Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Well, even though I was on vacation last week, the fellas made it just fine without me, answering a pile of listener questions for yet another Ask Us Anything Live on YouTube. For instance they shared their recommendations for which SLH properties you might want to book before the Hyatt partnership ends. As usual, you can watch the full episode here in this post or click the time stamps below to navigate directly to a specific question within YouTube.
In addition to our regular weekly podcast, we also host an Ask Us Anything Live on YouTube once a month where the Frequent Miler team answers listener questions about points, miles, rewards cards, and whatever else comes to mind. This episode was streamed live on March 6, 2024 and can be viewed in full below:
(05:03) – Have you noticed that Emirates charges insane fuel surcharges out of countries that ban/restrict them?
(06:19) – When you book Rio Las Vegas with Hyatt points do you not have to pay resort fee and get elite benefits like late checkout?
(08:55) – Would you recommend closing the Chase Marriott business credit card, waiting 30 days, then applying for the AMEX Marriott business credit card? I will keep my JPM Ritz Carlton credit card open.
(11:24) – Can you have more than one Ritz card per person?
(12:46) – As the SLH-Hyatt partnership starts to wind down, I wanted to ask each of you if you might give us ideas/favorites to try and book?
(19:20) – Any tips on how to help avoid jetlag for my kids?
(20:15) – I appreciate your “current point transfer bonuses” page. Any plans to create a current buying points and miles list?
(21:01) – Which app is better for managing Flying Blue points, KLM or Air France?
(21:40) – I have to book a Latam flight. What’s my best option?
(23:20) – Getting ready for the Beyonce at the Sphere announcement, as soon as those dates leak it’s going to be a race to book something before the algorithm sends hotel rates sky high. Any tips or tricks?
(25:35) – There’s a few Marriott sign up bonuses going around. How would you choose between: 5 free nights (up to 50k each; up to 250k total), vs ~185k straight up points?
(29:57) – Any tools to use for planning a road trip in other countries? So many possibilities (i.e. which order to visit things in, transit times, etc) makes my planning spiral out of control.
(35:40) – What is the best airline to credit miles to for each alliance? It’s easy enough to understand the value of the miles, but harder to evaluate all the earning rates.
(39:20) – Chase 5/24 question, should I tempt fate and try to apply for the Marriott Boundless 5 free night offer while currently at 5/24? (12 months left)
(41:55) – Any tips for booking one of the rarer hotel points redemptions? If I book the hotel, I probably won’t be able to find biz class flights for those dates. And vice versa if I book the flights first.
(47:52) – Despite the usual recommendation not to speculatively transfer, are there levels of earning (100s of 1000s, millions) and levels of spending that make it worthwhile?
(54:53) – What are your thoughts on the new Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card?
(58:36) – How do we manage Amex cards beyond year one to maintain good standing with Amex? For example when would it be ok to close, downgrade, apply for cards, how many months apart, etc?
Of course, if you’re a fan of podcasts over videos or posts, you can find this on all your favorite podcast platforms: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music (formerly Google Play).
Music Credit – “Into the Never” by Annie Yoder
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FYI … I booked TWO suites 3 nights at the Palazzo for a concert through the AMEX Fine Hotels and Resorts benefit. They don’t tell you ANYWHERE that they DO NOT CARE that you are Diamond Ambassador IHG. They even have a separate counter for IHG. The free breakfast credit was clear across the massive casino on the 5th floor of the Venetian. That’s OK for dinner, but for breakfast it is terrible. After not delivering our welcome champagne benefit to our guests (which is more important than us, when we are in charge of the rooms) they credited 2 of the 3 RESORT FEE charges.(RF’s are the worst thing that ever happened to a customer … double taxation) Thankfully, the same person was working the 4th time I went down to the desk. They are well trained in refusing benefits. Even the shift supervisor tossed me away swiftly.
Great AMA, thanks for sharing in podcast form! For the last question (keeping in Amex’s good graces), the advice was to not close/cancel a card within 12 months of signing up or receiving a retention offer. Does this just mean wait ~366+ days? IE new card approved 1/1/2023, is it bad to close card ~12/31/2023 but probably OK (less risk of SUB or retention bonus claw-back) to close it ~1/15/2024+? Thanks!