Please Do Not Calculate the Monetary Value of Airline Miles
Last week, when I wrote about the best bonus credit cards, commenter millenialharley asked the question:
When it comes to travel points and cards with similar rewards, I really don’t understand how different cards compare. Are “points” on cards just pennies earned from transactions and are only for purchases while traveling? All points = 1 penny?
I knew the short answer and mentally bookmarked it to explain in a later post: the score is usually a penny for refund cards, but for other reward cards, the point can be worth anywhere from one to three cents .
This is why it is difficult to compare apples to apples for reward cards (although WalletHub is firmly very detailed): reward cards can set their own points , but for the most part they are damn good, please.
And, as you may have heard, handy tables to help you determine how much your miles are worth on a particular airline is disappearing. You will see an advertisement for the airline “Award Flights from X Miles”, but you will not tell what it means.
United recently announced that its flight awards schedule will not apply for flights operated on or after November 19, 2019. Instead of seeing a guide on how much your points are worth, you can do it like this:
You have to show your intuition for the new math, for which United says , “The cost of rewards will now fluctuate based on a variety of factors, including demand.”
Some airlines have had floating award prices for a while, such as Delta, JetBlue, Southwest. Johnny Jet (legal name John DiSkala) explains to Forbes that floating award fares are driven by four factors:
- Current ticket price in cash
- Flight departure time
- Departure date
- Flight and route demand
Which brings us back to the question: how much is this pile of miles worth?
Do you want my real, honest answer?
I turn to The Points Guy if I’m trying to figure this out.
Every month, the mega travel site updates the cents per point list for virtually every travel reward program. I trust this guy more than my math ability (this is not an advertisement, I don’t even know this guy!), Although he has a calculation guide if you like it.
This handy chart not only lets you know how much your miles are worth; it can also help you evaluate new offers or decide which card to use to earn miles. But when it comes to booking a flight, remember that “your mileage may be different” in the cruellest and truest sense of the word.
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