Lazy Points of the Week
Story of the week: Devaluations (and one silver lining)
Points always seem to go down in value, never up. The latest? Thrifty Traveler reports a number of significant devaluations on Avianca’s Life Miles, making it even harder to derive value from that program. Meanwhile, according to TPG, Marriott points are also taking a significant hit to their value lately. Marriott co-branded cards don’t earn points as quickly as some of their competitor cards, and these devaluations are making it harder to derive value from the “free nights” that come with the Marriott cards. If this trend continues, those cards will continue to fall behind better cards from IHG, Hyatt, and even Hilton. Speaking of Hyatt, over a hundred properties have gone up in points pricing due to category changes, with 11 falling off the list of properties you can book with a free night certificate, and only 33 getting cheaper.
In addition to those redemption devaluations, Southwest suddenly gutted its points earning, with Wanna Get Away fares now earning 2 points per fare dollar, down from 6. Wanna Get Away Plus fares dropped as well, from 10 to 6 points per dollar. In fairness, it could be worse—Delta won’t give you any miles on a basic economy fare, for instance. Still, SWA points aren’t the best in the sky, so getting even less on Wanna Get Away fares is a big blow.
In better news, LazyPoints favorite Alaska Airlines is improving their frequent flyer program by allowing mixed-partner redemptions. Daily Drop has already spotted some benefits from this change. I haven’t yet, personally, but I’m excited by the possibility. One downside of Alaska’s OneWorld network is that a lot of flights to Europe route through British Airways, with their obscene surcharges and routes through London and its frequently value-crushing fees. Although I didn’t see any mixed-partner flights to Europe, I suddenly found tons of flights to Europe with under $100 in taxes and fees, which were much harder to come by last time I looked. Regardless, more flexibility is always welcome, and this only pushes Alaska even further into the lead as the best frequent flyer program for lazy, economical travelers.
Other card and points news
JetBlue added as a Capital One transfer partner. Capital One miles can now be transferred to JetBlue. This might have been exciting in light of the new ability to fly to Portugal with those points, but the points are transferring at a lackluster 5:3 ratio, meaning that you’d need over 60k to book that flight to Portugal. More options are always good, but this won’t be a good use of Capital One miles most of the time.
Sign-up bonus of the week: Delta Amex cards
Delta is once again offering their best-ever public bonuses on their lineup of co-branded Amex cards: 80k Skymiles on their $150-fee Gold card, 90k on the $350-fee Platinum card, and 100k on their $650-fee Reserve card (after spending $3-6,000 in the first 6 months, depending on the card). I love all these cards. I think the Platinum is one of the best cards on the market, but I would recommend most people start with the Gold, which waives the annual fee for the first year and will allow you to get another bonus if you upgrade later—important because Amex typically doesn’t offer bonuses on lower-tier cards once you’ve had a more premium version.
Skymiles get a bit of a bad rap, but I love them for the outstanding value you can get when flying economy when you catch the sales. But you don’t need to use Thrifty Traveler or hold out for flash sales. As I wrote this I went to the Delta site and checked out the advertised Award Deals, of which there were plenty from my home airport:
For example, with just the bonus points from the welcome bonus on the Gold card and the 3,000+ miles you’d earn to meet the spending requirement to earn the bonus, you’d have enough miles for two basic economy tickets to Venice:
And that flight took literally 3 minutes to find. With a little patience and searching, or Thrifty Traveler emails, even better Skymiles deals are out there. Plus, if you fly Delta even occasionally or have a lot of Amex points, the perks on these co-branded cards can easily justify their annual fee year after year.
Previously highlighted bonuses with offers still available:
•75k points + $250 travel credit on the Venture Rewards
•30k points + Companion Pass on Southwest Airlines cards
•170k points on the IHG Premier
•70k on the Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard
•75k points on the Citi Strata Premier
Lazy tip of the week: reverse image searches
Want to save some money on your next vacation rental? A lot of Airbnbs, Vrbo’s, etc. are listed on multiple platforms, often including their own independent websites. As Thrifty Traveler explains, you can run a reverse image search to find those alternative booking platforms, potentially saving quite a bit of money. Read the post for more details. Just beware: by booking elsewhere you may save on fees, but lose out on the protections that platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo can provide.