Your situation is a lot different from OP's and mine. We're the other half of FT that doesn't travel for work (or at least not anymore), accumulating millions of points but love to travel and thus rely solely on welcome bonuses

Dont get me wrong, i sometimes have tons of points sitting in my DL account waiting for a decent redemption (go figure) and occassionally, i would say f it, and treat my family to a 4 day vacation up north in SF or some resort town in mexico. I feel great about it too and i wouldnt have a problem doing something like that for a friend. But this sort of trip is far more complex and different to someone like OP's friend whos idea of a vacation is spending a weekend in a mexican beach resort. This sort of trip to him falls into the "once in a lifetime trip" category whereas we do trips like this multiple times a year.

From my experiences, ive learned at the cost of 2 friendships that you have to be a certain type of person to live this lifestyle. There are those that dont like travel and those that love it (mexican beach resort doesnt count). Under those that like travel, there are again 2 different types: those that travel and those that want to travel. Its been mentioned a couple oftimes on FT but the latter type would list travel as a hobby, being too dumb the know the difference between desire and hobby. The same people also prefer to spend their discretionary income on things such as nicer cars, video games, whatever, before traveling, like many of my friends. The former type, like many of us on FT, put travel first. I live in los angeles and i dont have a car anymore. I use my moms or my sisters whenever i absolutely need it and take public transportation instead. Yes, public transportation in LA....

And what i learned is that youll never get your friends in this case to adopt the same priorities as yours. If you really want a travel buddy, youll have to come across someone already like you. Its hard i know, we live in a country where the majority doesnt have passports and most of the ones that do feel culture shock when crossing the canadian border. But until then, go solo. I actually find it much more rewarding anyways

Trust me, its never worth losing your friendship over a clash between lifestyles or hating him in the end for babysitting him throughout the trip. A friend of mine recently asked if i wanted to this "once in a lifetime" trip to india for 3 weeks. I politely declined and went alone to ethiopia and somalia instead and today is the last day of that trip.

Feel free to call me out on anything if you complelety disagree but sorry for the long post.

Love,

Phil @ simba lounge in nairobi