Cruising for free | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep355 | 4-23-26
Frequent Miler on the Air
Frequent Miler
4.9 • 638 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2026
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
Main Event: Cruising for free
Giant Mailbag
(01:07) - Greg gets corrected about Bilt point accelerator vs Rent Day...
Crazy Thing: Capital One Shopping
(03:27) - Capital One brings Gmail to a crawl
Read more about the unfortunate Capital One slow gmail issue here
Bonvoyed: Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements
(08:48) - Delta tricks are dead
Read our resource for Amex airline fee credits and what still works
Awards, Points, and More
(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
Main Event: Cruising for free
(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
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Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a Voyescape podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at |
| 0:07.1 | voyescape.com. On today's episode, the MX Platinum shuts down paths for earning Delta |
| 0:16.5 | airline fee credits. Google Hotels has added price drop alerts. And there are still many |
| 0:23.6 | paths available to free cruises in 2026. Frequent Miller on the air starts now. Today's main event, |
| 0:33.1 | cruising for free. In the last few years, the opportunities for getting free cruises through tricks we've |
| 0:39.6 | published here have dwindled a bit, but there are still several opportunities available. |
| 0:46.6 | Nick has updated his post on how to do that, and today on today's episode, we're going to go over all the different ways that you can. |
| 0:57.2 | In 2026, still, cruise for free. That's right. And if you'd like to jump ahead to that or you want to |
| 1:02.1 | come back to it later on. Don't forget, you can always find the timestamps in the show notes. |
| 1:05.9 | Just expand the description box. And wherever you're watching or listening, don't forget to |
| 1:10.4 | like this video or |
| 1:11.7 | podcast. Leave us some stars or review. Your comments are always appreciated. Thank you very much for that. |
| 1:17.7 | Now we've got to drag out this week's giant mailback. In today's giant mail, |
| 1:22.0 | several people reached out to tell me I was wrong. On a recent Ask Us Anything, I was talking about how I used my |
| 1:31.1 | built card and I was saying that I use the point accelerator, so I redeem built cash |
| 1:38.7 | so that I get an extra point per dollar on up to $5,000 spend. And separately, I take advantage of the rent day doubling, |
| 1:49.0 | where you get up to 1,000 bonus points for all spend that's doubled. |
| 1:52.5 | And in the Ask Us Anything, like I said, |
| 1:55.4 | I was aware that the two bonuses don't stack together at once, which is true. |
| 2:01.6 | But what I said about how I deal with that was unnecessary. |
| 2:06.7 | So I was saying that I always make sure to finish off my $5,000 spend before rent day |
| 2:14.6 | so that my rent day spend doesn't, you know, mess up with my ability |
... |
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