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5 Benefits Of Signing Up For Free Rewards Programs - Travel Tip Tuesday · Travel Mug Podcast

• 0:00
  Jenn: hey everyone.
• 0:00
  Jenn: Welcome back to the Travel Mug Podcast.
• 0:03
  Jenn: This is Travel Tip Tuesday, and I am Jenn and I'm here with my partner in podcasting.
• 0:11
  Jenn: Meggan, how are you today?
• 0:14
  Meggan: I am just dandy.
• 0:15
  Meggan: What are we chatting about today?
• 0:17
  Jenn: This week I want to talk about those free rewards programs that airlines and hotels offer.
• 0:28
  Jenn: So I am definitely not one of those travel hackers.
• 0:32
  Jenn: I know they're out there.
• 0:33
  Jenn: I am fascinated by what they do but I find it really overwhelming and I know that it can seem like you'll never get enough points to actually get a free flight.
• 0:45
  Jenn: There are so many things that you have to do and so many moving parts, but there are other benefits.
• 0:52
  Jenn: Besides accumulating enough points to get a free night stay or a free flight.
• 0:58
  Jenn: So for example, I am an Aeroplan member with Air Canada.
• 1:02
  Jenn: This is the airline that we end up flying most often, and just by being an Aeroplan member, it moves me up a boarding group.
• 1:10
  Jenn: And I didn't figure this out for like a couple of flights because I never put Ryan's Aero plan number In for whatever reason, only my own.
• 1:21
  Jenn: And so we were always in different boarding groups, and then I was like, like, well, I'm getting on the plane.
• 1:30
  Jenn: Bye Um, then you can also use the points to bid for, uh, or to get in flight wifi or bid for seat upgrades as well.
• 1:42
  Jenn: So you don't need, necessarily need enough points for a free flight.
• 1:45
  Jenn: You can use a little bit of points for that.
• 1:49
  Jenn: For hotels, when you sign up for their free program, you often get access to cheaper prices.
• 1:54
  Jenn: So like why wouldn't you sign up for an email list?
• 1:58
  Jenn: And then you can also get features like mobile check-in free wifi, which you should get free wifi anyway, but that's beside the point.
• 2:05
  Jenn: it's often, there are more just for the regular base program.
• 2:09
  Jenn: So I actually recently stayed at a Best Western back in, I guess the end of May when we went to New Brunswick and I got a $50 gift card just because of a promo that they were running.
• 2:23
  Jenn: I didn't even know about the program and it was because I was joined their rewards program.
• 2:27
  Jenn: So.
• 2:29
  Meggan: Nice.
• 2:29
  Jenn: And then we also joined, the free rewards program for Avis when we were renting a car.
• 2:36
  Jenn: And it enabled us to skip a very long line and go right to.
• 2:42
  Meggan: I love that.
• 2:43
  Jenn: We love skipping a line.
• 2:47
  Jenn: So of course if you travel enough or you get the right credit cards, you can earn free flights and hotels and upgrades and more.
• 2:53
  Jenn: But I really wanted to highlight that there are benefits just for joining the base program and not like stressing yourself out about travel hacking and all those things.
• 3:03
  Jenn: So Meggan, do you join these like rewards programs or do you even like earn enough to get free stuff?
• 3:10
  Meggan: Yeah, I mean, I have in the past, especially when I worked in the travel industry, I had more than I do now.
• 3:17
  Meggan: Honestly, we don't usually stay in like traditional hotel chains, so that isn't necessarily a benefit, but not that I wouldn't in terms of joining their rewards program.
• 3:26
  Meggan: What I have, I would say is Avion points with Visa.
• 3:30
  Meggan: I haven't used them yet because of course, COVID hit and I've just kept accumulating.
• 3:34
  Meggan: I'm gonna be around the world twice by the time use those.
• 3:38
  Meggan: but they're in our back pocket and we're gonna sort of make that select trip.
• 3:43
  Meggan: And in the past I have actually utilized air miles for, uh, a trip to a free flight to Chicago.
• 3:50
  Meggan: So, yeah, so it, it, little bit, but I guess my main one would be sort of credit card points at this point.
• 3:56
  Meggan: Nothing really more than that, but I think it's really great to point out that it's not just about the bigger items, there can be smaller benefits that you can have.
• 4:05
  Meggan: And like you said, oftentimes these are free programs,
• 4:09
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 4:09
  Jenn: Like all, most of them are, I mean, obviously if you're getting a credit card, it's different.
• 4:13
  Jenn: It's the, uh, yearly fee and that sort of stuff.
• 4:16
  Jenn: You have to weigh and make sure that the yearly fee is worth the benefits.
• 4:19
  Jenn: But with these, just like free, basically you're signing up to be on their email list like, That is basically it.
• 4:25
  Jenn: And I know that emails can be a lot, you can always unsubscribe to them after.
• 4:32
  Jenn: But yeah, it's, uh, we've definitely gotten a, a few really good perks, so I just recommend looking and making sure that, you take advantage 'cause you might as well
• 4:42
  Meggan: Might as well.
• 4:43
  Jenn: So that's all we have for this week.
• 4:45
  Jenn: You can find us on our website travel mug podcast.com.
• 4:48
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• 4:52
  Jenn: We're in all the places at Travel Mug Podcast.
• 4:55
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• 4:58
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• 5:02
  Jenn: And please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify or share the show with a travel loving pal.
• 5:09
  Jenn: Let them save some money too.
• 5:11
  Jenn: We're all.
• 5:13
  Jenn: I'll talk to you again soon.
• 5:15
  Jenn: Bye.