What's your point actually worth?
Most sites publish one static number per program and call it done. hop computes cents per point (cpp) for every redemption it prices — the same formula, every time, never a guess.
The formula
¢/pt = (cash − taxes) × 100 ÷ points. Back out the taxes and fees you’d pay either way, then divide the cash price by the points required. Higher is better.
A $254 round trip, booked instead for 9,000 miles + $22.40 taxes:
($254 − $22.40) × 100 ÷ 9,000 = 2.6¢/pt
hop’s tier bar
Every redemption hop prices gets sorted into one of three tiers, and the same lines drive the “use points vs. pay cash” verdict.
hop’s own “use your points” call kicks in once the best award clears 2.5¢/pt — below that line, cash is usually the better buy.
hop’s baseline valuation, program by program
This is what hop assumes a point is worth if you don’t have a specific redemption priced yet — a typical, achievable value via a good transfer or booking, not a floor or a ceiling. It grounds the concierge and every wallet total; a live search always overrides it with the real number for that trip.
Why this isn’t just another valuation chart
The table above is a starting point, not the answer. Most valuation charts stop there — one number per program, updated by hand every few months. hop uses that table as a baseline, then computes the real cpp for the specific cash fare and published saver chart in front of you. Chart miles are floors — space is not confirmed. Every search hop runs also feeds an anonymized cpp observation back into a per-program running average; once a program has enough recent, trustworthy samples, hop can lean on that observed value instead of the static baseline. The number you see on a search result is always the computed one — this page is the methodology behind it, not a substitute for it.