{"id":349,"date":"2021-12-27T12:41:13","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T20:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/?p=349"},"modified":"2021-12-27T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T20:41:15","slug":"i-am-missing-something-how-does-someone-have-3x-more-points-than-they-can-use-for-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/2021\/12\/27\/i-am-missing-something-how-does-someone-have-3x-more-points-than-they-can-use-for-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"I am missing something: How does someone have 3x more “points” than they can use for travel?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three times as many trips! Who wouldn\u2019t want that? Then, reality set in. My life isn\u2019t set up for three times as much travel. Between work, personal commitments and trying to enjoy the life I\u2019ve built back home, spending months abroad isn\u2019t realistic.<\/p>

Given those reality checks, my too-high points balance could fund two years of travel at my normal burn rate, maybe more.<\/strong> It\u2019s normal (and healthy) to save up for a points redemption or two, but it isn\u2019t usually a good idea to have more miles than you can spend in the foreseeable future. A sizable balance means a potential devaluation could hit you hard and it\u2019s also a sign that maybe you haven\u2019t selected the right type of rewards for your needs. The best plan of attack is always exactly how I started: earn and burn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Source: I accidentally became a points hoarder \u2014 here\u2019s what I\u2019m doing about it<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know much about collecting points as I have done little traveling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a bunch of points with Delta because I had planned to start traveling in 2020, booked several trips, and then everything was canceled. The costs were refunded in “points”, many of which have to be used by June of 2022. I could lose $1,000 in lost refunds if Delta does not extend that deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At my age, and following the advice of “experts”, I have not been traveling. It remains unclear if this advice will change in the next six months. I have no idea what to do except complain to Delta and ask that they extend the deadline – after all, U.S. airlines received a $54 billion gift from taxpayers in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do people accumulate vast hordes of points, enough to cover their frequent travels over two years? I have no idea and will need to look into that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched a Youtube video where a travel vlogger says something about her family’s flight from Europe to the U.S. was canceled and they insisted on an EU regulation that meant they got paid something like 4X more than the original cost – for the entire family – enough to fund an entire future trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is mysterious to me. I see others claiming they have so many credit card points they travel for free all the time. Really? Somewhere, somehow, someone has to make some money in all this to pay for the travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call my mystified. At some point, I will look into this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hmmmm…. many experienced travelers boast of traveling for free due to have many points and other promotions. I do not yet understand how this works, or if they are exaggerating. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-background","category-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}