Guides · The funding plan
The funding plan
"Short 170,000 miles" isn't an answer: it's a homework
assignment. AwardWise does the homework.
Meet Casey. The flight Casey wants costs 180,000 Flying Blue
miles; Casey holds 10,000, plus points at four banks that all
transfer to Flying Blue. The short chip on the results table shows
the honest standalone number ("or buy ~$2,873"), and a tap on
▸ plan expands the real answer:
The actual component, live, with the plan expanded, Casey's
example wallet: 10,000 Flying Blue; 5,000 Citi ThankYou; 5,000
Amex MR; 40,000 Capital One; 20,000 Chase UR.
How the plan is built
- Use what you hold: 10,000 Flying Blue first.
- Transfer cheapest-first, by YOUR valuations:
each bank point is priced at your personal (or default)
cents-per-point, so the plan spends your least-precious
currency first. Casey values Chase UR at 2.0¢ and Capital One
at 1.8¢, so Capital One's 40,000 go before Chase's 20,000,
and the plan says exactly why.
- Buy only the true remainder: after 70,000 in
transfers, only 100,000 needs buying: $1,690 at the live
1.69¢ promo. All-in with taxes: $1,752,
versus $2,935 buying everything.
The honesty rules
- Both steps stay explicit: the compound total never appears
without the transfers it depends on.
- Buy pricing comes from a curated catalog with the source and
as-of date shown (the figure above uses an illustrative
example price, not a live quote); stale promos are dropped,
never silently reused.
- If no purchase pricing exists for a program, the plan ends at
an honest "still short". We don't invent a price.
Curious how that final buy step is priced against the cash fare?
That's the sibling guide:
Buy miles or pay cash?
See your own funding plan →