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Bonus: Fly Business Class to Europe for $600 | 87 · Simplified Sparky Marketing

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: 67F just on the left.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Walk past the dickheads with the orange juice.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're just between that large gentleman and the lady with the afro.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy your flight in Cattle class.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Simplified Sparky Marketing.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fucking true story.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: One flight back to Ireland.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was sitting in between this big gentleman and this lady with an afro, and for the entirety of the flight, that fucking afro was tickling my ear and it drove me mental.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I developed an iTwitch into the podcast.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a bonus podcast on point hacking and just a quick overview of what you should be doing to leverage your bills with your business to have a lifestyle where you can either book cars, book hotels, book business class flights to Bali, Japan, Europe, whatever you want.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've flown to Europe regularly in business class, and it's purely from point hacking.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't even call it point hacking, it's just purely fucking using a credit card to get points.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it's all about selecting the correct the correct credit card that works best for you.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to run through some credit cards, how I use them, things to look out for, and what you should be with the credit card I recommend as well.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I started off this a few years ago with the Baby Boy, which is the American Express Explorer.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a little blue card, and it is about$150 for this card, which is absolutely cheap as chips.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what got me the first business class flights was just chipping away at that.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So at the time I got a referral code from somebody, and I think I got 150,000 American Express points with that, which was a good leg up to start building to get points.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I used that card and that that worked well.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then I seen there was an offer with the Quantas American Express card, and it was 300,000 points.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you spent maybe like let's just say it was six grand through the card in the first three months.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I got that, smashed some bills with it, and then I just churned that card.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I just basically cancelled the card after I got the points.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So from there, I was kind of I was happy enough with my American Express Explorer, but I was limited with the spin, which is fine because if you are limited, you can still top it up.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've got a let's say you've got a 10 grand limit and you've got 20 grand of builds, all you have to do is pay off the 10 grand and then it will reactivate the 10 grand again, and then you just use it again for the other builds that you've got.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: With the Explorer card as well, the benefits with it are you get two lounge passes per year in Sydney and Melbourne.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: So either are you can duck in there twice a year if you're flying internationally, which is which is quite cool.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um the lounge in Sydney, to be fair, I've been there a few times and it is it's not fantastic, it does the trick.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: But lounge is a lounge is free beer, free food, and stuff like that.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's because it's free, it's not not mind-blowing stuff at all.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: The really cool thing with the platinum card is you can go to any lounge in the world.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, I go to Amsterdam and I go Amsterdam to Cork, and in the meantime, I can duck into the American Express um or the Centurion Lounge or something in Amsterdam while I wait for that flight in Cork to Cork.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it is the here's another little thing that you need to know is you need to link your American Express to um priority one.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's this little system where you get priority to actually enter the lounge.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: They don't really tell you about it.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I only found out about it late.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is my wife actually traveled overseas and she thought she could utilize one of the lounges, and they were like, No, you need the priority one, but you don't find out about this until it's too late.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's$100 to join, but with the Platinum card, you get that complimentary.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you just call them up, say you want to link the card, and Bob's your uncle, you're in the lounge.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So heads up again with that.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: You need to know this kind of stuff when you are um traveling overseas, that if you might be docking to a random airport, um, not actually off the business class flight, that you do need that if you do want to utilize those lounges.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: But what I've done recently is I have I've churned the Qantas card and now I'm rocking the American Express Platinum card.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the top dogs of cards.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: The fee in this is hefty, it's about$1,800.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: But at the time when I picked it up, it was$800.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: There was an offer on.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a word of warning if you try to be clever with the system.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I seen the offer, it was 300,000 points and half price for the card.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever it was, I think it was like seven or eight hundred bucks for the card.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, brilliant.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I had an inkling I wouldn't get the points, but I I chanced it, I was like, fuck, I'll try it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I applied for it, card got approved, and they sent it out.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I spent the I think you'd spend 12 grand on the card, which with bass bills and stuff like that, which I'll get into in a minute.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't long churning that 12 grand.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I churned it and I didn't get the points, and it was devastating.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So be aware that if you already have an American Express and you go for the top dog, you won't be eligible for the points unless you're smart with it and you put it in your partner's name or something like that, you will be able to get the points then.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if it goes back to your name that's linked to the card and you already have an American Express account, you won't be eligible for this, which is devastating.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: But what I've done in the meantime is I've learned how to hack the system in regards to paying bills.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna get your regular suppliers, like your let's say, for instance, Voltex don't have a fee, Bunnings don't have a fee, any servo station doesn't have a fee.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Some TLEs, it just depends on the manager, the branch manager.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, we've got a fantastic manager, the one I shop at.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have any fees on the card.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, if you're paying a couple of grand, let's say, for instance, you're paying 10 grand through the TLE bill, that is two or two and 20 odd thousand, 22,000 points, I think, with um with the American Express.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you're you're off your fucking trolley if you're spending a lot of money at suppliers every month and you're not using a credit card, for example, if you've got a 30 grand bill at a supplier's and you're not paying with a credit card, that's 60,000 points you're leaving on the table.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to get into the math of the points as well later on in the podcast, just to give you an inkling and kind of how it works for me or how I leverage it and utilize it.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So with the point system, how it works is it's tiered with different cards.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, the explorer is two points per sit per spend, and then you get 2.2 with the um platinum.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So how I use it is I pay all my bills, I mean everything, and that's the catch, is you go to some websites like your ATO, they don't accept Amax, or else they give you one point per dollar.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where people get caught as well, and this is a word of warning is use third-party software such as Snipe.com, I think, and Pay.com.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Those two you can actually pay your bills through those apps or websites, and you can claim the full amount of points and you'll cop a little bit of a fee.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings me to my next math equation is okay, bear with me.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it costs me about 460,000 AMAX points to fly back to Europe.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I fly with an airline and they use Asia Miles.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I have got to convert 115,000 Asia Miles to Amax, which is a two to one ratio.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's 230,000 um Amax points, which is 460.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I recently paid a bill of 20,000, a tax bill of 20,000, and I paid it through Snipe, S-N-I-I-P.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the fee to pay through Snipe was just under$400.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like$400 something, including GST, but obviously you claim that back with the business.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it was$400.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just say for even math, it was$400, and for even more even math, it was$40 odd,000.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was like$43,000 or$44,000 with the 2.2, whatever the math is on that.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just say it's$40,000 for the sake of argument.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So a flight I require to go to Europe return is going to cost me$460,000 points.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now I spent$400 to get that 20,000 points.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is where you use math to see is the juice worth the squeeze and the spend.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I weighed it up and I said if I do this 10 times, like if I've got$20,000 bills or whatever, and I pay them with the third-party application snipe, that will achieve me the points that I need.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: If I pay that 10 or 11 times, let's say it costs me four grand.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the$400 multiplied by$10 will get me the points that I want.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that's four grand.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now it might cost me four to five grand, including taxes, to get a return trip to Europe.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if I'm to buy that flight outright, it could be seven to eight thousand dollars each way.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you're talking maybe fourteen grand, let's just call it fourteen grand.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I've probably saved ten grand, and not only that about the money factor, it's the fact you get to lie down on a flight that's 20 odd hours is fucking delightful.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I do it.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a word of warning as well is if you're new to the card game and you're getting your points and stuff, don't get wrapped into the shiny objects to go, oh, I'm gonna take the missus out for a night in the hotel in the Crown Casino.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's 600,000 points, but the hotel room's worth a grand, so it's brilliant.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: See where that went wrong, is like that flight to me was worth fucking 12 grand or 14 grand, whereas you're just cashing in on something, an item that's worth a thousand dollars stay in a hotel per night.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: You really have to weigh it up of the point spin.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like it might be like spend four hundred thousand Amex points and three hundred dollars and you get that thousand dollar hotel for the night, then it's worth it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: But it's purely up to your lifestyle.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you're never ever going to fly and you're more of an on-the-ground kind of person, you want to splash a point on something else, go fucking nuts.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just saying, be careful where you spend your points, always be mindful of what you or where you do spend them.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, points conversion is the next thing.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I require Asia Miles with um flying with that airline, and how I do that is I go on to the log into the American Express website, into my portal, I just go to exchange points, I select the airline I want to exchange them for are the points that they use.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be ratioed, usually two to one or three to one ratio with American Express to it's two to one with American Express to Asia Miles.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I flick that over, and then that will give me the points that I need.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I just enter my membership number for that airline, press enter, and within about 30 seconds they appear inside your account and you can book your flights.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, with booking flights, you do need to be slightly patient with that specific airline.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: They have got a fair few business class flights, but you need to be booking like six months in advance.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Quantas are lethal, you almost quantum emirates are pretty lethal.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: You almost need to be booking a year in advance.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: But with the airline that I use, you usually get away with maybe three months out or something like that, you can book.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of yeah, there's a lot of a lot of flights available on that, and um I rate them, and it's um as I said, it's way better than wedging yourself into cattle class when you're flying.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's another double dip method that I use as well.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have got a Qantas frequent flyer account, if you don't sign up to one and get one today, they have got a double dip system as well.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: That if you go to a BP, you scan your quantas card to basically get your points before you pay, then you pay with your American Express, therefore you get a double bubble, you get your American Express points and you get your Qantas points as well.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a double dip.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Be very careful with this as well.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I fell into this trap as well, where I went in, got my diesel, scanned the card, pay out Amax, away I went.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get the maximum points because quantus are pretty good, or BP are pretty good, they'll send you emails and they'll be like, we've got 10x points this week or this month.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So anytime you go in, you will get 10 times your points.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you spend$200 on a tank of diesel, that's gonna be 2,000 quantas points.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a catch, read the fine print.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: It usually says you have to buy an item in store as well.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you could buy a drink or a bar of chocolate or something like that, and it will activate the points.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: The sneaky bastards, I fell into that twice where I was like, sweet, I'm gonna get loads of points, and it it just didn't come through because the um yeah, they just they had that little fucking term and condition in there, so always be mindful of those little offers of read the fine print, and you might have to just buy something extra in store just to activate that as well.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: But there is there's so much to get into in this, but this is a real high-level overview of how I utilize this, and hopefully the quick math was kind of a bit of an eye-opener to what you can achieve.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got any questions on the cards or whatever, shoot me a DM.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And as a as another bonus, as I mentioned, you can fly to I fly basically for 460 60,000 AMAX points.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's a link in the description below.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you avail of the card, the uh platinum, you will get 300,000 points.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you've already got a one-way trip business class, and I think the card fees something like 1700 or something like that, but you're off your trolley if you're spending a lot of money at suppliers and you're not utilising the card because you could be having a nice holiday with your family, with your partner, whatever, that you can um you can just milk the points and use the business to your advantage.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'll also put the baby boy card in there.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a newbie and you want to stick a toe in the water, I'll put the two referral links underneath the podcast as well.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to stick a toe in the water, get the newbie card for 150 bucks or else whatever the other offer is.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: But at the moment, until November, you'll get 300,000 AMAX points if you spend, I think it's 12 grand through the card within three months, which is crazy.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna leave that link below.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and I'm all about making your life better, making your life easier, making business work for you, not work against you, and just improve your lifestyle.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you enjoy, guys.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'll catch you possibly at the end of the week for another podcast again.