103. CME Secrets: Unlock International Travel with Dr. Courtney Downes

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm joined by Dr. Courtney Downes, an emergency medicine doctor with a love for all things travel. After discovering that she could use continuing medical education or CME and credit card points to create time and save thousands on travel and new experiences, she was inspired to share what she had found with others in her shoes.

In today's episode, Courtney discusses the importance of taking time off for rest and travel. She shares tips for overcoming the challenges professionals face in balancing work with personal time. And she provides valuable insights into leveraging CME for travel and how to make smart use of credit card points and perks. I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Devon: Hi, Courtney. Welcome to the podcast and thank you so much for being here today.

Dr. Courtney: Thanks for having me, Devon. It's really so good to be here.

Devon Gimbel: I'm so excited to learn more about you, share more about your story, what you do with all of the podcast listeners. Now one of the things that I know about you is that you have made it your mission to enable doctors to take time off and rest, travel more now and live better. You encourage the use of CME courses and conferences and health and wellness and adventure retreats. Why is this so important to you?

Dr. Courtney: Well, you know, so I'm an emergency medicine doctor and burnout is sort of like a buzzword within our community, within the physician community. And so I just feel like it's so important to just take time off yourself and take time to reset. And I think that travel is one of the tools that can sort of help us combat this. And I love that using points makes some of this so much more attainable for so many of us.

Devon Gimbel: Yeah, you mentioned this specifically to physicians and I completely agree with you. And I think certainly all the folks listening who maybe don't have a background in medicine have probably experienced, you know, very similar things in terms of working really hard, not having a lot of time off to rest. And so I think this message is so applicable to so many people. But have you always been interested in travel? Or can you take us back and tell us more about your travel story?

Dr. Courtney: Yeah, so you know I've always loved to travel. Growing up it wasn't something that we did, but you know we would, I'm from Las Vegas, and we would take trips to California, you know that was about like the extent of where we would go. And then my dad actually took us to Hawaii. He got like employee of the year one year. I think I was actually in either like college or med school by then.

That was like the first time I actually left like the continental US, you know? And so it wasn't something I necessarily grew up doing but I got my passport, first passport in med school. And during that time, I went to Trinidad where my current husband is from. That was my first first trip there and went to Costa Rica the next month and then went to Uganda the following month for a month. And I just sort of took off and haven't stopped since.

Devon Gimbel: And how did you get into points and miles for travel?

Dr. Courtney: Yeah, so I started using points and miles somewhat, I wouldn't say unsuccessfully, but I, you know, I kind of dappled in it. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I had like a Capital 1 card and used the Poincy Race feature to write off like a trip to Dominican Republic that we took for a friend's wedding and the American Airlines card. And I think that was, I have the Capital One, the American Airlines card, and those were the only cards I had for the longest time.

And so put all this spend on my American Airlines card when I was doing this house renovation. But then also use my points to book a trip to Orlando because tickets to go to Disney World were super expensive. So instead of using my American Airlines points to book Q suites to go to, you know, South Africa or somewhere, I went to Orlando.

So that was my initial intro to using points and miles and then became a little more intentional in the last couple of years and got the Chase Sapphire Reserve. That was my first intentional points card. I had Chase Ink Business cards that I used for a business and I had points in there. I didn't even know I had them. And so then I was like, hey, I actually had to check. And I was like, okay, so I did meet the sub. I didn't know what a sub was. And once I learned a little bit about it, I just like went all in. And so here I am.

Devon: And tell me what do points and miles look like for you now? I'm just curious. How many credit cards do you have? Do you have any favorites for earning points or any favorite points, currencies of the moment?

Dr. Courtney: Oh gosh. So yeah, so I went from having just those two cards. I probably have like 15 or 16 cards now, mostly business cards, maybe like two or three personal cards. The Chase Sapphire Reserve is probably one of my favorite cards just because it's easy to use.

My husband, he's got like three cards, that's it. He won't commit to any more than that. He won't commit to like business cards or anything. He has an Amex Gold card that we use. And then the Hilton card. So that's actually been one of my favorite cards thus far and it's helped us book some really good trips and we have an upcoming trip to the Maldives and staying at the Waldorf and we're able to use our free nights or not even the free nights the points just to book that trip so excited about that.

Devon Gimbel: I want to hear all about that. I think the Maldives is one of those really kind of typical and I don't say that in a bad way whatsoever, but a typical really aspirational points trip. I think that's one location because it is so far away, at least for folks who are based in North America that and it is so expensive compared to some other, you know, travel destinations that for many people in the points and miles community, getting to the Maldives, staying there on a vacation is really one of those wish list items. And so once you've come back from that trip, we might have to have you come back and then break down for us exactly how you booked it, what you thought about it, tips, all of those things. I think there's so much to learn from that.

One of the things I'm curious about is what made you go beyond just your own personal interest in travel using credit cards and points for your own travel to really trying to expand your knowledge to help professionals around you and help people in your community? What spurred that transition?

Dr. Courtney: Right. So I think it was just knowing that all of these things, these opportunities were available to me. So once I joined, I joined the Point Me to First Plaza Facebook group, and I was like, oh, like there's a whole community of, you know, people like me who didn't know about these things and they're doing all these like amazing trips and making these amazing redemptions. And, you know, they're so supportive of helping you find these things. And so I kind of wanted to give that back to other people.

And so my husband's a hospitalist and he works a lot. And so a lot of times it's hard to get him to take time off for himself and to book these trips. And we booked a CME trip to Maui. And I was like, oh, we can use this and we get reimbursed by our employer and we can go on this amazing trip and you get time off for it. So he had time off that was separate from his vacation time that was dedicated to medical education.

And then once I realized that we have these options and, you know, we've been practicing for like 10 years and didn't know it, I'm like, there have to be other people like me who don't know that these things exist. And so just trying to share the love and just make sure that other people have access to the things that we didn't know we had access to.

Devon Gimbel: Yeah, and I think that's such a great point. And for folks who are listening, what are some of those things that you really want them to walk away knowing? Like, I think one of the biggest obstacles in anything is you don't know what you don't know. It's one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about this platform is I think so many people are in an amazing position to take advantage of points and they've never heard of them or they've never really heard examples of how powerfully you can use them. And hearing kind of your story about using CME to travel, but also realizing, wow, a lot of people don't understand. This is available to take advantage of. What do you wish people knew more about when it came to using CME and travel?

Dr. Courtney: So there's CME for travel. And there's also that there are all these health and wellness and adventure experiences that you can book using points. And so I had the experience of going to Miraval this time last year. And so Miraval is one of the highly spoken about properties that's bookable with Chase Points. There are three different locations that are here in the US. So they've got the Arizona location, which is the one I went to. There's the Berkshires location, as well as the Austin location, which I'm trying to convince a couple of friends to hop on board with, you know, getting credit card points, because it's just such an amazing redemption that you can make and it's easy.

They have the Miraval Red Sea that's coming in fall of next year, which I'm really looking forward to. It's in Saudi Arabia, so not nearly as accessible as some of the ones here, but just love that Miraval and Hyatt are really just working on increasing their footprint and giving us more options to book things like this.

So, but yeah, so I know you did a podcast where you talked about some of the differences between some of the Miraval resorts. And, you know, I don't know if it was just that it was like my first time away from like my kids, my first trip as an adult with kids, I left them at home with my husband and went away for three magical days at Miraval, Arizona. Again, it was easy, less than one hour flight to get there from Las Vegas. It cost me like 45,000 points per night to book and that's all inclusive, you know? So all of your activities, floating meditation, aerial yoga, guided hikes, iPhone photography, all these things that are accessible to you when you book at Miraval.

And then they give you that $175 a night credit. So it doesn't matter if you book with cash or if you book with points, you're still gonna get that $175 a night that you can use towards some of the paid activities. So I did like out on a limb, one of the ropes courses where you walk across or attempt to walk across, you know, 25, 35 feet in the air. I did a cocktail-making class.

You can use the credit towards massages and facials, so I did some of that. And, you know, you walk across to dinner in your bathrobe and just, you know, just enjoy the day. So, I love that that's readily available to you if you know how to use your points. And that was something, you know, a year ago, I had no idea.

Devon Gimbel: I agree. I am, as listeners of this podcast will probably know, such a huge fan of Miraval. I feel like of all of the things that Points and Miles have afforded me, multiple Miraval stays are one of my favorites. I agree. It can be so important to take yourself on a solo getaway, be able to just have time to yourself and then to be able to use points to completely offset the cost of what can be an otherwise pretty expensive, you know, resort stay is phenomenal.

So I highly recommend all of the Miraval properties. I am really excited for that new one to open up. Like you said, the Saudi Arabia location. I think that perhaps there should be some sort of informal meetup of points and miles enthusiasts for anybody who is looking for an excuse to try out a new Miraval resort and also, you know, potentially a new airline product flying yourself, you know, on points to get over to Saudi Arabia. We should have a side conversation about that at some point.

Other than Miraval, are there other wellness retreats in particular or resorts that you think are really great to consider when using points?

Dr. Courtney: Right. So, there are not a ton of them, but there is Alila Ventana Big Sur, which is one of the Alila properties. And it's different from the other properties, which aren't all inclusive and aren't gonna give you the same experience, I think, at least from what I've heard. So I had actually booked that and Miraval, and I was debating between the two and then opted to do Miraval just because I was looking for something that was a little more active and the weather conditions are a little more favorable in Arizona than Big Sur, getting closer to winter. But again, there's a big focus on wellness and just nature and meditation and Tai Chi and hiking and, you know, the beauty that is Big Sur.

So that's another one of the properties that I would consider if you're looking for like an all-inclusive, points-bookable wellness experience.

Devon Gimbel: That's a great tip. So those are two kind of destinations that we've talked about that are more domestic for folks who are looking for, you know, more of a wellness type of experience. I'm curious, do you have any tips or recommendations for international travel that people can do specifically looking into things like wellness or combining travel with CME?

Dr. Courtney: Right. So, Six Senses are another property that are bookable with points. Six Senses resorts are IHG properties and so if you're familiar with IHG, they have some like the Kimptons and the Iberostar Resorts. We stayed at one of the Iberostars this past summer. But Six Senses has 20 properties. Some of them aren't bookable with points, but I noticed that they've been expanding the number of hotels that you can stay in.

So you can't book the Portugal property and the Phuket properties, which is in Thailand, using points, but you can book like Ibiza. They have one in Kyoto in Japan. The Maldives has one as well. Grenada has one. Fiji. There's one in Italy. Israel, Thailand, the one that's not in Phuket, you can book with points. The Seychelles, India, Vietnam, Turkey. So there are lots of different options and they don't even have one here within the United States. But if you're looking internationally, that's something that I would consider.

And so there I don't think there's like an updated list anywhere, you just have to go on the site and look and like I had to go click on each one and say okay is this one bookable with points or is this one not bookable. And so when we were looking at the Maldives we were looking at Six Senses properties and I think they were going for like 160,000 to like 200,000 points a night, as opposed to like the Six Senses in Kyoto, which was going for like 300,000 points a night.

So nowhere is near as good of a redemption as you're going to get with Hyatt. But I think it's pretty much on par with like the Hilton's and some of the Marriott's, the higher-end properties. They do have a fourth night free option, so if you book three nights using points or using their free night reward certificates, then you can get the fourth night free. So that's something to take into consideration.

And then they have the IHG card. So the IHG one card, it has like a $95 annual fee, and it's going to give you 140,000 point signup.

So, you know, that's going to be a good way to be able to get points to book your Six Senses stay. And it's going to give you like 26 times points for any money that you pay towards your stay. So if you again, like they have a nice Kimpton in Palm Springs that we've stayed at, certain Iberostar, some of the smaller properties. So like when we go to Disney, we may stay at like a Hotel Indigo or something similar. And you can use those stays to rack up points to book your six-months stay. And they are going to be variable in terms of what they offer, but they're all pretty much going to give you like this holistic health program and you'll get the world-class spa and wellness experience. So those are some of the properties that I would consider if you're looking for international health and wellness.

Devon Gimbel: Are any of those on the top of your list or have you booked any future stays at any of those properties just out of curiosity?

Dr. Courtney: You know, I haven't yet. So we were looking when we were we went to Mallorca this past summer and we were looking at going to Ibiza because they're you know the islands are pretty close and they have a Six Senses there. But at the time, you couldn't book Ibiza through Six Senses. But I've looked since then and it looks like it is a property that's now bookable. So we'll see. Maybe I'll end up there.

Devon Gimbel: That sounds incredible. Now, I just realized, I think most or many of the people who follow this podcast are medical professionals and so they probably familiar with some of the terms that we've thrown around. But I always try to keep in mind the fact that not everybody's going to have that same exact background. So, actually, let's take a step back real quick because you and I both talked about CME. For those people who maybe don't automatically know what CME is, can you just define that really quickly for everyone?

Dr. Courtney: Yeah. So CME is continuing medical education. And as like physicians and other healthcare professionals, we have to have a certain number of credits every year in order to maintain our like state licenses and our board certifications. And so a lot of times your employer will say that if you book CME trip and you book it and as long as it's applicable to your field of study or you know they may have certain restrictions then we'll reimburse you for it.

And so, if you're not employed, maybe you're self-employed or you have a business, then these expenses can be written off as like reimbursable, not reimbursable, but they can be written off on your taxes as part of like professional development.

So it's something you have to have anyway, if you're in any type of health profession. And so it's nice that you can make a requirement into a vacation or a trip of a lifetime.

Devon: Yes, and I love this idea. You know, back when I was still practicing full-time in a really traditional medical practice, we had a CME allowance where the practice said, you know, you can use up to, you know, X dollars a year for traditional CME activities. And for me, initially, the only things that came to my mind were I think some of those more traditional CME things like ordering. I actually had textbooks, you know, I know a lot of things are online now, but I'm the type of person actually really enjoys physical books in terms of learning.

So I would use my CME for things like new editions of, I know this is really thrilling to so many people, like new editions of classifications of tumors, you know, that were relevant for, you know, my practice or, you know, attending especially like specialty specific conferences domestically, you know, signing up to go to local conferences and things like that. And it never really occurred to me, even with my love of travel, that there could be a bridge between CME and actually more than just attending a domestic medical conference or signing up for a journal subscription with my CME funds.

And so for people who maybe are also thinking in that sort of more traditional sense of CME, can you talk a little bit more about either CME opportunities that you, your partner have taken advantage of, or other folks in the medical community that incorporate more travel into their CME activities? What does that look like?

Dr. Courtney: Right. So I was also of the mindset that, hey, I've got these dollars that I can use towards buying new scrubs, or I'll go buy a new fancy stethoscope that lets me hear everything. And so once I realized that you could, again, book these, they actually have CME trips that you can book. And so there are various organizations who will put together like CME locations. They usually try to pick a location that's fun, right?

So places that people are going to want to go. So they have a lot of trips in Hawaii, that's a big one. There was one that was like in Amsterdam this past summer. So on my podcast, I interview people and I talk about the different options that are available for adventure retreats and wellness. And so I've had people come on and they, you know, plan these CME trips to places like Morocco.

There's one that's actually going on currently, but I'm sad that I'm not at, that's going on in Morocco. So just lots of different options depending on what you're interested in. Disney though, that's a big one, especially if you have kids. Universal Studios, a lot of the options for CME are there. So you can book a Disney trip and go and get discounted park passes and, you know, spend like less than half the room rate to, you know, stay on property.

So, yeah, so there's lots of different options for CME. You just have to know where to find them.

Devon Gimbel: Speaking of that, do you have some favorite places where people can go and find these? How do people even know what's available to them? And what are your favorite places to look for these types of trips?

Dr. Courtney: Yeah, so again, it's hard to figure out exactly where to look. I think if you're part of, you know, in emergency medicine, I know I can look and see what type of emergency medicine conferences are ongoing. And then you can do a Google search sometimes and find different conferences that come up, but then you're like, is this like a legit organization? Are they really gonna give me the credit? Is this gonna qualify?

So those are the type of questions that at least came up for myself. So I've, again, I have a running Facebook group, a Prescription to Travel MD, the lounge, Doctor's Lounge, where you can go in and I'll occasionally post, you know, different opportunities that come up so that way people know how to find these different things. So I'll have people come in who do smaller retreats and smaller conferences. And these are things that you're not necessarily going to find if you're searching online for whatever reason, I guess, based on the algorithm. But you can find them if you're signed up for my newsletter, or you can find them if you're in the Facebook group.

I also have an Instagram where I post some of these opportunities that are available to people as well.

Devon Gimbel: So for people who maybe aren't physicians or are trying to use a designated, you know, employer-provided educational fund in creative ways, like we've talked about, do you have any tips for if someone is just running a search online and finds a destination or a conference internationally that they want to attend? Are there any kind of things that people should look out for or should be careful in terms of when they're evaluating one of these potential destinations or locations for a work educational related trip?

Dr. Courtney: Sure. So there are a few that are very well known organizations. So like MER, M-E-R, they have a running list of conferences every year. You can look out to, you know, 2025 this time, and you'll be able to find access to all of those conferences that are available. I think there are some that can be a little sketchy, and they'll have conferences that are offered that you can book, and you basically plan your vacation on those, you know, based on where you want to go and then they'll prepare something for you.

And I think you have to be careful with those just because your employer may or may not reimburse you for those. Some employers, like my employer specifically, won't reimburse for any type of international travel. So when I was looking to go to Amsterdam this summer, we went anyway, but we were initially looking at the CME course that was happening like that same week, but my employer wouldn't cover international destinations.

So you need to know what your employer is going to cover and what they're not going to cover. Sometimes they won't cover anything that's not specific for your occupation. So if you are an anesthesiologist and you're looking and there's like, oh I can go to the Four Seasons in Costa Rica because they're holding, you know, radiology imaging. Which some people might, you know, maybe you're an anesthesiologist and you're interested in that, but your employer may not cover it because it's not specific to your field of study.

Devon Gimbel: Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Check before, I know there's this saying, It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. But I think when it comes to getting reimbursed by your employer, that's probably not true. You actually want to find out and clarify first, you know, what is the scope of what an employer is willing to cover in terms of professional expenses? Unless, like you said, you're going to do it anyway and you're fine with that or you're fine with, you know, handling those costs on your own.

But otherwise, it's probably a great idea to make sure that you understand exactly what is your employer going to cover for you. And I'm curious if you've ever helped anybody negotiate with their employer for either CME coverage to begin with or expanded or more creative uses of CME funds. If you have tips for folks who maybe have a very limited definition of what they're allowed to use CME for, any tips you have where they can approach their employer to try to start a discussion to expand some of those options?

Dr. Courtney: You know, I'm not completely opposed to the book now and ask questions later approach. I think a lot of times I don't know that they're necessarily checking to see where you're booking these trips to. I know even when I booked a conference that was here in Las Vegas, they were asking for certificates of this and that, and I had issues with my reimbursement, but then the last time I submitted something, there were no questions asked at all. So I just submitted my receipts and when I got my next paycheck, the reimbursement was there. So I think if there's a place that you want to go, I don't think that not being able to book it because it's not reimbursable should be something that holds you back unless you're extremely worried about being able to cover the cost.

And then if not, there's always, you know, Capital One has points erased. So you can always erase some of your troop if you need to.

Devon Gimbel: So I agree. We've talked a little bit about employed professionals, but let's kind of look at this from the angle of folks who are self-employed. How do you look at wellness travel, professional development travel for people who are self-employed? Do you think that differs at all from employed professionals?

Dr. Courtney: I think it may not be something that's reimbursable, but I know myself, I do some 1099 work and so by default I'm you know considered an independent contractor and I can whatever my employer doesn't reimburse me for then I'll use as a write-off on my taxes so I'm not a CPA or a tax professional so please consult your tax professional and to see if this works for you but I know that again I can write off these trips as professional development. And I feel like maybe there are fewer restrictions. So if I want to attend the radiology conference at the Four Seasons or I want to go to Switzerland because they're doing a PEDS conference, then I may just go and do that anyway and would just be considered professional development because I don't have necessarily a board to answer to.

Devon Gimbel: I completely agree with you. This is always a great time to remind everybody that anything you hear on this podcast is for entertainment purposes only. So before you make any financial decisions, anything that's going to impact your taxes, your bookkeeping, please do refer to your financial and tax professionals and not to me or Courtney, but it's helpful to hear what your approach is to this, what your experience is with it.

Now, getting back into kind of specific credit cards and how we can leverage credit cards and points to help support our wellness, our professional development. I'm curious, beyond actually earning and using points for flights or hotel stays. Are there any specific credit card benefits or perks that you feel like are often overlooked, but that people should really benefit from leveraging when they are traveling?

Dr. Courtney: Right. Yeah. So in addition to like being able to book things like you mentioned, there are a couple of like adventure retreats that you can book, like using the Marriott card to book a safari. So there's the place in Kenya where you can book, you know, safari, but you, again, if you didn't know about it, then you wouldn't know that it's even available to you.

But being able to use points to, or not necessarily points, but using your credit card for different perks, like, or earning points, for instance. So some of the Hyatt properties will allow you to, if they have Peloton on site, you can earn points using their Peloton equipment.

So if you log in, you sign up for a Peloton account, and you'll go in and you have to commit to doing a 20-minute workout at their property, and they'll give you 100 points per workout. So they'll give you up to 1,000 points per month. And so that's 12,000 points per year if you're a business traveler and every month you're committed to going in and using their Peloton equipment, which I mean it's not a lot but it's something you know to consider and and it's going to increase the amount of time that you're actually working out in the gym.

At least I'd be motivated to go workout first. They'll pay me $2 to go and do a 20-minute workout. Sure, why not? So those are some things to consider. And then when you use your points, you can, or when you have access to credit cards, it'll give you things like discounted ski passes.

So I know last year, the Chase Sapphire Reserve had access to different parks, such as like Beaver Creek, and they had like pop-up lounges. So we went to Big Bear last year, and they had a Chase Sapphire Reserve pop-up lounge. And if you had a card, you can go and you can sit down and, you know, have some hot chocolate or, you know, have some snacks and just kind of hang out in this area that was specific for people who held the Chase Sapphire card, Amex Platinum has the $300 a month Equinox credit. So you, or not $3,000, $300 annual Equinox credit.

And so you may not have an Equinox gym near you, but maybe you're traveling somewhere and you want to pop in and get a massage. And I've heard of people being able to use that credit to access the facilities just specifically for a massage. So that's a massage that you didn't have to pay for just because you're an Amex Platinum credit card holder.

The cards will also give you access to like wellness events. So they have this thing in New York City, the class, they focus on doing fitness and breath work. So if you have the Amex Platinum card, you have exclusive access to this class. So probably better if you're living in like a big city where they have lots of activities that are going on but if you're traveling and you just happen to be in town for a weekend and they're doing these experiences you have access to that just because you're a cardholder.

They have VIP experiences that are going on in Miami for Miami Art Week. So Alo Yoga has a wellness experience that you'll be privy to because you're a Chase Sapphire cardholder. And so, if you look online, you can book it. I think it's like $55 or like 5,500 points, but you have to be a cardholder and able to have access to that experience.

So I think that's some of the cool things, some of the cool perks of having credit cards and being able to book these experiences. But again, you wouldn't know about them if you don't go looking for them. And if you don't know to look for them, then you won't and you'll miss out.

Devon: I agree. Now, before we wrap up today, I should have kind of one other area that I wanted to touch on and hear your thoughts about. And I think one of the things that I see really commonly among my physician colleagues, but again, I don't think it's specific to physicians. I actually think this is something that is just really common to North American professional culture in general, which is that I don't think we are good at resting. And I don't think that our culture is one that is really good at taking vacation.

Like, I see all these memes online that are, you know, a little bit of an exaggeration, but I think are true where, you know, it'll be a meme of the email sign off of someone who's European and it'll say something, you know, like, I'm out of the office for the month of August. I'll respond later, period. Versus, you know, the American version, which is like, I'm out of the office to have, you know, to undergo a lifesaving operation. But as soon as I recover from anesthesia, I'll be sure to get back to you very promptly, you know, and I think there is a little bit of truth to kind of how we look at rest, how we look at vacation as North Americans. And I'm curious to hear from you in all of the folks that you know and that you work with, what do you think gets in the way of more working professionals taking time off to rest and to travel?

Dr. Courtney: Right, so I think there are a lot of different obstacles that prevent us from being able to find rest and to reset and recharge. And so I see that even within my own household. Like I said, my husband's a hospitalist. He works 12 days, you know, he'll work 12 days straight every third week. And it's a lot. And so just forcing him to say, you know what, take the weekend off, take a day for yourself.

But then, you know, he's worried about the workload that he's leaving behind for his colleagues. I think that's a big one. I think finance is coming to play for a lot of people. I'm, you know, we're doctors and everyone's like, oh, well, you guys make a lot of money, but you may have student loans, you have other obligations that you have, you know, that come first before you taking a weekend for yourself to, you know, jet off to Miraval.

And so I think there are just all these things that prevent us from taking time off. I think a lot of it is that we don't realize that rest is important and that if you don't take care of yourself you're not gonna be able to show up better for your patients, you're not gonna be able to show up for your family and be the person that you need to be.

And so I try to encourage people to you know put those things aside and also create a culture within your work community where they realize, hey, it is important for me to take rest and I took a vacation, but I came back and now I'm still the team player, I'm still here to help out, but now I can show up better for you and for the rest of the team.

I think not realizing that you have access to CME as a way of being able to travel is another factor that comes into play. So maybe you don't realize that you have CME time off, so make sure that you're checking with your employer. Do I have dedicated CME time that I can take that's not considered part of my vacation time? So those are some of the things that I think can really prevent us from being able to take time off. And I think a lot of it, it's like self-inflicted.

I think we always feel like we just have to work, we have to keep going. And so I did a podcast recently with one of the docs and she was talking about, you know, just taking the time off and how everyone kind of planned. Planning is really important, right? So they planned to have a month where they all went to Greece and everyone just kind of slowed down. And, you know, they sat there for hours where they, you know, went to lunch and everyone just sat around and talked and you were just there with the people that you love and the people that you care about. And you're spending that time to slow down and then you get back to the U.S. And then you're like, oh, like it's back to business as usual because that's not the culture here. But it's a culture that we can build. We just have to, you know, foster that.

Devon Gimbel: I think that is so incredible. And I agree with you. And I think so many people are going to benefit from hearing that. Before we wrap up today, I'm just curious, are there any last tips, tricks, pieces of advice that either you wish that you'd known earlier about travel, credit cards, points, or that you would love to share with everyone?

I think the biggest thing is just to get started. I think a lot of times we stand in our own way and you feel like you have to know everything about everything before you can actually take the plunge. But just get started and yes, you'll make mistakes, but we don't cry over spilled points. We don't cry for long, but just get started. Get that one card.

And then I think once you realize all the opportunities that are out there for you, then you'll be even more encouraged to make even bigger redemptions. So right now I always joke that, you know, I'm just making like the small redemptions. I'm making the easy redemptions, but I think that's where you start. It doesn't have to be something spectacular. It can be just, I just want to take a weekend and take my family to San Diego, and I can do it, and I can do it for free.

You know, I spent two weeks in Europe. So I think just getting started and knowing that it doesn't have to be big. It just has to be something that you enjoy and you know, and you taking the time for yourself.

Devon Gimbel: Courtney, I could not agree more. Thank you so much for those words for everything that you shared today. This has been such a wonderful conversation with you. For people who are interested in learning more about you, more about what you do, where can they find you?

Dr. Courtney: Sure. Yeah, so I am prescriptiontotravelmd, so you can follow me on Instagram. I'm on Facebook. We have a doctor's lounge available for physicians and dentists and pharmacists and healthcare professionals. So you can log in there.

I'll be posting various tips and tricks that'll help get you to your next destination, as well as all the things about points because people really get excited about points and being able to learn how to use them. I have a website and I have a podcast so you'll have access to some of those conversations and again just tips and tricks to get you to your next destination as well as some of the different events and CME conferences and retreats and courses such as the points conference that we attended recently. So you'll have access to all of those things if you're following along.

Devon Gimbel: All right. Well, thank you so much, Courtney. We'll put all of that information in the show notes. Thank you for joining me here today. I appreciate your time, your wisdom so much. I really appreciate you.

Dr. Courtney: Thanks for having me, Devon.

Hey there. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Do you know someone who would benefit from hearing this podcast? Do you have someone in your life who loves to travel but doesn't love how expensive it can be? Or someone in your life, a solopreneur, entrepreneur, or business owner who wants to turn their business expenses into an amazing trip somewhere?

Sharing is caring and I would love for you to share the Point Me To First Class podcast. To celebrate the launch of the show and to help get the podcast into as many ears as possible, I'm going to be having a 100 prizes for 100 reviews travel gift giveaway for anyone who listens, follows, rates, and reviews the podcast during the next two weeks. Reviews help other people find the podcast, which means more people benefiting from learning how to travel the world using points. I would love to get at least 100 honest reviews of the podcast to celebrate the launch of the show. And you all are in luck, because one of my love languages happens to be gift-giving.

So if one of your love languages is gift receiving, we are a perfect match made in points podcast review heaven. Because when I give gifts, I don't mess around. Not only will I be giving away 100, yes, 100 of my favorite travel related items as gifts you can win for following, rating and reviewing the podcast, but these prizes are worth over $7,000 in total. And you'll be eligible to win any of the 100 prizes if you follow, rate, and review the podcast in the next two weeks. The 100 Prizes for 100 Podcast Reviews giveaway ends on Monday, April 3rd.

So submit your review today for your chance to win one of my favorite travel items. For all the details about the amazing travel inspired gifts you can win, and to learn more about how to rate and review the podcast so you can enter our great podcast giveaway, visit https://pointmetofirstclass.com/podcastlaunch. 

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.