A plain-English map of how credit card points and airline miles actually work: which points transfer where, how to find the award seats, and an AI prompt generator that turns your goal into a booking strategy.
Transferable bank points (Amex, Chase, Citi, Capital One, Bilt, Wells Fargo) are the most valuable kind because they can move into many airline and hotel programs. If you remember nothing else, remember these.
Cash, gift cards, or “pay with points” at checkout = ~0.5–1¢ each. Transferred to an airline for a premium seat, the same points hit 3–8¢. That gap is the whole game.
Transfers are one-way and permanent. Never move points hoping space exists. Find the exact award seat or hotel night, then transfer the precise amount, then book.
Keep points in the bank currency as long as possible. Every partner stays open and devaluations hurt less. Convert only at the moment of booking.
Beat ~1.5–2¢ per point and you’re winning; below ~1¢, pay cash and keep the points. Rough valuations are in the Toolbox below.
Pick a bank currency: its transfer partners, speed, best & worst uses, and just as important, where it can’t go.
Filter by type or by which bank points feed it, or search names, alliances, brands, and sweet spots.
Award space is the bottleneck, not points. These are the sites and tactics that surface it.
Point and mile values are calculated and managed by AwardWallet, based on real member bookings.
Fill this in → get a master prompt engineered for award travel. Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant and it will plan transfers, programs, and booking steps around exactly what you have. Your inputs never leave your browser.
Copy into Claude (or any AI). It bakes in the transfer rules, the 2026 gotchas, and your balances if you entered them.