When Should You Buy Points?

Besides credit card welcome bonuses, maximizing your return on daily spending, and then perhaps some advanced manoeuvres, one additional method to acquire loyalty points in some circumstances is by outright buying them from the loyalty program. 

While it doesn’t quite have the same satisfying feeling of “travelling for almost free” that you might get from some of the other ways to earn points, and it’s not going to be a strategy that works at all times, a circumstance may arise in which purchasing points could be a good, if not outstanding, deal.

Most of these situations rely on airlines and hotels putting on promotions that allow you to purchase points at a discount from the regular rate, and these promotions come and go frequently, with their durations varying from as little as a few days to a whole month.

Let’s look at a few situations in which it might make sense to buy points outright, and hopefully you’ll be able to apply this analysis next time you receive one of these special offers in your inbox.

1. Buy Points to Top-Up Your Account for a Redemption

Imagine that you’ve planned out a major redemption with a certain loyalty program, but you’re just shy of having enough miles to book it.

You’ve found your desired routing, located all the award availability, and set up the rest of your trip to perfectly align with these flights. All you’re missing is that final couple hundred or couple thousand miles before you’ll have enough to book the whole thing.

If it’s a program like Aeroplan where you can instantly transfer over your Amex MR points to top-up, then that would be the best option. Otherwise, if there’s no quick and easy solution to earn that extra small amount of miles, then it may well be in your best interest to purchase them outright, since you’d (presumably) still be getting great value on your redemption even if you have to spend some money. 

And even if you’re still way off having enough miles for a major redemption, buying those additional miles to make the trip happen can still be a viable option compared to the alternative of paying cash out-of-pocket.

As an example, consider American Airlines AAdvantage, which regularly allows you to buy miles on a sale. On both sides of the border, coming across AAdvantage miles can be difficult, since the transfer ratio from RBC Avion isn’t ideal and there aren’t many other transfer…