Miles and points are generally best used to book flights and hotels. Many airline and hotel programs offer the opportunity to do lots of other things with your miles and points — like buying merchandise, subscribing to magazines, and so on. Some even offer the opportunity to book “experiences” through a platform that resembles Viator/Klook/etc. Almost all of those redemptions are done at awful value. However, a few programs offer some really cool experiences that money can’t easily buy. Rather writing a complete roundup (like this one that Greg published a few years ago), I wanted to highlight a few cool experiences that I’ve run across lately while browsing opportunities.
Capital One Entertainment Cardholder Exclusives
Direct link to Capital One Cardholder Exclusives
Capital One Entertainment is perhaps best known for its Cardholder Exclusive Major League Baseball tickets. For the past few years, they have offered 4 tickets to every regular season Major League Baseball game exclusively for Capital One consumer credit cardholders for 5,000 miles or $40 in Cash Back rewards per ticket, with those “Cardholder Exclusive” tickets typically being for seats close to the field where normal ticket prices are significantly higher. For instance, I sat in seats at both Citi Field and Yankee Stadium in New York City in recent years that were otherwise going for $200+ per seat.
This year’s Cardholder Exclusive baseball tickets aren’t available yet (you can buy tickets with miles, but you’ll get a terrible value at 0.8c per mile — you want to wait until the cardholder exclusives become available, which I expect might happen any day for the first couple months of the season given that Major League Baseball will see its earliest opening day ever this year).
Capital One Entertainment continues to make other interesting experiences available with miles, also. For instance, they have a couple of times offered the chance to be a co-captain of the game at a Washington Wizards NBA basketball game, which includes a pre-game meeting with the captains of the teams.
That would be an awesome experience for an NBA fan, and one that you couldn’t otherwise buy. I’ve checked the site periodically and I’ve seen a few different games listed, but they’re always sold out before I see them.
They’ve also offered ticket packages to see tapings of some popular shows like the Kelly Clarkson Show, Late Night with Seth Myers, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Perplexingly, Capital One does an awful job of notifying people about the experiences available. Almost all of the cardholder exclusives are currently sold out, and the only way we have known when baseball tickets were available has either been because I stumbled on it myself or a reader pointed out that tickets were available again. When NCAA March Madness tickets came out last year, we received an announcement about it from a PR person about a week after we’d posted about the tickets going on sale, which was long after tickets had sold out.
Your best hope of getting a cool Capital One Entertainment deal is to log on regularly and check what’s available.
Qatar Avios experiences
Direct link to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Collection
Qatar Airways often flies under the radar, offering some really cool experiences with Avios that don’t get much attention.
For instance, you can currently bid on ticket packages to various European soccer matches that include the chance to watch warmups from the field and get lounge access including food and beverages. The Manchester City vs Real Madrid game shown below has the highest bid at the time of writing — some games are currently at fewer than 10K Avios.
Qatar must have partnerships with Barclays Center in New York and O2 in London because they often offer tickets to events in both venues. They also get some really random things, like a signed Dariq Whitehead jersey. The current bid of 10,200 Avios seems a little high to me for a player currently on assignment on a developmental G-league team, but it’s probably a relatively unique item.
As I said, they often have tickets to events at Barclays Center, and since they don’t seem to do much to make people aware of their platform, I often see events that seem underbid, like 2 suitebox tickets to a comedy show that are currently at just over 1,000 Avios.
And if you’re going to be in London and you like pop or country music, they have tickets to events like Sabrina Carpenter at O2 and the “C2C: Country to Country” music festival (which features Lainey Wilson and Dierks Bentley among others). VIP tickets to those events would probably be desirable enough, but note that many of the O2 events include a 400 GBP voucher for food & beverage.
Even if you don’t see anything that catches your eye right now, note that new things pop in from time to time.
Marriott Bonvoy Moments
Direct link to Marriott Bonvoy Moments
Marriott Bonvoy Moments probably tend to get more competitive given the number of people with large stashes of Marriott points, but Marriott nonetheless offers some similarly interesting packages. For instance, you can get tickets to the same Sabrina Carpenter concert with box seats that include food & drink and a two-night stay at a Moxy hotel. I’d bet that packages through Marriott will end quite a bit higher, but it could be worth checking.
Marriott has some other intriguing packages like a weekend with tickets to University of Tennessee basketball games (both men’s and women’s), a meet-and-greet with the play-by-play announcer, pre-game hospitality, and a two-night hotel stay.
A similar University of North Carolina game included an on-court photo op.
Marriott has some really random experiences, too — like a round of golf with a Chicago Cubs alum.
I wouldn’t personally find it worthwhile to spend 50,000 Marriott points on a round of golf with a Cubs alum, but if I golfed and was a Chicago cubs fan, I imagine that might be the kind of experience I probably couldn’t get otherwise.
Choice Privileges NASCAR experiences
Direct link to Choice Privileges auctions
If you’re a racing fan, you’ll want to keep an eye on Choice Privileges. They’ve partnered up with Trackhouse Racing to offer VIP tickets to some NASCAR races that includes a tour of team transporter and pit row, a meet & greet with the driver and pit crew, and pre-race hospitality food & drink.
I’ve never gotten into NASCAR myself, but I imagine that meeting a driver and getting a tour of pit road would be a lot of fun for a fan.
Bottom line
The above certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of experiences with miles and points. During our Million Mile Madness, I had considered redeeming Emirates miles for soccer tickets in Europe. Stephen has written about redeeming Hilton points for drinks in the underwater restaurant in the Maldives. IHG, United, and many other programs offer some mechanism for booking activities that can sometimes be a good value. That said, I get most excited about redeeming points and miles for experiences that seem out of reach. Whether it’s a round of golf with a former MLB player, suite box tickets to a hot concert, or hanging out courtside at a major sporting event, several platforms offer the chance to pick up those out-of-reach or impossible-to-buy type of experiences. Availability changes constantly, but it’s worth taking a look now and then because you can sometimes pick up a steal if you keep your eyes peeled.
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Accor ALL has some pretty amazing deals on suites at the ALL arena in Australia, and Paris St Germain using their points as well. Not exactly next door however….
This hobby is so much fun. After a lifetime of extensive regular travel, all you FM helpers have made it fun again with aspirational properties, business class seats, and exciting opportunities. We bid on the Kentucky Derby packages before covid and had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The package included a guide, transportation, private section with unlimited food and drinks for 2 full days at the track, as well as hotel-which was not the greatest but I found out afterward, all the prices during the Derby are astronomical. I kind of thought my traveling days were over but your site has actually made it fun again to travel!
So sad Marriott didn’t renew their suite at MSG. Don’t be fooled by low prices since most bidding occurs in the last 10 minutes of the auction. Amounts tend to skyrocket then.
Also, you must have points in your account to cover the bid so programs like Qatar are more risky of having points left there if you lose the bid. Yes, there are transfer options to mitigate some risk.