Is Inflation Affecting Travel Points and Miles?

After years of unusually low prices on airfare and vacation rentals during the pandemic, travel prices have taken off in 2022. And while travel price inflation has cooled with slowing demand and falling fuel prices this fall, it continues to affect travelers plans and budgets.

So with travel prices still well above their pre-pandemic levels, what does that mean for travelers hotel points and airline miles? Rewards programs regularly increase award prices, which are the number of points or miles needed to book a hotel night or flight. That practice devalues these currencies over time and renders customers collection of points and miles less useful. Yet, interestingly, the opposite effect seems to be happening this year.

Rewards are worth more this year

NerdWallet refreshed its annual analysis of points and miles programs and found something unexpected in a sea of bad inflation news: Many rewards programs points have become more valuable this year compared with the previous year.

American Airlines miles increased in value, from 1.2 cents per mile in 2021 to 1.5 cents in 2022. United Airlines miles jumped from 1 cent per mile to 1.2 cents per mile. In fact, almost every domestic airline's miles either increased in value or stayed the same, year over year. This bucks the conventional wisdom among points and miles enthusiasts, who expect to see those values drop over time.