This week we’ve seen details of some “new” cards that perhaps draw inspiration from a Xerox machine, one of my favorite frequent flyer programs has inched toward dynamic pricing, Stephen is on the verge of being a miles millionaire, and Marriott points have somehow gotten more valuable.
In this week in review, you’ll find a podcast episode where we discuss what Hilton needs to do to get us to spend nights in their hotels and another where we talk about using your Capital One miles as to great value.
All that and more below.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Best Credit Card Offers for February 2025
We have long maintained the best “Best Credit Card Offers” page on the Internet, with hundreds of top offers. When I say “top” offers, I truly mean that — we only list the best publicly-available offers on our site, even when that means not publishing our own affiliate links. That policy separates us from most blogs. We also don’t insert credit card affiliate links within our posts, but rather the only place you’ll find credit card affiliate links are on our individual card pages — and as noted above, you’ll only see those listed when they are in fact the the best offer.
Greg’s top 10 picks for February 2025 (my favorite card offers)
If you’re overwhelmed by the scale of our Best Offers page and would like a more subjectively curated list of great offers to check out, you’ll want to see Greg’s picks
Capital One: Get more for your Double Miles | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep293 | 2-7-25 | Podcast
On this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, Greg and I discuss easy ways to get better value out of your Capital One miles. We also debate the Frontier Airlines status fast track offer, new offers to earn 15-20 Avios per dollar when booking select travel, and more.
Bilt’s proposed card changes – like Chase, but (mostly) not as good
Bilt is out with ideas for how it might structure a mid-tier and ultra-premium card in addition to its no-annual fee product. Stephen Pepper isn’t impressed and labels them as knockoff attempts to compete with a bigger bank’s customer base. Stephen is clearly right about where these cards are drawing their inspiration, though what I think he misses in his analysis is that I don’t think Bilt is trying to compete for the business of the customer who is going to get an Amex Gold card for US Supermarket spend and a Citi Strata Premier for gas spend and an Amex Blue Business Plus for 2x base earnings, but rather it seems to me that Bilt is trying to compete for a more average American who might be currently putting all of their expenses on a single card or two, mostly earning 1x points (considering the rumors that 1% of GDP was put through Delta credit cards, it’s not a far-fetched scenario that a lot of people are only earning 1x on a massive quantity of spend every year). I think Bilt’s target with these cards are those folks, who likely stand to benefit so much from earning points on rent/mortgage and then also earning bonuses in other common spend categories that these cards will likely look better than they do to Stephen or me. I agree with Stephen that these proposed cards don’t have much appeal for anyone willing to put together a modicum of strategy and open a credit card combo rather than using a single card for everything. I’m particularly disappointed in the lack of creativity on the $550 cards, but we’ll see what changes come to pass.
Struggling with the struggle to get under 5/24 (on Nick’s mind)
The struggle is real! I want to earn a Southwest Companion Pass to complement the one my wife has, but I have some other credit cards that seem more imminently important — and I’m over 5/24 for several more months. Should I jump on near-term opportunities and push the pursuit of the Companion Pass by a few months, or hold the line until I’m eligible to go after a solid path to the pass? Should I be holding out to see what happens with premium cards rumored to launch this year?
Air Canada Aeroplan adopting dynamic pricing for some partners (including United)
Air Canada Aeroplan is moving to a new award chart for flights on Air Canada and select partners and I am not happy to see it. Tim’s post does a great job of presenting a balanced view that highlights both the positives and negatives. However, personally, I can’t get past my disappointment. As if essentially going fully dynamic for their own flights isn’t bad enough, they’re dragging several partners with them into fully dynamic pricing. While one might have expected to see Emirates and Etihad in that crowd, I was unpleasantly surprised to see United in the mix. That’s annoying for a number of reasons, but the one that irks me the most is that you won’t be able to build multi-partner award tickets with legs on United without being subject to a variable award chart for the entire award (I think). That’s a major devaluation to me. I’ll give Air Canada credit for giving some notice here and I’ll probably put together a big redemption before this takes effect thanks to that notice, but I can’t hide the fact that including United in this represents a big hit.
I’m going to be a millionaire! (Stephen’s Million Mile Madness trip journal)
In brighter news, Stephen reports some exciting news this week: he’s finally received credit for his 15th airline in the SAS Million mile Madness challenge. While he hasn’t yet received the million miles for completing the EuroBonus Millionaire challenge, the crediting of the 15th airline means that he’s well on his way to being a SAS Millionaire sooner rather than later. unfortunately, I’m still waiting for a response to my two missing mileage claims, though i only need one to credit successfully in order to earn the million miles, so I’m hopeful that good news is on the way as we approach two months since the day I requested missing mileage credit.
Rewatch the entire Million Mile Madness Challenge in one video
Speaking of our Million Mile Madness challenge, if you want to relive the challenge with us and watch how it unfolded, Carrie and her sister have put together a complete recap video using footage from the challenge. Check out the video and accompanying commentary in this post.
Points Path: An easy “set and forget” award search tool
When Points Path first launched, I didn’t install the extension because I didn’t think I needed it. It is now undoubtedly the award search tool that I use most often. That’s because the tool integrates so well with Google flights. I use Google flights all the time to check cash prices and this tool shows me the corresponding award prices
point.me better, but still best for beginners
For a long time, point.me was my main award search tool, but the same as Greg I moved beyond it as other competing tools got better and better. In the interim, point.me has made some headway in addressing some of the ways it lagged, and the tool has access to search results for some programs that you won’t find elsewhere. The point that Greg makes but perhaps undersells is how useful this tool can be for those who have never booked an award ticket through a foreign partner program. point.me has always done a great job with step-by-step instructions that make it far easier for those unfamiliar with the mechanics of transferring to foreign partners and booking an award. I’ll probably continue to primarily use other tools, but I would likely point friends new to award booking to point.me.
American Airlines Bus Operated by Landline: Bottom Line Review
I recently “flew” from Atlantic City to Philadelphia and onward to Albany, NY, but the first leg of my journey never left the ground. That’s because the segment from Atlantic City to Philadelphia was operated by a bus. No, it wasn’t a schedule disruption but rather AA simply offers certain routes on a bus. The cool thing is that the entire journey was operated airside — we passed through TSA at Atlantic City airport departed from a regular gate airside, driving across the tarmac and out of the airport to Philadelphia, then entered the tarmac at Philadelphia airport and “landed” at a gate airside at Philadelphia International Airport without a need to go through security a second time. That alone made the trip a great use of miles — but beyond that, the bus was comfortable and had fast, free Wi-Fi. I’d absolutely take a bus-operated AA route again in the future.
Exclusive experiences with points and miles
Many programs offer ways to use points and miles to book “experiences”, but some programs offer more exclusive experiences than others. In this post, I highlight some of the better points and miles booking platforms if you want a chance at getting either impossible-to-buy experiences or incredible value in the right circumstances.
How Hilton can win our loyalty | Coffee Break Ep44 | 2-4-25
There’s no doubt that we’ve been much more excited about Hilton this year than in years past, largely because of the addition of Small Luxury Hotels of the World (and also stuff like Auto Camp). But despite our enthusiasm for the ability to use free night certificates and Hilton Honors points at SLH properties, the fact is that there aren’t many reasons to be loyalty to Hilton on a stay-by-stay basis. We’d love to see Hilton give us some reasons to stay at their properties, and in this week’s Coffee Break, we discuss some of the ways they could incentivize members to stay at Hilton — including a creative idea that Greg had to offer a specific benefit that nobody else does.
Andaz 5th Ave: Bottom Line Review
I recently spent a weekend at the Andaz 5th Ave. I’ve visited this property many times before, but hadn’t reviewed it in a long time, so I posted a new review. The place still has its drawbacks that I think are worth knowing but obviously haven’t kept me from returning, but this time around I was really pleased at the management response when things went sideways with valet pick up on checkout day. Have I mentioned that I hate the showers at this property though?
My experience applying for the UK’s electronic travel authorisation (ETA)
Greg recently went through the steps to get an ETA to visit the UK. The process wasn’t difficult, but when it came to scanning his passport, that part didn’t work out to be intuitive. In this post, Greg explains the process, where he ran into something of a glitch, and what you can do if you run into the same.
How to get into Delta Sky Club lounges
The changes to Delta SkyClub access have now gone into effect. In this post, Greg explains your 2025 options for access to SkyClubs.
What are Marriott points worth?
Tim has published an update to the value of Marriott points, Would you believe that the value of Marriott points has increased since the last time we observed values? No, that doesn’t mean that redemptions have gotten better across the board, but given the fact that cash prices continue to rise even faster than award prices, it doesn’t shock me that the midrange value has inched upward.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Check out this week’s last chance deals to make sure you take advantage of them before they’re gone.
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where is the article about copycat CCs ?