The last travel rush of the year is almost upon us, but the good news is there’s still time to book flights and maybe even save some money when redeeming airline miles. Ahead of the holiday season, we spoke with five industry experts who shared tips on maximizing points during peak travel periods.

From calculating the cash value of your miles to using travel booking portals, these strategies can save you hundreds of dollars on your upcoming flights.

Know how many points you have.

The first step in planning your upcoming holiday trip is to take inventory of your frequent flyer rewards; This includes credit card points you accumulate.

Let’s say you’re looking at something thanksgiving flight to see your family, but you only have 10,000 JetBlue points and 7,000 Chase points in your account. If the price of this round-trip ticket is $408 or about 30,000 TrueBlue pointsyou’ll need to figure out how to earn the rest of these rewards pretty quickly. But for sure travel credit cardsAccording to founder Juan Ruiz, you may have more options than you think. JetBetterA personalized travel concierge company.

“Most banks have relationships with airlines and hotels where you can instantly transfer your points from credit card rewards to their respective loyalty programs and get more value for your hard-earned points,” Ruiz said. “Chase Ultimate Rewards is one of the biggest and best credit card programs, so points can be transferred 1:1 to more than a dozen partners.”

This means if you have 1,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you can convert it into 1,000 air miles points or even 1,000 hotel points through a partner program. Case in point: Chase has a partnership with JetBlue. In the aforementioned scenario, you can transfer all 7,000 points to your TrueBlue account, providing you with more than half of the points you need for an instant ticket. These partnerships are crucial to understand, and you can easily find them by checking your credit card’s rewards portal to find out how (and where) you can increase the value of your points.

Buy the miles you need.

Here’s another lesser-known tip: You can usually buy the additional miles you need, but you’ll want to do some math to see if it’s worth it, Max Do said. Maximum Miles PointsEducation brand that provides information about miles and points.

“The strategy I often recommend for people who are in a hurry to earn some miles and points is to purchase points directly from the airline or hotel,” Do said. “Sometimes the points and miles (that you need) are on sale, where you can get a 25 percent bonus, sometimes even up to 150 percent.”

Going back to our example, JetBlue frequently runs promotions at point of purchase. In early November, the company offered travelers the chance to earn a 125 percent bonus when they purchased at least 3,000 points. This brings the cost to about 1.43 cents per piece, meaning you’ll spend about $193 to buy the remaining points. While it’s not a completely “free” flight, it’s certainly a better deal than spending more than $400 for the same ticket—all while using small points balances.

Understand the value of every kilometer.

If you decide redeem miles directly through the airline, it’s important to understand the value of every mile. Jarrod West, senior journalist Upgraded Pointsanalyzes frequent flyer programs on a monthly basis and publishes their valuations.

“For major U.S. loyalty programs, try to aim to redeem airline miles to get around 1.2 to 1.4 cents in value,” West said. “While it is possible to achieve even greater value, there are programs such as: Delta SkyMiles is usually worth 1.2 cents, whereas American Airlines AAvantage miles “It is valued at around 1.4 cents.”

Be careful during the holiday season.

Understanding the value of an airline mile, which varies by program, can help you make smarter decisions when redeeming rewards. But there’s a caveat here: All experts agree that during high-demand travel periods, the value of your rewards may decrease or certain flights may not be redeemable for miles. We explained that it’s a good idea to have a backup plan in this situation Chris DongA freelance travel journalist specializing in aviation.

“If I can’t be flexible with my travel dates and need to book a flight on a certain day, my fallback option would be to go through a credit card portal,” Dong said. “You typically get 1 cent per point per value, which may not necessarily be the best payout, but it can still be better than what the airline charges in miles during the holiday.”

The math is simple: A $300 flight typically requires around 30,000 points. You can apply any number of credit card points at checkout, so even with limited funds you can reduce your travel expenses and cover the rest in cash. As another benefit, you’ll earn airline miles when booking; Just remember to enter your frequent flyer number or add it to your booking later.

Find out when to redeem your miles for flights.

If you have plenty of credit card points and various airline miles, it’s wise to be selective when using them. founder Julia Menez Geobreeze Travelapplies its own rule of thumb to determine when it’s worth (or not worth) redeeming miles for any given flight.

“I find it easier to use the 10k rule,” Menez said. “I am ready to pay up to 10 thousand points for each hour in business class. Not including layovers, it takes eight hours to fly from Chicago to Germany, so I’d pay up to 80,000 points in business class for this flight. “I use the same logic for economy flights, but there is a 5K rule.”

According to Menez, various online tools can help travelers find award availability and live prices while also helping determine whether redeeming miles is worthwhile.

“If you don’t want to do all that math, there’s a free Chrome extension called Points Path It integrates with Google Flights,” added Menez. “It will tell you whether points or cash is a better deal for domestic airlines like United, American and Delta.”