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9:41. Hi guys I don’t know how useful it would be for people, but regarding QR award bookings on AA. PSA when making the reservation, since Qatar booking system seems to force “require “ passport details even if not actually required… but when doing online check in and boarding pass and notice for example missing pre check, call AA and ask them to verify that all your secure flight information. DOB, name etc etc is all correct and remove any errors/ extra unnecessary/inaccurate information QR seems to force though more information than it needs to when making bookings , even if QR number has been successfully removed and or replaced with AA loyalty number Good thing I caught this and called AA customer care. Otherwise, I would be spending more time than expected/ needed at the AA ticket counter trying to fix this, or worse trying to fix this and being sent for secondary at the actual TSA checkpoint 🤔🤷

Are you guys doing a speculative transfer to Hawaiian?

I also faced same issue with the Virgin Atlantic recently. I purchased points to redeem award ticket for my parents from Asia to USA one way ticket 8 months before the departure. VS just locked my account and cancelled the ticket without any notification until my mom found out that she can’t do online check-in right before the departure date… Apparently the ticket was cancelled 2 months before the departure due to fraud detection. But, VS gave no notification or communication, which really sucks… My account is not new and also book their awards tickets for entire family including myself. As all award tickets got cancelled, even I recovered my account after providing all documents. I am not able to find the award seats anymore 😢

Will have to say I miss the intro theme song

So... if a normal person like me who can just subscribe to 1 flight/hotel search service, which would you choose? Seats/rooms.aero or PointsYeah? Keep up the great work!

This was your best one in recent times, choke full of solid info. Also, I learned more from this one than recent ones combined :-) Debating whether to go for the easy Hawaiian cards haul...need to decide soon.

Nice on the 50 gift card!!

Do you know why both hotels in Hawaii show not available for all days?

Make it amazon business credit. That would be very useful

hi guys, question for Greg.. Do any of the hotel award tools allow searching for standard awards for rooms with 2 beds? Rollaway isn't an option. Thanks for the credit on my pun - James

This is going to be a risky bet... imma say that, but i'm going to move at least some points to Hawaiian.

First :)

Thanks for the deep dive guys! I spend the full $5000 per month to get me closer to Gold status (so I'm SkyTeam Elite Plus with Delta) but the card is mediocre beyond that. The switch from 1.5 points per dollar to 1 point per dollar is a bad move. The 40k signing bonus is lower than competing cards. Overall, not something that's worth it for most people.

Thanks guys, I WAS considering getting the Virgin 😢card, but hadn't done a deep dive yet.

Program devalues without any notice ever, inflicted ridiculous surcharges just recently and then, hold my beer, gets into bed with Synchrony bank, hard pass :-)

Lost me at Sinchrony

You guys are amazing keep up the amazing work!!!

On the question of the week… 100% email the concierge or general manager, do not call, you want actual confirmation in writing. I wanted to use my Hilton certificate at a hotel in Spain but when I added my infant at 1 year old, it would only let me book a suite, not a standard room. I emailed concierge and they said the infant would be allowed in a standard room, so I called to book the certificate and said we had only 2 adults, no infants so the certificate could be applied. Then I reached out to the hotel to confirm a crib for our stay and arrange baby sitting. Also, for Virgin Atlantic, I’ve gotten decent use on certain Latam routes that are lie flat and just under 4,000 miles. It only costs 50k and is a great way to get to South America with a ton of availability.

I can't see this episode on Spotify. Will it be uploaded there?

A long time ago when the Brilliance was coming out, there was a 3-day period that Ritz cardholders could have gotten the Brillance that worked for me.......the good old days... I canceled my Amex gold mostly bc I needed to shift my monthly attention to my going-for-gold Delta cards monthly workload.

@All Does it make sense to transfer all my amex points to Hawaiian given that the merger is going through without any issues? I am considering this given Amex does not have any high value transfer partner like Hyatt so Alaska seems like a good option if transferred 1:1.

Love you guys, but this guy needs a reality check. 3k a month for an assistant? Yeah, let me get right on that!

For Priceline I put in my hertz account number and get the hertz points plus the Priceline credits too. So yes it’s a double dip!

I was hoping the FM team was going to cover the Virgin Limited Edition experiences. At the same time I don't want those experiences to get too much coverage so I can book it. lol

Thanks for the info + video!

Nick mentioned a casino match path to Virgin cruises in this podcast. Will he be elaborating on that soon?

Really nice dive i to this important category. Thanks for posting!

Amazing video. I had no idea this ITA Software Matrix even existed. So great. Thank you!

No, it won’t stop you earning the status with Priceline and IMO it’s the cheapest option ever with same benefits and experiences that other companies do offer.

Great episode. Appreciate the content you provide in this podcast!

I second VV cruises as a good use of points. I got it for free with the status MGR. But my second cruise on VV next year, I will definitely be through Virgin Red program. I cannot afford their cruises otherwise, and they are SO much fun. Pro-tip. I created a FB group for my specific sailing and people knew to search for it and join. We had so much fun getting to know people beforehand and organizing meet-ups and independent excursions this way. I would do this again in a heartbeat. Greg! The bummer about doing the Mediterranean is that you really don't have enough time at the port. You are visiting all these amazing places, and you want to be there a few days at a time, and to go back right away at 5 or 9 or 10 pm, it really makes it not relaxing, to cram in all this land travel to rush back to the ship. I probably won't cruise Europe ever again for that reason. But the experience itself and the ports-- literally everything was enjoyable.

I tried to use donut app at bask in and it did not woek

Dunkin coffee is likely using old beans to cut costs and mask it with the milk - but if you put milk in coffee anyway it doesn’t matter

The elephant in the room is that the reason why all of the best redemptions are being devalued/removed at an accelerated rate is because we now have points and Miles blogs and CZcams channels with hundreds of thousands of eyeballs and millions of views. In just 2020 there were a few niche blogs that had a couple of hundred or ar most a few thousand readers. We like to think of optimizing CC rewards game as a small niche but it is no longer small anymore. Did you notice as soon as a phenomenal award redemption becomes talked about on all of the blogs it is instantly removed 3 to 6 months later. Coincidence?

Here is. DP. Went into Baskin Robbins. Tried to pay with Donut app. Did not work.

Will you guys have a new intro? I am missing the intro

Got pretty lucky with Virgin. ANA first to Japan last year. AirNZ business to New Zealand this year.

43:27 can we confirm this still works? A lot of conflicting reports online of Ana and virgin bookings not working anymore.

I have had limited deals with autoslash, but I have gotten great deal on Priceline.

Do you guys know whats gping on with using Virgin for last minute ANA flights? I hear thats not working anymore. Inhear its only long out redemtions working.

ANA for the win!

Glad you're doing this. The devaluations have made it difficult to use.

They are back! Thank you guys for your weekly gold mine of information.

The value of my Life miles just disappeared into Finn Air😊

This is the first I’ve heard of needing to keep an Amex card open to a year after SUB is earned, does this mean we are obliged to pay the second year s annual fee for every new card too?

Nick, what flight to Mauritius?

Longer lives please! Thank you very much.

Thanks for the info + video!

Thank you, love for you to one day explain in detail about AA SWU, so I can share with my friends 🎉

How do we opt back in for financial offers? I’ve been on the do not market lists forever and don’t think I’ve ever gotten any financial product offer