One thing many in the miles & points community are dead wrong about

Miles and points are a great vehicle to fulfill our travel goals. I’ve been fortunate to make a ton of trips using miles and points. Many trips would’ve simply not been possible without using some sort of miles or points currency. However, as great our community is, there’s often an obsession with one thing that tends to irk me every now and then.

Miles & Points Valuation obsession

I was recently talking to a friend of mine about my recent stay at the magnificent Taj Lake Palace Udaipur. After discussing the trip briefly, she asked me about how I’d booked the trip. The moment I told her that I’d cashed out a few Membership Rewards points into my Schwab account with the Schwab Platinum card, I saw a sudden change of tone.

“Isn’t that just a valuation of 1.1 cents per point (CPP)?” – she quipped. I said yes, but it created memories that’ll last for a lifetime.

Miles & points valuations are are guidelines, not rules set in stone

Don’t get me wrong, miles and points valuations do have value. They serve as a guideline to many people who are slowly dipping their toes into this game. However, if you read Reddit forums or blog comments, you’ll often see people lamenting about how a certain redemption was just 1.4 CPP when it should’ve been at least 1.6 CPP.

Unfortunately, many in our community see the CPP valuation as the only marker while judging the quality of a redemption.

The goal of travel

One of the reasons I started the blog was to help readers get access so great travel deals, be it via great credit card bonuses or otherwise. However, there’s a greater philosophical reason as to why I travel. That often gets precedence over any CPP valuation that might cloud my mind before making a booking.

I simply derive a greater deal of pleasure from travel compared to any other material thing I can ever buy. As they say: “collect moments, not things”. That’s the mantra that often dictates where I travel.

Yes, I only got a 1.1 cents per point valuation from my stay at the Taj Lake Palace Udaipur. However, my experience of staying at an 18th century palace built in undivided India was truly mesmerizing. I could’ve stayed elsewhere and gotten a better CPP valuation. However, it would’ve been no match to staying at an ancient floating palace on the lake, which was home to the Mewar royal family back in the 18th century. Would some other hotel in the city with a better CPP value have had the same level of grandeur? Would it have provided the same insights into the history of a civilization that’s over 8,000 years old?

Read: Review – Taj Lake Palace Udaipur

Misplaced Goals

Very often, many in our community think about going to a particular place as a badge of being a part of this community. That thought couldn’t be more wrong. You should travel where you want to go, not just because some travel blogger (myself included) recommends you. Not everyone likes to make multiple trips to Vegas. Not everyone feels that the Maldives is their dream vacation. In short, you should go where you want to go and use your miles and points to take you there.

The same applies to flights as well. Some people like to take fewer trips in business or first while others want to stretch their miles and points by redeeming flights in Economy. To each his own.

The Pundit’s Mantra

Airlines and hotels have indeed devalued their miles over the last few years. While valuations still serve are a relevant metric, we in the community should stop thinking that it’s the primary or the only metric to judge the quality of your next trip.

The wonderful thing about our community is the diversity of people we interact with. For example, I travel a lot around Asia Pacific. I run into many into many in our community who can’t think about not going to Europe each summer. As I said before, to each his own.

I look at it from this perspective – The more I learn about places and redemptions that I haven’t been to or taken, the more it adds to my body of knowledge.

How much weight do you attribute to CPP valuations before booking a flight or a hotel? Let us know in the comments section.

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