{"id":9533,"date":"2024-04-20T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=9533"},"modified":"2024-04-19T18:32:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T00:32:50","slug":"knowing-when-to-teach-someone-to-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/20\/knowing-when-to-teach-someone-to-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowing When to Teach Someone to Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

EDITORS NOTE: In 2024, I\u2019ve introduced Guest Post Saturdays<\/em>.\u00a0Today\u2019s guest post is the second post in a series of at least two from the witty, inspiring, and definitely-not-a-giga-chad irieriley, his first post can be found here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When to share the wealth<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

My grandfather was a gregarious man who loved more than anything to pass life advice down to his grandchildren. A lot of it centered around outlandish ways to get noticed in the job search (he once told me to send a pineapple with my resume inside to a hiring manager), but he also loved advice in the form of a good adage. His all time favorite is one we\u2019re all familiar with: \u201cirieriley, there\u2019s no such thing as a free lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve all accepted this as the truth, although MS and travel hacking allows us to get a consistent 90% off lunches, provided you are ready to decide on what you want to eat 355 days in advance. Therefore, it\u2019s only natural to want to share this steep discount with family and friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chances are, you\u2019ve long been known as the \u201cpoints expert\u201d among your friends group and family. In my case, it’s so extreme that it’s generally the sentence after explaining my relation to the bride and groom in a wedding party bio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And who can blame them? They see you agonizing over the choice of the Western or Japanese menu on ANA first or relaxing in the \u201cbase room\u201d aka \u201cbigger than a McMansion\u201d at the Waldorf Ithaafushi and decide they want in on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, most bright-eyed travel hackers aren\u2019t going to hit the SUB on their first card, achieving breakage just like your favorite coupon book vendor intended. So, how best to set others in your life up for success? Here are some strategies that have worked well for me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provide starting direction<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Not everyone is cut out to get super deep into the game, and that\u2019s completely fine. There\u2019s a plethora of reasons why it makes sense to target a SUB or two max a year. And thanks to the generosity of Chase and Amex, there’s generally always an elevated offer worth going for when your coworker Slacks to ask what card to get. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a perfectly even exchange – you help people get a couple of free flights a year, and in return, you get fodder for Frustration Friday when they forget to use your referral link. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add a partner in crime<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Because of the collaborative nature of the hobby, helping your friends and family with the savvy to handle it can be a win-win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a friend that I knew could make it as an advanced travel hacker, so I gave her some helpful hints a few months ago. I couldn\u2019t be more proud of her progress, as she dove in head first and has already redeemed RT tickets to Asia for her and her P2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have friends or family that can handle it, you\u2019d be surprised how nice it is to have someone you know IRL to swap stories with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add P3, P4, P5 and so on<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Most MEAB readers that are in a serious relationship likely count their significant other as their P2, since miles and points can be earned quite easily without all that much active participation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t need to stop there – some of us are earning and burning for much more than 2 players. This is more complicated than helping a friend and is a better fit for immediate family since it requires SSNs and financial trust, but it\u2019s an amazing way to spread the wealth for those that have the time for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For what it\u2019s worth, my P3 and P4 get stressed out about opening cards or the idea of MS, but they sure weren\u2019t stressed when they flew Emirates first to Milan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book for them<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For the truly advanced (or truly risk averse) earners out there, you can sidestep involving your loved ones in your shenanigans entirely and just let them enjoy the spoils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to treat family and friends to shared bucket list adventures or arrange emergency flights and hotels in a pinch are truly the most fulfilling way to use points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This option can also be fantastic for things like group travel with your friends – a multi bedroom Vacasa is no big deal even post-devaluation when you\u2019re earning 8x Wyndham on all of your \u201cgas purchases\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll end by channeling my late grandfather with an adage – teach someone to use TPG referral links, and you\u2019ll feed them for a day. Teach someone to responsibly MS, and you\u2019ll feed them forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– irieriley<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Pictured: DALL-E\u2019s nightmarish rendition of my grandfather and I preparing the well regarded \u2018resume in a pineapple\u2019 method of standing out in the job search<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITORS NOTE: In 2024, I\u2019ve introduced Guest Post Saturdays.\u00a0Today\u2019s guest post is the second post in a series of at least two from the witty,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest","category-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9547,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533\/revisions\/9547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}