Expected value of points when transferring to airline partners?

[Anonymous]

Ya, which is why that doesn’t count and Schwab Platinum is such a great option. Combined with Gold card and 4% on dining and restaurants and 3% on airfare, that’s the equivalent of 5% and 3.75% cash back respectively. And with BBP it’s 2.5% cash back on everything else.
The 1.25 cents/mile isn’t quite what CSR gives you for travel but close and it does match CSP (also for travel only). And since it’s cash you can use it for anything, obviously...not just travel. I NEED Schwab Platinum!

[red259]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I know this number can vary widely, but is there a cents/point value I should shoot for when transferring points to a card’s airline partners to book flights?  I’m not talking about the great deals but general day to day value. Like when does it make more sense to pay with cash when you can afford it?  Is there kind of a standard value with each major domestic airline...American, Jet Blue, Delta, United, Southwest?

It seems like it’s somewhere around 1.2¢-1.5¢ for the most part. Is this right?  High? Low?  

---

The point values are going to change drastically depending on how you redeem. Some people may redeem at 1.2 cents per mile for economy flights while others may redeem at 14 cents per mile on international partner awards in first class. What airline should you transfer to? Pretty much look at the ones that go where you need to go and look at their award availability. Then price out the tickets to see if its a good value. Some airlines require less points than others for award redemptions etc.  If you have a currency like ultimate rewards or amex membership points you should not be transferring anything until you have a redemption that you are going to make. Here are some valuations as a guideline but in the end the real value of your points is based upon the value of your redemption. https://thepointsguy.com/guide/monthly-valuations/

[wasCB14]

red259: "If you have a currency like ultimate rewards or amex membership points you should not be transferring anything until you have a redemption that you are going to make."

If Amex has a nice transfer promo, and someone flies an airline at least a few times a year but has no exact redemption in mind...well, that can be a gray area.

[Loquat]

I will echo what most have said here.  It all depends on where you're going and the comfort level you want to enjoy to get there.  Personally, I don't use miles for domestics as I'm in the midwest as most flights aren't that long.  Besides, unless I'm going to JFK, LGA,  LAX or a really popular destination, then I'm probably going to be on a regional carrier anyway.  In my experience First Class on an Embraer 175 or a CRJ 700 isn't that much better than main cabin.  Besides most of the time if I really wanted a First Class spot on Alaska's regional (SkyWest) then I can bumpup for a couple hundred bucks or so.  I've done that a couple of times on trips to SAN.  

[iced]

As others have stated, there's no standard, though a (very) rough approximation can be had. At least that's what sites like TPG will try to tell you. It's also true that international premium is the highest value redemption, and often where the best value is had.

For airlines that tie mile redemption to the cost of the ticket, the redemption value can be pretty easy to find. For airlines that tie the mileage cost to the source/detination region, this can be very tricky. A 90 minute flight on a regional jet from MCI to ORD is going to cost the same mileage as a 6 hour flight from JFK to SFO, even though the cash price for these two flights are vastly different. This makes mileage valuation very fluid, depending on where you live and where you want to fly to. Economy redemption is usually going to be in the 1-2 cpm range.

The same principle holds for economy versus premium cabin travel. Most of the major airlines charge about 2-3x the miles for the same flight in First/Business. Domestic FC is usually about 2x the cost of economy, making these no better of a redemption value than economy, but international Business can often be 4-6x the cost of economy, making the mileage redemption for those much better. This bumps the value up to around 4-6 cpm, though it can be much higher with the right routing and stop pattern.

I personally only redeem miles for international First/Business, and I usually see anywhere from 6 to 9 cpm in value. I wouldn't redeem for anything less than about 5 cpm; if the redemption is worse than that, I'll just pay cash for the Business ticket and bank more miles.