Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Did you know that there’s an Amex Offer that could potentially be used for planes, trains, car rentals, and more? Would you like to earn more cash back bonuses? Interested in who will be crowned the peoples’ champion in our Million Mile Madness challenge? All of those topis and more in this Frequent Miler Week in Review.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Million Mile Madness Recap – Help Us Decide Who Won!
Million Mile Madness is in the books! Greg, Stephen and I all completed flights on 15 qualifying SkyTeam carriers within 13 days or less. Now we need your input. Points are on the line for audience choice winner! In this post, review the details of our trips, see our pitches for why you should vote for us, and pick your peoples’ champion!
If you want to dig even further into trip summaries, see our journal posts:
- Topping it off with delicious Tapas (Nick’s Million Mile Madness travel journal)
- Mission Accomplished! (Greg’s Million Mile Madness trip journal)
- All my flight details & trip reflections (Stephen’s Million Mile Madness trip journal)
My AAdvantage love affair continues
Greg writes of his continued feelings for American Airlines miles and he is not alone. I also redeemed American Airlines miles a couple of times during our most recent challenge — including to redeem for two of the three sweet spots Greg highlights in this post. American’s partner award chart continues to offer some excellent opportunities for outsized value, particularly for connecting regions outside of the United States. In fact, in a recent post, I highlighted the fact that you can get not one but two legs in Etihad first class for the same 62,500 miles that Greg paid from Europe to the Middle East by tacking on a leg to Mumbai. That’s a steal either way!
PSA: Klook lets you book flights, car rentals, trains & more (stack with Amex Offer)
This post is a short tip, but one that you might find highly useful. While you’ve got to keep in mind the usual caveats of booking through a third party online travel agency, the Amex Offer for Klook gets a lot more interesting if it can be used, for example, on flights.
Our Favorite Credit Card Perks | Coffee Break Ep34 | 11-19-24 | Podcast
On our recent Million Mile Madness challenge, I gained a renewed appreciation of the value of Priority Pass for an international economy class traveler (a key word there is “international” since Priority Pass lounges overseas tend to be significantly nicer than those in the US). I saved a lot of money over the course of the challenge over what I would have probably spent buying a cup of coffee, a snack, a bottle of water or juice, etc thanks to that credit card perk. Did you know it’s possible to get a few Priority Pass visits each year — including restaurant access — without an annual fee? On this episode, we discuss some favorite credit card perks like that and which cards you’ll want to unlock them.
My experience obtaining a China 24 hour Transit without Visa
Greg recently had the opportunity to test out China’s short-term transit-without-visa option. I’m not entirely surprised that the process slowed his entry a bit, but overall it sounds like this worked fairly well. My own entries to China were fairly simply and painless as I have a 10-year visa, though it’s worth noting that at check-in for my flights, I was initially asked for proof of onward travel (though when I noted my visa, the airline agents seemed far less concerned with proof of onward travel). Unlike Greg, I didn’t print most of that stuff out — showing my flight info on my phone was enough for airline agents in most cases (I did print my Vietnam and Saudi Arabia visas, but I passed through those countries before China).
Best Cash Back Credit Card Offers
For some folks, Cash is King. If that’s your thing, then you may want to keep an eye on this list of the best cash back credit card offers so that you can juice up your balances. There’s no doubt that there is a lot of money on the table to be earned with a little effort. Even if you’re ultimately after airline miles and hotel points, it can be worth picking up a great cash back offer now and then to buy miles/points when on sale.
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