We Asked 5 Points Experts the No. 1 Way to Save Money on Holiday Travel — Here’s What They Said

The final travel rush of the year is nearly here, but the good news is there’s still time to book flights — and maybe even save some money when using airline miles. Ahead of the holiday season, we spoke with five industry experts who shared tips on maximizing points during peak travel periods. 

From calculating the cash value of your miles to utilizing travel booking portals, these strategies could save you hundreds of dollars on your upcoming flights.

Know how many points you have.

The first step to planning your upcoming holiday trip is to take inventory of your frequent flier rewards; this includes any credit card points you’ve accumulated, too.

Let’s say you’re eyeing a Thanksgiving flight to see family, but you only have 10,000 JetBlue points and 7,000 Chase points in your account. If that round-trip ticket costs $408, or about 30,000 TrueBlue points, you’ll need to figure out how to earn the remainder of those rewards rather quickly. But with certain travel credit cards, you might have more options than you think, according to Juan Ruiz, founder of JetBetter, a bespoke travel concierge company.

“Most banks have relationships with airlines and hotels, in which you can instantly move over your points from your credit card rewards to their respective loyalty programs and get greater value for your hard-earned points,” said Ruiz. “Chase Ultimate Rewards is one of the biggest — and best — credit card programs, so points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to over a dozen partners.” 

This means that, if you have 1,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points, you can turn that into 1,000 air mile points or even 1,000 hotel points via a partner program. Case in point: Chase has a partnership with JetBlue. In the aforementioned scenario, you could transfer all 7,000 points to your TrueBlue account, instantly giving you more than half the points you’ll need for the ticket. Understanding these partnerships is crucial and can easily be found by checking your credit card’s rewards portal to know how (and where) you can stretch the value of your points.

Buy the miles you need.

Here’s another lesser-known tip: You can usually buy the additional miles you need, but you’ll want to do some math to see if it’s worth it, said Max Do, founder of Max Miles Points, an educational brand that provides information about miles and points. 

“A strategy I often recommend for people who are in a hurry to earn some miles and points for redemption is to buy points directly from the airline or hotel,” said Do. “Sometimes, the points and miles [you need] are on sale, where you can earn a 25 percent bonus, or sometimes even up to a 150 percent bonus.” 

Returning to our example, JetBlue often runs promotions on purchasing points. Earlier in November, the company offered travelers the chance to get a 125 percent bonus when buying at least 3,000 points. This brings the cost to about 1.43 cents apiece, meaning you’d spend around $193 to buy the remaining points. While not a completely “free” flight, it’s certainly a better deal than shelling out more than $400 for the same ticket — all while using up those small point balances.

Understand the value of each mile.

If you decide to redeem miles directly through the airline, it’s important to understand the value of each mile. Jarrod West, a senior journalist at Upgraded Points, analyzes frequent flier programs monthly and publishes valuations on them.

“For the major U.S. loyalty programs, try to aim to use airline miles to get around 1.2 to 1.4 cents in value,” said West. “While it’s possible to get even greater value, programs like Delta SkyMiles are typically worth 1.2 cents, whereas American Airlines AAdvantage miles are valued at around 1.4 cents.” 

Be wary during the holiday season.

Understanding the value of an airline mile, which varies by program, can help you make smarter decisions when redeeming rewards. But here’s the caveat: All of the experts agreed that during high-demand travel periods, the value of your rewards could decrease, or certain flights may be unavailable for redeeming with miles. In that case, it’s a good idea to have a backup plan, explained Chris Dong, a freelance travel reporter who specializes in aviation.

“If I can’t be flexible with my travel dates and need to book a flight on a specific day, my fallback option is to go through a credit card portal,” said Dong. “You typically get 1 cent per point in value, which may not necessarily be the best redemption, but it could still be better than what the airline is charging in miles during the holidays.”

The math is simple: A $300 flight typically requires around 30,000 points. You can apply any number of credit card points at checkout, so even with a limited balance, you can still reduce your travel costs and cover the rest with cash. As another upside, you’ll earn airline miles on the booking — just remember to enter your frequent flier number or add it to the reservation later.

Know when to redeem miles for flights.

If you’re flush with credit card points and several types of airline miles, it’s wise to be selective when redeeming them. Julia Menez, founder of Geobreeze Travel, follows her own rule of thumb to determine when it is (or isn’t) worth redeeming miles for any given flight. 

“I find it simpler to use the 10k rule,” said Menez. “I’m willing to pay up to 10k points for every hour in business class. It’s eight hours to fly from Chicago to Germany, excluding layovers, so I’d pay up to 80,000 points for that flight in business class. For economy flights, I use the same logic, except it’s a 5k rule.”

Various online tools can assist travelers in finding award availability and live rates while also helping to establish whether redeeming miles is worthwhile, according to Menez.

“If you don’t want to do all that math, there’s a free Chrome extension called Points Path that integrates with Google Flights,” added Menez. “It will show you if points or cash is a better deal for domestic airlines like United, American, and Delta.”