Milenomics² Podcast Episode 262: Airline Miles vs. Bank Points & More

0:20 JetBlue 350,000 + 25 Years of Mosaic Promo

• Press Release

• Trading Time and Money for the right to a free bag for life?

• For an airline that is idling planes it would be more fun if you didn’t need to fly. (USAir Grand Slam) 

04:24 Q3 2025 5x Categories

• Chase Freedom: Gas Stations, EV Charging, Select Live Entertainment, and Instacart

• Discover: Gas Stations & EV Charging, Public Transit, and Utilities

05:53 Chase Sapphire Reserve Updates

• Approvals/Denials

• What else have we learned since initial re-launch/launch?

09:42 The Chase Sapphire Business: Instant Regret Edition

• Sam: Approved for the CSR Business

• The $50 Giftcards.com offer: I can’t get an order through!

  • Burned this with cancelled GoC orders with GC.com GC last year. Account seems fully nuked, orders instant cancelled. 

• The $200 Google credit seems better than I expected actually–I can buy AI credit and tons of photo storage. 

  • Will my google wallet shutdown from 10 years ago mean they won’t take my money! 

• Can’t get all 4 of us into lounges. Why did I have 2 kids!? 

• This card has been reminding me of so much struggle from the past years.

• GC.com purchase posts as “BHN GIFTCARDSCOM CSRB” Credit hit quickly

• The Edit stacking with points or the $300 yearly credit. I need to cancel this stay so it will be interesting to see what happens. 

18:55 Dell 

• New $150 credits per year on Business Platinums

• Not a huge downgrade until next July since $150 now, $150 in Jan. 

• Makes a yearly triple dip (Dec. apps) more valuable

• When will Dell get a switch 2?

24:21 Mesa Homeowners

• Card seems to be closed to new applications?

• They say they’re working on some new benefits

• Strangeness around the calendar (End of Quarter/Month)

• Mesa did come through with a 52,000 point ‘after the fact’ sign up bonus offer.

• Difficult/Not able to use on Fluz

• SAS has some really strong redemptions, LAX-CPH for 50k per person for example. 

  • Children’s tickets half the price of adults (25k for business class one way!)

  • I need a LOT more SAS miles.  

37:15 US Bank Leverage

• Min spend met on day 119 did trigger bonus

• But statement credits are only worth 0.75 now? What the heck?

• I can’t readily get a US Bank checking account because I’m out of area

• More seriously, can we transfer these to someone to get 1cpp?

39:48 Bank error in our favor: Now what?

• For a few weeks western union has been paying twice 

• How they don't realize they're doing this is beyond me 

• Already up 5 figures 

• I don't want this money

• It's never good to take the money and run

• What to do?

• I WANT TO PAY YOU BACK!

46:02 Booking a Hilton Free Night Certificate Stay for a Friend

• Had two certificates expiring in early July with no redemption in mind

• Offered them up to my sister in AZ and suggested the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach

• Used to be a St Regis long ago, independent for a while, now part of Hilton

• Booking these is always a bit clumsy, especially since the certs were in my wife’s account, they still need to be booked over the phone, and two-night stays seem to flummox reps

• Got on speakerphone w/my wife one night, but amazingly the rep never asked her to say a peep

• They do send a verification code via email, but that was it in terms of verification

• Rep was fine booking the stay for someone else but couldn’t manage to make my sister primary on the reservation

• So the reservation was in my wife’s name with my sister as an additional guest (traveling with her husband)

• It was kind of good that the reservation remained in my wife’s name since Diamond perks (however limited) conveyed

• Stay went off without a hitch, and my sister gave it rave reviews saying she liked it more than Aviara!

• Beach access and more integrated golf than Aviara, what’s not to like? Why haven’t we been here?!

• Would have been really incredible if I could have had her use some of our Amex Business Platinum credits (which I squandered for Q2)

51:11 Newport, RI Trip Report

• What a delightful, low-friction vacation that everyone in the family enjoyed once again

• Booked with big rental agency in town (vacationnewport.com) once again

• Tip: Sun-Thurs nights are so much cheaper than weekend nights even around holidays like the 4th of July. Like more than 50% less on weekdays. So if you can visit Newport on weekdays it’s cheaper, and far less crowded. Some experiences aren’t open Mon/Tues but there’s still plenty to do.

• Activities: The Elms mansion tour, Newport National Golf, The Blue Garden, Tennis Hall of Fame, Cliff Walk, Ocean Drive

• Dining: Cara at The Chanler for menuless multi-course anniversary dinner, The Carriage House at The Elms felt like a trip to a garden cafe in Paris, The Mooring for quintessential Newport harbor experience, Newport Protective for a beer and impressive subs in a pub atmosphere.

58:27 Main Topic: Airline Miles vs Bank Points

59:14 Set the stage: Why is this an important discussion.

• Every major bank has a bank point. Chase UR, Amex MR, Citi TYP, WF Rewards, BofA Rewards, US Bank…. 

• Most of these can be cashed out for pennies (or fractions of) OR can be used in the bank run travel portal for more than a penny. 

• Finally some of these can be transferred to airlines as airline miles. These have completely different booking methods and tools, along with a varied amount of value based on the flight or hotel booked. 

• Maximizing value for these miles is a key to earning back the time and money we spend to earn the miles. Example: It almost never makes sense to cash out MR at .6 cents. (news story)

1:04:01 Bank Point bookings Benefits:

• Cancel and points can just come back

  • Need to book a refundable fare, eating away the value

• Open to booking across all alliances and even airlines that have no native point or alliance. 

• As long as it is in the portal you can book it. Sometimes phone agents can see even more.  

• 1:1 pricing for most airline tickets. 

• Airline bookings are elite benefit eligible and earn miles

• Hotel bookings are now allowing loyalty numbers to sometimes be added for elite benefits

1:11:28 Airline Miles Benefits: 

• Massive flexibility for most domestic carrier programs. Cancel as close in as you’d like. Great for provisional flights

• Value is not pegged to the dollar cost of a flight, in some cases this results in fantastic values. 

• Economy fares can be incredibly valuable uses of miles if you’re interested in them for long haul flights. 

• Newer tools make searching easier, but still a hurdle

1:17:56 AIrline Mile Weaknesses

• Pricing is highly dynamic and the programs are each unique and have complex rules and booking channels. 

• There need to be reasonably priced award seats or your miles can become worth less than a bank point. 

• Orphaned miles have no benefit outside of the program they’re in. 

• Phantom space.

• Business class fares for more than 2 people become increasingly difficult to book. 

• Some dates and destinations are effectively blocked out

• Large learning curve. 

1:22:45 Bank point Weaknesses

• Limited upside potential, each program caps the value somewhere between 1.25 and 2 cents per point

• Hotel prices can be inflated, reducing the value earned by the points

• The ability to book anything depends on the bank point portal, which sometimes is less robust that a native airline/hotel portal or even an OTA like booking.com

• The card associated with the uplift needs to remain open for the points to have uplift. This is impractical for some, and costly if annual fees cannot be eradicated. 

1:29:15 Airline Mile Uses that don’t get enough Discussion

• KLM/AF have <20,000 mile ($200 worth of points) nonstop flights one way + about $90. The Equivalent of $600 round trip to Europe is a steal. Compare to about $1300-1800 round trip during peak times. Yes you can pivot to lower cost or 1 stop for less. But nonstop with native international miles is a great deal.  

• Business class when you’re flexible enough. 50,000-100,000 per person one way.  

1:31:55 Examples where Bank points win: (feel free to add/change)

• Domestic flights, nonstop on the day you want. 

• Can sometimes find first class lower priced than you’d expect.