How Points and Miles Have Changed How I Travel
I’ve heard about credit card points and airline miles for years and had a general idea of what they were, but my world completely changed back in 2022 when I realized what you could actually do with points and miles. (And not gonna lie, sometimes it feels like I’m trying to push an MLM every time I talk about them, LOL. I promise there is no MLM whatsoever! 😆)
In 2021, I got my Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card (when the welcome sign up bonus was its best-ever 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points). I held onto the points for a while and ended up using around 30,000 of them to book round trip flights to Seattle for a gymnastics meet.
I was so upset that the flight was so expensive (in dollars, which is why I used that many points in the portal), I actually cried when I booked those tickets. Now, I’d cry for a different reason. It pains me that I used those extremely valuable points for that booking! Using points and miles like that is a rite of passage, I think. You live and learn from mistakes.
Fast forward to now: Korri and I have flown round-trip business class to Germany and to the U.K. using points and miles, and we are currently earning more for future travel plans. Getting into this hobby has totally changed the way I travel, and below, I shared all the ways my travels have changed because of points and miles!
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How Points and Miles Have Changed How I Travel
If you aren’t immersed into the points and miles hobby, it is nothing like what you may think. It’s a world beyond the travel portal (this means booking flights and/or hotels through a third party, like Chase Travel). It’s a world beyond putting every dollar you spend on one credit card to rack up points with only that one bank/currency.
Below, I listed all the ways that the points and miles hobby changed how I plan trips and how I (and Korri) travel in general. I shared what I used to do and what I do now. Can you relate to anything that I used to do? If you’re also into the points and miles hobby, how has that changed how you travel?
Google Flights serves a different purpose
What I used to do: Use Google Flights to search round-trip flights, then go to the airline’s website and book direct.
What I do now: I still use Google Flights, but it does not show points pricing, so I don’t use it to look at the prices unless I’m paying cash. Instead, I use it to figure out which airlines fly segments of routes from Boise to my destination. (For example, if I’m searching flights from Boise to Frankfurt, I’ll look at which airlines fly in between connecting airports and Frankfurt.)
Then, I search each specific airline or alliance and find out the points price of the flights from there. It involves a lot of piecing together itineraries (more on that below).
Spend more time looking for flights
What I used to do: Search for flights to a predetermined destination, maybe consider a couple of airlines, wait a few days or weeks to try to catch the flights on sale, then book flights.
What I do now: If I’m planning to purchase tickets using points and miles, I know it’s going to require a LOT more of a time commitment. I spend way more time checking multiple airlines and multiple starting and ending destinations. I also spend more time running practice searches, which requires searching every month (and sometimes every day in every month) as far out into the future as possible to try to see when the best award tickets drop.
Book one-way tickets
What I used to do: Book round-trip tickets, always. And if I was flying with someone else, we’d be on the same reservation.
What I do now: Book one-way tickets, usually on my own reservation, even if I am traveling with other people.
Fly separate airlines in the same trip
What I used to do: See above! I used to book round-trip tickets every time, which meant flying with the same airline the entire trip.
What I do now: Piece together an itinerary with different airlines if necessary. For example, we flew Singapore Air to both Germany and the UK. To get to NYC (for Germany) and Houston (for the UK) required us to book separate tickets on Alaska/American and Southwest to reposition ourselves for the long-haul flights. The trick is to leave a LARGE buffer between flights (like staying overnight) just in case—more on that next!
Repositioning / staying a night in a hotel before a long-haul flight
What I used to do: Book an entire itinerary from my starting location to my final destination on the same airline and with no overnight layover.
What I do now: See the point above (fly separate airlines in the same trip). If we are using points, I’ll piece together an itinerary, and that usually involves flying separate airlines, especially because not every airline serves Boise and we don’t have an international airport. If we book long-haul flights, I’ll get us to that international airport the day prior (or many, many hours ahead of time) so that we have a buffer in case we have delays. This unfortunately does require taking an extra day or two off of work (or shortening a trip abroad).
Fly long-haul in business class
What I used to do: Book economy for long-haul flights and stare longingly at the people boarding in business class, then tell myself that we were going to the same place in the same amount of time so it didn’t matter that I was in the back. (Can you relate? 😆)
What I do now: Book business class for long-haul flights. I knew once Korri and I flew business class to Germany that we’d be screwed for the rest of our lives. We aren’t able to travel as much as others and can maybe squeeze in one international trip a year, so might as well make it comfortable!
Search and sort by points price
What I used to do: Book flights based on cash price. I rarely looked at points price, unless I was planning to fly Southwest.
What I do now: Check points price of each flight before booking with cash. Sometimes I’d rather save my points and use cash (domestic trips). For long-haul international flights, I’m always looking at points prices now because my goal is to fly business on those.
Pick connecting airport with lounge access
What I used to do: Not care that much about where I connected besides considering the time of year and how weather could affect flight operations.
What I do now: We get lounge access with our premium credit cards, so if we can, we layover in an airport with lounges that we can access. I still prefer short layovers (~1-2 hours), but for a long layover, hanging out in the lounge is worth it!
Consider upgrading more frequently
What I used to do: Never upgrade to a higher class.
What I do now: If I book an economy ticket, I check the price for upgrading to first class if it’s an option. I don’t upgrade every time I fly, but I’m more likely to upgrade now than I used to, especially if I used points on my original ticket and the cash price to upgrade isn’t crazy high. (I could also be more okay with it now that I’m getting older, ha.)
Keep a wish list of airlines and classes I want to fly in the future
What I used to do: Hear and watch videos about the “fancy” airlines and wish that I could fly that way someday.
What I do now: Thanks to points and miles, I’ve gotten to experience Singapore Airlines business class on two different trips. I truly feel so lucky! Even though Singapore’s service is some of the best, I also want to experience other airlines, and I’ve started a wish list. I’d love to fly pretty much any airline in business class, but ANA’s The Room is high on my list.
Use points to stay in hotels
What I used to do: Check Hotels.com and book a hotel with cash. Sometimes I booked direct instead of third party.
What I do now: I do still check Hotels.com, but I only book through them now if I don’t have points or a free night I plan to use or if I don’t get any special perks from booking direct. (Honestly, the changes to their rewards program has turned me off from using Hotels.com as much as I used to, which was basically all the time.)
I’ve booked multiple IHG hotels using points earned from that credit card plus free nights, and we also used Marriott free night certificates on two trips. Hyatt is a popular hotel transfer partner from Chase, so I check it frequently. I used to never look at the points price for hotels, and now I do check it more often even though I’ve never actually transferred my credit card points to any hotels yet. I prefer to save my points for flights right now!
