This week on Frequent Miler, Greg provides a master class in master stackery with his Marriott mattress run, we compare two competing offers for the same credit card, you can learn about how to take a shortcut to airline elite status through hotel programs, and more.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
My Marriott Mattress Run
Greg found himself one night short of Marriott Titanium status, so he needed to make a mattress run. With elite-level stackery, he turned what would have cost $100 into a net cost of less than $40 and a masterclass in stacking rewards. You should definitely read this even if you’ll never need a mattress run because the way he stacked this deal is how you should try to attack every paid stay.
When is an expiration date not an expiration date? When it’s on a Marriott free night certificate.
Marriott giveth, but not for long. Some members who achieved 75 elite nights with Marriott in 2024 recently selected a 40K free night certificate as their 75-night choice benefit. Those who selected that certificate during the first few days of January were initially awarded a certificate with an expiration date of 12/31/26. However, Marriott later went back and changed the expiration date of those certificates to 12/31/25Â with no notification — members were just left to find it on their own in their online accounts.
Airline Elite Status via Hotel Stays | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep289 | 1-10-25
It’s possible to earn easy (low-level) airline elite status through hotel elite status. Do the Marriott partnerships with United and Air Canada or the Hyatt partnership with American Airlines matter to you? Should they? Watch this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air for our thoughts.
Which is better: 3x everywhere or $200 back on $500?
We sometimes see popular cards that offer different iterations of the welcome bonus. Would you rather have 3x on all purchases for a year on up to $20,000 in spend or 20,000 points ($200 back) after $500 spend in the first 3 months? In this post, I compare the offers and required spend to maximize. You might be surprised by which offer probably wins out.
Greg’s experience booking a Preferred Hotel with Choice points | Coffee Break Ep40 | 1-7-25 | Podcast
Greg took the plunge yet again and booked a Preferred Hotel using Choice Privileges points. On a recent podcast episode, we covered the harrowing tale of the booking process. Despite some inconveniences ahead of his stay, Greg stuck with it and thankfully completed the stay without further issue in terms of the points and miles end of things. It sounds like the hotel itself wasn’t quite perfect, but nonetheless I think Greg came out ahead on the deal.
Choice Privileges improvements – RewardSavers & 50-week award calendar now live
Choice Privileges made some positive changes this week, finally making awards bookable far in advance of a stay. Whereas in the past, you could book an award stay no more than 100 nights in advance, you can now book 50 weeks in advance. RewardSavers are now here for choice. That was a Radisson feature that offers some properties at a discount over their “ordinary” award pricing (mostly during off-peak season). One minor devaluation I noticed is that the maximum award price has increased a bit — one Cambria property I’d been looking at for an upcoming stay increased from 30,000 points per night to 37,500 points per night, which is more than I ever previously remember seeing for a Choice property. Still, these changes are mostly good for consumers at this point.
What’s in Nick’s wallet, January 2025 edition
Ever wonder what’s in our actual wallets that we carry around for day to day use? In this post, I share what’s in my actual wallet right now. To be clear, I’m not saying this is a good collection of “right now” cards, and it only represents a tiny sliver of the total cards that we have, but it is an honest look at what I’m carrying today and why.
Hyatt Regency Delhi: Bottom Line Review
Tim stayed at the Category 1 Hyatt Regency Delhi a couple of times last year and to me it looks great. A suite and a club lounge for 5,000 points per night is always a win in my book. Low category Hyatt properties abroad always make it hard to consider other award programs because the points price of a Hyatt Category 1 is just about as good as it gets.
Delta’s excellent status match (status for up to 2 years)
Delta has renewed their status match challenge for 2025 and it yields the opportunity to earn Delta elite status for nearly two years if you’re able to match now and meet requirements (which could be completed almost entirely through credit card spend) over the next 90 days. Given that it’s tax time, that could make it far easier to meet spending requirements.
Shortcuts to Hyatt elite status and Milestone Rewards
World of Hyatt Globalist status is widely thought to be the best hotel elite status to be had, but don’t sleep on Hyatt’s milestone rewards, either. Even for those who would complete 40 or 50 nights per year, the milestone rewards can still be highly valuable. In this post, we discuss some shortcuts to elite status, though keep in mind that milestone rewards require earning elite night credits regardless of your status level. But milestones can still be earned through credit card spend (or, more likely, though a combination of stays and spend).
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals to be sure you grab those before they’re gone.
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