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About Buying Points
Besides earning airline miles and hotel points through credit card spending, flying, and hotel stays, buying them directly from airlines and hotels is also a fast way to accumulate a large balance. In general, though, buying points outright is a very poor deal. For example, when you book an award ticket and do not have enough miles, the airline will tempt you to buy miles at a very high price. I was only short a little over 2,000 miles, yet I was asked to pay an extra $112 to buy miles just to ticket the reservation. That is basically highway robbery.
Airlines want people to accept the idea that miles are something you get for free from flying. So if you just spend a little more money to top off the missing miles, it still looks cheaper than buying the ticket outright, which makes it seem like you are coming out ahead. Of course, we should not fall for that.
Hotels are a bit more reasonable. Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG all support Points+Cash bookings. If you do not have enough points, you can choose to pay part of the stay in cash. In effect, this is basically the same as buying points with cash, while the booking itself is treated just like a full points booking. For example, when booking a Hyatt stay, you may see several different options. In the example below, you can book the same room for 12,000 points, 6,000+$87 ($75 before tax), or $221 ($192 before tax). It all depends on whether you have enough points and how many points you want to use.
Besides buying points during the booking process for flights and hotel stays, airline and hotel websites also provide direct ways to purchase points. The regular purchase price is usually not worth it at all, but when there is a promotion, buying points can make sense under the right circumstances. The screenshot below shows a Hilton promotion offering a 100% bonus on purchased points: buy 5,000 points or more and get the same amount free. Buy 5,000 points and receive another 5,000.
We also keep a roundup on our site covering recent buy-points promotions, historical purchase bonuses, and a simple analysis of whether buying points is worthwhile:
Below, I will walk through the logic behind traveling with purchased points.
When You Should Buy Hotel Points
Friends often ask me, “I am going to xxx next month. Which hotel credit card should I apply for so I can stay for free?” Every time I hear that, I have the urge to give them a quick reality check. If you want to play the hotel credit card game well, you need to prepare early. One month is not even enough time to meet the minimum spending requirement on a new card, so where are those hotel points supposed to come from?
Back to the main topic: besides earning a large number of hotel points through co-branded hotel credit cards, buying points directly is also very fast. Hotel points go on sale fairly often, and buying points during a promotion can be a great way to book a stay. Of course, buying hotel points still costs real money. But in some situations, booking a hotel stay by buying points first can be cheaper than paying the cash rate, and it can also give you more flexibility. If you understand how hotel loyalty programs work, it can be surprisingly easy to spend less and stay at a much more upscale property.
Let us look at a few examples. The examples may be somewhat extreme, but the overall thought process is the same. If you have a similar hotel stay in mind, it is worth first checking how many points your target hotel requires, then comparing that with the latest points-purchase promotions. You may find a very good deal.
Hilton Points and Overwater Villas in the Maldives
An overwater villa in the Maldives is the kind of stay you will never forget. The price, however, is just as memorable: $1,100 per night, or about $1,200 after tax. A five-night stay comes to $6,000.
If you change your approach and book with Hilton points instead, then combining that with the fifth-night-free benefit on award stays means five nights would cost only 95,000*4=380,000 points total. Pair that with Hilton’s 100% purchase bonus, which works out to 0.5c/p, and in theory you would need only $1,900 to buy 380,000 Hilton points.
By stacking a buy-points bonus with the fifth-night-free benefit, five nights in a top-tier Maldives overwater villa drops from $6,000 to a points purchase cost of $1,900. The takeaway is:
- Buying points can be an outstanding deal for high-end hotels in popular destinations
Hyatt Points and Park Hyatt New York
Park Hyatt New York is located right in the heart of the city, about a 5-minute walk from Central Park and also not far from Times Square and the famous Fifth Avenue shopping area. If you plan to spend time in central New York City, staying downtown is obviously the most convenient choice. But Park Hyatt is shockingly expensive: a paid stay costs $1,100 before tax, or $1,265 after tax.
Yet an award stay requires only 30,000 points. If you combine that with the current 40% bonus on purchased points, the cost of buying points for the stay comes out to only $500 per night, which is far cheaper than booking the cash rate.
So the takeaway here is: Luxury hotels in the centers of major cities are often excellent candidates for buying points and redeeming them
The Hidden Extra Costs Behind Cancun Hotels
Many people choose nearby Cancun, Mexico, for a vacation, and hotels are a major expense. One thing to know about Cancun hotels is that on top of the listed price, there is also an additional 19% in taxes and fees. For example, at the IHG property Inter Continental Cancun shown below, the room rate is $250 per night, but there is nearly $50 in additional charges on top.
Booking with IHG points is a great way to avoid those extra charges entirely. So when you calculate whether buying points and booking an award stay is better than paying cash, do not forget to factor in hefty taxes and fees. Similarly, some hotels in the U.S. charge high taxes or resort fee amounts, and those can often be avoided on points stays as well.
Exceptional Flexibility
There is another hidden advantage to booking hotels with points: you can often “cancel anytime,” then rebook for different dates, which gives you a huge amount of flexibility. By “cancel anytime,” I mean that as long as you cancel 1 day or 3 days before check-in, depending on the hotel’s policy, your points will be refunded in full. If your travel plans may change, award stays let you adjust without any penalty. The major hotel groups—IHG, Hilton, Marriott, SPG, and Hyatt—all have similar policies, which makes points bookings especially flexible.
If you book with cash, things are very different. The lowest nightly rate you find in a search is often a non-refundable rate or one that carries a cancellation penalty. For example, here is a search for an SPG hotel in Hawaii on June 22:
The lowest price, $328, comes with a 100% penalty if you do not notify the hotel to cancel by the specified deadline—in other words, you get no refund at all. If you book with points instead, you can cancel up to three days before check-in without any charge. Of course, for that free cancellation, you are paying an extra $14 per night.
Summary
If you plan to stay at hotels in popular resort areas, major tourist destinations, or downtown areas of large cities, and you want to keep your travel dates flexible, booking with points is often the better choice. If you do not have enough points in time, compare the cost of buying points with the cost of paying cash. Be sure to factor in taxes and fees, then simply choose the lower-cost option.
If you are someone who plans ahead, you can apply for credit cards early to earn some hotel points first. If that is still not enough, you can wait for a hotel points sale and buy some points at the right time to use later.
In addition to the advantages mentioned above, here are a few other things to keep in mind:
- With IHG points, the Points Break activity lets you book a night for just 5000 points, bringing the cost of a bought-points stay down to as little as $25 per night
- Hilton, SPG, Marriott, and IHG (card required) all offer stay four nights on points and get the fifth night free; if you are only a little short of enough points for four nights, it is definitely worth topping up
When should you buy airline miles?
Flight options are usually more limited than hotel options, especially for international flights. Compared with hotel points, airline miles are a bit harder to use, because airlines release fewer award seats. But if you do find award availability, it becomes easy to compare whether buying miles and redeeming an award ticket is a better deal than paying cash.
For example, if you search now for a nonstop business class ticket from Shanghai to Los Angeles a few days from now, the required mileage is 70,000, while the cash price for the same flight is $2,700.
UA miles have recently been on sale, with a 30% bonus on purchased miles. If you were to buy the 70,000 miles needed, the total cash cost plus ticketing fees would be only about $1,700. Compared with buying the ticket outright, that saves more than $1,000.
To sum up, award tickets have the following advantages over cash tickets:
- Great for nonstop flights: On most airlines, nonstop and connecting itineraries cost the same number of miles, but nonstop cash tickets are often much more expensive. This also applies to economy class.
- Great for one-way flights: On most airlines, a one-way award costs half of a round-trip award, but a one-way cash ticket often costs far more than half the price of a round-trip. This also applies to economy class.
- Great for premium cabins: On most airlines, the mileage difference between business class, first class, and economy is not especially large, but the cash price of a business class ticket is often much higher
- Great for last-minute bookings: On most airlines, the miles required for award tickets a few days before departure stay fixed, while cash fares for near-term travel can become very expensive. This also applies to economy class.
Of course, there are other situations where buying points or miles for an award ticket can be an even better value, such as:
- Stopovers and open jaws: Some airlines allow free stopovers and open jaws, which are great if you want to add extra sightseeing to your trip. These tickets are usually very expensive when purchased with cash. This also applies to economy class.
- Infant tickets: Some airlines charge very little for infants in premium cabins, while cash tickets often cost 10% of the published fare
- Tickets that need date changes: ANA award tickets can be changed for very little money, while cash tickets usually only allow free date changes if you buy a full-fare ticket; otherwise, change fees are generally expensive. This also applies to economy class.
In short, the situations above, combined with points or miles sales, can make the cost of an award ticket lower than the cost of a cash ticket. So based on the current discount on purchased points or miles and whether award availability exists, you can compare the cost against a cash fare and then decide.
Should you buy SPG points?
In the world of buying points, SPG points are in a class of their own. First, SPG points themselves can deliver excellent value when redeemed directly for SPG/Marriott hotels. In addition, SPG points can be transferred to many airlines at a 1: 1.25 ratio, and can now also be converted to Marriott points at 1: 3 to redeem highly valuable Marriott travel packages. You could say that buying SPG points offers the best value retention and the greatest flexibility.
Here is another small trick: if you have an SPG credit card, when paying for points, choose AMEX SPG credit card in the payment method options (not just AMEX), and you can also earn 2x SPG credit card points.
The current bonus on purchased points is 35%, which is about the highest publicly available offer. In August, SPG points will be fully combined into Marriott points at a 1:3 ratio, but the transfer capability and extra 25% bonus will remain unchanged, so you can buy with confidence.
So, should you buy points?
If you already have some basics in place—such as some hotel points and airline miles, plus some experience using points for hotel stays and award tickets—then buying points can be a quick way to top off your balance and make a trip bookable. Points only realize their value when you use them. If you are always just a little short and never redeem them, it may be too late once a devaluation happens.
Of course, booking hotels and flights with purchased points also has drawbacks, and it is not suitable for everyone. In summary:
- If you already earn so many points from credit cards that you cannot use them all, buying points is not for you
- If you are very wealthy, buying points is not for you
- If you are not comfortable doing the math and cannot tell whether buying points or paying cash is the better deal, buying points is not for you
- If you do not understand at all how to book hotels with points or redeem award tickets, buying points is not for you
- If you are trying to earn elite status with a particular airline, buying points is not for you
- If you do not follow this site’s buy points promotions summary article, buying points is not for you
Remember, using purchased points to book travel is simply another option. The more options you have, the more chances you have to lower your cost.
Current buy points promotions summary
Summary and analysis of all buy points promotions (including historical bonuses)