From Wall Street to Full-time Points Blogger: My Trip to Tokyo on Delta/ Hyatt

I recently quit my Wall Street job to focus on blogging about points and miles full-time. While it's definitely been a leap of faith, I haven't regretted it for a minute.

Since I'm a Delta and Hyatt Diamond, I worked with both companies to plan an "emancipation" trip to start this new chapter in my life and to promote a city where tourism has fallen off a cliff.

So after my last day of work, I headed directly for JFK and flew Delta to LAX and then onto Tokyo Haneda, stayed at the Park Hyatt for 3 days and while doing so, ate some amazing food, got a behind the scenes tour of the Tsukiji Fish Market and all around savored everything Tokyo had to offer.

Even though the flight/hotel were comped, the experiences and opinions in my trip report are solely mine. In fact it was a couple Flyertalkers/blog readers of mine who I met up with in Tokyo that really defined my experience. Sorry for the blog links, but this would have been too lengthy to cut and paste into FT format.

My Trip to Tokyo (Intro)
Delta BusinessElite JFK-LAX
Delta BusinessElite 777LR LAX-HND
Day 1- Arrival at Haneda, Meiji Shrine and Harajuku
Day 1- Walking Around Shibuya, Park Hyatt Spa and Tokyu Hands
My Initial Thoughts on Tokyo
Day 2- Walking around Shinjuku and Tokyu Hands Revisit
Day 2- A Tale of Three Very Different Dining Experiences
Day 3- Inside Access to the Tsukiji Fish Market and Tuna Auction
Day 3- Sushi Breakfast at 6:30am, Tempura and a Night Out in Shinjuku
Day 4- Jetlag (Hangover) Blues, Hanging out at the Park Hyatt and Delta Narita SkyClub Relaxing
Park Hyatt Tokyo Review
Return Flight: Narita to JFK on Delta 747 in BusinessElite (Old NWA World Business Class) and Economy Comfort

Do you hope to make a living blogging? Or are you trying to parlay this into a more official writing gig?

Luckily I'm making a decent living by blogging, believe it or not. My goal is to be my own boss for the rest of my life. So far, so good

Found your site a few weeks ago and have enjoyed your postings and reports. Best of luck to you on your endeavors!

How exactly does one make a living from blogging? This is relevant to my interests ha.

Ad sales. Blogs are websites and digital is all the rage right now. If you Google "make money from blogging" lots of sites will pop up. It's not easy, but it can be done.

I actually write a blog with travel information, flight/hotel reviews and restaurant/nightlife reviews in the cities I live in and when I travel. I just assumed no one would pay me to advertise.

I wish you the best of luck and my hat off to you for following your heart. I imagine that it must be extremely competitive to establish yourself in the beginning. Wouldn't the question of credibility come into play? After all, it seems that anyone that has an opinion is a critic, can formulate a sentence is a writer and who owns a camera is a photographer. How do you set yourself apart from others as an authority? How difficult is it to be objective when your travel and lodging is comped? If you give a not so favorable review, wouldn't that be like biting the hand that feeds you?

awesome trip report. Thanks for the links to the tour guide for the fish market. Have emailed him tonight to get onto one of his tours

thx

If he is going to call himself a journalist, then the golden rule is that you CANNOT accept comped hotels/flights and write a review. Such a piece would NEVER run in any reputable publication.

Sounds great, good luck! BTW I found your blog through Johnny Jet website. You guys rock!!!

I've only taken a comp once and it was only because there were no stipulations about what I had to write. It wasn't a press trip- it was simply comped airfare (nonmileage earning) and hotel (non point earning).
I also only took it for Delta (which I know would be good on the 777LR) and Park Hyatt Tokyo which has almost no negative reviews anywhere. I wouldn't have done it for sub-par brands. In the end, the trip wouldn't have happened if it wasn't comped and I think it made sense in the end. In general, I won't be taking comps because I have enough miles/points/money to do my travels on my own.

Enjoy- he is AWESOME!
I have no desire to be a traditional journalist. People want more real-time, authentic experiences and thats what I provide on my site. My trip to Tokyo was more about my experiences there (which were set up on my own using FTers/Blog members/personal research). The flight/hotel reviews were secondary in my opinion. Though I thought this crowd would be interested in them.
JJ is a great guy- got to meet him recently. We actually have pretty similar backgrounds.

I have subscribed to TPG blog for a while and found the OP's good effort.

Do what you want to do in life. You only live once.


And keep up the good site!

Love your website! I admire how you could easily quit a wall street job for a blogging; i would never have the balls to do that honestly! The cameras that you post on your blog are very clear! What camera do you use?