How to Win at Travel Hardcover – February 4, 2025

I am now an insta gram follower… but the book is not about enjoy of his adventures. This is not really a step by step guide on how to do what he has done. He fell into this adventure decades ago and we do not live in the same time and place to make this an actual reality in today’s travel world. Very entertaining and I enjoyed this read while on vacation.

In a time when blogging is no longer as popular as it once was, The Points Guy is still one of the few blogs that I read and reference - and it’s honestly one of the first results that pop up when I’m searching something travel-related. Ever see The Points Guy sticker on the side of a plane?True to form, Brian Kelly’s How to Win at Travel is written in a conversational, straight-to-the-point tone. I enjoyed reading the origin story of how he figured out how to leverage credit card points and miles, and the chapters are comprehensive - it does feel like the author has tried to pass down as much of his wisdom and experience as he could. I think I may prefer the blog format since it is easy to do a quick search for information that you need and the details are broken up better. However, I think this book is more of an intro for someone who just wants to delve into the world of award traveling rather than a seasoned credit card churner.Kelly does acknowledge that some of his advice may become outdated in the future, which is just the nature of traveling. I also appreciate that he mentions several time that traveling by season is pretty unpredictable with the changing climate - something we’ve often experienced on our travels.

The ROI on this book is truly limitless. As someone who already considers themselves a travel expert, well-versed in points, miles, and maximizing rewards, I wasn’t sure how much more I could learn. But How to Win at Travel completely exceeded my expectations.Brian Kelly isn’t just a master at maximizing rewards and winning at travel—he’s also incredibly skilled at breaking down complex topics in a way that’s easy to understand and apply. Travel hacking, elite status strategies, and personal finance tips can often feel overwhelming, but Brian presents everything in a clear, digestible, and engaging way. No jargon, no fluff—just straightforward, actionable advice that anyone can use.Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting to explore how to travel smarter, this book is packed with invaluable insights—how to earn and redeem points, protect yourself while traveling, maximize elite status, and much more.But here’s what makes this book a must-buy: Even if you don’t travel often (or at all), there’s still so much value inside. Brian explains how to earn rewards on everyday purchases, optimize your spending, and take advantage of perks you may not even realize exist. This isn’t just a book about travel—it’s a book about making smarter financial decisions that will benefit you for life.It’s a New York Times bestseller for a reason. I genuinely believe everyone should read this book—whether you want to travel better or simply make your money work harder for you. I own both the physical copy and the audiobook (narrated by Brian himself) because the insights are that good, and I want to revisit them again and again.And now? This book has officially become my go-to gift for every occasion—Christmas, birthdays, weddings, you name it. The value packed into these pages is unmatched. If you want to unlock more from your travels, your money, and your life, this is the book to buy.

This book has the best travel tips. I'm so happy to have purchased it!

This book has a lot of information but is like a textbook, no easy task to do what he suggests, there is a lot of tricks, time and investing to get free travel, basically a full time job!

I am 55 pages into this book and it's already saved me $307!! I had a car rental booked in Denver Colorado for 1 week for $651. I had shopped about 3 different sites and comparing prices before I had booked it and at the time thought it was the best deal. However, finding out about Autoslash.com in Brian's book, I plugged in all of the same requirements, same class of vehicle and ended up securing a vehicle for $344!! I have been retired for about 2 years now and have a lot of traveling that I want to do and this book is providing me with a plethora of new information. I always thought I was fairly savvy at this, but this book is providing so much more. I have to highlight info as I go through an also make notes in a separate book to make sure I follow up on all the tricks of the trade. I highly recommend this book....I am not a "reader" but when it comes to saving money, I'm all in on the research and tools.

I’d rate myself as an intermediate traveler, so I wasn’t sure how helpful this book would be going in. However, I’m happy to say there was so many helpful tidbits in here and so many parts of the book I’ve highlighted so I can go back and refer to them later. The one thing I wish was addressed more was elite status for different airlines and hotels. He briefly went over the advantages but didn’t go into detail on how to best get that status. Lots of wonderful tips of international travel, racking up additional points, travel safety, travel rights, credit card benefits, and more.

Easy to understand and helpful tips if you want to save