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Booking travel using points and miles can be complicated. Sure, it can save you money, but you might be the type of person who just dreads the task.

I know I am.

Well, believe it or not, you can actually use a service that will do all of that hard work for you,

so you can just focus on living your best travel life.

And today, we're bringing you an episode of a podcast called Unpacked by Afar that explores one of these services.

The latest season of Unpacked by Afar dives into tricky travel topics, from the best places to spend your vacation

days in 2024, to navigating the changing world of travel loyalty programs and everything in

between. And we know from the results of our latest listener survey that some of you

are interested in hearing more travel tips, so here you go. Unpacked by afar releases a new

episode every Thursday, and you can find a link to learn more in today's show notes. We'll be back

next week with all brand new episodes of Smart Money. Enjoy.

I'm Aisland Green, and this is Unpacked, the podcast that unpacks one tricky topic

and travel each week. And this week, we're looking at a much easier way to book travel

using points and miles. If this topic seems familiar, it's because last year we ran an

episode about points and loyalty programs.

I spoke with Paul Rubio, who is a far as points and miles expert about the best credit cards to earn points and the best ways to maximize those points.

He's fantastic, and I put a few of his tips into play in my own life.

And then a couple of months ago, I started to plan for a trip to Japan,

and I wanted to book solely with a bunch of chase points I've been collecting. So I did some

research. I started to noodle around, and immediately I wanted to give up. I just did not want to

...