Redeeming miles and points for award flights sometimes isn’t that easy – in some cases you can simply go to the website and book your desired flight. However, in a lot of cases, it doesn’t work like that and instead you’ll need to research what is available before you decide on a flight and the more flexible you are and the more miles and points you have in different accounts, the more success you’ll have finding something that works for you. Making sure you diversify your miles and points portfolio is very important.
Diversify Points with Multiple Bank Programs
The best type of points you can collect are those flexible and transferable points that you earn in a bank program. The reason why these are golden is because most of the time you can transfer them instantly to many airlines at a 1:1 ratio. There are some exceptions to this, but that’s mostly the case.
You’ll ideally want to collect points in at least two of these transferable bank programs so you have access to a wide variety of airlines around the world (and the partners of those airlines).
The best bank programs are American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards – if you have these two types of points, you can book almost any award flight in the world if there is availability. These points usually transfer to most airlines instantly and at a 1:1 ratio meaning you can book an award flight as soon as you find it.
Collect Miles with Airlines Hard to Get
There are some airlines that have great frequent flyer programs but it is much harder to earn those miles if you don’t actively fly with that airline or their partners. For example, American Airlines miles have great value when redeeming on oneworld and other airline partners, but they’re hard to earn since you can only transfer them in from Marriott Bonvoy.
If possible, you should also occasionally collect these more valuable miles that you can’t easily get by transferring points in. In the case of AA, you could open a credit card just to get those specific miles.
Some airline frequent flyer programs still maintain great award charts and part of that is because those miles are much harder to earn so the program can still maintain good value since there isn’t a bunch of people transferring points in.
Diversify Points with Hotel Chains
You’re able to transfer points to hotel chains from some bank programs, but in most cases it isn’t worth it since you won’t be getting good value. The only exception is transfers from Chase to Hyatt – where the ratio is 1:1 and Hyatt points are actually worth a lot, unlike with other hotel chains.
If you’re able to collect Marriott Bonvoy points, you should as these transfer to over 40 airlines. However, the transfer isn’t instant and takes a few days – that’s fine if an airline allows award holds, but most don’t. Since award space constantly changes, it’s hard to redeem Marriott points for good value award flights if you don’t have the ability to put them on hold while the points transfer. You could make speculative transfers to some airlines that offer great value, but this is generally only a good idea if you’re flexible and plan to use up those points soon.
Diversity in Your Portfolio is Important
Having a diverse miles and points portfolio is very important because then you’ll have access to many airlines and their partners all around the world. As every airline has at least a few partners, the possibilities are endless. Collecting points with at least two bank programs and a few airlines is a very good idea if you’re keen on booking the best flights.
However, you also shouldn’t over-diversify your miles and points because you don’t want to end up with a few thousand points in random accounts that you can’t realistically redeem in the future. You should create a plan and strategy based on where you want to travel and how that fits in with the best programs that can fly you there.
Flexibility is Key
Having miles and points in many programs is great, but with award flights, you also need to have some flexibility – be open to other flights or even destinations if you can’t book your desired award. The more choices and ideas you have on how to redeem your miles, the better – peak and fixed travel dates will always make it harder to find good-value redemptions and sometimes it is indeed better to use cash and save miles for another time. Always compare the cost of a flight in miles and in cash prior to booking.