Travel Credit Cards & Lost Nuance

The simple truth of “travel” credit cards

About a week ago I purchased my flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Lilongwe, Malawi; to do so I used credit card points. There is an abundance of information online about how to use credit card points to “hack” travel… most of which I consider to be click-bait garbage.

Here’s my humble breakdown:

1) The Cards

Some credit cards will match “points” for every dollar you spend. These points are matched at different rates for different cards and different purchases. The most favorable matching for travel points are the best travel cards.

2) The Points

Points can be used in different ways, including cash back. For travel cards, the most value per point is found in the expenditure of travel related items (flights, hotels, rental cars). Different cards accumulate points at different rates. Through the credit card website you can use points to directly purchase the aforementioned. The more rewarding the travel card, the more the annual card fee will be (top rate is usually around $400-$600).

3) The Value

This is the part I wanted to clarify for the masses. 

Your accumulation of points requires you to spend money on the card. Many cards will often have an initial bonus that distributes points beyond the normal rate. An example would be “If you sign up for X card and spend $4,000 in the first 3 months, you will receive 85,000 points on top of whatever you would normally accumulate with regularly rewarded expenditures.” For flights specifically - THESE are the focus of travel credit card related content online. Hack, unhacked.

4) The Takeaway

Travel credit cards are a smart move for travelers, with benefits including global lounge access, vouchers for TSA Precheck and Global Entry, and more. The main benefit is the points, and the main “steal” is the initial bonus. Benefits are there, but they are not free - you must spend to earn.

Comments? Questions? Pushback? DM me on Instagram @jacobtempler

The unspoken antidote - nuance

The Rand Club, a large British colonial era building in the center of downtown Johannesburg, was established as a gentleman’s club in 1887 for the gold barons that established the city in 1886. What was once the billiards room downstairs is now a privately owned antique book store - James Findlay’s Bookshop.

A sharply dressed Afrikaner, standing around six foot two in his late fifties, James is a treasure in and of himself. The shop is one of the most impressive historical repositories I have ever seen. Books as old as Charles Dickens first editions line the shelves, most of them directly or indirectly related to Southern Africa.

But it was not the impressive nature of the shop that inspired this short blurb - instead it was James himself.

This was a man that admitted to reading twenty or so books at once, literally living amongst them. As is often the case, the conversations of a traveler and local touch on deep subjects of history and culture (especially if I am the traveler). Whether we discussed Apartheid, US gun laws, or colonial legacy, James spoke in a manner as rare as the most endangered species - nuance. Humility, curiosity, detailed oriented, and with candor. He is a dodo bird amongst pigeons.

In my vast documentation of the shop I took one short video clip of James. Without prompting of any kind, he spoke these words:

“Books are so important, because in them you can see all different points of view.”

Reading books was once a prized privilege across millennia… today is denigrated as “boring”. Pity, so much to gain between the pages.

Sincerely,

Jacob

P.S. I’ve struggled to conjure a medium that communicates my existential thoughts in content… today, I’ve had a peer inspired breakthrough. It will require me to level up - GOOD.