Greg shows us around the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London, a Marriott property bookable with Marriott points or free night certificate. He was upgraded to a gorgeous junior suite in the Chambers wing of the hotel, meaning he got direct access to the (✨very fancy✨) Chambers Club.
👏💖😎
If you haven't been following our stories and blog posts, here's a recap of what the team has been up to... Since Monday night's launch of the "Flying By the Seat of our Points" challenge, Greg, Nick and Tim have been making their separate ways to LA, a destination they found out about on Monday. They've each got very different trips with the goal of 1) making it to the hotel first and 2) finding a meal that represents the country they think we'll send them to next...
(Special thanks to judge Carrie's twin sister @annilion
for putting this piece together for a quick and easy recap for anyone who's missed the stories😎😎😎)
...
For this year's annual challenge, Stephen and Carrie are giving Greg, Nick, and Tim surprise destination assignments for a travel challenge testing our team's last-minute travel booking skills. The first "domestic convergence" destination is LA. The contestants must arrive by 6pm local time to find out their next "international divergence" destinations!
Check out this page for more details on this ongoing challenge... https://frequentmiler.com/2024-annual-challenge/
Greg decided instead of sitting in a Centurian lounge all day, he might as well do a podcast. He is a podcaster after all. Will this interrupt his ability to get to LA on time to meet the other contestants though?
...
For this year's annual challenge, Stephen and Carrie are giving Greg, Nick, and Tim surprise destination assignments for a travel challenge testing our team's last-minute travel booking skills. The first "domestic convergence" destination is LA. The contestants must arrive by 6pm local time to find out their next "international divergence" destinations! :open_mouth:
Follow this link for more details about the ongoing challenge: https://frequentmiler.com/2024-annual-challenge/
Tim gets to enjoy a Centurian lounge too, in the Seattle airport. We're all curious to see what he decided to do for his journey to LA where he'll meet the other contestants (who have long hauls from the East Coast!)
...
For this year's annual challenge, Stephen and Carrie are giving Greg, Nick, and Tim surprise destination assignments for a travel challenge testing our team's last-minute travel booking skills. The first "domestic convergence" destination is LA. The contestants must arrive by 6pm local time to find out their next "international divergence" destinations!
Check out this link for more about this ongoing travel challenge: https://frequentmiler.com/2024-annual-challenge/
Nick is on his way to LA for our annual travel challenge...but he's got 3 segments to get through (and he has to make it by 6pm local time!) If this first leg is an indicator of his luck, he's in good shape! Let's hope his PHL > PHX and PHX > LAX legs are just as timely!
For this year's annual challenge, Stephen and Carrie are giving Greg, Nick, and Tim surprise destination assignments for a travel challenge testing our team's last-minute travel booking skills. The "domestic convergence" destination comes first where all 3 of our contestants have to meet up in LA by 6pm local time (where they'll find out where their next "international divergence" destinations are.) 😮
Check out this link for more about our ongoing travel challenge: https://frequentmiler.com/2024-annual-challenge/
On his way to the first last-minute travel destination - LA -to meet the other contestants of our annual travel challenge, Greg enjoyed a drink in the Centurion Lounge in Houston, which he had access to thanks to his Amex Platinum card.
For this year's annual challenge, Stephen and Carrie are giving Greg, Nick, and Tim surprise destination assignments for a travel challenge testing our team's last-minute travel booking skills.
Check out this link for more information about the challenge: https://frequentmiler.com/2024-annual-challenge/
For this year's annual challenge, Stephen and Carrie are giving Greg, Nick, and Tim surprise destination assignments for a travel challenge testing our team's last-minute travel booking skills.
Here you see a recap of our first live check-in last night where Stephen and Carrie assigned LA as the "domestic convergence destination"... a domestic destination where all contestants meet together in time for the next live check-in Wednesday night. We've booked a room for our contestants already, but there's only two bedrooms! That means whoever arrives first gets the King room to themselves and the other two will have to share the second bedroom.
Since Tim is West Coast based and therefore starting out significantly closer to LA than Nick and Greg (who are both East Coast based), we've leveled the playing field by requiring that each contestant CAN'T ARRIVE BEFORE 3PM LOCAL TIME! If they break this rule, they'll have a half hour penalty so they can't leave for the hotel until 3:30 local time.
This is just the beginning! Still to come are international divergence destinations which our contestants will visit on their own, and a final, international convergence destination where the contestants will have to meet back up again...all just days apart to require top notch last-minute booking skills. At each destination, Stephen and Carrie will assign additional challenges to force them to immerse themselves in these destinations!
Click this link (https://frequentmiler.com/2024-annual-challenge/) for more details about this year's annual team challenge!
For the next week, Greg, Nick and Tim will all be flying by the seat of their points!
For the next week, Greg, Nick, and Tim will be "Flying by the Seat of their Points" with this year's annual team challenge. All week we'll be publishing updates on Instagram, on the blog, and we'll have live check ins with our travelers on YouTube as well! Check the comments of this post for updates about the next live checkin and links to more.
For this year's annual challenge, Stephen and Carrie are giving Greg, Nick, and Tim surprise destination assignments for a travel challenge testing our team's last-minute travel booking skills.
Here you see Greg preparing for at least 3 unknown destinations... a domestic destination where all contestants meet together, an international destination he'll visit on his own, and a final, international destination where the contestants will have to meet back up again.
Check out this post for more details: https://frequentmiler.com/flying-by-the-seat-of-our-points-last-minute-travel-challenge/
Let Tim take you on a tour of the Junior Suite at Kasbah du Toubkal, a Mr and Mrs Smith Property (Hyatt) in the High Atlas Mountains near Marrakesh.
Who says you can't stay in unique, jewel box properties using your points!
Tim is currently preoccupied, sipping martinis at Rick's Cafe in Casablanca. Leave a message after the beep. 🍸
Hassan II Mosque Casablanca ✨✨✨
A lot of people get nervous about their first award booking. They want to make sure they're getting the best value possible - not making any silly mistakes. But we can't tell you all the nuances of your own situation, and you can only do the best with what you've got. Sometimes you just gotta book something and see how it feels.
Go for it. You'll be fine. 💓✌️
Hands up, who's ziplined the fort in Jodhpur? Timothy Steinke has...
Assuming Bilt transfer bonuses like the 150% Air Canada Aeroplan transfer bonus on February 1 continue to happen, this could change the game and turn Bilt into a card that makes sense for more than just renters.
To take advantage of this bonus, you do need to be a Platinum member with Bilt, but there's a synergy between achieving that status and accumulating this transferrable currency - both require spending on the card.
Tune into episode 240 of the Frequent Miler on the Air podcast for the full discussion: https://frequentmiler.com/game-changing-transfer-bonuses-the-bilt-card-aint-just-for-renters-anymore/
