How I turned 115,000 points into a $6,000 business class flight
Earlier this year, I booked round-trip business class from San Francisco to Athens, returning from Rome, for 115,000 American Airlines points. Paying cash, that same ticket would have cost somewhere around $6,000 to $7,000.
How did I do this? A combination of a credit card sign-up bonus and knowing when to search for award travel. Earning is usually the easy part. Redeeming is where some people falter.
Not all ways to redeem points are equal
Chase, American Express, Capital One, and Citi all make it simple to redeem points without much thought.
Paying off your card. You can use points as a statement credit toward your bill. It's quick and satisfying, but you're typically getting about 1 cent per point, and sometimes less. At 1 cent, my 115,000 points would have covered about $1,150 of my bill.
Booking through the card's travel portal. Portals work like any travel site: search for a flight, pay with points. Behind the scenes, they take the cash price and convert it at a set rate, usually around 1 cent per point. At that rate, a $6,000 ticket would cost about 600,000 points.
Neither option is wrong, and sometimes convenience wins. But when you have a big trip in mind, you're likely leaving a lot of value on the table.
TIP: More airlines are moving to dynamic pricing, where award prices rise and fall with cash fares. That narrows the gap, so it's worth comparing before you commit. The advantage of flexible points is that you can shop across several airlines instead of being locked into one.
Finding value
Most flexible points programs let you transfer points to airline and hotel partners, usually at a 1:1 ratio from their premium cards. Once your points become airline miles, you can book award seats directly with the airline.
The key is how award seats are priced. Many airlines set award prices on a fixed chart, so a business class seat costs the same number of miles whether the cash fare is $3,000 or $7,000. That's how 115,000 points can stand in for a ticket worth several thousand dollars.
I earned my American miles by flying American and from a Citi card sign-up bonus, but you can get there through transfers too. Citi ThankYou is the only major points program that transfers to American Airlines, at 1:1 from premium cards like the Citi Strata Premier and Citi Strata Elite.
TIP: Do the math. To figure out what your points are worth on a redemption, divide the cash price by the number of points. $6,000 ÷ 115,000 is about 5.2 cents per point, and $7,000 ÷ 115,000 is about 6.1 cents. To be exact, subtract any taxes and fees you pay in cash first. Either way, it's roughly 5 to 6 cents per point.
Don't transfer until you're sure
This is the most important rule. Once you transfer points to an airline, you can't move them back, and award seats that look available can disappear, sometimes between searching and booking.
Before transferring, I confirm the exact flights are bookable with the airline. If I'm moving a large number of points, I call the airline and ask whether they can hold the seat while the transfer goes through. Not every airline will, but it's worth asking.
Where I search for award seats
A handful of tools do most of the heavy lifting for me.
Seats.aero shows award availability across many airline programs at once, and you can set alerts for routes you're watching. It's usually where I start.
Point.me searches across programs and shows which points transfer gets you the seat for the fewest points. 10% discount on the annual subscription when you use the coupon code lisaflosznikfora
FlightConnections maps nonstop routes from any airport, which helps when you're figuring out which airlines actually fly where you want to go.
Google Flights gives me the cash price, so I can do the math and decide whether points are the better deal.
Search tools rely on data that can lag behind the airline's live inventory, which is one more reason to confirm with the airline before you transfer.
Make sure your cards are working for you
If you're not sure whether your cards are set up to get this kind of value, I offer a credit card audit. I'll look at the cards you hold, how you spend, and where you want to go, and give you a clear plan for making the most of your points.
