This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, the days of airline lounges. Such nostalgia, such a good memory. Until the past few years, I traveled internationally probably about a third of the year in addition to lots of domestic trips. So I was on the go a lot. It was just part of my lifestyle.
And I spent hundreds of hours working from airline lounges around the world, including many times my favorite in Hong Kong, the one from Cathay Pacific, one of the ones from Cathay Pacific that features cabanas with full-sized bathtubs in the middle of the room. And yes, this is in the airport. So very cool, as I said, one of my favorite things. And of course, not everyone is invited to this because there's thousands of passengers, tens of thousands passing through the airport on any given day. So we'll come to that in a moment, that point about how to get access.
But three years ago, I began to slow down a bit. And then of course, we all slowed down a bit in 2020. These days, domestic travel is fairly normal, at least in the US, but international still has a ways to go. Now, why am I telling you all this? I appreciate you joining me on this trip down memory lane to my favorite airport bathtub in Hong Kong.
But also I'm telling you because of a listener question. Specifically, a listener is thinking of making an airline lounge access guide to help more people experience these magical places. So what's the best approach to creating and marketing the guide? That's what we're gonna focus on in this listener question and answer. I'll bring you their specific question in just 30 seconds.
[Music]
Hi, Chris, this is Connor. And I've been following your projects for a while now. As you know, even if you only travel a few times a year, having access to an airline lounge makes a world of difference and comfort. The clubs sell memberships for $500 a year, but you don't need to pay that much. Depending on the lounge, there are usually several other ways to gain admission.
For example, instead of paying $500 a year for a lounge membership, you can pay $300 for a priority pass membership, which gets you the same thing or even better. You can get a credit card that gives you priority pass for free. There are lots of other hacks like that, which you probably know about from all your experiences traveling the world. I want to demystify the process to make travel better for occasional travelers who don't necessarily read a bunch of forums or follow travel blogs. Any advice?
Thanks. [Music]
Hey Connor, what's up? Thank you so much for the question. So let's see here. Couple of challenges and opportunities.
Oh, I should say also thank you for the memory lane visit as I think about all those great lounges that I used to visit. Hopefully we'll again at some point in the future. So a couple of challenges and opportunities here. Challenge number one, this information is already out there in lots of ways. Like there are lots of guides and forums and travel blogs and just a ton of resources these days that can show even casual travelers, basically what Connor is talking about here in terms of how to get into lounges, how to get a priority pass card or what are the best credit cards that give you that lounge access, et cetera.
So that information is somewhat public these days, which doesn't mean at all that there's not room for more because all information is freely available one way or another, at least most of it is, yet there are also many, many ways to purchase the same information. So it's just a challenge to be aware of. Challenge number two, most people still aren't doing a lot of travel and the real benefit is international lounges. Like the real benefit isn't just the US or domestic lounges in different parts of the world, but it's like these lounges with the bathtub, like I mentioned. And priority pass doesn't get you in there.
There are some other things you can do in terms of getting elite status and then having that status matched by a different carrier, so on, lots of details there, but it's just a relatively smaller market than the casual travelers who are traveling a few times a year in the US. So that said, those are the challenges. Here's where I think the opportunity is. The general concept of making travel more relaxing and productive, because especially among those casual travelers, there is an impression that traveling is really stressful and it's hard to work under those conditions. So I think the guide or whatever the material is, the resource, it includes topics like lounge access, showing people how to get it, but also some other stuff, like how to find good gyms or spas on the road.
Maybe there are ways to get into good gyms and spas for free on the road or for a lower price. Perhaps the best work slash productivity tools that help rather than take over your life. So maybe thinking about it from that angle, the active traveler's wellness guide or something similar, it might have a bigger and better market than just how to get into lounges. So that's my perspective on that. Of course, let me know what happens, what you decide to do, and hopefully we can update our listeners at some point.
And listeners, if you have a question, a riddle you're trying to solve, your next step, what is your project, how to take your idea and turn it into income, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will continue to feature them several times a week throughout the rest of the year, and I'm so, so glad you're out there. All right, do come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Sidetasolschool." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
