If you want to travel within the US and Canada using airline miles, your first impulse might be to use miles from one of the major North American airlines like American, Delta or United. In some cases, that will indeed be your best bet.

Not content with gutting earnings on paid flights, Southwest announced today that it’ll no longer be Southwest. It’ll still be named Southwest (at least for now anyway), but some of the things that make Southwest Southwest will be changing and not in a good way.

If you often apply for credit cards in order to earn welcome bonuses (or even if you don’t), then you’ve probably realized that managing your credit is important. But, it’s not just your credit score that’s important — it’s also good to be alerted when new inquiries are made and to know the details of your credit report.

As someone based on the east cost of the US, more than 3 hours by car from the closest airport served by Alaska Airlines, it might be tempting to think that the airline’s loyalty program, Mileage Plan, would be completely irrelevant for me. However, I’ve recently made a small a flurry of Alaska Mileage Plan award bookings for travel later this year. Revisiting some of Alaska’s newer sweet spots as I booked them for my own travel plans really has me falling in love with Alaska Mileage Plan all over again….and wondering if I should make another speculative transfer from Amex to Hawaiian Miles to indirectly replenish my Alaska stash.

While Hilton has gotten a bit of a bad rap in the frequent traveler community for not having an award chart, there are many advantages to the program.

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points are worth, on average, about 1.4 cents per point. That has been our Reasonable Redemption Value for several years, so I recently took that concept for a test drive by collecting hundreds of data points over different routes and fare types, expecting to report at least a slight devaluation since the last time with published the value of Southwest points. However, after spending hours collecting data, I was somewhat surprised to find that Southwest Rapid Rewards points are mostly holding steady at around 1.4c per point, with limited opportunities to get as much as 1.6c per point (or possibly even more).

Amex Platinum cards come with a large suite of benefits, from hotel status to airport lounge access to entertainment subscription credits to savings at Saks and Dell to a Walmart+ membership and more.

American Express credit card annual fees have continued to go up. And up. And up. In exchange for these increased fees, the bank continues to pile on benefits where you can get money (in the form of statement credits) back for doing certain kinds of spending.

Around 2019, a new award search tool called Juicy Miles was introduced. It was amazing because it was the first ever user-friendly tool that let users search for award flights across multiple loyalty programs in the same way they were used to searching for paid flights. Juicy Miles eventually was rebuilt as point.me. It was good, but it was oh so slow. It would take nearly 2 minutes to return results. It’s no wonder then that when much faster tools appeared, such as Roame, PointsYeah and AwardTool, many of us abandoned point.me in favor of those other tools.

Miles and points are generally best used to book flights and hotels. Many airline and hotel programs offer the opportunity to do lots of other things with your miles and points — like buying merchandise, subscribing to magazines, and so on. Some even offer the opportunity to book “experiences” through a platform that resembles Viator/Klook/etc. Almost all of those redemptions are done at awful value. However, a few programs offer some really cool experiences that money can’t easily buy. Rather writing a complete roundup (like this one that Greg published a few years ago), I wanted to highlight a few cool experiences that I’ve run across lately while browsing opportunities.

Marriott caused quite a stir in the points and miles world a couple of weeks ago when it raised the award prices of many of its most aspirational properties into the stratosphere, with the cost of some properties almost doubling overnight. At same time, it appeared that Marriott had also raised the cap on each tier of its “secret award chart,” meaning that the maximum points that it charges for each award level had gone up by ~5-10%.

When Roame debuted it was amazing. While point.me was the first tool to offer user friendly flight award searches across many airline loyalty programs, Roame was the first to do it so that results came back quickly. Soon after its debut, though, tools like PointsYeah and AwardTool eclipsed Roame with better features (such as email alerts, and ability to select multiple airports) and similar speed. I’ve largely ignored Roame since then, but Roame developers haven’t been idle. They have made multiple improvements which make Roame a contender… especially for advanced award seekers and/or those looking for Singapore Krisflyer awards.

Citibank offers several cards that earn ThankYou Rewards points. By using the right combination of cards its possible to earn 2 to 5 points per dollar on all spend. Once you’ve collected lots of points, though, you’re going to want to get great value from them. That’s where this post comes in…

Qantas Frequent Flyer is a program that doesn’t get a ton of attention from US-based travelers or points and miles enthusiasts. While Qantas has a distance-based award chart, an interesting twist is that Qantas charges for points redemptions based on cumulative mileage rather than the total for each segment separately. This can work out especially well for those on short connecting itineraries like those traveling to/from smaller airports and it means that those who are in or near Miami get access to Central America and the Caribbean quite cheaply, even in business class.

Buying Hilton Gift Cards had been so popular in recent times that the BuyHiltonGiftCards.com website had to suspend sales. Sadly, using Hilton Gift Cards has been far less popular. We’ve received numerous reports over the last year ranging from partial failure (only part of the gift card balance working) to complete and utter failure (being totally unable to use them at all). To be fair, we’ve also received some reports from people who have been able to use them exactly as expected without any issue at all. This post is meant to alert readers to the problem(s) and some thoughts on potential solutions.

When Virgin Atlantic introduced dynamic award pricing in October 2024, I assumed that award charts for their own flights had gone away. I knew that they still had partner award charts showing the prices for booking partner awards with Virgin Atlantic points, but I figured that they no longer had award charts for their own flights. I was wrong. And a simple read through Virgin’s own website shows how wrong I was. Award charts are very much still alive and well for Virgin’s own flights, but with a few caveats: 1) the award charts only apply when Saver reward seats are available; 2) The award charts show the maximum price for Saver seats (in practice, the price is often less); and 3) When Saver seats aren’t available, the price is fully dynamic.

Recently, the Frequent Miler team met up in Orlando for an annual face-to-face meeting to talk about plans and goals for Frequent Miler. My family decided to tag along with me and spend a weekend in Orlando. It hadn’t even occurred to me to to write a post about the trip, but quite a few people have asked family-travel related questions lately, so I thought I’d share how we booked it, what my family did, and how we saved some money along the way.

There are many card-linked programs ⓘ out there which can be a great way to earn cashback and rewards with little-to-no effort beyond their initial setup. It can be daunting though trying to get a handle on all of the different programs, plus not all of them stack with each other which is why we put together this guide: Card-Linked Programs & The Networks They Run On (AKA Which Programs Stack).

The Capital One Venture X Business card was released via a bizarre stop-and-start “launch” that began with no one really having any idea of how to get the card, outside of vague advice to “apply through a small business relationship manager” – a position which most Capital One employees seemed to have no idea existed. It finally went live for online applications at the end of 2023 and since then has oscillated between a series of gaudy welcome offers that require even gaudier minimum spend.

Cue up the finale: the gravy train is pulling into the station, but before it does there’s still a little time left for one last dance. Like many readers, my Caesars Diamond status is set to expire at the end of January 2025. But before we see the light of February, I’m taking one last dance with Caesars Diamond benefits.

Years ago a friend of mine signed up for an Amex Platinum card and added all of her immediate family members as authorized users. She did this primarily to give them Delta Sky Club access, especially when they fly alone (her kids are adults). The Platinum card made sense at the time because it offered unlimited Sky Club access when flying Delta and Amex charged only $175 per year to add 3 authorized users (and then $175 per person after that). Things have since changed. Amex now charges $195 for each authorized user. Additionally, starting Feb 1, each Platinum cardholder will be limited to 10 Sky Club visit-days per year. That raises the question: Is there a better way she can provide Sky Club access to her whole family?

Thrifty Traveler points out what appears to be a devaluation of Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles: the minimum pricing for awards in all three cabins (economy, premium economy, and business class) has increased around 25%. We reached out to Flying Blue for comment and confirmed these changes — read on for more details below.

Alaska Mileage Plan is the loyalty program for Alaska Airlines. For quite some time, Mileage Plan was considered to be one of the best loyalty programs around and Alaska miles were coveted throughout the world of points and miles. Even though it was an independent carrier, Alaska developed a compelling coterie of direct partnerships that created some very interesting opportunities, especially to Asia and Oceania.

Which are the best cards for everyday spend? Many credit cards are great for spend within certain categories, but not great for spend everywhere else. For example, the American Express Gold card offers 4X Membership Rewards for US supermarkets and worldwide dining and 3x on flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel. That’s great. But, I don’t recommend using the card for spend outside of those categories where it only earns 1 point per dollar. You can do better.

Capital One Miles have become a premier transferable currency system over the past several years. In addition to being able to use them to cover travel charges with points, Capital One allows 1:1 transfers to a range of valuable airline and hotel partners. Miles can be earned via credit card welcome offers and ongoing spend, and even cash back can be converted to miles if transferred to a miles-earning card.

Sonesta is a hotel program that’s tended to fly under the radar for most points and miles folks (including me). It’s been around since the 1930’s, but remained fairly small for several decades. That’s changed in the last ten years or so and it’s now become one of the fastest-growing hospitality companies in the US. In 2020, Sonesta had a total of 80 properties. Today, it’s grown to over 1100, in part due to its acquisition of Red Lion Hotels.

The Frequent Miler team's 2024 challenge, Flying by the Seat of our Points, was designed to push our award booking skills to the limit with a series of last minute travel challenges.

The best use of airline miles, in my opinion, is for international business or first-class awards. These flights typically offer lie-flat seats, direct aisle access, premium food and drinks, airport lounge access, and much better service than in economy. Sometimes, though, those awards can be very hard to find at reasonable prices. Luckily there are a number of “hidden gems”. These are airlines or routes that often have good availability, but you might not have thought to look at them when searching for award flights. Nick and I covered this topic on our podcast (Where to find hidden award flights | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep246), but I thought it would be useful to have this in post form as well.

I wrote the majority of this post aboard an American Airlines flight from Detroit to Charlotte. I booked the flight for only 12,500 points per person for first class. Economy would have cost only 6,000 points per person....

Qatar Airways’ QSuites is widely considered to be one of the best business class products available in the world. And, thanks to the power of miles & points, flying QSuites can be affordable. I’ve long wanted to try it out, and the stars finally aligned for a December trip to South Africa where my wife and I flew JFK to Doha on QSuites and from there to Cape Town on Qatar’s A350-900 business class without QSuites (which is nice, but doesn’t compare to QSuites). Here, finally, is my quick QSuites review…

The American Express Business Gold card has seen a ton of changes this year. The 4x categories were revamped, new annual business credits were added and we were given warning that the annual fee will increase by $80 next year. Until that happens, the combination of the current annual fee with the new credits makes this a very tempting proposition for folks who can handle the minimum spend.

Today, World of Hyatt has announced big changes coming January 1st 2024 to their Milestone Rewards (these are rewards that you earn after completing 20 nights within a calendar year, and every 10 nights thereafter). There are four central themes to these changes: 1) More sharing: Most Milestone Rewards will be shareable with others; 2) More choice: Members will have more opportunities to pick which Milestone Reward they prefer; 3) More perks for very frequent guests (e.g. 100 nights or more); and 4) Do-it-yourself: Many benefits will now be useable online without having to call Hyatt. Most of the changes are positive, but there are a couple of things here that irk me. Read below for details.

United doesn’t have a particularly competitive award chart (they no longer publish their award chart, but it’s currently still there coded into the system). But they do have a special feature of round trip awards that doesn’t exist in any other mileage program to my knowledge: Excursionist Perk awards. Excursionist Perk awards are similar to free stop-overs that are allowed in many other programs, but the way they’re coded allows for truly unique awards.

Delta has just announced revisions to the drastic SkyMiles changes that led to many, many fliers (including yours truly) declaring that they’re done with Delta. And while we knew that walkbacks to this plan were coming, Delta has made far bigger updates than I expected and some of them are pretty exciting.

In an effort to curb overcrowding, Delta has announced big changes to the options for entering Sky Clubs in the future. Basic economy flyers will no longer be welcome. Amex Platinum and Delta Reserve cardholders will still be welcome, but only a handful of times per year. Full details of these changes can be found here: Delta announces big Sky Club access changes for 2024 and beyond. In this post, I’ve rounded up all of the various options for entering Delta Sky Clubs, along with information about when various options will change.

What can you do with your credit card’s Dell rebate if you don’t want stuff from Dell? How can you benefit from your card’s airline incidental fee credits if you just want to buy airfare? What can you do with your Instacart rebate if you don’t want your groceries delivered? This cheat-sheet aims to answer questions like these.

Delta has officially released the news about changes to their elite program for 2024 and beyond. Yikes. As I predicted, they’re settling on a single metric for earning elite status: MQDs (Medallion Qualifying Dollars). Also as predicted, they’re increasing the MQD requirements for each elite level. Unfortunately, the increases are much higher than I predicted, especially for top tier Diamond status. And for those of us rolling over a lot of MQMs into 2024, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that we’ll be able to convert those MQMs to redeemable miles or MQDs or both. The bad news is that the conversion ratio to MQDs is bad… really bad.

On our recent Ask Us Anything session, one of the questions asked was: What was your 1st redemption? Seeing as we only have an hour to answer as many questions as possible, we try to keep things as rapid fire as possible and so only Tim had time to answer this question. Once we’d finished recording, the five of us continued chatting for a while and started reminiscing about all of our first award redemptions.

You could literally plan all of your 2023 vacation time off the back of a single credit card with a $95 annual fee. And I don’t mean using your credit card to pay for those vacations — I mean that you can probably get more free (or very close to free) nights with matches that come from one card than you have vacation time to take. But if you work from home or are retired and are playing in a 2-player household, you could literally cover accommodations (and in some cases also food!) for months by lining all of these up.

What can you do with your credit card’s Dell rebate if you don’t want stuff from Dell? How can you benefit from your card’s airline incidental fee credits if you just want to buy airfare? What can you do with your Instacart rebate if you don’t want your groceries delivered? This cheat-sheet aims to answer questions like these.

The post “The Games We Play,” outlines some of the top techniques for earning more points & miles, for getting more out of our points & miles, for saving money, and getting elite perks for less. In this post, you’ll find the tools we use to help us achieve these goals.

Hidden city ticketing is the practice of booking a connecting itinerary while only intending to fly part of the itinerary (for example, you book Paris to New York to Mexico City intending to only fly the leg from Paris to New York). Why would someone book an itinerary with an extra flight that they don’t intend to take? At a high level, the reason is because airlines use complicated pricing algorithms. As a result of these complicated systems, tickets with connections to secondary cities can sometimes be far less expensive than tickets connecting major metropolitan centers (where demand is likely to be higher and price resistance lower).

Yesterday, I published a post about the easy foreign partner programs that you shouldn’t be ignoring. That post was about several of the very easiest-to-use foreign frequent flyer programs. Today, I propose a few ever-so-slightly more challenging foreign programs that can be worth your while. Yes, each of them has its own set of annoyances — but if you can put up with a little inconvenience, the payoff can be pretty big.

On Monday, I published a post arguing that a popular transferable currency is relying too much on a single domestic hotel transfer partner. In the spirited response in the comments, a few people mentioned valuing familiar domestic frequent flyer miles over foreign programs.

Before setting off on the 3 Cards, 3 Continents challenge, my wife and I spent a month in the UK, France and Ireland this summer. Towards the end of our trip we spent a couple of days in Liverpool, England before heading to Belfast, Northern Ireland for a few days.

The last two weeks saw a whirlwind of (very different) travels from our 3 Cards, 3 Continents contestants – and with their “dream trips” finally done, it’s time to vote for a winner!

I was very disappointed to learn yesterday that the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate is leaving Marriott Bonvoy as of 9/1/22 as reported by Katie Genter on Twitter. Unfortunately, I think this means you’ll only have until then to redeem rewards and stay at this incredibly well-located property. I currently see dates in August available for either 14,500 or 15,000 Marriott points per night. Unfortunately, it looks like the hotel is not accepting reservations for award stays beyond September 1st. I don’t know whether existing points reservations beyond September 1st will be honored.

This past week, I redeemed 29,000 Hyatt points (peak price) for a basic room at the Grand Hotel Victoria Concept & Spa in Menaggio, Italy and it was amazing. I sat there on the patio of this hotel beside myself at the incredible beauty of Lake Como and the impeccable everything about the Grand Hotel Victoria. I will be back even if I can only score a single night of availability — it was that good. I’ll say it throughout this review, but pictures just don’t do this place justice. If you have a desire to visit Lake Como, this place needs to be at the top of your list.

Virgin Atlantic recently vowed to make at least 12 award seats available on every flight: 8 economy seats, 2 premium economy seats, and 2 business class seats (they call these Upper Class seats). In this overheated travel economy, that’s an amazing step to take. That means that even if they expect to easily sell every available seat on the plane, they’ll reserve at least 12 seats for frequent flyers. Amazing.

One of the things that I love most about collecting points and miles is that it gives me the opportunity to book incredible travel experiences that are otherwise so expensive that I never would have tried them. Examples include flying international first class in fully enclosed suites (such as Etihad Apartments), staying in amazing $1,500+ per night resorts (such as Alila Ventana Big Sur), and even spending an all-inclusive week on Richard Branson’s private island (unfortunately, this one is no longer bookable with points).

Curve is intended to be the one card to rule them all. No matter how many credit cards you have, the concept is that you can carry only the Curve card, and behind the scenes it will pass along each charge to whatever credit card you prefer. You can even set up rules so that restaurant charges automatically go to one card, grocery charges to another, travel charges to another, etc. That way, you can automatically maximize rewards without thinking about it. Curve has been around in the U.K. for years, but a U.S. version is just now being beta tested.

A few years ago, we were the first blog to uncover the killer story with Turkish Miles & Smiles that you can fly one-way within the United States — including to/from Alaska and Hawaii — for just 7,500 miles one-way in economy class or 12,500 miles in business/first class when United has saver availability. That amazing sweet spot is one of several great award deals offered by Turkish. Miles & Smiles is simultaneously one of the most valuable and one of the most frustrating Star Alliance programs given the challenges you may face in booking the itinerary you want. However, when you can find the availability you need, there is no doubt that the sweet spots can be well worth the challenges you may encounter in booking.

Now that I’ve had the X1 card for 6 months, it’s time for a full review. The original version of this post was published before I got the card and that version relied heavily on information from X1 itself and from early adopters. I’ve now re-written this post to include my own experience with the card. Please note that the X1 card is not the same as the Capital One Venture X.

Virgin Atlantic points are super easy to get. For example, you can sign up for the Virgin Atlantic credit card (which often has a 65K welcome bonus) and then average more than 2 cents per dollar on spend with that card. Also, points transfer 1 to 1 from most major transferable points programs. Even better, transfer bonuses are common such that transfers to Virgin Atlantic are often better than 1 to 1. With all of those points easily accessible, the question is what to do with them…

These days, your cell phone may be among your most expensive possessions. Having coverage in case of damage or theft can be worthwhile for those who anticipate being prone to damaging their phone and/or who would appreciate some peace of mind about the cost of replacement in the event of damage or theft. Luckily, a number of rewards credit cards offer strong cell phone insurance coverage as part of their regular suite of benefits.

I am quickly approaching the point in my life where I will need four award seats for the foreseeable future, so ways to save miles on family travel (and in particular kids’ award tickets) have become of much greater interest to me. I hope that readers will also chime in with other programs that offer opportunities to save miles on kids’ tickets as the savings can certainly add up quickly as seen in a couple of examples below.

IHG recently announced the launch of their new IHG One Rewards program. And, following Marriott dumping their award charts, I found that Marriott points, on average, were worth more than before (for now). Given these significant changes, it was time to revisit this post which was last published about a year ago. The purpose of this post is to see which hotel rewards program offers the best rewards for hotel spend.

Quite a few deals are ending this week, including the opportunity to save 20% on Alaska Airlines gift cards at Costco in-store.

Marriott had better wake up and smell the IHG One Rewards coffee. If you had asked me before I left for vacation a week ago whether Marriott or IHG had a better loyalty program, the question would have seemed ridiculous, but on this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, Greg pretty much convinced me that the new IHG One Rewards is pulling out ahead (at least on paper).

Following the news that IHG is introducing exciting new elite benefits, it’s now worth comparing IHG to the other chains that offer significant elite perks: Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt. Which chain offers the most compelling elite benefits? And which benefits are easiest to obtain? To be clear, the goal here isn’t to decide which has the best loyalty program overall, but rather to drill down into the quality and obtainability of each chain’s elite perks.

The 80K offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is back both direct and via friend referrals. If you have the card already, you can earn up to 75,000 points referring friends. If you don’t have the card, this is a great time to sign up… if you’re eligible. For the latter, many people have questions about whether they qualify or how to qualify. Here’s what you (or they) need to know…

IHG has finally released details of their new rewards program. The new program borrows liberally from Hyatt and, in my opinion, competes very well with Marriott. Confirmed suite upgrades, free lounge access, and free breakfast are all coming soon…

World of Hyatt is, by far, my favorite hotel loyalty program. Points are easy to earn (largely through their partnership with Chase), and Hyatt’s generous award chart makes it possible to get huge value from those points. One sore spot is that the program offers relatively few perks with their mid-tier elite status. However, those who earn enough nights to reach the coveted top-tier status get access to the best perks around (free suite upgrades at the time of booking, free parking on award stays, no resort fees, etc.).

Several deals are ending this week, including an opportunity to earn 20x on the Point debit card when spending up to $250 on several different airlines. That Point spending offer ends tonight (Sunday April 10), so there’s not long left to take advantage of that offer.

Could any coupon book really be worth six hundred and ninety-five dollars? On this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, we discuss the latest developments with the Amex Platinum card and run the numbers on whether or not you can extract enough value to cover the (very steep) annual fee.

Earlier this week, Nick taught us what to do when it comes time to cancel the Amex Platinum card. But should we cancel it at all? The recent addition of credits for Disney+, The Disney Bundle, ESPN+, and Hulu arguably make consumer Platinum cards more valuable than ever before. Regardless of whether you plan to cancel now or never, it’s a good idea to eke out every bit of value you can from your Platinum card. This post can help.

Over the past couple of years, we have seen incredible welcome offers on many different credit cards. The crème de la crème has surely been the Amex Platinum card. Last year in particular, we saw amazing welcome offers all year long that made the card a no-brainer to get despite its humongous $695 annual fee (which might make it hard to keep). Many people who got the card are newcomers to the Amex ecosystem and as such we have had a lot of questions about what to do as the second-year annual fee posts. I imagine there are more than a few people who got the card who won’t be excited about the idea of renewing at $695, but before you run off to call and cancel, consider your strategy.

Before I begin, fair warning: I’m going to gush. And I don’t often gush. My wife and I have been wanting to visit Anguilla for years, but the combination of on-and-off flights from the US, high-cash/no points lodging, the devastation of Hurricane Irma and the COVID-19 pandemic has kept us elsewhere.

Welcome to our weekly list of what’s ending this week as well as a collection of some other deals that are due to end soon. There’s only a handful of deals due to expire this week. IHG’s award sale that gives 20% off points bookings of 1-3 nights finishes on Tuesday, while Marriott’s latest opportunity to buy points at a discount ends tonight (Sunday). There have been a couple of different Point debit card referral promotions recently, both of which end later this week.

While blogs have long pumped a specific card that earns 2x travel and dining as the “best starter card”, that one didn’t even make it into this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air discussion on the best starter card for a student or young professional just starting out on life’s journey and beginning to collect rewards for spend. Greg and I discussed a number of great options for you to recommend for those young professionals in your life, whether they are kids leaving your nest or newbies in the next cubicle. With most in that crowd unlikely to cram their wallet full of cards from the start, what would you recommend?

Capital One Entertainment recently launched and I was lukewarm on it at launch, but if you are a baseball fan you have to check out the tickets they’ve loaded through the end of May. A reader alerted me to the fact that Capital One is selling cardholder exclusive tickets — in many cases fantastic seats near the field / in club level sections — for 5,000 miles per ticket. They appear to be offering 4 tickets per game on these and it is worth a look if you have Capital One miles and an affinity for baseball.

The Hyatt Centric Times Square is an incredibly well-located property less than a block off of Times Square, next door to a theater, and across the street from a cool-looking museum. I booked a one-bedroom suite with World of Hyatt points, which provided ample space by New York City standards. While the furniture showed some typical NYC signs of wear and breakfast was weak, I would probably return if I wanted to be in the neighborhood for a show (especially during cold weather months to avoid a long walk in the cold!). On the other hand, I’d book the Andaz if I wanted a one bedroom suite with more space for the same number of points.

As promised or threatened, depending upon your perspective, Marriott dumped their award charts on March 29th. This is awful news for the most expensive Marriott properties since their award prices are no longer capped to the previous category pricing ranges. Except that they are still sort-of capped: For 2022, Marriot has promised that award prices at most of their properties won’t exceed the previous peak prices. And they published a list of exceptions (hotels where the top price will exceed previous peak prices).

I’m pretty excited about IHG’s revamped Premier card and its new business card twin. Each comes with an annual 40K free night certificate upon renewal. A single person could sign up for both cards and enjoy a free cheap weekend getaway each year. A couple can stretch this out into an annual four night vacation. With the new ability to add points to these free night certificates, it will be easier than ever before to use them to stay in great hotels year after year. I was already pretty happy that IHG offers Kimpton hotels in their portfolio, but I’m even more enthused about the ability to book many Mr & Mrs Smith hotels with IHG points and certificates.

Bilt Rewards and the Bilt Mastercard have made a big splash over the past year. A lot of reason for the buzz is because we just haven’t seen a comparable brand new transferable rewards program sprout up with the success and transfer partners that Bilt has brandished (consider that Barclays Arrival Premier card that lasted all of six months despite the backing of an established rewards program / bank and Bilt’s success comes into perspective). But is the card actually worth getting? Who should get it? Is it worth a 5/24 slot even though it doesn’t have a welcome bonus? Is it the ultimate rewards starter card? Plenty of readers have asked questions like these and I had similar discussions with many points and miles minds last night at a Bilt event in New York City.

I bet that almost every reader has an opinion about which is the single best rewards program, but I also bet that after about 15 seconds of trying to explain why you think it is the best you’ll think of a handful of counterpoints that require a bit more thought. Indeed, even in our discussion on this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, I found myself reconsidering once stance or another. It really boils down to the award chart sweet spots you are likely to use and which program gives you the best chance to earn a significant enough pile of points to be able to enjoy those redemptions.

The Curve card could be an absolute game-changer both for Player 2’s wallet and even (as we say on the show) our own wallets. But can it deliver what it promises? Why do we love the concept so much and how can it help you max out your point earnings? This week on Frequent Miler on the Air, we talk about why we think this card is so awesome, even for folks like us who have a pretty strong handle on which credit card to use, and where it could fall short. We also talk strategy for dumping a Sapphire Reserve and why we haven’t talked much about Wyndham.

Paceline is a free app that rewards you for exercising (more on that below). Now, they’ve added a not-free ($60 per year) credit card to the mix. This credit card offers amazing cash back rewards… if you work out at least 3 times per week.

Booking award flights can be difficult, frustrating and time-consuming — but it doesn’t have to be. In the latest episode of Frequent Miler on the Air, we talk about the challenges of booking the best flight awards and how to overcome them.

My wife and I spent most of February on the California coast. This wasn’t vacation. We took vacation in January when we visited Loews Ventana Canyon and Miraval Arizona in Tucson, the Hyatt Residence Club in Sedona (yes I will eventually write a review!), and Hyatt’s Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Scottsdale. With this 24 day trip to California we continued to escape Michigan’s bitter cold, but this time without taking vacation days. The plan was to work remotely while making our way down the coast and enjoying California’s beauty and sunshine. Mission accomplished!

We write about credit cards for a living, but which cards do we flex for our day to day spend? On this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, we talk about what’s in our wallets right now and why. Somewhat surprisingly, we each accept some suboptimal value in specific categories for one reason or another. Find out why on this week’s show in video or podcast format...

Yesterday, Nick revealed the cards in his wallet. Now it’s my turn. Just like Nick, Amex had almost completely taken over my wallet in the past year thanks to promotions offering bonus points first at grocery stores and gas stations, then at small businesses and restaurants, and then an extra 4 points per dollar for all spend. And, like Nick, I’m nearing the end of all of those bonus opportunities and so it’s almost time to return my wallet to something approaching normal…

It’s time to do some early spring cleaning and shift the cards in our wallets to adjust for the fact that we’re not earning 5x or more on every purchase — and Amex is finally out of our wallets (for now). Here’s what’s in our physical and virtual wallets now that we’re not working on any big bonuses.

Next month, many highly desirable Hyatt properties are set to move out of range for those booking with free night certificates. Some properties will see price increases of as much as 50% over the days before peak pricing, with premium suites jumping tens of thousands of points at top-tier properties that are moving from Category 7 to 8. Is it time to finally step off the Hyatt bandwagon?

If you have Hyatt free night certificates, now is the time to plan your Hyatt stays. Starting March 22 2022, Hyatt’s annual category shuffling will take effect and many of the best options for using category 1-4 certificates in the U.S will be gone. Fortunately, you can book with current rates before March 22 even if your stay is after that date. Note that while this post isn’t specifically about category 1-7 certs, you’ll want to use those too before the deadline.

Oh the lengths I’ll go to secure a good deal… Using Choice Privileges points, it’s possible to book Preferred Hotels & Resorts (some of which are considered to be the best hotels in the world). With the new ability to double Citi points when converting to Choice, booking Preferred Hotels is a way to get excellent value from your Citi points. Unfortunately, the booking process is a nightmare. In the post “Preferred Hotels & Resorts via Choice: Value unlocked. Frustration assured,” I recounted my 3 hour ordeal in booking a single hotel stay. Now, 3 months later, I had to change the dates of the stay. Spoiler alert: Along with a second new booking, I got it done, and I’m excited about my upcoming stays, but the process was excruciating.

My wife and I visited Tucson specifically to go to Hyatt’s Miraval resort, but we arrived two days before our Miraval stay. Originally I had used Marriott 50K certs to book a return to the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain, but when I realized near the end of 2021 that my wife had two $200 Fine Hotels & Resorts credits that would be lost if not used immediately, I looked for other options. I found that we could book the Loews Ventana Canyon resort for $268 per night after taxes. Since my wife currently has two Amex Platinum cards that each offer annual $200 Fine Hotels & Resorts credits, we booked the two nights separately: Friday night was booked with one of her Platinum cards, and Saturday night with the other.

Anyone who listens to our Frequent Miler on the Air podcast probably has an impression about our ability to predict the future. If you know, you know, so I’ll leave it to you to create your own set of expectations as to how we did in predicting the unpredictable in 2021. In today's post, each of us looks back on our own predictions for the year with a little analysis.

With less than a month left in 2021, it’s time to take care of those things you’ve been putting off! Personally, for example, I have airline fee credits available on several credit cards. If I don’t spend those credits by the end of the year, they’ll be lost. Similarly, I have hotel free nights soon expiring, elite benefits that need choosing, and points that need pooling. Here’s a checklist of points & miles related things that need to be done before its too late..

Yesterday, I posted my 10 most anticipated award stays. This was a list of the top 10 hotels and resorts in the world bookable with points that I haven’t yet stayed at, but I’m most looking forward to. In that post, I promised to follow-up with my most anticipated award flights and so this post is that. Both posts are follow-ups to the list of my top 10 all-time favorite award redemptions.

When flying from North America to Europe most carriers offer similar business class experiences. Most offer lie-flat seats and reasonably good food and drink options. Direct aisle access for all business class seats used to be a differentiator, but now that’s pretty much standard. Personally, I think that the standard business class experience is plenty good enough for flights from and to Europe. And those who are used to flying economy will no doubt find it incredible. But what if you’re looking for something more? If you’re already used to flying “standard” business class, what are the options for flying to Europe that are a cut above the rest?

After many, many years of avoiding flying Spirit, I finally gave them a try last month. I was happily surprised by how pleasant the experience was. I had paid for a Big Front Seat and yet the flight was still cheaper than a Delta economy ticket for the same route.

I started this blog in 2011 purely as a hobby. I didn’t think at the time that it was possible to earn a living through a blog, nor did it even occur to me to look into that option. It was truly just a fun way to spend my time while my day job had become less interesting. Six months later, though, I was blogging full time and I’ve never looked back.

Citibank recently added the ability to transfer ThankYou Rewards points to Choice Privileges at an excellent 1 to 2 rate. 1,000 Citi points becomes 2,000 Choice points. This makes hotels bookable with Choice points more accessible than ever before. Plus, it makes almost all Choice awards a good deal. Hotels that cost 30,000 Choice points per night, now cost only 15,000 Citi ThankYou points per night.

Citibank recently added the ability to transfer ThankYou Rewards points to Choice Privileges at an excellent 1 to 2 rate. 1,000 Citi points becomes 2,000 Choice points. This is great for Choice Hotels stays. They even have some high end Ascend Collection hotels that offer excellent value (the Hotel Napa Valley and the Peacock Inn in Princeton, NJ are ones that Nick and I, respectively, have booked in the past). Venturing outside of Choice’s own hotels, though, it’s possible to go really high end thanks to their partnership with Preferred Hotels & Resorts.

The points & miles game is amazing. It’s a rare exception to the saying “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.” Within the U.S. at least, it really is true that those with good credit can sign up for a few credit cards to earn hundreds of thousands of points and travel the world in luxury, nearly for free. But, when push comes to shove, the game often isn’t as easy as it sounds. Booking awards can be especially challenging and mistake-ridden. Some of the decisions that need to be made along the way can be difficult, even for people who have been doing this for years (like me).

Sometimes an idea gets stuck in my head and I can’t shake it until I’ve fleshed it out. A week ago, I published “The Best Points-Bookable Hotels in the World” based on Travel & Leisure’s Top 100 Hotels list. In that post, I identified 18 top 100 hotels that can be booked with points. And, of those 18, I found that 12 offer great point value compared to cash rates. So here’s the idea that got stuck in my head… wouldn’t it be cool to book a Round the World trip to visit all 12 of those hotels? Is it feasible? What would it cost?

Today there will be yet another new coin being released for sale by the US Mint. Over the past couple of years, we have seen quite a number of opportunities to buy and flip US Mint coins for points and profit. The easy route to points and profit is usually to buy from the Mint and sell to a buyers club, but that comes with its own risks (see: Is a buyers club a good idea for you?). I have sold most of my coins to a buyers club over the past several years, but I have also struck out on my own a couple of times — and I mean that in both senses of the phrase.

Last week, annual fees appeared on two of my Amex cards: $595 for my Business Platinum card and $95 for my Everyday Preferred card. I didn’t necessarily want to keep either card and so I called Amex to check my options. This turned out to be a very lucrative 40 minute phone call…

I’ve long been a fan of Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts. When booking through Amex FHR, you get breakfast for two, guaranteed 4pm late checkout, a local amenity (usually something like a $100 property credit), and early check-in and room upgrade based on availability. That’s a sweet set of benefits and it comes with no minimum stay requirement, so I’ve often booked Fine Hotels & Resorts properties for single-night stays to maximize value (sometimes back-to-back with my wife when we needed more than one night).

Let’s make a deal: right now you have 8 round trip airline tickets, but you have a chance to trade them in for a year of your retirement in relative comfort. Deal or no deal?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Don’t sleep on the bank bonuses. Last year, my wife and I earned well over four thousand dollars in bonuses from opening checking and brokerage accounts and set ourselves up to start out 2021 with a bang as well. Just as I did last year, I’m tracking each of the wins (and this year’s errors that cost me several bonuses as well) in order to show what’s possible with a little effort. While I love credit card bonuses and 5x bonus categories as much as anyone who reads this post, it is easy to forget the low-hanging fruit of bank bonuses. This time around, several of the bonuses in this post are still available and have very easy requirements, but some of them end on 6/30/21. If you like low-hanging fruit, it’s harvest time — but if you snooze, you lose.

American Airlines AAdvantage is the loyalty program for American Airlines. Given American’s extensive reach within the United Sates and abroad, they are the loyalty program of choice for many. Like other major US airlines, elite earnings are now mostly based on how much you spend, but American offers plenty of opportunities for award enthusiasts to earn miles without flying — from credit cards to shopping offers and more.

Don’t forget that through June Amex is offering $30 per month back on purchases made through PayPal and paid with your consumer Amex Platinum card. This includes the Morgan Stanley Platinum card, the Schwab Platinum card, and the generic Amex Platinum card.