WHAT WE DO WITH LOYALTY POINTS BEFORE THEY EXPIRE
One spreadsheet, one monthly check, one simple rule
We check our point balances once a month. Not every day, not in an app — we open a spreadsheet, look at what we have across every program, and flag anything that looks like it might be at risk. That's the whole system.
Most programs don't expire points on a fixed date. They expire them after a period of inactivity — no purchase, no transfer, no stay. Knowing which programs work that way and which ones have a hard cutoff regardless of activity is the only thing worth tracking. Once we knew that, the monthly check stopped feeling like a chore and started feeling like maintenance.
When something is close to expiring, we don't go looking for the best possible use. We look at what's already on the calendar and see if the points fit. A hotel we've already committed to. A flight we've already decided to take. We booked a flight from Boston to Paris — 70,200 points, $969 cash value, paid $11.20. That flight was already happening. The points fit. Done.
If nothing on the calendar fits, we take a statement credit. Getting less than full value on points we were about to lose is still better than losing them.
We use points for hotels more often than flights. Hotel awards are simpler — the cash value of a night is easy to look up, the booking is easy to cancel, and the math is usually clean. Bologna cost us $32.90. Seattle cost us nothing out of pocket. Neither required a complicated transfer strategy. The points were there, the stays were already planned, and we used them.
Flights are harder. The best redemptions usually involve transferring to an airline partner and finding availability on a specific route on a specific date. When it works, it works well. When it doesn't, points sit for months waiting for the right situation — and that's when they expire.
Small balances get turned into statement credits. We had cash back sitting in an account from everyday spending and used it to cover a hotel night in Lyon we were already taking. Unremarkable transaction. That's the point.
The rule hasn't changed: use points for something already planned, or move them before the window closes.
We used the same approach during our week in Barcelona.
Scott & Liza
