Loyalty Points Aren’t Worth What They Used to Be
As points programs become more popular, they’re also getting less generous.
Illustration: Simone Noronha for Bloomberg
Two decades ago, Nick Ewen was flying around once a month from his home in Las Vegas to see his girlfriend, who was at graduate school in Florida. This was an expensive habit for two people at the start of their careers, but there was a solution: points. “Miles were a great way to afford it,” he says.
Ewen describes this period as his introduction to “the game” of collecting and earning as many loyalty points as possible. He currently has 25 open and active credit cards, each picked for its unique suite of rewards. He has used points to travel the world for free, including flying first class on Cathay Pacific to Bali. He knows of a way to pick up Delta points at Starbucks.