The Points Guy: free upgrades, free flights, free bottles of diamond water

Ok, not sure about the diamond water thing ( I think I have been watching too much Shahs of Sunset) but if it exists through rewards, this guy is about 27 points away from getting it.

Brian Kelly and I met when I was 15, naturally in an elective debate class we took in high school for fun.  At the time, I was head of a bunch of different clubs, well on my way of being the captain of the swim team, in all of the school plays and managed to still have a group of close friends and time to do charitable work.  Brian was the president of his senior class, one of the tallest guys I’ve ever met and blew the socks off of everyone in the debate class (besides myself.)  Natch, I had a crush on him and thought we could be a serious power couple.  Yes, I was 15 and he was 17, but that didn’t matter. In my mind we were the Hillary and  Bill Clinton of CB East.

Obvi nothing really unfolded from it, he was older and I was shy with that sort of thing and we were both really busy and never hung out outside of debate class, except maybe when we would see each other randomly at the one Starbucks in town.  Even back then we thought we were New Yorkers.

Three years later, we met again when he was walking down the street at Pitt with a group of friends, and realized we had decidedly chose a similar path again by attending the same college.  For the next couple of years we would hang out randomly on Friday nights with our groups of Senior boys and Freshman girls (he threw the BEST parties in college, I think there was even a baby alligator at one?) until he graduated and moved to work on Wall Street in New York.

Now, some 12 odd years after we have met– went to the same college and then both ended up the beautiful city of NYC, Brian has a new name: The Points Guy and is a fantastically smart, informative and well dressed entrepreneur that will teach you how to fly.

The Points Guy blog is simple, really– he reads through all the fine print of credit cards and frequent flyer deals carefully so you don’t have to, then blogs about it and shows you how you too can reap the wonderful benefits that these cards and other reward programs have to offer, again, so you don’t have to.  All the categories that your little heart would ever desire are located easily on the right hand side re: American Express, Hotels, Spain, ETC.

He’s been featured in the New York Times, ( my uncle who owns a fruit company in California refers to The Points Guy on a weekly basis for deals on trips to his farms and growers in South America sent me the article and was very proud of him and me for knowing him!) The Today Show and countless other fantastic places that you check regularly like, I don’t know CNN! so maybe you already know about him! If you do, keep reading anyway!

I really don’t travel that much, and my little blogger budget hasn’t hit baller status like my dear friend Brian, but to be honest, even without having all these credit cards and travel uses, I still benefit from the site!

Here are some of his top money saving deals, including how to get a swag Sapphire Chase card that my beau just got and people treat you like you have a black card when you have it!

And for all those little credit babies out there, like myself, here is a full Beginner’s Guide so you are now well on your way to scoring free flights, hotels and Kardashian like trips!

Listen, Brian knows his stuff.  He’s flown one seat behind Madonna in first class, he saw Hunger Games lying down in a Business Class Lounge in Bangkok with his own personal attendant to bring him diet Cokes before you saw it at the theater on 23rd, and he just bought a swaggy apartment in Miami. The kid has made it– and I can guarantee he will have his own segment on CNN in a few years to come.  Now let’s just hope I can follow in his footsteps so that means I’ve got three years left to make it to Miami.

So he really is a life saver, or at least an informative $$ saver in your life, so check him out on twitter if you are into that sort of thing and FOR SURE check out and bookmark his blog, especially if you don’t use any type of rewards program (I just got an ALMOST free flight to Vegas on points (was supposed to be $500) so I would like to thank him personally right now:  thank you!) and oh yeah: happy travels!

xoxo,

wcw