They’re celebrating by giving each other Twitter flowers.
“MAJOR congrats to Miley !!! Excited for her album and to work together,” SZA tweeted alongside a heart on Tuesday, January 24. Cyrus quote-tweeted back, “You are KILLING it Congratulations! Sending love ”
And then, the internet did what the internet does: take vague niceties and run with it. We can all hope for Cyrus and SZA to collaborate, but we’ll need more than SZA tweeting the general sentiment that she’s excited to work with Cyrus before we totally get our hopes up.
Let’s not forget that SZA told Rolling Stonethat she and Lizzo recorded “five or six songs” during an SOS session, but the SOS track list doesn’t feature Lizzo. Before that, SZA also explained to Hot97’s Nessa On Air that there were people she’d hoped would be featured on the album, but they didn’t turn in their verses.
The one thing we can bank on right now is Cyrus’ Endless Summer Vacation dropping on March 10, and it’s likely that she and SZA will continue to dominate the charts for weeks to come.
Endless Summer Vacation is out 3/10 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.
Today, January 25, Karol G announced her new album, Mañana Será Bonito, which translates to “tomorrow will be beautiful,” through an endearing Instagram video. In it, a piece of paper slides down her windshield with a message to call a number if she’s feeling sad. She rings the number, and we see a call center full of children. The adorable young boy who answers Karol G’s call is wearing a T-shirt with the album’s title written on it and encourages her with advice. The video ends with him telling her, “Mañana será bonito.” She also drops a tease that the album is “coming soon.”
Karol G’s Spanish caption translates to “Finally!!!! FINALLY!!! Today I announce the project that I have devoted so much love and time to.”
Mañana Será Bonito follows 2021’s KG0516, which was nominated at last year’s Grammys for Best Música Urbana Album.
“Every day I kept finding something I wanted to change or rethink, or finding little details I wanted to update,” Karol G said about the album to Rolling Stone. “It’s always hard, but now I’ve turned it in and it’s finished, and I can’t wait for people to hear it.”
She added, “This definitely represents a specific phase of my life. The name of album is a phrase I kept repeating to myself when nothing felt great. I mean, I was going through the best moment of my career, but personally, I was really disconnected from myself and from my friends. I wasn’t unhappy, but I wasn’t happy either. So every day I’d say to myself, ‘It’s okay, mañana será bonito— tomorrow will be beautiful.’”
It’s never a good thing when another Boomer figures out how to text, but that’s especially true if you’re a twice-impeached former president currently being investigated by multiple federal agencies.
According to a report by The New York Times, Donald Trump has started sending messages via his phone for the first time. Sure, the ketchup-throwing tyrant loved distilling his erratic, incomprehensible thoughts via 140 characters on Twitter and, when banned from that app, having his communications secretaries electronically deliver press releases daily. But, according to insiders, the Florida retiree was averse to texting until recently.
“Friends, confidants and even people not especially close to Mr. Trump began receiving text messages from his cellphone, most of them described as innocuous, such as new year greetings or political observations,” the Times wrote, adding that Trump’s refusal to text likely kept him out of legal trouble during the Jan. 6th hearings.
The real estate tycoon has always been wary of leaving a paper trail even in electronic form, with the report stating he “sometimes asked aides to send electronic messages to reporters, referring to the missives as ‘wires,’ like a telegram.” When he first adopted Twitter, aides described teaching him to type on his phone as something like “the scene in the film Jurassic Park when the velociraptors learned to open doors.”
But now it sounds like Trump is fully embracing that emoji life, which is making some of his supporters nervous. The Times reported that “the fact that Mr. Trump is now sending texts has caused alarm among some of his associates, who are concerned about what he might say,” while describing insiders as “shocked” and alarmed by his POV shift on texting.
We just feel sorry for anyone in his contacts when he discovers how to send voice notes.
Paying attention to politics in America right now is like keeping a close eye on the ball during a tennis match — your head is constantly moving from one side to the other. And in the end, no matter who wins, you wind up with a massive headache. See, for example, the growing list of current and/or one-time presidents and vice presidents who have been caught hoarding classified documents. It’s a list that includes Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and, most recently, Mike Pence — much to Steve Bannon’s annoyance.
The trend — at least the trend of being caught with top-secret documents you have no right to have in your possession — began with Trump, as we all know from the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. (It’s ok though, because Trump says he was able to declassify documents with his mind.) It didn’t help the Democrats’ case for coming down on Trump when, in the intervening months, classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president started popping up in all sorts of places, including the garage where POTUS keeps his kick-ass Corvette. (For the record: Kooky Rudy Giuliani thinks Obama planted them.)
Republicans — even those who initially claimed Trump having those documents in non-secure places was no big deal — really sunk their teeth into the hypocrisy of Biden’s document stash, but said it was worse because Biden was only VP at the time.
But now the ball has bounced back into the Dems’ court as a cardboard cutout with a heartbeat Pence has forked over the classified documents he had sitting around his home in Indiana. Which has Bannon seeing red.
As Raw Story reports, Trump’s shower-hating former strategist posted a link to The Daily Mail’s story about Pence’s brush with misbehavior with the line “Judas Pence attempts to provide cover for Biden.”
While there’s no evidence that Pence just randomly threw together some papers in order to take the heat off of Biden — or to put them on more equal footing, should Pence make a run for president in 2024 — Bannon’s social media-based outrage had some people thinking it was all a bit performative.
As Rodric Hurdle-Bradford wrote for Raw Story, one theory is that Bannon’s “outrage” over the situation is simply an attempt “to deflect attention from his current case and the charges that he fraudulently obtained donations for the Build the Wall Campaign and misappropriated those funds for the unfinished project. Bannon is facing charges of conspiracy, money laundering and scheming to defraud investors.”
Whatever the case, the discovery of Pence’s document stands in direct contrast to his repeated assertions that he did not and would not ever take classified documents from the White House.
Question: Did you take any classified documents with you from the white house? Pence: I did not. pic.twitter.com/hbErVijbXt
If it’s been a while since the images of the family-values horror flick Barbarian have forced your brain to try to claw its way out of your skull, congratulations! Here’s another reason to think about them. And to call your mother. She misses you.
But the biggest congratulations go to writer/director Zach Cregger, who has catapulted from that Detroit basement into the stratosphere with a deal from New Line for his upcoming film Weapons. According to The Hollywood Reporter, New Line came out on top in a bidding war that resulted in giving Cregger an 8-figure paycheck, guaranteed greenlight, and final cut (!) of the film as long as it scores a high enough audience test rating. It’s an astonishing deal that feels like an artifact of decades past in a creatives-first Hollywood that’s been dormant as IP has dominated.
As with any great story about a follow-up effort from a hot new director, there are almost no public details about Weapons. THR describes it as “an interrelated, multistory horror epic that tonally is in the vein of Magnolia.” So, at least we know it’s ambitious. Plus, New Line has a long history with horror and has pushed the envelope in recent years, so they might make an excellent home for something of this magnitude. It’s enough to get the neck hairs tingling with hope and anticipation, and it offers a silver lining for directors making weird stuff (and the fans that love it). But no matter what happens next, Cregger has a big check and a sure thing to shoot.
The short story Cat Person took the internet by storm in 2017, which is kind of a reason I wanted to avoid this movie all together at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It just seemed too “online.” Also, Cat Person, the story, has to rank in the top 30 things where I know the most amount of people’s opinions on one thing that I don’t care that much about one way or another. I decided I could live my life happily without another round. And how could that story become a full movie anyway? Against my better judgment, I watched Cat Person and I found myself … pretty engaged. It’s nuanced, the two leads are great, and it captures the not great vibe of the original story well. I found myself thinking, wow, they pulled this off. And then the events of the short story end yet there are around 40 minutes left in the movie. It’s exactly at this point the movie just becomes something else. And that something else isn’t good. And it’s really infuriating because what came before was really something worth watching.
Emilia Jones (from CODA) plays Margot, a student at a local college who also works at a movie theater. Nicholas Braun (Succession) plays Robert, a frequent customer at the theater who always orders Red Vines, which Margot finds both interesting and odd. Which kind of sums up her whole early relationship with Robert … she finds him pretty much altogether interesting and odd. The two exchange numbers and start a flirty text message campaign. The two start dating. At first, it seems Margot is more into Robert than he is with her. But after things get physical (consensually), Margot’s opinions about Robert change. She’s so turned off by his performance she decides she wants to move on. At first, Robert takes the news with grace, but his texts get more and more agitated and, like in the short story, it finally crescendos on the word “whore.”
That’s pretty much where the short story ends. But how does a movie end like that? Well, this one certainly doesn’t. Up until this point, Robert is kind of a sad sack, but like Margot tells her friend, he’s really never actually done anything bad, but he just has a weird vibe sometimes and she just doesn’t like him anymore. But then after she breaks it off, she admits there are attributes she misses. As a movie, this all seems real and interesting. I really can’t understand how a third act like the one in Cat Person even happens.
A friend of mine texted me, asking me to tell him what happens. I did. He then wrote back, “lol, no but really.” He didn’t believe me. I sounded like I was making it up. I have half a mind to just blurt it all out right now because no one will believe me anyway. But I can’t remember the last time a movie I was actually enjoying quite a bit fell off a cliff like this at such a precise moment. Both Margot and Robert act nothing like they did in the first two-thirds of the movie. The genre switches to almost an action movie? I feel weird saying that, but there’s literally a scene where the two are in a fistfight as they tumble down a flight of stairs then crash into a space heater that sets off a massive blaze. I know what you’re thinking, did Robert break into Margot’s house? No no, the opposite. She broke into his house and got caught. Look, I’ve seen the movie and your guess is as good as mine as to how we got to this plot point.
It’s about that time, as the two tumbled down the stairs, crashing into a space heater and setting off an out-of-control fire that I started thinking about all those nuanced moments from the first two-thirds of the movie. Little actions or things said that could spark such emotions in a viewer. Then it turns into utter nonsense.
Honestly, they’ve almost got something really good here. I’ve never felt this way before about a movie or have ever suggested such a thing, but I’d honestly just consider cutting off everything that happens after the original short story ends and deleting it. Or maybe include it as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray under a section called, “Can you believe we almost went this route?” Replace it with literally anything else. (I understand this costs money.) Honestly, the movie is better if it just ends with Robert’s text tirade like the short story does. That feels real. As is, this is a huge disappointment because it really felt like this movie was doing something interesting.
As kids, we were often told by grown-ups not to follow the crowd. “Do your own thing,” they’d say. “Be like you, not them.” I remember being an upset teen, mad because I couldn’t do something my friends’ parents let them do, and my mother would haughtily reply, “If so-and-so jumps off a bridge, are you going to jump too?”
She was right, but sometimes the mood calls for herd mentality – like when you want a bottle of something red and delicious delivered to your door pronto and you don’t want to waste time asking that age-old question, “What unique and little-explored brand am I going to drink tonight?” It’s times like these when it can be intriguing to open up Drizly’s app and follow the masses by purchasing one (or all) of the 10 best-selling red wines featured on the site.
After all, if they’re the most-sold wines, that must mean the wine is good, right? Short answer: Kinda.
It’s important to remember that the taste of wine is entirely subjective. And “best-selling” only takes you so far — whether you’re in the mood for something light, medium, or full-bodied significantly determines how much you’ll enjoy what you’re drinking. That said, most of Drizly’s top-selling wines are pretty solid and are enjoyed by wine lovers of all levels.
As for the ranking, these wines were all judged primarily on taste but there’s no denying that quality – in terms of grapes, winemaking techniques, production, and location, among several other factors– can uplift a wine’s overall profile. As a WSET-certified wine professional who has written about and tasted thousands of wines, I promise not to steer you wrong. One last thing to keep in mind: The prices listed below reflect Drizly’s inventory and pricing in New York City. Prices and availability will vary depending on your location.
Zinfandel, Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from areas of Lodi and California’s Central Valley are used to make this wine. Apothic winemakers use a combination of cone-sweep and vertical tanks to ferment the wine for four to six days with a sharp eye on temperature control to ensure maximum extraction of color and dark fruit nuances.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The aroma is dark, fruity, and layered with hints of blueberry, blackberry, black cherry, and black pepper.
Palate: This medium-to-full-bodied wine is as soft as a pillow, exuding flavors of ripe and concentrated red, black, and blue fruit mellowed out by plush tannins— the naturally occurring polyphenol in plants, seeds, leaves, and fruit skins that influence a wine’s astringency, or more simply put, the agent that aids in a wine’s dryness.
Finish: The finish is smooth and lingers with vanilla and coca spice notes.
Bottom Line:
This is a great intro wine for those who are new in their journey. It’s not the best on the list but a nice primer!
Snoop Dogg collaborated with Australian winery 19 Crimes to create this California red blend. It’s made with 65% Petite Sirah,30% Zinfandel, and 5% Merlot grapes from the Lodi region. However, the company hasn’t shared many other winemaking details than that.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The aromas of this wine display ample blueberry, blackberry, and cherry characteristics but faint hints of toasted oak and soft candied fruit chews play around in the background.
Palate: This is a full-bodied fruit bomb of blackberry and blueberry with a touch of candied cherry. Oak presents itself mid-palate along with refined tannins, but there’s not much structure.
Finish: The wine feels smooth and round in the mouth and goes down like juice with a delicate sweet-tasting finish.
Bottom Line:
It’s a nice, fruity wine, and a particularly easy glass to drink despite the high alcohol. But there’s not much more going on than that.
Here’s a crowd-pleasing wine that comes in a box. Made with Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in California, this is a no-fuss bold red wine perfect for serving a large group. The standard-sized box contains about four 750ml bottles of wine that can last up to 30 days after opening.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This wine smells like black cherry and blackberry pie, sprinkled with peppercorn and decorated with violet garnishes.
Palate: Similar to its aroma, this wine is loaded with jammy dark fruit on the palate. It’s not all juice — the grippy tannins and acidity give it a backbone.
Finish: The finish is delicate with hints of spice.
Bottom Line:
For a boxed wine, this Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty solid. It has the classic dark fruit and spicy flavors the variety is loved for, and you get quite a lot for a small price. This is the way to go if you’re throwing a party and need to keep cups full.
This blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Syrah, Syrah, and Charbono hails from Napa Valley. It’s unclear how long the wine rests before bottling, but The Prisoner uses both French and American oak to drive the flavor of the wine. If you’re curious about the name, know it’s inspired by Francisco Goya’s 19th-century etching, Le Petit Prisonnier, which means, “custody is as barbaric as the crime.” It’s a pretty fitting name for a winery all about bringing awareness and action to prison reform.
Outside of winemaking, the folks at The Prisoner have created, supported, and donated to several initiatives aimed at incarceration reform.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Cherry. Chocolate. And clove.
Palate: This is a full-bodied wine that still manages to be smooth, round, and almost juicy in the mouth. Flavors of raspberry and pomegranate are noticeable, but boy, is it awash with vanilla and oak.
Finish: Dusty tannins provide some structure, while the lingering finish wraps up with a hint of spice.
Bottom Line:
This is a tasty red blend, don’t get me wrong. Almost anyone would enjoy a glass of this during a special dinner with family and friends, but it’s not worth the price for a right-now wine when there are so many outstanding bottles available for less. When you’re shelling out more than $50 for a bottle, it better be highly complex and can age for multiple years.
For a lighter style of red wine, look to Meiomi’s bright and juicy Pinot Noir. The fruit comes from vineyards across California’s wine regions and is aged in French oak barrels for six months before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This wine smells like a basket of ripe red berries muddled into a sweet and fruity jam. There’s no escaping the strawberry aromas, but there’s more than just fruit on the nose. The wine displays aromas of mocha and oak as well.
Palate: This is as easy drinking as it gets. This Pinot Noir glides down the throat with lush strawberry jam and dark berry flavor with hints of cocoa spice.
Finish: Barely-there tannins lead to a relatively smooth and supple mouthfeel, while the high acidity makes for a mouthwatering finish drenched with berry flavor.
Bottom Line:
This easy-drinking, fruit-forward Pinot Noir is as good and simple as. If that’s what you’re looking for in a wine, Meiomi’s Pinot Noir will get the job done.
Produced in Paso Robles, California, this wine is big on all fronts. Cabernet Sauvignon is the only grape used for this wine, and after 14 months in oak barrels, you get a bright, ruby, and luscious red wine balanced with taste and texture.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This red wine has all the classic features of a California Cabernet. It’s highly aromatic with flavors of ripe black cherry, black and red berries, toasted oak, and all the baking spices in grandmother’s cabinet. As the wine opens up, fragrances of dried rose petals and herbs like sage and tarragon begin to shine through.
Palate: Like most Cabernets, JUSTIN leans on the full-bodied side. However, with such fine and well-integrated tannins, this may feel a bit more easy drinking as it goes down. The wine displays plenty of dark fruit flavors like red plum, cherry, and blackberry but when it hits mid-palate, those savory notes of baking spices, dried herbs, and oak come alive.
Finish: It’s a complex mix of fruit and spice with an extended finish.
Bottom Line:
This is good wine meant for drinking right here, right now. Pop it open on a Tuesday night with your Trader Joe’s microwave dinner and feast like royalty.
4. Caymus Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (#4 on Drizly)
There is Cabernet Sauvignon, and then there is Caymus Vineyards’ Cabernet Sauvignon. One of Napa Valley’s leading producers since its founding in 1972, Caymus pumps out wines that have won the adoration of wine critics, sommeliers, and collectors year after year. Their latest 2020 vintage comes from Caymus vineyards across eight different Napa sub-appellations, resulting in its signature dark color and style.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is booming with rich aromas of dark, ripe fruit, cassis, and cocoa. The scents of black cherry, blackberry, and plum are immediate, but as the wine continues to open up, savory aromas of black licorice, Christmas spices, truffle shavings, tilled earth, and chocolate come into view.
Palate: The full-bodied wine is lush, big, and bold on the palate. And it tastes just how it smells — perhaps even better. Nuances of dark, ripe fruits, spices, and earthy goodness reveal themselves in layers.
Finish: Plush tannins and balanced acidity lead to a finish that seems to last forever and ever.
Bottom Line:
This is not a weeknight wine — unless you’re balling out of control, then hey, do you! But if you’re like me and can’t drop nearly $100 on a bottle at any given moment, Caymus’ Cabernet Sauvignon makes a lovely investment wine. This is a collector wine meant for aging, and it’s likely to taste better when opened in 10 years or even longer. If a wine is well-crafted with enough complexity to stand the test of time, the price becomes a lot more justifiable.
3. La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (#5 on Drizly)
Made with Pinot Noir grapes from the cool-climate Sonoma Coast, this wine has a noticeable freshness felt at first sip. It’s aged in oak barrels for six months before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Alluring aromas of fresh-picked raspberry, blackberry, and red cherry set the vibe, along with hints of cocoa, espresso, and tobacco.
Palate: Sure, this is a lighter style of wine, but it’s big on flavor. This Pinot Noir oozes with berry flavors, but the spice nuances and fine tannins give it an undeniable edge.
Finish: Fresh acidity drives the finish, which lingers long after the wine is gone.
Bottom Line:
Just because a wine is lighter in style doesn’t mean it has to lack flavor, and La Crema’s Pinot Noir proves that.
Now here is an award-winning Cabernet Sauvignon from the folks at Josh Cellars, a California winery established in Napa Valley in 2001. Made entirely of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, this wine has long been a hit with drinkers who have come to love its signature taste and affordable price. It’s unclear how long the wine is aged, but the toasted oak aromas and flavors make it pretty obvious there’s some oak aging during the winemaking process.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This highly aromatic wine displays berry flavors on the nose. You can’t miss the fragrances of blackberry, blueberry, and dark cherry wafting from the glass. And the wine certainly isn’t lacking in any spice notes. Toasted hazelnut, cinnamon, spiced oak, and vanilla bean — it’s all in the aroma.
Palate: This Cabernet Sauvignon leaves the mouth full of dark fruit flavors and spice.
Finish: A full-bodied, dry wine with velvety tannins that gives the wine some structure while acidity leads to a round and juicy, long-lasting finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a no-fuss Cabernet Sauvignon with reliable taste and texture. Rarely will you find a bottle of Josh’s Cabernet Sauvignon that doesn’t taste like every other bottle of Josh Cabernet Sauvignon, vintage after vintage. It’s the perfect weeknight wine for those nights when you’re super exhausted and don’t want to think too hard about what to pair with dinner.
Red wine has been at the heart of Decoy’s winemaking program since the winery launched in the Alexander Valley region of Sonoma County in 1985. Though Cabernet Sauvignon is the main variety in this wine, a splash of Merlot about 10 percent is included to accentuate the wine’s flavor and texture. Decoy sources grapes for this wine from specific vineyards across California, including Monterey County, Paso Robles, Southern San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara County. This wine is aged in 40% new French oak for 15 months before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Aromas of black cherry pie and plum tarts spill from the bottle quite generously once that cork pops. After a few swirls, the wine exudes more alluring spicy flavors of oak, vanilla, nutmeg, and cardamom.
Palate: Dark fruits like blackberry, cherry, and purple plum are noticeable at first sip, while a crescendo of spices and leather peaks mid-palate. The full-bodied and dry wine has a silky mouthfeel thanks to a balance of juicy acidity and plush tannins.
Finish: The finish is long and satisfying.
Bottom Line:
This is a complex and quality wine that drinks well above its price point. The wine has plenty of flavors and a long finish that begs you to take another sip. Not to mention it’s the perfect pairing partner for those hearty dinners and weeknight comfort foods. What’s not to love about that?
The Golden Raspberry Awards have always attracted backlash. Their first year the awards body, which honors purportedly bad cinema, had the stones to nominate master filmmakers Stanley Kubrick (for The Shining), Brian De Palma (for Dressed to Kill), and William Friedkin (for Cruising). Last year they did the unthinkable: They apologized and retracted an entire category dedicated to low-rent Bruce Willis movies, which they awarded shortly before it was revealed he suffers from aphasia. Now they’ve had to say sorry again after being too mean.
As per Variety, the Razzies have backpedaled on one of this year’s nominees: Firestarter star Ryan Kiera Armstrong. The problem? Armstrong is 12 years old. She was 11 when she filmed it. The nomination caught a lot of people’s eyes and, rather than double down, they not only apologized and axed the nom; they also enacted an age limit, so that anyone under 18 can’t be razzed for some movie they did.
“Sometimes, you do things without thinking, Then you are called out for it. Then you get it. It’s why the Razzies were created in the first place,” Razzies founder John Wilson (not the guy from the excellent HBO show) told Variety. “We have never intended to bury anyone’s career. It is why our Redeemer Award was created. We all make mistakes, very much us included.”
In today’s world, it’s easy to get caught up in all the negative news we’re exposed to, but in reality, most good deeds are done away from a camera—just one person helping another without desire for fanfare. And for mom Bryanne McBride and her young son, Mason, that’s exactly what they were doing when they got the surprise of a lifetime.
Bryanne was approached by a man in a parking lot asking for a dollar to catch the bus. The entire time, the mom scrounged around in her purse looking for spare change and revealed she felt bad because she thought she had some. Bryanne’s desire to help was a simple act of kindness to another human in need without the expectation of something in return.
During the time it took for the unsuspecting mother to dig for loose change, the “stranded” stranger, Zach, introduced himself and asked if the duo were from Philly. Once they said they were from the area, he then inquired if they were Eagles fans…the football team, not the birds. “You ever been to an Eagles game?” Zach asked.
The two quickly said no but the mom was focused on retrieving some quarters for this stranger. Zach continued to question them about the Eagles game, asking, “Would you want to go one day?” The answer was an enthusiastic yes, though Bryanne never broke her gaze from the purse as she looked for change. When she finally relented that she had no money in her purse and would need to check her car, she came back to a surprise.
Zach asked why Bryanne was so willing to help him and her response was just more evidence that she’s simply a kind person. “I hate telling people no, especially when I can help,” she said. After she handed him the money, he gave it to Mason and said he didn’t actually need it before handing the generous mom $500 in cash. But Zach wasn’t done—he had tickets to the Eagles game that night and gave the mother and son the tickets.
A new year is fresh upon us, meaning there’s 12 months waiting for new travel adventures and spiritually-enhancing experiences. But whether you have your sights set on finally embarking on your dream trip or starting to cross off destinations on your travel bucket list, there’s no doubt that traveling can eat up your bank account. Or… does it?
In order to help you have the best year, full of travel, we’ve tapped Brian Kelly – aka The Points Guy – a preeminent voice for all things travel, loyalty programs, and credit card perks. For over a decade, Kelly has traveled all over the world while educating people on how they too can make travel a budget-friendly priority in their own lives. From starting off as a Wall Street road warrior to now being a leading figure for all things budget travel – emphasizing his keen sense for maximizing travel experiences while minimizing spending – Kelly is gearing up to make 2023 one of his own biggest years yet for traveling the world. As a new dad, he’s excited to travel to places where the U.S. dollar is strong while keeping it kid-friendly. With Asia reopening to the world, he’s already planning trips to Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Fiji, Portugal, and Jordan for culturally rich and budget-friendly experiences.
“It’s a fool’s error to think that airlines or the government are going to take care of you. There are essentially no travel protections for consumers in the United States, especially if you take a look at Europe who has really robust protections. If an airline throws your trip into chaos, at best you’re going to get a refund or maybe a hotel or a voucher. What this means for travelers is that you need to take matters into your own hands by booking all of your travel with a credit card that has travel protections. Most of the top credit cards do have travel protections and most people don’t even know it.”
“When the airlines wreak havoc on your plans, so many people go straight to the airline for reimbursement when the best place is actually your credit card company. Most travel credit cards have what is called “Trip Delay Cancellation Coverage” so when you need to get a rental car, hotel, or even to get into the airline lounge if your trip is delayed, it’ll be covered. Points are great when it comes to travel credit cards but in 2023 you gotta know the perks. For example, Chase Sapphire will reimburse you $500 per ticket in reasonable expenses if you’re delayed six hours. This would include getting into the airline lounge, meals, buying formula for your baby, and more.”
2) Utilize Technology
Brian Kelly
“When things go awry, don’t depend on the gate agent for updates. The worst thing you can do is be among the masses of people at the gate. Gate agents are usually the last people to know what’s going on with an airline. It pains me because I see so many people waiting to get information and updates from a human when the best information is available online. I use Flight Aware for all of my travel. It’s a free app and you can track your flight and inbound aircraft. This gives you a leg up from all of the other people on your flight because when you know that the incoming plane is stalled at its previous destination due to weather or air traffic issues, you can get ahead of everyone else for rebooking yourself or seeing other options. Another app you can use is Flighty. Always use your airline app but that’s not enough in 2023. These third-party apps will also tell you when the pilot files the flight plan, which is a real signal that your flight is getting ready to depart. When flights are canceled or delayed, you can be way ahead of everyone else when it comes to figuring out your next steps and rebooking with the airline, which often will result in you leaving even earlier than your delayed flight.”
“Also, standing in line to talk to someone at the airport is not sufficient in 2023. Utilize technology. A lot of airlines have chat features now that are actually pretty good. A lot of airlines now also offer social media help desks. If you have a credit card that gets you into the lounge, make sure to go in there when there’s chaos with the airline. The lounge agents are usually some of the best agents in the whole airport. They can come up with creative solutions versus the exhausted agents working with the general public in the terminal.”
“AMEX Platinum is one of the best overall travel credit cards. It’s expensive but it grants you access to Delta lounges, premium lounges, and priority pass. If you’re flying American Airlines most likely you’ll want to get the American Airlines Executive card and same with United. Getting these expensive credit cards is actually better than paying for lounge access membership directly plus you get a ton of other perks. Cheap is expensive. If you’re traveling with a no-annual-fee credit card and you think that’s going to be enough, it’s not. If you’re a frequent traveler, you absolutely should have at least a mid-tier or premium credit card. Again, you get lounge access as well as amazing flight protections and benefits that offset the annual fee. You can literally have and eat your cake in the lounge. Lounge access isn’t just about getting a free drink or snack, it’s really about getting access to the best agents while saving time.”
3) Get Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, and Clear
Brian Kelly
“Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, and Clear are a necessity in 2023. Literally the trifecta of efficient airport navigation. The biggest is Global Entry which costs $100 for five years. What people don’t realize is that the $100 also qualifies you for TSA PreCheck, which is $80 by itself. So this means you should never pay for TSA PreCheck. Plus all of those premium credit cards usually offer a $100 Global Entry credit for free. This means that every five years you can get Global Entry for free just by having one of those premium credit cards. You’re waiting at most maybe 10 minutes in security when you have Global Entry and TSA PreCheck. What people get hung up on is that you actually have to go to the airport to get an appointment to get Global Entry or Clear. If you log on, you usually won’t see appointments for months. There’s an easy tool to get around this called Appointment Scanner. It costs $30 and it will keep checking and scanning hundreds of times a day for open appointments at your nearest airport and notify you when there’s an opening. The first day that you set an alert you’ll be getting multiple options for closer appointment dates. For people who live in New York City, there’s a Global Entry enrollment facility in Manhattan where you don’t even have to go to JFK or Newark to get your appointment.”
“Most major international airports will also offer Global Entry interviews on arrival. When you come back into the U.S. from traveling out of the country, go to the immigration desk and tell them that you’ve been pre-approved for Global Entry. They’ll ask you a couple of questions, take your fingerprint, and you’ve got your Global Entry. You then don’t even need to schedule an appointment.”
“Clear is now expedited security for around $180 every year. Clear is now at most major airports and allows you to skip to the front of the TSA PreCheck line. AMEX Platinum also gives you a major discount on Clear. As an added bonus, it also works in a lot of stadiums around the United States as well. The Yankees Stadium and other major sports centers are now using Clear where you can literally skip the line and enter without a hassle.”
4) Travel To Countries Where The U.S. Dollar Is Strong
“Inflation is going down, but overall travel is still more expensive than pre-pandemic. One way to beat this is to travel to countries where the U.S. dollar is strong. Europe was nearly 1:1 recently. People will be blown away with how far the U.S. dollar goes in South Africa against the Rand. Portugal is my favorite destination because it’s more affordable than most European countries, it’s unbelievably beautiful, and the U.S. dollar is strong. It can also be usually cheaper to fly to Portugal from New York than it is to go to Miami. Iceland is also a great country when it comes to cheap flights from the U.S. Any country that uses the Euro is a great way to make your dollars stretch in 2023. There are a lot of budget-friendly hotel options in these countries.”
Brian Kelly
5) Use Your Points!
“Use your royalty points in 2023! In general, airlines keep increasing the amount of points needed for flights so the best way to beat this is to use them. Points don’t gain value over time either so it’s best to use them when you have them. Airlines now are making every seat on a flight available to book with points. Say you want to go to Mexico and it’s 100,000 points per ticket. Always monitor the price you pay, because if it drops, the airline will allow you to cancel and rebook it using less points and refund your miles. Airlines will usually open up seats last minute with low prices or points to fill all remaining seats. So if you’ve already booked a seat using a certain number of points and more seats open up for less, you can call the airline and get refunded the point difference. You just have to be savvy enough to monitor this. There is an app called Expert Flyer that allows you to set alerts for most airlines when seats open up at a Saver Level of points than what you used. Using points also allows you to save money on your flight or hotel and you can then savor your travel experience more richly with your cash.”
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Congratulations! Sending love 
”(@ESVley) January 25, 2023
