Welcome

Friends,

I spent extended time with a musician from Nashville recently.

One thing I am learning in this year is that it is wise and often advisable to “go slow to go fast” (I didn’t make the phrase up, either: evidently the Marines say it). It is good to slow down.

In so many words, that is what this musician told me, too. He said that the human heart was not built for notoriety: that we will only find what we were made for when we slow down enough to listen.

Travel creates space to slow down. I believe that is a good thing, for all of us.

Let’s get going.

Links

Day in my life catching a stupid early flight.

CBS Interview with Delta’s CEO on the crash of flight 4819.

2 points per dollar + massive sign up bonus on the CapitalOne Venture card.

Turn your points into more awesome, free travel: book a call with me.

Story

As a third grader, I discovered that airlines publish their toll free numbers in the yellow pages and that if you called, the people who answered would tell you destinations, schedules, and fares virtually no end. I was probably the only third grader in America who called airlines in their free time and learned that some fares are good while others are not.

Here is the takeaway from this bizarre anecdote: there is always a deal to be found.

And it’s the real secret, the real “mother lode” in the world of travel: while you may not always have the miles, you can always find a deal.

It starts with knowing where to look (assuming, as I have mentioned before, you have an idea of where you want to go). Use GoogleFlights as a baseline for airfare, and then know thyself.

I love big hotels: the obnoxious kind people who really like hotels dislike. A massively impersonal Hyatt Regency or Sheraton lights my fires. I spent my childhood Christmases at the Radisson in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and I thought it was the best thing ever (it was).

But even more than a big hotel, I love the luxury brands that sit atop big hotel chains: Park Hyatts, JW Marriotts, St Regis’, etc. Again, this reasonably offends some and I am not defending myself. I am not even explaining myself (I can save that for another column).

I am only saying it is good to know myself. It helps me finds what I am looking for, and begin to distill down the endless options available when asked “where do you really want to go?”

I have had life changing experiences in remote villages in places I could not pronounce.

I have had life changing experiences in JW Marriott’s.

I just laughed out loud a little writing that last sentence. But it is true.

Travel can do great good in all of us by pushing us out of the little worlds we construct around ourselves. And when you know yourself well enough to know what will get you out the door, you have a higher likelihood of actually setting out on an adventure.

So, where do you really want to go? I can promise you that there is a deal that will take you there and back again, just like Mr Bilbo. And the story it tells just might change your life.

Points, deals, and story are the three key elements of all good travel. We will discuss this more in my next column. And then get back to the practical of how to get more points and find better deals.

I promise that is coming, too.

Forward

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This is me (Tommy) telling you nicely to forward it onto to them. And also to invite them to click “subscribe”. And then pretty please do that ten more times. Thx.

Remember, this live you are living has meaning. Be well today.

-Tommy