5 reasons why the miles and points game is getting tougher

Earlier this year, I wrote about how this is going to be the year of premium credit cards. A lot of new issuers have stepped into the ring, launching premium offerings this year. Issuers like Chase and Amex have also refreshed their products. In a nutshell, customers have a lot of options to choose from. However, is the picture as rosy as it seems? Let’s have a look.

Miles and Points

In my opinion, I think there are 5 reasons why the miles and points may actually be getting tougher.

1. More Stringent Welcome Bonus Restrictions

While welcome bonuses have gone up in terms of absolute numbers, they have largely been restricted by way of issuers updating rules to determine who qualifies for the same bonus again. Chase 5/24 has already been a thing, Amex has their ‘once in a lifetime’ rule, in addition to ‘family’ bonus restrictions on co-branded cards. Chase recently took the Amex route and introduced something similar.

When it comes to Marriott’s cards, you have welcome bonus restrictions not just on those cards, but also across issuers. In essence, whether you qualify for a card bonus with Chase’s Marriott card depends on your history with Amex’s Marriott card bonuses and vice versa.

2. High Welcome Bonuses, but higher fees

While welcome bonuses have gone up in terms of absolute numbers, annual fees have been ramped up as well. In just 10 years of holding the Amex Platinum Card, I’ve seen the fee go up from $450 (when I got it for the first time), then to $550 and now most recently, $895!. That’s an increase of 200% since I first picked up the card in 2015.

When I started in this hobby in 2013-14, paying $450 in annual fees seemed like a steep price point. Now it’s more like the floor, with annual fee price points like $550, $650, $795 and $895 being pretty common for most premium credit cards.

3. Coupon Like Credits

This has probably been my biggest pet peeve. I don’t mind paying high fees if a card gives me good travel benefits. However, card issuers have entered the coupon book game, offering credits across different time frames with their partner brands.With work, family and everything else going on, sometimes it’s just too much mental gymnastics to optimize value from your ‘premium’ travel credit card.

4. Airline Devaluations

When I first started using miles and points, one of my favorite uses of airline miles was to travel between India and the US, with stopovers in either Dubai or Singapore. Back in the day, 42,500 miles one way in coach between the US and India was the norm. Over the years, airlines have devalued their miles in multiple ways.

• Aeroplan has just switched to revenue based earning from next year
• Singapore Airlines is about to increase their prices starting Nov 1, 2025, hiking prices on premium cabin redemptions
• Emirates has already blocked out people from redeeming miles for First Class tickets using Skywards miles, unless they have elite status. Chase has already dropped Emirates as a transfer partner, whereas Amex points now transfer to Emirates at a 5:4 ratio as opposed to the 1:1 ratio previously
• United and Delta don’t have award charts any more and prices can vary quite massively in broad ranges

5. Hotel Devaluations

• Marriott Bonvoy, the world’s biggest hotel loyalty program has also said goodbye to award charts. This has meant that a lot properties which were otherwise amazing redemptions previously often cost 100,000 points/night during peak periods. Again, lack of an award chart means that the program can simply wing it and there’s no way to predict pricing.
• Hilton, do I even need to say anything? From capping points prices at 90,000-95,000 points per night at one point of time (feels like a long time back, doesn’t it?) to now pricing standard rooms as high as 250,000 points per night, Hilton has  done a massive rug pull for a lot of long time loyalists like me, who entered the fray due to corporate stays. Now, when you book a Hilton stay, it can be priced quite whimsically at times. In this post, I’ve outlined what’s going on and how these devaluations are making their free night certificates more valuable.
• Out of the big three that I usually stay with, Hyatt, I must say has been the most consistent with their pricing. However, I’m seeing a disturbing trend lately, where individual properties are simply blocking inventory when you try to book a stay with points, even when plenty of rooms are available. I was looking to book rooms using Hyatt points for my upcoming trip to Vietnam. I checked multiple options not just in Vietnam but also in Thailand and Singapore and found one thing in common. Rooms using points were blocked even when plenty of rooms were available while booking with cash. At properties like the Hyatt Regencys and the Grand Hyatts of the world, when inventory using points was available, Hyatt was blocking club level rooms but only offering standard level rooms using points.

In short, if there’s inventory, the pricing is more expensive. During other situations, the inventory itself is blocked, even when plenty of rooms are available using cash, often during non-peak times. This signals clearly the direction in which the trend is heading.

The Pundit’s Mantra

So you may ask, what’s the moral of the story here? What’s the point of this post (no pun intended!)?

Well, the point is that one’s strategy has to evolve. Gone are the days when many of us would carry multiple premium credit cards. Over the last couple of years, I’ve started cutting down on how many premium credit cards I carry in my wallet, as highlighted in this post. Given the plethora of coupons on offer, I’ve decided to become leaner with my credit card wallet and a lot more disciplined and targeted in going after bonuses and offers.

Also, Iv’e kept building my balances with transferable points currencies, primarily with Amex and Chase. So if Hilton does yet another unannounced devaluation, I always have other options to fall back on.

What do you think about this assessment and how have these changes affected your travel and credit card strategy? Tell us in the comments section.

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