{"id":236565,"date":"2026-04-24T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/why-i-bought-hotel-points-to-save-money-on-a-flight-the-points-guy\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T14:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:00:21","slug":"why-i-bought-hotel-points-to-save-money-on-a-flight-the-points-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/why-i-bought-hotel-points-to-save-money-on-a-flight-the-points-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I bought hotel points to save money on a flight – The Points Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Have you ever found the perfect airline redemption but come up short on the required points and miles, even after transferring credit card points<\/a><\/span>?<\/p>\n

That was the situation I found myself in when trying to book an Emirates Skywards<\/a><\/span> award recently, but I found a work-around that you might not expect.<\/p>\n

I ended up purchasing hotel points to solve my problem. And, thanks to a promotion to buy points, doing so cost less than buying airline miles directly, allowing me to book the exact flights I wanted for a fraction of the cash price.<\/p>\n

Here is how it worked and why it’s worth thinking outside the box the next time your mileage balance comes up short.<\/p>\n

Related: How to redeem Marriott Bonvoy points for maximum value<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes, a healthy balance of transferable points isn’t enough<\/h2>\n

I had done the math. An Emirates Skywards award redemption would save me more than $1,000 compared to paying cash for the same flights. I could see availability, and I was ready to book this essential trip.<\/p>\n

I transferred my entire Citi ThankYou Rewards<\/a><\/span> points balance to the Emirates Skywards program at a less-than-ideal but still acceptable 5:4 transfer rate<\/a><\/span>, but I still came up about 6,000 Skywards miles short.<\/p>\n

My next instinct was to check my Chase Ultimate Rewards<\/a><\/span> points. While I had a healthy balance of Chase points, because Chase is no longer a transfer partner of Emirates Skywards<\/a><\/span>, I frustratingly couldn’t transfer any of them to cover this booking.<\/p>\n

Rather than give up, I put on my thinking cap.<\/p>\n

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Consider buying points in the program you want to book through<\/h2>\n

Emirates directly sells Skywards miles at $30 per 1,000 miles. To cover a 6,000-mile shortfall, I would need to spend $180.<\/p>\n

Given that I would save more than $1,000 by paying with miles instead of cash, spending less than $200 to purchase the remaining miles would still have been a decent way to save, but I wanted to find a way to lower the cash outlay.<\/p>\n

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\"Emirates<\/div>
BEN SMITHSON\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How a Marriott Bonvoy promotion proved the best way to save money<\/h2>\n

At the time, Marriott was running a promotion<\/a><\/span> that offered a 40% bonus when purchasing Marriott Bonvoy<\/a><\/span> points. Through it, I paid just $162.50 for 13,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, which became 18,200 points after the bonus was applied.<\/p>\n

I then transferred those points to Emirates Skywards. Marriott Bonvoy points transfer to Emirates Skywards at a ratio of 3 Bonvoy points to 1 Skywards mile, meaning 18,000 of my Bonvoy points became exactly 6,000 Skywards miles, just enough to complete the booking.<\/p>\n

They also transferred instantly, which was ideal for locking in my travel plans.<\/p>\n

While this was only $17.50 cheaper than buying the amount of Skymiles needed directly from Emirates, I was determined to keep out-of-pocket costs as low as possible.<\/p>\n

Remember, too, that this strategy also works for flights operated by Emirates’ partners<\/a><\/span>. You can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Emirates for redemptions with more than a dozen airlines, including TAP Air Portugal, Gol Airlines, Korean Air and Copa Airlines.<\/p>\n

Related: Buying points and miles saved me over $1,000 on flights and a hotel stay<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Which hotel points transfer to airline miles?<\/h2>\n

Marriott Bonvoy points, whether purchased or earned from stays or through credit card spending<\/a><\/span>, can be transferred to 38 airline programs, usually at a 3:1 rate, a neat way to collect harder-to-earn but valuable currencies like Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards<\/a><\/span> points, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank<\/a><\/span> miles and Virgin Australia Velocity points.<\/p>\n

You’ll get 10,000 bonus airline miles for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points you transfer to the United MileagePlus program<\/a><\/span> and 5,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 Bonvoy points you transfer to most other airline transfer partners.<\/p>\n

You can also transfer Hilton Honors<\/a><\/span> points, IHG One Rewards<\/a><\/span> points, Accor Live Limitless<\/a><\/span> points, Radisson Rewards points and World of Hyatt<\/a><\/span> points to various airline programs; however, the transfer rates are usually very poor compared with the 3:1 Marriott Bonvoy rate, so it’s best to focus on Marriott Bonvoy if you wish to transfer hotel points to frequent flyer programs.<\/p>\n

Related: Why I’m transferring my Marriott Bonvoy points to airline miles for the first time<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bottom line<\/h2>\n

Next time you come up a few thousand miles short for a redemption, whether it’s essential travel or a luxury dream vacation, don’t despair. You may be able to buy points and miles directly from the program you need to redeem through, which could make sense for a small top-up.<\/p>\n

It’s always worth checking for any current bonus or discount offers on purchasing points and miles through other channels, like the Bonvoy-to-Emirates offer I found, to save money and ensure you get where you need to go for less.<\/p>\n

Related reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Have you ever found the perfect airline redemption but come up short on the required points and miles, even after transferring credit card points? That was the situation I found myself in when trying to book an Emirates Skywards award recently, but I found a work-around that you might not expect. I ended up purchasing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":236566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-236565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}