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When it comes to travel, the biggest hurdle for most people is the cost. This is where points and miles can make a dream a reality — but only if you earn the right
There are two ways you can approach planning a trip with points and miles. You can look at what rewards you already have and ask, “Where can these take me?” Or, you can start with a destination and work backward to figure out which points and miles can get you there.
In this guide, we're focusing on the second strategy.
Start With Your Travel Goal
Before you start applying for
Start with the basic questions:
- Where do you want to go?
- When do you want to travel?
- How many people are traveling?
- Are your dates flexible?
- Can you depart from more than one airport?
- Do you want to fly economy, premium economy, business class, or first class?
- What kind of accommodations do you want?
The more flexible you can be, the more options you'll have when it comes time to redeem your rewards. But even if your dates and destination are set in stone, answering these questions can still give you a goal to work toward.
Most importantly, don't start by deciding which airline miles or hotel points you want to earn. After all, your goal isn't to collect a certain type of points; it's to take a trip.
Once you know where you want to go, you can figure out which rewards will actually help you get there.
Take Stock of the Rewards You Already Have
Before figuring out what you need to earn, see what you already have.
Ask yourself:
- What points and miles do I currently have? Start by checking your AwardWallet dashboard.
- Do I have elite status with any program that I can leverage? Status can influence which airline you want to fly or where you want to stay. Learn how to get airline elite status without flying.
- Do any of my credit cards offer benefits that I can use? Check whether you have credits, companion certificates, checked bag benefits, free night award certificates, lounge access, or other perks that could lower the cost of your trip. See the best credit cards with travel credits.
- When do my rewards expire? If you have points, miles, or certificates approaching expiration, that may affect your strategy.
AwardWallet can be a great place to track your reward accounts. If you're already a user, then you can easily see how many points and miles you currently have in each program (and their expiration dates).
Knowing the balances of each of your accounts can help you understand how close you are to booking your trip. You can even set an account goal in AwardWallet to see when you have enough points or miles to book an award you want.
Figure Out How Points Can Get You There
Here's where a little research can save you a lot of points.
The obvious way to book a flight isn't always the cheapest way to book it with miles. An airline may charge one price through its own
That's why you want to dig into your options before committing to a particular rewards currency.
Research your flight options
Start by figuring out which airlines can actually get you to your destination. FlightConnections is a helpful starting point. Simply enter your destination in the “to” box to see all of the routes and airlines operating to that airport. Even better, enter your home airport to see a list and visual of all connecting options.
FlightConnections will even sort the options by travel time, helping you minimize — or maximize, if you'd prefer — your time in the air.
Search for award availability
Next, start looking at how many points or miles you'll need. A whole crop of tools has popped up over the past few years to help travelers find award availability and the best way to book awards.
You can use free award search tools like Roame.Travel or PointsYeah or comprehensive search tools like Point.me to see the cheapest award options between your origin or destination. Just plug in your origin, destination, and travel dates to show you which awards are actually bookable now on that date — plus the best way to book them.
Related: Point.Me, Roame.Travel, PointsYeah: Which Flight Award Availability Search Tool Is Best?
Don't overlook airline partners
This is one of the most important concepts to understand when planning an award trip.
Say Airline A operates the flight you want. Naturally, you might assume that means you need Airline A's miles. But that's not necessarily true.
If Airline A belongs to an airline alliance or has other airline partners, you may be able to book that same flight using miles from Airline B — potentially for fewer miles or lower fees.
This is also where transferable points become particularly valuable. Instead of earning miles that can only be used through one airline program, transferable rewards may give you several different ways to book the same trip.
Before deciding what points to earn, determine:
- Which airlines operate flights that work for your trip.
- Which
loyalty programs - How much each program charges.
- Which transferable rewards currencies transfer to those programs.
You may discover that the best miles for your trip belong to an airline you've never flown.
Related: Partner Award Flights Explained: How To Find and Book Airline Award Space
Research your hotel options
The same strategy applies for hotels. If you have elite status or a great collection of points with a certain hotel group, start by going to its website to see if that program has properties where you're traveling. If not, do any of the major hotel groups have properties in that location? What about Airbnb or vacation rentals?
Depending on your group size and length of stay, Airbnb may be a better value than a hotel. If there are chain hotels at your destination, but you don't currently have status or points with that loyalty program, is there a credit card that would provide elite status and a decent haul of points through the welcome offer?
These are some of the key questions that you'll want to ask as you prepare for a trip funded by points and miles.
Related: The Best Hotel Credit Cards
Compare Your Options Before You Commit
Finding an award you can book doesn't necessarily mean you've found an award you should book.
Before you start building a points balance around a particular redemption, compare it with your other options.
Start by checking the cash price for the same trip. Google Flights is particularly useful for comparing airfare, while hotel websites and other booking platforms can help you determine the going cash rate for accommodations. Then compare that price with the award cost.
Related: How Flight Price Tracker Websites Work and How They Save You Money
Calculating your redemption rate
Valuing your redemption requires a little math: Subtract the taxes and fees you'll pay on the award from the comparable cash price, then divide that number by the number of points or miles required.
For example, if a flight costs $750 in cash or 30,000 miles plus $75 in taxes and fees:
$750 – $75 = $675
$675 / 30,000 miles = 2.25 cents per mile
That's useful information, but don't let cents-per-point calculations make every decision for you.
If a redemption saves you $700 that you otherwise would have spent, lets you visit family, or makes a dream trip affordable, it may be a great use of your rewards even if it doesn't produce a record-breaking valuation.
Consider alternative ways of booking
If an award's redemption rate is low, consider whether you can get a better deal by booking through a credit card travel portal or using fixed-value rewards rather than transferring points to an airline or hotel program.
The goal isn't necessarily to squeeze the highest theoretical value from every point. It's to find the booking option that makes the most sense for your trip.
Build the Points Balance You Need
At this point, you've done the most important part of the process. You know where you want to go. You know which airlines and hotels could work. You've explored different ways to book them, and you have an idea of how many points or miles you'll need.
Now you can figure out how to earn them.
Prioritize transferable points when possible
Whenever you have a choice, earning flexible rewards can give you more options than committing to a single airline or hotel program.
Programs such as
An airline could change its award pricing. A transfer bonus could make another program more attractive. Or another airline could suddenly release award space that works even better for your trip.
If your rewards are still sitting in a transferable points account, you can change your strategy. Once you've transferred them to an airline or hotel program, you generally can't move them back.
Earn a credit card welcome offer
Credit card sign-up bonuses are the easiest and most lucrative way to earn a lot of points quickly. It's important to have a good credit card application strategy. This is true whether you're brand new to the award travel community or you've been playing this game for years.
There's a lot to know about this topic, including:
- Individual bank credit card application rules
- Why you might want to start with certain cards
- Strategies for meeting minimum spending requirements
- The power of business credit cards
- How to plan a long-term credit card strategy
But it's important to remember that the right card for you depends on what you're hoping to accomplish. What may be a great strategy for you may be completely wrong for someone else.
For example, sticking to Chase credit cards while you're still under the 5/24 limit may be important for many newcomers. However, it may not be the most efficient strategy if you need
The right answers will be different for different people, depending on your specific situation.
Maximize your spending
We never recommend spending more than normal just to earn points. Instead, find ways to maximize your points earning on your current expenses. The main ways to do this include:
- Use credit card bonus categories efficiently
- “Stacking” your earnings on every purchase
- Taking advantage of shopping portals whenever possible
- Utilizing services to pay bills that don't accept credit cards
- Earning extra rewards through dining programs when going to restaurants
When you have credit cards that earn bonus points in the categories where you spend the most money, it's surprising how fast the points rack up. Stacking and shopping portals can also have a huge effect. It can impact not only your ability to earn points but also your overall financial health as well.
Search Again and Book Your Trip
You've earned enough points to book but don't immediately transfer them.
Award availability changes constantly, so the flight or hotel you found several months ago may no longer be available at the same price.
Run your searches again and see what your options look like now. You may find the same award, something more expensive, or an even better redemption that wasn't available when you started.
Once you've found an award you want to book:
- Confirm the award is available.
- Confirm the number of points or miles required.
- Check the taxes and fees.
- Verify that your transferable points currency partners with the program.
- Check the transfer ratio and typical transfer time.
- Transfer the points.
- Complete your booking.
Don't transfer points speculatively. Transfers from flexible rewards programs to airline and hotel partners are one way. If you transfer points and the award disappears before you can book it, you could be stuck with rewards in a program you didn't otherwise plan to use.
Whenever possible, find the award first and transfer your points when you're ready to book.
Putting It All Together: An Example
Let's imagine you and your travel companion live in Houston and want to travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. You've taken stock of the rewards you already have, so now it's time to figure out the best way to use points and miles to make the trip happen.
A quick FlightConnections search shows that United flies nonstop between Houston and Rio, giving you an obvious place to start your award search.
But don't assume that means United miles are your best option. This is where checking airline partners can pay off.
ANA and United are both members of Star Alliance, which means you can potentially use ANA Mileage Club miles to book the same United-operated flight. In this case, ANA charges just 30,000 miles.
That's a savings of 15,000 miles per person simply by booking the United flight through a partner program instead of United itself.
You'd also want to compare the award options with the cash price of the flight. If cash fares are low, you may be able to pay even fewer miles by using your miles to book through your credit card's travel portal. If you've found a good partner award, your next question becomes which transferable points can get you the miles you need.
The same basic process applies to your hotel. Check the programs you already have points or elite status with, compare cash and award rates, and see whether transferable points can help fill any gaps.
Now you've worked backward from the trip instead of blindly collecting rewards: Find the trip you want, compare your booking options, figure out which rewards you need, and then earn them.
Final Thoughts
Everyone has different travel goals. Some people want to fly in the most luxurious first-class seats. Others don't mind flying economy if it means they can travel more often. That's one of the best things about points and miles: There's no single right way to use them.
Instead of collecting rewards and hoping they'll eventually take you somewhere, start with the trip you want to take. Figure out your options, determine which rewards can help you get there, and then work toward earning what you need.
One last pitch: As you start collecting points and miles, use AwardWallet to keep track of them. That way, you'll know your balances and know if any of your rewards are set to expire.
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Great post – a lot of information. We recently just went on our honeymoon and were about to book a 4 night stay in Belize + flights on points so I can attest that its possible! Question for the community – I used to be a traveling consultant so it was easy for me to play the points game. Curious how people with infrequent business travel plan and strategize reward stays.
So I’ve actually had to read through this post a few times because it’s a lot to absorb, even though it might not seem like it at first. I think the most confusing thing about this is knowing your transfer partners and being able to figure out which points/miles can transfer to which airlines/hotels/car rentals and how to use those transfers effectively.
Learning the transfer partners of any program is easy enough. A quick search will reveal those. Yes, it’s how to use them effectively and maximize them that is an ongoing pursuit. But, it’s a rewarding one!
La Informacion del post es muy buena para planificar lastima que en América del. Sur no tenemos tantas posibilidades y menos aun porque american rompió su alianza one World
Good post! It’s good to see this. It helps with the planning to get the points needed. If we didn’t have any status for hotel and there was a Hilton where we wanted to go, then would it be a good idea to get the Hilton Surpass card? That way we would have Gold with Hilton and bonus points? I know Hilton often has a high redemption amount, but I figure it might be worth it?
We’re big fans of the Surpass card, and I think Hilton Gold is one of the more valuable statuses you can attain automatically with a card. If you’re flying to your destination, it’s worth considering if airline miles might help you save more on the flight than you could on the hotel. Or even better, have your travel companion go after the points for airfare and you can focus on the points for accommodation.
Often, the travel companions want to come along with the freebies. 🙂