mia

Not exactly. When I pay with money I receive both a flight or room -and- a discount on future travel, in the form of rewards both from the loyalty program and the credit card issuer. When I redeem points I only receive a flight or room. The value is always less than the price divided by the number of miles or points redeemed. The formula needs to be refined to account for the rewards that would have been earned if paying with money. This is straightforward if you are familiar with the loyalty program. The calculation will be different depending on the credit card I would use to pay, and my elite status in the program. There is no way that a blogger can accurately calculate my value for Ultimate Rewards points, but they can provide an indication of the relative value of various loyalty programs. The question isn't why do they value points at $0.0xy, but rather why do they value one program higher or lower than another. Focus on the comparison, not the numbers which convey a false sense of precision.