(CNN) — Aliera Iheanacho had banked more than 100,000 United Airlines miles, hoping she could one day experience a first class, lie-flat seat experience. But that dream will have to wait.
This summer’s high airline ticket prices, driven by the soaring cost of jet fuel, made her airfare to China in May much more than she had budgeted.
She almost decided to cancel her plans to visit Disneyland parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Instead, Iheanacho wiped out her miles balance by using more than 60,000 miles on airfare in just one direction, then used another roughly 60,000 miles on hotels. She and her partner still paid cash for the return flight, as well as the second full roundtrip fare.
Iheanacho, who is trying to see all the Disney parks in the world, said the cheapest part of her trip was the park tickets to Hong Kong Disneyland (about $85 per person for one day) and Shanghai Disneyland (about $160 per person for two days).
“I’m glad that I went, but I am frustrated that I do have to start over,” Iheanacho said of rebuilding her mileage balance. “I can honestly be frustrated at myself for booking later. I could be frustrated about the current situation that we’re in with the presidency, or just our local lawmakers, and this whole war going on [and] the Strait of Hormuz.”
While gas prices have fallen a bit from their peak this spring, AAA listed the national average price of gas at $4.11 per gallon on Monday, up from $2.98 on the eve of the war in Iran.
Jet fuel prices roughly doubled after the war in Iran began, a much more aggressive increase than gasoline prices. That’s because in addition to a shortage of crude oil needed to produce both, much more refined jet fuel was throttled in the Strait of Hormuz versus refined gasoline.
But airfare has held steady even as jet fuel prices have come down, because demand for air travel has remained strong. There are also fewer available seats overall, after airlines cut capacity in response to rising jet fuel costs and Spirit Airlines ceased operations.
Industry experts have observed travelers turning to any available loyalty points and miles to “work around” the high prices.
Experts have pointed to loyalty programs as one factor supporting the travel industry in a moment when many consumers are experiencing sticker shock with cash prices.
“We probably should thank them as helping to sustain travel in some way right now, that people have the ability to capitalize on the points and awards that they’ve earned,” said Erin Francis-Cummings, president and CEO of Future Partners, a travel consumer and industry insights firm.
“The only other time that feels similar to this is probably the Great Recession,” she said. But, she added, “This is the most we’ve seen usage of points and awards, because I don’t think that the infrastructure of that was as sophisticated back then.”
Francis-Cummings said she even spent 40% of her own points balance on a hotel for a July 4 stay this year.
Shifting mentality
Rina Patel used to save up all her miles from work trips only for international vacation splurges. But she said that mentality has shifted in the last few months after she experienced the sudden loss of some good friends.
“It’s awful, because you think we have forever. You think we have many years, and you just don’t know when something can happen like that,” Patel said.
So she started thinking about prioritizing bucket-list experiences and using the points she had banked for so long. She also learned that miles and points cannot be automatically inherited like a bank account upon one’s death.
Her shift in wanting to travel more and use her saved points happened just as airfare shot up.
When using online calculators to determine whether a trip would be more cost-effective using cash or miles, she determined that two of her summer East Coast trips from Orange County, California, would be better booked with miles.
“Years ago, I used to just not use them at all domestically. I wouldn’t even look and see how much it would cost me, because I was saving them,” she said.
Doing so took a bite out of her overall miles balance, the remainder of which she is still hoping to use for her big Italy trip in the fall.
When she spends these miles domestically, she said “it still does bother me.”
Your mileage may vary
Searches for award travel on seats.aero, an award travel search platform, were up 45% in April, May and June, compared to the same period last year. But booking clicks were up only around 27%.
“More searches are happening, but there is less finding of what they want,” said Chris Lopinto, CEO of seats.aero.
He told CNN it’s not an issue of airlines throttling award inventory; it’s an issue of price. Award travel used to follow a fixed value chart, but now the number of miles needed to fly a certain route can change based on demand, just like the cash price does.
For example, a seats.aero analysis of award seat availability noted the average miles it would take to fly from New York City to Europe in July: 40,000 miles, a 33% increase since July 2025. Within the United States, flying from New York to Los Angeles this July would cost an average of 37,500 miles, a whopping 85% increase from one year ago.
Award seats not only cost more miles this year, but they’re also harder to find.
“The other thing that airlines have done, aside from just raising the prices, is they’ve also cut back on certain flights to basically conserve, if you will, which means that there’s less seats in the air, which means that supply is down, demand stays the same, prices go up,” Lopinto said.
Lopinto said travelers have to be flexible to get what they want. And if they find a good deal with points, it’s not a bad call to use them now.
“Points are like dollars under the mattress. They lose money to inflation,” he said. “So that’s why you have the mindset of ‘burn as you earn.’ If you just store points and miles in your accounts forever and ever, they will inherently lose value over time, relatively speaking.”
Staying flexible
College sports fan Regina Lee said she used miles for a recent trip to watch the softball team from her alma mater, Duke University, play in Arkansas. Because she closely follows college sports, where the next destination is sometimes only determined after the outcome of the last game, she is often banking points and miles to use on flights booked on short notice.
“I think the prices were in the $800s,” Lee said of her search for airfare from Los Angeles to the airports close to Fayetteville, Arkansas. She booked the trip using miles instead.
For another trip to Durham, North Carolina, Lee said she wasn’t sure if she would make the trip at all, because of unexpectedly high airfare. She ended up booking it by paying cash, but flying on cheaper dates, requiring her to extend the trip and stay at a friend’s house.
Lee said she feels for travelers who either don’t have the flexibility in travel, or who don’t know how to work the system to try to maximize points.
“Had I not had any flexibility for this August trip that I’m flying into GSO (Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina) for the first time, I wouldn’t have been able to take it, because the ideal travel dates – the airfare was over $800,” Lee said.
“Could I afford it? Yes. Should I afford it? No.”
Pain at the gas pump
Part of Lee’s trips involve renting a car, especially if flying into an airport farther from her sporting event is the cheapest option. So she also has to factor in the cost of the rental, plus gas.
A Gallup poll from the first half of June showed that 46% of Americans have altered their summer vacation plans because of the price of gas. Similarly, a Marist poll in June showed that 45% of Americans are not taking a vacation this summer.
Nearly half of those who are staying home say that the main reason is cost. Against that backdrop, Hertz has noticed car renters choosing cheaper, prepaid reservations, and choosing hybrid vehicles, said Adnan Manzur, senior vice president of customer operations for Hertz North America.
He said the company saw demand rise 140% for hybrid bookings from late June to early July compared to the same period last year.
“They are not only booking that, but also, you know, sometimes following up to make sure that that vehicle’s available,” said Manzur. “I think even if the fuel prices do come down, the consumers have kind of learned something along the way, that hybrid is a better option.”
EV rentals have increased as well, Manzur said, especially in California. Hertz is seizing on this moment by offering 10% off EV and hybrid rentals booked before September 30.
And with oil recently topping $100 a barrel for the first time since May, travelers will likely keep aggressively searching for ways to trim costs.
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