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Happy Festivus! The Seinfeld-popularized holiday is celebrated each year on December 23, and it comes with a few time-honored traditions: a Festivus pole, feats of strength, and — perhaps most famous — the Airing of Grievances.
In the spirit of Frank Costanza, we thought it was only fitting to apply Festivus to the world of points, miles, and credit cards. After all, 2025 gave us more than a few things to complain about. From no-notice devaluations to frustrating tech issues and benefit cutbacks, there was no shortage of material.
So, we gathered the AwardWallet team around a virtual Festivus pole to air our grievances about the most frustrating developments of the year… but also celebrate our feats of strength — the redemptions, wins, and clever strategies we’re most proud of.
Let us begin.
Page Contents
- Airing of Grievances
- Feats of Strength
- Earning Alaska status without paying for a flight [Mark Jackson]
- 4.5+ cents per point redemption for World Cup hotels [Ian Snyder]
- ANA First Class Suite with 61k points [Cameron Laufer]
- Family trip to Asia on points and miles [Jenna Hansen]
- Fourth night free at Kimpton Seafire [Brie Bash]
- Score free nights from after-midnight check-ins [Alexi Vereschaga]
- In defense of AAdvantage elite status [Tyler Glatt]
Airing of Grievances
In the words of Great Prophet Frank Costanza: “The tradition of Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances. I've got a lot of problems with you people. Now you're going hear about it.”
Indeed, there were a lot of things to gripe about in points and miles this year. So, let us go around the virtual table and let AwardWallet contributors air out their grievances from this year.
No-notice devaluations [Mark Jackson]
No-notice devaluations are the absolute worst. I’m not sure who wins the “prize” for worst devaluation this year, but my nomination has to be Hilton. Not only have they raised award pricing at their aspirational properties in 2025, but they’ve also done so several times, and with no notice whatsoever!
And while we’re on the subject, Hyatt devalued this year as well. They at least gave us notice, but it’s becoming harder and harder to use their Category 1-4 and Category 7 certificates. They’re all just out of reach as Category 5s or 8s. Raise the categories we can use our certificates at (and make them valid for more than 6 months, please).
Airline websites [Cameron Laufer]
“Hey airline website IT, I've got a lot of problems with you people!” If you search airline websites as much as I do, you can relate. Error messages. Failed log-ins. Six-factor authentication. To/from airports not swapping. Dates resetting. Wrong points totals showing — I'm looking at you, Air France. You want more? Airport codes not showing up. Search again, and all fields reset. Award booking spots hidden away. Don't even get me started on Turkish. I'm not great with IT, but if any airline wants a consult, I'm available.
New card bonus restrictions [Jenna Hansen]
This year was full of devaluations, credit card benefit couponification, and the never-ending search for decently priced award space. But the most frustrating thing of all is the slashing of card eligibility across many banks. Chase cut back on no-fee Ink card eligibility, which has historically been a repeatable, easy way to earn a windfall of Ultimate Rewards. Chase also cut back on Sapphire eligibility, right before it had been 48 months since my last Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. I will never forgive them for making it so much harder to earn Chase points, which in turn makes it much harder to book my beloved Hyatt hotel stays.
The onboard bar has gone too far [Tyler Glatt]
If there’s one thing I’d like to leave in 2025, it’s the onboard bar. The most unfortunate kind of lightning struck three times this year, and by that I mean watching someone who couldn’t handle their alcohol on board and puke all over the row in front of me or next to me. Call me lucky, but that happened three times in the span of two months.
The best one was the guy who chugged his pre-departure double rum and coke at the gate, then puked straight into the first-class seatback pocket during the takeoff roll. I still have no idea why he didn’t use the barf bag, but of all the flights I’ve taken where the flight attendants decided to play hide and seek, I wish it wasn’t that one.
Elite benefits not automatically honored [Alexi Vereschaga]
This year I finally earned Hyatt Globalist, and then spent most of the year unknowingly lighting money on fire. I only recently learned that award stays include free parking. I travel to NYC a lot for quick one or two-night stays, usually by car, and I’ve routinely paid $60+ per night for parking while booking on points. Discovering this perk after a year of Globalist stays was painful. My first time actually using it was this past weekend, and all I could think about was how much I’d overpaid before. This one’s on me, but also: Hyatt, maybe make that benefit slightly more obvious?
Wyndham devaluations [Brie Bash]
My biggest grievance this year was with the Wyndham program. I picked up the Wyndham Rewards® Earner℠ Business Card for very specific reasons: earning Wyndham points toward Vacasa rentals and leveraging Caesars status for cruise status matches. Unfortunately, Wyndham found a way to kill off both of those programs this year.
I’m glad I managed to squeeze out a few cruises before the gravy train ended, but I never even had the chance to use the free Atlantis stay perk. To add insult to injury, my Caesars status expired right before a planned Vegas trip, wiping out resort-fee benefits and special perks, just for good measure. With those core benefits gone, the card has been relegated to the sock drawer, where it will sit until the annual fee comes due.
Feats of Strength
The final tradition of Festivus is the “Feats of Strength” — where the head of the household challenges someone to a wrestling match. But our Festivus tradition is a bit different. Instead, we are going to go back around the virtual table to let everyone share their proudest points-and-miles-or-card achievement of 2025.
Earning Alaska status without paying for a flight [Mark Jackson]
My biggest achievement was earning Alaska Atmos Gold largely without paying for a flight. Alaska’s generous policy awarding status points for award flights is what got me there. Even better? I’ll be able to extend status when my second child arrives in 2026, thanks to Alaska’s elite parental leave policy.
It’s policies like this that keep someone loyal in a very competitive environment. While I feel that Alaska’s program has both good and bad changes in 2025, at least I know that when I return to the road, I’ll have free Premium seating at booking and a (small) chance at an upgrade.
4.5+ cents per point redemption for World Cup hotels [Ian Snyder]
I’m a big soccer fan, and with the World Cup coming to our shores, I’d been eyeing tickets. The prices are eye-watering, but I shelled out some cash for tickets. Ironically, it was for a match in Vancouver, so I still have to break out my passport. The insane hotel prices were an unexpected twist. I knew rates would be high, but not the $1,500 per night madness I was seeing.
Intent on not shelling out more cash, I worked through each point stash in my arsenal, striking out one by one. But I hit gold with Choice Privileges. Not only did I spend just 40,000 points per night, but the hotel is a mere 20-minute walk from the stadium. What was the hotel rate, you may ask? Over $2,500 CAD per night. It may go down as my best-ever use of hotel points.
ANA First Class Suite with 61k points [Cameron Laufer]
By far my biggest flex this year was flying ANA First class in the new “Suite.” This was booked only a few weeks before traveling, and the combination of seat and service made for a truly magical flight after an epic ski trip to Japan. The best part? Thanks to a 40% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards, this only cost 61,000 Amex points, which became the 85,000 Virgin points necessary to book. This hobby is truly addicting, and I'm glad we are here to help you maximize it.
Family trip to Asia on points and miles [Jenna Hansen]
My greatest accomplishment this year? Taking my family of six on a two-week adventure to Japan, China, and Hong Kong, and paying just over $1,000 for flights and zero dollars for hotel stays. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but *toot toot*!
Booking award travel for six people is no small feat. It was two years of strategically opening cards to earn a variety of points that helped us book our flights and hotels. The cash cost of this trip would have been nearly $25,000 — a price we could never pay. Instead, we redeemed over 600,000 points through various banks, airlines, and hotels, and took the trip of a lifetime. The icing on the cake is that we officially joined the Disney Six Castle Club, having visited all six Disney parks around the world!
Fourth night free at Kimpton Seafire [Brie Bash]
The points-and-miles win I’m most proud of is my Kimpton Seafire workaround — even though it wasn’t the flashiest redemption I’ve ever made, and it definitely wasn’t free. But this one required a different kind of creativity. In the spring, I caught one of IHG’s promotions offering a 100% bonus on purchased points and found availability at the Kimpton Seafire for dates that worked for our family. Since I had been eying that property, I decided to jump on it.
Because I hold the IHG One Rewards Premier Card, I was able to book a IHG fourth night free stay over Thanksgiving. I already had some points in my account and only needed about 150,000 points total to make the booking work. Thanks to the buy-one-get-one promotion, I only had to pay for half of that. In the end, my family stayed four nights at the gorgeous Kimpton Seafire in Grand Cayman for about $750 total, when cash rates were well over $1,000 per night. The experience was capped off with a room upgrade thanks to my IHG status.
Score free nights from after-midnight check-ins [Alexi Vereschaga]
I perfected the after-midnight hotel hack. Most major hotels can’t sell you “last night” after 12:01 a.m. only tonight. Walk in without a reservation, and you often pay for one night while effectively getting two. I’ve done this many times; only once was I chased down for an extra charge. Most of the time, if there’s availability, you just quietly win.
In defense of AAdvantage elite status [Tyler Glatt]
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me this year that elite status is no longer worth it, I’d probably have enough cash to never fly coach again. And yet, another year has passed where I’m glad I dinked and dunked my way to American Airlines AAdvantage elite status.
I’ve enjoyed first-class upgrades on flights long and short 32 times over (as an AAdvantage Platinum, no less), kicked back in some epic lounges on international trips, and saved a small fortune on airport food since AA actually serves more than a paltry bag of pretzels in the first-class cabin on longer flights. And while the points and miles community keeps reminding me that I’m a (Motley) fool for continuing to play the Loyalty Points game, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind while flying around as an Executive Platinum member next year.
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