The Points Guy: Airlines Make More Money Selling Miles Than Flying Planes
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We're living in the platinum age of travel. It's like all about loyalty. Loyalty is what these airlines make more money. The big airlines make more money selling miles to credit cards than they do flying airplanes. I want everyone to let that sink in. The airlines make more money from their loyalty programs.
Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, we're talking points, credit cards, and travel with the Points Guy.
You're going to want to hold off on booking that August vacation until you listen to this. It's Thursday, July 2nd. Let's ride.
Good morning. No standard news show today since the office is closed ahead of July 4th, but we may have something even more useful for you. An interview with the points guy, Brian Kelly, AKA the points guy reinvented the conversation around credit cards, helping millions of people save money and travel smarter by accruing points. So we talked to Brian about points cause that's interesting as heck, but also about the latest in the travel industry, because this guy is pretty much always on an airplane or in a hotel.
We also got into a philosophical debate about what being a window or an aisle person says about your character and whether you should dress up when going to the airport. It is a fun conversation, but first, a word from our sponsor, Ultra Running.
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Use promo code morningbrew10 for 10% off your first pair of Ultra running shoes at ultrarunning.com slash morningbrew. That's A-L-T-R-A running dot com slash morningbrew. Now here's the points guy.
Brian, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. All right, first question. How did you become the points guy?
Well, it started in 2010. I was working at Morgan Stanley. I was there, 2007, I got a job there doing recruiting. So I was in college recruiting for technology. Of course, it was like six months after I started, the bottom blew out of the entire financial industry. And so I spent years working there. I actually was getting promoted, but if you're in HR during the Great Recession, Like, you're nobody. And I think I remember my managing director would look at me and laugh and be like, your bonus this year is not getting laid off. Come back again next year. So, you know, I'm in my 20s, New York City, just trying to get ahead. I've always been really good at points. I started doing it with my dad in the 90s.
So really, before the points guy, I was the points kid. He was a... Road Warrior, I figured out when I was 12 how to use his points. So that's like the shortened version of I had been doing points in the 90s, figured out in college when I was student body president traveling that there was like this whole underworld of travelers. So pre-Reddit, there's a site that's still around called Flyer Talk. So I discovered Flyer Talk in 2004 and like, holy crap, this stuff that I've been doing with my dad, there's like people around the world that do this stuff. So I was into the points game.
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