We typically associate “luxury travel” with high-end hotels and flights, often purchased as part of a package. However, most of these “extras” are already included as benefits of travel through existing memberships and/or credit cards. Instead of wasting a large portion of your travel budget by repurchasing the same perks for your trip, plan around the benefits you already have.
Don’t wait until you’ve booked your long-haul flights and hotel to think about how your existing travel benefits will affect your trip for the better. Start planning your trip around the advantages you already hold.
Start With an Inventory of Your Existing Travel Benefits
Take stock of the current travel benefits that you and your family members have accumulated through memberships with airlines, hotels, credit card companies, and other professional organizations. This includes all unused airline miles and hotel points, as well as travel benefits that are about to expire.
Many travel rewards also expire within a year or two of membership. And even when they don’t, high award pricing can leave miles with little to no value. Annual travel credits can also go unused each year, along with perks your hotel loyalty program offers members, such as complimentary breakfast for guests who check in under that hotel’s name.
To get the most value out of your travel benefits, consider all of the various travel benefits that you have accumulated. This can include free checked bags, preferred boarding, free breakfasts, room upgrades, late check-out times, and even access to airport lounges. On longer trips, these types of benefits can have a big impact on your overall travel experience.
Choose a Destination Where Your Benefits Go Further
Conversely, you can also look at locations and determine where your airline miles will get you the most value, where your hotel points can get you the best location, or even where your membership to a travel organization will get you the most value.
People with a lot of hotel points typically have a lot of choices, but not all hotels are equally valuable. For travelers with a lot of hotel points, some destinations offer far more high-end redemption options than others. Likewise, people with a lot of airline miles often find that some routes are far better than others for using their miles, and that some partners are better than others.
This does not mean you have to travel to fewer destinations to earn better redemptions. Many amazing destinations exist around the world, and your current benefits should enhance your overall travel experience.
The best loyalty and rewards programs are those which enhance your previous travel spending. That is, airline and hotel programs which turn your previous travel dollars into future benefits – discounted hotel stays, better rooms, flight upgrades, extra services, etc. – are far more valuable than those programs which prompt you to spend even more in order to earn enough to redeem for a single award.
Rewards programs outside traditional travel loyalty can also help. Some memberships and financial services allow people to earn rewards through activities they may already be doing. Those rewards can then become another resource to consider when planning future expenses.
The key is to treat rewards as part of the overall travel budget rather than a reason to spend more. A mix of airline miles, hotel benefits, and other rewards can reduce certain costs and free up money for experiences points can’t cover.
Put Your Best Benefits Toward the Most Expensive Parts of the Trip
Points earned on large expenses are worth more than points earned on smaller ones. With airline miles, it is best to earn them on long-haul flights. For hotel points, it is best to earn them on high-priced hotels. For credit card travel benefits, it is best to earn them on large expenses such as long car rental reservations.
For example, let’s assume someone has a huge number of airline miles. Instead of using them for lots of short hops, he can use them for a long-haul flight in business or first class to destinations on other sides of the world.
Stack Benefits Without Making the Trip Complicated
While travel rewards can be combined for more value than the sum of their parts, at some point the extra value won’t justify the added time and planning required to use them.
All of the above mentioned loyalty benefits can be very useful for enhancing your experience while traveling. However, using them optimally should not add too much complexity to trip planning.
Travelers can inadvertently create problems for themselves by trying to optimize their travel benefits and adding too many “optimizations” that ultimately become inconvenient. For example, long layovers, switching hotels mid-trip, or even changing one’s destination to maximize points can add substantial frustration to a traveler’s trip.
Your time is factored into optimizing your travel benefits. For example, if you have to take a very inconvenient connection (e.g. 18 hours between flights) to use airline miles for a reward flight, or you have to take a long overnight stay at a hotel between parts of your trip, or you have to spend a lot of time traveling in each direction of your overall trip, then it may be more valuable to you to pay a bit more for the travel and not have to go through all of that trouble.
Spend More on the Experiences That Benefits Cannot Replace.
By getting the greatest value out of the existing benefits, you can afford to spend more on the things that cannot be purchased with points, i.e., a private tour, a tasting menu experience, a spa treatment, or an excursion that can only be had at that destination.
Now, instead of having only one way to pay for luxury travel, you can use benefits to unlock the highest-value experiences for you and decide how to spend your travel budget based on your individual travel experiences and preferences.
The biggest advantage of using your travel benefits well is that you can decide how best to use your travel budget based on your personal travel style and what you want to get out of your trip. For example, someone with a big foodie side might book simple rooms and focus on experiencing some of the world’s best restaurants for dinner. On the other hand, someone with a big hotel buff side might choose a high-end hotel and spend less on other travel-related expenses, such as shopping and evening entertainment.
Using your travel benefits to their fullest potential lets you spend your hard-earned money wisely on what brings the most value to your trip.
Avoid Chasing Status Just for the Perks
Don’t confuse status with value. Yes, loyalty status has value, but what value? Do you have to spend money to get that value? If so, just how much would you have to spend? In many cases, status isn’t worth the cost of the extra travel required to earn it.
Even programs with great benefits can cost more than they are worth. Many members spend extra to earn enough points to reach a higher tier of membership in a hotel’s or airline’s loyalty program. These benefits can be valuable, but not always as much as they cost.
Your best loyalty program strategy is likely to develop it like any travel experience, with thought, consistency, and based on your specific travel behaviors and resulting needs.
Build the Experience Before Increasing the Budget
You don’t have to spend money to have a more luxurious trip. Simply learn to use the travel benefits you already have better.
Use what you have earned to save on the largest travel expense first, then use your saved dollars to purchase activities, experiences, and services that enhance your trip.
So remember, how you spend your money matters less than how you spend it to create the perfect luxury trip for you.
