Stay ConnectedEarn miles without flying. Frequent Miler is all about getting the most out of the loyalty game. You can easily earn hundreds of thousands of points and miles without traveling, then learn how to use those points towards luxury travel.
In this podcast, Frequent Miler founder Greg, and senior author Nick debate current topics in the points & miles world.
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With most ultra-premium cards it's possible to simply add up how much you value each perk and see if it meets or exceeds the annual fee, but this card is mostly valuable for its high earning rate from spend... It's definitely worth $495 in the first year due to the welcome bonus, but what about after that?
(01:38) - Palladium Card details
Learn more about the Bilt Palladium card here
(02:37) - Bilt Cash
(06:03) - Is the Palladium card worth $495 in exchange for...
(06:35) - Consider other cards
(07:14) - Our take
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – Annie Yoder
Do any of the luxury hotel booking platforms (like Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts®) allow booking for others? If you are hotel chain agnostic, should you have a hotel credit card? We answered these questions and more on the Ask Us Anything hosted live on YouTube on May 6th, 2026.
(00:16) - I have 14999 Delta Sky Miles and need one more lousy point to be able to book an award ticket. I can transfer 1000 points from Amex, but that seems like a waste. I tried to convince Delta support to comp me a point, but they were seemingly unable to help. Any suggestions (other than getting the Delta Amex card)?
(04:03) - If you have complete flexibility to position to any airport in Europe to fly home to the USA, are flexible on arrival airport in the USA/Canada/Mexico, and time wasn’t a constraint, but you would like a good points redemption in J (not first), where would you position to and which airline would you book on?
(08:39) - If you are hotel chain agnostic, should you have a hotel credit card?
(12:24) - Question on 5/24 if over, are there any data points on the United or Southwest business card?
(14:38) - Should we now value Membership Rewards points higher than Chase Ultimate Rewards points? I'd rather have an American Express Platinum Card® than a Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card at this point. Would you guys disagree?
(19:50) - Do any of the luxury hotel booking platforms (e.g., Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts®, The Edit by Chase Travel℠, etc.) allow booking for others?
(22:57) - At what cash back rate do you prefer cash over miles/points (excluding when you are working on a welcome offer)?
(27:50) - Do you think we'll finally see an Ultimate Rewards Hyatt transfer bonus in the future?
(30:15) - Question - Greg has mentioned a few times about being able to pay for the fees on British Airways with Avios, as a card benefit. I can't seem to see how to make that work. Any more details?
(34:43) - For airlines that allow a stopover on an award flight, has your experience required a phone call reservation, or have you booked a stopover online?
(37:03) - Can I apply corporate codes when booking hotels through Rove? Can Rove act like a shopping portal? Get corporate rates and Rove miles.
(39:00) - Is it possible to product change the old aviator if I've had it for less than a year now that it was product changed? I know banks frown upon this before the first annual fee posts.
(40:58) - Barclays American Airlines card transferred to Citi. What would be the best course of action to get the welcome offer on the Citi American Airlines card now that I have one, but haven't previously gotten the welcome offer?
(44:01) - Does the FM team know if I make a reservation with the 25k Atmos Summit Companion certificate, and later cancel the reservation before the original expiry, if the certificate is returned and can be reused?
(44:38) - Can I use Hyatt points for suite upgrades with cash booking through Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts®?
(45:49) - What's each team member's biggest regret in their points and miles journey?
In today's episode, Nick owns up to his mistake: Yes, you can lock in Hyatt prices with Points Advance. Then we'll talk about paying rent with the Alaska Atmos Summit card, and which points programs are trending up or down.
(01:23) - Oops: Nick made a mistake about Hyatt Points Advance in the originally published version of our Question of the Week
Find the (now edited) Question of the Week here: https://frequentmiler.com/can-i-save-points-on-a-hyatt-award-with-a-date-change-trick-question-of-the-week-ep2-5-4-26/
Learn more about Hyatt Points Advance here: https://frequentmiler.com/hyatt-points-advance/
(05:44) - Ben discusses paying rent with the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card
(09:10) - Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card/Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card application rule changes
(13:32) - Barclays JetBlue Premier Mastercard
Read more about the Barclays JetBlue Premier Mastercard here: https://frequentmiler.com/JetBluePremier/#Goto
(15:20) - Rove adds Aeroplan as transfer partner
(17:10) - How to combine Citi ThankYou accounts (and what might be getting in your way)
Learn more about combining your Citi ThankYou accounts here: https://frequentmiler.com/how-to-combine-citi-thankyou-accounts/
(22:43) - Qatar is limiting Avios redemptions in terms of who you can redeem for
(25:36) - "Trending up" doesn't mean it is now a better program than one "trending down". It might be, but it also might just be closing the gap a little.
(26:54) - Programs we think are trending down...
(41:07) - Programs we think are staying about even
(44:32) - Programs we think are trending up...
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
Amex has been refreshing its credit cards lately, but the American Express® Gold Card changes are more like a slight touch up.
(00:37) - What's changed?
(04:02) - What's the same?
(05:25) - What do we think?
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads
CORRECTION NOTICE: On 5/5/26 this episode was corrected to remove incorrect information about Points Advance bookings. Originally we'd incorrectly stated Points Advance bookings don't lock in a booking's price, when in fact they do.
Can I save points on a Hyatt award with a date change trick? Frequent Miler reader Matt wrote:
I recently succeeded in changing a Hyatt award stay to avoid cancelling and forfeiting the Hyatt points. I'm wondering if that could be a strategy to leap past the upcoming changes to the World of Hyatt program. For example, I would create a reservation using points at a Hyatt property now and change the date later for a stay that is currently not bookable because it is more than 13 months away. Has anyone successfully used this strategy in previous years when category changes were announced, avoiding the need to make up point differences due to the associated program changes at that time? I understand that this is highly prospective and perhaps wishful thinking, but it could mean a sizeable savings in Hyatt points!
We’ve been answering a reader or listener question at the end of each Frequent Miler on the Air podcast episode. Now, we’ve turned the question of the week into its own weekly episode. Tune in every Monday at 5pm for our Question of the Week podcast. And if you have your own question you’d like to submit, you can send it to mailbag@frequentmiler.com.
In today's episode, we'll talk about how Chase Point Boost is going bust, how Avianca sucks some life out of LifeMiles, and rewards for spending BIG.
(01:16) - Mike says "I have a subscription to Award Wallet Plus, and it has a “Merchant Category Lookup Tool,” where you can enter a merchant name and it will give the related merchant category name..."
Find our Wells Fargo Journeys Forward episode 354 here
(05:50) - Visit frequentmiler.com/awardwallet here
Upgrade to AwardWallet Plus for 6 months (one time upgrade only): Click the down arrow next to your name within AwardWallet, and click “Upgrade Using a Coupon”, then enter: FrequentMiler (this will only work for those who have never upgraded before)
(07:18) - Royal Caribbean launches two new credit cards: Royal One and Royal One Plus
(10:20) - Finnair 18 month expiration
(17:37) - Buy Marriott Points for as low as 0.89 cents each
(21:33) - Chase Points Boost goes Bust
Read more about Chase Points Boost going bust here
Read more about Chase reducing redemption rates here
(35:46) - Air Canada Aeroplan devaluation
Learn more about Aeroplan devaluing their award chart here
(38:58) - Avianca LifeMiles changes
(45:31) - Wells Fargo adds transfer partner: Cathay Pacific (Autograph, Autograph Journey)
(47:16) - See our Instant Gift Card Deals post here
(49:47) - Today we'll focus on cards that earn big rewards after really big spend ($50K or more)
(52:24) - Bilt cards $50K: Platinum status
(56:49) - Marriott Bonvoy® Brilliant® American Express® Card $60K
(1:02:15) - Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card $60K (100K Companion cert)
(1:09:00) - Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card $75K
(1:15:17) - Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ Card $120K:
(1:17:13) - The Business Platinum Card® from American Express $250K
(1:23:43) - Aeroplan® Credit Card $1M: Free award companion for the rest of the calendar year and all of next year with $1 Million spend
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
Hyatt is changing their award charts on May 20th, 2026, and it's pretty devastating with a new 5-tier pricing system and huge increases in prices. Today, we'll see if there's some good news in all of this.
(00:12) - New 5-level award charts: lowest, low, moderate, upper, top (prev: off-peak, standard, peak)
(02:08) - Is there any good news?
(06:59) - Some good news about premium suites
(11:49) - Thoughts and analysis
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads
Does product changing ruin trip protections? Frequent Miler reader Jay P wrote in saying:
"I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to book a flight and hotel for a future trip. Now, I would like to product change my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card before that trip. Are there any negative impacts if I product change before travel?"
We've been answering a reader or listener question at the end of each Frequent Miler on the Air podcast episode. Starting this week, we're turning the question of the week into its own weekly episode. Tune in every Monday at 5pm for our Question of the Week podcast. And if you have your own question you'd like to submit, you can send it to mailbag@frequentmiler.com.
In today's episode, we'll talk about Amex Platinum shutting down paths for earning Delta airline fee credits, Google Hotels adding price drop alerts, and all the many paths that still exist for free cruises in 2026.
(01:07) - Greg gets corrected about Bilt point accelerator vs Rent Day...
(03:27) - Capital One brings Gmail to a crawl
Read more about the unfortunate Capital One slow gmail issue here
(08:48) - Delta tricks are dead
Read our resource for Amex airline fee credits and what still works
(13:15) - Google Hotels adds price tracking
(17:02) - Melio (pay bills with credit card)
Learn more about Melio here
(19:01) - Chase Travel℠ Points Boost increased to 2.5cpp for a few select properties
Read more about Chase Travel℠ Points Boost increase here
(21:21) - Guide to booking Preferred Hotels with points (Updated)
Find our updated resource for booking Preferred Hotels online here
(25:24) - Tools for finding point-bookable events (auctions and buy it now)
Visit the discover tools Pointsevents.com and Pointauctions.com
(29:33) - Learn more about cruising for free in 2026 here
(30:44) - There are three main options for free cruises in 2026
(31:08) - Land-based casino loyalty programs & matches
(36:26) - Why do casino elite statuses matter for free cruises?
(49:00) - Cruise line direct match opportunities for “free” cruises
(1:07:09) - Gambling on board might yield a free cruise
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
Airline fuel surcharges are going up! We've recently seen Air France KLM Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic increase surcharges on their awards and it's looking like a trend. In this podcast episode, we'll talk about the different ways you can avoid them.
(02:02) - Booking with an alliance partner that doesn't pass along surcharges
(02:15) - Air France KLM Flying Blue booked with Virgin Atlantic or Japan Airline Mileage Bank miles
Learn more about going to Europe starting on Air France or KLM Business Class using Virgin Atlantic points here
Learn more about Air France without surcharges via Japan Airline Mileage Bank miles here
(04:02) - Rove miles
Learn more about using Rove miles here
(07:04) - Lufthansa booked through other Star Alliance partners
(07:41) - One World is tricky...
(11:38) - What can you do about high taxes coming back from the UK?
(12:45) - For travel to and from Europe, consider JetBlue's flights booked through Qatar Avios
Learn about booking JetBlue with Qatar Avios here
(16:34) - SAS
(17:51) - Airlines that don't charge surcharges in the first place
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads
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