Every month, the Frequent Miler team takes your questions live on YouTube.
We normally hold Ask Us Anything at 9pm on the first Wednesday of the month. That means that our next Ask Us Anything session will therefore be live at 9pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 4.
And of course, the best way to make sure you don’t miss these live episodes is to subscribe to our YouTube channel here and click the bell icon next to the “subscribe” button to enable notifications from our channel.
You can watch the most recent Ask Us Anything video below!
Want to catch up on past Ask Us Anything recordings? Click here.
More info
Join us once a month on our Frequent Miler YouTube channel. We’ll be there to chat, answer questions, and joke around. See you there!
- When: the first Wednesday of every month at 9pm Eastern Time, so March 4 this month.
- Where: Our Frequent Miler YouTube channel. Subscribe now, here.
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It is often suggested to book a flight closest to what I want for points and destination, watch for better deals and rebook. Could you describe how to do the rebooking without losing points or paying fees? Some airlines charge fees if you cancel. I don’t think trip insurance applies in this situation
Any speculation/news on additional travel partners for Wells Fargo? I’m trying to justify holding onto the card for another year, but having trouble doing so.
Do you report profits earned from buying groups in your schedule-C? What CPP value do you choose for profits earned in points/miles?
Question for this months ask us anything. I watched all the frequent milers family videos but im curious about Nick’s strategy/how he handles this when he travels with his kids 1) Do you always try to find business class since you have 4 people or do you mix n match? 2) How do you book hotel rooms since most rooms state only 2 occupancy
I have a question for Stephen and Carrie. Now that I am retired my wife and I are interested in finding rentals for several weeks at a time. I am pretty good at finding good properties on Airbnb and VRBO for several days but have less experience with navigating longer term rentals. Do you have any tips on how to find good locations and get good deals?
Are your stays in the US or overseas? If they’re in the US, on Airbnb check pricing for stays of 31+ days. Many states don’t charge tax for stays of a month or more (see this post for more details). With hotels, you usually have to proactively ask for a refund of the tax. With Airbnb though, they seem to automatically remove the tax when booking.
Many Airbnb hosts also offer a substantial discount for month-long bookings. It could also be worth reaching out to the host before booking if you find a property that you’re particularly interested in. Explain that you’re interested in a long term stay and ask if they’d be willing to offer a larger discount for that kind of booking.
When doing a search on Airbnb, make sure you use the filter options to pick anything that’s a must-have for a longer stay: Wi-Fi, a kitchen, free parking, x number of bedrooms/bathrooms, washer/dryer, etc. That’ll help narrow down the properties, then use the price slider to whittle the list down even further.
I’ve never made a booking through Vrbo, so I can’t really offer many recommendations on that front.
With regards to good locations, do you mean in general because you’re happy to visit anywhere in the world, or finding a good location in any given city? If the former, I think Airbnb lets you search by country or even continent. If the latter, try searching online for the best neighborhoods to stay in a particular city. You could also take a look at Google Maps and check the hotel options in certain neighborhoods. If you have a Hyatt Regency, Crowne Plaza, Renaissance, etc., you’re probably looking at a business district. If you see an area with brands that are predominantly ones like Days Inn, Red Roof, Quality Inn, Super 8, etc., it might mean it’s a part of town you might not want to walk around in late at night.
Oh thanks. Those are good tips.
Most of our longer trips are international. I usually spend quite a bit of time using Google Street View and the like to find good areas. I hadn’t thought of looking at where hotels are, like you suggest. It makes sense and also explains one reason I prefer Airbnb over hotels for longer stays, which is that hotels (and especially chain hotels) are rarely in neighborhoods where I want to stay for any length of time.
I also only tend to book properties that have had numerous reviews and are rated at least 4.4/5. Read the reviews too as that can help give a sense as to whether it’s a dodgy neighborhood.
Thanks! Actually I have a secret weapon there. I send the link to my wife and she is great at sniffing out the little complaints and inconsistencies in the reviews that I miss.
Perfect!
Can you please address Visa or Mastercard gift cards for Amex at gas stations. How much can you spend and how often before having a problem? There isn’t a lot to buy at gas stations. How much additional spend should you make when buying the gift cards at the gas stations? Thank you!
I have aa aviator red, which provides free check in. I’ve booked a aa flight in alaska website. can i claim my free checkin bag? do i need to do anything before going to airport?
Question for this month’s Ask Us Anything – What specific Hyatt properties have you booked/will you be booking before the upcoming award chart changes?
I’m curious what type of points/miles strategy you would use in our situation.
My wife and I pet/house sit for folks all across the country, and we’ve started to branch out internationally. Our housing accommodations are therefore taken care of (save for an occasional hotel we book before early or after late flights, if necessary). Many people we sit for also usually allow us to use their vehicle.
I know, in this hobby, the more flexibility you have the better. Because of the way we travel, though, we usually don’t have the luxury of knowing when we’re going to be traveling. We get pet sitting opportunities sent to us each evening and cherry pick the ones we’re interested in doing.
So our travel schedule is dictated by the people we’re sitting for.
What would your credit card points/miles strategy be in our situation? …don’t really need to worry about hotel or car rental bookings, prefer non-stop, business/first class (or anything with decent leg room… I’m 6’3″ tall), and need to be able to cancel/change for free or for a reasonable cost.
If it helps, looking back over the past couple years, for domestic flights, we’ve flown mostly United and AA (but have no particular loyalty to either). We’ve done 2 international pet sits in the last 2 years.
And, here are our current point balances (we’re also working on 125K AMEX Bus. Gold SUB and a 100k Citi Strata Elite SUB)…
221,196 Alaska Airlines (Atmos Rewards)
188,683 Amex (Membership Rewards)
95,254 Capital One
71,742 Hilton (Honors)
52,300 British Airways (Club)
45,664 Wyndham Rewards
32,599 American Airlines (AAdvantage)
16,352 US Bank (Altitude Rewards)
16,245 Chase (Ultimate Rewards)
3,500 Aegean Airlines (Miles & Bonus)
2,654 Bilt Rewards
2,481 Citibank (ThankYou Rewards)
1,980 United Airlines (Mileage Plus)
738 JetBlue Airways (TrueBlue)
685 Southwest Airlines (Rapid Rewards)
500 Hyatt (World of Hyatt)
299 Bank Of America
28 Hawaiian Airlines (HawaiianMiles)
You might get more responses in the Facebook Insiders group than here.
I actually thought the FM team looked at this page when they were doing their Ama show. That’s why I posted it here. I’m not sure where we’re supposed to post questions for the AMA shows.
For issuers other than Amex, is it risky to buy merchant-branded gift cards to hit mininum spend for SUBs? Chase seems fine from experience, but what about US Bank (specifically biz cards), Cap 1, Citi, BOA, or Cardless? Also, I’ve heard that when buying in-store it helps to add a candy bar or something to make it less obvious, but what if you are buying GCs from a vendor online, such as Doordash Gift Cards or Paypal Gift Cards, where the vendor name shows the purchase is clearly gift cards?
What you meant to include: “Here is a link to add this to your calendar”.
What would you do with 150k TAP points now, given that TAP will tax them away at about 25k miles/year under their invidious subscription terms?
Is there a difference between Bilt 2.0 points and Bilt 2.0 “housing points”?
Pasting again…What is the difference between Qatar Airways miles and Qatar Airways Avios points ? Does a QR flight earn both or only one ? Is there a expiry date on either of these ? I know Avios can be used for BA awards etc.
https://frequentmiler.com/avios-complete-guide-british-airways-qatar-iberia-aer-lingus-finnair/
What airlines would you recommend transferring 100k AMEX points? I may cancel the card before renewal next month.