Fully Leveraged Options: How to Score Better Seats, Lower Prices, AND Companion Kisses

Part 3 in the Options Intelligence Series: Using airline hold mechanisms to control premium travel – and how being fully leveraged upgrades other areas of life

“I always say don’t make plans, make options.”
– Jennifer Aniston

CONTEXT: We’re talking about a purchase – $1,000 to $10,000+ depending on who you are and what you’re working with. That’s not trivial. But here’s the thing: it’s actually the least of what’s at stake.

Your vacation doesn’t start when you arrive. It starts when you walk into the airport. And if you land beaten up from a cramped seat, bad timing, and too many layovers, that energy carries forward. Combined with jetlag, a rough flight can set a sour tone for the first couple of days of your trip.

The return works the same way – maybe worse. A brutal flight home doesn’t just exhaust you. It dampens the memories. It flattens the vibe you spent a week or more building.

Your flight frames the experience. And how you book that flight – the attention you give it while you’re still on the ground – determines whether you’ll spend 20 hours in the sky with regret or relief.

Let’s be real.

9:43 PM – The Text Thread

Sarah (6:32 PM): Hey babe! I booked the hotel in Paris! The one we talked about!

You (6:45 PM): That’s great! I’m wrapping up this project deadline, will look for flights as promised

Sarah (7:18 PM): Did you book the flights yet?

You (7:22 PM): Still working, will check before long

Sarah (8:41 PM): Honey, our friends already booked their tickets at lunch. Do we have tickets?

You (8:43 PM): Looking now

Sarah (9:43 PM): I BOOKED THE HOTEL. I need to know we can GET THERE. Why don’t you have tickets yet??

Sound Familiar?

You are at work. Project deadline. It is 9:43 PM.

Your companion booked the hotel this morning. Her friends bought airline tickets at lunch.

And you? You have got nothing.

Not because you are lazy. Because you are SMART.

You’re a life-experience, bang-for-buck kind of guy.

You know that the easiest ticket to book right this second probably isn’t the best-quality seat at the best price. That would be pure luck.

Just like any purchase in life you might make.

And you do not operate on luck.

But now she is freaking out. The pressure is mounting. And you are about to cave and book whatever mediocre option is in front of you just to get her off your back.

What if there was a better way?

Get Your Companion Off Your Back in 10 Minutes
(Then Upgrade Everything Later)

Here is what you do RIGHT NOW:

Take 10 minutes. Lock in SOMETHING. Cash hold or award booking. Does not matter if it is perfect.

Text her back: “Yes, dear. We have tickets.”

She is happy. You are off the hook. Crisis averted.

But here is the magic: You do not actually LIKE those flights. They are not a great seat at a great price. You have long legs. You take flying seriously.

Those flights are just your insurance policy.

Now, instead of watching the news tonight, you spend an hour hunting. Comparing schedules. Seats. Checking award space.

Finding the REAL opportunity.

Tomorrow morning, you walk into the kitchen and say:

“Honey, remember those flights I told you about last night? Would you give me a big hug and a kiss if I told you I UPGRADED them? Better seats. LOWER price.

I got us a double upgrade.

I want a double kiss right now!”

That is The Hat Trick (i.e. Three Scores): Better seat + Lower price + Companion kisses.

“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
– Oscar Wilde

What Does “Fully Leveraged” Mean Here?

Most people think travel booking is binary:

Cash fare OR award booking. This airline OR that one. Book now OR wait.

Intelligent travelers ask: Why not LOCK IN Multiple Options?

Lock in Multiple Options – without commitment – and play them off each other.

You are not choosing between options. You are CONTROLLING multiple options at the same time, then deciding from a position of strength.

> Last month, we covered Options Intelligence Applied to Mileage Award Tickets.

> In September, we covered The Option Optimizer’s Secret: How to Turn Published Fare Tickets Into Infinite Possibilities.

> This special report is all about using both of them, together – and how lucrative it can be.

“Information can bring you choices and choices bring power – educate yourself about your options and choices.”– Joy Page

The Basic Strategy:
Your Three-Step Portfolio

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You Are Already Spending the Time.
Are You Getting the Right Return?

Let us kill the objection right now.

“This sounds like too much work.”

Does it?

According to Expedia, travelers conduct 50+ searches on average 45 days before booking.

Priceline says travelers spend “Two Full Work Days to Plan and Book Trips.”

Sabre claims “Europeans Spend Longer Searching for Flights than Flying.”

Keep It Real: You are ALREADY spending the time.

The question is: What are you getting for it?

Reality’s Cost / Benefit Analysis

Before you scan the table below, close your eyes for 30 seconds and imagine sitting for 20+ hours at 35,000 feet round-trip, in a sub-optimal airline seat.

Okay, open your eyes now:

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The Bottom Line: You are potentially making thousands of dollars per hour in savings. And getting a 5-star seat at a 5-star price – for the 20+ hours round-trip in the sky.

Risk vs. Upside: Worst case you are out $0-$50. Best case you control a $15,000-$30,000 ticket. This is exponential upside.

“I like having options, alternate lives unlived but always possible.”
– Abigail Padgett

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Travel Planning’s Reality Spectrum

How are you at navigating uncertainty?

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The Pattern: First Zone operates from fear. Second Zone gets stuck in research. Third uses one mechanism sequentially. Fourth Zone stacks mechanisms in parallel. Portfolio thinking beats single-path thinking every time.

“Wealth is not about having a lot of money;
it’s about having a lot of options.”
– Chris Rock

WHO
Wants to Be Fully Leveraged?

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We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”
– Dolly Parton

Advanced Move:
Daisychain Your Holds When Circumstances
Allow & Favor It

What happens when your hold is about to expire?

Can you extend the deal if it is still available?

What if fares go down during your hold period?

Think of this like buying stocks with options to purchase if the price goes down

Decision Table:
What to Do as Your Hold Expires?

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The key insight: You can REPEAT this process multiple times if you are ambitious.

“I always want my options to be open.”
– Clive Owen

Upgrade Optionality Intelligence

This applies to any area of life: Under-leveraged people expand options through research (passive). Life Optimizers expand options through zero-cost portfolio construction (active).

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“Acting is like any other art form, in that you have the option to go very big or go very small.”
– Nicolas Cage

How
Options Leverage Intelligence
Looks in Other Domains

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“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
– Albert Einstein

The Real Question

This special report is NOT really about travel.

It is about a way of thinking.

Most people see binary choices: This OR that. Now OR later. Certainty OR flexibility.

Intelligent people ask: Why not BOTH?

They do not choose between options. They CONTROL multiple options simultaneously. Then they decide from a position of strength.

Travel is just the laboratory where this intelligence is easy to see.

But once you develop it?

You start seeing it everywhere.

The pattern is always the same.

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“You have as many options as you give yourself.”
– Kasie West

TRAVEL EXPERIENCE
MASTERY

Options Intelligence Applied to Mileage Award Tickets.

How to Turn Published Fare Tickets Into Infinite Possibilities.

What’s NEXT?

Where else in your life are you choosing not to leverage?

Unforgettable Life Experiences (ULEs) are there for the taking.

Where are you using one mechanism when you could be stacking three?

Where are you deciding from pressure or impatience when you could be deciding from strength?

That is Upgrade Intelligence.

And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

Welcome to being fully leveraged.

Because the best upgrade is not just to First Class.

It is to a way of thinking that works everywhere.

See you there.