I’ve been in Tennessee for the last week, visiting the Pigeon Forge area and spending a couple of days in Nashville at the tail end of the trip. We’ve been joined by a couple of additional family members, so we’ve been traveling as a group of seven in a minivan and doing all the family fun activities as a big group.
The beginning of the trip nearly threw everything off. We were due to fly from Albany, New York (ALB), to Knoxville, Tennessee (TYS), via a connection in Nashville (BNA). In Knoxville, we planned to pick up a one-way rental car, returning in Nashville at the end of the week. Unfortunately, weather delays meant that we landed in Nashville after our connection to Knoxville had already taken off. Waiting to be re-accommodated the next day would have meant a bigger disruption to plans. Thankfully, my rental car in Knoxville was freely cancelable, and I was able to pivot, booking a rental car for pick up in Nashville as we sat at the airport in Albany. That worked out pretty well as the rate was cheaper than my one-way rental from Knoxville and we were able to stack with a Capital One Shopping offer for $120 back on $200 at Priceline that my wife had received in her Capital One Shopping account (the $120 tracked as expected within a couple of days of picking the car up).
As you’ll hear on this week’s podcast, the process of choosing my car in the Avis app wasn’t quite as smooth as I’d hoped. I was glad to have been able to do it thanks to adding my Avis Wizard number during the booking process at Priceline, but the app kept showing “No cars available” after we landed. I kept refreshing the app on the way to baggage claim, worrying that weather disruptions could mean that other folks had already taken all of the available inventory, which would leave me in the lurch as we needed a minivan or we might be stuck renting two vehicles at walk-up rates. Thankfully, a minivan eventually showed up in the app, and I claimed it immediately. I don’t know that it made a real difference this time, but in a tight squeeze, that’s the type of proactive action you can take to try to beat someone else to the punch on claiming a car rather than waiting until you get to the pickup area.
I hadn’t recently matched to Avis Preferred Plus status despite having numerous statuses and credit cards that would give me Avis Preferred Plus status. On our way to Nashville, I added my Chase Sapphire Reserve® card to my Avis profile and then fired off an email to request an upgrade to Avis Preferred Plus (thanks to being a Visa Infinite cardholder). That process took about five days, but I did receive confirmation of the upgrade in status, and I am hopeful that I’ll earn some additional points on the rental when I return it shortly before this post publishes.
On the blog this week, read about our 2026 FrequentMiler team challenge (including how you can make suggestions to make the challenge fun and interesting), the best points bookable hotels in the world, Carrie’s favorite destinations, and a lot more.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
The 2026 Team Challenge: Wild Card! (Also: Coffee Break Ep117 | 8-4-26)
Our 2026 Frequent Miler Team Challenge has officially been announced. This year’s Wild Card challenge will have Greg, Tim, and me drawing random destinations and credit card bonuses from decks designed by judges Carrie and Stephen and trying to plan the best trip possible with the cards that we’re dealt. On this week’s Coffee Break, hear us explain the challenge, parameters, and plans, and listen to our call for your suggestions. This post also contains all of the important details in written form.
2026 Wild Card Challenge | Help us design our “obstacles” and “power up” decks!
If you’ve already checked out our plans for this year’s Wild Card Challenge and you want to add your own suggestions for what we should use for our Power Ups and Obstacles decks, this is the post where you can leave your suggestions for Carrie and Stephen. They will choose exactly which Power Ups and Obstacles to include in those decks based on your suggestions and some of their own ideas. I look forward to seeing what readers cook up for us to make this challenge exciting, fun, and relevant to the challenges you face in your own award bookings.
The Best Points-Bookable Hotels in the World (2026)
Greg has periodically taken a look at a list of “best hotels in the world” to see which are bookable with points at particularly good value. This time around, he used a different ranking list to evaluate the best points-bookable hotels. While I tend to be instantly skeptical of this type of list, I think you’ll be far less skeptical after reading the description of the methodology than you may be after reading the list (and presumably not finding some of your own favorites mentioned). I don’t know that the hotels in the list are the 50 best in the world, but it does seem like a valiant attempt at an objective list of great hotels. I was surprised not to see any SLH properties, but the ability to book 31 of the top 50 with Chase Points Boost at decent value will no doubt be appealing to some.
Hotel 50 Bowery, New York City (JdV by Hyatt): The best “value” Hyatt in NYC?
Speaking of skepticism, I was instantly skeptical of the headline of Tim’s review of the Hotel 50 Bowery. I was even more skeptical when he said that the room was among the best he’s ever had in New York. But the review backs up the claims, and I have long heard good things about this property from other points enthusiasts. I did stay here once, but it was in the dead of winter, so I didn’t visit the rooftop at all, nor did I have Tim’s great views. I’m not big on the sort of “industrial” design here (or similarly at the midtown Grayson), so part of my lack of enthusiasm is just a matter of personal preference. However, see the comments on Tim’s review to see that he is not at all alone in his appreciation of this property, and at the price point, I may be back at some point, too.
After more than 802 days abroad, here are my favorite destinations by region (a Carrie commentary)
I loved reading Carrie’s post about her favorite destinations by region out of the 802 days she spent abroad in the 2010s. Not only did I find her picks super interesting, but I realized that I’ve never really thought about how many cumulative days I’ve spent on each continent. Carrie has long had me interested in checking out Albania, but her enthusiasm here for Tbilisi now has me interested in Georgia, too! Read her list of favorite places and leave some of your own in the comments.
Club Wyndham Smoky Mountains: Bottom Line Review
One of the places I found most surprising in my travels in recent years was Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. As someone who lives in a rural mountainous area, other rural mountainous areas don’t typically top my wish list for places to visit. It’s not that I don’t appreciate mountain scenery, but rather that I’m usually looking for a change of scenery when I travel. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed a stay in the Smoky Mountains area a few years ago, and this year we convinced some family members to join us for a week of family fun exploring Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the mountain coasters of Anakeesta, Dollywood, and more. As our home base for this trip, we spent four nights in a two-bedroom condo at the Club Wyndham Smoky Mountains. While some will rightly prefer to have a vacation rental cabin in this part of the world, those who are flush with Wyndham points or who can easily earn them with Wyndham credit cards will find an excellent value here for timeshare-style condos that include full kitchens for a reasonable number of points.
How to earn rewards on Airbnb stays: Delta SkyMiles, BA Avios, Qantas points, ANA miles, & TAP Air Portugal miles
If you’re into destinations like the Great Smoky Mountains but you’re not into staying at Wyndham properties, you may be looking to maximize your rewards on Airbnb stays. Stephen’s post about how to earn rewards for your Airbnb stays is a must-read for those who frequently rent through the platform, and a recent update adds the ability to earn TAP Air Portugal miles. I think most would be better off earning miles in one of the other airline programs that partner with Airbnb, but it’s great to have more options.
Chase Sapphire Reserve® Credit Card Review (2026)
The Chase Half Hour Reserve card used to be an easy card to recommend for a segment of frequent travelers looking for a simple and highly rewarding card. The card is no longer simple at all, and has become much harder to recommend as a catchall for the frequent traveler. I think Tim really hits the nail on the head when he says that this card has simply become another Amex Platinum card. Whether or not it is worth keeping likely comes down to how much time and effort you’re willing to commit to using the coupon credits. I’m actually on track to come out well ahead of the coupon credits this year, so I’ll probably keep one Sapphire Reserve in my household (begrudgingly). I still have a hard time broadly recommending the card as a long-term keeper, but Tim’s review can help you sort through the pros and cons.
Introducing the re-couponified AAdvantage® Executive card | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep370 | 8-7-26
Following in the footsteps of coponified cousins like the Sapphire Reserve is the Citi AAdvantage Executive card. On this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, Greg and I break down the changes to the card, including the new coupons and our opinions as to how they affect the overall value of the card. Also on this week’s show is a great reader tip that takes a finding from a previous challenge and leverages it in a new and unexpected way, as well as a number of other key awards, points, and miles tidbits from the week. Note that due to technical difficulties, this episode may not yet be available for download in podcast form (though note that it definitely is available on YouTube!) — if you try to download it on your favorite platform and it doesn’t yet play, know that we are working on resolving that ASAP.
Guide to Credit Scores, Reports, and Free Monitoring
Credit scores, or at least what impacts them, are widely misunderstood by the masses thanks to simplified mass media sound bites. A very common misconception is that closing a card will definitely hurt your credit score, when the reality is that an increase in utilization or decrease in average age of account hurts your score, not the closing of the card. Your utilization certainly can increase if you’re carrying balances on a lot of cards and you close one. But if you’re not carrying balances on any of your cards and you close one, then your utilization is not likely to take any hit at all. The impact on average age of account is similarly relative rather than automatically negative. Those are a couple of finer details that are worth understanding if you are going to participate in this hobby. Read more in our guide to credit scores, reports, and the free monitoring tools that are available on the market.
A weekend in Glasgow, Scotland: Here’s what we did
With Stephen being from the United Kingdom, you might assume that he’s been to all of its major cities numerous times. However, if you made that assumption, you might be surprised to learn that, until recently, he and his wife had never spent time in Glasgow, Scotland. In this post, read about everything they did on a recent visit and decide for yourself which of those things you’d like to add to your itinerary for your next visit to Scotland.
Which Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are best? | Question of the Week Ep11 | 8-2-26
Did you realize that you could transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to a number of major airline programs? In this week’s question of the week, Greg and I discuss which Marriott Bonvoy airline transfer partners are best, including which simply aren’t available through other programs and which have sweet spots you should be considering if you’re flush with Marriott points. Generally speaking, it probably only makes sense for those with far more Marriott points than they’ll use for lodging to consider transferring to airlines, but there are some situations where this could be a compelling value.
Other updated resources worth bookmarking
The following resources are updated every month, not only at the beginning of the month but also throughout the month as we see additional transfer bonuses, hotel promotions, and credit card offers launch. At the beginning of the month I like to remind readers that these resources are available, updated, and worth bookmarking for future reference.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals for those deals due to end in the coming days.
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