How To Stay Ahead of Points Devaluations in 2026

Collecting points and miles can be a lot of fun, but redeeming them for otherwise expensive, aspirational awards is even more enjoyable. Lately, this has become increasingly difficult.

If you’ve been collecting points and miles for more than a few years, you probably know the feeling. You wake up and see the headline: “Award rates are increasing.”

Maybe the hotel you’ve booked every year for a family vacation has jumped 25,000 points per night. Maybe your favorite business class award redemption had a major increase. Maybe the sweet spot you used to recommend is no longer worth it or is gone altogether.

This is the reality of points and miles: Devaluations are certain. Over time, the currencies you have are worth less than they were at any time before. But you can still win at points and miles. Here’s what I do to stay ahead of inevitable devaluations.

What Are Points Devaluations?

A devaluation occurs when an airline or hotel loyalty program increases the number of points or miles required to redeem flights or hotel stays while leaving earning rates unchanged.

In practical terms, you may earn the same number of miles for a flight today as you will tomorrow, but the amount needed to book that same award flight could suddenly double. Devaluations are certain, and they happen frequently across airlines, hotels, bank rewards programs, and even transferable rewards currencies.

Devaluations tend to come in different forms: dynamic pricing, category adjustments, reduced award availability, or the elimination of published award charts. Although the details vary, the results are almost always the same.

Unfortunately, there have been numerous devaluations recently. Most recently, Chase devalued points transfers to World of Hyatt, a program that completely decimated its award chart this year. Before that, Air Canada Aeroplan, my favorite airline loyalty program, significantly changed its award chart.

It’s understandable that those in the travel world get frustrated when a devaluation occurs. Personally, I’ve reached a point where I no longer view them as exceptions to the rule — they are the rule.

Rather than trying to predict when the next one will happen, I focus on learning how to stay ahead of them.

Why You Should Earn and Burn Rewards

Some of my friends and family hoard points for future redemptions, often for trips years down the line. Whenever possible, though, I advise them to take an earn-and-burn approach, because that is exactly what I do.

This strategy is just as it sounds: Earn points and redeem them whenever you have an opportunity. That doesn’t mean you should recklessly redeem points for poor value — but you should have a strategy. In the last year and a half, through heavy spending, I earned nearly 1 million Capital One miles — and I’ve already redeemed nearly all of them.

Many people treat points and miles like a savings account. They earn rewards over the years, collect hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of points, and wait for the perfect redemption. Of course, not everyone can redeem them as quickly as they earn them. But accruing rewards without redeeming them for long periods ultimately makes them worth less.

Why You Should Earn Transferable Rewards

While I generally try to earn and redeem my points and miles as quickly as possible, there are times when I can’t use them right away or am working toward accumulating enough points for a specific redemption.

In those situations, I prioritize earning transferable rewards currencies, such as American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One miles, and Citi ThankYou Rewards. These points programs provide greater flexibility, allowing me to transfer points to a variety of airline and hotel partners when the right redemption opportunity arises.

For example, if I wanted to fly business class between the U.S. and Japan using American Airlines AAdvantage, I would need 60,000 miles. Of course, I could earn them by spending on my American Airlines credit cards. Or, I could earn Citi ThankYou Rewards and transfer them to American AAdvantage.

You’re probably wondering, “Why does that even matter?” In this scenario, if there were no business class award space through AAdvantage, I would be stuck with a lot of AAdvantage miles. My first-choice option isn’t always available, but alternatives have worked just as well. If I earned Citi ThankYou Rewards, I could transfer them to another program, like Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and still have another option to book a business class award, albeit on another airline.

The key to making this strategy effective is a balance of transferable rewards currencies, which gives me the flexibility to pivot. If a partner suddenly becomes less attractive, I can simply shift my strategy to another.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t ever focus on individual airline and hotel points. However, many travelers focus exclusively on a single airline or hotel chain. They build massive balances and hope loyalty will pay off. But when devaluations arrive, these travelers often find themselves trapped.

Have a Redemption Goal Before You Earn

With plenty of tremendous welcome offers nowadays, it can be tempting to apply for just about all of them — but that’s generally a bad idea. Before accruing points in various airline and hotel loyalty programs, you should have a redemption in mind and then work to earn enough points to redeem for it.

Having small balances spread across many loyalty programs is often less useful than concentrating your earnings in a few programs where you can actually afford a meaningful redemption.

For example, let’s say you’re planning a 5-night trip to London and your points are scattered across several hotel programs: 70,000 Hilton Honors points, 30,000 World of Hyatt points, 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, and 100,000 IHG One Rewards points.

In this scenario, you have a decent amount of points in different programs, but maybe not enough points in any single program to book the hotel you actually want for the entire stay (unless you prefer to change hotels every night). As a result, your points become less practical.

Instead, it would be better to set a travel goal, focus your earnings on the airline or hotel program most likely to help you achieve it, and accumulate enough points in that program to make a full redemption possible.

How Dynamic Pricing Changes Everything

One of the biggest shifts over the past decade has been the rise of dynamic pricing, in which award pricing depends on factors such as demand, cash prices, and seasonality.

Before, many programs published award charts. You knew exactly how many miles were required for a flight between specific regions. You could plan years ahead because redemption costs were relatively predictable.

Nowadays, that’s increasingly uncommon. Instead of announcing that an award redemption will increase from 50,000 miles to 65,000 miles, programs can simply allow algorithms to gradually push prices higher over time. While some may not notice the impact immediately, the purchasing power of their points still declines.

With dynamic pricing, premium awards often become dramatically more expensive during periods of high demand. As someone who spends nearly all of my points on premium cabin redemptions, I always aim to use as few points as possible for each dynamically priced award redemption.

Book Award Flights and Hotel Awards Early

Because devaluations are unpredictable, it’s generally a good idea to lock in award flights and hotel awards early, especially since devaluations are often announced without warning.

Booking early allows you to secure today’s award redemption rates before future increases take effect. If your plans change, you can often cancel and get your miles back without penalty. However, not all airline loyalty programs allow this, so it’s important to know the terms and conditions for award redemptions in any loyalty program you plan to use.

Sweet Spots Are Shrinking

In the points and miles world, a sweet spot is a redemption that offers exceptional value by requiring relatively few points or miles compared to the cash price. These specific redemptions allow travelers to maximize their rewards, often unlocking premium experiences or expensive travel for a fraction of the usual cost.

One lesson I’ve learned repeatedly is that sweet spots rarely last forever. Whenever an exceptional redemption opportunity emerges, I assume it has an expiration date, whether that is a month or a year from now. Over the last decade, I have seen numerous sweet spots disappear, watched incredible business and first class awards vanish, and seen luxury hotels jump multiple award categories.

Now, I focus on identifying current opportunities before they become tomorrow’s devaluation headline. Since these opportunities don’t last forever, it’s best to redeem my points and miles for them as soon as I can. Booking early continues to work remarkably well for me. When I have a specific trip in mind, I try to secure award space as soon as schedules open.

This accomplishes several things. First, it increases my chances of finding availability for an award. Second, it locks in pricing before potential future changes. I’d rather secure a good redemption today than miss out on it altogether.

Final Thoughts

Points and miles have transformed the way I travel. They’ve allowed me to fly in some of the world’s finest premium cabins and stay at many of the most exceptional hotels across the globe.

Unfortunately, devaluations are inevitable. Nearly every loyalty program and transferable rewards currency has undergone devaluation, and we have witnessed many in recent years. It is important to have a strategy to stay ahead of these devaluations. The biggest lesson is to diversify the points and miles you earn and to focus more on transferable currencies when possible.