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
Hi all, love the podcast and have been listening for several years but never wrote in.
Now we’ve been faced with a nightmare situation with AmEx for my P2. Since he already had 2 AmEx cards for several years (personal gold and BBP), I figured it would be relatively easy to add Hilton Surpass card to his account. Unfortunately that didn’t turn out simple… The entire 3-month nightmare started with them requesting us to fill out ‘income verification 4603-C form. Seemed simple enough given our >$400K annual income but it turned out to be anything but simple and I’m wondering if you think we should expect some kind of compensation from AmEx since the whole ordeal really was their fault and huge customer service failure? We tried asking for it nicely but they absolutely refused to even consider it. Any thoughts you might have on this situation would be greatly appreciated!
Please read my letter below for additional context, if you have the patience.
“All the problems started from the fact that AmEx letter requesting income information included the 4603-C form in the IRS-unacceptable format (double sided form) with self-addressed envelope to be sent back to AmEx. When we filled out the enclosed form and mailed it back in the included envelope, we just kept getting repeated mailings with the SAME form without any explanation of why the previous form was not acceptable (even though it was provided to us directly from AmEx!!!)
We had to keep calling customer service to understand why we kept getting more and more of these forms in the mail and nobody on the phone could give us a specific answer, other than it was either ‘altered’ or ‘missing information’. Eventually, after 3rd call (and countless hours on the phone!) someone said that all the information must be on the same page (which was impossible to do when the enclosed form contained the final signature lines on the back of the form!) Even after we filled out the ‘2nd page’ of another form and took one image of both pages and the agent on the phone confirmed that the form was acceptable, we received yet another one in the mail the next week. After the 4th call we were told that the form had to be filled out electronically to be acceptable by the IRS. If this is accurate information, then AmEx shouldn’t be sending those forms and envelopes to customers with this request. This is not even considering that eventually we were told that we would have a dedicated agent (France) working with us to get this finally submitted and she NEVER called us after promising to follow up the next day (and, of course, we could never get through to her given the complexity of the customer service networks.)
Given the challenges we faced over the past three months described above and spending numerous hours on the phone trying to get status updates, we believe some compensation is warranted. Otherwise, unfortunately, I would not be able to recommend AmEx as a company that I would want to continue doing business with in the future.”
Is this new? Air Canada has award travel in BC for 70k from IAD -> AMS with 1 stop, mixed cabin. Turns out the flight “across the pond” is in economy, and the flight within the continent is business! Unfortunately, I learned this AFTER transferring 140k URs from Chase, so now I have currency stuck in AC Avios (I know, I know, a champagne problem.) Is this new??? Either way, I have never heard of this before and I don’t like it.
Love the podcast! Im in ord and was wondering what your opinion is for best lounge access card?
Ord is limited in lounges mostly united or American. Should i get one of their cards for lounge access?
That’s a tough call. You can enter United clubs when flying United (or another star alliance airline) and you can only enter AA clubs when flying AA (or another oneworld airline). If there is one or the other that you fly frequently, then yes it could make sense to get a card that includes that airline’s lounge access. With AA, you could also consider the Citi Strata Elite card since that includes 4 AA club passes per year: https://frequentmiler.com/citistrataelite/
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.