Is an award a good use of points, or is it better to pay cash? Points Frog's cents per point calculator answers with one division. Take the cash price, subtract the taxes and fees you would still pay on the award, divide by the points, and multiply by 100.
The page's lead example is a $420 round-trip flight in the US that costs 25,000 United MileagePlus miles plus $11.20. That works out to 1.64 cents a mile, 31% more than the 1.25 cents Points Frog values those miles at. The prices are round, made-up figures, but the method works on any real fare.
The example, step by step
The award saves $408.80 in cash: the $420 fare minus the $11.20 still due. Divide that by 25,000 miles and multiply by 100 to get 1.64 cents. At Points Frog's value, the same 25,000 miles are worth $312.50, so using miles beats paying cash by $96.30.
The $11.20 is TSA's September 11 Security Fee. It is $5.60 for each one-way trip from a US airport, and no more than $11.20 for a round trip.
The calculator also turns the answer around. For this fare, the award stays a great deal up to 27,253 miles. It breaks even at 32,704 miles and becomes a poor deal above 36,337 miles.
Great, fair or poor
The calculator grades each award against Points Frog's value for the program. Great is 20% or more above that value. Fair runs from 10% below it to 20% above it. Poor is more than 10% below. For United miles at 1.25 cents, great starts at 1.5 cents and poor is anything under 1.13 cents.
| Redemption | Program | Cents per point | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| $420 US round trip | United MileagePlus | 1.64¢ | Great |
| $250 US one-way | Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1.36¢ | Fair |
| $129 short US flight | Delta SkyMiles | 0.99¢ | Poor |
| $3,800 business class | American AAdvantage | 6.00¢ | Great |
| $100 as cash back | Chase Ultimate Rewards | 1.00¢ | Poor |
| $60 card charge | Amex Membership Rewards | 0.60¢ | Poor |
The page's examples show a pattern. Awards priced against an expensive cash fare tend to beat a program's value, while cash-outs rarely do. Chase pays 1 cent a point as cash back, and American Express pays 0.6 cents a point to cover a card charge. Points Frog values those points at 2 cents and 2.1 cents. Cashing out can still make sense when you need the money, have no travel planned, or hold points that don't transfer.
What moves the answer
Taxes and fees come off first. The business class award costs 60,000 miles plus $200 against a $3,800 fare. Take off the $200 and it is worth 6 cents a mile, not the 6.33 cents you would get by ignoring it.
Points plus cash awards work the same way. Treat the cash part like a fee. A $300 flight priced at 10,000 points plus $150, with $5.60 in fees, returns 1.44 cents a point.
The miles a cash ticket would earn make a stricter test. A cash ticket usually earns miles and an award usually does not. To count them, subtract their value from the cash price before you enter it.
The program's value sets the bar. Points Frog values Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents, Membership Rewards points at 2.1 cents, United miles at 1.25 cents and Delta SkyMiles at 1.2 cents. The calculator covers 110 programs.
What the calculator leaves out
Point values are averages, so an award a little under one is still about even with paying cash. Cash and award prices change daily. The right choice also depends on flexibility, cancellation rules and whether you would take the trip at all without points. The page calls its answer an educational estimate, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Where the figures come from
Program values are Points Frog's own estimates, kept in its point value catalog with a dated history for each program. The values in this story carry the date October 13, 2026. The TSA fee, Chase's cash-back rate and the Amex rate for covering charges were checked October 18, 2026. The Amex page was last updated April 30, 2026.
Use it on your own site
The calculator is free to embed on a blog or site with copy-and-paste code, with no ads or tracking. Here is how to embed it.
Source: TSA, September 11 Security Fee; Chase, how Ultimate Rewards works; American Express, what points are worth, updated April 30, 2026; all checked October 18, 2026. Figures are educational estimates, not financial advice.