What are Award Charts?

Points and miles are pretty cool, but at the end of the day, they are only as valuable as what you can use them for. Their value is pegged to the amount of goods and services you receive when you trade in those points or miles. 

It can be very complicated trying to navigate and understand how many rewards points you need for a specific redemption. Luckily, many programs have award charts to help with this issue. Unfortunately, many programs also have started transitioning from award charts to dynamic pricing, but more on that later.

Award Charts are Awesome

Award charts tell us how many points or miles it will take to redeem a specific reward. This makes it clear to understand how many points or miles you need in order to save towards your goal because it allows you to set a number in your mind. They are typically found on a programs’ website but shouldn’t be too hard to find on the internet.

Award charts are awesome because the cost of the award stays constant irrelevant to the paid rate. For example, programs with stable award charts charge the same number of points whether you are flying the week between Christmas and New Years or if you are flying on a Wednesday in the middle of September. 

Overall, award charts allow members to extract significant value when paid rates are inflated. They also allow for sweet spots, meaning a part of the chart that is able to provide even more value. 

Another benefit is that award charts are often priced by region. For example, with some programs if you fly to Europe from the U.S., it does not matter if you have to add a connecting flight, or two, to get to the airport of your transatlantic flight before possibly adding another connecting flight to your destination.

Being located somewhere other than a major airport hub, award charts can be helpful for international flights. For example, I am able to add a flight from Orlando (MCO) to Washington Dulles (EWR) to fly to Europe, maybe LHR (London) for no additional cost. This would be a tremendous deal and a good way to spend a spring break.

What is Happening to Award Charts?

The issue for companies that use award charts is that they give away significantly more flights when the paid cost is more, and they charge the same number of points during on and off-peak times. The bottom line of the business would benefit from charging a rate via points and miles that is tied to the paid rate, similar to that which is done by JetBlue. 

There are multiple ways this plays out. For example, Hyatt still has an award chart, but it is no longer fixed. Rather, there are three tiers of pricing: standard, peak and off-peak. This means that you will be charged more points and miles during busier (and more expensive) travel periods, but you will still be able to rely on set prices as your goal.

In comparison when Delta Air Lines got rid of their award chart, opting for dynamic pricing, the price of different awards changes daily as the paid rate changes. Unfortunately, you do not know what to expect nearly as well or how much to save. 

This has led to some outrageously pricey Delta SkyMiles redemptions, among other programs’ redemptions, when paid rates are running high. These airlines and hotels claim that the dynamic pricing will “save” members points and miles when paid rates are low, but rarely have points and miles rates gone down. 

The Last Point

Award charts make planning out your points’ and miles’ strategy relatively simple, you have the goal in mind and you are able to save up in order to redeem it. As award charts start to disappear and mileage prices increase, it makes programs that have opted to keep their charts even more rewarding.

Points and miles are worth more today than they are tomorrow, so maximize award charts in order to determine the cost of your  travel goal, and then make it happen.