How to Use Credit Card Points to Fly Business Class (Without Getting into Debt)

Flying business class doesn’t have to mean spending thousands of dollars but it does require strategy, discipline, and understanding how points actually work.

In this episode of Get Rich, Molly sits down with points expert Steve Hui, founder of iFlyFlat, who hasn’t paid for a flight in over 12 years.

Together, they break down the real mechanics behind frequent flyer points, credit card rewards, and why points are far easier to earn than most people realise, if you do it the right way.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• When credit cards make sense and when they absolutely don’t
• How to earn frequent flyer points without increasing your spending
• Why business class flights offer the best value for points
• How many points the average Australian can realistically earn each year
• Whether credit card fees, surcharges, and “buying points” are ever worth it
• How points impact your credit score and borrowing capacity
• The biggest mistakes people make that stop them ever redeeming flights

This episode is not for anyone struggling with debt.

It is for women who already have strong money habits and want to travel smarter, not harder.

🎧 Listen now to learn how to turn everyday spending into unforgettable travel.

General information only. This episode does not constitute personal financial advice.

CHAPTERS
00:00 – Welcome to Get Rich
00:01 – Who this episode is for (and who should skip it)
00:02 – Free financial counselling support mentioned
00:02 – Meet Steve Hu, founder of iFLY Flat
00:02 – How Steve got into points and “fly flat” life
00:04 – Would Steve use credit cards without rewards
00:04 – Where to start (hint: not picking a credit card first)
00:05 – Decide where you want to go, then work backwards
00:06 – How to calculate points needed (airline calculators)
00:07 – How many points a “normal person” can earn yearly
00:08 – Do multiple credit cards impact your credit score
00:09 – Earning points on rent, school fees, and big bills (via intermediaries)
00:10 – Paying fees to “buy points”, cost vs benefit
00:11 – Flybuys and Everyday Rewards, worth it or not
00:12 – Bonus offers and how the real value is made
00:12 – Annual fees, when they make sense
00:13 – Points value, economy vs business class returns
00:15 – Finding deals, newsletters, and “secret” strategies
00:16 – RBA changes and what they could mean for rewards
00:18 – One airline vs spreading points across airlines
00:20 – Using points for hotels and car hire
00:21 – Do points expire
00:22 – When to book reward seats, and how pricing works
00:23 – Steve’s top travel and credit card discipline hacks
00:25 – Favourite trips and bucket list travel
00:26 – What iFLY Flat does and who it helps
00:27 – Where to find Steve online
00:27 – Wrap up

LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

National Debt Helpline (free financial counselling): https://ndh.org.au/about-national-debt-helpline/contact-us
Good Shepherd: https://goodshep.org.au/
Qantas, “Use Points” (includes points calculator for reward seats/upgrades): https://www.qantas.com/ph/en/frequent-flyer/use-points.html
Velocity Frequent Flyer, Virgin Australia partner page (includes mileage/points tools): https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/partners-offers/airlines/virgin-australia-airlines

CONNECT WITH STEVE HUI

Website: https://iflyflat.com.au/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iflyflat/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/iflyflat-100066477443390/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflightsclub/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlwaysBusinessClass

CONNECT WITH LADIES FINANCE CLUB

Join our free Facebook group - Ladies Finance Club Money Chat
Website: https://www.ladiesfinanceclub.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladiesfinanceclub/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ladies-finance-club/

TAKEAWAYS

• Some individuals are highly motivated by points systems.
• The return on effort in points can surpass traditional job earnings.
• Points enthusiasts can turn minimal investments into significant returns.
• Understanding consumer behavior is key to leveraging rewards.
• The psychology behind rewards can drive financial strategies.
• Points systems can create a sense of achievement and satisfaction.
• Maximizing rewards requires strategic thinking and planning.
• The allure of points can lead to obsessive behaviors.
• Financial literacy can enhance the effectiveness of points systems.
• Consumer engagement with rewards can shape market trends.

SOUND BITES

"You get one breed who just absolutely points junkies"
"They're making effectively getting a bigger return"
"The return on effort is massive"

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Molly: Welcome to Get Rich, the podcast that helps you do just that. Get rich and stay rich. Hey, I'm Molly Benjamin. I'm the founder of Ladies Finance Club, one of Australia's largest financial education platforms for women. But before I started helping thousands of women take control with their money, I was a hot financial mess when it came to my own finances and not the fun kind of hot, more like crying in a supermarket, wondering where all my money went kind of hot.

[00:00:29] But here's the thing, if I can go from financial mess to owning a share portfolio, investing in property, and building wealth. Then you can too. My mission is simple to make women rich because when we have financial freedom, we have choices, confidence, and control over our future. Every week on Get Rich, I sit down with some of the best experts in the industry to break down how we can all start investing, growing our money, and creating long-term financial security without the jargon, boring bits or overwhelm.

[00:01:02] Because when women get rich, we don't just change our lives. We change the world. So if you're ready to start making some Smart Money moves, hit that subscribe button and let's get Rich together. Welcome back to another episode of Get Rich. Now, most people think flying business class is a luxury reserve for celebrities or people who spend an obscene amount of money.

[00:01:25] But what if it's actually about systems not status? Now, I've avoided this topic for a long time, mainly because we work with so many women who are. Actively getting out of credit card debt. So let me be really clear from the start. This conversation is only for people who already have strong control and discipline over their money because when credit cards are used badly, they cost you freedom.

[00:01:47] They are stressful, and the last thing you ever wanna do is get into debt. Because you were trying to get points like that just makes no sense. So in this episode, I'm joined by Steve Hu, who is the founder of iFLY Flat, and he hasn't paid for a flight in over a decade. So we talk about how points actually work, why most people use them backwards, and how to think about credit cards as a payment system, not debt.

[00:02:13] This isn't about spending more, it's about using what you already spend. And as I mentioned at the start, it feel someone struggling with credit card debt, there is no shame in that. But this episode is not for you. So please give this one a miss. And if you need support, reach out to the National Debt Helpline, money Care, or The Good Shepherd.

[00:02:29] These are free financial counseling services in Australia and they can help you so much, but you need to reach out. All right, let's get into this episode. So Steve, welcome to the podcast.

[00:02:42] Steve: Thank you for having me. I love talking about points.

[00:02:45] Molly: Yes. Well, this is the first time we've ever broached the topic, so I have quite a few questions that I'm very excited to hear the answers to.

[00:02:53] But could you maybe just tell us how you got into this business, the Flights Club, and I guess what was that moment you realized, oh, maybe points could become a full-time gig?

[00:03:04] Steve: Oh, I got into this business. Well, I guess my background is accounting and finance, so bit of a numbers geek, bit of a numbers nerd, and I flew business class for the first time when I was working at Macquarie Bank.

[00:03:16] I worked there for 11 years and I flew business class for the first time and I thought, wow, I could get used to this. This is pretty good. Of course, I didn't pay for it, so the company paid for it. Very quickly. I started after all this back and forth trips, flying business class. Every time I started collecting these frequent flyer points and I had enough frequent flyer points for my very own business class flight, that's when the penny dropped for me.

[00:03:41] I thought, Hey, I've got these points for nothing and I got a business class flight. If I couldn't just repeat this. Again and again, then I'll never have to see economy again. So that's what got me started and that's the attraction. No know once you fly flat, why go back.

[00:03:56] Molly: And I can say I flew business recently to the UK and oh my gosh, it was a yard of fault.

[00:04:02] So I just am also curious before we get into like how it all works, but if credit card points didn't exist. Like coming from your background of finance, would you even use credit cards or is it only worth it because of this rewards? This points rewards

[00:04:19] Steve: basically purely using credit cards for the rewards.

[00:04:21] And that's how I see it in my mind. It's not credit, it's just a a payment mechanism. Hey, if they were giving away rubber chickens and you could take a bag of rubber chickens and swap that for business cast ticket. I'll be collecting rubber chickens. That's what that is.

[00:04:37] Molly: I'll be collecting rubber chickens with you as well.

[00:04:40] All right, so you haven't paid for a flight, I think it was for around 12 years, which is wild and inspiring. Yeah. So for someone who is brand new and they are like, look, I've been thinking about doing this. I know I have my, I know I don't have a problem with debt. I know I've got a lot of control over my finances.

[00:05:00] Where is a good starting point for them to begin?

[00:05:03] Steve: I think step one is definitely not picking a credit card. That's not step one, but step one is deciding where you want to go. Mm-hmm. What type of trips, what type of travel do you want to go? Like Australians would love to travel anywhere and sometimes you dunno where you want to go, but just say you wanna pick somewhere.

[00:05:19] Just say you want to go to Bali, for example, which is popular. Num number one thing is to find out how many points you need to fly to Bali. In the economy, premium economy or business class. 'cause then once you know how many points you need, then the other side is, well, how quickly can you get those points and how many of them can you get?

[00:05:39] So the two parts are very important because if you have an ideal flying four people business class to Bali, which will cost you x number of points, but your ability to earn points is only 5,000 points per month. But you might need a hundred thousand points. That's gonna take you 20 times longer. So the two sides are very important.

[00:05:58] I, it's just like money. If you wanna buy a car, how much money can you save? And then times that will be how many months will be away? Same ID with points. But the thing about points versus money points are way easier to earn then money. You can earn points through all different promotions. You can earn points by, of course, different credit cards and, but that's the only reason why credit are is good because.

[00:06:21] It's a dependable way of earning points. You spend the money, you earn the points, spend the money, earn the points, but promotions, sign up, bonuses, all that sort of stuff. All different ways of earning points.

[00:06:30] Molly: And when you say look at, so let's say we wanna go to Bali, family of four. How do you actually work out how many points you need?

[00:06:37] Is it going onto the airline site or their calculators?

[00:06:41] Steve: So every airline has a calculator. The best way is actually just a Google, say, Qantas calculator or Virgin calculator, air New Zealand calculator, whatever. And they'll take you to a calculator. And that's the starting point where you plug in where you wanna go from, and two and what class, and it will tell you how many points you need to fly.

[00:07:01] Because once you know the price, then you can work towards or getting those points. Or maybe even sometimes you may already have the points. Yeah. But you just didn't know. That you had the ability.

[00:07:11] Molly: Ability. And what do you think is the realistic amount of points a normal person can earn in a year? So like a normal person maybe who has a corporate job?

[00:07:21] Steve: Yeah. I think you can easily earn 50,000 points a year easily. So roughly. Well actually there's actually, well, I get give say you can actually earn points on rent. You can earn points, basically every single dollar you pay, you can earn points. But basically it's a decision. So if you go and buy coffee. It could be $4 50.

[00:07:41] Well, you can never pay that with a point earning card. Mm-hmm. You can pay with a debit card. You can't pay with cash. So every time you, you make a transaction, there's an opportunity to earn points. So basically you just think about how much money you spend Yeah. Per, per year. Uh, excluding mortgages. So once you can't earn points and mortgages unless you get one of those more special mortgage deals.

[00:08:03] But every dollar that you control that you can pay. You can actually your own points. So yeah, 20 to 50,000 points easily per year. Wow. Uh, and some people sign up for credit cards to get bonus points, but the key thing is discipline. You are looking for the points. You're not looking to spend more money.

[00:08:19] That's the key. Yes.

[00:08:21] Molly: And I think that can be the tricky part for people as well. Does it affect your credit score opening maybe like two or three different credit cards?

[00:08:29] Steve: It does have an impact to your credit score. So now some people open one a year. You should keep an eye on it. And especially if you're looking to get debts.

[00:08:37] Like if you're looking to get a, A loan, home loan Yeah. Car loan, then you should use off a bit because they'll consider too many credit cards as I, well, I'm not sure if there's a such thing as a sign of desperation, but you're basically looking for a lot of credit. Yeah. And uh, people who lend you money is scared of you.

[00:08:54] Yeah. When you're looking for a lot of credit. Right. So it's just that finding that right balance.

[00:08:58] Molly: Yes, it's a red flag. So I would say, ladies, if you're listening and you're wanting to buy a property, like be very careful with this because I'm, if you speak to any mortgage broker, they'll probably suggest you actually don't, or you keep the spend very minimal.

[00:09:14] And you mentioned before, and we've actually had this question from our community, so you can pay rent to get points.

[00:09:20] Steve: Yeah. To get points. So I think it's fairly new, but it's just simply out for a couple years now. So there's basically, you, you've gotta go through a company. So there's companies like uh, S Snip, uh, which is s and Double IP based in Brisbane.

[00:09:33] They are a payment service. For personal purposes, and you can actually pay rent, pay, school fees, and basically you can pay a whole heap of stuff. And what they do is they access an intermediary and they charge your credit card, and then they send the money to whoever. So wow, they send money to your landlord.

[00:09:50] The landlord does not need to be part of it. They're just receiving money like normal. But you, you pay your rent on your credit card, they charge you a fee 1.3% or remember, and then they send the money to whoever. So that's one way to, uh, get basically your earning points. But I guess the key thing about is the way I think about it's your earning points for fee.

[00:10:13] So you're, you are actually deliberately buying points. That's one way to think of it. So sometimes points are free. Free points are where you pay no fees. So if you go to a supermarket department store or, or some online shopping, you make that purchase. It doesn't matter which card you use, they're not gonna charge you any surcharges, right?

[00:10:32] Yeah. So those points are what I call free points. If you're getting points for no cost, and sometimes when you can go to a restaurant, they'll charge you 1% or 1.5%, 2%. Sometimes, or if you choose to pay your car there, but then you're, you're deliberately earning points for a fee, so you gotta make sure the cost versus benefit is calculated properly.

[00:10:52] You don't wanna be paying more for fees and then getting less in value. Then you might as well not earn the points in the first place you wanna. Earn the points low and use some high. That's my philosophy.

[00:11:03] Molly: Love it. And I'm sure you've done the math, so I thought it'd probably just be easier to ask you, but when it comes to like everyday rewards or flybys, like I have to say, I've like ignored those.

[00:11:14] Kind of reward programs for a very long time. 'cause I'm like, Ugh, is it even worth it? But is it even worth it?

[00:11:22] Steve: Well, it's worth it. 'cause those cards you're actually getting for free. So you are paying for the groceries anyway. Yeah. There's no additional cost if you swipe your card and get the points. So the way I think of it, if you don't swipe your card, you're paying for everyone else to collect points.

[00:11:36] Uh, but you're not doing it. But, but in terms of pure numbers. Right. So the best way to benefit from the flybys and rewards rewards is those bonuses. Yeah. So if you're just buying things, I think you earn one point per dollar or something like that. That's a very slow way of earning points. Yeah. But if you do all these bonuses like where they say spend $50 a month and you get thousand points bonus, and this, that's where you can gain the system and get multiple points for nothing.

[00:12:05] One, I think it's 2000 flybys points is equal to $10. Uh, same for Woolworths points. Two, 2000 Woolworths points. Equal to $10, that means each point is worth half a cent. So you're basically getting yourself half percent discount by swiping your card. Yeah. At least. Yeah.

[00:12:24] Molly: Yeah, because I finally got my $10 from, um, I was at Woolworths or Coles the other day with my everyday Woolworths, and I was like, wow, that, that took a while

[00:12:33] Steve: because you're probably not doing the bonuses properly.

[00:12:35] Molly: Um, I don't, I definitely am not doing the bonuses. But I know there's a lot of women in our community who love a good everyday rewards or flybys bonus hack. So I know with my credit card and I have a business credit card, I've been very strict with myself. I never got one in college and university in my first job because I knew I couldn't control it and I would just overspend.

[00:12:56] But another reason I put it off was I just didn't know which card to get and like, should I be paying annual fees? Should I not? So I guess when do fees make sense and when is it a waste?

[00:13:07] Steve: Hmm. So that comes down, I think to the overall cost versus benefit equation. So if you are, well, I guess there's a couple levels though, if you are, depends how much money you you spend, actually, that's the key factor, because how much money you spend or equals, how many points you generate.

[00:13:24] And then obvious, the more you spend, whether you are an individual or your business owner. Then more points you generate. So let's talk numbers. 'cause I, I'm a numbers guy and hopefully this will describe it. So I talked earlier about sort of like, you know, one flybys point is worth half a half a cent.

[00:13:42] Well, one airline point and, and I think like where wherever you have one QAs point or one version point, one point is worth half a cent on the base level. But if you use that same point to book an economy ticket, you're gonna bet 1 cent return on those points. If you then use them to fly business class, you can between free and 5 cents return on those points.

[00:14:04] So depending on how you use those points, you actually get more bang for buck. Yeah. Except that of course, to fly business class you need to collect more points. Mm-hmm. But that, that's very similar to everything else you do. You know, if you get the most time zone tickets, you get to redeem for the big teddy bear at the top.

[00:14:20] Whereas if you. Redeem for two tickets. You get, you know, a lollipop. Just the same idea. The more you collect the normally the bigger bang your prize is, and it's the same, same ID for points. So with fees make sense? If you get more than what you're gonna get out of it. Yeah. So if you are paying, let's say, say you're got a restaurant and you pay 2% fee to for, for dinner, but you only get a hundred.

[00:14:44] Points from that. So say, say it's a hundred dollars dinner, okay, expensive dinner, a hundred dollars. You pay your credit card, it's gonna charge you 2% fee, but your credit card only gives you one point per dollar, for example. So now you're paying $2 to get a hundred points. Which I've done to sums works out to be 2 cents per point.

[00:15:02] Molly: Yep.

[00:15:03] Steve: So you're paying 2 cents per point. But if you then, if you then use 'em for economy, you are only getting 1 cents back. So now you pay 2 cents to get 1 cents. Mm. But if you pay 2 cents to fly business class, then you get 4 cents back. So therefore you are getting upside. Not downside.

[00:15:19] Molly: Okay. Gosh, this is a lot more strategic than I realized.

[00:15:23] And I did like the time zone analogy 'cause that makes sense to me. Okay, great. So when people are looking for the best deals, are we talking like signing up to newsletters, alerts, secret websites? Are there any secret insider tips you can share?

[00:15:41] Steve: Secret websites. I think the secret website literally is cost versus benefit.

[00:15:46] I know this sounds very boring, ah, cost versus benefit, but literally, like if you can turn 2 cents to 4 cents, like if you, if these are shares and you could turn 2 cents to 4 cents, like you'll be rich, you just put all your money on because that's the same idea. So that's why you get these two breeds of people.

[00:16:03] You get one breed who just absolutely points junkies, right? Mm-hmm. You go, you've never seen someone so into points in your life. Why? Because they basically, they turn 2 cents to 4 cents, or even better to turning 0 cents into 4 cents. So sometimes they're even making effective, getting a bigger return.

[00:16:21] Doing points than they're doing in their job. Yeah, because the return on effort is massive. And then you got another group of people who just don't care. Like, ah, whatever. No, it's not into me. That's okay. Because you just gotta go, go over the flow. So which card, which bonus it all comes down to? Well, actually there's a bit of a span in the works coming up.

[00:16:42] These RBA changes. The reserve bank changes into surcharges into sort of the credit card in the change fees, because you're coming out in probably December or March next year, it's gonna throw a spanner into whole works. Oh, really? Depending on how hard they come with these changes, this will change completely.

[00:17:00] The strain landscaping, credit card rewards forever. So I can only say what you would do today.

[00:17:07] Molly: Yeah. But I

[00:17:08] Steve: want, I, I won know what's gonna happen tomorrow. Yeah. But I do know something will happen because what is in a nutshell is the RBA wants to say, okay, cool, we stick with these surcharges. No, no one to pay 2% more for coffee or a restaurant.

[00:17:22] So they go, well, sure. Well, okay, so we are gonna ban surcharges. But, but when you ban surcharge, that means the shopkeeper now has to pay the fee. Yeah. Which just means that your price of coffee will go up anyway. Yeah. So they say, okay, well let's try and reduce the surcharge. So therefore, but what happens when you reduce the surcharge?

[00:17:40] You reduce the margin that the credit card companies have to keep two points. Ah. So if you reduce that, then there's less points for everyone. So, long story short, there's something coming up which no one knows about, but what can you do today? Today I think is, uh, an element of. Bonus offers are always attractive because you're basically paying for annual car fee, you, but you gain 50, a hundred thousand points that you otherwise will have to spend 50 or hundred thousand dollars through your credit card to earn.

[00:18:09] So that, that's why that's super attractive and a fast way to earn a lot of points. But I must all I. Credit cards are made and made. Credit cards are designed to make money off you.

[00:18:21] Molly: Yep.

[00:18:22] Steve: But if you pay off your credit card every time, then you can make money from it. So that's the key difference. Yes.

[00:18:29] Knowing and, and you don't have to be controlled by credit cards if you control your spending. You come up on top.

[00:18:35] Molly: Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more with that. So I guess when we are looking at, uh, credit card points, is it best to collect points just for one airline or, or spread them out?

[00:18:49] Steve: Yes. If you're, if you're, if you are not collecting many points because you're spending.

[00:18:55] It's low, low amounts, then best to stick with one airline. Okay. Because you need X number of points in the one airline in order to book a flight. Mm-hmm. So if you spread your points to Finney, then you know, you might have 5,000 here, 15,000 here, but each individually cannot book a flight. Then you basically, it's like you've got no points.

[00:19:15] Yeah. The points are not combinable. Okay. So if you don't spend much money, or your earning power is low. Then the plan is to stick with one airline. Then you can consolidate all your efforts and then you'll be able to get enough points to book that flight faster. But when you can spend more, then the the plan is, is to diversify.

[00:19:35] Because if you can earn a hundred thousand points per year, or even if you earn a million points a year, for example, then you don't want all your eggs in one basket because now you want diversification. Because different airlines have different seats. So you want some Qantas points, you want some version, some sq because you've got enough.

[00:19:56] Potential to have points everywhere. So then we have a airline has seats, you can tap into that. So I think there's two strategies. Yep. All comes down to, you gotta be able to get the minimum points first.

[00:20:07] Molly: Yeah. To

[00:20:07] Steve: book a flight. Otherwise the points are not useful.

[00:20:10] Molly: Yeah. And do you ever use points for like hotels or car higher or do you find, generally in your experience, it's just not as good a offer?

[00:20:19] Steve: Yeah. I'd say not as good an offer. 'cause uh, points are really designed for flying. Yeah. And, and the biggest bank of buck come from flying because the thing is that seat that you get, the airline is empty. They will actually empty. Or the airline has, has all this data and they go, well we, well of course we wanna sell every single seat, but that's just a dream.

[00:20:38] They know that some flights and certain days and routes will have empty seats. Mm. So you, they use that past data and say, well, okay, cool. Well we know we can't sell all these seats for money. Let's allocate some of these seats to the frequent flyer program so people can use their points to pay for the seat.

[00:20:54] So that's how the seats come about. But if you book use your points to pay book for car or hotel, that's not the airline's own stock, they had to pay someone else money to get you the room. So therefore, you're never gonna get a good bang for buck because it's still gonna cost the money that your points are paying for.

[00:21:13] Molly: Yeah, very good point. And do points ever expire?

[00:21:17] Steve: Uh, they don't have to expire. Yeah. Uh, so let's take, take Qantas and Virgin. What they do is they run off this thing called activity based expires. So if you don't touch your points for 18 months at all, as in like there's no points going in and out, then they'll expire.

[00:21:33] But if within any 18 months you put some points in or use some points, then they say your entire balance is then extended again or another 18 months. So it's like a frog, just boop, boop. Yeah. But if you've just gone away and you know, disappeared past for a year, then. You come back, the points might be gone.

[00:21:52] Molly: And when it comes to booking, I guess, how far in advance should someone be looking for, like reward seats or points, flights? Is it like the earlier, the better? I assume it is.

[00:22:03] Steve: Yeah. Well, that's a really good question is it's the how long is the piece of string, uh, question. The earlier the better is definitely, yeah.

[00:22:11] The, the key, one thing to note is actually it's the same price. It's the same price to the same place. 365 days a year. So where you book your money, generally if you book an advance is cheaper because they're just trying to fill seats and then then it gets more expensive. But on points, whether you book 11 months in advance or you book for a flight this afternoon.

[00:22:32] The same seat will cost the same number of points. It doesn't, there's no price fluctuations.

[00:22:37] Molly: Oh, okay. So it's not like it's becomes more points or less points.

[00:22:41] Steve: Yeah. And it's completely independent of the money. Price points. Price is its own design, whereas the cash price goes ups and downs, depending different reasons.

[00:22:50] So actually the awesome thing is that if you know that there's certain periods I say. Say the Melbourne Cup, say the Formula one, say Christmas or school holidays. Yeah. If you can plan ahead, you can get those seats. Now for the same price as you any other time, but if you waited, the cash price will be

[00:23:09] Molly: Yeah.

[00:23:09] Steve: Crazy.

[00:23:10] Molly: Really high. Awesome. And obviously with your business it's allowed you to do a lot of flying all over the world and business class, which is very nice. I would love to know, what are your three, I guess three, I wish I knew these earlier. Travel hacks.

[00:23:27] Steve: I think the trouble hacks is like def definitely wish I had collected more points.

[00:23:31] Yeah. At the start, because the system always just gets a little bit harder every year. Mm-hmm. Like a little bit harder. So there's two halves to, I wish I collected more points when it was cheaper and then I used it. Wish I had used them more. So I guess it's a bit like buying a house, right? Oh yeah.

[00:23:47] Molly: I was thinking that then.

[00:23:48] Seems so

[00:23:49] Steve: expensive.

[00:23:49] Molly: Yeah.

[00:23:50] Steve: And then 10 years later, oh my god, that was so damn cheap. Yeah. It's, it's exactly the same thing. I think we've, we've finance this order the same, the the system. There's always value in the system, but of course when you look back, things are always cheaper back then. Yeah. So the, I guess one of my tips is, is I, I wish I had taken more trips because then I would've got 'em for cheaper.

[00:24:12] Yeah. So that, that's tip number one. Tip number two is definitely. Actually, one of the tips about using credit cards is the thing is that they have 30 days, 50 days interest free. Right? So then they send you a bill, and then you normally have like maybe 10 days after to pay. And what the general hub is, is you get the bill and go, oh, that's nice.

[00:24:31] Oh yeah, I've just gotta put it down. I'm not gonna pay for it straight away. Yeah, because you're not due yet and then you forget. Yeah, and then you, then you get interest, but you had never intended to incur any interest. So that's the worst thing. So I always say the tip is either set up a direct debit.

[00:24:47] Yeah. So therefore, on the due date, you automatically deducts the money from your account. So you're never gonna be left with any like interest payments. Yeah. Or the other way is to pay off your bill every week. So every week you log into your app, you go, okay, well 2000 bucks, I'll pay it. So therefore, you're never gonna get caught out more than seven days where you go, I can't believe I ran up so much money.

[00:25:09] Because you always remember your last week what you did. Yeah. So I say that's the best way for anyone to manage their credit card is if you pay off every week, you'd never be late, and you're never gonna be surprised. You never pay interest in your whole life.

[00:25:23] Molly: Absolutely, and I'm echoing that completely.

[00:25:27] The whole point of this is we don't wanna be paying interest ladies. Like that's not the, not the point of doing this. You're doing it wrong if you're paying interest. And I would love to know where is your favorite location you have visited and where's next on your bucket list?

[00:25:40] Steve: Oh, I had a bunch of trips this year, like only, only last weekend.

[00:25:43] I went to Hong Kong for a long weekend.

[00:25:45] Molly: Lovely.

[00:25:45] Steve: So long weekend in Hong Kong. Great place to stop over. Great place for meetups because people around the world can get to Hong Kong very easily. Prior to that, I went to Fiji for four days. That was awesome. I did a cruise around, um, Japan before that. Then now, now in the future, I've got a, a Queenstown long weekend and then Oh, lovely.

[00:26:06] I've got Antarctica. At the end of the year so much to do, or using points of fly, or I guess the freedom of using points is that you never have to worry about the price. That's, I think, one of the un like of course you can use the points of fly, but once you have a system and if, especially if your business owner, the, your ability to generate points through payroll, a TO or your suppliers, it means that you can generate these points.

[00:26:31] It means that when you wanna fly, you only have to think about how many points have I got? Yeah. And not how much the price is. Yeah. Because the price is the biggest hurdle. Or flying for traveling.

[00:26:42] Molly: And Steve, in a nutshell, what does your business

[00:26:44] Steve: do? Yeah, so we help business owners to earn points with a strategy and then when we book flights for them, so basically hire, hire general businesses that spend at least a million dollars a year on expenses, payrolls.

[00:26:59] Any sort of outgoings, we give them plans, say, Hey, this is how you earn your points in the most cost effective manner, and they will book your flights for you as well. So all you have to do is keep running your business and we'll sort out the rest.

[00:27:11] Molly: Amazing. Awesome. And where can people find you online and on Instagram?

[00:27:16] Steve: At I fly flat, so IFLY flat.com au. Instagram's the same, so I fly flat. Actually, I've got another Instagram account, the Flights Club, which is the Flights Club that's on Instagram.

[00:27:30] Molly: Well, we will make sure we link those in the show notes and yeah, get following Steve for more tips and hints. Steve, thank you so much.

[00:27:38] This has been very eye-opening into the world of points.

[00:27:41] Steve: Thank you very much. Uh uh, my favorite topic and if everyone can fly business class, I think everyone would just be super happy every.

KEYWORDS

points, rewards, return on effort, financial strategies, consumer behavior