Speaker 1: Holiday travel tips with Johnny Jet what's going on on Richdemiro?
Speaker 2: This is rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Joining me on the podcast today is a guy who
Speaker 1: travels around the world for a living, writes about it,
Speaker 1: talks about it, podcasts about it, speaks about it.
Speaker 2: His name is Johnny Jett and welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: All right, so first off, just tell me about yourself.
Speaker 4: In nineteen ninety five, I started that's when I graduated college,
Speaker 4: and that's when I really started traveling.
Speaker 3: I started mastering travel actually a few years before that.
Speaker 3: While I was in college.
Speaker 4: At dated a girl whose parents lived overseas, and that's
Speaker 4: really my first international trip, and I learned all these
Speaker 4: different tips and tricks.
Speaker 3: She only flew business class.
Speaker 4: I never knew what it was like on the other
Speaker 4: side of that curtain. And let me tell you, once
Speaker 4: you do go on the other side of that curtain,
Speaker 4: you don't ever want to go back to the back.
Speaker 4: And so that's why I really started reading, asking questions
Speaker 4: and you know, learning all these different travel hacks because
Speaker 4: I couldn't afford it, and I was able to, you know,
Speaker 4: travel like a rock star on a you know.
Speaker 3: A pauper's budget.
Speaker 2: What do you make of the travel situation right now?
Speaker 1: It seems like every day on our news we're always
Speaker 1: talking about how terrible it is to fly, how everything
Speaker 1: just seems to be terrible. But I fly a decent amount,
Speaker 1: and I mean I enjoy it. I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot has changed. Is it as bad or.
Speaker 4: I mean, I would actually argue that it's never been better.
Speaker 4: So for the people who don't pay attention or take
Speaker 4: the time to do their homework, it's pretty it's terrible,
Speaker 4: without a doubt. They're you know, it's they're cramped, they're
Speaker 4: sitting in the middle seats, they're paying for everything, they're
Speaker 4: getting surprised charges. But if you're a freaking flyer, or
Speaker 4: do your homework or spend a little bit of extra money,
Speaker 4: you're living large. You have Wi Fi on a plane,
Speaker 4: you have entertainment systems, you can have life flat seats,
Speaker 4: if you're sitting in first class, which we've never had
Speaker 4: back then, you're getting much better food. Airports have better food.
Speaker 4: So I think it's a really good time to travel,
Speaker 4: and it's never been safer.
Speaker 1: Most importantly, and of course, there's a lot of tools
Speaker 1: to book things. So right now it's the holidays, we
Speaker 1: can talk about some of that travel. Have we missed
Speaker 1: a boat on the holidays? For booking?
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a lot of procrastinators out there, but
Speaker 4: you know what you've did miss is maybe some of
Speaker 4: the good seats or you know, even some really good deals.
Speaker 4: But you could still find a solid deal if you
Speaker 4: just leave a day early or day later. Just don't
Speaker 4: try and leave the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or the Sunday
Speaker 4: after or the Monday morning. Just go Tuesday or Monday
Speaker 4: and come back on Tuesday or Wednesday and or even
Speaker 4: Friday after Thanksgiving, and you'll find really good deals and
Speaker 4: good seats.
Speaker 2: I've in the past on that broke budget.
Speaker 1: I've been known to fly on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
Speaker 3: I've done it too.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you got to do it.
Speaker 1: So what is the first sight that Johnny Jet goes
Speaker 1: to when you're looking a book? You know, you're just
Speaker 1: you're just kind of on your first kind of search
Speaker 1: for a flight.
Speaker 2: Well, where do you go?
Speaker 4: I do have a search tool on my website Johnny
Speaker 4: jet dot com, so I obviously go there, but then
Speaker 4: you know that has Expedia, Kayak, Travelocity, but I also
Speaker 4: go to Google Flights, which it does not have.
Speaker 3: Google Flights is amazing. They're taking over the world.
Speaker 2: Why is that? Why are they better?
Speaker 4: You know, just I think they're easier. They just they
Speaker 4: just realize, you know, how to.
Speaker 3: How to simplify things. And what I love about it.
Speaker 4: Is that you can search however you want to do,
Speaker 4: your airline, your alliance, how much you want to pay,
Speaker 4: which airports you want to stop, and if you want
Speaker 4: to stop, or if you don't want to stop, or
Speaker 4: if you don't even know where you want to go,
Speaker 4: you can just put in your departure airport or airports.
Speaker 4: You can put multiple airports in there and then just
Speaker 4: you know, just do a search for the world and
Speaker 4: just zoom in and zoom out on a Google map
Speaker 4: and you can see what is cheap and what's not.
Speaker 4: Some of the little fair carriers in Europe too, you
Speaker 4: want to check them out independently, Ryanair, easy Jet, I'm
Speaker 4: not sure if they're on Google Flights.
Speaker 3: I don't fly them often.
Speaker 1: So sometimes I feel like for the international flights, there's
Speaker 1: like these whole separate websites that there are specialized in that.
Speaker 4: Actually one website for that international which I use in
Speaker 4: Europe a lot is Momando dot com. So what I
Speaker 4: like about that is if you're in Europe and you're
Speaker 4: going London to Paris, you know it will tell you
Speaker 4: don't fly, take the train. It'll save you a lot
Speaker 4: more time and it'll probably be the same price. And
Speaker 4: because it's only a three hour train ride, and by
Speaker 4: the time you get to the airport, going through security
Speaker 4: delays everything and getting to the city centers because you know,
Speaker 4: the train stations are in the city centers, which so
Speaker 4: I like Mamando for that.
Speaker 1: You told me about a website called skip Flagged skiplag
Speaker 1: dot com, So tell me. This one is kind of
Speaker 1: controversial because it helps you uncover some like cheaper flights,
Speaker 1: but you really there's a lot of restrictions and you
Speaker 1: don't want to do it very often.
Speaker 2: Well, is it illegal to use this?
Speaker 3: Illegal?
Speaker 4: But the airlines did to it, United and Orbits actually
Speaker 4: suit them and lost, so they do not like people
Speaker 4: knowing their little loopholes.
Speaker 2: Okay, so what's this loophole?
Speaker 4: So in the past you had to just do it manually.
Speaker 4: So I always tell people look at alternate airports. So
Speaker 4: I first learned about hidden city city ticketing. I was
Speaker 4: flying LA to Cleveland, and I was trying to find
Speaker 4: it to get one way deal, you know, six hundred dollars,
Speaker 4: Like that's crazy. So then I just started using Ulternate Airport.
Speaker 4: So I looked at Buffalo and I saw that a
Speaker 4: flight was going la Cleveland Buffalo for two thirty. It
Speaker 4: was the same exact flight that was six hundred. So
Speaker 4: what you would do is you would get off in Cleveland.
Speaker 4: You would only buy a one way ticket. It has
Speaker 4: to be one way, otherwise they'd cancel the return and
Speaker 4: you can't check a bag, and you don't want to
Speaker 4: do it often, and you probably don't want to put
Speaker 4: your mileage number in there if you do it often,
Speaker 4: because they will come back and either take away your
Speaker 4: miles or or find you try try.
Speaker 1: I saw it like United sent like a letter to
Speaker 1: someone requesting like thousands of dollars for these.
Speaker 4: United is now going after people and the actually I
Speaker 4: some airlines will even meet people at their gate and say, oh, well,
Speaker 4: we're going to escort you to the next flight because
Speaker 4: they know they're going to.
Speaker 3: Go on that next flight.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So but anyway, so skip lag.
Speaker 4: What they can do is you can they will tell
Speaker 4: you these little airports and loopholes that do it. So,
Speaker 4: you know, I like to use LA to Charlotte because
Speaker 4: only American has that flight. It's normally about five seventy
Speaker 4: one way. But if you put in LA to Richmond
Speaker 4: or LaGuardia, Jacksonville or different, you know, any city on
Speaker 4: the East Coast, it will go through Charlotte and it
Speaker 4: will be half the price, maybe even seventy five percent off.
Speaker 4: Actually we just looked it up a little while ago.
Speaker 4: I think it was five eighty and then if there
Speaker 4: was one.
Speaker 2: So that's all.
Speaker 1: And the website, you don't have to know those other cities.
Speaker 1: The skip blag website, they do it for you.
Speaker 2: They do it for you.
Speaker 1: So again, you fly, you get off the plane in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: you stay there and then your flight goes on.
Speaker 2: But you can't you can't do this very often.
Speaker 4: You can't do it often, and you gotta buy one way.
Speaker 4: You got to make sure your bag gets on, and
Speaker 4: you have to realize, let's say there is bad weather
Speaker 4: in Charlotte. They could reroute you through Dallas and say,
Speaker 4: you know what, You're gonna go to Richmond through Dallas
Speaker 4: because there's a bad weather in Charlotte.
Speaker 2: Oh so you have to be ready. This is this
Speaker 2: is something not for the average flyer.
Speaker 4: It's not you know, realize there are some consequences on there.
Speaker 4: But you know what, if you're willing to roll the dice,
Speaker 4: you can save a lot of money.
Speaker 1: So what do you make of the there's a two
Speaker 1: that you showed me on the Kayak website.
Speaker 2: This is like Kayak Explore.
Speaker 1: I thought this was really cool because it's kind of
Speaker 1: like Google Flights where you can kind of explore a map.
Speaker 1: What I like what they do is they kind of
Speaker 1: slice and dice the world based on regions, interests, all
Speaker 1: kinds of if.
Speaker 4: You're into wineries, if you're into amazing beaches, if you're
Speaker 4: into historical sites, if you're into UNESCO World Heritage sites,
Speaker 4: you can just search by that, and so they have
Speaker 4: something for everybody.
Speaker 1: What's fun for you about travel? I mean, you've been
Speaker 1: doing it for many years now. To most people, travel
Speaker 1: seems like are To many people, it seems like a grind,
Speaker 1: or some people like it because of the points game.
Speaker 2: But what do you like?
Speaker 4: I think I'm actually thinking I'm addicted to it, and
Speaker 4: I do think people who do travel a lot can
Speaker 4: get addicted addicted. So what I love about it is that,
Speaker 4: first of all, I used to be afraid to fly.
Speaker 4: I got over my fear. I was only afraid to fly.
Speaker 4: I was afraid to leave the house at one point.
Speaker 4: So it just blows my mind. When I'm somewhere else,
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh my god, I'm in London, I'm in Thailand.
Speaker 2: Do you have any of that anymore? I do.
Speaker 4: Even when I'm here in La, I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: I'm in La and I live here.
Speaker 1: No, I'm wanting to I mean, you get worried at all?
Speaker 1: I mean, or you you have you moved past that completely.
Speaker 4: Travel No. Now that I have a two year old,
Speaker 4: I don't want to leave him. So even like just
Speaker 4: coming down the road now, I'm like, you know, I
Speaker 4: don't want to leave him. I don't want to take
Speaker 4: a chance of getting hit by a car or whatever.
Speaker 2: So I do.
Speaker 4: I do get that once in a while on these trips.
Speaker 4: But you still have to realize that it's so much
Speaker 4: safer to fly than it is to drive and that.
Speaker 4: And one thing about travel is I just learned how
Speaker 4: to master it it, really, did you know? I have clear,
Speaker 4: I have pre check, I have Global entry. So you know,
Speaker 4: one of the big hassles was standing in long lines.
Speaker 4: I have elite status on the airlines I fly, so
Speaker 4: I can skip the long lines. And you know time
Speaker 4: my airport's you know, pretty so I'm not hanging out.
Speaker 4: And if I am hanging out, I have access to
Speaker 4: the lounge. I have certain credit cards that get me
Speaker 4: into lounge access. So I travel is now a joy
Speaker 4: and I just love meeting people. I love seeing the world.
Speaker 4: I love sharing it. And thanks to social media, I'm
Speaker 4: a lot I'm able to do that. In my website,
Speaker 4: I can. I get so many emails from people saying,
Speaker 4: you know, I can't travel for whatever reason. A lot
Speaker 4: of it is health reasons, but some of it could
Speaker 4: be money.
Speaker 3: And they're like, I traveled but curiously through you, and
Speaker 3: it's it's very gratifying.
Speaker 2: How did you get over that fear of flying?
Speaker 3: You know what, I just asked a lot of questions.
Speaker 3: I read all the statistics. It's again.
Speaker 4: One time I landed from London on a British Airways
Speaker 4: flight and the highlight got on and said, the safest
Speaker 4: part of your journeys now over. Be careful on the
Speaker 4: freeways out there, and you read it, and it's true.
Speaker 4: It's so much safer to fly than it is to drive.
Speaker 4: And just read the statistics. Talk to people, and you know,
Speaker 4: when you go on these planes and you're like, I'm
Speaker 4: flying LA to New York right now, or actually even
Speaker 4: why my flight LA Honolulu, I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: it's such a chore. But then all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: I realized that the flight attendants are working this flight.
Speaker 4: They only have to work that flight, they have to
Speaker 4: work the flight coming back. They're not even spending a
Speaker 4: night in Honolulu. They just do a turn. Wow, they're
Speaker 4: and we're sitting and relaxing watching movies and they're sitting
Speaker 4: there busting their butts. So you realize that these guys
Speaker 4: do it for a living. They do it multiple times
Speaker 4: a week, and so you've realized, my god, it must
Speaker 4: be safe.
Speaker 3: That's all I mean, that's what they do.
Speaker 4: And you look at different apps flight Radar twenty four,
Speaker 4: you can see, you know, how many planes are in
Speaker 4: the sky right now, like right above us in the US.
Speaker 4: I think there's at least four thousand planes in the
Speaker 4: sky right now over the US.
Speaker 1: Why do you think people get so caught up on
Speaker 1: that fear of flying because they're not in control.
Speaker 4: I think it's one of the things that they can't control.
Speaker 4: If you're you know, if you're driving down a highway,
Speaker 4: you don't feel well, you can just pull over. If
Speaker 4: you're on a plane, you don't feel well, you can't
Speaker 4: pull over. So I think that's one of the things.
Speaker 4: I think it's claustrophobic or not, and just not being
Speaker 4: in control. So the best thing to do is to
Speaker 4: try and find a really good deal. Fly business class,
Speaker 4: first class. It will take your trust me, it will
Speaker 4: take your mind away of claustrophobia and things like that,
Speaker 4: and you only want to get off.
Speaker 1: The plane that first pre flight cocktail will we'll take
Speaker 1: all your worries about that. Will give me some tips
Speaker 1: for just travel in general. I mean, I know you
Speaker 1: mentioned the lounges and stuff. Now you see that's the
Speaker 1: other thing. There's people that fly a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: they often are insulated from some of these issues that
Speaker 1: the apach person deals with. But the average person's only
Speaker 1: flying once or twice a year, so you can deal
Speaker 1: with a long line through you know, TSA for one
Speaker 1: time a year or two times that you fly.
Speaker 2: But give me some tips just in general, like what
Speaker 2: do I need to know?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, if you have a certain credit card,
Speaker 4: you can actually get TSA pre check for free. And
Speaker 4: what you really want to do is get global entry.
Speaker 4: So if you do travel internationally, when you come back
Speaker 4: home to America, you can just zip through immigration. You
Speaker 4: don't have to waiting any long lines. And that comes
Speaker 4: with TSA pre check and that's one hundred dollars for
Speaker 4: five years. But certain credit cards like the America's rest
Speaker 4: Platinum Card, Chase Sapphire, they will give it to you
Speaker 4: for free, so you don't have to spending extra money.
Speaker 4: You just have to spend the time on getting registered.
Speaker 4: It takes a few months. You can't do it last minute,
Speaker 4: but that will take away so much of the hassle. Also,
Speaker 4: try not to bring so much stuff a lot of travelers.
Speaker 4: You know, my first time traveling to Europe, I brought
Speaker 4: like a trunk. Now I can do carry on only
Speaker 4: my wife and I would do carry on only around
Speaker 4: the world. Now that we have a son, we actually
Speaker 4: brought the trunk back.
Speaker 1: I remember the first picture I took of the first
Speaker 1: time I flew with my kid, and it was like
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe I think we had nine piece of luggage.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just ridiculous. But the what about like
Speaker 1: get like what do you pack on the plane?
Speaker 2: Like? I always bring snacks, Always bring.
Speaker 4: Snacks, drinks. I bring an empty bottle of water I
Speaker 4: get through a security, I fill it up with water.
Speaker 3: I went have.
Speaker 4: To depend did excuse me? Be dependent on the flight attendants?
Speaker 4: I also bring them treats. Always bring them treats and
Speaker 4: they'll treat you like a rock star. And just be
Speaker 4: super friendly to them. I mean, as my number one
Speaker 4: travel tip, be super friendly, genuinely friendly to everybody, and
Speaker 4: because they can make or break your trip.
Speaker 2: All right, There you have it, all right? So how
Speaker 2: can people get in touch with you?
Speaker 4: Johnny Jett, Johnny Jet dot com, jh n n y
Speaker 4: j E t one t I'm not related to Joan
Speaker 4: and also on social media Johnny Jet all across.
Speaker 2: All right, Johnny, thanks so much for joining me today.
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about Johnny Jett and
Speaker 1: final link to his website, you can go in the
Speaker 1: show notes or go.
Speaker 2: To my website. Rich on tech dot TV, thanks so
Speaker 2: much for listening to the show. I'm Rich Tomrow. I'll
Speaker 2: talk to you real soon, MHM.