I remember a guy who used to attend the Chicago Seminars (his name was Ray) who put on a belt with hundreds of credit cards on loops. He was a scream to talk to and hear about his luxury travel around the world. But he had one saying I never liked much regarding points programs: “Pay them whatever they want!” To me, that is a recipe for draining your points totals faster than ever. So, I take another path.
While I love being a “free agent” after giving up my many-year quest to fly only Delta at all costs to keep my Diamond status going, I still do fly Delta when they work for me. I am, after all, still a Platinum Medallion this year and am burning down my Delta SkyPennies and vouchers, while earning up to $200 in eligible purchases for airline incidentals that I credit to Delta on my The Platinum Card® from American Express. (Enrollment is required and terms apply.)
The point (no pun intended) is I have a Delta First Class flight I booked to get on a cruise ship over the next year. The flights I booked were not the ones I really wanted. But they were cheap and in First Class and did not cost me much at all with all my credits. But now and then, I check those flights on Delta.com to see if the “change flights” button yields anything nice, and recently it did. Not only did it show me the exact flight I wanted (that were much more cash at the time of booking) but they were even less than the other flights I had booked resulting in a small $15 credit for both my wife and I. That is #Winning, and to Delta’s credit, the Delta IT on Delta.com made the switch quick and easy to do.
I have been, reluctantly, flying American Airlines First Class more, as well. There really is not much good to say about AA domestic service in 2024, including their endless flight attendants’ credit card pitches over and over onboard, but at least the award program still does offer value and value in First Class bookings. Their IT is also sorely lacking compared to Delta but take a look at what I have done over the past few months.
For my return from one of my booked cruises, I have to get back home from Miami. I found an award with flights I did not really love but they were only 31,000 points each and much less than Delta awards in business class. Later the price went down and I found slightly better flights for only 22,500 each and just recently I searched and found very good flights and times for only 17,500 each! The only downside of AA is you have to cancel, wait a few minutes for the points to come back, and then rebook the new ticket (make sure your flight qualifies before you do this btw). Overall I saved us a tidy 26,000 points and now have flights I like.
I could go on and on with these kinds of examples all day long, including hotel stays, but the point being is until you actually are flying or staying somewhere on your vacation you should take the time to keep trying to improve both the cost and the experience by checking to see what has opened up since you first booked your trip! – René
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Hello. You said ” The only downside of AA is you have to cancel, wait a few minutes for the points to come back, and then rebook the new ticket (make sure your flight qualifies before you do this btw). ” My questions is…..why not just book the new flight first at the lower points, and then go back to cancel the OG flight after you have secured the lower point flight? Then you don’t risk not getting the new flight at the lower points (and assuming you have excess points to be able to do this).
@pegha – That works too if you have enough points.
I once canceled an AA award ticket and had to wait weeks and engage the help of a VP to get them back. This caused my wife and I to miss the flight we had booked to replace the canceled one with the intention of using the points that should have been redeposited. It took hours on the phone before they gave up and we ended up flying JetBlue home at the last minute for a cash price that was so good that we should have used them in the first place.