It’s one week until Christmas Eve!

If you haven’t gotten your holiday travel plans squared away, now’s the time to do so. Every indication is that flights are gonna be as FULL as can be over the next couple weeks. Leave early, stay flexible, make backup plans, and pray to the nonrev overlords if you need to. 🙏

Here’s what’s on deck (the halls…😉):

• 📱 A travel app to excite your layovers (and personal trips)

• 💳 Why I keep the Bilt credit card at the top of my wallet

• 💬 Jumpseat Gossip - industry news, rumors, and scuttlebutt

🤑 The VoiceMap app - a perfect airline staff companion

Have you ever landed in a city bored or without a plan?

As airline staff and crew, sometimes we pick up trips, end up on a random layover off reserve, or wind up playing airport roulette to some place unknown.

VoiceMap is the perfect app for these scenarios! It helps you get out and actually explore the world around you in a fun way while also getting in some exercise. 🏃‍♂️

This tip is not sponsored - I just really love the app and want to share it with you!

Last year, I ended up spending a weekend in Prague and had some free time during the early evening before a dinner with a local friend. I opened up VoiceMap to see what was around, and I stumbled upon the Ghosts of Prague tour. 👻

I love a ghost story! And Prague’s Old Town is the perfect scene for that. I paid $5.99, downloaded the tour, and off I went on an audio-guided ghost adventure through the city.

I loved it!! The tour walked me around the Old Town and had me stop at several sites, including the famous Prague Astronomical Clock and the Old Jewish Cemetery.

The ghost stories were fun and the speaker’s delivery made it all the more exciting. It was like I had my own personal tour guide in my ears. 🎧

I ended up spending around 45 minutes walking 2km/1.25 miles around the sites.

I’ve also done VoiceMap tours in Key West, Seattle, Shanghai, and London. There’s over 1,500 tours in 70 countries, and they’re constantly adding more!

Say your crew slam-clicks you on a DUB layover. 👎 Or you wind up in AUH on a solo standby adventure. You no longer need an exploration buddy or the hassle of booking a last-minute tour. It’s all right in your phone on-demand!

Learn more about VoiceMap and download the app here. Keep it on your phone - you never know when you may be in a random dot in the world looking for a little exploration.

And if you do end up completing a tour you loved, please reply and let me know! I’m looking for more recommendations!! 🫶

💳 Bilt - The Credit Card for Rent and More

Even though I feel like I am never home (#CrewLife, am I right?), I still, unfortunately, pay rent. 😔

Thankfully, with my Bilt Mastercard, I feel like I’m at least getting something out of those monthly checks I send to my landlord.

That’s because Bilt awards you points for rent payments! 💰

I earn one point per dollar each month on my rent, and Bilt allows you to redeem those points in a number of ways.

My favorite redemption option is points transfer. You can transfer Bilt points to a number of airline and hotel programs, including United, Air France/KLM, British Airways, Emirates, Marriott, Hilton and many more!

Points typically transfer 1:1 to partners. So let’s say you pay $1,500 a month on rent. That’s $18,000 a year. If you utilize transfers to say Virgin Atlantic, you could earn 18,000 Virgin Flying Club points each year just by charging rent to your Bilt Mastercard. 🤯

The Bilt Mastercard also earns you 3X points on dining and 2X points on travel purchases, allowing you to rack up points even more quickly.

Although our flights may be free or discounted as airline employees, the hotels, tours, rental cars, etc. can add up - might as well earn 2X points for all those travel purchases. And there’s no foreign transaction fees either!

Oh and the best part? There’s NO ANNUAL FEE!

Although I love using my nonrev benefits, I am an avid points and miles collector as well. There’s been plenty of times where my points have saved me from being stuck or have confirmed me a seat when I know I absolutely needed to be somewhere.

If you do pay rent, might as well try to collect some points along the way for those “just in case” moments as a standby traveler. 💡

Learn more and apply for the Bilt Mastercard.

Note, the Bilt Mastercard is currently only available to US residents.

💬 Jumpseat Gossip

👀 ICYMI - the LCCs have gone FANCCY. Both Frontier and now JetBlue have announced that they will add first class seating on their aircraft in the coming years. Suddenly the low-cost carriers are looking high-end.

💺 ‘Seat Squatting’ is apparently trending. That unoccupied seat in first class? It sounds like more and more travelers have their eye on it. Flight attendants are more frequently discovering seat squatters on flights. Read more.

📍Airlines now allow you to track your bag with AirTags. Although I am #TeamCarryOn, I know I and other standbys are often made to check bags. Now, many airlines allow you to share an AirTag location to help locate lost luggage. See the list of airlines.

Given the upcoming holidays, we’re going to take a short break on dispatching our newsletters. We’ll be back with more travel deals, tips, and fun for airline staff in the New Year.

I wish you all a very happy holiday season, a festive welcoming to 2025, and much, much luck if you’re flying standby over the next couple weeks! 🍀

See you in 2025!

Matt
Captain, Standby Steals 💚