Our Team
Adam joined The Points Guy full time in 2016 after consulting since 2014. A gatekeeper with locks of steel, Adam works directly with Brian to maximize Brian’s travel, expense and time management. A Points Guy that loves to challenge ‘The Points Guy’ to keep Brian on top of his points and miles game, Adam is also a points and miles expert. Born and raised in NYC and graduated from NYU in 2002, Adam now resides full time in Miami Beach, Florida.
Jill Holtsinger is the VP of Data and Analytics, with 10 years of media experience across A+E Networks, Federated Media and Forbes. Prior to joining The Points Guy, Jill was an avid site reader racking up her own points and miles. Travel has always been a personal passion and her favorite destinations include Jose Ignacio, Mexico City and Paris but her bucket list includes Patagonia and Japan. She can be reached at jill@thepointsguy.com.
Kate O’Brien joined The Points Guy team just over 6 years ago in June of 2012. Starting out as Brian’s personal assistant, she learned the business as she went along and took on the role of Director of Marketing & Compliance and most recently Director of Business Development – as the team likes to say, ‘Kate knows where all the bodies are buried’. On a day to day basis Kate develops and maintains relationships with credit card issuers and works on discovering new revenue and affiliate opportunities.
Thailand and Cape Town have been some of Kate’s favorite travel destinations so far, but she is pretty confident that her African Safari honeymoon will take the cake next year!
Becca Denenberg manages PR, events, charity initiatives and marketing partnerships for TPG. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she majored in Organizational Studies, an interdisciplinary program focusing on Psychology, Sociology and Economics.
Her favorite travel destinations include Japan, Morocco, Australia and Bali! Becca is also the momager of Swisher, the youngest of The Points Pups.
You can reach her by email at becca@thepointsguy.com or follow her travels on Instagram.
A Milanese transplanted to Brooklyn by way of Rome, Atlanta and Manhattan, Alberto leads TPG’s editorial team — and as an AvGeek, he is thrilled to be running a crew full of people who can tell a 767 from a 777 at a glance. His journalism career began as a newswire reporter in Italy, and has taken him to a few dozen countries working for CNN, Bloomberg and Vice News, among others. He is happiest at high altitude, whether on a plane or climbing in the Alps. He speaks Italian, French and Spanish, and one day he’ll be less awful at German. You can write Alberto at alberto@thepointsguy.com and follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
As Editor-at-Large, Zach Honig is responsible for covering several core TPG verticals, including airlines, hotels, loyalty programs and credit cards, while also serving as a mentor to writers and editors and assisting with the direction of the site’s editorial content. Additionally, Zach is a lifelong aviation enthusiast and a private pilot, although he prefers to spend his time in the air in a lie-flat bed, catching up on the latest flicks while dining on caviar and Champagne. Zach joined TPG in 2015 as the site's first Editor-in-Chief, transitioning to his current role in 2017.
Chat with Zach at zach@thepointsguy.com, and follow his adventures on Instagram and Twitter @zachhonig.
Nick joined The Points Guy in 2016 as an editorial intern and has since worked as an Assistant Editor and now Reviews Editor. He has been a shameless lover of airplanes and travel since childhood, and gets to use those passions on a daily basis by managing TPG’s reviews section. He caught the international travel bug while attending the University of Michigan (go Blue!) and has since visited Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. Some of Nick’s favorite destinations so far include Buenos Aires, Argentina, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro and Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast. His travel bucket list is too long to fit here, but some of the top destinations are Lebanon, India and Egypt.
You can reach Nick by email at nickellis@thepointsguy.comor via Twitter (@nellis_ellis_); and follow his travels on Instagram.
Emily McNutt has been an avid traveler from a young age. From the annual family trip from Upstate New York to Disney World (and forever being scarred by the "It's a Small World" song on repeat), to the summer getaways in Cape Cod, Emily's affinity for venturing to new places has only grown. Since those summer days on Wellfleet's beaches, Emily's traveled to experience all four seasons in one day in Cape Town and the frigid Nordic air in Tromsø, Norway. In all, she's visited six continents (still looking for that one Antarctica opportunity!). Some of her favorite destinations to date include Tallinn, Estonia; Cape Town, South Africa; and Auckland, New Zealand — and, of course, Cape Cod! Her travel bucket list includes Namibia, Rwanda, exploring more of New Zealand, Georgia (the country), Vietnam, Bolivia, Chile, Greenland, Iceland, Tanzania and Madagascar.
Emily holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri (MIZ!) and a master's degree in journalism from New York University. You can reach her via email at emily@thepointsguy.com or on Twitter @em_mcnutt
Julian learned the ins and outs of travel loyalty programs while flying more than 200,000 miles a year as a TV producer and director for World Wrestling Entertainment (and yes, of course it's all real). Before becoming a Senior Editor for The Points Guy, he had previously written about travel loyalty programs for U.S. News and World Report, Travel Codex and Frequent Miler.
A graduate of the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Julian has appeared as an analyst on multiple media outlets to discuss travel and loyalty programs, including television segments for Bloomberg News, CNBC's "Squawk Box," Cheddar TV and on NBC affiliates across the country. He has also been interviewed on ABC and CBS Radio, CNBC.com, and in the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
Wallace manages TPG’s online community and, being the primary hand on the pulse of our readers, works on the Social team to better serve them. As a lifelong aviation geek, Wallace enjoys flying in just about any cabin so long as there’s a window to check out the view below (as a teenager, he even built a home simulator with one his friends). After studying Politics with a focus in political psychology at Oberlin College, Wallace has merged his broad passion for aviation, travel and transportation with a knack for community building and connection. One day, he’ll make it aboard Cathay Pacific’s 777-300ER in first for the nonstop to Hong Kong.
You can reach Wallace at his email at wallace@thepointsguy.com or follow him on Instagram.
Samantha manages social and content strategy for TPG. She studied marketing at Tulane University, and will never hesitate to tell you how obsessed she is with New Orleans. Sam has been an avid traveler from a young age, and studied abroad in Madrid during her junior year of college; Thailand, Tokyo, Bali, Cape Town, and Buenos Aires are all on her bucket list. There's also a good chance she's planning her next meal as you're reading this sentence... or at SoulCycle.
You can get in touch with her by e-mail at samantha@thepointsguy.com, or follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
Email me at: brendan@thepointsguy.com
Born and raised in Northern California, schooled in our Nation's capital, and currently working in the greatest city in the world - NYC. I was instantly hooked to traveling the second I stepped foot in Europe. The addiction only grew once I found out I could do it for free, all on points and miles.
I could also eat bagels for every meal.
Follow me on Instagram @brendandorsey1 or on Twitter @brendan_dorsey
Growing up next to an airport (IATA:TPF) with avid travelers as parents, JT has always felt more at home in the air than on the ground. Then, he stumbled across The Points Guy in 2014. Blown away by the potential travel savings from utilizing credit card sign-up bonuses and knowing mileage program sweet spots, he jumped in head first. Since then, he and his wife Katie have generated over 6 million miles/points and flown more than 723,000 miles. In June 2017, they donated/sold almost all of their possessions to travel full-time as "digital nomads" — traveling the world and writing about their experiences for TPG.
While working full-time as a tax accountant, JT started contributing for The Points Guy in July 2015 with a series of three economy flight reviews. Thanks to the positive reaction from readers, he secured a role on the TPG team initially as an economy flight reviewer. That's since expanded to cover American Airlines, Oneworld, IHG, Amex Offers, general news and uses his number-crunching abilities anytime they're needed. He quit his accounting job in September 2016 to work full-time for TPG, but still maintains a Georgia CPA license.
Feel free to pass along any tips or leads to JT at jt@thepointsguy.com. You can follow JT's travels and tips via Twitter and Instagram (@jtgenter).
Sarah's been obsessed with travel ever since age six, when her family took a cruise trip to Mexico — though she quickly learned she prefers traveling by plane and staying on land, ideally at a Hyatt or SPG property. Her favorite destinations include Bermuda, Cambodia, Ireland and Japan, and she's been able to visit each multiple times thanks to the points and miles hobby. In addition to helping TPG readers book their dream trips, she enjoys acting as an unofficial credit card consultant to friends and family.
Richard Kerr is a veteran naval officer and founder of the Award Travel 101 Facebook community. He’s one of the foremost experts in points and miles strategy, featured in Forbes, US News, Money Magazine, Kiplinger Personal Finance and presented at #SXSW 2017. Richard has visited over 45 countries, lived in England and Japan, and spends his spare time dissecting loyalty program award charts to maximize the value of points and miles. Richard holds a BBA in International Business and has his wife and two small children in tow for his travels as often as possible.
You can contact Richard at TPG@thepointsguy.com
Peter produces a variety of rewards-oriented content, including strategy guides, loyalty program news and more. A former aerospace engineer and long-time touring musician, he got hooked on award travel (by TPG) after earning his way to a free Hawaiian vacation in 2011. When he’s not writing, Peter can often be found working with his brother to produce FOUND Magazine, raking in poker chips at Las Vegas casinos, or crushing the dodgeball courts of the Pacific Northwest.
You can reach him at peter@thepointsguy.com, or follow on Instagramfor all the cute dog pictures.
Nick Ewen joined The Points Guy full-time as Editor-at-Large, Special Projects after working as a contributor since 2012. In addition to continuing write in-depth analyses of credit cards and loyalty programs, he’s helping oversee initiatives like the launch of a new TPG App, an updated daily newsletter and new learning tools to facilitate readers’ initiation into the crucible of earning and redeeming points and miles.
Though he no longer logs 100,000+ miles in the air and 100+ nights in hotels each year, he still works tirelessly to earn and redeem his points and miles in the best ways possible. Favorite destinations include London (site of his three-month study abroad program), New Zealand, the Seychelles, Bali, and Istanbul. Nick and his wife Lillian live in Florida with their young daughter Evy, who will undoubtedly will follow in her dad’s footsteps and become a full-fledged points & miles enthusiast.
You can reach Nick via email at nick@thepointsguy.com or follow him on Twitter (@TPGNick).
Lori Zaino’s eclectic travel tastes and spirited sense of adventure have taken her to almost 50 countries over six continents, some of her favorites being Cuba, Southern Italy, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Senegal. She left her job in New York City working in fashion for a more nomadic lifestyle, moving to Madrid, Spain in 2008 (though she can often be found wandering in Southeast Asia). Lori is bilingual in Spanish and English, and writes all sorts of useful and fun lifestyle, points and travel content. Her travel advice is to get Global Entry, hang with the locals and always politely ask for an upgrade.
Miles, Hootie and Swisher are a trio of best friends that we call The Points Pups. They enjoy toys, dog bones, taking naps, giving kisses and sitting in/snoring through important meetings. Follow them on Instagram @thepointspups!