Great question! There are two ways to use your credit card points to book flights.
One way is to transfer your credit card points to an airline loyalty program and then book your flights directly with that program. You can often get incredible value when transferring points to an airline program, but unfortunately only a limited number of flights can be booked this way. The point.me self-serve tool allows you to quickly see all of these options and access step-by-step guidance on how to book. Learn more about points transfer here.
You can easily identify opportunities to transfer your points when you spot booking options with this icon.
The second way to redeem is to use points as cash. Most credit card issuers allow their cardholders to effectively redeem their points as “cash” toward the cost of travel on a dedicated travel portal. This allows for easy travel redemptions, as the points required are tied to the cash price of the airline ticket. The great news about this option is that just about any flight you can pay for with money can also be booked with points.
The point.me self-serve tool now identifies opportunities to use your points as cash with this icon.
At this time, you can use points as cash with the following credit card issuers.
American Express Membership Rewards at amextravel.com
Bilt points at biltrewards.com
Capital One points at capitalonetravel.com
Chase Ultimate Rewards at ultimaterewards.com
Citi ThankYou points at thankyou.com
Each of these banks place a different value on their points when it comes to these redemptions, and in some cases it can vary by the type of credit card you have as well:
American Express (United States): 1 cent per point*
Bilt Rewards: 1 cent per point
Capital One: 1 cent per point
Chase Ultimate Rewards: 1 cent per point**
Citi ThankYou (United States): 1 cent per point
*Business Gold, Business Platinum, Business Centurion cardholders can receive a 25-50% rebate for the total amount of points that are redeemed via American Express Travel, terms and conditions apply. You can learn more about it [link].
** Chase Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred cardholders receive a 1.25 cent per point value via Chase Travel, while Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders receive a 1.5 cent per point value via Chase Travel.