Travel Points & Miles Valuations – How Much Are They Actually Worth? [May 2021]
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Credit cards, airlines, and hotels don’t give out their own point and mile valuations, so, unfortunately, there are no official answers on what points and miles are actually worth. 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’ May 2021 Points and Miles Valuations
Flexible Points Programs
| Flexible Point Program | April 2021 Value (cents/point) | May 2021 Value (cents/point) | Value of 50,000 / 100,000 Points |
| Amex Membership Rewards Points | 2.2 | 2.2 | $1,100 / $2,200 |
| Bank of America Preferred Rewards | 1.0 | 1.0 | $500 / $1,000 |
| Barclaycard Arrival Miles | 1.0 | 1.0 | $500 / $1,000 |
| Brex Rewards | 1.5 | 1.5 | $750 / $1,500 |
| Capital One | 1.35 | 1.4 | $700 / $1,400 |
| Chase Ultimate Rewards Points | 1.95 | 2.0 | $1,000 / $2,000 |
| Citi ThankYou Rewards 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 | April 2021 Value (cents/point) | May 2021 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 | 0.5 | 0.5 | $250 / $500 |
| Hyatt Hotels World of Hyatt Points | 1.5 | 1.5 | $750 / $1,500 |
| IHG Hotels & Resorts IHG Rewards Points | 0.5 | 0.5 | $250 / $500 |
| Marriott Hotels Marriott Bonvoy Points | 0.7 | 0.7 | $350 / $700 |
| Radisson Hotels Radisson Rewards Points | 0.3 | 0.25 | $125 / $250 |
| Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Wyndham Rewards Points | 0.9 | 0.9 | $450 / $900 |
Upgraded Points’ 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, 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 Oneworld partners include American and JAL, and the airline’s non-alliance partners include Emirates, Korean Air, Singapore 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 & News
Capital One Miles Adds New Transfer Partners & Improves Rates
Capital One shook up the points and miles world last month by adding 4 new transfer partners to its Capital One Miles program, including British Airways Executive Club, Choice Privileges, TAP Air Portugal Miles & Go, and Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.
Better yet, Capital One also improved the transfer rates from 2:1.5 to 1:1 on 9 partners, including Aeromexico Club Premier, Avianca LifeMiles, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Choice Privileges, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, Qantas Frequent Flyer, TAP Air Portugal Miles & Go, and Wyndham Rewards.
These changes provide a nice boost to both the flexibility and overall value of Capital One Miles, and because of that, we have boosted our valuation of Capital One Miles to 1.4 cents per mile.
IHG Rewards Moves to Fully Dynamic Pricing
Last month, IHG Rewards further cemented moving its award program towards dynamic pricing where the number of points required for an award night will depend on the cash rates of the hotel, along with other factors like seasonality and occupancy rates.
At this time, most properties seem to be priced anywhere from 0.4 to 0.7 cents per point towards an award stay. Given that, we won’t be lowering our valuation of IHG Rewards points at this time but will continue to monitor how IHG Rewards prices award nights going forward. Unfortunately, with these changes, it will now be increasingly more difficult to get outsized value from your IHG Rewards points.
Southwest Devalues Rapid Rewards Points
Unfortunately, Southwest decided to make a no-notice devaluation of the Rapid Rewards program last month, resulting in all redemptions requiring 6% more points. This is Southwest’s first devaluation in 3 years, which is more than we can say for many other airlines but is still disappointing for Southwest flyers nonetheless.
Due to this, we are lowering our valuation of Southwest points to 1.3 cents per point. It is worth mentioning that there are many routes that are still pricing around 1.4 cents per point, so while 1.3 cents is our new floor, it is still possible to get additional value.
Radisson Rewards Guts Its Award Chart
Keeping with the theme of devaluations, we’ve saved the best (or should we say the worst) for last.
Previously, Radisson announced that it is splitting its current loyalty program into 2 separate programs — Radisson and Radisson Americas. The existing Radisson Rewards program will apply towards stays in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific, while the Radisson Americas program will apply to stays in North America, South America, and the Caribbean.
Well, we have received word of how the new Radisson Americas program will function, and it isn’t pretty. Starting in June 2021, Radisson is making some harsh changes to its award chart that includes pricing increases of up to 66%.
For reference, here is what the current award chart looks like:
And as of June 2021, here is what the new award chart will look like:
As you can see, the award chart is shrinking from 7 categories down to 5, resulting in the following changes:
| Old Category/Points Needed | New Category/Points Needed | Increase |
| Category 1 — 9,000 | Category 1 — 15,000 | 66% |
| Category 2 — 15,000 | 0% | |
| Category 3 — 28,000 | Cateogry 2 — 30,000 | 7% |
| Category 4 — 38,000 | Category 3 — 45,000 | 18% |
| Cateogry 5 — 44,000 | Category 4 — 60,000 | 36% |
| Category 6 — 50,000 | 20% | |
| Category 7 — 70,000 | Category 5 — 75,000 | 7% |
That said, not all hotels are increasing in price; you can view the full list of price changes on this page of the Radisson website.
In light of all of these changes, we are lowering our valuation of Radisson Rewards points to 0.25 cents per point.
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.
