How the planner actually works

What the planner is (and is not)

The Travel Goal Planner is a calculator. It takes the numbers you type in — your trip goal, monthly spending by category, and existing points balances — and simulates month by month how points would accumulate across a sequence of cards.

It does not search live award inventory, it does not pull your credit report or run any credit check, and it does not know your credit score. Award pricing is dynamic; always confirm the live price with the airline or hotel program before transferring points.

Where the award-cost numbers come from

Route-level award estimates. Each entry names one loyalty program, the transferable currencies that reach it, and a points range per person round trip (flights) or per night (hotels), taken from a cited source on the verification date. The low end is a sweet-spot or off-peak price, the high end a normal saver-level price. Award pricing is dynamic — confirm the live price before transferring points.

The route catalog holds 52 sourced flight routes and 15 hotel stays, each with a source link and the date we verified it, and was last updated 2026-09. Flight figures are per person, round trip, from the mainland US; hotel figures are per night for one standard room. The planner uses the midpoint of each range as the target and shows the full range next to it.

When a destination has no sourced route yet, the planner falls back to a regional estimate band and says so in the plan. Editorial estimate ranges, not live award prices. Points ranges reflect what well-executed transfer-partner bookings have typically cost across published sweet-spot charts and our own award searches; the low end is an off-peak/sweet-spot booking, the high end is a normal saver-level award. Cash ranges are typical advance-purchase retail fares for the same cabin. Award pricing is dynamic and devalues over time — treat these as planning targets and always confirm the live price before transferring points. The regional table was last updated 2026-09.

Which points count toward your trip

Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi, and Bilt points are not one pile. For every region we list the airline programs behind its sweet spots and which currencies can transfer to each, using the stored transfer ratios and card-access requirements. The planner counts a point toward your trip only if its currency reaches one of those programs, and it never adds two currencies together unless a single program accepts both — 100,000 Chase points plus 100,000 Amex points fund a 200,000-point trip only where a program like Air France/KLM Flying Blue or Virgin Atlantic takes both.

Airline or hotel miles you already hold count only when the plan books through that exact program. When a plan has both flights and a hotel, each currency is allocated to one component or the other — never counted twice — and the plan is funded only when both are covered. Transfer ratios are applied where a program is not 1:1 (for example Hyatt via Chase for new Sapphire applicants, or Hilton via Amex).

The verdict, the funded month, and the timeline chart all use this usable figure. Points that reach no modeled program for your region are shown separately as "not counted" — they are still yours, and other programs we do not model may accept them; the planner simply does not assume so. Hotel programs are not flight paths and are left out.

Card selection works the same way: a card is added to a plan only if it pulls the fully-funded month earlier (or, while the trip is still unfunded, raises the usable balance), so a card whose currency joins your existing balances on a shared program beats a nominally richer card that would strand them. No card is added just to fill a slot, and none at all if your balances already fund the trip before the booking window.

Programs modeled today: ANA Mileage Club, Aer Lingus AerClub Avios, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Alaska Atmos Rewards, Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways Club Avios, Cathay Asia Miles, EVA Infinity MileageLands, Emirates Skywards, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, Iberia Club Avios, JetBlue TrueBlue, Marriott Bonvoy, Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios, Singapore KrisFlyer, Southwest Rapid Rewards, Turkish Miles&Smiles, United MileagePlus, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, World of Hyatt.

How points are valued

Each rewards currency is assigned a cents-per-point value from our valuations table — editorial estimates of what a point is reasonably worth when redeemed well, set deliberately below optimistic industry headline values. Transferable-currency values assume transfers to airline or hotel partners for good (not once-in-a-lifetime) redemptions.

We never quote the one-day-a-year price

Every route carries a low, a typical and a high price. The plan targets the typical price and shows the range beside it; the "great" and "good" lines under the anchor are set from that range, not from the best fare anyone ever found. A plan that only works at the lowest price ever seen is not a plan.

Programs that price awards dynamically are flagged on the plan and on the data-status page. For those, the range is what we have observed, and the live price on the day you book can sit outside it in either direction. Search before you transfer.

For variable welcome offers, the planner uses a separately sourced planning tier when available and can show the headline scenario. Neither tier guarantees your offer or eligibility. Confirm your actual offer before relying on a bonus.

How cards are scored and ranked

Each card carries an estimated first-year value: the welcome bonus valued at our cents-per-point figure, plus a year of earnings on the spending you entered, plus itemized estimated usable credits for year one, minus the applicable first-year annual fee. Anniversary benefits and one-time credits are assigned to the correct year; optional benefits not itemized are excluded. Displayed values round to $10. That value is shown on every card and breaks ties between cards that would fund your trip equally early. When an issuer only promises an offer "as high as" a number (Amex does this), the plan can use a separately sourced planning tier, with the headline shown as another scenario. Your actual offer may differ.

Gold dining and supermarket earning drops to 1X after its separate calendar-year caps; the planner tracks allocated spend, switches cards after a cap when useful, and resets in January. Existing cards start with unused caps because earlier spending is unknown. Broad Gold travel uses 1X; groceries assume eligible U.S. supermarkets. Ink Preferred uses its anniversary-year travel cap; held accounts assume an unused cap and an anniversary at the plan start. Business Gold uses base 1X because eligible monthly categories are not collected. Strata Premier and Bilt use base 1X for mixed travel; Bilt assumes dining selected and excludes housing and ongoing Bilt Cash. Refer to each card calculator for its assumptions.

A plan uses at most 4 cards. The months each card needs to meet its minimum spend are computed from your budget — the planner never assumes spending you did not enter.

Why Chase cards come first

When two orderings produce similar value, the plan schedules Chase cards earlier. Chase declines most applications once you have opened 5 personal cards in the last 24 months (the 5/24 rule), while other issuers do not weigh your Chase history the same way — so postponing a Chase card can cost you the card, while postponing others usually costs nothing.

Booking windows

Book-by dates assume award calendars open roughly 11 months (about 330 days) before departure, which is typical across major programs. Individual programs vary.

Compensation and independence

We are seeking affiliate partnerships to support our free tools. No credit card partnerships are currently approved or active. Compensation will not be an input to this scoring formula. Paid links, when introduced, will be disclosed near the recommendation. See the affiliate disclosure for current partnership status.