Apart from Hotel points and airlines miles, there are 3 bank currencies (Chase ultimate rewards/UR points, Citi Thankyou Points (Citi TY) and American Express Membership rewards (Amex MR)) that are flexible in the sense that you can either cash them out or use them as cash for travel needs, gift cards, merchandise or transfer to a partner airlines or hotel!
Chase ultimate rewards and Citi Thank you points need a card with Annual fee for transferring to travel partners while Amex doesn't.
1.Chase Ultimate rewards
Earned through Chase sapphire preferred, Chase Sapphire, Chase Ink (plus or cash), Chase Freedom (regular or unlimited version) at different rates per dollar spent.
Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink cash have no annual fee while Case Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink plus have anual fees.
If you don't have the annual fee cards, only way to use the UR points is to get cashback(1c/point) or giftcards or use it for travel through UR mall.
If you have annual fee cards, you can transfer them to travel partners and this offers the best value. You can also use it on UR portal for travel booking directly with a value of 1.25c/point.
The main travel partners are Hyatt Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and Singapore airlines.
We find most value in Hyatt and Southwest. The points transfer 1:1 to all the programs.
As an example, a Hyatt place Waikiki Beach hotel. A night here typically goes for 250$ including tax. But if you use Hyatt Goldpassport points you can get the same room for 12000 points.
So if you have 12000UR (ultimate reward points) you can transfer it to Hyatt and get more than 2cents/point instead of 1cent/point if we had got cashback!
Same thing holds for Southwest airlines. 1 Southwest mile is anywhere from 1.4cents to 1.8cents worth. So one UR point which can be transferred to Southwest is more valuable than cashback.
As mentioned before you need card with an annual fee (95$ for Sapphire preferred) to transfer to any loyalty program.
2. Amex (American Express) Membership rewards
Earned through Green, Premier Rewards Gold, Platinum, Everyday and Everyday Preferred cards.
The MR point or membership reward points works the same way as Chase UR points but the program has a different set of travel partners. We find these to be slightly less flexible and less valuable than Chase UR points.
3.Citi Thank you points
Earned through a bunch of Citi Thank you cards (premier, Preferred and Prestige), the thank you points are flexible with a different set of travel partners.
We find them better than Amex MR but lower in value than Chase UR points. If you own Citi Thank you premier or
Prestige cards which have annual fees, you can redeem each point for 1.25cents worth of travel. If you have Citi Prestige card,
it allows you to redeem each point for 1.6cents worth of American Airline fares.