Frequently Asked Questions

CPP (Cents Per Point) is the standard metric for measuring how much value you're getting out of your points. It's calculated simply: divide the cash price of your redemption by the number of points required, then multiply by 100. For example, a $500 flight booked for 50,000 points yields 1.0 CPP.

Most points programs offer redemptions in the 0.5–1.5 CPP range through their own portals, but transferring to airline or hotel partners can push values to 2–4 CPP or higher on premium cabin awards. The sweet spot most points enthusiasts target is above 1.5 CPP — anything below 1.0 CPP is generally considered a poor redemption.

Altitude uses CPP to calculate the estimated dollar value of your entire points portfolio, giving you a realistic picture of what your points are actually worth rather than just showing you a raw count.

Transfer partners are the airlines and hotels that let you move points from a bank's rewards program directly into their loyalty program. Major bank programs — Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou Points — each maintain a list of partners you can transfer to.

Transfers are usually at a 1:1 ratio (1,000 bank points become 1,000 airline miles), though some partners transfer at different ratios like 2:1.5. Periodically, banks offer transfer bonuses of 20–30% that temporarily increase what you receive — Altitude tracks these so you can time transfers when bonuses are active.

Once transferred, points generally cannot be moved back, so it's best to transfer only when you have a specific redemption in mind. The power of transferable points is flexibility: one Chase UR point can become a United mile, a Hyatt point, or a Southwest Rapid Rewards point depending on your needs.

Altitude comes pre-loaded with transfer partners for Chase UR, Amex MR, and Capital One Miles. For other programs like Citi ThankYou, you can add partners manually on the Programs page — just enter the partner name and transfer ratio.

A welcome bonus (also called a sign-up bonus or SUB) is the large points award a credit card offers when you spend a minimum amount within a set time window after opening the card — typically 3–6 months. For example, "Earn 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months." Welcome bonuses represent the highest-value opportunity in points collecting and often cover the card's annual fee many times over.

Altitude tracks your spend progress toward each card's minimum spend requirement and shows a countdown to the deadline. Cards use urgency colors to help you stay on track: green means you're on pace to hit the bonus, yellow means you're at risk and need to accelerate spending, and red means you're significantly behind and the deadline is close.

The key to maximizing welcome bonuses is logging your transactions promptly so Altitude can accurately calculate your pace. Missing a minimum spend deadline means forfeiting the entire bonus — sometimes thousands of dollars in value — so the deadline tracking feature is one of the most critical parts of the app.

Spending multipliers (also called category bonuses or earn rates) determine how many points you earn per dollar spent in different categories. A card with "3x dining" awards 3 points for every dollar spent at restaurants, while its base rate for other purchases might be just 1 point per dollar. Most premium travel cards have elevated multipliers for travel, dining, groceries, gas, and streaming services.

When you add a card to Altitude and configure its multipliers, the app automatically calculates how many points each transaction earns based on the category you assign it. You don't have to do the math yourself — Altitude applies the correct multiplier and shows you an accurate points-earned total across all your cards.

To maximize your portfolio, use the card with the highest multiplier for each spending category. For example, if you have a card with 4x dining and another with 1x dining, always use the 4x card at restaurants. Altitude's transaction entry lets you select which card you used, ensuring the right multiplier is applied.

Points programs are the loyalty currencies issued by banks and credit card networks. The four major transferable programs are: Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR), American Express Membership Rewards (MR), Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou Points (TY). Each program has its own set of transfer partners, redemption portals, and CPP valuations — Chase UR and Amex MR are generally considered the most valuable due to their extensive airline and hotel partner networks.

In addition to transferable bank currencies, co-branded cards earn directly in airline or hotel programs (United MileagePlus, Delta SkyMiles, Marriott Bonvoy, etc.) with no transfer step required. These are useful for brand loyalists but offer less flexibility than transferable currencies.

Altitude aggregates balances across all your programs and converts them to an estimated dollar value using each program's CPP benchmark, giving you a single "portfolio value" that represents the total worth of all your points — regardless of which program they sit in.

Banks periodically offer transfer bonuses — for example, 20–30% extra points — when you move points to specific airline or hotel partners. These are time-limited promotions that can significantly increase the value of a transfer. A 30% bonus on 50,000 Chase UR transferred to Hyatt, for instance, nets you 65,000 Hyatt points instead of 50,000, with no additional spend required.

Altitude displays active transfer bonuses as badges on the Programs page, showing the bonus percentage, partner name, and expiration date. Urgency colors — green, yellow, and red — indicate how much time remains before the promotion ends, matching the same color system used for welcome bonus deadlines. This lets you spot opportunities at a glance without having to track bank announcement emails manually.

You can add your own bonus alerts when you spot a promotion, and edit details if the terms change. Expired bonuses are automatically hidden so the page stays uncluttered. Timing transfers around active bonuses is one of the highest-leverage moves in points collecting — a 30% bonus effectively reduces the "cost" of an award by nearly a quarter.

The spend optimizer looks at all your cards and their category multipliers to recommend which card to use for each spending category — dining, groceries, travel, gas, and other. Instead of you memorizing which card earns what, the optimizer surfaces the answer instantly based on your actual portfolio.

Rankings are CPP-weighted, not just raw-multiplier-based. The optimizer doesn't simply pick the highest multiplier number — it factors in each points program's CPP valuation so a 3x card earning points worth 2.0 CPP ranks higher than a 4x card earning points worth 1.0 CPP. That 3x card is actually delivering 6.0 effective cents per dollar versus the 4x card's 4.0 cents per dollar, making it the correct choice despite the lower multiplier on paper.

The optimizer widget appears on the dashboard and updates automatically as you add or modify cards and their multipliers. No manual calculation needed — just check the widget before you swipe, and you'll always be putting the right card to work for every purchase category.

Referral bonuses are the points you earn when someone you referred is approved for a credit card. These are separate from welcome bonuses and have their own tracking needs — particularly because issuers impose annual caps on how many referral bonuses you can earn. Chase, for example, limits the number of referral bonuses per issuer per calendar year, so tracking where you stand against those caps is essential.

In Altitude, referral bonuses are tracked on the Bonuses page in a dedicated section. Each referral entry records the referring card, the points amount, the referral date, and the status — pending, posted, or denied. A per-issuer cap display shows how many referrals count against the annual limit, for example "3 of 5 Chase referrals used this year," so you can see at a glance whether you're still within the earning window for that issuer.

Tracking referrals helps avoid wasted effort. If you've hit an issuer's annual cap, there's no point generating more referral links for that issuer until the cap resets at the start of the next calendar year. Keeping this data in one place alongside your welcome bonuses gives you a complete picture of all the bonus points you have in flight.