Should We Reconsider Booking Travel With Transferable Currencies?
April may have been the longest day month of my life and May doesn’t look to be much better. It feels like ages since I have been outside the house in any meaningful way. Don’t get me wrong I am extremely grateful that I get to shelter at home, a luxury that my wife doesn’t have in the medical profession. Having said that we have a new normal in life, the post coronavirus life. Things we once knew as certainty have been flipped on their head. Activities and freedoms we took for granted are not currently possible. One of the things that I think changed from a certainty to murky water is booking travel with transferable currencies. I have been reading about and hearing from many in the miles and points world that people have been running into issues dealing with cancellations that revolve around transferable currency bookings.
Why Travel Portals Are Popular
Many people love using travel portals and booking travel with transferable currencies. There is no need to find saver space or take less than ideal routing. While the redemption values are usually capped at 1.25-1.5 cents per point there is a comfort in knowing you can book whatever you want for whenever you want.
There are added perks that you are able to earn miles and status on flights when booking via a bank portal too. It is something I have long encouraged versus hoarding points and paying cash for bookings even if I myself rarely use portals.
That all sounds great but what has changed? Nothing really except that it adds another layer when issues arise and takes away valuable options.
Issues With Travel Portal Bookings
When everything works well booking travel with transferable currencies via a travel portal is a great tool. But when things go wrong, like they have recently, it adds another chef in the kitchen so to speak. The airline, hotel and booking portal love to play whack a mole when you have issues as well as the blame game. They each say you need to contact the other person to get things handled. That adds a layer of complexity to an already stressful situation. Here are some of the issues I have heard about:
- Travel portal and airline kick the can back and forth on who needs to talk to who about a cancellation.
- Long hold times trying to get through to anyone in the travel department at the bank, especially Citi. They are not set up for issues like this like the airlines and hotels are.
- If you cancel sometimes you still have to contact the bank to get the points back.
- What if you canceled the card and the bank points account, how do you get your refund?
- You can no longer charge back on your credit card for airlines that are refusing a refund for a paid flight.
You Lose Protections
I think the biggest downside is you lose protections. Airlines have been trying to hoard cash during this pandemic and have refused customers refunds for cancelled flights. Even after the DOT came out and said you do not have to take vouchers for cancelled flights airlines have continued to push them.
If you have booked with airline miles directly you have usually been able to get them back into your account. Even if there is a fee it is usually a fraction of the cost of the ticket and you can then use those miles at a later date. They won’t expire as quickly like some of these vouchers will. It allows you more flexibility for future travel.
Even if you had paid cash for the flights you would find yourself in a better place than if you booked with a travel portal. Because that means you would have the credit card on your side and could file a charge back if they are refusing to give you the refund you rightfully deserve.
Basically every other option gives you better outs than what you are left with booking via a travel portal.
Final Thoughts
Don’t get me wrong I still love travel portals as an idea and they set a base rate / value you should expect to get with your points. But should they be avoided for future travel until things settle down? Maybe.
Should we adopt Benjy’s solution of cashing points out and paying cash for travel for the time being? He makes up the loss in value by using shopping portals when booking and paying with a high earning credit card, something we can not do when booking via a portal.
I plan on focusing on booking with currencies that have good cancellation policies for the near future. Currencies like Southwest Rapid Rewards, British Airways Avios and Virgin Atlantic miles. Anything else I will probably pay cash for, hopefully using a travel eraser card like the Capital One Venture card or similar.
What do you guys think? Has the pandemic changed your booking patterns at all? Have you had issues canceling a travel portal booking?
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On a similar note, I think it makes for those planning points transfers for domestic travel to transfer directly to domestic carriers as opposed to their alliance partners, even if the value is worse on paper. For instance I would consider transferring MR to Delta over VS or flying blue, even though the value per point is lower. Similarly, I would consider united over say Turkish. Not only are there solvency questions for a number of airlines like VS, but in an environment where cancellations are common, I think it is important to ask oneself about how willing one is to be left holding a particular currency.
Very good point Mark. Plus the simplicity of canceling a flight on someone’s own metal can be much easier than dealing with partner bookings etc.
Spot on about bookings using Citi Thank You points, deplorable lack of service. Hours+++ on hold with the posted schedule change number without ever having the call answered. Eventually got the reservation cancelled by insistence, but the points are now being held somewhere pending reinstatement.
If the reservation had been booked directly with the airline, cancellation would’ve been immediate with either cash refund (maybe) or credit voucher.
Exactly Paul – I have heard a lot of horror stories.
You ask: “Has the pandemic changed your booking patterns at all?”
Definitely. I am not even thinking of booking ANYTHING as far as flying for at least the rest of 2020. Next trip will be a road trip and even that is iffy this year. I will re-assess at the or very near the end of the year as far as flying. Despite what the airlines say about cleaning, I would still be stuck inside a poorly ventilated (and very dry) micro-climate in an airplane and considering how badly the airlines all lie, I don’t trust them.
As far as cruises, I wouldn’t go on one if they paid me to go.
Road trip though, I have a small van kitted out so if I am not near a place I think might be safe to stay at, that I can sleep in. For now, I travel virtually and am staying home and will stay at the most, very near to home for the next few months.
Sounds cowardly maybe, but I am over 60, not the best of health and have a couple possible contributing factors. I am not taking any chances whatsoever, if I can help it. The places I love will still be there later on. The important thing is for ME to still be here then.
I think it is a good plan Carl and I think many are thinking along the same lines.
If you are booking any travel right now, you don’t get to complain when the plans get FUBARed. There’s too much operational uncertainty, and you knew it going in.
Typical complaint: “I just bought a ticket on an airline that is currently not even flying that route. Why won’t the hotel refund my non-refundable stay?”
Fair point Tino
George, I am exactly like you… the one thing that my family is loving is the lack of other tourists and people in the way while we are out exploring. Personally, I’m fine if everybody keeps hiding under their bed, we’ll be able to get all of the great deals!
Larry what are you doing in these places you visit? Most things worth seeing or doing are shut down or closed.
I think it depends on each person’s personal financial situation. I’m grateful to still have a job but if I were furloughed or laid off, I’d cash out my transferable points/miles. The way I think about it is cash is king during any crisis and if I accumulated 100k or 200k points in the past year, then I’m confident I will reaccumulate those points again someday in the future.
Somewhat a different topic. I am talking about using them to book via a portal to book travel in the near future. If you need money and want to cash them out that makes 100% sense. My point was I would try to focus on cash bookings or booking via airline miles or hotel points over using the portals because they have been difficult to get refunded/points returned for many.
You have to make posts like this with ACTUAL DATA.
Here is some:
– I am traveling every week. Every single week – all for fun/leisure.
– I book mostly with Chase UR (domestic, economy) and Amex UR (intl biz class). Some cash on CSR for Delta or random things
– I have had over 30 flights impacted/cancelled/adjusted (thank you, society, for over-reacting)
– If you are organized at ALL, and patient, you will get your money and points back.
(if you are lazy and entitled and just want to complain online that someone else doesn’t do the work for you, of course you would just complain about the game instead of how you play it)
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Unless you live in a barn and have never been outside once – travel is always about being flexible and often compromising.
I have probably 400,000 points still ‘hanging’ out there – pending refunds and etc.
I expect to recover around 85-90% of them. Some I just won’t bother with.
As one of the biggest potential ‘losers’ of points – I am still 1000% in the camp of Chase UR/Amex MR as being the BEST currency for use to book travel.
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I will be flying, effectively every week, until June 2021. Most of that is Chase/Amex points.
And, a once in a lifetime situation – because people panicked for no good reason – doesn’t mean anything.
From a person ACTUALLY traveling still. Right now. I flew a t-con yesterday and am doing a road trip again this week. NOW. Nope. Nothing has changed. Love me Amex and Chase points.
Despite what people who aren’t traveling, and just complain online – want you to beleive.
So you confirm that it has been a PIA to get your points back booking through a portal and then say I don’t know what I am talking about. The whole point of the article is it is easier to cancel travel booked pretty much any other way. Sounds like you just confirmed that for me all while saying that I was wrong. Thanks for the assist George.