Frugal John’s Top 5 Tips for Making the Most of your Points & Miles – Tip #2

Posted on 22. Nov, 2010 by PointsAdvisor in Guest Bloggers, Use Points, Miles and Rewards

Frugal John is back again with another Monday morning tip about how to make the most of your loyalty program rewards. Today John is sharing his thoughts on inflation and rewards.

Here’s John’s second tip:

2. What goes up must come down.

In 1958, $2.70 would get you a “Wash & Wear” dress shirt from the Sears Christmas catalogue.  Today, $2.70 will get you a coffee.  From the inception of monetary systems, rulers and governments have been able and quite willing to devalue their currency when the need arose; as with cash, so too with your loyalty programs’ points/miles.  Whether because the cost of the underlying redemption award has increased or because an increasing liability of unused and unexpired points/miles has forced program operators to revalue their worth, over time, you’ll need more miles/points to redeem for a certain award than you would have needed today.

While there is value in saving your points/miles for that dream vacation, don’t forget that inflation will dip into your loyalty program savings too.  You’re not earning any interest on that loyalty program balance, so don’t be too stingy with it.

Was this tip useful? Have a tip of your own to share? Leave a comment below!

Until next time,

Frugal John

Tags: Frugal John, inflation and miles, miles, points, rewards, value of miles, value of points