Award/FF Points - Good Exchange Rate
 

Example 1: When you book a $300/per night hotel room with 10,000 awards points; you are getting a 3 cent ($.03) return per point.

Example 2. When you book 1st Classs airfare which would cost $1,600 with 150,000 points; you are getting a $.0107 rate of return.

What do you consider a GOOD exchange rate per point? At what rate would you rather just pay for your room or ticket and save your points for a better exchange rate?

Thanks in advance.

I usually value airline miles at about 1.3 to 1.4 cents each. Continental miles are valued somewhat lower since they never have award seats available. I would place a slightly higher value on UA miles because their award costs are somewhat lower than most of the other carriers and availability is usually good.

There is no one standard for hotel points since the different programs have very different earnings/redemption structures. Here are the values I use:
Starwood points 1.81 cents each
Marriott points 0.87 cents each
Hilton points 0.55 cents each

I like MileKing's systematic approach. I use a figure of 1.5 cents per mile as a "rule of thumb" measurement for my primary program. There are times when I can do quite a bit better and other times when circumstances may lead me to settle for a little bit less.

With airlines miles, I consider anything above 1.8 cents to be a 'good' value but it also depends on which program, how the miles were earned, and how fast I anticipate accumulating future miles. I've cashed in miles at less than what I would consider a good value on occasion and it's usually for the type of trips that I wouldn't otherwise take if not for the free air.

Hotel points vary widely in earning and redemption ratios, so we'd have to determine which program first.

Rather than dollar value, I consider trip value. Last year, my family got 4 tickets (FF) to Europe. The trip would not have happened without them. I figure once there, I can economize and spend what I might spend in the US on a budget vacation.