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Does it make sense to buy miles or points for your upcoming trip? With so many ways to accumulate travel rewards, it’s easy to overlook the simple strategy of buying the points you need for less than it would cost to book your trip with cash.
Buying points can be intimidating if you’re still learning about award travel. But if you do it wisely, you can save money on your travels and stretch your points and miles further. So, we’ve put together this guide to cover when buying points and miles makes sense as part of a larger strategy. Plus, we’ll highlight a few programs currently selling points at discounted rates.
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When Does It Make Sense to Buy Points?
Before you reach for your wallet, it’s important to remember that buying points doesn't always provide good value. Your first step should always be to see how much it would cost to buy your flight or hotel with money. Then, compare that with the cost to buy the points or miles you’d need.
If you’re starting from scratch, it will only make sense to buy points or miles when it’s cheaper to do so than paying the cash rate. But if you already have accumulated some points, there are many situations where it can make sense to “top-up” your account and book your next adventure.
Book your next trip sooner
Accumulating points through paid travel or everyday purchases can be a slow way to build your points balances. And it's not everyday that you can earn a welcome bonus on a new credit card. All are key to growing your rewards over the long term. But if you aren’t a road warrior or big spender, it can be easy to get discouraged.
Buying miles — ideally during a discount or a bonus — is a great way to quickly put your next trip within reach.
Score incredible deals on last-minute travel
The travel industry has gotten very good at maximizing revenue through clever pricing. The majority of last-minute bookings are for business travel — and businesses are willing to pay a lot more than the average leisure traveler.
That can make those spontaneous, last-minute trips outrageously expensive when you pay for your flights or hotels with cash. But reservations booked with points or miles can actually get cheaper and offer more flexible options as your travel date approaches.
After all, airline and hotel programs don’t like half-empty flights and unoccupied rooms. So, while they mark up cash prices to eye-watering levels to capture more revenue from last-minute business travelers, airlines and hotels are also trying to fill those empty seats and rooms any way they can — including opening them up to points and miles travelers.
If you don’t have enough points in your account, buying them can be a great way to save on last-minute travel.
Top up your account to unlock stranded rewards
Buying points can also be a great strategy to unlock the value of the points you’ve already accumulated.
One of the challenges of booking travel with points is that you typically need enough in your account to cover the full cost of the flight or hotel night. Some loyalty programs allow you to pay with a mix of cash and points. However, points and cash rates don’t always provide a good deal.
Say you’re planning a romantic trip to Europe and you’re 10,000 points away from being able to book round-trip flights for two. Compared to buying your flights with money, redeeming points or miles could save you thousands of dollars.
If the flights you want are available for a reasonable amount of points, don’t wait. Award availability changes constantly, and it’s easy to miss a great deal. Fortunately, many points purchases are processed quickly, making it possible to top up your balance and lock in your trip before that availability is snapped up.
Save your points for higher-value redemptions
Buying points and miles can also help you save your transferable points for higher-value redemptions.
For instance, Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to IHG One Rewards at a 1:1 transfer ratio. However, AwardWallet users only average 0.68¢ in value from IHG point redemptions. So, it rarely makes sense to transfer Chase points to IHG rather than more valuable Chase transfer partners like World of Hyatt or United MileagePlus.
Instead of transferring Chase points to IHG, consider buying IHG points outright. You can even use your Chase points to cover the cost — just in a roundabout way. Chase Ultimate Rewards cardholders can redeem points for a statement credit at 1 cent per point. If you take advantage of a promotion to buy IHG points for 0.5 cents each, you can essentially get 2 IHG points for every Chase point redeemed — double what you’d get from transferring points.
Alternatively, you can use the opportunity to save your Chase points for a more valuable redemption later on.
Best Offers to Buy Points and Miles Right Now
If you’re considering buying points to book your next trip, your first step is to check the current buy miles promotions. This is a post we consistently update to ensure it's a valuable resource if you're looking to score a great deal on award travel. Most loyalty programs offer a significant discount or bonus on these purchases frequently.
Here are a few of the best offers right now:
Buy Hyatt points
Few programs offer value for your points like World of Hyatt does. On average, AwardWallet users redeem Hyatt points for 2.19¢, and a current 20% discount on points means you can get them for as little as 2.08¢ each. Depending on the property you book, it's possible to get value that far exceeds the average redemption, and you can do so all over the world in places like St. Kitts, New York City, and more.
This offer for points as cheap as 2.08¢ is on the table until October 6, 2025. Buy now.
Buy Alaska Atmos points
One of the most valuable airline currencies you can collect are Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards points (formerly known as Mileage Plan miles). And there are tons of lucrative ways to redeem these points. For example, you can book short-haul partner awards on American Airlines from 4,500 points, business class to Europe starting at 45,000 points, and long-haul business class from the U.S. to Japan starting at 60,000 points.
What's more, Alaska Airlines is currently offering a targeted bonus of up to 110% on points purchases through October 10, 2025. Buy now.
Buy JetBlue TrueBlue points
It may come as a surprise, but JetBlue has a bunch of airline partners. Better yet, some of these partners offer fantastic value for TrueBlue points redemptions. For instance, you can book one-way business class from the Continental U.S. to Tokyo on Japan Airlines from 79,000 points or Qatar Airways Qsuites to Doha from 90,000 points. Buying miles for one of these tickets can potentially be a lot cheaper than paying the cash price.
JetBlue is currently offering a up to a 130% bonus on points purchases through October 28, 2025. Buy now.
Which Credit Card Should I Use to Buy Points?
To maximize your rewards, you’ll want to use the right credit card to buy points or miles. In most cases, points purchases aren’t processed directly by the airline or hotel program selling you those points. That means you won’t earn a bonus when using a card that earns bonus points on travel. Instead, the best strategy is to use a card that offers 1.5 to 2x points on all purchases.
Final Thoughts
If you’re relatively new to earning and burning points and miles, we don’t recommend making a speculative purchase of points or miles without a clear game plan.
That said, airline and hotel programs occasionally sell points with a huge bonus or discount. If you are familiar with the programs’ rules and pricing, there are many times when it makes sense to take advantage of a big sale without a specific use in mind.
Ready to learn more about booking award travel? Check out our guides to award pricing and availability.
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