What is a point?

This being a point's blog, I believe a quick discussion of “what is a point” is not only a good idea, but necessarily. Going back to the lessons I learned in elementary school, when looking for an answer, start by looking in a dictionary.

Since I ditched my paper copy of my dictionary three or four moves ago, I went online for the answer. Webster’s online dictionary has 19 different definitions for “a point;” instead of boring you with all of them, here are some that you may not know:

1)      One of the 11 divisions of a heraldic shield that determines the position of a charge

2)      A number thrown on the first roll of the dice in craps which the player attempts to repeat before throwing a seven

3)       A lace for tying parts of a garment together used especially in the 16^th and 17^th centuries

4)      One of the 12 spaces marked off on each side of a backgammon board

Do people even play backgammon any more?

Even though this English lesson was interesting, the definition that we are looking for is:

A unit of measurement

However, what are we measuring when we talk about travel related points? Loyalty! Loyalty = POINTS.

When the first frequent flyer program was started by Texas International Airlines in 1979, the main idea behind the program was to reward those who traveled frequently with special fares. Two years later, Texas International was overtaken by American Airlines. (In a small bit of history, the owner of Texas International bought Continental Airlines in 1982, shortly after selling to American Airlines).  After buying Texas International, American Airlines decided flyers would not be induced to fly American Airlines frequently if the incentive of doing so was “special fares.”  The creation of the “free flight” and modern day frequently flyer program was eventually born.

In the early stages, frequent flyer miles were awarded based upon loyalty. One flies from Boston to Los Angles and gets a certain number of miles for doing so. To get a free flight, the flyer would have to patronage the same airline over and over again. The main goal behind the early frequent flyer programs was to get customers to spend their travel money on one airline.

Nowadays, the travel point game has changed. Yes, airlines and hotels still want to customers to spend their travel money only with them and they have created loyalty programs to reward you for doing so. However, the average consumer will never be able to afford that dream vacation to the Maldives on flying and staying at hotels alone. (Yes, if you fly one or twice a week and live out of a hotel, you might be able to scrap together enough miles). Travelers like Chris and I, who do not travel to for work, accomplish our travel goals by earning points through credit card sign-up bonuses (40,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in 3 months, 50,000 bonus miles after first purchase etc.), mattress runs, and jumping through hoops (I have done some crazy things in the name of points, i.e. 5 minute car rentals to name one).

If you want to start crossing off places on your travel bucket list, you will need to expand your thinking of travel miles/points. Almost all airlines and hotels sell points to third parties, who in turn offer those miles to consumers for doing business with them. The list of businesses that offer airline and hotel miles in exchange for patronizing them is numerous – from flowers to mortgages to online protection to car rentals. Almost every aspect of your daily life can earn you points.

By making small changes in your routines, you can start racking up the mileage balances that will allow you to travel the world. So, what is a point? To me, a point is an opportunity. An opportunity to see the world!