How to Redeem Your Travel Points for Maximum Value

By Tim, founder of Travel Multiplier.

To compare an award with a cash booking, look at the points required, the cash charges you would still pay, and the price of a comparable booking. A high cents-per-point figure can be useful, but it is not the same as cash saved.

The hotel searches below come from the original article, published May 16, 2024. They are historical illustrations, not current prices or availability. The arithmetic has been clarified below; the examples do not establish how many points a typical family can earn.

Not All Points Are Created Equal

Different rewards have different redemption options. There is no universal cents-per-point cutoff that makes every booking good or bad. Compare the same trip, account for cash charges, and use a price you would realistically pay. Chase explains the basic rewards-value calculation.

If the types of rewards are new to you, my guide to different kinds of points explains the differences.

A Great Tool

For the research in this article, I used Rooms.Aero to look for hotel awards. The description below records that search, rather than promising which features are currently free or available.

At the time, I compared hotel programs, countries, and cents-per-point figures. When using an award-search tool today, check its current features and pricing, then verify a result directly with the hotel program before transferring points or booking.

I share more tools in my Becoming a Travel Hacker course.

The Results 

The original search led me to the three Hyatt properties below. These examples use the prices recorded in that research. See Hyatt’s current award information and search your own dates for a new booking.

The Pell Hotel - Rhode Island 

When I wrote this article, my wife had recently stayed at The Pell Hotel in Rhode Island with a friend and really enjoyed it. The example in my original search showed a king room at 9,000 Hyatt points or $646 per night. That works out to about 7.18 cents per point before other costs. Six nights at those figures would require 54,000 Hyatt points, compared with $3,876 in room rates. These are historical search figures, not a current quote.

Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa

The original Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa example used 35,000 Hyatt points and a $2,280 cash rate per night. That is about 6.51 cents per point before other costs. Six nights would require 210,000 Hyatt points, compared with $13,680 in room rates. These historical figures do not include a current availability check or establish the full cost of the trip.

Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome

The original Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome example used 45,000 Hyatt points and a $1,529 cash rate per night. That is about 3.40 cents per point before other costs. Six nights would require 270,000 Hyatt points, compared with $9,174 in room rates. These are historical search figures, not a current quote.

Think of the Possibilities

Using the historical figures above, six nights at each hotel would require 54,000 + 210,000 + 270,000 = 534,000 Hyatt points, not 500,000. The room-rate comparisons total $3,876 + $13,680 + $9,174 = $26,730, or about 5.01 cents per Hyatt point before other costs.

That is an arithmetic comparison across three separate example stays, not a currently bookable itinerary or a promise of $26,730 saved. It excludes other travel costs and does not establish how many bank points would be needed to obtain those Hyatt points today.

Honest confession... I struggle to share this with you, because I know that it sounds too good to be true! I promise it's not, because I've experienced this life-changing way to travel for free and I've taught many other people how to do Travel Hacking. I'd love to help you as well - Enroll today in my Becoming a Travel Hacker course.