165. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of 2025 in Points and Miles

Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points

Alex, Pam and Jess

Education, Places & Travel, Society & Culture, How To

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you feel overwhelmed by the constant changes in the points and miles world? In this episode, we break down everything that happened in 2025, from exciting new card releases to some challenging policy changes. Whether you're feeling discouraged by the negative headlines or wondering if this hobby is still worth it, we're here to reassure you that there are still plenty of opportunities to earn points and travel nearly free.

We'll share our personal experiences with the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2025. You'll learn which new cards are worth keeping, how to adjust to devaluations, and why prioritizing elevated offers and diversifying your points balances is more important than ever. We'll also discuss how we're adjusting our strategies moving forward.

You can find links to resources mentioned in this episode plus the transcript here: pointstalksquad.com/165

Ready to get started with NEARLY FREE travel? Click here for the exact offers we would sign up for this month: https://pointstalksquad.lpages.co/bestoffers/

Points Talk is also on YouTube! You can watch this episode here: youtube.com/@pointstalksquad

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	2025 was full of some good things in the Points in Miles world and some not so good things.
0:05.9	Listen in as we share the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2025.
0:10.6	Welcome to Points Talk.
0:12.4	We are three moms who've discovered how to leverage credit card welcome offers
0:16.1	to get hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free.
0:20.7	We've used credit card
0:21.6	points of miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much
0:27.7	more. And the best part? We each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take
0:33.8	the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. It's totally possible and we're here to
0:38.2	show you how. I'm Alex and I'm Pam, Alex's mom. And I'm Jess. Let's Talk Points. It's hard to
0:48.2	believe another year has passed, but just like every year before it, there have been some things
0:54.1	and some great things in the points in the points in Miles world and some not so great things in the points in Miles world.
0:59.9	So today we are going to talk about the good, the bad, and the downright ugly from 2025.
1:08.5	I just want to say I feel like 2025 was a bit of a doozy when it comes to all of the changes that
1:15.2	happened. But I also want to reassure you, we have been doing this for a very long time. Every
1:19.6	year there are changes. Every year there are good things, bad things, and ugly things that happen.
1:24.6	We are still going strong. We are still earning our points. We are still
1:28.4	traveling nearly free. And so don't let it discourage you or say like it's not worth it to do
1:33.7	this anymore. It is absolutely worth it. It might take a little bit more effort. But it is 100%
1:39.4	worth it. We're going to start out with the good though. Hey, Jess, I wanted to say one thing is I feel like it kind
1:45.7	took my breath away this year because I think it all happened the last quarter of the year,
1:50.8	or a ton of stuff did. I mean, good, bad, ugly, everything. And it was like, whoa, what is going?
	...

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