The day has finally come — The Points Guy's founder Brian Kelly has published his first book, "How to Win at Travel," and it's now available in bookstores and for online orders.
It seems hard to believe that this is Brian's first book. After all, he's been dispensing travel advice to the public for nearly 15 years, first as a lone blogger and then with a growing team of writers and editors, not to mention through social media and video.
In fact, I was one of the first members of that team — I became the first full-time employee of TPG's writing staff and the site's first managing editor when I joined in 2011.
It's been over a decade since then, but like Brian, I am still maximizing my credit cards and traveling the world thanks to the points and miles I've accrued.
To celebrate the book release, I sat down with my old friend and talked to him about the path to this moment, how TPG has evolved over time from a one-man blog into one of the country's leading travel publications, and some of the many changes we have seen both in the loyalty landscape and the travel industry in general since he launched the site. Note that the text has been edited for clarity.
Here's what he had to say on those topics and more during our recent conversation, plus some details at the end about where you can catch him on his book tour and how to order a copy of "How to Win at Travel" for yourself.
Eric Rosen: Going back about 15 years to the start of The Points Guy when you and I met, you had started the blog and were booking award tickets for friends. Even back then, we were talking about a book, and now it's finally coming out. Congratulations! But let's start with the question I always ask about a story or idea: Why this book, and why now?
Brian Kelly: Eric, what a trip it has been. I am so proud of what TPG has become — it's such a cultural centerpiece in the travel industry, and our work has impacted so many people, but I still say to myself that we have so much more work to do.
We have so many posts and articles, but the problem becomes that there is now so much information out there and the industry keeps changing dramatically — the average person simply can't keep up with this cycle.
It can be very intimidating popping into a blog post and trying to understand the foundation of what's being talked about, and if you don't understand a term or two, you might not feel like it's meant for you.
Sort of like the beginners guide we have on the site, this book is like a curated version of what folks need to know about travel. I tried calculating it, and there are around 1,000 solid, in my opinion, money-saving trips in the book, so even if you absorb just a small percentage of them, your fluency will improve.
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