When you find an award space that fits your travel plans, it feels great to hit the book button and book it. But even if you’ve already redeemed your points or miles, you can still get better deals without affecting your travel plans.
Did you know you can save points and miles even if you redeem for the same flight or hotel?
This is a simple strategy I use.
Related: How (and Why) Calculate Reward Redemption Value
Understand the pricing levels for your plan
In the early days of points and miles, loyalty programs offered a limited number of airline seats or hotel stays at a fixed redemption rate (usually through an award chart). If spaces or nights become available, you can book at a fixed price and the price will not change.
Today, redemption pricing has become more complex. Many plans now utilize dynamic pricing to adjust redemption prices based on demand. This does mean that on peak days of high demand, redemption volumes can be eye-poppingly high. However, it’s not all bad news.
Now that many programs are able to significantly adjust their prices based on their confidence in seats or hotel rooms, you might be surprised that prices can and do drop closer to departure.
For example, flights to Australia are traditionally one of the hardest flights to find premium cabin award seats at an affordable price. If you redeem American Airlines AAdvantage miles or book nearly a year in advance (around the time seats are first released), you can expect to pay hundreds of thousands of miles to fly to Sydney Airport (SYD).
Related: How Much Will Your Vacation Cost? The scourge of dynamic pricing is spreading like wildfire
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However, closer to departure, if flights operated by American Airlines are less likely to be full, the AAdvantage program may lower the cost of certain awards, making even destinations like Australia more affordable.
I’m not suggesting booking a trip only at the last minute, as this kind of spontaneity (and uncertainty) isn’t for everyone.
Instead, there’s a way to combine peace of mind with potential savings.
Related: 5 Reasons I Believe American Airlines Miles Are More Valuable than United and Delta Miles
How to save after redemption
I recently redeemed my Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for a long-haul flight operated by Singapore Airlines next year. Unfortunately, I’m not flexible with routes or dates.
Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program offers two levels of award redemption: cheaper, strictly capacity-controlled Saver awards and pricier but more accessible Advantage awards.
When I went to book, the Saver rewards were sold out, so I booked the more expensive Advantage seats. It’s not a stunning redemption, but it’s an acceptable price for miles that I’m happy with and fits my strict travel schedule.
After my reservation was confirmed, I set up a reminder through Seats.aero, my favorite online tool for finding and tracking award pricing. I entered the date and flight number of the flight and the plan I used to book the flight, then set the maximum cost (in points) to be slightly lower than what I’d pay for Advantage Rewards.
Since the flight isn’t leaving for a few months, I can “set it and forget it” and Seats.aero will notify me via app notifications and email if a deal seat becomes available on that flight (at a lower price than the deal seat I’ve booked).
If the flight is not full near departure, KrisFlyer may decide to open additional concession seats to fill the aircraft. Although this is not guaranteed, I was able to set the alarm in just 30 seconds.
If I receive a reminder, I can cancel the Advantage award online and immediately rebook the Saver award at a much lower mileage price. Even though it would cost $50 to get KrisFlyer miles back into my account to remove the advantage bonus, switching to the cheaper bonus would save me tens of thousands of miles, which is well worth it, especially since I don’t need to monitor availability every day; I can just wait for the alerts to come.
Some hotel programs that use dynamic pricing do something similar, lowering some of their nightly award rates if occupancy drops. If you set a reminder, you may be notified of price drops and rebook to save points.
Related: How to Use Rooms.aero to Find the Best Hotel Rewards Availability
bottom line
Once you redeem your points or miles, don’t assume that the price you have to pay is set in stone.
While prices for partner awards are usually fixed, it’s worth investigating whether the program you’re booking on uses dynamic pricing for specific flights or award nights, or has tiered prices such as Saver and higher-priced tiers (such as Advantage/Flexi, depending on the program).
While the price you can pay now may be an acceptable deal, booking and setting reminders for the right plan so you’re notified when redemption prices drop closer to departure can easily save you thousands of points and miles.
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