00:00:00:01 - 00:00:09:15
Chris
Ever hear points? People say something like sub or deep two or Sweet spot and wonder if you've accidentally joined a secret club.
00:00:09:17 - 00:00:18:03
Katie
Well, today we are breaking down the slang, terms and lingo you'll hear in the points of Miles world so you can follow every deal, every tip and strategy this year.
00:00:18:05 - 00:00:22:09
Chris
By the end of this episode, you'll talk like someone who's been in this hobby for years.
00:00:22:11 - 00:00:32:13
Katie
And you won't have to pretend that you know what hookah means anymore.
00:00:32:15 - 00:00:35:22
Chris
Hey, I'm Chris, welcome to the Creative Points podcast.
00:00:36:00 - 00:01:00:21
Katie
And I'm Katie. And today we are talking all about points and miles lingo, slang terms, acronyms and all those weird words that you hear and you read when you are in the points and miles world. Before we get to that, don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you have questions or comments that you would like answered on the show, you can email us at podcasts at Upgraded points.com.
00:01:00:23 - 00:01:08:22
Chris
All right, well happy New Year everyone. This year we're kicking things off by decoding the secret language of points and miles.
00:01:09:00 - 00:01:18:17
Katie
Yeah. You know, the points of Miles world seems to have its own vocabulary. And if you're new, this can make things way more complicated than they need to be.
00:01:18:19 - 00:01:23:20
Chris
But don't worry, we're here to break down every term, acronym and bit of jargon you'll hear this year.
00:01:23:22 - 00:01:31:12
Katie
So let's get it started. Chris, why don't you get us going with our first two bits of points and miles lingo?
00:01:31:14 - 00:01:55:08
Chris
All right, so one that a lot of us that have maybe a partner, a husband or wife will use a lot is P two or player two. This means that you're playing this points two miles game with two players. And that can help unlock a lot more award redemptions. That means twice as many flights, twice as many hotels, twice as many whatevers.
00:01:55:12 - 00:02:24:12
Chris
When you have a player two. That means you're playing with twice as many potential points. The next one that I will cover is stacking. And stacking is when you are taking more than one deal and stacking them on top of each other so you get more value. So, for example, if you take an Amex offer and then go buy something through Rakuten, you will get that cash back or bonus points plus the cash back and bonus points from Rakuten.
00:02:24:14 - 00:02:30:12
Chris
So by stacking, you can just double up on all of your your rewards. There.
00:02:30:14 - 00:02:32:04
Katie
You love stacking. It's always good.
00:02:32:08 - 00:02:40:05
Chris
Good one. You may have let me step back. Yeah you may. You may also see the emoji of pancakes.
00:02:40:06 - 00:02:43:00
Katie
I have not seen that a thing.
00:02:43:01 - 00:02:45:09
Chris
It's a thing. And you get a stack of pancakes.
00:02:45:11 - 00:03:11:16
Katie
I'm going to keep an eye out for that. Okay. Okay. The next one is credit card churning, which is actually a term that used to be a lot more popular. I heard it all the time back in the day. Maybe, you know, a dozen years ago. But it is still around and you might see it, and it is simply the act of playing the points and miles a game, getting a credit card sign up bonus using that card for a bit, getting another credit card, sign up bonus, doing it over and over and over again.
00:03:11:16 - 00:03:43:02
Katie
Not as credit card churning. The other one I'm going to cover is matchless running and mileage running. And this is a kind of crazy concept when you actually think about it. It is booking a flight or a hotel room that you don't actually need, and you're doing it simply to earn elite night credits. Maybe. Or maybe you are stacking some amazing deals so you're getting more back by booking this, or a flight or hotel than it actually cost to book that.
00:03:43:04 - 00:03:54:16
Katie
So it is something not not super common, but it happens. And if you're new to the game, you don't have to get into that quite yet. But just know what it is.
00:03:54:18 - 00:03:56:12
Chris
Not yet that she says.
00:03:56:16 - 00:03:59:03
Katie
But maybe someday you will.
00:03:59:08 - 00:04:04:04
Chris
You will, you will consider it at one point, especially if you're chasing high globalist status.
00:04:04:06 - 00:04:10:16
Katie
And you'll seem crazy to your friends and family when you tell them that you are booking a hotel or a flight that you don't actually need.
00:04:10:18 - 00:04:35:08
Chris
All right, the next one I'm going to cover is open jaw. And this essentially means that you are flying into one city and returning from another. So you might want to do this for a few different reasons. Maybe you found a better deal out of one city or the program that you're using offers this feature. So you could fly into one city in Europe, take the train or another form of transportation to another, and then fly home from a different city.
00:04:35:08 - 00:04:56:17
Chris
And you can there are many reasons you want to do that, but that is a term you may come across as you start leveling up your your miles redemptions. The next one that you'll probably see, you've probably seen by now is 524. And this is the unofficial rule from Chase. And this means that you cannot open up.
00:04:56:17 - 00:05:18:08
Chris
Well, they will not approved for a card if you have opened up more than five credit cards in the past 24 months, and this has become sort of, you know, the one of the first things you learn when you start getting into this points in Miles game, because you will want to start with Chase so that that 524 clock starts ticking and they start falling off your history.
00:05:18:10 - 00:05:32:13
Chris
This doesn't impact on the other banks. So generally people like to start with Chase. And then once you hit those five cards, then you start moving on to other onto other banks. That's not a hard and fast rule, but if you see that 524 that's what it means.
00:05:32:15 - 00:06:01:12
Katie
Yeah. And the next one is the coupon book. And this has kind of, come into fashion in the last couple of years. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on a lot of things. And when you hear us talk about the coupon book, it is just, the phenomenon that especially these higher end cards have now where the annual fees are getting very, very high, but they come with a lot of benefits that are essentially coupons.
00:06:01:14 - 00:06:27:16
Katie
They're the credits for, you know, Renzi or Uber or whatever. And then you kind of have to keep track of them like coupons. So any time you hear that, it's just referring to that sort of phenomenon where these cards have all of these different credits and things that you have to use, and different bits and pieces and, coupons and you might hear coupon ization, you can have a lot of fun with it.
00:06:27:18 - 00:06:30:20
Katie
Yeah. Coupon often I don't I just made that one up.
00:06:30:20 - 00:06:37:05
Chris
At the to your to your own coupon until you.
00:06:37:06 - 00:07:12:03
Katie
And the next one if you are reading an article and you see a sub, that can be confusing. And that means sign up bonus, which is also known as a welcome bonus. And that is simply just the big chunk of points that you can earn when you sign up for a credit card. And this will usually look like, you know, you apply for the credit card and you spend 3 or $4000 in three months, let's say, and you earn 75,000 points, that chunk of 75,000 points or whatever it is, is the sign up bonus, the sub or the welcome bonus.
00:07:12:05 - 00:07:14:09
Chris
Very nice, very important.
00:07:14:11 - 00:07:15:11
Katie
Oh yeah, we love those.
00:07:15:16 - 00:07:41:18
Chris
We love our subs. Okay. The next acronym we're going to cover is DPI. And DPI stands for Data Point. So if you're in our Facebook group or reading this site and you see someone mentioned DPI, that means there is a data point out there for something. Usually there's some sort of statement credit or maybe the way that a company is charging and chosen, you know, the, the the category that's charging on your, on your statement, that can be a million different data points.
00:07:42:00 - 00:08:03:14
Chris
But if you see that, that's usually what it means. The next one that I will cover is positioning flight. And now this is something that Katie and I do a lot because when we are searching for some of these, you know, high end business class flights, they're not always available from our home airport. So Katie, for example, she just flew from New York and so she flew from Columbus to New York.
00:08:03:16 - 00:08:09:20
Chris
And that Columbus in New York was a positioning flight that gets you in position for that main flight that you're looking for.
00:08:09:22 - 00:08:32:08
Katie
Yeah, those are very important, especially if you're just starting out it it's something you might not realize is there when we're talking about all these big redemptions. I'm not finding any of these from Columbus. I gotta get to these other cities. So positioning flights are really important. The next one is, am I up to you? And unfortunately, Chase is caught on to the Amex pop up jail.
00:08:32:08 - 00:08:54:01
Katie
So we might have to change your name, but this simply refers to when you are, submitting an application for a credit card. You will get a pop up. Sometimes that says, for whatever reason, we aren't going to give you this welcome bonus. You're not eligible, but you can continue your credit card application and get the card. For most of us, that means like we don't want the card.
00:08:54:01 - 00:09:15:17
Katie
We you know, you only really want it with the welcome bonus. And it's long been something that Amex has had and we're starting to see it with Chase now, unfortunately. So anytime you hear us talk about pop up jail means we have gotten that that pop up and we kind of refer to it as being in jail because you cannot get Amex card for a while when you are in pop up jail.
00:09:15:17 - 00:09:37:18
Katie
So that's no fun. The next one is metal, and I'm not talking about Metallica or Motley Crue, although that is fun too. And I will talk to you about that any time you want. Metal simply refers to the actual airplane you are flying on. So you might hear someone say, hey, I was on AA metal. That just means they were on an American Airlines plane.
00:09:37:19 - 00:09:53:20
Katie
And since we booked flights a lot of times through different programs, you'll hear this a lot. So someone might say, hey, I booked, via Turkish Airlines on United Metal means they're flying a United airplane, but they booked it through Turkish.
00:09:53:22 - 00:10:14:14
Chris
That's a good one. Yep. Next will be Earn and Burn. And this is a mantra that I let I love to preach. I'm not always the best at doing it, but urn and burn means you're earning your points, and then you're using them as fast as possible. You're burning them. We do that. We recommend this because points and miles are subject to devaluations at any moment.
00:10:14:16 - 00:10:34:06
Chris
So you may be earning and earning and earning. You have hundreds of thousands of points and you're ready to redeem them. And all of a sudden, that redemption you've been eyeing costs twice as much. Hopefully, that never happens to you. But it does happen. And that's why we recommend just earning burn points. Dude, are not a currency that increase in value.
00:10:34:07 - 00:10:57:10
Chris
Just the opposite. So get them and use them. The next one I will I will talk about is getting bond void and no one on this one. I know this one came up a few years ago when, Marriott took over SBG and pretty much all of the loyal fans from SPG just really felt like they were getting screwed over by Marriott.
00:10:57:12 - 00:11:12:08
Chris
And they chain they termed the coin getting bond void. So if you ever see someone online complain about, Marriott stay or redemption or whatever, and they say getting bond void, that means that they felt like they got screwed over.
00:11:12:10 - 00:11:35:07
Katie
Next one is AV geek, and this is someone who gets a little too into the, aviation aspect of this hobby. There are a lot of people who just are really into plane types and very specific plane types, and they. That's that geek. And it's not a bad thing. There are plenty of great AV keeps AV geeks.
00:11:35:07 - 00:12:01:05
Katie
So. So yeah, anytime you hear that, it's just someone who's really into the aviation side of the game. Gateways. These are those people that will just crowd around the boarding area of the flight, get away, and they're in, like, Group nine, and they're calling for pre boarders, and they're standing there blocking people. This happened to me coming home, last month on, my flight from Europe.
00:12:01:07 - 00:12:11:03
Katie
And I was like, are you wait. And they're just they're group nine. Group nine. Like, get out of my way. So that's gate. Don't be jealous. You can be an app geek, but don't be gateways.
00:12:11:09 - 00:12:44:17
Chris
Exactly as, you know something else? We don't recommend raw dogging this. This is hopped up on a trend on social media last year, and it is essentially just riding you. They're flying your entire flight without any entertainment. And at maximum, watching the, the flight map, the entire flight. So I love what it does. And I think it started as a joke, but I don't know if maybe people are doing it to disconnect or whatever, but yeah, some people just sit in the plane and just stare.
00:12:44:21 - 00:13:06:05
Chris
So that's what I do again, is when talking points in Miles world, the next is a U. And AEW stands for Authorized User. So if you have a credit card, you can add an authorized user to your card that you can use your card and get some similar benefits. And you'll be responsible for their charges as well.
00:13:06:10 - 00:13:21:01
Chris
But that person would not need to go and apply for their own version to get their card. Now, that authorized user does not get any welcome bonus, and there are some limitations on what benefits they have. But AEW generally refers to authorized user.
00:13:21:03 - 00:13:39:21
Katie
And just as a side note on that, you might see, the term like additional user I think is what some of the credit card programs are using now. So if you're reading, you know, information about a card and you see something about an additional user that's the same as an authorized user, sometimes, you know, they tweak the lingo a little bit there, but it's the same thing.
00:13:39:23 - 00:14:02:21
Katie
Okay. Next one is why mmv. And we'll see this a lot. When you reading anything about the points of Miles world and it just stands for your mileage may vary and that simply means someone might be on there on Reddit or a blog or our Facebook group giving their experience, and that's great. But your mileage may vary because that doesn't mean that it's going to work for you.
00:14:02:23 - 00:14:20:16
Katie
So anytime you see that, just know. You should know that all the time. But you'll see that definitely on some of these things where people are giving you DPS data points. Nice for you to decide. Maybe if you're going to try a stacking opportunity. What I'm doing there, Chris. Yeah.
00:14:20:16 - 00:14:22:10
Chris
No, I want some pancakes now.
00:14:22:12 - 00:14:42:10
Katie
Yeah, that sounds great. So just know that that means you kind of watch your back, make sure that you understand that the same outcome might not happen for you. And the last one we're going to talk about right now is CP. When you see that it means cents per point, and this is something that you're going to see quite a bit of.
00:14:42:12 - 00:15:12:16
Katie
You'll hear us talk a lot about cents per point. And this is a really good way to understand the value you're getting from your points, because especially when you're a beginner, and I made this mistake really bad when I first started out, I didn't realize that a point is not a point. A Hyatt point does not have the same value as a Hilton point does not have the same value as a Delta mile, and cents per point is a good way for us to sort of, have a level playing field.
00:15:12:16 - 00:15:35:17
Katie
So you can easily see which one might be worth a little bit more. And it helps you understand the value you're getting for your points. Some people in the hobby are very strict about. I will only do you know x cents per point. That's a whole nother discussion. We can get into it another point in time. You can decide what your, your, feeling towards sense per point is.
00:15:35:17 - 00:15:44:20
Katie
I know some people are like, I don't care, what are I fine, just understand what it is that you're either ignoring or embracing and it's just per point.
00:15:44:22 - 00:15:56:12
Chris
Very important stuff. All right, let's take a break. And when we get back, I have a little game in store for Katie, so we'll see in a minute.
00:15:56:14 - 00:16:18:04
Chris
Yeah. Okay. Welcome back. We have a new segment that I'm going to coin. Say it or explain. It's a little quiz that I just made up and we're going to test Katie to see if she really knows what she's talking about. All right, Katie, I'm going to throw out some points. Terms. Right. You have five seconds to explain it.
00:16:18:04 - 00:16:20:19
Chris
Like you're talking to a first timer. Okay?
00:16:20:19 - 00:16:21:17
Katie
Okay.
00:16:21:19 - 00:16:24:03
Chris
You ready?
00:16:24:05 - 00:16:27:11
Katie
Born ready. Let's go.
00:16:27:13 - 00:16:30:16
Chris
All right. First one. Sweet spot.
00:16:30:18 - 00:16:43:11
Katie
Oh, sweet spot is a booking that gives you way more value than usual. And it's sometimes a the best part of a particular program, like booking. Japan business class for 60,000 points.
00:16:43:13 - 00:16:48:11
Chris
Okay, okay. Good, good. What about hookah?
00:16:48:12 - 00:17:05:01
Katie
Hookah or hookah? I mean, it depends on how you want to say it. Hookah, you will see this, and it stands for hang up call again. And it simply refers to the fact that when you are calling customer service, you might get someone who either does not know what they're talking about or is having a really bad day.
00:17:05:03 - 00:17:11:16
Katie
So if the outcome is not what you want, hang up. Call again and see if the next agent can be a better fit for you.
00:17:11:18 - 00:17:16:15
Chris
Good one okay, you're two for two. Here's an easy one. Transfer partner.
00:17:16:17 - 00:17:30:19
Katie
Oh, okay. I know that one. It's, airline and hotels that you can transfer your transferable points to. So like Amex, Citi, Chase, Capital One, your transferable points. And you can transfer those to airline and hotel board.
00:17:30:21 - 00:17:36:19
Chris
Okay. Okay. Here's a little bit harder. One dynamic pricing.
00:17:36:21 - 00:17:54:05
Katie
So that's when the pricing changes based on lots of factors including demand. When a program does not have an award chart anymore and that's usually not amazing. But occasionally it can be good and you can find a little sweet spot.
00:17:54:07 - 00:18:02:06
Chris
Oh, okay. Now you're just showing off. All right. Last one. Devaluation.
00:18:02:08 - 00:18:14:17
Katie
No one wants a devaluation. That is when a program makes your points worth less. And no one wants that. And it is a sad, sad day. But it happens. And that's why we earn a burn.
00:18:14:19 - 00:18:19:19
Chris
Yes. Okay. You passed with flying colors, Katie. As expected.
00:18:19:19 - 00:18:45:20
Katie
Thank you. I'll be here all day. Awesome. Well, that was fun. Next time I am answering or asking you the questions, Chris, I'm gonna put you on the spot next time, okay? We have one question, and this one is for you. This is from YouTube. And this person said on a previous episode, I heard you mentioned using Priority Pass to access Chase Sapphire Lounges.
00:18:45:22 - 00:18:47:12
Katie
How does that work?
00:18:47:13 - 00:19:15:07
Chris
Yes. So this is a great question. And I am now realizing that it's not as widely known as I thought it was. But the official name of these Chase Sapphire lounges are the Chase Sapphire Lounge by the club. And the club is a priority Pass lounge. And so your Priority Pass membership that you get from any card will allow you to enter a Chase lounge once per calendar year, so you can swipe your physical Priority Pass card.
00:19:15:07 - 00:19:33:19
Chris
Or if you have the QR code in your app, you. If you're logged into the right account, you can just scan that and it'll automatically say this is your one visit per year or you've already used it. If you're like us and you happen to have more than one priority, pass me. We get it from one Amex card, from a chase card, Capital One card, whatever.
00:19:33:21 - 00:19:57:03
Chris
If you don't feel like carrying around all of your Priority Pass physical cards, you just make sure that you create your account online with Priority Pass and get your logins all set up, and you can just swap between them all in the app. Takes me a couple taps, but, you can just tap into one chase, Sapphire Lounge with your QR code and then a couple weeks later, bring up the other cue card, QR code that you haven't used yet.
00:19:57:05 - 00:20:04:00
Chris
And, and you can get it after that. It's $75, per visit to get in. But you do get one per calendar year.
00:20:04:02 - 00:20:25:22
Katie
Awesome. Yeah. That's a that's a great tip. And if you have those priority pass, make sure you check out the Sapphire lounges because they are quite nice. I think that's going to do it for us this week. If you have questions or comments for us for this segment, you can email us at podcast at Upgraded points.com. And don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify or wherever you are watching or listening and we will see you next week.