94 | Don't Put Off Travel! Success Story With Retiree Kay Wallingford

Show Notes

Retiree Kay Wallingford shares how she and her husband traveled around the U.S. and to Europe using Lyn's simple fly-free strategy. She tells us why we should start traveling as soon as possible so we can visit all the places on our bucket lists!

What is Families Fly Free?

Want to make more family travel memories without breaking the bank? Longtime travel journalist Lyn Mettler shares her top tips to help families quickly and easily travel for less using rewards points and inspires you with ideas of where to travel on your next vacation.

Do you love to travel and

save money or do you wish

you could travel but money is

holding you back?

You're in the right place.

Welcome to the Families Fly Free

podcast where I show you

how to fly your family free

forever using my simple

Fly Free Formula.

I'm your host, Lyn Mettler.

My family of four has mastered

the art of flying free as simply

as possible since 2015.

And I want to show your family how

to do it, too.

Hey, everyone, we are

back with another one of

our Families Fly Free

member interviews.

This is one of my favorite things to

do because

I love hear members to tell you

their perspective and each member

brings something different.

And so we like to bring all

different types of people who've had

all different types of experiences.

So today we have Kay

Wallingford.

Did I say that right?

Wallingford.

That's right. That's right.

So I'm going to let you tell us a

little bit about yourself, Kay.

Okay. All right.

Happy to.

I am honored to be asked to

do this. Lyn, you have

helped me so much in my travel

life, and I

just hope that I can say something

that will be a benefit to others,

because you've really

totally changed my life as

far as travel goes,

I am happily married

for, oh,

48 years

and we have two older daughters

and they're married.

I have six grandsons.

Only boys, no girls.

I can relate as a mother of boys.

Yeah, we throw a lot Of yeah,

we throw a lot of balls and

drive a lot of trucks.

So that's.

Yeah. Wonderful, wonderful.

And I

am retired, which is,

which is wonderful.

But as far as travel,

I'm I think we probably waited

too late to start our

our traveling.

Never too late. Never did.

Well, I'm starting to run out of

time.

And because people don't realize

that their bodies change

and the knee starts giving them

trouble or

eyesight is not as good, or maybe

you have back problems, but

we are traveling as much as

we can right now and we are loving

it. And this

is going to be one of my hints

is to everybody is don't

put it off.

Amen to that.

Travel right now.

And that's one of the things that

you have done for

Ken and me, is that you have

encouraged us to go

for it and travel and

we are making the most of it and

we love it.

Oh, so I like your strategy.

I really fell in love with traveling

because one of my best friends was a

travel agent and she had been

to over 70 countries.

And I love to hear her stories.

And we talk about traveling.

And I went, Oh my gosh, I want to be

able to afford to do that.

I just and so we took

a trip to Italy.

But wow,

it was it was expensive just

to get there.

So I said, I've got to find out

another way of of

traveling. So thankfully

I have.

And my husband and I just

enjoy

well, well, I'll

get into all of that later.

But where we go and and what

we do, but

generally we, we

fly out of Austin,

we don't RV like my

parents did because Texas is

just too big.

So we like to

catch a Southwest flight and

fly to Denver and then

rent a car.

And then we like to

just travel around in that area

and then go back to Denver and

then we fly back to Austin.

Austin's not a big hub, so we can't

go to a lot of cities like, you

know, Dallas and Houston are big

hubs.

So that's generally how we like to

travel. And

it's just it's just my husband and I

that are doing most of the most of

the travel. Like I said, we are

we are retired, which is

good. We have lots of lots of

flexibility.

But but we

we don't do all the hikes like

we wished that we could.

So anyway, I travel with

the hikes.

That's where right now.

That's where we are right now.

Yeah.

But yeah. Let me put an exclamation

point on your note of travel

now, because I can't tell you how

many people email me and

say, particularly during

the pandemic, Oh, I wish we had

traveled because now we can't

we don't know if we'll ever be able

to because they have a surgery

or they might get sick or, you know,

advanced age, all of that.

So and I just feel like

you just don't ever know what's

coming around the corner.

You don't know what tomorrow's going

to bring, so you can do something

now. Do it now.

Don't put off till tomorrow what you

can do today. I have gotten burned

on that one so, so

many times. If I could just follow

that.

Anyway, that's, I think, an

important point so

well.

And really

very soon after my husband retired,

he had a heart attack.

Well, that's something that you're

not anticipating at all.

So that delayed us.

And of course, then, you know, as

you said, COVID, you just

you just don't know what the future

holds. You just need to go for it

right now.

Yeah. So any of you who are thinking

about joining in your hesitant, like

so many of our members are like, Oh,

I'm so glad I did this now.

And we have a lot of people too.

They're like, Oh, I wish I'd done

this when my kids were young, right?

So if you have young kids, do it and

then you have to have that regret.

But okay.

So tell us why you decided to join

Families Fly Free.

Okay. So like I said,

we had taken a trip to Italy

and come back and

I just realized that this was going

to take a whole lot more money than

I had planned on because I had a

lot of travel ambitions.

So I started following

a guy called The Points Guy

online and

out came terrific person.

He was he was on TV

and and it was very, very exciting.

I just couldn't understand him.

I couldn't understand how to do it.

I couldn't understand how

I was going to earn all those points

that that it took to fly, fly

free.

And so I just started searching

around on the Internet,

and I came across

a real down to earth,

personable lady

named Lyn Mettler.

And she was at that time

the Go To Travel Gal.

And I started reading some things

that you put online

and I said, you know,

I can understand, I can

understand her.

She's talking my language.

She was very personable.

And I just

I wanted to know more.

I wanted to know, you know more

about her program.

So, of course,

at that point I had a United

card and I had a Chase

Sapphire Reserve

card, but I didn't

quite know what to do.

So I had read

a lot about what you posted online.

And I talked to my husband about

another credit card and he went, Oh,

no.

You know, some some people may have

opposition, like I did with their

husband.

Very common.

My husband was the same way.

Yes. Yes.

Not to get involved in another

credit card scheme.

And I said, can I really think

this one is different?

And so we signed

up with a program and

all of a sudden Lyn Mettler said

that you wanted to have a private

consult with me, and I

went, Whoa,

this was impressive.

And so I'm getting kind of nervous

because I'm talking to you on the

telephone. And it was like I was

talking to a celebrity, you know,

I felt like I was,

you know, really had

the benefit of talking one on

one with someone who really knew

what they were doing and could give

me a lot of information.

You ask very exact questions.

You you were sincerely

interested in my success

and you knew

you had an exact plan

for how I

could start flying free.

And this just was so exciting

to me.

I couldn't I couldn't believe it.

So I encouraged

my husband to let us try

this program,

which was good.

We had gotten into some credit card

debt before, but you had

you had made sure that

we were willing to pay off the

credit card at the end of every

month, because if you don't, you're

not flying free.

Now, which was steep price

to do it.

Right, right, right.

So, you know, that's when I told my

husband so so we,

you know, promised each other that

we would stay on top of this.

And that's

that's that's how I got involved.

So now, yeah, we've flown seven

free trips

on our companion pass.

I, I applied for the Southwest

card that you encouraged me to get

and we were getting ready to have a

kitchen remodel.

So I just applied all

that money on the credit

card and we

acquired that companion

pass in like three months.

It was so fast.

Now, I wouldn't do that anymore

because you've taught me that it's

much more beneficial

to apply for just

the Southwest

card and then to apply for our

business.

Credit card.

Right. And I said, but

how can I get a a business

credit card?

So you educated me about all of

that. So when

you heard that we have a rent a

house, you said that's a business.

And I went, We can do this,

we can do this.

So that'll be my next strategy.

I like working with your program

Lyn, because you always

give me goals, new goals

to go for.

So that's that's what we're

headed for now because

our companion passed is

expiring at the end

of this year.

So we're getting ready to

reenroll and

try for it for two more

years so we can travel

travel more.

And you feel good that you

know the process to do that?

Exactly.

Exactly.

And is it is it

do you find it to be a difficult

process or time consuming?

I think that's one of my

my big S's.

I have a lot of S's.

It's simple.

It's a simple to follow

process that's laid

out by a very smart woman.

That's those are my S's.

But that's not to say I know exactly

what to do all the time.

And that's the benefit of working

with your plan, is that I can

always send a question

your way and you answer it

so quickly.

Or Cami does.

Or Lisa does one of your team

members. Right.

And even

if when I'm unsure, you're always

there to help me.

And I really, really appreciate

that.

Yeah. And I think that is an

important component to just have

the confidence that

you're not going to make a mistake

because you've got somebody

to run it by.

And like you said, we have your

interest.

We want you to be successful because

I wouldn't have a membership if

it didn't work for anybody.

Right.

I really want you to be

to be successful with this

and. Yeah, make take all these

amazing trips. So.

So let's talk about what?

What's one of your favorite parts

of membership?

If I open my email

and there's an email from Families

Fly Free, it's exciting.

You know, I just I am

motivated now

for a travel.

If I meet somebody at a party,

I go to church and I bumped and I

bump into somebody I haven't seen in

a while. They invariably say,

Well, where are you going next?

I know. Don't you get the whole kind

of like, Oh, brother.

Yeah, of course.

I love it.

And many times

they have been someplace.

And I can talk travel

all day long.

So if I get an email from

you, it is.

It's exciting.

I love your emails because

they keep me very current.

I think a lot of times people just

like to get on the Internet and they

they read a lot about, you

know, travel on on YouTubes.

Or, they'll listen to a podcast.

But that does not give

the currency that you give

to your listeners.

When I open an email from

you, I know that it's going to

be current information

and, and you keep me on top

of sales.

And I love it when you tell

me whether a sale is

good. Ah, you know,

just so, so that

makes a difference.

And of course

it's the little secrets.

That's another s simple

smart secrets.

You, you,

you give me secrets

like the best phone number to call

to get fast service.

I think that right there

that saved me so much time.

It's worth the entire membership.

That's saying something right.

And there's a huge time savings

component.

We focus on the money savings, but.

Now that's huge.

It's huge.

People don't understand that retired

people are very busy and

like to sit and wait on,

you know, somebody to answer

our phone calls.

So when my husband

saw that I could get into Southwest

Airlines as fast,

he said, this is great.

And so he's he's

totally bought into your program.

We sold him. Okay.

Good.

Yes, thank you.

He thinks I'm very smart now,

but actually, I have to tell

you. Tell him that it's that it's

Lyn.

So we're first to know about the

sales.

Oh, you always tell us the best time

to buy points.

And I don't buy a lot

of points, but if I'm just trying to

finish off something

and I'd much rather use points

of course, you know, cash.

So it's just those

those little secrets that have

surprised me.

Best days to buy a

ticket, of course, all of your

webinars,

which I can't always watch

because I'm traveling,

but

I know that I can always go back and

catch them later because

you have recorded them.

So I don't

know the surprises.

Just just keep on.

Keep on coming.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

Are there are there webinar topics

that you found interesting?

I always like the question and

answer webinars

because that to

me, those

are those are specific

scenarios that people

are encountering, you know,

struggling with.

And invariably, I will

I will watch a webinar that

I will learn something or maybe

I heard it before, but I had

forgotten it.

So it will just kind

of set off

another way of thinking about

something

and kind of change my strategy.

You changed my strategy about

how to plan a trip.

As I said, my husband and I are

retired, so we have pretty

great flexibility.

So I book my flights

now according to the low fare

calendar and I never used

to do that.

I was still on the mentality of work

schedule.

So I would plan my trip from,

you know, Thursday till Monday.

Well, you know, that's that's not

the best, cheapest time to plan

your trips.

So I always

learn something from your from your

webinars.

Mm hmm.

Is there a surprising part of

membership, something that surprised

you?

I'm surprised that

I. I keep learning.

I, I talked to some people

who say, well, I know all of

that. And and they

really and they really don't

because airlines change

constantly and their

in their rules change constantly.

For example,

I was surprised to learn that

Southwest Airlines had just changed

the flight or the points

requirement for companion

pass from 120...

Always changing.

To 135,000.

So I am

always surprised that I

can really stay up to date

when I thought I really was up to

date. But I wasn't.

I'm far more knowledgeable

now.

And as I said, my husband thinks I'm

so, so smart about all this,

but I'm just learning from you.

Okay. Tell us about some

of the trips that you've been able

to take since you've become a

Families Fly Free member and you're

in year two, I

think. Are you in year three yet?

Yes, towards the end of

year two.

Okay. All right. So, yeah, tell us

about some of what you've been able

to do.

Okay.

We have taken seven, seven

trips on

Southwest Airlines.

We've taken another

trip that was on

another airline.

But because I had Chase Sapphire

Reserve points, I use them

for that.

That's a great way.

Like I always tell people here and

there, you can fly another airline.

You don't have to exclusively.

Southwest needs to be your main

airline. But exactly what you did

there, okay, you need to take

another airline.

And that's what we did.

We did well.

And of course, during COVID,

we, you know, you know, COVID

was good and that's bad as far as

travel because as

far as COVID, went my

husband and I just traveled in the

United States.

So we've we've taken

seven trips in just the United

States, and then

we've taken a couple of trips

overseas.

But that was just in the you know,

past last year.

COVID was good in that we

saved a lot of Chase

Sapphire Reserve points.

So, you know, that was that was

fun. But

my favorite trip was flying

roundtrip

out of Boise

because we we flew up to Boise,

Idaho, and then rented a car,

like I said, we always do, and

then drove up to Coeur d'Alene.

And then we drove back down into

Bozeman, Montana,

and then went down into Yellowstone

and to Grand Teton and

then west over to Sun Valley

and then back to Boise.

And of course.

Oh, it was it was amazing.

It was it was fabulous.

And we did that with all of our

family. At least they

they met up with us in

Yellowstone National Park.

And thanks to

your introduction for

me to

Ash Nudd, I know

all about National Parks

now and

just had a great

experience with

Grand Teton and Yellowstone.

And then we flew into

Phenix one time and I

used your notes to drive up

to Sedona.

Oh, that was wonderful.

Then we flew into Orlando.

I love to fly to Orlando because

it's always so cheap for

points. I think we I think we fly

roundtrip, like, for 10,000

points or something.

It was great.

And then we just

made a trip around

around Florida.

We drove over to Tampa, then

we went down the West Coast

all the way to Key West.

And then we went back up the East

Coast, all

the way back up and then up

back over to Orlando.

We thought we would include Disney

World on that trip, but we decided

to go back to Disneyworld on

another trip.

So, yeah, that was

that was wonderful.

And then we also flew into Maine

or actually we flew into Boston

and then we did a trip all

the way up to Acadia National

Park and then just

drove along the coast of

Maine, which was absolutely

fabulous.

We flew

into Colorado Springs

and thanks to Cami, I got

a lot of hints

for staying in the Colorado

Springs area.

Love Colorado Springs

and then drove on up to Vail.

So, so much to do there.

So pretty drought driven up

to Vail and up to Mount

Rushmore for the 4th of July

and then for Thanksgiving

last year, my daughter wanted to

have a family get together in

Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains.

So my husband and I decided

that we would fly into Nashville

since it was a nonstop

from Austin, which we love.

And then we just rented a car

and drove from Nashville on into

Gatlinburg.

And then we took our Disney World

trip the first week of December.

So we got to see all the Christmas

decorations and that

was absolutely fabulous.

Oh, and then we've we've we

decided to use a lot

of those Chase Sapphire Reserve

points because we've always wanted

to fly business class to

Europe.

So we just bit the bullet

and we flew business class

from Austin

to Munich

and got to

fly business and

went on a

like a Viking River

cruise, which was

another.

On my list.

Another another bucket

bucket list for us.

But what's interesting about that

trip, Lyn, is that that was

during the time period that so many

of the airlines were having

difficulty with cancelations.

We really wanted to be on time

when we flew into

Munich because we wanted to catch

our Viking River cruise on time.

So just to be absolutely

sure that we made

that flight and that our flights

would not be canceled, we flew

from Austin to Denver

and then we used Chase Sapphire

points to stay in a hotel for

free.

And then we stayed overnight

in the hotel.

And then we caught the nonstop

flight from Denver to

Munich the next day.

There was no worry.

And the remarkable thing about it is

that Austin surprisingly

got rain in the summer, which

usually doesn't happen.

And our flight was so

delayed we would have missed our

flight to Munich.

So I was very grateful

that we went ahead and and tried

that that option.

And that's another thing that you've

taught me is is to be

a little bit creative in your

planning.

Like I said earlier, flexibility,

you know, try things, try things

differently.

Try going on different days

and and different,

different flights.

So I appreciate that about Families

Fly Free.

Yeah. And even like sometimes like

you did breaking it into two

different legs, sometimes that can

be cheaper, you know, instead of

booking Austin all the way to

Munich.

I don't know how it worked out, but

it could have been cheaper to do

Austin to Denver and then Denver to

Munich, you know?

Uh huh.

Just different. It is just a

different way to think about it.

The right way to do it.

Right, right, right.

Yes. Well, I'm getting

better.

It's taken me a little while, but

I'm I'm still I'm still learning,

like I said earlier.

But Families Fly

Free has really changed

my attitude about flying.

You have motivated me

to think more.

More about travel to plan, more

about travel to

expand my thinking.

And that's what I love about it.

Mm hmm.

So are you able to quantify

what you think you might have saved

across all those trips?

Oh, definitely, yeah.

Because I love to tell my husband

that.

This was a very wise investment.

So I figured if I've taken seven

flights

or if if my husband

and I have taken seven, then that's

14 flights.

Right. And you always say

that it's on the average about $350

per flight.

Well, that's $4,900

right there.

And then flying business class

from Austin to Munich

was that would have been $7,000

because it's about $3500 per

person.

So I know.

Yeah, we we would.

You know, it was a lot of points

like you still paid nothing

like that. So worth we.

Paid we paid nothing.

So that has been

a cumulative savings of $11,000,

but no. $11,900

right there.

All right.

I know. Like what?

What a great return.

And and I was just writing an email

today and was telling the story of,

like, me applying for the first

card. And that same scenario you

described of we were nervous about

that. We had been in debt before.

It's just too good to be true.

And like, if I hadn't have done

that, all the things

we wouldn't have done.

We have now that I wouldn't trade

that for the world.

No, and that's what I mean.

Families Fly Free has motivated

me to believe

in myself that I.

I can do this.

And I'm not

a very confident traveler,

actually, when it comes

to booking flights and figuring

out all the websites.

And what you've taught me

is that I can do this

and that there's different ways of

thinking. So I sincerely appreciate

it. Yes.

And you've taught me that it's a

step by step process.

You I know you probably don't want

to think this, but you kind of hold

my hand and you lead

me through my

my travel.

Mm hmm.

Well, that is the whole idea of

membership, because really, nothing

else exists like this.

You know, The Points Guy is not

going to hold your hand right

now. You'll be lucky to beat

somebody on.

Responds to your comment on a post,

you know, and then it's really not

going to be very customized or

tailored to you.

And so that is I have I

just saw the need for that.

Right. And that's why I have created

this. So there is an option for

people who want it laid

out for them and it really works.

Yeah, right. And it's not, it's not

buying them. It's not getting a

bunch of credit cards.

No, no, it's just.

Well, we just have we just

have four cards right now.

And you've opened the world to us.

Yeah. So it can be as simple

as three or four cards.

Yeah, we do most of ours with three.

And if you throw in the reserve,

like you could either have preferred

or reserve take your pick.

But some people have both and that's

where the four usually comes in.

I know that that that you're

encouraging people now to

look at the Venture X

card instead of the Chase

Sapphire Reserve which we will

probably look at after we

acquire our companion pass.

Yeah. Yeah.

We just want to do it step by step.

And that's like a good point of like

things change.

Like, the best way to fly free

isn't going to stay the same

forever. So like you said, we're

current and we look at these things

that come along and go, Would

that be a simpler option?

If so, we're going to shift

to that and explain to our members

why this might be a good

choice for them, you know, to look

at.

Mm hmm. Do you have anything to

share about your experience working

with our team?

Well, I get.

Quick responses to questions.

Right?

You know, I feel like they're my

friends. Isn't that something?

I've never. I've never met them

before.

Such an awesome team.

You're all so, so

personable and.

And we're all speaking

the same language.

And I think that's that's what

really, really helps me.

Oh, you're very,

very prompt.

And I

have direct access to you.

And I'm also getting a lot

of help now in the community

from places that I want

to go, or it gives me ideas

of places to go and

giving me information.

Like I said, when I went to Colorado

Springs, Cami, you know, was

right there to help me.

And I just

I just really value that

and.

I do. And

I don't know. And now that now

there's Chris and I'm getting

to know Chris because he's the

one that sends me all the emails

that that that make my day

exciting.

Well, now I'm getting to know him,

so it's great.

As our community grows,

as we get more and more members like

that, is where our

community forum has become so much

more vibrant and active because

you have so many more people, like

you said, that can share their

experience of a particular

destination. Or maybe they live in

that destination and they can tell,

you know, don't do this to

get from the airport or you do need

a car or you can take public

transportation or this

is a good area to stay in.

This isn't, you know.

Right.

That's all very valuable.

Like, I think you can kind of get

that on TripAdvisor, but you don't

really know who you're talking to,

you know, and the membership.

I think we all want to help one

another.

Mm hmm.

There's some trust level there,

you know that you can count on.

Mm hmm. Yeah, definitely.

So what would you tell people

who are hesitant about

joining because of the cost,

because it's a significant

investment?

What would you say to them if

they're not sure if they should join

or not?

Okay. Yeah.

I thought about this for a long

time. I can I can remember

going by

a a garden and nursery

store one time.

And so hang with me here.

Okay.

And there was a sign out front that

says, Good seeds

don't cost, they pay.

And I got to thinking about

that because they wanted you

to buy their best brand

of seeds.

And I got to thinking,

you know, that applies with a lot

of things.

Good education doesn't cost,

it pays.

And when I

think about your services,

your services don't cost

me. They they pay

me.

I make I make money.

I save money.

But I actually

have more money now to

to to travel

because I'm saving money

by not paying for my airfare.

Does that make sense?

Yeah. I couldn't have said it better

myself.

I mean, it's like it's shifting your

view of looking at it

instead of looking at it as an

expense.

You look at it as an investment

that's going to pay you a return.

Right. Right.

Good. Good.

Investments don't cost.

They pay.

Right.

They will earn more

than you invested.

And that is like I don't I

would not have a business if

people if they

didn't make more money than they

invested. And that's what we have a

guarantee.

Right, that we stand by, because

that's the whole idea.

It's designed to make you money.

But the but the real benefit

here is that not only are

you saving

me money,

but you're giving me all these added

benefits of the webinars

and the emails and the information

on top of the money that I'm saving.

So it's it's it's

the whole picture that

I think people have to have

to understand.

And I do think it's for

the customer or client who,

who really wants to travel

and who

has made a conscious decision to pay

off their credit card at the end

of every month.

And I know I've heard you say that

as well.

So so when

when my husband and I decided that

it made us a lot more of a

a lot more aware of our spending

and we pay off our credit cards

not every month.

It's not even a question.

And we watch them.

In fact, I'll never forget the

first time I was watching some

webinar that you were talking about

how you pay off your credit card

at the end of the week.

Or you can even do it like every

other day.

That's what I tell people to do.

Like if you just aren't good

at, you know, at the end of the

month, you're like, Oops, I didn't

remember. I spent all that and now I

don't have that in my account

because if you do it like I don't,

you literally can't do it the same

day you charge because it hasn't

processed yet. But if you pay it the

next day, right, it's not

any different than using your debit

card because it's just coming right

out. You know, I worry about.

Do you have it at the end of the

month?

Right. Right.

And then the

other reason is that

I now that I am

an older person,

I realize that

I don't have quite as much

time as I thought I did.

I have a long list

of places that I wanted to go.

And I'm I'm beginning to run out

of time.

I always thought that

when I retired, I.

I would have lots of free

time and and I

would be able to go anywhere I

wanted to.

But I didn't realize that

my health concerns

would prevent me from going

as many places as I wanted to

are doing as many things as I

as I wanted to.

My travel agent friend had always

said, okay,

all you need to do is travel

overseas in your sixties

and travel the United States in

your seventies, or that doesn't work

because you will run out of time.

Right. And you don't know what like

what happens tomorrow, you

know?

You don't know.

Yeah. You snooze, you lose.

So it's been

it's been very important to me

to tell my children,

if you want to travel, you

need to do it now.

Take your children.

Show them the world.

Learn about other cultures.

It is a big, beautiful world

out there and do not

put it off.

I think specifically of

the trip to Florida that we took

all down the West Coast

and we went over to Sanibel Island

and we looked for seashells.

And then I

saw how that bridge was totally

wiped out with the hurricane.

And I think it's been rebuilt

by now.

But you know that that.

No, I don't think so.

I think they said that was going to

be like, I don't know,

like years in.

Oh, really?

I just I just cherish

the time that I had

looking at at Florida

before before the hurricane.

Well, another one that I have

thought about is when Notre

Dame in Paris, when they hired

we had been there, you know, a

couple of years before.

I was just like, thank goodness

we got to see that.

Like, can you imagine if that

had been completely destroyed?

That is so old

and such an amazing piece of

architecture.

Like even if it's not about

yourself, like you're saying, you

don't know what disaster is going to

happen or you know.

Exactly. I think you're leaving a

legacy, right.

Like this isn't this is beyond just

you seeing the world like you are

leaving a legacy for your kids

and for your grandkids and you're

role modeling for them.

Well, that's what they say.

That's what they say.

And I told them, I said, you know,

you got to get over to Europe pretty

fast. I mean, there's cobblestones

everywhere.

You just don't realize that they're

hard to walk on, you know, when you

get older.

So that's a, you know,

don't put it off.

You know, you may have trouble with

your knees in the future.

I guess that's the trouble with

waiting till retirement, like you

said, is then you start having

health issues. Your body starts to

have problems now.

That's right.

That's right.

Some sign up to that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Last question I would ask you is,

is it too good to be true?

Oh,

no, no, not at all.

Because I'm doing everything

that you're that you're suggesting

and and it's working.

If I could give you one specific

example. I love this.

This is a great story.

And it just it just happened.

I had I had finally learned

to look at the low fare calendar

before I planned my trip.

So I had I had

I had already planned a trip to go

to Denver,

and I had

not planned it according to the low

fare calendar.

So I listened to your webinar

and I said, Oh, I need to do that.

So I went back and I checked the

dates and I said, Wow,

if I moved this trip by one

day, I could save 11,000

points, right?

So so I went back,

I called Southwest Airlines because

I had already, you know, connected

the companion to it.

I called Southwest as to, can I

change this flight?

I just need to change it for one

day. And and it was

it was cheaper and Southwest

had made a change.

I forgot to say that they had made

a change on the fly.

So I changed it to another

day and it saved

me 11,000 points.

So then several weeks later,

I got an invitation to go to

Dallas to a surprise birthday party.

Well,

driving from Austin to Dallas is

a nightmare. There's always

construction. It's horrible.

So I looked at my husband and I

said, Why don't we just fly

to Dallas?

And he said, Oh, okay.

So I checked it, you know how

much it costs because it was on the

sale day.

It was on the sale day.

You know how much it cost?

It was 1100 points

for us to fly. And so we're going to

fly up on a Saturday.

The party is at two in the afternoon

or at night.

We won't have to drive on I-35

from Austin and Alice as well.

So on that, it's so wonderful.

Yeah.

Because that's not even you could

sneeze and earn 1100 points.

You know, I

wouldn't even notice that being the

means.

I love it. Okay.

Awesome. Is there anything else you

would want to add or share that we

didn't talk about?

Car rentals.

You know, there's.

Been other things they.

Can be, so they can be so expensive.

Like I said earlier, I met Ash.

Ash Nudd Dirt in My Shoes.

Yeah. Let's give her a shout out.

Dirt in my shoes, com.

She's all about national parks.

Yes, she has. She has planned all

of our national park trips.

Travel insurance.

You've given me great, great

information on travel insurance.

You've taught me how to use

Southwest hotels.

When I was, I can remember

what I was trying to earn points

for, but we stayed at a Kimpton

Hotel in Key West

and for three nights and got 17,000

points.

That was that was my biggest as

win.

Might as well get some points.

Might as well.

Navigating Disney World.

I used that

and now I'm onto cruise

so

that I'm going to start looking

at ways that I can

save on cruises.

So it's it's much more

than just saving on airfare.

It's it's really saving

on many,

many aspects of travel.

Yeah. And I think that's very

important because when you start to

fly free a lot, those other

expenses can add up and then

you're still in the boat of it's too

expensive. So if you don't know how

to save on everything, then you

don't really have a good plan in

place to to do that.

So that's why we try to supplement

with all the other things that we

think that you need to know as well.

And you're a good example of like

you have done all the different

types of things that we talk about

theme parks, national parks.

You're about when you were talking

about where you'd been, you'd
literally

been all four corners of the country

in the middle, you know?

I know, I know.

And I really don't think it would

have happened. Land if it wasn't for

Families Fly Free.

Well, that's awesome. And that's,

that is what we're here

trying to do.

So is make that a reality for

more people.

So listen to Kay.

Now would you tell my husband that?

We've already convinced him.

Oh, but listen to you.

Yes, listen to Kay.

Okay, she knows what she knows what

she's talking about. She, in

addition to traveling, fly free.

She recommended that.

Look, look, what a good idea that

wasn't.

Okay, all.

Right.

All right. Anything else you wanted

to share?

You know, I think I think that's

that's just about covered it really,

really well.

That was fantastic.

So all you folks start

traveling before you retire.

If you are retired, it's not too

late. Get at it.

And thanks for for joining me today

and thanks for being a member.

So we will see

everyone on the next episode.

If you're ready to fly your family

free forever, I invite

you to join my family's fly free

membership.

You'll learn how to stop paying for

airfare throughout the U.S.,

Caribbean and Europe so you can

make those priceless family

travel memories before your

kids or even your grandkids

leave home for good and you'll

learn it. Using my simple, proven

formula that's helped hundreds

of families.

Plus it's risk-free.

You either get your investment in

the membership back in free travel,

or I give you your money back.

You can get more information at

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slash join.