Originally Posted by
sbm12
You don't have to be terrified of flying for the $150 to make sense. If you have no other investment in the program and no desire to earn more there then I think that the cash in hand is a better play. Yes, you might find availability on reasonable flights that you need to take some day, but that's a big if, especially with the way airlines expire miles (though CO does not do this) and otherwise make it difficult to redeem the miles. The OP is likely going to pay a phone booking fee to book the reward trip so that's another $25 and the taxes on top of that are in the $10-50 range for a trip that 25K miles could get you.
I stand behind my claim that it isn't a sure thing to take the miles every time.
As long as we're talking about fees and taxes, are both the airline miles and the cash taxable income on the checking account? If the cash is taxable but the miles aren't, that can also make a big difference too.
For what it's worth, I've found it really easy to spend 25,000 OP miles on a domestic flight. Was just looking at a couple of flights I wanted to take in September and there were dozens of options.
edit: also, this guy flies out of Newark. i think he'll find a use for 25,000 OP miles