The best points redemptions are the ones that bring us closer to loved ones

I love to travel, and over my lifetime I’ve had the opportunity to see some of our planet’s most beautiful natural landscapes, awe-inspiring monuments we built with our own hands and cities and countries that shaped the course of humanity.

But to me, the best part of travel isn’t the photo ops or lie-flat seats. It’s the people I meet and connections I make along the way, and the chance to reconnect with people I already know there.

This summer, for the first time in a long time, I decided to forgo my usual heavy-handed summer travel planning to focus on just that: spending time with the friends and family around the world who bring me joy — something I’ve been missing much of since my husband passed away last summer.

While everyone else had their dream redemptions set and free night certificates locked down, I decided to spend my points and miles traveling without much of a plan, getting myself to my friends in the States and in Europe to crash on their couches (OK, and the occasional hotel in between) in any way I could.

I started the way I do every summer: an American Airlines redemption to Lubbock, Texas, to stay a week with my parents for the Fourth of July. Getting to Lubbock from New York City, where I live, is never cheap. But to me, a redemption that gives me the chance to hug my precious parents’ necks is priceless. (And I could write an entire guide to how to use your points and miles for good barbecue.)

Next, I went down to the Hill Country for my best friend’s bachelorette party on the river. After a laughter-filled weekend, I figured I’d use a free night certificate to crash a hotel in Austin and dip into my stash of AAdvantage points to get back to my folks before setting out, without a plan, to Europe.

But instead, a pal insisted I stay with them, and even ended up driving me seven hours back to our hometown. Sure, free hotel breakfast is great, and so is the convenience of air travel. But I promise no upgrade in the world beats late-night couch catch-ups and the conversations that come when you’re cruising 75 down the highway.

By mid-July, I still had no concrete plans to get to Europe, other than that I had to be in Amsterdam for a reporting trip with Booking.com for World Pride. So I leaned into an open-ended invite from a fellow journalist to spend a week at her home in Lisbon.

A good redemption at the time was not available, so I paid cash for a cheap flight and moved into her guest room. Again, over late-night takeout and cheap bottles of wine, I was reminded why I love to travel in the first place.

But even the most sociable traveler has limits. After nearly three weeks of staying wherever I fit, I needed to recharge. So I splurged for a roughly $480 cash night at the stunning new Andaz Lisbon through The Edit by Chase Travel, knowing I’d have a beautiful room, a $100 property credit and a nice breakfast to help me recharge.

I thought I’d head to Amsterdam early after that, but the quiet time in Lisbon helped me realize that sometimes solitude is the best medicine — even if that’s what I was trying to avoid at home with the absence of my husband, Matthew.

I do, in fact, like to be alone, but usually when I’m surrounded by strangers. So I cashed in 66,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and a 35,000-point Free Night Award certificate for two nights at the boutique-like, gorgeous Forte de Gaia, Autograph Collection in Porto. A trendy hotel in a breathtaking city, my home base was the perfect place to return and relax after long walks along the river and evenings spent sipping wine and people-watching.

And despite my usual tendency to make the most of every minute while traveling, I slept until noon one day (something I never do, but I realized my body and mind needed). That unexpected redemption might just be one of the best of my life.

To get to Amsterdam from Porto, a solid redemption was nowhere to be found. So I opted for a budget airline that safely got me to Amsterdam to meet the one-year-old son of two of my best friends.

After putting him down, we watched “Modern Family” on the couch that eventually turned into my bed. Sure, the unparalleled beauty of Amsterdam was right outside the door. But there was nothing more beautiful to me than seeing the exhausted joy of two of my favorite people as parents.

The beauty of points and miles is that they can take us near and they can take us far. They can help us bridge a huge physical distance between the people closest in our hearts. Of course, I’ll always try to maximize the value of my points for some dreamy trip, but I’m glad this summer I decided to maximize the value of simply being alive.

So that’s my challenge to you: use your points and miles for something meaningful. Be it a girls’ trip to an all-inclusive resort on the beach or just a barebones economy ticket to meet your friend’s new baby on the other side of the world.

I don’t know if we can assign a monetary value to love and laughter. But right now, the piggy bank in my heart has all the money in the world.