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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. Both 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 scooped 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 points 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.
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. Most loyalty programs offer a significant discount or bonus on these purchases frequently. Here are a few of the best offers right now:
Buy Alaska miles
Right now, you can buy Alaska Airlines miles with a bonus of up to 50% bonus miles. To get the best rate of 1.97 cents per mile, you must purchase a minimum of 20,000 miles. AwardWallet users redeem Alaska miles for an average of 2.05¢ per mile, making Alaska miles some of the most valuable U.S. airline miles available.
This Alaska buy miles offer is available through June 26, 2024. Buy now.
Buy United miles
The latest United buy miles promotion offers a discount of up to 45% — or a bonus up to 90%. This promotion drops the effective purchase rate as low as 1.98 cents per mile. At that rate, you can buy enough United miles to book an 80,000-mile business class award to Europe for as little as $1,576 one-way.
This offer is available for a very limited time through June 28, 2024. Buy now.
Buy Hilton points
The latest Hilton buy points promotion offers up to a 100% bonus when you purchase a minimum of 5,000 points. That drops the price of buying Hilton points to just half a cent each. That’s an incredible deal when you consider AwardWallet users redeem Hilton points for an average of 0.58¢ per point. With some flexibility, you can easily get more value out of your purchased Hilton points than what you paid.
This offer is available through July 23, 2024. Buy now.
Buy JetBlue points
Another promotion ending soon is the opportunity to buy JetBlue points with up to 75% bonus. Unlike other promotions, you only need to buy a minimum of 3,000 points to get the cheapest 1.44 cents per point purchase rate. That makes this promotion ideal for topping off your TrueBlue balance to make a points redemption.
This promotion runs through June 28. Buy now.
Buy Wyndham points
Launching on June 27, Wyndham Rewards is offering a “mystery bonus” of up to 35% bonus points when you buy Wyndham points. This promotion drops the purchase price to under 1 cent per point for those who receive the highest bonus offer. Wyndham rewards nights start at just 7,500 points per night — even for some 1-bedroom vacation condos. At the optimal purchase rate, you can buy enough points to cover a night for just $72 — or even less if you’re a Wyndham Rewards credit card holder!
Take advantage of this special offer from June 27 to August 9, 2024. 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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