Master Travel Rewards: Experts tips by The Points Guy

This is absolutely unscientific, but I suspect that I am very similar when it comes to my “strategy” of my points. I have a few travel bonus cards (including the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card) and enter my kilometer number of the airline every time I book a flight. I subscribe to a few flight offers and have made brave attempts to use my credit card points with mixed results. But I have the necessary feeling that I could do more to maximize my expenses – and what is more important to my redemption – when it comes to travel calculation and miles.

It's just that it seems. . . stressful. Where do you start? What do you prioritize? To be honest, I would rather see the last season of The white lotus. Then I read Brian Kelly's new book, How to win when travelingAs part of my preparation for an interview that is presented in a recent episode by ours Unpacked Podcast. In the book, he offers exactly what I was looking for: a place where I can start and tips on what priority is – much more. Regardless of whether you are a total newcomer, a half -hearted point like me or a total professional, there is something to win. I learned the following.

Don't be afraid to play the credit card game

Kelly has 28 credit cards – and he says that this is at the lower end for someone in his job. (Some professionals have up to 40 or 50 credit cards.) However, if you want to delete points and kilometers, the use of credit cards according to Kelly is the “fastest and cheapest way”.

Don't go out and register for 20 cards at the same time. He recommends starting with two cards: one with transferable points (e.g. the chase Sapphire Preferheed or Reserve Cards) and a coobed card from the airline (and or the hotel company) that you use the most. If you want to continue adding cards to get these valuable registration bonuses, do not open more than four cards per year.

In order to stay on his cards, Kelly automatically uses at least for the due minimum amount. He also has a table in which he follows registration boni, annual fees and other details to ensure that he extracts the maximum value from each card. Finally, he says that he stays open for at least a year: the longer your credit story, the better your creditworthiness.

Speaking of loan scores, in contrast to a popular opinion that you have several credit cards, it will not harm. “Your score may drop 5 points. Well, from 850, that's negligible, ”says Kelly. “The tank is not your score.” Because as long as you pay your remaining amount every month, the more cards you have the more available. This improves your score over time if you keep your usage rate below 30 percent.

“If you have a credit card [with a] 5,000 US dollar credit line, and even if you have paid off on the due date, but there are 3,000 US dollars a month that you pay out, it can report as a 75 percent use, and your score can really fall, ”explains Kelly . “But if you had over five different credit cards $ 50,000 and used 3,000 US dollars, your utilization is super low. Your score will shoot up. “

But do not leave any rewards on the table

Nowadays there are pretty everywhere rewards that they look. Most large travel companies have online shopping portals in which you can register your information to buy your preferred retailer and address airline miles, points or other rewards free of charge. If you use a premium credit card to make a purchase, you will receive twice as high as the rewards, says Kelly – the miles or points by the retailer and then the miles or rewards that you earn through your card.

“This is a main example for a double tip, as they can earn two types of points or rewards for the same purchase,” he writes. Examples are Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping, Delta Skymiles Shopping and the Chase Shopping portal (only for card holders).

Also consider to register your cards in the reward network, which automatically brings you miles in participating restaurants. Pay attention to partnerships with reward servants, such as between Uber and Marriott, Delta and Instacart as well as American Airlines and Hyatt.

Invest in some important travel apps and services when it comes to redeeming

If there is a chapter that I know I will read again and again, it is “how to win rewards”. Even Kelly admits that revenue can be difficult and complex, partly because “there is no uniform system that tells you the best way to take it”. So take a deep breath and invest in these tools.

Awardwallet: Organize your travel loyalty programs

This website (and app) follows more than 600 loyalty programs. It tells you when your miles fail, follow your credit card and your loyalty points and even contain flight data and travel routes. There is a free version and a paid version ($ 49.99/year).

Awardhacker: Find the best loyalty program for your route
Enter the route you want to fly into this free website and get advice on the best loyalty programs for this way.

Point.me: Find the best point -based flight

A paid tool that Kelly says without having to live costs $ 129 per year (although it is free of charge for Bilt and Amex membership premium card holders). The route that you want to fly is searched, as well as suggest data and propose options that you can filter on points, number of stops, etc.

Sitz.aero: Search within a certain loyalty program

Another paid tool in Kelly's wallet, this app (9.99 US dollars per month), enables you to search for data and points of one year on a certain route. “Where Point.me is far and wide on a certain date,” writes Kelly, “Sates.aero can search far and wide for data with a single loyalty program.”

If salvation still appears beyond them may Pay professionals to do this via websites like Award Magic and Point.me.

Do not make the aviation status your goal

To be honest, this surprised me. But Kelly says that it is not necessarily worth pursuing the Airline Elite Status these days. The airlines have changed their programs so much -many who need annual expenses of over 30,000 US dollars to qualify, “the opportunities costs of the elite status. . . Has never been higher, ”he says.

So if you don't fly so much to a single airline that it makes sense to book your Cobrand card, it makes more sense to get a transferable point card and use points to get your seats on business or first class to update a desired airline.

In contrast, Kelly is worthwhile that it is still worth pursuing elite status when it comes to hotels, especially if you use a cooking credit card, most of which automatically offer generous registration bonuses and elite status (and this leads to free room upgrades, late, late, late, late, late, cash and more).

Read the small print – and always, always be nice

Have you ever read an airline transport contract? It is the small field that you check and say that you agree to deal with rules, general terms and conditions, etc., and yes, I have never read one either. But Kelly says we should Read them because they formulate what an airline will do when something goes wrong. To be honest, it is usually not much – the costs for the costs of your ticket reimbursed what is now required by law.

Yes, airlines will be re -booking, but for most of them this means that they rebook them to their destination on the next available flight, provided the seats are available. And that could be hours (or days) from the time of the incident. So, or not, when flights are canceled or delayed and we try to leave most of the time as soon as possible from the airport, we ask for a favor. Kelly recommends approaching a gate agent with a very specific question (“I see X -Sitzen on X -flight, and it doesn't matter me to fly through X. Can you search for me?”) -and and Extreme courtesy.

“If you were behind this counter and someone is an idiot for you, will you go beyond and beyond and even stretch your neck on the line?” He says. “Because agents can now get into trouble to bend the rules. So think about Do I give this agent a really good reason to help me? Because they have all the strength. “

Finally, use points as an insurance policy

Kelly says that a pool of flexible points on different airlines and with different credit cards can also help you if, for example, your flight is canceled.

In this way he explains: “If your flight canceled on an airline, you can book points with points as a security option on another,” he says. “One of the most beautiful things that can happen from pandemic is [that on] Almost every airline's airline can redeem their points and cancel until they leave and get all their miles and points back free of charge. “

The day before his flight, he begins to follow where his plane comes from and weather pattern (he likes flightsware). The moment he “smells a delay” – if the incoming flight is delayed, he knows that his flight will probably also be delayed – he uses points to book another flight on another airline. “If I don't need this security option, if my flight is not delayed, I cancel it, I get all my points back, no money out of my pocket,” he says.

And that, my friends, smells of winning for me.