The world of credit card rewards and award travel is full of hidden gems and sweet spots that can unlock incredible value if you know where to look and which tools to use. Sometimes those values are so strong that they seem too good to be true and we have often said that when it sounds too good to be true, it might be worth jumping in before the deal is dead. But do those opportunities die because we write about them? More importantly, should we just shut up about the best deals to preserve them as long as possible? This week on Frequent Miler on the Air, Greg and I discuss our take on what to publish and why (and what we leave between the lines) and also touch on the crazy thing that we did this week, whether you might want to wait on buying Wyndham points, and whether you should use points to cover the cost of vacation now or hold off for better value later. Watch, listen, or read on for even more from this week at Frequent Miler.
- 0:56 Giant Mailbag: Are Capital One’s partners good for a beginner?
- 05:28 What crazy thing….did Greg and Nick do this week?
- 08:03 Mattress running the numbers: Is it worth buying Wyndham points, or should you wait?
- 15:55 Main Event: Deals too good to be true. Should we shut up about them?
- 42:35 Post Roast
- 54:49 Question of the Week: Should I use points to pay for my trip or save them for something more valuable?
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This week at Frequent Miler
In Credit Cards
Points Power-Ups – Credit cards that make your points more valuable
Some cards automagically make your points worth more. I know that I’m dying to get the Wyndham business card added to our household wallet so that we can get even more value out of the Vacasa vacation rentals via Wyndham since just holding one of the Wyndham cards gets you a 10% discount on award stays. That is far better than a rebate since you get the discount on the front end (needing fewer points to book an award). See this post for a full list of cards that can supercharge your rewards without leaving your wallet.
Venture Ultimate: Here’s how Capital One can capture my wallet
Dream until the dream comes true. In this post, Greg described an imaginary ultra-premium Capital One credit card that could rule his wallet, but many readers found it to be almost laughably unrealistic. On the contrary, I expect that if Capital One does indeed release an ultra-premium card that it will be an outlier. It likely won’t quite live up to the dream entirely but it certainly could be cut of this thread. I love that Greg set a high bar with some really smart suggestions (love the 1.5c hotel eraser idea!) as I think Capital One has shown an interest in adapting and competing. I look forward to seeing if some of this comes true!
[Valid through May 5] Awesome Delta offers: up to 125K miles, up to 20K MQMs, plus statement credits
If you thought that the Delta offers ended earlier this week and you missed out or if you heard that one site has exclusive links to the increased offers now, I’m glad to give you the good news that the increased offers live on via referral and that there is an even better targeted offer out now on the Delta Reserve card. I guess it’s true that you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
Which Amex Cards are Credit Cards? How many can you get?
It is important to know the difference between Amex “credit cards” and “pay over time” in order to understand how many and which Amex cards you can add to your collection. Until some recent redesigns, a shorthand way to dell was by the card art, but now this post is the type of resource you need if you’re not certain which cards count as credit and which count as “pay over time”. It is indeed possible to have more than 5 Amex cards, it just depends which type you have.
In award booking
Good news: Marriott extending free night certificates and points
If you’ve been sitting on certificates that expired unused last year, you’re in luck: those certificates that were originally set to expire in 2020 will be extended to early January 2022. I would have liked to have seen Marriott make this extension a little bit sooner, but I’m glad that they made this happen before the summer travel season begins.
ANA Mileage Club sweet spots for award travel (economy or business class)
In my opinion, ANA Mileage Club is the strongest Amex transfer partner and a leading reason why I think Membership Rewards is the king of transferable currencies. In some cases, ANA charges the same number of miles round trip that United would charge you one way. Sweet spots include 88K round trip in business class to Europe (with a stopover allowed!), 75K round trip in business class to Japan during low season, 104K round trip to Africa in business class, and Australia from 105K round trip in business class. There are some quirks, but this is a program worth getting to know.
In elite status
Shortcuts to Delta Elite Status in 2021
If you’ve ever been interested in Delta elite status and you are ready to get back up in the sky during the latter half of the year, 2021 may be the time to go after Delta elite status. In this post, Greg not only pulls together some of the shortcuts that we’ve discussed previously, but he adds some potential gems like picking up MQDs via Delta Vacations.
What is Delta elite status worth (now that upgrade certs are worth more)?
Now that Delta regional and global upgrade certificates are more flexible than ever before, it makes sense that they are also worth more. How much more should they be valued? In this post, Greg updates to address Delta’s positive changes.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Be sure to keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals.
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Hi Greg and Nick, great podcast from last week. I had a counter points about talking about deals. When you first wrote about the Turkish Airlines deal, the process sounded very difficult and time consuming. The more you wrote about it, the more people booked it, and it seemed like the process improved.
Do you think that the more people that book Vacasa rentals will drive more traffic to Vacasa and Lizzie which will increase the number of people working for Vacasa that can help people book Vacasa rentals? I’m worried that Lizzie will never get a chance to go on vacation, and if she does, then there will be a Vacasa booking freeze.
Hi — what ever happened to including the podcast time stamps? Those were very helpful for me so I could listen to just the parts that are relevant to me. Sadly I don’t have time for the full hour-long podcast 🙁 Thank you!
The time stamps are there. Look at the episode within your podcast platform and you should see them. Or if viewing on Youtube, the timestamps are below the video.
Ah gotcha, I was just looking on the webpage and didn’t see them anywhere. Will hop on over to the YouTube link if I need them going forward. Thanks!
Or you can refresh this post. I just added the timestamps below the video. Just for you 🙂
Fantastic! I appreciate it.
Is there a reason that the YouTube video for this episode is unlisted? Playing into the episode’s theme of keeping things secret?
I don’t know why it was unlisted. I just changed it to public.
The biggest problem isn’t how many people know about it although that doesn’t help but the abusers who think there is nothing wrong with going all out on various deals. Doing 6 figures of MS, constantly signing up and churning cards when companies weren’t cracking down on it, etc.
Just write about it once. Your loyal readers will pick it up. Then let sleeping dogs lie.
This doesn’t necessarily work on topics that need following up, like the recent series of Vacasa posts where it’s not immediately clear at the beginning how to actually make a booking. Personally, I’m grateful that Greg and Nick provide useful information to their audience.
Then just update the old post? The only reason they would want to make a new one is for clicks. At the end of the day FM is a business and they need to maximize ad money and affiliate revenue. I understand this but if so don’t make it about doing readers a favor and be honest.
FM is very transparent about their business practices. They don’t even use affiliate links when there’s a better public offer, so the idea that they might publish a new article just for the clicks is laughable.
Then why make a new article and keep bringing attention to the topic? Let it stay under the radar and people who know about it will search for the post to see any update or follow-up. I feel like that’s a good compromise.
I think it would nice if there was a list of topics on the podcast with info to help the viewer get to where in the podcast they wanted to be. I may be in the minority, but I’m just not our to watch an hour long podcast.
There is. It’s there in the notes every time, whether on podcast platforms or in the YouTube description.
Along with links to relevant content so you can easily find more info about what we’re taking about.
I guess I didn’t realize the whole hour or so podcast episode is the on the one topic, so there is no subject breakdown. I usually don’t have that level of interest in most of the topics, but others may. Thanks.
It’s not on only one topic. If you look at the video description on the Youtube site (the text under the video – might be harder to see on mobile I think because of the way the app hides it, but on desktop it is right under the video and you click “see more” to expand the entire description of a Youtube video). In that description, you’ll see timestamps that provide direct clickable links to 6 different parts of the video (regular segments Giant Mailbag, What crazy thing, Mattress running the numbers, Main Event, Post Roast, and Question of the Week) along with descriptions of what those parts of the discussion entailed and links for further reading back on Frequent Miler (the same info is published on podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple podcasts, etc). It’s worth checking out the notes for what might interest you — while you may not be interested in the whole discussion (totally understandable), we’ve got a 5-figure subscriber base on the podcast format alone (not including Youtube) that continues to consistently grow month over month, so a lot of people are tuning in and finding something of interest.
You guys write about travel deals. You should write about travel deals.
Nick or Greg,
Was wondering if you knew or can find out. Chase Sapphire Reserve had up until 4/30/21 one earning 3 UR points/$1.00 at supermarkets (Yes, I know that one can redeem UR points for such purchases at .015 cents thru 9/30/21).
But was wondering if Chase extended this earnings promotion (again) or if they have mentioned other temporary (Covid) categories one can earn more points on with respect to Sapphire Reserve or Preferred Card, aside from the standard bonus categories mentioned in their sign-up offerings (.e.g. enhanced points earning for dining and transportation costs, etc.).
Thank you!
Deals too good to be true? “Absolutely DO NOT publish.” “Just send it to me”, said every blogger troll roaming Boarding Area.