Intro to Travel Points
3 Mindset Shifts for Planning Trips with Points
Stretch your points further and have less stress when booking
The video above is from Katie's podcast, Points for Normal People.
The Three Mindset Shifts
Start with sweet spots
Then work backwards
Be flexible
Dates or destination
Plan in advance
Especially if you can't be flexible
Mindset Shift 1
Start with Sweet Spots, Then Work Backwards
Picking one sweet spot as a goal is a really good way to start, because it gets you a win early on.
The good news: just like you can follow a proven plan for which credit cards to open, you can follow proven sweet spots for using your points. That cuts down on decision fatigue and analysis paralysis.
Most sweet spots come from transferring your points to airlines or hotels, or sometimes from earning points directly with them.
Real Example · Iceland & Scotland
This trip used ANA Mileage Club miles (transferred from American Express, not Chase). Our family had about 200,000 of them left after cancelling a trip and they were going to expire.
The parameters. In December, they decided to use them either when the kids' school let out for the year or over Thanksgiving. Flexible on destination, a set time frame with some wiggle room on dates, a 2–3 week trip, and about enough points for a round trip to Europe. ANA is in the Star Alliance, so other Star Alliance airlines were options — not ANA itself, since it's based in Japan.
Finding routes. I started on FlightConnections.com, looking at Star Alliance nonstops from Chicago (a United hub) to Europe then started looking at seats.aero for available flights. The short list I came up: Lisbon, Istanbul, Edinburgh, and Ireland — some only in June, some only in November. We picked Edinburgh, to finally visit a friend in Scotland they'd been trying to see for over five years.
Working backwards. Surprisingly, there were award seats home on the seasonal United nonstop from Edinburgh — seasonal routes usually release very few seats to partners. So the return date was set. But there was nothing on the nonstop out to Edinburgh when they wanted to leave.
Not a simple round trip. So I asked: with a few days' flexibility, where could we fly nonstop from Chicago that also had a nonstop to Edinburgh a few days later? That narrowed quickly to Iceland, London, or Brussels. We chose Iceland.
By being flexible, we visited two places they'd wanted to see in one trip.
Other perks: we weren't in United's lowest economy fare, so they could pick seats, check a bag for free, and change or cancel if needed. This exact sweet spot isn't available with Ultimate Rewards, but there are other sweet spots to Europe that are.
Mindset Shift 2
Be Flexible
It's totally fine to come to points with a very specific goal — for some people it's really motivating. Just know that if your goal doesn't line up with a sweet spot, it might take a lot more points and a lot more time to reach.
Sweet spots also ebb and flow. Award charts change, new transfer partners pop up, and airlines start charging more or less in taxes and fees. There are always deals out there with points; the specifics just change. You'll always be able to get a good deal to Europe, for example, but the airline or strategy might change.
“You don't have to be 100% flexible.”
Generally, you can find a good option if you can be flexible on one of these:
Dates
Destination
Price & convenience
If you're a family or a teacher working around a school schedule, you might not have date flexibility. For spring break, our family often has a one- to two-day window for leaving and coming back.
Locked: dates and destination
A few years ago we planned to meet friends in Maui for spring break. The only lever left was price and convenience. We booked the hotel really far in advance, and we broke our cardinal rule of flying nonstop: we took a connecting Southwest flight with our Companion Passes, because the United nonstop cost more than she wanted to spend.
Locked: dates and budget
Another spring break, they considered Europe. Katie set a flight alert for any nonstop from Chicago to Europe under a certain price in points and taxes, then watched what came up. Dates and budget were locked, but they were flexible on location.
Mindset Shift 3
Plan in Advance
Especially if you don't want to be very flexible, planning and booking in advance — even up to a year — can really help. The earlier you start, the more options you'll have, particularly with airlines and hotels that use award charts.
If booking a year ahead gives you hives, don't worry. You don't have to, as long as you're okay being flexible with your dates or destinations.
Planning ahead doesn't always give you the most options, though. Not all airlines release all their award seats 11 months out; sometimes more are released at random times, or even close in. You can find a deal at almost any time — but starting early gives you the chance to see the most deals go by for your dates.
