Read this before engaging Redeem. Loyalty points are not like other assets.

Nature of service & regulatory status

Redeem provides loyalty program optimization services — analysis, valuation, and recommendations only. The client performs every action in their own accounts; Redeem never books, transfers, redeems, or otherwise executes on the client's behalf, and never accesses, logs into, or operates any client account. Redeem is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, bank, trust company, money services business, money transmitter, insurance provider, travel insurer, tax adviser, or law firm, and is not registered with or supervised by the SEC, FINRA, the CFPB, any banking regulator, or any equivalent authority in any jurisdiction.

Loyalty points are not securities, not deposits, not legal tender, and not financial instruments. They are not insured by the FDIC, protected by SIPC, or covered by any deposit-guarantee, investor-compensation, or consumer-protection scheme applicable to regulated financial assets. No regulatory framework guarantees their existence, value, or availability. Nothing published or communicated by Redeem — including research, ratings, valuations, calculators, or client statements — constitutes investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and nothing herein creates any regulated advisory relationship.

Ownership of loyalty currency — you hold a license, not property

Every major loyalty program's terms and conditions provide that accrued points or miles remain the property of the program and confer no vested rights on the member. Your balance is a conditional contractual benefit — in substance, a revocable license — that the program may modify, suspend, or extinguish under the powers it reserves to itself. Those reserved powers typically include, without limitation: devaluing the currency; changing or eliminating award charts; altering transfer partners and ratios; imposing or increasing fees and surcharges; restricting, capacity-controlling, or withdrawing award availability; expiring points for inactivity or any other reason; auditing, freezing, or closing accounts; confiscating balances upon actual or suspected breach of program terms; and terminating the entire program.

Programs may exercise these powers unilaterally, retroactively, without advance notice, and without compensation, and courts have generally upheld their contractual right to do so. Redeem has no ownership interest in, custody of, or control over any client's loyalty balances, no affiliation with any loyalty program, and no ability to prevent, reverse, or remedy any program action. All Redeem valuations, plans, and recommendations are made subject to this reality, and Redeem assumes no responsibility for any action taken by any loyalty program with respect to any client balance.

Devaluation & valuation risk

The value of loyalty points is determined solely by the issuing airline, hotel, financial institution, or program operator. Programs devalue their currencies routinely — through published chart changes, unannounced dynamic-pricing adjustments, partner-award repricing, transfer-ratio changes, new or increased surcharges, and reduced award inventory. Industry experience indicates average purchasing-power erosion in the range of ten to fifteen per cent annually for many currencies, and step-change devaluations of far greater magnitude can and do occur overnight.

All cents-per-point (cpp) figures published or reported by Redeem — including the 5¢ Redeem Target, Shadow Net Worth, use-case maps, true-net-cost calculations, and per-transaction value statements — represent historical achieved rates or analytical valuations at a point in time. They are not guarantees, offers, or predictions of future value, and they can be invalidated in whole or in part by program action at any moment, including between the date of a Redeem recommendation and the date the client acts on it. Redeem monitors for devaluation risk as a service; monitoring is not prevention, and Redeem does not warrant that any devaluation will be detected or avoided.

No guarantee of outcome or availability

Engaging Redeem does not guarantee any specific redemption value, cents-per-point outcome, award availability, routing, cabin, carrier, travel date, or savings result. Award space is capacity-controlled and released — or withheld — at each program's sole discretion; it can appear and disappear within minutes, may not exist at all for a given route, date, or party size, and may be repriced or withdrawn after search and before ticketing. Confirmed bookings remain subject to the issuing carrier's and operating carrier's own rules, including schedule changes, equipment changes, cancellations, involuntary rebooking, and post-ticketing audits.

Where Redeem quotes a target or expected value for a planned redemption, that quote reflects conditions observed at the time and is not a commitment. Past client redemptions, including published case studies, are not a promise that comparable opportunities will exist for any client at any future time.

Program account & compliance risk

Loyalty programs actively monitor member activity and reserve the right to audit, freeze, or close accounts and to confiscate balances where they determine — in their sole judgment — that program terms have been breached. Activities that programs may treat as breaches include, among others, selling or bartering points or awards, booking awards for persons outside permitted categories, use of prohibited tools, and patterns of activity the program deems abusive. The client, as the account holder, is at all times solely responsible for compliance with each program's terms and conditions.

Redeem designs its strategies to operate within published program rules and recommends actions only; the client performs every action in their own accounts, and Redeem never executes on the client's behalf. Program enforcement decisions are unilateral, sometimes unpredictable, and not subject to Redeem's control. Redeem is not responsible for any account audit, suspension, closure, or balance confiscation, whether or not connected to activity the client undertakes pursuant to Redeem's advice.

Illiquidity & absence of market value

There is no lawful public market for loyalty points. Most program terms prohibit the sale, purchase, or barter of points and awards, and gray-market transactions carry a substantial risk of account termination and balance confiscation. Points cannot generally be converted to cash except at program-set floors that are materially below their potential redemption value, and some balances cannot be converted to cash at all.

Accordingly, any Redeem valuation — including Shadow Net Worth — is an analytical construct for planning purposes only. It is not a market price, not a realizable liquidation value, not a balance-sheet asset in any accounting sense, and not an amount any party is obligated to pay. Value is realized only through redemption, if and when the relevant program makes suitable redemption available.

Our standard — conflict-free, not a regulated fiduciary

Redeem describes its standard of service as conflict-free: we act in the client's interest, accept no commissions or referral fees, and maintain no commercial relationships with the programs we evaluate. This is a private, contractual undertaking defined in the client agreement.

Redeem is not a fiduciary, registered investment adviser, or broker-dealer under the Investment Advisers Act, ERISA, securities law, banking law, or any other regulatory framework, and its conflict-free commitment does not import the duties, remedies, or supervisory oversight that attach to legally regulated fiduciaries. Clients seeking regulated fiduciary advice regarding financial assets should consult an appropriately licensed professional.

Fees, independence & conflicts

All Redeem fees are fixed, disclosed in full before engagement, and payable only by the client. Redeem accepts no commissions, referral fees, affiliate payments, or other remuneration from airlines, hotel groups, card issuers, loyalty programs, booking platforms, or any third party, and holds no commercial relationships with the programs it rates or evaluates. If that policy ever changes, this notice and all affected client agreements will be updated in advance, and any such relationship will be disclosed prominently. Redeem's research and ratings are prepared independently; no rated program has any input into, or advance sight of, Redeem's methodology or conclusions.

Tax treatment & pre-tax-equivalent figures

The tax treatment of loyalty currency varies by jurisdiction, by how points were earned, and by how they are redeemed, and it may change. Points earned on personal spending are commonly treated as non-taxable rebates in some jurisdictions, but exceptions exist — including, without limitation, points earned without spending, business and employer contexts, and certain conversions to cash. Redeem does not provide tax advice.

"Pre-tax equivalent" (PTE) figures used in Redeem materials are analytical framing only: they express what a given amount of post-tax value would correspond to as gross income at an assumed marginal rate. PTE figures do not constitute gross income for any tax purpose, do not appear on any tax document, and must not be relied upon in tax planning or reporting. Clients should consult their own tax adviser regarding their circumstances.

Historical figures, case studies & illustrative tools

Case studies, client stories, cpp tables, and calculator outputs published by Redeem reflect specific historical redemptions or illustrative model inputs. They are selected to demonstrate methodology and are not representative of every client outcome. Individual results vary materially with spend patterns, balances, program mix, award availability, travel flexibility, and timing. Figures described as "recovered value" or "savings" represent value realized on travel actually taken relative to a stated baseline; they are not cash income, and they assume the client would otherwise have purchased comparable travel. Forward-looking statements — including targets, floors, and ranges — are estimates based on current methodology and are subject to the risks described throughout this notice.

Your data & third-party platforms

Redeem does not access, log into, or operate any client loyalty account, card account, bank account, or aggregation tool, and never holds client logins, passwords, or two-factor codes. The client provides their holdings and balances to Redeem manually and remains, at all times, the sole owner and operator of their own accounts. Redeem uses the information the client provides solely to deliver the engaged services, applies commercially reasonable security measures, and does not sell client data. Redeem cannot and does not warrant the security, uptime, accuracy, or continued availability of any third-party platform — including program websites, booking systems, and transfer mechanisms — and is not responsible for losses arising from their failure, error, breach, or discontinuation. Any points transfer between programs is carried out by the client, through the programs themselves; such transfers are generally irreversible once initiated and are undertaken at the client's direction and risk.

Assumption of risk & limitation of liability

By engaging Redeem, the client acknowledges and accepts every risk described in this notice, including without limitation: program ownership and revocability of points; devaluation and repricing risk; availability risk; account audit, freeze, closure, and confiscation risk; illiquidity; third-party platform risk; and the absence of any regulatory protection applicable to loyalty currency. The client further acknowledges that these risks exist independently of Redeem, cannot be eliminated by Redeem, and may materialize despite competent performance of Redeem's services.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Redeem, its principals, employees, and contractors shall not be liable for any loss of points, miles, status, awards, or anticipated value; any act or omission of any loyalty program, airline, hotel, card issuer, or other third party; or any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, and in all cases Redeem's aggregate liability shall not exceed the fees actually paid by the client for the service giving rise to the claim during the twelve months preceding it. The client's service agreement contains the operative and complete liability, indemnity, and dispute-resolution terms; in any conflict between this notice and the service agreement, the service agreement controls. Nothing in this notice limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

Changes to this notice

Redeem may update this notice from time to time as services, program conditions, or legal requirements evolve. The version published on this page, together with its effective date, is the operative version. Material changes affecting active engagements will be communicated to clients directly. Continued use of Redeem services after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised notice. Questions regarding this notice may be directed to Redeem through the contact details on this site.