Why I Started Take Me There

It all started with my partner, a Formula 1 race in Singapore, and a round-trip business class ticket I had no business being able to afford.

I have loved travel for as long as I can remember. Not the airport part — nobody loves the airport part — but the moment you step somewhere new and realize the world is so much larger and more varied than wherever you grew up. The food is different. The light is different. The way people move through their days is different. And once you start seeing it, you can't stop, because there is always somewhere next you haven't been yet.

I got back from Japan in 2019 feeling exactly that way. It was the kind of trip that recalibrates you. And almost immediately after landing, I started thinking about when I could go back — and who I could bring with me.

THE BEGINNING

I wanted to take her somewhere unforgettable. I just couldn't afford to.

I had just started dating my girlfriend when Covid hit. Travel was off the table for a while, but the idea wasn't. I wanted to take her to Japan. I wanted her to experience business class — not because of the seat, but because of what it means to arrive somewhere already feeling like the trip has begun. I wanted her to be treated well. I wanted the trip to be the kind of thing she'd still be talking about years later.

The problem was straightforward: I was young, recently out of college, and two round-trip business class tickets to Japan cost more than I had any reasonable way to spend on a vacation. So I did what I always do when a problem seems unsolvable — I started researching.

I learned about transferable points. I signed up for cards with strong welcome offers. I figured out how to maximize every dollar of spending across the right categories. I stacked points slowly and deliberately, month after month, until the balance started to look like something real.

“I wanted her to experience business class — not because of the seat, but because of what it means to arrive somewhere already feeling like the trip has begun.”

THE TRIP

Singapore for the Formula 1. Tokyo because why not.

At some point during that stretch of research, my girlfriend and I looked at each other and said: what would be completely unbelievable? What's the trip that sounds impossible?

Singapore. For the Formula 1 race. The answer came immediately, and was immediately followed by the obvious follow-up: there is no way we can afford that. Flights to Singapore alone, in business class, for two people — the cash price was beyond what we were willing to spend.

But I kept digging. And I found it: a round-trip business class redemption on Singapore Airlines for 214,000 points and $190. And buried in the fine print was something even better — a free stopover in Tokyo on the way. Same points. No additional cost. You just had to know to look for it.

I found award space on the exact dates we wanted, right around the F1 race. I booked it. And then I built the rest of the trip around it.

Six nights in Tokyo. Three nights in Osaka. Three nights in Kyoto. Seven nights in Singapore for the F1. Business class both ways on Singapore Airlines, one of the best carriers in the world. The Mandarin Oriental Tokyo — my favorite hotel on earth. All of it for $190 in cash out of pocket on the flights alone.

We landed back home and nothing was the same. You can't take a 14-hour flight in a business class flat bed, sleep through the night, wake up to a meal at 35,000 feet, and then go back to economy. The bar moves. It moves permanently.

Every year since, we find a way back to Japan. We were just there in April 2025. We're already thinking about when we can go again.

“You can’t go back to economy after that. The bar moves. It moves permanently.”

THE GAP

They had the points. They just didn't know what to do with them.

Word travels fast when your friends find out you flew business class to Singapore for under $200. The questions started coming in — how did you do that, what cards do you have, can you help me figure out my points?

My first real client was my girlfriend's father. He had spent years traveling for work and had accumulated millions of miles on American Airlines and Marriott. He was redeeming 30,000 American miles for economy flights from Boston to Phoenix — a ticket worth maybe $150. He had no idea that the same program, used differently, could get him to Tokyo in business class for 60,000 miles. The value was sitting there the entire time. He just didn't know how to access it.

Since then he's been to Japan, Thailand, Korea, and Spain — all on points. The miles he'd been accumulating for years finally started working the way they were always supposed to.

That pattern — people who have the points but not the knowledge — turns out to be everywhere. There's no shortage of content online about which credit cards to sign up for or what the theoretical value of your points might be. What's missing is the actual work: searching award space on specific dates, routing around availability constraints, knowing which partners offer the best rates for which destinations, and building a trip that uses what you have to its maximum potential. That's time-consuming, detail-oriented work, and most people don't have the bandwidth for it even when they have the interest.

That's the gap Take Me There exists to fill.

WHY IT MATTERS
Travel is getting more expensive. The tools to afford it aren't going anywhere.

Flights cost more than they did five years ago. Hotels cost more. The world has gotten more expensive in almost every direction. And at the same time, people want to see more of it — not less. The desire to travel isn't shrinking. The ability to pay cash for premium experiences is what's shrinking.

Points and miles don't solve every problem. But used correctly, they close a gap that most people assume is unbridgeable. Business class doesn't have to mean spending $8,000 on a ticket. A week at a luxury hotel in Tokyo doesn't have to cost what it says on the booking page. The system rewards people who understand it, and I've spent years learning how it works.

I started Take Me There because I wanted to share that. Not in a generic "here are the best travel credit cards" way — there's plenty of that already. But in a hands-on, specific, this-is-your-situation-and-here-is-exactly-what-to-do way. The way I'd want someone to help me.

31 countries. 5 continents. Around 3.5 million points redeemed. Over $150,000 in travel value unlocked for clients and family. The trips keep getting better. And there's always somewhere next.

“The world is so large, and so beautiful, and so endlessly varied. Once you start seeing it — really seeing it — there’s no stopping. There’s always somewhere new you want to go next.”