flybie

I received a promotion if I buy 50k miles of US Airways I get another 50k miles for $1750. I can afford it but I am hesitant as that's a very steep price. Thoughts?

I don't have any future use of these miles right now.

JMN57

If you need to go to Europe, want to fly Business and can find a low award, $1750 will do that for you which, relative to directly paying, can be a good deal.

Without that type of rationale, to buy them to bank them? It's your call but I wouldn't as the possibility of devaluation (which, to a degree, has already happened) is not zero.

Dave Noble

It depends on what you use it for and what the journey would otherwise have cost

Once you add taxes it is actually just under $1882

For me, it makes really great value. at 100% bonuses , for $2750 plus taxes I can get a 1st class return from Australia to US/Europe. When not using US miles, I have used paid tickets which have been double that cost

If someone who would buy cheapest economy tickets, then the miles may not be that great value. e.g. for an economy to Europe the purchase price using miles would be coming in at $1130 which is not likely to be great value

Do you have any long distance trips planned and are you prepared to pay extra for more comfort than economy offers

2Tall4Y

I've bought 200k miles for my wife and myself, but am also booking award travel as quickly as possible to hedge any devaluations in award travel. As far as value...the most recent award travel I booked was 120k miles per ticket to N Asia, and each ticket is currently priced at $18k on Orbitz.

My only regret with USDM is I didn't load up on miles during previous promos when the cost was even lower.

Dave Noble

If you did not have the miles, would you have actually purchased tickets at $18000 though

AwardBee

US miles were a good deal at 1.1cpm when they did the share miles bonuses but those seem to be history. At nearly 1.9cpm, this buy miles offer is a marginal value IMO. Once you factor in taxes and booking fee you're well over $2k for that ticket. Maybe it's worth it if you max out US' lax routing rules and visit two different continents, but it's definitely not budget travel.

2Tall4Y

Ummm, no . For my planned travel (Asia) I think the purchase option is a steal. For those looking to bounce around domestically or book award space to Hawaii it probably doesn't make sense.

diver858

If you have decent credit, why don't you (and if you have one, significant other) apply for the US Barclays, AA Citi credit cards. Assuming you can meet the min spend, you will end up with the same number of miles at a fraction of the price, which will be in one account after the Q215 consolidation. There are some decent bennies, even for elites, Barclays often offers promotions to earn extra points.

flybie

I currently already have 40k miles US airways + 50 miles AA that yield from cc sign up recently. So when they merge, I'll have 90k miles in AA account. I don't have any future trips planning right now as all my near future trips have already been planned and booked last month. However, I do want to do round the world in first class some time in the future, just don't know when. One of them is the US to HKG through Cathay Pacific first class. This miles will come in handy but ... I am still hesitant to pay that steep price.

2Tall4Y

Done & done on the Barclaycard with 50k targeted offers, hoping Citi runs an AA promo prior to yearend (wife received 60k offer fir AA exec but I think there is an order to get the Citi cards in to max miles).

For planned travel $2k on F tickets on an Asian carrier is a good value, and I'll supplement with CC bonuses as it makes sense. Waiting for targeted offers has served me well as of late.

Dave Noble

In which case that a purchased ticket would be $18k is irrelevent comparison should be against what would actually pay for the journey and whether feel any extra cost incurred is worth the benefits of travelling in business class vs economy

I think that the IMO is very relevant here

Doing a trip to Asia from here, even with 90k at $1,937.75 plus $50 booking fee plus $150 in taxes, it is still a lot cheaper than the $2900 that a purchased ticket would have cost me

AwardBee

Yes, if you're willing to pay $2900 then maybe it's a value, but I wouldn't pay that much for a J seat because there are much cheaper ways of doing it. Not ot mention you miss out on accruing mileage, etc. If the points game became all about buying miles in order to save a few hundred dollars here and there, well, it's really not true travel hacking in my books. And then there's still the question of award availability, dealing with US phone agents, etc.

Dave Noble

It wasn't far short of a $1000 saving and there is no way at all that the FF miles that would be earned from a 10,000 mile journey would come close to be worth $1000 - hardly just a few hundred dollars

Before buying the miles, I checked availability, held the booking - then whilst still on the phone paid for the miles and got the ticket issued; total time on phone about 20 minutes

Came across as much better value than buying a ticket

$2900 was the cheapest business fare being offered with other airlines being more expensive still

What would be a cheaper business class ticket from Australia to Philippines and Hong Kong?

AwardBee

Maybe you saved $1000, as it sounds like you were prepared to shell out the $2900. For me it wouldn't be a "savings" because I don't value J enough to pay that big of a premium over Y. In order to be a "savings" would have to ordinarily pay that much, and I don't.

Nevertheless, it's been years since I've flown int'l economy, thanks to AA's generous FF program and free miles via CC churning. If I'm looking to go to Asia, I'll wait for a $700-900 discount Y fare on AA, going from SFO-DFW-Asia or SFO-ORD-Asia, picking up 16-19k EQM along the way, in addition to 32k-38k RDM, which can then finance an award ticket from wherever I land in Asia to almost anywhere else in Asia.

Case in point, SFO-DFW-HKG was on sale this year for under $700 at one point. Add in 2 SWU's, and now it's a 19,000+ mile J trip! By your valuation of miles, those 38k RDM are worth $700 - thus paying for the trip, while flying in J.

Mind you, there's always the risk that the SWU's don't clear, but by the grace of God it hasn't happened yet.

Of course, there's an even easier way to play this game right now, and that's churning the Barclay US card or the Citi AA card, and you can easily have 200k+ miles in a few months.

I realize that AA SWU's aren't an option from Australia, nor is getting US or AA branded credit cards, so if you want to fly J and your options are either buying the ticket or buying the miles, obviously the miles are the better deal.

OP happens to be in the US where he has many other options, on top of which he doesn't even have a trip in mind.

2Tall4Y

All this just highlights buying miles is very situational (think neverending buy/lease argument). I have zero business travel and as such will never hit top tier elite. I'm 6'6" and MR's in Y aren't feasible...and even if I was shorter I wouldn't choose to spend my time and money this way.

AwardBee's strategy is very sound, but doesn't apply to many flyers. Furthermore, I would expect AA to eventually match UA and DL and MR's could go the way of the dodo...