Zach Griff
When Zach Griff joined The Points Guy after college in 2019, he actually started out as something radically different from the high-profile travel journalist he had become known as.
His first role was as an analyst, focused on helping maximize the company’s own travel points. A points guy behind The Points Guy, if you will. Finally he asked if he could try his hand at writing articles. That hadn’t been the plan initially, but after one story led to another, the analyst role he was hired for quickly turned into a springboard for one of TPG’s most recognizable bylines.
But now, after almost seven years, Griff has turned the page at TPG and continued on his own.
He joined the growing number of journalists walking away from stable newsroom gigs to build independent homes for their work, a shift increasingly driven by factors like the disappearance of Google search and broken business models. Not to mention the feeling that one of the few safe bets left in journalism may be the one where you take a chance on yourself.
In a way, Griff was already headed that way before he realized it. His reviews and videos on social media helped him gain 252,000 followers on Instagram, among other things. It’s an audience that saw Griff drop a subtle travel influencer flex last week: A short video with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, in which Griff goes through a handful of travel hacks.
A marathon, a new baby and a big decision
As for Griff’s post-TPG era, it’s built around his recently launched From the tray tablewhich includes a newsletter as well as a site with reporting, analysis and much more.
“It took me a while to work up the courage to go out on my own,” Griff told me. “Everyone warned me it could be scary and lonely.”
He continued, “It wasn’t until I ran the New York City Marathon, my first marathon ever, that I told myself I had to do this.” Some of his mentors had even compared going independently to running a marathon.
A turning point came after the birth of his first child at the end of 2024. That’s when he took a closer look at his career. He didn’t want to run away or pursue a radical turn, but at the same time: ‘I wanted more from my work.’
Leaving the points man
Founded in 2010 by Brian Kelly, The Points Guy evolved from a points-and-miles blog to an influential travel and personal finance media brand. When Griff first started writing there, in addition to posting to Instagram and TikTok, his reporting found its own audience.
By the time he enrolled in Wharton’s full-time MBA program in 2023, he had made an arrangement that allowed him to continue reporting between classes. However, the bigger his following grew, the more he thought about what editorial freedom could look like. And about eventually making that leap, maybe even sooner rather than later.
Zach Griff, on one of the first-class flights he regularly reviews for his audience.
Zach Griff
Building From The Tray Table
From the Tray Table is Griff’s next act. Here he will cover everything from airlines to loyalty programs, hotels, points strategy and travel industry trends. He’s already been pushed out Repair story of the A320somewhat rounded Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, and shared a quick note about a Delta accident he experienced. In other words, he didn’t miss a beat. It’s just that now he’s doing all this under his own banner.
He also has his eye on filling a certain gap.
“Right now there’s a lot of division in travel journalism,” Griff said. “You have traditional journalists at established publications, and then you have creators and influencers sharing their experiences online. What you don’t really have is someone in between the two: someone with deep industry connections and journalistic integrity, who also knows how to tell accurate, well-researched stories to the next generation of travelers.”
When it comes to building a From the Tray Table community, he thinks about AMAs, livestreams, and maybe even Discord or WhatsApp groups. That’s because he knows the space well enough to understand that readers want an authentic human voice they can trust. As he put it to me: “No matter how good AI gets, it will never be able to say, ‘I’ve been there, and here’s why I think you’ll like it.'”
He doesn’t think his day-to-day routine will look all that different from his TPG life. He will still mainly travel, film and write – with, probably naturally, much more freedom now. A traveler and a new independent journalist, with miles to go.
“I really like to travel,” he said. “Every day I am grateful that I get to work in the industry I love most.”
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