When is points plus cash a good deal?

At a glance#

What a mixed booking is#

In a mixed booking the programme takes part of the price in points and the rest in cash. Hotels offer it most. The split is usually fixed, though some programmes offer several steps, from few points and a lot of cash to the opposite.

To the traveller it looks attractive, because two small numbers sit side by side. The impression comes from the split, and the price itself is no lower. A mixed booking is no discount on the award. It is a trade of fewer points for more cash, and whether the trade is good depends on the rate: the less cash demanded per point saved, the better the deal.

The rate never appears in the offer. It emerges only when two steps are compared and the differences taken, so a comparison needs the conversion, which works like any other redemption with one extra step. A mixed booking is not a separate world, only a redemption with an extra line in the arithmetic.

The calculation#

Three steps produce the result, and only the first differs from a pure redemption. Everything after it is the same division as always.

The extra step#

Start with the comparison price, the price you would have paid without points, and subtract the cash portion of the mixed booking. What remains is the amount the points replaced. Divided by the points used, it gives the value per point.

Skip the subtraction and the result comes out too high. That error sits behind many success stories about mixed bookings, and what points are worth shows the base calculation it distorts. The extra step costs two minutes and prevents the most common misjudgement in this area.

Put as a sentence, the points in a mixed booking are worth what they save beyond the cash still paid. A night whose comparison price is entirely covered by the cash portion gives the points a value of zero, however few of them it asks for.

Why the display misleads#

Programmes frequently show a comparison rate above what you could pay. The advertised saving is then arithmetically correct and wrong for the traveller. Your own comparison price is what counts: a guest who would have booked the night for less calculates with the smaller figure, whatever the programme displays. The same rule applies to pure redemptions, and it matters just as much there, as points or cash describes.

Dividing the cash portion by the points saved shows what each point you keep costs in cash. If that rate sits above your benchmark, the mix is a poor deal. If it sits below, the mix pays even when the balance would cover a pure redemption.

Comparing several steps#

Where a programme offers several mixes, run the calculation for each, because the value per point can differ substantially between them. The step with the smallest points portion is frequently the worst: a large amount of cash is traded for few points, and the value per point falls accordingly. The steps also reveal the marginal rate. Moving from one step to the next trades a known number of points for a known amount of cash, and that single trade can be judged against your benchmark on its own. Running all the steps once reveals the pattern, and after that a glance at the step that scored best last time is enough.

Hotel bookings add a wrinkle. The comparison price swings widely across the year, so the same mix delivers completely different values on two dates.

Bookings for several people are calculated per room or per ticket. A good rate for one person is not automatically one for four, because the cash portions add up while the comparison price per room stays where it was.

Worked example: one night, three routes#

A hotel night can be paid in cash, purely with points, or mixed. The comparison price is the same in all three cases.

Read across the columns, cash costs the most money and no points, the pure redemption costs the most points and the least money, and the mix sits between them on both counts. The mix is a bridge between two states of the account and rarely the best of the three. With enough points you redeem outright; with too few you close the gap without buying points. As a bridge it is useful, as a default route usually the weakest option. Blanket verdicts about mixed bookings rarely hold for the same reason, since the value depends on the ratio and the ratio changes with every offer.

For a stay of several nights, check the steps for the whole stay. Some programmes allow a different payment type per night, which lets the expensive night go on points and the cheap one on cash.

Programmes also change the steps without notice. A good mix found today should be booked today; it may be gone in two weeks, and the next step down rarely offers the same rate.

When the mix makes sense#

A mixed booking has three good uses.

A short balance. When the points fall short of a pure redemption, the mix is cheaper than buying the difference.

A very high cash price. Even the points part of the mix can then reach a good value, because the comparison price is correspondingly large.

The wish to earn. Where the cash portion earns points or qualifying credit, the mix beats a pure redemption, provided the value per point holds up. The earning lowers the effective price of the booking.

All three uses share a condition. The value per point of the mix still has to clear the benchmark, because the mix only changes how many points are needed, never what each of them is worth. When a mixed booking sits clearly above your benchmark, it beats the pure redemption, and paying cash on top becomes a deliberate choice.

When it is not worth taking the mix#

The mix is not worth choosing in these situations:

• At a low value per point. Below your benchmark, paying cash is better.
• When the balance already suffices. The mix then saves points that do not need saving and pays cash for the privilege.
• On steps with a small points portion. A lot of cash gets traded for few points.
• When the displayed comparison price is inflated. The advertised saving is not yours.
• As protection against devaluations. It offers none, because the points portion regularly rises with the award price, as what happens in a devaluation describes.
• Just above the threshold for a full redemption. The mix removes the incentive to finally use the balance.
• For trips that might be cancelled. A mixed booking used as a placeholder ties up both points and cash, and both come back only with a delay.

The same hotel chain can offer a mix with a high points portion at one property and one with a high cash portion at another, with values per point a factor of two apart. Checking only one of them produces a wrong verdict about the whole booking type. The mix is neither good nor bad; it is an offer with a rate.

What to check when booking#

Three points decide whether the mix delivers what it promises.

The cancellation rule. On cancellation, points and cash come back separately as two refunds, and the points frequently return later than the cash. Without tracking both, a missing return is easy to overlook.

The earning. Whether the cash portion earns points and qualifying credit is set by the programme and differs between hotels and airlines.

Availability. Mixed bookings are sometimes possible only when a pure award booking would be, and sometimes precisely when it would not.

Certificates and free nights deserve a separate look. Many programmes do not allow them to be combined with a mixed booking, so using both means choosing one.

Checking those points once teaches you the programme. The rules rarely change, and the second check takes seconds.

Where the mix appears most often#

Hotel programmes offer it most, because their prices already follow the cash rate, which makes the mix a natural extension of the price list. With flights it is rarer and usually less favourable, and where it exists the value per point often sits below that of a pure redemption.

Award flights with a co-payment follow the same systematics, though taxes and surcharges there are a mandatory part of the price, not a mixed booking. They belong in the calculation anyway.

Card programmes have a third form: paying part of a statement with points afterwards. It is convenient, and the value per point is fixed and almost always the lowest a programme offers at all. No search, no availability, no dates: the convenience is priced in, and the points buy less than in almost any other use.

The calculation is the same in all three forms; only the names differ. With hotels the category plays in as well, as hotel award categories shows.

A single booking is the best way in. One night, three numbers, one result, and the systematics are clear for every further mixed booking, whichever programme offers it. Noting the values per point achieved pays off as well, because after three or four bookings the list shows which form of redemption suits your own travel pattern best.

The most common mistakes#

• Forgetting the cash portion. It has to come off the comparison price before dividing, or the value per point comes out too high.
• Adopting the displayed comparison price. The programme’s figure is often inflated; the price you would have paid is the one that counts.
• Checking only one step. Every offered mix needs its own calculation, because the values differ.
• Ignoring the earning. Points earned on the cash portion lower the effective price of the booking.
• Treating the mix as devaluation protection. The points portion rises along with the award price.
• Overlooking the two refund routes. After a cancellation, points and cash return separately and both need tracking.

Related topics#

• What points are actually worth
• Points or cash
• Hotel award categories
• What happens in a devaluation
• Buying points
• Free night certificates