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Frequent Miler on the Air

Roll your own airline elite status | Ep221 | 9-23-23

Frequent Miler on the Air

Frequent Miler

Aviation, Places & Travel, Society & Culture, Leisure

4.9638 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2023

⏱️ 78 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You don't need airline elite status to get elite-like treatment. This week, we discuss how to get the perks without the loyalty and how to think about the costs associated if you decide to stay on that hamster wheel.

Join our email list: https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/

00:00 Intro

01:42 Giant Mailbag

04:47 What crazy thing . . . did Amex do this week?

06:46 Mattress running the numbers: Aeroplan cardholders can get 4th night free with points

https://frequentmiler.com/aeroplan-offering-4th-night-free-on-hotel-stays-but-its-very-poor-value/

09:55 Card Talk: U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card

https://frequentmiler.com/usbar/

https://frequentmiler.com/ultra-premium-credit-card-travel-insurance/

22:35 Award Talk

22:37 Choice Privileges sweet spot awards

https://frequentmiler.com/excellent-new-set-of-choice-privileges-sweet-spot-rewards-for-stays-through-11-30/

https://frequentmiler.com/a-sweet-spot-hotel-and-a-rookie-mistake/

25:27 Greg finds an award not on the search tools

28:21 Finnair via Avios

32:02 Main Event: Roll your own airline elite status

32:30 Basic run-down of earning status through flight or credit card spend

https://frequentmiler.com/earn-elite-status-aa-vs-delta-vs-united/

37:48 Do we need elite status at all? How can we be treated elite?

57:53 Why might you actually want airline elite status?

1:04:45 Are the benefits of loyalty worth it? Who should pursue it?

1:09:36 Question of the Week: I accidentally purchased $6500 in United miles while booking an award. I can ask them to reverse the purchase, but is it worth the risk of the ticket getting canceled?

Music credit: Annie Yoder

Mentioned in this episode:

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is a Voyescape podcast.

0:03.9

You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com.

0:10.7

Let's get into the giant mailbag.

0:13.5

What crazy thing did City this week.

0:17.5

It's time for mattress running the numbers.

0:19.8

Ready for the main event? The main event.

0:21.6

Frequent Liler on the air starts now.

0:24.6

Today's main event, roll your own airline elite status.

0:30.6

All on your own, huh?

0:32.6

Everybody rolling their own out there today.

0:34.6

We are going to show people how you can roll your own, why it might be a better way to go than earning lead status directly from airlines, and why in some cases you might actually be better off by getting elite status from the airlines.

0:48.9

But we'll discuss all that and more with the main event.

0:52.7

First, a brief intro, I'm Greg Davis-Kean and I'm here with,

0:57.6

as always, with Nicholas Reyes. And we are both the hosts of this show as well as primary authors

1:07.2

of Frequent Myler, the blog. and a reminder that you can find today's show an outline and

1:17.9

timestamps in the show notes of the podcast or video so you can jump ahead to any section you

1:24.8

want if you would like to first you know wait whoa whoa whoa. While we're reminding people of things, Greg, I'm going to also remind you that if you like this video, you learn something interesting, you find it valuable. Don't forget to hit like, subscribe, or leave a comment or a review wherever it is. You're listening or watching. Thank you. Go ahead, Greg. I always forget that. I always forget to beg for reviews and

1:44.6

and likes and all that. It's okay. I don't mind groffling, Greg. I'll handle that. Forget, forget when I said

1:52.1

first. Second, let's jump into the giant mailbag. Today's giant mail comes from Scott. And Scott

1:58.9

wrote actually quite a while ago, but it's time to get it on the site.

2:03.4

He says, love the site and the podcast. I've had the built card for about a year now and have been

2:09.8

paying my rent through Built using their non-credit card payment feature. My landlord accepts

...

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