If you want to use your points to book an international Business or First Class flight, often the hardest part is just finding award availability. But if you have American Express Membership Rewards points, there’s a great hack that can give you access to award seats across more than 30 different frequent flyer programs. Plus, until the end of this month, you can even get 50% bonus points when using this method.

In this episode, Matt chats to Chris Chamberlin from Point Hacks who explains how transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to the Marriott Bonvoy program could be an excellent deal.

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The Star Alliance Round-the-World Award offered by Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program is a great deal. For just 280,000 KrisFlyer miles, plus taxes of course, you could fly around the world with up to 7 stopovers across the Star Alliance network!

But booking one of these does take a bit of work and there are some catches. In this episode, Matt speaks to someone who’s booked 3 of these awards this year using his KrisFlyer miles.

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In this episode, Matt takes a close look at two different tools and resources that can make your international travel easier in 2022.

The first tool is Apple AirTags, which can help if an airline loses your luggage. Another is Sherpa, a website with easy-to-read, up-to-date information on where you can travelled and what’s required to enter your destination. This has proven a very helpful resource when travelling overseas during and after the COVID-19 pandemic!

This episode includes an interview with David Riley, the Chief of Staff at Sherpa.

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Over the coming months, many Qantas points collectors will attempt to redeem their points for Business Class flights to Europe during next year’s peak northern hemisphere summer season. It’s a great redemption… if you can get it. That’s where the problems start…

In this episode, James Green from Frequent Flyer Solutions explains how you can redeem Qantas points for flights to Europe, as well as other frequent flyer programs to consider that offer better value and award availability.

This episode also includes some follow-up discussion about last fortnight’s episode on Air Canada Aeroplan points.

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Has the Avianca LifeMiles program lost its shine? Buying LifeMiles during their promotions used to be a popular way of saving money on Star Alliance Business and First class flights, but using them on flights from Australia has become very difficult indeed. In this episode, find out why Air Canada’s Aeroplan program may now be a much better alternative for Australian flyers.

Also in this episode, Velocity Frequent Flyer and the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programs have reinstated the conversion of points between each program. Plus, why airport security queues can be so frustrating for frequent flyers – and a possible solution.

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In this episode, Matt is joined by Aaron Wong, the founder of the Singapore-based frequent flyer blog Milelion, for a chat about the recent changes to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program. The discussion then continues onto other KrisFlyer-related topics including waitlisting for KrisFlyer award seats, what to do if you have KrisFlyer miles due to expire next year and the new Singapore Airlines lounges that recently opened at Changi Airport.

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In this episode, Matt is joined by co-founder of StatusMatch.com and former head of the Malaysia Airlines Enrich loyalty program Mark Ross-Smith for a behind the scenes look at the world of airline status matching. Learn about why airlines offer status matches, how you can get one, and more!

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If you’ve been looking at international airfares recently, you’ve probably noticed that they’re getting quite expensive at the moment. But if you’re planning to visit multiple countries or continents on the same trip, there are some great value round-the-world airfares offered by specific airlines. These not only offer great flexibility, but are often also cheaper than just booking a point-to-point Qantas flight to North America or Europe.

In this episode, Matt is joined by travel agent and regular podcast guest Alan Lam to talk about how you can take advantage of these special RTW airfare deals.

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In this episode, loyalty program expert David Feldman is back for another chat about airline & hotel loyalty programs!

This extended interview covers topics including COVID-19 status extensions, the “golden handcuff” effect, recent changes to hotel loyalty programs, why Qantas could be risking killing its profitable “golden goose”, and lots more.

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In this episode, learn how to redeem frequent flyer points to travel from Australia to North America in style! Matt explains the options when using Qantas or Velocity points, and chats to Leon Loganathan, a frequent flyer who recently flew to Mexico via the USA in Qantas Business and First Class using Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

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