Points & Miles Strategies That Can Save You Thousands on Travel

[typing] Let's talk about those three main types of credit card points.

There are more of them than there are types of outfits on this podcast in the last two episodes.

[laughs]

Um, those three types are first, first one is, uh, bank transferable points.

These are often called flexible points or bank points.

These are points that are associated with a, a bank that has the bank's name in them and usually a few extra words.

So that's, that's the first type.

Second one, co-branded airline or hotel points.

This is maybe the most common ones that many people are, are aware of.

This is like American Airlines points, Hyatt points.

If it has the name of an airline or hotel in it, that's one of these airline or hotel programs.

Last but not least, but actually when we get to it, maybe least, I'll make that case later, cash back or fixed value points.

These are generally types of points that you can redeem for statement credits, actual cash back, gift cards, et cetera.

Often not tied to travel use, often have very straightforward, predictable values.

Simple, easy to use, generally lower value.

Each type does have its own advantages and limitations, so knowing which one to focus on, you know, is gonna vary per person.

There's gonna be some directional stuff to know.

Um, but, you know, think about these different types of points like, like different tools in a toolbox.

You know, some of them are multipurpose, can do many different things, Swiss Army knife type things.

Some are very specialized and do one thing really, really well, uh, and some are just kind of simple and reliable.

So let's, uh, let's break that down.

So first, uh, I'll, I'll toss it over to Emily here first to give us a high-level overview of unnamed, generic, non-branded-

[laughs]

... bank transferable point program.

[laughs]