How to Redeem Credit Card points for Flights and Hotels
Before applying for a credit card – you may ask – is this worth the trouble? I am here to show you that YES – you can get tons of value out of your credit card points.
Here are the best ways to redeem & my favorite guides:
Transfer to airline or hotel partners
- Airlines: can get 1.5x for flights or even as high as 10x; Hotels range from 0.5x – 5x
- All of the transferrable currency cards (Chase Ultimate Rewards, AmEX Membership reward etc) have airline and hotel partners. You can find these listed in the rewards area in your online account.
- Award Travel 101 also has a great tool called Transfer Partner Matrix – I love the visuals and being able to map out what transferable currencies can overlap.
- You will need to have a membership account for the partner you are transferring to:
- For example – you will need a United Airlines Mileage Plus account to transfer miles.
- Make sure the names on your credit card & your airline/hotel accounts match
- I recommend finding the flight/hotel you want first before transferring credit card points
- To get even MORE value – keep an eye out for transfer bonuses
Credit card travel portals
- 1.25-1.5X return on points
- The travel portals work like Expedia – as a 2nd party is booking your flights and hotels
- Advantages:
- With the Chase Sapphire Preferred card you automatically get 1.25x value out of your points
- You have access to a large variety of hotels, not limiting to the hotel transfer partners – this can be great when booking away from major cities in Europe
- Disadvantages:
- If you need to make changes or cancel – it is a huge headache, and you might not get your points refunded.
- Prices may be higher in the travel portals – so always check the main website to see if you are actually saving
Travel Eraser
- There are some credit cards – Capital One that offer a travel eraser
- Your Capital One miles can be either cashed out at 0.5x or you can erase travel for 1x.
- This can be really useful if booking a vacation to Disney or an AirBnB – where there is not a good way to book on points or through the travel portals
