Dee

Practical damage control while you wait: find out whether those miles expire and what resets the clock. Many programmes reset expiry on any qualifying activity, including a small shopping portal purchase or a magazine subscription for a few hundred miles. Losing them to expiry after all this would be the real disaster.

Having that conversation explicitly with my advisor in year three is now on the list.

Applying in year four for money in year six is the bit I would have got wrong. I assumed you applied when you ran out.

That's essentially the teach-back method, which is standard practice in a lot of clinical communication training for exactly this reason. If you use it at an appointment you may well find the person on the other side relaxes, because you've just handed them the thing they were taught to ask for.

The one line answerable question changed my reply rate more than anything else I tried. It also filters, because the answers tell you who has the problem.

Number two, of course. I returned a 340 dollar jacket in week six and never connected it to this.

Whatever you decide, do not build it silently over three weeks. Ship the ugliest version that solves their actual workflow in four days, get them using it, then decide whether the polished version is worth the remaining fortnight. Half the time the rough one is enough.

Set a decision date rather than an open ended slog. Mine was six months from first sale attempt, and I wrote down in advance what would count as enough to continue. It stops the question from being asked emotionally every Sunday evening, which is corrosive.