Big Changes Coming Soon!

It’s been an exciting year for PointsWise! What started as a humble blog getting a few page views per day grew into a full service website offering the latest news, travel hacking tricks, and product reviews. In addition to the blog, we launched premium concierge award booking service, which has been well-received, and an eBook designed for beginners – The PointsWise Guide To Travel Hacking.

Most recently, we held our first reader meetup in Vancouver in partnership with local bloggers Adventure Never Enns, where we were able to host an evening of networking and information sharing (we learned a lot from other travel hackers too).

We’ve received a lot of valuable feedback from our loyal readers over the last 12 months, and wanted to share some of the exciting changes coming up in the near future!

We’re Adding A New Contributor!

Perhaps most exciting of all is the announcement that Kyle Enns will be joining PointsWise as a regular contributor! I first met Kyle when he reached out with the offer to co-host a travel hacking meetup in Vancouver. Right away I was impressed by his passion and expertise, and knew I wanted to work with him beyond the occasional networking event. As luck would have it, Kyle was mutually impressed with PointsWise, and agreed to join the team as our first contributor!

Kyle is going to bring a wealth of knowledge to the blog, particularly in areas not typically covered already. Kyle has a young family, so expect to see lots of informative posts about everything relating to family travel, in addition to other areas he’s passionate about, including

• Trip planning for families using rewards, including destination tips, airlines, and hotels
• Travel tips for families with young children
• Credit card reviews
• Churning strategies
• Product reviews, including airline, hotel, and lounge reviews
• And much more!

Here’s a little Q&A to get to know Kyle:

How did you get started collecting miles and points?

Funny story actually. Technically, I began churning before I even knew what it was. I applied for the Alaska Airlines World Elite Mastercard while on a flight with my family. They were offering 26,000 points for a welcome bonus at the time and I figured, why not. Since I wasn’t making much money at the time, our household income (between myself, my brother and my parents) was high enough to get approved. Once I got the card I realized there was no limit on how many cards I could have, so I applied for another Alaska Airlines card. I didn’t want to go crazy so I stopped at two, then canceled the first one, then reapplied in a few months for another. I didn’t even know there was a name for this, but I guess I’ve been churning since 2014! I really started seriously (knowing what I was doing) last January. I can’t for the life of me remember how it started, but I remember reading about American Express and how they transferred to Aeroplan. Then I learned about the mini round-the-world flight and I jumped right in (making some big rookie mistakes) and haven’t stopped since!

What’s the best redemption you’ve made?

What do you consider to be the best programs for Canadians looking to travel using points?

What’s your dream trip using miles and points?

Favourite flight to date?

Any tips for someone just starting out?

We’re Creating Some Great New Tools To Improve The Online Experience

Britt has been working tirelessly developing some new tools that will greatly improve the online experience, particularly for beginners just starting out. This all sprouted from a common theme we continued to hear from readers: there’s just too much information spread out over too many websites, and it’s really hard to filter through all of it.

The problem with blogging is that information gets buried. I may write a great post about some changes to Marriott Rewards, but three months later it takes some digging to find it. Or, there might be a limited time offer on an American Express Business Card, but finding that best offer can be a challenge. Britt had a great idea to create tools for some of the most commonly searched themes, and organize them in a way that’s easy to navigate, simple to use, and most importantly, informative.

The first tool to be launched will be the hotel rewards program comparison tool, which will provide up-to-date information on all benefits associated with all hotel programs, along with the ability to filter results based on what you value most to choose the best program for your personal travel goals! The tool will also include easy access to sign-up directly for each program and book direct to save you time and make the entire process more streamlined! Look for this new feature live on the website early next week!

More Reader Meetups

Our first meetup was a huge success, with tickets selling out in just a few days. We had a lot of people email after and ask if we were planning more in the future, and the answer is YES! There’s so much value in information sharing, and we hope to plan regular meetups beginning in the near future. We also hope to expand to other Canadian cities!

We’re Always Open To Your Suggestions

We want to continue growing, and growing in the right direction is only possible with feedback from our loyal readers! If there’s anything you would like to see covered, or have ideas for content or more interactive tools, let us know, and we’ll do our best to consider them for future posts and development!

We want to thank all of our readers for a great year, and hope you enjoy the new perspective from Kyle, and the new interactive tools being developed by Britt!

Is there any specific content you’d like to see covered in the future? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!