The conventional wisdom in the miles and points community is that you should “earn and burn” your points. In other words, once you have them, don’t be afraid to use them up because there’s no guarantee the program won’t devalue later, leaving you wishing you’d spent your points when the value was higher. But…is that always the right choice?
Is it worth hoarding points?
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(00:29) – When does it make sense to hoard points?
(01:00) – Great award availability pops up randomly in unexpected places
(05:33) – Amazing point deals sometimes pop up randomly
(08:42) – New partnerships sometimes create amazing short-term opportunities
(09:50) – Points with free/cheap change/cancel rules are great for placeholder awards
(11:21) – Point programs change: value can go up or down for different situations
(13:50) – You can read Greg’s old post from 2013 about opportunistic hoarding vs earning and burning here.
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Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads
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I guess a fair question to ask is: which points? Partner award inventory is becoming increasingly problematic.
I’m loving the increasing opportunities to amass points/miles (new cards, higher-than-ever SUBs, Amex points parade via referrals, Rakuten, etc.). So I have higher points balances (URs, MRs, Atmos) than ever. However flight award availability (both cheap economy and especially premium cabins) seems worse than ever. And I’m losing flexibility now needing to fly a family of 4 together. With young kids, I don’t want to make as many flight connections or fly as early or late, don’t want to change locations/hotels as much, and airline seating arrangements are much trickier. So I’m leaning toward burning miles in the next 1-2 years, even if I’m not getting the same outsized value that I might with just my spouse and me.
My latest example – I want to take the family to Europe, looking at shoulder season (April) to avoid crowds (and hopefully get better award availability and general affordability). Given my kids’ young ages, I thought a cruise would be a great option as Nick has discovered – only unpack once but see multiple stops, “all-inclusive” food, activities on-board, etc. I’ve identified a good cruise, now I’m struggling with flight availability to/from Rome (departure port) within a 3-day window. I’d love to fly business class, but that’s tough for 4 (without paying 80k+ pp). And if I were just flying with my spouse, I’d be happy for 2 business seats from almost any East Coast city to almost any European city, then I’d position. But I don’t want more than 2 total segments with the kids. And I’d really like the overnight flight to leave ~6-8 pm (close to kids’ bedtime) but I’m surprisingly finding some departing in the afternoon and others leaving super late (~11 pm). So I’m frustrated about my lack of flexibility yielding poor options, but I’ll set some award tool alerts and hope for something to pop up between now and April.
FM crosses the Rubicon 🙁
FM is without a doubt the most upstanding points/miles blog in terms of financial incentives – so this didn’t bother me at all. I might change my mind if I smell any hint of ad revenue impacting content.
They read an ad for Bilt, so it’ll be pretty easy to see if there’s been an effect over the next month or two, especially since they haven’t been shy about criticizing Bilt before.
A great time to hoard points is in the years leading up to retirement. I started major hoarding about four years before my retirement date and ended up with a great stash to work with once I retired. Points are just so much more useful to me now than they were when I was working.
The answer will be different for each person. I accumulate points well beyond my own needs. I transfer points to or book travel for family, friends and team members. Others will do what’s right for themselves. There’s no “right” way
I’m not able to travel too much for the next year or so due to job commitments. Still, I’m hoarding points because its easy even as inevitable devaluation occurs. I used to put all our spend on a costco and alaska card for ALL my spend and thought it was great to get 30K miles and $1000 from costco every year and a few thousand miles from flights. After listening to FM episodes for six months my award wallet was at $20K and climbing. I’m a retired Navy CAPT and a chemical engineer so I enjoy the math and learning I get from the group. Really cool people doing stuff for themselves and their friends and families.
6.5 million Bonvoy points here. Lifetime titanium. I spend enough points for 5-7 “free” nights at an upscale to luxury hotel every year. I never go to the Maldives or places like that. I prefer Western Europe. I probably have enough for 9-10 years assuming Bonvoy points aren’t so devalued that it requires 200,000 points for a single night.
Never got quite that high. Perhaps mid-5s. Wised up to what was happening and started to burn ’em. Had cherry redemption. 1.5 to 2.5 cpp. Those were the days. Will never see that again.