Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Bangkok
My trip to Bangkok is about to begin! That is, it will if the jet can fly out of the horrid weather we’re experiencing today in the Detroit area. I don’t plan to write a comprehensive trip review. Instead, I’ll spit out mini-posts with anything interesting that happens as I go. All posts will be tagged “bangkok” so you can follow along (in reverse order) by browsing to: https://frequentmiler.com/tag/bangkok/
Ultimate Rewards Mall
Almost every month, the Ultimate Rewards Mall has new specials, and tomorrow morning is a new month! Usually I write a post with my predictions of what’s coming. This time it’s easy: I’m predicting very little change. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking… I’m hoping that they hold off on the big promotions until March.
The End is Near
More and more people lately have reported that their local CVS stores have stopped carrying Vanilla Reload cards. So far, all is still well in my neck of the woods, but I think its just a matter of time…
Gift cards count, or do they?
My wife was lucky enough to get in on the short lived 100K Amex Platinum card offer that required $3K of spend. She met the spend requirement by buying $3K worth of Amex gift cards (after going through TopCashBack for 1.5% back). Her statement closed last week, but no points showed up. Then, “she” sent a private message to Amex asking about the 100K points. The reply was that they saw that the points were pending and were happy to expedite the points into her account. Later that day 100,001 points showed up (yay!). I don’t know what the extra 1 point is about, nor do I know why she doesn’t yet have the 3000 points expected from the purchase of the gift cards. Still waiting…
Valentine’s Day is Coming
Yeesh. It seems too soon to think about that, but I thought I’d pass along a tip by reader JP, who wrote the following:
Here’s one for valentines day– go through the UR mall to Groupon, and buy the FTD $20 for $40 deal (San Diego). Get the redemption code, then go back through the UR Mall to FTD and receive more UR points– just apply the Groupon code at checkout.
I expect this would work, but I haven’t had a chance to look into it at all. If you’re interested, also checkout this post by MommyPoints: “Maximize Points for Valentine’s Goodies (Up to 30X).”
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Yup … Vanilla reloads missing from my local CVS, last week loads, this week nada. When I asked the guy said lots of people have been buying them up and they hadn’t been getting the refils as usual.
Was in BKK in May. Spend one night doing a food tour. That was a lot of fun. Probably 3x what the the stuff would cost otherwise but an awesome experience nonetheless that I would never would have found in a few short days.
Good luck on the trip
Could you suggest which routing I should look for from LAX to BKK? The LAX-NRT-BKK, or LAX-ICN-BKK do not show up any biz class awards for December.
sil: what kind of miles are you trying to use?
AdamH: A food tour sounds good. Mmmmmm.
@Ken Y: Yes.
Thailand DOES have Office Depots !
In the last week nearly all the DFW area CVS’s have not refilled on the Vanilla Reloads. A few stores still have a few stragglers on the rack. The Vanilla Reloads have been replaces with the new Paypal Reloads Hmmmmmm….
I agree with Greg. We did the VIP tiger temple and it was amazing! Highlight of bkk
Let us know if you find any Vanilla Reloads in Bangkok.
Can you buy Paypal load cards at CVS with credit cards? I could pay my rent to my roommate that way…
Ken Y: Yes, you can buy Paypal reload cards at CVS with credit cards.
FTD trick does not work.
But the groupon saving still covers the shipping.
FTD won’t allow you to use the groupon code if you went to their site using a partner portal (IE mileage plus shopping)
I have always been able to (grovel to) get Amex advance pending points (on 3 different 75K Biz Gold cards) after I paid the charges in full.
amex usually lets you see the signon bonus while points of purchases still pending and to come
JA is correct. Amex holds MR points for 1 month on the possibility of returns by the cardmember.