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, June 3.
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 June 3.
- Where: Our Frequent Miler YouTube channel. Subscribe now, here.
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What is the teams thoughts on worst credit card SUB of all time? I found online if you had opened a JAL USA Mastercard credit card you would get a stuffed animal? Any others the team can think of? Thank you.
Looking for advice on a United travel credit / refund situation.
I booked a United flight with cash. The flight was delayed, and after going back and forth with United, the agent told me I would get my money back as a travel credit.
I can now see the amount in my United account as a travel credit, but the credit says I need to fly by a specific date. That date does not work with my availability, so I may not be able to use the credit before it expires.
Questions for the group:
What would you do next?
Thank you!
I have it on good authority that the major banks don’t have technical glitches with their websites. Unlike Bilt, they are far too professional to have such things happen to their web pages. Yet, it was reported that Qantas disappeared from Amex’s list of transfer partners. DDG reached out to Amex and was told it was a technical glitch. Qantas appears again as an Amex transfer partner.
Question: Are we to expect more unprofessional things coming from Amex?
question for the ask us anything. Nick always talks about traveling with his entire family and he talks about having backup flights and backup to his backup flights… I would be curious to know how many backup flights he has booked at anyone time and how much taxes and fees he is paying for flights that will likely be canceled and refunded. It seems like he might easily have thousands of dollars ties up in these backup flights.
Has Greg tried/considered applying for a Discover card as a way to get “in” with Capital One since he has been unable to get approved for Capital One cards in the past?
With today’s Amex transfer bonus to Flying Blue, I tried to transfer some miles to book a domestic reward, but they did not go through – Amex support said it “was rejected by the partner.” I have successfully booked a different reward flight with miles transfered from Rove and Wells Fargo last month.
Any insight on why it was rejected and what I should do to fix it? I read on FlyerTalk that Flying Blue’s fraud algorithm is twitchy if you have only booked reward flights and it was recommended to credit a SkyTeam flight to FB before doing award redemptions.
Thanks for all you do!
question for Ask Us Anything – would it be a good strategy to get a JetBlue credit card now? With lots of talk or speculation as to a merger might it be a way to increase the points balance at the acquiring airline? I’m on West coast so JetBlue is not much of a player for me but I might be willing to make a bet on the credit card.
Which airline looks the most possible – United or AA?
It seems like business class can sometimes vary widely within the same airline. Airlines with large fleets may offer a new product, but it’s only available on a few routes, while most of their planes are flying an older, dated product. How do you make sure you’re booking the best business-class product, not something that’s outdated? I know Aerolopa is great for seating maps, but that doesn’t necessarily tell you whether it’s an old or new design. Are there tools or resources to check the actual product before booking?
How are you using your Bilt Cash (and/or how do you plan to use it before the end of the year)?
I have 14999 Delta Sky Miles and need one more lousy point to be able to book an award ticket. I can transfer 1000 points from Amex but that seems like a waste. I tried to convince Delta support to comp me a point but they were seemingly unable to help. Any suggestions (other than getting the Delta Amex card).
Is this an imminent booking you need to make. If not, a cheap purchase through the Delta shopping portal would earn you some miles, but those could take several weeks to be credited.
Buying miles is another option, albeit at appalling value as it costs $70 for only 2,000 SkyMiles.
Another option is if you have a small number of hotel points, you can sometimes convert them to airline miles. The transfer ratio is usually very poor, but if they’re orphaned points that you’re unlikely to use any other way, it might be worth it.
Along the same lines, you could transfer 3,000 Marriott Bonvoy points which would become 1,000 Delta SkyMiles. I’d probably be more inclined to just transfer 1,000 Membership Rewards though, even though there is that pesky excise tax that has to be paid.
Buy something inexpensive at a restaurant that participates in skymilesdining.com. Miles post to your Delta acct in about a week.
Thank you very much Rick and Stephen (love your work).
You’re welcome. A reader shared on a different post that the best solution for you would be to link your Starbucks account (if you have one) with your Delta SkyMiles account and reload with $10. You should then get the miles the next day; see their comment here.
If you have complete flexibility to position to any airport in Europe to fly home to the USA, are flexible on arrival airport in the USA/Canada/Mexico, and time wasn’t a constraint but you would like a good points redemption in J (not first), where would you position to and which airline would you book on?
what a strange premise lol. of course departure/arrival airport matter so its a futile exercise. You’re not going to backtrack from the west coast back home to east coast just for a better experience. You’re basically just asking to rank the european airlines, which is widely available already
I live in a small city in the Midwest. I’m positioning regardless. Doesn’t matter to me whether I am positioning to Chicago or NYC or Denver or Houston or Toronto or Montreal or Cancun (all direct flights from home). I’d prefer not to position to Seattle or LA or SFO unless I’m going to Asia, but if it was a truly worthwhile difference in flight experience, I would do it.
For me, within the USA, I really don’t care where my initial arrival city is. I have complete flexibility in the length of my trip.
I’m looking at a European trip next year, and I will be doing Scotland, but don’t want to fly home from the UK. I’d like to position somewhere fun for a few days to experience another location AND book a cheaper return (without having to pay the expensive UK fees). I’m up for any city that is a direct flight from Edinburgh.
how to find out fees and tax on award booking on Qatar airways.?
I was planing to book qatar flight on qatar using avios. The points range is varied wildly based on off peak and regular, but i couldnt find the $ for fee + tax part of redemption before i transfer points Qatar. is there a way to find it?
Unfortunately it is not a direct flight and made it more complicated to figure out $ value
you all have an older ask us anything above, not the latest….the youtube link works to the most current
Question for the 4/8 Ask Us Anything: Any update on when in May that the Hyatt award chart is changing?
May 7th
I feel like it’s been a little bit since we’ve seen a “What’s in your wallet” question/article so “What’s in your wallet”?