Now is the best time to book summer travel, especially if you’re using points. Here's why

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If you're staring out of your office window and dreaming of using travel rewards to book a relaxing beach getaway or cabin retreat, now is the right time to act.

When it comes to using credit card miles or points, I've found that booking sooner is usually better than waiting until the last minute. This is doubly true for award flights.

Although we have months before the summer travel season is in full swing, it's never too early to start earning rewards and using them. Here's why I suggest using your credit card rewards now.

For me, step one is almost always securing award flights and then filling out the rest of the trip from there. The reason is that the cheapest award seats can disappear quickly; this is especially true for premium international award flights.

Dynamic pricing has become the standard for award flights, with the cost fluctuating based on demand and other factors. Fluctuating prices have allowed airlines such as United and American Airlines to let you use miles to book any seat. The problem is that the price typically increases as the seats become more scarce. By booking early, you can secure a seat for fewer miles before prices jump.

Earn miles in advance

If you don't have the miles to book the flights you want, you can earn them in one fell swoop with a big welcome bonus. The problem is, the best limited-time bonuses can take months to earn. So it's better to earn the rewards you need well in advance. 

For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) offers a 75,000-point welcome bonus after you spend $5,000 on the card in the first three months of account opening. Even if you spend $5,000 on your first day with the card, the terms say you'll receive the points in six to eight weeks. In my experience, however, the bonus can post to your account much sooner (usually after that month's statement is generated).

If you're booking a last-minute trip, don't count on being able to quickly earn the rewards you need.

With travel rewards, flights tend to be the bottleneck. Outside of special events, like concerts or popular sporting events, it's usually easier to find and book award nights at hotels. You also have other non-award lodging options outside of hotels, given the prevalence of Airbnb, vacation rentals and camping.

Once you have your flights booked, a hotel credit card can help you save on the rest of your trip.

Right now, two hotel credit cards are offering welcome bonuses worth up to five free nights. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card allows you to earn five Free Night Awards after spending $3,000 on eligible purchases in the first three months. Each Free Night Award is valid at hotels costing up to 50,000 points per night.

The World of Hyatt Credit Card currently has an offer: Earn up to 60,000 Bonus Points. Earn 30,000 Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. Plus, up to 30,000 more Bonus Points by earning 2 Bonus Points total per $1 spent in the first 6 months from account opening on purchases that normally earn 1 Bonus Point, on up to $15,000 spent.

Flexible travel rewards can also be useful for booking hotels. For example, the Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn with the Sapphire Preferred can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to both Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt. You could use those points to book hotels or enhance what you receive from a hotel credit card. Marriott lets you top off Free Night Awards with up to 15,000 points, which means each free night you get with the Marriott Boundless welcome bonus could be used to book a hotel room costing up to 65,000 points per night.

You typically get the best value when you use travel rewards to book expensive flights, but many travel programs offer better redemption options depending on the situation.

For example, you can redeem Capital One miles for a statement credit toward eligible travel charges at a rate of 1 cent per mile, and this option applies to transactions you've made in the previous 90 days.

This redemption option makes Capital One credit cards that earn miles — such as the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card — great options for last-minute travel. You could open one of these cards, book your travel and as long as you earn the bonus miles within 90 days of booking, you can offset your purchase with miles. You may even be eligible for instant access to your card through the Capital One app.

Right now, the Venture Rewards card has a welcome bonus: earn a one-time bonus 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. Then, as long as you receive the 75,000 bonus miles within 90 days, you can redeem them for a $750 statement credit toward your purchase.

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For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.

Information about the World of Hyatt Credit Card has been collected independently by Select and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of the card prior to publication.