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The world of points and miles can be incredibly difficult to understand and navigate. The jargon alone can make even the simplest concepts confusing.

Which loyalty program is easiest to earn status with? What’s the best hotel program for earning free nights? What’s the actual best credit card to get (independent of what a blogger may earn in affiliate commissions)? Is mileage running worthwhile and what on earth is this “MS” everyone keeps talking about?

In this step-by-step guide, I’ll answer these questions and help you go from points novice to pro. Here’s everything you need to know to get started with points and miles:

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Set a goal

Before you do anything else, it’s important to set a points goal. Knowing what you hope to achieve with points and miles and how much effort you’re willing to invest will determine your entire points and miles strategy.

For example, are you looking to book a bucket-list vacation in first class? Or maybe you just want to save money on a Disney cruise using points for the whole family? Are you willing to learn the ins and outs of different loyalty programs, or do you prefer flexible rewards you can redeem towards travel purchases?

Once you’ve answered these questions, be sure to read up about some point-chasing goals and principles.

To summarize:

• Figure out what you want to do with your points.
• Determine how many points you need.
• Earn the required points.

Sign up for a new email account

Since you’ll be receiving emails from many different programs, it’s best to keep a separate email account and use it for your frequent flier and loyalty program registrations. I also like to keep emails from different loyalty programs in designated folders for easy access, which makes it easy to keep track of offers.

Join airline and hotel loyalty programs

If you’re a complete newbie, you might need to join airline and hotel loyalty programs. Sometimes, it makes sense to wait until a program offers a special offer before joining.

Popular hotel loyalty programs

There are six major hotel loyalty programs you should consider joining. Each program has thousands of popular hotels in its portfolio, across hundreds of destinations worldwide.

You can fully commit to one program or simply stay with whichever hotel offers the lowest rates. Whichever option you choose, you’ll need your loyalty program number to earn points.

• Choice Privilege Club – Join
• Hilton HHonors – Join
• IHG One Rewards – Join
• Marriott Bonvoy – Join
• World of Hyatt – Join
• Wyndham Rewards – Join

Popular airline loyalty programs

When signing up for airline loyalty programs, you want to make sure you’re earning miles in the big three airline alliances: Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance.

The main U.S.-based airline programs are your best place to start. Alaska Airlines MileagePlan is a popular program for its wide partner network and reasonable redemption rates.

• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan – Join (Oneworld Alliance
• American Airlines AAdvantage – Join (Oneworld Alliance)
• Delta Skymiles – Join (SkyTeam)
• United Airlines MileagePlus – Join (Star Alliance)

Once you understand the basics of airline loyalty programs, you should expand to foreign frequent flyer programs. Many offer lower redemption rates than their American counterparts. You can often credit miles from U.S. airlines to their foreign counterparts at favorable rates (depending on your fare class).

Sign up for Award Wallet

Award Wallet is a point-management tool that makes tracking loyalty program balances incredibly easy. It’s free to use, though you can also upgrade to a paid version that offers features. You can use Award Wallet to track your point balances and expiration dates. Award Wallet will send you a notice when your points or free night certificates are about to expire.

I’ve personally saved thousands of points from expiration thanks to this tool. In addition to your own points, Award Wallet lets you track account balances for family members. It’s an absolute must if you’re the point person (no pun intended) in your family and want an easy and accurate way to track everyone’s points.

I’ve been using Award Wallet for over a decade to keep track of my family’s points. The tool has even helped me learn about account breaches, like when hackers got into my Radisson Rewards account and wiped out my point balance. I wouldn’t have caught wind of it without a balance notice from Award Wallet.

You can join Award Wallet for free and if you use my referral link, I’ll earn some points and premium subscriptions (thanks for the support!)Apply for rewards credit cards

Apply for rewards credit cards

Credit cards are a central component of a good points and miles strategy. There are lots of great rewards credit cards to choose from, depending on your spending habits and travel goals. If you’re looking for airline perks, an airline credit card is your best bet. Want hotel elite status?

All the major hotel loyalty programs have one or more co-branded cards to meet your needs. If you want more flexibility in terms of redeeming points, a transferrable rewards card is your best bet. These cards earn flexible rewards that you can transfer to both hotel and loyalty programs, depending on your needs. Lastly, cash-back cards can be a great way to diversify your rewards portfolio and simplify it.

• Airline credit cards: Best for those who want to earn miles and perks with a specific airline. Airline credit cards often provide benefits like free checked bags, discounts on in-flight purchases, companion passes, elite status credits and other perks.
• Hotel credit cards: Co-branded hotel credit cards are great if you want to earn a quick elite status boost with your favorite hotel chain. Most hotel cards provide low or mid-tier elite status, providing useful perks like bonus points and room upgrades during hotel stays. Most hotel cards also provide an annual free night award to justify the annual fee.
• Transferrable rewards credit cards: Credit cards that earn transferrable rewards are great for everyone. They provide the utmost flexibility, allowing you to convert your points to airline miles, hotel points or redeem them for travel bookings at a favorable rate. Examples include cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, American Express Gold and Capital One Venture Card.
• Cash-back credit cards: While cash-back isn’t as valuable as points, cash-back cards are great for those seeking simplicity. Most cash-back cards have no annual fee and either offer a flat-rate structure (i.e. 2% cash back on everything) or rotating bonuses (i.e. 5% cash back on the first $1,500 spent quarterly). Some of the best cash-back credit cards include the Citi Double Cash, Chase Freedom Unlimited and Capital One Savor Card.

Apply for a business card

Qualifying and applying for business cards

Complete credit card spending requirements

Tips on how to meet large spending requirements

Earn points and miles with other financial products

Text earn points and miles with brokerage accounts and by opening checking accounts

Debit cards that earn points and miles

Debit cards that earn points

Other ways to earn points and miles

Earn points and miles on household spending

One of the easiest ways to earn lots of points is to maximize household spending and large purchases. You can do this by setting all of your household bills to auto-pay with your new credit card.

Maximize category bonuses

When choosing a credit card, you hopefully picked one or more that best suits your spending habits. Once you have your card at hand, you’ll want to do what you can to maximize the category bonuses.

Earn miles with shopping portals

Take advantage of shopping portal rewards.

Earn points and miles with survey sites

Sites like E-Rewards allow you to earn points for surveys, which can take 10-30 minutes to complete. Many survey sites even offer bonus miles and points when you join and complete your first survey.

Sign up for dining rewards programs

Sign up for dining rewards programs

Fast track to airline elite status

Fast-track to airline elite status

Fast track to hotel elite status

Earning hotel elite status is a lot easier than airline status, so we’re covering it first. Ways to fast-track

Get airport lounge access

How to get airport lounge access

Look into manufactured spending

Complete guide to manufactured spending

• Manufactured Spending FAQ
• Earn points and miles with buying groups
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: Walmart Money Orders
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: American Express Gift Cards
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: American Express For Target
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: Visa And Mastercard Gift Cards
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: Green Dot MoneyPak
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: REloadit Cards
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: Paypal My Cash Reload Card
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: Vanilla Reload Cards
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: Prepaid Cards And How To Cash Them Out
• Newbie Guide To Manufactured Spending: Earning Miles With Debit Cards