Tech Grads Turned Globetrotters
By: Tony Rehagen (Photos courtesy of JT and Katie Genter) | Categories: Alumni Achievements
JT Genter, Mgt 07, remembers thinking there had to be a better way. It was 2014, and the Georgia Tech grad was working as an accountant in Austin, while his wife and fellow Yellow Jacket, Katie Genter, CS 09, worked toward her doctorate at the University of Texas. She was also involved in competitive robot soccer (yes, that’s a thing), and that year’s world championship, the RoboCup, was in Hefei, China. In years past, the couple had used the annual RoboCup as an excuse to indulge a shared passion for globe-trotting, but this time, JT struggled to find an affordable flight. “I had always found cheap ways to go with her,” he says. “But the cheapest way to Hefei was going to be $2,000.”
At the time, JT was following The Points Guy, a blog about maximizing airline, hotel, and credit card loyalty reward programs. JT decided to give it a shot. He applied for a Chase credit card that offered 70,000 bonus points, since he discovered he could transfer those earnings into 70,000 United Airlines miles, good for round-trip award flights to China. It was a revelation.
Within a few years the Genters had moved out of their house, sold off or given away any possessions that couldn’t fit into their two cars, and embarked on the rootless existence of digital nomads, living and working remotely from whatever coordinates they happened to occupy. Since then, they have flown more than 1.3 million miles on 84 airlines to 236 airports across 60 countries. They’ve stayed in 58 countries, redeeming over 6 million points through six different hotel loyalty programs. And they’ve done it spending about $910 a month for lodging (a reasonable rent) and less than $5,000 per person per year on airfare. They offset that out-of-pocket cost by accumulating even more points and getting paid to write about their experiences, strategies, and systems for AwardWallet, NerdWallet, and The Points Guy.
Funny that their relationship started with a 2-mile road trip across downtown Atlanta in 2004. JT met Katie when he was a student manager for the Tech volleyball team. The Yellow Jackets were playing at Georgia State, and Katie was at the game with a friend. JT gave them a lift in his car back to Tech.
He had grown up on planes with a family that loved to travel, and even in college, he’d use an AirTran standby pass to get cheap one-way flights all over the country. After graduation, he began a career as an accountant but found office life stifling. “I would always try to negotiate for more time off—I’d forgo a raise,” he says via Zoom from Alexandria, Egypt. “That’s how I fell into points and miles to save money.” But it was during a “gap month” leading up to Katie starting grad school in Texas that the couple fell into wanderlust when they extended an Alaska cruise with his grandparents into a weeks-long tour of the West Coast. “We thought, This is incredible,” he says. “Why don’t we just do that for longer?”
So they took a big leap and now do it perpetually. The key, they say, is to avoid true loyalty to one airline, hotel chain, or credit card, and spread the love across brands and programs that feature transferrable points. That way, when one program devalues their points, you have other transfer partners to turn to. Their other advice: It’s not for everyone. You must be diligent about the ever-changing rules of each rewards program and willing to continually tweak your system. The couple also currently has 58 different credit cards open, which they don’t recommend to anyone.
As for the Genters, their goal is to travel a little less—not come home, wherever that might be, but spend more than three or four days in each spot. “Most digital nomads will be in one place for a month,” says Katie. “Our favorite thing to do is wander, walk around, eat local food, and interact with the people. It makes us feel alive.”
