Trying to figure out how to redeem points for maximum value across different cc
byu/K0N-ARTIST inawardtravel

Agree with the other comments.

Some side note about value/cpp

“Highest value” could be A) “how do I get the most expensive stuff for the least amount of points” or B) “how do i travel the longest with these points”. That’s.. interesting, because by pursuing A to the max you end up booking super expensive hotels for a lot of points but the “value” is high because its dollar booking cost is even higher.

So you could book a $200 hotel for 10k points,

or you could book a $1,000 hotel for 40k points.

The math says the $1,000 hotel for 40k points is “higher value”, but now you are burning 40k points per night. How short is your trip going to be? Also, 40k in a 5-star hotel is only going to get your their smallest room.. is that worth it? Eh maybe idk..

Theoretical Highest Values

Here are some theoretical highest values:

  • 50k+$250 for an Air France US to France business class oneway, transferred during a 20% bonus transfer promo period = 42k MR

  • 15k+$0 for a $250/night Hyatt Place/Hyatt Regency 3-4 star hotel (Hyatt doesn’t do transfer bonuses) = 15k UR/night

  • 160k+$0 for 5 nights on a $250/night Hilton Hampton Inn 3-4 star hotel. (You’ll need a Hilton credit card for at least Hilton silver status for the 5th night free perk) transferred during a 25% bonus promo = 64k MR for 5 nights. But the Hilton card will come with its own Hilton points sign-up bonus, so you could use that instead.. but that adds more months to your timeline (to meet the SUB spend)

So let’s put together a trip for 2 people:

  • 168k MR + $800, transferred to Air France during 20% promo, for round trip business class from the US to Paris

  • 64k MR Hilton 25% promo for 5 nights

  • 60k UR Hyatt for 4 nights

Or something a bit cheaper for the flight:

  • 117k MR + $600 with 20% promo for business oneway and economy oneway, US-Paris

Now, these are theoretical highest values.

What is more likely to actually happen

Most transfer bonuses come around Fall. Some seem to come earlier, and some more than once a year. We don’t know what logic motivates them to run the promos in the schedules they do, but it’s probably related to marketing, supply & demand, etc. What month is it right now? It’s February. You are potentially waiting all the way until October 2024 for some of these transfer bonuses.

And then you have to book a flight using those points. If you get your points in October 2024, maybe you’ll get lucky and find a the business flight at 50k for January or April 2025, or even earlier. Or you won’t get lucky and you’ll only get a flight for September 2025.

But maybe you don’t want to wait that long. You want to go sooner. Or you can’t fly in January, as it’s too cold. You want to travel during summer peak season.

Then you will be traveling for less than the theoretical highest values for your points. And maybe that’s okay. If you have enough points.

Family Pooling

Your points are split between your wife and you. That can be a problem. If you need 160k MR to book a flight, but you have 100k and your wife has 60k, then it’s gonna be complicated.

  1. You can each book your ticket separately for the same flight

  2. Some airlines allow accounts to pool their points for free. So you can’t pool them on the credit card side, but you can pool them on the airline side. The only airlines that allow this are Air France, British Airways, Air Canada, Jet Blue, and ANA.