Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy, shared strategies for consumers to maximize credit card rewards and navigate the current challenging travel landscape. He highlighted that despite high gas prices, airport chaos, airline failures, flight cancellations, and rising costs for hotels and car rentals, travelers can still find ways to save. Kelly's tips include utilizing shopping portals and booking last-minute travel to secure award availability.
Kelly emphasizes earning points on everyday expenses like rent and mortgage payments, and using "micro-redemptions" for services such as car rides. He also discussed how consumers can leverage credit card rewards to offset the rising cost of airfares, a trend he addressed on "The Claman Countdown."
For businesses, Kelly illustrates how The Points Guy company itself strategically uses credit cards to earn millions of points on significant spending categories like advertising and travel. For example, using the American Express Business Gold Card for online advertising, which earns 4x points, they can secure 600,000 American Express Membership Rewards points annually by maxing out the $150,000 spending cap in that category. This strategy allows them to effectively save $10,000, assuming an economy ticket costs $500, by sending an employee from London to New York 20 times.
Another example given is their use of the Chase Ink Business Preferred for additional advertising spend, earning 3x points on up to $150,000 per year, providing them with valuable Chase points transferable to partners like United and Hyatt. For airfare purchases, they use The Platinum Card from American Express (5x points) or Chase Ink Business Preferred (3x points) to earn an effective 6% to 10% rebate. This strategic points accumulation can fund expensive travel, such as a $10,000+ ANA first-class ticket for 120,000 miles round-trip by transferring Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic.
The Points Guy's September 2026 valuations show Bilt points as the most valuable transferable currency at $0.022 per point, followed by Chase Ultimate Rewards at $0.0205 and American Express Membership Rewards at $0.02. For hotels, Accor Live Limitless points are valued highest at $0.023, while World of Hyatt points stand at $0.0165. These valuations guide travelers on when to earn, redeem, or transfer rewards to achieve their travel goals.
