When Buying Points and Miles Is Right for You (And When It’s Not)

Buying points with a specific use in mind is usually a bad idea.cormorantUnless you’re an experienced travel hacker who’s willing to take a little risk, buying flyer miles or points is usually more expensive or more work.than they are worth. moreover,Airline and hotel programs allow you to change the value of your points on a whim. and they often do so without So it’s not a good idea to think of points or miles as a store of value (even if they are very valuable if you know how to use them).

When should I buy miles or points?

For everyone, buying points in certain situations is a really good idea. We have a specific and immediate use case for points in mind, where availability is available and the cost of points is lower than the cost of booking a flight or accommodation. .

Step 1: Check availability for your flight or hotel stay

The first thing we need to do is check availability. Don’t be put off immediately when the calendar view shows you have 30 rewards available.,000 points or something – should be. click as far as possible Double check that the website is not I get an error that there are no rooms available. How far you can go in the process even if you don’t have the required points in your account depends on the program, but do everything you can to make sure availability is real. Go there before spending cash to buy extra points or miles.

Step 2: Know your costs

The next step is to calculate how many points or miles you actually need to purchase. T.He could be the perfect number of points or miles for redemption. Or a smaller number if you already have several in your accountOnce you know how many you need, find out how much it will cost. Hotel and airline programs often offer bonuses on point and mile purchases.For example, Avianca LifeMiles has regular sales.

If there are any sales or bonuses going on, you should know about it if you are looking to buy points or miles.Again, click through to see the final price .

Step 3: Compare Miles Cost to Actual Price

The final step is to compare the cost of purchasing points or miles with the cost of booking a flight or accommodation without using points. Choose the option that makes more sense.

Easy to compare if you need to buy all the points you need to redeem. Which option costs more? However Simply buy points or miles to top up your account. It’s a tougher call. If you have to spend $20 to buy 1,000 points and top up your account for 50,000 miles redemption so you don’t have to spend $2,000 on a cash ticket, it’s probably worth it. But that may not be the case if you have to spend $500 to buy 25,000 points to replenish your account for a redemption of 50,000 miles to save $600. You should keep in mind the value of redeeming Points and Miles, your ability to earn Points and Miles, and how often you plan to redeem them.

Consider forfeit miles and points

If you want to take things to the next level, One more thing to consider: How many miles or points are you giving up? When you book a flight or hotel stay with cash, you earn miles or points when you complete your flight or stay. Not if you book with miles or points.

It’s usually easy to calculate how many points you’ll earn for hotel stays. It is usually the base price of the room multiplied by the number of points per dollar spent. Those with Elite status usually get bonuses on top of that. Figuring it out for flights is a little more difficult.

should be considered. Value of miles or points to give up If you want to fully understand whether it makes sense to buy Miles or Points for a particular redemption.