124. Mid-Year Points Update: What I Burned, Booked & Learned

Point Me To First Class

Devon Gimbel MD

Finances, Education, How To, Travel, Credit, Expenses, Card, Cards, Society & Culture, Professionals, Tips, Personal, Places & Travel, Business, Points, Rewards

5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever wonder what’s actually possible with points? In this episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes of how I’ve already booked and taken 5 international trips in 2025—spending 2.9 million points on award flights and hotels, and saving over $150,000 in travel costs.

From a spring break family trip to Paris to a spontaneous 2-day Tokyo adventure, I’m walking you through exactly how I planned, booked, and flew these points-funded getaways. You’ll hear the real numbers—how many points each trip required, what the taxes and fees cost me, and the redemption value I got for each flight and hotel. I’ll break down my favorite award bookings of the year so far (including Emirates First Class, ANA “The Suite,” Lufthansa’s brand new Allegris First Class, and more), share what I loved—and what wasn’t worth it—and give you the key trends I’m seeing in award availability and program changes.

Whether you’re a solo traveler who loves premium cabins, a parent planning school break trips, or someone building toward their next dream redemption, this episode will give you the insights and strategy you need to make your next booking your best one yet.

Get full show notes and transcript: https://pointmetofirstclass.com/award-travel-review-2025/

Want to shape the show? Take the Point Me To First Class listener survey and share what you love and want more of! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAPfb3wIaphMn_NoQzm_fljydsivTELQwh7pYoxrI2uTFoKQ/viewform?usp=header

Eager to learn the secrets of award travel so that you can turn your expenses into unforgettable experiences? Join the Points Made Easy course waitlist here: https://pointmetofirstclass.com/pointsmadeeasy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher than average expenses to travel the world.
0:10.7	I'm your host, Devin Gimble, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset, if you know how to leverage them.
0:17.8	Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often. Let's get started. Hello, everyone. Welcome
0:31.3	back to the Pointe to First Class podcast. How are all of your summers going so far? Mine is off to a solid start, but it's about to get
0:39.9	even better because I have three points funded trips coming up in the next two months that I am
0:44.5	really excited about. And that's on top of two international points trips that I've already taken
0:49.0	this year. And while we're technically more than halfway into 2025, I thought now would be a fun time to do a mid-year
0:56.0	award travel review and break down what points trips I've taken so far, what points
1:01.0	trips are coming up, and share my top tips, takeaways, and lessons learned from booking
1:05.8	these awards that I hope will help you with your own award travel planning. So let's start
1:10.5	with the overall numbers and then I'll go into a with your own award travel planning. So let's start with the overall
1:11.1	numbers and then I'll go into a bit more detail about each trip. From March to August of this year,
1:16.8	I have five international points trips booked, including two solo trips, two family vacations,
1:23.4	and a first class flight adventure with a girlfriend who's just as enthusiastic about spending
1:28.1	30 hours on airplanes as I am. These five trips include 11 long-haul international flights
1:34.5	with six of those in business class and five in first class. I'm actually hoping to upgrade one of
1:40.7	those business class flights to first class at check-in, but more on that a little bit
1:45.7	later. All told, these five trips required 2,849,000 points to book, plus a total out-of-pocket
1:54.2	cash cost of $6,030 in taxes and fees on award flights. Not too bad when you consider that the
2:00.6	retail price of those flights comes in at just over on award flights. Not too bad when you consider that the retail price of those
2:02.1	flights comes in at just over $159,000. For those of you who are into calculating award redemption
2:08.4	value, that's an average redemption value of 5.4 cents per point. But as you'll hear when I break down
	...

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