Greg and Nick have been consumed with last-minute travel the last week and a half so it’s great timing for them to summarize 10 important tips for last-minute award travel.
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.
For a transcript of this episode, click “Watch on Youtube” on the video below, then click the “…more” link in the video description. This will expand full video details. Scrolling down past the timestamps and chapters, you’ll see a “Show Transcript” button. If you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can touch and hold a podcast episode to reveal an option to view a transcript.
Main Event: Top 10 Tips for Last Minute Award Travel
Mailbag
(01:17) – Standing ovation for the annual challenge! (Mailbag)
Flying by the Seat of our Points… is done
(06:43) – Annual Challenge recap and overview
Watch the Stage 1 recap video here: https://youtu.be/bMt_NfuuINI?feature=shared
Watch the Stage 2 recap video here: https://youtu.be/gyJPtTZN1EE?feature=shared
Watch the Stage 3 recap video here: https://youtu.be/HTmEAicB3dw?feature=shared
Card Talk: Curve is Dead
(34:15) – Curve overview (Card Talk)
Find out more here: https://www.curve.com/en-us
Crazy Thing
Mattress Running the Numbers
Award Talk
(37:56) – Hilton SLH integrated testing phase (Award Talk)
(40:26) – Preferred Hotels / Choice devaluation (55K to 87K) (Award Talk)
(42:34) – Aero plan credit card & elite members status match to iPrefer Titanium (before June 28) (Award Talk)
(44:18) – Book Oman Air w/ Flying Blue miles (Award Talk)
(44:30) – Book El Al with Virgin points (Award Talk)
(44:51) – Points Path adds support for Air Canada & Alaska Airlines (Award Talk)
Main Event: Top 10 Tips for Last Minute Award Travel
(47:00) – General advice
(52:38) – Great awards often open last minute (ex: Lufthansa first)
(57:16) – Diversify. Having different types of points and miles helps.
(58:28) – Become adept at award search tools. Huge time saver.
(1:00:26) – Don’t rely entirely on award search tools. They don’t catch everything (no Virgin Atlantic on a couple, no BA / QR Avios, didn’t see LifeMiles for my redemption, etc)
(1:03:41) – Consider keeping stashes in programs you use often. This only applies if you have a lot of points and miles, but it could help avoid a failed transfer.
(1:05:27) – Watch out for transfer times
(1:08:10) – Get a good VPN. I wonder if some of my problems could have been averted if I’d used one all along.
(1:11:22) – Know that Aeroplan’s contact center isn’t 24/7. This can be a big pain when you’re overseas.
(1:12:37) – Beware the phantom menace. Tons of Swiss space that isn’t real.
(1:17:02) – Have some tricks up your sleeve. This could alternatively be called “persistence pays off”. Don’t give up right away. Examples include searching Avianca’s site multiple ways, forcing a stopover with Aeroplan to get a flight to show up, booking a refundable something as a backup, etc.
Question of the Week
(1:20:10) – How do you go about finding activities while you travel? (Question of the Week)
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Using the United app seemed the best way to tell if Swiss is phantom. Clicking on a Swiss flight immediately showed no longer available and then greyed it out of the search. I didn’t have any miles in my account but could see this repeatedly.
I know Greg speculated this, but I’ve found pretty much universally that if you’re booking an AA longhaul award that is in their saver/partner bookable fare class (U for business, for example), adding a partner segment will price the whole itinerary at the partner price. The crazy part about this is that the 150k DFW-CDG price was likely bookable by partners.