When people ask me how and when I got into miles and points, it’s easy for me to give a clear answer.
It was January of 2003. I’d been casually reading Randy Petersen’s FlyerTalk, which was sparking some interest, but it was still pretty esoteric to me. That is, until, one day when the site lit up with what is known as a “mistake rate.”
Someone posted that the Bora Bora Nui was mispriced at 10% of its real rate, or about $100 a night for an overwater villa. 
I did not know how in the world I was going to get to Bora Bora, nor did I really know much about it. But I knew that villa looked AMAZING and I couldn’t pass up that kind of deal.
And it was a steal! Until it wasn’t.
The the Bora Bora Nui decided not to honor the rate.
Now, to their credit, they were pretty good about things. You could have a rate that was about halfway between the mistake and full price and if you didn’t want that and had booked any travel, they’d make you whole. That was classy.
But then SPG, which we all know was the classiest of classy, did one better giving 5,000 Starpoints to all who cancelled. Although, as Gary Leff just reminded me via Twitter, the 5,000 points was NOT for canceling. It was because of a privacy gaff. The hotel inadvertently sent an email to all guests involved, CCing every guest openly. The 5,000 was an apology for *that*.
And as crazy as it sounds, I had no idea what one did with “Starpoints” but I couldn’t wait to figure out how I was going to use them.
It didn’t take long to figure out that I needed some more points, and I set about collecting them (IIRC, with my first Starwood Amex card). And within a few years, I’d booked my first amazing trip – to the French Riviera, staying at the Le Meridien in Monte Carlo in a butler suite for just 11,500 points a night (for a room that cost over 1,200 Euro).
That was it. I was hooked. I’ve always loved the #suitelife but I’ve never been much inclined to pay for it.
Pretty soon after that I did my first Business class flight, using United miles to fly on the upper deck of a Singapore Airlines 747 from JFK to Frankfurt. And I took the return on an all-Business Class Lufthansa flight operated by PrivatAir.
I loved figuring out *how* to make it all work. As you know, miles and points is like a great big puzzle, with many smaller puzzles.
How to earn, how to burn….
That was followed, some time later, with my first true First Class experience, onboard Cathay Pacific. That was no doubt what cemented not just my love for swanky (free) hotel stays, but for flying all of the best First and Business class flights I could. I’ve flown several dozen now. And all for close to free. (Full disclosure: I did pay for one Business class flight to Europe two years ago when the fare was under $2,000 and I needed MQMs 😉 )
And that was the beginning of a long road. My first business venture into travel came a few years later in the form of Hotel Magician, an “OTA” much like Orbitz or Expedia. It launched in 2006. It pioneered one of the very first interactive maps (where you could see where your hotel was relative to points of interest on a Google Map – obviously commonplace now) and had a massive directory of smoke-free hotels that many people used. It also had a blog with hotel and credit card reviews (I actually had direct card link relationships with Amex, Citi, and Chase back then and even had Hotel Magician featured in an Amex promotional piece about how to best place the credit card affiliate program).
I could never get any real traction against the major sites since I had no control of pricing. I probably should have taken the aggregator approach Kayak did, but alas….
It was a long time from that launch until I finally decided to try again with MilesTalk – buoyed by the support of everyone that attended my 2016 miles and points workshop at SXSW. That led to the MilesTalk blog first, then the Facebook group, then the MilesTalk book – and soon, much more….
Yes that’s a tease, and yes, there is more coming.
Thank you to all who have been on this ride with me so far.
On Flyertalk, there are many that remember me from Hotel Magician (the interactive hotel maps were very popular, though unprofitable). But I think it’s safe to safe 99% of you will only know me as Mr. MilesTalk – and that works just fine for me.
I mean it when I say that there is nothing I enjoy doing more than talk about miles and points and helping everyone live the suite life without paying for it.
I hope to keep seeing you around.
-Dave
