I’ve been on vacation this week, visiting family in the San Francisco Bay area. Over the course of a week, we visited the children’s museum in San Jose, the magnificent Monterey Bay Aquarium, Pinnacles National Park, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, the Exploratorium in San Francisco (highly recommend — as much fun for an adult as for a kid), and we even squeezed in a chance to ride in a self-driving Waymo car. We ended the trip at the Grand Hyatt SFO on Thursday night before flying home yesterday.
Greg has reviewed the Grand Hyatt SFO before, and it is a well-loved property in the points and miles community. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical: I’ve heard a lot of praise for the hotel, but how good can an airport hotel be? I’ll tell you how good: my wife said that the next time we come to San Francisco, we’ll have to plan two nights at the Grand Hyatt SFO. It has an unbeatable location on the Air Train, and everything from the lobby to the rooms to the restaurant are surprisingly nice. We had a corner suite with an excellent view of some of the international gates and it even came with a pair of binoculars (for use in the room, not to keep) and a guide to the different planes. We could imagine spending a day plane-spotting there.
While I didn’t grab a picture of it, we actually had a perfect room setup: there were 7 of us traveling together (5 adults + 2 kids), so we had two rooms. I used a suite upgrade to get a corner suite and I used a Category 1-7 free night certificate to book a room with 2 double beds (all in my name). We ended up with two rooms at the end of a hall that were both behind a shared door. In other words, at the end of the hallway, there was a door to a mini hallway that contained rooms 602 and 604. We were able to keep that shared door closed and the doors to our rooms open and have what felt like a 2-bedroom suite. I’ll keep that configuration in mind and see if I can request those rooms if we ever have another trip to SFO.
On the blog this week, you can read all about bagpocolypse, earning Bilt points while opening other credit cards and bank accounts, Stephen’s experience claiming UK261 compensation, and more.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Bagpocolypse: American, Alaska, United, Delta, and Southwest all raise checked bag fees
Airlines have disappointingly increased checked baggage fees without warning this week, with one domino falling after another. While it stinks that this happened across the board without notice, it isn’t entirely unexpected giving the skyrocketing cost of fuel (and so many other things). All that said, if I had to choose a place for airlines to make up some of their losses, I’d rather they increase checked baggage fees (which in many cases can be avoided with the right credit cards) than add or increase award ticket surcharges. The biggest pain point here might eventually be increased credit card annual fees if the cost of checked bags continues to climb further yet.
Free Checked Bags via Credit Card: Complete Guide
Do you need to buy your ticket with your airline credit card to get free checked bags? How many companions can get free bags, too? Can you stack a free bag from elite status with a free bag from your credit card? Find answers to all of those questions and a lot more in our complete guide to free checked bags by credit card.
Free checked bags via credit cards | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep353 | 4-10-26
Given the recent changes to checked baggage fees, Greg and I dug into the nuanced differences between credit card checked bags on this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air. As they say, the devil is in the details, as some credit cards allow for free checked bags for one companion and others as many as eight companions, and whether you get a free checked bag on a regional international flight can vary, too. On this week’s episode, we talk all about those differences and also discuss JetBlue’s refreshed Premier card, a question about paying taxes via credit card, and more.
90K Bilt points through welcome bonuses
While Bilt points can be relatively hard to come by since welcome bonuses on their own cards are relatively meager, it is nonetheless possible to reel in big Bilt welcome point bonuses on other accounts via Rakuten, including while applying for a couple of Bank of America credit cards and a number of savings or checking accounts. Keep in mind that you’ll need Bilt elite status for 1:1 transfers from Rakuten after May 15th; after that, you’ll want to earn these as Amex Membership Rewards points instead.
$700 richer: My easy UK261 claim experience with United Airlines
Stephen recently had a flight cancellation when his flight from the UK to the United States encountered a maintenance issue. Thankfully, the United Kingdom has similar protections to those afforded by the European Union, and Stephen was entitled to about $700 in cash compensation. Claiming that compensation was surprisingly smooth and easy with United. It’s great to see consumer protections in action, and as this post makes clear, it pays to know (and pursue) your consumer rights.
How to turn Capital One Cash Back into Miles (Video)
One awesome unadvertised feature of Capital One cards is that cash back earned on Capital One cash back cards can be turned into miles. In this Youtube video, I walked Carrie through the process of moving cash back from her Savor card to miles on her Spark Miles card, though you could accomplish the same thing with a Venture card. Rewards can be moved from a business card to a consumer card and vice versa, though only from cash back to miles (not the other way around). My wife has even been able to call and have cash back from her Spark card converted to miles on my Venture card, though you do need to call to move miles to a different person.
Best miles for each airline alliance | Coffee Break Ep100 | 4-7-26
Which are the best Star Alliance miles? What about oneworld or SkyTeam? On this week’s Coffee Break, Greg and I talk about the best miles for each alliance. As fate would have it, there isn’t necessarily an obvious answer in these situations, but we make the case as to who might value one alliance airline program or another over the others in each major alliance.
How to book Day Use rates with major chain hotels
Whether you have an early-morning arrival or a late-night flight, or you simply want to be able to use resort amenities for a few hours, Day Use Rates can really come in handy. Stephen has updated our post about Day Use Rates to include everything you need to know about booking these.
What are JetBlue TrueBlue points worth?
It was unsurprising to me to hear that JetBlue TrueBlue points continue to be worth about 1.3c per point. Given the influx of JetBlue points I earned last year, I’ve looked at flights through TrueBlue many times in recent months and pretty consistently found my experience to line up with the data. Worth a mention is that having the JetBlue Plus or Premier card (or business card) provides a 10% points rebate on redemptions for travel on JetBlue, which ups the net value a bit further. In fact, that rebate was a major motivator for me in getting a JetBlue card since I anticipate using quite a few TrueBlue points over the next couple of years.
What are American Airlines AAdvantage miles worth?
It isn’t necessarily simple to nail down the value of American Airlines AAdvantage miles. While the data tells a clear story when taken on the whole, keep in mind that AAdvantage has some terrific sweet spot partner awards that can far eclipse the reasonable redemption value.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals to make sure you grab those ending this week.
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