Originally Posted by Gardyloo

This is your business and your money, of course, but a quick check on ITA shows that one way from LAX to FAI in early June is $135 on Delta, $191 from SAN.

Many of us assign an arbitrary value to our miles as a way of seeing if the exchange is financially worthwhile; in my case I use 2c per mile. Others use 1.5c or even less, but the idea is that redeeming miles for less value than that is unwise. So for a ticket that "costs" 20,000 miles, if the cash price of that ticket is under $400 (20,000 x .02) or $300 in the case of 1.5c, then it's smarter to conserve the miles if at all possible. For example, a 100,000 mile round trip business class redemption to Europe at 2c per mile = $2,000, while actually buying a ticket would be closer to $3,000 or even more, giving a "value" of 3c per mile or more. Most people who play the mileage game will tell you that redeeming miles for domestic coach tickets is usually not the best idea.

Of course there has to be availability of award seats for this metric to work at all, and you may find that getting to Fairbanks in peak tourist season for a big party is pretty hard as it is. Getting 4 award seats on two or more back-to-back flights is a tall order, and if you have to connect in SEA during cruise season, even taller - SEA is VERY hard to get award seats in and out during the summer because of cruise passengers.

So paying a pretty cheap cash price for the convenience of quick flights with easy connections might be preferable than paying out a LOT of miles and then having to deal with long or roundabout connections. Your call.

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

This is your business and your money, of course, but a quick check on ITA shows that one way from LAX to FAI in early June is $135 on Delta, $191 from SAN.

Originally Posted by KentyMac

Thanks, Gardyloo. The biggest issue is that with a one-year old and a two-year old I do not want to get in after midnight, then have to get to a hotel, check-in, and try to get everyone situated to sleep at 2:00 or 3:00 AM. For the flights that arrive at a decent time and don't have huge layovers the starting price is around $292 per person.

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

One note also to consider, which you probably know already - it will be daylight in Fairbanks in June whether you arrive at 10:45 PM or 1 AM. It doesn't get dark at all.