wallyworld88888

Just burn, burn, burn. Save just enough for backup. Once you hear of any devaluation or rumors burn, burn burn again. I wiped out my UA account before the devaluation. If AA devalues then I'll just burn, burn burn again.

GetSetJetSet

Yup, I think I torched close to 800k UA miles when I heard about the devaluation which is why my dance card is pretty much filled until mid-Jan 2015. I'm trying to get to 220k AA miles now to book an AAExplorer 50k J award, but I don't know when I'll have the time to do all that meandering. I like to keep a limited # of miles unburned and on hand in case something pops up out of nowhere and revenue tickets are absurdly priced.

Sweetvibes

Sadly I have hoarded for the last year. But with cheap BRG's and company paid flights I hadn't had any time to burn yet.

Easy to burn when you know you are going to keep refilling the miles.

I plan to start unloading however.

dat4life

Burn baby burn.

azepine00

I don't understand the definitions of "hoard" or "burn" here...

I try to get as many miles as i can - sometimes in some programs they will accumulate quite a bit. Iwill continue to do that.

I spend miles and point when i plan to take trips - i find it rather bizarre that some spend miles just for the sake of spending to get better "value" before program changes. Even severe devaluation is better than wasting miles on an unnecessary trip.

YMMV

yuel

Well said

SanDiego1K

+1

GetSetJetSet

No non-business trip is "necessary." If it comes down to "forcing" myself to plan a trip to a few places I want to go in F when I wasn't planning on going vs. having those miles become virtually worthless, I will happily go on the trip.

eponymous_coward

The problem is that 24 hours of flights to go to Singapore for 12 hours seem a bit...wasteful. Unless you're a blogger plugging credit cards, I guess. Then it's instant trip report fodder!

Longer flights make more sense... but can be a career limiting move ("Sorry, boss, can't work on that critical project this week, UA and Hilton just announced a devaluation, I'm off to Bali and Ko Samui for 10 days via FRA, MUC, ZRH and BKK so I can spend 4 hours in each FCL and get in some time in some Conrads")... unless you're a travel blogger, I guess, or someone who can do their work from anywhere on the planet with sufficient Internet connectivity, or perhaps living a life of leisure as an independently wealthy sybarite/heir/heiress. Us working stiffs have jobs and obligations, families and responsibilities...

That being said... I earn and I burn. No point hoarding a currency a corporation can devalue with zero notice.

GetSetJetSet

Ah, I don't burn miles just to fly and turn around, I just shoehorn extra vacations in.

Kagehitokiri

the only thing to "hoard" are membership rewards, ultimate rewards, diners club (3 credit card) and starwood (hotel/credit card)
because they can be transferred to multiple

bbbacres

Well, someone has to state the counter argument, so I will. I have 1 million miles plus waiting for the day I finally tap into them and use them. My plan is to retire in a few years and start travelling. So, am I wrong? Much of the "devaluation" taking place is indirect. Eg harder to earn new miles, and less places to spend them on (less available seats). But the actual award costs have not changed so much (though certainly some, especially with the catagories). But, for example, if you are flexible on your dates, you can still get a delta FF ticket domestic for 25k miles. What is the lowest it was in the past? Perhaps it was once 20k, I hardly remember but that sounds familiar, but it was ages ago. And since then I have discovered one can accumulate 10's of thousands more than the old days with partner spending.

With a million miles, and flexible dates, believe me, I can buy a lot of 25k award tickets, or even 50k and up overseas. So, unless these programs die altogether, or the airlines call it quits, I don't think I'm in bad shape. And the elite status for life (at least silver an maybe more) that veteran fliers can earn doesn't hurt. Thoughts?

Kagehitokiri

good point, if doing economy tickets rather than premium, and some never do premium

"hoarding" is usually used in context of churning/manufactured and business travel/spend in the hundreds of thousands of miles per year

i think pretty much everyone here would suggest not waiting until retirement

privacylawyer

the more crap we hear about devaluing loyalty programs, the more time I'll spend at home playing with digital toys I buy with travel money saved.

give 'em to my kids.

lwildernorva

I get what I need. I burn what I need. Every time I hear that there's a devaluation going on, I look for a bargain that I'd like to take advantage of that might soon go away. If I don't find any, I don't sweat spending my miles/points.

If you weren't going to go otherwise, what's the benefit in burning? Burning effectively puts a 100% devaluation on your miles/points.