One of the outcomes of our recent challenge is that it gave us all a lot more practice with numerous award booking tools to help us find awesome awards at the last minute. This week at Frequent Miler, Greg details how he used those tools and his experience with one of his favorite flights during the challenge. Elsewhere on the blog, we cover important updates to our Reasonable Redemption Values for both Hyatt and Delta, which of the many Marriott cards may be right for you, and a lot more.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
How I found awesome awards for our last minute travel challenge
Many people wondered about our booking processes for our recent Flying by the Seat of our Points last-minute travel challenge. In this post, Greg details exactly what he did to find the awesome awards he booked to get to Croatia and Malaysia in comfort & style with as little stress as possible.
Qatar A320 Business Class Review (Phenomenal!)
Qatar Airways flies an A320 on some of its routes from eastern Europe to Doha. I’ve typically ignored those routes expecting that they’d provide a subpar flight experience, but if you’ve thought the same, Greg’s review of Qatar A320 business class might convince you to think again. This looks like it was a great flight. I think I’d still mentally struggle to redeem for a flight on an A320 when Qatar flies far superior business class products on numerous routes from Europe to Doha, but at the same time I’d be more likely to pick the path of least resistance if it included an easier A320 route based on Greg’s review.
Japan Airlines 777 “old” First Class: Bottom Line Review (BKK-HND and HND-ORD)
On the way home from our recent challenge, I got the chance to fly in Japan Airlines first class on two different routes — Bangkok to Tokyo and Tokyo to Chicago. These flights were operated by 777s, so I got the “old” first class on both, but that was still an excellent way to fly. I was really glad that I’d used a Seats.aero alert to find the flight back to the US in Japan Airlines first as the flight from Bangkok to Tokyo wouldn’t have given me a good sense of the full experience. Overall, despite the seat being a far cry from some of the best first class products in the sky, I very much enjoyed myself and would be happy to fly Japan Airlines first class again.
Podcast: Best ways to get to Hawaii | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep260 | 6-21-24
If palm trees and sunshine are flooding your mind, we’ve got more food for thought on this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air. From Delta companion certificates to Finnair for Alaska Airlines flights and a lot more, we talk about all of the best ways to score a deal on tickets to Hawaii, whether with miles or money.
Points Path: An easy “set and forget” award search tool [More programs supported]
Whether you’re looking for award flights to Hawaii or elsewhere, this is a tool that can really save you some time and effort. I’ve really come to love the PointsPath extension since I finally installed it earlier this month during the Flying by the Seat of our Points challenge. I am finding it extremely useful to compare cash prices and award prices side-by-side without having to switch back and forth between different tools. The limitation of this tool had been that it only searched a few award programs, but they have now added Air Canada Aeroplan, Alaska MileagePlan, JetBlue TrueBlue, and Air France/KLM Flying Blue in addition to American, Delta, and United. That makes PointsPath even more useful than ever before since it is becoming increasingly easy to see which flights are available to partner programs. That is knowledge you can apply to your existing understanding of the best ways to get to various regions even if you’re ultimately using other miles and points.
Which Marriott Bonvoy card is best?
Befuddled by the boundlessly bountiful bevy of Bonvoy cards? With seven different Marriott cards in the wild, you might wonder which card(s) is/are the best fit for your situation. In this post, Greg ranks the cards according to his preferences and lays out some useful comparisons for those who are torn between one option and another.
Chase Ink Business Unlimited Credit Card Review (2024)
The Chase Ink Business Unlimited is sort of an odd bird in that it closely mimics but does not mirror a popular consumer card. That is to say that it shares a known base earning structure, but carries no bonus categories. That makes the card a questionable fit for some, though others will find it worthwhile simply because it is available on the business side of things, providing a way for your business to rack up points without hurting your consumer-side utilization ratio.
What are Hyatt points worth?
Our previous Reasonable Redemption Value for World of Hyatt points was 2.1c per point. However, hotel prices have cooled enough from pandemic-era pricing and Hyatt has done enough category shifting that we realized that it was time to revisit our RRV for Hyatt. Tim put in a lot of time and effort doing the research that forms the basis for our new RRVs and in this post he explains our new value of 1.7cpp.
What are Delta miles worth?
Delta SkyMiles have long had a reputation for relatively low value. Is that fair? In this updated post about our Reasonable Redemption Value for Delta miles, Greg shares our new valuation based on a much broader sample set of data thanks to Points Path.
Earn 7,500 Aeroplan points with a $100 Miles4Migrants donation
I didn’t pay enough attention to Miles4Migrants until I attended a presentation they did during the Travel Summit in Toronto. I was really impressed with the work they are doing to collect donated miles and points to maximize award charts to help people fleeing the most difficult circumstances. I love that Air Canada is heavily incentivizing people to be generous by providing what is essentially a way to buy Aeroplan points at a really reasonable price, but the cash is going to Miles4Migrants instead of Air Canada. I love this promotion!
Podcast: Bilt is costing Wells Fargo dearly. Should you duck & run or double down? | Coffee Break Ep15 | 6-18-24
The Wall Street Journal ran an article last weekend about how Wells Fargo is losing money on Bilt, claiming that Wells Fargo is unhappy with how their deal is turning out for the bank. Reps for both Wells Fargo and Bilt denied that there have been problems in paradise and the article notes that the partnership is scheduled to run until 2029. Should you be concerned about the future of your Bilt points? On this week’s coffee break, we break down what the article said and whether the contents of the article matched the tone of the title.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals to make sure you don’t miss any as we approach the end of the month.
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