Beginner’s Guide to Points and Miles - How to Get Started With Travel Rewards

Every year thousands of dollars are being spent on travel, and whether you’re taking a short weekend trip domestically or a two week vacation abroad, you can benefit from the use of credit card rewards.  Now there is the other side to that coin which is cashback focused credit card rewards.  Since the focus of this blog is on travel rewards I want to focus on strategies and cards that earn either points specific to a particular hotel or airline brand, or cards that earn flexible point currencies.

Before we dive into how you can get started on your points and miles journey, let’s start by answering the question….what are points and miles?  To put it simply, points and miles are a currency that you earn from eligible spend on a credit card that can be used to pay for travel.  And I know what you’re thinking, there’s so many credit cards out there so how do I know where to start.  Let’s start by defining what you’re goals are.  Are you going to be traveling frequently where you’ll find yourself at airports a lot and you want to be able to chill out at a lounge?  Or are you going to travel every once in a while, and just want to have some points to pay for your flight and maybe your hotel room?  Depending on what you determine your travel needs to be will help you figure out which cards you want to target.

Next let’s look at the first decision you’ll have to make before even picking a credit card…do you want a card that pays in flexible points currency or one that’s co-branded to earn a specific brands points currency.  Now flexible points currency cards are credit cards that earn in a card company’s own dedicated points currency.  Two of the most popular flexible point currencies are Ultimate Rewards from Chase and Membership Rewards with American Express.  Some other big hitters in this space are Capitol One Miles from Capitol One and Bilt Rewards from Bilt.  The reason the points are considered “flexible” is because there are a number of transfer partners with each credit card brand in which you can transfer the points to.  This gives you the flexibility to use different airline brands for flights on one trip or use your points for a hotel stay on another trip.

Personally, the strategy that I’ve gone for is split between flexible points currency cards and dedicated brand cards.  In my last post “How Credit Card Points Have Saved Me Thousands On Travel”, I listed out the different cards that are in mine and my wife’s wallets.  When looking at the list of cards we hold you can see that I’ve chosen not to hold a specific airline’s credit card.  My strategy has been to mainly use our flexible points currency cards to pay for our flights.  On the other hand, you will notice that I do hold specific hotel branded credit cards.  My main go-to hotel brand is Hilton.  Now the reason that I do hold a hotel branded credit card is because you can find Hilton hotels pretty much anywhere globally.  The card I have allows me to earn points relatively quickly, despite Hilton Honors points not being valued as high.  So, the strategy is simple, amass as many Hilton points as I can.  Now you could say that airlines have their alliances and partners that could allow you to get to pretty much any global destination, but for me I like the flexibility of not being locked into any one alliance.  In my mind, it’s simpler to not get into all the different airline alliances and just transfer points to the brand I want to fly with.

So, let’s bring it back to where to start.  My advice would be to define your travel goals first.  What works for me and my wife may not work for you and your situation.  You may like a specific airline brand and want to earn status with them.  Or you may not be particular about the hotel you stay at or the status you hold with them, so you’re ok using your flexible points currencies to make sure you simply have a nice place to sleep on your travels.  And that’s the nice thing about the points and miles game; there is no right or wrong answer.  There is no right or wrong credit card setup.  At the end of the day, you build your setup around your goals for travel and optimize it till you find what works best for you!