Welcome to The Points Pundit, your new home for travel

I started The Points Pundit due to two reasons. Firstly, I have an insatiable appetite to travel. I think that there’s an endless treasure trove of content to cover. There is really no limit when it comes to exploring our beautiful planet.

Secondly, as someone who moved to the US about a decade back, I’ve gone from struggling to look for the best airfares online to try visiting family in India once every year to seamlessly traveling multiple times to India and around Asia almost every year, thanks to points and miles!

My travels have spanned over 12 countries, covering 5 continents in just the last 3 years. That led me to believe that with a little bit of research and some effort, I can help many more people collect and use as many miles and points as they can and help them overcome the feeling of missing out on meeting family and friends who are on the other side of the planet.

Travel Philosophy

I’d like to share my philosophy of travel out here. I think that travel, like many other things in life, is not a one size fits all type of thing. The idea here is not to give a perfect answer or advice to anyone, but to train you to tailor that advice to your specific situation. Strategy X may be suitable for me but probably not for you. However, tuning strategy X slightly may possibly make it a good option for you to try out. That’s how I view travel. I look for the best deals and opportunities to earn miles, points and save money.

After that, I look at how that deal or miles/points accumulation contributes in helping me attain my travel goals. For example, if you live in a city that’s not a Delta hub and is dominated by United, accumulating Delta miles might not be the best option. However, if you’re using those Delta miles to maximize value by flying internationally on one of the Sky Team partners, then that’s just a perfect example of someone taking strategy X and tuning it perfectly to his situation.

Frugal Expedition

This is the trip where my primary objective is to explore and immerse myself in the culture, history and people of the place that I’m visiting. If the goal is to explore, then the best use of your points is by staying at a budget friendly hotel and getting the best deal for the least amount of points spent.

Luxury Escape

This is the trip that is truly aspirational in nature. Every now and then, the rigmarole called life tends to tire you out. That’s when you use your points to book that aspirational property to just relax and enjoy some down time.

Clarity of Goals

Your perfect travel plan may not fall into either of the buckets above, or even fall into a hybrid or a totally different bucket. That’s perfectly fine. The idea is to have a clear goal and then tune your miles, points and deals strategy to achieve that goal.

The Pundit’s Mantra

I truly hope I can help my readers attain their travel goals. The idea of this blog is to convert my passion for travel and writing into content that everyone can benefit from. If you’re equally passionate about all things travel, I’d highly encourage you to follow The Points Pundit.