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August 14, 2026 | View Online
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I keep saying that Kuala Lumpur is where Jess and I are settling a bit and not traveling. Yet I’ve already been to the US twice, Spain, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, and traveled the length of Malaysia for my book this year.
Then I’ll be back in Singapore next week, heading into the Malaysian jungle on a diesel train after that, swinging through Orlando, flying onto London, Edinburgh, and Troon, then looking at Thailand and Hong Kong before the year is up.
Old habits die slow and excruciatingly hard.
Let’s get to the points:
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Do you actually know what your points are worth?
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Gimme your best travel lore
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Your Avios are more valuable than you think
Cheers,
Steven
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| WHAT'S ACTUALLY IN YOUR WALLET?
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Your Reluctance To Learn Is Losing You Money
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Am I ripping off Cap One with that title? Correct.
Don’t care.
I babble on a lot about how valuable your points are, but I get that it can seem a bit intimidating, especially when the worst valuations are usually the easiest to get. So I thought I’d break down exactly what your points are worth in different scenarios, so you can see how much you’re losing out.
Let’s imagine you have 100,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points, and you’re ready to burn those bad boys. Here’s where a novice starts.
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Here’s me trying to book a flight on Amex Travel. An economy seat on a flight from Singapore to LAX costs 62,463 points. You’ll notice that it mirrors the cash price of $624.63 exactly. It’s the same in business class, where a $17,210 seat costs 1.7 million points.
In short, one point = one cent. Pretty simple. Feels easy. And it’s right there, telling you that you could pay cash or not pay cash at all.
But I want you to go back to your homepage, go to Rewards and Benefits, and to the bottom of the Earn and Redeem drop-down menu. Yes, it’s at the bottom. They want it there. Hit Transfer Points.
A Big Business Redemption
By transferring 85,000 points to Air Canada, I could book this flight from LAX to Hong Kong in EVA’s excellent business class. That flight costs $3,661. The Air Canada redemption has a $72 fee, but that still means your points stretch to 4.2 cents each. That’s a big difference.
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Get Practical Instead
But then you’ll say, “Ah, Steven, but I wouldn’t pay for business class anyway, so it’s not really saving me money; it’s just a cool experience flying business class for $72. And I’m a more practical person than that”
And I’d say, “Yes, you’re right. Value is subjective, and I admire your tenacity. So let’s use another example”.
I give you a 9,000-point flight from LAX to London Heathrow with $164 in taxes and fees. Yes, the fee is annoying, but the cash price for that $569 (points get you classic, not light). So you’ve now saved — truly saved — $405.
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You have 100,000 points.
You could make that redemption eleven times.
Assuming the cash price stayed the same, you’ve saved $4,455. Considering you could have earned up to 100,000 points by spending $8,000 within six months of opening this card, you would have got more than 50% of your spending back in value.
So, to recap.
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Spend on your credit card portal = $1,000 of savings.
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Redeem for a sick business class flight = Thousands of dollars in experiential value
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Redeem for lots of economy flights = $4,455 of savings
And remember, this works for all the credit card issuers. I just used Amex as an example. Get stuck into your homework on the other programs here.
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| LIFE INSURANCE
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The Smallest Thing You Can Do For The People You Love Most
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Join over 500,000 families that got their life insurance coverage through Ethos. (available in every state except NY). Plus, every new policy includes a free will (up to $898 value).
Check your rate today.
*Disclaimer: Sample rate: 10-year term $1M life policy for 40 y/o healthy, non-smoking male.
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| YOUR TRAVEL LORE
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Can You Outdo Me?
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Imagine we’re in a smoky bar in Istanbul. I’m in the corner, being a pretentious traveler, enchanting a group of young backpackers about all the crap I’ve done over the past few years to give myself a self-inflated sense of worth.
But you…you might have me beat. Embrace your pretentious traveler, and send me your travel lore. I’ll judge the best rap sheet next week. Until then, here’s mine.
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Send me yours. If you win, we have to fight, though.
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| TRAVEL NIGHTMARE TURNED SWEET SPOT LESSON
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Don't Neglect Your Avios (It Just Got Easier To Use them)
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I didn’t get too many responses on the travel nightmares front last week, but one response did lead me to a solid development in the world of Avios.
One answer read
“This isn’t really a nightmare, but a frustration. I switched some points to British Airways cause I thought I could use them with a partner airline or something? And now I’m stuck with BA points and don’t know how to make any good redemptions with them.”
First things first, there’s nothing worse than sending your points to an airline you didn’t mean to —- that’s one-way traffic and they’re not coming back. The good news is that Avios are still pretty valuable and there’s a lot you can do with them.
This is well-timed, actually, because Avios now has a pretty solid award flight finder. In the past, you were stuck searching for individual dates, and it could take an absolute age to find a redemption you liked. But the new calendar view is making it very easy to search. You can plug in a month and a destination, and you can skim over all the rates and pick the best one. It only covers BA, Iberia, and Aer Lingus operated flights, though. So you’ll still need to search individually for others.
An important thing to remember about Avios: They can be used on all Avios airlines (British Airways, Finnair, Aer Lingus, Qatar, Iberia, Vueling, and Logan Air).
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But generally, here are the sweet spots you should look into if you have Avios kicking around.
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Short-haul flights in the US with American or Alaska (13.5K for 650 miles or less, 18K for up to 1,150 miles)
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Using the same short-haul idea, fly from Miami to the Caribbean. Best as a positioning flight, but still great.
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Miami to Quito, Ecuador or Bogota, Colombia for 17,500 Avios — also solid. I love Quito.
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US West Coast to Madrid with Iberia for 24,250 Avios + $100 fee. Not shabby at all.
You have options. Don’t hamstring yourself into thinking Avios aren’t valuable. They definitely are.
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