What to do with your points
Five steps, using real prices from my monthly index. This isn’t financial advice, just what the numbers show. If a word is unfamiliar, the definitions have it in one sentence.
Tools built on the index. Every result can be linked and cited; see the end of the page.
Find out what you have
Check three places: your airline accounts, your hotel accounts, and the rewards page of each credit card. Write down the balances.
You’ll have two kinds. Program points (United miles, Marriott points) can only be used with that airline or hotel and its partners. Flexible card points (Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One, Bilt) can be moved into many programs, so hold off deciding what they’re for until you have a trip.
See what they’re worth
Type an airline or hotel program to turn your balance into a rough dollar figure, based on what a point bought in my checks this month.
Flexible card points are worth whatever you transfer them into. The table shows the values two travel sites publish. The transfer calculator shows what they actually bought at each partner.
| Card points | TPG | NerdWallet |
|---|---|---|
| Chase UR | 2.05¢ | 1.80¢ |
| Amex MR | 2.00¢ | 1.30¢ |
| Citi ThankYou | 1.90¢ | 1.70¢ |
| Capital One | 1.85¢ | 1.30¢ |
| Bilt | 2.20¢ | 1.80¢ |
Each site’s published value; the data behind it isn’t public. What your points actually buy depends on where you send them.
Have a trip in mind? Price it both ways
Search the same flight or hotel night in cash and in points. Put both numbers into the calculator. It tells you what each point is worth on that trip, and how that compares with every check I’ve made for the program.
The calculator then tells you plainly: use your points if you’d get more than the program’s usual value, or pay cash and keep them if you’d get less.
Your 1.50¢ is higher than 24 of 24 checks I’ve made for Marriott Bonvoy (the middle check was 0.79¢). Grey dots are my checks; the blue line is yours.
“Usually worth” is the middle of every check I’ve made for this program. A comparison with real prices, not financial advice.
Using card points? Find the seat before you transfer
Transfers from Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One or Bilt to an airline or hotel are one-way. Once points move, they can’t come back.
So find the exact flight or room you want first, and make sure it’s bookable with points. Then transfer, then book. Check whether your card gets the full transfer rate, because some don’t.
No trip planned? Don’t sit on a big pile
Points don’t earn interest, and their value moves every month. In October alone, the value of a point ran from −61.1% (SAS EuroBonus) to +25.7% (Singapore KrisFlyer), depending on the program. Programs can raise prices with little or no warning.
A sensible default is to collect points for a trip you actually want to take, then use them. If you are holding points, flexible card points are the safer place to keep them, since they aren’t tied to one program’s next price change.
Keep an eye on your programs
Every program has its own page with what a point bought each month, every price I checked, and the screenshots. Program news lists announced changes and how much warning members got.
Citing a result
Both tools on this page use the index’s October 2026 searches. To quote a result, use “Copy link to this result” under it, which reopens the same program and numbers, and cite it as:
Chhajed, Vidit (2026). What your points are worth. Loyalty Program Devaluation Index, Release R3, October 2026. https://loyalty-index.vercel.app/your-points/, with the link to your result.