Originally Posted by
milypan
I’m sure you personally, and many other FT posters, can get more than 1.5c per point via transfers, but for the average person it’s almost impossible to consistently do that. Airfares are too low these days. Maybe a typical person could get it by booking holiday tickets in Y 330 days in advance...I don’t what award availability looks like at that point.
Also consider that even TPG, whose business model literally depends on convincing consumers that credit card points are extremely valuable, still only values flexible rewards points at 1.7 to 2.0 cents per point.
If you stay at hotels when you travel, Hyatt points probably provide better value than the portal. Redemptions in the 2.5-3.5c range are common, even at less expensive properties.
If you ever have to book last minute domestic travel, you can definitely find much better value. Saver space can be available on the day of travel, but cheap fares have advance purchase requirements. For example, I'm flying SFO-PHX on UA next Saturday (in 7 days). I bought my ticket weeks ago so I got it for under $90 each way. Saturday is a light travel day so all the fare classes are wide open (9+ in each bucket). But, to buy that ticket today would be $240 each way due to advance purchase requirements on cheap fares. There is also saver space so I can get it for 10k miles + $30. That's a savings of $210 for 10k miles, ie, 2.1c per mile. Also, this is 7 days out -- we are not talking about walk-up fares here. Anything inside 7 days is $360 (3.3c/mile). This is not a contrived situation -- it's extremely common. Any time you are booking a flight less than 21 days out (when the cheapest fares often expire) you should always check for award space and see whether it's a better deal than cash.
So, while long-haul premium-cabin international flights tend to be the best value, there are plenty of other options that, while not as good, are still better than 1.5c and match most people's travel plans.