Miles & Points for Beginners: What’s a Good Deal?

As we continue our Miles & Points for Beginners series, we look at what makes for a good deal when it comes time to redeem your points.

After all, choosing the right credit card and earning the points is actually the easiest part of the whole Miles & Points process.

When you’re ready to redeem your points, you may find that navigating and understanding the complex world of loyalty programs can be difficult, especially as a beginner.

For many people, it’s easy to get frustrated and give up at this stage, choosing to redeem your accumulated points for merchandise instead of travel because it’s simpler to understand.

However, if you invest some time in learning the ins and outs of loyalty programs, you’ll get significantly greater value from your points and incredible travel experiences to boot.

What’s a Good Deal?

Figuring out whether a flight redemption is a “good deal” or not can seem complicated, given the sheer number of different loyalty programs and points currencies out there.

The meaning of a “good deal” can also shift based on your personal needs and desires.

Some Miles & Points enthusiasts are very focused on experiencing specific airline cabins and indulging in luxury, and for these people, a good deal will only exist within this context.

However, for a large number of travellers, a good deal has a lot more to do with balancing value, availability, and convenience.

The average traveller may not be looking to get outsized value every time they redeem their points; instead, they may just be looking to save money on travel and be knowledgeable enough to make smart redemption choices.

After all, the best redemption is the one that you can actually make and enjoy. Unlike cash, miles and points don’t tend to appreciate over time, and in fact, they’re likely to be less valuable if you save them for years, rather than “earning and burning” more frequently.

One important (and frustrating) aspect of loyalty programs is that they often change, and usually for the worse.

If you’re saving all of your points for retirement, a redemption that might cost 50,000 points now could cost much more then.

You’re only ever guaranteed to get the same value out of your points as…