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’d 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 costs 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’d 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 toward elite status?

No airline or hotel programs count purchased points or miles toward elite status qualification.

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August 2026 Buy Points Promotions and Bonuses

Updated: August 11, 2026, 12:40pm 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 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

Air Canada Aeroplan

Promotion:
- Buy up to 4,000 points without a bonus
- Buy 5,000 to 25,000 points with a 60% bonus
- Buy 30,000 to 80,000 points with an 80% bonus
- Buy 90,000+ points with a 110% bonus (1.33 cents each)
Deadline: August 12, 2026
Programs that transfer to Aeroplan: American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, and Rove Miles
Purchase link

Aeroplan is a versatile program that lets you add stopovers for just 5,000 points, book premium seats without hefty fees, and book awards at competitive prices. Right now, if you have the 110% bonus, you can buy points below their average value, so this is a great deal.

Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 to 4,000 points without a bonus
- Buy 5,000 to 14,000 points and get an 80% bonus
- Buy 15,000 to 29,000 points and get a 90% bonus
- Buy 30,000+ points and get a 100% bonus (1.88 cents each)
Deadline: August 20, 2026
Programs that transfer to Atmos Rewards: None
Purchase link

The latest promotion from Atmos Rewards is highly targeted, and not everyone is seeing the 100% bonus. Even with the 100% bonus, the best price has points for 1.88 cents each, while we value these points at 1.6 cents each on average. If you’re redeeming above that number or need just a few points to top off your balance, this sale could make sense.

Amtrak Guest Rewards

Promotion:
- Buy 500 points without a bonus
- Buy 1,000+ points with a 10% discount (3.39 cents each)
Deadline: None specified
Programs that transfer to Amtrak Guest Rewards: None
Purchase link

While buying points at 3.39 cents each doesn’t sound like a good deal, it’s possible to redeem Amtrak Guest Rewards points at a value higher than this — though that’s not always the case. If you find a ticket that’s expensive with cash but not too expensive with points, buying here and making a redemption could lead to savings.

Choice Privileges

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 to 5,000 points without a discount
- Buy 6,000+ points with a 40% discount (0.62 cents each)
Deadline: August 28, 2026
Programs that transfer to Choice: Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou Points, and Wells Fargo Rewards
Purchase link

You can purchase points slightly above their average value (which we put at 0.6 cents), and it’s pretty easy to redeem points at a value above the cost of purchasing them right now.

Copa Airlines ConnectMiles

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 miles without a discount
- Buy 3,000 to 7,000 miles with a 25% discount
- Buy 10,000 miles with a 35% discount
- Buy 15,000+ miles to get a 45% discount (1.59 cents each)
Deadline: August 31, 2026
Programs that transfer to Copa: Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

Copa Airlines ConnectMiles isn’t the first program many points enthusiasts think of, and its lack of transfer partners makes getting a large balance difficult. However, there are some great uses of ConnectMiles that can make this sale worthwhile.

Emirates Skywards

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 to 4,000 miles without a bonus
- Buy 5,000 to 15,000 miles with a 10% bonus
- Buy 16,000 to 25,000 miles with a 15% bonus
- Buy 26,000 to 100,000 miles with a 25% bonus (2.4 cents per mile)
Deadline: August 22, 2026
Programs that transfer to Emirates: Amex Membership Rewards, Brex Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

We value Emirates Skywards miles at 1.1 cents apiece. Purchasing with the top-tier 25% bonus, you’ll purchase miles for 2.4 cents each. Therefore, you’ll want to have a specific redemption in mind — a redemption using miles at a value higher than the cost you paid to purchase them.

Frontier Miles

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 miles without a bonus
- Buy 2,000+ miles with a 100% bonus
- Buy 10,000+ miles with a 150% bonus (1.08 cents per mile)
Deadline: August 28, 2026
Programs that transfer to Frontier: Rove Miles and Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

At Upgraded Points, we value Frontier miles at 1.1 cents each, so buying miles at a slightly lower rate than that can make sense.

Hilton Honors

Promotion:
- Purchase 1,000 to 4,000 points without a bonus
- Purchase 5,000+ points with a 100% bonus (0.5 cents per point)
Deadline: September 25, 2026
Programs that transfer to Hilton: Amex Membership Rewards and Bilt Rewards
Purchase link

We value Hilton points at 0.5 cents per point, so this is a good opportunity to buy points right at that valuation.

JetBlue by AppointMINT livery a321 — Image Credit: Ehsan Haque

JetBlue TrueBlue

Promotion:
- Purchase 1,000 to 2,000 points without a discount.
- Purchase 3,000 to 200,000 points and get a 30% discount (2.26 cents per point)
Deadline: August 18, 2026
Programs that transfer to TrueBlue: Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and Wells Fargo Rewards
Purchase link

TrueBlue is mostly a fixed-value program, meaning your points can be used for any seat and rarely achieve more or less than their average value. That number hovers around 1.2-1.3 cents per point, and we just saw a sale for 1.43 cents per point. Buying at 2.26 cents only makes sense in the rarest of situations. Most people should avoid this sale.

Marriott Bonvoy

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 points without a bonus
- Buy 2,000 to 39,000 points with a 40% bonus
- Buy 40,000 to 200,000 points with a 50% bonus (0.83 cents each)
Deadline: September 9, 2026
Programs that transfer to Marriott: Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, and Chase Ultimate Rewards
Purchase link

If you are targeted for the 50% bonus, you can snag Marriott Bonvoy points for 0.83 cents each through this sale. That’s higher than our average valuation of Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents apiece. It’s also worth noting that if you’re a new Marriott Bonvoy member, you must wait 30 days from account opening to purchase any points.

United MileagePlus

Promotion:
- Buy 2,000 to 4,000 miles without a discount.
- Buy 5,000 to 29,000 miles with a 35% discount.
- Buy 30,000 miles+ with a 50% discount (1.88 cents per mile).
Deadline: August 20, 2026
Programs that transfer to United: Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

MileagePlus has its share of strengths and weaknesses. There are some great deals to be found using miles, but the new limits on purchasing miles make these deals less valuable than they were in the past. It’s also worth pointing out that many members are seeing a smaller discount, which changes the math on whether you should buy miles right now.

Southwest Rapid Rewards

Promotion:
- Buy 5,000 to 60,000 points, get a 50% discount (1.55 cents per point)
Deadline: August 26, 2026
Programs that transfer to Southwest: Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy
Purchase link

Even with a 50% discount, this promotion isn’t really good enough to make it a great deal. Because the cost to purchase points is more expensive than the average value of the points — our valuation of Southwest points puts them at 1.3 cents each on average — you’ll want to keep point purchases to a minimum when dealing with Rapid Rewards.

Wyndham Rewards

Promotion:
- Buy 1,000 to 2,000 points without a bonus.
- Buy 3,000 to 100,000 points with a 90% bonus (0.68 cents per point).
Deadline: August 14, 2026
Programs that transfer to Wyndham: Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and Wells Fargo Rewards
Purchase link

We value Wyndham Rewards points at 0.9 cents each, so buying at 0.68 cents can make a lot of sense. While Wyndham doesn’t get a ton of hype, its simple award structure makes it easy to use. Hotels cost 7,500, 15,000, or 30,000 points per night.

When Should You Purchase Points?

As promised, let’s look at 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 not have quite enough points or miles to make the booking. Of course, you could wait until you do, but business class and first class 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 you need 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 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 earning 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 offer 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.