notquiteaff

I’d rather have 5X UA miles or 5X Hyatt points or similar than 5% cashback. (also, I don’t have a 5% cashback card for gas anyway).

chase.com/mybonus - see wiki

EasternTraveler

why?

Sloflyer032

that is a curious thought. I guess it's based on TPGs value which at least for airlines is based on first class. I've always found that funny because first class is a horrible waste of money all things considered

notquiteaff

I am not following TPG and don’t know how they value hotel points and airline miles. I personally find it pretty easy to get more than one cent per mile out of UA miles. A classic 25k miles domestic award would just have to pay for a $250 coach revenue ticket to get 1 cent per mile. The same is true for Hyatt points. You don’t need book a Park Hyatt luxury suite to get > 1 cent. An 8000 point award for a $150 Hyatt Place night gets you nearly 1.9 cents per point. And those awards are often cheaper than 8k points.

As to whether First Class is a horrible waste, well, we all have different needs and preferences. One reason why I am in this game is so we can travel more often and more comfortably.

EasternTraveler

Since people apparently disagree with TPG valuations. What valuations do you apply to AA, DL, UA and Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, IHG, and MR, UR, TYP?

Colin

banks & Hyatt worth $0.015
airlines worth $0.01
hotels worth $0.005

keep it simple.

bgriff

TPG uses inflated valuations because that way they can call a 50,000 point sign-up bonus a "Bonus worth $1000!!!" in their headlines and attract more people to open credit cards, for which they get paid $100+ each.

That said, while the same misaligned incentive still exists, I personally find OMAAT's point valuations a bit more reasonable: https://onemileatatime.com/guides/value-miles-points/ (And, perhaps not coincidentally, he usually does not frame credit card pitch post titles in that way, though he will mention his implied valuation in the text of such posts.)

This is also not a bad shorthand (though I would bump up the value of Bonvoy points slightly).

josephstern

Things are likely to change there very soon with the new year. I do think they might be worth 0.006 but I like the shorthand approach - especially when explaining this all to others.

Schnit

My biggest issue with TPG is they calculate cash price vs points. What they do not factor in is that you get points for making a cash reservation. Here is what I use

UA, AA - 0.01
UR/MR/Hyatt - 0.015
Marriott - 0.08
Hilton/IHG - 0.05

I dont have any DL or TYP, so I do not value them

EasternTraveler

Interesting numbers.

Sloflyer032

did you miss a zero in there for hilton and marriott?

EasternTraveler

Yes, I agree.

Schnit

yup, sorry

pinniped

For my needs:

AA, 2cpm, redeeming short-haul domestic for my non-elite-status kids. Just had a redemption last week, 8500 miles for a ticket that would have been about $210 in Basic Economy, $240 in regular Y. Boring award but good cash value.
AS, hard to put a value on them because I redeem them for long-haul J/F that I wouldn't otherwise buy with cash. So I call it 1.5 cpm if I'm considering alternatives. As they integrate into OW they're devaluing in the process, but there are still some sweet spots out there.
HY, 1.5 cents. Globalists can do better I'm sure. As a Discoverist I limit my redemptions to Hyatt Place, mostly, so I'm sort of bound by the mid-category opportunities.
Marriott, 1 cent. Redeeming in the Middle East and Asia is the way to go for Marriott. US and European redemptions are often painful. I sometimes use my credit card Free Nights in US and Europe for higher-end hotels.
Hilton - 0.5 cent, trending towards 0.4 cent. The Turkish Lira of hotel points.
UA, A3, BA, DL - all of these I rank a little lower than AS, simply because I don't earn enough of them to ever redeem a long-haul J/F award and don't often see really great low-end awards. BA used to have some short-haul sweet spots but they aren't as good as they once were. So maybe 1.3-1.5 cents each.

If there's ever a "tie", I err on the side of cashback. I don't carry a walletful of cards to play the category games, but for things like dining and gas I use a 3-4% cashback card. Already have too many hotel points.

hurnik

I tend to fly First Class (domestically), so the points values will be a bit under.
UA = $0.012 or so per point
AA = $0.02/point
B6 = $0.011/point

DL is the outlier. Why? Well, "average" about $0.011/point. However, lately DL has been about 3x-4x the price (cash) for First class compared to their competition, so that will totally skew the values to upwards of $0.04/point I've found. (very dependent of course).

Given the redemption rates, I'd say absent SUBs, it would be better to use a 2% cash back card and the 5% cards (Discover/Chase Freedom) with the rotating categories.

I agree OMAAT valuations are more "in line" than TPG. VFTW is also mostly realistic, IMO as well.

Hilton Honors is about $0.015 unless you can snag the Maldives or something like that with the lower rates, IMO.

But everyone's situation will be different (how much do you spend, on what, etc.)