Frequent Miler on the Air

On today's podcast episode, if you couldn't get enough of Basic Economy, don't worry! Delta has introduced Basic Business. We'll share a potential trick for getting 25,000 AA miles for free, and talk about Credit card Travel Credits: which are worthwhile and which are worthless. Giant Mailbag (01:10) - Joaquin says, "One thing I haven’t considered before listening to you was to monitor the price o...

Greg earned a 3-night Hyatt milestone reward, which means he's faced with a choice of what to pick. He's got 90 days to pick that reward, but he's whittled away a lot of that time and now just has a few weeks left to decide. Which Hyatt Milestone Reward should I pick? (01:22) - 30 Night milestone rewards (02:10) - Pick One: 2K Next Stay Award (03:30) - Club Access Awards (2) (04:22) - $25 FIND Exp...

Do we book speculatively, hoping for a schedule change? Reader "LR" sent us the following question: "I was intrigued by a recent post about schedule changes in another group that I follow. This particular person noted that anytime United or AA makes a schedule change of any type, you can change your flight at no additional cost to your preferred route. Sometimes you may even have flexibility withi...

On today's episode, we'll see how the 5x airline card saga continues, Nick will give us more reasons to use the Southwest app, we'll hear some exciting news about Frontier, and we'll dive deep into Hyatt's devaluation. Giant Mailbag (01:06) - More comments about our comments about there being "No airline cards offer 5x or more" Crazy Thing: Chase (03:41) - Points Boost is sometimes different betwe...

When it comes to transfer bonuses, conventional wisdom has been not to transfer unless there's specific use in mind. But sometimes the bonus is too good to ignore. Speculative Bilt transfer bonuses (00:16) - Conventional wisdom: don’t transfer without specific use in mind. But... (01:19) - With Bilt 2.0, earning hundreds of thousands of Bilt points is not so difficult anymore (04:11) - So which bo...

How are you using AI for trip planning? Frequent Miler reader Jared wrote in: I recently asked the Bilt Neighborhood Concierge AI which weekends a particular Bilt Home Away from Home hotel (Kimpton Journeyman) had availability between August and December. It gave a useful and seemingly accurate response. Have you recently found any other good uses of Bilt's or other AIs? We’ve been answering a rea...

In today's episode, we'll talk about Qatar's crazy new rules if you want to redeem rewards for friends & family, how Wyndham is going to devalue (but it might not be so bad), and we'll take a look back at the first 6 months of Bilt 2.0: The good, the bad, and where things stand now. Bilt Palladium Review: 6-month checkpoint Giant Mailbag (01:13) - Gary Leff has a couple of minor interesting no...

When you have multiple family members working together to earn travel rewards, it becomes more important to share and combine points. So which programs are best for this ability to share? (02:07) - Why Transferable Points matter (05:07) - Why transferable point sharing matters (07:20) - Read more about Citi discontinuing points sharing here And read about Wells Fargo's end to combining points here...

Book airfare through credit card portal or direct? Frequent Miler reader Mike wrote in with this question: American Express Platinum cards give you 5x points for direct bookings to airline flights. However, most airlines give you 3x to 5x for using their own co-branded cards for those same flights. Direct bookings give you more options if things go sideways (e.g., flight cancelations that require...

In today's podcast we see how Wells Fargo Attunes out, we'll talk about the PAZE craze (and why it pays to pay with PAZE), and Greg convinces Nick that a $395 Wyndham card is a good idea. Giant Mailbag (01:37) - Deya has a success story about Chase price match Find our Best Rate Guarantee coffee break episode here Card News (07:07) - Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card refresh is out (08:48) - Read mor...

Chase has been slowly rolling out a Best Rate Guarantee for Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders who book hotels through Chase Travel℠. We'll talk about what that means in today's episode. (00:51) - Chase Sapphire Reserve® Background (03:07) - The basics of the Best Rate Guarantee (07:25) - Nick's experience Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles conte...

In today's podcast episode, we'll talk about how the New Sapphire Preferred® card wows, but the new Chase to Hyatt transfer rate breaks our hearts. Giant Mailbag (01:18) - Read more about stacking Chase Instacart deals here or learning to love Instacart credits here (04:33) - Elliot talks about getting into the Instacart game (05:58) - Christine found a great Instacart stack Crazy Thing (07:47) -...

In this episode, we'll discuss Wells Fargo's Premier version of the Autograph Journey card, only available to Wells Fargo Premier clients. (01:04) - Almost identical to Autograph Journey, but this one is targeted to WF Premier customers Learn more about the Wells Fargo Premier Autograph Visa Infinite card here (02:09) - Advantages over the Autograph Journey (05:52) - Only available to Wells Fargo...

How has SAS Eurobonus award availability been in the months since the Million Mile Madness challenge? What’s the single best card for your "player two"? We answered these questions and more on the Ask Us Anything hosted live on YouTube on June 3rd, 2026. (00:38) - How many backup flights do you have booked at any one time, and how many fees does that incur? (04:43) - Has Greg tried/considered appl...

In today's episode, Greg shares the story of how Citi shut down his accounts and what's next for him. (What will he do without his beloved Prestige card?) Read more about Greg's situation with Cit here. Giant Mailbag (01:06) - Russel discusses how Barclays American Airlines card is not a way back to Citi (02:57) - Flyguy talks about also being shutdown by Citi for paying the bill from multiple che...

There have been some negative changes coming out of Citi that we'll be talking about in today's podcast episode. (00:43) - Citi Custom Cash® Card discontinued for new applications, but it may still be possible to product-change to it You can read more about this discontinuation here. (01:16) - Citi Custom Cash® Card details (04:23) - Citi had been on a roll... (04:42) - Citi points have been decli...

Should I split a points transfer into smaller buckets? Frequent Miler reader Keith wrote in with this question: I tried to transfer 560K points to Air France to snag a redemption. had previously transferred about 280k points from Amex to KLM, I thought for sure the points would have similarly come through with Chase. Sadly, the points took 4 days to transfer, and I missed my booking window. Lookin...

Today's episode will provide a whole grab bag of tips for how to find those impossible award bookings for your award travel goals. (02:32) - Here's a grab bag of techniques, and keep in mind it's often necessary to use multiple (03:09) - Be flexible! (06:48) - Look towards the end of the booking schedule: use points that can book farther out (08:26) - Positioning flights (20:59) - Programs that re...

The World of Hyatt new award charts are live now, and we have thoughts! We'll give our first impressions in this episode, and you can read more about the new award charts here. (00:25) - World of Hyatt's new award charts are live (01:44) - Where it hurts the most (04:05) - It's not all doom and gloom Read more about our first impressions here. (11:55) - Analysis Subscribe and Follow Visit https://...

Earn 8x or redeem with Chase Travel℠ Points Boosts? Frequent Miler reader Bryant wrote in saying... With the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card providing 8X points on travel and hotel, doesn’t it always make sense to book through Chase and get the multiplier? That being said, what then is the best way to utilize the points to maximize their value? We’ve been answering a reader or listener question at th...

As more and more people get into the points & miles game, we're seeing an acceleration of devaluations. Opportunities to earn points disappear. Point prices go up. Transfer ratios go down. Is this the beginning of the end? Will the points game survive? Giant Mailbag (00:46) - Gil has a warning story about being Bonvoyed by Bonvoy... Boundless Main Event: Will the points game survive? (06:28) -...

Blogging on the road is pretty easy, but podcasting from the road is a different story. In this episode, we'll talk about how. (01:12) - Internet issues (05:39) - Microphone issues (14:27) - Improvised laptop stands (19:38) - Lighting issues (dark hotel rooms, cars, etc.) Subscribe and Follow Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this,...

My credit card application was declined. Now what? We get this kind of question a lot. And the truth is, credit card application strategies may vary by bank. For example, you can read our Complete Guide to credit card application rules (by bank) here. Let's say you have a letter that says there were too many new accounts, too much available credit, not enough usage of existing credit, etc. Then wh...

We talk a lot about the ultra-premium credit cards with expensive annual fees, but there are plenty of people interested in credit cards with more modest annual fees. Luckily, there are some great $95 credit cards that can be supplemented with fee-free cards for a great travel rewards strategy. Giant Mailbag (01:20) - Melissa writes in with a question about locking in Hyatt prices before May 20th...

With most ultra-premium cards it's possible to simply add up how much you value each perk and see if it meets or exceeds the annual fee, but this card is mostly valuable for its high earning rate from spend... It's definitely worth $495 in the first year due to the welcome bonus, but what about after that? (01:38) - Palladium Card details Learn more about the Bilt Palladium card here (02:37) - Bil...