How we value a point

Why publish this? Because the point value is the single assumption that drives every dollar figure we show. Most rewards sites quote aspirational values that make their numbers bigger. We do the opposite, and we show our work: if your own redemptions are better or worse, you can override any of these per-currency inside the app and every number recalculates.

Values are estimates for typical, achievable redemptions — not the ceiling a points hobbyist can reach, and not the floor of a cash-out. Airline and hotel currencies vary the most by how you redeem; we pick a defensible middle. Cash-back currencies are always 1.00¢.

Currencies we don't value

Some airline and hotel programs show up in transfer bonuses but not in this list, such as Japan Airlines Mileage Bank and Leading Hotels of the World. We publish a value only when we can defend what a typical redemption gets, and one blog's figure is not enough on its own. Until then, the app shows how many of those points a transfer gives you, and no dollar amount.

Where we differ from One Mile at a Time

Once a month we compare these values with the published valuations at One Mile at a Time, one of the most-read points blogs. We don't adopt theirs: their numbers describe good redemptions, ours are meant to describe typical ones. Last compared 2026-09-14. These are the currencies where the two differ by 0.05¢ or more:

Theirs are higher on most bank and airline currencies, which is the conservatism described above. Ours are higher on Bilt, Avios, Delta SkyMiles and World of Hyatt, so treat those as the least conservative numbers on this page. On 2026-09-15 we lowered Southwest Rapid Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy and Wyndham Rewards to match One Mile at a Time's published values exactly, and lowered World of Hyatt partway toward theirs — all four had sat above every outside benchmark we compare against.

How these values have moved

A point value is an assumption, and an assumption you can quietly revise is worth less than one you cannot. So here is every change we have made to a published value since the catalog went into version control on 2026-08-25: what it was, what it became, the day it changed and why. Each row names the commit that made the change, and both ends of it can be read out of that commit and its parent.

5 changes on 2 dates, every one of them downward. That is too little history to plot — a line through two dates would look like a trend we have not earned — so it is printed in full instead. Every other currency we publish still carries the value it had in the first commit of the catalog, 2026-08-25; changes made before that date are not in version control and we do not claim them.

Each of these also appears in what changed, the log the whole catalog is tracked in.

Override them yourself

If you know your Amex points are worth 1.6¢ to you, or your hotel points less, set your own value in the app under Settings → point values. The app marks every number that's using your custom value instead of ours, so an optimistic assumption can never quietly masquerade as our research.