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?
Today’s Coffee Break episode was inspired by a recent email we got asking… how did Frequent Miler get started? Since our Coffee Break episodes are 20 minutes or less, we started but telling Greg’s side of the Frequent Miler origin story.
Watch the full episode below, or listen on your favorite podcast platform. You can click the timestamps below to navigate directly to a specific part of the episode within YouTube.
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(01:47) – In 2011 Greg first learned about this points and miles hobby when his employer at the time issued a “no travel” decree…
(04:22) – Greg started a blog for his friends…because it was easier then emailing everyone about what he’d learned.
(05:29) – Greg almost immediately became intrigued with stacking opportunities.
(07:06) – Greg was also very focused on increasing spend on his credit card which he later learned was called “manufactured spending.”
(08:17) – Before long, Randy of Boarding Area discovered Greg and invited him to join.
(10:38) – Greg met some other Boarding Area bloggers and learned how to monetize his blog.
(14:15) – In early 2012 Greg’s “real job” restructured and he got laid off, inspiring him to set an earnings goal for the blog.
(16:02) – Greg discovered Vanilla Reload cards…
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Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads
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Greg, I distinctly remember meeting you at the Sheraton in East Rutherford, NJ when you first started your blog about stacking opportunities. You discovered the vanilla reloads and mentioned that there would be an eminent post in the coming days that it would be a very lucrative 5x miles earning opportunity. You shared the information in person and showed me what needed to be purchased at OD.
I also remember that the US Airways Grand Slam promo(those were days!!) came and went. You were a bit bummed you didn’t get on that as it would have been a great opportunity to earn miles and post about on your blog.
I think whoever knew you from back then, remembers you today as the original VR and the stacking guy living in the points and miles lore like the pudding guy.
As one of the “old time” followers, very much looking forward to listening to this. I did so may of Greg’s early tricks….LOL It was a ton of fun back in the day!. Best was buying Walmart gift card from shady folks on ebay waiting 30 days to ship, then immediately laundering them when they shipped, then turning around and buying visa gift cards. I ended up filing multiple ebay protection deals, but it was lucrative. LOL
This is such an amazing episode. If there is one thing that I respect this blog for, is the fact that you put the best link for each credit card out there – even if it means no revenue for you guys. Case in point – my wife had a targeted referral link for AMEX business gold 130k offer and she submitted that to your insider group on FB. Her link was on the blog last week for a day, and turns out, she maxed out (and then some) on her 100k referral bonus bonus for the Business Gold card in that one day. And she was probably 20th on the list of ppl of left their links on that post. This just goes on to show the popularity of the blog and it is for a reason!
Congratulations on this massive success, Greg. This blog is truly unique in several aspects and it takes a lot of self-belief in choosing the path less traveled.