<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spiff:
Why would you want to trade in VIPOWs?? Gift them if you absolutely cannot use them but trading them in for miles is a grave devaluation!</font>
Not really, depending on the trade-in value.
If AA offered to let me trade in my VIPOW's for 25k miles each, I'd jump on it in a second.
I use my VIPOW's on int'l trips, so they book into the same fare bucket as the mileage upgrade awards. Since the upgrades cost 25k miles, I'm not losing any miles. As an EXP, there is no fee for expedited awards. So it makes no difference whether I use 8 VIPOW's to upgrade or 200k miles.
What
would be different is that I'd have 200k more miles toward my lifetime total if AA allowed the trade-in.
I would consider the trade-in even at a lower level of 20k per VIPOW, just to get the lifetime mileage up.