Greg’s Guest Appearance on Point Me To First Class: What Credit Card Points Are Really Worth in 2025

On July 28, Greg appeared on the Point Me to First Class podcast with Devon Gimbel to chat about how to value your points and miles.

You can catch the whole episode here, or read a quick summary of the discussion below.

Here’s what you’ll find in the episode. (These timestamps are not clickable, but will help you know where to navigate within the episode.)

(01:32) – Devon picks Greg’s brain about the question of whether or not there’s more or less value in miles and points than ever before. From Greg’s view, while the redemption side may be trickier than it was, the earning side is arguably easier than it was before, with category bonuses that can be quite lucrative. Not to mention, new opportunities are always appearing, even as some go away.

(05:13) – Greg talks about how you might go about determining the worth of a given point type, acknowledging that it’s a very complex question, which may not have a concrete answer. The way Greg thinks about it is this: how much would I be willing to pay for these points if they were on sale?

(08:19) – Greg talks about how you may go about weighing one welcome bonus opportunity over another, encouraging people to think about a welcome bonus opportunity separately from the question of whether or not a credit card will be worth keeping after the welcome bonus isn’t a factor anymore. He also notes that transferable points are more robust against the changing atmosphere than points within a specific program.

(10:43) – Devon asks for Greg’s feedback on how one might weigh the value of one transferable points currency over another. Greg highlights Chase, Bilt, American Express, and Citi ThankYou points as the transferable points currencies with the most notable sweet spots.

(14:48) – Greg explains the concept of “Reasonable Redemption Value” (RRV) for understanding which award redemptions might be worth it and which won’t. He also talks about which data we’ve used to calculate these numbers. Read more about this concept here: https://frequentmiler.com/reasonable-redemption-values-rrvs/

(20:49) – Devon asks Greg if he’s seen significant changes in those RRV numbers.

(22:18) – Devon points out how much less valuable hotel points tend to be (according to this RRV value) and asks Greg to talk about when, if ever, it makes sense to transfer to hotel programs.

(25:43) – Devon asks Greg to talk a bit about hotel co-branded cards.

(32:19) – You can use this spreadsheet to help determine which premium cards might be worth it to you and which won’t be.

(33:22) – What’s a nuance that often gets lost when people first get into miles and points?

(38:22) – Chase recently introduced a Chase Points Boost feature. Greg talks about how this impacts the value of Chase Ultimate Rewards and how this might have impacted Greg’s own booking habits.

(45:02) – Greg talks about which transferable points currencies he personally values differently than the RRV published on the blog (and why he might value them differently). For example, the ease-of-earning points have almost as much of an impact as the redeemability.

(49:22) – Devon asks Greg to predict what changes might be on the horizon for point values in the near future. For example, Greg has concerns about the value of Alaska miles.

Catch the full episode here.

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