But in reality, a travel hacking practice that includes both unbonused spend and bonus spend would allow you to deploy your bonused spend towards cards like the Asiana Visa Signature, which earn bonus miles, and your cheaper unbonused spend towards
flexible currencies like Starpoints.
Not exact matches
Specialized online lenders,
like Currency, tend to be more
flexible with their underwriting requirements.
Platinum showed off a
flexible difficulty / betting system for what amounts to a boss rush mode, and it looks
like gobs of fun — it will have both strategic depth (timing when and where to rescue your fallen comrade) and relevancy to the main game (earning
currency you can spend in the single player campaign).
Like other
flexible currencies, ThankYou points can also be redeemed directly for airfare instead of transferring them to partners.
And taking the analysis even further, is it ever worth transferring a
flexible bank
currency to a hotel chain
like Hilton or Marriott or IHG when their points are usually worth less than 1 cent each at best?
The SPG Amex card earns the most
flexible currency on the market and is perfect for someone who
likes that level of redemption options.
Most travel hackers take advantage of the loyalty programs of foreign airlines through
flexible points
currencies,
like transfers of Chase Ultimate Rewards points to British Airways Executive Club Avios, American Express Membership Rewards points to Singapore KrisFlyer, or Citi ThankYou points to Air France KLM Flying Blue.
Even with
flexible currencies, you'll often have redemptions worth closer to 2 - 3 cents per point unless you're doing nothing but traveling internationally in business class (and I agree there are some people
like that, but not most people).
Similar to transferring points to airline partners in other
flexible point
currencies like Amex Membership Rewards, you'll need to select the transfer partner and enter your loyalty program membership details.
Unfortunately, unlike some other
flexible points
currencies, transfers from SPG points to miles are not instantaneous so there is a risk the award you would
like to book will be gone by the time the transfer goes through.
Flexible points
currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards offer more protection against airline and hotel award program changes.
Like the Reserve card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is an Ultimate Rewards card, and Ultimate Rewards cards, as mentioned above, have the most
flexible point
currency.
Coinbase and other markets can trade Bitcoin for USD and other
currencies deposited directly to single - use debit cards or gift cards, or even into more
flexible systems
like PayPal, generally for a much higher fee.