New to points? Start here.
Airlines, hotels, and banks all hand out points and miles, but what a balance is actually worth depends entirely on how you redeem it. Two things are worth knowing before your first redemption: which currencies stay flexible, and how to tell a good redemption from a bad one.
What points and miles actually are
A point or a mile is a unit of credit. Airlines and hotels award them for flying or staying with them; banks award them for spending on a rewards card. Either way you bank a balance, then redeem it later for a flight, a hotel stay, or occasionally cash back. Redeeming it well is a computation, not a guess — that computation is cents per point (cpp), covered below.
Transferable points vs. locked miles
Not all points work the same way. A handful of bank currencies stay flexible until you move them; everything else is committed to one airline or hotel program the moment you earn it.
Transferable — 5 bank currencies, move to multiple partners
Locked — 29 airline and hotel programs, earned into one program only
25 airline programs
4 hotel programs
The difference matters at redemption time. A transferable point keeps every partner’s options open until you actually move it — you pick the redemption first, then transfer into it. An airline or hotel mile is already home; its value is capped by what that one program pays out. See exactly where each transferable currency reaches in the program guides.
Why cents-per-point beats a flat cash-back rate
A cash-back card pays one fixed rate on every dollar you spend, printed right on the card. It never changes — simple, but there’s no upside for booking well.
A points balance doesn’t work that way. The same balance can be worth a lot or a little depending on what you redeem it for. hop computes the real rate — cents per point (cpp) — for every redemption it prices, rather than publishing one static number per program. See the full formula walkthrough for how.
hop’s own “use your points” call kicks in once the best award clears 2.5¢/pt. Below that, you’re usually behind a decent cash-back rate — cpp is how you tell a good redemption from a bad one, before you book it.