5 tips for using travel rewards for summer vacation | CNN Underscored

According to Kayak — a popular online travel agency — the cost of summer travel is down this year. Here in the US, the average cost of a domestic flight is lower by 13% when compared to last summer — but that doesn’t mean summer travel is cheap. Kayak’s summer travel study shows the average US domestic airfare is still a whopping $455.

But you don’t have to pay inflated summer travel prices to take a well-deserved vacation this summer. Instead, leveraging travel rewards can help you pay less for your next trip by redeeming points and miles for airfare and hotel stays.

Here are a few tips for earning and redeeming travel rewards points and miles for your summer vacation. You’ll learn the best travel credit cards to earn with, how to efficiently redeem your rewards and tips for finding award flights and hotel stays.

In order to use travel rewards for free travel, you need to earn them first. If you need a boost to get your travel rewards accounts where you want them to be, consider adding a new credit card to your wallet.

Many of the best travel credit cards come with welcome bonuses that will help you rack up travel rewards quickly. Right now, there are a handful of credit cards offer bonuses that are worth $1,000+ in travel if you can meet the applicable minimum spending requirement.

For example, the popular Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a good option to consider adding to your wallet. Currently, you can earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases within three months of opening your account.

Frequent flyer website The Points Guy values Chase Ultimate Rewards® points at 2.05 cents apiece, meaning those 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points are worth $1,500+ when redeemed for maximum value by leveraging Chase’s various transfer partners.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a card with premium travel perks, The Platinum Card® from American Express could be a good option despite its $695 annual fee (see rates and fees). This card offers a welcome bonus of 80,000 American Express Membership Rewards® points after spending $8,000 within the first six months of account opening.

If you were to redeem those points for maximum value, you could get $1,600+ in value toward your next vacation by transferring to the program’s hotel and airline partners. Plus, the card includes airport lounge access, monthly Uber Cash credits and more.

By accumulating rewards quickly via a welcome bonus, you can top up your accounts and use them toward free travel as you plan your well-deserved summer vacation. Check out our article on the best credit card welcome bonuses for more inspiration.

However, it’s not just any travel rewards you should aim to earn. Specifically, it can help to focus on earning flexible rewards. After all, flexible rewards — like Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Capital One miles — are more versatile than if you were to earn rewards in a single airline or hotel loyalty program.

The benefit of flexible rewards is the fact that they can be redeemed with any number of airline and hotel partners. Each of the flexible currencies has its own portfolio of airline and hotel transfer partners. These cards also let members redeem through their own travel portals at a fixed value.

For example, you can redeem Amex Membership Rewards points through the American Express Travel portal, but they can also be transferred to Amex’s airline and hotel partners. The credit card issuer has 20 airline and hotel transfer partners, including Delta SkyMiles, British Airways Executive Club, JetBlue TrueBlue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors and others.

Transferring points to an airline or hotel transfer partner means you can take advantage of different “sweet spot” redemptions within each partner program. For example, you can transfer Amex, Bilt, Chase and Capital One points to British Airways Executive Club to book short-haul American and Alaska flights for under 10,000 points each way.

It’s this flexibility that gives transferable credit card rewards so much value and flexibility. Unlike airline- or hotel-specific credit cards, these let you book flights and hotel stays that work best for your travel plans.

If you’re struggling to earn enough rewards for your next trip, you can also get your spouse involved in earning toward that summer vacation.

You have two options for doing this. The first is by adding your partner as an authorized user on your rewards credit card. This lets them charge purchases to your credit card account, helping you earn rewards in the process.

Alternatively, your spouse can earn their own credit card welcome bonuses. This could be a great opportunity for your household to earn more points quickly to redeem for that summer getaway. Plus, this lets the two of you double-up on some of the best welcome offers as you can each open your own accounts and earn the bonus.

If you decide to each open your own travel rewards credit cards, you may be able to combine points across your respective accounts. For example, Citi ThankYou Rewards, let you share points with another member who has a Citi ThankYou card for free. You can share up to 100,000 Citi ThankYou points with other members per year. Likewise, Chase lets you transfer Ultimate Rewards points between accounts in the same household.

Check to see if your preferred program allows you to share points with another member, and pay special attention to any applicable terms and conditions that may restrict your rewards movement.

If you want to maximize your travel rewards, then flexibility with your travel dates, your destination and even the type of trip you take is key.

If you insist on flying to one specific airport or staying in a designated hotel on fixed dates that cannot change, you’re likely not going to get good value from your rewards — and you could end up paying more out of pocket.

Instead, keep an open mind when it comes to your plans and be willing to think outside the box when it comes to where and when you’re looking to travel this summer. If you want to book a summer beach vacation, compare prices for hotels and resorts abroad alongside vacation rentals closer to home.

Many airlines and hotel chains offer a calendar search function that lets you see nightly points prices for every day in a given month. If you’re flexible, you can use this function to plan your trip around the cheapest award nights.

Finally, see if you can utilize loyalty programs with fixed award charts. Many loyalty programs have adopted dynamic and variable pricing models. This often means you’ll pay more points and miles to book flights when cash fares are high.

However, there are still some loyalty programs that use fixed award charts, which means that you know what to expect when you go to redeem your travel rewards. By utilizing fixed reward redemptions, you can set a goal and know how many points you’ll need in time to book for summer.

So, which loyalty programs still have fixed reward pricing? For starters, the World of Hyatt hotel loyalty program still has an award chart with free nights that start at just 3,500 points. That said, the exact cost will vary depending on if you’re planning to stay on standard, peak or off-peak dates. Some of the best-value ways to use World of Hyatt points include reward stays at all-inclusive resorts and 5-star luxury resorts.

Likewise, Avianca LifeMiles still publishes an award chart for the majority of its award tickets, including flights operated by partner airlines like United Airlines, Lufthansa and others. Its award chart is split up by region, so a flight from the US to Western Europe will cost the same regardless of when you fly.

Other airline loyalty programs that still publish an award chart include ANA Mileage Club, British Airways Executive Club and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, among others.

If you don’t have travel rewards in these programs, don’t worry. Plenty of them are transfer partners of the flexible reward currencies, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards, so you can transfer your points into the applicable airline or hotel currencies.

Leveraging travel credit cards and loyalty programs can make your summer vacation a lot more affordable. Most travelers should focus on earning flexible rewards points that can be transferred to different airline and hotel loyalty programs, as these will give you the most options when planning travel.

Then, be as flexible as you can with your travel plans, earn a credit card welcome bonus or two and you’ll be on your way to your dream destination in no time, all while beating high summer travel prices.

Click here for rates and fees of the American Express Platinum card.

Looking for a travel credit card? Find out which cards CNN Underscored Money chose as the best travel credit cards currently available.