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What are the worst airline websites? | Ask Us Anything Ep85 | 4-8-26

April 12, 2026·57 min·4 clips

Tim details a discontinued Sears card turned Citi card with insane monthly spending offers that can net $300 back.

1. Frequent Miler on the Air, Ask Us Anything episode 85, recorded April 8, 2026, covers listener questions on obscure credit cards, worst airline websites, hotel loyalty value, airline status, and Built Palladium math. 2. Hosts Greg, Tim, Stephen (based in the UK), and Carrie fill in while Nick, who normally opens the show, is on vacation. 3. The episode's thesis is that the most valuable credit card and loyalty strategies are often the least obvious — obscure cards, broken portals with workarounds, and self-funding reward loops. 4. Greg discloses he still holds a discontinued Citi Prestige card earning 5x on dining, a benefit no longer available on current Citi cards, and stacks multiple Citi Custom Cash cards for 5x on groceries up to $500 per billing cycle each. 5. Stephen describes a Marriott debit card only available in the UK that earns 1 point per pound domestically, 2 points overseas, 3 at UK Marriott properties, and 4 at international Marriott properties. 6. Tim's City Thank You MasterCard — originally a Sears Shop Your Way card — currently carries five stacking cashback offers simultaneously, including $60 back on $600 monthly spend, $120 back on $1,200 monthly spend, and three additional targeted offers, totalling nearly $300 back on approximately $1,600 in monthly spending. 7. Tim notes the card earns 5x on gas and 3x on grocery and dining with no annual fee, and that Citi has continued and even expanded the spending offer program after retiring the Shop Your Way branding. 8. The panel discusses the British Airways shopping portal 250x Avios promotion at Kate Spade, which multiple hosts believed would not be honored by Collinson (the portal operator), but which was ultimately honored; Tim recalls a previous dating app promoted at roughly 40x that was not honored, and notes Travel with Grant met his future spouse through it. 9. Tim names Turkish Airlines as his single worst airline loyalty website, citing a specific bug where the 'complete booking' button disappeared from the payment page, preventing any bookings from being finalized. 10. Tim recounts a 3am incident in Switzerland where Avianca's credit card processor triggered fraud alerts at his bank, locking him out of redeeming Avianca miles mid-booking for the following day's flight, leading him to write a post about the experience. 11. Stephen adds British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to the worst-website list: British Airways award searches return results for the day before the entered date, and Virgin Atlantic's desktop login fails across browsers and fails to recognize Stephen's own email address during password resets. 12. Greg nominates Preferred Hotels as the most inconsistently broken, noting that point availability shown in the calendar does not guarantee the room can actually be booked with points; the final checkout screen is the only reliable indicator. 13. Greg highlights United Airlines' app as a positive outlier, specifically praising features showing gate walking time from the lounge and, as of the recording date, TSA wait times added that day. 14. Stephen recommends Hyatt for luxury stays (noting an upcoming award chart change) and Hilton with SLH properties and three-night certificates for those with Amex Platinum credits; Tim adds Accor as an underrated option because its points are priced at a fixed 2 Euro cents per point and all cash-rate discounts apply equally to point redemptions. 15. Stephen notes that Amex Aspire cardholders receive automatic Hilton Diamond status, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant cardholders receive automatic Platinum status, providing shortcuts to breakfast and lounge access for infrequent hotel stays. 16. Greg advises a listener denied for the Capital One Venture X to apply for the Venture X Business card instead, noting that approval criteria differ between personal and business products; Tim adds the regular Venture Rewards card as an alternative with a comparable welcome bonus and a potential product-change path to Venture X after a year. 17. Greg explains the Built Palladium accelerator loop: buy a $200 Built cash accelerator to earn an extra 1x on $5,000 in purchases, which returns $200 Built cash, then immediately reinvest — creating a self-funding cycle that averages 3x even without rent payments. 18. Greg layers in a monthly rent-day tactic: ensure no accelerator is active on the 1st of the month, then spend exactly $500 to maximize the 4x monthly doubling bonus. 19. The episode runs as a live Q&A session with a conversational, lightly comedic tone; hosts frequently acknowledge that absent co-host Nick would have been better equipped to answer certain questions. 20. Best suited for points-and-miles hobbyists who track credit card offer stacking; likely to frustrate listeners who want straightforward, single-card advice.

As heard by us

A practical card chat on lesser known cards and Venture X approval rules.

Frequent Miler's live Ask Us Anything stays practical from the start. It opens with lesser known credit cards, then moves into a Venture X denial and the awkward gray area around issuer approvals.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When you need a straight answer on obscure cards, issuer rules, and a stubborn Venture X denial.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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