Reward points explained
How air miles and reward points work from scratch, how you earn them without flying much and whether they’re worth it for a family.
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A well-planned trip on a modest budget can be every bit as memorable as an expensive one. The trick is knowing where your money makes the biggest difference, and where you can save without missing out.
By now you’ll almost certainly have a rough budget in mind. Choosing a destination naturally brings cost into focus, but we deliberately leave the budget until after we’ve explored where and when we want to travel, not before. It’s far more exciting to choose the trip first and then work out how to make it possible.
This is Stage 5 of our Platinum Travel Planning Roadmap. It covers how much to spend, where it matters most and how to save for it, including the reward points that have made such a difference to our long haul flights over the years.
Quick answer: Work out the full cost of the trip, including a daily budget for food and activities and a contingency, then divide it by the months you have left and save that amount into a separate pot. Set the daily experience budget before you choose accommodation, travel outside the school holidays if you can, and collect reward points on spending you already do.
We firmly believe that budget alone shouldn’t decide the quality of a holiday. If you start with a number, you rule out places before you’ve thought about them, and you tend to plan the cheapest version of every trip rather than the best version you can afford.
Starting with the who, the what, the when and the where gives you a clear picture of the trip you actually want. Then the budget becomes a question of how to make it happen. Sometimes the answer is simple. Sometimes it means saving for longer, travelling in a cheaper month or changing one part of the plan.
That said, certain destinations and travel styles do demand compromises if costs need to stay under control. A road trip has costs a city break doesn’t, and somewhere like Australia or Scandinavia will stretch a budget faster than southern Europe. Knowing that early saves disappointment later.
A holiday budget is more than the flights and the hotel. These are the lines we put in every plan.
One rule we always apply is to set the daily experience budget before you choose accommodation. It’s better to stay in a three-star hotel and have a five-star experience than to be hotel-poor and unable to afford the things you went for. On a road trip, add the hidden costs too, the tolls, the parking and what we call the snack fund, because they add up quickly.
While you’re away, keep a quick note of what you spend each day. Budget creep rarely comes from one big purchase. It’s the coffees, the taxis and the extra dinners out that quietly wreck a long trip.
The key is understanding where your money has the biggest impact, and where you can save without taking anything away from the experience. We think of it as value travel, the sweet spot between a shoestring and unnecessary luxury.
Spend on the things the trip is actually for. If it’s a bucket list trip, that’s the experience you’ll talk about for years. If it’s a family week by the sea, it might be a bigger villa with room for everyone. We’d rather go without a fancy hotel than miss the one thing that made the trip worth taking.
Save on the things you won’t remember. If you’re out exploring all day, you don’t need a luxury room to sleep in. Self-contained accommodation lets you cook a few meals in, which avoids the budget creep that can wreck a long trip, especially somewhere eating out is expensive. With Tom’s nut allergy it’s often the safer choice anyway.
Some of the best days cost almost nothing. A self-guided walking tour shows you a city at your own pace, many museums don’t charge for entry, and a coastal path is free to walk. Tom’s guide to free things to do in Adelaide shows how much you can fill a city with without spending.
Timing matters as much as anything. The same trip can cost far less a week outside the school holidays, which is why our when to go on holiday guide covers the cheaper months and the shoulder season.
Saving for a trip is much easier when it has a name and a date. These are the habits that have worked for us.
A credit card only helps if you clear it every month. If you don’t, the interest wipes out any saving you were making. Our guide to travelling with friends has more on agreeing a group budget without falling out.
Collecting Avios and hotel reward points over the years has been a real game changer for our long haul flights. It’s a long game, and the flights are never quite free, because you still pay the taxes and charges. But for a family that travels a lot, it has been worth every bit of the effort.
If you’re new to it, start with the reward points hub, then work through the guides in order.
How air miles and reward points work from scratch, how you earn them without flying much and whether they’re worth it for a family.
How to pick an airline scheme, commit to it and make it pay, starting with the airports closest to you.
The scheme we use, how tier points and Avios work, and every way we collect and spend them as a household.
My husband Richard’s step by step guide to booking a reward flight, screen by screen, from the search to the seats.
How the two-for-one flight voucher works, how to use it with Avios and why it has done most of the heavy lifting for our family.
How we joined a hotel scheme almost by accident, what the elite levels give you and whether they’re worth chasing.
Work out the full cost of the trip, divide it by the months you have left and move that amount into a separate pot each payday. Travel outside the school holidays if you can, book early with free cancellation, and collect reward points on spending you already do, clearing any credit card in full every month.
Travel to and from your destination, every night of accommodation, a daily budget for food, activities and local transport, insurance, transfers, car hire and parking, and a contingency of around ten per cent. Road trips should also allow for fuel, tolls and parking.
It depends on the destination, so work it out for each trip. Look at what a typical meal, a coffee and a local bus or train cost there, add the activities you've chosen, and multiply by the number of days. Set this daily budget before you book accommodation, so the experiences are covered first.
Travel outside peak season, choose self-catering so you can cook some meals, fill your days with free things like walks, parks and free museums, and use reward points for the flights. A shorter trip done well is often better value than a longer one on a tight budget.
They can be, if you commit to one scheme, collect on everyday spending and are patient. It takes time to build up enough points for a long haul flight, and you still pay taxes and charges, but over the years they've made a real difference to the cost of our family's long haul flights.
The trips we remember most weren't the most expensive ones. They were the ones where the money went on the right things, and nobody spent the week worrying about what it was all costing.
Set the daily experience budget first, save a little every month and let reward points help with the flights over time. Then you're ready for Stage 6 of the Roadmap, booking the accommodation and activities.
Happy saving, and happy planning.