Should you purchase points and miles?

Usually, you’d be better off redeeming points and miles that you already have, rather than purchasing more. That said, if your point balances are dwindling, and you have a redemption in mind where you know you’ll get more value than the cash price you pay for the points, then, yes, it can make a lot of sense to purchase the points. You might always find it worthwhile to purchase points if you just need a small amount to make a certain redemption or if you’re trying to keep miles from expiring.

How much does it cost to purchase points?

That depends on the program, but generally, it will cost anywhere from 1 to 3 cents per point. However, we recommend timing your point purchases alongside promotions that offer a discount or bonus when you buy — both of which bring down the per-point cost you’ll pay.

Are there limits to the number of points you can purchase?

Yes, most programs implement a maximum number of points you are allowed to purchase each calendar year, though the amount varies drastically by the program.

How often are there point purchase promotions?

This varies by program, but usually in any given month, there are multiple current purchase promotions. We update this page each month to help you stay up-to-date on all of the latest point promotions you can take advantage of.

Do purchased points count towards elite status?

Unfortunately, no airline or hotel programs count purchased points or miles towards elite status qualification.

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March 2026 Buy Points Promotions and Bonuses

Updated: March 23, 2026, 12:45pm CDT

Edited by:

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Table of Contents

Latest Buy Points Promotions
When Should You Purchase Points?
Final Thoughts

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There’s no shortage of ways to earn points and miles. From credit card welcome offers to bonus categories and shopping portals to dining programs, the list goes on and on.

Given the numerous options, travelers are often conflicted about purchasing points for their trips. After all, why purchase points when you can amass points with your everyday purchases?

This is a fair point and a solution that works for many. However, there are some instances where purchasing points and miles can make sense. We will explore each of those options later in the post, but first, let’s dive into all of the current promotions that allow you to receive a discount or bonus on your points and miles purchases.

Latest Buy Points Promotions

American Airlines AAdvantage

Promotion:
- Purchase 3,000 to 9,000 miles and get a 10% discount
- Purchase 10,000 to 29,000 miles and get a 15% discount
- Purchase 30,000 to 89,000 miles and get a 20% discount
- Purchase 90,000 to 150,000 miles and get a 30% discount
- Purchase 151,000 to 200,000 miles and get a 40% discount (2.26 cents per mile)
Deadline: None listed
Programs that transfer to American: Citi ThankYou and Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

American Airlines AAdvantage is a well-known program, offering numerous redemption options. This sale offers a good discount, but it won’t make sense for most people — unless you’re redeeming your miles at a value above the costly price of buying them. We value AA miles at 1.4 cents apiece, so buying at 2.26 cents is best avoided in most circumstances. Plus, you’ll need to shell out over $3,40 to reach the 40% discount tier with this sale.

Copa Airlines ConnectMiles

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 to 4,000 miles without a discount
- Buy 5,000 to 9,000 miles with a 70% bonus
- Buy 10,000 to 19,000 miles with an 80% bonus
- Buy 20,000+ miles to get a 90% bonus (1.58 cents each)
Deadline: March 30, 2026
Programs that transfer to Copa Airlines ConnectMiles: Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

Earning Copa ConnectMiles can be challenging, as the program doesn’t have transfer partnerships with the major U.S. credit card rewards programs. That makes these miles harder to accumulate than most airline currencies, though they can still be valuable for redeeming flights on Copa and its Star Alliance partners.

Etihad Guest

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 to 2,000 miles without a discount
- Buy 3,000 to 10,000 miles with a 10% discount
- Buy 11,000 to 25,000 miles with a 15% discount
- Buy 26,000+ miles with a 35% discount (2.08 cents per mile)
Deadline: None specified
Programs that transfer to Etihad Guest: American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Rove Miles, and Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

Etihad Guest has some interesting partnerships and a few decent redemption options, and it’s also the easiest way to find award space in Etihad’s premium cabins. That said, most of its partner awards can’t be booked online, and we only value these miles at 1.4 cents each — meaning buying them at 2.08 cents isn’t a good idea unless you have a great redemption lined up.

Finnair Plus Avios

Promotion:
- Buy 0 to 4,000 Avios without a discount
- Buy 5,000 to 19,000 Avios, get a 25% discount
- Buy 20,000 to 49,000 Avios, get a 30% discount
- Buy 50,000 to 84,000 Avios, get a 35% discount
- Buy 85,000+ Avios, get a 40% discount (1.45 cents per Avios)
Deadline: March 30, 2026
Programs that transfer to Finnair Plus: Capital One miles plus other Avios programs, including British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, and Aer Lingus
Purchase link

The Finnair Plus program offers some great value on redemptions, as well as more availability to book Finnair business class than you’ll find through partner programs. That said, we value these Avios at 1.25 cents each, so buying at 1.4 cents only makes sense for above-average redemption value.

Finnair A350XWB business class cabin blurred version — Finnair’s unique business class product found on its long-haul fleet. Image Credit: Ryan Smith

JetBlue TrueBlue

Promotion:
- Purchase 1,000 to 2,000 points without a bonus.
- Buy 3,000 to 6,000 points with a 100% bonus.
- Buy 7,000 to 14,000 points with a 110% bonus.
- Purchase 15,000 to 200,000 points and get a 125% bonus (1.43 cents per point)
Deadline: April 18, 2026
Programs that transfer to JetBlue TrueBlue: Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and Wells Fargo Rewards
Purchase link

The TrueBlue program is easy to use, as every seat is available with points. The value of points is tied to the cash price of a ticket, and you’ll typically get 1.3 to 1.5 cents per point in redemption value. If you buy at 1.43 cents per point, you might get more value than that on your redemption, but you might not.

Leaders Club

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 points without a bonus.
- Buy 2,000 to 11,000 points with a 50% bonus.
- Buy 12,000 to 29,000 points with a 75% bonus.
- Buy 30,000 to 50,000 points with a 100% bonus (6 cents apiece)
Deadline: April 3, 2026
Programs that transfer to Leaders Club: Citi ThankYou Points
Purchase link

Leaders Club, the loyalty program of Leading Hotels of the World, doesn’t get as much attention in the award travel world as bigger programs like Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors. That said, it has some incredible hotels, and those booking stays can typically save money by purchasing points, rather than paying for the hotel outright.

Lufthansa Miles & More

Promotion:
- XS bundle of 4,500 miles for $110 with a 50% bonus
- Small bundle of 15,000 miles for $300 after a 50% bonus
- Medium bundle of 75,000 miles for $1,216 after 50% bonus
- Large bundle of 150,000 miles for $2,125 after 100% bonus (1.42 cents per mile)
Deadline: March 31, 2026
Programs that transfer to Miles & More: Rove Miles
Purchase link

Miles & More is the joint program of airlines in the Lufthansa Group, including Lufthansa, SWISS, Brussels, and other airlines. Getting its miles can be tough in the U.S., due to a lack of transfer partners. However, you definitely want these if you want to fly Lufthansa’s premium cabins and don’t like the restrictions that come with booking through partners. Miles & More doesn’t sell miles directly but sells them in bundles that come with lounge and rental car perks added on.

United MileagePlus

Promotion:
- Buy 2,000 without a bonus
- Buy 3,000 to 19,000 miles with a 60% bonus
- Buy 20,000+ miles with a 100% bonus (1.88 cents per mile)
Deadline: March 30, 2026
Programs that transfer to United: Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

While there’s a lot to love about the United MileagePlus program, we only value these miles at 1.2 cents each, so buying at 1.88 cents won’t make sense for most people — especially given the new 90-day limits on buying a maximum of 50,000 miles.

Virgin Points

Promotion:
- Purchase 5,000 to 24,000 points and get a 20% bonus
- Purchase 25,000 to 69,000 points and get a 40% bonus
- Purchase 70,000 to 124,000 points and get a 60% bonus
- Purchase 125,000 to 300,000 points and get a 70% bonus (1.47 cents each)
Deadline: March 31, 2026
Programs that transfer to Virgin: Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, Marriott Bonvoy, and Wells Fargo Rewards
Purchase link

Virgin Red and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club are separate programs, but you can move points instantly and freely between the programs. There are some great uses of these points, and we value them at 1.4 cents each — a bit below the price in this sale — but it’s also possible to get high value out of them with minimal effort.

World of Hyatt

Promotion:
- Buy 2,000 to 4,000 points without a discount
- Buy 5,000+ points with a 20% discount (2.08 cents each)
Deadline: April 7, 2026
Programs that transfer to World of Hyatt: Bilt Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards
Purchase link

World of Hyatt is a fan-favorite award program, but even still we only value these points at 1.5 cents each. Buying at 2.08 cents only makes sense if you’re redeeming points at a value above that number — typically found at the top and the bottom of the award chart.

When Should You Purchase Points?

As promised, let’s examine some examples of when it might be wise to purchase points and miles.

American Airlines B737 8 MAX at SNA — Sometimes it can make sense to purchase airline miles. Image Credit: Ryan Smith

Topping Off Your Account

It can be frustrating to have a redemption you’d like to make, with available award space to boot, but you don’t have quite enough points or miles to make the booking. Of course, you could wait until you do, but if you’re looking to book a business or first class award ticket, award space can vanish quickly.

In cases like these, it can make sense to purchase a small number of points to acquire the number of points or miles needed to book the award.

Price Arbitrage

We frequently discuss the opportunity to take advantage of price arbitrage when talking about purchasing points or miles.

For instance, say you’d like to fly from the U.S. to Europe in business class. You pull up Google Flights, pop in your desired destination and travel date, and the results reveal that the best nonstop option is an American Airlines flight that costs a whopping $2,500 — yikes.

While the best award redemptions require locating award space at the saver level, assuming it is available on the date you’d like to travel, you could purchase the points needed for this ticket for far less. For example, you could purchase 58,000 American Airlines miles for just over $1,400 — more than $1,000 less than the retail price.

Bottom Line:

Simply put, purchasing points and miles can be a great way to get a substantial discount on flights you were planning to purchase anyway.

Preventing Points From Expiring

One of the annoyances of some loyalty programs is that their points or miles expire after a set period, usually 1 to 3 years. Depending on your travel habits, you may be at risk of your points expiring if you go long periods without earning or redeeming points within the program.

Fortunately, most programs count purchasing points as a qualifying earn activity, allowing you to extend the life of your miles simply by purchasing a small number of them.

Final Thoughts

In most cases, your primary points strategy should be earning them through new credit card welcome bonuses, everyday card spending, and other point-earning activities like shopping portals, as these activities shouldn’t require a significant expense beyond your everyday spending habits.

That said, there is a time and a place when it can make sense to purchase points and miles. In those cases, promotions that allow you to receive a discount or bonus miles on your purchase can offer you even more value.

Of course, you should always run the numbers when deciding which path makes the most sense for your next redemption, but it is always great to have options.