Lately, I’ve been really jazzed up at the “wins” I’ve been stacking up: we have a big trip to Europe coming soon that has come together nicely and we’ve been booking Alaska wards for other trips late this year and early next year to Bora Bora, European Christmas Markets, and South America. Then we got outstanding value from Aviator Silver Companion Certificates and there’s no doubt I was riding high.
But then Southwest killed it. And I don’t mean that in the positive colloquial sense. Rather, I mean that Southwest absolutely, positively, without a doubt killed their entire brand identity (and likely company culture) in record speed. Had you told me even two years ago that Southwest would lead the charge in changes that are customer-unfriendly, I never would have bought what you were selling. Now, only time will tell how many customers continue to buy when Southwest starts selling the same sorta product as everyone else, only with fewer rewards and no meaningful partnerships.
Elsewhere on the blog, Greg adds an important Platinum prediction, Marriott stands poised to crack down on sharing, and more.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
End of an era: Southwest charging for bags, adding Basic Economy, flight credits expiring in 6-12 months
Southwest is completely changing the game, and not in a good way. Beginning May 28th, everything that you know and “luv” about Southwest is about to change for the worse. Bags will no longer fly free for most of us, Wanna Get Away fares will become “basic”, and flight credits will expire in as few as six months. Taken as a whole, these constitute arguably the most customer-unfriendly changes we’ve seen from a program in recent years, which is a complete 180-degree change from the Southwest we’ve all come to know.
Southwest takes the luv out of flying | Coffee Break Ep48 | 3-11-25
With the magnitude of the Southwest news this week, Greg and I decided to put out an extra Coffee Break Episode to talk turkey about what’s changing and how we feel about it. By erasing everything that made them “different”, Southwest is poised to lose the competitive advantage they’ve had. On this episode, I speculated that the motivation here is for the newfound hedge fund investors at Elliott Management to make Southwest as much like other airlines as possible in order to court potential suitors for a merger. I don’t know how realistic that is, but neither do I understand why most customers would choose to be loyalty to Southwest moving forward. As a reader pointed out, you’ll now earn fewer points than you would with other airlines, you’ll have to contend with basic economy and similar baggage fees to other airlines, you’ll encounter see dynamic pricing where the flights you want yield poorer value (just like with other airline programs) and you will meanwhile have no long-haul route network or international alliance partners.
Do over: Here’s what the refreshed Platinum card will look like
On a recent podcast, Greg and I discussed predictions for rumored changes coming to the Amex Platinum card. However, Greg later realized that he’d left out one big, key coupon-related prediction about a Resy credit that he expects will work similarly to how it does on Delta cards. I think he’s totally right. In fact, I’ll be pretty surprised if this doesn’t turn out looking pretty much exactly like he predicts it will, annual fee, earning structure, coupons and all.
Amex coupon credits and bonuses posting slowly for some (relax / don’t panic)
Speaking of Amex coupons, those coupon credits hit a sudden slowdown late last month and many people have been waiting for weeks for various coupon credits and spending bonuses (introductory bonus or otherwise). This tends to happen every now and then where things that had otherwise posted on a regular schedule suddenly slow down and take weeks to credit. The good news is that many people were in the same boat, so it was unlikely that there had been any change in the way that benefits worked but rather it was just taking a bit for the bottleneck to work itself out.
Marriott may be cracking down on “additional guest” reservations
While there has been no official announcement made to members, the word on the street from a few supposed Marriott employees is that there is a push coming for properties to identify folks who are sharing Bonvoy accounts. That is said to be coming in the form of refusing a “second guest” the ability to check in before the primary member arrives and/or the possibility of reporting members that they think are attempting to abuse the system. While the goal here is to reduce what they view as abusive behavior, it seems like the approach is designed without considering the negative impact on folks who fully intend to play by the rules. I doubt that the practice of turning a guest away and reporting a primary member who simply hasn’t yet arrived will become an across-the board change, but I imagine that some honest folks will get caught in the crossfire here and end up with a very sour taste in their mouths when it comes to Marriott Bonvoy.
Hyatt 70 night Milestone Rewards: Which should I pick?
On the flip side of hotel loyalty, Greg needs to decide which way to be rewarded for his loyalty to Hyatt. Personally, I would hands-down pick the suite upgrade award for myself, but I Greg will be happy to know that I would hands-down pick the $300 FIND credit for him. That’s partly because I know that Greg probably doesn’t need the suite upgrade (he’s too busy looking for value with Preferred Hotels and eyeing Hilton points for SLH!) and partly because I don’t think he needs the 10,000 Hyatt points….but we need to know about the coolest stuff you can do with $300 in FIND credit. I look forward to hearing about what Greg, er, finds.
Best hotel programs, Alaska quirks, the EVA experience and more | Ask Us Anything Ep73 | 3-5-25
Last week, we hosted our monthly Ask Us Anything live in Youtube, where we field audience questions and chat miles and points for an hour. If you missed it live, you can catch the replay here.
American Express Membership Rewards Complete Guide (2025)
Amex Membership Rewards are probably my favorite transferable currency. That’s in part because of the excellent set of airline transfer partners, in part because of frequent transfer bonuses, and also because of a wide range of opportunities to amass points (whether through new cardholder bonuses, category bonuses, shopping portal Rakuten, referrals, etc). In our complete guide, we cover everything you need to know about Membership Rewards.
New Marriott in Jim Corbett National Park, India bookable from 24k points per night (better than 1 cent per point)
If you’re looking for a safari experience that’s a great value on points, Tim might have found a place that fits the bill. This property in India “is surrounded by vibrant flora and wildlife, including Bengal tigers, leopards, and wild elephants”, and it starts at just 24,000 Marriott points per night (or less if you book 5 nights and pay for 4). It certainly looks like a cool place to check out if you’re considering a trip to the area.
PSA: You can redeem Bilt points for home down payment at 1.5 cents per point of value
Until we went to record a podcast episode this week about the best uses of Bilt points, I hadn’t realized that you could get 1.5 cents per point when redeeming toward a down payment. While I’ll always prefer transferring to partners for outsized value, I could certainly imagine this being appealing. It is certainly a better deal to save your points and use them this way than to redeem towards rent.
Best uses for Bilt points | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep297 | 3-14-25
Whether you’re earning points by paying rent or you’re linking other existing credit cards and earning extra points on Bilt Dining, Lyft Rides, Walgreens purchases, and the sort, you might wonder how to best put your built up Bilt Rewards to use for the best value. On this week’s show, our main event digs into the best transfer partners and both the ways you should and shouldn’t consider redeeming points outside of partner airline and hotel programs.
Success: Saving more than $1,000 with Aviator Silver Companion Certificates
As much to my own surprise as anyone’s, I ended up putting Aviator Silver Companion certificates to excellent use. I hadn’t really been sure that we would use these at all, but as it turns out we had a trip come up where we’ll be joined by some family members and we had a really tight set of parameters: we had dates set in stone for both outbound and return and had windows of just a few hours during which we could travel on those dates. Of course that meant expensive flights, which in turn made the certificates into a standout value.
Searching for sweetness with SAS EuroBonus: Round 1
Now that I have a million SAS EuroBonus miles, I am starting to dig into the best ways to use them. I already knew that flying SAS to Europe could be a good value sometimes, but I wasn’t very familiar with partner awards. Since publication, I’ve learned that Seats.aero does have an explore tool for SAS EuroBonus, which will make finding availability far easier yet.
Instant Gift Card Deals: Save Money & Get Rewarded
If you’re about to check out for a purchase, whether an online or in-store purchase, it might make sense to first take a look at this post for ways that you can stack savings and rewards while purchasing discounted gift cards.
Hyatt Regency Coral Gables: Bottom Line Review
I considered staying at this Hyatt property when I was in south Florida last month, so I read Tim’s review with great anticipation. It certainly looks like this would have been a decent choice for a Category 4 property if we had needed to be closer to MIA airport.
Credit Card Reviews
Tim added a few new credit card reviews this week that are worth a look if you’re considering opening one of the following cards in the coming weeks or months.
Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Credit Card Review (2025)
Wells Fargo One Key+ Credit Card Review (2025)
Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card Review (2025)
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep a close eye on last chance deals to make sure you grab them before they’re gone.
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