Some people love the comforts of home: a familiar bed, routine, and all of their own “stuff”. That’s not me; I love traveling. From airports to flights to hotels, I rarely miss familiar surroundings (I do miss people, but not stuff). Yet even I have to admit that the past two weeks have been tiring. My family of four has hit 11 airports in 13 days, stayed at the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor four separate times, spent at least 11.5 hours in the car and at least 2 hours on mass transit, and walked many thousands of steps. I’ve gained a new appreciation for the road warriors out there doing this type of travel week after week! I look forward to slowing down for a few days next week.
Still, we’ve had a lot of fun moments, like a beach day on Martha’s Vineyard and a surprise trip to the Bluey x CAMP experience in Boston. We have had imperfect moments, too, but you’ll have some of those no matter where you are.
When all is said and done on this trip, I will report on the costs, but it will be hard to report on the savings and gains. We’ve saved a ton over what the trip would have otherwise cost thanks to free meals in airport lounges, free hotel breakfasts from elite status, leveraging points, picking up nearly-free Instacart groceries, and a lot more. And we’ve gained everything from family memories to practice using the tips and techniques we talk about to the confidence I see developing in my kids through constant interactions with folks on the road. And of course those savings and gains aren’t limited to this trip; rather, they repeat again and again over time. This hobby takes some time and dedication, but I am constantly reminded that it is so worth it.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Alaska’s New Summit Visa Premium Card: Here Are The Details
We’ve now gotten a peek at leaked details of Alaska’s coming Summit Visa Premium Card, and I have to say that it looks pretty good for those who can generate significant spend and who value Alaska’s award program. The annual 25K companion award could come close to mitigating the annual fee and the rewards at $60K spend seem really rich. That level of spend would essentially get you Alaska MVP Gold status (when combined with the 10K status points every anniversary) before you’ve even stepped on a plane. The 100K companion certificate that you get at that level could also be an amazing value if it works as we all hope it will (which is to say in any cabin and on partner-operated awards). I should stress that we don’t yet have official word on this card, but rather all of this is rumored. Nonetheless, if rumors are true, I could see this card being very popular amongst big spenders.
A quick guide to transferable points programs
Despite my enthusiasm above for the rumored Alaska premium card, I generally prefer earning transferable points over earning airline-specific miles. Greg’s post sharing an overview of transferable points programs helps to paint the base layer of the picture when it comes to earning rewards and leveraging them for outsized value. For newcomers to the world of credit card rewards and award travel, this is a great place to get an overview of what you need to know near the beginning of your journey.
Rental car loyalty programs guide: Shortcuts to elite status, earning and redeeming free days, and more
Whereas I get very excited about earning transferable points, I don’t get very excited about rental car loyalty programs. That is mostly because they aren’t very rewarding. Rental car programs don’t have the same types of award chart sweet spots as airlines, and let’s face it: no matter what car you get, you still have to drive. That said, we all have to rent now and then, and when you do, you can make it a little simpler and potentially upgrade your ride a bit by getting elite status through your credit card, matching status across programs, and leveraging free days to the best value possible. See this guide for the key things you need to know about the most popular programs.
Marriott’s rumored business cards | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep319 | 8-15-25
When Marriott and SPG merged years ago, Chase and Amex split the credit card portfolio for new applicants. Amex controls the Marriott business credit cards, and the word on the street is that they will soon update the current card and add two more premium business cards to the lineup. On this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, Greg and I discuss the rumored new Amex Marriott Business cards, including whether we are excited about them and who might want to consider them if they turn out as-rumored.
Flying First Class on British Airways Boeing 777-200 ER Boston to London
Greg recently flew to London in British Airways First Class. While British Airways is not the most highly-regarded first class product on the market, Greg found a reasonable way to book it (with a transfer partner you might be ignoring). The daytime flight to London is a great hack for getting to Europe without jetlag. Personally, I like British Airways Club World Business Class enough that I don’t think I would find it worth the additional miles for first in this case (especially since the same program that Greg used to book charges significantly less in business class). Still, if you’re looking to splurge for some additional space and what Greg reports to have been excellent service, a daytime flight seems like the way to go.
Is the Grand Hyatt Kauai worth 45K? | Ask Us Anything Ep78 | 8-6-25
On the first Wednesday of every month, the Frequent Miler team goes live on Youtube to answer your questions about points, miles, and rewards programs. This month, we fielded a number of questions, including one about whether the Grand Hyatt Kauai is worth its new Category 8 pricing. See this post for the questions we’ve answered and links to hear us chat about them.
What are hotel free night certificates worth?
Many popular credit cards come with annual free night certificates. Are those certificates worth the cost of each card’s annual fee? In this post, we explain our valuation of hotel free night certificates. The short story is that since certificates expire in a year and can only be used for a single night, you shouldn’t value them at full potential face value, so we adjust downward and use a formula with our reasonable redemption value to assign an approximate value to each type of certificate. You can and should obviously adjust as you see fit.
Finding the best prices for independent hotels (case study)
Greg ran an interesting comparison on booking a few specific independent hotels through a number of different sites. The results more or less show my major annoyance with cash rate shopping: you have to log in everywhere to check the price of every hotel every time because there is no site you can count on to have the best price every time. I find that so annoying and time-consuming! And while Greg was focusing on sites where you need to log in and can earn rewards (Citi/Chase/Capital One/Rove/Gondola), And even this level of comparison is very much incomplete since you can so often find good shopping portal rates for sites like Priceline, Agoda, and Booking.com — and you can get access to better pricing with Priceline status or being logged in to Hotels.com with Expedia elite status, etc. And that’s to say nothing of Rocketmiles. AA Hotels, and many more options. The time investment in finding the best deals can be overwhelming!
What are Hilton points worth?
We’ve recently updated our Reasonable Redemption Value for Hilton Honors points as per the data that we receive from Gondola.ai. It came as no surprise to me that Hilton Honors points are trending downward in value. In my recent anecdotal searches for hotels during our JetBlue 25 for 25 trip, I’ve consistently noticed lower-than-expected value for Hilton points. What really surprised me here was the huge dip at the high end. The maximum observed value of Hilton points has decreased substantially with the huge increase in award pricing for top-end properties. Free night certificates remain highly valuable with Hilton, but points themselves have clearly decreased in value.
Nick’s weekly JetBlue 25 for 25 update: 13 airports down
Last weekend, I recapped a busy week chasing down JetBlue airports as my family goes after 20 airports by the end of August to earn 350,000 points x 4 passengers. This weekend, I’ll have another update coming out. While last weekend’s update was kind of long (as will be this weekend’s update), this is where I’m publishing tidbits I’ve learned or useful nuggets of wisdom that have bubbled to the surface during this nonstop travel period, so it’s worth at least checking out the table of contents for things you might be able to use. As of last weekend, we were up to 13 airports, but I’m currently typing this Week in Review from the plane en route to our 17th airport. Things will cool a bit from there as we slow down to spend some time with family over the coming week.
Citi Strata Elite℠ Credit Card Review (2025)
I can’t recall the last time I’ve been less excited about a card and more excited to get it. The Citi Strata Elite is an odd bird in that it’s not really a card that I would enthusiastically recommend as a keeper card; I think most people are probably better off with a Strata Premier and Double Cash combo. However, the first-year value here seems massive: $1,000 in total credits in the first year (only counting the hotel and “splurge” credits, not the Blacklane credit) and 100,000 points for $595 seems like too good of a deal to pass up, particularly given my renewed interest in Choice Privileges and I Prefer. This post has everything you need to know about the Strata elite, and it’s worth knowing about this card for as long as the 100K offer lasts.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep your eye on this week’s last chance deals to scoop them up before they’re gone.
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