When It Actually Makes Sense to Buy Points

While the cheapest way to acquire points is through credit card sign-up bonuses, it sometimes makes sense to buy miles and points directly from the airline or hotel programs. Since we frequently publish about buying points opportunities, I figure a holistic evaluation is useful, with a couple of factors to consider each time one arises.

Premium Flight & Hotel Redemptions

This is the first and most obvious case to make for buying points. Even after purchasing all the points outright, the effective cost of a business class flight or luxury hotel stay can remain surprisingly reasonable.

Example – Buy Aeroplan points

One example is flying Lufthansa first class. An Aeroplan redemption from Munich to Boston would cost 90,000 points in first class (and this price will remain even after June 1).

If you purchased during the most recent 90% bonus points sale, 90,000 Aeroplan points would cost $1,773 CAD. I’ll round up the taxes & fees associated with this redemption and say it’s right around $2,000 CAD.

Fly Lufthansa A380 in first class for 90,000 Aeroplan points

I won’t even bother comparing it to the cash price, since I assume most of us aren’t actually going to shell out $10,000+ for this flight. Furthermore, Lufthansa’s first class has limited award availability compared to buying a cash ticket and is only available close to departure.

But even taking all that into account, being able to fly Lufthansa first class on a transatlantic flight for $2,000 CAD (or even less, as in the example above) is objectively a deal. If you don’t want to sign up for multiple credit cards and juggle the minimum spending requirements, buying points is the fastest way to get there.

Example – Buy Hilton points

Hilton consistently offers sales multiple times a year where you can buy points for 0.5¢ USD each. Hilton sells points so cheaply that we almost never recommend transferring Amex Membership Rewards (MR) at the standard 1:1 ratio.

I value Amex MR for at least ~3X that value, since you’re effectively converting 1 MR to 0.5¢ USD by transferring to Hilton. Instead, you should save your MR for higher-value transfer partners like Flying Blue and buy Hilton points outright.

A Hilton property I’m planning to visit is Hermitage Bay, an all-villa, all-inclusive property in Antigua, part of Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH). Hilton’s addition of SLH hotels to its portfolio was a huge value-add, in my opinion.

Buy Hilton points instead of paying $3,440++ a night

After accounting for all taxes and fees, the per-night price is actually $4,378.55. Paying with points covers all the taxes and fees, so you’d achieve a 1.9 CPP by redeeming points. Thought of another way, 230,000 Hilton points would cost $1,150, so you’re achieving an incredible 73% discount if you simply buy the Hilton points required.

Pay $1,150 instead by buying Hilton points

Hilton also offers 5th night free when redeeming points, which amounts to a higher 79% discount in this scenario.

Top Up Account for Redemption

If you’ve located the perfect redemption, transferred in all your Amex MR, and are just a few thousand short, the easiest and fastest way is to buy some points, so you can book your trip.

Even if you buy a few thousand points at the regular price, your out-of-pocket cost for a premium cabin flight or luxury hotel stay will be quite low if you acquired the rest of the points for very little via credit card sign-up bonuses.

Earn and burn is the name of the game, so if you have 65,000 Aeroplan points and are 5,000 points short of booking a transatlantic business class flight, buying the points today and booking the flight is most likely preferable to signing up for a new credit card, hitting the minimum spend, and then paying a higher 75,000 Aeroplan points since Aeroplan changed the award chart on June 1.

Keep in mind that topping up your account can involve buying the points outright or purchasing them as part of your redemption. Asia Miles lets you buy miles after you have 70% of the required miles, at a rate of $60 USD per 2,000 miles, and Aeroplan offers multiple points + cash options on the final payment screen.

If you’re short on points, redeem 72,000 points + $427.10 instead

For that Lufthansa first class flight, you can choose to redeem only 72,000 points and pay $427.10 in the cash portion. Choosing this option effectively lets you buy Aeroplan points at 1.93¢ each, which is not only cheaper than buying points directly at 1.97¢ (with the current 90% bonus) but also doesn’t require a minimum purchase of 70,000 points.

Buy Points That are Hard to Earn

The last scenario I’d say it’s worth buying points for is points currencies that are very useful, but difficult to acquire in Canada. Two immediately come to mind: Alaska Atmos Rewards and American Airlines AAdvantage.

The latter can be earned by RBC Avion, but it’s definitely worth buying some to top up your account if needed for an Etihad first class redemption.

There’s no easy way to earn Atmos Rewards from Canada, so buying them makes a lot of sense. At a 100% bonus, Atmos can be purchased for 1.88 CPP:

• Condor business class from North America to Europe, one-way for 45k points (anywhere beyond Frankfurt)
• Starlux business class from North America to Asia, one-way for 75k points one-way in business class
• Fiji Airways and Qantas business class from North America to Australia, one-way for 85k
• Porter Airlines short-haul in North America between 4,500 and 7,500 points one-way in economy (depending on flight distance)
  • 4,500 points for Ottawa–New York (as an example) for $84.60
  • 7,500 points for Toronto–Fort Lauderdale (as an example)

Redeeming 10,000 points for Porter Reserve is a steal

In the above example, it would cost $188 to buy the 10,000 points needed to fly Porter Reserve, which is a fantastic deal.

For long-haul flights, you can judge the redemption based on the fact that 75,000 Atmos points would cost $1,410. So while redeeming for Starlux is not a steal, it is quite a reasonable price, and Atmos Rewards is the only currency you can redeem for Starlux.

Don’t Buy Points Speculatively

All the examples provided are circumstances in which it makes sense to buy points, but evaluate your personal travel goals before buying, and never buy points speculatively.

Points do devalue, so only buy with a clear use case in mind and a timeline for redemption. The ideal scenario is finding an award space that coincides with a points sale, so you’re getting the best possible price and also redeeming them right away.

It’s rare that things will line up that way, so my recommendation is to have 1-3 redemptions in mind for which you plan to use the points, all within the next 6-8 months. Further out than that, and you risk the program devaluing, and it’s important to have multiple use cases in mind in case there’s no award space on your ideal flight.

You should run actual searches for your planned redemptions (on other dates if yours isn’t available) to see what award availability looks like and gauge your chances of success when it comes time to actually redeem.

For example, I’d feel okay buying Air France KLM Flying Blue miles since I plan to make at least one of these redemptions in the next 6-8 months:

• 55,000 miles for Mexico City (MEX)–Buenos Aires (EZE) on Aeromexico business class
• 42,000 miles for Tashkent (TAS)–Shanghai (PVG) on China Eastern business class
• 71,000 miles for New York (JFK)–Dakar (DSS) on Delta Air Lines business class

Redeem 41,000 Flying Blue miles for Tashkent–Shanghai on China Eastern business class

But those are my personal travel plans, so evaluate your own before buying points.

Takeaway

Buying points is rarely the best way to earn them, but it absolutely can make sense in the right scenarios. The strongest use cases are premium cabin flights and luxury hotel stays, topping up an account for an immediate redemption, or buying hard-to-earn currencies like Alaska Atmos Rewards. In many cases, even after purchasing the points outright, the effective cost of the redemption can still represent excellent value compared to paying cash.

That said, buying points only works when you already have a concrete redemption plan. Points constantly devalue, award availability changes, and speculative purchases can quickly backfire. Rather than stockpiling huge balances, it’s generally better to buy points with a few realistic redemption ideas in mind and a reasonably short timeline for actually using them.

As another use case, buying a small number of points can also be worthwhile simply to extend the validity of your existing balance and prevent miles from expiring in moments of desperation.