Are You a Boring Points Redeemer?

This past weekend I was involved in 3 separate travel bookings. While the purpose of these trips varied, the actual point redemptions were relatively similar… and boring?

Each redemption included the following:

A domestic US destination.

A 1-day business trip to Albany, New York

A Labor Day weekend trip back to Wichita, Kansas for the family reunion

And a weekend trip to Boston for 2 love-birds

Set travel dates with specific departure/arrival time windows.

Each trip involved early morning departures, no/minimal connections, standard hotel accommodations (nothing fancy) and the late flight out on the return home!

A desire to utilize reward points and frequent flyer miles to achieve a free/significantly discounted trip!

“If it’s free, it’s for me” – Says Everyone, ever…

Almost as important as what each trip included, was what each trip excluded…

Each redemption excluded the following:

Premium Class

Economy only please. Nothing fancy, just get me where I need to be, when I need to be there.

An airline/hotel chain preference.

Whatever standard flight/accommodation that fulfilled the above inclusions and could be had at the lowest cost/the lowest amount of points. Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, SPG – they are all the same to these folks!

An attention/obsession with “point value maximization”

Why these individuals recognize the value that points and miles can provide, I would not consider any of of these individuals points savvy… And that is not necessarily a bad thing! While they may not have been thinking of maximizing their points, they were also not crippled by it! They knew where they wanted to go and they knew they didn’t want to pay cash – no hesitation regarding cost per mile or point per dollar!

I was the only one hesitating on redeeming Ultimate Rewards for 1.5 cents via the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, while everyone else was just excited for a free trip!

Boring Redemptions?

Now, if you are like me (and many other of my points enthusiasts/blogger friends) these type of redemptions aren’t the sexy instagram worthy type redemptions that I started playing the points game for…

No airline lounge?

No pre-departure champagne?

Wait… no executive level 2-bedroom suite with a view? And this cost you how many Chase Ultimate Rewards points!? (sighs and shakes head in disbelief)

But, does that mean that these points redemptions are boring?

FAR FROM IT!

Any points redemption can be an exciting one!

Did you just save $500 in out-of-pocket expense as a small business owner?

Or perhaps redeemed to get back to the family reunion in wheat country Kansas without sellin’ the farm!?

Or maybe you just booked a trip to explore a new city with your significant other without having to talk finances and who is paying for what!?

Ya… then I’d say your points redemption is pretty darn exciting one!

Final Thought

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that your points redemption is boring, or that your points redemption is a “waste.” If you are using your points and you are using your miles and you are happy with where they are taking you, then you are doing it right!

Too many times we all (myself included) get caught up with collecting and maximizing points and hold back from taking the “boring” trips we may actually want to take!

Aspirational trips are nice and all, and while I loved my Singapore Suites Class experience and all the instagrams that followed, you have to mix in a few boring redemptions to Wichita, Kanasas before you can really appreciate $300 champagne at 35,000 feet 😉

Happy Travels!

DW