Frequent Miler on the Air - Wild Card Challenge card draw | Ask Us Anything Ep90 | 9-9-26

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

For this challenge, our contestants will pick from wild card decks to select which hotel, airline, and transferable points cards will provide their points and miles budget, then they’ll select their travel destinations from another deck. And finally, they’ll select power-ups and obstacles to make their travels a little more realistic to the challenges our readers and listeners face.(03:45) - Destination 1 cards are drawn(08:12) - Destination 2 cards are drawn(18:03) - Airline credit cards are drawn(25:29) - Hotel credit cards are drawn(30:56) - Transferable points credit cards are drawn(36:46) - A surprise extra credit card is drawn(43:31) - Reader-submitted obstacle cards are drawn(51:13) - Power up cards are drawn(57:39) - Stephen reveals the final, third destination where each contestant will need to meet up(1:02:44) - Surprise! Contestants get a hail mary option they can choose to take...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 – “swappin’ back n’ forth” by up @ nightCheck out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape.com. For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [e-mail] or you can find more information at Voyascape.com/advertsing.

This is a Voyescape podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. Welcome to Ask Us Anything, where the Frequent Miler team answers your questions live. Welcome to Frequent Miler's Wild Card Challenge card draw. For this year's Frequent Miler Team Challenge, our judges, Kerry and Stephen, have prepared multiple wildcard decks, decks of cards. that they have destination decks, credit card decks, and with the help from our audience, they prepared power-up decks and obstacle decks.

And for tonight's live stream, they shuffled up all those decks, so they're thoroughly random. And the challengers, which are Tim, Nick and me, will pick cards randomly from those decks, and those cards will then tell us for the challenge, where do we need to go, how many and what kind of points we can use to get there, and what advantages we'll have from the power-up cards, and what obstacles will stand in our way? I'm excited, let's get this going.

And don't forget, wherever you're watching or listening, please like, subscribe, enable notifications. We always appreciate that so you can hear about the next live stream because there will be several coming during the challenge, as you'll hear about today. And for those listening in podcast form, all five of us are here today on today's episode. So, of course, you just heard from Greg, and this is Nick,

and Stephen and Kerry and Tim are all here as well. So you'll hear us describe what's going on. But if you want to see it, so you can kind of see our reactions, you'll want to check this one out on YouTube as well. All right, I think with that out of the way, it's time to turn this over to the judges. How are you guys feeling about this draw? Are you nervous?

Are you excited or both? or something else. I'm excited. Curious to see what's being cooked up here. So we've been, it's been an interesting challenge in the sense that there's nothing really we've been able to do to prepare because we don't know where we're going. We have a rough idea of when we're going,

but we don't know where we're going. And there are a lot of the smaller details still need to be worked out, which are going to, of course, be dictated by the countries or destinations or whatever it is you have, however you have this organized that we pick out today and the credit card bonuses that we pick. So I'm sure we'll hear more about that in a second. Yes. And I actually am ready. But Tim, we've got to hear how you're feeling before we move on. Well, I was feeling pretty good until I saw Nick because Nick says that he's not prepared. But here he is. Nick looks like

he's in some sort of underground hideaway. He has a white bucket hat, a white frequent Miler hoodie and a wild card themed water bottle all there and while he shuffles his cards and he looks pretty prepared. So now I'm a little worried. I feel like I sat down at the poker table and didn't realize what I was getting into. You know, Nick looks equally prepared to like go see Niagara Falls and not get wet. It's pretty accurate description, I think. Well done. Well done. All right. Well, I think we're ready to start drawing cards. And so, as Greg said, the cards will dictate everything. So no one knows what their trip is going to be like until they draw cards that tell them what their trip is going to be like. And we are going to start with destinations. As a reminder, our contestants are going to have two destinations that they draw from a wild card deck and a final destination that's assigned to them by the evil judges. I mean, the judges. So first things first, Stephen, walk us through the card draw. We're going to start with Greg. Greg is going to pick his first destination card. Anyone who's listening rather than watching,

we have a card deck set up where it's a square grid of cards where it's three by three. And so nine cards total and they're just going to pick a card at random. So Greg, which card would you like for destination number one? So I'm holding up my card deck that matches exactly what is in front of us on the screen. And I think I'm going to pick the one that is on the left, in the middle. So middle left. Middle left. So where are you up?

I'm going to Panama. Panama. Right. So here's a question. you been to Panama before? I have not. So that's exciting. New destination for Greg. Okay. So next up, I have one follow-up question for Greg. Have you heard the Van Halen song Panama before? I have, but I'm not going to sing it for it. Okay. Nick will probably sing it at some point.

Let Nick sing it sometimes. I'll pass this time. I'll pass. Speaking of Nick, it is your turn now to pick a card and Panama is no longer an option. I'm a Panama hat guy, so I'm disappointed about that, by the way. But it occurs to me that, did we recap at the beginning exactly what's going on for anybody who is not familiar with the challenge? Because I'm not sure if we did. So if we didn't do that, then what's going on right now is that Greg and I and Greg and Tim and I are all picking random destinations. So we're going to pick two random destinations and then that third destination, like Kerry said. Then we're going to pick credit card bonuses. So I'm excited to see how this works out. I think Carrie did explain.

of that before, but I just wanted to recap. So if you're listening and you're not new to this, you'll want to check out the blog, of course, on Frequentmyler.com, where we've got more of detail. Now that I've stalled as long as I possibly could over this decision as I stare over the deck of cards, I'm going to pick out the top right corner, which is, and I happen to know that you have been to Guadalupe. I'm not even going to ask you have into Guadalupe. How do you feel about that? I have. I took an MSC cruise out of Guadalupe. So I spent a day before or after, maybe both, I think, a year ago or two years. There's been so many cruise matches that it's hard to keep track. So I'm curious to go back and try to find something different that we didn't see last

time. So, and of course, I always love some sunshine and a tropical location. So I'm excited to go back for that. All right. So we've got Greg with Panama and Nick with Guadalupe. Maybe readers and listeners are seeing a theme here. Tim, your turn to pick a card. So can you guys tell me before I, so I'm going to hold these out here. Which one of these is the easiest to get to from the West Coast?

That is unknown information. I don't remember which card is oriented where. It's one of the cards in your hand. Okay, one of the cards in my hand. So here's the second question. Is the better strategy to take my own row or to go right next to Greg or Nick? This is like that kind of slot playing. Do you want to have somebody who's already played the slot machine so that you have a better chance of winning it?

Or Nick, what do you think? We can give you absolutely no. That's tough to say. You want two cards. I think you want the one that you can get to with more than like two different. airline programs because that's, I think, what I'm looking at with Guadalupe right now. Okay. So, so good luck.

Okay, well, I'm going to go. I'm going to pick this one, which is the bottom middle one. The bottom middle card. Costa Rica. Costa Rica. And Tim, have you been to Costa Rica? I'm guessing yes, but let me know. I have not.

No, I have never been to Costa Rica, but I do know that it means the rich coast. Ah, cool. So to recap, we've got Greg with Panama, we've got Nick with Guadalupe, and we've got Tim with Costa Rica. Next up, we don't have a single destination challenge here. We need our second destinations. So are we ready to draw our second destination? Yeah, let's do it. We have destination two grid up.

So once again, it's a three by three grid, and they'll pick at random. So I believe Tim is going to be going first this time. nice. Well, as anybody who's ever played Tick-Tac Tau knows what you do first is you go for the middle. That's true. Unless you're playing a two-year-old that you want to let win.

And in this case, neither Greg nor Nick are two years old and I don't want to let either of them win. So, I'm going to pick the middle. Which means you get. South Korea. Which is a natural bedfeller fellow of Costa Rica.

You can almost... Very, very close. This was a surprise because seeing that we all got sort of Central America-ish on our first picks, I was expecting South America next. But South Korea is not in South America as far as I know. Well, but what's nice about South Korea in South, in Costa Rica is it's well known that there's quite a few nonstop flights that easily go from both coast to Costa Rica, either the San Jose or the Liberia side, and this goes straight over to Seoul.

It would be easy. Right. Absolutely. Which, you know, we designed these challenges to be easy, really. So I forgot, did I already ask? Have you been to South Korea before? I have been to South Korea many times. Okay.

All right. So it's when you know well. So now we, next up is Nick. It's going to be, Nick. You're sure. Oh, my goodness. All right. Shuffle these up for me.

let's get a good shuffle. Come on, dealer. Give me a good wash here. Let's see what we can get. So I think, if I'm not mistaken, the only two airlines that fly from the United States to Guadalupe are American and Air France, both out of Miami. So I've got to hope that the next place I go to really combines well with one of those.

So I think that's going to mean that it's going to have to be, my goodness I feel like I gotta go top left but top rights at least moving in the direction of Europe I could fly air France right let's go top left let's do it top left pro caution to the wind

Vietnam Vietnam that could work with sky team somehow and now have you been to Vietnam Nick I have I've been to Fukwak and just a very

very, very brief stop in Saigon. So, uh, so I'm, I'm excited. Actually, and I was there, I guess again, during the SaaS challenge as well, uh, just for a night though. So I look forward to exploring something more. I've been really curious. There's some really cool hotel options that I've thought, oh, man, it'd be neat to go, but it's so far. So, uh, so I haven't been able to put that on the list yet. And I'm excited here because like I said, this is a place with a sky team carrier. So now I'm excited because all of the transferable currencies transfer to Air France, KLM flying blue. And since Air France operates a Miami to Guadalupe flight, now I'm getting curious about a stopover. So we'll see how that can work out. But anyway, so yes, I think that was about as good

of a pick as I could have hoped, I think, in round two. All right. Always looking for the stopovers. Greg, it is your turn. What card are you going to pick? All right. Well, I am kind of hoping for getting Hong Kong because I have flown through Hong Kong numerous times, but have never actually visited Hong Kong. And it was so frustrating during the Party of Five challenge when I knew we were flying to Hong Kong. And I thought, I'm finally going to get to see Hong Kong. And no, we went to Macau. And we got Macau. And we got Macau. And then nothing went well. So I am going to complete the three across and do the bottom right card. to get my Hong Kong.

We'll find out. Oh, so close. So close. China would say Hong Kong is China. I mean. Yeah, I was going to say. I'm going to need some judge. Special administrative region.

I mean, you're... Hong Kong is a separate country by our token. So I'm afraid Hong Kong will not be eligible for this. Oh, no. No. You could likely transit through. It turns it through if you want. I mean, Nick is talking about stopovers.

Maybe you can toss in a stopover. So, all right. Now we have our destination recap. We've got Greg with Panama and China. Nick with Guadalupe and Vietnam. And Tim with Costa Rica and South Korea. I have a quick clarification question. Does that mean I'm the only one who drew a country that requires a visa?

China requires a visa. as far as I know. Now for under 72 hours. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I think so. So now I have to scramble to get that worked out for. Yeah.

But what it's worth, they're like in the selection of destination to countries. Five of them need a visa of some variety. Vietnam is one and China is the other. But there were three that didn't get picked. So, uh, all right. So we're going to take a moment to just, reflect here. How are you all feeling so far about your destination selections? Greg,

what do you think overall with your combination of Panama and China? Yeah, wow, that's hard. Because I think sending us to, I mean, it's not going to be hard to get to Panama, I don't think, but, you know, sending us to Central America area and then to Asia, it just, you know, getting to Asia is kind of hard enough from the U.S., and I think it just adds another obstacle. China, I mean, the nice thing for me for China is that I think that if award flights are relatively easy to get to kind of anywhere in Asia, it's maybe a little bit easier to get to China than to places that Americans can go to more easily. All right. Nick, how are you feeling about your selections of Guadalupe and Vietnam?

You talked about it a little bit with the visa, but any other thoughts? Yeah, you know, well, I think that, like I said, I'm now at least somewhat hopeful that I'll be able to book something with an AirFrance stopover. And the nice thing there is because they do partner with so many transferable currencies. It almost won't matter which transferable currency card I draw. Now, I say that. I know I'm going to shinks myself somehow in saying that. I'm less sure about which individual airline currency is of any material important. for me at this point with those two destinations,

but it'll be interesting to see what the third destination ends up being. But so far, I feel like that was, if I was going to get Guadalupe for number one, then a country with a good sky team presence was a really good pick for number two. All right. Kim, how are you feeling about Costa Rica and South Korea? Costa Rica I'm feeling great about.

South Korea, I'm feeling great about. getting from Costa Rica to South Korea, I'm a little less great about. You're welcome. That was, there's sort of a dastardly repositioning us to South America or to Central America before we have to go to Asia that I think, again, it betrays your tomfoolery. Let me put it that way of the judges. But yeah, you know, and honestly, what's funny is, I'll be interested to see how, like, this is one time where Central America from the East Coast is much easier than Central America from the West Coast.

So it'll be interesting to, if I were flying my home airline of Alaska, it's easy to get to Central America or to Costa Rica. I'm not sure how it is outside of that. So it'll be interesting to see what, I'm curious. I'm curious to see what options will come up. I've never tried to get from Costa Rica to South Korea before. All right. Well, you're about to. you are about to

um so we have on the first two destinations sorted out and there is a third destination that they're all going to meet up at at the end that's something we're going to reveal at the end of um after they've drawn all of their other cards so absolutely stay tuned for that but we're not going to reveal it quite yet we're going to be moving on to can we at least guess i'm betting it's morocco it has to be morocco nick and tim quick guesses where do you think they're off to where do you think you're off to Well, based on what you've been doing so far, I'm going to guess it's like somewhere in Eastern Brazil. The Amazon?

Yeah, somewhere. That's the Amazon. Somewhere on the Amazon, far up river. Boy, you know, it would seem like we might continue around the world and end up in Europe. But that seems almost too predictable. So I'm going to guess Canada has to be the last one. Okay. No one guessed West Virginia.

Right. Okay. So that we are done with our destination portion until we reveal the final. Now we are ready to draw the airline credit cards. So as a reminder, the contestants will get to choose credit cards also, starting with the airline credit card. So I was just going to say, once again, we have a three-by-three grid. So all of the card decks tonight are going to be three-by-three grids. for anyone who's listening rather than watching.

So they're going to get to pick from a selection of nine different cards. So Kerry, who's getting to pick first? This time Nick gets to go first. Nick, what is your airline card pick? Before you pick Nick, I'm assuming that before you pick Nick, I'm assuming that you want something with some Sky Team mojo attached to it. Is that what you're looking for? I think it probably is. I say that hesitantly because Guadalupe, like I said, I think the only two airline options I've got to get there are American and Air France. So ideally something I can use on one of those two airlines, I would guess without having looked at availability that the ideal card for me would be the Air France card for an airline card just to give me more miles to get this done. A secondary option.

might be a Virgin Atlantic card, though I haven't looked at what redemption rates are like. I don't love the taxes and fees going through Air France, KLAL on any of this. But I think that's probably my best bet. Second best bet might be American Airlines miles. And I say that both because I could get to Guadalupe with them and get either back to the mainland U.S. or perhaps somewhere else to position for another flight. So I guess my top two airline card picks would be the Air France card or an American Airlines card. That said, Air Canada Aeroplane has so many partners and so much availability comes up all the time that I wouldn't be disappointed with that one either.

I'm not sure if there's another airline specific card that I would be wildly excited about in my current position. All right. Let's find out what you end up with. Really torn between middle right and bottom left, middle right and bottom left. middle right and bottom loft. For some reason, I'm really drawn to the middle right. So we're going to go middle right. Middle right. Oh, I don't think that's what you were hoping for.

So what color is it that you... The Loftanza Miles and More premier world master card issued by Barclays with its 70,000 mile offer, which will be wildly useful in the wild card challenge, no doubt. which of course I'm saying facetiously if you're not familiar. Miles and Moore has some incredible redemption options. And so actually, you know, I say that. And if I were to get back to Miami, who knows, maybe I could get to Europe for like 90 miles with the Miles and More card. The trouble with Miles and More is that there are really high taxes and fees. So I guess I will be tasked with

trying to figure out how to leverage those miles to not have to pay. Lufthansa's really high taxes and fees, which I don't know much about yet. So hopefully some of the listeners here and blog readers will chime in in the comments with some hints and tips for me about how you maximize Lufthansa miles and more. There you go. We are getting tips coming in. So that is likely. All right.

Next, Tim, what are you going to do? Which card do you want? And what's your hope? What card do you hope to uncover? Well, now that I see what Nick got, I'm actually, I don't know that I want to uncover my card. Don't be jealous. Can we do this white elephant style where Greg gets to pick his card and then I get to choose a new one or get to pick what Greg picks? Is that possible?

That's a future challenge. Okay. So I don't know. I mean, probably, you know, just without knowing it, I know that there's a lot. of Star Alliance connectivity between Costa Rica and the early Central America and and the US. I know there's a decent amount of Star Alliance available for Star Alliance partners that you can use to get to Korea. So I'm going to say something that has some Star Alliance mojo for it would probably be where it's at. I'm guessing that's not what I'm going to get.

So let's- Would you like to trade and take the Miles and More card, Tim? I've got a Star Alliance card for you. You know, I don't, unfortunately, I found out that's not part of the rules. So I'm going to pick the one directly next to Nick's card. I'm going to go with the middle card again. Okay. Oh, well, there you go. Right.

Airway plan for 60,000 airway plan points. So that's not too bad for what you were hoping for. Yeah. All right. That's closer than probably what Nick was hoping for. Better luck. Nick. I was so close.

You're getting Moroccoed. All right. Greg. All right. What are you hoping for? And then we'll find out what you get. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I think I haven't looked at flights to Panama on a long time. But I think that probably any of the alliances can probably get me to, you know, let's say I have to fly out of L.A. or somewhere like that to get to China. However, there are probably also flights from Mexico, like Mexico City, that would be a better bet to get to China. And I think that I would want Sky Team to get there, most likely. So I'm, I guess I'm hoping for maybe an Air France card or Virgin Atlantic maybe. But all that said, I think what I most want is actually a united card in the hopes that it would give me that better united award availability that we've been seeing. What about the Delta Blue card?

Like it sounds like Delta Blue Card. There's no benefits and like 10,000 miles. Yeah, that would be great. All right. I will once again, I will once again complete the TicTECTECD. toe by taking the middle left. Middle left card. Well, there you go.

I mean, Tim called it. I got the Delta Sky Miles Gold American Express card, 90,000 points. So, you know, I'm not too excited about having Delta miles, but getting 90,000 points is pretty sweet. I'm lucky the timing because, like, it's at a high watermark for that card right now. And, you know, Tim in particular, unfortunately, the Air Canada card is currently, as we're recording, that's at a low-water mark with the offer. So I don't know, I feel, I feel decent about that. All right. So to recap, we've got Nick with the Lifthansa Bonds and More premier world master card for 70,000 points.

Tim, aeroplane card, 60,000. Greg, Delta Sky Miles, gold, MX for 90,000. let's add hotels into the mix here. Let's start with Greg. You're going to pick a hotel card and probably less likely you've got any opinions about what you're hoping to draw, but if you have thoughts, feel free to share them.

Yeah, nothing immediately comes to mind here of what I'm hoping for. I'm not sure, you know, often I'd be like, I want high at points, but I'm not really sure how strong high it is in Panama and, well, I know they, they probably have enough in Panama and China, but anyway, I will pick the middle card. Middle card ticking Tim's spot.

Oh my gosh, great. What a good one. Oh, this is nice. I got the Maryland-Bondvoy brilliant American Express card, which comes with 150,000 points and a $250 statement credit. So that statement credit can be used for like taxes and surcharges and things like that to offset for some of the judging some of your flights and things like that. Wow. Do I get any of the other brilliant card benefits like dining and whatever?

Yes. Yes. I get all of those perks. They just don't fit on the- They don't fit on the card, yeah. They don't put on the card, but they exist inside of the card you actually use. Sweet. Any card perks?

that you get normally for any of the cards that you pick, then you'll get those as part of the challenge. Yeah. So I'm going to just say that, like, I'm psyched about this pick. I mean, obviously, it's a lot of points. Marriott's a great pick because Marriott's are literally everywhere. So, you know, there's almost no chance that I will have trouble finding a Marriott wherever I need to go. So, yeah, wow, that was lucky. Yeah, I think you like, sorry I stole your middle spot. that one. That's one of the best thoughts. I'm going to say, Greg, that was my card. I hope you know. They used to my card. I know. I'm sorry. Stulton's spot. All right. Next up, Nick. Let's see if your luck turns around.

Hey, you know, I'm not even sure which card I want here. I couldn't say for sure, but when I went to Guadalupe, I didn't stay at a chain hotel. We like we booked an Airbnb type of a thing because I don't recall there being any chain hotels in Guadalupe. So I could be wrong about that. Maybe we just didn't book one for some other reason. But so I guess that might not be useful. So I don't know what lodging card I want for Vietnam. Anything should probably be good. So there should be something decent there. I guess if anything, I'm rooting for the Hilton Aspire card because that'll also give me a $50 airline credit. And maybe I can use that if I get stuck in economy class to buy up to a better seat or something somewhere. So I'm hopeful for that, I guess.

But other than that, I feel like hit me with anything. So let's just throw caution to the wind and pick the card that I. Right. Uh-oh. I think that's how you got into this, Nick. But all right, go for it. Let's pick the card I was tempted to go with last time. Bottom left.

Bottom left. Big money, no whammies. Big money, no whammies. Oh, all right. All right. Another Marriott. So I got the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express card. So it comes with 125,000 Marriott points.

So I've got the same hotel currency as Greg, but fewer points and no $250 statement credit for me. So I'm not quite as good. But you know what? We'll make deal with what we've got. I feel like that's going to get you pretty far in Vietnam at least. That's true. It should. Yes. All right, looking on the bright side. Tim,

tell credit card. Yeah, I'm, I'm curious, like, I don't really know what to want here. I feel like Greg sort of got the bell of the ball, so to speak, and I feel like there's a lot of dogs that could be in there. So I kind of just don't want a dog, pretty much. I mean, I do want a dog. No offense, Carrie. I had a dog. I don't want to get on the dog over judges, a bad side here. Um, yeah, I mean, if I, probably I would go for another Marriott card just for the, because I think those have, just because of where the offers are or they help inspire. My guess is I'm going to get something different. And I'm going to go top right. Okay. So flight is. All right. That could work out. Tim. You read out what you've got, Tim? I have the IHG rewards premier credit card.

with a 140,000 point bonus. Right. Unfortunately, you're not going to be anywhere for four nights in order to take advantage of the fourth night free benefit. Yeah, yeah. I figured I might end up with one. Because nobody had picked an IHG card, I wondered if one would be there.

And there it is. There it is. All right, to recap, we've got Greg with the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant MX with 150,000 points and a $250 statement credit. And then we've got Nick with the Marriott Bonvoy business AMX for 125,000 points, and Tim, the IHG1 Rewards Premier for 140,000 IHG points. That brings us to our transferable points credit card.

So listeners, again, as a reminder, our contestants also get a transferable point they can pick, a point card that they can pick. We're going to start with Tim for this one. First, Steve will bring up our deck. Just getting that loaded up right now. So transferable points cards. So are you going to go send you again or are you going to like wild card? It's got your business, Peter.

Mind your own business. And a quick reminder just for a question that's coming in. Yes, the contestants get to use whatever perks inserts are on that card. So, you know, for expediency's sake, we're listing the points that come with the card, the bonus. but there's all kinds of perks that they'll be getting also, which we can include... Well, this question, though, is specifically about things like the free night cert

that you only get your second anniversary. Yeah, so they won't be getting any free nights. It's only of a new or benefit, which on all of those cards, they are. So if one of them are picked the Hilt of a Spire card, that comes with a certificate upon application and approval. So they would have gotten one with that card, but they won't be getting it.

any three-night certificates this way. Yeah, that's a great clarification. All right. So, Tim, what transferable points credit card are you going to get? Well, what I'm hoping for, kind of along the lines of Greg's last pick, what I'm hoping for is I'm assuming that some of the premium cards are in here that have all the blingy stuff and the big bonuses. So I'm hoping for one of those.

Based on the fact that we have nine cards, I'm guessing that, again, there's a few dogs in a bunch. So I'm hoping probably my, my, if it's in there, the business platinum with a 300,000 point bonus and all the Mojado would be where it's at. And I could, I could hand, and even the platinum or even the Sapphire Reserve or some of the, what I'm hoping for is a premium card with some bling to it because so far my cards don't have a lot of bling. So bring me some bling. And I'm going to take the second The middle card. The middle card.

The middle card. The middle card is, oh, there you go. You get some. Hey, there we go. All right. Read out what you got there, Tim. I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card with a hundred thousand point bonus. All right.

So how does this change how you feel at all? I certainly would prefer that than some of the other cards that I imagine are in there. Right. And so it wouldn't necessarily be the top pick, but I feel like there's something to you can. It'll be fun to try to see what I can do with that. Yeah. You can use $250 the edit credits,

not to mention the $2026, $250 or other hotel credit. Not to mention my live nation credit. Not to mention. Where did you see what that live nation credit gets in South Korea, Greg McIreiber. Don't forget DoorDash. No, I'll tell you. outside of the U.S. Here I come. That's right.

All right. Greg, it is your turn to pick a transferable points card. All right. I am going to top Tim by picking the card that's right above his and the center top. So you get American Express gold card. 100K points. All right. Well, that's good.

And that's a solid pick. It doesn't have. you know, as many extra of the, uh, the perks that I can use the way Tim's does. But, uh, but still, that's, that's a good solid pick, I think. Great. I'll sell you one of my edit credits for your $250 statement credit. There we go. Okay.

Nick, your turn. All right. I'm going to turn everything around for you. Oh, boy. I don't know. I need a lot of help. I need a lot of help. So, so far I have an airline card that won't get me to or from my first destination.

And I have a hotel card that won't get me a place to stay in my first destination. So I need a lot of help in order to cover a place to stay and the rest of the flights here. And I don't even know what to. I mean, obviously, I think the business platinum would be the one, you know, and if not a platinum card would be the best possible scenario for me here because I need some serious help. But absent that, if I get like one of the dogs, as Tim might describe it, I guess I would hope for the Capital One venture card because that now has at the time we're recording this anyway, a stays credit in addition to the bonus. And that would probably

come in handy in Guadalupe. I'm thinking, maybe. But I'm not rooting for that one. That's the best out of the dogs. So that said, and since I'm doing pretty well at picking those so far, let's see if I can find another one. Can I get a bow? Wow. Bottom right hand corner, please. Bottom right. okay i think i might know which one this is it is you've got the business the venture card so read out that name in full if you can uh i got the capital one venture rewards credit card which currently at the time we're recording has a introductory bonus of 75 000 points and a 300 stays credit uh so i have my work cut out for me on this challenge to make that work but it is the dog you wanted it is the dog i

I wished for if I had to get a dock. If you needed a dog, it's a dog. All right. Well, we are actually not done with credit cards. So the first surprise of the evening, Stephen, take it away. So seeing as this is a wildcard challenge, we thought we'd throw a wild card out there. And so we have a wild card credit card deck. So this is a bunch of credit cards where you will get another bone.

However, they're not very good bonus. Odds that you're generally going to be signing up for the welcome offer. However, they could be useful for the purposes of this challenge. Either booking a certain connecting leg or something like that, you might be able to book some kind of accommodation with the bonus. So none of them are overly generous, but if you can make use of it, then you might earn some bonus points. I love it. Love this idea. This is the most excited I've been all night, I think, right here.

Oh, don't worry, Nick. We still have a few more surprises coming. Okay. All right. All right. For the wild card credit card, we're going to start with Nick. Let's channel that excitement here into some good luck. All right.

Let's see. Are you pulling for the Carnival Cruise card? I mean, that would not be my top pick here. I am hoping I'm hoping for like a price line card with a bonus that might be useful for combinations. So that's all I'm going to say, man, so far the middle has had some good bonuses on it. I'm drawn to the bottom left for some reason. But we're going to go and pull right this.

I'm going to steal Tim's move. No, I'm not. I'm going to go bottom left. Switch it up last second. Bottom left. Okay. What is it? Oh, maybe.

Very interesting. The Cathay Pacific Visa signature card and it's 38,000 point bonus. And I need all the airline miles. I can get. Maybe I can make that work with American, especially since American does serve water loop. So I, and of course, obviously, that could come in useful getting to or from Asia. So I, I'll take it. All right. Great. Greg, what's your wild card pick? Well, you know, picking in the middle really worked out well for me before. So I'm going in the middle again. And it is American Airlines Advantage mile up card.

15,000 miles. All right. That might help you get to or from Panama. Yes, absolutely. So that can be really handy. Of course, it can also help in, you know, in Asia getting from, let's say I fly into Hong Kong or Taipei or something, then need to fly from there to China. You know, it would help for flights like that for sure. All right. Tim, your turn.

So what I'm really hoping for is the Venmo debit card. I have no idea. I'm curious to see. So I think if I'm correct, Stephen, you're going to actually write about, opposed about some of the other options that we're available. Indeed. I'm fascinated to know how bad things can get here. And I'm asked to know how good things can get here. But so I'm going to keep my strategy going,

and I'm going to pick the top right. All right. The top line card is. The Capital One Venture One Rewards Credit Card with a 20,000 point bonus. I mean, you've got transferable points for that pick. Yeah. I'd be happy with that. Totally.

20,000. I mean, I wasn't expected another card at all, so I'll take my $20,000 capital one mile. For sure. That's right. Okay. So to recap those last two card selections, transferable, Tim got Chase Offer Reserve for $100,000, and the wild card was Capital One Venture 1 for $20,000.

Greg got the MX Gold with $100,000, and the American Airlines A Advantage Mile Up for $15,000, and Nick got the Capital One Venture Awards for $75,000 plus $300. Today's credit and the Cathay Pacific Visa signature for $30,000. So question, how's everyone? feeling. We're going to start with Greg. How you feeling so far? Oh, I feel really good. Um, you know, obviously that Bonvoy Brilliant was a huge pick. Um, I feel comfortable that I can make good use of my Delta miles. Um, I don't think I'm going to be flying in, uh, international

business class, but, um, who knows? Um, and, uh, yeah, no, no, I'm feeling really good about it. Great. Um, Nick, how do you feel? Pretty awful. I'm not going to lie, especially because I just looked and American doesn't even have that nonstop from Miami to Guadalupe any longer. So there's actually no flights from the United States to Guadalupe at all, the days that we're heading off on this challenge. And the airlines that serve it other than American and Air France, Air Canada apparently might have a Montreal flight. I don't know whether or not that's running all the time. And other than that, none of them are Air France.

airlines that partner with anybody. So I think I'm going to have to like get to Europe to get to Guadalupe or something. I don't even know. It's looking, it's looking very questionable. This is giving, this is giving flying by the seat of our points. Guadalupe is looking tough. Flying to the East Coast to try to go to Europe. All right. So not feeling super great. But don't worry, we've got all kinds of twist and turns coming your way. Tim, how do you feel? Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I think it'll be fun to look at some of the edit stuff internationally, like Greg mentioned, with the Staphyr Reserve card.

And just to see what I think is fun about a card like that, Nick, you wouldn't know this, but what I think is what's fun about a car that has all those bells and whistles is that there's all these little credits. It's kind of puzzled to see how to maximize those credits. That said, I don't think it's going to be easy. Like Nick, I just took a look at my possible routing from Costa Rica to South Korea. And it's not, it'll be an adventure. But that's what this is all about.

It's all about adventure. And gosh darn it, if Nick can do Morocco, I can do Costa Rica with. That's right. No, I mean, it's, it'll be doable. I don't know that it'll be preferable. All right. That's the spirit. That's the spirit.

If all of this wasn't hard enough already, it's now time to find out what your obstacle is going to be. Hey, Nick, I just got a text from my cousin. He's asking me about a credit card offer he just got in his email and asking if it's any good. Yeah, well, your cousin ought to go to frequentmiler.com and click the link at the top of the page for our best offers page. That's the best way for your cousin to know whether or not they're getting a good offer because we're committed to publishing the best publicly available offer. So if you see an offer for a credit card anywhere on the internet, you should always compare and make sure you're getting the best possible offer. That's right. And as a reminder, we wanted to try to help replicate some of the challenges our readers have in their own, not only award bookings, but also their travels. So a few weeks ago, we had all of you kind of chime in with things you thought would make good obstacles to add to our contestant strips.

So many of these are sourced from those suggestions. These are designed largely by our readers to make your life more like theirs. So we're going to start with... And they're all based on a certain persona of a certain type of traveler. So we'll be explaining a little bit more. So it'll say what the persona is and then I'll explain a little bit more what that entails. So we're going to start with Greg. All right.

I'm going to stick with my middle pick and take the obstacle in the middle. You are watch Greg. My card says the night owl. I have no idea what that means, though. So the night owl is someone who is up late at night and doesn't like getting early morning flights. So you're not allowed to book any flights that depart before 10 a.m. Oh, oh, oh, ouch. Okay, wow.

No flights for the whole. This is for the whole time. It's not just a particular part of the trip. Is that right? Correct. Correct. So is that 10 a.m. Ann Arbor time or is that 10 a.m.? Local time. Yep. You can, and if there's a reader or listener who contributed that one, just know that Greg is really grateful right now. Well, if it leads to me getting good sleep during the challenge, I guess I will be grateful. Potentially grateful. It does go to show you that the middle card isn't always the best card.

No, no, definitely not. Well, actually, we don't know. We don't know what the other options. That's true. I don't know yet. This one's going to be tough, I think. All right, we're about to find out, Tim, what is your obstacle selection? Which card is the best card, Stephen? No comment. Like some of them are going to be a little more of a pain than some of the others,

but all of them are obstacles. So I don't think you're necessarily going to enjoy any of these. Right. Exactly. This is the hard part. This is where they're all dogs. Okay. Oh, don't listen, truffles.

So we've been going diagonally. We've been going horizontally. We haven't gone vertically yet. So I'm going to go with the one right above Greg's. Top middle card is. Oh, no, of all the things. Oh, I go say this is probably going to be one of the worst ones. Go ahead and read that out.

Tim, you need to read it out loud. Oh, it's the overpacker. This is what I hate, like of all the things. has to travel with both a checked suitcase and a carry-on. Oh, no. Really? Brutal. Oh, and there's a reader or listener out there who is feeling good about that one right now.

Okay. You are off of my Christmas list. You're off of my Onyka list. You're off of my Guanzal list and my Valentine's list. You're off of all the list. All right. So next up, Nick, what is your obstacle? And I have a clarification here really quickly.

Sure. Well, I actually have to carry two bags with me the entire trip. You will have to do that. Welcome to my world, Tim. Welcome to my world. This wouldn't even be an obstacle. Maybe Nick wrote this obstacle. Maybe he's the one.

Yeah, Nick probably did. My gosh. Always guys. If it's any consolation, someone did suggest that you have to travel with a stroller. So you're not having to lug that. at least this will have like four easily well at least for the stroller I can actually like take my carry on around in the stroller

I can put my carry oh I actually have an idea here oh never mind I'll see you guys later Tim's already packing yeah I'm already all right so Nick what is your obstacle going to be as though you don't already have a lot you know the only thing that I can hope for is to not get the opposite of Greg because I'll be in trouble if I get something where I can't leave at night because I've

I've now searched several things and I think I'm going to have to go to Paris in order to get to Guadalupe. So I'm going to have to leave at night. It just can't be true. I think it is unless I buy a cash ticket. So I think it's getting by Guadalupe. So I just got to hope that it's not the opposite of what Greg got. I'm going to do it the other folks did so far because it worked out better for you guys than it did for me to complete a tick-tac-toe. So give me the bottom middle, please, judges. Be kind. Middle. What does that say, Nick? It says the non-haler. And I'm not a fan of hail, so I'm glad to not have any help. So the non-haler means that you're not allowed to use any ride shares in either of your first two destinations. You are allowed to take

regular taxis, but you can't use anything like Uber or Grab or anything like that. Well, that feels okay because I don't think there are any ride share apps in Guadeloupe anyway. So I'm not sure that that would have made much of a difference there. Vietnam, of course, the grab would be very convenient. But, but, you know, I think I can make it with a regular taxi there should be affordable enough that I'm not I think that's actually about as good an obstacle as I could have gotten. So I'm completing tick-tac toes from now on. All right. So as a reminder, we've got Greg as the night owl who cannot book flights before 10 a.m.

We've got Tim as the overpacker who must travel with a checked bag and carry on. And we've got Nick as the non-haler who's not allowed to use ride shares. All right. We will also have some destination challenges for everyone. as they're traveling. As a reminder, if you've seen other challenges, we like to give little mini tasks that help our travelers get out of their hotel rooms in case they're tempted to just continue to work on their award booking the entire time.

We want to get them out of their hotel rooms and into their destination. This time, we are not going to find out what these challenges are today. Instead, each of you will be receiving a letter with three cards with mystery challenges on them. which you cannot open until you're about to board the flight to your destination. So before you're boarding your flight to destination one, you open the card to reveal for yourself

what your excursion challenge is while you're there. Before you board your flight to destination two, you will open the next card and find out what you're going to do there. So nothing to reveal for that yet other than check your mailboxes and don't open the envelopes until instructed. So what happens if you leave your letters in your check package?

That's an excellent question for anybody who check a bag on a challenge like this. I mean, it's crazy. Right. I will keep copies for myself so I can remind you what you've got. You will also be required to film this, obviously. So you've got to film yourself opening your little challenge. So we all know what the challenge is. so since there's nothing else to reveal there

it's time now don't worry everything's turning around we've got power up cards too so we gave you we hit you with some challenges but don't worry we're going to hit you with some powerups meant to make your life a little easier let's see how powerful these get we're going to start with Nick

because we think you might need it pick the best one Nick oh my goodness I was thinking that the center card had not really struck out yet in terms of, you know, it had been really good on all of them. But then you pick that night owl card. And that makes me nervous about the center card now. I, I'm going to pick a card.

I think I haven't picked yet. Let's go left center. Judges, left center. That's the power up. There you go. That's the card I needed. Oh, if you're listening to this, if you're listening to this, drum roll, please.

I picked the get out of surcharges free card, which I don't even know what it means, but I know it's huge when my options are Air France and Leptonza. It basically means exactly what it says. So for the purposes of our judging, we will, like part of the judging is based on the kind of like value that you get. For the purposes of your flight, we won't take into account how much you have to pay in surcharges as a result of you picking this power up card. that was my power up card. That is huge.

Can you imagine a more appropriate, a more useful power up for the Lafonza card? No, no, there is no better power up card. That just changed the whole game right there. It did, right? All of a sudden, it's actually possible for you to get to Europe and back. Right. With very few points. You know who really lost on that one?

Frequent Myler dead because. Surcharge? Right, right. Because I don't know that that's going to apply to the Freakomiler credit card. Well, you just have to show your power up card to the airline when you're booking. Yeah, clear. Yes. All right, Tim, it's time to find out what your power up is.

So I'm going to go White Elephant's Silent, take Nix, please. Not an option. I know. Okay, so then I'm going to do before Greg takes at the middle card. Middle card. Oh, there you go. And can you read for us what you got? 30% transfer bonus of my choosing.

Yes, so you get one transfer bonus to any partner that you can transfer from or transfer to from your transferable points card. And it can be for as much or as little as you like. But you can't have that for two different partners, just the one partner. There you go. Nice. All right. Nice.

All right. Greg's turn. I'm going to mix things up a bit instead of completing the tick-tac-toe. I'm feeling good about top-right. So that's the one I'm picking, top-right. That's right. Stay in the zone.

Yay. Auto zone. This is very interesting. Greg has to stop by auto zone along the way. So stay in the zone. You get to trade one of your destination. picks, like get rid of that one and pick a different destination, but in a different destination zone.

So the, get rid of your destination one pick and pick a destination two one. So you're in the same type of zone or you would get rid of your destination two pick and pick a destination one card so that that way they're both within the same like general vicinity. Wow. Wow, and do I need to do that now or do I do that? I do that now. You can do that here in this light screen.

Free research. Free research. You got to make a decision now. So where do you think destination three is going to be great? That's the thing, right? That's right. You don't know. If I move it so that both destinations are in the Americas,

that would certainly make the whole starting game much, much easier. but if the final destination is somewhere close to Asia, it's going to make things much harder. Still, I think I think I'm going to do that. I'm going to start off easy and give up China and pick from the first time. All right. Yeah. All right. So just to clarify, does that mean that for staying in the zone, what is Greg's destination one

zone now that he's already picked it. Oh, he gets to pick another card. I see. He gets to pick another card. I see. So you'll still be going. So you would pick to what, Panama. Am I going? Yeah, that's right. So you will have to go to Panama first and then you will go to this next destination second.

Instead of show. That's such an advantage with Copa having a hub in Panama City and serving so much of what appears to be this region here. That's a huge advantage. Yeah. Great pack. All right. This is exciting. I'm going to pick bottom left. Bottom left. Oh. Columbia. That's excellent. I'm excited about that because Bogota has some really good international flight. So if, you know, depending on where the final destination is, I think Bogota could be a really good launching point. So now we have a situation where our travelers are deviating a bit. So Greg's going to be staying in the Americas in the Central South America region while everyone else scatters.

So pretty interesting there. To recap, Nick got the get out of surchargers free card, which he desperately needed. And Tim got 30% transfer bonus of his choosing for. his transferable points card, kind of neutral, seems. And Greg got stay in the zone where he is going to be staying really close to his first destination, Panama, just going to Columbia. So now we get to find out. Was that a good decision?

What is the destination three? Stephen, take it away. Greg earlier on had made a prediction about where we were going to go. and kind of for the longest time when we were planning this challenge, we were going to be sending you all to Morocco because we figured, A, it'll give NEC a chance of redemption, and it would also mean that we'd get to see how Greg and Tim would have been able to handle getting there as part of a challenge. And it was like that for months and months and months.

But then we kind of realized that because, the destination to location was going to be they were all in Asia. So we thought, what better time to introduce Australia to a challenge. Oh, Greg. Oh, Greg. You could have had two in Asia, Greg. You could have had two in Asia. You could have had two in Asia.

Oh, great. If they didn't influence anything, and more specifically, we're going to be sending you to Melbourne, Australia. Oh, Melbourne. Wow. Because, yeah, in theory, all of you were going to be ending up in Asia, and it wouldn't actually be too tricky from any of the countries to be able to get a flight down there because there are so many flights going into Melbourne.

Going from Colombia now, though, I'm not 100% sure if they have any of flight. Maybe they do. I'm not too sure how that works. So that's going to be interesting to see. So how do you guys feel about that disclosure? Well, how do you feel? I'm curious. Yeah.

Well, that's kind of... Avianca is known for having a lot of nonstop Bogota to Sydney flights. I mean, that's... Seven or eight a day, right? Yeah, given my decision to do my two zones in Central America or near Central America, I think Melbourne is about the worst case scenario that I can think of pretty close to it. So that's going to make it really, really tough. But I relish that.

the challenge. But so, you know, basically what I think, I think, I mean, I need more time to think about what my strategy is going to be. But off the top of my head, I think I'm going to be looking to save as many points as possible for the first two and then, you know, blow it all on that last flight to Melbourne, hopefully in business class, because that's going to be a long way to go. And it's not going to be nonstop. Yeah, Nick and Tim, how do you feel, Australia? You know, I love Australia. I've been fortunate enough to get there a few times. So I've been to Melbourne a time or two and love it. So I can't wait to go back. I think that I'm in a decent position. I mean, I guess I'm probably going to be the like the physically closest, right, geometrically closest to Australia. So I've got at least potentially the shortest flight to get there. So that's also. pretty nice because it means maybe I'll actually get there first this time. Those are, those are not words that are going to curse me later on. And, and I feel even better about

getting the Cathay Pacific card because I know that they have flights from Hong Kong. So from Vietnam to Hong Kong to Australia, I don't know how much they charge, but at least I'm thinking I have a shot at using those Cathay Pacific miles well for that. Funny enough, my family's been talking about a trip to Australia for the last couple of years. Like I said, my wife and I have been before, but they're going to be a little jealous that I'm going to get the chance to go. But that's great because maybe I can scout out some places. And I think that my Marriott points between Vietnam and Melbourne will probably do me pretty well. Tim, how do you feel?

Yeah. Well, and just a follow up on what Nick saying, like, what looked like a really bad hand at the beginning with the last, lack of the with now you can wave surcharges and you have miles and more and Kathy Pacific and you're going from Vietnam like I could see so it'll be interesting to see what you come up it's warmed up a little bit yeah yeah it looks a lot better than it did right after your right after pulled your cards yeah yeah you know yeah you know I mean like I like I said originally I don't necessarily like I feel like oh I've got a planning in place and I'm going to execute it immediately

But I think it's doable, if not preferable. And I'm looking forward to see what we find. Like it'll be interesting to see. And what I'll be interested to see what South Korea is the middle of the two is a really interesting place in terms of just connectivity. And it's kind of out of the way a little bit from both. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. I'm interested to see what I can find.

Speaking of interesting to see what happened, we have one final surprise. So we weren't too sure how you would all feel about the cards you've drawn. And so we're going to give each of you an option to completely redraw your deck if you want to. It's optional. You can keep the cards that you have, or you can return them and pick completely new cards for every single destination credit card obstacle and power up. Um, the card, those cards won't go back into the deck. And so you won't have any kind of chance of picking any of the cards that you've already picked. And so it's up to you if you want to risk, um, picking the different, um, destinations and cards and everything again. Or if you want to stick with, um, what you've got.

Is it better than the devil you know or is the grass green or on the other side? And it's a complete redraw. So this Hail Mary would require you to completely ditch everything you've picked. dirt again from everything. You can't say, well, can I redraw the one destination or the hotel or you got to all or nothing on this? We'll give you a moment to think about anyone tempted. Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty tempted. I'm not going to lie. Am I going to do it? I don't know yet. I'm thinking through it here. I'll be curious to hear what Greg and Tim think I should do. Or if one of them thinks that they're going to do it. Is this like more than one person?

I could, yes, everyone gets this chance and I could see each of you wanted to. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to be a little bit of a wet blanket on my mind. When we do these things, I always get, you know, just my personality, like I want to kind of get into the spirit of it. And I personally feel like it would be against the spirit of it to redraw. Because the whole thing, it says, wild card, you find out what you do, and you go. So I am not going to do it based on. on that. However, and now, which puts me in the perfect spot to give some commentary on Greg and Nick. Now, what's interesting about Nick is you got, you have a kind of a gold mine on

those no surcharges. And you have some, you have some weird mojo there, but then you have no surcharges. That's a big one. And it would seem hard to do to get another like another power up that could be quite as valuable is that like no surcharges at all with leftonza with cathay with some capital one miles i don't know that's pretty good gregg on the other hand now that he knows he's going from bogota to armenegine or wherever you go right right to melbourne i could totally see why gregg may want to but then the problem is do you give up the marriette with the 250 statement credit yeah yeah he doesn't There's no way. Between the Delta card and that, how could you get that?

He's got some pretty good. Exactly. Exactly. I'm feeling really good about my picks. And even though I made it harder for myself by using my power up badly, I still feel good about my sequence. So I am going to keep it. Although I don't feel the way Tim does it. I don't feel like it goes against a spirit of the game to throw it all out and pick again because it's still wild card.

I mean, it's still like you don't know what you're going to get. It's almost, it's the ultimate gamble to do that. And there's fewer cards left now. So should Nick do? What do you think, Nick? The ultimate gambler sitting right there who hasn't given me the stake yet. I mean, so for Nick, it would mean he gets rid of the Guadalupe problem, gets one that's not a small problem at the moment.

No, no, it gets one that's hopefully a lot easier. And then he knows that the next destination would be somewhere in Asia and that the final ones in Melbourne. So probably your destination picks would be a little bit better, although Vietnam to Melbourne, I think, is probably about as good as you're going to get. Pretty good.

Looks like he's doing some circuit real quick. You know, well, yeah, you know, it's interesting because for me, so the Guadalupe does look really hard to get started. That said, I did find one, I mean, I'm still going to have to go via Paris, which is not not ideal, but I did find one particularly good deal already for that. So I do have something sort of in mind that could make that work.

But there's definitely a large part of me that says that this would work really nicely to drop at all and start again, mostly because how could I do worse than the Lufthons of Miles and work hard and only 75,000 transferable points? I guess I could get the built card maybe, and that would be worse. But I was talking there in order to stall for a second, just so I could make sure that there actually are Capital One stays available in Guadalupe, because if there weren't, then that would have made up my mind without even having to think any further about it, because I think I'm going to need something like that for hotels there. So I think I'm going to, as much as I'm very tempted because I feel like the draw can't get worse,

But I kind of agree with Tim that I, we'll see where the cards lie. And now it forces me to look into things and see what sweet spots I can find. So I'm gonna stick with the cards I've been dealt and make the most of it. And we'll see what happens. So before we stop altogether,

I wanna ask Tim again, you sure you don't wanna give up having to check a bag on every flight? Because if you do this- I would love a lot of things to be different in my life. And that's one of them. But yeah, no, I mean, I, you know, I think just for me, I want to play it how it comes. Like, that's how I kind of, and so I just want to, sounds good. Just want to do it how it comes. But that said, what I, in answer to your question, would I like to

avoid having to do a carry-on, or a, not a carry-on, but a check bag on every flight? Absolutely. Maybe you get lucky and someone will lose your bag. And then you don't have to carry it with you. And I could get some, and I could get some dollars for it. it. If you want that to happen, which carriers are most likely to... Just check a draw string bag. I know from experience that those are easy for an airline to lose.

There you go. Just check the least safe bag possible. All right. We haven't discussed this ahead of time. It's kind of tempting to have each of you like just randomly pick a new set of cards just to see what you would have got

and to see if it would have... Oh, I mean, I would be totally about running the river twice on this one. If we could do that quickly, that would be fun. Well, let me quick, yeah, you know, that would be kind of fun. Actually, let's, I'd certainly be curious.

Let's just let Nick do it. I think it took too long for all of us, but yeah. Let's see what Nick gave up. That's great to know. By not doing this. Let's do that. But first, before we do that, one final chance, Nick, you sure. You know, I, especially now that I kind of

get to see what what what what was coming on the river so to speak what I what I would have gotten if uh if I had done this now I feel better about about uh about uh not trading in for new cards so yeah I'm going to say let's go ahead and and do this thing one more time don't forget by the way like and subscribe wherever you're watching or listening so if you're not interested in finding out which I can't imagine why you wouldn't be what I would have drawn if I redrew then you want to make sure to like and subscribe go to frequent my keep an eye out there because there's going to be lots of updates about this challenge as time goes on. And we haven't even talked about the live streams.

So maybe hang on to mention at least when those are going to be in a second. Let's do it, though. Let's redraw. So I can, just for people to know, this redraw is just to see what Nick would have gotten. He has chosen not to take this redraw. So this is just for speculation.

Yep, that's correct. Just so I can cry myself to sleep tonight. That's all. All right. Let's go through this quickly, though. All right. Bottom right. You would have had Belize.

Oh, never been to Belize. Oh, okay. I thought you would have been new for me. No, that would have been a new one. So, okay, I mean, it would have been interesting. I don't know who flies to Belize though. So I don't have to feel too bad yet about that one. But my next destination would have been, bottom left.

Would have been. Oh, very connected. Yeah, lots of connections to and from, been there before. And so that would have been an interesting one. Let's see, credit cards. And also easy to get to Melbourne, probably. Credit cards, top right. for your business card at 100,000.

So that would have been probably pretty useful. Hotel credit cards, bottom middle? Bottom middle. The Chase World of Hyatt business card at 70,000 points. That would have come in handy probably between Taiwan and I don't know about Belize, though. Melbourne, yeah, for sure. Bottom left for my transferable points card, the city strata elite with 75,000 points. That could have come in handy both for hotel.

and for American Airlines, and then, of course, some additional perks like Black Lane. All right. Top left for my wild card credit card. Delta's Skymiles for 10,000 points, which... It had to be included. It wouldn't have been better than my Cafe Pacific pick. Obstacles. I'd go right middle.

Right middle. The procrastinator. What would that have been? I don't know what that's like. So the procrastinator doesn't start looking at. anything until five days before their trip. I mean, that might end up being the way it is anyway. All right.

And then my power up, I guess, would probably be next. So power up, top left. Top left. This might have become in handy. So you would have been able to swap any one card in your deck with any one card of another contestant. So they would have had to have been like, so it would have been like an airline card for an airline card, a destination two card for destination two card or something like that.

And so that could have been particularly useful, maybe. But maybe we'll never know. I'm assuming. I'm sad no one got that because I would have been a fun, you know, addition and probably made some enemies in the room. I'm assuming you would have swapped your hotel probably would have swapped your hotel card for your high card for the Marriott or not necessarily. I mean, yes, between those two, that probably would have been the trade I would have made,

I think, although Tim's Sapphire Reserve at 100,000 does seem pretty strong compared to my Capital One venture cards. So I don't know, hard to say. Yeah. All right. Well, that was fun to indulge. Thanks for joining us, everyone. The next step is for everyone to start planning their trips. The travel is going to start September 22nd.

We are going to have our first live check-in when everyone reaches their first destination. So we've got some weary travelers who already look weary with the things that they need to come up with here. Yeah. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram because we're going to be posting stories to Instagram left and right. So it'll be the best way to follow us like near real time. Yes. Thanks for joining us, everyone. Bye, everybody.

Bye. Bye. Bye.