I am a travel hacker (check out why I travel hack). My moto is "Always be earning". This refers to earning travel miles with everyday spending. And I love to travel. It is like art when these two things come together to create a sublime moment in my personal travel history. I have traveled often and to a lot of places (not as much as those who have traveled to 100 countries, but I digress), but, I have never traveled first class. Last month I finally got to experience first class and it was worth every penny I spent. The difference here is I didn’t spend a lot of money to fly first class because of the travel hacking habits I have. It only cost $200 for me and my wife.

The benefits of flying first-class are obvious: more legroom, more comfortable seats, improved on-board service, and so on. All of these amenities, of course, aren't cheap. As a result, the age-old question of whether flying first class is worthwhile emerges. It is sometimes worthwhile to spend a higher fee for a better seat, and other times it is not. But, in any case, when you can pay for it with points and miles, that seat feels so much better!

Back in May of 2020, I wrote about an event that I was very proud of. I performed the rare occurrence of scoring a travel hacking hat trick. I got awarded points 3 times, from 3 different points programs for one transaction. (Hat Trick: In field hockey and ice hockey, a hat trick occurs when a player scores three goals in a single game.)