[READER QUESTION] Too Many Points?
This question does not come up a lot, but there are times when we have more points than we can spend. This usually happens more often if you have a lot of business expenses that you get reimbursed for. So you rack up the points faster than you can use them because you do not have the opportunity to use them or whatever other reason.
I currently do not have this problem and certainly wish I did have this problem, because I would know exactly what to do with the points.
Let’s assume some of the top reasons are already off the table, such as:
- Saving a bunch for a rainy day
- Transfer the points to a more useful program that I want more points with
- Splurging on a vacation that I wouldn’t have normally taken
- Using them to redeem for items that I was planning to buy with cash, but can use points instead
Below are my top two uses of points that I cannot use on myself:
1) Spend it on friends and family
If I had an excess amount of points, I would definitely be using my points to help my family travel or redeem for gifts, which ever is a better use of the points. There is never a shortage of gifts that we can give to people that we care about. I’m sure we all have people close to us that we would love to take on a nice, relaxing vacation.
2) Donate to charity
When I donate to charity, I would probably gear the points towards a specific event. Like what I did with my Air Miles for the earthquake in the Philippines. I think I prefer knowing where my points went to instead of just donating to a general pool.
Conclusion: As you can see, there is definitely no shortage of ways that you can use your points. Even for people who are not interested in collecting points, at the very least, you can collect just to donate 100% of the points. At least the points can go to a good cause even if you do not use them yourself.
IMO the best excess points to hold is SPG because of their flexibility. The worst points to hold is probably the FFP points, because of the risk of devaluation.
Yes, I’m a pretty big fan of SPG too. The hard part is earning them. Wish there were more ways to earn Starpoints.
You can always fly EK or DL to earn more Starpoints, if you have Gold or Platinum Status. I wish SPG will give more points for pay stays, $1 for 5 points would be the best.
Yea, it’s too bad the earning ratios are pretty tough. So long as they do not keep raising the number of points for a reward night. Hopefully they can keep that reasonable if they do not increase the earning ratios.