So with all the devaluations that have occurred, what are points really worth. In a nutshell, mile value.com explains what happened. Basically the very valuable international flights were just hammered, so values are about half what they were:
Here is a quick analysis, so most people thought United was worth vs now. The metric we used was that a 120-300k for business class (saver vs standard) or 140K-320K for first class used to get us business class to Asia a ticket worth $4.5K for lowest business to $6-8K for first class so a pretty good 3.75 cents/mile if you got save business or a whopping 5 cents for first class. Now it is 140-340K, so that is a collapse to 1.5 cents per mile. And as an aside, the real value is in getting first class as these seats are often double business class so first class is now 160K-380K. The rounds out to going (assuming saver awards) from going to 3.2 and 4.7 cents/mile
Note that American/US Airways have not yet devalued, but with Asia at 110K for business class, we can expect they will be more like the 140K for Delta and 140K/160K for united/united partners. Others in the good old days agreed:
My own valuation for my family’s travel using United miles is 2.3 cents per mile, because we highly value international first class to Europe and Asia, as well as domestic flat bed seats to Hawaii, which is what we’d use United miles for. We’d get a bit more subjective value out of using United miles for first class to Asia via Europe, and a bit less for flat bed seats to Hawaii, so 2.3 cents is an average for the redemptions we’d make. We’d never use United miles for coach class awards, and rarely, going forward, for business class, hence the relatively high valuation. Travelsort
This analysis and at milevalue.com is nearly two years old, but it actually says United used to have one of the higher values :
- Air Canada Aeroplan 1.3/mi
- Alaska Airlines 1.5/mi
- American AAdvantage 1.8/mi
- BA Executive 1.1/Avios
- Delta Skymiles 1.1/mi (but this is devalued by half)
- United Mileage Plus 1.8/mi (but now have that roughly so 0.9)
- US Airway 1.5/mi
Marriott on the other hand was (and is worth much less).
How much is a Marriott Point worth? About 0.84 cents per point if you redeem for a hotel stay, but substantially less if redeemed for airline miles or gift cards. Like most hotel rewards programs, you have to redeem smart – though Marriott doesn’t exactly make it easy for you. Marriott’s nice about listing the dollar value of a night’s stay along with the points required, so you’ll have to run the quick calculation of points required/dollars required to ensure that you come out ahead. But, in general, we think they’re worth less than the industry standard of 1 cent apiece.
via Marriott Points.
