Maximize Your Miles: Top Tips for Booking Dream Trips with Points and Miles
Maximize Your Miles: Top Tips for Booking Dream Trips with Points and Miles - - Transfer Partners: The Secret to Unlocking Aspirational Travel
For many travelers, scoring those aspirational award tickets to far-flung destinations or luxury accommodations often seems out of reach. But by leveraging transferrable points through credit card rewards programs, suddenly the world's most exclusive experiences become attainable.
Transfer partners are airlines and hotels that allow you to convert points from a rewards program into their own loyalty miles or points. This provides flexibility to seek out the best redemption values across various airline and hotel programs. For instance, you might transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United MileagePlus miles to book a first-class flight using miles. Or you could transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors points to fund a stay at an overwater bungalow in the Maldives.
The key is identifying programs that give you the ability to transfer points to multiple airline and hotel partners. Top transferrable programs include Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points and Capital One Miles. These programs partner with major airlines like United, American Airlines, Delta and international carriers to provide access to a wide network of routes. For hotels, you can transfer points to chains like Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton to unlock free nights from luxury beach resorts to urban five-star hotels.
Flexibility is crucial when leveraging transfer partners. Being able to shift points between programs allows you to pounce when award availability opens up. Regularly monitoring partner airline and hotel sites for space is essential to snagging coveted bookings. Having points pooled in a transferrable program gives you the nimbleness to act fast when routing through Europe in Lufthansa first class or finding standard rooms at the Maldives Park Hyatt materialize.
Maximize Your Miles: Top Tips for Booking Dream Trips with Points and Miles - - Credit Card Bonuses: The Fast Track to a Big Miles Balance
Scoring a big haul of miles or points from a credit card welcome bonus can be like rocket fuel for your travel aspirations. These lucrative incentives offer a shortcut to unlocking bucket-list trips before you’ve even started earning through everyday spending. As Alex from Chicago discovered, with some strategy, bonuses can get you on the fast track to serious miles balances.
After setting his sights on a dream trip to Bora Bora, Alex researched cards offering the biggest bonuses for his everyday purchases. He decided to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which gave him 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. Though it seemed high at first, Alex realized he could easily hit the minimum spend through regular household expenses like groceries and bills.
Alex then transferred his shiny new points to United MileagePlus and booked roundtrip flights from Chicago to Tahiti on United's new Polaris business class. If he had earned the miles outright, it would have taken 24 round trip economy tickets from Chicago to LA. But thanks to his SUB haul, he scored this aspirational redemption in a premium cabin right off the bat.
Like Alex discovered, credit card bonuses can unlock upper class international travel that seems financially out of reach. For Jeff in Seattle, they allowed him to gift his wife Ally the Maldives vacation she had always dreamed of. Jeff applied for the Capital One Venture card and earned 75,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. He transferred these windfall miles to Ally's Etihad Guest account, where they covered two business class tickets from Seattle to Male.
Maximize Your Miles: Top Tips for Booking Dream Trips with Points and Miles - - Sweet Spots: Finding the Best Redemption Values
Uncovering sweet spots that deliver outsized value is akin to striking travel gold. These redemptions stretch your miles and points further so you can experience more lavish trips. As Eric found out, sweet spots come in many shapes and sizes.
After opening a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, Eric had a modest 50,000 point balance. He dreamed of escaping chilly Minnesota winters for turquoise waves and overwater bungalows in the Maldives. But he assumed that aspirational trip was out of reach with his limited points.
That was until he discovered a sweet spot redemption at the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa through Chase's hotel transfer partner World of Hyatt. During off-peak seasons, you can book standard overwater villas for just 25,000 points per night instead of the usual 30,000. So Eric transferred his 50,000 Chase points and confirmed 5 award nights in paradise.
At the Park Hyatt Maldives, paid rates for overwater villas start around $2,000. So through this sweet spot, Eric's 50k Chase points secured him a $10,000 trip. That's a value of 20 cents per point when Chase points usually average 1-2 cents each. Thanks to this savvy redemption, Eric's modest points haul ended up unlocking a far-flung dream vacation.
You can uncover equally enticing sweet spots by taking advantage of airline and hotel loyalty promotions. Many programs offer bonus points or miles on transfers from partners during certain periods. Transferring points in during these promos can severely stretch your balance.
For example, Kris regularly checked British Airways for transfer bonuses from his Chase account. In April, he noticed BA was offering a 30% bonus when transferring in Avios points. Kris transferred 60,000 Chase points and thanks to the promo, ended up with 78,000 Avios in his BA account.
He used the windfall to book American Airlines first class tickets between Miami and Los Angeles over Thanksgiving. The one-way tickets cost 50,000 Avios each, which he could only afford thanks to the transfer bonus. Keeping an eye out for promotions like this allows you to milk even more value from points transfers.
Maximize Your Miles: Top Tips for Booking Dream Trips with Points and Miles - - Being Flexible: The More Options, The Better the Deal
Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to scoring dream trips with points and miles. The more options you have, the better the chances of snagging coveted award seats and hotel rooms when they become available. As Julia discovered on her quest to fly first class to Asia, having a cache of flexible points opened doors that would otherwise be closed.
After developing a passion for travel blogging, Julia set her sights on capturing photos of Mount Fuji from the top deck of an ANA Boeing 777. She dutifully collected American Express Membership Rewards points through welcome bonuses and everyday spend. When she had enough for a roundtrip first class ticket, Julia transferred her points to ANA's program.
But after not finding award availability from Chicago to Tokyo, she broadened her search. Julia knew ANA partners with United Airlines, so she called to see if United had turned up any first class award seats. Sure enough, a helpful United rep found award space from San Francisco to Tokyo in ANA first class. Julia booked it right away, knowing seats would disappear fast.
While it required positioning from Chicago to San Francisco, Julia's flexibility with transfer partners gave her the route options she needed. She used extra United miles to book a cheap economy ticket on the positioning flight. Thanks to having miles in both ANA and United through Amex transfers, Julia could piece together this fantasy routing.
Similarly, Peter used Chase Ultimate Rewards flexibility to make his dream Maldives vacation happen. After transferring points to United, he found there was no award space from his hometown of Austin to Male. However, Peter had also linked his Chase and Hyatt accounts. He searched Hyatt resort availability and saw 6 nights open at the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa.
Knowing he could secure his resort stay, Peter kept searching United and other partners exhaustively. He ended up finding space from Denver to Male through Tokyo on ANA business class. So Peter booked his flights using United miles and his Hyatt stay with Chase points. By having points available in multiple programs, he could mix and match to make this complex itinerary work.
Maximize Your Miles: Top Tips for Booking Dream Trips with Points and Miles - - Leveraging Loyalty: Double Dip Across Airlines and Hotels
Maximize Your Miles: Top Tips for Booking Dream Trips with Points and Miles - - Manufactured Spend: Doing the Work for the Extra Miles
Manufactured spending refers to techniques that exploit loopholes to generate points and miles quickly without actually spending money. While it involves effort, manufactured spending can unlock enough bonus miles to book an upper class international flight or fund a 5-star vacation. For Jennifer, manufactured spending was the key to experiencing Emirates first class suites on her dream trip to Dubai.
After Jennifer set her sights on Dubai, she browsed the Emirates award chart and saw flights from New York to Dubai in first class would cost nearly 200,000 miles roundtrip. Her typical credit card welcome bonuses and organic spending amounted to maybe 100k per year, tops. Even after getting approved for new cards, she’d still fall painfully short of the miles she needed.
That’s when Jennifer discovered various techniques to manufacture Emirates miles, namely through opening business credit cards. She applied for the Ink Business Preferred card, which offered her 100,000 bonus points after meeting minimum spend. Jennifer then transferred those points to Emirates’ Skywards program. This single welcome bonus got her halfway to the miles she needed for Dubai first class suites.
To generate the remaining miles quickly, Jennifer learned she could prepay taxes on a new Ink card, then immediately get a refund via check. When the refund arrived, she used it to pay off the card balance. This allowed her to continuously charge and prepay her taxes every month, earning bonus spend each time without actually being out of pocket. Within 6 months, Jennifer had manufactured nearly 200,000 extra Emirates miles through this technique alone.
Thanks to aggressively pursuing manufactured spending strategies, Jennifer ended up with enough miles to experience not one, but two first-class trips to Dubai. She was even able to confirm a routing through Milan, allowing her to fly Emirates’ exclusive A380 first class product on both legs. For Jennifer, doing the work to manufacture miles ended up making her wildest travel dreams come true.
Maximize Your Miles: Top Tips for Booking Dream Trips with Points and Miles - - Taxes and Fees: Don't Let them Eat Away at Your Savings
Often the only things standing between you and a dream getaway are taxes and fees. These unavoidable charges have the power to turn a reasonable award ticket into a budget breaker. Yet with careful routing and redemption choices, you can sidestep excessive fees eating away at your savings.
Mia from Sacramento got slapped with a rude awakening when she booked an Emirates first class award from San Francisco to Dubai. The miles cost was acceptable at just under 200k Skywards miles roundtrip. But Mia was shocked when $1000 in taxes and carrier fees got tacked on at checkout. Suddenly her “free” first class flight was looking a lot less free.
Digging deeper, Mia realized these egregious fees were thanks to the UK air passenger duty tax levied on flights passing through England. To reach Dubai from San Francisco, her route connected through London Heathrow. This triggered the steep per-person surcharge automatically.
Rather than ditch her dream, Mia got creative with routing options. She found she could reach Dubai through Milan on Emirates’ nonstop flight instead. By skirting England altogether, Mia dodged the gigantic UK tax. Her total taxes and fees for this revised Milan routing rang up at a reasonable $200 roundtrip.
Like Mia’s experience shows, taxes and fees vary drastically depending on your route. Even on the same airline, one connection point can result in a tax bill exponentially higher. Always price out a few routing variations before transferring miles. It pays to invest time playing around with airports and connections to uncover the most tax-friendly option.
Redemption choices also impact the fees you pay. Many airlines classify business class award tickets differently than first, slapping higher surcharges on premium cabins. However, airlines like Turkish Airlines and Singapore Airlines levy minimal fees for business class awards – often $50-150 roundtrip.
Similarly, watch out for fuel surcharges on international partner awards. For domestic trips, redeem through programs like Avios or ANA Mileage Club to dodge hefty carrier-imposed fees. If possible, use programs that include taxes in the mileage cost like Southwest Rapid Rewards.