 TITLE: Vacationing With Points: When to Redeem Points and When to Pay Cash CONTENT: Time to Choose the Points or Miles You Use\n------------------------------------------\nBut what happens if you have a choice of points or miles to use? Let's say you have both American Airlines miles and Chase Ultimate Rewards points to redeem for travel. How do you decide which type to cash in? You will just need to calculate the per-point value for the specific airline or hotel program versus the per-point value for your cash back program and see which one comes out on top. This usually works out in the following way:\n**Cheap flights and nights**: If your flights or hotel bookings are inexpensive, you will generally get a better value from your cash back points. For instance, let's say you booked a round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Seattle over the summer. Airfares on Alaska Airlines are around $117, or 20,000 Alaska miles. That works out to around 0.59 cents per mile in value. However, if you have the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you would only need to redeem 11,700 Capital One Rewards Miles for the same itinerary if you use the card to book through Alaska and use points to \"erase\" that purchase. That's because Capital One Rewards Miles are worth 1 cent apiece for travel, which is a much better deal in this instance. Generally speaking, if you are getting less than a cent per airline mile or hotel point in value, you will be better off redeeming cash back points.\n**Expensive flights and nights**: On the other hand, even though they require tens of thousands of miles or points, some very premium rewards including first-class flights and award nights at luxury hotels, usually yield a much better value than simply redeeming cash back points. To take one of the examples above, a $5,000 business-class ticket to Europe that would cost just 75,000 Delta SkyMiles plus under $100 in taxes and fees would require you to redeem an astounding 500,000 Capital One Rewards Miles. No thank you!\nFor the most part, try to redeem your airline miles and hotel points for otherwise expensive rewards, and save those cash back points for cheap flights and nights. END