As rewards programs proliferate and shift to spending rather than miles flown, it has become harder to earn awards. We explain why, and help you plan a strategy to maximize your rewards.

These days, airlines are happy to shower you with sign-up bonuses and juicy earning multipliers to get you to spend on their credit cards. It’s supposed to be a mutually beneficial relationship: You get award travel, and the airlines get record profits. Delta Air Lines, for example, earned nearly $2 billion from its American Express partnership in just the last three months of 2024 — up 14 percent from the previous year.

The problem, though, is that the points and miles you earn are buying less travel than they used to.

Just look at British Airways, which increased some partner award prices by 60 percent in under a year, or Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue, which recently raised the number of points

Keep reading this article on The New York Times Your Money.