Now that you know how to earn points and redeem them, you have to figure out what is a good redemption. This is a very personal issue but we’ll give you all sides so that you can make the best determination for your own situation. To keep things simple, we’ll cover how to calculate cents per point (cpp) in the next post as it involves some math. Each points currency has its own value but the general goal is to understand the average value of that currency and to get at least something above that average.
Let’s look at some examples. You are looking to book a United flight and the cents per point comes out to 1.1. In that situation, you are better off paying cash. However, if the same flight is 3.0 cents per point (cpp) than you are better off using your miles. But what if the flight is 1.7 cents per point (cpp)? Not the best value but if the flight is $800 cash and you don’t have that cash, then it comes down to either going on the trip or not. While you are not getting ideal redemption value, would you rather go on the trip or stay home? Like I said, its a very personal issue.
Here’s yet another example. You found an amazing redemption on a business class seat. You are going to get over 5 cents per point (cpp)! What a great find and you’ll look like a baller on your flight with the fancy seats. But you are going to spend 300,000 points which took you years to save up. You can use those points for several trips. Is it really worth it to blow all of your points on one 9 hour flight just for a better seat or does it make more sense to go on 4 free trips? Again, that’s a personal decision although in my opinion, I would suggest you get as many free trips as possible. Of course for some people the flight in the fancy seat is better than the destination.
If you start getting into the social aspect of travel hacking you’ll likely run into people that routinely spend hundreds of thousands of points (or more) per year and go on all sorts of fancy trips. Don’t feel like you need to compete with these people. They are in the minority and everyone has a different situation. For purposes of this website, we’ll assume that you want to travel as much as possible so it’s our job to help you earn as many points as possible so you can travel as more!