Originally Posted by deniah

i spent something like 45,000 on an economy award down to south america on continental, because i had moved and changed to new primary carrier... wanted to deplete points

1) 35$ booking fee
2) changed to open jaw... 150$ fee
3) missed return flight, 150$ fee

spent 45,000 pts and 350$ on economy flight.

i could have spent <500$ and atleast accrued EQM/RDM on revenue flight

Originally Posted by Max M

I spent 15,000 miles X3 [45,000 miles total] for family to upgrade one-way from coach to First Class on a 40 minute TUL-DFW flight to ensure that we'd make our connecting flight [the connecting flight was on American Eagle, so the only upgrade was the TUL-DFW portion].

Despite the seemingly large waste of miles for a beverage service only flight that lasted 40 minutes, we barely made our connection. If we were in coach we would have definately missed our connecting flight on American Eagle. [the ticket was purchased last minute, and the only coach seats available on the TUL-DFW were in the far back section of coach]

Originally Posted by kelnos

I'm not sure if this qualifies as worst or best use.

A couple months ago I spent 218k miles at the UA mileage plus store to buy a 50" plasma TV. I've been accumulating miles much faster than I use them over the past couple years, and decided I wanted a new TV, but couldn't really justify spending > $1k for a nice one (and why get a new TV if you can't get a nice one? my silly brain suggested). So I ended up using 218k miles for a roughly $1600 purchase.

On one hand I got something I probably wouldn't have shelled out cash for on my own (and I absolutely love the new TV), but at the same time that's a pretty poor redemption rate. The majority of those miles were earned through biz travel, so at least it wasn't my "money."

(First post, btw, from a long-time lurker who's been away for a while.)