Wild Card Challenge final scoring and winner announced! | Special Feature Episode | 10-7-26

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The Wild Card challenge has officially wrapped, with the final scores and official winner announced in our live YouTube broadcast on October 7th, 2026. Review the scoring and listen to the live broadcast here.

As a reminder, for this challenge, our contestants picked from different wild card decks to set the parameters of their trips. First, they selected travel destinations, then hotel, airline, and transferable points cards, which provided their points and miles budgets. And finally, they selected power-ups and obstacles to make their travels a little more realistic to the challenges our readers and listeners face, and make things a little more interesting! Finally, they had to meet together in Melbourne, Australia, a destination that was revealed as a complete surprise in our card draw livestream.

Total scores after Destinations 1 & 2As a quick reminder, here were the scores each of the contestants earned after the first two destinations:

GregDestination 1 = 102Destination 2 = 106Total score = 208NickDestination 1 = 105Destination 2 = 115Total score = 220TimDestination 1 = 107Destination 2 = 123Total score = 230

Destination 3 scoringDuring the livestream on Wednesday night, we judges awarded the scores for their third and final destination: Melbourne, Australia.

Here's a breakdown of what each of them earned:

GregFlights

Wallet-friendliness – 8Ingenuity – 9Luxury – 6Duplicability – 10

Accommodation

Wallet-friendliness – 6Ingenuity – 6Luxury – 9Duplicability – 10

Activities