Flying First Class is Good for Your Health

The travel hack of the century that will save you thousands. Plus, how to get miles just by paying your rent.

Jun 24, 2024

I am an experienced traveler. Organized before I go. Spontaneous when I arrive. Always just a carry-on. I rarely get sick or even jetlagged (read my post, Optimized on the Fly).

Yet, this summer's itinerary presented a new travel challenge, albeit a fun one — managing multiple events in France, Portugal, and Spain over 8 weeks.

Planning this European adventure filled me with excitement but also gave me some serious sticker shock. Unless you want to fly in cargo, traveling to Europe from California twice in one summer isn't logistically easy or that affordable. But as my loyal Substack readers know, I love optimizing all aspects of my life so finding ways to make my travel journey less stressful and more pleasurable was my mission.

Whether you’re stretching the budget for a family of four or splurging on your dream vacation, I believe travel is money well spent (within reason).

How you get to your destination is another story. Flight delays, missed connections, lost luggage, and uncomfortable seats can make your trip a living nightmare.

As a health optimization coach, I can make the case for why flying first class contributes to improved physical and mental health (lower stress, better service, more legroom, deeper sleep) — though it's terrible for your pocketbook.

Until now.

After days of research, I figured out the hack of the century using my air miles. Here's how I upgraded my multi-city trip and scored three premium class, international flights worth $34,891 using only miles and spending $658.60 in fees.

✈️ Celia’s Travel Hacks

Remember my health insurance strategy? Don’t overpay and underutilize. The same goes for booking air travel and using your credit card points or air miles. Assuming you have been accruing points for everyday personal and business expenses on your credit cards and adding miles to your airline programs when you travel, this hack should work for you.

Follow my step-by-step directions below.

1/ Tally Up Your Points and Miles

You probably have more points and miles than you think, spread across different programs.
Review your credit card points: AMEX, Chase Ultimate Rewards, City, Capital One, and/or Wells Fargo.
Review your air miles: Air Canada, Alaska, American, Virgin Atlantic, Jet Blue, Delta and/or United.

2/ Identify Your Goals and Preferences

For my summer vacation, my goals were:
- Fly First or Business class with lie-flat seats.
- Only on major airlines (preferably American) and on new planes.
- Direct flights from California with no connections.

3/ Go to PointsYeah.com

Similar to Google Flights, this site searches award tickets across major airlines so you can easily compare and find the best deals.
It shows you how many points you need to redeem and from which reward program.
Most importantly, it shows which banks and credit cards have transfer programs if you don’t have enough on that airline.

4/ Check with Your Airline

Once you find the flight you want, double-check the mileage spend and flight details on the airline’s site (as deals can change).

5/ Determine the Value of Your Airline Miles

Once you have your flight, calculate the cents per mile:
- Divide the cost of the ticket in cash by the cost in miles, then multiply by 100.
- Example:
  - $500 Ticket / 25,000 miles = 0.02
  - 0.02 x 100 = 2 cents per mile (most miles are worth 1.4 cents).
For more details, read this Travel & Leisure article.
Over 2 cents per mile is good. Over 8 cents per mile for premium seats is fantastic.

6/ Check Seat Guru

This site lets you enter in your flight, review the plane and see the seat map.
You can figure out which seats have the blasting cold A/C vent, missing window, or small overhead space so you can avoid them.
Generally, pick seats away from the bathroom or galley to avoid disturbances.

7/ Figure out Your Points/Miles Spend

If you have enough miles on that airline, redeem for the flight. Done.
If you don’t have enough, transfer points from your bank (Chase) or credit card (Amex) to the partner airline.
Book your travel on the airline site using miles, NOT on the bank or credit card travel portal, which can be double!

You select how many points to transfer to travel partners. It’s easy, fast and you get the most value out of your points this way. This is Chase but AMEX and other cards have similar transfer pages.

My Summer Travel Strategy

After all my research, I realized that I didn’t have to start my journey from New York like many suggested. There are a few direct flights from California, if I made London my European destination. I wanted to use points to pay for the longest and most expensive legs of my trip as well as upgrade my seat.

Once in Europe, the local flights to Paris, Lisbon, and Ibiza were inexpensive, so I paid for those on my credit card (for future points) and chose Economy since they are under 2 hours.

I transferred credit card points to partner airlines and merged them with existing air miles on American and United for a total of 327,000 miles. On average, I scored 10 cents per mile! Remember, 2 cents per mile is good, while over 8 cents per mile is outstanding in terms of value.

Share your travel wins and ask your questions in the COMMENTS section (not my DMs) so everyone can benefit. pretty please.

Show me the receipts. 💸

TRIP #1: Return flight to the US after bouncing around Paris, Nice and Lisbon.

*Sadly I already booked my flight to France and paid cash before I became “enlightened.”

LHR to LAX on American

Retail Cost: First Class ($16,499 value)
Miles: 100,500 miles (American Airlines)
Cash: $327.20 in fees

TRIP #2: Flights to and from London (jumping off point for a birthday trip in Ibiza)

LAX to LHR on American

Retail Cost: First Class ($6983 value)
Miles: 72,000 miles (American Airlines)
Cash: $5.6

LHR to LAX on United

Retail Cost: Business Class ($11,409 value)
Miles: 155,000 miles (combo of Chase Ultimate Rewards + existing United miles)
Cash: $326

Notes

It’s high season in Europe so ticket prices in premium classes are very inflated. Since I am new to the points game and started planning so late, I probably used more miles than needed, but I’m pretty thrilled about my upgrades. I’m saving a lot of time and money while avoiding obvious stressors like missed connections, long layovers or uncomfortable seats.

Need More Points? Get BILT

Now that I’ve used up a lot of my credit card points, I wanted to find a way to replenish them quickly. I had never heard of BILT before, but it’s an ingenious credit card that has the added bonus of paying your rent by sending your landlord a check. Yes, you will get thousands of extra points just by paying this recurring expense with this card instead of a checking account. At least one business class international ticket or a round trip domestic flight.

According to travel experts, BILT points are the most valuable points you can have since they transfer to all major airline and hotel partners. No annual fee. No foreign transaction fee. Extra points for using Lyft and when you spend at neighborhood partners on rent day (hello Gjelina!).

CLICK HERE to use my referral link so BILT will give me extra points for my next adventure! thank you and you’re welcome.

The take-away: Anything that makes your travels less stressful and more enjoyable is a worthy optimization in my book, especially if it saves you money. Be strategic about your miles so they will take you further, maybe even into First Class!

In the Pink

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