These Are the Best Things That Happened to Points and Miles in 2024

Changes are frequent in the world of points and miles, and they often don’t bring good news for customers.

Airlines and hotels devalue their currencies. Snagging award seats at saver rates becomes tougher. The requirements to hit airline status get even harder to reach.

But not all changes are negative, and in 2024 we have seen quite a few bright spots. From Alaska Airlines to Wells Fargo, major air carriers and credit card issuers have announced changes that are — without a doubt — net positives for points-and-miles collectors.

Here’s a look at those positive changes, why we liked them, and how they might benefit you.

Alaska Airlines Makes Hitting Status Easier

Alaska Airlines made it easier to reach elite status in its Mileage Plan loyalty program, which is a highly valuable status.

The airline added a major new way to earn that status, and unlike many competitors, Alaska kept the thresholds for each step of its elite status unchanged for the next year.

Beginning in January 2025, flights booked with Mileage Plan miles will be eligible to earn Elite-Qualifying Miles, the all-important EQMs that count for elite status. Alaska joins Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in allowing elite-qualifying earnings on award flights. Like Delta, award flights operated by partner airlines will earn EQMs. (United allows elite-qualifying earnings only on award flights aboard its own, or United Express, planes.)

Also, Mileage Plan members will just need to earn enough Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) for status, with no other metrics needed. That means the ability to earn elite status by flying an eligible number of segments is gone, but — in a move that helps make earning elite status simpler for many — so is the requirement to fly a certain number of flights on Alaska itself.

Alaska Airlines is also merging with Hawaiian Airlines, which brings more good news for frequent flyers.

As of September 2024, reciprocal benefits from Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles are starting to roll out. Miles in both programs retain their value and can be moved seamlessly between the 2 at a 1:1 ratio.

This is great news because Alaska miles are both very valuable and difficult to obtain since the program’s only transfer partner is Bilt Rewards. With the ability to transfer HawaiianMiles to Alaska, American Express Membership Rewards can now become Alaska miles. Just transfer your Amex points to partner Hawaiian, then to Alaska.

The Alaska-Hawaiian merger also brings a miles powerhouse into the Oneworld alliance.

The Avios Ecosystem Expands

Speaking of the Oneworld alliance, one of the most used loyalty currencies is Avios. This year, the number of airlines using it grew, adding an airline that’s expanding fast in the U.S.

That carrier is Finnair, which ditched its own loyalty currency and adopted Avios in March. The Finnish flag carrier is now the sixth member of the vast Avios ecosystem, which includes other major international airlines such as British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling, and Qatar Airways.

You can transfer your Avios between Finnair and British Airways at a 1:1 ratio. You can’t transfer between Finnair and the other Avios-using airlines, but you can go around this by transferring from British Airways to each of the rest of these programs.

It’s true that this year Finnair has devalued its award chart for using points to fly on American Airlines, which now shows award prices that are higher by as much as 50%. But with the ability to move Avios among 6 airlines — including Qatar Airways with its top-rated Qsuites business class — you can take advantage of sweet spots within each of their loyalty programs.

Wells Fargo Has Entered the Chat

American Express, Capital One, Chase, and Citi dominate the headlines in the world of transferable credit card points, and rightly so. They have the most transfer partners and the most credit cards to choose from. Whatever your travel and financial goals, there is likely a card in their lineups that can help you get there.

But there’s a new name in the game, and it’s worth your attention.

Wells Fargo isn’t, in fact, that new. The world’s fourth-largest bank by both market capitalization and total assets was founded in 1852.

It has been issuing credit cards for a long time, but its Wells Fargo Rewards points became transferable in 2024. This has become another attractive way to earn points that can be transferred to a variety of partners.

To go with this, the bank has launched the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card, a new entrant that has quickly won converts among our staff at Upgraded Points.

The card earns 5x points on all hotels and 4x points on all airlines, plus 3x on all other travel purchases. Those are excellent earning levels for a card with a reasonable $95 annual fee.

Wells Fargo also allows moving cash rewards from other cards to its 2 Autograph cards, which in turn allow points transfers. The other card is the $0-annual-fee Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card. This makes Wells Fargo’s cash-back cards suddenly very interesting, where they may not have been before.

Wells Fargo does currently have fewer transfer partners than its competitors, but the bank has hinted that more may be coming. For all these reasons, you should have Wells Fargo Rewards on your radar.

Some Issuers Have Made Points Easier To Use or Share

Speaking of transfer partners, 2024 has brought some good news there, too, affecting airlines, credit cards, and hotels. Here are some of the most notable changes.

Bilt Loses 1 Transfer Partner, Gains Many More

Bilt Rewards, a program designed to earn rewards when paying rent that also offers its own co-branded credit card, added some new and very interesting transfer partners in 2024.

Those include Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and TAP Air Portugal among airlines, plus hotel chain Accor. That more than makes up for a big negative when Bilt lost American Airlines as a transfer partner, also this year.

United and Virgin Atlantic Allow Miles Pooling

You may be among several people collecting points and miles in your family or friend group, meaning there may be many of you with a chunk of points but no one with enough for a big redemption. The good news is that some loyalty programs let you merge points into 1 account.

The ranks of major airline programs letting members pool points grew by 2 this year — and these are not small players. United Airlines became the first of the Big 3 U.S. carriers to allow points pooling, and then Virgin Atlantic rolled out the possibility of creating household accounts with up to a whopping 9 members.

American and Delta, the ball is in your court.

World of Hyatt Ditches the Phone

The year brought good news for World of Hyatt loyalists, too. The program finally allowed users to apply Suite Upgrade Awards and Club Access Awards online. Previously, you could only apply these to a stay by contacting customer support.

The coveted Suite Upgrade Awards let you confirm an upgrade to a suite before checking in, rather than hoping for an upgrade based on availability at check-in. Each Suite Upgrade Award is valid for a single stay of up to 7 nights. Club Access Awards let members confirm club lounge access at the time of booking.

Both Suite Upgrade Awards and Club Access Awards as Milestone Rewards when staying at Hyatt hotels.

Final Thoughts

There have been quite a few bright spots in the world of loyalty points in 2024.

Those changes have the potential to positively affect many people who collect points and miles and spur competitors to follow — and they prove that not every change in loyalty programs brings a devaluation.