My impression is if you fly for work, you get a lot of employer sponsored points, so it's interesting.
But if I fly 5-10 trips a year personally, why would I try points when I can get 3-5% cash back on my various cards?
It's really the average consumer who has never flown business class that gets the most value and just 1 credit card bonus offer of 60,000 points can get them that flight. Some sign up offers are 150,000 points or more. To the average consumer, flying on business class is a dream experience.
In terms of math:
When flying on points, you can redeem business class flights at 4-8 cents per point. So if you're earning your points 1.5 cents per dollar (eg. Chase Freedom Unlimited), each dollar you spend can earn you 6%-12% back (1.5 points earned * 4-8 cents per point). You can redeem first class for even more at 12-20 cents per point.
This is just the low end. You also have category multipliers like 3X points earned on travel or 5X points on flights with some cards.
The problem is that these saver fare business and first class flights using points are hard to find and can take a lot of time. So Roame is stepping in to make it easier.
We have a guide on valuing points: https://roame.travel/guides/cents-per-point-calculations
We also have a Points 101 guide for the basics: https://roame.travel/guides/points-101
Is this true? I feel like the "average" person cares a lot more about their destination than the experience of the flight.
Going to Disney World or the Carribean might be a dream experience, but having a bit more legroom and drinks on your flight is way, way down the list.
Maybe it's different when you only talk to people who make at least six figures.
Often, people buy these things because it makes them feel better, in that they feel they’ve earned the right to have something nice.
And that is one of the reasons that people tend to make decisions that don’t get them out of poverty. Because sometimes feeling spendy makes people happy, in the short term.
It’s why you see so many lower-middle class people driving around in a used/leased Lexus or BMW. It isn’t that a Ford or Mazda wouldn’t suffice.
Moreover, if you can get it for free, with points, that feel like they cost you nothing? Hell yeah.
(This is also why the Marlboro/Parliament catalogs which made people collect UPC codes for various items were so popular. Nobody needed that junk. But a duffel bag and a laptop for nothing but these random barcodes I’ve collected?! Hell yeah, I’m rich!)
For my diabetic mother who has really bad legs, or for me who has had back issues his whole life, or for someone who is treated like they deserve to be there in first class instead of being cattle called into a tiny seat with a bag of pretzels for fourteen hours…
Different priorities.
Flying business or first class is not something I do often (I’ve flown a single digit number of times on either, and all but once on points) but when I do the amount of stress that is relieved is actually very significant. It’s hard to understand until you’ve done it.
And it may not matter to you! And that’s also okay.
I’m not sure what your background is, but this seems like a starkly false assumption to me. I’ve worked in multiple industries, including consulting (the one most famously known for frequent corporate travel) and I wouldn’t even come close to saying it’s a “given”. Only very high levels executives or the very elite companies fly their employees business class. In my years and years of weekly travel for consulting, my company paid for business class a grand total of 0 times (I’ve flown business a handful of times, but always upgraded with my own points). My colleague has only flown business paid for by the company once on a particularly long international flight.
I think you’re really shooting yourself in the foot by not paying more attention to corporate travelers. Corporate travelers are by _far_ the most likely to have credit card or loyalty points to spend, but it seems like you’re just brushing them off.