When it comes to earning points, it’s actually pretty hard to make a truly catastrophic mistake.
Sure, you can forget to use the “right” card and earn 2X instead of 4X. Or you can miss a shopping portal and leave some easy points on the table. Annoying? Yep. But those are the kind of mistakes you can usually recover from.
Redeeming points is different. Because when you redeem, you can burn tens of thousands of points in a matter of seconds — all because you used the wrong “point value” in your head, or you didn’t stop to do the quick math.
And yes… I’ve done exactly that while booking hotels.
Points don’t have one set value (and that’s why this happens)
One of the easiest ways to mess up a redemption is to assume points behave like a normal currency. They don’t.
Each hotel program has its own “scale,” pricing quirks, and sweet spots. On top of that, your personal value for points can vary a lot based on things like:
- How many points you have (a big balance can make you less protective of every point)
- How quickly you earn (easy-to-replace points don’t feel as painful to spend)
- Whether you’re trying to avoid paying cash (sometimes, “not great” value is still the right move)
- How flexible your travel is (if you want to visit a specific hotel or your dates are set, valuations will be different)
I keep my own rough values for each program. But I’ll be the first to admit that the numbers aren’t universal. Your Mileage May Vary.
The quick check I should’ve done: cents per point
I’m not someone who thinks every redemption needs to be a “maximize at all costs” situation. But I am someone who wants to avoid the truly bad redemptions — the kind you’d never make if you took 30 seconds to do the math.
Here’s the basic calculation:
Redemption value (CPP) = (cash price − taxes/fees you avoid paying) ÷ points used × 100
In plain English: take the cash price you’d otherwise pay, subtract any costs you still pay on an award night, then divide by the points used. (That gives you the value per point in cents.)
My London mistake: the wrong “point value” was in my head
We currently have hotel points with Hyatt, IHG, Hilton, Wyndham and Marriott Bonvoy. If it’s a great deal, I can also transfer points to Accor and Choice.
When I was searching for a London hotel, I found one charging 64,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. The cash price was around $300. For some reason, my brain said, “That’s a decent deal,” and I booked it.
It wasn’t until a few days later — when I was updating my AwardWallet balances — that I got that “wait a second…” feeling.
I ran the math and realized that I was only getting about 0.49 cents per point. That’s terrible for how I typically use Marriott points. I’ll consider Bonvoy redemptions around my personal baseline, but I usually try to get closer to ~1 cent per point if I can. This was nowhere near that.
And once I saw the number, the mistake was obvious: I’d just finished booking an IHG hotel, and IHG’s “cents per point” range was still in my head. Same night, same tired brain…wrong currency.
The good news: the reservation was far enough out that I could cancel and rebook before it became an expensive lesson.
How to value points (especially if you don’t use a program often)
I don’t love the idea of a single official value for any points program. There isn’t. But if you’re new to a program — or you rarely redeem it — it can still help to use published valuations as a starting point.
Some of the better-known references include:
- Frequent Miler’s “Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs)”, which are meant to reflect values that are reasonably achievable, not unicorn redemptions.
- AwardWallet’s point/mile values, which are based on real user booking data (helpful as a reality check)
- One Mile at a Time’s valuations, which get updated periodically and include explanation of the methodology.
Are they perfect? No. But they’re a good guide until you build your own values — and they’re especially useful for programs you don’t use often enough to have a strong instinct for what a “good” redemption looks like.
As you can see, their valuation for Marriott Bonvoy points is between 0.7 and 0.9 CPP. So, my 0.49 CPP booking was below average.
My “don’t mess this up again” checklist
I’m not going to pretend I’ll never make a mistake again. But I can make it harder for tired-brain math to sneak in.
- Do the CPP math every time (even if it’s quick and rough)
- Compare it to a baseline (your own value, or a published reference if you don’t have one)
- Don’t mix currencies in your head (if you were just booking IHG, double-check you’re not thinking in IHG terms)
- Re-check before the cancellation deadline if you booked late at night or while juggling multiple reservations
Final thought
You don’t need to squeeze every last decimal of value out of every redemption. Sometimes you use points simply because you’d rather keep cash in your pocket — and that’s a perfectly valid strategy.
But there’s a big difference between “not maximizing” and “accidentally lighting points on fire.” And a 30-second check can be the difference between the two.
Have you ever made a mistake like this when redeeming points?
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