You’ve seen the advertisements for learning about Miles & Points on Google and your favourite social media platform. Those posts of attractive people reveling in exotic locations, giving you maximum “fear of missing out”, seem to advertise something too good to be true: luxury travel for free.
But are Miles & Points free? Can you go to Bora Bora without paying money?
Our goal here at Frugal Flyer is to help you travel more and pay less, so today let’s take a look at the amazing redemptions you can make to travel the world, and how much they’ll actually cost you out of pocket.
There Is No Such Thing as a Free Trip
As with anything in this world, very few things are free, and travel is no exception. Fuel costs money, getting to the airport costs time, and sitting on an airplane for hours costs both.
So, as amazing as Miles & Points are, nothing in this hobby is truly “free.” Miles & Points are fundamentally issued by banks, airlines, and hotel chains as a way to try and drum up cash business, as well as exchange for cash (whether that be from one another or from end customers).
If you get into this hobby, it will cost real money, and more than just your money, it will consume your time. At a minimum, you’ll need to spend the time and effort acquiring Miles & Points, but the real drain comes on the redemption side.
This is because with the rise of social media and the entire Miles & Points hobby, more people than ever are aware of the ability to use rewards to travel in premium cabins or stay in luxury hotels in places like the Maldives. Availability has become more scarce, and while certain award search tools are excellent, it can still be tough to piece together your perfect redemption.
A lot of channels and influencers state that reward travel is “free,” so let’s get into why booking with Miles & Points can be extremely efficient and high value, but never truly free. The juice is well worth the squeeze, though.
The Real Out-of-Pocket Costs of Award Travel
Cost #1: Cost of Points Acquisition
Because I find examples to be an illustrative way to “work backwards” in the Miles & Points world, let’s look at two potential ways to use your points: one for a flight redemption and one for a hotel redemption.
I am not representing these as being even close to parity in value, I just want to use them to illustrate the variance in values you can find with Miles & Points, and then break down how much you will realistically be out of pocket for your own money to acquire these.
The first example is a one-way flight on Japan Airlines business class for two people from San Francisco (SFO) to Tokyo Haneda (HND).
The second example is a two-night stay at the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge, a Marriott Bonvoy Autograph Collection hotel.
We have here roughly equivalent need for points: 154,500 British Airways Avios to get two Business class seats one-way from San Francisco to Tokyo on Japan Airlines (JAL). On the other hand, we need to redeem 140,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for one weekend in Kananaskis, Alberta.
As for how much these actually cost if you were to buy them at the retail cash price? Well, it costs $11,384 USD (or $15,789 CAD at the time of writing) for the two JAL business class tickets.
On the other hand, it will cost $1,636 CAD for the two-night weekend stay in Kananaskis.
So, what’s the best way to get the points needed? American Express Membership Rewards. This is because these points can be transferred to both the British Airways Avios and the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program.
Now, to get 154,500 Avios or 140,000 Bonvoy points (or both), we will need approximately the same amount of points: 155,000 Membership Rewards points. I am aware that 1 Membership Rewards is worth 1.2 Marriott Bonvoy, and there are sometimes transfer bonuses that increase this ratio, but if you aim to get 155,000 Membership Rewards points, you’ll have enough for one of these redemptions.
OK, now we’re cued up: the first costs we will need to pay are annual fees for credit cards. From my years of experience in Miles & Points, the easiest way to get this magic number of points for someone just getting into the hobby is to add the American Express Platinum Card and the American Express Cobalt Card to their wallet.
The American Express Platinum card currently has a welcome bonus of up to 180,000 Membership Rewards points.
The American Express Platinum card is a premium card that offers benefits including a $200 travel credit, a $200 dining credit, airport lounge access, instant elite status with Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors, and more.
Check out our American Express Platinum card review for more details.
In 2025, we awarded this card as the Best Credit Card for Airport Lounge Access.
180,000 Membership Rewards
$50,000
$3,960+
$799
Yes
Aug 18, 2025
On the other hand, the American Express Cobalt card offers a welcome bonus of up to 15,000 Membership Rewards points.
This card also earns 5x Membership Rewards points on dining and groceries (up to a $2,500 per month cap), meaning you can earn an additional 12,500 Membership Rewards points per month, up to 150,000 Membership Rewards points per year.
The American Express Cobalt card gives cardholders the opportunity to earn 5x Membership Rewards on eligible restaurant, food delivery, and grocery store purchases.
In 2025, we selected this card to receive the award Best Points Credit Card for Grocery Purchases.
Check out our American Express Cobalt card review for more details.
15,000 Membership Rewards
$9,000
$330+
$156
Yes
–
As the welcome bonus and spending multiplier are spread out across the year, this means you can earn about half that, or 82,500 Membership Rewards points, in about 6 months of card membership. This card combination roughly gets us to the magic number of at least 162,500 MR points in that time period.
What’s the out-of-pocket cost, though? Well, the American Express Platinum card has a premium annual fee of $799, whereas the American Express Cobalt card has a monthly fee of $12.99. If we pay for 6 months of the American Express Cobalt card, that puts us at a running total of $878.
Of course, there are other ways to accelerate this. You could also throw in cards like the RBC Avion Visa Infinite card, which could get you up to 35,000 Avion points as a welcome bonus.
The RBC Avion Visa Infinite card earns 1.25 Avion Rewards points on all travel purchases. Avion Rewards points can be redeemed against travel purchases or transferred to popular frequent flyer programs.
In 2025, we awarded this card as the Best Flexible Points Travel Credit Card.
Check out our RBC Avion Visa Infinite card review for more details.
35,000 Avion
$0
$665+
$120
Yes
–
Avion points can be transferred to Avios at a ratio of 1:1, making this a great way to further increase your British Airways Avios balance. However, the RBC Avion Visa Infinite card does have an annual fee of $120, so that would be another cost incurred that lets you earn points faster.
To summarize: for one of the redemptions I’ve listed above, our running total costs are: at least $878 out of pocket.
Cost #2: Costs Associated With Redemptions
OK, now we get into the actual costs of these redemptions themselves. What will we need to pay to make either of these redemptions?
Well, in the case of the JAL business class flights, we are going to be charged $643 in taxes and fees on this booking.
But wait! The flight is in San Francisco, so we’d need to get there with a positioning flight. Just as an example, I’ve decided to state that we have at least 20,000 Aeroplan points, maybe from a new first-year free CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card.
When looking at points flights from YVR to SFO, an economy Air Canada flight is available that costs 18,800 Aeroplan points and $202 in taxes and fees for two people.
This flight also is the day before the flight takes off, so any hotels or incidental costs to stay in San Francisco would also cost out of pocket – I estimate about $300 CAD for a variety of hotel options.
On the other hand, you could try and take a very early flight and wait at the airport, but then you’re trying not to miss your separately-booked JAL itinerary. This puts you in a position where you could be at risk of needing to spend extra cash on cancellation or change fees, which are never fun!
Therefore, our costs are likely to be $878 in annual fees, plus $845 in taxes and fees on two sets of flights, plus a probable charge of $300 for a one-night hotel stay, for a total estimated cost of $2,023 for 2 one-way business class tickets to Japan.
This is $13,766 less than the $15,789 retail price of the tickets, and thus a pretty swell deal!
Before we continue looking at our hotel redemption, remember that most airline Miles & Points programs have these taxes and fees, but not all are created equal. For example, for two Qatar Airways business class flights booked via Alaska Miles, the taxes and fees are only about $20 USD.
On the other hand, a single Qatar economy class flight on the same day costs at least six times that in taxes and fees!
Not all programs have the same taxes and fees, so you’ll need to spend time figuring out which ones will allow you to get the best value. But more on exchanging your time for knowledge in the next section….
When it comes to our Marriott Bonvoy redemption, you’ll need to actually get to Kananaskis, which requires a nature pass (though you won’t need this if you aren’t driving around). The nature pass costs at least $30 for two days.
You’ll also need to drive to the resort, at least from Calgary, so the costs of flights to Calgary or driving in will show up as well, and a tank of gas is at least $60. So that’s a minimum of $90 in additional expenses. On top of that, you’re hit with the dreaded $35 per day Resort Fee.
This $70 of meaningless fluff is an excuse for franchisees to pad the bill and has no justifiable purpose for existing whatsoever. This means that our total cost comes to $878 in credit card fees, $30 in conservation passes, $60 in gas, and $76 in fees for a total of $1,044. The retail price is $1,636.
The $600 discount isn’t nothing, especially if Kananaskis is a bucket list destination for you, but it is a lot of work for not a huge payoff. Use your time more efficiently: try and go to Japan if you can, or to a jurisdiction where Bonvoy points aren’t burned so easily. When comparing these two examples, the flight redemption is just such a better value!
Cost #3: Your Time
We now know how much these redemptions are likely to cost you in terms of pure cash, and which redemption is obviously a much better value. Now we need to consider an intangible: just how much time do you dedicate to this hobby? What will that cost you?
For example, I outlined a way above to get 155,000 Membership Rewards points quickly. It required taking out two American Express cards with hefty annual fees.
There’s more than one way to earn this number of points in both Marriott Bonvoy or British Airways Avios without spending as much on annual fees. To conceptualize this plan, however, you’ll have to do extensive research and make a plan that matches your spending habits. That will take your time, and everyone values their time differently.
For example, you may be a skilled professional like an electrician or lawyer. Would you consider the time spent on Miles & Points to be worth your hourly billed rate? Or closer to a hobby you do for free? Time itself is a limited resource: do you want to dedicate hours to learning about a points program, or go play with your kids?
Only you can answer this, but this is one of the biggest costs in the Miles & Points hobby that doesn’t get advertised on glossy TikTok reels of breakfast buffets. And you’ll probably want to maintain a spreadsheet of your points balances and annual fees paid, too.
Similarly, the post-COVID travel boom and social media have brought demand for voyages to exotic locales like Japan to an all-time high. We’ve written an entire guide on how to book Japan Airlines business class on points, but the point is that nice business class flights there that are bookable on points are hard to come by: to find the two seats I showed in this article, I had to look 355 days in advance!
I knew to look that far in advance because I’ve spent a lot of time familiarizing myself with various airlines and their routes, the best practices when making award bookings, as well as which itineraries using points are very popular.
Don’t get discouraged, though. While this hobby takes time to learn, it pays excellent dividends! You’ll be coming up with your own optimized and amazing itineraries in no time if you decide to invest your time.
Finally, if your goal for traveling with Miles & Points is to minimize any cash costs whatsoever, you’ll need to start diversifying your points portfolio. One of the ways this can be done was noted above: mastering a points program with lower taxes and fees, like Alaska Miles.
Another way to offset the cost is to become an avid collector of Scene+ Points. This program allows you to redeem your points at a fixed rate of 1 cent per point towards any eligible travel purchases.
If you’re getting into Scene+, I’d recommend the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card because of its excellent welcome bonus of up to 40,000 Scene+ points, no foreign transaction fees, and free airport lounge passes.
The Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card offers benefits such as no foreign transaction fees and six annual complimentary airport lounge access passes.
In 2025, we awarded this card as the Best Overall Travel Credit Card and Best Credit Card for Foreign Transactions.
Check out our Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card review for more details.
40,000 Scene+
$40,000
$600+
$150
No
Jul 1, 2025
For example, you could redeem 30,000 Scene+ points against the taxes and fees of your JAL flight, thus resulting in a new out-of-pocket cost of $2023 less $300, for a revised total of $1,723 for two one-way business class flights. That’s the usual cost of a single person’s round-trip to Japan in economy class!
Conclusion
To wrap it up, there can be significant costs associated with getting into Miles & Points as a hobby. For the best types of redemptions, you’ll need to master a variety of loyalty programs and potentially spend a lot of cash out of pocket on credit card annual fees. You’ll also need to make sure you’re always getting maximum points for your daily spends.
However, the rewards are outstanding: only the jetsetting 1% can dream of going to the Maldives, or Bora-Bora, or even flying in premium cabins. With the magic of Miles & Points, a motivated member of the striving middle class can enjoy luxury at a fraction of the price.
I therefore entice you to invest in your Miles & Points knowledge as an investment in yourself and your dream travel goals.
Kirin Tsang
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