Destinations, priced as trips

Each destination guide starts from the region's real constraint rather than a list of programs. For Europe it is the choice between programs that charge a large cash fee and programs that do not; other regions raise their own questions. The page prices an economy and a business seat, shows the points each bank would spend at its printed ratio, and lists the cash that survives. Every worked figure is an arithmetic illustration with stated inputs, never a seat that exists today.

Two destination guides already live in the trip playbooks and stay there: Hawaii on points and Japan on points. They follow the same method. If your trip is not a single region, the long-haul economy playbook and the flight points worksheet price a route that has no guide of its own.

Not every destination guide starts from the cabin. Cancun and the Caribbean on points starts from the cash: the US air taxes and arrival fees, Mexico's non-resident fee, the Quintana Roo VISITAX, resort fees and all-inclusive extras that a points trip still pays, line by line, and it names what its total leaves out. For the hotel side of a beach week, all-inclusive resorts on points prices the same room for two guests and for four.

The long-haul guides go back to the cabin. Flying to Australia on points sets the fixed one-way prices to Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland side by side by US gateway, starting at 50,000 points in economy on Air New Zealand through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Two more long-haul guides turn on the lines a chart draws. South America on points measures 25 city pairs against Aeroplan's 2,500 and 4,500 mile lines and shows why Miami prices Santiago and Sao Paulo 10,000 points below New York, and Southeast Asia on points starts from KrisFlyer's chart, where Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Bali cost only 2,000 miles more than Singapore itself.

The closest long weekend for a mainland traveler is a different question. San Juan on points prices the flight from six mainland cities against the Atmos, Aeroplan and Virgin Atlantic charts and lists the cash that survives on the award.

The Atlantic table that prices Europe also prices Africa. Africa on points measures 24 pairs between six US gateways and Cairo, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Cape Town against Aeroplan's 6,000 and 8,000 mile lines, sets them beside KrisFlyer's flat Star Alliance zone prices and Atmos Rewards' starting prices, and shows which connections cost 15,000 points more.

Central America is where one chart line can split a country's airports. Costa Rica and Central America on points measures thirty pairs from six US cities to San Jose, Liberia, Panama City, Guatemala City and San Salvador, shows that Houston is the only gateway where Liberia and San Jose price differently, and adds KrisFlyer's flat Star Alliance price to the Aeroplan, Atmos and Virgin Atlantic comparison.

How a destination guide is built

Each guide in this section answers four questions in the same order of thought, though not in a fixed layout. Which programs sell seats to the region, and which banks reach them? What does the program print for the cabin you want, and what does it leave to the search screen? Which cash charges survive on the award, including departure taxes that apply only to certain starting points? And what does one worked booking look like when the inputs are written down?

Fares, award prices and availability in the worked examples are stated assumptions, labelled as such, because a seat that exists today may not exist tomorrow. What is quoted as fact is a published rule: a distance band, a booking fee, a tax rate, a transfer ratio, each with the page it came from and the date it was read. When an official page could not be loaded, the guide says so and uses a dated archive copy or leaves the figure out.

What is not here

• No ranking of destinations, no claim that one region is the best use of points.
• No card recommendations and no affiliate links.
• No universal cents-per-point figure; each result is for one stated booking.