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valuation

Award Chart

Frequent Flyer Award Chart
Definition
A published table of how many points an airline charges for various routes and cabins. Originally fixed (legacy programs); now mostly replaced with dynamic or region-based charts.
Why it matters
Fixed award charts (a transfer partner, Singapore KrisFlyer, BA Avios) are the most-predictable. Dynamic charts (Delta, United, Bonvoy) charge what supply/demand dictates and are harder to plan around.

Imagine you are holding 60,000 a transfer partner points and trying to decide whether to transfer them from Chase Ultimate Rewards at our 1.9¢ valuation for a transfer partner. Because a transfer partner publishes a fixed, distance-based award chart, you can look up the exact mileage for your route before you touch a single point. A fixed chart turns that transfer decision into a calculation. A dynamic program like Delta SkyMiles offers no such certainty: the price shown today for the same seat may be materially different tomorrow, which makes pre-transfer planning significantly harder.

An award chart is not the same as a redemption rate, a transfer ratio, or a program valuation. Readers sometimes conflate these. The chart is simply the published schedule of point costs by route, zone, or cabin. A transfer ratio (say, 1:1 from Chase UR to United MileagePlus) governs how many points arrive in the program. Our site's CPP valuations (for example, our 2.0¢ baseline for Chase UR) are separate estimates of what a point is worth in the open market. All three factors interact when you are comparing redemption options, but only the award chart tells you the actual sticker price of a given flight in miles.

The mechanics vary significantly by program structure. Fully fixed charts like Singapore KrisFlyer publish exact point costs by origin region, destination region, and cabin, and those numbers do not move with seat inventory. Zone-based charts like British Airways Avios price by distance band, so a 650-mile domestic hop costs far fewer Avios than a transatlantic route. Dynamic programs, by contrast, set prices algorithmically; some have published a rough range but no binding table. When a program announces it is "moving to dynamic pricing," it is specifically retiring its award chart, and historical sweet spots tied to that chart disappear with it.

One important caveat: even on programs with fixed award charts, the published price means nothing if saver-level award space is not released by the operating carrier. Business and first class seats are capacity-controlled, and finding confirmed availability before transferring points is always the necessary first step.

Find space first, then transfer.

Related terms in valuation

CPP
The cash value you get for each point spent on a redemption, expressed in cents. Example: 30,000 points for a $600 hotel night = 2¢/pt CPP.
Off-Peak
Some programs (Iberia, Avianca, World of Hyatt) charge fewer points for awards on dates outside peak travel demand.
Redemption Rate
Same as CPP, the cents-per-point value you realize on a specific redemption.