Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Beyond Devaluations - The Honest Truth About Points & Miles in 2025 (A Rant?)

• Raya & Duane

Share episode

[WAITLIST] 1:1 Points Travel Strategy Session - get on the waitlist here!

Link to my entire trip planning checklist for FREE! 

And make sure to follow us on Instagram! @travelpartyof5 

Despite recent devaluations from major programs like Hilton, Capital One, and others, points and miles are still a viable way to travel the world with your family if you're willing to adapt your strategy and mindset.

• Frustrating changes like Hilton's increased award costs and Capital One's lounge access restrictions are disappointing but not game-ending
• The points and miles game requires a mindset shift—banks make the rules, we adapt and find the optimal paths within them
• Social media can make points and miles seem easier than they actually are—proper planning takes time and effort
• Focus on flexible points currencies to protect yourself from devaluations
• Take advantage of transfer bonuses when they align with your travel needs
• Diversify your credit card portfolio across different banks
• Plan 12-18 months ahead for family travel to secure saver award availability
• Accept that you'll make mistakes along the way—it's part of the learning process
• Points and miles aren't dead, but lazy redemptions increasingly are

If you're feeling stuck or discouraged with points and miles, reach out on Instagram for support or consider joining the waitlist for one-on-one consultations to help plan your next trip.


Speaker 1:

There's been a lot of doom and gloom in the points and miles world lately with devaluations and cutting off lounge access, and it can be super demotivating, especially if you're new and you might be wondering is it even worthwhile to spend the time to learn this hobby? I might rant a bit, but let's dive in. Hi, I'm Raya.

Speaker 2:

And.

Speaker 1:

I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Speaker 2:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Speaker 1:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

Speaker 1:

Hey friends, welcome back to Travel Party of Five podcast. My name is Rhea, I am one of your hosts and, as same as last week, I am solo today. So there has been a lot of devaluations recently with Hilton, for example, or Air France in the last couple of months. Qantas is increasing their award costs here in the next month or two, dropped us a bomb a week or two ago and basically is completely destroying their lounge access to all of their cards. So if you're new to points and miles, I feel like this can all feel very overwhelming and could make you question like is it even worth it to kind of spend my time to learn this hobby when it feels like things are not going well and you know like maybe they won't, it won't be around for for much longer. So we're going to talk about that today. I do not really have a set outline or anything. So apologies if this comes out a little ranty, but I have a lot of thoughts on this. And. But I have a lot of thoughts on this and I haven't really heard people talking about it kind of from this angle. So I first want to acknowledge that devaluations stink and logging into Hilton that morning to book an aspirational stay at the Maldives or Cabo or wherever, and was very surprised to find that they now needed 200,000 more points than what they had available and what they needed to book it just the day before. So, and again, these points have a monetary value both to us and to the banks slash hotel airline programs that issue them. So I mean it is super frustrating. I don't want to discount that at all.

Speaker 1:

Right, capital One just destroyed their lounge access and I made a whole Instagram reel about it. If you aren't familiar, essentially, starting February of next year, capital One is going to be removing authorized users from having any lounge access unless you pay, and even original cardholders are not allowed to bring in any guests. So that is super frustrating, but it really only limits you from accessing the Capital One lounges and I think right now there's only five around the country. The other lounge access that it gets rid of is Priority Pass, and there are other ways that you can get Priority Pass and get your whole family in. There are other cards. So everyone's making it out to be to be this huge deal and I do agree it is frustrating. It's annoying to have to find another method, another workaround, another way to do it. But I think, at the end of the day, I'm not super surprised. I think I even said in a Capital One, episode like this is unlikely to last Because you could essentially add like a whole buttload of authorized users to your one card and then each of them could get themselves into a Capital One Lounge plus two guests. So I mean that's a lot of people and trust me when I tell you people were taking advantage, I mean I can tell you that I had my husband and my sister both as authorized users and both of them have utilized the access to the Capital One Lounge and they don't pay a penny while my husband does, because we, you know, have everything jointly paid. But you get, you get my point. So, anyways, I want to acknowledge these changes are frustrating and nothing that I'm about to say like I think it's a both and Okay. So it's okay to be frustrated and annoyed by this.

Speaker 1:

I also think that points and miles are still very much alive and well, and maybe I'm supposed to say that at the end to keep you guys listening this whole time, but I'm not doing that. Clearly, we are still going to take our family to Japan later this year for two weeks and then after that we're going to go to Christmas markets in France and Germany and we're going to fly business class both ways on that trip, like all thanks to points and miles. And so I don't think points and miles is dead, I just think it's changing. And number one we have to have a little mindset shift here. That is what I think people are not talking about very much. At the end of the day, this is a game that we are playing where we don't get to make any of the rules. Okay, the banks and the airlines and the hotel companies they make the rules and then we follow them and look for loopholes. Essentially, I mean, really isn't that, isn't that how the points and miles works?

Speaker 1:

So you have two options. I think you can complain and you can look at this and you can say, nope, it's too hard, I'm not doing it like this sucks, everything sucks. They all hate us, they don't want us to have our points and miles. Or you can adapt to the changes, move forward, figure out the next best way and keep taking your yourself and your family on points and miles trips, and it might look a little different than before. You might have to pivot a few times, but it's still very much doable.

Speaker 1:

So I think, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna go off on a little bit of a limb here and I'm gonna assume that if you're in the first camp, where you're like complaining and I want to give up and this sucks and everyone hates us Number one you're probably not even listening to this podcast, because that's not my outlook on life and I feel like I probably attract people that have a similar outlook to me. But if you are here, I would urge you to look at your life and see if there's other areas of your life where you have this same mentality, because if that's the case, the problem is not points and miles, it is your mindset and you have to change it. And that takes a little bit of self awareness and a lot of work. And I'm not going to say anymore, because this is not a self help podcast, but I very much believe that your mindset in general is going to affect how you view points and miles. I think at the end of the day, it just all comes down to how badly do you want it and do you believe you can have it? And you know, if you know those, if you badly want it and you do believe you can have it, then you're going to figure it out, and if not, then maybe points and miles is not for you, and that's okay, right, not everyone is going to do this.

Speaker 1:

I talk about points and miles to people in my real life all the time, and the way that their eyes just glaze over and sometimes they just look at me like I'm fully insane. I just am like, wow, I must not be doing a good job of explaining this because, like, why doesn't everyone do this? And the reality is, everyone has different priorities and levels of risk, I guess, let's say. But I digress. The other thing that I think kind of goes hand in hand with all of these devaluations and kind of like the doom and gloom mindset is that there is a myth going around on Instagram.

Speaker 1:

It is a full on highlight reel of how easy it is to use your points and miles to book a trip. And I am here to tell you that, while completely doable, it is not easy and it is also not like swift. It's not quick, right, like, if you're planning a trip for one person and whatever, you have all the flexibility in the world and, yeah, maybe it is easy for you, but if you're planning a trip for a family, like I do constantly, I can assure you that it actually takes time and work, both to figure out what cards to open and what the strategy is, and when do I need to open them by so I can have the points I need for you know whatever date I need to book it by, to planning the actual trip itself. What are we going to do? How many days are we going to go? Where are we going to go? What's the weather? Is it better to go at a different time of year? What kind of activities are we going to do? Are they kid friendly? How can I balance like adult activities with kid activities so everyone has fun? Is it going to rain? What do I need to pack? Is there any other gear I need to bring All of these things? Okay, go into planning a trip on points and miles. As a side note, I have. I do have a whole free checklist that I can link in the show notes for my process. That roughly starts 18 months before a trip, of how I think through booking a trip on points and miles. So if you want to grab that again, it's free I'll link it in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

But I think, in general, like social media is doing us a disservice, making points and miles seem like this easy peasy, lemon squeezy thing, when it does take work and it does take effort and there is so much nuance in this hobby. Okay, so I think people get into it and they think it's going to be this easy piece of cake thing and then it's not and they it almost feels like a bait and switch and that's not the intention. I'm sure Right, but like I do think that we just need to acknowledge like this is hard Sometimes, it takes time, it takes work and is it worth it? 1000% it is worth it. Like I'm so excited to go on this trip. We have coming up to Yosemite and Lake Tahoe and have a great time exploring this national park. Okay, we use you know, we're using points for part of it, we're paying cash for part of it, but I have coordinated it all. I am super excited to go.

Speaker 1:

The value that I'm going to get out of this trip is going to be much greater than the time and effort that I have spent planning the trip, but it still took time and effort. So I just feel like, if you're new and you're coming, coming into this and you are thinking, oh, it's gonna be easy, five minutes a week, right, I spend more time than that on, and that's like, podcast and Instagram aside, I spend more time than five minutes a week. You know, planning out the cards I'm going to open, making sure I'm going to meet the minimum spends. You know, figuring out what our next trip is and when do I need to book it, like meet the minimum spends. You know, figuring out what our next trip is and when do I need to book it. Like it takes more time than I think people realize. So I think those two things right.

Speaker 1:

Number one, all the devaluations. And then number two, when, when you get into it and you kind of realize, oh, this is kind of hard, or wow, there's like seven Marriott cards and there's like all these different rules about what I can open first and you can't have this card if you've already had that card and like that's the nuance that I'm talking about, where, like, if you're just starting out, you can be like, wow, this is not for me, okay. So I just want to acknowledge those two things that, like those, those things are both true and they are happening, but on the flip side, it is still very much, I think, worth it to get involved in points and miles and take your family on amazing trips. So apologies for ranting a bit, but I do have some ways that you can try to make this hobby both a little easier and also a little less of risk averse in terms of devaluations.

Speaker 1:

So number one is going to be focusing on flexible points currencies. There's a reason that these are pushed so heavily and all these points and miles groups, and that is because if your points live in a flexible points currency and again that would be like a chase Amex, um, city, capital one those are the four major banks and you can transfer from those four banks to various airlines and hotel partners, and each one has a different list. Okay, but that's why they're called flexible points, because you can be flexible with where you send them. The reason that those are going to be your best course of action and why that is what we always recommend that you start with is because, let's say, chase transfers to 10 different transfer partners. Okay, one of them is Hyatt, but then they also have United and Southwest. Okay, southwest recently did a bit of a devaluation and so if your points were living with Southwest, then they would have gone down in value, but because your points are living with Chase, they have retained their value, because now you can send them to United if you want, or you can send them to Hyatt, right, and they're not affected by the devaluation.

Speaker 1:

So if you have points with American Airlines, for example, or United or Southwest or JetBlue or whatever, anytime that program does a devaluation, you have lost value, you have lost money, you have lost points, right, but as we talked about before, it's money. So, starting with flexible points, number one is going to be the best way to somewhat protect yourself from these risks, and then the other option is or not the other option, but another way to kind of offset some of these devaluations is transfer bonuses. A lot of these flexible points, banks will often have transfer bonuses to certain transfer partners. Again, you don't want to speculatively transfer points because once you transfer them, they live in that program forever and if that program does a devaluation, then your points will devalue. Okay, so you don't want to speculatively transfer, but if there are maybe two different flights that you could take and one of them is, let's say, flying Blue and there's a Flying Blue transfer bonus. Then you have the flexibility to transfer there and save some points. So that's another way to kind of offset the devaluation risk a bit.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the other piece is so kind of the number three would be just a focus on the things that you can control and don't worry about the rest, because at the end of the day, we have no say in it. You know, the banks are not coming around saying, hey, like, what's your opinion on this? Nope, they do not care. Okay, they're in this to make money and they do, and I don't know about you, but my goal is just to make sure they don't make money off of me. So a couple ways to do that. Okay, you want to number one diversify the cards that you have. So you want to make sure you have cards from every bank. If you're just starting out, don't worry, you'll get there and it just takes time. But you want to have Chase. You want to have Amex. You want to have Capital One if you rent. You want to have Built. Built has had some incredible bonuses over the last year and they've also added some incredible transfer partners and I can't wait until they start letting me pay my mortgage with them, but until then we do not have a bill card.

Speaker 1:

Number four is plan ahead. Okay, I practice what I preach. We've already got our spring break 2026 trip booked and in the next month or two I'll be booking summer trips. I'm just waiting for availability to open. It's just not open yet, but I know what I'm going to be booking. I understand that maybe if you have kids in, like competitive sports or whatever, maybe this is a little bit more difficult. But planning ahead is one of the best ways to make sure that you're getting those saver fares, because when you have to book for a family, you need way more points. Okay, so you want to do everything you can to find the saber fairs and get them locked in so that you can spend as little points as possible. Okay, so those are kind of four tips and tricks that you can utilize to sort of attempt to lower your risk and offset the devaluations of programs.

Speaker 1:

Lastly, I want to leave you with a few kind of I don't even want to call them tips, but like this is how, if, especially if you're new, but even if you're not. This is how I would think about this if I were you. Okay, points and miles are not dead, but lazy redemptions kind of are. So it does take a little bit of time and strategy to think through the best way to, you know, find availability or whatever that may be. But here's what I need you to know.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to mess up, you're going to waste points, you're going to spend too much in taxes. Okay, been there, done that. Yes, I've done all these things. You're going to get declined for a credit card. You're probably going to get declined for multiple credit cards if you're doing this hobby correctly.

Speaker 1:

In my opinion, as a side note, it's not personal, it's literally a computer that's denying you. So don't get mad. Just figure out another option. Go to a different bank, call reconsideration, whatever. There are going to be times where you're super frustrated. There are going to be times where you can't figure out the availability that you want or find it. Or like maybe you have enough points for business class for all five of you, but you can't find five seats right, like I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Whatever it may be, but I just think if you go into it with the mindset of I'm gonna mess this up, I'm gonna make mistakes, I'm gonna, you know, waste some time I'm going to do all these things, but it's going to be okay and it's going to be fine. And it doesn't mean that I'm bad at this or that points and miles are not for me. It just means that I'm learning and I have to take the time to get better at it Because, like I tell my kids, you know, practice makes better and you're never going to be perfect, you're never going to know all the things and you don't have to. But I can assure you, if you spend a little bit of time learning this hobby, shutting out all the noise about the devaluations and blah, blah, blah blah, you are going to be able to take your family on some incredible trips. Okay, we just spent two weeks in Europe a couple months ago. We are going to Yosemite and Lake Tahoe and Oceanside, california, this summer and we're going to Japan and Germany later this year, all as a family of five, predominantly booked on points and miles. Next year we're looking at tight. We've got Thailand already booked. I'm aiming for Scotland in the summer and TBD on the fall trip.

Speaker 1:

But let us be an example to you that points and miles are not dead. You absolutely can still do this with a family. You just have to be a little bit smarter and you you have to take a little bit of time to figure it out. It's not just going to fall in your lap. And if it does, tell me how you did that. But I don't think so. I have no idea if this was helpful or not. I have no idea if this was just ranty, but you guys can give me your feedback on Instagram good or bad, I will take it. And then, if you're new to points and miles but maybe you have already accrued a bunch of points and miles and you're just not sure how to use them or what the best way to get the most value for your money is I do have a waitlist right now for one-on-one consultations. I will be opening that up in the next week-ish. So if you want to get on the waitlist, you will get a discount. I'll put the link to that in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Would love to kind of chat through whatever with you and help you plan a trip. I would really love to do that. I can't book anything for you because that would involve you giving me login information, which I don't want, quite frankly, and you shouldn't want to give me. But I can give you a step by step plan for how to book your trip to I don't know Paris or Spain or wherever you want to go Japan, let's do it. If you're feeling stuck or discouraged, come find me on Instagram and I will do my best to give you a pep talk, although I might be very blunt, tbd, and I'll try to talk you off the ledge. And lastly, if you know someone who's been frustrated with points and miles and is willing to give up or doesn't think it's worth it, send them this episode. Thank you so much. We will catch you on the next one. Bye.