The Agenda:

1. Mexico City Trip

• A trip without points/miles for the pure joy of travel
• Using CBX
• Hot air balloon over Teotihuacan
• Public spaces and museums

2. Gardening Southwest reservations

• Using SW booking flexibility to capture fare drops
• The benefit of having a big bankroll of SW miles
• Companion pass
• Exploiting schedule changes to capture the lowest possible award price

3. Reviewing an old episode’s advice on AA

• AA is still the easiest program to quickly earn 200k-400k miles in a couple months to fuel an international trip
• AA offers cards from Citi (personal and business) and Barclays (personal)
• Using Plastiq to use the AA Citi cards to pay a mortgage

HOMEWORK: It’s time to get the Barclays Wyndham Business Earner card for 100k points. We discuss Vacasa’s ownership of Wyndham and how you can use this card to fuel points AirBnB style vacation rentals.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have on points/miles on Twitter via @hjpreller or e-mail pointsmillionaire@gmail.com

The Agenda:

1. Japan Trip

• How we used transferable points to fly Singapore Air in business class
• Intl travel with a baby
• The highlights of the trip to Japan
• Hotel stay at the Conrad Tokyo and Conrad Osaka

2. Current Points and Miles Environment

• Devaluations
• Limited Availability and Routes STILL
• Need to be flexible
• Economy availability is still good, plentiful, and cheap!
• Build up balances so you’re ready to strike when you find availability

3. It’s Southwest Companion Pass Season

HOMEWORK: It’s time to get the Chase SW Personal and Business cards again to earn 135k in the next calendar year!

Feel free to ask me any questions you have on points/miles on Twitter via @hjpreller or e-mail pointsmillionaire@gmail.com

The Agenda:

1. Discussion of how absolutely nothing has changed since the last episode over two years ago
2. Spring Cleaning
   • How to analyze what to get rid of from your credit card portfolio
   • Retention offers: don’t sleep on them
   • Create a demand schedule
   • Match your earning strategy to your demand schedule
3. Traveling With A Baby
   • Babyquip.com
   • Hotels vs. VRBO/AirBnB
4. Alaska Mileage Plan
5. HOMEWORK: Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Card, 60k miles after $3k in spend with no impact to your 5/24

Feel free to ask me any questions you have on points/miles on Twitter via @hjpreller or e-mail pointsmillionaire@gmail.com

The Agenda:

1. Review of episode 5 assignment: SUCCESS! Current status: 649,000 points/miles
2. Trusted resources to learn more about points and miles
   • The Points Guy is a charlatan owned by banks
   • Recommended blogs: Frequent Miler, Miles to Memories, Doctor of Credit, Travelbloggerbuzz, Milenomics, Middle Aged Miles
   • Podcasts: Milenomics, Miles to Memories, Observation Deck
   • Award Wallet, Travel Freely
   • Momondo
3. Elite Status: is it really worth the effort?
4. Trip Report: Italy, Paris, Tokyo
5. HOMEWORK: Chase Ink Unlimited for 50k Ultimate Rewards points with $3k in spending all with no annual fee, and Barclays Aadvantage Aviator Red card for 60k AA points with first purchase.

The only payment we ever ask is to use our referral link if you choose to participate and get your own Chase Ink Unlimited card, or this referral link for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. We only use links that offer you the best available offer, which at this time is 50k uber valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3k in three months, or 3 free nights (valued at 105k points, 35k per night) with Marriott Bonvoy after $3k in spend.  For the Bonvoy link, note that there is a public 75k point offer which is smaller in total potential value, but allows you to chase nights at higher tier aspirational hotels if that is more valuable for you.  We checked our referral link for the American Express Surpass and it offers 5k less points than the public offer of 130k points.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have on points/miles on Twitter via @hjpreller or e-mail pointsmillionaire@gmail.com

The Agenda:

1. Review of episode 4 assignment: SUCCESS! Current status after two months: 509,000 points/miles
2. Strategies for finding award flights to spend your miles on
   • Fare Codes/Inventory
   • Positioning flights
   • Being flexible
   • Learn the hubs
   • Time it right – 331 days in advance is a magic number
3. Trip Report – Oahu
4. HOMEWORK: Barclays Business Aviator card and CitiBusiness Aadvantage Platinum Select – potentially 135k American Airlines miles

The only payment we ever ask is to use our referral link if you choose to participate and get your own Chase Sapphire Preferred card, or this referral link for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. We only use links that offer you the best available offer, which at this time is 60k uber valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4k in three months, or 3 free nights (valued at 105k points, 35k per night) with Marriott Bonvoy after $3k in spend.  For the Bonvoy link, note that there is a public 75k point offer which is smaller in total potential value, but allows you to chase nights at higher tier aspirational hotels if that is more valuable for you.  We checked our referral link for the American Express Surpass and it offers 5k less points than the public offer of 130k points.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have on points/miles on Twitter via @hjpreller or e-mail pointsmillionaire@gmail.com

The Agenda:

1. Review of episode 3 assignment: SUCCESS! Current status after two months: 269,000 points/miles
2. Surprise AmEx upgrade offer: AmEx No-Fee Hilton to AmEx Surpass for 150k points
3. Full background on Hilton Honors program
4. News: “Enhancement” of Marriott Bonvoy program
5. Trip Report: Mexico via Southwest Companion Pass
6. HOMEWORK: Chase World of Hyatt card, 2 nights at any Hyatt valued at 60k points

The only payment we ever ask is to use our referral link if you choose to participate and get your own Chase Sapphire Preferred card, or this referral link for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. We only use links that offer you the best available offer, which at this time is 60k uber valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4k in three months, or 3 free nights (valued at 105k points, 35k per night) with Marriott Bonvoy after $3k in spend.  For the Bonvoy link, note that there is a public 75k point offer which is smaller in total potential value, but allows you to chase nights at higher tier aspirational hotels if that is more valuable for you.  We checked our referral link for the American Express Surpass and it offers 5k less points than the public offer of 130k points.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have on points/miles on Twitter via @hjpreller or e-mail pointsmillionaire@gmail.com

The Agenda:

1. Review of episode 2 assignment: SUCCESS! Current status after two months: 190,000 miles
2. Trip reports: hot tip of using Chase’s lhrcollection.com for Vegas trips
3. Monthly tip: using shopping portals and portal aggregators like evreward.com
4. Fraud text alerts
5. Marriott Bonvoy program
6. HOMEWORK: Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, 75k points

The only payment we ever ask is to use our referral link if you choose to participate and get your own Chase Sapphire Preferred card, or this referral link for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. We only use links that offer you the best available offer, which at this time is 60k uber valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4k in three months, or 3 free nights (valued at 105k points, 35k per night) with Marriott Bonvoy after $3k in spend.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have on points/miles on Twitter via @hjpreller or e-mail pointsmillionaire@gmail.com

The Agenda:

1. Introductions: @HJPreller and our new co-host, none other than Mrs. HJ
2. Review last episodes assignment: 2 Chase Southwest cards and a Companion Pass: SUCCESS! Current status after one month: 125,500 miles
3. Monthly tip: Cashing in on everyday dining with Rewards Network. As an example, here’s the Southwest version of it.
4. Fraud: debit vs. credit. DO NOT USE DEBIT!
5. HOMEWORK: Chase Ultimate Rewards/Chase Sapphire Preferred

The only payment we ever ask is to use our referral link if you choose to participate and get your own Chase Sapphire Preferred card. We only use links that offer you the best available offer, which at this time is 60k uber valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4k in three months.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have on points/miles on Twitter via @hjpreller or e-mail pointsmillionaire@gmail.com

In addition to playing the link below, you can also listen to the the podcast .mp3 file at archive.org.

You are also strongly encouraged to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, or on Stitcher.

In the first episode of Making A Points Millionaire, we start the journey of taking a points and miles novice from zero to a million points/miles in one year. This podcast concentrates on financial literacy, strategy, and skills needed to learn how to take on “The Hobby” that has brought so many people affordable travel and experiences.

The Agenda:

1. Introductions: @HJPreller and @shelihiggins
2. The Contract
3. Credit Score Basics
4. Chase and 5/24 Introduction
5. HOMEWORK: Southwest Personal and Business Cards

In addition to playing the link below, you can also listen to the the podcast .mp3 file at archive.org.

You are also strongly encouraged to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, or on Stitcher.