Maximize your rewards in 2025: Points and miles tasks to complete now

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It’s time to start the new year off right, and that may mean finally redeeming your Chase Ultimate Rewards points for maximum value.

Or perhaps you’ll earn American Airlines AAdvantage status from your living room couch using American Airlines Loyalty Points.

From opting for the best Marriott Choice Benefit to selecting the right airline for your American Express airline fee credit, here’s an overview of some points and miles tasks to consider as you settle into 2025.

Choose your Marriott Choice Benefits

If you accrued 50 or more elite nights with Marriott Bonvoy in 2024, you’ll want to select your Marriott Choice Benefits by the Feb. 1 deadline. This is notably more flexible than before, as Marriott used to require a selection by Jan. 7.

Once you reach 50 elite nights in a calendar year, you can choose one of the following:

• Five elite night credits (toward your 2025 elite nights)
• Five Nightly Upgrade Awards
• A $1,000 discount on your favorite Marriott hotel mattress
• A $100 charity donation
• A gift of Marriott Bonvoy Silver Elite status for a family member, friend or colleague

You’ll get an additional selection once you accrue 75 elite nights in a calendar year. Aside from the options you receive once you reach 50 elite nights, you’ll also get to choose if you’d like to gift Gold Elite (rather than Silver Elite) status or add the option of a free night certificate worth up to 40,000 points.

If you don’t choose by Feb. 1, 2025, Marriott will automatically choose Nightly Upgrade Awards for you.

Related: The complete guide to earning Marriott elite status with credit cards

Change your airline for the Amex fee credit

Those with an American Express card that issues an annual airline fee credit have until Jan. 31 each year to change the airline they’ve selected for the credit. If you do nothing, your selection will remain the same as the previous year.

Some of the American Express cards that offer annual airline fee credits after enrollment include:

Amex says you can use the airline fee credits for “incidental fees such as checked baggage, inflight refreshments, and flight change fees” that you pay to your chosen airline using an enrolled card.

Note that Amex sometimes allows one-time changes to your airline selection after Jan. 31, especially if you can provide a valid reason — like an airline no longer serving your home airport or a move away from a carrier’s hub. You can request this via the chat feature on Amex’s website or mobile app, though there’s no guarantee it’ll be honored.

Remember that this no longer applies to the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, which now offers a more flexible $200 annual airline credit (split into $50 quarterly increments; enrollment required). Rather than being limited to incidental fees, it’s valid on eligible flight purchases made directly with an airline or through AmexTravel.com.

The information for the Hilton Aspire Amex card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Earn the coveted Southwest Companion Pass

Whether you want to fly to Aruba, Jamaica, Hawaii or Nebraska, generally speaking, the earlier in the year you earn the Southwest Companion Pass, the better.

Southwest awards a Companion Pass after you earn either 135,000 Companion Pass qualifying points or take 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year.

Once you surpass the threshold to earn a Companion Pass, your designated companion can fly for free with you on Southwest (other than the cost of taxes) for the rest of the calendar year in which it’s earned and the following calendar year. That means you can earn the pass now and have it through Dec. 31, 2026.

If you’re striving to earn the Companion Pass, signing up for a new Southwest credit card can help. Holders of a Southwest cobranded credit card receive 10,000 qualifying points annually, effectively reducing the total requirement to 125,000 qualifying points annually. In addition, any points you earn from a welcome bonus on a Southwest card also count toward Companion Pass qualification.

Related: How to use the Southwest Companion Pass

Select your Delta Choice Benefits

Like Marriott, Delta Air Lines awards its higher-tier elite status members with Choice Benefits. You get one selection when you qualify for Platinum Medallion status and three selections when you qualify for Diamond Medallion status.

Benefits include Delta upgrade certificates, bonus SkyMiles, Sky Club passes, Delta travel vouchers and the ability to gift Medallion status to somebody else.

Selection opens as soon as you earn either Platinum or Diamond Medallion status and must be selected by the time your status expires (Jan. 31).

This means that Jan. 31, 2025, is the deadline for selecting your Delta Choice Benefits from the status you earned in the 2023 calendar year (if you haven’t already done so). Conversely, if you qualified for Platinum or Diamond Medallion based on your Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) in 2024, that status is valid through Jan. 31, 2026 — which is also your deadline for selecting that year’s Choice Benefit(s).

If you don’t make a selection before the deadline, the option(s) will disappear entirely, never to return.

Related: Delta Medallion status: What it is and how to earn it

Use your travel and other credits

Some credit card travel credits reset with the calendar year, and some operate by cardmember year (i.e., when you were first approved for the card). Regardless, this is a good time of year to see when your available travel credits reset and put them to good use.

Related: The top 11 credit cards with annual travel statement credits

In addition to the Amex airline fee credits already mentioned above, here’s a look at some of the other travel-related credits you might have access to:

In addition, the Hilton Aspire, Amex Platinum and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express each offer up to a $199 statement credit toward an annual Clear Plus membership for expedited airport security (subject to auto-renewal).

The information for the Premium Rewards Elite, Citi Prestige and Hilton Aspire cards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

You might also have travel credits with airlines. If so, now is a good time to make a plan for using these credits.

A few popular rewards cards have other nontravel-related credits that reset or renew on Jan. 1, such as:

• The Platinum Card® from American Express: Up to $50 Saks Fifth Avenue statement credit is issued twice yearly — once from January to June and then a second up to $50 statement credit valid from July to December. Enrollment required.
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express: Up to $400 in annual statement credits per calendar year (issued as $200 twice yearly) for U.S. Dell Technologies purchases through June 30, 2025, up to $360 in annual statement credits with Indeed (issued as $90 per quarter), up to $150 in annual statement credit on select Adobe purchases through June 30, 2025, and up to $120 in annual wireless provider statement credits. Enrollment is required in advance for some benefits.

Related: Which travel credits are the easiest to redeem?

Use up your elite status perks — or request a status match

With many airlines and hotels, you must requalify for status by the end of each calendar year. But if you don’t requalify, you often keep your status until the end of January or February.

In short, if you didn’t requalify, you may still have a month or two of “free” status. As such, the beginning of the year is an ideal opportunity to use up elite status perks from the previous year, such as airline or suite upgrades. This is also an ideal time to consider a potential status match to another program since most require proof of existing status with a competitor.

If you’re about to lose complimentary seat selection because of your expiring status, it’s a good idea to book and assign any seats you can while you can.

Sometimes, you can even use upgrade certificates for friends, depending on the program’s rules, so they don’t always have to go to waste just because you aren’t traveling in the next few weeks.

Related: When does airline elite status expire?

Label your cards to maximize your benefits

What are your award travel goals for the year? If you want to sip a mango smoothie in a Balinese rainforest or frolic down the Champs-Elysees, you may want to add a hotel credit card that offers an annual free night to your wallet.

Do you need more Alaska Airlines miles to snag a great deal on a partner award? If so, time to crank your Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card into regular rotation.

Maybe you’re looking to spend your way to status for the first time — which means cards like the World of Hyatt Credit Card, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® or the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card could be great options for your everyday spending.

Brush up on your current bonus categories and goals for the year. You may want to reallocate your spending among the cards you currently hold. Or maybe you’ll realize it’s a good time to pick up a new travel rewards card and spend a certain amount to receive a generous welcome bonus.

Whatever travel goals and credit cards you select, it’s helpful to label those cards with the benefit you’re chasing and the card’s bonus categories so you don’t miss out on optimizing your spending. You’ll then quickly know which is the best card to use when you open your wallet.

Related: Quick Points: Maximize Priority Pass benefits by labeling your cards

Bottom line

There’s a lot to do at the beginning of the year to set the rest of the year off right — especially when it comes to points, miles and credit card rewards.

However, a little extra work now likely means you’ll maximize your rewards in 2025.