Jet-Set Travel Minus Sky-High Costs
It was 2019 and Benji Stawski ’20 was bound for Buenos Aires.
He had booked the trip just hours before take-off, scoring a business-class plane ticket for a five-day stay in the Argentinian capital. The tab quickly topped $4,000, but Stawski’s out-of-pocket expenses were a mere $100 in taxes and fees.
The nearly free vacation testifies to both his love of travel and his fiscal savvy — a combination he has turned into a career.
Stawski is a reporter for The Points Guy, an online site that offers tips for leveraging discounts and rewards to maximize value. He had freelanced for the company through college and became a full-time staffer at graduation.
The former Managerial Economics and Entrepreneurial Studies major is no stranger to private jets and exotic locales. He has traveled through 28 countries, from the Americas to Europe to Asia, visiting some places multiple times.
Still, not every trip is enviable. One assignment put him on a plane from New York to London. He wrote a review of the flight to submit for publication as soon as he landed, then flew right back home to New York City.
Two countries he has yet to visit — Australia and South Africa — are at the top of Stawski’s wish list.
“The good thing about my job is I can pitch trips I want to take and places I want to go,” he says, noting that travel is returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Some of Benji’s top hacks
• Transfer credit card points to airline miles instead of redeeming for cash back.
• Earn elite status by staying loyal to airlines and hotel chains.
• Build points as much as you can, for example, by using the credit card instead of a debit card as often as possible.
• Seek out credit cards with travel perks, such as free checked bags, room upgrades and airport lounge access.
• Compare the cash and points rates before redeeming rewards. When cash prices are low, it may make more sense to pay outright for a flight or hotel, and save your points and miles for a higher-value redemption.