Travel Points and Miles Valuations — How Much Are They Actually Worth? [March 2020]
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What are points and miles actually worth?
Unfortunately, there are no official answers. In other words, airlines and hotels don’t give out their own point and mile valuations. Therefore, it’s up to you to make your own conclusions on that value. However, we’re here to help.
Many factors come into play when determining this metric. Below are questions you should ask yourself when evaluating the value of points and what we’ve taken into account to create our point and mile valuations:
- How valuable are these points?
- How flexible are these points and how many transfer partners are there?
- What are your redemption options?
- How much would you buy points and miles for?
- What’s the average redemption value from 3 different bookings?
- How abundant is award availability?
Table of contents
Table of Contents
Upgraded Points’ March 2020 Points and Miles Valuations
Flexible Points Programs
| Flexible Point Program | February 2020 Value (cents/point) | March 2020 Value (cents/point) | Value of 50,000 / 100,000 points |
| Amex Membership Rewards Points | 2.2 | 2.2 | $1,100 / $2,200 |
| Barclaycard Arrival Miles | 1.0 | 1.0 | $500 / $1,000 |
| Brex Rewards | 1.5 | 1.5 | $750 / $1,500 |
| Capital One | 1.35 | 1.35 | $675 / $1,350 |
| Chase Ultimate Rewards Points | 1.95 | 1.95 | $975 / $1,950 |
| Citi ThankYou Points | 1.6 | 1.6 | $800 / $1,600 |
| Diners Club Rewards Points | 2.0 | 2.0 | $1,000 / $2,000 |
Airline Loyalty Programs
Hotel Loyalty Programs
| Hotel Loyalty Program | February 2020 Value (cents/point) | March 2020 Value (cents/point) | Value of 50,000 / 100,000 points |
| Choice Hotels Choice Privileges Points | 0.6 | 0.6 | $300 / $600 |
| Hilton Hotels Hilton Honors Points | 0.4 | 0.4 | $200 / $400 |
| Hyatt Hotels World of Hyatt Points | 1.6 | 1.6 | $800 / $1,600 |
| IHG Hotels & Resorts IHG Rewards Club Points | 0.5 | 0.5 | $250 / $500 |
| Marriott Hotels Marriott Bonvoy Points | 0.65 | 0.65 | $325 / $650 |
| Radisson Hotels Radisson Rewards Points | 0.3 | 0.3 | $150 / $300 |
| Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Wyndham Rewards Points | 0.9 | 0.9 | $450 / $900 |
UP’s Highest Valued Points
Not all miles and points are created equal, so naturally, each category has its own winner with the highest valued points. Here’s why we ranked the highest valued points as such:
Transferable Points: American Express Membership Rewards Points
American Express Membership Rewards continues to be the king of transferable points. Amex partners with all alliances (SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and Oneworld), along with many non-alliance partners, so it’s easier to find award space compared to other transferable points. Some of Amex’s transfer partners include Qantas, Air Canada Aeroplan, and Emirates.
Airline Miles: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles
Alaska Airlines has the best of both worlds: a variety of partners and solid redemption rates. Some of Alaska’s partners include American Airlines, Emirates, Japan Airlines, and more. Redemption rates are lower than other partners across the board — for example, a one-way business class flight on Japan Airlines from the U.S to Tokyo costs just 55,000 Mileage Plan miles.
Hotel Points: World of Hyatt Points
World of Hyatt has the most reasonable redemption rates of all the major hotel chains. Further, we’ve found that there are virtually no blackout dates and that all hotels are on a standard award chart, so you’ll always pay the same price for a room at any hotel. This allows you to explore fantastic Hyatt redemption opportunities ensuring maximum value.
Movers
February was a slow month for miles and points news. There isn’t much to write home about, but we do have some thoughts on a few happenings in the miles and points world.
Here’s a look.
Flying Blue Announces New Promo Rewards
Every month, Flying Blue — the loyalty program for Air France and KLM Royal Dutch — has updated its monthly list of promo rewards for March 2020. This month’s North America awards are nothing too special, but they may make sense for some travelers.
In the screenshot above, you can see that all promo rewards are in either economy or premium economy class. We think that the best deal is Seattle (SEA) to Europe (or vice-versa) in premium economy class for 43,125 miles one-way or 86,250 miles round-trip.
This one-way ticket can often be over $2,500 round-trip, even higher when connecting to further-flung parts of Europe. Seattle-based travelers may want to consider this deal if considering a transatlantic trip this spring.
You have until the end of the month to book these tickets for travel between May 1 – June 30, 2020. This can be peak travel season for Americans going to Europe, so make sure to book quickly!
These promo rewards don’t affect our valuation of Flying Blue points for March. We’re hoping for more exciting promo rewards next month!
This section isn’t dedicated to any specific airline or credit card award program, but it’s something you should keep on your points and miles radar.
You’re probably aware of the fact that the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has been affecting global markets and — of course — travel. According to CNBC, airlines have cut “hundreds of thousands” of flights and major airline stocks have dwindled — but there is an upside to this.
We have seen an increase in business and first class award space over the past few weeks. Many premier airlines like Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and others have excellent last-minute award inventory — something usually not seen on long-haul awards.
Likewise, we’ve seen supercheap paid tickets over the past couple of weeks. Business class flights from Europe to the U.S. have been consistently pricing at under $1,500 on select routes. This is likely to continue through the COVID-19 scare, too.
Remember though: we can’t tell you if you should take these flights. Flying during the COVID-19 outbreak obviously comes with some risk, so do your own research, understand the risks, and determine if flying now is right for you.
Hot Tip: We’ve assembled a Coronavirus Guide for Travelers, regularly updated, with everything you need to know about the virus, affected countries, symptoms, treatment, and what to do if your travel plans have been affected.
Final Thoughts
While the value of points and miles can vary, you want to ensure that you’re getting a great value when redeeming those hard-earned points. When it comes to flexible points, Amex Membership Rewards points are valued at the highest cent per point. Given the number of Amex airline and hotel partners, these points are extremely flexible. Amex Membership Rewards also offers good transfer rates with a ton of redemption options. All of these elements ensure that you get the most of your points.
dear sir,
I have lost my Emirates skywards number. i want to regain to get more points for benifits.
please help me.
Thanks.
Nirendu kumar Ghosh
Hi Nirendu. The best way to get your Emirates Skywards number is to call or live chat with Emirates. They have a live chat feature here: https://www.emirates.com/english/help/
I hope this helps!
How much are Japan Airlines points worth? I would love to fly them in First Class.
Hi Natalie,
We do not currently have a valuation of Japan Airlines miles but keep in mind that all points/miles valuations are subjective. Have you seen our guide on the best ways to fly to Japan with points and miles? I think you will find it very helpful! https://upgradedpoints.com/best-ways-to-fly-to-japan-with-points/
I really appreciate the work you’ve put into this. It shows the quality of your work that you got everything right except that you’ve undervalued Bonvoy points. Since 60k Bonvoy points can be exchanged for 25k airline miles on all the MR airline transfers plus about 25 others, then 60 Bonvoy points should be worth at least 25 MR points, especially as Bonvoy points transfer to high-value miles like Alaskan or Korean. The MR hotel transfers shouldn’t change the valuation as 1 Bonvoy point for Marriott is worth more than either 25/60 Choice points or 1.5*25/60 Hilton points to me.
The only reason for valuing Bonvoy points at less than 2.1*25/60=0.875¢ is the fact that Bonvoy points sometimes take an unreasonably long time to transfer, and if that’s why you are devaluing Bonvoy points, I can’t disagree.
Hi Jim,
Thank you for the feedback, we appreciate the kind words. The amount of time a point transfer can take is definitely a reason why Bonvoy points are valued less than Membership Reward points. Additionally, as you mentioned you have to transfer 60k Marriott points at a time in order to achieve a similar value that you get with Membership Reward points, this also causes Bonvoy to lose some value in our opinion as there are no such requirements with Membership Reward points.
As you know, placing an evaluation on your points is very subjective and vary greatly depending on a large number of factors. So no method is perfect, and we encourage each of our readers to do their research and form their own opinions when deciding on to best value their points and miles.
Thanks for reading!
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