I had a points-earning credit card for years, but I wasn’t using it intentionally—I was just collecting points without a plan.

The first time I seriously thought about points & miles was when my mom asked if she could fly from the U.S. to China in a higher cabin because of health issues. I started researching and quickly realized I didn’t have enough points (or the right kind of points) for that goal. This was the spark.

Around the same time, our family’s travel needs changed: one of my children needed extra accommodations, which made comfort, flexibility, and occasionally a bit more privacy feel like the difference between a smooth trip and a hard one. Points & miles became a tool for creating that kind of travel for our family.

With a research background (and an appreciation for spreadsheets), I did what I always do: I read widely, compared options, tested what worked, and built a system I could maintain. It almost felt like being back in medical school: drinking from the firehose, then trying distill it into something that made sense for me.

And to be clear—there are a lot of excellent resources out there. Online communities, podcasts, blogs, forums, and courses can be incredibly generous and informative. But in real conversations with friends and colleagues—from dinner parties to conferences—I kept hearing the same questions: What cards should I have? How do I use my card’s benefits? How do I earn enough points? How do I use them for trips I actually want to take?

That gap between abundant information and a clear, personalized strategy is what led to PointsRx.