25 Great Ways to Maximize Travel Reward Points

Travel rewards earned from hotel stays, flights and flexible credit card purchases are the not-so-secret obsession of many frequent travelers. The rewards allow travelers to cover the cost of their trips or elevate their vacation experiences. Ten percent of respondents 50-plus in AARP’s most recent Travel Trends Report plan to spend less on travel, with 13 percent of those planning to use loyalty points or miles. 

There are dozens of ways to earn and redeem points and miles to help you travel often while spending as little cash as possible. There’s indeed a lot to know. 

“Think of [redeeming points and miles] like comparison shopping before you buy anything else,” says Ryan Smith, news managing editor at Upgraded Points. “The more options you have, the more time you might spend checking them, but that also creates more opportunities to score a good deal.”

Whether you’re new to travel rewards programs or consider yourself an expert, here are 25 great ways to maximize how you earn points and miles — and spend them — for bucket-list trips.

1. Maximize your mileage earnings with the right airline credit card

The absolute easiest way to earn airline miles is by using a co-branded airline credit card for purchases. Cards like the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card from Bank of America occasionally offer welcome bonuses starting at 70,000 miles when you meet a minimum spend requirement and pay the annual fee. That could cover two round-trip economy tickets to Hawai‘i or one round-trip ticket to Europe on an Alaska Airlines partner airline. Other co-branded airline credit cards to consider are the United Club Infinite card from United Airlines or the Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard from American Airlines.

2. Transfer flexible travel rewards

Credit cards that earn flexible rewards, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, the Platinum Card from American Express or the Capital One Venture X, offer a lot of rewards for your everyday spending that you can then transfer to partners like World of Hyatt, Delta Air Lines and others to redeem for free travel.

3. Take advantage of airline alliances

U.S. carriers American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines are members of global airline alliances Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance, respectively. In addition to having access to their member airlines’ routes and schedules, travelers also can redeem partner flights with miles from a different airline. So if you have United Airlines MileagePlus miles, for example, you can search for Singapore Airlines award availability and redeem MileagePlus miles for an available flight on Singapore Airlines. (This works in the opposite direction as well.) You also can earn preferred miles when flying on what’s called codeshare flights on airlines belonging to the same alliance. It’s a great way to fly some of the world’s best premium cabins without being tied to a specific airline’s loyalty program.

4. Don’t forget about status perks

Airline and hotel loyalty programs grant status perks when you earn a certain number of points or miles. At hotels, some perks include late checkout, a welcome gift upon arrival or free breakfast. Airline status perks include complimentary upgrades, checked bags, lounge access and priority boarding. You can earn some of these perks with credit cards such as the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card, IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card or the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card.

5. Earn rewards when you visit restaurants

Dining programs are an easy way to earn miles whenever you dine in or order takeout. Simply sign up for a particular program, add your credit or debit card to your account, and earn miles whenever you use the card at participating restaurants. However, only one credit card can be tied to a dining program at a time. For example, you cannot earn miles with AAdvantage Dining from American Airlines and earn miles with the same credit card for SkyMiles Dining from Delta Air Lines.

6. Double dip — credit cards/dining programs/etc.

Earn two and three times the points when you double dip, which will help you reach your bucket-list destination even faster. When shopping through an online shopping portal like AAdvantage Shopping, MileagePlus Shopping or Delta SkyMiles Shopping, use a co-branded credit card for your purchase and essentially double your rewards. For example, online cash-back company Rakuten lets you earn American Express Membership Rewards instead of cash back. In this case, you could triple dip and receive bonus points when shopping through Rakuten at an online store where you also have Amex Offers. You’ll collect your regular earn rate with your Amex card, the bonus Membership Rewards points through Rakuten, and the bonus points through your Amex Offer. Add a credit card that earns bonus points or miles on dining to your chosen dining program and earn additional points as well.

7. Redeem hotel points for luxury stays

Luxury hotel properties such as St. Regis, Ritz-Carlton, Waldorf Astoria and Park Hyatt all belong to large hotel brands, so you can redeem hotel points for free stays. At Marriott Bonvoy properties, you may still be required to pay cash for applicable resort fees, but they would be negligible compared to paying cash for the nightly rate.

8. Redeem credit card points through travel portals

You can redeem transferable credit card rewards through their own travel portals. For instance, you can redeem Capital One Miles at a rate of one cent per mile through the Capital One Travel portal by Hopper (although you can nearly double that value depending on the transfer partner). If you’re not redeeming points earned with the Capital One Venture X, for example, you can earn bonus points when you purchase travel through these portals, up to 10 times per dollar when booking hotels through the Capital One Travel portal. Other transferable credit card rewards currencies such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards can also be redeemed through their respective travel portals.