When you start collecting points in travel loyalty programs, you’re playing a balancing game. While you’ll have access to every type of bonus imaginable, you have to show restraint. Keep your balances limited to a few programs. When it’s time to book a flight or hotel, you need to have enough points in a program to allow you to do that. But you also don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket because when you need that flight or hotel, you don’t want to find out there’s nothing available or what you can find is mega-expensive.
Eventually, you’ll accumulate more points in a program than you’ll use for a single trip. At that point, it’s time to explore different programs. I prefer focusing on flexible currencies because they provide access to more programs compared to collecting points in a single program.
Several loyalty programs partner with multiple banks, making it easier to gather points for an expensive trip. However, if you have enough points in more than one program, you’ll have to choose which points to use. In my case, I have several favorite uses for points from each bank. Remember, this is only the way I look at using points from each bank. You might have a different approach. The most important thing is to have a plan for where you’ll use the points. This will guide you when signing up for new cards and which cards to use.
American Express Membership Rewards
When we’re talking about Membership Rewards, I try to save my points for programs that exclusively (or almost exclusively) deal with American Express. This means my Membership Rewards get transferred to ANA or Delta. I once transferred my Membership Rewards to HawaiianMiles to book our flight from Honolulu to Orlando.
Bilt Rewards
My strategy for using Bilt Rewards is different from that for points with other programs. Bilt has partners that most other programs do not, like Hyatt and Alaska; but that’s not where I transfer points. That’s because Bilt has offered significant transfer bonuses as part of its Rent Day promotion, and that’s when I decide where to transfer my points. Most recently, I transferred points to Flying Blue and used them to book flights to Europe.
Capital One
Capital One’s only unique travel partners are TAP Portugal and Finnair. While those programs might have some hidden value for specific itineraries, they don’t have any use for our travels. I’ll use Capital One points to transfer to programs that deal with several banks, like British Airways, Aeroplan, Flying Blue, Singapore and Virgin Atlantic.
Chase Ultimate Rewards
My Chase Ultimate Rewards have one use: transferring to World of Hyatt. Hyatt points are consistently the most valuable loyalty points. I easily get 3-4 cents per point value for Hyatt points. The only other program I’d consider transferring points to is United, but I still have a balance in our accounts, and United has been devaluing the value of points by raising the cost of award tickets.
Citi Thank You
I view Citi points much like I do Capital One. The only program I can’t access with other programs is Thai, and I don’t have much use booking awards with them. There’s some possibility to get a good value if you can book an award using Choice points since Citi Thank You transfers points to Choice at a 2:1 ratio. There are just so few times this is a viable option that I’d rather transfer points to Flying Blue, JetBlue, Singapore, or Virgin Atlantic.
Final Thought
In summary, I’ll save points with American Express and Chase to use with specific partners. Capital One and Citi points get used with the programs that have agreements with several, or even all, of the bank’s loyalty programs, And my Bilt points are saved waiting for another awesome Rent Day transfer bonus. If that doesn’t come about, I can always transfer them to Hyatt or Alaska.
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