Frequent Miler

This week, Greg, Tim, and I have been crisscrossing the planet on our 2024 Frequent Miler team challenge. If you haven’t been following on Instagram, see the post below about how to follow. Read on for more updates from our week on the road and find easy links in the table of contents below if you’re after the podcasts or more from this week at Frequent Miler.

Around the world in a flash: catching up on a wild week [Week in Review]

Stephen and I have been acting as judges for the ongoing Flying by the seat of our Points Challenge! If you’d like a refresher of how we scored Stage 1, check out this post. You can check out the information below for more general details about this challenge, but in this post, we’ll talk all about how our contestants scored for their second stage: the international divergence to Croatia, Switzerland, and Morocco!

Judging Stage 2 of the Flying by the Seat of our Points Challenge

Air France and KLM released a new batch of Flying Blue Promo Rewards this past week. There’s a larger selection of eligible US cities this month, with half a dozen featuring discounted awards to/from Europe. The Deal. Book discounted economy award flights between the following cities and Europe with...

Flying Blue Promo Rewards for June – Boston, D.C., Houston, New York, Phoenix & Seattle

I’ve flown Qatar Airways several times now and have found that service seems to range from fine to extraordinary. On my recent flight from Zagreb to Doha I experienced truly extraordinary service. The great service combined with excellent food and comfortable seats made this daytime flight one of my favorite flights ever.

Qatar A320 Business Class Review (Phenomenal!)

All three of the consumer Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards credit cards are now offering increased welcome offers of 85,000 Rapid Rewards points after making $3K in purchases within the first 3 months. These offers are the best, in terms of total points, that we’ve seen in at least several years. If you’re looking for a card and/or trying to earn a companion pass, these are certainly worth considering.

Southwest Personal Cards: Limited-time 85,000 Point Offers

For years, people with Visa business cards could enroll in a program called Visa SavingsEdge. This program provided card-linked offers that gave statement credits for certain retailers, services, travel companies, etc. For example, you could earn 2% when filling up at Chevron, 4% on Wyndham and MGM Resorts bookings, 5% on Mailchimp subscription payments, etc.

New Visa SavingsEdge has launched; need to relink credit cards (but might not be worth it)

During our Flying by the Seat of our Points challenge, my journal became quiet after the first couple of days. The truth was that I didn’t have a ton of stuff to share as my bookings went slowly and frustratingly for those first couple of days. That was largely circumstantial: if I had a few more hours or as much as a day beyond our arbitrary check-in times, options broadened considerably. However, they say that necessity is the mother of invention, and getting to the places I did within the necessary time frames did indeed necessitate a few creative tricks that can be more broadly useful the next time you can’t find the availability you need.

A couple of Nick’s booking tricks uncovered during Flying by the Seat of our Points challenge

Spend $200 via the Alaska Airlines shopping portal & earn 500 bonus Mileage Plan miles. During the “Summer Bonus” offer, which runs from 6/5/2024 through 6/14/2024 at 11:59:59 pm ET (the “Bonus Period”), Member will receive a one-time bonus of 500 Mileage Plan bonus miles on qualifying purchases made through the Mileage Plan Shopping mall or from purchases made through Mileage Plan Shopping in-store offers.

Alaska Airlines shopping portal promo: Spend $200 & earn 500 bonus miles

Save 25% when booking Southwest award flights and using promo code SAVE25. Must book by June 17th and travel by November 20th, 2024. Book a Southwest® flight on Southwest.com or swabiz.com using your Rapid Rewards® points from June 14 through June 17, 2024 (the “Booking Period”) and receive 25 percent off when you fly between June 14-November 20, 2024 with travel blacked out July 6 and July 7 (the “Travel Period”).

Southwest Award Sale: Get 25% Off Points Bookings

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Total Apex Sports & Entertainment

The zodiac signs that are perceived as lazy are those who are prone to procrastination. Such individuals love to work at their own pace and sometimes delay the delivery of assignments or tasks. People who love their comfort zone are sometimes seen as lazy people since their work rate is not as high as others.

3 Zodiac Signs Who Are Lazy

The American Express Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card has had a a bit of a topsy-turvy journey over the last few years, befitting its unusually wordy name. It began life known as the SPG Luxury card, the high end offering of the now-defunct Starwood Preferred Guest program and was launched at the same time that Marriott began its merger with the Starwood and Ritz Carlton reward programs.

Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Credit Card Review (2024)

In April, when Mr & Mrs Smith properties went live within World of Hyatt, the details didn’t exactly impress us. There’s not much in the way of guaranteed benefits and the properties (overall) are a poor value when booked as awards. Now, there’s at least some incentive to...

World of Hyatt credit card now earns 4x at Mr & Mrs Smith properties

Following on from the start of an Alaska Airlines shopping portal promo last week, three other airline portals are now offering bonus miles/points when hitting spending thresholds with them. The Deals. United shopping portal. Spend $200 & get 500 bonus miles. Spend $400 & get 1,000 bonus miles. Direct link...

American, United & Southwest portal promos: Earn up to 2,500 bonus miles/points

Get 2 for 1 award tickets from select US cities to the following Central & South American cities:. Get a 20% rebate on award flights to/from Miami and Los Angeles to the following cities:. 2 for 1 on tickets with Avianca. The period for the redemption of tickets under the...

LifeMiles award sale: 2 for 1 tickets to select Central & South American cities & 20% back to select European cities

Do you believe in genuine friendship? Finding a loyal and reliable friend is tricky nowadays. Many people are two-faced and like using their loved ones’ weaknesses to attack them.

5 Zodiac Signs That Make The Best Friends

Several shopping portals are offering increased rates for purchases at GiftCards.com that yield between 2 and 4 points per dollar spent. Better yet, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines both have site-wide shopping portal bonuses ending today and tomorrow that would stack nicely to make for a great return on spend.

2-4x at GiftCards.com, stack with airline portal promos

During our team’s 2024 last-minute-travel challenge, Flying by the Seat of our Points, each of the contestants found excellent award flights. In this post, I’ve described step by step (to the best of my memory) how I found each award. Hopefully this will prove helpful for your award searches in the future, regardless of whether you’re booking last-minute or well in advance.

How I found awesome awards for our last minute travel challenge

Yesterday Hilton announced that AutoCamp properties were now bookable through Hilton for both cash and points stays. To celebrate that launch, they’re also offering 1,000 bonus points per AutoCamp stay through August 12. The Deal. Earn 1,000 bonus Hilton Honors points when booking AutoCamp stays. Direct link to offer...

Earn 1,000 bonus Hilton Honors points on AutoCamp stays through 8/12/24

Mark your calendars: if you have Bilt points, Monday will be a great day to consider transferring them. If you’d like to fly Air France or KLM in business class, we published a couple of helpful tricks this week, whether that’s how to find a calendar of availability or how to book via chat with Virgin Atlantic. Read about all that and a lot more in this Frequent Miler Week in Review.

Bigness from Bilt, tricks for booking Air France & KLM, updated hotel point values and more [Week in Review]

Earn 5x bonus Marriott Bonvoy points when booking Marriott Homes & Villas stays of 5+ consecutive nights. A “stay” is defined as five (5) or more consecutive nights spent at the same property, regardless of check-in and check-out activity. Registration of Marriott Bonvoy Member’s Marriott Bonvoy account is...

Earn 25x Marriott Bonvoy points with new Homes & Villas promotion (book by 6/26/24 for stays through 3/31/25)

NewsBreak

Catching up with the Last Minute Travel Challenge | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep 258 | 6-7-24

Our 2024 team challenge Flying by the Seat of our Points will test our last minute award booking skills with a series of last minute travel...

Catching up with the Last Minute Travel Challenge | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep 258 | 6-7-24

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