This Is the No. 1 Mistake You Could Make With Points and Miles, According to Travel Experts

Key Points

• Travel experts say the biggest mistake travelers make is hoarding airline miles because loyalty programs regularly reduce their value.

• Miles are generally best redeemed for flights rather than merchandise or hotels, and transferable points offer more flexibility.

• Travelers should monitor expiration rules, keep accounts active with small earning activities, and take advantage of flexible award ticket cancellation policies.

It feels good—almost addictive, some might say—to watch airline miles and other travel points stack up. After all, the more you fly and spend with travel rewards credit cards , the more points and miles you earn, giving you more opportunities to redeem them for flights and upgrades.

But travel experts say there is one blinding blunder people make when it comes to using the miles they've earned.

"The biggest mistake people make is not using the airline miles they've earned and stockpiling them without any plans to use them," says Jimmy Yoon, a travel expert and the head of points intelligence at point.me .

And the problem with that, he explains, is that airline programs frequently devalue their miles. 

This happens every few years and, in some cases, annually. These "negative program changes" are rarely in the account holder's favor, he warns. Compared to 10 years ago, the miles in nearly every program have lost value. 

"For example, a Delta SkyMiles award ticket on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class one-way from NYC to London in 2017 would've cost 85,000 SkyMiles," says Yoon. Today, he notes, that same itinerary can cost you "252,500 SkyMiles or more," depending on the travel date and award availability. That amounts to a nearly 200% increase in the miles required to book. 

If you're the type of traveler who still likes to stockpile points, he recommends saving this strategy for points that are transferable between programs, using Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards as examples. That way, any program change doesn't directly impact the value of those points. 

Sally French , a travel expert and cohost of the " Smart Travel Podcast " for NerdWallet, agrees that hoarding is the biggest mistake travelers make with their miles. "Sitting on miles is nothing to be proud of," she says, adding that miles inflation is as real as cash inflation. "In fact, lately miles in certain loyalty programs have been depreciating faster than cash, as airline loyalty programs devalue their miles fairly often," she says. 

Sitting around waiting for the perfect redemption while paying cash for flights is a lose-lose situation. "Your cash could be invested and growing… but miles are almost always losing value," French adds. 

Another problem with airline miles is that they have no guaranteed future value. "An airline can wake up tomorrow and decide that the business class seat that used to cost 60,000 miles now costs 90,000 miles," warns French.

But that's not to say she thinks people should rush to redeem miles or offload their miles on something like magazine subscriptions and the like. "Redeeming miles for anything other than airfares, like hotels or physical products like toasters, is almost always a terrible value," says French. She also suggests using free tools such as Points Path to help determine if the flight you're eyeing is a better value when booked with points or with cash. 

You Could Lose Your Points

There are other mistakes to avoid when it comes to your award points, too. According to Yoon, some U.S. programs have rolling expiration policies that will cause your points to disappear when there hasn't been any qualifying activity in your account within a certain timeframe. So it's not a bad idea to use a tool to track expiration dates.

Additionally, French says that another way to keep your miles from expiring is to earn them on shopping purchases, even if you're not flying very often with a certain airline. "Major airlines like United, American and Delta all have shopping portals where you earn miles for online purchases you were going to make anyway," she says. "You don't have to actually fly the airline. You just need a tiny bit of activity—even earning two or three miles is enough to keep your account active."

Don't Wait for the Perfect Redemption

Worried about booking a flight too soon? Don't be. Travelers tend to overlook the advantage of free cancellation that booking with points often allows, Yoon says. 

"If you already have enough miles in an airline program to book a flight and you're not sure if you're going to be able to make the trip, just book it anyway, and then plan everything else afterward," he advises. Since many U.S. programs don't charge fees to cancel award flights and redeposit award tickets, you have nothing to lose as long as you cancel in time.

In the end, if you're in doubt about whether or not to spend your miles on a new flight, consider taking a carpe diem approach. Just seize the day—or, rather, the redemption.

"If you have a trip coming up and the redemption is decent, use them. Don't wait for perfect," says French.

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