Frequent Miler origin story - Tim's story | Coffee Break Ep57 | 5-27-25
Frequent Miler on the Air
Frequent Miler
4.9 • 640 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We've been gradually telling the "origin stories" of each team member in Frequent mIler. Today, we'll talk about how Tim came to join Frequent Miler.
(00:52) - How did Tim get started in miles and points?
(02:12) - Around 16 or 17, Tim and his brother planned out a series of roadtrips to try to see beyond their Midwestern home.
(06:24) - To prepare for his honeymoon years later, Tim volunteered for medical research studies to raise money. His goal: take his new wife to the top 5 places she wanted to see. (New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, France, and Ireland.)
(09:10) - After all that travel, Tim and his wife ended up with a bunch of United miles. He started to learn a bit about miles when he attempted to use those United miles to fly home for the holidays.
(13:07) - Gradually, Tim started to learn more, starting with a Southwest credit card.
(14:14) - When Tim started entering the wine making industry, he started traveling more for work and had the opportunity to join an expensed trip to South Africa if he could get himself there. As a tall guy, he was motivated to figure out a way to fly business class.
(20:31) - Tim and his wife planned a trip to the Maldives, which got Tim even deeper into the hobby, especially when he sort of stumbled upon a type of mistake fare of sorts where his stay was earning points as though it were a paid stay.
(23:12) - In 2021, Tim was starting to tire of working in the wine industry and was itching for something new. His wife was helping him brainstorm his dream job and he said "I'd love to write for Frequent Miler." About a week later, he saw the job posting for a new author at Frequent Miler.
(27:34) - Nick and Greg shares their impression of Tim's application and interview.
(33:18) - So what does Tim get most excited about now, in the points and miles hobby?
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Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a Voyescape podcast. |
| 0:03.9 | You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. |
| 0:11.9 | Welcome to Coffee Break, where we focus on a single topic related to miles and points. |
| 0:16.8 | And each coffee break is limited to 20 minutes or less for your money back. |
| 0:22.0 | On today's coffee break, Tim's origin story. |
| 0:25.3 | We're going to be talking with Tim Stanky, who's been working with us now for about three |
| 0:29.6 | and a half years. |
| 0:31.6 | And we've previously done origin stories for Nick and for me and for Carrie. |
| 0:40.9 | But we haven't yet until now gotten to Tim or to Stephen. And we're correcting one of those two problems right now. Welcome, Tim. I'm excited about this. |
| 0:48.9 | Yeah, good to have you here. I mean, you know, I don't know a lot about how you got started in |
| 0:53.3 | Miles and Points, Tim. |
| 0:54.3 | I have a good sense of where you've been these last couple of years, but I don't really know |
| 0:59.1 | where you were before all that. So I'm curious to hear a little bit about how you got started. |
| 1:03.7 | I mean, how did you dive into miles and points to begin with? Yeah, it's a murky and mysterious background. |
| 1:09.2 | Let me tell you. There's a lot of, I'm going to have to |
| 1:12.4 | change some names and some dates, so we can't report it all completely truthfully. Keep the secret safe. |
| 1:19.4 | Yeah, this is so, just so you know. Yeah, so I mean, for me, points and miles, I think going further |
| 1:26.8 | would be, or going even further back, points and miles, I think going further would be, or going even further back, |
| 1:29.6 | points and miles are kind of the drug that allows me to get high on my own supply. |
| 1:36.3 | Because I love what I really, what I love is travel. |
| 1:40.4 | I mean, I love points and miles. |
| 1:41.7 | I love what can happen. |
... |
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