The last tactic in this section is backup flights. And so if you have enough points and miles in different programs, especially now that a lot of programs have very, very flexible cancellation policies, I will every now and then, when I think it might be necessary, book a backup flight.

We've all probably been at the airport in a scenario where a flight was canceled or significantly delayed. If you already have a backup booked and that backup can be canceled up until departure for no penalty, there's not a lot of reason not to do it as long as you don't need those points and miles.

And so I remember when we were coming back from Hawaii, I just booked a second flight. Just in case we show up and something was canceled and we wanted to get home, we had it. Turns out nothing was wrong, canceled the flight, got all the points back. Again, keep in mind, transfers to programs are irreversible.

So this doesn't work well if you want to make sure you keep your points as flexible as possible. But if you already have points, especially in programs like Delta, American, Alaska, and United, where booking and canceling has no penalties and no fees, then this is something I use all the time just to make sure we're backed up.