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From seeing Singapore space available via Air Canada to spotting American Airlines planes with partner award availability, this week at Frequent Miler was full of tips about opportunities hiding in plane plain sight. If you’re within a stone’s throw of Las Vegas, you’ll read about how you can hit it big without taking a big hit and a number of our resource posts have seen a freshly updated and are ready to be bookmarked. All that and more in this Frequent Miler week in review.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
International business class award hidden gems
Greg and I recently discussed some of these hidden gem award flights on a podcast episode, which made him realize that we didn’t have a post about finding these gems that sometimes hide in plane plain sight. The one of these that I least often think to check is EVA, but the one that surprises me most is Air Canada’s wide access to Singapore Airlines business class space. I’m often surprised at how much of it is available via Air Canada.
Where to find AA business class award space to Europe
Believe it or not, as Greg’s results in this post suggest is possible, I have stumbled on American Airlines award space a number of times via partner miles — even on dates when American is charging an exorbitant number of miles for the same flights (though keep in mind that if you originate or end at a smaller airport, pricing is often wildly different than to/from hubs when booking through AA itself!). I appreciated this look at specific routes where one may be more likely to find availability since I’ll often look to lock up a transatlantic flight even if it isn’t ideal since American offers free changes and cancellations.
Fantastic updates about Hilton’s integration of SLH
I was (and still am!) incredibly bummed about Hyatt’s breakup with SLH. However, when the partnership with Hilton was announced, I daydreamed that perhaps we’d be able to eventually book SLH properties with Hilton free night certificates. Well, folks, dreams really do come true, because it sounds like Hilton intends to make SLH properties bookable with Hilton points and free night certificates (and eligible for stuff like the 5th night free on an award stay, etc). That makes me feel good about my decision to hurry up and get in $15K spend on my Hilton business card before the ability to spend to a free night certificate goes away on that card soon.
Planning an epic status match run in Las Vegas
Some new matching opportunities are drawing me back to Las Vegas for the second time this year (and the third time in just over a year), but the benefits are hard to ignore. My wife and I and a family member are planning a weekend of matching in Las Vegas so that the three of us will end up with a cumulative $450 in dining and spa credits at Fontainebleau, $300 in spa credits at Wynn, $300 in Caesars Diamond celebration dinner credit, $100 in dining credit & $100 in free play at Resorts World, and three Holland America cruises in ocean view cabins — not to mention elite statuses at a couple more casinos and $900 in FHR spa credits and some breakfast credits at Wynn. We had a free extended weekend coming up and couldn’t resist that haul. Since this is a limited-time opportunity, I wanted to write about the planning rather than the results to give others time to put their own epic status run together.
Tickets to see Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark and more ways Nick has redeemed Capital One Shopping cash back
Speaking of epic…..the Capital One Shopping portal enters stage right. I’ve been able to earn a small mountain of rewards thanks to a bunch of huge Capital One Shopping offers over the past couple of years, but those rewards can only be redeemed for gift cards. In this post, I explain how I’ve earned a bunch of rewards through the portal and how I’ve used them. I know that some readers have reported poor experiences with Capital One Shopping, but I’ve had very good luck with it, as have others in my family — and we’ve certainly enjoyed putting the rewards to use for things like tickets to see Taylor Swift and a lot more.
Join Nick at The Travel Summit in Toronto in April 2024
Speaking of tickets, do you have your ticket to Travel Summit next weekend? I’ll be speaking at this conference in Toronto from April 26-28, 2024 and I republished the details here for anyone who may be up for a last-minute trip to Toronto. This will be my first Travel Summit conference, but I have to say that things seem really well-organized and planned, so I’m looking forward to a fun weekend and the chance to meet up with some familiar faces, both in terms of speakers I know and enjoy seeing and those readers who have reached out to say they’ll be there. If you’re in attendance, please find me and say hello!
Podcast: Shortcuts to AA elite status | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep251
I currently have American Airlines Platinum Pro status, just one off of the top published tier. I didn’t fly to earn my status, I used some of the many shortcuts we discussed on this week’s podcast to end up with higher status than I deserve.
Podcast: United blocking partner awards | Coffee Break Ep07
I’ve long had a draft post waiting to finish about the sad state of Star Alliance awards. Unfortunately, United has added fuel to that fire by blocking partner access to many seats on its own flights, especially domestically within the United States. Greg and I discuss this recent development on this week’s 20-minute coffee break.
Bilt partners with BLADE: free flights, points earning and elite benefits
This is pretty cool: Bilt Platinum members pick up a status perk that adds some pizzaz with a free BLADE flight. I had totally missed that in addition to New York City transfers like the one that Greg took, BLADE operates flights between Nice and Monaco. Frankly, that’s a splurge I hope to get the chance to take advantage of some day!
Complete Guide to Avios: British Airways, Qatar, Iberia, and Aer Lingus
Tim has completely updated our guide to Avios. This program has gotten increasingly complex with the onboarding of additional airlines into the Avios scheme, so it is important to have a reference guide like this to remember the nuances that make one program different (and thus more advantageous in some circumstances) than its Avios brethren.
Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts Guide: Your FHR questions answered
I’ve been a fan of American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts since long before Amex added an annual credit for such stays to the Platinum card. While some including properties are well beyond my budget, I end up finding a situation almost every year where FHR works out well for my needs. This post has been updated to address some of the most common questions we get about FHR bookings.
InterContinental Ambassador: Elite status you can buy
IHG has its One Rewards program, but it also maintains separate programs for Kimpton (Inner Circle) and InterContinental hotels (Ambassador). I’ve always found this sort of confusing and niche, but it’s also nice that you can straight up buy InterContinental status. That can be well worth the price of admission in some circumstances — this post explains what those circumstances may be where you’ll want to consider buying up.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Don’t forget to keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals for those deals set to end within the next few days.
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