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Reward Travel Program Tips

Never forget, points and miles are a type of currency. Just because they don’t have a dollar sign in front of them doesn’t mean that they’re not a source of value. But if you remember these eight rules for points and miles (reward travel programs), and you’ll be better off than 99% of travelers.

Most of the tips that we discuss in this blog will relate to one of these eight rules, even if only tangentially. But always remember this: programs that you are loyal to aren’t always loyal back.


A quote by Mike and Mike created while arguing about award travel.

Eight Rules of Points and Miles

  1. Always sign up for every (non-casino) free reward travel program, no matter how infrequently you use it. You never know when it will come in handy for you. (We will cover strategies for casino loyalty programs at a later date.)
  2. Never, ever buy anything online without getting a discount or rebate.
  3. Loyalty programs are nothing of the kind. They are incentives to influence future purchases, not reward you for previous ones.
  4. Do not hoard points and miles. They don’t earn interest and are not a retirement account. In fact, they devalue over time. Unless you have a specific goal in mind, just have enough miles for a few emergency trips and spend the rest.
  5. Whenever possible, use points with the merchant that gave them to you. A Hilton point, for example, will give you more value at a Hilton hotel than it will if you exchange it into airline miles.
  6. Credit cards can be your best friend or your worst enemy. They come with huge sign-up and spending bonuses, but if you don’t pay your bill in full at the end of every month, the interest charges will eat you alive. Use them wisely. (These are some of our favorite credit cards, and we will be discussing this a bit more in future articles.)
  7. Let value guide all of your decisions. It usually doesn’t make sense to pay twice as much for a ticket because it happens to be on an airline where you usually earn miles. The miles are nice, but they’re not that nice.
  8. Never spend airline miles if you are getting less than one cent per mile in value. Remember, that’s a minimum. You should be trying to get closer to two cents per mile, more if you’re flying a premium class of service. This rule does not apply to hotel points.

Further reading on points and miles, reward travel and award travel: