Traveling on Points and Cash, Sep 2021
Sep. 15th, 2021 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerWe paid for our recent trip to Washington's Olympic Peninsula with a combination of points and cash. We've got a trip planned in two weekends when we'll use points to pay part of the way, too, plus a trip we're considered but haven't yet booked in October. Let me break down a bit about how this works.
First, where the points come from. In years past I earned most of them from actual travel. I fly, I stay, I earn points with airlines and hotels. As business travel has been on hold the past 18 months, though, I've shifted to earning most of my points through adroit play of credit card offers. Credit card deals aren't new. In fact they're thinner now than 5 years ago. It's just that with travel so reduced in the C-19 pandemic era credit cards make up a bigger share my points earning.
Next, how to use points. Some look at this credit card points game and think, "What free trip can I win from this?" The thing is, it's not that simple. For one, the points don't buy a trip, they buy part of a trip— an airplane flight, a night or a few nights at a hotel, free days on a rental car, etc. You're redeeming for these a la carte, usually with different points currencies. Two, just because there's a way to buy something with points doesn't mean it's a good deal. You've got to shop carefully to get maximum value— or anywhere close to it.
On our recent trip, for example, I split the airfare. We used points to fly to Seattle and paid cash to fly home. That's because there was a good points rate available for Thursday night. Monday evening demand was higher because everyone was looking to come home from a holiday weekend, and the good points rates were all gone. Oh, there were still points rates; they just weren't good. So I opted to pay cash instead. (And earn more points!)
We also split our hotel nights between points and cash. Thursday night we stayed on points at a Holiday Inn Express. (Actually it wasn't points, it was a free-night certificate from a credit card, but the basic idea is the same— it's not cash.) For our 3 nights in Port Angeles we paid cash. That wasn't because points rates were poor, though. It was because there were no hotels we could use points at less than a half hour away. Having the right location was way more valuable than cashing in points at a cost of an extra hour of driving each day. That's another lesson in why it's important to understand that points buy parts of trips, not whole free trips. With airline and hotel points you're limited at where you can redeem them, and it's sometimes way too limiting.
First, where the points come from. In years past I earned most of them from actual travel. I fly, I stay, I earn points with airlines and hotels. As business travel has been on hold the past 18 months, though, I've shifted to earning most of my points through adroit play of credit card offers. Credit card deals aren't new. In fact they're thinner now than 5 years ago. It's just that with travel so reduced in the C-19 pandemic era credit cards make up a bigger share my points earning.
Next, how to use points. Some look at this credit card points game and think, "What free trip can I win from this?" The thing is, it's not that simple. For one, the points don't buy a trip, they buy part of a trip— an airplane flight, a night or a few nights at a hotel, free days on a rental car, etc. You're redeeming for these a la carte, usually with different points currencies. Two, just because there's a way to buy something with points doesn't mean it's a good deal. You've got to shop carefully to get maximum value— or anywhere close to it.
On our recent trip, for example, I split the airfare. We used points to fly to Seattle and paid cash to fly home. That's because there was a good points rate available for Thursday night. Monday evening demand was higher because everyone was looking to come home from a holiday weekend, and the good points rates were all gone. Oh, there were still points rates; they just weren't good. So I opted to pay cash instead. (And earn more points!)
We also split our hotel nights between points and cash. Thursday night we stayed on points at a Holiday Inn Express. (Actually it wasn't points, it was a free-night certificate from a credit card, but the basic idea is the same— it's not cash.) For our 3 nights in Port Angeles we paid cash. That wasn't because points rates were poor, though. It was because there were no hotels we could use points at less than a half hour away. Having the right location was way more valuable than cashing in points at a cost of an extra hour of driving each day. That's another lesson in why it's important to understand that points buy parts of trips, not whole free trips. With airline and hotel points you're limited at where you can redeem them, and it's sometimes way too limiting.
