The best airlines for holiday travel on points

By MEGHAN COYLE of NerdWallet

In NerdWallet’s annual analysis of airline mile valuations, holiday flights often don’t provide the highest per-mile value. For example, Delta, Southwest or American Airlines miles are generally worth 1.5 cents each when redeemed for flights. However, they’re only worth about 1.4 cents when you use them for flights around the holidays. Still, 1.4 cents is about the highest value you can expect on any major U.S. airline around the holidays, so if you don’t want to pay cash, you should aim for award travel worth at least 1 cent to 1.4 cents per mile.