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Agent skill

Points Valuations

by borski in borski/travel-hacking-toolkit

Cents-per-point (cpp) valuations across major loyalty programs from four publications.

MITAuto-check passedBusiness, Finance & HR

Install Points Valuations

skills CLI
$ npx skills add borski/travel-hacking-toolkit --skill points-valuations -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install borski/travel-hacking-toolkit points-valuations --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/borski/travel-hacking-toolkit.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/travel-hacking-toolkit/skills/points-valuations .claude/skills/points-valuations && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
points-valuations
GitHub stars
688
Token cost
~2k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,113 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
46
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Cents-per-point (cpp) valuations across major loyalty programs from four publications.

  • Works in 7 steps: Compute true cpp with the formula below… → Compare against the program's floor.… → Check reachability before valuing… → …
  • Tasks that involve Referral and retention marketing
  • SKILL.md covers Decision Rules, The Points-vs-Cash Decision…, Staleness Check and How to Compute CPP Correctly, plus 8 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Points Valuations is an agent skill from borski/travel-hacking-toolkit. Cents-per-point (cpp) valuations across major loyalty programs from four publications. Floor/ceiling rules for deciding if a redemption is good or exceptional.

Its SKILL.md is about 2k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Business, Finance & HR, covering Referral and retention marketing. It works with C++. The repository describes itself as: AI-powered travel hacking and search with cash, points, miles, and award flights. Drop-in skills and MCP servers for Claude, Codex, and OpenCode. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Referral and retention marketing

Example prompts

  • “/points-valuations”

Workflow steps

7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Compute true cpp with the formula below — total out-of-pocket including award taxes/surcharges, not gross fare. If you don't know the…
  2. Compare against the program's floor. Below floor → recommend cash (or a different program), and say why. At/above ceiling → call it…
  3. Check reachability before valuing further. A great cpp in a program the user can't reach (no balance, no transfer path in…
  4. If a transfer is involved, gate through transfer-bonuses (check expiry against today's date) — an active bonus divides the effective miles…
  5. Check the opportunity cost of the currency, not just this redemption. UR at 1.3cpp on a flight is a loss if the user's realistic…
  6. Compare against the portal quote (actual quote, not assumed rate — Points Boost is dynamic). Transfer wins on miles-count more often than…
  7. Present cpp math on both sides and a one-line verdict. User preference thresholds (e.g. a personal ~1.5cpp bar) are an overlay the user…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit db82131. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Points Valuations loads about 2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 44 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,113 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~44
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from borski/travel-hacking-toolkit at commit db82131, republished under its MIT licence (© borski). 1,113 words, ~1,988 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/points-valuations/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
points-valuations
description
Cents-per-point (cpp) valuations across major loyalty programs from four publications. Floor/ceiling rules for deciding if a redemption is good or exceptional.
category
reference
summary
CPP formula, floor/ceiling rules, surcharge-heavy programs to avoid, transfer bonus considerations, Chase Points Boost dynamics, opportunity cost.

Points Valuations

Reference data: data/points-valuations.json

Four sources are aggregated:

  • The Points Guy (TPG): optimistic, has affiliate incentive to inflate
  • Upgraded Points: moderate
  • One Mile at a Time (OMAAT): conservative
  • View From The Wing (VFTW): most conservative and theoretically rigorous

Each entry has:

  • floor — conservative minimum (use this for decision-making)
  • ceiling — optimistic maximum
  • sources — individual values from each publication

Decision Rules

  • Default to the floor for "should I burn points on this?" decisions. If a redemption beats the ceiling, it's genuinely exceptional. Say so.
  • Below the floor is objectively poor value. Flag it and suggest alternatives.
  • TPG systematically overvalues (affiliate incentive). VFTW and OMAAT are more useful for real decisions.
  • When floor and ceiling are within 0.1cpp, the value is well-established.
  • When floor and ceiling are 0.3cpp+ apart, mention the range and let the user decide.

The Points-vs-Cash Decision Sequence

Run these steps in order for any "should I use points?" question. Each step can end the analysis early; don't skip ahead.

  1. Compute true cpp with the formula below — total out-of-pocket including award taxes/surcharges, not gross fare. If you don't know the surcharge yet, get it before quoting a cpp; a BA award can swing from 2.5cpp to 0.9cpp on surcharges alone.
  2. Compare against the program's floor. Below floor → recommend cash (or a different program), and say why. At/above ceiling → call it exceptional explicitly.
  3. Check reachability before valuing further. A great cpp in a program the user can't reach (no balance, no transfer path in data/transfer-partners.json) is not an option — drop it.
  4. If a transfer is involved, gate through transfer-bonuses (check expiry against today's date) — an active bonus divides the effective miles cost and can flip step 2's verdict.
  5. Check the opportunity cost of the currency, not just this redemption. UR at 1.3cpp on a flight is a loss if the user's realistic alternative is Hyatt at 1.5-2.0cpp — the benchmark for a transferable currency is its best practical use, not 1.0.
  6. Compare against the portal quote (actual quote, not assumed rate — Points Boost is dynamic). Transfer wins on miles-count more often than portal wins on simplicity; show both numbers.
  7. Present cpp math on both sides and a one-line verdict. User preference thresholds (e.g. a personal ~1.5cpp bar) are an overlay the user applies — still surface sub-threshold options when cash is unreasonable or points are expiring, flagged as such.

Staleness Check

Look at _meta.last_updated in the data file. If it's more than 45 days old, re-fetch from the source URLs in _meta.sources and update the file. Programs devalue regularly, and stale valuations lead to bad recommendations.

How to Compute CPP Correctly

CPP = (cash_price - taxes_and_fees_you_still_pay) * 100 / miles_required

This is the TOTAL out-of-pocket cost calculation, not just gross fare. Many award tickets still charge taxes, fuel surcharges, and carrier-imposed fees. These can be $5 on United or $800+ on British Airways. The cpp must reflect what you actually save.

Surcharge-Heavy Programs (Watch Out)

Some programs pass through massive fuel surcharges on award tickets. The worst offenders:

  • British Airways (especially on BA metal)
  • Lufthansa
  • SWISS
  • Austrian
  • Other European flag carriers

Surcharge-Light Programs (Use These)

  • United (on United metal)
  • ANA
  • Singapore (on own metal)
  • Air Canada Aeroplan (on most partners)

A 50K mile award with $600 in surcharges is NOT the same value as 50K with $5.60 in taxes. Always flag the expected surcharge level when recommending an award.

Transfer Bonuses Change Everything

Programs frequently run 20-50% transfer bonuses (e.g., "transfer Amex MR to Virgin Atlantic and get 30% bonus miles"). These are time-limited and change the optimal play entirely.

Use the transfer-bonuses skill to check current active bonuses (live data, weekly auto-refresh from Frequent Miler with AwardWallet cross-check). A 30% bonus on a transfer can turn a mediocre redemption into an exceptional one. The skill returns effective ratios you can plug directly into the CPP formula.

Show full SKILL.md (480 more words)Show less

Portal Rates Are Dynamic

Chase Points Boost (launched June 2025) replaced fixed redemption rates with dynamic offers of 1.5 to 2.0cpp (Reserve) or 1.5 to 1.75cpp (Preferred). Not every booking qualifies. The only way to know the real portal rate is to check the portal.

For rough estimates:

  • Chase: dynamic Points Boost pricing (~1.5-2.0cpp on select bookings; verify the actual quote, do not assume a guaranteed floor)
  • Amex/Capital One: 1.0cpp default

Always mention that the user should verify the portal price.

Transfer Partners Often Beat the Portal

This is the whole game. If 60K miles via transfer gets you a flight that would cost 90K via the portal, that's the play. Make this comparison explicit.

Opportunity Cost

Burning Chase UR on a 1.2cpp portal redemption is wasteful when you could transfer to Hyatt at 2.0cpp for hotels. Mention when points have better uses elsewhere.

Status Affects the Real Cost of a Flight

Elite status changes the effective cost of any cash flight by adding ~$50-150/segment of value (lounge access, free checked bags, priority boarding, upgrade eligibility). When computing whether to use points or pay cash, factor in whether the user has status that converts cash flights into a better experience.

For users without status who travel enough to benefit, load the status-match skill to compare three paths: free direct match (best when available), paid concierge via statusmatch.com (real fees, real status), and card-granted renewable status (Amex Platinum = Hilton Gold + Marriott Gold automatic). The "lifetime restriction" field is critical because a wasted match cannot be undone.

Multi-Stop Itinerary CPP Benchmarks

For multi-stop or RTW itineraries, the relevant comparison isn't a single one-way's CPP. It's the total cash value of the trip vs the total miles + fees. The round-the-world skill is the reference for those products. A few benchmarks:

  • Star Alliance Special Business RTW (paid fare) is a published cash fare priced via staralliance.com for 26,000-mile distance bands. Historically reported in the mid-thousands to low-five-figures USD range depending on routing and origin country; verify live at staralliance.com/en/book-fly. The cash value of equivalent revenue J one-ways is much higher, which makes the RTW fare a strong $/business-class-seat play when the routing fits. It is NOT a mileage award — it's a cash booking. Separately, member-program RTW awards (Aeroplan and ANA both discontinued theirs in 2020 and 2025; Lufthansa M&M still offers 195K/400K/540K Y/J/F) are the mileage paths. Don't conflate the two; load the round-the-world skill for the real product map.
  • Iberia Plus intra-Europe off-peak (3,500 Avios for under 650mi one-way) lands at around 2.0-3.0 cpp on short hops where cash is $80-120, which beats most portal rates and most short-haul awards.
  • Aeroplan distance-based NA short-haul (6,000 Aeroplan miles starting price for under 500mi) at $80-120 cash = 1.3-2.0 cpp, comparable to the Chase portal floor.

Always compute the full-itinerary CPP for multi-stop trips, not the per-segment CPP, since stopover and routing benefits compound across segments.

© borski, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in plugins/travel-hacking-toolkit/skills/points-valuations of borski/travel-hacking-toolkit.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit db82131

Compare with similar skills

Points Valuations next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Points Valuations compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Points Valuations this skillborski/travel-hacking-toolkit688—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Update Milvus SDK Docsmilvus-io/web-content138—~13kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Growth Idea Action Planaiskilloftheweek/claude-ai-skill-of-the-week148—~945Automated safety check: PassNone
Backend Interview SimulatorHazehacker/backend-interview-simulator207—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Payram PayoutsPayRam/payram-mcp158—~4.2kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Referral Program Designmohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills1.4k—~1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Points Valuations

What does Points Valuations do?

Cents-per-point (cpp) valuations across major loyalty programs from four publications. Points Valuations is an agent skill from borski/travel-hacking-toolkit. Cents-per-point (cpp) valuations across major loyalty programs from four publications.

When should I use Points Valuations?

Points Valuations fits situations like: tasks that involve Referral and retention marketing.

How do I install Points Valuations in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add borski/travel-hacking-toolkit --skill points-valuations -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/travel-hacking-toolkit/skills/points-valuations in borski/travel-hacking-toolkit) into .claude/skills/points-valuations in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Points Valuations in Codex?

Run `npx skills add borski/travel-hacking-toolkit --skill points-valuations -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/travel-hacking-toolkit/skills/points-valuations in borski/travel-hacking-toolkit) into .agents/skills/points-valuations in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Points Valuations in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add borski/travel-hacking-toolkit --skill points-valuations -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/points-valuations, .gemini/skills/points-valuations, .github/skills/points-valuations and .opencode/skills/points-valuations in your project.

What does Points Valuations need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Points Valuations is instructions for the agent only.

Does Points Valuations access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Points Valuations safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Points Valuations use?

Points Valuations is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Points Valuations use?

About 2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Points Valuations?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Points Valuations: Update Milvus SDK Docs (milvus-io/web-content, 138 stars), Growth Idea Action Plan (aiskilloftheweek/claude-ai-skill-of-the-week, 148 stars), Backend Interview Simulator (Hazehacker/backend-interview-simulator, 207 stars) and Payram Payouts (PayRam/payram-mcp, 158 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Points Valuations?

borski (a GitHub user) maintains it in borski/travel-hacking-toolkit, which has 688 GitHub stars. The repository holds 46 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

Source: borski/travel-hacking-toolkit on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.