When Nick Ewen, editor-in-chief of The Points Guy—a publication which exists entirely on the premise of how to best consume one’s credit card points and miles—found out a friend had just redeemed his Amex Membership Rewards points for a vacuum on Amazon, he had the reaction any points obsessive would.
“I was like, you can’t do that,” Ewen told Fortune. Not because Amex points can’t be used on Amazon (they can) but because using them that way destroys their value. Transferred to the right airline partner, those same points could have covered a round-trip flight. Instead, they bought an appliance at a redemption rate that valued each point at less than a cent.
It’s the kind of mistake that happens when someone collects all their points in one place and never learns what they’re actually worth, or what they can be used for.
Ewen has spent two decades in the points and miles space, and one of the principles he returns to most often is diversification. Not just of cards, but of the currencies they earn.
“It’s just like an investor strategy,” he says. “You don’t want to be all in on one stock, because if that stock tanks, you’re going to be left out in the cold.”
