The Do’s and Don’ts of Award Travel in 2022

There’s finally light at the end of the … tunnel? Year? Air cabin aisle, indicating an emergency exit?

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, and other experts are strongly discouraging travel throughout the winter, the vaccine rollout has many once-frequent travelers wondering if it’s time to dust off those travel credit cards and old rewards points and miles to book travel in 2022.

Or is it too soon? We’re all looking for that sweet spot between availability and feasibility — between pulling the trigger on booking travel before everybody else does and booking it too early and needing to reschedule (again).

I made and broke so many travel plans in recent years out of a misplaced sense of optimism that I’m hesitant to prognosticate. With my luck, aliens will probably arrive on Earth when this article publishes, rendering it woefully obsolete.

Extraterrestrial invasions aside, there are some clear “do's” and “don’ts” for considering whether, how and where to travel in the coming year.

Do: Book flexible fares and rooms

One of the big travel news stories to come out in recent years was the decision by many airlines to eliminate change and cancellation fees on most fares, including some award tickets booked with miles. This followed a series of ad hoc policies throughout the year and changed the paradigm for how to book flights.

In short: The stakes are now way lower. You can use points or cash to book tickets for summer 2022 without worrying as much about eating huge fees if your plans change, the vaccine doesn’t work, aliens blow up the moon or … whatever the year has in store.

A couple of caveats before you go booking travel willy-nilly: First, many “basic economy” fares can't be changed or canceled, period. Second, many budget airlines, like Spirit and Frontier, have more limited flexibility. You should avoid these low-cost fares and airlines until normalcy returns.

Hotels haven’t made such sweeping changes to their change and cancellation policies, but they were always less strict than airlines. Plus, it’s generally easier to book hotel rooms last-minute, so you don’t need to sweat the lodging just yet.

Don’t: Play the case rate guessing game

It can be tempting to try to read the epidemiological tea leaves to understand when you might have find a window of low case rates in your destination of choice, and therefore when it will be safer to travel. Yet even the most endearing infographic that shows where you stand in line can’t estimate when you’ll actually get your shot in the arm. Too many variables lie in the way.

And if you’re like me — neither old nor young, have no health problems and aren’t considered an essential worker — then you’re likely near the back of the line. Does that mean you should give up hope of booking travel this year?

Not necessarily.

Do: Go big

Airlines and hotels are chomping at the bit to lure travelers back this year, which means rates are low and award availability is open. For normal, economy travel, this open availability doesn’t mean much, but for those looking at once-in-a-lifetime bookings, it’s a big opportunity.

For example, I’ve been trying to book first class seats on Singapore Airlines from Los Angeles to Tokyo since I started collecting points, but availability on this route is usually scarce. Searching for flights in the fall, I found loads of availability at the lower saver rates, meaning a one-way flight costs “only” 107K Singapore miles.

Similarly, while Alaska Airlines’ partnership with Emirates is a shell of its former self, some sweet spots do remain, such as flying to Asia “through” Dubai from the West Coast with a long stopover of a week in between flights. This is essentially two trips in one, and business class fares were still available when I searched.

On the hotel front, notoriously tight availability like that at the Hyatt-affiliated Ventana in Big Sur, California, is also open in the spring.

Yes, these are all extremely high-end redemptions, and I usually preach simplicity and utility when it comes to travel rewards. They’re not “low value” redemptions by any means; the Ventana room runs $1,600 a night when paying cash, which works out to 3.3 cents per point for the above redemption, well above our valuation for Hyatt points.

But here’s the real takeaway: This year will offer an unprecedented opportunity to book notoriously elusive award travel. If you’re sitting on a stack of points, now could be the time to burn them.

Don’t: Count on borders to open immediately

Yes, some models predict that infection rates will drop in the coming months, but that doesn’t mean that wary destinations will immediately open their borders to American tourists when they do. And, frankly, I’m not sure I’d want to visit any country that would have me as a visitor right now.

I expect that countries will be slower to open their immigration checkpoints than we might have thought. You might be able to book a flight to Europe for the fall, but that’s no guarantee that you’ll be allowed in when the time comes.

That said, if you’ve booked a flexible ticket, this uncertainty shouldn’t be a big deal. You can just push back your flight.

The bottom line

When people ask me why I like to visit Mexico City, I say it’s because it’s just dangerous enough to scare off the tourist hoards. Traveling in 2022 presents a similar opportunity and conundrum: If you play your points and miles just right, you can score a good ticket to an uncrowded destination. But if you fly too close to the sun and book early, you risk having your plans dashed (yet again) by COVID-19 uncertainty.

Make sure to keep it flexible, reasonable and fun. It might be your last chance to fly in business class before the aliens arrive.

Unsure how to use your points and miles? I’m here to help. In this column, I answer your questions about the baffling world of travel rewards, cutting through the jargon to provide clear answers to real problems. Send your questions to [email protected].

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are some of the best travel credit cards of 2024:

• Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

• No annual fee: Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card

• Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card 

• Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®

• Luxury perks: The Platinum Card® from American Express

• Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card