Publishing the sweetest spot, new Turkish intel, a failed experiment and more

It’s hard to talk about this week at Frequent Miler without talking about yesterday’s post about what may be the sweetest spot to ever exist in an award chart: just 7.5K each way in economy class or 12.5K each way in business class between the mainland US and Hawaii. We’re talking peanuts points for a bucket list destination for many Americans. Flying a family of 4 round trip to Hawaii on one new cardmember bonus would be unreal. Of course, it ain’t easy — and we’ve added some key intel to the post on how to book that. Curious about the behind-the-scenes discussion about whether we should even publish info like this? See this week’s FM on the Air:

For those who would rather listen during the morning commute or while you’re working, the audio of our weekly Facebook Live chat is also available for download as a podcast:

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frequent-miler-on-the-air/id1469319650

Web: https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/frequentmiler

Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/I7hoxlbdqhwybn4go3ik4y2bpcm?t=Frequent_Miler_on_the_Air

On to our weekend recap of the week’s top stories:

In #40Kfaraway

7.5K each way to Hawaii: The sweetest spot we’ve been missing

It’s been a couple of weeks now since I stumbled on this and I still feel giddy about it. Even as I type this, I feel like a kid in a candy store. Is there a sweeter spot than this in any award chart….anywhere? At this price, maybe I can finally convince Greg to open that FM Honolulu office we so desperately need. No, it’s not easy to book per se, but neither is it terribly difficult. This is precisely the type of find I hoped for when we first floated the idea of the #40Kfaraway challenge. If nothing else comes from the challenge but a sore back and a reminder of why we mostly use points to fly in the pointy end of the plane, I’ll still feel like we all came out winners for as long as this spot lasts.

Book Turkish Miles & Smiles awards via email. Here’s how.

Booking those crazy deals to Hawaii isn’t quite as simple as click-click-done. However, it can be done entirely online nonetheless. If you’re like me and hate to make a phone call for something that can be done with a couple of clicks and a few typed sentences, see this guide for booking Turkish awards via email. Two key pieces: first, you’ll need to feed the agents exactly which flights you want (don’t give them a beginning and ending point and expect them to fill in the blanks). Second, based on comments from a reader, I’m guessing that Turkish allows a maximum connection of 4 hours on a domestic award.

Around the world in 40K

Our #40Kfaraway challenge is producing some creativity for sure as Greg, Stephen, and I compete to get as far away as we can with 40K points and $400 each. It’s definitely possible to use the points towards cash tickets and cobble together a round-the-world ticket with a mileage ticket or two along the way — but how about purely with transfer partners? Ignoring fuel surcharges, is it possible to fly all the way around the world for 40K points? Greg explores some options that get close…can you do better?

In increasing your mileage and getting extra bang from your bucks

Why LifeMiles transfer bonuses don’t excite me…..much

LifeMiles offers so many ways to pick up miles cheaply that you really have to do the math before you make a poor decision. Should you buy miles? Transfer points? Subscribe to the monthly service? In this post, I demonstrate why LifeMiles transfer bonuses, while decent, are far from amazing values. You can replicate many of these with a cash back strategy and an eye on mileage sales.

Can you double the Citi Rewards+ 10K rebate by getting two?

I mean, if you could, that’d be pretty hot, right? Sadly, you can’t. But it’s this type of thought process and experimentation that often leads to valuable finds, so I’m glad Greg gave this one a shot.

That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Check back soon for our week in review around the web and this week’s last chance deals.

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