First, the bad news.
Users of credit cards that accrue airline miles and points toward various travel perks are likely to find their balances won’t take them as far this summer.
As jet fuel prices have jumped during the Iran war, so have the cost of airline tickets and fees for checking bags. Airfares in April were 21% higher than a year earlier, the Labor Department reported last week. Flights already are more expensive during the summer since there’s more demand.
That means travelers who wanted to use an airline-branded credit card or a travel rewards card from a bank with a specific trip or a first-class seat in mind may have to shell out some cash, choose a different destination or fly at inconvenient times to get the most out of their accounts, travel experts say.
Frequent flyers
In the early years of frequent flyer programs, airlines published tables that showed customers how much a higher class of service or flying a certain distance would cost in miles. Nearly all airlines now continuously adjust their airfares, an algorithim-powered strategy known as dynamic pricing.
Flights priced in points are based on overall demand, just like regular fares. The cash value of those seats often will roughly equal the same in points. Higher airfares typically translate into needing more miles or points to buy a ticket.
Long before the current disruption to global oil supplies, consumers, a pair of U.S. senators and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg cried foul over the airline practice of increasing the number of points or miles needed to earn a free flight or offering fewer redeemable seats before people could cash in their loyalty stockpiles.
“There’s no question that dynamic award pricing, higher redemption rates on some domestic routes, and added fees have made it harder to find the outsized deals that travelers enjoyed a decade ago,” said Brian Kelly, the travel and credit card rewards expert better known as The Points Guy. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean points have lost value. It just means consumers need to be more strategic about how they redeem them.”
Earning loyalty
Now, the better news.
There are a lot of ways to accrue airline miles, and most don’t come with an expiration date. Signing up for an airline’s frequent flyer program is the simplest method and usually doesn’t cost anything. Depending on the carrier, members can earn miles when they fly with the airline or its partners and can redeem them for perks like discounted flights, seat upgrades or checked bags. Higher tiers of loyalty programs can also unlock benefits like priority boarding or waived baggage fees.
Major airlines also partner with banks to market co-branded credit cards that carry an annual fee. The cards earn users miles whenever they buy something.
“When you’re going to spend money anyway, you might as well get something back for it,” said Adam Morvitz, a credit card miles expert and CEO of point.me, a travel loyalty platform. “If you’re already buying groceries, paying for gas or booking a hotel, a travel rewards card turns that everyday spending into points that can fund your next trip.”
This is where being a frequent flyer or having an airline credit card might yield summer savings. To offset their jet fuel costs, some U.S. airlines have raised the checked baggage fees for domestic flights and many short-haul international flights. United Airlines raised the price of the first checked bag from $40 to $50. Delta Air Lines’ first checked bag fee went from $35 to $45.
The airlines still are allowing customers in the upper tiers of their loyalty programs or who hold credit cards like the Delta SkyMiles Card from American Express or United’s card with Chase to check a bag for free.
Extra miles
Financial institutions like American Express, Chase Bank and CitiBank issue their own travel credit cards that supply points with purchases. Travelers that want the option of flying with more airlines tend to favor these. Depending on the card, perks can include airport lounge access, travel insurance, no foreign transaction fees and TSA PreCheck or Global Entry credits.
“For those who spend responsibly, the value is incredible as you’re able to get more in value from the perks, even if there is an annual fee,” he said.
For beginners, Morvitz recommends flexible points cards over airline-specific options because they can be transferred across loyalty programs and provide more redemption options if an airline changes its award pricing. He said consumers should match a card to their actual spending habits — such as choosing cards with bonus categories for groceries or dining — while also considering whether annual fees are justified by the benefits they’ll actually use.
A lot of banks are promoting sizable sign-up bonuses while people make summer plans, such as offering 100,000 miles or even 150,000 miles or points to new customers who qualify and spend a certain amount of money within a specific period — usually the first three months. Kelly said the bonuses make it a good time to get one of these cards, which might make trips more affordable for people needing extra points.
Those sign-up offers also can be among the most valuable features of rewards cards, sometimes worth more than $1,000 in travel, Morvitz said. But consumers should carefully track minimum spending requirements to qualify. He also recommends using category bonuses and shopping portals to maximize rewards and always attaching a frequent flyer number to airline reservations.
Pay as you go
The important thing to remember is that the value of a bank travel card or an airline loyalty card evaporates if you carry a balance. The average credit card interest rate is between 21% and 24%, so even carrying a $1,000 balance can quickly wipe out any savings from a complimentary checked bag.
“Travel rewards cards are one of the best financial tools available to responsible cardholders, but they’re designed for people who treat them like a debit card,” Morvitz said. “Spend what you’d spend anyway and always pay the balance in full each month. The moment you start carrying a balance and paying interest, the math works against you.”
Hotels are another place where travelers may not get as much from their rewards points this summer. Hyatt overhauled its loyalty program this week to take it from three tiers to five. While some lower-cost hotel stays will require the same number of points, the same might not be true for Hyatt’s more upscale properties.
The travel blog One Mile at a Time estimated that some of Hyatt’s most elite properties would cost as much as 67% more with points under the new system.
“If you’re sitting on hotel points, don’t sit and hoard them. … They quickly seem to be getting less valuable,” said Sally French, who covers credit cards and loyalty programs for Nerd Wallet.
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Associated Press airlines and travel writer Rio Yamat contributed to this report from Las Vegas.
