96. End the Year Like a Points Pro: Your Step-by-Step Points Review Guide

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. As another calendar year comes to a close, I have a tradition of looking back at the year and taking stock of my full year end points, including how many points I earned, how many points I used to book travel, and what monetary value I got from my points during that time. 

Do you do the same thing? I hope you do because it can be very enlightening, useful and even a bit surprising to take a look back at an entire year of points earning and redeeming. In fact, if you're a longtime listener of the podcast, you'll remember that in January of 2024, I sat down with a good friend of mine, Kelly, and we did a recap of our entire points earning and points redeeming for the 2023 calendar year. 

I'm going to continue that tradition on the podcast next week when I bring back the points earning and redeeming year-end review series, this time with guest Dr. Sujatha Murali. We're going to do a deep dive into exactly how many points we earned in 2024, how we earned them, and what we use them for.

But before we kick off the new year with our look back to 2024, I want to invite you all to do your own points year-end review. For the rest of today's episode, I want to talk about why you might consider doing a points year-end review for yourself and explain what to do to put together your own year-end points review. So let's start with the why.

There are three main reasons why I think doing a year end points review is worthwhile. Number one, it helps you evaluate. Most of us are living very busy lives and even those of us who consider ourselves irrationally enthusiastic about points probably aren't spending that much time on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis, really taking stock of the details of our points earning or redeeming.

Doing a year-end review brings all of the little details of the last year into a big picture and helps you evaluate what you did well around points earning and redeeming this year. What you could do better in the future and whether your approach to getting and using rewards cards helped you reach your travel goals this year. 

Second, doing a year end points review is worthwhile because data drives decisions. It is very hard to know what to keep doing, what to stop doing and what to start doing when it comes to earning and using points if you don't know what worked last year and what didn't. 

Doing a year end points review will tell you concrete data like how many points you earned overall, how many points in specific points currencies you earned, what percentage of your points came from welcome bonuses, leveraging credit card bonus categories for your organic spend or other points earning strategies like online shopping portals, referral bonuses or card specific offers. 

Knowing how many or how few points you earned and how you earned them will help you make decisions for what new cards you might want to apply for in 2025, how you want to use your existing rewards cards better or even highlight an important points revenue stream that you didn't even realize was making a big impact on your points balances. 

Knowing how many points you used to book travel this year and how well you used them can be equally important in shaping your decisions for the upcoming year end terms of what points currencies you preferentially want to focus on earning and helping you predict how many points you might need for upcoming trips based on how much value you tend to get from your points.

Finally, the third reason I think it's worthwhile to do a year end points review is because it's fun. It can be so easy in this hobby to get really focused on the logistics of keeping track of your rewards cards or getting stuck in the depressing doldrums between trips just waiting for your next big points vacation. 

Doing a year-end review can be a great way to remind yourself of all of your points successes this year including remembering fantastic welcome bonus offers you earned, hitting a mini points goldmine through shopping portal payouts, or putting your points to work booking a dream award trip. Doing a year end points review is a great reminder of how far you've come earning and using points, whether you consider yourself a beginner in this hobby or you have a bit more experience under your belt. 

So now that we've covered the why for doing a year end points review you might be wondering exactly how to do your own review or what to look for to help you put together your own annual points review, and I want to share with you my process for looking back at the year and what information I gather to build my points review. Please feel free to use as much or as little of this process for yourself.

As you listen to how I construct a year end points review, take note of what aspects you think would be helpful for your own review and ignore anything you don't think would be that impactful for you. So my annual points review involves taking a look back at my two main points activities this entire year. First my points earning, and second my points redeeming.

So let's start with reviewing your year end points earning. The main pieces of information that I want to take away by the end of this exercise are how many points did I earn and how did I earn them. Here is my step by step process for evaluating my points earning for the year.

First I write down each major points ecosystem that I have rewards credit cards in, starting with the transferable points currencies and then I add in any hotel specific or airline specific points credit cards that I have. I do this because it's hard to know how many points total you've earned over an entire year if you don't know how many points you've earned in the various points currencies that you collect. 

After being in this hobby for about 10 years here is what my list of major points ecosystems that I track looks like: Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One, American Airlines, United Airlines, Hyatt, and Lufthansa Miles & More. Now your list might look shorter than mine but whether you collect just one points currency or also have your hands in several you're going to be doing the same thing for each points currency next. 

Starting with the transferable points currencies I log into my credit card accounts online, and I jot down this information: the total number of points earned from that currency this calendar year. So some issuers like Amex will track this for you across multiple different credit cards and make this really easy for you to find in your account online. For other issuers, like Chase, you'll probably have to look at your monthly credit card statements for each rewards card that you hold and add up your total points earned month to month.

So let's say that you have three Chase points earning credit cards. Go through your monthly statements for card number one and add up all the points that you earned from that card this year. Then do the same thing for card number two and card number three. Add those together, and you have your total Chase points earning for the year. 

When I'm reviewing my monthly credit card statements I also like to take note of how many points I earned from new card welcome bonuses, how many points I earned from credit card referral bonuses if any, and how many points I earned from card specific offers in that specific points currency. 

Now each of these types of points earnings should be fairly clearly labeled on your monthly credit card statements. So you'll be able to find these as you scan each month's credit card statement. I'm going to explain how taking note of these different categories of points earning will come into play in a later step of this process.

But while I'm doing this, I also like to take note of which new rewards credit cards I opened during this calendar year. So if you don't track this information separately, again, it's pretty easy to tell which cards are new this year just by looking back at your monthly bank statements.

Now once I have the data for each points currency type that I earn, here is how I put it all together. Again I'm just going to start with Chase as an example. The first thing that I do is add up the total amount of Chase points I earned over the entire year. So let's just pretend that I earned 400,000 Chase points total. 

Next for that specific points currency I like to break down that total number of points earned into these main points earning methods. Number one, new card welcome bonuses. Number two, points earned from referral bonuses. Number three, points earned from online shopping portal associated with that points currency. Number four, points earned from card specific offers associated with that points currency. Number 5, points or miles that I outright purchased usually during a points promotion or sale. 

The transferable points currencies like Amex or Capital One don't offer outright points for sale, but many airline and hotel programs do sell points and miles, and there are specific ones that I like to consider purchasing every single year. 

So I repeat this process for each major points currency that I hold. What this allows me to do is to see not only how many total points in each specific currency I earned but it also gives me a snapshot of the points earning methods that make the biggest impact within each points currency. 

So you can do this whatever way is most useful for you but I like to break down my points earning by percentages. Let's say that I earned 400,000 total Chase points this year, and that total was made up of 90,000 points from new card welcome bonuses, 40,000 points from referral bonuses, and no points from online shopping or card specific offers. That means that about 23% of my total Chase points came from new card welcome bonuses, about 10% of the total Chase points came from referral bonuses, and 67% of the total Chase points came from organic spend on rewards cards. Now I do this evaluation for each one of my major points currencies again one by one. 

Once I have these numbers for each individual points currency it's really easy to add them all up together to get a total number of points earned for the year as well as the breakdown of the most impactful points earning methods for that year.

In this process of evaluating my points earning for the year usually takes me a couple of hours, but it could take you a lot less time depending on how many rewards credit cards you hold across how many different points ecosystems. 

Even if it takes a little while to work through, evaluating your overall points earning for the year is so worthwhile because it can help validate some of your points earning strategies, help you identify trends in your points earning that might surprise you, and also highlight where you should focus your attention for the upcoming year end terms of which points earning methods are going to be the most impactful for you. 

Now if you're interested in hearing the details of my points earning for 2024 including how many points total my family earned and my highest yield points earning methods you'll want to be sure to tune in next week for part one of my 2024 year-end review series. But here are three things that stood out to me after I did my own year-end points earning analysis.

Number one, almost all of my points earning in one of the transferable points ecosystems came from organic spend on one single card. On next week's episode I'm going to tell you which specific card that was, why it was so influential in my points earning this year, and how you can apply the lessons I learned from this card to your own reward card strategy in the future.

The second thing that stood out to me was that even though I keep pretty good track of my points earning throughout the year, I was surprised by how many points I earned in one specific airline program, even without flying it very often. I'm going to tell you more about that surprise points winner next week. 

The third thing that stood out to me after I did my own year-end points earning analysis was that every action has a reaction. Going nearly all in on one points currency this year meant that I earned fewer points in other points currencies than I have in past years. My overall points earning was less diversified than I usually like. Ultimately, it was worth it for me this particular year, but it was interesting to see how much my points earning patterns shifted with just that one decision. 

Now once you've gone through your transferable points currency accounts and any airline or hotel specific accounts that you have rewards credit cards for, here are some questions that you might want to consider as you evaluate your year end points earning. How many total points did you earn this year? What points earning methods made the biggest impact on your overall points earning strategy?

If one or two points earning strategies accounted for the majority of your points earning this year, are those strategies ones that you want to continue to rely on in the upcoming year? Did you spend more time on any specific points earning strategies than it was worth now that you know how many points you actually earned? 

Finally, this is a great time to run through a start, stop, keep analysis. Are there any points currencies or points earning strategies that you want to start in the new year? Are there any points currencies or points earning strategies that didn't work that well for you that you actually want to stop in the new year? What points currencies or points earning strategies had great returns this year that you want to keep next year? 

Once you have a clear picture of your points earning for the year, it's time to move on to evaluating your year end points redeeming. This part usually takes me less time than reviewing my points earning for the year since I tend to keep a running spreadsheet of the details for each trip as I book them. But even if you're pulling all this data from scratch, it should still be pretty straightforward. 

Ultimately, I do a year end points redemption review so that I can know four numbers. Number one, how many points total I used to book award flights and hotel stays the past year. Number two, how much total cash I spent out of pocket on my flight and hotel bookings, including whether I booked something entirely with cash or if I used points and paid cash for any associated taxes, fees, or surcharges. 

Number three, the total cash value of the award flights and hotel stays I booked using points. Number four, using the other three numbers that I just mentioned, I like to calculate the overall redemption value that I derived from my points for all my travel booked during the year. 

Now, admittedly, calculating the total cash value of the award flights and hotel stays that I booked using points is mostly a vanity metric. Seeing that I booked $80,000 or $130,000 or whatever dollars’ worth in travel using points is a great dopamine hit, but otherwise, ultimately, I don't think it's that important.

Similarly, I don't calculate the redemption value of my points bookings for each of my individual trips or for my year end travel overall because I think it's crucial to get a certain redemption value out of my points, nor do I think that all award bookings must be, quote unquote, high value redemptions. 

I track the redemption value that I get from my points for one main reason, and that is to help me make decisions. I've talked on the podcast before about strategically paying processing fees on some expenses in order to earn points for those charges, like paying quarterly taxes with rewards credit cards. 

The only reason that I feel justified and comfortable doing that is if I have data that shows me that the value I get from my points more than exceeds the cash costs that I pay in processing fees or the cost to outright purchase points and miles. So this is an invitation to you all to decide whether you also want to track redemption value of your individual award bookings or the value that you get out of your points on an annual basis because I think what's more important than calculating that number itself is knowing why you're doing it and how you're going to use it. 

That being said, let's walk through what data collection for a year end points redemptions looks like. For each trip that I book throughout the year, I track three things, the outbound flights I booked for the trip, the return flights I booked for the trip, and our hotel accommodations that we booked. For each of these three trip components, I make sure to record how many points I used to make the booking, how much out of pocket cash I paid for the taxes, fees, or surcharges for that award booking. I also note what the cost of that flight or hotel stay would be if I didn't use points at all, and I paid for it entirely in cash. 

With these three figures, I can easily calculate the redemption value of each component of my trips as well as the overall redemption value for the entire trip. once I have all my trips booked for the year, I can also get an idea of my overall points redemption value for award bookings across the entire year.

As a quick reminder, here is how you can calculate the redemption value of an award flight or a hotel stay booked using points. First, you want to take the cash cost of the flight or hotel stay and subtract the cost of the taxes and fees that you paid for that award booking. Then you want to divide that number by the total amount of points that you used to make the booking.

Finally, multiply that number by 100 and you have the cents per point redemption value for that particular award. So here is a quick example. Let's say you booked a roundtrip award flight using 156,000 points and $250 in taxes and fees. If that same exact flight would otherwise cost $4,400 if you booked it entirely using cash, the redemption value of that award is 4,400 minus 250 divided by 156,000. When you multiply that number by 100, you get a redemption value of 2.7 cents per point for that specific award flight booking. 

Once you've broken down your points redemptions for each individual trip, it's easy to add them all up to get a total number of points redeemed across the entire year. The total value of travel that you booked using your points and the total redemption value that you derived from your points for your award bookings this year. 

Again, the point of tracking all this information isn't just to bask in the dopamine hit of seeing that you redeemed your points for a certain cash value in travel or that you scored an all-time personal best redemption value on an award booking. Once I've broken down my points redemptions for the year, here's how I use this information.

I use it for evaluation and for planning. Beyond confirming that I get enough value from my points to justify continuing to put time and effort into this hobby, I love to look back on a year of points redemptions to evaluate which airline or hotel programs I got the most use out of. That allows me to start forming or to reinforce my points planning for the upcoming year.

Here are a few things that stood out to me after I did my own 2024 points redemption year-end review. First, let's talk winners. The Hyatt Hotel Loyalty Program was a huge winner for me again this year. I continue to get great value from Hyatt points and from holding globalist status in the Hyatt program, including scoring an 8.1 cents per point redemption value on a beachfront villa for my family's winter break vacation that otherwise could have cost almost $20,000 to book in cash out of pocket, but that we paid $0 for thanks to points. 

Number two, not every individual award booking was an outrageous points win. But overall, the value that I got from my points this year far exceeded the 1 to 1.5 cents per point value that a lot of your credit card issuers try to tell you that your points are worth.

Finally, something that stood out to me from my points redemption analysis this year, this doesn't have to do with any specific data point, but when I look back at the travel I booked using points this year, the experiences that I had that my family had, I continue to be amazed and so grateful at what points make possible. I never want to lose sight of that. 

Now, if your curiosity is piqued and you want to know exactly where I booked that beachfront villa for winter break or how many points I use for award travel this year and how much value total I managed to get out of those points, you'll want to be sure to tune in to part two of the upcoming 2024 year-end review series airing soon. 

In the meantime, I hope that you found this episode helpful for compiling your own points year-end review. As we close out 2024, I also want to say thank you for being a podcast listener. I appreciate you all, and I will see you back here again in the new year. Happy new year, everybody. 

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.