Points and miles confuse a lot of people before they ever try them, and that confusion is usually the only thing standing between someone and their first points-funded trip. Here is the plain-English version, no jargon.
When you use certain credit cards for purchases you were already going to make, groceries, gas, your phone bill, the card issuer gives you a small reward for that spending. That reward shows up as points or miles in your account. Different cards earn at different rates. A basic card might give you one point per dollar spent. A card built around travel might give you two or three points per dollar on categories like dining or travel purchases specifically.
Those points sit in your account until you redeem them. Redeeming means trading the points in for something of value, most commonly a flight, a hotel stay, or a statement credit against your bill. The value of a point depends on how you redeem it. Cashed out as a statement credit, a point might be worth around one cent. Transferred to an airline or hotel program and used well, that same point can be worth two, three, sometimes more cents. That gap is where the real value lives, and it is also where most beginners leave value on the table by redeeming for the easiest option instead of the best one.
The part that surprises people most: none of this requires spending more money than you normally would. The whole system is built around your existing spending, not new spending. You are not buying flights with points, you are earning points from the groceries and bills you already pay for, and then using those points instead of cash when it is time to book a trip.
The one rule that makes this safe, and it is non-negotiable: pay your card in full every month. Interest charges cost far more than any points you earn are worth. If you carry a balance, points are not for you yet, focus on paying that down first. Once you are paying in full every month, points on spending you already do is simply a way to get more from money you were already going to spend anyway.