5 Reasons You Need To Stop Hoarding Points and Miles
If you’ve been stacking up points and waiting for the “perfect” trip, here’s our advice: book something now. Your points are losing value the longer they sit untouched, and the experiences they could unlock today might not be available tomorrow. You’ve already done the hard part by earning them. Let’s make sure they actually take you somewhere.
We get it. Watching a big balance grow feels like progress. “I have over 500,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points!” is something we hear regularly, and it’s an exciting milestone. Those balances represent free flights, luxury hotel stays, and trips you might not otherwise take.
But here’s what we also see: unused miles. Flights not taken. Memories not made.
Building a balance isn’t the problem. Letting your points sit there indefinitely while their value quietly shrinks? That’s where things go sideways. Here are five reasons to stop saving and start booking.
1. Your Points Could Lose Value Overnight
A “devaluation” is when an airline or hotel raises its award prices, meaning the same flight or room suddenly costs you more points. Sometimes a lot more. And it’s rare that prices ever go back down.
If you hold onto your points too long, you’re almost guaranteed to watch their purchasing power shrink. A flight that costs 50,000 miles today could cost 75,000 miles six months from now, with no warning.
This isn’t hypothetical. Major programs adjust their award charts regularly, and the trend almost always moves in one direction: up. The points you’re saving for “someday” may not stretch as far when someday finally arrives.
The takeaway: Points are worth the most right now. Every month you wait is a month closer to the next devaluation.
2. Points Can Expire
Your points may have an expiration date you don’t even know about. Many airline programs will cancel your balance if there’s no account activity for 18 to 24 months. Some hotel programs are even stricter, with points expiring within a fixed window from when they were earned, regardless of activity.
For more details on which programs have expiration policies (and how to keep your points alive with minimal effort), check out our guide: When Do Airline Miles and Hotel Points Expire, and How Do You Keep Them Alive?
When you’re sitting on a large balance and not actively thinking about it, it’s easy to let an expiration deadline slip by. Don’t let points you worked hard to earn disappear because of a technicality.
3. The Trip You’re Saving For Might Disappear
Loyalty programs change constantly. Partnerships end without warning. Award availability shifts. A transfer partner that offers incredible value today could restructure or leave the program entirely.
By waiting too long, you risk losing access to the exact trip you’ve been saving for. That dream redemption might not exist when you’re finally ready to pull the trigger.
A real example of what’s possible right now: Travel Freely member Carla transferred her bank points to airline partners for lie-flat seats to Europe and used hotel points for bucket-list European properties, saving $14,000 on their anniversary trip. Read their full story →
4. You Can Always Earn More
Unlike devaluations and program changes, this one is entirely in your control: you can always earn more points.
The core of the Travel Freely approach is simple. Most of your free travel (we’re talking 80% or more) comes from credit card sign-up bonuses, not from optimizing which card you swipe at every store. One sign-up bonus can be worth $750 to $1,500 or more in travel value, earned by putting your regular monthly spending on a new card for a few months. That’s it.
So if you use 60,000 points on a trip today, you can realistically earn that back (and then some) with your next card’s welcome bonus. There’s no reason to hoard when the earning engine keeps running.
Yes, it can get a bit harder over time. Banks have rules like Chase’s 5/24 policy. But even with those restrictions, many Travel Freely members earn hundreds of thousands of points every year from sign-up bonuses alone.
Not sure which card to go after next? CardGenie® looks at your situation and recommends your best next move. It takes about two minutes.
5. Points Aren’t Worth Anything Until You Use Them
This might be the most important reason on the list. Points and miles only create value when you redeem them. A balance of 200,000 points sounds impressive, but until those points become a flight, a hotel room, or an experience, they’re just numbers on a screen.
If you don’t have a specific trip you’re saving for, that’s actually a great reason to book something, not a reason to keep waiting. Use your points to explore somewhere new. Take that trip you’ve been “thinking about.” Surprise your family with a vacation they didn’t see coming.
See What Other Travel Freely Members Have Done
Need some inspiration? Here’s what happens when people stop hoarding and start booking:
Austin used his points for an $18,000 dream honeymoon to Japan. Premium cabin seats to Tokyo, city-center hotels on points, and a once-in-a-lifetime trip that felt effortless. Cash went to sushi and day trips; points covered the big stuff. Read Austin’s full story →
A Travel Freely family saved $15,000 on an unforgettable trip to Maui. Award flights booked early, an oceanfront resort covered by points, and a car rental offset through their bank’s travel portal. The beach time stayed the same; the bill didn’t. Read Clay’s Maui story →
These aren’t outliers. They’re regular people who earned points through normal spending, used Travel Freely to stay organized, and booked the trip instead of waiting for “someday.”
Ready to Put Your Points to Work?
If you’ve been holding onto points and aren’t sure where to start, we have two guides that cover everything you need to know, regardless of which rewards program you’re using.
Award Travel Booking 101 is your starting point. It walks through how to redeem points for flights, hotels, and rental cars across every major rewards program, with step-by-step guides, booking tips, and destination-specific strategies. Whether you’re sitting on Chase Ultimate Rewards®, Capital One miles, Amex Membership Rewards®, or Citi ThankYou Points, this page will show you exactly how to turn them into travel.
Transfer Partners 101 goes one level deeper. Transfer partners are how you get the most value from your points, and this guide explains the concept in plain English with real examples. You’ll learn the difference between direct and indirect transfers, see how the math works, and understand why transferring to the right partner can double (or triple) what your points are worth.
And if you want a personalized recommendation for your next card (so you can start earning your next batch of points right away), CardGenie® can help. It looks at your current cards and spending and tells you exactly where to go next.
Your points are waiting. It’s time to use them.
