Travelers frequently debate how much accumulated points are worth, something which is highly variable based on how they are redeemed.

A typical ballpark figure is approximately 2 cents per mile based on discount (rather than full fare) economy class travel costs.

However, most airlines have stringent capacity constraints on the number of "reward" seats available, so some people argue that this ballpark figure is an overstatement.

In this case, the value of a mile drops below a cent per mile. The airlines themselves value miles in their financial statements at less than one one-thousandth of a cent per mile.

In contrast, calculating the value of a point based on full-fare business class travel costs can yield a figure several times higher, but only if the customer would personally be willing to pay the multiple thousands of dollars such tickets would cost otherwise.

However, a person paying a full business fare will be able to change flights on short notice without extra cost; a person flying business class on a free award ticket may find that last minute minutes changes result in no award seat availability with the result that a ticket must be bought.

Increasing limitations on the availability of seats for point redemption, increases in services fees that airlines charge for redemption, and limitations on the transferability of redeemed tickets together have caused the value of points to customers to decrease with time

acruw is a service to help you get the most out of your frequent flyer miles and other rewards program points. In addition to the ability to track all of your balances in one place, acruw also offers a variety of tools to make earning and using rewards easier. https://www.acruw.com/ as well as  http://www.awardwallet.com/
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequent_flyer_program


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