Our cents-per-point (CPP) valuations are deliberately conservative — anchored to saver-level award space at the median redemption, not chart-floor pricing or aspirational top-percentile examples. This page explains the methodology so you can audit our numbers and decide whether to apply them to your own redemptions.
The single most-cited number in points-and-miles is also the most abused: cents per point. Every site publishes a CPP table. Most of them inflate. The Points Guy historically valued ANA First at 6+ cpp by anchoring to a $20,000 cash ticket — but the saver award is 110,000 Virgin Atlantic miles, the seats are 0–2 per flight, and the median traveler will never find that space on a date they wanted. That's not a 6 cpp redemption; that's a 6 cpp lottery. We're trying to do the opposite — give you a number you can actually plan around.
Our valuations live in data/programs.json and feed every calculator on the site, the AI advisor, and the weekly newsletter. The number we publish for a program (e.g., Chase Ultimate Rewards = 2.0 cpp, World of Hyatt = 1.7 cpp, Delta SkyMiles = 1.2 cpp) is what we believe a reasonably-flexible US-based traveler can extract on a typical redemption — not the absolute best case. Three rules drive every number.
Rule 1: anchor to saver award space, not the chart floor. A program's published award chart is the floor — what you'd pay if you found space. Most programs no longer publish a chart at all (Delta, Hilton, Marriott now use dynamic pricing). For chart-based programs, we use the saver/standard-award level on routes where saver space is consistently available, not the special peak-season redemptions we've seen once. For dynamic programs, we use the median observed price across the past 12 months on a basket of routes — not the cheapest weekday outlier.
Rule 2: discount premium-cabin redemptions for availability risk. Pure paper math says ANA F via Virgin Atlantic is ~17 cpp at sticker. But adjusted for the fact that you'll search for months and might never see space on your dates, we discount it to roughly 4–5 cpp for a flexible traveler and 2 cpp for someone with locked dates. Our Amex MR valuation (2.0 cpp) reflects what most US travelers will actually realize, which is closer to the realistic premium-cabin redemption than the chart floor.
Rule 3: be conservative on hotels. Hyatt's published category award rates are still real (after the 2024 changes, peak/off-peak is gone but blackouts at top properties remain). World of Hyatt at 1.7 cpp reflects the median Cat 4–6 award, not a Park Hyatt Tokyo Christmas redemption. Marriott (0.75 cpp) and Hilton (0.5 cpp) reflect post-dynamic-pricing reality where the best old chart-based redemptions are gone and most stays now price near the cash equivalent in dollar terms.
Why this matters when the AI advisor recommends a transfer. The advisor uses these numbers as the floor — not the ceiling — when it tells you whether a transfer makes sense. If your trip prices out at 1.4 cpp through Hyatt, that's below our 1.7 cpp valuation and the advisor will flag the redemption as below average. If it prices at 2.5 cpp, it's a good move. The valuation is a calibration anchor, not a promise. The advisor pairs it with a hard rule: award space is the binding constraint, not the chart price — and it now requires checking availability before any premium-cabin transfer recommendation. We’ve indexed the redemptions that consistently price above our valuations so you can target them when space exists.
How often we update. Every program valuation is reviewed monthly when our card-benefits research cron runs against the issuer's own pages and three review-site lenses (TPG, DoC, AwardWallet, FrequentMiler, OMAAT). When two-of-three sources show a material change — devaluation, new transfer partner, dynamic-pricing shift — we update the number and note the change in the program's page. The data/programs.json file is committed in git so you can audit the full revision history.
Where we differ from competitors. TPG's monthly valuations skew aspirational (anchored to top-percentile redemptions). NerdWallet's are too generic (all transferable currencies clumped together). Frequent Miler publishes a "reasonable redemption value" that’s philosophically similar to ours — that’s the closest peer, and our numbers usually land within 10% of theirs. If our number is more than 0.3 cpp off from FM's published RRV, we explain why on the program's page.
If you want to use our methodology on a redemption we haven't covered: take the cash price of the equivalent ticket on a saver-availability date (not the highest cash fare you can find), divide by the points required, multiply by 100. Round down. That's your CPP. If it's above our valuation for that program, transfer. If it’s below, don’t — the program offers better redemptions you haven’t found yet. The whole methodology is one sentence: pay cash when CPP is below average, redeem when CPP is above average, and ignore the chart floor.
RewardZ Travel
Points and miles enthusiast with over 25 years of experience maximizing travel rewards. Has earned and redeemed millions of points across dozens of programs.