Blow it All Every Year - My Yearly Travel Budget.
No secret that I do love to travel. I thank my parents for doing a great job getting my sister and I out there seeing different cultures in a young age. A lot like The Points Guy, Brian, my first dabble in points happened in High School for me and I have been hooked ever since.
In the Beginning, God Created AMEX Rewards
When I was in high school my father was a VP of Finance and later a CFO for a manufacturing company. OK I agree there was a silver spoon component in there, but a perk he had was that his AMEX would be used for corporate wide purchases. TL;DR, we had a lot of points to manage which I got the opportunity to manage. From early days trying to maximize Delta, Marriott, and Avis rewards to make sure we had amazing yearly vacations. Traveling around in business/first class and staying and some swank Marriott properties was surly rewarding and addicting!
Four Years of Straight Work Travel
After graduating Georgia Tech, I ended up in Washington DC. An amazing time and made some lifelong friends. Though oddly I wasn’t really staying in DC that much. I joined Deloitte and was a consultant on the road. Was staffed all over the country. While at Deloitte, I started to amass a bunch of air and hotel points. Since I pretty much did not have to pay to travel even on weekends, I watched my Sky Mile account balance grow and grow. Was pushing around 500k unused Sky Miles. One day I was flying home next to another frequent traveler and she gave me a great piece of advice. The great piece of advice was to spend those miles as Delta would commonly and still does raise the reward redemption rates year to year. Delta is not unique, most airline and hotel vendors do this. Around year three at Deloitte, meet some amazing friends on my NYC project. We decided to take a month off together [I literally had 25 use or loose PTO days that year] and travel South East Asia for a month. I was able to do this on points in the most amazing fashion. I really like this “blow it all” fashion. Argument could me made my points could have gone farther but flying first class and living weeks at a time at a W was the highlight of my life. If only this could continue.
Spend it all Next Year
The “blow it all” mentality seemed to stick with me. I do amass points throughout the year and look for opportunities to spend those points the following year. I try to take two to three bigger vacations a year. Over the last couple of years I average one Europe or Hawaii and one South East Asia trip a year. Around November/December each year, Delta tends to have Delta One / First Class sales for the following year. For example in 2019, I will be headed to Zurich for Memorial Day and Bali for Independence Day, sitting pretty in Delta One only paying taxes! 2018 drained my account balance, I took an amazing trip to Australia and Fiji in Delta One which was booked in Dec 2017. 2016 was crazy I went to South East Asia twice on points the same year.
So What is Your Budget?!
I can be really long winded telling a story. I don’t know my budget for the next year until the year is nearly complete. As depressing seeing all your MQMs go back to 0 on Jan 1st before the roll over MQMs kick in a few weeks later, knowing you have a kick-ass trip or two in the books surly puts a smile on my face. The harder piece is the hotels. Because of my job changed that I am way more flight heavy than hotel heavy. I could hit a city or two a week but only stay a night or two on the road which I prefer coming home more to more Kofi play time!
Notable Point Trips
2020: Will know Dec 2019 :-)
2019: Zurich, Bali
2018: Australia/Fiji
2017: London, Maui, Singapore/Vietnam
2016: Maui, Thailand, Edmonton, Singapore
2015: Maui, Singapore
2014: Seattle, San Francisco
2012: Toronto, San Francisco, Vietnam/Cambodia/ Thailand
What are you Doing?
If you have not signed up for a rewards account, do that today. Even the smallest amount can put you on the path. The Points Guy is an excellent resource but is geared for a wide audience which is can be overwhelming. Treat the world as your oyster and get out there and see this tiny blue planet!
