Maximizing plans, minimizing costs, a new sweet spot and more

Greg and I discuss the terrific resources he added to the site this week, a sweet spot we’re excited about, and which miles Greg would buy speculatively and why in this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air broadcast. Check it out here:

FM on the Air Podcast

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Note: If you’re not seeing the latest episode available for podcast download just yet, check back shortly for the update.

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

In planning your strategy

Beginner credit card plan: 325,000 points in 12 months

Imagine you hop in the car, turn the key, put it in drive, and hit the gas. Now imagine you have no idea where you’re going. How are you going to get there? You’ve gotta have a plan. In this post, Greg lays out a great plan for someone just starting out. As noted in our video above, I was especially glad to see the Venture card make the cut. I was also glad to see the United card, particularly because expanded award availability will be much more valuable when close-in fees are eliminated in November. This is a great post both for beginners and for those more advanced to study.

Beginner with business credit card plan: 460,000 points in 15 months

Same plan as above, but with turbo-boost enabled for those who open business cards.

A couple’s credit card plan: 820,000 points in 15 months

This game is best played in 2-player mode: with two people working as a team, you can easily amass the rewards you’ll need to travel comfortably. Note that this plan is focused on where to start so that you have the cards you’ll want in the long-term before those cards are no longer available to you. It’s important to consider that so you don’t get stuck without the card you want down the line.

In award travel

How to save money on your trip to Bora-Bora

A few simple things saved us over a grand on our recent trip to Bora Bora, not even considering the $0 we paid for hotel rooms or the miles used for flights. Read on for what we did.

New sweet spot: Royal Air Maroc to fly to Beijing in 2020

This is set to be one of the best award chart sweet spots out there if Etihad maintains its award chart as-is — at 44K miles one way to get all the way to China in business class, this would be huge.

Why I like Marriott resort fees as a percent of room rate

I recently had an exchange with a (non-Marriott) hotel about its ridiculous resort/destination fee. In that exchange, I asked what’s next? Will I be told that my destination fee includes unlimited hot water in my shower and the ability to flush my toilet at my leisure? Greg’s post here about resort fees is kind of tongue-in-cheek for award travelers, but I don’t even want to give hotels this much of a pass: If the hotel feels that services A, B, and C are desired by guests and would make them more competitive in their class, they should offer those benefits and bake them into the room rate, end of story.

How the Conrad Bora Bora Nui rolled out the red carpet

The Conrad Bora Bora really rolled out the red carpet for my family. We got extra special treatment at the Conrad Bora Bora, but it wasn’t because I’m a blogger: it was because of my son. See this post for how a hotel can do a few little things that can make a big difference in your experience.

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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