If you have an American Airlines card issued by Barclays, it won't be a Barclays card for much longer, as AA cards will transition to Citi instead. So what does that mean for you? We'll answer some common questions about this transition in today's podcast episode.

Read more about the Barclays to Citi transition here.

(01:03) - April 24, 2026, the bank that issues your AAdvantage® credit card is changing from Barclays Bank Delaware to Citibank, N.A. (Citi)

(02:15) - $99 cards

(02:45) - Silver to Globe

See our episode about the Globe card here.

(03:24) - Barclays vs Citi Companion Certs

(11:45) - Should we cancel our Barclays cards before the changeover?

(16:38) - Disadvantages to cancelling BEFORE

(23:07) - Should we apply for Citi AA cards before the changeover?

(24:25) - What are Nick and Greg going to do?

Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.

Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

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In today's episode, we discover that not all heroes have capes, some redeem rewards! We learn a trick for extending Southwest flight credits, and we tell all: how we increase our credit card spend.

(01:06) - See our podcast episode 197, "13 ways to increase credit card spend" here

(01:37) - Mike: We can be heroes...just for one day

Listen to our episode about sharing miles and points here

(03:58) - Brent: Charitable giving

Listen to our podcast about rewards from giving here

(09:15) - Bilt quietly removed eBay & Facebook Marketplace as exclusions

Read more about this here

(10:39) - Bilt Rent Day transfer bonus to Accor

(19:21) - Southwest credits are valid for 60 months in some situations

(23:22) - JetBlue 25for25 stats

(29:16) - Capital One Shopping Home Page Bonus Offers

Read more about Capital One Shopping home page bonus offers here

(32:55) - See our podcast episode 197, "13 ways to increase credit card spend" here

(33:57) - Today, we'll describe the ways we (Nick and I) increase spend in real life

(34:15) - About paying fees

(37:43) - Pay taxes

Read about paying taxes via credit card here

(45:23) - Use a service to pay bills that don’t ordinarily accept a credit card, like Plastiq

Learn more about Plastiq here

(52:07) - Melio

Learn more about Melio here

(53:49) - Fund college savings or pay student loans

Learn about miles for college here

(1:01:12) - Make loans through Kiva

Learn about Kiva here

(1:03:40) - Pay bills for friends or family

(1:07:10) - Fund new bank accounts

Learn more about funding a bank account with a credit card here

(1:11:52) - Buy and sell merchandise

Learn about buying groups here

(1:13:13) - Buy and sell gift cards

Learn about buying and selling gift cards...

With Bilt 2.0, Bilt introduced a complicated new rewards currency called "Bilt Cash". We're going to try to dissect that today.

(00:11) - Bilt 2.0: 3 new cards, 2 complicated ways to earn points on housing payments; and 1 complicated new rewards currency... Bilt Cash

Read more about it here: https://frequentmiler.com/bilt-cash-how-to-use/

(00:57) - Earning Bilt Cash

(02:12) - December 31 Bilt Cash Gets Trashed Day

(02:45) - Using Bilt Cash

(10:41) - Evaluating Bilt Cash uses

(16:45) - Coupons

Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.

Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Mentioned in this episode:

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In today's episode, we'll talk about a trick for getting great value with Delta miles, which has returned, how flying Emirates first with points has gotten harder, and the hard truth about how we have too many cards (and what to do about it).

(01:52) - Using AAdvantage miles to book JetSmart and other tips for South America travel

(04:10) - Air France/KLM Flying Blue

Read more about Air France KLM flying blue here

(15:38) - Capital One Venture Rewards: 75K + $250 travel after $4K spend

(18:35) - Bilt Cash details revealed

Catch up on how Bilt bungled the rollout here

(21:06) - Qantas Nerfs Emirates First Class Awards

Read more about this here

(23:34) - Delta trick lowering award prices by booking flights to/from Mexico, working once again

(25:20) - Alaska $99 Companion Fares can be used with the multi-city tool on the regular booking engine again

(26:35) - American Airlines Awards flying Aer Lingus Now Available Online

(28:14) - Find out which premium cards we think are keepers here

(31:41) - Greg's thoughts about keeper cards

(35:25) - $795 Sapphire Reserve® Card Example (read more about our thoughts here)

(57:45) - $325 American Express® Gold Card example

(1:04:44) - $895 American Express Platinum Card® example

(1:14:58) - Cards Greg and Nick have discarded recently

(1:24:08) - American Express® Gold Card with 4x dining vs Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card with 3x dining + status... which one is worth it?

Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.

Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

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Chase is out with offers for both their Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card, both offering up to 5 free nights. So which of these offers is better?

(00:32) - World of Hyatt Card

(01:17) - Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Card

(01:36) - Which is better?

(01:47) - Marriott advantages

(05:17) - Hyatt advantages

(08:10) - Caution: Annual category changes coming soon (last year it was March 25 for Hyatt, unknown for Marriott)

(09:28) - Final answer

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Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Mentioned in this episode:

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Bilt released details of its new credit cards on Wednesday...but it was so confusing, they tried to clarify it with more confusion.

(00:18) - Bilt released details of its new credit cards on Wednesday.

You can read more about Bilt 2.0 here: https://frequentmiler.com/bilt-makes-earning-rewards-on-housing-payments-even-more-confusing/

(00:23) - We've written extensively about it, and today (as we record this update), we dropped a full-length podcast about it

Find the full podcast here: https://frequentmiler.com/introducing-the-new-and-confusing-bilt-2-0-frequent-miler-on-the-air-ep341-1-16-26/

(01:16) - Bilt heard all of us and doubled down with an even more confusing solution...

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Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

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In this podcast episode, we'll talk about how JAL awards can be changed, we'll talk about the Amtrak USA Rail Pass, and we'll discuss Bilt 2.0: Half-baked, confusing, but potentially very rewarding.

(At the time of this recording, running ad for Bilt on the audio-only version of this podcast. Despite that, all opinions expressed here are our own. We will always tell you what we believe, good or bad.)

(01:27) - JAL Mileage Bank awards can not be changed (but they can be cancelled for a reasonable fee

See Nick's post about the best uses of Japan Airlines Mileage Bank miles here

See our podcast episode 325 "Sweet-spot awards courtesy of Japan Airlines" here

(04:38) - Like MaxFHR but for The Edit

Learn more here

(06:02) - Amtrak USA Rail Pass for $250 (usual: $499)

(08:37) - Saks has filed for bankruptcy

(11:53) - United MileagePlus Status Match Challenge

Learn more about the United MileagePlus Status Match Challenge here

Learn more about Bilt 2.0 here

And find our opinion on Bilt 2.0 here

(14:42) - The transition from old to new

(19:36) - 3 Bilt Cards

(20:52) - 2 rewards currencies...

(22:20) - Is Bilt Cash valuable?

(27:02) - More card details

(29:49) - What do we know about Bilt Cash?

(41:17) - Card Reviews / who are they for?

(1:04:15) - Find out some answers to frequently asked questions here: https://frequentmiler.com/bilt-2-faq/

Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.

Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

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Greg recently had two great stays at Marriott Bonvoy hotels in South Florida: The Ben, The Belgrove Resort. But the fact that these positive experiences surprised him (and that they were kind of the exception to the rule) prompted some ideas on what's wrong with Bonvoy.

(00:12) - Great stays at Marriott Bonvoy hotels in south Florida: The Ben, The Belgrove Resort

(01:59) - What's wrong with Bonvoy?

(09:31) - Potential solutions

(14:53) - If we could pick just one fix, which would it be?

Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.

Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Mentioned in this episode:

Check out this month's sponsor and support our show

Join the loyalty program for renters at joinbilt.com/miles

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