Which is more difficult, earning miles or burning miles? It depends on who you ask and what stage of this miles and points hobby they are in.
The Early Days
If you were to ask me 20 years ago if I thought earning miles or burning miles was more difficult, I’d say earning. This was before my husband and I really got into the miles and points hobby. He traveled a bit for work and was accumulating mostly Marriott points and AA miles. Maybe once a year, we’d redeem his Marriott points for a free hotel stay.
I opened a Korean Air credit card since we were flying on Korean Air multiple times to Russia. We dabbled in the hobby with a Disney credit card and spent our points on a hotel stay before a cruise. When my youngest child was born, we were excited to use AA miles to fly two of us for free on our first family-of-five trip to San Diego.
Fast forward to a few years later, and I started reading Million Mile Secrets and more blogs (like this one!) to learn about travel with credit card sign-up bonuses. This was during the time that bloggers recommended quarterly apporamas (applying for 3-4 new credit cards at a time every quarter). Many of the current bank application restrictions weren’t in place. There was no Chase 5/24 rule at the time.
My husband and I were raking in the hotel points and airline miles like no tomorrow. So at that time, earning was definitely easier than burning for me. Burning was a bit harder because I wasn’t familiar with all of the airline partners and the various tricks to transfer points to international airlines.
Current Situation
Now, I consider myself an old-timer in this miles and points travel hobby. I’ve owned most of the credit cards out there at one time. I’m no longer instantly approved for credit cards due to the number of my current and past credit cards and the new and ever-changing bank application restrictions. So right now, earning miles and points is more difficult for me and my family.
Burning miles has become both easier and more difficult for me. On one hand, I’m better at navigating the transfer partners and booking awards on international airlines. I stalk airline websites almost every day and pounce when I see a good award price.
But on the other hand, now that my kids are older and we’re not pulling them out of school for trips, we are a lot less flexible with our travel dates. That has made burning our miles a bit more challenging.
Readers, which aspect of miles and points travel is more difficult for you: earning, or burning?
Hi Nancy,
a thoughtful exploration of the complexities in earning and burning miles. In the early days, the focus on earning seemed more challenging, especially as your miles and points journey was just beginning. As experience grows, finding the right opportunities for burning miles effectively becomes an exciting puzzle to solve. Thanks for shedding light on this dynamic aspect of the miles and points hobby!
Burning is definitely harder for me. And the more you know, the more things to “check”. Award flights to and from Asia this summer have been very hard to come by, so much so that I am currently flying the wrong way around the world to get back home! I have a feeling this is caused by Japan and China each loosening travel restrictions in the past year, and the US limiting the number of flights into the US on Chinese carriers. Hopefully it will stabilize soon and things will become easier again.
Because life changes with family, job, including flexibility it’s harder to burn them. I’m not earning as before when I traveled for work. I’m not quick to apply for credit cards even thinking of getting rid of some. I’m always racing to use those free night certificates before they expire! I also started off with Million Mile Secrets, they were wealth of information.
Earning is harder, by a long shot. I burn through my earnings MUCH faster than I earn them. There’s always somebody out there happy to take my cash/points/miles.
Burning is vastly more difficult if you’re looking for premium cabins at saver level prices. Pre-Covid, for instance, if you wanted to fly to Asia then you had several options even a few months out. Cathay business with a good chance of first class opening up within a couple weeks of departure? Yes please. EVA’s amazing business class to Chicago on the hello kitty plane? You bet.
Nowadays outside of Lufthansa first class there just aren’t many options unless you want to pay enormous surcharges, a gigantic amount of miles, or both. I’ve repeatedly said over the years that mile redemption prices should be based on the rate in effect when you earned the miles. If you earned AA miles in 2017 then your redemption price should be at 2017 levels. JMTC
Earning! I can burn them so easily!
Seems like using points is a little harder to do now. Very easy to burn through points but obviously using them effectively is the tough part.