AwardWallet's Roundup of Airline and Hotel Program Sweet Spots

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With almost all loyalty programs, the value you get from redeeming points and miles will vary. Some redemptions can provide incredible value. Other redemptions will downright suck. One of the biggest challenges in the points and miles world is how to get more great redemptions — plus avoid fewer bad redemptions. Put another way, how do you minimize the number of points, miles, and cash you'll pay for the experience?

AwardWallet is here to help you solve that challenge. We've written a series of “sweet spot” posts covering the best redemptions for dozens of the most popular loyalty programs — plus the best ways to get to popular destinations like Hawaii.

If you're looking to get the most from each point or mile, this is where you want to start your search.

Best Uses of Airline Miles

Best redemptions for domestic U.S. flights

• American & Alaska flights: 472 American Airlines and 72 Alaska routes bookable for 12,000 Avios
• American flights: 1,284 American Airlines routes bookable for 8,000 Qantas points
• Delta flights: 462 Delta routes that you can book for just 7,500 Virgin points
• United flights: 511 United routes that you can book for just 6,500 LifeMiles
• United flights: 683 United routes bookable for just 6,000 Aeroplan points
• Hawaii flights: Best ways to fly to Hawaii using points and miles
• Amex Membership Rewards: Best ways to redeem Amex Membership Rewards points for U.S. domestic flights
• Chase Ultimate Rewards: Maximize Chase Ultimate Rewards points for flights within North America
• Capital One Rewards: Maximize Capital One miles for flights within North America
• Citi ThankYou^® Points: Maximize Citi ThankYou Points for flights within North America

U.S. mileage programs

• Alaska Mileage Plan sweet spots: Including Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, South America, and many more.
• American Airlines AAdvantage^® sweet spots: Including Qatar Qsuite to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, or Africa; Japan Airlines business class to Japan and Korea; and Cathay Pacific business class to Southeast Asia.
• Delta SkyMiles best uses: Delta is constantly changing awards, but here's the latest on where you can find value.
• JetBlue TrueBlue: Although JetBlue is mostly a fixed-value program, some awards are better than others.
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards: Identifying how to squeak out the right value from Rapid Rewards
• United MileagePlus sweet spots: Including domestic U.S. flights, northern South America, business class to Europe, flights within Japan, and getting a free flight on a multi-leg trip.

Redeem United MileagePlus miles to fly United Polaris business class. Credit: Max Prosperi / AwardWallet

International mileage programs

• Aeromexico sweet spots: Including awards from the U.S. to Mexico or Europe.
• Air Canada Aeroplan stopover sweet spots: Including hops around South America, visiting Europe and Africa in the same trip, and how to save miles by flying more.
• Air France–KLM Flying Blue award sweet spots: Including Hawaii, Mexico, northern South America, Europe, and northern Africa.
• ANA Mileage Club sweet spots: Jaw-dropping business-class sweet spots to Europe, Asia, Africa, and beyond
• Avianca LifeMiles sweet spots: Including transcontinental U.S. flights and business and first class to Europe, northern South America, South Asia, and the Middle East.
• British Airways sweet spots: Including domestic American and Alaska flights and flights to Mexico, the Caribbean, or Ireland.
• British Airways sweet spots on Qatar: British Airways recently realigned its award chart for Qatar awards. Here are the new rates and sweet spots.
• British Airways sweet spots on LATAM: Including U.S. to Caribbean, Bogota, Lima, and intra-South America flights.
• Cathay Pacific business class sweet spots: Including business-class awards on Cathay Pacific and Qatar QSuite, to Asia and Africa, and around-the-world awards.
• Korean Air SKYPASS sweet spots: Including Europe, Africa, Hawaii, Korea, and awards with a stopover.
• Qatar Airways partner sweet spots: Including flights on American or Alaska within the U.S. or to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Hawaii.
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer sweet spots: Including flights within North America, Hawaii, Europe, Asia, and South America.
• Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles sweet spots: Incredible award rates to Hawaii and business class to Europe, Turkey, Africa, India, and beyond.
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: Including ANA business and first class to Japan, business class to New Zealand, and short flights on Delta and Aeromexico.
• Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer

Credit: Delta

Airline sweet spot roundups

• The best unpublished award sweet spots: Save miles by flying further and routes that price cheaper than they should, such as 35k miles for business class to Europe!
• Practical airline award sweet spots for families: Not every sweet spot can be maximized by families, but these can.
• Amex Membership Rewards sweet spots to Europe
• Best business-class award sweet spots for flights to Europe
• Best business-class award sweet spots for flights to Asia

Fly lie-flat business class to Europe for just 35,000 miles one-way! Credit: TAP Portugal

Best Uses of Hotel Points

• Hilton Honors:
  • Best Hilton luxury redemptions
  • Best Hilton budget redemptions
• IHG One Rewards:
  • Best IHG luxury redemptions
• World of Hyatt:
  • Hyatt sweet spots: Hyatt still maintains an award chart, so you can get reliable value at hotels scattered across the globe.
  • Best Hyatt luxury redemptions
• Marriott Bonvoy:
  • Best Marriott luxury redemptions
  • Best Marriott budget redemptions
  • Top Marriott Free Night Award redemptions

How Much Are Airline Miles Worth?

It's nice to have a measuring stick when figuring out whether or not you're getting a good redemption. The trouble is that travelers assign different values to the same airline miles. To avoid any subjectivity, AwardWallet uses actual award bookings made by AwardWallet users to determine valuations.

Here's what we've found from tracking tens of thousands of actual reward flight bookings made by AwardWallet users:

Airline Mileage Programs MileValue

A couple of caveats about this data. First, AwardWallet users are much more savvy than average travelers. We generally know how to avoid terrible redemptions and focus on the highest-value uses of miles.

Also, assigning value based on cash prices has inherent issues, particularly in premium cabins. Would you have paid $10,000 for that one-way international first-class flight? Probably not, but using actual cash prices is the best way to assign value without subjectivity.

For much more detail on AwardWallet valuations, check out our dedicated post: How much do AwardWallet members actually save when redeeming points?

Best Way To Earn Points & Miles for These Sweet Spots

We recommend travelers earn flexible rewards points that can be transferred to multiple loyalty programs. That gives you the flexibility to maximize your rewards — choosing the right program for each trip and taking advantage of relevant sweet spots. Plus, earning transferrable points insulates you from the devaluation of any one airline mileage program. If one transfer partner changes its program, you should still be able to find value from the other transfer partners.

Credit: Daniel McCullough/Unsplash

If you're looking to build up a balance in any of these programs, here are your options:

American Express Membership Rewards

Amex Membership Rewards can be transferred to 21 Membership Rewards transfer partners: 18 airline mileage programs and three hotel point programs. Here are some of the best cards that earn Amex Membership Rewards and their current welcome bonuses:

• The Platinum Card^® from American Express: Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards^® Points after you spend $8,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
• American Express^® Gold Card: Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards^® Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
• The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express: Limited Time Travel Offer: Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards^® points after you spend $20,000 on eligible purchases on your Business Platinum Card^® within the first 3 months of Card Membership. Plus, earn a $500 statement credit after you spend $2,500 on qualifying flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express Travel^® with your Business Platinum Card^® within the first 3 months of Card Membership. You can earn one or both of these offers. Offer ends 6/30/25.
• American Express^® Business Gold Card: Earn 100,000 Membership Rewards^® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Gold Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.*

Capital One miles

Capital One miles can be transferred to 19 Capital One transfer partners: three hotel programs and 16 airline loyalty programs. Even its no-annual-fee cards have access to all transfer partners, plus you can combine cash-back earnings with your miles to access transfer partners with additional cards. These cards earn Capital One miles:

• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Earn 75,000 once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.
• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card: Earn a bonus of 20,000 miles once you spend $500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening.
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
• Capital One Spark Miles for Business: Earn a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles - equal to $500 in travel - once you spend $4,500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening
• Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business: Earn a bonus of 50,000 miles once you spend $4,500 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.
• Capital One Venture X Business: Earn 150,000 Miles once you spend $30,000 in the first 3 months, and an additional 200,000 miles once you spend $200,000 in the first 6 months.

Credit: Kateryna Naidenko/Pexels

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Chase Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to 14 Chase transfer partners: 11 airline mileage programs and three hotel point programs. Three cards earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points that are fully transferrable to partner programs:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card(Rates & Fees): Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve^®(Rates & Fees): Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card(Rates & Fees): Earn 90,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

In addition, you can use Chase's cash-back cards to boost your earnings by combining Chase points across accounts.

Related: Accumulate Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Quickly by Building a Credit Card Combo

Citi ThankYou^® Rewards

Citi ThankYou Points are a bit harder to earn than the others. Only two cards earn Citi ThankYou points that can be transferred to all 21 Citi transfer partners (14 airlines and five hotels):

• Citi Strata Premier℠ Card: Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou^® Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com.
• Citi Prestige^® Card: No longer available to new cardholders

However, other Citi cards earn ThankYou Points that can be transferred to a limited set of Citi ThankYou partners — or combined with the above cards to make earnings fully transferrable to partners:

• Citi Rewards+^® Card
• Citi Double Cash^® Card

Related: Build a Winning Combo of Citi ThankYou Rewards Cards

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy points transfer to 39 airline programs at a 3:1 transfer rate (with only the rare exception). Plus you'll get 5,000 bonus miles when transferring points to most Marriott airline transfer partners. Earn Bonvoy points through the following Marriott credit cards:

• Marriott Bonvoy Business^® American Express^® Card: Earn 3 Free Night Awards after you use your new Card to make $6,000 in eligible purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant^® American Express^® Card: Earn up to 150,000 Marriott Bonvoy^® bonus points. Earn 100,000 points after you spend $6,000 and an extra 50,000 points after you spend an additional $2,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 6 months of Card Membership.
• Marriott Bonvoy Bevy^® American Express^® Card: Earn up to 135,000 Marriott Bonvoy^® bonus points. Earn 85,000 points after you spend $5,000 and an extra 50,000 points after you spend an additional $2,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 6 months of Card Membership.
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card: Earn three bonus Free Night Awards after you use your new Card to make $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership. Redemption level up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy^® points for each bonus Free Night Award, at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy^®. Certain hotels have resort fees. Plus, earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 total on eligible purchases within 6 months of account opening with your Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card.
• Marriott Bonvoy Bold^® Credit Card: Earn 30,000 Marriott bonus points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from your account opening.

Bottom Line

Wherever you want to go, points and miles can probably get you there. Some redemptions provide better value than others; our goal is to help you find more of those good redemptions. By referencing the sweet spots above, you should be able to find a place you want to go and a way to get there. Now it's time to build a credit card strategy that helps you earn the points and miles you need for that trip.

Did your favorite sweet spot make this list? If not, let us know what it is in the comments below.

For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card (Rates & Fees), Chase Sapphire Reserve^® (Rates & Fees), and Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card (Rates & Fees)

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