Alternatives to individual XP awards

[Plane Sailing]

I would tend to give a bonus action point.

 

[MrBeens]

I'm playing in a campaign now where the DM simply tells us all when we can level up, as a group. The players don't track XP at all, though I don't know whether the DM is tracking or just eyeballing it, i.e. "now seems about right".

We do this too.
For individual acts of excellence (in game and out of game) we are given tokens that can be cashed in for +2 to any roll (has to be declared before the roll).