Memorial Weekend Open Thread

by Gary Leff

What’s on your mind? A free for all in the comments, but please keep it civil (and clean).

Let me know what questions you have and I’ll try to answer. What are the biggest challenges you face with travel or miles and points? Are you having trouble accumulating the miles you need, or booking the award you want, perhaps I can help…

I’m not traveling this weekend, just playing with my new barbecue and relaxing by the pool (and working). I tend to hate ‘amateur day’ at the airport, Memorial Weekend isn’t quite as bad as Thanksgiving though, but if I can get my breaks in when the rest of the world isn’t around so much the better…

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Hi Gary,

    Question about churning AAdvantage cards: What is the best “churning schedule”? IOW, I was recently denied a Citi AAdvantage Amex because I had just applied for one less than 60 days ago. Do you know if the same applies to MC and Visa? Thanks and have a great holiday weekend.

  2. Due to an airport mixup and language difficulties in September 07, I now have a “Miles and More” account with about 12,000 miles in it. I live in San Jose and I generally fly UAL. The chances of me ever turning this 12k into a useful Lufthansa award seem low. So as the months ago, I’m just waiting for these miles to expire, which bothers me. Any better ideas?

  3. Good afternoon. Other than Diners Club, are you aware of any free or low cost credit cards available to U.S. residents that offer, as a benefit, primary CDW when using the card for a car rental in the U.S.?

    Thanks

  4. My biggest challenge, by far, is all of the rule changes, higher prices, and increasing restrictions of RTW products.

    I’m not sure there’s much you can do about that, but by all means, share any advice you have.

  5. Gary:

    I’d appreciate if you could discuss in detail how one would go about crediting

  6. Gary

    I’ve been reading for a while and don’t quite understand how it is that you have status with nearly every airline and hotel chain and seem to have an endless supply of miles. What exactly is your profession? Do you run all expenses of that business on all the various credit cards?

  7. Gary,

    I have a bunch of AA miles (several hundred thousand) that I can never seem to use for my normal travel. I would like to find some sort of aspirational award to Europe. Any suggestions on what would be a good Oneworld experience in first class to Europe?

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