Inside the Upgrade
Is this award worth it?

Put in the points, the fees, and the cash price. Get a straight answer on whether the award is actually a good deal.

Step one

Your award

How many people the prices and points below are for.
$
What the same flight costs in cash, for everyone traveling.
Total points leaving your account for everyone, after any transfer bonus.
$
The cash you still pay when you book with points.
Flight time only, not layovers. Round trip? Add both ways.
The verdict
Enter your numbers
The verdict updates as you type.
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Value per point on this booking
  1. What your points cover
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  2. Value per point
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  3. Compare to normal value
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  4. Points per hour in the air
    Generally I recommend not spending more than 10,000 points per hour in the air, per person.
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The real cost
Pay cash
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The cash price
Use points
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– in fees + – worth of points
Using points saves you –
Points count at what they’re normally worth, since you could use them on another trip instead.

How the verdict works: we compare the value you get per point against the normal value of your currency (based on The Points Guy’s point valuations). At 1.5x normal or more is a great deal, at or above normal is decent, and below normal means your points are worth more spent another way. We also check the fees: if you’d still save less than 40% of the cash price all in, it can’t be a great deal, and under 25% we’d skip it. Add your flight time and we also check points per traveler per hour in the air: I rarely spend more than 10,000 points an hour, so anything above that gets flagged, even when the value per point looks great. Using a transfer bonus? Enter the points that actually leave your account and the math still works. One rule before any transfer: find the award first and be ready to book, because transfers cannot be undone.

Normal values are based on The Points Guy’s point valuations.
Valuations are estimates. Your mileage, literally, may vary.

How I find award flights

You can’t check if an award is worth it until you find one! My favorite tool for that is Roame. It searches award seats across airline programs, and the paid version lets you search 365 days of availability at once, which has been a game changer for me.

Try Roame

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Affiliate link: it never costs you more and helps keep these tools free.

How to use it

Found an award and not sure it’s worth your points? Put in how many people are traveling, the cash price, the points it costs and the taxes and fees on the award. The calculator works out what each point is worth on that booking and compares it to what your points are normally worth.

Say a flight costs $2,900 in cash, or 23,000 Capital One miles plus $695 in fees. The miles cover $2,205 of the price, which is about 9.6 cents per mile. That’s several times what Capital One miles are usually worth, so it’s a great deal.

It also checks the fees. A booking can look amazing per point and still save you very little once the fees are added in, so if you’d save less than a quarter of the cash price all in, it tells you to skip it.

Add your flight time and it also checks my rule of thumb: I generally don’t spend more than 10,000 points per hour in the air, per person. A short flight can look like a great deal per point and still be a poor use of your points, so it’ll suggest searching for a better award instead.

⚠️ One rule before you move any points: find the award first and be ready to book. Transfers to airlines and hotels can’t be undone!