If you have read my post about how to get started to earn rewards for free travel, you would have learned that you need to work a bit to EARN rewards. You may also need to work a bit to USE the rewards. This may involve constantly checking to see if and when a reward, that you find attractive, becomes available.
For example, sometimes when you try to redeem miles or points for a flight or stay, you may find the redemption amounts too high for your liking. If you have a lot of time to play with before your coveted trip, keep checking and check often! Required redemption rates frequently change. I personally check almost every day when I am hoping to book a reward. If everyday is too much for you, check a few times a week. Many times you will get lucky on the day you check. This has happened for me a number of times. Off the top of my head, I just recently booked flights to Vail, after watching redemption rates, and I watched Hawaii flights every day for a month before I booked.
2 more things……
1. You know how you should never stay and watch a slot machine after you get up? Same rule applies here. If you ultimately book your travel using rewards, stop looking! You do not want to know if the miles/points needed went down even further 🙂
2. Give yourself a deadline as to when you will give up your search. If the redemption amount never comes down to what you would have hoped, you can a ) decide whether it is worth it to pay for the trip, b) redeem for the high redemption rate, or my favorite…..c ) change your plans and restart the process again for a different destination!