Some of the offers mentioned below may be expired or not available.
I know you are anxious to start earning miles and points, but first we need to discuss all of the different types of miles and points. All are not created equal and some are much better than others.
This was a mistake I first made – just applying for random credit cards that had a lousy $100 sign up bonus – it was a big mistake. You should get at least $500 in value from a credit card sign up bonus. I’ve sometimes gotten over $2000+ in value from one credit card sign up bonus.
Let’s go over all of the different types available now.
Airline Miles
Airline miles are probably the most common type of reward that most people have at least heard of. They are also sometimes called frequent flier miles and are part of a loyalty program offered by airlines. Just about every single airline has a loyalty program. The loyalty programs are free to join.
Once you earn enough miles, you can redeem those miles for a free flight. There are numerous ways to earn airline miles, most of which don’t actually involve flying on the airline itself. So in addition to earning miles by actually flying, the best ways to earn airline miles is through co-branded airline credit cards.
A few examples of co-branded airline cards:
- Chase Southwest credit cards
- Barclay’s JetBlue Card
- Citi’s American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum Select
- Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Card
DO NOT APPLY FOR ANY OF THESE CREDIT CARDS YET – trust me, you need a strategy as card issuers have changed requirements in the past year making it harder for travel hackers to benefit.
When you apply for these credit cards there is typically a ‘new cardmember offer’ – something like 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. These new cardmember offers are by far the quickest and easiest way to earn a large amount of miles in a short period of time.
Co-branded credit cards also offer additional perks such as double miles on tickets purchased from that airline, priority boarding, free first checked bag, etc. There is also typically an annual fee for most if not all of these co-branded credit cards but it is usually waived the first year.
Hotel Points
Hotel points are just the same as airline miles but instead of earning miles, you earn hotel points. Hotels also have loyalty programs that are free to join to accumulate these points.
Once you earn enough hotel points you can redeem those points for a free night at the hotel chain. Earning hotel points happens just like airline miles but instead of flying, you earn points for staying at the hotel chain. Hotels also have co-branded credit cards also, here are a few:
- Chase World of Hyatt
- Chase IHG Rewards Club
- American Express Hilton Honors Ascend
Just like airline co-branded credit cards that offer additional perks so do hotel co-branded credit cards – typically a free night certificate on your credit card anniversary, late checkout benefit, etc.
sample offer – current offer may be different
Cash
Cash back credit cards are pretty easy to understand also – typically you will receive 1%, 1.5%, or 2% cash back on purchases made. There are a few credit cards that claim to provide miles for purchases, but when you dig into the programs, you redeem miles for cash or credits on travel purchases you make. Here are a few examples:
- Citi Double Cash (1% cash back on purchases + 1% when you make a payment = 2% total)
- Fidelity Rewards Visa (2% cash back into a Fidelity account, I use their ‘Fidelity Cash Management Account’ as my main checking account)
- Discover It Miles Card (even though you earn 1.5X miles on purchases, 100 miles are worth $1.00 cash or travel credit)
Flexible Reward Programs
Now for my favorite type – flexible reward programs. These five programs offer multiple ways to use points.
Chase Ultimate Rewards
Points are not tied to any specific airline or hotel. Points can be used to book travel through Chase Travel Center at a fixed redemption. You can also redeem points for cash back, gift cards, and merchandise but these are a bad idea since the redemption rate is so much lower.
The best part of flexible currencies is the ability to transfer points to airline and hotel partners. This is where you get outstanding value. Chase’s airline and hotel transfer parters include:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- British Airways Avios
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
- United Airlines MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- IHG Rewards Club
- Marriott Rewards
- Ritz-Carlton Rewards
- World of Hyatt
When first looking at this list, you may be thinking that you’ll never be in Singapore to use their miles. Not true – Singapore Airlines is part of the Star Alliance along with United. So you can use Singapore Airline miles for United flights. Each reward program has it’s sweet spots – for example it only costs 35,000 Singapore miles to for a roundtrip flight to Hawaii (on United airplanes) while United charges 45,000 miles. You could save 10,000 chase ultimate reward points by transferring to Singapore instead of United and be on the same exact airplane!
I have personally redeem Chase Ultimate Reward points to British Airways (for use on American Airline flights), Korean Air (for use on Delta flights), Singapore (for use on United flights), United, and Southwest. Although, my favorite transfer partner is actually for Hyatt hotels. Their most expensive property is only 30,000 points (Hilton’s is 95,000!)
The key to Chase Ultimate Rewards is that they are easy to earn – there are multiple Chase credit cards which offer Ultimate Reward points. The second key point is that they are very flexible with multiple transfer partners. My largest points balance is with Chase Ultimate Rewards.
American Express Membership Rewards
As the same with Chase Ultimate Rewards, points are not tied to any specific airline or hotel. Points can be used to book travel through American Express’s Travel Center at a fixed redemption. You can also redeem points for cash back, gift cards, and merchandise but again these are a bad idea since the redemption rate is so much lower.
American Express has a few more transfer partners than Chase. Amex’s hotel and airline transfer partners include:
- AeroMexico
- Air Canada Aeroplan)
- Air France / KLM Flying Blue
- Alitalia (Italy) Millemiglia
- ANA (Japan)
- Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) Asia Miles
- British Airways Avios
- Delta Skymiles
- El Al Israel Airlines
- Emirates
- Etihad Airways
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Iberia Plus (Spain)
- JetBlue Airways
- Singapore Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Hilton
- Choice
American Express’s Membership Rewards are my second favorite flexible point program. There are a ton of airline transfer partners to choose from. I’ve personally transferred points to ANA & Air Canada for business class travel to Europe.
Here is a post I wrote about how I spent my 100,000 Membership Rewards bonus from the American Express Platinum credit card. The post also goes shows you how airline alliances work.
There are also multiple credit cards that offer Membership Reward points so they are fairly easy to earn.
Marriott Rewards
Points are tied directly to Marriott (& Starwood) Hotels. You can also redeem points for gift cards or merchandise (bad idea).
When Marriott merged with Starwood Preferred Guest they kept the ability to transfer points to over 40 Airline transfer partners – and most transfer at a 3:1 ratio. There is also a 5,000 point bonus for transferring 60,000 (so 60,000 Marriott Reward Points = 25,000 airline miles).
Marriott airline transfer partners include:
| Aegean Airlines | 3:1 |
| Aeroflot Bonus | 3:1 |
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | 3:1 |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 3:1 |
| Air China Phoenix Miles | 3:1 |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | 3:1 |
| Air New Zealand Airpoints™ | 200:1 |
| Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan® | 3:1 |
| Alitalia MilleMiglia | 3:1 |
| ANA Mileage Club | 3:1 |
| American Airlines | 3:1 |
| Asiana Airlines Asiana Club | 3:1 |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 3:1 |
| British Airways Executive Club | 3:1 |
| Asia Miles™ | 3:1 |
| China Eastern Airlines Eastern Miles | 3:1 |
| China Southern Airlines | 3:1 |
| Copa Airlines ConnectMiles | 3:1 |
| Delta SkyMiles® | 3:1 |
| Emirates Skywards® | 3:1 |
| Etihad Guest | 3:1 |
| Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns® | 3:1 |
| Hainan Airlines | 3:1 |
| Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles® | 3:1 |
| Iberia Plus | 3:1 |
| Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank | 3:1 |
| Jet Airways JetPrivilege® | 3:1 |
| JetBlue TrueBlue™ | 6:1 |
| Korean Air SKYPASS | 3:1 |
| LATAM Airlines LATAMPASS | 3:1 |
| Lufthansa Miles & More | 3:1 |
| Multiplus | 3:1 |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 3:1 |
| Qatar Privilege Club | 3:1 |
| Saudia Airlines | 3:1 |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer® | 3:1 |
| South African Airways Voyager | 3:1 |
| Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® | 3:1 |
| TAP Air Portugal | 3:1 |
| THAI Airways | 3:1 |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 3:1 |
| United MileagePlus® | 3:1.1 |
| Virgin Atlantic® Flying Club | 3:1 |
| Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer | 3:1 |
You can also use points for valuable redemptions at Marriott & Starwood properties (Four Points, Westin, W, St. Regis, Sheraton, etc). Marriott also gives you the 5th night free when redeeming points at a category 3-7 hotel (use points for four nights, get the fifth free!). Finally, Marriott also has flights & nights packages available where you can redeem points for airline miles and a stay in a hotel.
I’ve also had some great redemptions at Marriott/SPG properties – specifically the Westin in Snowmass, CO for a ski trip the Westin in Whistler Canada for another ski trip. I took advantage of the 5th night free option when booking 4 nights with points.
Citi Thank You Points
Just like Chase and American Express, Citi Thank You Points are not tied to any specific airline or hotel. TYP (Thank You Points) can be used to book travel through the Citi Travel Center at a fixed value redemption. And of course can be used for statement credits, merchandise, shop with points, etc – BUT DON’T EVER USE FOR THIS PURPOSE!
Citi also has airline (and Hilton hotel) transfer partners which include:
- EVA Air (Taiwan)
- Garuda Indonesia
- Qantas (Australia)
- Thai Airways
- Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
- Singapore Airlines
- Air France
- Etihad
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qatar
- Jet Blue
- Virgin Atlantic
- Hilton Hotel transfer partner
Citi Thank You points only used to be able to be redeemed for statement credits or gift cards but that changed a couple years ago. I think Citi realized that they had to offer transfer partners to match American Express and Chase.
There are a few good redemption options including Air France, Singapore, & Cathay Pacific. Citi also has multiple different credit cards that earn Thank You points – so it’s fairly easy to acquire a bunch really quickly.
I used 50,000 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles for a one way business class seat to Venice, Italy which I thought provided a good redemption value.
Capital One Miles
Previously Capital One miles were a ‘cash’ point. Remember the Jennifer Garner commercials where you could redeem Capital One miles for any flight at any time with no blackout dates? That’s because Capital One miles were worth 1 cent per mile value – a $1000 flight would cost 100,000 miles.
But that has all changed now (as of December 2018). You can still redeem Capital One miles for 1 cent per mile value through the Capital One travel portal or redeem for gift cards or travel purchase credits, but now they offer airline transfer partners.
Airline transfer partners have a 4:3 transfer ratio (except Emirates & Singapore which have a 2:1 ratio) and include:
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Alitalia MilleMiglia Program
- Avianca LifeMiles
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Airways Etihad Guest
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
- Finnair Plus
- Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Now you may be thinking a 4:3 transfer ratio is not as good as Chase’s 1:1 ratio but one thing you have to remember is the Capital One credit cards earn 2X miles for all purchases.
So a $1000 purchase on the Capital One Venture credit card will earn 2000 Capital One miles. You can then transfer these 2000 Capital One miles to 1500 Air Canada Aeroplan miles.
Need to Knows
- There are four main types of miles and points:
- Airline Miles
- Hotel Points
- Cashback
- Flexible Reward Programs
- Flexible Reward Programs are typically the most valuable and fall into 5 main types:
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Citi Thank You Points
- Marriott Rewards
- Capital One Miles
