Key Points

• Letting points expire or transferring them to the wrong partner are two of the most common — and most expensive — mistakes points travelers make.
• Your travel credit card likely covers trip cancellations, lost bags, and rental cars, but only if you paid with that card and understand the rules before you need them.
• Booking directly through a bank portal instead of transferring to an airline or hotel partner can quietly cut your redemption value by 30 to 50 percent.

You've been collecting points for months. Maybe years. You've got a solid stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards sitting in your account and a trip to Europe or Japan taking shape in your head. And then something goes sideways.

Maybe you transferred points to the wrong airline partner. Maybe you realized too late your travel insurance only kicks in if you paid for the flight with your travel card. Maybe your 80,000-point balance just expired because you hadn't logged into the program in 18 months.

These aren't hypothetical scenarios. They happen to experienced travelers every day. And unlike a missed flight or a passport hiccup, most of these mistakes are completely invisible until it's too late to fix them.

This guide covers the 13 travel mistakes that specifically hurt points and miles travelers — the ones that cost real money, real redemption value, and sometimes real heartbreak. Every single one is preventable.

1. Letting Your Points Expire

This is the one that stings the most, because it's also the most avoidable. Most frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs have activity requirements to keep your balance alive. Delta SkyMiles are a notable exception (they don't expire), but programs like United MileagePlus, American AAdvantage, and Hilton Honors will zero out your balance after 18 to 24 months of account inactivity.

"Activity" is usually pretty loosely defined. Earning one mile, making one redemption, or even shopping through an airline's shopping portal typically resets the clock. Some programs count a credit card purchase as activity; others don't.

The fix is simple: set a calendar reminder every 12 months to log in and do something — anything — in each program you're actively building. A single purchase through an airline shopping portal, even a $5 purchase, resets most timers. You can learn more about how specific programs handle this in our guide on Do Marriott Bonvoy Points Expire? and Do Citi ThankYou Points Expire?.

2. Transferring Points Before Confirming Award Space

This is the #1 fatal mistake in award travel, and it claims victims every single week. Here's what happens: you find what looks like a great award flight, you transfer 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United MileagePlus to book it, and then you discover the award space is gone. Or it was never actually there.

Transfers between credit card programs and airline/hotel partners are almost always one-way and instant. You cannot reverse them. Once those points leave your Chase account, they're United miles forever — whether or not you ever find a flight to book with them.

The rule is non-negotiable: confirm award availability first, confirm it again, then transfer your points. Use a tool like Point.Me or Seats.Aero to search award availability across multiple programs before committing to a transfer. These tools show you real-time saver award space so you're not guessing.

3. Booking Through the Portal Instead of Transferring

Every major credit card rewards program lets you book travel directly through their online portal. It's convenient, it's fast, and for most people, it's leaving a lot of value on the table.

When you book through the Chase Travel portal, your points are worth 1.25 to 1.5 cents each, depending on your card. That's not bad. But when you transfer those same points to a partner like Hyatt, United, or Air France Flying Blue and find a sweet-spot redemption, your points can be worth 2, 3, or even 5 cents each.

A real example: 50,000 Chase points used through the portal might buy a $625 flight. Those same 50,000 points transferred to Air France Flying Blue could book a round-trip business class flight to Europe worth $3,000 or more during a Flying Blue Promo Rewards sale.

The portal isn't always wrong — it's great for last-minute bookings when award space is gone. But as your default? It's a quiet, expensive habit. Our guide on how to use Chase points to maximize travel value breaks down exactly when to use the portal and when to transfer.

4. Not Using Your Credit Card's Travel Protections

Your travel credit card is almost certainly carrying travel insurance you've never read. Trip cancellation coverage. Trip interruption coverage. Baggage delay reimbursement. Emergency evacuation. Lost luggage coverage. Rental car collision damage waiver.

This protection is genuinely valuable — but it comes with hard rules most cardholders don't know until they're filing a claim.

The biggest one: you typically have to pay for your trip with that card (or use rewards earned on that card) for coverage to apply. A Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder who booked flights on their Amex Gold card doesn't get CSR's trip cancellation protection on those flights. It seems obvious in hindsight, but it catches people off guard constantly.

Other common fine-print surprises:

• Baggage delay coverage often requires a delay of 6 to 12 hours before you can be reimbursed for essentials.
• Trip cancellation typically covers illness, death of a family member, and severe weather — not "I changed my mind" or even many work emergencies.
• Rental car CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) from your card is usually secondary coverage in the U.S. and primary internationally, which is an important distinction when you're deciding whether to buy the rental agency's coverage.

Take 20 minutes to read your card's benefits guide before your next trip. It will change how you book. Our article on airline baggage loss coverage is a useful starting point for understanding what your card actually protects.

5. Paying Foreign Transaction Fees Because You Grabbed the Wrong Card

This one is just pure waste. A 3% foreign transaction fee on every overseas purchase adds up fast. On a $5,000 international trip, that's $150 gone for nothing. And plenty of travelers do it without realizing, because they packed their everyday cash-back card and left the no-foreign-transaction-fee travel card at home.

Almost every premium travel credit card waives foreign transaction fees. Almost none of the entry-level cash-back cards do. Before you leave the country, confirm which cards in your wallet charge them, and learn how to avoid foreign transaction fees entirely by putting the right card in your travel wallet.

6. Booking Hotels or Flights Through Third-Party Sites

Booking through Expedia, Hotels.com, or similar platforms isn't inherently wrong. But doing so while you're building hotel or airline status is quietly destroying your progress.

When you book through a third-party OTA (Online Travel Agency), most hotel and airline programs either won't credit you with loyalty points at all, or they'll credit you at a severely reduced rate. Marriott Bonvoy, for example, does not credit points or elite nights for third-party bookings. Neither does World of Hyatt.

There's also a practical issue: hotels tend to treat OTA bookings as lower priority. You're less likely to get room upgrades, welcome amenity credits, and late checkout when the hotel sees your booking came through an intermediary rather than directly.

The math almost always favors booking direct, especially once you factor in the points you'd earn and the status credits toward elite qualification. If price is your concern, most hotel programs offer a best-rate guarantee that will match lower prices you find elsewhere.

7. Ignoring Award Booking Fees and Fuel Surcharges

Not all award redemptions are created equal. Some airlines pass enormous fuel surcharges onto award tickets even when you're "paying" with miles. British Airways Avios is the most famous example: a business class award from the U.S. to London can cost $700 or more in cash fees and surcharges on top of the miles themselves.

Before you get excited about an "award" ticket, look at the full out-of-pocket cost. Sometimes it's nothing. Sometimes it's a few dollars in airport taxes. And sometimes it's hundreds of dollars that changes whether the redemption makes sense at all.

The workaround: book partner flights on airlines that don't add fuel surcharges through their own programs. Booking Lufthansa business class through United MileagePlus or Air Canada Aeroplan, for instance, typically avoids the fuel surcharges you'd pay booking through Lufthansa's own program.

Seats.Aero and Roame Travel can help you compare which partner programs avoid those fees for the routes you're targeting.

8. Applying for the Wrong Card at the Wrong Time

The Chase 5/24 rule is probably the most important rule in credit card churning that beginners don't know about. Chase will not approve you for most of their cards if you've opened five or more personal credit cards from any bank in the past 24 months. It doesn't matter how good your credit is.

This matters because Chase issues some of the most valuable travel cards available — the Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, and Ink business cards among them. If you spend a year collecting cards from Citi and Capital One before you realize Chase has a 5/24 limit, you may have locked yourself out of the most lucrative signup bonuses in the market.

The strategic approach is to prioritize Chase cards first, then move on to programs without strict application rules. Our guide on what credit score you need for a travel credit card and our overview of whether Amex has a 5/24 rule give you a clearer picture of each issuer's unwritten rules.

9. Transferring to a Weaker Partner When a Better Option Exists

Most flexible points currencies — Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, Capital One Miles — transfer to a long list of airline and hotel partners. Not all of those partners are created equal.

Some partners are worth 1 cent per point or less when you redeem. Others regularly deliver 3 to 5 cents per point on premium cabin international flights. The difference on a single redemption can be thousands of dollars in equivalent value.

Before you transfer, do the homework. For Chase points, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Hyatt, and United tend to deliver the best value for most travelers. For Amex, ANA and Air Canada Aeroplan have historically offered some of the best business class redemptions. Transferring Amex points and transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards walk you through the partner landscape in detail.

10. Not Accounting for Minimum Spend Timing

Signup bonuses are the fastest way to accumulate a large points balance quickly. But they come with a catch: you typically need to spend a specific amount within 90 days of account opening to earn the bonus.

Missing that window by even a day means you forfeit the entire bonus. And given that welcome offers routinely range from 60,000 to 100,000+ points, worth $600 to $2,000 or more in travel, this is not a small mistake.

The fix: before applying for any new card, confirm you have enough natural spending (or planned large purchases) to hit the minimum within the timeframe. This is also why timing applications around a big upcoming expense — a home repair, a vacation, a tax bill you can pay with a card — can dramatically accelerate your points-earning.

11. Not Having Travel Insurance for High-Stakes or International Trips

Your credit card's travel protection is good. It isn't always enough. For longer international trips, adventure travel, trips to remote destinations, or any situation where a medical evacuation could be necessary, a standalone travel insurance policy is worth serious consideration.

Medical evacuation from a remote location can cost $50,000 to $200,000. Most credit card policies have caps and exclusions that leave significant gaps. Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) coverage — which lets you cancel and recover 50 to 75 percent of your trip cost for literally any reason — isn't available through any credit card program.

The cost of a comprehensive travel insurance policy for a two-week international trip typically runs $150 to $400 depending on trip cost, age, and destination. For many trips, that's a rounding error compared to the exposure you're carrying without it.

12. Redeeming Points for Cash Back or Gift Cards

This one is painful to watch. Points programs almost universally offer the option to redeem your hard-earned points for cash back, statement credits, or gift cards. The rates are terrible — typically 0.5 to 1 cent per point, compared to the 2 to 5 cents you can get from smart award redemptions.

Redeeming 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for $500 in cash back (at 1 cent per point) is technically fine. Using those same 50,000 points to transfer to Hyatt and book two or three nights at a Category 4 or 5 property worth $300 to $400 per night is dramatically better.

Cash redemptions make sense if you're carrying high-interest credit card debt or if you genuinely have no travel plans in the foreseeable future. For everyone else, cash back is the lowest-value exit for your points. It's worth understanding what Chase points are actually worth before you make that redemption.

13. Overlooking Status Benefits You're Already Entitled To

If you carry a premium travel card — a Chase Sapphire Reserve, an Amex Platinum, a Capital One Venture X — you likely have lounge access, travel credits, hotel status, and rental car perks you've never used. These are benefits you're paying for through your annual fee, and not using them is just leaving value behind.

The Amex Platinum, for example, provides Marriott Bonvoy Gold status and Hilton Honors Gold status as a cardholder benefit. That's complimentary upgrades, free breakfast at many Hilton properties, and bonus points on stays. Activating takes two minutes. Most cardholders never do it.

The same goes for Priority Pass lounge membership included with several premium cards. If you're sitting in a crowded terminal buying a $18 sandwich when you could be in a lounge with free food and a comfortable seat, that's a real and recurring cost.

Take an afternoon and read your card's current benefits guide. Not the guide from when you signed up — programs update their benefits, and what your card offers today may be different from what it offered two years ago.

The Bottom Line

The points and miles game isn't complicated, but it rewards people who pay attention to the details. Most of these 13 mistakes come down to the same root cause: assuming things will work out without verifying the rules in advance.

The good news is that every single one of them is avoidable with a little planning. Set expiration reminders. Confirm award space before transferring. Read your card's benefits guide. Know which partners give you the best value before you move points. Build these habits once, and you'll protect thousands of dollars in travel value for every trip you take.

If you're just getting started building your strategy, our guide on are travel credit cards worth it? is a solid place to begin. And if you're ready to go deeper on maximizing what you already have, Roame Travel and Point.Me are two of the best tools available for finding high-value award redemptions.

This article contains affiliate links. If you apply through our links, we may earn a commission at no cost to you, which helps us continue sharing points and miles strategies with the community.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can expired points ever be reinstated?

Sometimes, yes. Several programs allow you to reinstate expired miles for a fee — typically around $20 to $50 for reinstatement plus a small per-mile fee. United MileagePlus and American AAdvantage both offer reinstatement options. It's worth asking, but reinstatement is never guaranteed and always costs more than the calendar reminder that would have prevented the expiration.

What happens if I transfer points to the wrong airline partner?

In most cases, nothing — except that your points are now locked in that program indefinitely. A small number of programs allow point transfers back to the original currency, but most don't, and none do it for free. This is why confirming award availability before transferring is so critical.

Is it better to book award travel far in advance or last minute?

It depends on the type of travel. For international business and first class, booking 6 to 11 months out gives you the best shot at premium cabin award space, which tends to release early and disappear fast. For domestic economy, last-minute award space sometimes opens up as the departure date approaches. Neither strategy is universally better.

Do I need to pay for a flight entirely on my travel credit card to get trip protection?

For most card benefits, yes. The general rule is that you need to have paid for the trip (or a significant portion of it) using the card that carries the benefit. Check your specific card's benefits guide, because terms vary between issuers and even between cards from the same bank.

What's the fastest way to find the best award redemption for a specific route?

Use a multi-program search tool. Point.Me and Seats.Aero both aggregate award availability across multiple loyalty programs at once, letting you compare which program offers the best combination of points required and out-of-pocket fees for your specific route and dates.