I always think of Frequent Miler as the godfather of manufactured spending and the more creative aspects of points & miles. That might not be entirely accurate and some might disagree but Frequent Miler is one of my favorite blogs to read. Rather than doing a typical interview series, I wanted to do something different so instead settled on this “best of blogger series” where I share some of my favorite posts/resources from some of my favorite blogs and then they share their own favorite/most useful posts from their own sites.
My Favorite Frequent Miler Posts
These are in no particular order, but these are some of my favorite’s along with a short explanation why.
- Transfer Partner Master List. I always forget what flexible currencies transfer to different programs. This makes that information much more accessible than normal.
- Laboratory. Whenever I’m trying to stack deals, this is one of the first places I go. Super useful for knowing when portals pay out for gift card purchases or redemptions for example.
- Quick Deals. Lots of great deals are posted here on a regular basis!
- Manufactured Spending Complete Guide. Best place to start if you’re new to manufactured spending. Lots of useful actionable advice and remember to read the comments!
- The Fine Print Series. This is something new that I’m absolutely loving. Great to hear from attorney’s that are actually holding financial institutions to account. I used to also love bet you didn’t know, but unfortunately that series has ended.
Frequent Miler’s Favorite Own Posts
- Best Credit Card Offers and Top 10+ Credit Card Offers. We work very hard to list all of the best public offers. Cards are automatically sorted by our unbiased first year value estimate. Both of these pages (and a number of others) are completely driven by the same credit card database that we actively maintain for this purpose.
- The earn and burn fallacy. Shall we give hoarding and cherry picking a try instead? Many blogs advocate spending your points as soon as you earn them. I think that’s bad advice. This post explains why.
- How to prevent your brain from exploding. Often there are too many great deals going on at once for any sane person to take advantage of them all. In this post I argue for choosing your battles and preserving your brain.
- Marriott SPG Complete Guide to Sweet Opportunities. The Marriott SPG merger has led to a wealth of great new opportunities: new uses for points, new ways to get elite status, and more. Here’s the complete guide.
- How to get Hyatt Diamond benefits without status. I love Hyatt Diamond (now “Globalist”) perks, but I’d hate to spend the money it would take to get and keep that status the way Hyatt intended. Fortunately, it is possible to get nearly all top tier Hyatt benefits without having status at all and yes, this still works in the new World of Hyatt program.
- Learning Scuba and feeding fish. This post is very different from most of my other posts. This one was straight-up storytelling about my torturous pursuit of Scuba certification.
- My job? I blog. Here’s the answer to your next question… Seriously, everyone asks this. How can I earn a living writing a blog? Here’s the answer.
Thanks!
Again big thanks to Frequent Miler for agreeing to participate in this series, I’m sure most of you already read his site but if you don’t then hopefully this gives you a spring board into some of his great content. You can also catch him on social media:
Thanks DoC team, I check both you and Frequent Miler several times a day. Would be very interested in seeing more of these types of posts.
Frequent Miler isn’t in the TPG, VFTW, MMS, OMAT category of awful. But he’s not that great either. Somewhere in the middle.
I totally agree. I used to love his blog when it first started but he has killed many deals since and he beats a dead horse at times. We don’t need a post everyday about the same thing for a week. Also, i feel like his quick deals are 90% repost of DOC. I still read him but I get annoyed.
One page I like most (as I am lazy to memorize) is best card category bonus. When a big purchase comes, say booking a hotel or booking an air ticket with cash, I will go there and check which cards give the best cash/point back. Compared to what I have owned, I will decide which one I shall use.
Link is here:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/best-card-category-bonuses/
Greg is usually on target with his blog and has some of the best detailed explications in the points and miles game.
His trip to Richard Branson’s Necker’s Island was interesting. But why did he explain to Richard Branson that he won his free trip by playing the points and miles game? Was he expecting a big hug and handshake from Richard Branson congratulating him on gaming the system?
I never read that series as it didn’t interest me. What was Branson’s response?
Richard Branson posed with Greg for a photo with a big smile and a middle finger. Richard Branson is always laughing and making jokes with everyone. That is one reason is has built successful billion dollar companies.
Still I think it is in our best interest that we not boast to airline and bank executives about our successes in the points and miles game. It does not help make our hobby easier.
Fake-choking Greg lol…. which made for an amusing pic. Worth it imo. Branson is a weird dude for sure.
Agree, James. That was stupid and selfish of him.
Great idea for a series. I found DOC because all the bloggers seem to reference it and you have become the only one I check on a regular basis. FM definitely has some good content.
Thanks, I’m hoping to not just focus on our niche either and touch on other blogs I enjoy in different fields.
Really like the piece questioning earn and burn. If you’ve got a million AA mils, for example, sure. But my butt has been saved on multiple occasions (e.g., short notice funeral) by keeping a stash of 75-100K on hand. One REAL advantage of this is that it lets you leverage the new one way award availability system much more effectively if you keep a set of modest balances on several different programs.
Do this for Miles Per Day too!
That you Vinh?
Lol, his blog is a fun read, like, let’s see who shut Vinh down today!
Greg is good people, not a shill for the credit card companies like Gary, Lucky and the points guy.
Hi Jason,
I 2nd your comment about shills for the banks. I used read the points guy blog until he sold out to the banks. The points guy was not a shill for the banks when he first started until he saw how lucrative it was.
Which blogs do Gary and Luck run?
Both are on boarding area. Gary is a view from the wing, which used to be good but is now a shill and Lucky is one mile at a time and is the same way.
Greg is TOP TIER for sure!
He digs into things thoroughly to discover nuances, like recent Plastiq coding legwork and the 800 flowers and other deal stacking – He does love a deal, like many of us!
Yup, I love his in depth posts. It’s really good when he does a massive deep dive and he finds out that the program/promo whatever is not useful at all but you realize he probably just saved you several hours of trying to work that out for yourself.
You and FM are the sites I visit on a daily basis. Thank you for all the information you share!
FM: Daily basis
Doc: Hour basis
Really appreciate it!
Hourly basis? Set up notifications 😉
Yep. In order of time wasted 1) reddit 2) DoC 3) FM
Sometimes I have criticisms about FM but overall an excellent source. No other blogs are worth my clicks besides these two.
Here is my everyday deal hunting:
Bank&Travel deal part
1. Doctor of Credit (here)
2. Frequent Miler (sorry to say I favor Greg’s far more than Nick’s. Nick needs to improve his taste)
3. Two other travel blogs in my native language (as I read them faster), though they only translate DOC’s post…
I used to read Millionmilesecrets as well, but the quality, sorry to say, is going down. Not something I am interested. I particularly hate the GC giveaway. It feels like you are buying for readers or traffic. With that said, it is still a good blog compared to most of others.
Everyday deal part:
1. Slickdeals Frontpage
https://slickdeals.net/
2. Slickdeals popular deals
https://slickdeals.net/deals/
3. Dealnews Editor’s Choice
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/best-card-category-bonuses/
SD frontpage is a must even though I can see they are posting some paid frontpage deal (such as those cheap stuffs AC sold by third party but fulfilled by Amazon)
Anybody can tell me if I have missed anything. Please best of best only.