You may already have some credit card points in your bank accounts, you might even have made redemptions of some kind, but now you want to take it to the next level and redeem your points for stays at your favorite hotels.
If so, you have come to the right article. But before we dive into this wonderful guide, let's take a moment to understand points and miles from a travel perspective.
The Great Advantage of Points and Miles
Points and/or miles are rewards we can earn through credit card spending. This presents a huge advantage because we don't have to spend in the "travel" category to be able to use points for travel; we can spend on anything.
This means we can maintain the same spending behavior we currently have and plan our larger expenses to earn these rewards, which we will later redeem for travel expenses, whether flights, experiences, or hotel nights.
Ecosystems and Loyalty Programs
Rewards generated on credit cards are associated with the banks that issue the cards. For example, if we use a Capital One, American Express, and Chase card, we will generate Capital One Miles for Capital One, Membership Rewards for American Express, and Chase Ultimate Rewards for Chase.
In essence, all these points are the same: card rewards. But because they are generated with cards issued by each bank, the points will belong to their respective ecosystem.
Then, if we want to use those points for travel or airlines, we can transfer them to hotel and airline loyalty programs. These programs are the providers' ecosystems, and just like the banks, each provider has its own program.
For example, Hyatt's loyalty program is World of Hyatt, Hilton's is Hilton Honors, and Marriott's is Marriott Bonvoy.
Signing up for these loyalty programs is completely free, and yes, you have to be registered in the programs to be able to transfer the points.
The Biggest Challenge
We're not going to lie, traveling with points and miles the right way is overwhelming. You have to know each bank's ecosystem, its rules, and restrictions; in the same way, you have to know each loyalty program of every hotel and airline, their rules, and restrictions.
The problem is not only that you have to know all (or almost all) of them, but it is a world that changes all the time. It is definitely a challenge, and if you want to make this a hobby, you definitely have to love traveling.
That being said, we can say it is completely worth it. The day you take your first first-class trip, staying at a luxury resort, for practically nothing out of your pocket when the cash value of the trip is $10,000 or more, you will understand what we mean.
The good news is that you don't have to lose money on learning redemptions, or have a learning curve of a couple of years. Everything you need to know (everything) we teach you in the Puntos y Millas™ Academy. We guarantee it will be one of the best expenses of your lifetime, because (without wishing to sound dramatic) it is going to change your life.
There are many benefits within the Academy; if you are serious about traveling with points and miles, don't waste time or money and join today. Find out more information here.
Accumulating the Rewards
It all starts with accumulating points, and the idea is to accumulate them quickly and efficiently. This should be the order of priority, from the simplest way to get the most points to what requires the most effort.
1️⃣ Welcome bonuses
Without a doubt and by far, the fastest way to accumulate a large amount of points is through credit card welcome bonuses. Sometimes the bonuses are high and those offers cannot be missed since you get up to 100,000 points in one go.
Most of these bonuses usually come with a minimum spending requirement in a limited time, for example, "you must spend $3,000 dollars in the first 3 months from the moment you open the card." In many cases your typical spending will be enough, but it depends on each person's spending level.
The best way to take advantage of these bonuses is with large, planned expenses. The purchase of some furniture or something for the house, insurance, taxes, or any big expense that we know we are going to have. The ideal is to plan these expenses to make them when we apply for a card with a welcome bonus.
2️⃣ Everyday expenses
Then, the key is to strategically use the cards with the highest rewards for our day-to-day expenses.
The idea is to identify which card generates more points in a specific category to maximize rewards. For example, if you have a card that gives you 5X on gas, only use that card for gas; if you have another one that gives you 5X in supermarkets and another 5X in restaurants, use them for those specific expenses.
The only thing you have to keep in mind is that the points being generated are flexible points. Open this guide to flexible points in another window to read when you finish this one.
3️⃣ Travel
With each trip we make we can also earn points or miles. This is similar to the previous point where we are maximizing a specific category, only in this case that category is travel, and we put it as a separate point so that we keep in mind that part of travel planning is also generating more points for future trips.
Additionally, there are several other ways to generate points indefinitely, such as: shopping portals, dining portals, surveys, reimbursable expenses, stacking, and several other ways.
4️⃣ Also, among the most powerful ways are strategies involving our Player 2, referrals, and some forms of manufactured spending (and in case you're wondering, yes, we cover all of it in the Academy).
Using Your Rewards: Booking Your First Flight with Points
This is certainly the part where everything gets complicated, and as we mentioned before, it can be an overwhelming process. We cannot emphasize enough that if you want to take this seriously, you are going to need to know everything we teach in the Academy.
And well, it is also worth mentioning that over time everything becomes less and less intimidating. In our experience, starting from the 3rd redemption, you begin to feel more comfortable with each subsequent redemption.
The real secret of this hobby lies in knowing how airline alliances, the transfer partners of each bank, the benefits of hotel programs, and their award charts work.
You can divide the process of booking your first flight with points into 4 steps:
1️⃣ Keep track of your rewards. Although this is not the first step as such, we put it first because it is something you must track continuously. Checking how many points and miles you have in all your accounts is key.
2️⃣ Choose the destination, define the travel dates, and determine if you want to travel in economy or business.
💡 Pro tip: Be as flexible as you can with dates, book as far in advance as possible, and always consider alternative airports or positioning flights (more on this in the next section).
3️⃣ Determine the points you need for the flight. To do this, first search for the availability of award flights directly with the airlines and then with airlines in the same alliance.
Consider nearby airports and different routes, as you can find options with better value for your points.
💡 Pro tip: Award Search tools are extremely helpful. Personally we use seats.aero, but there are several other excellent ones. We have tutorials for all of them in the Academy.
4️⃣ Book the flight. Follow the regular booking process with the airline. Keep in mind that you will pay taxes and other associated costs. This will vary depending on the airline and the route, but this cost is what ultimately makes our trip not $0.
👉 As we mentioned above, the real secret is knowing how airline alliances work.
Many times we have said that we love Alaska Airlines even though we have never traveled on one of their planes. Why do we love it then? Because Alaska Airlines is part of the OneWorld alliance where American Airlines, Iberia, British, and several others we do travel with are also members; by booking flights for those airlines through Alaska Airlines, we save thousands of points.
The "Expert" Side of Booking Flights with Points
It is going to be a fact that the exact flight you are looking for will often not be as efficient to book with points. Many of those times it is because the flight is not available from your nearest airport, or perhaps there is a stopover you want to make that costs too much and now you have to rule it out... This is where positioning flights, stopovers, and open-jaws come into play.
🎯 Positioning Flights
Would you fly to another city just to take a flight from there? Not as a layover within your itinerary with the airline, but you buying a ticket to depart from another airport to your final destination.
Not many people would consider it, but this is a common practice in the points and miles world to save a massive amount of points or dollars, depending on the case, or to be able to fly on a better aircraft and in a better seat to reach our destination, especially if our nearest airport is not a very large one.
These are called Positioning Flights.
🎯 Stopovers
A Stopover is when you make a layover in a city that is longer than usual, typically more than 24 hours, giving you the opportunity to stay in that city for a few days if you want and then continue to your final destination.
Unlike a positioning flight that only serves the purpose of a regular connection, a Stopover is indeed a layover where we want to go out and explore as part of the destination.
In terms of rules and restrictions, generally if the stop is less than 24 hours it is considered a regular connection, and more than 24 hours a stopover.
🎯 Open Jaws
Open Jaws are flight itineraries where we fly to one destination but return from another, without needing to return to the origin point for the return flight.
For example, you can fly from Houston to Rome, then continue to Paris on another independent flight or another method of transportation, and from there return to Houston. Or you can even fly from Houston to Rome, travel to Paris, and return to New York instead of Houston.
This type of flight allows you to explore multiple destinations on the same trip, which can be critical for travelers with tight schedules, and in addition, it can be useful when redeeming points and miles because it offers more flexibility to find better seat availability or better prices.
And the most "pro" part of all is that you can combine Stopovers and Open Jaws in the same itinerary.
💳 To the Point
Booking your first flight with points can seem complicated at first, and doing it truly effectively by getting great value for your points can undoubtedly be overwhelming.
With practice and patience, you will become more skilled, and in less time than you think, you will become an expert.
The real secret of this hobby lies in knowing how airline alliances, each bank's transfer partners, the benefits of hotel programs, and their award charts work.
Knowing these alliances and individual partnerships allows you to use one airline program's miles to book flights with partner airlines. This is fundamental because searching partner airlines can often offer better availability, pricing, or routing, and even generate significant savings compared to booking directly with the operating airline.
Build a solid foundation of knowledge, learn in detail how each ecosystem of the major banks in this segment works, the airline alliances, and transfer partners; join the Points and Miles Academy where we teach all of that and more, and where you will find tutorials on Award Flight Search tools and much, much more.
This course will provide you with the necessary knowledge to book your first flight with points and all the following ones forever, with a clear outlook and the confidence of a veteran pilot.
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