Points and Miles Glossary: 116 Terms, Each in One Sentence

Every guide on this site uses the same shorthand — cpp, 5/24, SUB, AF, CDW, AZEO — and none of it is obvious the first time you meet it. This page defines 116 terms in one place, each in one or two sentences, with a link to the guide that goes deeper.

Quick answer

This is a reference page, not an article to read front to back. Use the index below to jump to a term, or link straight to one: every term has a stable anchor, so /guides/points-and-miles-glossary#cpp lands on the definition of cents per point in whichever language you are reading.

• Terms stay in English in all four languages of this site, because that is how you will meet them in a card application or on a forum
• Each definition names the trap, not just the meaning — a term you understand but misapply costs the same as one you never learned
• 116 terms in 9 groups: currencies, applications, earning, redemption, card lifecycle, elite status, protections, credit file, business cards

Index

1/5 rule · 2/30 rule · 5/24 rule · 6/24 rule · AAoA (average age of accounts) · Adverse action letter · Annual fee (AF) · Annual fee refund window · APR · Authorized user (AU) · Award · Award availability · Award change fee · Award chart · AZEO · Baggage delay · Balance transfer · Bonus category · Break-even · Business credit score · Carrier-imposed surcharge (YQ) · Cash advance · Cash and points · Cashback · Category cap · Cell phone protection · Charge card · Chargeback · Churning · Close-in booking fee · Co-brand points · Coupon book · CPP (cents per point) · Credit builder loan · Credit bureau · Credit freeze · Credit report · Deferred interest · Derogatory mark · Devaluation · Distance-based award · Downgrade · Dynamic award pricing · Effective annual fee · EIN · Elite night credit · Elite status · Employee card · Extended warranty · FICO · Financial review · Fixed-value points · Flat-rate card · Floor value · Free night certificate (FNC) · Grace period · Guest of Honor · Hard pull · ITIN · Loss of use · MCC (merchant category code) · Milestone reward · Minimum spend · Multiplier · NPSL · Once per lifetime · One-way transfer · Peak and off-peak pricing · Personal guarantee · Phantom availability · Points pooling · Pop-up jail · Positioning flight · Pre-qualification · Primary CDW · Priority Pass · Product change (PC) · Purchase protection · Qualifying metric (MQD, PQP, Loyalty Points) · Reconsideration · Referral bonus (RAF) · Retention offer · Revenue-based program · Rotating categories · Saver award · Secondary CDW · Secured card · Shopping portal · Shutdown · Sock drawer card · Soft landing · Soft pull · Sole proprietor · Speculative transfer · Stacking · Statement credit · Status challenge · Status match · Stopover · Suite upgrade award · Sweet spot · Targeted offers · Thin file · Transfer bonus · Transfer partner · Transfer ratio · Transfer time · Transferable points · Trifecta · Trip cancellation · Trip delay protection · Trip interruption · Two-player mode · Utilization · VantageScore · Welcome bonus (SUB)

Currencies, rates and value

Transferable points

Bank points that convert into several airline and hotel programs rather than being locked to one — Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou, Capital One miles and Bilt Rewards. Flexibility is the whole value: a devaluation at one partner costs you an option, not your balance.

Co-brand points

The currency of a single airline or hotel earned on a card carrying that brand — Delta SkyMiles on an Amex Delta card, Hilton Honors points on an Amex Hilton card. You cannot move them anywhere else, so their value rises and falls entirely with one program.

Fixed-value points

Points redeemable at a published, constant rate — typically as a statement credit or toward travel booked through a portal. Simple and predictable, and almost always worth less than the same points transferred to a partner for a premium cabin.

Cashback

Rewards paid in dollars rather than points. The honest benchmark for everything else on this page: if a points strategy does not beat a flat cashback card after your time and annual fees, it is not a strategy. See the best cashback cards.

CPP (cents per point)

Cents of value per point, the unit that makes every redemption comparable: divide the cash price of what you booked by the number of points it cost, times 100. A 60,000-point award against an $900 ticket is 1.5 cpp.

Award chart

A published table of how many points a redemption costs, by region, distance or hotel category. A real chart lets you plan a trip years ahead; its absence means you can only react to today's price. See how to read an award chart.

Dynamic award pricing

Award cost tied to the cash price rather than to a chart, so the same seat or room costs a different number of points every day. It removes the possibility of planning and is the mechanism behind most quiet devaluations. See getting outsized value anyway.

Devaluation

A program raising its award prices, cutting its earning rates or tightening its rules, usually with little or no notice. The reason points are not savings. See why points are not savings and the 2026-2027 outlook.

Sweet spot

A specific redemption priced well below its cash value, usually because a chart boundary has not caught up with reality. Sweet spots are the point of the hobby and the first thing a devaluation removes.

Floor value

The guaranteed worst-case value of a currency — what you get cashing out or redeeming for a statement credit, with no travel planning at all. It is the number any transfer has to beat to be worth making.

Revenue-based program

A program that awards points on how much you paid rather than how far you flew, and prices awards the same way. Most large US airline programs now work this way.

Distance-based award

An award priced on the distance flown, usually from a published table. Distance pricing is where long multi-segment partner itineraries become unusually cheap.

Peak and off-peak pricing

A middle model: a published chart with two or three price levels tied to the calendar. Shifting a trip by a few days across a peak boundary can cut an award by a third.

Applications and issuer rules

Welcome bonus (SUB)

The points or cash awarded for opening a card and meeting a spending requirement — by far the largest single source of points for most people. Also written SUB, for sign-up bonus. See how welcome bonuses work and the current best offers.

Minimum spend

The amount you must charge within a set window to earn the welcome bonus. Spending money you would not otherwise spend to reach it cancels the bonus mathematically, which is why the planning matters. See minimum spend strategy.

5/24 rule

Chase's unwritten but consistent practice of declining most applications from anyone who has opened five or more credit cards across all issuers in the past 24 months. It shapes the order in which most people should apply for anything. See 5/24 explained and working around it.

2/30 rule

Chase's limit of roughly two approvals in any 30-day window, independent of 5/24. Hitting it produces a denial that reconsideration often reverses.

1/5 rule

Chase's practice of one Sapphire-family approval every five years, and no approval at all while you hold another Sapphire card. See upgrading versus applying fresh.

Once per lifetime

Amex's rule that a welcome bonus on a given card is available to you once, ever — tracked by card product, not by whether you remember holding it. See the rule in detail.

Pop-up jail

The Amex message, shown before you submit an application, warning that you are not eligible for the welcome bonus on that card. It is a bonus block, not a denial: the card can still be approved, without the bonus. See pop-up jail explained.

6/24 rule

The community's name for Barclays' apparent sensitivity to six or more new accounts in 24 months. Unofficial, inferred from data points, and not a published policy.

Pre-qualification

A check that shows which cards you are likely approved for without a hard inquiry, run from the issuer's own site. Useful as a signal; not an approval, and not a guarantee of the advertised bonus.

Reconsideration

Calling the issuer after a denial to have a human re-read the application. It reverses a meaningful share of denials, especially where the cause was a credit-limit allocation rather than your file. See how to call Chase reconsideration.

Churning

Opening cards primarily to collect welcome bonuses, repeatedly. The term covers a spectrum from ordinary optimization to behaviour that gets accounts closed, and the risk is not mainly to your credit score.

Shutdown

An issuer closing all of your accounts at once, usually without warning and sometimes with points forfeited. Triggered by application velocity, spend patterns the bank reads as abuse, or inaccurate applications.

Financial review

Amex freezing your accounts pending proof that your finances support your spending, often including a request to authorize an IRS transcript release. Your cards stop working during it, which is why moving points out at the first sign matters.

Adverse action letter

The written explanation an issuer must send after a denial, naming the reasons and the score it used. It is the cheapest diagnostic you will get of what your file actually looks like. See reading your credit report.

Earning points

Multiplier

How many points per dollar a category earns, written 3x or 4x. A multiplier means nothing until you convert it with cpp: 4x in a currency worth 1 cent is worse than 2x in one worth 2.5 cents.

Bonus category

Spending the card rewards above its base rate — dining, groceries, travel, transit. The entire case for carrying more than one card is that no single card has the best rate everywhere.

MCC (merchant category code)

The four-digit code the payment networks assign a merchant, which decides whether your purchase earns a bonus category. It explains why a supermarket inside a superstore does not count as groceries and why a hotel restaurant charges as travel.

Category cap

A dollar ceiling on bonus earning, after which the category drops to the base rate — often per quarter or per calendar year. A generous rate with a low cap can be worth less than a lower uncapped one.

Rotating categories

Bonus categories that change each quarter and usually require you to activate them before they earn. Forgetting to activate is the single most common way people lose rewards they already qualified for. See maximizing the Freedom Flex calendar.

Flat-rate card

A card paying one rate on everything, with no categories to track. The right default for any spending your bonus cards do not cover.

Shopping portal

An issuer or airline site you click through before buying online, which pays extra points for the same purchase. See portal stacking and the order to stack in.

Stacking

Combining several rewards on one purchase — a portal click, a targeted offer, a bonus category and a gift card bought at a discount. Order matters, because some layers disqualify others.

Targeted offers

Merchant-specific discounts loaded onto your card and visible only in your own account, marketed as Amex Offers or Chase Offers. They are individually targeted, so no public list is reliable for your account. See Amex Offers strategy and Amex versus Chase Offers.

Referral bonus (RAF)

Points paid to an existing cardholder when someone opens a card through their personal link. Refer-a-friend offers are often worth more than the public bonus, and they are taxable income to the referrer.

Authorized user (AU)

Someone added to your account with their own card, spending on your credit line while you remain liable. Used both to earn on shared spending and, carefully, to extend credit history to someone with a thin file. See AU rules and fees.

Redeeming points

Award

A flight or hotel night paid for with points rather than cash. Taxes and fees are usually still charged in money.

Transfer partner

An airline or hotel program your bank points can move into. The list, not the headline earning rate, is what makes a transferable currency valuable. See the best cards for transfer partners.

Transfer ratio

How many partner miles you get per bank point, written 1:1 or 1:0.8. Ratios below 1:1 quietly undo a good earning rate.

Transfer bonus

A temporary increase in a transfer ratio, usually 20 to 30 percent, for a few weeks. It only creates value if you already have a specific award priced and available. See transfer bonuses explained.

Transfer time

How long points take to arrive — instant for some partners, several days for others. A multi-day transfer means the award you saw can be gone when your points land.

One-way transfer

The fact that bank-to-partner transfers cannot be reversed. There is no support call that undoes one. See are transfers reversible.

Speculative transfer

Moving points to a partner before you have confirmed a bookable award. The most common way people lose large balances outright, and the reason transfer bonuses mislead. See the one-way door.

Saver award

The cheaper of two award price levels in programs that publish both, available on limited seats. The expensive level is usually poor value, so a program advertising low prices may effectively have none.

Award availability

Whether a program will actually sell you the seat or room at the award price, which is a separate question from whether the flight has empty seats. See award availability explained.

Phantom availability

Award space a search tool shows that the program will not actually book, usually a stale cache or a segment the airline will not release to partners. Always confirm on the program's own site before transferring.

Carrier-imposed surcharge (YQ)

A fee an airline adds to an award ticket that is not a government tax, sometimes several hundred dollars on a transatlantic award. It is the single biggest reason two awards priced identically in miles are not equally good deals.

Close-in booking fee

A charge some programs apply to awards booked within a few weeks of departure. Usually waived for elite members, which is one of the few elite perks with a clear dollar value.

Award change fee

What a program charges to change or cancel an award and return the miles. Programs that redeposit for free are materially more useful, because they let you book speculatively and improve later.

Positioning flight

A separate flight you buy to reach the city where your award actually starts. Often cheaper than a worse award from your home airport, and the standard answer when a sweet spot is not available locally. See positioning flights.

Stopover

A deliberate stay of more than 24 hours en route, allowed by some programs at little or no extra cost. Turns one award into two destinations.

Cash and points

Paying part of a booking in money and part in points. Usually mediocre value, and occasionally the only way to get a room or seat at all when a full award is unavailable. See hybrid bookings.

Points pooling

Combining balances between household or family members, where a program allows it. Rules vary enormously by program, and the common blocker is that names on the transfer must match. See Chase household pooling.

The life of a card: keep, change, close

Annual fee (AF)

The yearly charge for holding a card. The number that matters is not this one but the effective fee below.

Effective annual fee

The annual fee minus the credits you will genuinely use, not the credits advertised. A $325 fee against $240 of credits you actually spend is an $85 card; against credits you forget, it is a $325 card.

Statement credit

A fixed reimbursement for spending at specified merchants, usually monthly or annual. Monthly credits expire monthly, which is how most of their value is lost. See premium credits compared.

Coupon book

Dissatisfied shorthand for a premium card whose fee is justified by many narrow credits rather than by broad value. Whether a card is a coupon book depends on whether its coupons match your life.

Break-even

The spending or usage level at which a card's rewards and credits cover its annual fee. The honest test for keeping any card past year one. See annual fee break-even math.

Retention offer

Points or a statement credit an issuer offers to stop you cancelling, available by asking. Not guaranteed, not available on every account, and worth asking for before you cancel anything. See retention offers by issuer and how to ask Amex.

Product change (PC)

Switching an existing account to a different card from the same issuer, keeping the account's age and history. Avoids a new hard pull and preserves your average account age. See product change rules by issuer.

Downgrade

A product change to a cheaper card, usually to a no-annual-fee version. The standard alternative to cancelling, because it keeps the credit line and the account history alive. See what happens to points when you close a card.

Sock drawer card

A card kept open and unused, for the credit line and account age it contributes. Issuers do sometimes close inactive accounts, so a small recurring charge protects it. See cards worth keeping forever.

Annual fee refund window

The period after the fee posts in which cancelling or downgrading gets it refunded, in full or prorated depending on the issuer. Missing it costs a full year's fee on a card you already decided to leave. See refund rules by issuer.

Trifecta

Holding three cards from one issuer whose bonus categories cover each other, with one card able to transfer the pooled points to partners. Quadfecta is the four-card version. See the Chase trifecta, the Amex trifecta and the Citi trifecta.

Two-player mode

A couple treating two sets of accounts as one strategy — alternating applications, referring each other, and pooling points where the programs allow it. Roughly doubles the welcome bonuses available per year. See two-player mode.

Elite status

Elite status

A tier in an airline or hotel program granting benefits above the base level. Increasingly earned by spending rather than by travelling.

Status match

A program granting you status comparable to what you hold elsewhere, to win your business. Usually one attempt per program, so it is worth doing deliberately. See hotel status match.

Status challenge

Provisional status granted on condition that you complete a reduced amount of travel or spending within a few months. Often offered together with, or instead of, a match.

Soft landing

Dropping one tier rather than to the bottom when you fail to requalify. A quiet benefit that materially changes whether chasing a tier was worth it.

Qualifying metric (MQD, PQP, Loyalty Points)

The unit each airline counts toward status — Delta MQDs, United PQPs, American Loyalty Points. Card spending generates them directly, which is the real bridge between a credit card and an airline tier.

Elite night credit

Hotel nights credited toward status without staying, typically granted by a co-brand card each year or per dollar spent. The cheapest part of most hotel status runs.

Milestone reward

A one-off benefit granted on reaching a night, mile or spending threshold — a certificate, a credit, a gift of status. Worth mapping before a status run, because the thresholds, not the tiers, often hold the value.

Free night certificate (FNC)

A voucher for one hotel night, usually capped at a points value or a category, granted annually by a co-brand card. Expiry dates and caps decide whether it covers the fee. See free night certificates compared.

Suite upgrade award

A confirmable upgrade to a suite, granted to high hotel tiers and applied at booking rather than at check-in. The difference between a confirmed and a space-available upgrade is the entire benefit.

Guest of Honor

The Hyatt benefit letting a top-tier member book an award stay for someone else and pass their own benefits to that guest. Unusual in the industry and the strongest single reason to chase that tier. See Guest of Honor explained.

Priority Pass

A third-party lounge network bundled with many premium cards, with wildly varying access rules by card — including whether guests are free and whether restaurant credits are included. See the complete guide.

Purchase and travel protections

Trip delay protection

Reimbursement for hotel, meals and essentials when a trip paid with the card is delayed beyond a set number of hours. The threshold and the covered reasons differ by issuer, and receipts must be collected at the time.

Trip cancellation

Reimbursement of prepaid non-refundable costs when you cannot start a trip for a covered reason. The list of covered reasons is closed and short: changing your mind is never on it.

Trip interruption

The same cover for a trip already under way, including the cost of getting home early. Distinct from cancellation, with its own limits.

Baggage delay

Reimbursement for necessities while checked bags are delayed past a set number of hours, usually capped per day. Claim with the airline first, then the card.

Primary CDW

Rental car damage cover that pays before your own auto insurance, so no claim touches your personal policy. The reason some cards are worth carrying purely for rentals.

Secondary CDW

Cover that pays only what your own insurance does not, after you have claimed on it. Far less useful, and the distinction is easy to miss. See primary versus secondary.

Loss of use

What a rental company charges for income lost while a damaged car is repaired. Whether a card covers it is the most frequently disputed line in a rental claim.

Purchase protection

Cover for a new purchase that is damaged or stolen within a short window after buying it. Limits are per claim and per year. See the best cards for it.

Extended warranty

An extension of the manufacturer's warranty, usually by a year, on items bought with the card. Worth the most on electronics and appliances. See the best cards for it.

Cell phone protection

Cover for a damaged or stolen phone, conditional on paying the phone bill with that card. A deductible applies, and loss is usually excluded. See cell phone protection by card.

Chargeback

Reversing a charge through the card network when a merchant will not resolve a problem. A legal right in the US under the Fair Credit Billing Act, with deadlines, not a courtesy. See how to dispute a charge.

Credit file, scores and debt

FICO

The score model most US lenders actually use, in several versions tuned to card, auto and mortgage lending. The number your card app shows you may not be the version the lender pulled. See where to check your real FICO.

VantageScore

A competing model, often the one shown by free credit sites. Usually directionally similar to FICO and not interchangeable with it. See FICO versus VantageScore.

Hard pull

A lender checking your credit in connection with an application, recorded on your report and visible to other lenders. Costs a few points temporarily and matters most in clusters.

Soft pull

A credit check that does not affect your score — pre-qualification, your own checking, an existing lender's periodic review.

Credit report

The file each bureau holds on you: accounts, balances, payment history, inquiries, public records. The score is derived from it, so errors in the report are the thing to fix. See reading and disputing your report.

Credit bureau

Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, the three companies that hold US credit files. They hold different data, so a card can be approved on one and declined on another.

Utilization

Reported balances as a share of your credit limits, both per card and overall. The second-largest factor in most scores and the only large one you can change in a month. See utilization explained.

AZEO

All Zero Except One: paying every card to a zero reported balance except one carrying a small balance, to optimize a score before an application. A short-term tactic for a mortgage or a large approval, not a way to live. See per-card versus overall utilization.

AAoA (average age of accounts)

The mean age of all accounts on your file. Opening cards lowers it, and closing an old card does not immediately raise it, which is one argument for downgrading rather than cancelling.

Thin file

A credit report with too few accounts or too little history for a score to be generated reliably. The starting position of nearly every newcomer to the US. See building credit with no history.

Derogatory mark

A negative entry — late payment, charge-off, collection, judgment — that stays on the report for years regardless of whether the debt was later paid. See how long things stay on your report.

Credit freeze

Locking your credit file so no new lender can pull it, which stops most new-account fraud. Free to place and lift, and it must be lifted before you apply for anything. See how to freeze your credit.

Secured card

A card backed by a refundable deposit that usually sets the credit limit. The most reliable first card for a thin file or after serious credit damage. See the best secured cards.

Credit builder loan

A small loan whose proceeds are held until you finish paying, designed to create installment payment history. An alternative or complement to a secured card. See the comparison.

ITIN

An IRS-issued taxpayer number for people without a Social Security number, accepted by some but not all card issuers. See getting an ITIN and building credit with it and cards accepting ITIN.

NPSL

No Preset Spending Limit, used by Amex charge cards: no fixed limit, but purchases can still be declined based on your history and payment record. How it is reported affects your utilization. See how charge cards report.

Grace period

The window between your statement closing and the due date, during which paying the full balance means no interest. Carrying a balance even once suspends it until you are back to zero. See statement date versus due date.

APR

The annualized interest rate on a carried balance, applied daily to your average balance. One month of carried interest usually erases a year of rewards. See how interest is calculated and negotiating a lower APR.

Cash advance

Taking cash against a card, by ATM or equivalent. No grace period, a higher rate from day one, and a separate fee — the most expensive ordinary way to use a credit card.

Balance transfer

Moving debt from one card to another, usually for a fee, to get a lower or zero rate for a fixed period. Useful only with a plan to clear it before the promotional rate ends. See zero APR versus balance transfer.

Deferred interest

A store-card promotion where interest accrues from the purchase date and is charged in full retroactively if any balance remains at the end of the promotional window. Not the same as zero percent APR, and the difference is the whole trap.

Business cards

EIN

The IRS tax identification number for a business. Many issuers accept a Social Security number instead for a sole proprietor, so an EIN is not a precondition for a business card. See EIN versus SSN.

Sole proprietor

An unincorporated one-person business, which is what most freelancers and side-income earners legitimately are. Enough to qualify for a business card at most issuers. See cards for sole proprietors.

Personal guarantee

Your personal promise to repay a business card's debt, required on nearly every small-business card. It is why a business card can still damage your personal credit if it goes unpaid. See do business cards affect personal credit.

Business credit score

A separate score for the business itself, held by different bureaus from consumer credit. Mostly irrelevant to getting your first small-business card and relevant later for vendor terms and loans. See business credit scores explained.

Employee card

An additional card on a business account, usually free, with spending visible and controllable by the owner. Earns into the same points balance, which is the main reason to issue them. See employee card strategy.

Charge card

A card with no revolving option: the balance is due in full each statement. Amex's business and personal charge cards are the common example, and they behave differently from credit cards on your report.

How to use this page

Three practical habits:

1. Link to a definition instead of explaining it. Every term has a permanent anchor — /guides/points-and-miles-glossary plus the hash shown in the index.
2. Check the trap, not just the meaning. Most of the money lost in this hobby is lost on terms people did understand: a speculative transfer, an unactivated quarter, a missed refund window.
3. Start with cpp. Almost every decision on this site reduces to converting a points number into cents and comparing it to cash. If one term is worth learning first, it is that one.

Key takeaway: the vocabulary is not the hobby, but every expensive mistake in it has a name on this page. Learn cpp, one-way transfer and effective annual fee first; the rest you can look up when you meet it.