Don’t Accumulate Credit Card Points
Earning credit card points and earning miles may seem like the perfect way to pay for your dream trip. But as CreditCards.com points out , your points won’t necessarily always have the same value as they do today; better spend than save.
Why? Accumulating them for some unusual trip or other compensation can be frustrating. You are never guaranteed that your points and miles will retain value over time. As CreditCards.com writes:
Case in point: Delta Air Lines stopped offering an award table that indicated how many miles you would need for various fares in 2015. Since then, reward rates on some routes have fluctuated wildly. Worse, without a table of awards, you have little or no opportunity to plan or “save up” for the flight you want to book later.
And there is always the chance that you may not be able to redeem your points for the same rewards as today. “Chase recently dumped Korean Air as a transfer partner,” notes CreditCards.com. If you were planning to redeem your points for this airline, you are out of luck.
So one rule of thumb, as Lifehacker previously pointed out , is to “save points only for what you plan to use in the next year or so.” Otherwise, you risk devaluing them.
Think of it this way: why put off joy? The entertaining dreams of a grand trip are inspiring, but just as rewarding if you take that journey today. So redeem your miles and points now if you can, and not on some confusing day in the future.