This game is exciting to me precisely because there are so many ways to play it and win. On this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, we discuss a whole lot of winning. Our list of sweet spots are the cream of the crop in terms of incredible values accessible with your collection of miles and points. That said, there were many honorable mentions that we did not get to discuss and that means we may have left your favorite sweet spot off the list. Watch or listen to this week’s show and let us know what we missed in terms of your favorite sweet spots.
Read on for more from this week at Frequent Miler, including reduced paths to elite status, why and how you may want to redeem American Airlines miles now, what we think of the new Business Platinum changes, and more.
Frequent Miler on the Air
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This week at Frequent Miler
Which bank offers the best transfer partners? On Greg’s mind…
This post was the impetus behind this week’s show. While reading this post that Greg wrote, I found myself ready to debate him passionately about some of his assertions, but the truth is that our points of disagreement just go to show that there isn’t one “right” way to play the game. I may yet write a version of this post from my perspective less to debate Greg and more to highlight that there is more than one correct methodology and answer. My rankings? 1) Amex, 2) Capital One, 3) Chase, 4) Citi — but watch out for Bilt Rewards coming in hot as I think they now deserve a seat at the table in this discussion. Where do you rank each program?
Capital One Miles Sweet Spots 2021
Now that Capital One Miles transfer 1:1 to almost all of their airline partners, we had to completely revamp our sweet spots post and I have to admit that even I was surprised at just how good the newly-compiled list looks (indeed, this post might just convince you that Capital One should move up your rankings as well). Whether you want to fly to Hawaii for 7,500 miles or to Europe in business class for 34K miles or you’re wondering when it would make more sense to look for an Avianca LifeMiles award ticket rather than an Air Canada Aeroplan ticket (or vice versa), find all the best sweet spots detailed in this post.
Accounting for costs: How much did the GUC trip cost us in total?
Our Delta Global Upgrade Certificate trip last month was an incredible adventure that took us to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the Maldives thanks to Greg giving me the chance to plan a trip using his GUCs. Part of the challenge for me was finding good value for points (among other challenges posed both by him and readers). I didn’t intend for the trip the be copied exactly as we did it nor did we have specific goals in mind in terms of points used or cash cost. Instead, I had hoped that in highlighting a variety of opportunities we would reach the widest possible range of readers with useful information and interesting aspects. However, many people still wanted to know how much we spent in total, so this post accounts for almost every dime spent on the trip. It wasn’t cheap, but it was far less than someone playing without points would pay for the same.
Easier airline elite status in 2021: Summary by Airline
In 2021, there are an unprecedented number of reduced paths to airline elite status. Each airline is handling status differently: in some cases, you may be in position to earn or maintain elite status with just $15K spend on a credit card. In others, you may get far more credit for flights this year than you ordinarily would – perhaps even award tickets. For the first time in my life, these opportunities are influencing my own flight decisions; next week I’ll be flying Delta on a paid domestic first class ticket because of how many MQMs I’ll earn that will all roll over into next year. Even if you haven’t previously been in the hunt for airline elite status, it might be worth taking a look at your options if you have any more travel planned in 2021.
Spending 580,000 AA miles, just in case of devaluation
In this post, Greg outlines his plans to lock in a number of great awards using his American Airlines AAdvantage miles in case we see a coming program devaluation. I’m not sure that we actually will see a devaluation of awards in the near future, but it could certainly make sense to lock in awards now if you think we will. I’ll add a sweet spot to the list that might be worth keeping in mind if you intend to take Qatar to the Middle East: keep in mind that AAdvantage charges just 40K in business class or 50K in first class from the Middle East to Asia 1 (Japan and Korea), which could make it worth piecing together a trip on Qatar with a first class redemption on Etihad or Cathay Pacific that covers a nice long first class flight for a very reasonable number of miles.
Business Platinum: New Perks, New Price
The Business Platinum now comes with several new benefits — and an increased annual fee is coming in 2022. To summarize the situation: if the Business Platinum card was worth it to you before, I can’t imagine that you aren’t excited about changes that add significantly more value than the increased cost even if you only use the wireless and Dell credits. See the post for more detail.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep your eye on last chance deals to make sure you don’t miss any of this week’s expiring opportunities.
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Do you intend on writing a blog/text version of these sweet spots?
I hadn’t thought of it, but that’s a very good idea.
A lot are covered here
https://frequentmiler.com/which-bank-offers-the-best-transfer-partners-on-gregs-mind/#Fly_Iberia_business_class_to_Europe_for_as_few_as_34K_points_one-way
Great work overall, thank you for all of your insights and digging into the ‘fine print’ on these redemption opportunities. Might be kind of cool to have these ratings embedded within posts discussing them, akin to ratings on other sites…so when reading the Wyndham-Vacasa deal, there could be a bottom line up front of Awesomeness ‘X’ and Practicality ‘Y’ (and have reader ratings for the program/sweet spot). However do not want to make more work for you, as that seems like a big project…
Interesting idea!
Hey Nick! I like your plans for using your AA miles. How are you getting two JAL first class tickets? I used to get them without too much difficulty but now see none or just one…help would be appreciated! Thanks!
I’m not booking any flights to Japan right now, so I haven’t been looking, but the strategy is always the same: search all of their US routes regularly and/or set award seat alerts with a tool like Expert Flyer. Award space ebbs and flows and in the current uncertain travel environment I wouldn’t be surprised if it is fitting into patterns less reliably.
Any great use of AA, AK or Delta miles out of Washington DC? We have about 200k AA miles, 100k AK and 130k Delta miles for each account to burn. Ideally non-stop international flights but looks hard to find. Only 1 or multiple stops with longer hours. I felt DC airports just had much less upper class for point or mileage redemptions. E.g., Not that easy to find great Air Canada flights with matched 75k status, except for Canada bound. Trying to utilize a sizable UR points and transfer to Virgin Atlantic or other partners, but DC departure seems to have little if no business or first class flights for mile redemptions.
Your first step is to figure out where you want to go. There are plenty of good options.
Quick note: Air Canada doesn’t fly nonstop from any city in the US to anywhere other than Canada. You’ll need to connect at one of their hubs to go somewhere on Air Canada, so it isn’t surprising that you’re going to need to connect in a major Canadian city if you want to fly Air Canada. Perhaps you understood that so apologies if you did — it wasn’t clear to me whether you were saying that you aren’t seeing long-haul availability or that you were looking for nonstops to somewhere other than Canada. You won’t be booking Air Canada with AA, AK, or Delta miles anyway, but trying to clarify for you.
In terms nonstops, use a tool like flightconnections.com and check the alliance box that will show you flights on alliance members from your airport (you can do more or less the same thing with Google Flights). Then also keep in mind non-alliance partners.
Both Qatar and Etihad flight from DC to their hubs (Doha and Abu Dhabi) and from there there are opportunities to connect. American has reasonable prices on most of the routes they serve.
Since Washington DC isn’t an American Airlines hub, you are likely to be more successful in finding options if you consider positioning to their hubs (like Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, or even Boston) to find availability. Iberia would be a good option for flights to Europe. Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific are both great options to get to Asia (and American has decent prices for both regions).
Alaska’s best sweet spots are Cathay Pacific to Asia (50K one-way in business!) or Japan Airlines to Asia (60K business / 70K first class!) and they offer a free stopover on a one-way award. Cathay used to serve DC, but not anymore. Another sweet spot for Alaska is 50K business class to Australia on either Qantas (almost impossible to find availability and obviously not flying right now) or on Fiji Airways (with a free stopover in Fiji!). You’ll need to connect though — you could fly Alaska to the west coast to connect.
Delta miles aren’t particularly good for international redemptions except when they run flash sales on their own flights to Central / South America. Otherwise, those are best for domestic flights.
I’d not limit yourself to nonstops out of a single city as you immediately narrow your potential options and then have to find award availability on exactly that one or two flights. That just isn’t the best way to find awards. Instead, you want to figure out where you might want to go and accept that you may need to connect but that it’ll likely be worth it to fly in a premium cabin on a good partner airline.
Wow this is amazing! Thank you so very much Nick for your quick response with such a detailed analysis!
For Air Canada sorry I was just thinking whether I may find a more meaningful flight to keep the matched 75k status. Flying to Toronto is ok but not very meaningful as it would be a quick journey with no business but covid test requirments.
The focus is more on how to wisely use the AA and AK points as I felt an imperative that I should burn them asap after reading your post and listening to your prodcast about potential AA devaluation. I prefer to use it on flights to Asia or Europe.
I got your points. Yes perhaps going to the hubs and west coast is the better approach for a real solution. I will further digest your advice and rethink about my strategy .
Thanks again Nick!
During the airline segment you discussed how economy was worth considering for families (or several people) rather than just getting 1 or 2 people up front. I think you should have more strongly considered that for Vacasa. We are a family of 6 and all the kids are now well past the age/size where we stack them up 3 or 4 deep on a single queen bed. Most options are not easy to get 6 sleeping spots on points (Embassy Suites being an exception), so we have tended toward Airbnbs when we are all headed somewhere. Vacasa is nice that I can easily search for 6+ people and 1 bedroom, and even add 2 dogs, and find a fairly decent number of options.
We have not booked any Vacasa stays yet, but once my Wyndham Biz SUB hits I will probably book something for spring break next year maybe in northern GA. I agree it is definitely not the most practical option out there, but having 4 kids & 2 dogs was never done for practicality either!
Yes, great point. The Vacasa option is fantastic for families
I believe you mentioned Virgin Miles expire after 1 year, that is incorrect, they used to expire once every three years now they dont expire at all
I don’t think we said that. If we did, you are of course right that it’s a mistake….but we’re both certainly aware that they don’t expire, so I’m not sure why we would have said that.
Maybe what you’re thinking is that we mentioned that ANA miles expire after 3 years regardless of activity. I’m not sure.
At 33:52, Gerg said VA points don’t expire.
Actually Hank was correct. Sorry Nick and AlexL. In the show, I said that “Virgin points don’t expire as long as you have activity every 12 months or few years or whatever.” But as Hank says, Virgin points no longer expire… ever. You don’t need activity in your account to keep the points alive. Thanks for the reminder Hank!
Why did Chase agree to the backcharge provision in the first place? More importantly since they’ve removed that clause from the IHG agreement they ostensibly negotiated it out on the personal hyatt and marriott/ritz cards. So that is not a valid excuse for not offering it. If you don’t want it sockdrawered then why not offer the opportunity to earn perks at certain spend thresholds besides the night credits? For instance $20k is 2 club lounge awards, $30k is a 1-7 cert, 40k is 1 DSU, etc. I wouldn’t get jedi mind tricked by these executives so easily. Also the card comes with ZERO night credits off the bat from a twice as high af compared to 5 on the personal. The ONLY upside to the biz is the 25% increased night credit earn rate but even that is compromised by a starting point of 0 instead of 5 and it’s in increments of $10k vs $5k. A very select use case is gifting discoverist but even that’s a stretch. It has tiny upside with huge downside. The cap and the calendar year bs on the rebate is garbage for the spend they’re asking for. I would argue the personal hyatt out of all hotel cards across all issuers is the least sockdrawered because it actually rewards spend and it’s one card for hyatt loyalists. Also hyatt hasn’t devalued like crazy cough cough ihg points overall and spg amex earn rate 3->2. People spent boatloads of money on the SPG amex pre merger when there was NO FNC for a 95 af. This will go into the bin right next to the Barclays Arrival Premier, at least this has a sub. That being said my guess is they will increase the benefits on it in 18-24 months or even sooner if it flops worst than I think it will.
Never flown business class or first class (don’t know the differences either) in my life and I only fly domestically. I’ve only focused my point energy toward luxury hotels because the experience is longer. Does a refocus on Airlines make sense for some like me?
NO !!! if you fly Solo like Me or book 2 and no middle seat… I had 4 seats ORD>HNL and 2 coming back and non-stop also..Been on a 12 hr Flt with 2 seats Fine.. My FA found me a better seat last flt before I LOOKED……I’ll take one or 2 nites in a 4* hotel or Air..
I take Uber rt to airports now no hassle. Look @ Parking cost now after 2 years of being home $$$$$ !!!!!!
My Cheap opinion..