146. 2025 in Points and Miles In Review: The Biggest Wins, Disappointments & Shifts - Part 1
Release Date: 12/15/2025
153. Avios Explained: Understanding Transfers & Maximizing Award Flights
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In a hobby full of rules, Avios prove to be an exception—and understanding how they work can unlock some of the best award flight opportunities available. In this episode, I'm breaking down everything you need to know about Avios, the points currency used by British Airways, Qatar, Finnair, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and several other airlines. One crucial aspect of Avios that makes them unique among points currencies is their ability to move between partner accounts, which creates opportunities you won't find anywhere else. Listen in as I walk through what makes Avios so versatile,...
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152. Building Wealth Beyond Travel: Financial Planning for High-Earners with Lauren Oschman
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If you've ever wondered what's the difference between just saving money versus creating wealth that actually matters, this conversation is for you. In this episode, I'm joined by Lauren Oschman, founder of Vestia Personal Wealth Advisors, who grew up watching her interventional cardiologist father work incredibly hard while struggling to balance wealth building with being present at home. That experience shaped her entire approach to financial planning, which she now brings to nearly 600 physician families across the country. We're talking about how to identify what actually matters to...
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151. Bilt's 3 New Cards: A Complete Analysis & Strategy Guide
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Have you ever wondered if earning points on your mortgage or rent is actually worth the math? Or whether a card that earns two times points on everything can really compete with what you're already holding? Bilt just released three brand new credit cards, and they're more complex than any card launch I've seen in a while. This isn't just about welcome bonuses and bonus categories— there's an entirely new internal currency called Bilt Cash, along with processing fees to calculate, and real formulas you need to run to figure out if any of these cards make sense for your situation. In this...
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150. 2025 Points Year in Review: How We Used Our Points, Chose Programs & Planned 2026 Travel (Part 2)
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Today we're picking up where we left off last week in our 2025 points recap. In this second part of our year-in-review series, Dr. Andrea Mabry and I continue to break down the travel we actually booked with all those points we earned in 2025. We're sharing the total value of travel we booked, our average redemption values, and the specific trips we planned—from family vacations to aspirational first class products. We also reveal what we've already booked for 2026, including trips worth over $300,000 combined. Andrea and I each share how many points we used to book...
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149. 2025 Points Year in Review: A Look Back at Cards, Strategies & Earning (Part 1) with Dr. Andrea Mabry
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Do you ever wonder what cards other people have, how they use them, and exactly how many points they're earning each year? I'll be honest—I'm nosy when it comes to other people's points, and I love getting a peek inside someone else's points earning strategies. In this first part of a two-part year-in-review series, I've invited Dr. Andrea Mabry back to the show to break down everything that shaped our points earning in 2025. This has become one of my favorite Point Me to First Class traditions, and this year marks the third installment of this annual series. We're pulling back the curtain...
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148. Your Year in Points Review: How to Audit, Learn, and Plan Smarter
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Have you ever taken a step back and actually evaluated what your points did for you over an entire year? In this episode, I’m inviting you to do your own Year in Points Review—a way to look at how you earned points, how you used them, and whether your approach to earning and redeeming rewards helped you reach your travel goals. I walk through why a year-end points review is worth doing, including how it helps you evaluate what you did well, what you could do better, and how having clear data makes it easier to decide what to keep doing, what to stop doing, and what to focus on moving...
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147. 2025 in Points and Miles In Review (Part 2): Key Changes, New Realities, and What Comes Next
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What really changed in the points and miles world this year—and how should that shape your strategy going forward? In part two of our 2025 Year in Review, Kelly and I continue breaking down one of the most transformative years we’ve seen in award travel. Beyond rising annual fees and tightening loyalty programs, this year revealed deeper structural shifts in how airlines price awards, who gets access to the best redemptions, and what flexibility actually looks like going forward. We dig into the continued expansion of dynamic pricing—and why it isn’t always the disaster...
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146. 2025 in Points and Miles In Review: The Biggest Wins, Disappointments & Shifts - Part 1
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In this episode, we bid farewell to 2025 with a year-in-review analysis of the biggest news, changes, and trends in rewards, credit cards, and award travel over the last 12 months. This episode is part one of a two-part year-in-review series, and I’m joined by Kelly, the Points and Miles Doc, to break down the biggest changes, surprises, and shakeups in the points and award travel world over the last year. In this first half of the conversation, we focus on the biggest wins and disappointments of the year—from credit card issuers that made significant changes to new programs that...
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145. Behind the Scenes at World of Hyatt: Loyalty, Care & the Future of Travel with Laurie Blair
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Have you ever wondered what exactly goes on behind the scenes in loyalty programs—and what drives executive decisions about what to offer, add, or take away from their members’ experience? In this episode, I get to do exactly that. I’m joined by Laurie Blair, Hyatt’s Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Loyalty, for a rare behind-the-scenes look at how Hyatt designs a program that travelers actually feel loyal to. We talk about what truly sets the World of Hyatt program apart, how they make decisions about elite benefits and redemptions, and what status holders can expect in...
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144. Inside Rove: The Loyalty Program Reshaping Points & Miles
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There’s a new player in the rewards space, and it’s changing what’s possible for earning points even if you never open another credit card. In this episode, I’m joined by Carissa Rawson, Director of Travel and Marketing for Rove, a fast-growing loyalty platform that combines a travel booking portal with an online shopping portal so you can earn transferable miles on hotel stays, flights, and everyday purchases. Whether you’re new to points or you’ve been in the hobby for years, Rove offers earning opportunities that can work for everyone. Carissa and I talk about how the...
info_outlineIn this episode, we bid farewell to 2025 with a year-in-review analysis of the biggest news, changes, and trends in rewards, credit cards, and award travel over the last 12 months.
This episode is part one of a two-part year-in-review series, and I’m joined by Kelly, the Points and Miles Doc, to break down the biggest changes, surprises, and shakeups in the points and award travel world over the last year.
In this first half of the conversation, we focus on the biggest wins and disappointments of the year—from credit card issuers that made significant changes to new programs that expanded what’s possible with points. We talk through how the landscape has shifted, why earning and redeeming points feels more complex than it used to, and how those changes showed up across credit cards, transferable points currencies, and airline loyalty programs.
This episode isn’t about declaring whether 2025 was “good” or “bad.” It’s about understanding how the points and miles world is becoming more specific, more nuanced, and more complex—and what that means for how you participate in it moving forward.
Be sure to tune in next week for Part Two, where we’ll dive deeper into the trends we expect to shape 2026, along with our predictions and award travel wish lists for the year ahead.
Get full show notes and transcript: https://pointmetofirstclass.com/2025-points-and-miles-year-in-review-part-1/
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