In September, 2009, JetBlue announced some major changes to its TrueBlue frequent flyer program, requiring PlasticIQ to completely re-evaluate our estimate of the worth of JetBlue’s TrueBlue points. Previously, we had estimated JetBlue points to be worth about $0.0120 per point. With the changes to the program, that estimate has climbed slightly to about $0.0122 per point.
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There are actually 2 tiers of the American Express Membership Rewards Program—the MR tier (this is the “full” program) and the Express Tier (which is identical to the MR tier except that you can’t transfer points to other frequent flyer/hotel programs). The Express Rewards program typically applies to AMEX cards that don’t charge annual fees, such as Blue From American Express.
Since the Express Program offers fewer redemption options than the full MR tier, you might feel like you’re getting hit below the belt (and it turns out to be true!) as the value of the points earned in the Express program is worth less than the same number of points earned through the MR program.
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Last Reviewed: 10/22/2010
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The Hilton Honors American Express card is a serious player in the hotel credit card space. It’s currently a top 3 card (based on PlasticIQ’s standard spending profile) when we screen for hotel credit cards using the PIQ Ranking Engine. Perhaps a slightly more serious player is the Starwood Preferred Guest Card from Amex, but you should review both carefully before deciding which piece of plasstic to mate with.
For those of you who like to get to the answer fast, PlasticIQ estimates the value of Hilton points to be worth around $0.0043 per point. This is a complex question to tackle (and like many rewards calculations, at times subjective), but here’s PlasticIQ’s take. The first thing to note is that the value of Hilton rewards actually varies depending on several factors, primarily:
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