You may have heard of folks using credit card points or loyalty points to travel, including on business class or first class fares for flights. 

While yes, this can be absolutely fabulous when folks can get it to work for them! However, I don’t think this method of travel is for everyone, nor is it as “easy” as people might make it sound. 

I’d like to share a couple of realities that I feel aren’t discussed enough:

Off-peak Travel

• Those “sweet spot” redemptions where folks explain that they paid a low number of points relative to the cash price are not usually everyday fares. It may be in the off-season, or less busy days of the week. 

  • There’s nothing wrong with that, but you may not have a lot of PTO, and flying out on a Tuesday rather than a Friday for a short trip might not make enough sense to justify the “deal.”

Home Airport Locations

• People who discuss those astonishingly low points prices often are flying from major airport hubs. 

  • For example, JFK -> CDG will likely be easier to find a deal for than say, ICT -> CDG.

High Spend

• It’s not advisable to increase your spending just to try to get more points. What people are often referring to is changing your regular spend from debit card to a credit card that earns points. However, some folks may end up spending more per year than others, which makes this side by side comparison somewhat unrealistic. 

  • Note, this is different from “overspending,” but when people say, “I flew business class to Europe just by putting all my spending on this exact card!” 

    • If someone spends $12,000 on dining out/restaurants per year, on a card that earns 3x points on dining, that’s 36,000 points. 

    • A different person may only spend $1200 on dining/restaurants per year, and only earn 3,600 points. 

Sign Up Bonuses

• Some credit card companies are willing to offer sign-up bonuses in order to earn your business. These usually look something like, “Spend $3,000 in 3 months to earn 50,000 bonus points.” That seems to be one of the ways people earn a lot of points relatively quickly, but you also don’t necessarily want to be opening several new credit cards per year. There’s also often a penalty for canceling the card before a year or two, not just for your credit score but also your standing with the company/chances of approval on their other products. 

Credit Card Interest

• Quite a few rewards credit cards have extremely high interest rates (to the tune of like, 29% sometimes). If you cannot pay off a balance in full each month, I would seriously reconsider getting a rewards credit card (or potentially, a credit card at all– but some credit unions or non-rewards cards have a more reasonable interest rate). 

  • It may be tempting to feel like things even out in the end if you’re getting rewards, but you will likely end up paying more interest than you’ll ever get in rewards. 

All that to say, I’m not saying it can’t be done or isn’t worth it for anyone, but don’t beat yourself up if the credit card points game doesn’t align with your travel needs.