Why You Should Earn Points!

Points and Miles – Why Should I Even Consider Earning Them?

Let’s face it, traveling isn’t the easiest thing to do for most folks. The dreaded process of getting to the airport, passing through security and not missing your scheduled flight even worrying about what you packed and didn’t pack can make you feel overwhelmed. You may be left feeling like is it worth the cost to travel, why not just drive somewhere nearby?

Well, points and miles don’t rule out all of those feelings necessarily but as far as the price aspect of it goes you can definitely minimize costs going down the points route.

There’s a saying that I keep hearing about this “game”, and it’s to “chase the deal, not the destination”. What does that mean?

Well, we all have our dream destination or at least a location we would love to visit someday but “chasing the deal” or searching for great redemptions for that specific location may not be available at this point and time.

Rather, if you see deals or peruse through airline emails about offers and discounts you can reasonably go somewhere cool utilizing your miles at a high value.

At some point your dream location will have a deal, and you can book it comfortably after you have figured out this whole points game dynamic.

Here’s an example of “chase the deal”:

As of right now trips booked via Virgin Atlantic have a bonus offer when you transfer your points over for a booking. They also have a sale going on where you can go to London from New York for merely 4,600 miles. That’s a steal! To fly across the pond and pay a fraction of what you normally would pay, leaves more cash in your pockets for food and souvenirs.

Now, you may say ehhh, London I don’t care to go there… I hear you it’s not the beautiful beach or historic architecture you may be craving but check this out.

It’s cheaper to buy a ticket from Europe to fly within Europe from the United States.

Let’s break it down...

1st Flight- NYC – London Heathrow Airport 4,600 miles + $76 in taxes

Then say you want to go to Rome to enjoy some Pizza and see The Coliseum well looking up cash flights you will find:

2nd Flight- London Heathrow to FCO Rome, Italy for $196 via British Airways

So far, you’ve spent $272 USD and 4,600 Miles vs $554 dollars on Delta Airlines one way.

This savings could be the difference of you actually going on a trip to staying at home, and it’s worth considering especially if you want to stay on budget.

There are deals out there all the time for flights around the world you just have to search for them or set up email alerts from various programs to give you the extra help.

Another thing I wanted to address is this, credit card points aren’t for everyone and may be confusing to some however my thoughts are just this: “get something back for your bills that you pay – get something instead of nothing”

Instead of attaching my ACH account to my monthly bills like internet, gas, utilities I simply use my credit card to earn points from that purchase and pay off the card at the end of the month with the money I already planned to pay the bill with to begin with.

This allows me to get “cash back” or “points” for using the card and let’s me decide what I will use that return for. In my case it’s always better to use the return of points for booking trips and hotels than cashing it out because of the value I can get out of it.

I’ve been using points to fly for about 10 years now and still learn more and more about it all the time, so feeling overwhelmed is a bit normal at the start. But, once you start learning about it, it becomes easier to understand what’s what, and I am happy to help with the understanding portion of it all.

If you take one thing from this, write up, just remember “chase the deal not the destination” for the best points redemptions!

Otherwise save your points and search for cash deals!

Travel On!

Gabby