Travel Tips and Tricks
A Beginners Guide to Miles and Points
by Aaron W
★★★★★
Who is this for?
I’m writing this guide to help people use points and discounts to maximize their travel. The information comes from a combination of personal experience and insights gathered from various travel sites. My hope is that this guide saves you time and money, just as it has for me. I’ll share my lessons learned and provide tools to help you embark on your own travel adventures.
Three years ago, my wife and I began exploring the world of points and miles. Since then, we’ve flown our family of four to destinations like the Bahamas, Japan (twice), Paris, London, Dublin, Iceland, San Diego, Anaheim, Orlando, and Hawaii (twice)—all on points, with many future trips already in the works.
In addition to these incredible trips, we’ve seen our credit scores rise and our travel experiences improve significantly, thanks to perks like lounge access, Global Entry, and rental car and hotel status benefits. The strategy is straightforward: focus on credit card sign-up bonuses (SUBs), direct your spending strategically to meet the SUB requirements, and always pay off balances monthly to avoid interest. From there, use your points in the most financially advantageous way, maximizing your "cents per point" (CPP) to book flights and hotels efficiently.
This hobby isn’t for everyone—it requires financial discipline, organization, and strong research skills to be successful. If you don’t pay off your credit cards in full each month, this system will not make financial sense.
Understanding Credit Card Points
Not all miles and points are created equal. Credit card points can be earned by signing up for a credit card and making purchases, allowing you to accumulate points within that bank’s rewards ecosystem. Each bank offers its own system where points can be redeemed for travel, cash back, discounts, or purchases. Some banks also offer travel-specific credit cards that allow you to use points directly for travel or transfer them to airline and hotel partners.
For example:
Chase Bank offers the Sapphire line of travel credit cards, with points known as Ultimate Rewards (UR). These points have a base value of 1.25 or 1.5 cents per point, depending on the specific Sapphire card.
American Express rewards are called Membership Rewards (MR) Points.
Capital One uses the term Capital One Miles, tied to their “Venture” travel cards.
To attract customers, credit card companies often offer sign-up bonuses (SUBs). These bonuses vary and typically require you to spend a certain amount of money within a specified time frame to earn them.
When it’s time to redeem your points, you have several options:
Use the bank’s travel portal: Book directly through the app or website for a redemption rate of 1 to 1.5 cents per point.
Receive a travel statement credit: Redeem points for purchases made on the card, often at a similar rate.
Transfer points to travel partners: For the highest value, transfer points to an airline or hotel partner and book directly. This can yield a cents-per-point (CPP) value of 3 to 6 cents, maximizing your points.
Understanding Points and Miles Value
Credit card points and miles work like currencies, each with fluctuating values and unique rules. Not all points are equally valuable, so it’s important to calculate the CPP and confirm availability before transferring points to a travel partner.
Examples as of when this was written:
Hilton: One night at the Hilton Waikiki costs 75,000 Hilton points or $341 if paid in cash. Dividing $341 by 75,000 gives a CPP of $0.004.
Hyatt: One night at the Hyatt House Waikiki costs 15,000 Hyatt points or $242. This equates to a CPP of $0.016, nearly three times the value of Hilton points.
Airline and Hotel-Specific Credit Cards
In addition to the general travel credit cards, there are airline and hotel-specific credit cards. These cards earn miles or points that can only be used within their respective programs. While they don’t allow transfers to other partners, they often provide excellent sign-up bonuses and perks, making them worth considering for specific travel goals.
Additional Tips and Tools
Avoid using credit card travel portals.
You need a travel credit card to transfer to partner airlines. You can’t transfer Chase ink Points to British Airways but you can transfer your Chase Ink points to your Chase Sapphire then transfer to British Airways.
Don’t transfer your points to a particular airline until you have confirmed there is award availability for the flight you want. Bonus if the bank is offering a transfer bonus when you are ready to make purchase.
The best redemptions are usually international flights
For the best opportunity to get business class seats you need to be flexible and plan 11 months out.
Hotel redemptions are typically of poor value except for Hyatt properties which is only a transfer partner of Chase.
Recommended Tools and Resources
Apps/Websites:
Seats.aero and Points.me for award searches.
Budgeting apps like YNAB to track spending.
Communities:
Reddit /r/churning and MaxMilesPoints for tips and best practices.
10Xtravel.com
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