The Point Edit

The Point Edit The Point helps busy families learn how to use points and miles to travel. Formerly known as Brooklyn Family Travelers 🖤
Top 35 in travel on Substack.

Loved by the NYT, New York Magazine, Condé Nast, Bloomberg and more.

04/04/2026

Hi from Athens! There are a lot of new followers around here so I thought I’d say a quick hello and introduce myself.

I’m Rachel, a Brooklyn based mom of two boys and we travel around the world mainly using point and miles — and I teach others how to do the same!

I’m a big believer that family trips can be more than visits to resorts, aquariums, zoos and playgrounds (though there’s a time and place for all of the above so there’s zero judgment if that’s your thing!). We love exposing the kids to the culture of any place we go — museums, flea markets, unexpected finds — anything to help us really connect with a city.

We also love having babysitters and going to restaurants without them in the evenings (the secret to amazing family travel!).

And lest you think we have all the money, or that our kids are adventurous eaters and super chill, or that we travel with just carry ons —— 🛑.

Nope! My kids are a handful and a half, complain if the ketchup isn’t Heinz, the sauce isn’t Rao’s and the mac and cheese isn’t Annie’s and we travel primarily using points and miles — and always with too much luggage.

So… hi and welcome! Dm me anytime for card recs, points and miles help or anything travel related.

Thanks for being here! 🖤

01/25/2026

In 1910, my grandma was 10 years old when her mother, my great grandmother, dug up the valuables they’d buried in their yard, packed a suitcase and left their shtetl about 50 miles from Kyiv to set off to meet my great grandfather in America in search of a better life.

I’ve spent years wondering what that must have been like to feel so existentially desperate for safety that you’d pick up your family and leave. And at what point did they know it was time to go?

I always imagined I’d be ahead of the curve. If I saw the writing on the wall, I’d be out of here. That never again meant never again for anyone.

But now I can see how hard of a choice it is to pick up your family up and leave. I imagine what these families who’ve risked everything to come to America must have gone through to get here.

Sending love and hope to all who are freezing, mourning, marching and missing in Minnesota and beyond.

Sometimes it’s hard to speak up - but I hope if I do, it might encourage you to do it too.

And when I’m at a loss for words, sometimes I write a song. Thanks for singing along ❤️

01/17/2026

In the winter of 2010, I had just left my job as a preschool teacher and moved into my first apartment in the city that allowed dogs.

Within two weeks, I found my best friend. He had a heart of gold, deep thoughtful eyes, friendly always to every human that crossed his path and smart as a whip. His name was Cheerio, and I called him Finn.

He was there through it all. Good times, bad times, new babies, businesses, marriage, new homes, schools, loss, happiness, new friends, a puppy, parties, walks, travels… always there.

Fast forward nearly 15 years, last July, we had to say goodbye. There’s a part of me — and our family — that will never be the same.

I wrote this song by Finn’s side in his final days, and # when I got stuck on how to end it, Henry (my 10 year old) wrote the last verse about the seasons while we cried together snuggled up in those final hours before he was gone.

I still cry whenever I hear it, but it’s a good familiar cry that makes me grateful for what we had. I’m thankful we had such a deep love and friendship and that I could put those feelings into a song to share — and remember him by.

I hope you’ll have a listen to the song I wrote for Finn (aka cheerio) and I know it’s months later now but thanks to all who were so kind and supportive when we had to say goodbye ❤️

12/24/2025

It was a few years ago when Henry and I sang this on Christmas — one of my favorites! Hoping you’re somewhere cozy with your family celebrating the holiday or having Chinese food and watching movies :)

Thanks for being a part of this community, it means so much to have you here 🖤

I’ve fallen behind in posting as our trip is starting to wrap up! The busy days are followed by busy nights and I’ve bar...
08/06/2024

I’ve fallen behind in posting as our trip is starting to wrap up! The busy days are followed by busy nights and I’ve barely had time to even look back at my photos, let alone post any!

But I’ll catch up :)

Puglia was magical. We stayed just outside the historic center of Ostuni, “the white city”, where the buildings were originally all painted white to fend off the bubonic plague in the 17th century. Each year they are repainted and the cost is subsidized by the government. The end result is dreamy - windy narrow pathways lined with idyllic homes, shops, restaurants and bars. In the outskirts, the roads are narrow and lined with stone walls, opening into gorgeous estates with trulli houses, pools and olive trees. We visited various towns, the famous Grotte di Castellana (an incredible enormous cave discovered in the 1930s), swam in the pool and navigated narrow roads with no cell reception :) We stayed in a home swap that couldn’t have been more beautiful and loved having a break from the heat of the cities. We spent 4 nights in Puglia, and packed up again for the next stop on our Italian adventure!

It didn’t seem like this trip would happen and so much seemed to be against us even in route to Italy! But eventually, w...
07/19/2024

It didn’t seem like this trip would happen and so much seemed to be against us even in route to Italy! But eventually, we made it. Florence is charming, beautiful, small and approachable. Everyone speaks English and it’s easy to get around. In July there are arguably more tourists than locals (and mostly Americans for some reason?) but it was still wonderful and worth it to be there and experience the food, the charm and the history. We visited the Duomo, Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio (just outside our hotel!), the Academia, Uffizi, Mercado Centrale and Mercado delle Pulci and various delicious restaurants and bars. We walked and walked, and enjoyed the narrow streets and unique architecture of this 2000+ year old little city that was created as an army camp in 59 BC. It was hot and we were all jet lagged for much of the trip but even as we felt ready to go on to the next city — there was still a pull back to Florence for all of us. I know we’ll all be back!

Thank you for featuring my family in this wonderful piece about home swapping!I actually started to get into points and...
06/17/2024

Thank you for featuring my family in this wonderful piece about home swapping!

I actually started to get into points and miles after discovering home swapping. We had so many amazing opportunities to travel without paying a fortune — BUT we had to find an affordable way to get there! This is how I started to look at ways we could fly on points without breaking the bank.

Now we stay at a combination of hotels and home swaps (sometimes airbnbs from time to time) and fly on points. Click the link in bio and stories to read more about home swapping and why it means so much to my family 🖤

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Finally catching up on our spring break trip since I fell off with my posting while we were traveling!Vienna!The museum ...
06/09/2024

Finally catching up on our spring break trip since I fell off with my posting while we were traveling!

Vienna!

The museum quarter in Vienna is unbelievable, 60 museums make up one of the largest museum districts in the world. We barely made a dent but loved the Albertina, Albertina Modern, Kunsthalle, Leopold, Freud, Jewish museum and Belvedere Palace. There is A LOT of art in Vienna!

We stayed for one night at the Park Hyatt Vienna on points in the middle of the trip. Staying at a hotel for a night mid trip means two days of pool time for the kids and a chance to put our feet up a little without paying a fortune or using up a ton of points.

I spent 27k Hyatt points (transferred from a favorite traveling with points and miles card!) which saved us $1300. We were upgraded to a park suite deluxe! I brought a small inflatable mattress and Henry slept in the giant walk in closet… max on a rollaway and we got the bedroom. The hotel is an old savings bank and the pool is huge and in the vault of the bank! Very swanky!

Much of Vienna is pristine and polished but when you cross the Danube Canal into Leopolstadt, the Jewish Quarter, there is more color and grit and the vibe changes.

There are multiple Flak towers in Vienna, large towers constructed by N**i Germany to defend against the allied forces. They are still standing today as both a memory of the horrors of WW2 and because the walls are 11 feet thick and destroying them in some cases has been deemed unfeasible.

The tower at Augarten is imposing in a way I wasn’t prepared for — enormous and at the center of the Jewish quarter. The Arenbergpark is in the middle of a playground, my kids joined in for a pick up game of soccer with some Austrian kids at recess, under the shadows of the tower.

In the 1930s, Vienna alone had 200k Jews. Today there are not even 10k in all of Austria.

Our overall impression of Vienna was positive but it’s a strict and orderly city which was hard for the kids. I would go back, but without them 😬 The art was incredible and we would have loved to spend more time in the museums!

Points and miles tip of the day!50k points (or less!) can be enough to fly you abroad in business class. 20k (and less!)...
06/03/2024

Points and miles tip of the day!

50k points (or less!) can be enough to fly you abroad in business class. 20k (and less!) can get you a night at a beautiful 5 star hotel. If you skip the portal and instead focus on transferable points and transferring the points directly to hotels and airlines, your points will stretch much further.

You can use a site like points yeah to set alerts for flights so a notification will pop up when the flight becomes available (it’s not perfect but it catches some that come up!).

As always, if you’re curious how to earn the points you’ll need for flights like this, or trying to figure out how to find these point deals, comment below or dm me! I can send you links to any cards (a great way to support what I do at no cost to you!) and can walk you through how to find these flights pretty easily over DMs or a coaching session 🙂 Comment “business class” below and I can share info!

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From Amsterdam with love ❤️ When traveling with points, you have to be a little flexible to get the best value from your...
05/01/2024

From Amsterdam with love ❤️

When traveling with points, you have to be a little flexible to get the best value from your points. There weren’t any business class flights home from Prague that were a good deal, so we booked a short flight from Prague to Amsterdam, spent the night in Amsterdam and flew out to NYC the next day.

After 2+ weeks and 3 cities, this stop could have felt like a last straw but instead it was the perfect ending to an amazing trip!

We got in at 6pm, walked for a couple hours through the city, around the canals, accidentally went into the red light district (sorry kids!), past the Anne Frank house (opened up some interesting discussions with the kids), had the most amazing dinner at , a wonderful stay at (on points of course!) and a fun walk this morning window shopping in the 9 streets.

We even randomly passed by where I performed as an indie singer/songwriter over 20 years ago (how am I so old??!) with and .

The people in Amsterdam were warm and welcoming, the streets open and free - and within minutes the kids were already asking when we could go back.

A perfect end to a trip I’ll never forget 🖤

Happy eclipse day! 🌖 My kids can’t understand why we travel so much yet did not travel to be in the path of totality!! B...
04/08/2024

Happy eclipse day! 🌖 My kids can’t understand why we travel so much yet did not travel to be in the path of totality!! But this is why… days like this remind me why I love Brooklyn so much - so much life and love in this beautiful city 🖤 📷

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