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Award vs cash: points or cash?

The question every award search is really asking. Not "is there space?": "is spending points here a good idea?"

Ask for a comparison and AwardWise matches award availability against the live cash fare for the same physical flight, then prices both. One row per bookable-both-ways flight, here it is live, JL57 SFO→NRT on three different programs:

The actual Comparison component, rendered live. Same flight, same day, three programs, and they are not equally good deals.

Matched pairs only

Every row is one flight you could book either way. Award-only and cash-only results don't belong here (they'd be comparing nothing to something), so they live in the dedicated Award and Cash tables instead. If a comparison row exists, the trade is real.

The three numbers that decide it

Value (¢/pt): what each point buys you on this specific redemption: (cash − taxes) ÷ points. Alaska returns 2.61¢ per point here; Qantas only 1.22¢, because its $474 in taxes eats most of the fare it was supposed to replace.
Effective cost: the all-in figure, the taxes you'd pay plus the value of the points you'd burn, each program valued at its own rate. Alaska ≈ $588, Flying Blue ≈ $640, Qantas ≈ $1,040, against a $1,004 cash fare. Points aren't free money, and this column refuses to pretend otherwise.
Verdict: ✓ Use Points when the value per point beats what you say your points are worth; ✗ Pay Cash when it doesn't. Qantas is the honest ✗ here: 1.22¢ falls under its 1.3¢ valuation, and $1,040 all-in is worse than simply buying the $1,004 ticket, a close call the table still calls correctly.

Your valuations, not ours

The verdict is measured against your cents-per-point numbers when you've set them (Wallet → valuations), and clearly labelled per-program defaults when you haven't: Alaska 1.5¢, Flying Blue 1.2¢, Qantas 1.3¢ above, not one blanket number. Two people can see the same flight and get opposite advice (correctly) because their points are worth different amounts to them.

The Best Deal banner names the strongest redemption in the set, and its row is tinted with a ★ on the Effective Cost so you can find it again as you scan. And when you'd rather compare options you choose (different programs, dates, even a cash fallback), that's the sibling feature: Weigh my picks.

Compare a real flight →