Frequently Asked Questions

CPP measures how much value you get per point. Divide the cash price by points required and multiply by 100 — a $500 flight for 50,000 points is 1.0 CPP. Most churners target above 1.5 CPP through airline and hotel transfers. Altitude uses your CPP settings to show the estimated dollar value of your entire portfolio.

Transfer partners are airlines and hotels you can move bank points to — Chase UR, Amex MR, and Capital One each have their own partner lists. Transfers are usually 1:1, and banks periodically offer 20–30% transfer bonuses. Altitude comes pre-loaded with partners for Chase, Amex, and Capital One. For Citi ThankYou and others, you can add partners manually on the Programs page.

A welcome bonus awards a large points payout when you hit a minimum spend within a set window (typically 3–6 months). Altitude tracks your spend progress and shows a countdown with urgency colors: green (on pace), yellow (at risk), and red (behind). Missing a deadline means forfeiting the entire bonus, so this is the most critical feature to keep updated.

Multipliers determine how many points you earn per dollar in each category — a card with "3x dining" earns 3 points per dollar at restaurants. When you add a card and set its multipliers, Altitude auto-calculates points earned on every transaction. The spend optimizer uses these to recommend the best card for each category.

The four major transferable programs are Chase UR, Amex MR, Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou. Co-branded cards (Delta, United, Marriott, etc.) earn directly in airline or hotel programs. Altitude aggregates balances across all your programs and converts them to an estimated dollar value using each program's CPP.

Banks periodically offer 20–30% extra points when transferring to specific partners. Altitude shows active bonuses as badges on the Programs page with urgency colors indicating time remaining. You can add your own alerts when you spot a promotion — expired bonuses are automatically hidden.

The optimizer recommends the best card for each spending category based on your portfolio. Rankings are CPP-weighted — a 3x card earning 2.0 CPP points (6 effective cents/dollar) ranks higher than a 4x card earning 1.0 CPP points (4 cents/dollar). It updates automatically as you add or modify cards.

Referral bonuses are tracked on the Bonuses page with status tracking (pending, posted, denied) and per-issuer cap display. Issuers like Chase limit annual referral bonuses, so Altitude shows where you stand — for example, "3 of 5 Chase referrals used this year." Once you hit the cap, no point generating more links until next year.