PurchasePower Rankings The PurchasePower Ranking helps you understand which cards offer the highest ongoing point earning power, and which awards are the best use of your points. It is an estimate of what percent of every dollar you charge on the card is returned to you as a given award. Three factors come into play: - Points earned per dollar spent on the card - The number of points required for a given award - The market dollar value of a given award We take those factors and come up with the % ranking. Higher numbers are better. For example, a 2.5% means 2.5 cents of every dollar you've spent to earn points will be returned as value through that award. We think it's a good way to gauge how efficient various award types are, as well as the merits of each card's point earning power.  PurchasePower Rankings reveal three basic trends - International business class awards and upgrades are the most efficient use of your points - Domestic airline tickets are among the least efficient uses of points - Hotel stays are a reasonable bet depending on the program. Low points required also make earning an award faster. However, please note that the calculations measure the efficiency of points from card purchases, not the overall efficiency of a given program. Flying and hotel stays are the most efficient ways to earn points, and many programs are strongly geared to that, with high bonuses for actual stays and flights. A program with a bad PurchasePower score could still be a very generous and viable point earning program (PriorityClub is an example of this. Award winning and generous hotel point program with a card that doesn't earn as strongly as Hilton or Starwood).   Make your own PurchasePower rankings: customize the PurchasePower rankings for your spending habits Download the Interactive Excel spreadsheet No two travelers are the same, and many people may benefit from some of the '2 points per dollar' on 'everyday' and 'travel' purchases offered by some cards. Or, your typical Domestic Coach ticket may be more than $400. To help you take that into account, you can create your own PurchasePower rankings. We've placed the source spreadsheet online. You can download it and play with the assumptions to match your personal travel patterns and beliefs. For example, if you think you will have more 'everyday' purchases on a card that offers double points on everyday purchases, you can go in and change the number of points per dollar you want to assume, and see how it stacks up versus others. Or, you can change the assumed dollar value of awards to match your actual goals. For programs that offer bonuses for 'everyday' gas/grocery purchases, we assumed 15% of your purchase dollars would go to gas or groceries. We provide the spreadsheet for you to account for any different views you may have. Why does the Starwood Amex rank so high? TheStarwood Amex effectively earns 1.25 airline miles per dollar spent, while most cards earn 1 mile per dollar spent. How does it work? You earn 1 Starwood Hotel Point per dollar spent on the card. Starwood allows you to transfer your Starwood hotel points to most airline mileage accounts at 1:1. However, they offer a 5,000 mile bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer to an airline program, which means 20,000 points turns into 25,000 miles in your favorite airline program. It wins substantially on the hotel side because of relatively low point requirements for its lower end hotels. That may change in the future, as Hilton recently increased its point requirements, but is likely to remain competitive. Beyond the numbers, we think it's a good card anyway because of its flexibility. You can transfer to most programs (except United) at the fair 1:1 rate plus bonus, and hotel awards at Starwood have no capacity controls, making them exceptionally easy to redeem. You can learn more and apply here. Is my card worth the annual fee? PurchasePower percentages can help you figure out whether a card is worth its annual fee. Click here to learn more.