Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Greg, Tim, and I will soon put our skills to the test in trying to see who can put together the best of the best in a last-minute travel challenge. This week on Frequent Miler, Stephen and Carrie share the judge’s criteria. Elsewhere on the blog, you’ll find an extensive update on how to find incredible deals with Google Flights, you can read about hiking to Havasupai Falls (as long as you can handle the sticker shock), check out the “new” Citi card that doesn’t feel so new and a lot more.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Announcing the 2024 Team Challenge | Ask Us Anything Ep67 | 5-8-24
We announced details of our 2024 Frequent Miler Team Challenge on our Ask Us Anything last week, we published in this week’s Coffee Break podcast time slot. On this episode of Ask Us Anything, we share the details of the challenge and field questions from the audience about the the challenge, including one that we hadn’t considered (and clearly should have!).
How Carrie & Stephen will score the 2024 Frequent Miler challenge (Flying by the Seat of our Points)
If you saw our Ask Us Anything and read Greg’s announcement of the Flying by the Seat of our Points last week, you might have been curious about the scoring criteria that Carrie and Stephen plan to use to decide who’s ahead, who’s behind, and who ultimately wins Flying by the Seat of our Points. In this post, Carrie and Stephen explain what they’re looking for and how each of us can score points and curry favor amongst the judges.
Citi Strata Premier now available: Earn 75K after $4K
Speaking of curry, if you’re looking to sink your teeth into something tasty, the newly revamped Citi Strata Premier might fit the bill. The card became available for new applicants this week (and existing Citi Premier cardholders were automatically converted to it). That auto-upgrade to the new card likely happened because this is essentially just a refresh wiht the same bonus categories, but with two small tweaks: you now get 3x at EV charging stations and the card finally has travel protections, though the travel protections are pretty weak. Still, if you haven’t earned a new welcome bonus on the Citi Premier / Strata Premier in the past 48 months, you would be eligible to go after the card and associated bonus.
Can you upgrade to the Citi Prestige? Should you? [Update: FAQ was mistake]
An seemingly excited piece of news that came alongside the official launch of the Citi Strata Premier card was this nugget that Greg discovered on Citi’s website: the Frequently Asked Questions on the Strata Premier landing page says “To see if you are eligible to upgrade your Citi Strata Premier℠ Card to the Citi Prestige® Card, please call the number on the back of your Citi Strata Premier℠ card”. Greg published that and then a Citi spokesperson reached out to tell us that it isn’t actually possible to upgrade to the Prestige card. We of course updated our post right away, but as of the time of writing the Citi Strata Premier landing page still (apparently incorrectly) suggests that this is possible to do.
Podcast: Strategizing Hilton cards, credits, and free nights | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep255 | 5-17-24
With the coming addition of Small Luxury Hotels of the World and the launch this week of the first of the AutoCamp properties, Hilton is making moves that suddenly make them more relevant and exciting for points and free night certificate collectors. In response to that, Greg is finding himself more interested than ever in the Hilton suite of credit cards and how he can leverage them to get the free night certificates he wants. On this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, we discuss his Hilton strategy.
Visiting Grand Canyon’s Havasupai Falls
Carrie gives us a treat this week with this post about how to book your stay at the lodge or campground near Havasupai Falls along with pictures of the payoff for all that walking. This looks like a gorgeous hike, though I can’t imagine what it’ll cost by the time my kids are old enough to do something like this. That will probably keep me more interested in sticking with the NPS options in the region, but I’m definitely jealous of the chance to be surrounded by this scenery.
Frequent Miler Event Schedule
While we recently published posts about fall events like the two Chicago Seminars events and ZorkFest, I realized that we hadn’t updated the Frequent Miler Event Schedule to reflect the fact that Greg will be speaking in person at the Chicago Seminars Heritage Edition in October and other team members accepted invitations to join the virtual variety show since we couldn’t be there in person.
What is Delta elite status worth?
I struggle with putting a cash value on elite status, but Greg updated our valuation for Delta elite status this week to reflect changes that have arguably made Delta Platinum status (and perhaps Diamond as well) more valuable. I’m just not into chasing airline elite status, so it’s hard for me to imagine a concrete value to regional upgrade certificates that are only potentially worth anything if flying Delta is my best option and which may or may not clear in advance. Still, Greg does a great job conservatively valuing perks for those who are trying to decide whether it’s worth that extra push for the next level.
How to find incredible flight deals with Google Flights
Google Flights is an incredibly powerful tool for finding flight deals, particularly for those who are have some flexibility and who would consider a range of destinations depending on the deal. In this post, Greg shows you how to master the system so you can explore deals and even set alerts so that you’ll know when prices have dropped into your ideal range.
How to transfer Avios between British Airways, Qatar, Iberia, and Aer Lingus
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It is relatively easy (though not necessarily intuitive) to move Avios between four of the five programs that share the Avios currency. Avios.com is no longer a tool for accomplishing this task, but we’ve updated this post to show how to move Avios between these programs without Avios.com. Sadly, Finnair hasn’t yet joined this party, but we fully expect that it will soon be possible to move Avios to and from Finnair as well.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye out for this week’s last chance deals to be sure you don’t miss them before they’re gone.
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