Beginner's guide to loyalty programs

In December 2015, my colleagues sort of annointed me as the resident expert on points and miles in the organisation I work for. Now I'm not at all claiming that I am such an expert, but this does goes to demonstrate the old saying that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!

However, what was intriguing - to the point of shocking - was that there were way too many people who (a) used cash instead of credit cards, (b) were spending credit card reward points on things like hand-held vacuum cleaners and power banks, and (c) didn't realise the redemption power of hotel and airline loyalty programs. Heck, some of them hadn't even heard of frequent flyer programs. And this, in an organisation where about 7-8% of revenue is spent on travel and hotel stays. Time to change all that!


Which got me thinking - wouldn't there be more such people across the broader landscape, who could put their spends, travel and hotel stays to better use? Like earning rewards points that end up paying for further travel and stays, for virtually zero cash (or close to that)?

Lunch at the Hilton Chennai can be a 3-hour marathon that doesn't tire you out!

And so I'm starting a Beginner's guide series. I'll start with overall basics in this post, and move to hotel loyalty programs, credit card programs and airline loyalty programs in future posts. In a sense, this series has already started with JP miles 101.

To a beginner, the points and miles hobby can appear quite complicated, possibly even confounding. The amount of information that's there can be overwhelming, and therefore hard to absorb and make complete sense of.

At the same time, there's no point talking about mileage runs, mattress runs, complex award bookings, partner program transfers, etc, if one is starting out in the points and miles hobby space. Also, it shouldn't get to a point where one's heart is bigger than the stomach - that would probably result in really silly things (I'll share examples of things of this nature that I've done, in future posts).

So if there's one piece of advice I could give, it would be this: 

It is a hobby, so take it seriously enough. But not too seriously.


The very beginning is a great place to start! That means,
  • sign up for loyalty program accounts (start with the ones associated with the cards, airlines, and hotels you use most often, moving on to infrequent use programs later).
  • keep track of your program info and login credentials (Awardwallet is a great tool for this),
  • if required, create a separate email ID that you can use exclusively for this hobby,
  • read up (and make notes, if you have to) about the key aspects of each program - the basics of earning and spending your rewards...the fine print can come later
  • have a goal of how you'd like to spend the rewards you've earned - often, this can provide the right amount of spur and incentive to staying sufficiently engaged in the hobby, and to think points and miles
  • read travel blogs. BoardingArea is a great place for international content, while Live From a Lounge and our blog here provide more of an Indian orientation (that is important because the Indian market for loyalty programs operates a little differently), and
  • finally, ask questions. Most bloggers welcome questions, comments and positive challenges to their viewpoints.

We do hope you like this series.

Feel free to write in, and we will consider your comments / inputs in future posts. You can always email us, contact us on the blog or simply comment on any of our posts.
Happy travels, and here's to more points, more miles and more memories!



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