it increases your credit. It gives you more expandability. It gives you more availability of cash. And so we're not talking about going into debt. That is a completely mutually exclusive concept here. We're talking about using the flow of your money in your business to fund a lifestyle, which I think is great. So on the credit card point, I just want to make that point. But anyway, go on if you had another thought. Yeah, sure. I was just going to say with travel, I think sometimes, like we've talked about this, it feels like you shouldn't be doing this. It's an extravagance. And you've talked about how important mindset is. And I think that's really important with travel. I think both for being willing to explore new destinations and experiences, but also just being willing to go. I know I've been a bit of a workaholic in my life, so sometimes it's tough to step away, but I think it's almost easier if you have points, because it's not such a big outlay of cash, and you don't have to be miserable on the way. If you fly business class, you're going to enjoy that. You get to lie down, go to the lounge, things will be a bit more chill. I mean, yeah, the service is just better. I mean, it's easier to have better service when there's fewer people to serve. So it's going to be a nice experience. You know, it's funny. You know, Wayne Dyer says when you said when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. And I'm a big believer because of the mindset in how you view things. You know, I talked a minute about abundant mentality, but, you know, a lot of people probably wondering like, George, what, you know, look, man, why are you bringing up luxury travel. Is that something you just want to do? Look, the reason I'm bringing up luxury travel is more than just about the travel. Number one, if you're going to live this life, you may as well enjoy it. It's a quality of life type thing. If you can do it, why not do it? But the other thing, and this is a perspective I think a lot of people don't think about, is that if you're in a mindset of growth in your business, in your life, in your relationships, What you have to realize is that growing is a process of stress and recovery, stress and recovery. When you're working out in the gym, you stress and break down your muscles. That's not when your muscles grow. Your muscles grow when they recover. So when you're burning, so I've got this blog I wrote a while ago on the corporate athlete professional athletes they finish a game like in a certain period of time and then they have tons of recovery and rehab and practice and things like this Corporate athletes we just go like it's the fourth quarter all day long, every day for years and years and years and burn out. And what we don't realize is that if we truly want to grow, you need to have a sense of recovery. So why not have it be luxury travel? Why not have it be experience your life, build your relationships, but you, when you look at it through the lens of growth and that you can grow from this recovery time, I'm a big believer in having some recovery time. Not, not a lot. I'm, I work pretty hard to be honest, but yeah. So I, so I do agree with you. I think some people feel like they can't, shouldn't, or, you know, won't. I think there's a lot of reasons too. So I think that's, that's big as well. Now you have a lot of clients as well. So I'm just, I'm just curious. You, you started a newsletter. I know you have a paid version of your newsletter that you actually send out, you know, you know, travel destinations and picks and things like this. But you have an agency as well. Is that right? Yeah. So I have a travel agency side of the business. My whole thing is like, I want to get you there on points and business and first class. And then when it comes to like your hotel experience, if you're going to pay cash for a hotel, you may as well get the most out of it. So I'm able to add like VIP perks to any of your luxury hotel stays, stuff like that. And it's I mean, it's fun. Like you can, as we've been talking about, you can personalize the hotel. That's where I like, that's why I like working in that space. You get there, you show up, the hotel knows all your preferences if you work with a good agent and like, and is communicating with their contacts. But like being able to just get a room upgrade and, you know, daily breakfast, not having to think about that early check-in, late checkout. Like some, there are some brands that will let you check in as early as 6am and check out at 10pm. Like that's insane, but it makes things so much easier. Think about that. Like, how late is your checkout? Like, those are just things you, you know, you start to think about, but you don't want to think about. So you didn't go into it looking to start an agency. It's just something that evolved because of the nature of what you were doing, right? Yeah, my, it was my mentor, honestly. He was like, hey, I bet you could help people on the other side of those flights you help them book. And so that's what I've been doing in the last, I guess, three years now. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. I mean, just you can, you can make things special. And that's where I like the agency side of stuff. I've built relationships with hotels, even like luxury trains, uh, cruises, like anything I can do to kind of make that experience special. And, you know, you've done this wonderful thing to get over there, uh, in style, I would say. And like, now you may as well like continue that while you're there. Yeah. It's so interesting to see the process with most entrepreneurs or business owners that I interview, the ones that are the most successful start in an area that they love, that they're passionate about, that they enjoy. They actually go deep in really creating the knowledge and skill set. And then the business evolves. You know, you started a newsletter, may as well have a paid newsletter and do more for people and help them. Instead of just teaching people how to do it, which you could learn, you help them do it. You give them the options. And then ultimately, there's always a level of, let me just do it for you. Let me just help do it for you. And it It exists in all businesses, but in the most successful businesses. So I love to see that. I think that's amazing. We're definitely going to, you know, work with you on a couple of different things because I think we can provide some real value for our community. And, you know, we've got several magazines as well that I know we're going to try to, you know, do some things with. But this is great. This is really, man, this is just a great topic because it hits on creating a life, recovering and growth, a mindset perspective and leverage of things that you already have running your business. So what other things do you think might be, you know, we're kind of short on time here, but like what other things do you think might be important for people to know? Or is there anything else you'd like to mention when it comes to this luxury travel topic? Yeah, I think just remember that it's choose your own adventure game. Like you don't have to do it the way I do it or anybody else does it. You can get obsessed or you can just be casually interested in it. My favorite analogy is friends of mine who play golf. Some of them go to the driving range every week. Some of them go to the putting green every week and they go out and they play on the weekend like they're trying to get better. And then others show up on the weekend, drink a beer and play. And like both of them have fun. But the person who just shows up and drinks beer cannot expect to be where the person who practices all the time is. And that's fine. But nobody's unhappy because they're each getting what they want out of the experience. I think it's a bit like that when it comes to points and miles. You can decide that you want to read four hours a night for six months like me. Don't do it. But you could. Or you could just be very casual about it. You can get a couple cards, be dodged, earn your points, maximize bonus categories, and that's enough. And that works for a lot of people. If you want to be somebody who gets a lot of credit cards and gets maximum points on everything, that's great too. Just find your sweet spot. Yeah. Yeah. I think when you begin with the end in mind and you know that you want to create a more adventurous life, I like what you said, make the game of life a game. And here's another thing I hadn't even thought of until now. You're working so hard right now. All that work, all that expenditures and revenue and things that you're doing can have a whole other payoff for you. So I really love that. I think it's really good. So now earlier you mentioned, cause I was going to try to get, I'll make sure in the show notes that I'm going to put some links here, but, um, you mentioned that you have a quick start guide and I'm sure they can sign up at your newsletter. So is the best place for people to connect with you and get that at your website? Yeah. Straight to the points.co. Okay. So straight to the points.co go there, check out the quick start guide. You can learn, you can kind of get an idea and overall basis of what you'd like to do here. Then if you want to opt into the newsletter, you can do that. There's other things that are available, but I'd encourage anyone to go check this out, really do some thoughts on it. I'm actually glad we met because I would love to get, and for those of you listening, you probably get access to this as well. We'll get you to feature some of your articles in the magazines that we have, and we can provide all the links to those things in the show notes. So once again, I appreciate having you here, man. This is a fun subject, a fun topic. It gets you excited just talking about a trip, right? It's the anticipation of a trip that you can benefit from, not just the trip itself, right? Absolutely. I love it. So, okay, guys, listen, do me a favor, share this show and let us know what you're working on. Hit me up on the Daily Mastermind on Facebook or Instagram, or you can email me. I always put my email address in the show notes. But once again, I really believe it's never too late to start building the life that you're meant to live. And that includes living it at the level that you want to ultimately live it. So many people are giving up on their dreams of being able to create an amazing epic life. And this is just a topic I think it'll help you do it. So once again, I appreciate you being here. George Wright III, hanging out with you. Have a great day.