I’m a Travel Credit Card Reporter … with 0 Points

Yes, you read my headline correctly: I’m a reporter whose job it is to cover the ins and outs of travel credit cards and the best ways to earn points … and yet, as I write this, I’ve got practically zero points in my balance. And I couldn’t be prouder.

Let me explain. 

Ever since I got into racking up credit card points and frequent flyer miles years ago, I’ve never been the type of traveler to hoard my points. In fact, I use them up just as fast as I earn them. And if you ask me, you should too.

That mindset is how I’ve been able to book nearly 60 domestic and international trips this year, flying over 100,000 miles using points and miles. Putting my points to use has allowed me to fly business class seats and book luxury hotels for a bargain on trips to Hawaii, Paris, Vietnam, Australia, Japan, and more. 

Maybe you won’t travel quite as much as I have this past year, and that’s just fine – that’s not the point. Here’s the point: Many travelers need to break out of the mindset that their points and miles are too precious to use. Instead, do what I do:

• Focus on earning the best, most valuable points – not simply swiping your go-to airline’s credit card everywhere you go
• Use those points for travel experiences you couldn’t otherwise afford. That’s what they’re there for … and they’re not getting more valuable the longer you let them sit – just the opposite
• Focus on earning more points for the next big trip.
• Wash, rinse, repeat.

Many travel bloggers and influencers brag about their multi-million point balances, but I’m not one of them – and that mindset isn’t right for most travelers, either. Instead, it’s time embrace the constant cycle of “earn and burn.”

Book those flights to Europe with your points. Upgrade to business class. Stay in that five-star resort in Asia. Yes, you want to get the best deal when you redeem your points (and we’ll help you there). But whatever you do, stop hoarding them.

Here’s what you can learn from me. 

Airlines Are Devaluing Your Points & Miles

Trust me, I know how great it feels to see your balance of points and miles grow and grow – and how scary it can be to cash them in. 

But here’s the reality: The longer you let your points and miles sit unused, the less valuable they’re getting. Airlines are constantly reconfiguring their frequent flyer programs, raising award rates overnight, eliminating sweet spots and workarounds to book flights for less. A great deal you’re eyeing today could disappear tomorrow. 

In fact, those devaluations are only accelerating. 

Delta Air Lines is the poster child, doing away with many sweet spots over the years to limit how much value you get out of your SkyMiles. Aside from some great Delta SkyMiles flash sales and a recent resurgence in discounted business class deals, your SkyMiles don’t go nearly as far as they did just a few years ago. 

For years, using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points instead was the go-to method to book Delta flights for less, but those days are gone, too. Virgin Atlantic has repeatedly raised award rates for Delta flights over the years, including recently gutting the holy grail: Delta One flights to Europe for 50,000 points are no more.

The undeniable pattern continues. Whether it’s Alaska Airlines and British Airways hiking their award rates for Oneworld partner flights or Avianca LifeMiles and Turkish Airlines completely obliterating many Star Alliance sweet spots, no one is safe from devaluations.

Let’s not forget United Airlines repeatedly raising mileage rates last year, ANA Mileage Club raising award rates this spring on many of their best premium cabin redemptions, and Emirates as well. Not even loyal World of Hyatt customers who have to use more points to book hotel award nights are safe.  

These credit card points from banks like Chase, Amex, Capital One, and others aren’t going to expire. But the longer you wait to use them (or transfer them to an airline or hotel partner), the more likely you’ll need to transfer even more points to book an award ticket. 

There’s a simple reason why: Banks and airlines have been flooding the market with points and miles through a shocking number of huge credit card offers.

Amex keeps upping the ante with record-setting welcome offers on both *amex platinum* and *amex gold* and kept them around for many months. Capital One is still offering a 75,000-mile bonus on both the *capital one venture card* and the newer *venture x*. All the while, many banks have rolled out record-setting bonuses to their small business credit cards.

That’s great for consumers looking to earn more points for future travel now. But in the big picture, it spells trouble down the road: More and more (and more and more) miles sitting unused is bad for the airlines. In the points and miles world, it’s the equivalent of inflation. And that means more airlines will eventually increase the cost of awards to offset that huge sum of miles in the market.

Read more: Sick of Your Miles & Points Losing Value? You Can Thank The Banks For That

That painful process is already well underway. And it’s not done yet. So while your points (and many airline miles) may not expire, the best opportunities to put them to use do have an expiration date. 

If your goal is to use your points and miles wisely, all of this should give you the kick in the pants you need to get moving. That’s what I’ve done – in fact, I’ve used more Amex Membership Rewards points so far this year than what I’ve earned!

I get it: It’s overwhelming to learn all about what credit cards to open, what airline transfer partners to send your points to, which hubs to fly out of, how to find the award space you can actually book with points and miles, and on and on. If you need a little assistance, your friends at Thrifty Traveler Premium have been sending more award alerts for points deals than ever – we’re here to help. 

Focus on Flexible Credit Card Points

How do you beat these airlines and loyalty programs at these dirty games? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: Focus on earning transferrable credit card points rather than piling up miles on one airline or hotel chain.

Co-branded airline credit cards like the *delta skymiles gold card*, the *united explorer*, or the Citi / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard can offer a ton of value for loyal flyers on those airlines. They typically come with free checked luggage, priority boarding … and from time to time, big welcome offer bonuses. Having one of these cards in your wallet for your preferred airline is worth it for anyone who travels more than a couple of times each year.

But as valuable as those benefits might be, that doesn’t mean you should swipe them everywhere you go – just the opposite. While it may seem smart to keep adding to your balance of Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus miles, or American Airlines AAdvantage miles, you can do much better.

Read more: Why You Shouldn’t Be Putting Everything on Your Airline Card

More often than not, you’ll be better served by leaning more heavily on a flexible points credit card like the *chase sapphire preferred*, *venture x*, or the *amex gold*.

Consider Amex Membership Rewards points, for example. Points from cards like *amex platinum* and *amex gold* can be transferred to more than 20 different Amex transfer partners like Avianca LifeMiles, Air Canada Aeroplan, Qatar Airways, Hilton Honors, and many more. 

See our list of the best credit card offers this month!

If you’re earning Delta SkyMiles – and only Delta SkyMiles – and Delta decides to raise award rates again, you’re stuck. But with flexible Amex points, the pain of one or two airlines devaluing their mileage programs is easier to stomach: You’ve still got 18 or 19 other options. Just like financial advisers will tell you to diversify investments, doing the same with points is crucial. 

Read more: Why You Need to Diversify Your Points & Miles Earnings in 2024

Plan Ahead, Be Flexible & Decisive

Even if you’re a points and miles millionaire, you may be facing more and more roadblocks to actually redeem those points – particularly for top-dollar business and first class seats.

That hinges on the black-and-white issue of award availability: Is an airline allowing you to book that seat with miles or not? And airlines abroad are increasingly blocking travelers in America – whose credit card and frequent flyer ecosystem dwarfs the rest of the world – from booking their best seats.

In many cases, putting your points to use is harder than it was just a few years ago. But there’s an surefire way to combat this:  Book early – nearly a full year in advance – or at the very last minute. 

Just give this broke points and miles writer a chance to explain.

Much like the constantly changing world of flight prices, award availability can be unpredictable, varying wildly from airline to airline. But there’s a general rule of thumb: It’s often easiest to find the best or cheapest award tickets between eight and 12 months before you plan to travel.

It also depends on how early airlines allow you to book in advance.

For example, Qatar Airways allows you to book its incredible Qsuites business class as far as 361 days in advance when redeeming its own Qatar Avios miles, while American Airlines only allows you to book the same flights with American AAdvantage miles 331 days in advance. That gives travelers using Avios a one-month edge to snap up precious award space before flyers using AAdvantage miles get a chance. 

Just keep in mind: Airlines don’t necessarily release award seats on all their flights exactly when the calendar opens up for booking. Rather, these timeframes should be used as a guide to let you know when you should start searching for award availability.

On the other end of the spectrum, many airlines have a clear habit of releasing business or first class award seats for last-minute travel, letting you book just 30 days in advance or less. 

Booking a lie-flat seat to Australia or New Zealand is often nearly impossible, as airlines are incredibly stingy with award space. But I’ve had lots of luck booking United Polaris business class flights to Australia just a few weeks or even days before departure. More recently, I snagged some sweet Japan Airlines business class redemptions to Asia for a last-minute trip in the near future. 

Now more than ever, flexibility is key for putting your points to use. 

Take this Japan Airlines business class flight departing out of Seattle (SEA), for instance. I really wanted to fly this route last week, but the airline canceled the flight because of typhoon Ampil. And all of the remaining flights to rebook a trip with my dad that worked for our schedules had limited availability. 

The dates that worked for me only had one seat, which did me no good. Instead, I flew down to San Diego (SAN) to book another Japan Airlines business class flight to Tokyo. Was it perfect? No. But I booked it anyway. 

If you’re trying to use your points, you need to be flexible and decisive. Book now, ask questions later … because if you snooze, you often lose. And as we’ve already covered, the flights you’re looking at today could go up in price tomorrow. 

Fortunately, many frequent flyer programs now offer fully refundable award tickets. Book a ticket with your miles that you later find doesn’t work? No problem: Cancel and get your points (and any taxes and fees) right back – sometimes with a small penalty. That’s much better than the airline voucher you’ll typically get when canceling a ticket booked with cash. 

That additional flexibility is incredibly valuable, giving you just one more reason to put your points to use ASAP. And it’s especially useful for someone like me, who books and rebooks (and rebooks again) many flights and trips in pursuit of the best deal possible. 

Embrace the Cycle of Earning & Burning to Get Ahead

I’ve said it before but I need to say it again: Do not hoard your points and miles! 

It’s easy to feel powerless against the airlines and their constant award rate hikes. The way to beat them at their own game is to earn the most valuable points you can and redeem them as soon as you can. Earn more, redeem more. Earn more again, redeem more again. 

That’s it. If you just let your points and miles balance sit, you’ll be missing out on potentially worthwhile travel opportunities – and your travel rewards will gradually become less valuable.

Too many travelers obsess over squeezing every single penny out of each point for the most valuable redemptions that they won’t use them at all. We call it points paralysis. But you need to resist that urge. The purpose of points and miles is to use them. 

We can’t tell you the exact best way to use your points and miles. That’s a personal decision that only you can make, based on what you’ve got and where you want to go. Nobody knows your travels better than you.

But if there’s one maxim we can share, it’s this: Use your points and miles for a trip you otherwise wouldn’t take. Whether that’s a roundtrip to Europe in lie-flat business class for 100,000 miles or three roundtrips in economy for that mileage rate is up to you. There’s no single right or wrong way to redeem miles. Wait too long, and those miles are all-but-certain to get less valuable.

Read more: Stop Waiting! Now’s the Time to Use Your Points and Miles!

Take it from me: The best award deals will disappear. But the ability to keep earning points won’t.

We’re all for finding ways to maximize how many points you earn, whether it’s from from massive credit card welcome bonuses or maximizing how many points you earn on everyday spending by using online shopping portals or the best credit cards for restaurants or grocery stores.

Just remember: Credit cards are serious business. No matter how many points you earn through a welcome bonus, they’re not worth digging yourself into debt if you can’t afford to pay off every single charge you make.

But if you can do it responsibly, continually earning points through new welcome offers (and optimizing your everyday spending) is the best way to protect yourself against airlines’ games while replenishing the balance of points you’re regularly redeeming. With that mindset, my current zero balance of points won’t stay at zero for very long – at least until the next deal comes around.

Being a points and miles millionaire is not all it’s cracked up to be. Ask yourself what you would rather have: A million points? Or the memories from an amazing trip to Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, or beyond using some of those points? To me, that’s an easy answer. 

Some big spenders and diehard points and miles aficionados might not have to make that choice. For the rest of us, though, that’s the reality.

After taking some amazing trips this year – including to Australia, Hawaii, Paris, Vietnam, and now Japan – I’m at peace with my choice. 

Bottom Line

I may have practically zero points to my name right now. But I also took a father-and-son weekend trip to Paris, got engaged in Honolulu, and helped take my entire family to Vietnam this year. And those cherished memories are worth more to me than an infinite amount of points.

That’s because I’m constantly earning points that I quickly turn around and redeem, knowing I can always pile up more for the next big trip. It’s an earn-and-burn strategy that most travelers would be wise to adopt.