At its core, Frequent Miler is a blog about the miles & points “game”. The game goes like this: we take advantage of marketing offers to earn huge numbers of miles & points. Next, we take advantage of “sweet spot” awards to get the most value from those miles & points. Repeat… Travel… Enjoy… See “The Games We Play” for more information.
Who Is Frequent Miler?
Stephen
AuthorStephen Pepper isn't a Dr or a Sergeant.
What Is Frequent Miler?
You’ve probably heard of other sites that sound similar. Why should you specifically visit Frequent Miler?
Readers Come First
Most points & miles blogs make their money from credit card affiliate links. If you click through one of these links and get approved for a credit card, the blog gets paid a commission. That’s true for Frequent Miler too. The difference is that we never display our affiliate links if we know of a better public offer. For example, it’s common for an affiliate link to lead to a 40,000 point bonus at the same time that a 50,000 point offer is available which doesn’t pay a commission. We only display the better offer. As a result, we believe that our credit card pages are the best on the internet.
Further, our posts are driven by our interests, not by a desire to “sell” credit cards. If we write that we love a credit card perk, it’s because we’re truly excited about it, not because we want you to sign up through our affiliate links. In fact, you’ll find just as many posts singing the praises of cards in which we don’t earn affiliate commissions as those we do. The same is true in reverse. If we don’t like a card we’ll tell you so even if it means losing commissions.
We Analyze The Heck Out Of Things
We’re known for our in-depth analyses of rewards cards, special offers, rewards programs, and much more. If you want to know whether a deal is worth doing and how to maximize value from it, this is the blog to read. We collect our best in-depth posts on our resource page here or select from the topics below.
We Have Fun
We love what we do. The content on this site exists because we write about topics we’re excited about. We love the game, and the excitement shows in our writing.
For the last two years we’ve engaged in (ruthless) but friendly competitions to have a little fun and test out miles & points or travel concepts.
Not only are the Frequent Miler challenges a ton of fun for us and our followers, but it can lead us to discover many, many great deals that we then share with followers. The most spectacular deal found during the 40K to Far Away challenge was the ability to fly from anywhere in the US to Hawaii for only 7,500 points! You can read more about the challenge and what we learned by clicking here.
We plan to do similar challenges at least once a year, but maybe more often. Of course, our fun isn’t limited to an occasional challenge. Nick and Greg do a video and podcast each week (Frequent Miler on the Air) where we discuss the latest miles & points topics, argue about who’s right or wrong, and generally have a great time. Viewers and listeners regularly tell us how much they enjoy listening in. To subscribe, search for Frequent Miler on whatever podcast app you use, or subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here: youtube.com/c/thefrequentmiler. We also enjoy meeting our readers! Once every two or three months we visit you. Visits usually involve a few presentations and plenty of opportunities to chat. We call this series “FM to Go“. Click here to read all about it.
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Luxury lodging... on points | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep252 | 4-26-24
01:21:32
Hilton Takes on Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) | Coffee Break Ep08 | 4-23-24
19:13
Shortcuts to AA elite status | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep251 | 4-19-24
01:11:30
United blocking partner awards | Coffee Break Ep07 | 4-16-24
18:48
10 Tips for Rocking IHG One Rewards | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep250
01:23:09
Which is the best Capital One Miles card? | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep249 | 4-5-24
01:03:19
Which program do you have the most love/hate relationship with? | Ask Us Anything Ep66
59:32
How to find and book Preferred Hotels with Choice points
06:39
Robinhood Gold 3%: Too good to last? | Coffee Break Ep06 | 4-2-24
20:01
The Best Path to Priority Pass | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep248 | 3-29-24
01:16:01
In Ask Us Anything Episode 65, Stephen mentioned a firefly festival in IN and a spreadsheet he has of stuff to see in every state. Um….any chance he’d be willing to share that.
Hi Team…….Love the site and appreciate the content very much. I have a question about Companion Pass please. I was awarded it on 7/15/23 (through 2024), so given that when did or does the calculation for the next one start and run through?
Recently in Amex pop up jail. Received Amex B Plat 150k offer. Approved. My plan was to use Plastiq pay mortgage to meet 15K SUB. It’s a no go it won’t process. Can you fore see any downside to cancel card before any spend placed on it? Aware of pre paying taxes and the usually SUB spend. Any thoughts on cancelling.Neg/pos.
Love your site.
Have you stopped giving readers a notification when Staples does no activation fee VGCs or MCGCs? I always find it helpful. Thx!
Yep, we still publish posts whenever they run these deals.
I used to get email notifications from Frequent Miler for these hot deals. Haven’t gotten one in months. Anything just should do to get future notifications? Did I get unsubscribed?
I’m not sure what’s happened there. We have three different email subscription options:
You can subscribe to one of those options here & that way you’ll be notified about the Staples deals 🙂 https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/
I just came back from target, wanting to purchase some airbnb gift cards and they said they do not give the 10% discount or the 5% red card discount.
The deal on Airbnb gift cards this week is to get a $20 Target gift card free when buying $200 Airbnb gift cards rather than it being a 10% discount.
With regards to the 5% RedCard discount, you would get that despite what they say as you get the 5% discount on all third party gift cards, but not Target gift cards. The way these deals work is that to calculate the 5% Target subtracts the value of the Target gift card from the value of the third party card and gives the discount on that. With this particular deal, you’d therefore get a 5% discount off $180 of value which is $9. That means paying with a RedCard would cost you $191 and you’d get a $200 Airbnb gift card and a $20 Target gift card.
You can do this deal online too, so no need to go into the store to purchase if they’re not sure how it works.
I have a question. Is there a way to use BA miles to get to fly Lufthansa to Berlin? I’ve heard their business class flights are great. Any other great ways to utilize BA miles to get to German and not have to pay those fuel charges? I’d rather not have to go Iberia to Madrid first. Air Canada? Not sure….
Hi! Any advice on keeping the T-mobile autopay discount while still using a credit card? Set up autopay and then go in manually a few days before and pay the majority of the bill, leaving a small amount for autopay to bill? Thx so much!
Yes, that works. You can even manually pay the full balance with a credit card after receiving the bill and retain the autopay discount provided you keep your checking account as your default autopay option.
Hi Frequent Miler, Requesting your thoughts on this. Hyatt emailed today with a promotion around Mr. and Mrs. Smith. When I first read the title I was excited as I have my eyes on several MMS properties I’m hoping to book with points. Then I started reading the email and was disappointed to see the MMS is not integrated with Hyatt yet. Then when I fully digest what Hyatt was offering and read the fine print, I felt despair! The Hyatt is selling MMS gift cards that are only valid for MMS bookings and not valid at Hyatt (see copy from FAQs below). This would seem to suggest that Hyatt intends to maintain MMS as completed separate from Hyatt. Which would seem to mean that we’ll never be able to use Hyatt points to book MMS. I had been dreaming of using Hyatt points to affordably book one of MMS choice properties in the South Pacific (and stockpiling UR points to make the booking), but now it seems this will never happen …
Can you please provide your thoughts?
I always appreciate your posts and all the expertise of offer up on the points world.
Thank you!
Daniel
Here’s a link to the FAQs – https://mrmrssmith.redeam.com/detail/mms-gift-cards?FAQs=true
Yeah, I found that promotion discouraging too. I HOPE that this is just a stop-gap and that Hyatt will integrate Mr & Mrs Smith for real (like they did with SLH) in the future, but I don’t have any inside info one way or the other about that.
Listening to the podcast today about the option of student loan payments via the gift college gift cards got me thinking. Is there a way that makes sense to pay college tuition and earn points? Not student loans and not 529 accounts. Actually paying the school. My daughters college charges a 3.5% fee to use a credit card to pay tuition. I just don’t see the value in paying the fee. Maybe I’m wrong? I’d love some insight!
I don’t know of any great way to do that in your case. Some colleges don’t charge credit card fees and so those are great opportunities. In your case, you could use a service like Plastiq to pay but you’d still incur nearly a 3% fee. That can be worth it when trying to meet the minimum spend requirements for a big welcome bonus.
Just saw your podcast. Wanted help on “rebooking” an award ticket. Heading to Patagonia and used 57,000 AA miles for a one-way economy ticket to BA from San Diego. I see now that through Points Yeah that you mentioned, that same ticket is now 25,000. How best to claw back those miles? Can that be done?
If the cheaper award is still available (you should double check via aa.com), then simply cancel the other booking and book this one. AA allows free cancellations.
I am trying to figure out how to get a question on Ask Us Anything.
My question is: what is the educational background of the team? Mine is accounting and it seems to me that a detail focused background like accounting or engineering is more suited to being passionate about this hobby.
Thanks for everything guys. I occasionally “ point the way” to future coverts and include this blog as my favorite.
Julie
Thanks for the question. This is a fun one, so I’ve made a note of it for the next Ask Us Anything 🙂
I found a great deal on AA (for a JAL flight), but I only have Amex and Capital One points. Can I put that AA flight on hold, then use a travel partner that takes my CC points to book it? If so, would I just call that travel partner and give them the information, then remove the hold so that the seat shows up? Or is that just not possible? Thanks!
The answer here is both simple and complex.
1) You can’t “put the flight on hold” via American Airlines unless you’re going to book it with American Airlines miles. You can’t transfer Amex or Capital One points to American Airlines, so you don’t want to put it on hold with American Airlines. The partner with whom you book won’t see the seat once it is on hold and there is no guarantee that the seat will go back into inventory at all nor any definitive time as to when it will go back into inventory if it does when you remove the hold.
2) Whatever great deal you’ve found on the flight via AA is irrelevant since you don’t have AA miles. The good news is that a JAL flight that is available to book with American Airlines miles should be bookable with other oneworld miles and you do have access to some oneworld partners with your points. But whether it’s a “great deal” or not is going to vary from one airline to another as you’ll find different prices through different programs.
3) Given your Amex and Capital One points, your best options are probably going to be Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (at either 75K from the west coast or likely 85K from the East Coast plus about $250 in taxes & fees if you’re departing the US. British Airways Avios charges 77,250 points one-way from the west coast (or more from other cities depending on distance) — unfortunately, you just recently missed a transfer bonus from Amex to Avios. There is currently a 25% bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Avios, but it doesn’t sound like you have those.
If you’re connecting, Asia Miles is probably your best bet since everything over a certain total distance in one direction will be 85K miles.
Air France miles can also be used to book Japan Airlines, but the value is generally poor.
Unfortunately, there are no oneworld partners other than American where you’ll avoid paying the ~$250 in taxes & fees one-way.
Hope that helps!
Thank you for such a thorough response, it’s immensely helpful.
Just a follow up:
I called Cathay and while on the phone with them, cancelled my hold with AA. The flight came up and they booked it for me. It was 75,000 Asia Miles and $250. They put the reservation on a 3 day hold and I transferred the points from Capital One, which took 30 minutes to show up in my Cathay Account.
I enjoyed the insights shared in “Greg’s point earning strategy.” I wonder if you folks would consider dedicating a full FrequentMiler email posting to a more complete discussion of the Curve Card benefits, uses, strategies, which cards and card issuers the system does and doesn’t work with, restrictions, risks and downside, etc. It is new to me and in doing a web search on the subject, most reviews are older and come from the UK, with a European, not a domestic perspective.
I am wondering if there is travel insurance available that would cover hotel bookings made with free night certificates or points and if so, how would they determine the value in cover the accommodations since point or certificate reimbursement seems unlikely? Thanks for any insights!
Great question. I’m not aware of anything like that. Tip: if you are inside the non-cancellation window with a hotel, you might still be able to change dates without penalty. So, try changing dates to sometime far in the future and then later cancel if that date doesn’t suit your needs.
Tagging on to Greg’s advice here, I just did this about a week and a half ago. I realized I had forgotten to cancel a hotel reservation made with a Marriott 85K Free Night Certificate and it was beyond the cancellation deadline. I was able to change the reservation online by myself to a date far in the future….and then I was well in advance of the new cancellation deadline.
Hi, and thanks for doing what you do! You’ve opened up a whole new life in retirement. Maybe this isn’t directly related to points/miles, but what tools do you recommend for getting around language barriers? My SO not only refuses to play the game, he’s now protesting travel to any non-English speaking countries…so this issue is definitely affecting my points redemptions. Help!
I imagine there are likely all kinds of apps, but I use Google Translate. You can type or use voice-to-text to say something in English, then select any language for that to be translated to. It translates that into text, but I think it also gives you the option to have it say what you’ve written down in that language.
To translate something in another language to English, the app has a great feature where you can use your phone’s camera to translate things. You just look on your screen and it’ll display English on the screen where the foreign text should be.
Depending on your budget, you could look into taking walking tours with a guide who speaks English. Many large tourist attractions also provide guides in English, while places with audio tours using handheld devices will always have an option to listen to it in English. Similarly, hop-on, hop-off bus tours in foreign countries where you’re listening to a prerecorded taping will have English language options too. We’ve done that in Dubai and Paris.