How to Redeem Credit Card Points Like a Pro (EASY Beginner's Guide)

all over the Internet you find people saying that they got a flight without spending a penny or that they used their points and miles to find amazing deals and so on you might have thought they're spending tons and tons of money to get the points or it's just pure luck if you're thinking the above then this video is definitely for you or maybe you're just looking for some new tips on how to score deals and so in this video I'll go over step by step in how to earn points and Miles how to find the deals and finally how to actually know if this deal is even good make sure you stick around for the end of the video as I have some hacks and tricks that you may have never heard of so let's get started hey there welcome to Adventure with Jazzy on this channel I talk about credit card hacks and also personal finance and if you like the video please leave a thumbs up and consider subscribing let's start out with how to actually earn points and Miles if you're already knowledgeable about this subject feel free to skip this part of the video let's go over how to find the right credit card to maximize the points you need to earn earning points in Miles without going crazy on spending really starts with getting the right credit card and with so many options out there it can be pretty overwhelming so let's break it down step one categorize your spending habits look at your spending habits do you like to dine out often do you like to subscribe to streaming services or do you drive a lot find credit cards that match your spending patterns for example you have the MX gold that gets you four times the points on D or you have the built MasterCard that gets you points on your rent expenses step two consider welcome bonuses this is actually what will help you score the points you need for flights or else you'll be waiting a while to actually gain the points from your normal spending but along with a welcome bonus you need to make sure that the credit card that you choose can actually transfer points and miles to different airlines let's say you get the Chase Freedom flex and although you get a nice 5% back on quarterly categories you can't actually use this car to transfer your points to different airlines instead you'd need something like the Chase Sapphire that not only offers a nice welcome bonus but it can also transfer your points out step three consider the fees and requirements before committing so you want to consider the annual fees and any eligibility requirements as some cards may have credit score thresholds or specific application requirements such as chases 524 rule you can always watch my previous videos to get a better understanding of this or you can go to nerd wallet or the point Sky website to get a nice breakdown on each credit card's information step four choose the right flyer program now you want to pick the right frequent flyer program that aligns with your travel preferences if you live in a particular Airlines hub or you know you like to travel to a particular country every year on a certain flight those are what you need to keep keep in mind but don't forget about Airline Partnerships within Airline alliances for instance I live in Dallas Fort Worth which is American Airlines Hub City so a lot of the cheaper flights will be with American Airlines but then again American Airlines is part of the One World Alliance so you have a variety of different airlines to choose from when it comes to transferring your points step five combine everything from the above and pick the right card so you want to combine your findings and choose the card that not only off offers great rewards and a great welcome bonus but also caters to your spending habits and then you need to make sure that that credit card can transfer your points to different airlines and a tip here if you fly a lot you can consider getting an airline credit card but if you don't typically travel you can go with a regular travel card as they tend to be more versatile and have multiple Airline Transfer Partners part two how to find the deals now that you have your credit card and points let's talk about how to find the best deals finding great deals is probably the hardest thing to do as it is simple enough to go to a random Airline website and check out how many points they require to get the flight but we don't do that around here it's not about checking out how much points is needed for getting the flights we're going for getting the maximum value out of our points so I have three methods on how to get the best deals so we talked about getting a credit card that can transfer your points into other airlines so you you can start by checking your credit cards Airline Transfer Partners websites i' like to start by checking on Google flights which will give you an idea on the top airlines that travel to that particular destination so on Google flights if you're looking for a flight to Japan you can see here that this Air Canada flight is operated by United or even you know that this Airline is part of the Star Alliance Network and you can check if other airlines websites that are part of the Star Alliance will offer the same same flight so the same flight on different airlines could be priced differently with points method two keep an eye out for special deals Airlines and credit card travel portals occasionally offer special transfer bonus deals and when these deals happen you really have to be ready to jump on it for example built has had former transfer bonuses where you could transfer your points to another airline and get up to 150% more points but something to beware you don't want to transfer your points if you don't have an active plan to use them right away and when you transfer your points to an airline you cannot undo the action you might think that you can keep your points in your airline account and use them later and while that is an option Airlines do have a history of devaluing their points such as United and summer 2023 they devalued their points by 30% so we don't always have flexible schedules to jump on a deal at an instant but I do have a third method to find find a great deal method three use award search tools this is probably the better method to find points deals but it does require some amount of work so there are a variety of award search tools that can help you find the best points deals and I'll list the top four one is point. me I use this tool to get my flight from Dallas to Japan for 40% off roundtrip flight using points it's free to use if you have the build card but if you don't you can use the tool for $5 a day the cons about the tool is that they only have 12 loyalty programs to scan from and it takes 2 minutes to load the search and then you can only search by specific dates in mind actually all of these award search tools are pretty much all like this but I do like point. me because it provides detailed instructions on how to find the deal for example after typing in the city in the date it will show you which airline has the best deal and how to redeem it the next award search tools are poia and Rome so these two search tools also are free and again they have limited numbers of loyalty programs that they will search poia has a 3-day search range which is better than searching by a specific date both of these are also great especially if you're just casually finding a deal and then the fourth Search tool award logic I think this site is probably the best tool among all the tools because you can search from over 35 loyalty programs and there is a 3-day search range there's also some instructions on how to redeem The Ward and you can receive flights alerts on whenever a new deal pops up you do need to pay to use the tool as it costs $5 a day or $20 a month I think this tool is really good if you definitely know you need a flight within a specific time frame I know some people who just pay for a day and then they get their deal and in the long run it's worth it part three how to evaluate if you got a good deal okay okay now that you found your potential deal let's talk about how to evaluate it how do you know that the deal is actually good so for one you can calculate the Cent per Point cost if you follow or listen to other credit card YouTubers a lot of them talk about finding the Cent pero cost you can calculate it by dividing the cash cost by the points needed for the flight you definitely want to aim for over 1 cent per point for economy flights and maybe over 3 cents per point for business class if you're getting 1 cent per point or under just pay cash for the flight and then two consider your personal preference it's not just about looking at calculations that matter if the deal is good you need to consider your personal preferences do you prioritize luxury or is it just about getting to the destination for example you found a great deal on a business class flight but it's with American Airlines and it's a 2-hour flight from Chicago to Denver do you think it's worth using your points for this or would it be better to get an economy flight for just half the points the idea is understand how many points you have how much you're willing to sacrifice and if the flight is worth it so that's it that's how you get the maximum value out of your points I hope my video helped you all and let me know did you score a good deal if you have any questions on the process or feel that I'm missing something please let me know in the comments below anyway thank you all so much for watching this video please leave a like And subscribe if you're new and I'll see you you in another video bye