About Us
Brian Kelly, Founder
Brian Kelly is The Points Guy. Passionate about travel and addicted to adventure since a youth, Brian’s worldwide jetsetting earned him elite status with US Airways by his sophomore year in college. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Brian became a recruiter for a major investment bank and became a road warrior for a living, traveling over 125,000 miles annually and spending over 50 nights a year in hotels while on the job. His extensive travel schedule allowed him to gain an insider’s knowledge of frequent flyer miles and points systems, as well as master the ins and outs of credit card offers across the spectrum. For Brian, booking extravagant international trips for next to nothing became an art form and his well honed skills funded a luxury travel lifestyle of memorable moments such as sitting behind Madonna in first class, jetting to the Seychelles (where Prince William and Kate recently spent their honeymoon) in business class, and staying at some of the most high-end resorts in the world — all while spending less cash than a coach ticket and a hostel would have cost.
In 2010, Brian brought his insights and passion to the masses and became “The Points Guy,” sharing his travel points knowledge with eager consumers across the globe via his website, ThePointsGuy.com. Due to the massive amount of interest in his tips and advice, Brian left his job on Wall Street in June 2011 to work full-time as a travel blogger and consultant. He has since been featured in The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, The Los Angeles Times, The Independent, and on CNN, The Today Show, among others, and presents at various travel conferences including the New York Times Travel Show and the annual Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminars. Brian consults regularly with airline and hotel loyalty programs, as well as individual travelers, and dishes out his signature tips and advice via Twitter, where he can be followed @ThePointsGuy.
Eric on a recent trip to Shanghai
Eric Rosen, Managing Editor
Eric Rosen lives in Los Angeles and writes about food, wine and travel…usually in some combination of the three. After graduating from Princeton University in 2002, he worked in book publishing in New York City, then in film production in Los Angeles. He got his start writing restaurant reviews for LA.com before transitioning to travel writing. He is the Los Angeles editor of JustLuxe and contributes regularly to Los Angeles Confidential Magazine, Metrosource Magazine, Condé Nast’s HotelChatter and Jaunted (where he first wrote about The Points Guy), Jetsetter, Gilt City, and his work has also appeared in the L.A. Times. When not exploring the Los Angeles dining scene, you’ll usually find Eric on assignment discovering far-flung wine regions from the Andean foothills of Argentina to the shores of Western Australia. Most recently his travels have taken him to China, New Zealand, and Portugal.
As the Managing Editor of The Points Guy, Eric helps Brian manage the site’s content, contributes posts on the points game as well as his travels, and identifies and analyzes travel industry trends that will affect TPG readers. He loves interacting with the TPG community, so feel free to email him at eric@thepointsguy.com and use him as a travel resource, especially if you have upcoming trips to destinations he’s covered.
Danielle Kelly, Director of Operations
Danielle Kelly graduated from Mount St. Mary’s University in 2005 with a degree in English literature, secondary education and communications, and worked as a financial manager for the U.S. Department of the Navy for several years before marrying Brian’s oldest brother, Mike, and starting a family in New Jersey. With two kids growing up fast (her daughter is TPG’s goddaughter), Danielle was ready to get back to work, and was the first to join the TPG team in January 2011 as Brian’s “Girl Friday,” a nickname befitting the eclectic array of duties she performs.
Now the site’s Director of Operations, Danielle works on everything from administration and bookkeeping to special promotions, social media, the e-newsletter and membership relations, with the occasional blog post contribution thrown in. Having a young family has curtailed her travel schedule of late, but Danielle has always loved taking trips to new places, and her current dream destination is Costa Rica where she hopes to zip-line through the rainforest canopy and hike the country’s volcanoes…with her kids in tow, of course!
