2021 Frequent Flyer Wrap-up: Airline Points & Status

Around every New Year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how well I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. When I did this review 12 months ago there wasn't a lot of change to report. Coronavirus dominated 2020 and shut down all my flying after February that year.

At the start of 2021 with vaccines starting to roll out I thought we'd gradually return to normal from Coronavirus and my pace of travel would resume. Alas that hasn't happened because 30% of the country refuses to accept the pandemic as actual fact. I didn't fly anywhere until May, and my travel has been at maybe half what it otherwise would be. And now with a fresh surge I'm cancelling planned trips like it's March 2020 all over again. Instead of returning to normal we're arriving at a new normal. The pandemic has become endemic.

Anyway, this blog isn't about Coronavirus, it's about frequent flyer points and status. Let's get back to that.

⬆️ Southwest Airlines: Earn and Burn

Southwest has been my primary airline for the past several years, the airline I take most of my flights on. This year I earned 134,000 points in Southwest's Rapid Rewards (RR) program. To some people that would be good news; "Woohoo! I earned 134k points!" Even better, I redeemed 64k on flights this year and another 49k for flights in early 2022. But to me it's a mixed bag... and not just because all those 2022 trips are in jeopardy for needing to be canceled now.

Even if I do fly all those trips I'm not redeeming points fast enough. My points are piling up, with my balance now at 277,000. Carrying a big balance is a bad thing. Points only ever devalue so it's a poor idea to keep them banked for too long intending to use them later. For 2022 my goal will be to burn faster than I earn.

Elite status-wise, I managed to renew both A-List Preferred status and Southwest's Companion Pass. Cinching these took some deft play to capture special bonus offers from Southwest. Southwest is the one airline for which I both want to & can earn meaningful status, so now the status chase starts over for 2022.

↔️ United Airlines: On Hold at Gold

For years United was my airline of choice. I flew them over 100,000 miles annually for several years, reaching Million Miler lifetime status in 2013. As they watered down their frequent flyer program and my travel patterns changed I shifted my business to other airlines. I do still have Premier Gold status at United, though. It's a benefit of that Million Miler deal. That gold status did nothing for me this year, though, as I didn't fly United at all. Oh, I considered booking with them several times, particularly because I'm always looking for ways to burn off the 300,000+ miles I have in their program. Their prices were always too high compared to the competition. Although I didn't fly with them at all I did add about 1,000 miles to my accounting (bringing it to 319k) by completing a handful of surveys just to create activity. My goal for 2022 is to do something worthwhile with those 319k points to get them off the books. Because, again, carrying big points balances is a losing bargain.

⬇️ American Airlines: Spending a Million, Slowly

You might wonder about the arrow icons I'm using here. I've marked AA with a down arrow. It's not a thurmbs down but rather an indication that I spent down my miles/points balance. In the case of miles and points, as I've been explaining, down is a good thing! Carrying a huge balance is risky, as points only ever devalue. It's like stuffing cash in a mattress. And my AA mattress used to be huge. A few year ago I had almost 1 million points! By the end of last year I'd spent it down to 816k. This year I spent 76k on award tickets— a nice first-class trip to the East Coast in June— and earned 2k via AA's rebooking mistake, landing my balance at 742k. It's nice that with AA, unlike UA, I'm at least finding some good redemption values. For 2022 I'll keep chipping away at my huge balance.

⬇️ Delta: Once Every Few Years?

Another down arrow, and again down is good. At the start of the year I had 50,000 points with Delta, a balance I didn't even know I had a few years earlier. I hadn't flown Delta, or even considered flying Delta, since 2015. But this year I did! On that East Coast trip I mentioned above I found nice first-class tickets for a one-way from New York to Maine for both Hawk and me. Those burned off 35k, leaving me with a balance of 15k. This is kind of a good news/bad news combo. Good news: I'm pleased with the value I got for the 35k I spend. Bad news: the 15k remaining is too little to do anything with. We'll see how many more years it is before I fly Delta or any of its partners again.

January Business Trips Canceled

In mid-December I volunteered to staff a technical seminar my company scheduled for January 28. Pretty much immediately after signing up I had second thoughts. The pandemic wasn't over yet, and Texas, where the seminar is located, is a state where the governor and state legislature propagate harmful Coronavirus disinformation. My concern about traveling for that show increased when I saw the Omicron winter surge stats shoot up ten days ago... and the numbers have only gotten worse since then. I knew I needed to cancel my involvement.

Rather than tell colleagues over break or even first thing back to work today, "Hey, bad news, I need to back out," I waited a bit to see if the company would make a decision on its own. I didn't have to wait too long. By mid-morning Pacific time the word came down: the company is cancelling all in-person events for January. The two in-person seminars will be replanned as a single virtual seminar.

I'm both happy and sad about this. Happy, because it's the right decision given the risks at the moment. But also sad, because it's been nearly 24 months since I've met customers or prospects in person. Meeting them is part of my job!

The next in-person event is scheduled for March. We'll see what happens with that.

2021 Frequent Flyer Retrospective: Hotel Points & Status

Every year around the start of the year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how we'll I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. Earlier today I posted a wrap-up of my airline miles and status for 2021. Now it's time for the same with hotel points and status.

As with flying, hotel stays have been fewer this year than most— but still more than in 2020— because of Coronavirus. We didn't travel at all in January or February, traveled only once in March, then stayed home again in April. Since May we've only taken 10 trips.

⬇️ IHG: A Surprise Leader

I'm listing Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, first because this year they became my main go-to hotel chain. We stayed 14 nights with their brands.

You might wonder why, if IHG was my go-to chain in 2021, I marked them with a down arrow. That's because I spent more points with them than I earned— and that's a good thing! I started the year with over 431k IHG points, spent a whopping 178k, earned back 18k, and landed with a balance of 272k.

An interesting thing about IHG being my #1 chain for the year is that I didn't spend a single dollar at their hotels. All 14 nights were paid for with points or free-night certificates from our IHG credit cards. Yet despite not spending a single dollar at their hotels I maintain Platinum (mid-tier) elite status with them, also as a benefit of carrying the right credit card.

...Not that Platinum got me much. There aren't a lot of elite benefits to be had at lower properties like Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, where I made all my stays. At those an upgrade is just a slightly larger room with a sofa. And many properties don't like to offer even these modest upgrades on awards stays. IHG's program is best played not for the elite status but as "earn and burn"— rack up the points from stays and promotions, and spend them for free nights.

My plan for the IHG program in 2022 is "earn and burn". On the earning side I expect to net well over 150k by signing up for another of their credit cards. Will I be able to burn more than that, like I did this year with so many awards nights? That's going to take some effort. But, oh the places I could go!

↔️ Hilton: Diamond in the Rough

I finished the year nearly flat with Hilton Honors; my points balance nudged down from 492k to 482k. Along the way I stayed 4 nights at Hilton portfolio hotels, making it my #2 hotel program by activity. As with IHG all 4 of those nights were on points and free-night certificates.

My goal for 2022 with Hilton Honors is the same as it was 12 months ago: Find a good, big redemption opportunity to spend those points on. Or lots of little ones. Or both! A balance of nearly 500k is too much to carry for long as the value of points only ever drops.

Status-wise I remain Diamond elite (top tier) with Hilton because of a credit card. That sure as heck beats having to earn it the old fashioned way with 28 trips or 50 nights of "butt-in-bed" like I used to back in the day. But as with IHG's program, this status didn't actually give me much this year.

↔️ Marriott: Titanium or Unobtainium?

Ah, Marriott. For years they were my #1 hotel choice. For 2021 they slipped to #3 as I stayed only 2 nights, on one trip, in a Marriott hotel. It was a Courtyard next to an interstate.

I hold Titanium status in Marriott's too preciously named Bonvoy program. It's the second highest of five elite levels; the top level requires something like $20,000 annual expenditure. I've got Lifetime Titanium as a result of accumulating 800 qualifying nights and 2 million qualifying points, largely from my years of heavy travel. That status got me very little this year, though.

Points-wise I whittled my huge Bonvoy points balance down from 584k to 567k. That was from spending 20k on an award night and earning a few thousand from a paid night. My goal 12 months ago, and 24 months ago, was to spend down this huge balance with major redemptions. Marriott has made that hard by offering poor redemption rates most of the time. For 2022 I may have to lower my standards for what constitutes a fair value use of points before Marriott lowers it even further on me.

🔄 Hyatt, Choice, Best Western, Etc.: Whatever

I have memberships in several other hotel rewards programs, with points balances remaining in at least a few of them. (Others are zeroed out due to expiry.) Choice and Best Western I know I have small balances in but don't care; they're not enough points to redeem for award nights, and I didn't stay at any of their hotels to think about earning points this year.

Hyatt is a special case. My balance with them was zero for several years but in September I transferred 24k points over from my Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, promptly redeeming them for 2 award nights in Los Angeles. It was a good value— for the Chase Ultimate Rewards points, about 1.5 cents per point (cpp). Hawk transferred UR points to Hyatt, too; 100k of them to get us 5 nights in Hawaii in December. She got even better value, over 2cpp.

On the one hand I'm inclined to say, "Woohoo, Hyatt!" but really it's "Woohoo, a good use of Chase Ultimate Rewards points!" There aren't enough properties in the Hyatt portfolio for me to want to focus on earning points & status by staying with them. We'll just keep using them as a transfer target for Chase points when opportunities arise.