…

I got thousands of points more than I needed for a flight, and I didn’t put them to good use. They would have been worth more to me in their original form of Membership Rewards points. It took me over a year to find a flight where I could redeem leftover Flying Blue points.

Instead I had to find the exact flights I wanted to take and calculate the exact number of points I needed to transfer to cover those flights. Transferable points are more useful when you can actually transfer them instead of leaving them in an account where there are fewer options for using them.

– Tarah Chieffi, Senior Writer

Unicorn’s booking went wrong

Related: Review of the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort in Hawaii

Because I didn’t have enough World of Hyatt points at the time, I transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards points to my World of Hyatt account at a 1:1 ratio through the Chase Travel℠ portal. This Chase Sapphire Preferred® card is one of my favorite transfer partners.

I was waiting for such an opportunity to transfer the welcome bonus I received on opening Chase Sapphire Preferred.

By the time our reservation for October 2023 arrived, we were concerned about the feasibility of traveling to Maui after the island suffered devastating wildfires in August. We ultimately decided not to go and thus canceled our trip. Fortunately, Hyatt credited the points back to my World of Hyatt account, where they remain today. Once you transfer points from your Chase Ultimate Rewards account, you cannot transfer them back to your Chase account.

So, in this case, all was not lost as the points are still available for use. However, they are limited to booking World of Hyatt properties.

– Carolyn Tanner, reporter

Point being late to the party

My biggest mistakes were not getting a points-earning credit card sooner and limiting myself to one loyalty program for too long.

When I first got into the points and miles game, I was a little hesitant to get a points-earning credit card. After that, I wasted an incredible amount of time trying to earn points just using shopping portals, which ultimately resulted in me getting a now-defunct Avios-earning debit card. The earning rate was pathetic, and since it was a pay-as-you-go-style debit card, I also needed to top it up regularly. After a while, I upgraded to an Avios-earning credit card available in the United Kingdom. I regularly look back and regret how many points I missed out on using this strategy – especially considering I could have made triple the amount I would have made without the extra money.

Recently, I realized that I had unwittingly associated myself with Avios as my loyalty currency of choice; While I made the right choice of Avios, I was limited to British Airways and its Oneworld partners for my redemption. Wanting the most flexibility and better redemption options, I opened one American Express® Gold Card. This now allows me to earn more valuable Membership Rewards points that can be transferred to various airlines and hotels. I have never looked back and wish I had seen the light much sooner.

– Jordan Waller, Managing Editor

Missed sign-up bonus

Right now, the sign-up bonus is 75,000 American Airlines miles (after spending $5,000 in the first six months of account opening), but back then, the sign-up bonus was only 60,000 miles. However, the card only had a very reasonable spending requirement of two thousand dollars. Unfortunately, I did not pay enough attention and spent less than the required amount. I think I miscalculated something like $12. I called the customer service line, but they wouldn’t answer — no sign-up bonus for me.

Learn from my mistake and make sure you spend the absolute minimum amount for the bonus. Also, note that the annual fee payment is usually not counted in the minimum cost.

For more details on the current offer, check out our full review of the Citi AAdvantage Business World Elite Mastercard.

– Clint Henderson, Managing Editor

Not confirmed that the offer is still available

When my wife and I got engaged in October 2020, I was really upping my points and miles game. So, of course, I wanted to capitalize on our big wedding expenses.

We began initial planning with the event staff at Hyatt Regency Rochester in early 2021, but with the coronavirus pandemic in full swing, we decided to hold off for a while and set the date for May 2022. After about 10 months, we resumed our planning. Hayat staff and finalized all the paperwork.

Here’s my big mistake: I never mentioned the bonus points offer in any of our discussions with the Hyatt team. Anyone who’s been through the wedding planning process knows how much time and thought goes into these discussions with the venue — from food sampling to event programming to how they fold the dang napkins. And at no point in all those minutes of thinking did it occur to me to confirm that we would earn those bonus points or check that it was written into the contract.

Well, when we first talked to the Hyatt team and when we signed the contract 10 months later, the hotel stopped offering that bonus. It was removed from the brochure, and didn’t actually become part of our wedding package.

I was furious when I finally realized this, and spent the better part of my honeymoon making bitter phone calls to both the company and the event staff at the Hyatt Regency Rochester. But, really, the onus was on me to make sure that was part of the deal before signing anything. Live and learn. And hey, they still planned a beautiful event for us.

– Colin Hogan, Newsletter Editor

Loss of Avios due to termination

At one point, I was collecting Avios in my Iberia account to use for a big 2020 summer trip to Europe. I planned to use Iberia’s award chart to fly business class to Europe at 34,000 Avios per person each way.

My last points-related action with this goal in mind was in 2019, because I took advantage of a transfer bonus or promo (or something else I can’t clearly remember) to transfer those Avios before I booked a 2020 trip. Well, we all know what happened next, and that trip to 2020 didn’t happen.

Many airlines temporarily or permanently relaxed their mileage cancellation policies during the pandemic. So, transparently, I wasn’t tracking the date when these Avios would expire … and so finally, in August 2022, they did. All 218,013 Avios worth more than $3,000 were gone, according to TPG’s December 2024 valuation.

I reached out to Iberia to plead my case to see if they could be reinstated with a fee or at the mercy of the airline, especially given the reality of international travel in those earlier years. Unfortunately, no such mercy was provided.

The Avios were well gone, and I had to start from scratch, building up enough points to take that big family European trip to Barcelona, ​​Italy, and Paris that eventually took place in the summer of 2024.

– Summer Hull, Senior Director of Content

Honeymoon booking error

I researched for months while researching this trip, and there were plenty of flights on various dates to the country we wanted. However, when we were finally ready to book and conducted a search for two people, there was no one available. (Allows partner airlines only one Award tickets per flight on specific segments.)

We eventually found a solution, but it was a huge headache that cost us a few extra points; As a result we flew in two different cabins on one leg of our honeymoon. If we hadn’t found a solution, we would have had a bunch of Chase points on United that we couldn’t have used.

– Rachel Kraft, Associate Writer

Not maximizing sign-up bonuses

However, I had to cancel the trip after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. So, essentially, all those miles just went to pay off my credit card statement. United refunded the money, so I had a large credit on my statement and negative miles. I had to spend against the loss of miles before I could start earning again, so I guess I didn’t get enough value from my sign-up bonus for that card.

– Erica Silverstein, Managing Editor

Transferred points are not calculated correctly

– Anonymous TPG employee

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