kvs25

The next best thing to getting hits is bragging about how you did it so cheaply .

My CPM for 20 hits (plus the miles that come with those hits) is $.0027/mile.

Obviously the business travelers out there will probably have a ton of free hits helping keep CPM low, but that's fine.

I'm curious to know what your CPM ended up being.

amolkold

Even without business travel, you'd have to note whether something is incremental cost or total cost. For example, I had a $200 stay at an Intercontinental planned anyway, so I didn't count it toward the GS in terms of spend. Same thing with some of the flower hits, since I would have bought something for birthdays anyway.

If we're going for incremental spend, I'm looking at $.0036/mi for about 180K miles after 36 hits (still have to get the last 4 but I'm aware of the prices for that). Not bad for what equates to a F RT to Asia and an "emergency fund" for 2-3 domestic Y or 1 domestic F RT. Could I have done it more cheaply? Possibly. I couldn't take advantage of certain Hertz discounts because I used my discount on the under-25 fee waiver.

mikeef

With the mysterious Connie having saved my Choice transfer, I have finally reached 36 hits (insurance hit to come later, but that's a freebie). My total out of pocket was $596.24, earning me 114,462 miles, pre-insurance hit. Cents per mile of 0.5209083 (although that seventh decimal point might have been rounded), which just missed my goal of 0.5 cpm. That number includes the $44 I spent for Choice points to transfer; Had I decided not to do that hit, I would be under the goal but sweating out every hit.

A few notes:

1. Any hit which involved a hotel I would have stayed in anyway, a restaurant I would have eaten at, an item I would have ordered, etc. was considered a free hit, since there was no incremental cost. If I surrendered a more valuable currency for a cheaper one to earn points (i.e., not earning SPG points and choosing to earn miles instead), the difference was added into the cost.

2. When I transferred points from a hotel program to US, I added the cost of the points (based on Lucky's estimates) to the numerator and the miles that I received to the denominator. That made my "accounting" more conservative, since a straight valuation of the miles might have made them worth more than the points transferred, but ultimately I felt that it made for a better comparison in a cents per mile sense. There was no discount given in programs where I never would have used the points anyway (I'm looking at you, PCH.).

3. "Negative costs" accrued where I bought a substitute item at a cheaper price than I would have paid absent the promo. Let's just say my wife received cheaper flowers this year than she might have in the past. She can think about it while she's drinking her PDB in SQ F.

4. Most expensive hit: The Wyndham transfer, valued at $70. Ouch. I shouldn't have done that one so early. Or at all.

5. I gave no bonus for the enjoyment I got out of doing the promo which includes, but is not limited to: trying to explain to the Hertz people that I really don't need the car, chatting with Joan from Choice in her van down by the river and trying to figure out exactly how much to spend at the W Hotel restaurant without going over $67.

Mike

jonnydoe1234

The accounting is always tricky, as your notes demonstrate. Just one question: why do you value the Wyndham transfer at $70?

craz

out of pocket was bet $300-350 thats for items that I wouldnt have gotten otherwise, nor does it include the value of what the Hotel transfers might have been worth if instead of transferring to DM I used them towards a free night eg 10k Hilton = 850 miles yet 12,500 could have gotten me a night that would have gone for $149+

so I dont see it as being easy or simple to actually come up with any figure that is really close to the cost. The Plus is that 100+K miles can get me tkts that will way out weigh whatever the real cost would have been

tpeflyer

Assuming netsol posts (and not counting their ephemeral bonus) and the century quote turns into a hit, I spent roughly $200 for 20 hits for me and about the same for my spouse, resulting in about .52 cent ratio per mile.

dukerau

16 hits, $75 OOP, .29 cpm.

I did do a BW transfer with 1K purchased ($10 included in OOP tally) and 4K from Topguest, but I specifically did Topguest for this promotion and wouldn't use those points for hotel stays anyway, so I only recorded the $10 towards cost there.

kendenton

36 hits (+1 safety), 162,631 miles, $704, .43 cents per mile

- 40,000 came from getting the Barclays Mastercard
- $92 spent on hotel I needed anyway
- could have saved $18 by not buying a ticket for the Audience Rewards hit

I'm pleased with the outcome.

kvs25

20 hits, .27 cpm. $101 spent.

-1 hit includes a hotel stay from work, which was paid for. So I didn't count the cost for that.

pbd456

not done yet.

but i had anticipated that i would need 6 hotels. so i planned 2 mini-vacations out of this, and i needed 5 of the six car rentals, and did only one rentals (and return immediately)

otherwise, the most expensive was probably ftd.com for 30 USD.

spent more on supershuttle and skymall, but a few dollars here and there. it is not the end of the world. overall, i am please that i should be able to get a bunch of miles. i have yet to use the miles form GS2010.. so i have some work to do!

asterion

0.009368973 per hit. Including various paid-for hotel stays. 20 hits

higgies

From the awesome spreadsheet. I will likely get one more hit, but I currently have 27. Most of them were from work travel, so I considered those "free". The most expensive was wineinsiders.com, at $91, but I would have bought the wine anyway, and it was a good price. I also opened a US MC, so that added a free 10k miles. All in all I consider this successful, especially because I needed the 5k PQMs to amintain my GS for next year!

$ Outlay
$396.86

Cost Per Mile
0.005996948

mikeef

I went through all the options of what I could do with Wyndham points and determined that the highest category of hotels ended up costing about 0.7c per point. Thus, my transfer "cost" me $70. As others have correctly pointed out, however, that is only one way of doing it. For instance, I might have valued the Wyndham points at $0, since I'll probably never actually use them for a Wyndham hotel. Or some other way. In other words, "cost" is a highly subjective term and doesn't necessarily include cash cost.

Mike

neuron

I will prob be around 0.45cpm.
BTW, which insurance was that? I thought they were all ineligible in NY. TIA

monkey99

33 have posted.

Pending post

34 10-26 FTD
35 10-31 La Quinta hotel transfer
36 21st Century Insurance
37 11-08 Network Solution

I am getting 144,261 miles. My spend was $610.44. CPM 0.004231497

The above includes buying 20K miles for 295.62. To me that was my biggest cost. Please note, I was planning for this for the last 1 year where in I had all the hotel accounts lined up for transfer. If I were to plan for next year, I would not buy 20K miles for $295 next year.