Whether you collect versatile points from programs such as American Express Membership Rewards® or Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or prefer earning miles directly with your favorite airline, it pays to know how much your rewards are worth before you use them to book a flight.
Not all points and miles are created equal, and the value you’ll get from your rewards will vary depending on how you redeem them. Calculating your points and miles value before you commit to a redemption can help you figure out if using rewards is a good choice or if you should pay cash instead.
We’ll show you how to evaluate your booking options in different situations and give you an easy method for calculating the value of points and miles for flights. While we’ll focus primarily on using flexible, transferable points for airfare, the same principles can apply to other redemptions (such as hotel stays).
Table of contents
Why it’s important to know the per-point value of your points
Points and miles are currencies, and, as with cash, you shouldn’t spend more than you have to. Knowing the value of your points or miles can give you confidence that you’re getting the best deal possible and help you avoid using rewards on a low-value flight when you could get a much higher return using them another way.
For example, you wouldn’t want to spend your hard-earned points on a flight and discover later that the cash fare was super cheap. Or you might kick yourself after learning you could have gotten a value of 3 or more cents per point if you’d transferred them to an airline program for an award flight instead of booking through your issuer’s travel portal at 1 cent per point.
Factors that impact your points’ value
Flexible, transferable points programs allow you to use your points in multiple ways. To book airfare, you typically have three options:
- Use your points through the issuer’s travel portal: You can book flights at a fixed rate per point (usually 1 cent each, although certain Chase credit cards can give you a value of 1.25 or 1.5 cents apiece through Chase Travel℠).
- Redeem points to offset travel purchases: Depending on the program, you can use points as cash back for statement credits toward travel (or sometimes any purchase), but the value you’ll get can be poor.
- Transfer points to partner airline programs: By moving points to a participating program, you can book award flights on the airline, alliance, or non-alliance partners.
The last option of transferring points to airlines is potentially the most lucrative. Depending on the redemption, you can earn 2 (or many more) cents per point,. However, the precise value you’ll receive will depend on several factors.
Type of airline program
Airline award charts and pricing differ by program. Some programs, like Air Canada Aeroplan, charge a certain number of miles for flights between certain regions or zones (such as within North America or from North America to Europe). Others, like Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, set award costs based on distance flown, with higher prices corresponding to longer flights.
Another structure that’s becoming more common is dynamic award pricing, where the number of miles required for an award flight can vary significantly based on demand and/or the price of a paid ticket. Delta SkyMiles no longer has an award chart and instead uses dynamic pricing, for example.
Time of year
A handful of programs divide their award charts into peak and off-peak prices, which usually correspond to low and high seasons.
For instance, British Airways Executive Club charges fewer Avios points for award flights on off-peak days versus during peak travel times, which can translate to a better deal if you’re willing to travel in the off-season.
Award seat availability
Airlines release a limited number of seats that are available to book with miles. In some cases, the airline might only release a handful of seats at the lowest award prices, but once those are gone, it may continue to sell award seats at a higher price. Low-level award tickets will typically get you the best value per point or mile.
American Airlines AAdvantage, for example, offers a range of prices in its award chart within and between certain regions. Each range has a “starting at” price, but if those aren’t available, you may still be able to book awards for a (sometimes much) higher price.
Class of service
It’s often possible to get a much higher value for your points by booking premium economy, business class, or first class seats. These tickets are typically much pricier than economy class, but the number of miles required to book them may still be reasonable, depending on the program.
Sweet spots and promotions
Certain programs offer ways to stretch the value of your miles on certain routes or ticket types. For example, the United MileagePlus Excursionist Perk lets you add a one-way flight to eligible itineraries without paying additional miles — you’ll just pay the taxes and fees. This can translate into a much higher value per mile.
You can sometimes snag an excellent deal by taking advantage of limited-time promotional award flight pricing. Examples include Delta SkyMiles Award Deals, American Airlines AAdvantage Redemption Deals, United MileagePlus Featured Awards, and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes.
Also, on occasion, your credit card program might offer a transfer bonus to certain airlines, which means you’ll receive more miles per point you transfer (instead of the standard 1:1 transfer ratio).
The value of your transferable points when booking in your credit card portal
Using points to book flights through your credit card issuer’s portal can give you a reliable and easy way to redeem your rewards. You can search multiple airlines at once to find the lowest-priced flights, and you won’t have to worry about blackout dates or award availability.
Here’s the value you’ll get when redeeming points through major issuers’ travel portals:
| Program | Value per point toward airfare |
| American Express Membership Rewards (all cards) | 1 cent |
| Bilt Rewards | 1.25 cents |
| Capital One (all cards) | 1 cent |
| Chase Ultimate Rewards (with Chase Sapphire Reserve®) | 1.5 cents |
| Chase Ultimate Rewards (with Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card) | 1.25 cents |
| Chase Ultimate Rewards (all other cards) | 1 cent |
| Citi ThankYou Rewards (all cards) | 1 cent |
| Wells Fargo Rewards (all cards) | 1 cent |
Important note: All of the programs above apply the same value to other travel portal bookings, such as hotels or rental cars — except for American Express. For example, you’ll only get a value of 0.7 cents per Membership Rewards point when you redeem for most hotels, rental cars, cruises, or vacation packages through Amex Travel. This option is best avoided!
Why transferring your points to an airline to book flights is one of the best values for redeeming your points
When you redeem points for flights through a credit card portal, your points are generally worth the same amount no matter what flight you book. You won’t be able to get an outsized value from your points like you can by transferring them to airline partners.
With transfers to airlines, you could get a lot more value — and use fewer points — but again, it depends on the program, time of year, exact flight you book, and other factors. All of these variables might feel overwhelming, but even if you aren’t a frequent flyer or loyalty program pro, it’s possible to find the cheapest pricing by using point.me to search for award flights. It does the heavy lifting, so you don’t have to keep track of the best deals.
How to determine the cash value of your points when transferring them to airlines
So, how do you figure out how much your points are worth when you transfer them to airlines? You’ll have to do a bit of math, but it’s not terribly complicated. Just be aware any taxes and fees you’d pay on an award flight have to be accounted for in the formula.
This is the basic calculation for determining the cash value of your points:
(Price of the flight in cash – taxes and fees on award ticket) / Number of points required
Multiply the result by 100 and you’ll get the number of cents per point.
Here’s how it works in practice.
Example: Domestic flight with Delta Air Lines
Delta SkyMiles is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, so you can move Amex points to Delta at a 1:1 ratio. This flight from New York (LGA) to Nashville (BNA) costs 7,500 Delta miles (equal to 7,500 Amex points) plus $5.60 in taxes and fees:
The cash fare of the same flight, including taxes and fees, is $98.48:
To calculate the value you’ll get per point, first subtract the taxes and fees on the award ticket ($5.60) from the total cash fare. So, $98.48 – $5.60 = $92.88. Then, divide that amount by the number of points required and multiply by 100:
($92.88 / 7,500 miles) x 100 = 1.24 cents per point
That’s a better deal than getting 1 cent per point for booking this flight with Amex points through the Amex travel portal. But you can do even better in some cases.
Example: International business class flight
You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards and Bilt Rewards points to United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio. Here’s a sample flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Tokyo Narita (NRT) in United’s luxurious Polaris Business class for 170,000 United miles (equal to 170,000 Chase or Bilt points) plus $5.60 in taxes and fees:
That seems like a lot of points until you consider the cash price of the very same seat, which clocks in at a whopping $5,206.
Applying the same formula, subtract the taxes and fees on the award ticket ($5.60) from the cash fare ($5,206) to get $5,200.40. Then, divide that amount by the number of points required and multiply by 100:
($5,200.40 / 170,000 miles) x 100 = 3.06 cents per point
That’s a very good deal if you’re willing to spend the points.
Example: International flight with high fees
You typically won’t pay more than $5.60 in taxes and fees for one-way award flights within the US. However, if you’re traveling internationally using miles from a non-US airline, you could get stung by high fees and fuel surcharges that can diminish the value of your points.
British Airways Executive Club is a 1:1 transfer partner of Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, and Wells Fargo. It’s well-known for adding substantial fees to both its own and partner flights, making flights on British Airways planes sometimes not worth redeeming points for, particularly if you’re not willing to shell out the cash.
Here’s a flight in British Airways’ Club World business class from Washington Dulles (IAD) to London Heathrow (LHR). You’d pay 90,000 points plus a hefty $375 in taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges. That doesn’t feel much like a “free” flight.
The cash price of the same seat is $2,523, including taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges:
This time, we’ll subtract $375 from $2,523 to account for the additional charges British Airways imposes to get $2,148, then follow through with the same calculation:
($2,148 / 90,000 points) = 2.38 cents per point
That’s certainly a respectable value per point, but if your goal is to get away with paying the least amount of cash as possible, this might be a no-go, thanks to the extra cash outlay on the award flight.
What is a good redemption value for your points?
Once you’ve crunched the numbers on a particular redemption, you’ll have to decide if it’s worth transferring points to book an award flight versus redeeming points through your credit card’s travel portal.
At a bare minimum, the value you’re getting per point on an award redemption should be more than the rate you’d get by booking the same flight through a travel portal. Beyond that, a good redemption value is subjective. For example, you might be very happy to book an economy class award flight and get a value of 1.5 cents per point, but an expert award traveler might hold out for a business class flight on the same plane that gets double that rate of return (but also costs many more points).
You can also do an internet search to look at average valuations for a particular frequent flyer program to get a feel for what a decent redemption value looks like. For example, here’s our guide to how much United Airlines miles are worth if you’re considering redeeming United miles. And, for a bigger picture, you can check out broader valuations for each flexible points program.
How to decide when to use points vs cash for a flight
This brings us to another variable: When is it better to use points versus cash for a flight? Just because you’re able to get a value of 1 or more cents per point on an award ticket doesn’t mean you should book it.
Let’s go back to the first example of transferring 7,500 American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta SkyMiles to book a flight worth about $93 (a return of around 1.24 cents per point). While that’s better than using points to book through Amex Travel, that doesn’t mean you should.
That’s because Delta SkyMiles are typically worth less than some other airline frequent flyer program miles (there’s a reason they’re not-so-affectionately referred to as “SkyPesos”). Since this airfare is relatively inexpensive, you may be better off saving your Amex points for a transfer to a different airline partner that gets you a higher rate of return on another trip.
Ways to get the most value from your points
Now that you know how to calculate the value of your points, let’s consider how to maximize rewards for award flights. We’ve already talked over some variables that will affect your points value, but here are a few other tips to help you make the most of your award flight bookings.
- Be flexible: Flexible travel dates (and even destinations) can make it easier to find award flights at the lowest prices. Avoiding peak travel times (such as Thanksgiving or spring break) can help you avoid costly rates with programs that price award flights based on cash price.
- Take advantage of airline alliances and other partnerships: If you want to fly United Airlines, it doesn’t mean you need to use United miles to book your ticket. United is a member of the Star Alliance, so you can use miles from other Star Alliance members (such as Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, and Turkish Airlines) to book United flights as well. And sometimes you’ll pay fewer miles than by booking with United miles directly. Conversely, you can use United miles to book flights with dozens of partners.
- Think outside the box: Opportunities to redeem points for award flights might not be obvious. For example, some might not realize that Singapore Airlines flies non-stop from New York (JFK) to Frankfurt (FRA) or that you can fly Emirates non-stop from Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH). These are called fifth freedom flights, and they sometimes have better award availability.
- Use point.me to save time: Learning complicated loyalty program rules and searching for award flights takes time and energy many of us don’t have. You can save a lot of hassle and be confident you’re getting all the options when you use point.me to help with award searches.
Summary
If you’ve got flexible, transferable credit card points at your disposal, you can choose how to redeem your rewards for flights. Booking airfare through your card issuer’s travel portal takes less effort and has the advantage of no blackout dates, but you’ll only ever get a fixed rate for your points — usually 1 cent each.
The way to get (sometimes much) higher value is by transferring your points to airline loyalty programs that partner with your rewards program and then booking award flights. It’s simple to calculate the value you’ll get per point by taking the cash price of the ticket (minus any taxes and fees you’d pay for an award flight) and dividing it by the number of miles or points required, then multiplying by 100.
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