The flowers may have just started to bloom, and your vacation plans for this summer may still be up in the air, but it’s not too early to start planning — and booking — your family’s Christmas vacation.
Even though the holiday season is not for another eight to nine months, you may find that your ideal vacation destination is already booking up, especially if you’re trying to use your points.
Even if you are not 100% sure where you want to go just yet, you may want to plan a few different vacation options and then figure it out later. I have a few different December vacations already booked, as I am not yet 100% sure which direction we are going; some of it also depends on other vacations we end up booking for 2025.
While some of them require me to cancel 60 to 90 days out, that still gives me another five to six months to finalize my plans. But by booking something now, I have a better chance of ensuring I can use my points and miles as life unfolds.
If you are yearning to get away for the holidays this year, here are some tips to consider if you want to start planning now.
You can be flexible
Many hotel chains now follow a dynamic award pricing model, or one with off-peak and peak pricing, when using points. This means that during peak times, such as Christmas week, you may be forced to redeem a higher number of points per day.
However, even during the holidays, you may find that some dates fall into the off-peak or standard award chart.
If you have some flexibility in your schedule, you’ll find more availability and potentially less expensive hotel pricing if you can go on the earlier or later side of the holidays.
For example, when looking at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, which still has availability during the holiday time frame, you’ll find that traveling through Dec. 20 will save you a decent amount of points versus traveling over Christmas.
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Know, too, that all Hyatt properties offer a points calendar that’ll show you the number of points required per day (though that doesn’t guarantee that a standard room is available). Be sure to put that calendar to use if you want to cash in as few World of Hyatt points as possible
Airline change and cancellation policies work in your favor
Over the past few years, airlines have softened their change and cancellation policies — for the better — and many airlines will allow you to book flights on points and miles and then cancel later for no fee.
Although every airline operates a bit differently, there’s a good chance that your airline of choice has a flexible policy, allowing you to lock in airfare using your miles now without a penalty if your plans change later.
Major airlines — including American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways — allow you to cancel your award flight without any fee, and the points or miles will go back to the account they were pulled from. (For some, this no-fee policy only applies for flights originating in the U.S., and for fares that don’t fall into the “basic economy” category.)
With most carriers, even the taxes and fees paid will go back to the credit card used to book the reservation. JetBlue, however, will give you a travel credit valid for 12 months from when the flight was originally booked for the taxes and fees.
Related: How to avoid airline change and cancellation fees
I’m probably on the extreme end of things, but I currently have an American Airlines flight booked for a holiday trip to Hawaii, a Southwest Airlines flight for a ski trip to Colorado and another Southwest flight locked in for Aruba. Even with all of that, I am still checking award flights daily for an opportunity to jet off to Southwest Asia. (Note that the Southwest Airlines flights do not overlap, or the airline would automatically cancel them).
By booking early, I can also book the best flight option for my family at a reasonable number of miles. Typically, fares only go up in price (and points) as the holiday time frame approaches.
You can look for price drops
Even though booking now will probably lock you into the lowest price, that doesn’t mean you are out of luck if the cash fare price happens to drop.
Since many airlines allow you to cancel for no fee, you have the option to cancel and rebook if the fare price goes down. Remember: You’ll need to keep a close eye on your flights to benefit from this since the airline won’t automatically rebook you at the lower price.
Some airlines, such as Southwest, even allow you to simply re-price your fare by changing your reservation to the exact same flight. The process takes just a minute and can be done online — no phone call required. Best of all, you can do this multiple times to truly lock in the best price possible.
Gone are the days of having to hope and assume that you are booking at the lowest fare possible since you were stuck with what you got outside of extremely expensive change fees. Instead, now you can book as early as possible and keep on checking to see if the number of points or miles drops.
Related: Airlines that offer you a credit if the price of airfare drops
Start accruing points now
Booking a hotel with points is a great way to save money, but if your points balance is looking a bit thin, there’s still time to accrue points.
With some great credit card offers recently announced, it’s easy to earn a boatload of points with just one credit card approval and welcome bonus. While it might not pay for your entire trip, it’ll easily help offset a good portion of the price.
For example, the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card is offering 165,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. With this card, you’ll receive your fourth award night at no extra charge on every hotel reservation you make when redeeming points for three nights. So, a family of four could stay at the Holiday Inn Resort Montego Bay All-Inclusive in Jamaica for just 37,500 points per night when the fourth night doesn’t add to the total cost.
Of course, award availability and the number of points required can always change, so you’ll want to try to rack up the points needed as quickly as possible.
Similarly, if you’re looking to stay at a Marriott-branded property, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card earns five free night awards (each night valued at up to 50,000 points) after you spend $5,000 in the first three months of account opening (certain hotels have resort fees).
You can also enjoy the added bonus of being able to top off the certificate when you pay the difference in points — up to 15,000 points from your account, allowing you to redeem a hotel room for up to 65,000 points per night. These certificates can even be redeemed on peak pricing days, as long as you have points in your account to make up the difference.
For example, you can redeem the five certificates from the credit card offer to stay right on Fort Lauderdale Beach at The Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort on peak dates. This is a great value, as the hotel currently costs around $600 a night over the holidays.
Just remember that even though Marriott offers a fifth-night-free benefit on award redemptions, this doesn’t work when using free night certificates.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to worry about award availability, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card will allow you to purchase your airfare or hotel as a paid fare and then redeem your miles to ultimately wipe away the charge.
Not only that, but if you book your flights via the Capital One Travel portal, you can access predictive pricing advice powered by Hopper — and potentially some built-in price protection coverage — if it tells you now is the time to buy and the price drops.
Bottom line
Travel is booming; destinations across the globe are booking up quickly and nightly rates are getting more and more expensive. If you know you want to get away for the holidays this year, our advice is to plan your trip now. Start looking into vacation options and consider if locking in a thing (or two) sooner rather than later while leaning into the flexible change policies makes sense for your family.
While there will always be something available later, if you want to use your points and miles to visit a specific destination, now is a great time to book — and it can save you a large chunk of change.
For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply
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