✈️ My three favorite airline points

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 9 seconds

Good morning from Kabul, Afghanistan. 🇦🇫

Navigating Taliban-controlled Afghanistan has been almost as complicated as navigating Bilt 2.0… But more on that in a few minutes. 😉

Here’s what I’ve got for you today:

• ✈️ My three favorite airline points

• 🤦‍♂️ Bilt… please, please… just stop

• ☀️ Protecting your spring and summer trips

✈️ My three favorite airline points

When it comes time to book a flight with points, there are SO MANY options. Thankfully, credit cards allow us to transfer points to dozens of different programs.

I always advise people to use the program that best suits the needs of a given trip.

But… I also have a few programs that I find myself using far more often than others. So today, I’ll tell you about my three favorite airline points currencies.

1. Qatar Avios

It goes without saying that Avios are the most flexible airline points out there, given that you can transfer them between multiple airlines.

Personally, I find myself using Qatar Avios all the time – in ways you might not expect.

For example, just yesterday, I used 22,000 Avios to book a business-class flight on RwandAir from Lagos, Nigeria, to Kigali, Rwanda…

That’s right – five hours in lie-flat business class for 22,000 Avios and $137 in taxes and fees.

You can also use Qatar Avios for good value to book flights with Airlink – a South African-based airline with great regional routes around the continent.

But most often, I’m simply using Qatar Avios to fly on… Qatar – my second-favorite airline in the world.

I consistently find better deals than most other programs when flying long-haul across the world to just about every major city you can think of.

For example, I just booked a flight for later this year from Bangkok to Maputo, Mozambique. The first leg is in Qatar’s first class, while the second flight is in business class.

The cost? Just 90,000 Avios and $200 in taxes.

It’s just an amazing deal, especially considering the frequent transfer bonuses from U.S. banks to Avios.

And it’s not just crazy niche routes – I flew Qsuites to/from the U.S. and Canada multiple times over the last couple of years for as few as 70,000 Avios each way.

2. Flying Blue Miles

This one won’t come as a surprise… Flying Blue miles come in handy in all kinds of weird situations.

I just wrote about how I used them to fly in Delta One across the ocean for a fraction of what Delta itself was charging.

But also, they have great deals everywhere. I recently spent 15,000 Flying Blue miles to fly from Singapore to Jakarta in business class on Garuda Indonesia, for example:

They also have great deals like flying China Airlines’ business class around Asia for just 24,000 miles and $42 in taxes.

That’s an amazing deal for 5 hours in a lie-flat seat on one of Asia’s best airlines.

There are endless cool options for using Flying Blue miles to fly around the world. Here are some other things I’ve used them for:

• Aerolineas Argentinas flights around South America

• Qantas flights around Oceania

• Domestic Delta flights in the U.S.

• Flights on Chinese airlines (China Southern, China Eastern, Xiamen)

• Kenya Airways flights around Africa

They’re just versatile… and also have regular transfer bonuses from U.S. credit cards throughout the year.

3. Alaska Atmos Rewards

In terms of actual cold, hard value, this is probably the heaviest hitter. However, Atmos points are also the hardest to earn.

Here are some ways to do so:

• Transfer 1:1 from Bilt Rewards

• Use the [[ alaska-airlines-visa.name ]]

• Fly on Alaska or Oneworld airlines

• Shop through the Atmos shopping portal

Once you’ve earned some points, using them for solid value is easy. For starters, you can fly around the U.S. for just 4,500 points in economy or 9,000 in business:

Last year, I used Atmos points to fly around Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania on some VERY niche routes for amazing value:

• Yangon, Myanmar, to Auckland on Malaysia Airlines business class for 75,000 points

• Auckland to Fiji on Fiji Airways business class for 15,000 points

• Fiji to Port Vila, Vanuatu, for 7,500 points

• Brisbane to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, for 7,500 points

So yeah… another example of a points currency that you can use for extreme value just about anywhere in the world without needing to rack up hundreds of thousands of them.

Bottom line

At the end of the day, you should always use the points that offer the best value for a given trip.

Still, these are a few points that I’m always happy to build big stacks of – because I know they’ll always come in handy at some point.

🤦‍♂️ Bilt… please, please… just stop

Last week, Bilt launched “Bilt 2.0,” which came with new cards, program updates, and more.

However, my takeaway was that it was so confusing and complicated that I had a hard time understanding it (and I do this stuff for a living).

Well, there’s been an update.

Bilt heard the criticism, and has just announced some changes – which will make the program… even more complicated? 🤦‍♂️

Look… I don’t know where to begin. Even after reading the announcement, I still have unanswered questions.

It boggles my mind how this program revamp was released to the public in its current state, and it feels like they’re figuring it out as they go.

All of that to say… if you’re a Bilt cardholder or have been toying with the idea of becoming one, please read this article.

Here’s what hasn’t changed: I think the new Bilt Palladium card’s 50,000-point welcome offer is worth getting for the points alone:

• Transfer them to World of Hyatt to book hotels for as few as 3,500 points

• Transfer them to Atmos Rewards (for all of the reasons I mentioned earlier)

• Transfer them to Emirates for first-class upgrades

At the same time, I don’t want to delve into the latest update in detail – because I honestly think there are more changes on the way.

That’s all for today, amigos! Have a lovely day, and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.

Cheers,

34.5553° N, 69.2075° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt