Why it pays to keep a reserve of emergency travel points

It was midnight in Vietnam and I was sitting on the airport floor, frantically searching my phone for a last-minute flight home. I arrived at the airport about 10 minutes early to discover that my Qatar Airways flight back to the US via Doha had been canceled due to the US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran. The staff in Qatar couldn’t help anyone rebook because the entire system had failed. The airport was full of people like me using the very slow mobile service to find a new route home.

Flight prices kept increasing every time I refreshed a page, but I took solace in knowing I had some Chase points to help ease the financial blow. I ended up booking a last-minute itinerary using a combination of credit card points, annual credits, and cash, and the experience taught me why it’s worth having a reserve of travel points for emergencies.

The backstory and cost breakdown.

In September I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) to book my return trip from Vietnam: a Qatar Airways flight from Hanoi to Boston with a stopover in Doha. I paid $760 for the ticket plus an additional $249 for a premium seat.

Between purchasing the flight and taking the trip, I moved to New York City. So, I also bought a one-way American Airlines flight from Boston to New York City for $133.

The grand total for my original trip home was $1,142.

After it was canceled, I had to pay an additional $915.54 plus 32,928 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and 5,640 Capital One miles for my new flights.

How my emergency points helped me rebook

I was traveling with a friend and we had some limitations when changing the reservation:

• We hoped to fly together for as much of the trip as possible; She lives in Boston and I live in New York City.
• Airspace in the Middle East was closed, so many of the routes that appeared on Google were not actually viable options. To be safe and avoid other possible cancellations, we wanted to fly in the opposite direction.
• We had to get home as soon as possible, so we couldn’t wait for prices to drop or extend our stops.
• Tickets were selling out fast.

Of course, we were also looking for the cheapest possible option.

The itinerary we chose took us from Hanoi to Hong Kong; then to Taipei, Taiwan; and finally to Los Angeles. From Los Angeles, we split up to our respective hometowns.

How to use my Capital One miles and credits

I booked our new tickets through the Capital One Travel portal. I was excited to have opened a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card a month before the trip and therefore had access to this portal, since these flights did not appear on the Chase Travel℠ portal. (The lounge access this card provided was also a big plus on a trip with multiple stops.)

The total cost of the two flights from Hanoi to Hong Kong was $828. The system automatically applied my $300 annual travel credit (a benefit of the card), which reduced the price from $828 to $528. Then I used 5.640 Capital One miles in my travel bank.

The remaining amount was $471.60.

I also booked our flights from Hong Kong to Los Angeles (with a stopover in Taipei) through the Capital One Travel portal, but I had already exhausted my points and benefits, so I spent $1,291.66 on the two tickets. Still, it was nice to know that I earned 5 miles per dollar spent by booking through the portal instead of on the airline’s website.

Using my Chase points

Admittedly, I’m more of a user than a saver when it comes to my credit card points. Luckily, though, I hadn’t made any recent redemptions, so I had 32,928 Chase points in my account right now, enough to cover most of my flight from Los Angeles to New York City.

If I had paid cash, I would have left about $393. Instead, I redeemed all my points and then paid the remaining $34.

By contrast, routes from Los Angeles to Boston were much more expensive and my friend didn’t have a reserve of points to fall back on like I did. He ended up paying about $700 out of pocket for the last leg of his trip.

Key takeaways

Maintain a balance of points for emergencies.

The number of points you should keep in your reserve depends on how often you travel and where you usually go. Obviously, points rates vary widely between programs, but domestic flights can range from 20,000 to 40,000 points, while international economy flights can range from 50,000 to 80,000 points.

So if you live on the East Coast and have family in, say, California, it’s probably smart to have about 30,000 points on hand to cover a domestic ticket in case of a family event or last-minute emergency.

Of course, spending points is still like spending money. But in the midst of a stressful travel situation, it helped to know I had some kind of protection before reaching into my bank account.

Don’t rely solely on credit card insurance

I booked my original flight with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, so I called Chase to see if I had any purchase protection if my flight was canceled due to the war. I was informed that the card does not cover travel changes due to undeclared war, insurrection, rebellion, revolution or many other reasons.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to rely on Chase. I received the following email from Qatar Airways and was able to get a full refund for my original flight:

If the airline hadn’t reimbursed me I would have been out of luck because I didn’t have any type of insurance coverage. If you want to protect against cancellations due to wars or similar events, the only real option is to add Travel insurance “cancel for any reason” around the time of booking.

It never hurts to ask

In this situation, an honorable mention goes to American Airlines. I contacted the airline and explained that I was forced to cancel my small flight from Boston to New York City after Qatar canceled my flight to Boston. I thought this was a shot in the dark, so I was surprised when the airline representative said they would issue a travel credit to use on any AA or American Eagle flight over the next year.

In a nutshell

I was lucky in many ways in this scenario. In addition to my personal safety, I was fortunate to have booked my original flight with an airline that reimbursed me and had a Capital One credit left to use and a reserve of Chase points to help me get home. Before my next big trip, I’ll be sure to read my credit card insurance policies and take a few moments to consider how I’d book new flights in an urgent situation.

And of course, I’ll always have some extra points on hand.