If you learn a few advanced tricks, you can book awards for less miles than you’d think, and for better products or flights than you might think as well.
Main Event: Advanced Award Booking Techniques
Mailbag
(01:07) – About our Coffee Break: Earn miles while saving and paying for college | Coffee Break Ep31 | 10-28-24 | Podcast
See episode 31 of Coffee Break “Earn miles while saving and paying for college” here.
(01:36) – Giftcards dot com added fee – it still seems to be earning GCdotcom rewards, but might not last
(02:14) – One reader says as of 2024, you can rollover 529s into Roth IRAs.
Million Mile Madness Challenge Update
Learn more about our ongoing challenge at https://millionmilemadness.com
(05:44) – Quick recap
SAS Eurobonus allows points pooling (Read more about SAS points pooling here.)
(06:52) – Stephen is all booked!
Read Stephen’s Million Mile Madness journal here.
(08:35) – Read Nick’s Million Mile Madness journal here.
(11:36) – Greg: “Speed and Style”
Read Greg’s Million Mile Madness journal here.
Mattress Running the Numbers
(17:05) – Marriott Homes & Villas promo: Stay 2+ nights & spend $1k+ to earn 30K bonus points
Read more about the Marriott Homes & Villas promo here.
Awards, Points, and More
(18:24) – Choice enhances program in 2025
Read about Choice Privileges improvements coming in 2025 here.
(20:19) – Virgin Atlantic’s dynamic award pricing is live
Read more about Virgin Atlantic’s dynamic award pricing here.
(23:03) – United increasing elite requirements for 2025
(24:41) – DOT Refund Rule
(26:56) – JetBlue’s excellent status match
Find our episode about JetBlue’s status match here.
Main Event: Advanced award booking techniques
(27:39) – Last minute bookings/changes
(29:53) – Same day changes
(32:09) – What is Skiplagging?
(35:37) – Mix cabins for lower prices
(39:25) – Start to End Distance based pricing
(43:37) – Weird pricing
(45:50) – Distance based award tricks…
(51:59) – Avoid sucky programs
Question of the Week
(1:01:33) – How can I time an Amex Platinum consumer card downgrade to gold card in order to get maximum credits from each, and what happens if I upgrade again later… would I get the benefits again?
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Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
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Hello @Nick Reyes and @Greg,
Thank you for another great episode. One thing I want to add is that often when booking award tickets for a future date, the airlines tend to change the schedule and provide free change/cancellation for the tickets. Ex: AA frequently changes the flight timing 2-3 months before the flight, so I tend to book the cheapest flight (non-desirable) and then change it to a desirable option when they do a flight schedule change.
One question: On the automatic refunds in the DOT rules, will this apply to award tickets as well?
One data point I just discovered on the bad partners list. Despite what the terms say, when I made an Etihad booking on AA a couple weeks ago, my expiration date was updated to 18 months from the booking I made.
I’m way less nervous about totally squandering too many miles because I messed up my points transfer for a 5k each way booking this spring.
On the automatic refunds in the DOT rules – are we sure an airline won’t just refund a ticket rather than rebook you on another flight, especially in a challenging situation where they’re needing to re-accommodate a lot of people? When my flight is canceled, I almost always want to be put on the next flight, not get my money back. I really don’t want to be stranded somewhere needing to buy a one-way walkup fare to get home, after they cheerfully reimburse my cheap ticket.