US Airways Dividend Miles - Earned and burned

I was playing around with my DM account history - which appears to be a rolling 3 year history of you account activity.

Looks like since 6/29/2009 I've earned 454,000 miles and burned 523,000 miles (excluding the one time additions and deletions for DMMC 10k preferred mile adjustments).

How is everyone else doing on earn and burn?

I typically keep a minimum of 150,000 to 200,000 in the account at all times. I like knowing that should I end up with some free time the option to take a trip to anywhere in the world in business or first class is always there. I do the same with my SPG account - keeping enough points for cash & points bookings and converting the rest to airline miles when the bonus applies. I'm currently holding a FC award to HKG and a off-peak Envoy trip to Paris with my wife and two friends.

So, on a rolling basis, I usually get the balance up to about 400k and then spend down to the 150-200k level.

Total miles added from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012: 768,159
Total miles subtracted from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012: 102,782

I have 3 children under age 5 so I haven't done a lot of leisure travel in the past few years. We'll do a big trip to Europe or something a few years from now I'm guessing. My point balance today is 1,090,058.

Added: 491,522
Subtracted: 420,900

Total miles added from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012: 768,159
Total miles subtracted from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012: 102,782

I have 3 children under age 5 so I haven't done a lot of leisure travel in the past few years. We'll do a big trip to Europe or something a few years from now I'm guessing. My point balance today is 1,090,058.

Thats a lot of miles.

Added: 692,806
Subtracted: 638,480

I'm with geo1005 - in fact, from the description of your earning/burning habits, we are a lot alike. :D

Total miles added from 6/29/2009 to 6/30/2012. 683,078
Total miles subtracted from 6/29/2009 to 6/30/2012. -306,466

I got to start burning some more.

Earned 570K, spent 470K.

That was fun.

Just for giggles I ran my #s.

Total miles added from 6/29/2009 to 6/30/2012: 1,113,625
Total miles subtracted from 6/29/2009 to 6/30/2012: -1,003,400

This is a bit misleading as I have made and then cancelled several 100k+ awards over the last couple of years. That pads the numbers a bit.

Current balance is 205,000.

Interesting.

Total miles added from 6/1/2009 to 6/30/2012. 467,037
Total miles subtracted from 6/1/2009 to 6/30/2012. -472,808

6/2010 - 6/2012

660,865
-192,000

Not nearly as impressive

I typically keep a minimum of 150,000 to 200,000 in the account at all times. I like knowing that should I end up with some free time the option to take a trip to anywhere in the world in business or first class is always there. I do the same with my SPG account - keeping enough points for cash & points bookings and converting the rest to airline miles when the bonus applies. I'm currently holding a FC award to HKG and a off-peak Envoy trip to Paris with my wife and two friends.

So, on a rolling basis, I usually get the balance up to about 400k and then spend down to the 150-200k level.

No doubt -- some of the value of these things (miles) is (are) circumstantial, as per geo1005. But in folks' rule of thumb calculations -- for buying tickets versus burning miles, for upgrades, and so on -- what do you think of a mile as being worth?

My rule of thumb has been 1.5 cents per mile, which is less than what we can buy them for at current discount. I guess it's a kind of guesstimate of the potential for inflation in the system.

Total miles added from 6/28/2009 to 6/30/2012. 689,139
Total miles subtracted from 6/28/2009 to 6/30/2012. -282,500

Little out of whack, I need to focus more on my "Get busy Living" and less on the "Get busy dying" :-)

Total miles added from 6/1/2009 to 6/30/2012. 405,824
Total miles subtracted from 6/1/2009 to 6/30/2012. -455,500

Not quite there yet, but not bad for my first two years with US Airways..

Total miles added from 4/29/2010 to 6/30/2012. 257,142
Total miles subtracted from 4/29/2010 to 6/30/2012. -180,654

Total miles added from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012: 768,159
Total miles subtracted from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012: 102,782

I have 3 children under age 5 so I haven't done a lot of leisure travel in the past few years. We'll do a big trip to Europe or something a few years from now I'm guessing. My point balance today is 1,090,058.

I need to go to Europe again this summer. So you can adopt me of the summer and you DO NOT have to pay for college!

I am so much slower Added 474,758 and subtracted 200,043

I need another holiday!!

Over that period,

added: 1,356,253
subtracted: 1,510,000

current balance: 323,337

spend a couple months each year in and around Italy.

fun thread...

And I surprised myself, for a leisure traveler:

Total miles added from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012. 495,440
Total miles subtracted from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012. -252,607

Current Balance: 335,139 miles

I envy the earning of some of you guys/gals! These 1 million+ numbers... nice!:D

Raw data:

Total miles added from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012. 1,183,045
Total miles subtracted from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012. -903,940

Current balance 365k

I then took away everything on the "added" side unrelated to flying, leaving only flight mileage and all flight-related bonuses (status, class, double PQM promotions). Similarly on the "subtracted" side, removed all shared miles, awards cancelled, magazine subscriptions etc., leaving only miles spent on award flights actually taken.

Revised talley:

Added: 345,039
Subtracted: -680,000

Therefore, fewer than one-third of my miles were earned by actually flying, but over two-thirds were spent on award flying. I would suspect these ratios are similar for many, and if so gives some insight into how US Airways values miles earned versus spent on flights. It seems that the money they earn from non-flying generated miles is greater than they spend providing award flights.

No doubt -- some of the value of these things (miles) is (are) circumstantial, as per geo1005. But in folks' rule of thumb calculations -- for buying tickets versus burning miles, for upgrades, and so on -- what do you think of a mile as being worth?

I have actually never done the math on miles on a cents per mile basis. That calculation never gives me anything definitive enough that can be applied across the board to to be useful. IMO, it just adds another variable into the equation.

I always look at miles as a means of accessing long-haul premium travel awards - tickets I would never pay for with cash. As my income has increased over the years I have bought a few Z-fare business class tickets (~$2,000) but other than that ALL of my long-haul premium travel is via miles or upgrade certificates (or the occasional Go-Envoy). And domestically, I'll roll the dice with the CP Preferred upgrade window vs. spending miles for any upgrade. I can handle a 5 hour transcon in an exit row. And while I'll do Europe in coach if the fare is low enough, I have vowed to never cross the Pacific unless a premium cabin is bookable.

Good thread. ^

Raw data:

Total miles added from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012. 1,183,045
Total miles subtracted from 6/30/2009 to 6/30/2012. -903,940

Current balance 365k

I then took away everything on the "added" side unrelated to flying, leaving only flight mileage and all flight-related bonuses (status, class, double PQM promotions). Similarly on the "subtracted" side, removed all shared miles, awards cancelled, magazine subscriptions etc., leaving only miles spent on award flights actually taken.

Revised talley:

Added: 345,039
Subtracted: -680,000

Therefore, fewer than one-third of my miles were earned by actually flying, but over two-thirds were spent on award flying. I would suspect these ratios are similar for many, and if so gives some insight into how US Airways values miles earned versus spent on flights. It seems that the money they earn from non-flying generated miles is greater than they spend providing award flights.

I'd bet that for most airline FFs who are more than base members (but less than top tier), a significant portion of miles earned for low and mid tiers will be from non-flight activity. Credit cards, hotels, Grand Slam bonuses, etc.

When I reached CP for two years ago way back when (2004-2005), I was earning flight credit so fast, that was basically impossible to burn the miles. A paid C class trip to Shanghai or Bangkok would yield me close to 25,000 miles for a single trip (when you added C class bonus and CP bonus). As a silver or gold where you maybe get 25,000 - 65,000 flight miles, the ratio of flight earned miles to non-flight miles approaches 1:1 or tips in favor of non-flight earnings.

Earned 1070 thousand
Redeemed 523 thousand

Includes a couple large redeposits.

Interesting, never thought of checking this!

Added 558,000
Subtracted 515,000

Never cancelled / redeposited. I've been using a second account as well so actual miles are quite a bit higher, not the only one around here doing this I guess .....
Happy flying!

deleted

I have had no time for real leisure travel in the past few years. My current earn / burn is:

1,069,799 added
346,100 burned

current balance is 899,000. Should break back over 900,000 tis week.

Some of you guys could take some pretty nice trips right now with your balances!!

I ran the numbers and from 7/1/2009 to 7/1/2012, it looks like:

Total miles added: 349,599
Total miles subtracted: 333,129

Agree with others here, great thread idea!

Haven't had much time to burn many myself -

Total miles added from 7/1/2009 to 7/31/2012 - 629,090
Total miles subtracted from 7/1/2009 to 7/31/2012 - 125,000

+ 684k
- 555k

I was playing around with my DM account history - which appears to be a rolling 3 year history of you account activity.

Looks like since 6/29/2009 I've earned 454,000 miles and burned 523,000 miles (excluding the one time additions and deletions for DMMC 10k preferred mile adjustments).

How is everyone else doing on earn and burn?

OK, I dumb - can't figure out how to do this. What do I have to do to see these numbers?

Earned: 466,513
Burned: 290,895

Balance:440,155

7/4/2009 - 7/2/2012

Earned: 1,382,228
Burned: 1,486,000

At the moment only 48K in the "bank."

Devaluation of DMs and unpredictable changes in the industry have taught me long-term investment doesn't pay off. All the "burn" is international F, some int C and a few transcon F upgrades. Well worth it.

What do these patterns reveal about us? :confused:

last 3 years ...

Earned 442K
Burned 420K

best burn: Envoy to/from CDG with wife at 55K each.

Last 3 years:

Earned 857,484
Burned -401,700

Balance: 1,022,235

Between work and personal travel, I am right on the bubble for earning CP the last few years. So, if I want to keep the status, I have to keep paying for tickets instead of using miles. I mostly have used them for guaranteeing an upgrade, but lately have had great success without needing to do that. I've been able to upgrade using US miles on UA only once, and then that flight got changed and I lost the F seats - and a real struggle to get the miles back.