How to Book Flights With Points and Miles: A Beginner’s Guide

Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways

The episode covers significant updates in the airline loyalty landscape, specifically focusing on Alaska Airlines' new earning options and B

Key takeaways

• Alaska Airlines/Hawaiian Airlines 'Atmos Rewards' will allow choosing earning methods (distance, price, or segments) starting January 2027.
• Bank of America cardholders will be able to transfer points into Atmos Rewards starting in 2027.

Main topics

• Airline Loyalty Program Updates
• Bilt and Amtrak Partnership

Notable quotes

Points are not fine wine. They do not get better with age.

Conclusion

This episode provides actionable advice for new travelers looking to o

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Big changes from Alaska Airlines, including different ways to earn points. And Bilt has a new transfer partner that is not an airline or a hotel. And it's official, we are hosting a Smart Travel podcast meetup and we want to see you there. Speaker 1 (0:16) Welcome to Smart Travel from NerdWallet, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle. And I'm Sally French. And we're the travel nerds ready to help Speaker 2 (0:24) you plan your next big trip. And today we are talking about a beginner's guide to points and miles. So hopefully for some of you, this might be your first big trip planned on credit card points. Speaker 1 (0:34) But first, our disclaimer, and that's that we'll talk about a few credit card companies that are nerd wallet partners in this episode, but that doesn't influence how we discuss them. The benefits, terms and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can always change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, follow the links in the episode's description. So there is lots of news Speaker 2 (0:52) coming out from Alaska Airlines Investor Day yesterday, which Megan, you were actually at. Tell us about it. Speaker 1 (0:57) Oh my gosh, there's so much news. So Atmos Rewards, the loyalty program of Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines, is about to become the only airline program that lets you choose how you earn points in their loyalty program. And Atmos has teased this for like the past year, but it is finally happening. So Speaker 2 (1:15) the way this will work is starting October 1st, you can pick one of three ways to earn points and status points on flights. These are for flights departing January 1st, 2027 or Speaker 1 (1:25) later. The flights prior to that. stay the same. But come Speaker 2 (1:28) January 1st, 2027, you'll be able to choose to earn either by distance flown, by price paid, or by segments flown. Speaker 1 (1:36) So for most people, earning points based on the distance flown is probably the most valuable because most people are flying like these longer distances and it doesn't matter how much you spent on the flight. If you got a super cheap fare, it doesn't matter. You're flying all the way to New York. You'll still get all of those miles. If you're someone who buys a lot of the business class or first class tickets, then maybe you might want to choose to earn points based on how much you paid for your tickets. And then if you do a lot of short flights, I'm thinking that like Sam. Francisco to LA corridor, then you might want to earn points based on the segments you've flown. Speaker 2 (2:11) Okay. If you are a current member and you don't decide to choose, you'll just go with the default, which is that you'll stay on distance. But this is funny. If you join the program after January 1st, the default goes to price. paid. This is also interesting in that you cannot switch for every flight because I would be the person who wants to maximize my points. If I'm doing one first class flight, I will change that probably to price paid. But then I might just do segment, as you said, if I'm doing that LA to SF flight. So you cannot switch every flight. You can only switch once per calendar year. And Speaker 1 (2:44) there's actually a lot of other news coming out too. The one I was really excited about in 2027, eligible Bank of America cardholders will be able to transfer points into Atmos Rewards. We did a whole episode about Bank of America Rewards a couple of weeks ago. And so this, I think, could be a game changer for people who have Bank of America Rewards and they're not sure if they want to stick with the program. Speaker 2 (3:08) You know, Megan, my wheels are already turning. I'm rethinking the strategy because we talked on that show about how I might dump B of A. I just don't find it as valuable, especially with all the changes that they've made. But now with this change, this is such a good way to get Alaska points. Speaker 1 (3:22) Exactly. Just as a reminder, it is a little bit difficult to earn Atmos rewards points with other credit cards. You can transfer points from Built Rewards, but that is the only major credit card rewards program that transfers in. Otherwise, you just have to be flying Atmos or earning with their partners or have an Atmos rewards credit card. We talked about that I might just put all my spending on Built Speaker 2 (3:44) and then be able to transfer those to Atmos. But now I can just maybe keep my spending in Bank of America, which I've always been doing. The thing I will caution you though, Sally, Speaker 1 (3:52) is that It doesn't say exactly when this is going to go into effect. Okay, true. And so it could be delayed. It could be the end of 2027. So if there are flights, I know you want to go to, for example, Japan. If you want to go to Japan next spring for cherry blossom season, I don't know if this is something you could wait for. Okay, well, I'll count on you Speaker 2 (4:12) to keep me and the rest of the listeners posted. Now, the other big news is that there is a new Atmos Rewards debit card. This one is planned to come out sometime in early 2027. This is intriguing because we don't often see rewards on debit cards, but this one will earn points and status points. On top of that, there is also a refreshed Atmos business card, and that one is also expected to come out later this year. Speaker 1 (4:35) Yeah, actually, I feel like the airline debit cards are becoming more and more popular, like Southwest has one now. So, okay, more options for people. I feel like that's a good thing. Alaska also announced that they are upgrading their planes even more, so we got more details about that. They're bringing their new live flat international business class to all of their wide-body 787 Dreamliners, plus some of their 737 aircraft, which fly. certain transcontinental routes. So it's possible you could maybe get upgraded to a live flight business class seat Speaker 2 (5:05) if Speaker 1 (5:05) you're flying one of those really long transcontinental Speaker 2 (5:07) routes. Ooh, you know, I do fly SF to New York, as you Speaker 1 (5:12) know, and it would be really nice to be in Speaker 2 (5:14) a Speaker 1 (5:14) live flight. Right. And there's also a new premium economy class coming. That one's called Premium Reserve. And I know we've talked a little bit about the pros and cons of premium economy, but I think for a lot of people, they'll be excited that there is a bigger seat that they could possibly purchase, maybe with points, maybe with cash on these aircraft. Speaker 2 (5:34) How is this different than just regular premium economy? Speaker 1 (5:37) Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have not had premium economy on any of their airplanes. So this is the first time for that. Okay, news to me. And just a heads up that all of those changes to the airplanes aren't really coming until 2028. So we've got a while until you can book some of these really nice lie flat seats. So Speaker 2 (5:55) you're not going to get the fly flat from New York to Hawaii for your wedding? Speaker 1 (5:58) No, unfortunately not. I could get it on the old airplane. So like I could get the old version of it, but not this one. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 2 (6:06) Gotcha. All right. Moving on to news for train fans, because you know, Megan and I love a train. Built just added Amtrak guest rewards as a transfer partner. Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:15) I wrote about it for NerdWallet. So you can check out the link to the article in the episode description. The TLDR is that the transfer ratio is two to one, which I think we generally say is not very good, right? That means if you transfer 10,000 built points, you only get 5,000 Amtrak guest rewards points. You would think you were losing a bit of value, but I actually looked at a couple of different bookings and compared the cash price and the points price. And you know, you can actually get Amtrak train tickets with the cent value for Amtrak points being more than two cents per point. It's actually like 2.67 cents per point. So then when you. Take into account the transfer ratio and things like that. You're actually getting 1.33 cents per point for your points. And that is terrible. Yeah, it's going to beat the redemptions you book in built travel portal because those you would be redeeming your points at 1.25 cents per point. So as a verdict, if someone has an Amtrak train route coming up, should they use this? Yeah, you know, I think it's actually a good option, especially if you do take Amtrak regularly. I will say that if you have leftover points in Amtrak, those do expire. And so you wouldn't want to transfer all those points and then you are going to lose value if you have some just sitting there that expire, right? Okay, Speaker 2 (7:31) so only do this if you're for sure traveling with Amtrak. Speaker 1 (7:34) Yeah, and maybe regularly, like you're going to book something else or you're going to do cash in points. You want to be using up all those Amtrak points if that's what you're going to do. Speaker 2 (7:43) Okay. We have some big news for people who travel out of Seattle, and that is that Chase is planning a Sapphire Lounge at Seattle Tacoma International Airport. Also, Speaker 1 (7:51) I forgot to mention that Alaska Airlines is opening their bigger and better renovated Alaska Lounge in Seattle as well. So Seattle's a popular airport for lounges. Wow. Okay. Good Speaker 2 (8:01) news for people flying out of Seattle. Well, I do want to shout out. Another points and miles site out there, View from the Wing, they first uncovered the information about the Chase Sapphire Lounge. Their info comes from Port of Seattle documents, which shows that this lounge will be in Concourse A. With it, Chase would sign a 15-year lease and put about, get this, $70 million into renovating it. Yep, Speaker 1 (8:22) these lounges aren't cheap. Speaker 2 (8:23) We don't have much information. No opening date yet. We don't really know much about anything, but you can guarantee we will be following this news. And Speaker 1 (8:31) another piece of airline news out there, if you want to fly to Asia, American Airlines and Starlux now have a co-chair partnership, which means that you can book tickets that include segments on either airline. And more importantly, if you're a... points and miles person, you can earn a advantage miles when you fly Starlux if you put your advantage loyalty number in your booking. And if you're listening Speaker 2 (8:54) to this today, when the episode drops on September 30th, select flights are available to book starting today. Speaker 1 (9:00) Starlux flies between Taipei and Los Angeles, Ontario, San Francisco, Seattle. Those are the routes that currently have this code share partnership. And I believe they're expanding to some of the other U.S. cities that Starlux flies to. It is a luxurious airline. Let me tell you that I've been on one of the Starlux airplanes and it looks incredibly comfortable to be lying in lie flat business class seats, even to be in premium economy or economy. The food looks incredible. This is one that I am. trying to book right away. Wow. Okay. Speaker 2 (9:35) I'm so glad that you've flown Starlux because I've been so curious. I haven't flown Speaker 1 (9:37) it. Speaker 2 (9:38) I haven't flown it. I just went on. Oh, they just let you Speaker 1 (9:39) on for a tour. Yeah. I just toured the airplane. Finally, we have two news items of our own and both Speaker 2 (9:45) of them involve you, the listener. First Speaker 1 (9:47) is our survey. That link is in the episode description. And of course we do this every year. It helps tell us what you want from this show and we can add or subtract things that you don't like. Speaker 2 (9:58) And I read every single survey response, every answer you put in there. If you give comments, I want to know exactly what you think. And we really shape the show off of what you say. So please fill out that Speaker 1 (10:07) survey. And next up, we are hosting our first ever Smart Travel Meetup in person. It's called Smart Travel IRL. Speaker 2 (10:15) I'm so excited for this. It is happening on Thursday, November 5th from 5.30 until 7.30 p.m. It is in New York City at the Mad Bar and Lounge that is located inside the newly renovated Hotel NH Collection in Midtown. I Speaker 1 (10:29) think it's gonna Speaker 2 (10:29) be Speaker 1 (10:29) super fun. First off, you're gonna hang with me and Sally. We're gonna play some games. We're gonna give out prizes. I think you wouldn't want to miss it if you want to meet other people who love points and miles Speaker 2 (10:39) just like we do. And the agenda is super dope. It will not be that awkward stand-around networking. That is not. my vibe. I hate when it's just drink a cocktail and then awkwardly go up and talk to people. Surprising because I am such a yapper, but I hate doing that. So instead, we are going to have some curated activities. There's going to be a live Q &A with us. There's going to be games for you. I will say brush up on your travel trivia because that will be part of the games. And we have real prizes from some of the travel brands that you already use and love. Speaker 1 (11:05) And if you want to stick around after, there is live jazz in the piano bar. So we'll be there. We'll see you there. Speaker 2 (11:12) We have a registration page. It is through Partyful. I know that's what all the Gen Zs are using these days. I'm relatively new to Partyful, but they tell me it's hot. So hopefully you can also sign up through the Partyful. And Speaker 1 (11:22) we didn't mention this before, but it is free. You just have to register on the Partyful. So make sure you do that. Spots are limited and the drinks are on us. So at the very least, come for the free drinks. Are we doing wedding style his and hers cocktails? Hers and hers cocktails? Oh my gosh, I would love that. With tiny umbrellas in them. Speaker 2 (11:40) Ooh, yes. Okay, we'll come up with some fun drink recipes. Again, they're going to be nice cocktails. They're going to be free. There's going to be swag. There's going to be prizes. And again, the whole event is free. So there is literally no reason not Speaker 1 (11:50) to go. The link for the Partyful is in the episode description. So go there and sign up right now. And Speaker 2 (11:55) please bring your friends. As we said, it is free. Whether your friend is new to the space or they are a Points Pro, there is no better way to get introduced to Points and Miles than this live meetup. Speaker 1 (12:06) Our, well, maybe today's episode, our main segment today is a beginner's guide to booking flights on miles. That's up next after this. Speaker 2 (12:20) Today's episode is brought to you by Vinted. Megan, I have a confession. I absolutely hate getting rid of my stuff, especially clothes that are still in perfectly