Award Travel 101
Budget Travel with John Ryan
The Award Travel 101 Podcast is brought to you in part by Thrifty Traveler Premium. Get Thrifty Traveler Premium deal/award alerts sent straight to your inbox. Use promo code “AT10” for $10 off your first year. Recent finds include:
- Starlux Business Class to Taipei for 75K miles
- Business Class to South America for 39K points
- Roundtrip to Hawaii for under $500
You can find these at ThriftyTraveler.com/Premium
How did your passion for travel begin?
- "I used to watch planes from the airport. I would ask my mom where each plane was going, and she would make up a place. 🤣"
Why? Most teens are not into learning about travel rewards programs
- Like many in the space, it started with saving money.
Favorite airline, hotel, credit card programs (and does status play a role in any of your travels)?
Where are you heading next?
- Queenstown, NZ
- Study abroad in Japan
Travel Style -
- Mostly economy.
Best deal you’ve received?
- San Francisco (SFO) to Lisbon (LIS) for $300 round trip
- SFO to LIS that was only $90
Highlight Feature - Different Ways to Approach Budget Travel
- Schedule changes
- Frontier 50K/Platinum
- Spirit Gold
- Ticket counter bookings
- Southwest A-List
- Delta SkyMiles
- Southwest
- American
- Virgin Atlantic
- KLM nonstop and Virgin
- Virgin offers an underrated companion fare
- British Airways
- Solid amount of award space from Vegas - high surcharges.
Other Things to Know
- Frontier 100K/Diamond
- free checked, carry-on bag, early boarding, and other perks
- JetBlue True Blue
- Southwest Rapid Rewards
- United
- Aeroplan awards under 500 miles
- Lifemiles
- Turkish - used to be 7.5K, but is now 10K for economy. Business was 12.5K, but is now 15K per person
- American - last minute awards
- British Airways - see the updated award chart
- Etihad Guest - starts at 6K for awards under under 500 miles
- Delta - Compare
- Virgin Atlantic - start at 8.5K - see updated chart
- Flying Blue -
Where to Find John
John is active in the Award Travel 101/201 community and writes for Bougie Miles. To reach him:
- john.ryan@fora.travel
- @vegasteenager on twitter
Send us a text message to share your thoughts about this episode.
Where to Find Us
For questions, you can join us in the free 110,000+ member Award Travel 101 Community.
- To book time with our team, check out Award Travel 1-on-1.
- You can also email us at 101@award.travel
- Our next meetup is located in SEATTLE on AUGUST 16–18, 2024. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit "Out to SEA" on the award.travel website.
The Award Travel 101 Podcast is brought to you in part by Thrifty Traveler Premium. Get Thrifty Traveler Premium deal/award alerts sent straight to your inbox. Use promo code “AT10” for $10 off your first year. Recent finds include:
- Starlux Business Class to Taipei for 75K miles
- Business Class to South America for 39K points
- Roundtrip to Hawaii for under $500
You can find these at ThriftyTraveler.com/Premium
How did your passion for travel begin?
- "I used to watch planes from the airport. I would ask my mom where each plane was going, and she would make up a place. 🤣"
Why? Most teens are not into learning about travel rewards programs
- Like many in the space, it started with saving money.
Favorite airline, hotel, credit card programs (and does status play a role in any of your travels)?
Where are you heading next?
- Queenstown, NZ
- Study abroad in Japan
Travel Style -
- Mostly economy.
Best deal you’ve received?
- San Francisco (SFO) to Lisbon (LIS) for $300 round trip
- SFO to LIS that was only $90
Highlight Feature - Different Ways to Approach Budget Travel
- Schedule changes
- Frontier 50K/Platinum
- Spirit Gold
- Ticket counter bookings
- Southwest A-List
- Delta SkyMiles
- Southwest
- American
- Virgin Atlantic
- KLM nonstop and Virgin
- Virgin offers an underrated companion fare
- British Airways
- Solid amount of award space from Vegas - high surcharges.
Other Things to Know
- Frontier 100K/Diamond
- free checked, carry-on bag, early boarding, and other perks
- JetBlue True Blue
- Southwest Rapid Rewards
- United
- Aeroplan awards under 500 miles
- Lifemiles
- Turkish - used to be 7.5K, but is now 10K for economy. Business was 12.5K, but is now 15K per person
- American - last minute awards
- British Airways - see the updated award chart
- Etihad Guest - starts at 6K for awards under under 500 miles
- Delta - Compare
- Virgin Atlantic - start at 8.5K - see updated chart
- Flying Blue -
Where to Find John
John is active in the Award Travel 101/201 community and writes for Bougie Miles. To reach him:
- john.ryan@fora.travel
- @vegasteenager on twitter
Send us a text message to share your thoughts about this episode.
Where to Find Us
For questions, you can join us in the free 110,000+ member Award Travel 101 Community.
- To book time with our team, check out Award Travel 1-on-1.
- You can also email us at 101@award.travel
- Our next meetup is located in SEATTLE on AUGUST 16–18, 2024. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit "Out to SEA" on the award.travel website.