Frequent Flyer Miles Are Actually Costing You Money | Adam Ruins Everything

[Music] Wow big tipper yeah my girl hooked me up so I hook her up oh cool sixteen percent yeah not a problem with my definitely not a virgin airlines card I earn miles when I spend or when I fly that's how heaven gets paid actually frequent flyer miles are a big old ripoff what look I'm a hundred miles away from a free flight that's free money more like funny money because the airlines control how and when you can use them exchange your miles for free trip your dream destination just not on any of these Black Mountain not only that they can rewrite their rules to change the value of your miles at any time in 2017 United Airlines devalued all of its customers miles with just a few months notice oh sorry we just updated our rewards chart and it looks like your miles are worth half as much have a great trip good no how could you just change how much they're worth I thought I earned a mile for every mile I travel not anymore airlines used to give you one rewards mile for every mile flown but over the past few years they've quietly started basing miles on ticket price so now if you really want to rack them up you gotta buy the most expensive seats like in first and business class it's wonderful for those of us who can expense the flight to our corporate account Oh mommy and daddy and get this if you don't fly often enough you might not get to use your miles at all airlines will revoke them if you don't maintain a qualifying activity or if you do anything else to violate their specific sneaky terms well you should have read that giant pamphlet we mailed you that everyone just throws away I'm so confused how does anybody understand how this works most people don't survey shows that 59% of Americans have no idea how frequent flyer miles work and 73% of people enrolled in these programs don't even know how many miles they have now boarding anyone who can understand our cockamamie system as a result plane loads of people's miles expire before they even get a chance to use them there are currently 20 trillion unredeemed miles in circulation that's enough to go back and forth to Pluto over 2,000 times so why don't the airlines make it easier to understand because all this confusion creates a crapload of cash the major airlines generate an estimated 10 billion dollars in revenue per year just from their frequent flyer programs but if the miles are free then how are they making money by selling them to credit card companies who use them as bait to get you to sign up impossible I earn heller awards with every dollar I spend yeah but are you paying off your balance every month close to half of credit card holders carry debt and the massive interest they charge you on that completely wipes out any points or miles you've earned but no okay the rewards dude blog clearly states that this card is the best one to game the system yeah the paid referral link system credit card reviewers actually make money every time someone signs up for a credit card from their site I always die for free using my vibranium member rewards the same rewards that I make seven figures a year promoting what you know what screw it from now on Tevin is cash only well this part is really gonna piss you off even if you pay cash you're still paying for everyone else's credit card rewards huh credit card companies typically charge sellers over two percent in fees every time they run a credit transaction it's essentially a tax on every sale they make so to make up the difference many sellers raise prices whether you're paying cash or card whatever bro ah perfect I have exactly $1 oh sorry I forgot to pass a credit card surcharge be on to you come on Visa and MasterCard can make as much as forty five billion dollars a year off of these surcharges your points and miles aren't free we're all paying for them so I've been staying loyal to this expensive airline earning miles that I'm probably never gonna use while charging a credit card that's basically making me pay for my own rewards yep if you really want to gain the system forget the points and miles and just buy a ticket and whatever Airlines the cheapest and don't fall for the credit card marketing how much did you put on credit cards by the way I don't want to think about it I'm gonna watch bad bento be bored to show about a 1960s radio jingle executive bad Ben's life is so cool he flies all the time back then flying was glamorous actually the idea that flying was better in the old days is a total myth oh it's not a comedy [Music] you [Music]

Channel: CollegeHumor

Views: 1,293,442

Rating: 4.8344316 out of 5

Keywords: Collegehumor, CH originals, comedy, funny, frequent flyer miles, adam ruins frequent flyer miles, ch adam ruins everything, adam conover ruins everything, adam conover runis everything, frequent flyer miles explained, adam conover frequent flyer miles, airline bookings, frequent flier miles, airline miles, how to earn airline miles, airline miles explained, travel hacking, adam ruins flying, adam ruins airline miles

Id: 8Aj8STdGMvU

Length: 5min 18sec (318 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 19 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Berserker_T]

Fuck.

[u/ChoiceBandedSmeargle]

ARE is the only cable TV show I like