AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Offers for the American Express Platinum Card® by Charles Schwab, Ink Plus® Business Credit Card, Chase Freedom®, The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card are not available through this site. All information has been independently collected by AwardWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. Some offers may have expired. Please see our card marketplace for available offers.
All information about American Express Platinum Card® by Charles Schwab and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card has been collected independently by AwardWallet
Welcome back to the Award Travel 101 Podcast — from the original Facebook community created for miles and points enthusiasts. Angie and Joe discuss changes to The Platinum Card® from American Express, getting tired of the miles & points hobby, and the cards in our wallets.
Award Travel 101 Podcast Show Format
We break each show into six sections:
- Question/Win of the Week — asked or shared by members of the Award Travel 101 community
- News & Enhanced Offers
- What Bonuses Did We Get — which will tell you what credit cards we're working on and why
- Trip Updates
- Highlight Feature
- What You Didn't Know — a feature dedicated to a big or small tip that will help you better maximize the value you receive from your rewards.
How To Listen to the Award Travel 101 Podcast
Previous Episode Show Notes
- 1 — Meet Award Travel 101 Community Administrators Angie & Joe
- 2 — Booking a Dream (African Safari) Trip
- 3 — Creating Memories Through Big And Small Trips
- 4 — 8 Steps to Better Award Travel
- 5 — Cruise (on Points), Racking and Stacking, and Keep or Kick it to the Curb
- 6 — Transfer Bonuses, Hyatt Bonus Journeys, and Benefits of AwardWallet
- 7 — So Many Program Changes with AwardWallet’s JT Genter
- 8 — Hyatt Changes, AA Domestic First Class Routes, and Meet the Mods (Jackie Wisniewski)
- 9 — Sapphire Lounge Opening, New Bonuses, Meet the Mods (Jerod Morales), and Business Class for Six
- 10 — When to Part with Points and Angie's Safari Trip
- 11 — AvGeeks, Spreadsheets, & Cheatsheets – Meet the Mods (Mike Zaccheo)
- 12 — Status Matching for More Value
- 13 — How Often Do You Get a New Card
- 14 — Incredible Trip to New Zealand on Points, Plus a Trip to the Freddie Awards
- 15 — Best Card for Groceries & Award Travel Community Meetup
- 16 — Citi Product Change Rules and Meet the Team: Allison Caraway
- 17 — Husband Cashes in All Their Points and Programs To Book Round The World Flights
- 18 — Gorgeous Pictures from Iran and Cards That Earn Status
- 19 — The Tools We Use
- 20 — Mistakes We've Made
- 21 — Crafty Way to See Taylor Swift and Ways to Earn Hotel Free Night Certificates
- 22 — First Class Trip to Croatia and Should You Speculatively Transfer Points
- 23 — Our Favorite Award Programs
- 24 — LIVE From a Lounge & Is American Airlines Status Worth Chasing
- 25 — What Are Points Worth
- 26 — All the Upgrades & Traveling With Kids on the Spectrum
- 27 — Which Card Offers the Best Travel Protections
- 28 — Pancakes and Points
- 29 — Favorite Card Perks and Putting Them All Together
Award Travel 101 Podcast Episode 30 Show Notes
The Award Travel 101 Community and Podcast are brought to you by AwardWallet. Check out all of the features in AwardWallet Plus that can help you better track your progress and prevent loss or expiration. If you register for our next-level Award Travel 201 Community for $89.99 annually, AwardWallet Plus is included in your subscription (which means you get access to next-level strategies for just $5 per month). If this interests you, register here.
Post of the week
This comes from our Award Travel 201 Community member Raney O'Keefe, who says that miles and points have been burning her out. She asks, “Has this ever happened to any of you? Do you just need an auto-pilot break sometimes?”
News
- American Express makes some changes that most Award Travel 101 members won't be pleased with. What's your take?
- Finnair announces changes to their rewards program, following the steps of Qatar in switching to Avios. Does this excite you?
What bonuses did we get?
- Angie – Tried to apply for the American Express Platinum Card® by Charles Schwab. What caused this plan to fail?
- Joe – Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card arrived. How Joe found he'll knock out his minimum spending requirement easier than expected.
Highlight feature: What cards are in our wallet
- Angie
- Ink Plus® Business Credit Card
- American Express® Gold Card
- Citi Premier® Card
- Citi® Double Cash Card
- Chase Freedom®
- Chase Freedom Unlimited®
- The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card
- Player 2:
- American Express® Gold Card
- Citi Premier® Card
- Citi® Double Cash Card
- Joe
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
- United℠ Business Card
- Citi Premier® Card
- CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®
- The World of Hyatt Credit Card
- American Express® Business Gold Card
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- Player 2:
- Citi Premier® Card
- American Express® Gold Card
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
Tip of the week
Our next meetup in Minneapolis is under way, and it's great for making friends and connections in the hobby to improve your understanding. If you're interested in upping your Award Travel game, check out our Award Travel 201 Community which includes AwardWallet Plus.
Where To Find the Award Travel 101 Community
For questions, you can join us in the free 98,000+ member Award Travel 101 Community.
- If you want to jump into more intermediate and advanced strategies, our Award Travel 201 community ($89.99 annually) is filled with those who want to dig into the weeds, looking for more outsized value.
- To book time with our team to discuss how to better your earning and burning strategies, check out Award Travel one-on-one.
- You can also email us at contactawardtravel@gmail.com.
- The sold-out meetup is this weekend, but stay tuned for an announcement for our next meetup April 26–28, 2024.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Great post, important information
About Episode 30: Avoiding points and miles burnout is simple . . . You memorize and make a habit of which cards to use for which purchases to maximize points earnings.
Also remember a procedure for accessing online shopping through an airline or Rakuten each time before buying anything online.
I maintain a spreadsheet of each credit cards benefits and transfer partners on one tab, a second tab of important points resources like point.me TripAdvisor, FlightConnections etc, a third tab of all the airlines in the points ecosystem organized by the 3 alliances (and 4th “shadow alliance” – the independents like Etihad, JetBlue, etc), and a fourth tab of the largest hotel companies brands (plus Virgin) – and update anytime a new AwardWallet blog post announces changes, or anywhere else word of changes gets regularly sent to me.
That way, points and miles earning and optimizing is on autopilot. And stimulates the brain! So no burnout. Just enjoying my points balances growing faster than I am enjoying burning points on all the “free” travel.