The days of hoarding airline miles may be coming to an end. Increasingly, they can be frustrating to use, expire more quickly and devalue more sharply, sometimes without notice. Value seekers in recent years have gravitated toward points attached to credit cards as opposed to miles tied to a particular carrier: Points are more flexible and can be transferred to different airline partners, hotel groups, or even redeemed for cash. But what is the most efficient use of a stockpile of points? Here is a look at three of the more popular programs — Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards — and a breakdown of how to get the biggest bang for your point.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Chase has one of the best rewards programs out there thanks to its flexible Ultimate Rewards program. (It also recently ended a generous sign-up bonus campaign for its Sapphire Reserve credit card, leaving many cardholders with 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points.) Points can be redeemed for cash at a rate of one cent per point, or at a 50 percent bonus (for Sapphire Reserve cardholders) when redeemed for travel through Chase’s own travel portal. A $300 plane ticket, for example, would cost only 20,000 points — points that are “worth” $200. Points can also be redeemed at a 1:1 ratio with a number of airline and hotel programs, including British Airways Avios, United MileagePlus, Korean Air Skypass, Hyatt Gold Passport and Ritz-Carlton Rewards.

Redeeming points for cash technically provides the worst value of all of your options. Getting 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points for $1,000 is nothing to sneeze at, however, and may be the best option for those who don’t travel frequently or simply don’t feel like working out the minutiae of squeezing more value from the points.

If you do a reasonable amount of traveling, however, redeem the points through the travel portal (which functions like Kayak or Expedia and, from what I’ve seen, shows the same range of prices). That $1,000 worth of points instantly becomes good for $1,500 in flights, hotel rooms or rental cars.