This week’s episode of Frequent Miler on the Air is currently available in podcast format only (a technical issue has delayed publication of the video for now), so download from your favorite service to hear us talk about hacking the Asia Miles distance-based award chart, why Greg thinks the no-notice devaluation on the Ritz card may be a good thing, the question of the week, and more. Look on the bright side: if Greg made any bad predictions this week, he won’t need to worry about us re-running the tape as we did last week.
FM on the Air Podcast
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In hacking the system:
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles mixed cabin award pricing. First class for less.
This post is a must-read for anyone sitting on a pile of Membership Rewards points, ThankYou points, or Capital One “Miles” and a desire to fly up front — whether first or business class – for less by traveling more. This was a great find and I was really encouraged by the fact that even a phone booking priced the same way. If you’re targeted and can stack transfer bonuses right now, all the better.
Food fight: DoorDash vs Grubhub vs Uber Eats
In last week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, I argued that in a real-world situation, I might consider buying a $60 DoorDash gift card for $60 if it came with a free year of DashPass. In this post, Greg proves that might not be a bad decision given the way prices stack up against GrubHub and UberEATS. See the head-to-head comparison in 3 cities and then run your own local experiment to see where things fall in your town.
In this week’s “enhancements”:
Chase kills Ritz Visa Infinite airfare discount without notice
The writing has been on the wall for this benefit since the day that CNB announced they would end it on the Crystal Visa Infinite. In FM on the Air this week, Greg argues why he thinks the fact that CNB gave two months notice and Chase have zero could be a good thing, but I’m less optimistic. Further, as someone who was waiting a couple of weeks to make flight arrangements that I would have booked if I knew this benefit were ending, I’m definitely bummed to find out this was dead after it was gone.
AA eliminates close-in award ticketing fee
I guess it says something about the state of domestic loyalty programs when an airline removes a made-up $75 fee that has existed for years and everyone who reports it does so with what feels like disappointment. It’s not that any of us are sad to see that silly fee go, we’re just all waiting to see how American makes up for this change — because it’s hard to believe that they gave up on collecting a fee without an “enhancement” that makes them more.
In new and newly-updated complete resource guides:
A quick guide to transferable points programs
When someone new to credit cards asks me which credit card to get, I always tell them that they can’t go wrong with a rewards card that earns a transferable currency. The ability to transfer to the partner offering the best value for your situation stretches your rewards farther. See this high-level overview of the options and share it with friends who are interested in learning more.
Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide 2020
A perennial favorite when it comes to transferable currencies is Chase Ultimate Rewards. Between the ability to combine points from your own various cards and with one member of your household and the best travel protections on the market on their premium cards, Ultimate Rewards is a great place to get started. See this guide for everything you need to know about it.
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card Complete Guide
While we maintain individual credit card pages with all of the important high-level information on dozens and dozens of rewards credit cards, we are also working to develop resources to give you the complete guide to each of the cards we list. Here’s that compilation of data on the Venture card.
Complete Guide to Travel Companion Tickets for 2020 and Beyond
If you’re playing the game in 2-player mode, you’ll want to be aware of the many options out there for getting a companion ticket. It turns out there are more than I would immediately remember, which makes this reference guide worth a bookmark.
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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READER QUESTION: keeping with this week’s discussion of the Asia Miles prorated award tickets: What are some other mileage sweet spots flying from Asia to North America that have attainable award availability?
Speaking of hacking, I just received an email from Asia Miles claiming someone from Bangladesh logged into my account. ANyone else had this happen today? That’s really weird and not cool. I barely made this account a month ago, mostly to see what kind of award space CX was giving to its own. Had a long secure password, etc.. Gives me zero confidence in them if they got hacked so easily.
Use ur Link Log in or call and Deal with IT . I get emails etc. BS about once a day .I’m no Tech Norton , Express VPN works so far.
LOL
CHEERs
Regarding your Ritz comments, Chase told me this was ended by Visa as you guessed. I asked if I could look forward to any similar upcoming benefit to replace it and was told to call Visa.
I missed the video. What happened?
And yes, I also missed Travel is free podcast. I was hoping to listen to Dave’s story with Stefan.
Do you even need to downgrade the CIP to apply for another if you use your SSN for one application and an EIN for the other? I’ve read that works, and you can even refer from your first CIP to your second. I wonder how much risk there is in doing this… https://johnnyafrica.com/multiple-chase-ink-business-cards/
I’ve been having a lot of problems with the amex popup. I have only ever had 2 amex cards and haven’t closed either. One I got a few years ago and put $500-$1000 on every month, and another I opened in June, met the bonus for, then put in a drawer. When I got the popup over a month ago while applying for the Hilton business card, I took the more recent card out of the drawer and have put about $550 on it. I have tried re-applying for the card multiple times in the last month (through the close of two statements), but I still can’t get it to go away.
Now I just saw a post on reddit that said that amex keeps track of how often I fill out the application to check for the popup. Hopefully that’s not holding me back too because I’ve probably tried applying a dozen times in the last 6 weeks. I guess I’ll just keep trying to put some spend on it and wait another month before applying again. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Mark from Miles to Memories talked about his own experience about how he got rid of the pop up. It is not a short process for him, as he waited for a year. One person said he purchased a car with the AMEX card and no more pop up after pay off the balance. I think Nick included this article in one of the around the web articles. You can read more here:
Finally! I Slayed The Amex Pop Up – How I Think I Did It
https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/how-to-avoid-the-amex-pop-up/
Do you even have to downgrade the CIP before signing up for another and getting the bonus? I’ve seen a number of places saying that you can use your SSN for one and then your EIN for a second. They even recommend self-referring from one to the other. Thoughts on this?
That’s true, you don’t have to downgrade first.