Quick-Fire Q&A from Dec 2023 Ask Us Anything

On the first Wednesday of every month we run an hour-long Ask Us Anything session live on YouTube. With such limited time to answer your questions, we always receive far more questions than we have time to answer. I therefore figured I’d do a supplemental quick-fire Q&A based on questions we received during that most recent Ask Us Anything session.

Speaking of which – you can watch that latest episode here:

For this quick-fire Q&A, I’m going to constrain myself to one or two sentences for each one. In many cases I could expound lengthily with answer, but being more brief means more questions can be answered. If you have any suggestions, advice, tips, tricks, etc. for any of these questions, feel free to reply in the comments to help the readers and viewers who submitted the questions last week.

Finally, if you have specific questions that you’d like help with, our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group is also a great place to ask those.

OK, time for the quick-fire Q&As to begin.

1) What’s your recommended airline to fly to Ghana, directly or indirectly first or business class?

Assuming you’d be flying into Accra, it looks like Delta flies nonstop from JFK and United from Washington Dulles. For potential luxury from the US, Emirates and Qatar Airways with a layover in Dubai or Qatar respectively is an option.

2) How long does it take for C1 shopping referral of $75 to show up? P2 signed up, made a purchase of $50 on Under Armour, and we do see the rewards on that purchase but nothing for referral. Thank you!

For my wife it took about a week, but provided the transaction tracked then I wouldn’t worry about the referral bonus not crediting.

3) Is there any point getting an Alaska Airlines card being on the east coast?

There can be because a) Alaska has a good range of airline partners (e.g. Condor from the east coast to Europe) b) if you ever find yourself on the west coast or needing to get there from the east coast, they could be a good option.

4) ​Is Hyatt Explorist status worth it for 2024?

If you’ll earn it organically then it’ll be nice to have; not worth a mattress run or any particular effort though. That said, if you’re at 28 or 29 nights, getting to 30 nights for the Milestone Rewards could be worth the effort rather than just for the Explorist status that’s also earned at that level.

5) Thoughts on rumored Hyatt premium card? What benefits would you like to see offered?

Explorist status (no chance they’d give Globalist IMO), category 1-7 free night cert (although I could see them making it category 1-5 or 1-6 depending on the annual fee but please feel free to ignore that comment Hyatt and Chase), statement credits on Hyatt stays (similar to business card), points rebate of some variety (similar to business card), higher points earnings when paying with card at Hyatt properties (6x-8x?), some other kind of bonus categories (but not exciting ones) and elite night credits based on some kind of threshold of spending (5 elite nights for $7,500 spend?).

I know, I kinda cheated with this one by making it such a long sentence.

6) ​Is Turkish the best option to fly business class from Atlanta to Bangladesh?

Depends on if that’s based on experience, pricing, availability or some other factor. Could be, but could also be worth looking at Emirates, Qatar, Singapore and more depending on where you’re originating from.

7) What is your opinion about MS on Fluz with Amex cards during SUB?

As with anything Amex-related, it’s fine until it isn’t.

8) Any suggestions for extra CLEAR credits? We have 4 and only need 2.

Have any friends or family who travel? Try to time it when they’re offering free Uber gift cards, United miles or something like that.

9) Marriott’s current promotion will end tomorrow. No other one was announced yet. Might they not have one for the rest of the year? If you could wish for a promotion, what would it be?

If I could ask for a promotion, what would it be? CEO of Frequent Miler 😉

More seriously, I’d wish for something good as Marriott promotions over the last 5-6 have been very poor for the most part. Something with bonus elite night credits to kick-start January would be nice in addition to a somewhat substantial number of bonus points.

10) ​How disappointed are you that the Hyatt Ultimate Free Night takes 150 elite nights to get?

What do you mean, that’s only $300,000 of spend on a Hyatt business card 😉 But yeah, that sucks. I’ve hit 100 nights a couple of times in recent years, but even if I did that again I’d still be way far off.

11) Which airline has hub in New York for domestic travel ? (JFK or LGA, no EWR please)

The Wikipedia pages for airports can be a good place to look to see which airlines have a large number of flights from there as there’s always an ‘Airlines & Destinations’ section. e.g. JFK and LGA.

12) ​I forgot to book the 75k IHG points timeshare offer. Should I call and try to get that offer after it expired?

Certainly doesn’t hurt to try, but there are frequently timeshare offers and so another one might come along soon.

13) Will Chase ever let you retroactively apply a referral bonus?

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a case where they’ll attach one retroactively, but if you don’t ask you’ll have a 100% chance of not getting the bonus.

14) Is there a better way to use Amex airline incidental with American Airlines?

You can see what works here.

15) Did you know United proactively cancels segments if you have another flight at the same time?

I think Greg encountered this a year or two ago where they cancelled a flight he did actually want, but it got resolved fine IIRC.

16) Shout out to Stephen, Shae and Truffles, meeting them on Boston Freedom Trail, this is Nick and Grace, thanks 4 the quick chat, just thrilled that I met one of the FM Fam, thank you all for all you do

Hi again – it was great meeting you both!

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