Points and Travel Areas for Improvement
I’m fascinated by people who clearly aren’t old talking or acting as if they are. Feel free to consider me one of those here. I’ve been dabbling, at varying levels, in the points and travel hobby for about 25 years. But now at my firmly-middle age, I still feel young, with child-like enthusiasm and wonder for many aspects of our mutual hobby. I’m skilled at certain facets while being terribly incompetent at others (some, by choice). I know I can always improve, and I’m honing in on a few such simpler points and travel areas in this article.
Speculative Bookings
My immediate family and I are moderate travelers, although some of you would naturally consider us infrequent ones. We generally take a couple longer trips and several shorter ones each year. We find joy in staycations, too. Rarely do we look at a calendar and book something a year or so in advance. It’s more along the lines of, “Spring Break’s coming up, we need to get on that.”
I come up with all sorts of excuses for not speculatively booking more:
- It’s a waste of time. Why book this if I’ll probably cancel it, anyway?
- Wow, that’s a great rate for this property, but man, this game’s getting exciting.
- I need to go to bed.
- My phone is way over there, like, just beyond my grasp.
- I’ll do it later – that rate will probably last.
Laziness, physical and/or mental, plays a varying role. I could also argue if I’m unwilling to put even the simplest effort into making speculative bookings, I don’t really want to travel, anyway. I recognize this can be true in some situations but a self-fulfilling prophecy in others.
Regardless, I’m often missing out on superior award rates when I put reservations off or avoid making them altogether. In certain cases, I know I’ve ended up paying more in points and miles for certain trips merely out of sloth.
I shall make more speculative bookings. But even with firmer bookings, I can do better.
Booking Maintenance
For the trips I’ll more confidently plan and take, I need to more closely care for them. While I’m better at proactively booking these ones earlier, I should check back in more often. When I have done this, I’ve routinely found better deals on hotels and airfare, easily saving a few to several thousand points or miles.
One of the more underrated benefits of award bookings is their flexibility. Most any hotel award is cancellable or changeable leading up to the stay. The most stringent I’ve experienced are limits one to two weeks prior. While carriers vary, domestic airlines have been more flexible overall with their cancellation policies the past several years. We can easily use this to our advantage to have the best of both worlds. Hobbyists can lock in an award reservation now while also maintaining the freedom to discount it at most any time before the stay or flight. All that’s required from me is a bit more curiosity and attention.
Indeed, I routinely save this way but know I can always do more of it.
Partner Awards
I’m extremely unskilled at the ins and outs of obtaining big value via partner bookings. My skill generally peaks at booking domestic Delta flights at cheaper award rates via Air France or Virgin Atlantic than with SkyMiles. I’m quite pleased with myself when I even get that to work. Otherwise, I got a big bag of nothing when it comes to partner bookings. There’s pretty much nowhere to go but up.
I’ll dabble more eventually, but this is probably the slowest mover out of today’s whole list, as I’d rather focus on earning more points and miles than partner awards’ intricacies and requisite screen time.
Benefit Maintenance
Credit card benefits are increasingly intricate. The devil is even more in the details with every passing day. I’ve created a spreadsheet that best suits my needs, and I recommend you make your own if you haven’t already. Our hobby is a tremendously personal one, and in my view, one spreadsheet does not fit all.
I’m solid at consistently triggering the credits I care about, but I’m admittedly not as detail-oriented when it comes to shutting them down in a timely manner. Perhaps my biggest weakness is the Amex Platinum’s Digital Entertainment Credit. I focus most on this benefit over a few days in the fall, usually over the Black Friday timeframe. I enjoy stacking big savings on these subscriptions with the credit. The rest of the year, I don’t pay as much attention. Promo rates may end, resulting in the credit not covering the more expensive amount. The dreaded “every four weeks” charge for a given service happens twice in a random month, throwing off the math. It’s usually just a few bucks, so no big deal. But really, that’s my excuse for not being more proactive.
Another bonehead mistake – cancelling a Platinum card without updating/cancelling a Walmart+ membership. Walmart flanked to another card on file and charged that one, for a service we hardly use. Again, these are low stakes oversights, but nonetheless, ones I can do better at avoiding.
Providing Feedback
I’m pretty good at providing positive or negative feedback based on a particularly noteworthy stay, flight, or other experience. Subsequently, I’m often surprised at how much service providers value that feedback (or at least act like they do). I occasionally receive an email reply. No matter how minor, my input seems to have some sort an impact.
The experience on the extreme ends is one thing, the more mundane is another. I should probably do a better job with online surveys for all of those experiences “in the middle.” Indeed, that’s where the vast majority of them lie. In our world increasingly focused on the far ends, I can do my part in bringing the true realities of everything in the middle to light.
Points and Travel Areas for Improvement – Conclusion
I could certainly go on, but these are the big areas where I know I can improve. Fortunately, none are hugely concerning, but ones where I’m definitely leaving extra out there. I could easily justify missing a bunch of the small errors since I’m focused on avoiding the big concerns, but that doesn’t lead to any improvement. Adapt and overcome!
In what points and travel areas could you improve?
