Frequent Miler on the Air Podcast
Earn Miles Without Flying:
You may be familiar with airline and hotel loyalty programs which seek to reward frequent travelers. But contrary to what you may assume, you can easily earn hundreds of thousands of points and miles without actually traveling to earn them. Then, you can use those miles and points for your own luxury travel.
Frequent Miler is all about getting the most out of the loyalty game. On this podcast, Greg (founder of Frequent Miler) and Nick (senior author at Frequent Miler) discuss and debate current topics and strategies in the points and miles world. Available on all major platforms, you can pick your favorite podcast streaming service below, or watch the episodes on YouTube.
Heads up! Because I solicit team feedback when answering questions on posts and pages like these, it may take some time for me to get to your questions. Thanks in advance for your patience! - Carrie
I used the pre-approval tool to see if I would be approved for the Capital One Savor card with its current elevated offer. The only feedback that I received was that I am pre-approved for the “Good Credit” version which does not include a SUB. Do you have any sense of what that could mean if I submit an app for the “Excellent Credit” version which is the version that includes a SUB? I am currently at 0/24 and about 790+ Vantage score. Thanks in advance!
I really enjoy your podcasts. I heard a few times about paying big tax bill with credit card to meet spending requirement for SUB. For all the taxes I pay (property tax, state and federal income tax) there are always hefty fees (%) if you pay by credit cards. Even my utility company charges fees if you pay by credit card. Is there some ways you can avoid fees to pay taxes with credit card?
I think this post should help you out with your questions! https://frequentmiler.com/pay-taxes-via-credit-card/
Love the content. Keep it coming.
I always reason that the rep could be hit at any moment with any of a thousand questions, and it’s hard to be current on all of them, especially when some may not often come up. On the other hand, when we call or chat on some topic it’s normally one we’ve been researching right at that time. It’s logical we know more about our topic in the moment than the agent does.
I hasld a free stay at an SLH property and used my Hilton business card for incidental expenses. My dining credit left a balance of $8 which I paid with my business Hilton card , amex then credited back the $8. So it does work. James
Hi my husband has lifetime platinum with Marriott. With that, we get free breakfast/lounge access and upgrades. What is the best card to get free nights and to supplement any platinum benefits? Thanks so much!
There really isn’t a card that supplements Platinum benefits. As you probably know, you will get elite nights annually for holding a Marriott credit card, but those will only matter for you if you are after the 50-night choice benefit or you intend to go after Titanium (which doesn’t offer enough benefit over the Lifetime Platinum to be worth it IMO.In terms of the best card “to get free nights”, the best answer to that is whichever is offering the best welcome bonus at the time you’re applying. All of the ~$100 annual fee Marriott cards come with an automatic annual 35K free night certificate. The Brilliant card ($650 AF) comes with an annual 85K free night certificate and $25 per month ($300 per year) in dining credits — that may or may not be worth it to you. The $250 cards require spend to receive their free night certificates (which are valid for a night up to 50K).
A perennial “favorite” card among Marriott enthusiasts is the Chase Ritz card because it costs $450 per year and comes with up to $300 in airline incidental reimbursements + an annual free night certificate for a night up to 85K points. However, you can’t apply for that card new, you would first need to get one of the Chase Marriott consumer cards and wait a year after you open it and then you should be able to upgrade to the Ritz card.
Note that it doesn’t make sense to put ongoing spend on Marriott credit cards because the return on spend is weak — most of them offer 2 points per dollar spent on unbonused spend. Our Reasonable Redemption Value for Marriott points is only 0.7c per point, so that’s like a return of 1.4%, which isn’t a good deal. Even if you think you’ll redeem Marriott points for better value, consider that Marriott often sells points for around 0.9c per point. You could get a 2% cash back card and for every $1 you spend, you’d get 2 cents that could buy you 2 Marriott points and you’d still have 0.2c left over. That might not sound like much, but it adds up over time (and if you have access to options that earn 2.625% back or 3% back, the math on earning Marriott points through spend on Marriott cards gets worse). Welcome bonuses are really the best option for earning Marriott points.Speaking of Marriott card welcome bonuses, the rules as to whether you’re eligible for each of the cards can be complicated. See these posts for more info:
9:19
https://frequentmiler.com/marriott-bonvoy-complete-guide/#Credit_Card_Eligibility
https://frequentmiler.com/marriott-card-eligible/
(Since I always use team input for responses to podcast-related questions, my responses may be delayed. Thanks for your patience!)
Thank you! That’s very helpful
With the latest don’t siesta on Sonesta jargon, I wanted to add that the free version of FoundersCard provided by Clear (and other vendors) includes discounted Sonesta stays and automatic status with Sonesta.
New(ish) to the hobby and love the podcast. Just finished a remodel on our house and stocked up on roughly 1M AMEX points and 800k Chase points!!! It is time for next round of cards. My question is Nick because I am looking at the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card but want to know if the “How to turn a $95 card into 4 ocean cruises” still works before I apply for the card. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Can I use the Chase Ink Preferred Business (Visa) card for payment with Plastiq for my mortgage? The table in your site for Plastiq shows that “Visa” is one of the cards that you cannot pay for mortgage (only Mastercard and Discover). I’ve read in some blogs and TPG that the Ink Preferred business card is an example for paying mortgage with the use of Plastiq. I’m confuse. Could you explain this? Thank you.
I don’t think you can you it for paying mortgage. So, no, I can’t explain TPG
Hi, It has been over 4 months since JetBlue implemented this tile-to-mosaic system. Has anyone done the calculation to verify their current tile count? I have spent over $19000 on my JetBlue credit cards and over $2800 on JetBlue flights, and my current tile count is 16. If I understand the system correctly, it should have been 47 in total. Customer service told me over the phone that it would take four to six weeks for the number to appear accurately. Has anyone else seen that their tile count appears to be off?
Confirming your math: You should earn 1 tile with every $1,000 spent on your JetBlue credit card so I’d expect you to have 19 tiles from that and 28 tiles from JetBlue flights for a total of 47.
Sounds like they’re slow in awarding those tiles!
Hi, your discussion about how to get and use Avois points was absolutely enlightening. I’d say I’m a partial newbe; I’ve flown free to Borneo, with a 2 day layover in Singapore, Romania, Bahamas, and I’m completing a trip to Rwanda and Tanzania. I have United Mileage plus and American miles. Simple question, for this trip, I booked one way with United and for the return trip, I used AmEx points through their portal. I input my American Advantage frequent #, but since the booking I’ve signed up for Qatar privilege . Can I also put in my Qatar # or for Qatar miles? Can I switch?
You can switch if you want to, but you can’t have both numbers on one flight
Just listened to your podcast with a short segment on rental cars.
FYI, Orlando airport has a visitor toll pass that you can use for free. 10 minimum deposit, but then every toll you go it just subtracts from the 10$ or charges your credit card if more.
Then you just return it when you get back to the airport. Simple as that.
I am going to come up short for Platinum Medallion on Delta. Is it too late to add a Delta card for the 2500 MQDs as part of the Headstart program
No, it’s not too late. You can add a Delta card any time this year and you should get the headstart
Love your site and your podcast. I am dying to fly ANA business class to Japan. I have 400k United Miles, 200k Chase points and 100k Amex points and all are growing, with the biggest monthly growth being my united miles due to business travel. What would you suggest is my best option?
Hopefully someone has something helpful to share. I’ve had no luck. I searched a significant portion of the full year calendar for HNL-TYO on ANA site and couldn’t find a single business seat. Just endless “wait-list”, which is a feature that makes their search engine more a headache and something ANA should eliminate. I generally have been stunned how poor ANA availability is even for economy on their own metal and even find good dates the fees are prohibitive. Based on my experience with ANA availability combined with the lag in transfer time from Amex and 3 year expiration I would be super hesitant to transfer points to ANA.
It’s really hard to find ANA business class award availability and even harder to find it with their new business class product (I wouldn’t go out of my way to fly their old one). Seats.Aero is the best tool I know of for finding availability. I just looked at United through Seats.Aero’s explore feature and found a bunch of ANA biz class availability but all of it is within the next week or so. In other words, they seem to be opening up space very close to departure but not much otherwise.
The Bilt credit card allows you to pay dorm charges for a college student. We set up a 529 for our granddaughter and she is now a freshman at Washington University in St Louis. Her dorm fee per semester is $6594.00. Wash U charges 3% for credit cards. Sent a Bilt check to Wash U and had no problems with the transaction!