One of the most frustrating things about collecting points and miles is redeeming them. I had this issue just last week, when I got in on a $900 roundtrip business class fare between Auckland and Oakland. I followed the book first, think later mantra and then tried to find award space to Auckland to make the trip work.
After a diligent award search (to New Zealand and Australia), I had to cancel my ticket because I had no way to get there. It was fine – I have plenty of miles and can travel to Auckland at another, more convenient time. But this did get me thinking about the options we have available when we can’t redeem miles. Here are a few of them:
Use Cash Back or Arrival Miles for Paid Travel
Paid fares, whether for economy or premium cabins, can be very reasonable. In fact, there have been plenty of times when I’ve redeemed cash back rewards or Arrival Miles to pay for travel rather than redeeming airline miles. When award space isn’t available for the flight you want, it can absolutely make sense to pay for travel a 2% cash back card or Barclay Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard. How do you determine the best scenario for this? I personally go by the “the spend test.”
I compare the paid fare with award redemption requirements, then calculate how much I’d have to put on a 2% back card vs. airline card to earn the rewards needed for that flight. In many cases, especially short to medium-haul domestic flights, the cash back/Arrival rate works out more favorable. But regardless of whether you’re doing this to maximize rewards travel, redeeming cash back or Arrival miles is a great option for booking flights if you can’t redeem miles.
Use Flexible Rewards
I don’t usually like to go this route, but I know lots of people who redeem flexible rewards currencies for flights when they can’t redeem miles. The great thing about flexible rewards currencies is that it’s no longer a 1 cent per point deal. Several premium credit cards offer bonuses on flexible rewards redemptions. For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers 50% more value (i.e. 1.5 cents each) when you redeem points for travel through the Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal.
Have the Chase Sapphire Preferred? Then points are worth 1.25 cents through the portal. The Business Platinum Card from American Express offers a 35% bonus when you book flights through the Pay with Points option. Redeeming points this way can be even more of a value if you’ve earned points through the card’s 5x travel category bonus.
Trade Miles
Sometimes, despite our best efforts to plan ahead, we end up with miles we can’t redeem. It happened to me last year, when I was trying to redeem miles for a flights to the Middle East. I had banked on Alaska Miles, since Emirates had pretty good availability (i.e. phantom space). I really didn’t expect Etihad to open up a ton of award space, so I hadn’t focused on accruing AAdvantage miles like I should have. Luckily, some awesome folks stepped in and took me up on an offer to trade miles.
They booked my trip using their AAdvantage miles and I in turn offered them my Ultimate Rewards and Alaska miles. I was able to book the flights I wanted without incurring additional costs. Now this only works if you’re dealing with people you trust, so I wouldn’t go around trading miles with random people.
A lack of award availability can be incredibly frustrating, but luckily we have more options than ever when it comes to dealing with the issue. When I got into this hobby six years ago, there were no Barclay Arrival miles and I often found myself in a tough spot when it came to redeeming miles. If you diversify your rewards portfolio, you’ll have plenty of options when this happens.
That being said, what do you do to off-set travel expenses when you can’t redeem miles?
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