MilesBuzz! - Your Worst-ever Use of Miles?

Was just wondering what your worst-ever use of miles for a ticket was?

I booked a r/t ticket for me and a 1-way ticket for my 4 y.o. daughter PHL-MCO later this month so that I could take my daughter to my sister's where she will visit for about 12 days. I fly back by myself several days later. Didn't initially book wifey b/c of the cost. Now that we are getting close to the trip, my wife is concerned that 2 weeks will be a long time away from our daughter. So, thought of getting an award ticket on US. Best I could do is 25,000 miles down and 12,500 miles return. US will charge $80 for the ticket...$50 for being less than 14 days (or whatever their cutoff is), then $5 for something, and $25 for something else. I would also need to purchase another 1,000 miles (actually only need 491) at a cost of $25. So basically my cost is $105 plus 37,500 for a $295 ticket (getting wifey on the same flight on which my daughter and I are already booked). Normally, I would just buy the $295 ticket, but money is tight right now so thinking of spending the miles and $105 to get my wife on the flight.

The other factor, which can't exactly be measured in monetary terms, is that we have, through my brother-in-law who works at Disney, free access to Magic Kingdom/Epcot/etc. Our daugther is at a perfect age for a trip to the "Magic Kingdom" which would be a lot of fun; but I wouldn't want to take her there myself without my wife. So, there is "value" of sorts in having us all make the trip to Orlando.

So, basically I'm using 37,500 miles to cover $195 worth of ticket; I know! Terribly inefficient use of miles! :eek:

So, what is YOUR terribly inefficient use of miles story?

Cheers,
HalfSwede

As the OP is asking about award travel, I'll move this to our MilesBuzz forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I recently booked a economy ticket to London for 75000 miles + $200 for a $1750 ticket. Granted that off-peak tickets to London can be had for $800, but this was a last minute emergency thing.

So 75000 miles for $1550, not terrible but quite bad at around 2 cpm redeemed value.

I spent 37,500 for a ticket to Iowa last summer for a friend's wedding. Could have purchased it for about $350, but just didn't want to spend the cash.

We just used 150,000 AA miles for 3 domestic roundtrips for relatives to come to Calif from the east coast on standard awards. There were no saver awards on any airline for the dates they wanted to come and the tickets would have been about $500 per person.

We don't fly AA much but had accumulated the miles through several cycles of credit card offers, had little other use for the miles, and therefore didn't see the point of spending $1500.

This is an example of why I am not so concerned about the lack of availability of saver award space. Yes, you need to spend more miles but you can also get them so much more easily. Inflation on both sides of the equation.

I used 50,000 NW miles to fly my then long distance gf from Boston to Phoenix for her first visit to me. She dumped me three days after she left.

She dumped me three days after she left.

That wins the "worst use" prize for sure...ouch!;)

That wins the "worst use" prize for sure...ouch!;)

Who knows, might have been a bargain in the long run...

Therapists, Psychiatrists and Divorces can be expensive!!
;)

Probably a round trip YYC-LGA / TPA-YYC on NWA a while back. But, I was upgraded to F for TPA-YYC, so I can't consider that too bad of a deal for the 20,000 miles I spent on it after 5 K delay compensation.

Actually, I think my recent YYC-COS round trip on UA for 20K was a bad deal. But hey, it was only 20 K.

I guess I don't really have a closet full of bad redemption experience.

My BEST redemption was YYC-DFW(stopover)-EZE (stopover) - Iguazu Falls (open jaw) / Punta Arenas Chile - Santiago (stopover) - DFW (stopover) - YYC for 40,000 miles.

My AAgent was a bit clueless Re: stopover rules! Man I wish I could go back to that!

I got a roundtrip ticket from TXL-LHR-HGK on CX and BA for 85.000 asia miles where the LHR HKG I could have gotten for under 400 Euros.

A few years ago, before I really got into this FF thing, I used a 15K reduced mileage award to fly LGA-YYZ. But when I wanted to fly to CDG a couple of months later I was about 10K miles short for an award ticket. I have no recollection of what the fares were but I was certainly out more cash for the Paris ticket than I would have been for Toronto.

So, basically I'm using 37,500 miles to cover $195 worth of ticket; I know! Terribly inefficient use of miles! :eek:

That's almost exactly $0.005/mile, which is what the redemption rate is for many of the cash-equivalent awards in the Amex Membership Rewards program. I always thought that those were a terrible redemption rate, but assumed that some people must redeem for them because the Amex catalog is full of them.

To answer your question, I think your redemption is on the low end of things, but certainly people have done worse.

I burnt my last 45,000 DL miles on a domestic F ticket on a 757. LGA-ATL-GNV roundrip (757 only LGA-ATL of course)

At the time I was so frustrated with delta that I decided to burn the miles and abandon skyteam. The trip was so awful that I regretted not just buying an economy ticket on US Air connecting in Charlotte, which would have avoided DL domestic F, the DL terminal at LGA, and ATL- all of which are infernal.

I should have sat on those miles, as they could have gone towards an int`l first or business class award someday.

I will never use miles ever again for anything but upgrades, or int`l first and business class awards. I don`t find value in domestic redemptions- I`d rather pay cash and earn miles.

My worst use of miles was letting all my US miles expire. Oh wait, maybe that was my best use of miles...

I don`t find value in domestic redemptions
25,000 miles for $500+ ticket isn't a bad deal in my book. Especially when you're sitting on half a million miles, the trip is only 800 miles each way (or 350 for SFO-SBA), and you already have top-tier status locked up.

My worst use of miles was letting all my US miles expire. Oh wait, maybe that was my best use of miles...


25,000 miles for $500+ ticket isn't a bad deal in my book. Especially when you're sitting on half a million miles, the trip is only 800 miles each way (or 350 for SFO-SBA), and you already have top-tier status locked up.


Whether or not domestic redemptions make sense will depend largely upon the person and their travel plans.

Since all of my travel is leisure travel and paid for out of pocket, spending 25,000 miles for an upgrade from NRT to JFK has much more value to me than a domestic Y award ticket.

As someone without half a million miles, and no status to speak of on any airline, I use what miles I do have carefully.

I used 50,000 NW miles to fly my then long distance gf from Boston to Phoenix for her first visit to me. She dumped me three days after she left.

Honestly in the long run this is (IMO) a great use of the miles. Your in Tempe...ASU is right there....yeah.

Before Mr. petal and I were married we were bicoastal (SFO - NYC) and we'd see one another almost every weekend. One weekend we weren't scheduled to travel and on a last minute whim I used miles for JFK-SFO PS First Class to spend 40 hours with him. Although looking back it wasn't a worst ever use of miles. :)

My worse use wasn't on award tickets. I got some cheese using mom's LH miles cause they were expiring.

Nothing awful, but still bad. One way RNO-SLC on DL 2 years ago, 25,000 miles when the ticket was about $330.

Honestly in the long run this is (IMO) a great use of the miles. Your in Tempe...ASU is right there....yeah.

You make a great point. ;)

I was a good husband and offered my mother in law an award ticket BNA-LGA, thinking it would be 25K onepass miles. Turns out she didn't want to leave till sunday... so it became a 50K saver pass award (I think this would have been a $300 ticket) ....

Later she ended up paying a $150 change fee to stay the next weekend!

We all got burned on that one!

Dropped 17000 NW miles for a $100 Chilis gift card. Was stuck trying to obtain 8000 more Delta miles, which would've been a pain, so I used it through Worldperks before it went away. I don't even like Chilis that much!

I spent 37,500 for a ticket to Iowa last summer for a friend's wedding. Could have purchased it for about $350, but just didn't want to spend the cash.

I love to golf and I planned a summer golf vacation for a 10 year period starting in 2007. I like to play the best courses I can, but my dad is notoriously cheap. He would just as soon never play another course in his life, other than the one he works at part time, because it is free.

Well this summer is Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Oregon. Very nice but also very expensive. Thus to soften the blow on him and make it a little easier to not complain about the $ I used 100k UA miles for 2 tickets ORD-EUG for him and my brother. Cost would have been probably around $400 each.

I wouldn't say it was a terrible use of miles as it was a nice gesture, but certainly my worst value in terms of redemption.

This one is easy: 50K DL miles to fly my wife's sister over from TAS for three months. Worst three months of my life, fought like cats and dogs.

my worst was spending 25k miles pp on ual tickets and then having to cancel, paying the $100 fee per person... only to rebook again and cancel again. $100 more pp...

This was $600 to not fly.

ahhh family life.

;)MM

I spent 180,000 miles for 2 RTs to India! Tickets were going for $1,000 or so before taxes. So 180K miles for about $2,000. I wanted to shoot myself for that since I usually try and get at least 2.5 cpm. But, my brother and I, both in our 20s, wanted to treat my parents to a family vacation. We bought 2 with cash, then realized we're out of it...haha. That's when I dipped into my miles stash.

I used 50,000 NW miles to fly my then long distance gf from Boston to Phoenix for her first visit to me. She dumped me three days after she left.

Really sorry to hear this...

My worst use of miles was arguably also my best use of miles.

It was certainly a trip I will always remember.

It was the time I used points to travel about 200 miles from Toronto to Ottawa for a wedding. We flew up in the afternoon, with our return booked for the last flight back in the evening. Two J class tickets. Now, that was a lot of points for just a short puddle hop - but hey, the airline was struggling back in those days and I figured better to use 'em than lose 'em, right?

I have no recollection of the flight to Ottawa. Or the wedding. Or the reception. Except that it ran late so we were cutting it tight getting back to the airport.

We quickly snagged our boarding passes without line-up, made it through security, and dashed to the gate only to find no one there except the agent.

As we approached the gate, she greeted us by name. She explained she wasn't psychic; just that the flight before ours was running late so they had already put everyone from our flight on the earlier one - which was gone!

Fear not, the agent explained. Our flight was still departing as scheduled. It's just that we would be the only passengers on it! Literally.

A few minutes later came the departure announcement, concluding with the words, "would Mr. and Mrs. Flews now please proceed to the gate?"

So we did. As we proceeded down the ramp to the plane, we were greeted by the entire crew of eight standing outside the door; the head purser dramatically unfolding a red table cloth for us to walk across.

In we went, into this caverous, empty airplane, where we were invited to seat ourselves "wherever you like". Hundreds of seats, a 2/3/2 configuration up front. So much for using the extra miles for J class!

Then came the really neat part.

My wife, half joking, asked whether sitting "wherever you like" included the cockpit. Let me ask the Captain, says the Purser. Who quickly returned with a grin and told us we were invited to sit in the cockpit for takeoff.

Now, I happen to have a fear of heights. Back then I wasn't really a big fan of flying. I ALWAYS avoid the window, even to this day, if I can. So I took a pass and ordered a double gin & tonic instead.

My wife went up front, and returned after about 10 minutes after take-off once we had leveled off. She raved about it, said it was truly an amazing experience. We enjoyed a quick meal (yes, short haul had meals in those days!). And we chatted with the crew, who confessed they had never encountered a completely empty flight like this before.

Soon the Captain came back on with the pre-landing announcement. He concluded by asking "would any Flews' like to join me in the cockpit for landing?"

This time, I couldn't resist. So we both went up and sat in the jumpseats behind the pilots.

It was truly an experience I will always treasure. For one thing, I will never forgot how quiet it was. The sky was crystal clear that night, and the City was sparkling below. We were amazed how small Pearson Airport seemed to be. The pilots even turned on the radio so we could hear their conversation with the tower - which rattled off a whole bunch of instructions.

At that point, probably for our benefit, the Captain asked the tower for some kind of confirmation or clarification of the numbers. And the tower replied with a laugh: "Oh, forget it - just follow that airbus in!"

So we did. For the smothest landing I ever had experienced. We even clapped when we touched down, to the grins of the pilots, who high fived themselves.

And that, my friends, is how my worst use of miles actually became my best use of miles.

Ya just never know!

Happy flying. ^

Cheers,

15000 UA miles for upgrading a red eye SEA-SFO-EWR. SFO-EWR was a 319, I was a general member. SEA-SFO cleared, so the miles were gone. SFO-EWR had no chance of clearing but that's something I did not know at the time.:eek:

@flews:
excellent story :)

(yes, short haul had meals in those days!).

Good story. When were "those days?", though? Was this in the 80's?

I remember my own empty plane experience - flying from Kansas City to Hays, via Great Bend. There was only one other passenger besides me! Now, this was a tiny prop jet with around 20 seats, so it surely didn't matter where we sat, but it was nice to experience having the plane all to ourselves. The pilots didn't bother to close the cockpit door (and this was the 2006 post 9/11 world!), and gave us a bit of a mini-lesson on how the airplane works (while they were flying!).

My worst use of miles was arguably also my best use of miles.

It was certainly a trip I will always remember.

It was the time I used points to travel about 200 miles from Toronto to Ottawa for a wedding. We flew up in the afternoon, with our return booked for the last flight back in the evening. Two J class tickets. Now, that was a lot of points for just a short puddle hop - but hey, the airline was struggling back in those days and I figured better to use 'em than lose 'em, right?

I have no recollection of the flight to Ottawa. Or the wedding. Or the reception. Except that it ran late so we were cutting it tight getting back to the airport.

We quickly snagged our boarding passes without line-up, made it through security, and dashed to the gate only to find no one there except the agent.

As we approached the gate, she greeted us by name. She explained she wasn't psychic; just that the flight before ours was running late so they had already put everyone from our flight on the earlier one - which was gone!

Fear not, the agent explained. Our flight was still departing as scheduled. It's just that we would be the only passengers on it! Literally.

A few minutes later came the departure announcement, concluding with the words, "would Mr. and Mrs. Flews now please proceed to the gate?"

So we did. As we proceeded down the ramp to the plane, we were greeted by the entire crew of eight standing outside the door; the head purser dramatically unfolding a red table cloth for us to walk across.

In we went, into this caverous, empty airplane, where we were invited to seat ourselves "wherever you like". Hundreds of seats, a 2/3/2 configuration up front. So much for using the extra miles for J class!

Then came the really neat part.

My wife, half joking, asked whether sitting "wherever you like" included the cockpit. Let me ask the Captain, says the Purser. Who quickly returned with a grin and told us we were invited to sit in the cockpit for takeoff.

Now, I happen to have a fear of heights. Back then I wasn't really a big fan of flying. I ALWAYS avoid the window, even to this day, if I can. So I took a pass and ordered a double gin & tonic instead.

My wife went up front, and returned after about 10 minutes after take-off once we had leveled off. She raved about it, said it was truly an amazing experience. We enjoyed a quick meal (yes, short haul had meals in those days!). And we chatted with the crew, who confessed they had never encountered a completely empty flight like this before.

Soon the Captain came back on with the pre-landing announcement. He concluded by asking "would any Flews' like to join me in the cockpit for landing?"

This time, I couldn't resist. So we both went up and sat in the jumpseats behind the pilots.

It was truly an experience I will always treasure. For one thing, I will never forgot how quiet it was. The sky was crystal clear that night, and the City was sparkling below. We were amazed how small Pearson Airport seemed to be. The pilots even turned on the radio so we could hear their conversation with the tower - which rattled off a whole bunch of instructions.

At that point, probably for our benefit, the Captain asked the tower for some kind of confirmation or clarification of the numbers. And the tower replied with a laugh: "Oh, forget it - just follow that airbus in!"

So we did. For the smothest landing I ever had experienced. We even clapped when we touched down, to the grins of the pilots, who high fived themselves.

And that, my friends, is how my worst use of miles actually became my best use of miles.

Ya just never know!

Happy flying. ^

Cheers,

This was a great story, I'm jealous.

[QUOTE=roadtripman;11913133]Good story. When were "those days?", though? Was this in the 80's?QUOTE]

Early '90s. Canadian Airlines, before it merged with AC.

Cheers,

I work in Reservations so I see a lot of various comparasions between the fare and milege award cost. Usually, I try not to offer an opinion when someone is debating between using miles or cash. Since that is their choice based on their personal preference.

The worst I heard about was a woman who used 25k for a short flight out West. She could have bought the ticket for $81, yes, just 81 dollars. The agent did advise her it probably cost her more than $81 to accumulate 25k miles.

Easy. 50K AAdvantage miles = 1 night at the Moscow Marriott Grand :(. At least we got an Ambassador Suite ^.

I booked 3 tickets from LAX to HKG in July by using 65000mi UA each in Jan, suppose the ticket price for summer will go as high as $1200, but I can buy a ticket from air China for around $700 each now. Maybe I should save the mile for X'mas travel.

I'm (waitlisted to) burn 15K AA miles + $50 to go from Y to J on a LAX-JFK redeye.

I got the miles for a delayed LAS-LAX flight, and a $300 voucher for VDB'ing myself OFF the flight and catching a ride to LAX for the second leg home (LAX-SEA), so I figure this is free trave (when I fly AA I stick my miles in AS, so the miles would be orphaned- plus I prefer NW (soon DL) for long-distance mileage runs as AS status gives you premium seat selection on NW and limited domestic upgrades, but not AA).

Yeah, there's probably some exotic 57 stop MR I could do that's a better use of the voucher+miles (I still have residual value left that will be good until next June), but I've never been to New York. (My return to the West Coast is burning a WN Rapid Rewards one-way to go LGA-MDW-LAS to visit friends in Las Vegas before returning home, which is quite a difference in experiences for transcon travel. I figure it will make a nice TR).

50K AAdvantage anytime miles for a MSP-GRR R/T, and glad to have it.

My mother didn't tell me until 20 days out that my uncle was visiting from Brazil and I was expected to be there, and of course prices had just jumped, or I could have booked a direct ticket on NW for < $150.

Spent 50,000 AA points for round trip to LAX for two from YYZ, then bought tickets to HNL from LAX, plus one extra ticket YYZ to LAX.

Cost for flight from YYZ to HNL - CDN$630
Cost for flight from LAX to HNL - CDN$480

Really I only got $300 worth of value for the 50,000 miles.

Cash was tight though so was all I could do (probably should have just skipped the vacation but was so very tired and needed a break).

1050 Air Miles + $230 taxes/person to fly from YYZ-JFK on AA. A regular ticket would have cost around $350. Oh well, wanted to get rid of those Air Miles since they were obviously totally USELESS!!! (Air Miles is a rewards program only available in Canada and maybe the UK and it doesn't cost anything.) And it got me to JFK to use my free Open Skies ticket to Paris courtesy of Flyer Talk!

The one good thing is I earned 500 AA miles in each direction!

Edit: I value Air Miles at 14 cpm as 140 miles can be converted into a $20 gift card for my local grocery store. So I only got slightly ripped off.

I've done a few short-haul 25k redemptions at 1.5cpm or so over the years. If it's a flight I definitely need to take (thus representing a real cash outlay if I don't use miles), I'll accept a lower return per mile.

MCI-DTW R/T - we've redeemed NW for that a couple times. Neither my wife nor I pursue Skyteam status, and that ticket is usually in the $350-400 range due to a lack of competition.

I figure it's easy to rebuild a big stash of miles. I'd rather monetize them quickly instead of holding out for the "perfect" redemption.

I also redeem for int'l premium cabin quite a bit, but those aren't flights I'd otherwise book with cash so there really isn't a meaningful value to put on them.

I was trying to book a trip TPA-MSP-PIR a couple months ago using AS miles and got so focused on using the miles that I lost sight of the forest. I paid for 2 tickets at something like $450. For some reason having to do with the NW/DL merger, I was unable to find availability from TPA-MSP so was going to buy that portion for $250-ish then use 25k miles+various fees for MSP-PIR. After I booked it, I came to my senses but by that time it was too late. Fortunately, schedule changes resulted in serious misconnects and everyone involved let me cx both the TPA-MSP and the MSP-PIR portions for full refunds and I could just buy 2 additional tickets like I should have originally.

I got a roundtrip ticket from TXL-LHR-HGK on CX and BA for 85.000 asia miles where the LHR HKG I could have gotten for under 400 Euros.

i found out if you manage to get availbility on QF you can get a J ticket for 11500 AM, merely 30000 AM more. much better value. (Oneworld award so 2 airline exc CX, plus CX being the third airline which is optional), using BA for TXL-LHR, and QF for one way or both to/from HKG)

This was a great story, I'm jealous.


Agreed! Great story. I fly a fair amout with Military Airlift Command and have sat in the cockpit during takeoff more than once. Puts a whole new pespective on flying.

A J class ticket from Europe - South America, and it was on Varig.

11 hours in the middle seat of a MD-11, where the meal was served with plastic silverware, really lousy flight attendants, and in-flight movies were a DVD player on request.

I'm glad that airline went under.

i spent something like 45,000 on an economy award down to south america on continental, because i had moved and changed to new primary carrier... wanted to deplete points

1) 35$ booking fee
2) changed to open jaw... 150$ fee
3) missed return flight, 150$ fee

spent 45,000 pts and 350$ on economy flight.

i could have spent <500$ and atleast accrued EQM/RDM on revenue flight

Randy Sez:

Look! A Puppy!!

:p

I spent 15,000 miles X3 [45,000 miles total] for family to upgrade one-way from coach to First Class on a 40 minute TUL-DFW flight to ensure that we'd make our connecting flight [the connecting flight was on American Eagle, so the only upgrade was the TUL-DFW portion].

Despite the seemingly large waste of miles for a beverage service only flight that lasted 40 minutes, we barely made our connection. If we were in coach we would have definately missed our connecting flight on American Eagle. [the ticket was purchased last minute, and the only coach seats available on the TUL-DFW were in the far back section of coach]

I redeemed 20K Amex points to get $100 Amex Gift check :D

I just didn't know where to use those points...

I'm not sure if this qualifies as worst or best use.

A couple months ago I spent 218k miles at the UA mileage plus store to buy a 50" plasma TV. I've been accumulating miles much faster than I use them over the past couple years, and decided I wanted a new TV, but couldn't really justify spending > $1k for a nice one (and why get a new TV if you can't get a nice one? my silly brain suggested). So I ended up using 218k miles for a roughly $1600 purchase.

On one hand I got something I probably wouldn't have shelled out cash for on my own (and I absolutely love the new TV), but at the same time that's a pretty poor redemption rate. The majority of those miles were earned through biz travel, so at least it wasn't my "money."

(First post, btw, from a long-time lurker who's been away for a while.)

15,000 aeroplan miles +85 CAD for a C$350 ticket.
And Aeroplan miles are historically very easy to redeem. Especially on LH F.

It's not great value, but how the heck else am I going to spend 15K miles.

I redeem miles when it's either way too expensive or I won't be earning much miles on the trip anyway.
I have too many miles scattered around, so I want to use them as often as I can without compromising retaining status.

I had US Airways miles sitting around forever (from before expiration dates, I guess) so I used 50K for two tix LAX-MSY + $125 in fees. I booked it via phone since the nonstops were on United, so that cost me.

I could have paid $212 each for the tix, so $424, or $299 after the fee deduction, for 50K points. But they'd been sitting for years already - more than 10, I think, so I just figured I'd use them and be done already.

Last year my Uncle was producing a Travelogue on "Visiting Rome". He had already bought the tickets (UA) before he called me asking if I could use my points to upgrade his coach seats to F. Well, my *A points at that time were all AC, and you ain't upgrading UA with AC points.....

However, this trip was going to be for him, my aunt and cousin Lucaya, TPA-JFK-MUC-FCO on Christmas day for the cheapest fares. My other cousin Logan was now living in Colorado and they hadn't included him. So, I looked at it and for 120k could fly Logan DEN-YYZ-MUC-FCO and return FCO-YYZ-DEN (with 16 hour layover in Toronto....) in First Class. I booked it and was VERY proud of myself.

Next time I think about it? February, I'm talking to Uncle Dave and ask "So, How did Logan like the flights?" After a really long pause he says "Logan didn't call you???"

Turns out that Logan, a 160+ IQ teenager, didn't have his Passport last fall. He finally did the paperwork in early Oct and when the paperwork arrived at Grammy's place in Dec he didn't even go over to get it, much less open it, Till about Dec 20th....It wasn't his passport, it was a request for more documents. He's in Denver, the Regional Passport office (where you can get a same day passport if you have an international ticket within 14 days) is AURORA - 11 MILES AWAY!!!!!

He just decided it was too late to do anything and not to go. He didn't call me, even after his father reminded him it would be the nice thing to do. He just didn't show up at the airport, and since I didn't find out for 2 months I couldn't get the points redeposited. 120k miles for no flight, how do I work the math for that one?:mad:

i spent something like 45,000 on an economy award down to south america on continental, because i had moved and changed to new primary carrier... wanted to deplete points

1) 35$ booking fee
2) changed to open jaw... 150$ fee
3) missed return flight, 150$ fee

spent 45,000 pts and 350$ on economy flight.

i could have spent <500$ and atleast accrued EQM/RDM on revenue flight

oh well. :D


I spent 15,000 miles X3 [45,000 miles total] for family to upgrade one-way from coach to First Class on a 40 minute TUL-DFW flight to ensure that we'd make our connecting flight [the connecting flight was on American Eagle, so the only upgrade was the TUL-DFW portion].

Despite the seemingly large waste of miles for a beverage service only flight that lasted 40 minutes, we barely made our connection. If we were in coach we would have definately missed our connecting flight on American Eagle. [the ticket was purchased last minute, and the only coach seats available on the TUL-DFW were in the far back section of coach]

Wow, that is certainly unfortunate. Might have been to much risk to talk to the FA and have them make an announcment to let some flyers making tight connections to deplane first.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as worst or best use.

A couple months ago I spent 218k miles at the UA mileage plus store to buy a 50" plasma TV. I've been accumulating miles much faster than I use them over the past couple years, and decided I wanted a new TV, but couldn't really justify spending > $1k for a nice one (and why get a new TV if you can't get a nice one? my silly brain suggested). So I ended up using 218k miles for a roughly $1600 purchase.

On one hand I got something I probably wouldn't have shelled out cash for on my own (and I absolutely love the new TV), but at the same time that's a pretty poor redemption rate. The majority of those miles were earned through biz travel, so at least it wasn't my "money."

(First post, btw, from a long-time lurker who's been away for a while.)

You have been lurking all month.)

Miles get someone what they value. Someone might look at the 1,600 bucks and say that isn't enough value. Others would say I don't travel internationally and don't use them for premium int. cabins thus I'm putting up that new Plasma for the upcoming football season. ^

The other factor, which can't exactly be measured in monetary terms, is that we have, through my brother-in-law who works at Disney, free access to Magic Kingdom/Epcot/etc. So, what is YOUR terribly inefficient use of miles story?

Cheers,
HalfSwede

You absolutely CAN put the monetary value on your BIL's park entry. Just look at the cost of a one-day park hopper. It's going through the roof! I have a friend I met in Scouting that is corporate something at Disney. I own at Hilton GVC Sea World. My two boys and I take my friend up on his offer to get us into whatever parks we want. Hilton gives us Extra Hours perk too! December trip Payless car was $78 for the week. AAA discount for Universal (yeah, the boys love Islands of Adventure) was $104 each for the week. The money saved at Disney was several hundred bucks. We've been the receipients of my friend's generosity each year for a week for about five years now.

In April I burned 52,500 miles for an ECONOMY award on CO to CZM with NW miles using the lovely DL award chart. I could have booked the fare a week out for $252 or a little over $300 three days out AND been upgraded to first AND had my companion upgraded AND redeposited the miles without penalty (Platinum). I booked early but still no perk saver available in either cabin. I'm in the 'burn those NW miles' mentality but that was just plain stupid. I'm almost embarrassed to admit it but since everyone else is stepping up to the plate I decided to take the plunge.

Chapter Two is my upcoming trip to DUB. NWA.com only showed award tix on CO in economy and again, no perk saver, on my dates and I was trying to stick with the rest of our group that would be buying tix. 125,000 miles. Ouch. Well, the others waited one week too long and the fare went up so they opted for a different ITIN with NW and Aer Lingus on Orbitz so I wasn't able to mirror. I was able to fix the outbound. WBC with an extra connection on AF at CDG AND return of 12,500 miles with the payment of another $25 in taxes. Still trying to 'fix' the return but not holding my breath.

Of course, there is some balance when considering the good ones. Remember the good OLD days on DL and the 30K to Hawaii? Last year's 40k open jaw to South America using AA miles with cobwebs (pre-18 month activity rule) was sweet, too. In 2002 it was four tix on AA to MIA and then to CUN on Iberia at 30k each. When is the last time you've been able to get four on the same flight without double miles? Those were the days...

Last year my Uncle was producing a Travelogue on "Visiting Rome". He had already bought the tickets (UA) before he called me asking if I could use my points to upgrade his coach seats to F. Well, my *A points at that time were all AC, and you ain't upgrading UA with AC points.....

However, this trip was going to be for him, my aunt and cousin Lucaya, TPA-JFK-MUC-FCO on Christmas day for the cheapest fares. My other cousin Logan was now living in Colorado and they hadn't included him. So, I looked at it and for 120k could fly Logan DEN-YYZ-MUC-FCO and return FCO-YYZ-DEN (with 16 hour layover in Toronto....) in First Class. I booked it and was VERY proud of myself.

Next time I think about it? February, I'm talking to Uncle Dave and ask "So, How did Logan like the flights?" After a really long pause he says "Logan didn't call you???"

Turns out that Logan, a 160+ IQ teenager, didn't have his Passport last fall. He finally did the paperwork in early Oct and when the paperwork arrived at Grammy's place in Dec he didn't even go over to get it, much less open it, Till about Dec 20th....It wasn't his passport, it was a request for more documents. He's in Denver, the Regional Passport office (where you can get a same day passport if you have an international ticket within 14 days) is AURORA - 11 MILES AWAY!!!!!

He just decided it was too late to do anything and not to go. He didn't call me, even after his father reminded him it would be the nice thing to do. He just didn't show up at the airport, and since I didn't find out for 2 months I couldn't get the points redeposited. 120k miles for no flight, how do I work the math for that one?:mad:

The photo of your dead cousin can be found doing a search of 'Justifiable Homicide.'

I spent 15,000 miles X3 [45,000 miles total] for family to upgrade one-way from coach to First Class on a 40 minute TUL-DFW flight to ensure that we'd make our connecting flight [the connecting flight was on American Eagle, so the only upgrade was the TUL-DFW portion].

Despite the seemingly large waste of miles for a beverage service only flight that lasted 40 minutes, we barely made our connection. If we were in coach we would have definately missed our connecting flight on American Eagle.

If anything, I think this 45000 mileage spend is one of the BEST use of miles since you had a tight connection. Imagine saving those 45000 miles, missing the connection, and then sitting around TUL waiting for the next flight to DFW. Bet then you'd have thought "Why didn't we upgrade???"

I've been on so many flights where the FAs are mentioning how many fellow PAX have connections and can those PAX without connections stay seated... but instead the aisles are filled with all PAX exiting - nobody is staying seated. The FAs have good intentions, but once the plane lands, all PAX want out, so that they can then wait at baggage claim (or exit airport, go to the bathroom, etc etc).

Anyway my worst use of miles:
1. Using 25000 RDMs for a $207 SFO>SNA ticket for my coworker, because I didn't want to pay cash for her ticket, and I had previously used 50000 RDMs for a SFO>FRA ticket for her which I then cancelled and paid $150 to get those 50000 RDMs back into my account. But even without that cancelled ticket, I still would use the 25000 RDMs instead of cash for her ticket, since I don't benefit from her getting the 1000 EQMs. She was travelling with me, and I "had" to use UA for EQMs, thus this ticket instead of trying a cheaper ticket with WN/VX/et al.

2. Using 90000 RDMs for a Standard Award on UA ps C (SFO/JFK) last October so that I could be on the same flight with my wife, where most flights were NC0, and it was hard enough to find NC1 for her. I was already status-confirmed for 2009 so didn't care about not getting EQMs. We (or rather I) never want to buy Y and hope for e500 or mileage upgrade that comes after buying the ticket, rather we/I prefer to just buy the ticket by phone and have the upgrade confirmed immediately, and get that instant peace of mind.

3. Using 90000 RDMs for 3 RT upgrades for my wife, baby, and me for our upcoming Thanksgiving SFO/ORD flight - I'm not in the mood to use e500s and hope for an upgrade down the line, I'm thrilled to just confirm the upgrades now. I don't think this is a "worst use" but I'm sure others may roll their eyes :D

Flews, that is a story of a life time.

In general I agree using miles for even a saver coach award for domestic is not the best use, but there are a few cases where it is better than buying a discount coach ticket. Specifically, the ability to change the flights without paying penalty if you do it well in advance. And of course, if the miles are expiring any use is well worth it. Only due to these two reasons I have used my/my wife's miles for domestic tickets a few times. Also used them for upgrades a few times for transcon flights.

I had fortunately avoided what would have been the worst use of my miles IMO. Me and my wife were travelling from BHM to OAK (connecting in ORD) on UA. I had requested an upgrade (30k miles for 2 tickets) which was confirmed for BHM-ORD, but waitlisted for ORD-OAK which did not clear even at the time of boarding at BHM. Luckily better sense prevailed and I canceled the upgrade just before boarding at BHM and moved to coach instead of hoping that the ORD-OAK would clear by the time we go there (and I checked in ORD, F was all full). I just don't see a point in using 15K miles for upgrading on an hour or so long flight (that too it was on an ERJ).

Now if there was a thread for the best value anyone has got for their miles (for a single trip i.e.), I would probably be at the top of that list.

My worst use of miles was when I transferred 15,000 miles from my Worldperks account to my recently linked Skymiles account. I had been warned by Delta that my relatively few Skymiles were going to disappear due to lack of use. So, I linked the accounts and transferred mileage - in effect making activity on the Delta account. I "knew" the accounts would be merged fairly soon so I was just trying to save the approximately 3,000 miles that had been sitting in my Skymiles account since about 2 years ago.

Unfortunately, Delta kept its threat to dissolve my miles and on May 1st they erased my 3,000 old Skymiles PLUS the 15,000 Worldperks miles transferred in just a few weeks prior.

Talking to CSR's and even writing corporate only results in a letter restating their policy and saying my transfer was not "activity" on Skymiles.

Too bad. DH and I travel NWA (well, now Delta) ALOT! He's well over Platinum and I am within a week of being there. Pretty poor customer service if they are wanting to make a good impression on those of us who've been loyal to Northwest.


Update: August 13 2009
To my great surprise - when reviewing my Skymiles account statement yesterday, I found that Delta had changed their position, extended by expiration date and credited back the miles!! Don't know if Flyertalk had anything to do with it, but I'm very thankful.

I suppose most folks here would say that just about anything valued at less than a penny per mile would be a bad use of miles. But I have repeatedly used AAdvantage miles to book ground-only packages at Disney World deluxe resorts. No chance we could have affored to pay for those trips. To me, the value of those miles is considerably more than a penny -- infinity, in fact, because the trips were priceless.
BTW, if anyone else plans to book a package at aavacations, be sure to do so through the 10% Citi discount, which applies just as well to paying with miles as it does to paying with cash. http://aavacations.com/jp_citidiscount.asp?ref=citi

How about worst ever use of a hotel certificate? I have a funny feeling that I'm going to end up blowing a Marriott Cat 1-5 Free Night cert on a Scarefield Inn during an upcoming roadtrip to Minnesota.

We're staying in a cabin once we're there and I have no other possible use for the cert before it expires. It's one of the electronic certs from the Marriott Visa - nontransferable. I can't even give it to a friend.

Some motel along I-35 in Northern Iowa is probably going to end up getting this thing... :rolleyes:

We're staying in a cabin once we're there and I have no other possible use for the cert before it expires. It's one of the electronic certs from the Marriott Visa - nontransferable. I can't even give it to a friend.


With most hotels, you can book a reservation in your name, then call to add any name to it saying that this person will arrive first.

My worst redemption was having to spend the 70k UA miles I had earmarked for our 1 year anniversary in Hawaii to visit the in-laws in North Carolina. Delayed 8-hours each way, which made my wife never want to fly UA again. So then we each had 14k useless miles left each (I argued on the phone for 4k miles compensation on the way out, and they ended up putting us on DL on the way back). She ended up donating to her miles to Make-a-Wish. All this instead of a trip to Hawaii.

At least I was able to use 10k UA miles to get two round-trip Island Air tickets that saved us $175, when we finally made it to the Islands. Only used it one way and it was still an effective use of miles. Too bad that's gone now.

My Mom and Sister had to burn all of my Dad's AA miles to get to the UK quick after my Dad's last parent passed away. We didn't have the cash to cover all of us, until my Dad went through Grandad's bank records and found that he had tens of thousands of pounds he had never told anyone about. The whole family then came to celebrate his life.

I will never use miles ever again for anything but upgrades, or int`l first and business class awards. I don`t find value in domestic redemptions- I`d rather pay cash and earn miles.

--I agree, and I hate that my tightening budget has forced me to book a flight domestically (although it was an open-jaw and not too bad at ~$0.04/mile redemption rate), as a couple of other posters have implied they had to do. Another problem I have had is that most of my miles are Aeroplan and they do not have upgrading with miles as an option.

40k miles to renew RCC membership. I thought I jump in before the price increase, but so far this year all but 1 out of 30 segments had been international segments.


I will never use miles ever again for anything but upgrades, or int`l first and business class awards. I don`t find value in domestic redemptions- I`d rather pay cash and earn miles.

I don't know how DL program works but on UA US-CAN flight can be quite good. I burn 75,000 miles for 3 tickets for my parents and my niece for flight between ORD-YVR, which at the time if I have to pay for it is $680 each. I also love to use it for intra Asia flights, those SIN-NRT, BKK-HKG/TPE, NRT-BKK at 20k each in Y is quite handy.

Worst ever? That would have to be a one-way mileage upgrade on AA from SFO-LAX. 15,000 (before the $50 fee imposed) just for a little over an hour. Shame on me. I'd had a bad day and did not want to risk getting squished into a seat or reclined into. So there, I've said it. Please don't judge.

Worst ever? That would have to be a one-way mileage upgrade on AA from SFO-LAX. 15,000 (before the $50 fee imposed) just for a little over an hour. Shame on me. I'd had a bad day and did not want to risk getting squished into a seat or reclined into. So there, I've said it. Please don't judge.

I won't judge. In fact, I appreciate your post. It makes me feel a lot better about having burned 25K AA miles for a one-way first-class domestic ticket. (Admittely, this ticket would have cost $1263 if I bought it, but I never would have...I would have spent $125 and gone in coach!)

I won't judge. In fact, I appreciate your post. It makes me feel a lot better about having burned 25K AA miles for a one-way first-class domestic ticket. (Admittely, this ticket would have cost $1263 if I bought it, but I never would have...I would have spent $125 and gone in coach!)

This is key to best/worst use of miles. Basing the use on $.01 +/- per mile doesn't make sense. I used miles to travel to Argentina in J a couple years ago, I think it worked out to $0.025 per mile. Would I ever pay cash for a J or F ticket, never. How much extra is the premium service, well I guess it depends on who I am with, how long the flight ect.

The last minute 50k domestic coach award to see a dieing family member is a far better value then the 120k J ticket to China. I am planning a cross country Amtrak trip in a deluxe private room for next summer (don't laugh) It will work about to about $.125 per mile. But would I ever shell out the cash for such a trip, no.

You can only make the case that your miles are worth $X if you would have paid $$$ to book the ticket if you wouldn't have used miles.

I wasted my GoldPoints on a $50 Hertz Gift certificate that was nearly impossible to use and eventually expired. I guess I blew that one. I will never do that one again. The cert had to be used on a special rate plan and did not redeem for FF miles. What a waste and a misleading term.. Gift Certificate... Whatever.....:mad::mad:

This is key to best/worst use of miles. Basing the use on $.01 +/- per mile doesn't make sense. I used miles to travel to Argentina in J a couple years ago, I think it worked out to $0.025 per mile. Would I ever pay cash for a J or F ticket, never. How much extra is the premium service, well I guess it depends on who I am with, how long the flight ect.

The last minute 50k domestic coach award to see a dieing family member is a far better value then the 120k J ticket to China. I am planning a cross country Amtrak trip in a deluxe private room for next summer (don't laugh) It will work about to about $.125 per mile. But would I ever shell out the cash for such a trip, no.

You can only make the case that your miles are worth $X if you would have paid $$$ to book the ticket if you wouldn't have used miles.

Exactly my thoughts. A dollar value for the miles makes sense only if one was otherwise going to spend that money on the ticket/upgrade/item purchased using miles. Otherwise the dollar value only serves the purpose of giving bragging rights.
Though in general I think the miles are almost invaluable in the sense that they let you experience things which otherwise are out of your reach.
I recently used my miles for a US$18K ticket for a 15.5c/mile value (this is the bragging part :-). But to me those miles were invaluable as I would have never spent that kind of money on a single ticket (hopefully someday I will be able to), but it gave me a chance to experience the best in commercial flights today which I can only dream of.

But I digress since this thread is about the worst use of miles. I would say the worst use would be, irrespective of the dollar value obtained, when after using the miles you feel they were wasted. Fortunately this hasn't happened with me yet.