Choice Benefits for PM/DM Recommendations

daytriper · Jan 2, 13, 1:08 pm

While looking for MQM rollover guidelines/timing, I stumbled onto the Choice Benefits for PM/DM.

I'm curious what potential "valuations" or potential may carry, granted different travelers have different priorities / values. As a PM, 4 x $40 skyclub passes < $200 Voucher, which is < 20k Skymiles = 80% of a ticket worth $300 or more. Considering the 4 upgrade certs for YBM fares may be worth more esp for int'l flights, but so is the lottery, for which the odds of winning may rival the odds of getting an upgrade on the day of travel.

Any other valuation models I should reference before making the Choice?

Fred 3 · Jan 2, 13, 1:19 pm

Here is my thought. If you are married, and want to give your wife something nice -- do the $200 Tiffany certificate. As a PM, the $200 credit, or the day passes or the miles -- you really don't "need" them.

The only other alternative is the 4 upgrades. If you do a lot of travel internationally and can get a Y/B/M fare, that trumps all others awards. Otherwise, if you live in a hub for Delta or take a lot of the x country trips that are hevay on elites ( atl-sfo for instance) and can pay k fares take the upgrades,

CJKatl · Jan 2, 13, 1:29 pm

I go for either the $200 travel credit or the 200 points, depending on what I'm going to do with the award.

One year, I knew I'd be purchasing a ticket that would come in around $200 r/t, so I took the voucher. It made the ticket "free" versus having to put in another 5k points to redeem.

Another year, I wanted to redeem 60k points for a ticket that would otherwise cost $1,400. The 20k points represented one third of the ticket redemption, so it was in lieu of spending $467.

NotHamSarnie · Jan 2, 13, 1:39 pm

You didn't mention gifting status to someone, which is what I always do as one of mine (it will be Silver this year unfortunately). I also take the SWU, which are either incredibly useful or a total waste depending on your travel pattern. If you can afford Y/B/M then the SWU can be viewed as a route to a "cheap" J fare within the 2-month window where S is usually unavailable (outside holiday specials). If you travel to SFO/LAX and can or must buy K owing to the purchase window, they are also useful. I would never take the points as I would never use them. If you're PM rather than DM+ then you probably need to buy all the tickets you can in order to keep status, and if you use points to UG then you're back in the Y/B/M boat and are better off with the SWUs. As my third benefit, $200 is nice. Not sure why anyone would go with the Tiffany's voucher as the $200 is equivalent and can be spent anywhere (providing you buy your own tickets and are reimbursed rather than having them bought directly by your office).

mattsteg · Jan 2, 13, 1:45 pm

FO has little value, so not much to gain from gifting that. GM would be a nice gift for someone who flies a bit.

I value miles over 1cpm, so miles beat money. I don't generally buy upgradeable fares so the SWU value is iffy.

I wait until the last minute to see if something happens to dictate otherwise, and then I take the PM miles by default.

baccarat0809 · Jan 2, 13, 1:49 pm

For my DM bene my sister gets Gold status as she flys about 25 segments a year but its only up and down the east coast short hops - she gets get upgraded a ton going through LGA and JFK and makes a huge difference to her travel schedule.

I'll take the PMU's as my other DM bene as I'll use them on my jfk-lax or atl-lax runs to push myself to the front of the line and make sure i get the upgrade. It has paid off many times for me.

For the PM bene - normally miles.

NotHamSarnie · Jan 2, 13, 1:52 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattsteg

FO has little value, so not much to gain from gifting that. GM would be a nice gift for someone who flies a bit.

For someone who hardly ever flies it's nice to have free bag-checking and preferred checkin and seating (but only discounted EC so he'll hate that).

Usually I gift him gold which is great with the preferred check-in and boarding, and as his travel is usually leisure he has an excellent UG %, almost as good as me being DM! But being a lowly PM as of March, that will change.

CPMaverick · Jan 2, 13, 1:58 pm

Any idea what GM is worth in trade on CC? I have been waiting to decide and I think GM is the most value but I don't have anyone that can really use it.

I also earned PM for the first time earlier in the year and traded FO for a UA RPU, got a business seat EWR-HNL, that was definitely worth more than any of the other options...

mattsteg · Jan 2, 13, 2:07 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by NotHamSarnie

For someone who hardly ever flies it's nice to have free bag-checking and preferred checkin and seating (but only discounted EC so he'll hate that).

Usually I gift him gold which is great with the preferred check-in and boarding, and as his travel is usually leisure he has an excellent UG %, almost as good as me being DM! But being a lowly PM as of March, that will change.

My wife would be the recipient, and I've shown her the advantages of checking in online and carrying on. She gets priority security via precheck at most airports that she flies to solo. If we really wanted the benefits we'd just have her carry an amex. FO just doesn't give that much.

GM I'd give in a heartbeat as there's a lot of value there, especially flying at leisure times.

BahstunDLPT · Jan 2, 13, 2:23 pm

My order of priority for my choices:

1. Gift status to wife - she never travels enough to make gold, but benefits greatly for the trips she takes for business and is also fun to get upgrades when flying together (RT to Caribbean for example)
2. 4 YBM upgrades - invaluable or worthless if you can't get YBM
3. $200 gift card or travel voucher
4. 25k miles - this can equate to nearly $500 as I found out recently looking for a BOS-ATL flight

vxmike · Jan 2, 13, 2:29 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by CPMaverick

Any idea what GM is worth in trade on CC? I have been waiting to decide and I think GM is the most value but I don't have anyone that can really use it.

I also earned PM for the first time earlier in the year and traded FO for a UA RPU, got a business seat EWR-HNL, that was definitely worth more than any of the other options...

It is worth far more via this route than any other option.

I always go with the $200 voucher for PM and the Gold Nom plus 25K RDMs for the DM choices. 25K miles is worth more than $200 no matter how you value SkyPesos.

CPMaverick · Jan 2, 13, 2:32 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by vxmike

25K miles is worth more than $200 no matter how you value SkyPesos.

Depends on your needs; if you are doing a MR to retain status the 25k doesn't get you anywhere. You can't earn 25k with a $200 voucher, but you can earn valuable MQM and a few RDM too.

Of course at this point in the year, it's always hard to tell if a MR is needed, and I always try to snag a VDB over the year which is usually worth more than $200 and non-combinable. Still, worth considering that you can earn miles with the voucher.

NotHamSarnie · Jan 2, 13, 2:36 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattsteg

My wife would be the recipient, and I've shown her the advantages of checking in online and carrying on. She gets priority security via precheck at most airports that she flies to solo. If we really wanted the benefits we'd just have her carry an amex. FO just doesn't give that much.

GM I'd give in a heartbeat as there's a lot of value there, especially flying at leisure times.

Actually, I think you're right. He has an Amex so there is actually nothing he would gain by being FO that he doesn't already have except the slight possibility of an UG. Even the boarding is the same for FO and Amex. So I will take the 4 SWU and then I need to make DM before next Christmas so he can be GM before our winter vacation

rajsh · Jan 3, 13, 1:34 am

Question - Is there any way to change a benefit once it is selected ... i.e. if you selected the SWU certs but didn't use any ... can you change it to something else ... i.e. gifting a medallion to someone ? Thanks

mot29 · Jan 3, 13, 6:06 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajsh

Question - Is there any way to change a benefit once it is selected ... i.e. if you selected the SWU certs but didn't use any ... can you change it to something else ... i.e. gifting a medallion to someone ? Thanks

Unlikely -- the award posts to your account almost immediately.

And here is my general selection --

As a Platinum -- the $200 DL certificate
As a Diamond -- another $200 voucher and gift gold to my brother, although his travel is changing this year so may not do that again.

For me the SWUs don't make a lot of sense -- I earn enough miles to use miles for an international upgrade on the occasional YBM ticket. And domestically, if I don't get the upgrade, I'll settle for EC.