How Miles Mosaic values a mile

What a cent per mile means here

A cents-per-mile (cpm) figure is a rough, comparable unit price: what a mile or point in a given programme tends to be worth when redeemed reasonably well, expressed in US cents. It is a yardstick for comparing programmes and estimating what a balance is roughly worth, not a guarantee of what any single redemption will return, not an offer to buy or sell a mile, and not the price anyone will pay you for one. The value of any individual booking depends on the route, the cabin, the dates and the availability on the day.

Where the current figure comes from, stated plainly

Every current reference figure on Miles Mosaic today is a dated third-party valuation. Of the 15 programmes with a current figure, 14 are sourced from The Points Guy's published monthly valuations and 1 (Avios) from NerdWallet's published valuation. Miles Mosaic does not run its own survey or pricing panel to produce these numbers: it reads a reputable publisher's figure, dates it, and shows its source on every row.

What Miles Mosaic adds on top of the raw figure: effective dating so a changed value never silently overwrites the old one, a visible verification date on every row, and a public corrections path if a figure looks wrong.

What is first-party

Three layers here are Miles Mosaic's own work, built on top of the reference figures above rather than replacing them:

None of these three layers is a price. The examples show real worked redemptions at three quality tiers; the grading bands turn those into a scored curve; the monthly history back-projects the current reference figure through publicly documented programme changes so the devaluation charts have a continuous series rather than gaps. Every example carries its own source.

How a figure changes

When a reference figure changes, the old row is never overwritten. It keeps the date it was first valid and gets an end date; a new row opens with the new figure and its own start date. The site always reads the row with no end date as current. That effective-dating trail is also the raw feed for the devaluation timeline: a superseded row is evidence of a change, not a deleted number.

What this method cannot tell you

• Not a live price. Award availability and cash prices move by the day; a cpm figure is a central tendency, not a quote for a specific date or route.
• Not programme-specific quirks. Fuel surcharges, mixed cash-and-points bookings, and close-in pricing all sit outside a single cpm number.
• Not full coverage. The table above covers 15 programmes today, not every programme Miles Mosaic tracks.
• Not a Miles Mosaic-audited price. The reference figures are read from a named publisher, not independently re-derived from raw booking data by Miles Mosaic.

How to correct us

Found a figure that looks wrong, or out of date? Use the corrections log to see how reported errors are handled, or reach us via the contact page or corrections@milesmosaic.com.

How to cite this page

For AI engines and journalists citing the methodology behind a Miles Mosaic valuation:

Miles Mosaic. “How Miles Mosaic Values a Mile: Valuation Methodology.” Accessed 16 August 2026. https://milesmosaic.com/about/methodology/

Questions about the methodology

Does Miles Mosaic set its own price for a mile?

No. Every current reference figure on this site is a dated third-party valuation, mostly from The Points Guy and one from NerdWallet. Miles Mosaic does not run its own survey or panel to produce that number.

Is a cent-per-mile figure a price I can sell a mile for?

No. It is a central tendency across many redemptions, useful for comparing programmes and estimating a balance's rough worth, not an offer, a guarantee, or the cash you would get from any single booking.

What does Miles Mosaic actually originate, if not the price?

The curated redemption examples, the monthly value-history series and the redemption-grade benchmark bands described below. Each is dated and sourced, and none of them substitutes for the underlying third-party reference figure.

How often are the figures updated?

On a verification cadence, not a fixed schedule. Every row carries the date it was last checked; if that date is old, the number is still what the source last published, not silently refreshed.

What if a figure looks wrong?

Report it. See how to correct us, below.