I am planning a trip to Germany with my girlfriend in March. We both have about 100,000 miles on American. Flying from Chicago to Frankfurt will cost us 40,000 miles. Today, American announced a fare sale to Europe. We can get to Frankfurt for $470 RT -- a very attractive deal.
My question is, would it be more economical to spend real money for this than miles? I have a feeling there is a way to calculate this but I'm appealing to the wisdom of the internet to figure out the details.
Air miles ORD to FRA is 8660 round trip. The dollar fare works out to 5.427 cents a mile. Cheaper than driving!
Using miles, I'd be spending 4.189 miles per air mile traveled.
If we don't use the miles on this trip, we have some travel to the West Coast scheduled for April and June.
Better to spend the 40,000 now, or use them on a long domestic trip in the high season?
Thanks in advance, DuncanJay