Now that we have learned what points and miles are and how they fit into a loyalty program ecosystem, it’s now time to start thinking about how to earn and redeem points and miles.
Over the past 6 years, I have had countless conversations with people who want to get into points and miles. However, when I speak to them, they get increasingly frustrated because they do not understand the limits of points and miles.
Thus, I have ascertained two rules to maximize your points and miles. If you get into the mindset of using these rules like this, you’ll be well on your way to earning points and miles and earning great trips and fantastic memories.
These rules are:
- Planning
- Flexibility
Let’s go over the rules in-depth to understand why they are necessary.
Planning (i.e., points and miles can be a “long game”)
When people think of points and miles, they think of sunsets in Hawaii, galivanting around medieval Europe, or exploring fish markets in Asia. However, airlines (and, to a lesser extent, hotels) have an incentive to monetize that product as much as possible. This is why airlines only release a certain number of seats on a given flight: an airline may be flying a 300 seat airplane from New York to London, but, if they can, they want paying customers in those seats, not customers who bought their seats with points. Thus, to get the best mileage deals, you have to book those flights far in advance (for the most desirable seats, like business class to the Middle East or Asia, often as soon as the schedule opens).
Similarly, in order to book a seat on an airplane at a saver award level, you have to actually have the miles in your account before you can purchase your seat…and that takes time. Flights themselves don’t offer a ton of miles (and you have to have your butt in the seat to pick up miles), and earning points via airline partners (such as through credit cards, shopping portals, and dining programs) take time for them to actually put miles in your account. For example, when using my Chase cards (Ultimate Rewards, World of Hyatt, etc.), I don’t get miles until my statement closes. This even includes a credit card sign-up bonus (i.e., if a bonus is 50,000 points for $3,000 spend in 3 months, and I complete it in 1.5 months, I won’t get the bonus until my statement closes at the end of month 2).
Thus, it pays to plan what miles you need before you are ready to book them…and you often have to book a few months in advance.
Hotels are a little bit easier to book, since most hotels don’t sell out all of their rooms every night, but for the most aspirational hotels (think Hawaii, the Maldives, or the Seychelles), they can sell out, so planning still plays a role here as well.
In my opinion, if you plan on using points and miles, and are starting from nothing, you should not plan on taking a trip for about a year. (To give it some context, I normally have my domestic travel planned 6 months in advance. However, at the same time, I have planned trips to Miami, Orlando, and New York two weeks in advance, all on points and miles.)
Thus, it pays to plan in advance what you’ll need. This leads me to my next point…
Flexibility
While it pays to plan in advance, one rule I always keep in mind is flexibility. When you are planning where you want to go, you have to be flexible. Instead of saying, “I want to spend Christmas in London,” say, “I want to spend some time in the winter in Europe.” You may find a great deal from your hometown to Paris.
For example, for my honeymoon, I knew that my wife and I wanted to relax on the beach in the Caribbean. Not to far away (no overnight flights), and somewhere where we could turn off our phones and relax on the beach. By being flexible, I was able to find a great deal in Aruba, where we were able to spend time at the Renaissance on Marriott points and hang out at Flamingo Island.
The only reason that I was able to find that fantastic redemption was because of flexibility. I knew generally what I wanted to do, and I knew generally what it would take to do that. Because I had flexibility (and a fair amount of planning), I was able to snag that great award for my honeymoon.
Flexibility is also great to have when you have unplanned emergency travel. A few years ago, my grandfather passed away. We were living in Florida at the time, and I was in no place to be able to drive up there (we were very close). Because I had a couple hundred thousand American Express points, I was able to quickly buy some flights and get up there as quickly as possible. The flexibility that I had from having those points made it easy for me and my wife to get up to Memphis and honor my grandfather with my family.
Conclusion
There are two rules for effectively using points and miles. These rules are planning and flexibility. With both of these, you can explore incredible parts of the world that you never could have imagined.
Do you have any plans for aspirational travel? When do you plan on going? How do you plan on making it happen?
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