Author Topic: Hoarding points/miles  (Read 1811 times)

WSUCoug1994

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Hoarding points/miles
« on: September 23, 2019, 09:46:21 AM »
I am likely 3+ years away from retirement.  I have been carefully navigating the credit card world for miles and points for over 10 years and we put pretty much every single purchase that we can to generate additional points/miles (some cash back when it makes sense).  We have young kids (3 and 1) so we likely won't be doing a lot of complicated international travel before I retire so I have been stockpiling my points/miles for use once I retire.  I am also careful to make sure they don't expire.  For the most part, we utilize Chase points, AMEX points, United points, Alaska points and Marriott Bonvoy for a number of reasons but those are the travel companies we use the most personally and professionally.

Since I have a good paying job (often traveling for work) and we budget appropriately while I am working it makes sense to pay cash for our trips now, stockpiling those points/miles for when I am retired (to reduce cash burn) and we take more extensive international trips.

It feels like this is the right strategy - am I thinking about this appropriately?  Anything I should be doing differently?

Dictionary Time

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2019, 10:10:47 AM »
I think hoarding the cash is the better move.  They depreciate the points and make them worth less over time. Your money could be increasing over time if you beat inflation. 

affordablehousing

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2019, 10:16:53 AM »
yeah, you can't invest points. Why on earth would you be stockpiling them??? Mileage programs change but airlines will always accept cash.

Boofinator

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2019, 10:19:10 AM »
Money is fungible in time. Points are too, though less so due to the possibility of the airlines changing their terms. So what this means for me is I always opt to use points rather than cash for trips I'm planning to take, unless cash works out favorably compared to points for that particular trip. As they say, cash is king....

Padonak

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2019, 11:07:15 AM »
Sell your points.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2019, 11:29:24 AM »
I hate "points." I use them because they make it too expensive not to, but I use them at the first reasonably good-looking opportunity to do so. That allows us to keep as much of our actual money invested as possible.

LifeHappens

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2019, 11:42:13 AM »
The greatest risk in your strategy is points depreciation. This happens pretty regularly as airlines and hotels merge or otherwise "upgrade" their programs. Most travel hackers use the churn-and-burn strategy for this reason. If it's going to be more than 12 months until you can do those bigger trips, I personally would use what you have now. There will always be more opportunities to earn points.

WSUCoug1994

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2019, 12:32:17 PM »
Heck - I am really glad I asked.  Thank you for letting me know I wasn't thinking this through.  Love you guys.

Car Jack

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2019, 01:19:52 PM »
The only time I ever earned points on credit cards was when our family of 4 would go to Aruba every year, then use the AA points to upgrade to first class.

I only use cash back cards now.  Somehow, cash works for everything.

Rdy2Fire

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2019, 08:47:17 PM »
Well I guess outside of Boofinator I may be the only one here that doesn't really see an issue.

I mean of course they points could depreciate but I get all the points 'for free' as it is related to my regular spending and more so much of my points were "collected" on business travel I was reimbursed from.

Although I don't have most of my points currently with AMEX (because I used many) I like that for the transfer options or pay with points options (typically cost more points) and I ONLY use points for flying. I just booked some flights and there is no way I would spend $2700 for a 1st class one way flight that I will be taking but spending 40K +$80 makes it a no brainer especially when economy is 30K and even if I was willing to psy for the economy ticket it was almost $700 so to me the points are a no brainer.

secondcor521

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Re: Hoarding points/miles
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2019, 09:44:38 PM »
I travel hack, and like many I churn and burn.  But I will try to get good value for my points, and lately I'm trying to be more efficient in how I use them.  It used to be that I was very simplistic: "Oh, I have enough miles in my account for this flight, so I'll book it."  Now I'll compare across airlines, routes, layovers, points/miles currencies, etc.  There are plenty of tricks out there and plenty of travel hacking websites to learn from.

Someone mentioned selling points.  I've done that with success once, but now I have a hard time doing so.  I know the broker is reselling them to some traveler who is getting more value out of them than whatever I got paid plus the broker's markup.  In my mind, I'd rather be the traveler.  However, I think the traveler sometimes may be using my miles for a trip that I wouldn't or can't take.  I've only done it with a miles currency which is easy for me to accumulate but hard for me to use.