The quickest way to earn rewards in this game is through new card welcome bonuses. Playing in two-player mode — where you and a partner both apply for new cards and take advantage of the right opportunities — can supercharge your earning power. On this week’s episode of Frequent Miler on the Air, we talk about doubling up on those opportunities and how to be strategic in taking advantage of them in order to get the most return for your efforts.
Elsewhere on the blog this week, Greg covers an exciting new search tool, we hear about Stephen’s IHG experiment results, Tim reviews our experience with Japan Airlines Apex Suites, and a lot more. Watch or listen to the show and scroll on for more from this week at Frequent Miler.
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This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Pointsyeah: Free flight award searches and alerts
Want to find award flights with one click, but don’t want to pay for a subscription to the other services we’ve covered? If you answered “Yeah”, then let me point you to Pointsyeah. While Pointsyeah only searches 16 programs for availability, it is free — and much like with Bilt’s free version of Point.me, if you know your alliances, you may be able to mentally fill in the gaps for any programs missing. Just yesterday, I found an itinerary of interest through Pointsyeah that didn’t show up via other popular award search tools, so I’m pretty happy with it so far, especially considering that it’s free. Just keep in mind that you’ll have to create a free account with an actual email address in order to see real results.
Tools for finding impossible hotel awards
Staying at the most desirable, highest-end properties using rewards points or free night certificates can be difficult as award availability can be very tough to snag since those properties often only have a couple of standard rooms and they book up quickly. Thankfully, there are tools you can use to find those rooms when they get released. In this post, Greg lays out your options, along with the pros and cons of each. I think it could be totally worth paying for one of these if it helps you snag one of those tough-to-find stays.
3 Inks approved again. 420K points “in the bag”.
Almost half a million points from a single great offer — this is how you do it! While the 100K offer is certainly a great one to go after, what I think this post really illustrates is the power of household referrals. With 40K bonus points just for referring a new cardholder, Greg, his wife, and his son earned a combined extra 120,000 points thanks to referring each other. That makes such a difference in the bottom line and should be an integral part of your strategy for amassing lots of miles and points with a teammate(s).Want to
Business class to London for less with this Asia Miles trick
Asia Miles have long been the best way to book British Airways business class using miles since you’ll pay far less in surcharges when booking via Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles. Unfortunately, their award chart is changing this fall. Fortunately, you still have some time to take advantage of current pricing before things change. Keep in mind that given the difference in surcharges depending on your city pairs, it might make sense to buy a separate positioning flight on either end of your trip.
Japan Airlines 787 Business Class: Bottom Line Review (Sky Suites)
The Apex Suites seats that Japan Airlines uses on the 787 that we flew to Japan are quite popular. Last year, I flew in the same seats on both Oman Air and Gulf Air. I know that many people love these seats, and I can understand why, but I’m personally not a big fan. I find the arm room a bit too narrow and the storage space at the seat to be lacking — I hate not having a good place to put my laptop if dinner comes and so on. That said, it depends where you sit, because Tim had a great nook that my seat didn’t have. Apex Suites are still worlds better than flying in economy class no matter which seat you pick, but see the review for advice on what you may like or hate.
IHG Shareholder Rate: Save money, gain flexibility, but lose rewards
Stephen leveraged the IHG Shareholder rate during our Party of 5 challenge in part to run an experiment and see if shareholders really don’t earn rewards on their stays when using the shareholder discount. Unfortunately, you don’t earn rewards when using the shareholder rate — but as Stephen shows, it can save you money and offer greater flexibility, which can certainly make it worth keeping this one in mind.
Seats.aero: a wonderfully nerdy tool for finding Unicorn flight awards [New: iPhone app, ChatGPT, Qantas, Virgin Australia]
Seats.aero continues to expand and improve. Read about the latest developments in this updated post.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye out for this week’s last chance deals before they expire.
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What kills me is that I actually earn more points with CSP than I did with CSR.
3.1x dining vs. 3.0x (minor, I know).
Yes, 2.1x travel vs 3x
But 3.1x grocery (“pay with app” codes as online grocery) vs 1x
And 3.1x streaming video vs 1x
And all that for a much cheaper net cost especially due to CSP’s $50 credit in the hotel portal.
Is there any possible way for you to include timestamps in your post for the video? It makes it much easier to come back and finish listening to parts later if you don’t have time to listen all at once. It also makes it easier to register to certain parts later. Thanks.
Nick usually does include the timestamps. Not sure why they aren’t here in the post, but you can always find them by clicking through to the video on Youtube. There, you’ll find the timestamps in the episode description (you may have to click “show more”) and below that you’ll see the chapters.